《Life is a game, with intrusive microtransactions.》Trips pt1
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“The only thing I lack is an ability to transport my minions with me.” Jack said as he finished preparing for the teleportation. “Armor is sealed off, so no harmful chemicals will bother me there, at least as long as filters keep up, and I equip it immediately after teleportation. Loaded on stims, but... sigh. Extra health won't hurt, just in case.” Jack said purchasing the latest entry on his wishlist, and checking his character screen afterwards, and chuckling as he noticed the leftover credits.
Perfect Physique
150'000 SC
Whether by being too lazy, or having issues about your body, you decided to acquire the perfect body and keeping it forever. Or you are a sickly child who hates his uselessness. Regardless of the case, with Perfect Physique you will always be in the perfect shape, and will be highly resistant to any and all diseases, however you may still suffer from injuries, poisons or toxins, unless, of course, you are immune to them and not to diseases. As a side effect of being in perfect shape all the time, your mana channels are also improved.
+50% to Health capacity and regeneration, +50% to mana capacity and regeneration.
Requires:
Superior Attributes or higher
Charisma 50+
Name:
Jack
Delgado
Race:
Homunculus
Class:
None
Titles:
Inquisitor
UP: 0
SC: 80'085
ST: 0
Level:
0/10
HP:
12'000/12'000
MP:
7'500/7'500
Traits
Undying, Durable, Esper, Supreme Regeneration, Perfect Physique
Abilities
Grimoire, Soul Siphon, Conversion, Inventory, Auto-Map*, Elemental Possession, Omnikinesis, Evil Eyes*, Shroud*
Bloodlines
Primary: High Human; Secondary: Wyvern; Tertiary: None;
Supreme Strength
100
Supreme Constitution
100
Supreme Vitality
100
Supreme Agility
100
Supreme Dexterity
100
Supreme Perception
100
Supreme Focus
100
Supreme Willpower
100
Supreme Attunement
100
Charisma
100
Psyche
100
Luck
100
Resilience
100
Fire
Water
Earth
Air
Light
Darkness
Life
Death
25
25
20
20
15
35
15
25
Summoning
Time
Void
Space
Soul
27
2
2
3
20
With the last checks done, Jack prepared himself as he activated the beacon teleportation, while simultaneously activating his . Of course, he was in his half-wyvern form, as he wasn't sure if he could teleport with his armor on. Just like before, the teleportation was nearly instant, with the only evidence for him teleporting were the sound of something popping and a burst of light emitting from his position.
“̴̰̔̕D̶͕̏̈͜e̶̡̥̽̎ ̷̞̣͆a̶͎̖̋͝i̸͕͝r̴̨̻͒ ̷̢̀̄a̶̤̮͛̅n̸͔̜̆ ̷̡͙͗t̶̝̞͊ś̶̮͎͝ȧ̵̡̭̈o̴̡͍͐͋g̶̲̋̋h̵͔̄̕ă̴̖͊ľ̸͙̻-̴̗͇̒͝”̷̢̦̍ Jack heard someone saying as the time around him slowed down, while he scanned the surroundings.
The chamber itself only seemed to contain one life sign, coming from the person that looked to be startled, wearing some sort of robes, in brown color with a symbol being a mix between an ankh and one of the christian crosses. That didn't matter much to Jack, as he immediately jumped on the man, using his four centimeter claws to tear into the man's neck, before he could scream. Much to Jack's surprise, his claws pierced right through man's neck, severing head from the body, spraying blood everywhere, which never before happened from simple beheading, at least in Jack's experience. It was surprisingly satisfying, but any game should be satisfying to some degree, otherwise there would be no point in playing one.
“Unknown language, possibly incantation...” Jack looked around the room, before shrugging, and grabbing the bloodied robes off the man. “Too much blood on the clothes, and some of it seems to be rather old.” Jack said as he examined the robes on the corpse, before shrugging and putting both the clothes and the corpse inside his inventory, and taking out said clothes after a short while. “Good field test for the half form, I suppose. Robes are tolerable, but I don't feel comfortable with my dong swaying with the wind.” Jack said as he equipped robes and sighed. “Should've bought pants. Wait, why don't my wyvern form have a dick? Do they reproduce differently from mammals? Though why should I actually care about that bullshit.” Jack sighed, he would worry about the physiology of a wyvern at a later date.
