Chapter 3

Nick: *Huff* *Huff* Why is this forest so thick? I can barely move, and it is not even like I'm in mud, it's just that the bushes are everywhere.

In the middle of a tropical forest strikingly similar to the amazon in his old world a man walks with a carefree pacing. The sun is starting to go down and if one were to make a guess, they would say it was around 3:00pm, but the blistering heat did not care about time as it felt the same all day. Even with the all-around ability of 5x the power of a normal person bushes and trees would not just rip themselves out of the ground to make way for other life.

As Nick was walking a soft rustle could be heard from the bushes around 50-80ft to the front-left of him. Being the fairly smart person that he was decided that it would be a horrible idea to charge at the noise instead he started walking diagonally to the right. Not unnoticeable from a watchful eye but still ordinary of a person who probably has heat stroke and is lost in the jungle. Although that was not entirely a false observation as the starting pack did not give him any food or water. At this point in time Nick was still not desperate enough to start licking random mushrooms and berries instead of looking for a town.

*Rustle, Rustle*

The noise continued to sound the same so Nick concluded that he could either be delirious or there is actually someone following him. Nick 1 not being the type to sit around when he might be killed put his hand in the pocket of some jeans that he made. Before the trek he used his Novice Mechanic class to create makeshift jeans, socks, shoes, t-shirt, and hoodie. Through experimenting Nick found that on the mobile workbench he could use his mana to make up for the lack of tools.

Or that is what would have happened if he found out how to actually use mana, instead he just used a basic tailoring kit and the process to make them just appeared in his mind. This is why even though it was 3:00pm he was barely 15miniutes into his walk.

Back in the present Nick grabbed on to the new gun and loaded 6 rounds into the chamber causing a small noise in the process. Luckily the creature did not seem to notice as it was too far away, this comforted Nick but also made him worry. He had zero skill with a gun so if a fight broke out he would need to get close to the target to get a solid shot in, and even that might not be enough.

____________________

.45 Cal revolver [Normal]

85~90 damage

6 Rounds Loaded

Fire Rate .8/s

__________________________

Its stats were nice to say the least but he himself was at LV 4 with only 600 HP he could be killed before he had a chance to react. Just as he thought this-

*WOSH*

Nick saw an arrow come from the position of the shadow! However because of his upgraded stats he was able to dodge the flying arrow albeit barely. Returning fire he fired his revolver three times before running behind a tree nearby.

[Hit demihuman 1 x1, 87 damage]

[Blood lust activated 1.2x boost to all stats 75% decrease in mental capacity]

Hearing the scream of pain from the demihuman Nick jumped out of cover and sprinted for the demihuman at full speed before another arrow flew at him from the left. Nick dived out of the way firing one bullet at the damaged demihuman in front of him and two at the one on the left before reloading and continuing his sprint at the demihuman. The bullets apparently put quite a bit of fear in the demihumans as they dove for cover when they heard the revolver go off, little did they know that the only reason the first demihuman got hit was out of luck.

Nick was finally within 10ft of the demihuman increasing his accuracy, because when you are that close accuracy no longer matters. Fanning the revolver of all 6 rounds into the demihuman rips his already bloody body to pieces within seconds.

[Hit demihuman 1 x6, blocked 1, damage 355]

[Killed demihuman 1, XP +30]

The second demihuman seeing his ally getting ripped to pieces by an unknown weapon made him so scared that he bolted away. If he could get to his tribe to warn them of the incoming danger then maybe, just maybe, they would succeed in killing that thing. Of course this is what he thought before Nick ran up behind him and sent a bullet through his skull laughing the whole time.

[Hit demihuman 1 x1, critical hit! Double damage, Fatal wound! double damage, 360 damage!]

[Killed demihuman 2 XP +30]

[Blood lust deactivated all stats return to normal]

As Nick regained his senses he looked around at the two dead bodies analyzing the damage he had caused.

Nick: I think that hitting vital body parts like the brain, heart, or dick would be considered a Fatal wound. As for the chances of a critical hit I still have less than an idea about how it is calculated.

After he understood this he just now realized that he had killed two random people and more importantly two random people that he had no clue of what their backers were.

Nick: Ah, I should make haste and get the fuck out of here before someone shoots an arrow through my eyeball.

