4 Chapter 4: Natural Born Naturalist

Onwards I trudged. I thought about running, but that would drain my SP. It wasn't worth the risk being caught in an exhausted state. As I was trudging across the plains that lined the coast I saw a larger town up ahead. A real port, stone houses with two floors. There were a couple of larger buildings in the centre. If I had to guess, probably a thousand people at least. There was also a wooden palisade surrounding the town about eight to ten feet tall.

How many could I kill was the big question. I saw patrols of three soldiers a piece moving around the city and there were at least six different patrols. So thirty soldiers, so possibly a knight or a knight's holding. Based on the description this was probably Mendel from the way the dead girl described the city. I made it a point not to remember the names of the people I killed. Well unless they were totally epic like Lord Breckley. He had a special spot at the top of my 'to kill' list.

While there was a wooden wall around the city, it was incomplete near the sea. I waited until it was quite dark before making my move. The night sky was overcast as well. The fight with the girl had done wonders for my spirit since I felt confident I had picked the right build. I found a barrel next to a one floor house and used that to help me up onto the roof. Lifting myself up was a pain, I definitely needed to add a couple points to my Strength.

I made a hole in the roof again. It was too dark to see anything but I heard at least two different people breathing. I leaped down into the house, touching the ground lightly. I drew one of my swords and very slowly slid across the floor. There were two people on the bed. I drew my second sword and then stabbed down with both blades. I moved the blades side to side making sure I did enough damage to kill both of them. I listened and heard some more breathing. I moved over to the second bed and stabbed down with both my blades into the neck.

I wiped the blood off on the blanket. I moved to the front door and undid the simple latch keeping it closed and let the door swing open. I then waited off to one side. With any luck a patrol would come by and enter the house. I waited for a good couple of minutes considering other plans when I heard the steps of people on the ground outside.

"Door's open."

"Probably forgot to latch it."

"Wait, it could be a trap." I cursed silently to myself at their intelligence.

A soldier stood in the doorway. "Wake up in there, your front door is unlatched."

Time to gamble. "Helppppp, I can't feel my legs anymore and it hurts." I used the most pitiful voice possible. Two of the soldiers came into the house while a third stood right outside the doorway.

"In the corner over there." The two soldiers moved deeper into the one room house. I snuck out of my corner and raced over to the soldier standing in the doorway. He looked at me in surprise but both my swords pierced his neck, silencing him. I yanked them out and felt a spray of warm blood over my face.

I spun around and the other soldiers were hovering over one of the beds. I raced up behind them, switching from a standard grip to a backwards grip. I almost dropped one of my blades in excitement but managed to keep a hold of it with the tips of my fingers. I reached the guards and drove my blades into the back of their necks. One collapsed immediately while the other spun around, the sword still in his neck.

I kicked up into his groin and he fell to his knees. I moved to the side and yanked my other blade back out of his companions neck. I stabbed the last guard through the eye with it, killing him instantly. I freed both my blades and wiped them clean.

My SP bar was two thirds of the way out, shit. It took about half a day to refill and I had just started. It wasn't worth the risk and I let out a small sigh. I took all three swords the soldiers had and then I set fire to the house and quickly left. By the time I reached the outside of the city it was quickly being put out by the soldiers and villagers. I began to make my way inland past fields and some outlying houses.

I noticed movement up ahead and quickly ducked down behind a tree. "…you know right?" One of the figures said.

"Yes I know living in the wilderness sucks, but better than being stabbed to death."

"I didn't sign up for this shit. I wanted to be a merchant."

"Tell me about it. I wanted to be a mage, whatever."

"Looks like someone stirred up the hornet's nest."

"A fire, dangerous. That is exactly the reason why the NPCs are out for our blood." They both turned and started walking away. I crept behind one of them and stabbed my sword through the first one's neck. He died with a gurgle. His companion spun around and I hit him with the flat of my blade as hard as I could. He staggered a bit and that was all the opening I needed. I kicked him in the groin and then whacked him over the head again.