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Looking around the chamber, Jack soon found out that it was not the most sanitary place. A number of dead bodies were littering the floor, most of which had their ribcage wide open, with some organs missing. Some of the corpses seemed to be recently feasted on, and judging by the teeth marks, whatever feasted on them weren't human, which was somewhat obvious. Unfortunately, the bite marks didn't look like from Belly-mouths, but then again, these demons rarely left anything lying on the ground.
Shrugging, he collected every single body left on the floor, before moving through a doorway, leading to a long tunnel, branching into more rooms. And by the looks of it, at least from perspective, they were all a variation of the first room Jack found himself in. Upon examining the second room, Jack concluded it was indeed one and the same, the only difference being the person stationed inside, and the amount of corpses.
“̴̘̐̂C̵̙͛h̸̰̄͊ả̷̫̓ ̵͕̓͌d̸̩̂ǫ̴͍͝ ̴̟̜̌̏ḑ̵̮́̈́h̷̥̉̊'̶̼̟̕f̵̐̌ͅḧ̶̛̺́͜a̶̹͑i̷͇̊́-̵̤͂̀”̷̛̜ Jack quickly rushed at the person in robes, and punctured through his head, pulverising it in the process, with blood, bone and brain splattering in various directions, which caused a bit of bewilderment for Jack.
“What the actual fuck.” asking himself, Jack performed a qucik punch, but found nothing wrong with the move. “Well, if I was wearing a power armor, then yes, I could have done that, but even if I am twelve times stronger than before, I shouldn't be able to obliterate someone's head in a single punch. I am not Saitama.” Jack sighed, as he moved on to secure the corpses, before moving to another chamber, which had similar outcome to the previous two, only this time, the person inside it didn't even notice Jack, allowing him to snap the man's neck, simultaneously ripping off his flesh and muscles.
This caused Jack to switch forms back to the human one, as he came into the fourth room, and immediately attacking the man inside, by punching him in the head. This time, however, the attack didn't pulverize man's skull, instead it only caused a relatively large injury, with blood coming out from the back of the man's head.
“Half form gives additional damage or something? Sure, I am bigger, but that shouldn't be the case for the increased damage.” Jack sighed, looking at the blood covering his hand and shrugged. “Half form it is then.” Saying that, he moved on to the other rooms, filled to the brim with corpses, with one single living person inside, sporting the same set of clothes, which all were killed. After clearing out all of the thirty rooms, Jack felt bewildered at the amount of corpses stored in his inventory.
“More than a thousand corpses. Fuck. What are they even doing here? Did I stumble on the endgame quest just right after getting out from the tutorial area? How does this even work? Am I actually going in the opposite direction now?” Jack sighed moving through the long tunnel, with no more branching paths. “Can't I get at least some introductory quest?” Jack sighed, looking somewhat annoyed, until he noticed that map started changing and he was now looking at the new floors appearing above the current tunnel, with a lot of life signs. “Sigh. The most logical option would be to escape as soon as possible, but considering I am at a place where demons are summoned, why not steal stuff here and plant a nuke? Or... considering I have quite a bit of corpses here, I could try and convert them, or use them for diversion, though thinking about it, I'll be out of mana before I could turn half of them into undead, not to mention most of them are useless. On the other hand...” Jack scrolled through shop, and grinned like a madman he was.
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HV-Z6 canister *5
1'000 SC *5
A pressurized canister containing large amounts of HV-Z6 toxin. Highly flammable.
“Odd.” Jack said as the purchase came in. “I expected it to have more flavor text.” Jack sighed, as he took the first of the canisters out, revealing unmarked cylinders. If not for the , or , Jack would mistake them for grenades, or canned goods, with no information on what they might contain. He knew all too well what this little canister was capable of. After all, he had already used it to purge all life from the Italy, which caused him a great deal of headache, and a new job in organization known as Black Hand, though at that time, he cared for nothing but revenge.
Jack quickly thought about the possibilities of using this gas and then decided to plant it in different places, to maximize the contamination area. Even if the gas was lighter than air, it was still better plant it with some thoughts put into it, as it would quickly become inert, losing all of it's properties. Then again, he would have to raise undead to release the gas at the specific time, maximizing the amount of afflicted individuals, unless he wanted to test if the filters inside his mask could protect him from the second worst fate imaginable, and becoming a zombie wasn't something he wanted to try out at the moment. Then again, he wasn't sure if the gas would work as it did on Earth, but if he considered it a simulation, it should have similar effects.
