Chapter 7

Figuring shit out

The next few hours passed in a blur for Star. Amy had guided him into the city, past his field of carnage, through the massive city gates, down roads meant for carriages and paths between buildings that were definitely meant for foot traffic.It took a few hours to get to their destination and the entire trip was something that he barely remembered.

No matter how realistic Warzone Online had felt, it had always been a game. Star was pretty damn well convinced that this was no longer a game. What's worse is that in the short time he’d been here, he’d definitely killed the better part of five thousand people. Those first ones when he’d saved everyone did not give him any pause. what he’d just done outside the city walls was different… Sort of.

During the long walk through the city Star had come to some startling conclusions about himself and his own psyche. First and foremost was that he was definitely closer to being psychopath than he’d like to admit. Or maybe it was sociopath? He didn’t know the definitions well enough to differentiate the two. Secondly, he realized that his discomfort and mental breakdown hadn’t been about him killing lots of people. It had been himself freaking out about how he felt nothing over doing so.

Star realized then that he was just being a dramatic pussy. The world was not a kind place. He’d seen an obstacle to overcome in getting his charges to safety and taken the most efficient method of removing the obstacle. It didn’t matter that the obstacle had been a fuckton of people with hopes and dreams of their own. Those hopes and dreams that he had just ended were nothing more and nothing less than a bunch of idiots who sided with people who would enslave other sentient beings. Fuck their hopes and dreams. And anyone else who agrees with asshats like them.

With all of that settled in his mind, Star actually began paying attention to where they were going and what was being said around him. Amy had her arm through his and was guiding their walk with her uncle on her opposite side and it seemed that he was filling her in on what was happening in the local government and the government at large.

The buildings around these parts were large and were built in a style that reminded Star of traditional Japanese architecture. But the shapes were more organic looking in a way that was hard to describe. It was, however, fairly pleasant to look at.

It was only a few minutes after Star started paying attention to what was going on around him that they arrived at their destination. A walled off property with a large Pagoda like structure at its center with several out buildings surrounded by flowing gardens with flowers and plants that Star had never seen before.

It was not long after that Star found himself in what he would definitely call a living room. Sitting on a large wooden chair across from Lupin and Amy. The house was enormous, and it had that ‘other persons’ smell to the place. It was all very obviously lived in. But the three of them were alone in the living room discussing everything that had happened since Star woke up in that old man’s cabin.

Star told the two of them an abridged truth about where he’d come from and how he’d ended up here. That he had been playing a game with a friend of his and that he’d fallen unconscious near the end of a game and woke up in the forest outside of their village. He also told them that he’d received a message from a god that the gods had placed him there but that they had given him no instructions on what he was supposed to be doing.

Star really didn’t see a reason to fully lie to them and make something up completely. And he had definitely already thrown in his lot the beast-kin in their current conflict with the human kingdom. So he had decided to go with being honest with his hosts. Obviously his story brought up a lot of questions from the two. They wanted to know which God/Gods had brought him there, what his profession was, and host of other things.

The question as to his profession kind of stumped Star, because he wanted to say that he was a Streamer/Gamer. As that was his thing back on Earth. But here he was essentially a soldier. An expert covert assassin. A one man army.

“I have been trained to resist torture, to escape enemy imprisonment, to covertly observe and scout enemy forces, to search for and rescue high priority personnel from dangerous areas, and how to kill. There's more to it all than just that… But that is the basics of my profession.” he told them.

Amy and Lupin remained quiet for several moments after that. Then Amy spoke up,

“I saw you use magic… Hell the whole village saw you summoning food from thin air. And your magical tools, and weapons. Are you claiming that you are not mage?” she asked.

Star frowned at that and pulled out his WarPad and checked what his EXP was called because it had really never made much sense and had been the most fantasy-like aspect of WarZone Online. Essence, that's what it was called. He gestured to the WarPad and showed it to them before explaining.

“I don’t use magic myself, I have no idea how to do so, nor do I really want to do magic. These items were basically given to me by the gods of The Pantheon. War herself contacted me and told me as much. I don’t really know anything about magic, but I’m sure that something magical is responsible for a lot of what is going on with my tools and weapons. The only thing that I could really say that is truly magical that I do is Level Up from the essence I gain from combat. Since I’ve met you Amy, I’ve essentially become about ten percent stronger, faster, and smarter because of the people that I have killed. And I was already pretty damn strong.”

Both Amy and Lupin looked at each other then back at him.

“You are an Elite then. Elites are very rare among the beast-kin… Or any race for that matter. But this Level Up thing that you speak of is what Elites do. But the fact that The Pantheon sent you and gave you the abilities of an Elite means that you are not only an Elite. But a Champion Elite. The biggest question I have for you Star is this. Do you truly intend to become an Alpha of my people? I will be honest, it is going to cause an uproar in light of the hostilities that we are facing with Justin's Kingdom but if you make it through the trials and become Amy’s nominated Alpha it will mean that there will be expectations placed on you to protect our people and make sure that Amy’s Run is taken care of.” Lupin said, Sighing before he continued, “You will have a week to truly think on this, it will take until then for the Trials to be set up and ready for you. Until then I ask that you remain here at my residence so as to not cause any issues in the city. Now if you will excuse me and my Niece I would like to speak with her in private.”

With that said Lupin rang a bell, and in scurried a servant who then directed Star to a large guest room. Once there, the servant asked if he needed anything before retreating. Leaving Star alone with his thoughts.

Ok it is time to organize my inventory, and look over everything in my WarPad. Athena did say that they made changes after all, I should probably figure out what those changes were. Star thought to himself as he switched to his civilian outfit before flopping down on his bed.