Nick ran in a random direction as once the fight broke out he lost his sense of direction in the ever same looking jungle.

After running for a while Nick Started to slow down as the jungle became less and less dense. This was good because this most likely meant that he was close to a human settlement, but also bad because of his blood soaked clothes and face. The clothes are almost a non issue as all it takes to make new ones is time, but the dried blood on his face and hands was not so easy to get off. He could just scrape it off but that would look just as weird because having someone with red hands, and face, because of all the irritation by scraping would look just as suspicious. So Nick decided to do the 'obvious' build a broken cart and shoot himself so it looks like he just got robbed.

After confirming with himself that this was a valid plan he got to work, which did not take that long. As it turns out, making a broken cart that is made out of just logs from some trees that he punched down is much easier than actually building a cart. With this he was confident that he would not get instantly attacked by traveling merchants who just so happened to stumble into his path.

Walking forward until he found the path he brought the log abomination with him by punching down trees in his path. Finally he found a dirt road and began his scheme, first he layed out the 'cart', then he formulated in his head that a beast had attacked the cart as to not arouse suspicion, and finally he laid out on the road and shot himself in the stomach.

[Attacked by 'Nick 1' -89 HP]

[511/600 HP left]

And so time passed, every once and awhile Nick shot himself to make the attack look fresh, he was bored and pissed by the fact that nobody had arrived yet, but he still held on. Eventually Nick fell asleep on the road as he could no longer withstand the boredom that his plan entailed.

[A few hours later]

*Shake* *Shake*

???: Captain he is alive but sleeping to recover his wounds.

???: Good work, put him in the cage with the rest of them!

Nick was shaken awake but kept his eyes closed with steady breathing to act the part of a wounded soldier who passed out from blood loss. Granted, when he heard cage and rest of them in the same sentence he became mildly worried for his safety. He had proven to himself that he could probably take 3-5 of the soldiers out because of his performance last time, but was still not confident that he could take more than 1 with a higher level soldier leading the charge. Thus he played his cards smart and kept acting the part silently praying that he did not get stabbed to death within the next 10 minutes. He also noticed that there were a lot of people with this group as it sounded like there were at least 8 horses breathing around him. He also heard many people talking around him as well as shuffling of armor. If he didn't know the situation he was in he could have mistaken the noise for a market on a mildly busy day.

His body was lifted up and placed on hay before he heard someone say "by the god of grace heal my target".

[You have been healed +53 HP]

[You have been healed +49 Hp]

[You have been healed +57 HP]

[Full health restored!]

Feeling his bullet holes closing at a rapid rate was intoxicating and almost actually put him to sleep. This was one of the best things Nick had ever felt to the point that it almost rivaled sex with his cou-special person, almost. At this moment he knew he had to learn magic no matter the cost, time, or sacrifice needed to learn it.

He heard the cage door close and a cloth covering placed on the cage leading him to let out a sigh of relief before opening his eyes. Not that it helped because when it is the middle of the night and you have a curtain placed over you, you would see the same thing blind.

Nick: "Shit, well that didn't work"

The other people in the cart with him let out a small chuckle at the comment before one of them started talking.

???: "Hey new guy you're pretty funny, how did you end up here?"

Nick stared in his general vicinity and replied.

Nick: "I have no idea where we are or who put me in here so I can't answer that question for you."

???: "Oh really? So they stopped this whole convoy just to pick up one person on the side of the road"

Nick: "I still don't know who 'they' are, and the reason they stopped was probably because of my cart stuck in the middle of the path."

???: "That would make sense why they stopped then, but why do you not know who the Harmony of the Vanquished are?"

Nick: "I had my eyes closed the whole time so I could not see their insignia, but if this is the Harmony of the Vanquished then…SHIT!"

Nick Could have sworn that he heard the name Harmony of the Vanquished somewhere before but the truth just now dawned on him. Before he had died he had been quite the DND nerd and most importantly a DM who ran many, many campaigns. These campaigns of course included The Tomb of Annihilation, as after he read a book called Ready Player One that had the campaign in it, he really wanted to run it. Now this would be all fine and dandy if this was just the normal Tomb of Annihilation, but because he was the DM he added his own spin on things. One of these changes of course was the Lawful Neutral faction that he had just been captured by. He created this faction as a fun little side quest for his players to complete before they decided to actually proceed with the campaign. The worst part of this was that the faction specialized in buying or selling gladiators.

