The next few minutes were absolute chaos. The Dragonkin who couldn’t fight were scrambling over each other to get away. The ground was shaking vigorously now, whatever was coming, it was huge. Ray rushed over to Vaeldren, sword in hand, ready to fight.

“Do poisons work on whatever this is?” Ray asked

“Not at all. At least none that we’ve tried in the past.” Vaeldren said. He was looking extremely nervous. Vaeldren turned to see the remaining warriors. There we 11 including Layla and Vaeldren.

“Fuck, we’ve never taken down an abomination with less that 25 warriors. Even then, we lose half. This is likely a lost fight. Our job now is to stall so our brethren can escape.” Vaeldren said.

“What about Ray, He ain’t one of us, surely he should go too” Layla said, looking stricken.

Eight tentacles burst from the ground. They looked like they were made of Elven flesh and bone but had somehow been made to stretch and goop. The tentacles began to push a large body out of the ground. Rays’ best description of what he could see was just a gelatinous blob of flesh. It looked like it was attempting to format itself in some semblance of an octopus, an 8ft tall octopus. The main body of the abomination contained multiple eyes which clearly gave the beast a 360-degree view. There looked to be a single gaping maw with bones sharpened into points for teeth. The skin was greying and rotten, covered in a slimy exterior.

Ray immediately used identify

[Identify Failed]

[Identify Failed]

“I can’t get a read, anyone else able to identify what we’re dealing with” Ray asked.

Before anyone could answer, the abomination sliding towards them. As soon as the undead abomination was within range, tentacles flashed faster then Ray could dodge, luckily, not at him.

Immediately, their band of 13 dropped to 11 as 2 of the Dragonkin warriors were stabbed through. Layla started running backwards while casting multiple fire walls. Her mana was already almost depleted from the previous fight.

Vaeldren slashed at a tentacle aimed for his head, he managed to deflect the blow but not slash through. Flung backward, he deftly landed on his feet. “This monster is higher level then me! We can’t take this, it’s a route. Run as fast and as far as you can!”

The group immediately scattered. They had barely been able to delay the monstrosity at all. Ray dodged 2 tentacles as he ran. He noticed the abomination didn’t seem to be interested in chasing them. Instead, it had moved over to the 2 bodies, picked them up with its tentacles and stuffed them right in its maw.

The group didn’t stop to stare. They continued their hasty retreat. It wasn’t long before the Abomination was attempting to give chase. The monster was clearly slower than them however, so the entire remaining group eventually managed to escape.

As soon as they were far enough away from the Abomination, the system messages flooded in.

[You have had a brush with instant death and managed to escape. Good Job]

[You have levelled up]

[You have levelled up]

[You have learned the sub-skill Sword Mastery]

[You have learned the sub-skill Sneak]

They reached their old campsite. The disheartened group took stock of the dead. All in all, a total of 34 Dragonkin had perished in the fight. This left just under 100. Many of the remainder, including at least half of the warriors were sporting wounds.

As a roll call was performed, Ray noticed that Vaeldren was nowhere to be seen. The other Dragonkin either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care. Ray spoke up about it “Where did Vaeldren go? He didn’t die in the escape, did he?”

The elder Dragonkin that was taking roll call began to laugh. “No, no, he’s just leaving a message in case there are any survivors. We’ve decided to accept his plan at looking for a new home to the west. There is no safe place here if the undead are invading. It won’t be long before the other kingdoms fall. This was always our fallback option.”

Vaeldren had activated his stealth skill during the scuffle and circled around the undead abomination. He moved as close to the town as his senses would allow. Since an abomination had buried itself, it was unlikely that the undead necromancers or leadership would still be in the area. Abominations were usually left behind to defend future strategic areas of the undead armies. Finrial would likely become a stronghold for the undead within the year.

He still had to be careful. If there was one abomination, there could be scouts and sentries all throughout the town. They would only defend the area for a few days at most. People on Arkus tended not to immediately attempt reclamation of lost areas. The undead used the rift in the living races to slowly gain territory. By now, with the help of the system, they controlled at least 15% of the known world. Their armies numbered in the hundreds of thousands and was estimated to be strong enough to take control of the entire world, so long as they were careful.

Vaeldren had known about this threat for a long time. Over a century in fact. Unfortunately, like with the system, the differing races refused to work together, each seeking their own power over the collective good. Well now look at it. Things are falling apart faster then ever. If Finrial had fallen, it was likely that all Elven territories had. Of the living races, Dwarves would be the hardest to destroy as they tended to build their cities in the underworld.

Vaeldren slowly moved around the town ruins. Placing markers and messages throughout. He then left by the West exit and carved his final message into a large tree just on the outskirts of the destroyed gate.

Dragonkin are heading west to new lands, nothing could be done here. Any survivors or people seeking refuge, seek us out.

The notes he had left in town were markers pointing people to similar messages. It was a good thing that the undead, aside from liches and above, tended not to pay attention to scrawled messages. He had written the messages in both elvish and dragonkin languages and hoped that anyone passing through would be able to read them.

After having finished his job, Vaeldren snuck his way back to the camp. He had returned in time to catch the group already leaving for the western trail. Ray and Layla had taken the head of the caravan. Even though other warriors were higher level, it was clear the Dragonkin had already grown to place trust in Ray. His willingness to jump in and defend the dwindling group had inspired more of the Dragonkin to open up to him. He was still treated as an outsider in the more important circles but when the only 2 children of the group had started asking him questions, it was clear that he was taking a step in the right direction.

