Jonathan felt himself to be at a crossroads, from experience playing RPGs he knew that the earlier you invest stat points into a build, the easier it would be to advance to more intermediate areas later on. Investing in a build usually meant choosing around 2 or 3 stats and raising them to benefit the type of character you were making. This is usually came at the cost of not raising the other stats directly at all, sharply increasing the strength of a character while leaving the other more ‘unnecessary’ attributes to suffer.

Jonathan frowned. While investing skill points in this way could produce powerhouses, this was real life and becoming stronger that way would be very dangerous. What point would being strong and fast enough to kill bears be if a single stray rock could kill you? This was real life and he had to think about survival first. He sat in thought still balancing his body using the tree with the purple trunk.

He thought about investing in strength and defence and using a simple sword and shield style of fighting to survive and get stronger. There were two problems with that, he was sure that raising his defence and his strength to that level would mean running through most of his stat points. He had no guarantee that he would get much more of those in the future. Secondly he wasn’t sure that focusing on a type of build that shone when fighting people one on one was too safe in a forest where he would probably fight things much stronger than he was. Besides, he had no way to heal himself and defence could be supplemented by protective equipment, if he could find-or make some.

Still, he felt indecisive. He knew what his skills were so he decided to take a look at his traits;

[Tenacity][Racial]

You refuse to die; you have too firm a grip to die before you intend to. You live life as only you can. You refuse to be put down. The chances of surviving life threatening situations increases by 3%

Jonathan was surprised, he was sure that the trait was one of the reasons he survived as long as he had. He decided to look at the other one.

[Monster in Man’s Clothing][Character]

You have shown yourself to be no more than a beast. All human beings on Arda will instinctively hate and fear you. When you consume the meat of something you kill, you will receive some of its attributes, dependent on the type, quality and quantity of meat consumed. Humanoid meat will gift you with the most stats.

“Jesus” he said with tears welling up. His voice was barely audible.

“I was brought here without my permission. I was tortured. Treated like an animal. I was treated like crap since I got here and still I’m the animal.” His anger welled up. His voice was getting louder with every word.

“I earned the hate of somebody I don’t know for being brought here, which I had no hand in causing. Yet, I am the beast. I fucked up, I killed the old man. I know I did. It haunts me this very minute but I promise myself and the beings that let this all happen. I will get stronger. I will destroy the Empire. You will regret everything you’ve done to me.”

Tears blurred his vision. He felt himself get hotter. His voice was low now, almost a whisper.

“Why did you do this to me?”

[Your mind is being corroded.]

[Skill: [Mantra of Madness] has temporarily stopped your mental erosion and eased your fatigue.]

[You mind will be under more stress later on.]

He barely batted an eye at the notifications. He was getting used to them.

He hated Arda, he hated what it did to him. He hated how it was changing him. He knew he was temperamental, but he was brighter, now his thoughts were dark. He had seen things. Done things. He knew he wouldn’t be the same but he decided to try his best to keep himself cheerful, No one else would. He couldn’t let this new, mad world let him down. He just couldn’t. He wasn’t afraid of much anymore, he had seen a lot of death in the last week, but he was afraid of losing himself to the shithole called Arda.

He stared at the fire and the crow wings. He was suddenly aware of how hungry he was. He took a crow wing and de-feathered it by hand, bitterly wishing he had hot water to make it easier before putting it over the fire. He turned the purple-pink meat slowly until it became a grey white. If he was being honest, it tasted awful and had a texture that was questionable at best. He ate it regardless, a bad taste was better than death, especially one caused by starvation. He ate all the four wings he had after de-feathering them.

He checked his status again, this time he found that his agility now read ‘18’. This stat was now his highest stat when it started out as his lowest. He wondered what made it grow so fast in such a short time. Was it the running around the sewers? Or was it the fight the crows? Both? He decided to assume it was both.

It looked like an agility based build was what he had to for. Logically speaking, speed and evasion were more valuable than defence. Not being hit at all was better than being hit and powering through it. He thought about his abilities. None of them were battle based; most of them were so he could survive. This wasn’t enough. He needed to thrive. He needed to get stronger. He picked up his short sword and decided. He was going to avoid direct battle; he was going to go for an assassin build. He had no fight experience, short fights where he could go for a quick stab were best anyway. He decided that his new motto was going to be ‘one hit, one kill’.

“It’s decided then.”

