AN: So, here we go. This chapter will cause as many questions as it gives answers, but we finally see some stuff people have been asking about. :)

We'll be back next Wednesday for another moderately exciting installment! Unless too much demand happens and I put out an Early chapter over the weekend or something. (Probably not)

Enjoy!

Chapter 7: I'm Too Fabulous!

Now that the ridiculous battle was over, Scott took proper stock of his situation. He quickly loaded a fresh magazine into his shotgun. He had only one other magazine. A weapon meant to help him survive for up to one week was already rapidly losing its usefulness. Ten shots total remained.

Afterward checking his situation, he took a moment to breathe then calmly asked, "What the actual fuck was that all about?"

Why did those crazy girls attack him? It made no sense. If anything they seemed annoyed that he'd fought back. Did men simply not fight it when women attacked them in the woods? Were they bandits who liked an easy win? Would he ever know the truth?

They chased him through the woods while harassing him the entire way. They enjoyed the hunt. What manner of world was this place, really?

No answers were forth coming, so he chose scout around for something to wear over his feet. His clothes were a total loss, but after searching the area he was able to find a few large leaves, and some vines. He combined them with the clothing scraps he found littered around the area to make exceptionally crude padding for his feet. Walking barefoot through a forest was a recipe for disaster, though the footwear he had on now would not provide much protection.

The weird super powered cosplay girls ran off in one direction. He opted to go the other. Even at full-tilt they would need the better part of an hour to get back to their camp, resupply, and run back to where he was. Though, that was unlikely, it was best to put distance between them.

Scott wrapped the loose weapons in vines so he could carry them easily. At the moment he possessed no real knowledge of how to use any of them properly, so only his shotgun would help him carry the day should danger arise.

"Man, I hope there's a highway around here," he muttered, just before he turned to wander off into the forest. More memories surfaced as he walked. The world he now inhabited was a fantasy world, compared to his old life, but not quite a medieval one.

From what little he could currently glean from his implanted memories. People fought with magical weapons and wore ridiculous armor instead of using common firearm weapons like his old world. Yet, vehicles existed. As such well-constructed roads existed.

Scott took a step toward his new destiny, but something new appeared. It was a blue screen message.

Opening tutorial complete!

You survived your first human encounter in his world, and managed to learn some of its secrets.

EXP Awarded!

Special reward: Ability Points +20

Please choose a weapon skill from available weapons:

[Sword Mastery][Spear Mastery][Bow Mastery]

Scott stared at the screen for a moment. None of his memories mentioned how to use those experience points or abilities points. It was nice to see that he'd gotten something from that ordeal, however. Well, something besides a lewd cinematic event and free weapons.

"I can choose a weapon mastery?" Scott looked at his gathered equipment. The spear was interesting, but there were no arrows for the bow that he could see. In the end, he chose the sword mastery skill since he currently possessed three swords. If one broke, or was lost, he'd have extra.

Sword Mastery acquired. You will now unlock memories pertaining to the mastery of common sword arts.

"Well, that's awesome," said Scott. He waited for a moment. When the moment passed he looked around expectantly. After roughly another minute he frowned. Finally, he gave up and shrugged. "Guess it takes time?"

Scott headed off into the woods to seek his destiny. As he walked, thoughts of where he might be crossed his mind. His new memories were discordant, but they did occasionally provide useful tidbits. There was no reason for him to be in a forest such as this one, however. Why start his new life here? It seemed to be a needless complication.

Most of his new memories were a jumble, or they seemed to be missing pieces. He knew that there were things that he should know, but did not. The difficulty with his memory even seeped into his reasoning processes. Earlier, when he first awoke in the darkness of the pre-dawn forest, he was not entirely certain of who he was for a scant few minutes.

Temporarily besieged by a sort of amnesia while his mind absorbed a lot of new facts, he'd nearly wandered off. Thankfully, he somehow managed to fight that urge and allow his mind to settle. Eventually things went South anyway, but at least he'd possessed reasonable reasoning faculties by that point.

The day brightened considerably as he walked. Hours passed as he aimlessly marched through the forest in search of some place to find answers, or at least people who did not try to beat the clothes off of his back. Not that he had any clothes on his back at the moment.