“Mr Ray. Mr Ray. What was your world like?” a small girl had asked him.

Ray pondered for a moment. “Honestly? Not that great. We were more technologically driven then this place. We had nicer homes and more comforts, but we also had bigger and worse weapons. Even after seeing what happened to Finrial, that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to death in our world. Also, no magic.”

“No magic? That sounds boring!” The girl said wide eyed before running off back to her mother.

As the group made their way westward, the trail became more and more overgrown. At first, Ray couldn’t understand why there was a trail at all, but it quickly became apparent when they passed an abandoned mine.

Vaeldren suddenly flashed into existence right next to Ray. Ray was so startled that he actually jumped backward, drew a dagger and promptly fell over Layla’s tail. Somewhere in the crowd, Ray heard a child snort in laughter. Soon enough, everyone who saw the incident was laughing at him.

Red faced, Ray picked himself up and brushed the dirt off his armour. He mumbled under his breath “You didn’t need to do that”

“On the contrary laddy… Err Ray. Everyone needs to have some fun once in a while. Lord knows this sorry lot could use a laugh. People lost family members today” Vaeldren said, he was still trying to hold back his laughter. At the same time, Ray could see that in his eyes was a deep sadness.

It really hit home for Ray. These people were still trying to laugh, smile and move forward. They had lost their families, their homes and their race was a critically endangered species according to Earth’s definitions. Once he thought of it like this, Ray opened up with a broad smile of his own. He could endure a little bit of suffering for these people. He was basically in the same boat. With earth gone, were the humans here really his people? No. His people were those who were willing to laugh and smile with him. His people were those who accepted who he was and helped him move forward. For now, his people were this sorry lot of Dragonkin.

With that in mind, Ray and Miu confidently walked into the wilderness. He was told it would take at least 2 weeks to reach the mountains. After 3 days of travelling, Ray encountered another small cave. He was going to report back to the group but a small glint near the entrance caught his eye. Ray couldn’t help himself. He was too far away to communicate with Miu, or signal any of the others. He decided to go on.

Ray crouched his way slowly into the cave. With his perception heightened for danger, he noticed that the cave was a single cavern with no further depths. Inside were shackles and chains littering the floor. There was also a small table and chair to the left. On top of the table were clear signs of recently used torture tools. There were 2 bloodied fingers on what looked like a baking tray. The fingers were human, or at least what Ray thought were human, apparently identify didn’t work on severed body parts.

Ray noticed a large box at the other end of the room. Before going to the box, he inspected the remainder of the table, and found a small jewellery box. He slowly opened the lid of the box. Inside was a small amulet and ring. He used identify on the items.

Identified – Mithril Ring of the Brute (F)

Description:

A well-crafted ring with the ability to hold 2 upgradable enchantments

Quality:

Rare

Enchantment 1:

Strength +1 (Upgradable)

Enchantment 2:

Body +1 (Upgradable)

Identified – Legendary Amulet of Privacy (F) [Bound Item]

Description

A master crafted F tier ring. Amulet made from Adamantine and will never break. This amulet is bound to [Unbound].

Quality

Legendary

Enchantment:

The wearer of this amulet is completely immune to information gathering spells of the (F) tier. This includes such spells as appraisal and identify.

Ray immediately put both items on.

[You have equipped a bound item. Please confirm you wish to bind this item to you. Once bound, no other person will be able to use or steal this item. Upon your death, bound items become unbound]

Ray mentally thought [Bind Item]. As he did so, he felt something click within his mind. He immediately knew the item was now inherently attached to him.

Knowing he couldn’t remain long; he moved over to the large box at the other end of the cave. Upon opening the lid, he gasped in horror. There was a living human, bound, gagged, and badly beaten. The person was a male, around 18 years of age.

Identified – Peter Martin

Level:

1

Health:

15/100

Mana:

50/50

Race:

Human

Description

A System touched human.

Well, I’ll be, another off-worlder. Ray immediately shoved a potion of healing down Peters throat, picked him up and left the cave.

~~

Ray’s Character sheet at the end of chapter 18:

Character Sheet

Name:

Ray Atton

More Info +

Race:

Human-Error (F)

Level:

15 (F)

Stats

Strength

50

Dexterity

40

Agility

42

Body

53

Vitality

41

Intelligence

30

Mind

25

Luck

25

Unallocated Points

10

Titles

Outcast (Unique 1/1), Panther Cat Tamer (Unique 1/1), Great Beast Slayer (Rare)

Coins

Arkus System

15,262

Rays Skill Sheet at the end of chapter 18.

Skills

Level

Cooldown

Mana Cost

Description

Communication: Multiple (Common / Passive)

Max

N/A

N/A

Speak and read the following languages:

Ø Human

Ø Dark-Elf

Ø Dragonkin

Ø Demonic

Ø Goblin

Ø Dwarfish

Ø Waedric

Ø Spirit

Identify (Common)

9

None

1

Activate to gather basic information about the target.

Lifeline (Common / Passive)

2

23 Hours

None

When 10% health is reached, double your current health.

Ray’s Sub-skills at the end of chapter 18.

Subskills

Skill

Mastery Level

Description

Thrown Weapon Mastery

Trash

Slightly more accurate when throwing weapons

Sword Mastery

Trash

Slightly more proficient when using swords

Sneak

Trash

Not to be confused with stealth. Sneak simply makes you slightly more silent when moving.