Attack, Magical Power and Magical Mending was greyed out when he was distributing stat points. He figured that would happen because of his status conditions. Plus it looked like Attack was influenced by Strength. He put 2 points into Strength and Defence. He saw Defence as a useless stat but as they say: ‘You never know’. He paused, thinking about what stats to add where next. It looked like Luck was affected by stat points. It was dismally low, even when compared to his other stats and he had no idea what it affected. It also didn’t go up even when most of the others did.

He decided to test something. He put 2 stat points into Luck and divided the remaining 2 between Strength and Agility. Then he took the feathers and some leaves and tied them together in a rough bundle using some thread from his shorts. After which he shoved the rock he used to make fire into the bundle.

He dug a hole and buried the bones from the crows and the bloody cloth before extinguishing the fire using some dirt. It was going to be late soon and he needed some more food and a stable source of water. He carried the bundle under his left arm and the short sword in his right hand. He ran a cautious run, surprised by his own speed. He made sure not to step into leaves or branches, sticking to soft looking moss or vegetation.

He marked his route through the forest by cutting into every third tree along the way. He ran until he heard some water dripping. Not very loudly or frequently, but he knew he heard it. He moved in the direction of the sound. He moved slowly at first then started to move faster into a dead run until he tripped on a root and fell into a nearby bush. He wondered whether he wasted the stat points on luck before he heard grunts. He peered through the bushes and saw three…creatures. He had almost run straight into them. They were next to a waterfall-like large rock formation that had water dripping down it. All the rocks had symbols similar to the ones he saw before he left the Empire. It was Octavian writing,

The three creatures looked human from afar but he clearly saw that they had green skin with black and brown patches. One was large, fat and wore a loincloth, fur boots; a poncho made from hide and carried a large club. It was at least Jonathan’s size. The other one was smaller and lean with a fat stomach. It wore no footwear and had a leather helmet on, a loincloth and carried a stick. The third was small. It was roughly the size of a toddler and wore only a loincloth and carried a sharpened, bloody rock and a dead bloodied rabbit in the other.

They looked to be in a disagreement. The big one kept pointing to the rabbit before grunting. The small one simply shook its head in disagreement. It looked desperate and hungry. It was gripping tightly to the rock.

Finally the big one suddenly brought down its club into the small ones head before commanding the one with the stick to pick up the rabbit. They left the small one on the forest floor, crying. They walked into the forest. Jonathan thought about leaving when he heard a blood curdling scream. The big one ran back, its left arm was heavily bloodied. The one with the stick was nowhere to be found. The small one struggled to stand and hid itself behind a rock.

Suddenly, three small naked blue imp like creatures ran out of the forest and stabbed the big one with their claws. They ripped up the big one while it screamed. Jonathan had an idea of what happened to the one with the stick. The blue imps were eating the big creature alive.

A notification suddenly popped out in front of Jonathans’ eyes. When he read it he could hear a faint rumbling voice speaking to him. The voice sounded like thunder.

[Welcome to Arda, Jonathan.]

Suddenly he got the image of a long haired man sitting on a large black throne.

[This is certainly a surprise.]

Am I supposed to know what that means? Jonathan thought.

[No. I imagine not. Just know that your survival up to this point is a surprise.]

Jonathan was surprised, whatever this was, it knew what he was thinking.

I’m always glad to disappoint.

He envisioned the man smiling. Another notification popped into his field of vision.

[You are an aberration. You were never supposed to live through your examination. So you living through that was a surprise. Then you escaped the Empire. Doubly surprising. Then you killed the crows and earned the ire of their leader-and lived. Strictly speaking you should not be alive. And yet you are.]

Jonathan heard loud thunderous laughter.

[This is very refreshing. I am content. The formula had gotten boring anyway.]

What does that even mean?

[Let’s just say I have read this story many times. Different characters, same story. Over and over. Hundreds of times. In every single one, you are not the main character. You are barely a footnote.]

A new quest popped into Jonathans’ vision.

[Usurper] [Mandatory Quest]

This quest overwrites the quest [Plaything of Fate]. You have reached the temple of ????. You have taken the story from the [Chosen]. You are not the main character. This quest was issued a year too soon. You will be penalized. This quests’ difficulty has increased and the rewards have lessened. You will usurp all around you. If you do not die first.

Length of quest: Until you finish the story, or until you die.

Rewards: The truth.

Current chance of success: Varies from moment to moment. Currently ????

[Let's change the formula, boy.]