He grew thirsty, and then hungry. His supply of food and water was non-existent. So, when he found what appeared to be an apple tree in the middle of nowhere, he opted to have lunch.

"I know there have to be reasonable people around here, somewhere," he said between bites of a purloined apple.

His feet hurt, and he was tired beyond any formerly known sense of the word. After being chased through the forest, and then having his clothes forcefully stripped from his body through what should have been lethal violence, he was ready for a power nap at the least.

Exhausted, Scott finished his meager lunch then curled up next to a fallen log and allowed himself the luxury of sleep. It was hard to become truly relaxed given his exposed nature in the woods, but it was the best chance that he'd been given to take a rest for now.

Sleep came hard to him. Every little noise roused him. He could not keep the image of the naked girls from earlier out of his mind. While the sight of a naked woman seemed like something he would normally enjoy, he was more concerned than aroused by the thought. How did they survive being shot in the face with a shotgun?

He did not remember much clearly about this world, yet. But he did remember that shotguns were capable of easily killing someone. He'd hunted often enough back in his old life. Those girls should all be dead.

The more he thought about his new memories, the more he became confused. He remembered how to do things, and what certain things were, but detailed information was sorely lacking in any case. It was like something hollowed out a corner of his mind and then shoved a hodge-podge of useful basic information into his skull.

Over the course of the next few minutes images began to appear inside the dark landscape of his mind. Simple items at first, they soon grew into more complex constructs. Various movements occurred. A sword-like object appeared, and then a crude stick figure appeared as well. The stick figure took the sword and began to move in specific patterns.

Despite the vigorous imagery, his mind eventually began to quiet. His breathing steadied. The images inside his mind lessened in their intensity and insistence. Finally, he fell asleep.

As he slept, he dreamed. The crude images from before gave way to detailed environments. Scott dreamed of hefting a sword and moving in the same patterns that the stick figure utilized. At some point dream opponents appeared.

While he slept, his opponents attacked him with incredible ferocity. He was beaten back repeatedly. Several times he took lethal injuries, but the dream merely reset itself. Over and over, the dream repeated itself in a loop.

Scott had no control, no lucid grasp on his dreams. His dreaming self merely studied and trained in whatever skills the dreams selected. Time passed in the dreamscape. Was it hours? Days? Months? It did not matter. He dreamed and he trained. Those were his only options. In the end, it seemed as though years passed by as he feverishly worked on developing his swordsmanship.

The dreams consumed him. He consumed the dreams. Either way, knowledge continued to awaken within him. Divinely granted wisdom of the world slowly made its presence known within his receptive mind. No longer bound by the oddities of conscious thought and personality, he was free to learn at the accelerated rate necessary for surviving in this world.

For a time he dreamed the dreamless sleep of the exhausted. However, there were things about his current situation that refused to be denied. Slowly, a different sort of dreamscape unfolded before him. He found himself standing before a great glowing crystal. It shined brilliantly in the darkness of his mind, a radiant blue light that cast back the shadows of uncertainty and revealed a notable truth. Upon its mirror-like surface there appeared a series of glowing words and numbers.

Name: Scott Traveler

Race: Human [Legendary]

Sex: Male

Class: None [Hero]

Level: 0

EXP: 987[0/700]

Ability Points: 30

Hit Points: 0/0 [0/0]

Spirit: 1/1

Stamina: 1/1

Arousal: 15/100

ATTRIBUTES

[Strength: 25] | [Resilience: 25] | [Vitality: 25]

[Dexterity: 25] | [Concentration: 25] | [Charisma: 25]

FEATS AND SKILLS

[Ero Mastery: 25] | [Sword Mastery: 25]

In a dream, anything could happen and the dreamer often merely accepted that reality. The dream that he now experienced caused the same sort of situation. Not only did he accept the current reality, but he could understand it to a degree. There was something familiar, something important about the words and numbers shimmering softly on the surface of the crystal.

As though he always knew what the images before him meant, Scott began to act. He focused his concentration on his status attributes. The words became known, or rather their true meaning. They represented aspects of who he was, and what he could do.

Wordlessly, he began to make decisions. He knew that one ability point would increase any given stat or ability by five points. He even knew that the numbers represented percentages. At present he possessed twenty-five percent of the maximum biological potential of a normal human being.