I left the dead one in the field and dragged his unconscious companion off to the side behind a couple of trees. First thing I did was remove all of his clothes and stuffed them into my near to bursting satchel. I poured some water over his head and then slapped him a couple of times. He groaned.

"Listen, otherwise this is going to hurt a lot more. You are going to lead me to your camp or I am going to torture you."

"Uhhh….yeah….what…about Ethaaaan?" He asked groggily.

"At your base, show me where it is." I helped him up and let him lead me. I had my sword ready to go at a moment's notice pressed into his side. After walking for an hour through some fields and a bit of forest we came to a small clearing by a stream. There was a fire pit and bunch of supplies and gear scattered about. Yes, there was rope, that would be perfect.

I managed to tie up my prisoner standing up. It was almost dawn and everything was lighting up. "So what now?" The prisoner asked.

"Tell me everything you know."

"If I don't?"

"Well like most male players you endowed yourself more than normal. While a plus for the ladies, that just give that much more to cut off." I held up my sword.

"If I log out?"

"Then I leave you tied up here and keep you alive for a while. Might hand you in to the soldiers for whatever they do with prisoners." I could see him slump in defeat.

"Now here is some water and some jerky." I fed and watered him. He munched slowly while giving me a glare. "I couldn't take two prisoners and you were smaller so that is why I killed your companion."

"Asshole."

"Yes, I get that a lot. So start by explaining how things went for you from day one."

"Well wasn't so bad at first. Went through a small village and got quests to go to Breckley Bay. I saw them round up a bunch of players trying to enter, so me and Ethan we ran off into a field with a couple others. We kept going after the others stopped and never saw them again. We made our way along the coast and set up here."

"Name and level?"

"Rock Terran, level nine."

I whispered, "Observe."

Tari Kale

LvL 3

"You know Tari, it isn't nice to lie to someone." I saw him pale. "I think there needs to be a punishment."

"I am sorry, no, please no." He begged. I ignored his pleas and gagged him. I started up a small fire in their fire pit while he alternated between sobbing and staring at me. I let the fire build up using the wood they had stockpiled while I sharpened by swords.

"You know, pain is in the mind. Also the log out command along with the other commands are vocal. Did you know that?" He began to thrash around even more, but I had made sure the ropes were tight. I set my sharpened blade in the fire, letting it heat up.

"You can pre-set your log out command to mental activation like I did. Unfortunately you can only do that in you atrium. And it doesn't look like you have. You could kill yourself, but that is why I have rendered you immobile." The muffled screams were clear evidence of his terror. Death was easy, knowing you are about to be tortured with your only escape taken away, not so much.

"So, even if you plead, I am not taking off that gag until I am done." What followed next was a morning of pain. I sliced off piece by piece, switching blades as they began to cool off. First went the nether regions, then an eye, next a couple of fingers, then the well sculpted abs, and then I cut off a leg.

He watched in horror from his one remaining eye as I began to cook his leg over the fire. While it was cooking I went over and removed the gag. "Log-" I punched him in the gut. I then quickly placed a piece of wood his mouth to prevent him from biting down. Using my kitchen knife, I cut out his tongue. The flesh sizzled as the red hot knife cut through. The handle was wood and I had wrapped in a couple of wet rags to hold onto it.

Tari was sobbing, unable to speak. "You know damage is calculated from a number of factors. The biggest one is in regards to striking critical areas. Heart, brain, and spin. As long as you don't bleed out, you really won't die that easily. Kind of like magic. I am curious about all the status affects you have, but that is a minor concern. It is time for dinner. If you don't eat, then that is as bad as lying and I will have to start again."

I made the poor soul eat his own leg. That would be another 100,000 viewers right there. While people might call me a monster, I did what I had to do to make a living. With the advent of VI, a lot of people lost their middle class jobs. Why do you need an accountant when an VI can crank out the numbers? I wasn't super smart or rich. So I turned to video casting to make a living from all the other unfortunate schmucks out there.