“Now to steal as much stuff as I can, before leaving and releasing the gas. Heh. Gotta love the Ardent imbeciles at least for this, though if we're being honest, Alliance are the main culprit behind the zombie plague and demonic invasion.” Jack smiler fondly remembering the good old days, before his face turned grim, and he moved through with stealing everything that wasn't nailed down. “Just like the early days as a mercenary. Steal everything and kill targets.” Jack sighed, remembering the first mission he undertook upon joining the Black Hand, and shook his head. “Can't change the past, so why bother thinking on what could've been different?”
*̶͇̟͕̓̈́́*̵̣̘̰̮̉̋̈͐͜*̴͎̖̮̳̘̉̊̂̋*̸̳̣̭̹͛͒͗̃̈́̾*̶̡̬̤̈́̀̒͒̿͝*̵̨̰͒ͅ
Jack knew full well that using the HV-Z6 wouldn't bring immediate results when he finally activated it, only starting to work it's viral magic after the 48 hour mark, afterwards it would make Rome fall in a day, or rather, seven hours. The cultist hideout, which turned out to be a castle, from western medieval period, though if he was honest, he found it odd calling Europe 'west', but human, or Earth culture is a weird thing. He still could return there and abduct a cultist or two, to learn their odd language, but decided against it for now. He didn't want to spend too much credits on some useless gimmick anyway, and considering the lack of universal translators in the Shop, he might as well play as a hermit in this simulation, who forgot the language. It won't be too hard learning it from scratch, he reckoned, though he was never good with languages.
Deciding to postpone the decision, Jack bit into the lightly charred rabbit meat he cooked this evening. Surprisingly, the simulation was somewhat logical, so far. For the most part. Forest had a number of critters, be it insects or mammals, though some were the classic animals one could find on Earth, others were some sort of mutants, with no clear logic put behind their appearance.
If he were to take the rabbit he was eating as an example, then for all purposes, it was a rabbit. It's fur, stubby tail, long ears and paws, even teeth, though he wanted to postpone on that department, as Jack never had a pet rabbit, were all pretty much what rabbit would have normally. The only difference from a rabbit observed at the moment was the horn protruding from it's forehead, slightly above it's eyes, making it look like a unicorn, only it was a rabbit unicorn and not a horse. It still tasted like rabbit, so there was no issue there in Jack's book, though he wasn't a fan of their taste.
Shrugging, Jack finished his breakfast and, after some thoughts, decided to use his Wyvern form to travel to the north. He liked the winter most of the time, even if it was somewhere in greenland, or other equally dreadful icy wasteland. Not that he would travel that far north in the first place, just some place with comfortable temperature, where he could establish his base of operations. Fortunately, Yggdrasil mk3 came with various types of sensors and software, which would allow him to find the next best place for the hideout.
As Jack finished the rabbit and stored it's bones inside his inventory, alongside with the small spherical object radiating quite a bit of mana, he started walking in the general direction of where north should have been. Virals tended to dislike colder climates in the first place, so getting into the colder territories will give him quite a bit of time in case no one will be able to stop the cultists.
“I wonder if demons are affected by the gas. Would be quite funny to see an army of viral demons. Regular zombie demons are a bit of a bummer.” Jack sighed, and grinned, imagining the catastrophe that could happen if it were a real life. Fortunately, it was a game, and even if it wasn't, there were many ways of preventing the spread of infection, all of them lethal to the infected individuals, except for mutants affected by Chimera serum, not that it helped them much.
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Millennial Mage (A Slice of Life, Progression Fantasy)
The world is wild, untamed. Humanity thrives, but only in isolated, well defended cities, ever shrinking as the wilds slowly reclaim all that was taken. The most capable magic users are raised up as Mages to serve mankind, further their cause, and defend them over the course of millennia. Tala is freshly graduated from the magic academy and determined to make her own way in the world. She hopes to pay off her massive debts, quickly, but still plans on living each and every day to the fullest. Too bad the Academy left some glaring holes in her practical education. Loath to let that slow her down, and with no patience for a standard, low-paid apprenticeship (intended to fill many of those knowledge gaps), Tala strives to learn and improve as rapidly as she can on her own. Her unorthodox methods for preserving her own life allow her to take greater risks in search of profit and advancement, much to the surprise of those around her. I do hope you enjoy this tale, but let me know what you think either way! Critique, both positive and negative, is welcome. Release schedule is weekly: M-W-F Thank you for your time and for giving this story a try. AUTHOR'S NOTE: If this is found on a site other than Royal Road, or the linked Patreon, it was not posted by the author. Please find this tale, here: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/47826/millennial-mage
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