It did not seem to be a great thing until those strange memories informed him that even an Olympic athlete from his former life would rarely rate as high as seventy points on that scale. Beyond one hundred points would place him firmly in super human territory compared to his old life.

Daily training and rigorous exercise might increase a stat by a point after every month or so. The average person who only exercised for general maintenance would have stat levels between eight and fifteen.

Carefully, he made a few selections. In his currently semi-lucid state, his partially aware mind focused on the upgrades that he felt would help most in the coming days. He was unable to gain a level until he spent his starting thirty ability points. He focused on using those first.

Scott chose to pour most of his points into charisma and sword mastery. Unlike most games back on Earth, charisma was a vital stat in this world. It was the stat that determined how many hit points he would receive from equipment. Further, it improved his ability to stockpile and withstand his own arousal, a vital resource when using his [Ero Mastery] skill-set, and for surviving battle in general. Unfortunately, until level two all stats would max out at one hundred. It would be less useful to raise anything above eighty until that point.

Name: Scott Traveler

Race: Human [Legendary]

Sex: Male

Class: None [Hero]

Level: 0

EXP: 987[0/700]

Ability Points: 0

Hit Points: 0/0 [0/0]

Spirit: 2/2

Stamina: 2/2

Arousal: 15/100

ATTRIBUTES

[Strength: 30][+2] | [Resilience: 40][+2] | [Vitality: 30][+2]

[Dexterity: 30][+2] | [Concentration: 30][+2] | [Charisma: 80][+4]

FEATS AND SKILLS

[Ero Mastery: 30][+2] | [Sword Mastery: 80][+4]

His ability points spent, Scott opted to have his acquired experience do its work. Seven hundred points disappeared and a bright flash of light erupted from the crystalline structure. A surge of power flowed through him, and all stats increased by ten, and he acquired six more ability points! Upon reaching level one, he noticed that something interesting appeared on the crystal.

[Feat Selection]

Choose a common feat that will enhance your parameters. Whenever you reach a specific attribute milestone a feat will become available. You may choose a new feat at each level increase if one is available. At every level which is a multiple of four, you may choose two feats.

Understanding filled his senses. Whenever his stats reached a milestone, a potential feat would be generated. At certain levels he would be able to purchase a feat with experience points. He opened the window that showed him currently available feats. There were several, and most were quite basic indeed.

Improved Strength I [100]– Carry ten percent more weight per point of strength.

Improved Resilience I [100]– Increase injury resistance by one point.

Improved Vitality I [100]– Reduce natural healing time by ten percent, or increase stamina by ten points.

Improved Dexterity I [100]– Improve ranged weapon accuracy by ten percent.

Improved Concentration I [100]– Increase spirit by ten points.

Improved Charisma I [100]– Increase base hit points by ten percent.

Aura of Arousal [400]– Steadily increase the arousal levels of all creatures within ten feet of the wielder. The increase will be one percent of the wielder's charisma and current level of arousal combined and multiplied by the ero mastery multiplier. This increase will occur per four seconds. Defense against eroticism will apply as normal.

Power Strike [400]– Increase sword damage intensity by one.

Each of the feats presented seemed quite useful. The Aura of Arousal was explained far better than the others. In a way, it seemed that the system hinted that he should get it as soon as possible. That ability would be vital for properly controlling the overall horniness of the battlefield, but it would be a bit weak for now. It also would cost four times as much experience to acquire, and he did not have enough for it.

Scott chose a different feat, Improved Charisma I, and paid the one hundred experience to unlock it. He was then informed that level two of the feat was unlocked and would be available once he had a new feat slot due to his current charisma level. One other feat appeared in the list, also related to charisma. It was a feat called, Enhance Associated Feat or Skill. Instead of increasing something to do with his basic charisma he could enhance a feat associated to it, such as one of his Ero Mastery abilities.

After a moment of thought on the subject, he checked his status to see the difference, and then spent his six new ability points gained after increasing his level. He chose to add one point to six different stats. Whenever he gained a level, all stats and abilities would increase by ten points. By spreading his points out, he guaranteed that all six of those stats would gain a modifier increase after his next level.