With the ad revenue I was barely staying afloat in my one bedroom apartment. At first I had tried general adventure videos, but those were a time a dozen. People wanted violence, so I gave them violence. Rain of Blood was a masterpiece of horror and suffering. I had gathered a bunch of other players in a room along with NPCs and then set us all on fire, while snakes poured in and bit everyone, and spikes shout out of the floor. Even at the old 20% pain level, people were pissed off. That got me kicked out of my guild the Ever Knights.

On the flip side the video was a sensation like no other. With FEAR coming out, it was natural to carry that popularity over. With 350,000 followers I was on the cusp of true internet stardom. Unfortunately with these new capsules taking up everyone's time ad revenue was plummeting at the same time my subscriber count was shooting up.

That meant that I had to be the craziest guy out here, killing and torturing people in order to keep and grow my fan base. The sheer excitement of people hoping I would die would push my stardom to new heights. This one clip, demonstrating why people needed to have mental logout set-up would push things even further.

Yes, I am a monster, but even a monster needs to survive. The only good part was that I had hidden my face throughout the recording by cutting out portions where I saw my reflection. No need to give the haters an easy target. For each person I killed, I knew they would gather their friends to hunt me down and dish out the same punishment. At the same time they would watch my videos to know where I was in the world.

I was done eating and feeding my prisoner. "If you have the balls to come back and manage to defeat me, I will not log out. I will take everything I just did to you." A complete lie, but hey good to get people interested in me. "One more thing before I kill you." I leaned in and whispered, "Rain of blood."

With that I stabbed two swords sideways through his neck. With a quick pull, I half decapitated the player leaving a large V shaped wound that was gushing blood. I threw more wood onto the fire and went to sleep with a single tear running down my face. That had been though, guess I wasn't desensitized enough. I should probably torture some more children in my atrium as practice. Any weakness would be my downfall.

The next morning I began sorting out the campsite. There were a couple more coppers and stale bread. I let out a small sigh. I picked the best two swords and left the rest. I then checked out my screens that were piling up.

Cutting Weapons-3

Straight through

LvL 1: You understand the basics of cutting weapons

LvL 2: You understand the theory behind cutting weapons

LvL 3: You understand the limits of cutting weapons, +1% Dexterity

Torture-3

Noooooo!

LvL 1: You understand the basics of torture

LvL 2: You understand the theory behind torture

LvL 3: You understand the limits of torture, -1% Charisma

Murderer-56

Murderer-56

Player Killer-4

Depraved-7

Cannibal-2

Experience

+18000 3 +10 LvL

+150 1 +1 LvL

+100 1 0 LvL

+12 1 -5 LvL

You are level 18

Torture gave me negative Charisma, who would have guessed that. I dumped all three points into Endurance. While not my preferred choice, I wouldn't last for two back to back fights.

STATUS

Name Kenji Shadowen

Level 18

Constitution 10.9

Strength 10.1

Dexterity 52.02

Endurance 13.13

Wisdom 5

Intelligence 5.05

Charisma 0

Luck 0

Fate 74.46

What I really needed was to kill off at least a bunch of soldiers. I had been doing the math and it appeared each level required level*500 EXP to level up. So for level 18, I needed nine thousand experience, which meant killing a lot of high level enemies.

I left the campsite and traced my way back to the fields. Saw a bunch of farmers going through the crops, pulling weeds. Not worth the trouble. I followed the edge of the fields through the forest back to a road. I then began following the road until I found a place where it curved around a large boulder. This was perfect. I set up a rope I had taken from the last two corpses and tied it up to a tree on one side.

Next I waited on top of the boulder. A large merchant caravan with at least twenty soldiers was the first to pass by. I noted the uniforms were much more varied and none of them blue. Probably mercenaries or swords for hire. They passed by and I kept waiting. I then heard a horse approaching. One of those messengers for the local lord most likely.

I pulled up on the rope so it raised up above the height of the horses head. I tied the rope off and waited. The messenger struck the rope in the chest and flew back off the horse. The horse went a couple of paces before stopping. I untied the rope and checked the messenger. Unconscious but still alive, perfect. I led the horse off the road a good fifty feet into the forest. I then returned for the messenger and did the same thing by dragging him.