He spent probably an hour going over all the loot in his inventory. There were a lot of coins in various types ranging from copper to gold. And for some reason nearly six thousand full sets of armor in various conditions from totally demolished to brand spanking new. Weapons of all sorts, and a ridiculous mishmash of random items that went into a miscellaneous folder.

Finally done with all of the item sorting Star turned to his character page and looked it over.

Name: Star Affiliation:The Pantheon

LVL: 3

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

Strength: 59

Dexterity: 59

Constitution: 59

Perception: 59

Intelligence: 59

Class: unassigned

Class Skills: N/A

General Skills

Sniper Lvl 5

Steady Hands Lvl 3

Rapid Reload Lvl 12

Trigger Activated Weapons Lvl 20

Resistances

Immediately Star saw the differences. There had never been anything about classes or skills or resistances before. Nothing had changed with his stats though so that was good. Tapping on the class indicator revealed nothing so Star figured it wasn't something that he could do anything with at the moment.

Tapping on the individual general skills just gave him a very generic statement about them that didn't give any numbers or indication of how they affected him. and resistances didn’t tell him anything. So he moved over to the store page and found that there were a lot of changes. There was a counter for War Coins, which was the normal currency that he was used to using, then beside that there was a counter for local currency, and beside that there was a counter labeled as resources. Then there was a new tab called the recycle bin.

The recycle bin turned out to be somewhere he could put his loot into to increase the count on his resources counter. The biggest thing that he noticed was that most of the store's items now cost only resources and not the War Coin price that they used to have. In fact, the only things that cost War Coins now were in the Custom shop where he could make specific requests. it was odd but he guessed that he’d be able to figure it all out soon enough.

Star recycled his melted down minigun and purchased another. noting that he’d received much less from recycling than he spent on it. Then he checked out the outfit tab and his inventory tabs finding nothing different. The communication tab had nothing new in it but he did have two new contacts aside from The Pantheon, being Amy and Lupin. That seemed very odd seeing as how they did not have their own WarPads so Star decided that he should experiment with it.

He quickly typed out a message to Amy telling her that he was testing out a feature of his powers. Then he pressed send. The next moment a rolled up scroll with wings popped up out of his WarPad and flew off. The winged scroll went straight through the wall as if it wasn't even there and disappeared.

A minute later the scroll returned and popped into Stars WarPad and it vibrated letting him know he’d just received a message.

Reply From Amy

This is a very surprising use of your powers, and it surprised me and uncle quite a lot when a scroll with wings flew in on us. The return function is surprisingly intuitive. Me and my uncle should be done talking in a few minutes, I will come talk to you after we are finished. I suppose that I need to explain to you what is going on.

Now that was a surprisingly useful change to his communications tab. nothing else seemed to have changed so Star went back to the store and bought wet wipes. Then pulled off his shirt and began wiping himself down because he hadn't been able to bathe since he’d arrived here.

Star managed to clean himself up completely, get dressed again and recycle the wet wipes before he heard a knock on the door to the room. Amy opened the door and walked in, eyeing him curiously. He realized that she’d never seen him in his Civies which were a white t-shirt with blue jeans and some comfortable sneakers.

Amy nodded her head as if she approved then approached and sat on the bed next to him.

“I owe you an explanation and some information.” She said, “As a Beta I have nominated you as my Alpha and requested that you be allowed to take the trials for becoming an Alpha officially. I realize that you don’t really know what that means but it is equivalent to being a lord or something like that in the human lands. Only Betas can nominate Alphas. And in human equivalent terms it would be something akin to marriage.”

Star had kind of already gathered that, but it was definitely strange. He liked Amy and she was freaking hot, so of course he’d like to bump uglies with her, but marriage seemed a little lot of a big leap for the time he’d known her. But before he could voice his concerns she continued.

“Marriage is not the same for our kind as it is for humans. You will not be obligated to me the way you would be obligated to a human woman, and I could probably find you some human Zetas or even other beastkin Zetas…” She paused for a few seconds seeming to realize something, “Oh I should explain our terminology to you. Alphas and Betas are basically male and female royalty, Gammas and Zetas are male and female commoners. Betas find a good Alpha and are in charge of most everything in government and in the home. Alphas enforce the will of Betas and serve as commanders of our armies and other more physical tasks. As a Beta it is my job to ensure that I have an Alpha of strong blood to pass down, and to determine whether or not any Zetas who are interested are worthy enough for my Alpha to breed with them. So if you are hesitant to become my Alpha because you don’t find me attractive or something like that, just know that I won’t be your only option and I will definitely give you a say and your choice of Zetas that apply for the position.”

Star sat there his mind reeling from what was being said. So basically she would be his wife. He’d get to have sex with her and any woman who applied to the position of basically being his concubine that she approved of? and he was basically royalty? It sounded like he’d just landed in almost any teenager's fantasy. All he’d have to do is pass some tests and he would be able to sit back and let his wife build a harem for him. That didn't sound bad at all. The only thing about what she’d just said that seemed strange to him was that she thought she wasn't necessarily to his liking.

“First off. You do not have to worry about finding you attractive, because I definitely do. Find you attractive that is. From what I've seen of beastkin women most of you all hold the same level of attraction as a human woman would, maybe even a little bit more. The only thing that concerns me is that I do not know you that well yet and while I’ve been known to have a one night stand or two this would still be a very rapid pace to put myself in such a commitment.” He paused and held up his finger to indicate that he needed a moment to think.

Getting his thoughts in order Star continued.

“But I realize that I am in a precarious position here. And you are giving me the only real viable solution as well as giving me a place to belong in this new world that I find myself in. So I will accept and I will go through with the trials.”