Name: Scott Traveler

Race: Human [Legendary]

Sex: Male

Class: None [Hero]

Level: 1

EXP: 187[0/1000]

Ability Points: 0

Hit Points: 0/0 [0/0]

Spirit: 2/2

Stamina: 2/2

Arousal: 15/100

ATTRIBUTES

[Strength: 45][+2] | [Resilience: 50][+2] | [Vitality: 45][+2]

[Dexterity: 45][+2] | [Concentration: 45][+2] | [Charisma: 95][+4]

FEATS AND SKILLS

[Ero Mastery: 45][+2] | [Sword Mastery: 90][+4] | [Improved Charisma I]

It was not long before the dream began to fade from view. Soon, he awoke. He was groggy, disoriented, and more than a little confused. Scott sat up and leaned back against the tree then frowned. "What was that dream all about?"

Did he really just level-up, like in a game? His memories said yes, but he was uncertain. He definitely felt different, stronger. He sensed that he was considerably more powerful than before. Scott flexed his surprisingly toned arm muscles a little then looked down at his stomach.

Where once he had only the slightest hint of definition, he now possessed a modest four pack that was working on the quintessential six pack abs that so many people raged about. Briefly, he wondered if he was now genetically predisposed to the ten pack, or even the theoretical twelve pack some deviants with low single digit body fat percentages could acquire, but he decided not to kid himself. He was surprised to see four clearly cut abdominals at this point as he enjoyed a nice pizza to go with his burger and fries.

Further, he did not want that many visible abdominal muscles. Thoughts of developing the appearance of more than a six, or at most an eight-pack of abdominals, made him laugh. "They may be strong, but they look like those things should have nipples on them to nurse puppies or something." It was not a look he would strive for, but he would accept it if he must.

Scott blinked then marveled at the strangeness of his arms and legs. Not only was he a little more sculpted than before, but he seemed somehow prettier. He did not know if his face matched it, but many of the blemishes and scars of his old life were gone. They were replaced by new flesh that almost seemed to sparkle in the light.

It took him a moment, but the implanted memories explained the phenomenon. His stats were all linked together. His charisma was so high compared to the normal person that when it combined with his heightened vitality and strength, he became quite a bit better looking overall. The effect of his natural charismatic presence even worked on him. He noticed that he was a bit more beautifully masculine. His choice of the improved charisma I feat further solidified that because he was now even more charismatic than a normal person of similar statistical values.

"Feats... Those are my real secret weapon, aren't they?" Scott mused on the subject for a moment. His acquired knowledge told him many things. The typical fighter in this world did not automatically gain feats. They needed to train until they awoke them. Typically, they would only be able to gain one per level as well, but they did not have a list of chosen abilities they could look through. Most trained in special schools and only gained feats relevant to that school of combat, or trade. Scott was granted a list of common feats associated with his attribute levels. He still needed to learn obscure abilities, or more advanced ones, through time and training.

There were so many strange things about his life since he'd been called to be some sort of hero in this world. His mind told him that he'd just updated his status, like in a game. The day before, he'd been beaten to death by rabid ham-beasts and now he was preparing to survive in a world where losing a battle meant losing your life, or learning to love the sweet taste of someone else's victory.

Thoughts of fighting and survival brought new insights to the surface. The way that hit points worked became more apparent. He would need at least one equipped item to activate his base hit point pool, the number on the left in the hit point section of his stats. Those were based directly on his charisma stat. If he wore so much as a pair of socks he would automatically possess ninety-five hit points.

The number in brackets was hit points derived from the fashion rating of his worn items. The higher the fashion rating, the more hit points he could potentially have. His charisma modifier would be multiplied by his total fashion rating to create more hit points. Essentially, the more charismatic and fashionable he became, the better he could survive a fight.

Now that he was slightly more glorious in appearance, and bursting with energy, he could not help himself. Scott threw his hands up and took on a gloriously masculine pose while crying out, "You can't hurt me now, bitches! I'm too fabulous!"

His musing about the future of his fabulousness was cut short a moment later when he heard something from the underbrush nearby. It was the rattling, hissing, sound of something disturbed by his attempt to act like a member of the Joestar family. Scott looked to the source then leaned back and away from the sudden arrival. Nothing good could come of this!