Once in the forest it was a task to get the unconscious man back up on the horse. I eventually had to roll him off a small rock ledge onto the horses back, his uniform was a mess. I then led the horse into the woods. The horse seemed to be getting a bit agitated and I stopped. I looked around and there was nothing. I was going to trust the horse's instincts more than mine.

I drew out one of my swords. A bulbus plant creature appeared from behind a tree. "Observe," I said.

Leafy Bulb

LvL 12

Weak, but it was a bulb and a plant. Poison would be a problem and it could easily be part of a group. I began to back the horse away but the creature continued to approach. I threw my sword and drew my second one. My first sword sank into the leafy flesh of the creature. I didn't see a face or eyes, but it had vines coming out the base. Purple pus leaked from the large bulb where my sword and pierced it.

Definitely a poison type. I raced in and stabbed my sword at the creature's base. At the same time I reached out and grabbed the hilt of my first sword. With a twist and a yank, I shredded the Leafy Bulb and sent it flying into a tree. It impacted the tree with a splat and sunk to the ground unmoving. I checked my screens and I had received experience, so it was clearly dead.

I back tracked a bit and found a small stream. I cleaned off my swords and tied up the messenger to a tree. I unsaddled the horse and let it hang out near the camp while I began gathering food for a fire. I got tired of waiting and poured some water over his face to wake him out.

"What happened?" He groaned out.

"I captured you. You are going to answer some questions and I will let you go."

"Never you dirty Traveler. I would rather die than submit to the likes of you."

"Listen, I didn't want to come here. I was minding my own business and-"

"Lies, the Travelers have chosen to invade our land and burn our homes."

"Fine then, now I am going to let you live no matter what. What really matters is how many pieces you lose before you answer my questions. First one is name."

"The eight will decide your fate you barbarian." I lifted the blade out of the fire pit and chopped off one of his little fingers with a sizzle. He let out a loud yell but then I punched him in the gut, leaving him gasping for air. I set the sword back over the fire.

"Name?"

"Never, Lord Breckley will avenge us all." The man was stubborn and refused every question. He clearly wasn't going to talk so I chopped off his head and gained 6000 experience. At least I got the trap making skill for my rope trap from before. I checked his belongings and found fifteen copper and a silver coin. A dagger, much better quality than my kitchen knife and the rest was junk. Well I did switch out with the clean set of undergarments he had in his satchel.

That afternoon, night, and into the following day it rained incredibly hard and I was forced to take shelter under a rocky overhang with my trusty horse. I named her, Horsey. My naming skills are legendary. I did manage to bring Meditate up another level since I had absolutely nothing to do while it rained and rained. Being wet was a good way to be miserable and I would chafe horribly.

Meditate <Active Skill>-3

You are on the path to enlightenment

LvL 1: +100% MP Regen

LvL 2: +200% MP Regen

LvL 3: +400% MP Regen

Cost: Cannot move

Well at least I can fill up my mana faster. Observe is incredibly over powered the way it gave me information. I am curious to see what information I get when I level it up even further. The worst part was skills don't level while on auto pilot. That meant I had to sit under a tiny rocky over hang, damp, with a smelly Horsey. You know what was even worse, the fact that I barely gained enough MP to equal one Observe. MP regen was super terrible. I mean on a scale of one to ten it was a negative thousand.

Maybe if I had dumped my points into Wisdom and Intelligence, things would have been better. I didn't have much MP left and I had made it a point to only use the skill during dire circumstances where it couldn't be avoided.

When it finally stopped raining I went to check on the corpse of the messenger. I saw a number of those bulb creatures crawling all over him. That was gross. I counted five enemies. First I made sure Horsey was a safe distance away before I attacked. Three were about the same size as the one I killed, while two were a bit larger about two feet tall and darker. Probably the stage two versions.