This, as one can imagine, is what we call NOT.FUCKING.GOOD. Fighting people would not be a problem and Nick could probably manage himself before earning himself free by fighting and killing enough people, BUT Tomb of Annihilation had DINOSAURS. These are what actually scared him because so far he had two production classes and a fat 0 combat classes. Sure with enough time and materials he could make something that could kill everything that comes his way, but the only weapons and armor allowed in the arena were the ones given to you. Any person, whether they were respected or not, would be killed on the spot under the pretense of owning contraband. So say goodbye to OP gun because that would count as contraband.

???: "HAHAHA, so you finally realize that you might have just messed up big time?"

Nick could just imagine the smirk on his face which made his blood boil just a little bit.

Nick: "Oh shut it! That is beside the point, how can they take an innocent person off the street and turn them into a gladiator? Is that not against any code of conduct or something?"

???: "The authorities don't really care as long as the fights are entertaining enough, and they don't kidnap anyone special."

Nick: "Well that is a problem. So I have been talking with you for a while but I still don't know who you are, or anyone else in this cart for that matter."

Just as he finished that sentence he heard someone yell a few moments before he felt his cart move. When the cart started moving the cage had a wooden wall near where the driver was with a sliding window that opened. At this moment a guard peeked in and started talking.

Guard: "Allright, we are back on the move don't do anything stupid."

After he finished that sentence he used his candle to light two wall mounted lanterns on the sides of the wooden window. After the lanterns were lit he closed the wooden window before a locking sound was heard. Nick closed his eyes to let them adjust to the light before blinking and looking around the cage that he was in.

It was relatively nice as not only did they cover the floor with hay to make it more comfortable but the cage itself was around 7ft by 15ft. This space was quite nice, especially since there were only 5 people in the cart including himself. First to his left there were 2 guys and to the right there were 2 girls. One of the guys had a big smile and was also a mostly animal demihuman, if Nick had to take a guess he was a Tabaxi from the panther family, black fur and everything. The other guy was an Aarakocra who had his wings tied up, most likely to prevent him from flying away when released. The closest girl was a dragonborn that was silver with her mouth tied up to prevent her from using her breath attack. The other girl was a certified Elf MILF with big breasts, a bubbly ass, and a mature hourglass figure. It was a shame that Nick was in a cart with other people otherwise he would have fucked her then and there. Looking back at the smiling Tabaxi he started talking with a smile himself.

Nick: "So that was convenient."

Tabaxi: *Laughs* "Absolutely! That timing was impeccable."

Nick: "What can I say I'm a lucky guy"

Tabaxi: "Sure if you call getting enslaved lucky" *eyeroll*

Nick: "This is a special case" Nick says trying to defend himself

Tabaxi: "Sure, sure, I absolutely believe you oh lucky messiah. I would get on my hands and knees to worship you if I could."

Nick: "Go suck someone off you piece of shit."

Tabaxi: *Sniff* "I thought we were friends" *looks heartbroken with fake tears*

Nick: "Ha Ha, sure but still don't know your name."

Tabaxi: "My name is Flask. Nice to meet ya!"

Nick: "Nice to meet you too. Name's Nick."

Flask: "Nice name although I have never heard of someone named Nick before."

Aarakocra: "My name is Aial. Nice to meet you for the short time we have before we start killing each other."

Dragonborn: "I agree with Aial. My name is Daar"

Elf: "My name is Ithil"

Now that Nick finally knew their names he used his incredibly high Charisma stat to do most of the social work for him. Through this conversation he learned two things: first that for whatever reason he was wearing a mask that looked exactly like the one Wrench had from watch Dogs 2 (not that he was complaining). Second was that they would arrive at Port Nyanzaru the next day around 9:00 Am. After talking for a while the guard popped back in and blew out the lanterns effectively ending the conversation.

For the first day in the new world Nick felt that it was a ok start, besides being taken as a slave of the Harmony of the Vanquished. With that he laid down and closed his eyes for the first time where he did not have to worry if he would be mauled by animals or not.

(A/N I would like feedback for this chapter in particular as this was the first chapter where I had an actual plan in my head for where it was supposed to go)