I darted in and stabbed both my blades into one of the larger darker ones. I twisted and turned while I yanked my blades out. Purple fluid went everywhere down its side onto the half emancipated corpse. These bulbs were probably sucking the nutrients out. The three little ones began to emit a purple cloud from their bulbs which quickly spread out in a sphere. The last bigger one aimed its bulb at me.

I quickly ran away and behind a tree. There was a loud crack as part of the tree I was hiding behind exploded. All that remained was smoking purple goo. Shit, cloud based poison and ranged attacks. One on one, it was easy enough. Another crack at the tree I was hiding behind. I darted over to another tree and saw the smaller ones advancing on me using their vines to wiggle themselves across the ground.

Crack! A small sapling shattered and toppled next to me. Freaking bull shit over powered monsters. I did note that there was about a ten second gap between each of those ranged attacks. Also the purple clouds seemed to stay localized around the smaller bulbs. I retreated further back into the forest. It took another minute before I was confident the smaller ones were far enough away from the larger bulb for my plan to work.

I ran around the small clearing while moving in. The bulbs were not fast moving creatures, or even that clever. Compared to the soldiers, it was a bit sad. I waited for the next shot and then raced in, counting in my head. I sliced up the larger bulb before I even got to seven. I threw both my swords and impaled one each of the smaller bulbs. Their clouds faded away.

This was the time I decided to experiment. I lead the last Leafy Bulb away from its friends and then made sure that both the ones I had impaled were dead. I left one sword on the ground and kept the other in my left hand. I then allowed my right hand to move through the purple cloud.

Spore Contact Paralysis-1

...

LvL 1: The body part exposed cannot move

Experience

+300 2 +2 LvL

+36 2 -5 LvL

It wore off after a minute, but damn that was really dangerous. I could easily see someone becoming ensnared in a cloud and then being sucked dry as they lay helpless. I closed out my open windows. I then kept putting my hand in the cloud and leading the leafy bulb around the clearing while I let the paralysis wear off. After a couple hours of this it finally happened.

[/tr][/tr]

Poison Immunity-1

Tastes like chicken

LvL 1: You are immune to basic poisons

I then began to stick my hand deeper and deeper into the cloud with no ill effects. I wasn't confident enough to breathe it in. If my entire body became paralyzed I would be screwed. So I just kept moving around the clearing and throwing stones at the Leafy Bulb. I took the time to wash off both my swords. I was hoping to exhaust the stupid thing, but as the day wore on that became less and less likely. In the middle of the afternoon, throwing finally went up to level two.

When the sun started to go down the Leafy Bulb finally ground to a halt. That should have been obvious, it was a plant based creature. I wanted to smack myself for not realizing this sooner. I used up some rope to lasso the creature around its base where the bulb connected to the vines and some small leaves and I then tied it off to a nearby tree.

Next I took the time to inspect the desiccated corpse. I saw a number of smaller bulbs growing in the corpse. If the bulbs had a strong paralysis, then there has to be a higher tier predator that eats them and is immune, or a night predator. I spent a very long night working on my meditation, not daring to go to sleep.

That was when I heard a rustle. I saw large black woodpecker shaped birds fly down and jam their beaks into the dead bulbs with a slurping noise. I counted two of them. Since it wasn't confronting the bulbs during the day time, I put it around the same level as the bulbs, high teens. I threw one of my swords and it hit one of the birds with the hilt. It staggered and let out a caw while its companion flew off. I threw my second blade and clipped the bird's wing.

I then began to race around the clearing to retrieve my weapons. Yes, throwing swords is stupid but it could shoot razors or wind blades for all I know. Caution trumps proper fighting style. I picked up both of my swords and closed in. That beak was huge and vicious looking, glinting a silver death in what little moonlight and starlight managed to break through the canopy.

I threw both of my blades again. The first one sparked off the beak while the second one lodged into the creature's chest. I walked around to retrieve my first blade and found that it was chipped. The bird was so going to die. I closed in behind it and drove my blade into the back of its head as it was sluggish from its injuries. I pulled up my screens to confirm the bird's death.

Experience

+1713 1 +7 LvL

You are level 19

I dumped the three points into Endurance, bringing it up to 16. I meditated slash rested the remainder of the night. The following mourning the bulb was trying to break free but was unable to free itself from the rope. There was a large dead bird next to a corpse where three new bulbs were emerging.

The first thing I did is very carefully approach the purple spore cloud the bulb was sending out. I let put both my arms in and one of my legs. No effect or any notifications. I then backed my body out of the cloud and moved my head through the cloud and took a short breath. I then pulled myself backward. For a second I thought everything was fine until a pop-up appeared.

Spore Contact Paralysis-2

...

LvL 1: The body part exposed cannot move

LvL 2: Your lungs and throat cannot move

It was weird. While I could move my body, I couldn't breathe. I remained absolutely still. I saw my SP dropping quickly. Finally the effect disappeared and I could breathe again. I shook myself off and went over to the dead bird. The guts smelled nasty and the only real thing of value was the large metal beak.

Unfortunately with the animal dead, whatever was keeping the beak hard and durable was gone. It acted like glass and shattered easily. I let out a sigh. No loot for me, there probably was a way to take the beak intact but I didn't have the knowledge or skills.

I then went over and looked at the smaller bulbs. Contact paralysis was way to over powered and I planned to harness that for myself. I would unleash these creatures into towns at night and then finish off the inhabitants. I just needed to become one hundred percent immune to the stupid poison myself.

The rest of the day was spent with me inhaling a bit of poison and then laying outside the creatures range. I guessed the next level would be injection, which would paralyze my organs and implant seeds/eggs? I was going to stay away from that. It was also a great way to practice my Mediate skill.

The night passed uneventfully as I slept in fits and starts. The following day I noted that the three Leafy Bulbs on the almost dried out corpse were close to adult size now. I went back to the on and off paralysis from my captured bulb trying to get an immunity. After two thirds of the day I finally succeeded after being poisoned for what was probably the hundredth time.

Poison Immunity-2

Tastes like chicken

LvL 1: You are immune to basic poisons

LvL 2: You are immune to intermediate poisons

Type: Spore

Interesting, I had never gotten a type in a skill before. I wonder how many other poisons are out there. I gave a small shudder at the pain that would come with that line of thought. I checked and I was clearly immune inside the cloud. I touched the Leafy Bulb and nothing happened. I gave a small smile. I then led Bulb One to the tied up Horsey. Horsey collapsed, paralyzed and I took my sword and stabbed her in the head. Same level as me, so not that much experience.

I then let Bulb One feed on Horsy. It crawled up and injected a stinger like device out of its base and settled in. The other bulbs broke free of the other corpse and soon there were four bulbs on top of Horsey. Since they were all together I took the time to rope them all together with a long leash.

I tied them off to a tree and then took a nap. I woke up to the sounds of cawing at dusk. One of those birds had returned and was draining one of my blubs. I leapt up and raced over. I drove both of my swords into the back and neck of the creature. It collapsed in a heap.

I removed my swords and went to clean off my swords in the stream. I had been sure to drink water from upstream with all the washing off of monster fluids I had been doing in it. The three remaining bulbs were already on the bird draining it or impregnating it. Whatever, nasty shit, that's what it was.

***

RoidBeast1: I can't get enough of this guy, every time I think he can't be more insane he ups the anty

Ramponator: He is more than a man, he is legend

FuriousGhost: I am going to cut off this legends dick and feed it to him for what he did in game

HolyMan: I shall stand by your side on such a noble quest

PedoBear9000: Trolling the ultimate troll, like that is going to work

Ramponator: Hate him, love him, you have to respect him

GODHAXLOL: YOU KILLED HORSEY!

Sliceman23: Let us have a moment of silence for Horsey

UltimataSecret: An army of bulbs, this shit just got real

Ramponator: More like a group or a team, for an army he would need lots of corpses

Ramponator: Never mind, I am sure the corpse problem will solve itself

HolyMan: I shall prepare my Legendary Sword of Herbicide