Leaving it to time to decide how this will evolve, they move forward.
The scene around is one of chaos and destruction, buildings collapsing, ground breaks open, and running on the expanding landmasses makes it feel like running on a treadmill.
In the midst of horror and disorder, mountains and fantastical terrains came to be as if the tectonic layer had 5 more earths packed tightly in it waiting to show themselves.
‘A terrifying and marvelous indeed, It almost makes me excited’ Ethan snuck a grin.
Cold and hot winds changed by the seconds as if the earth’s A.C went wild, making the once short trip to the close-by neighborhood, into a roller coaster of emotions and conflicting sensations.
With the private houses in sight, one last push is needed, however one man’s plan is but a cruel god’s joke.
The sound of millions of glasses shattering echoed across the world as circular portals manifested in the sky. Through their hazy, glass-like surfaces, glimpses of fantastical worlds came into view. Anchored to the horizon, the portals move around in sync with the planet's expansion. The system's prompt had been all too accurate.
“Expect everything, we might have visitors” Ethan gave his exhausted family a heads up “Lets push through we are almost there!”.
“Stop!” Ethan suddenly shouts a few minutes later.
‘But why would fate stop a completely good joke?’ Ethan looks dumbfoundedly on a wolf almost his height, ruffled bloodied gray fur and two yet-to-close scars around his neck, casually exiting the nearby alleyway blocking their path.
‘Quick, Ethan think!’ he yelled at himself.
Going back to years of video gaming and novel reading, ‘inspect…?’ Ethan focused on the wolf and tried to pull a classic mental command.
A second later a new screen appears in front of Ethan’s face, with mental command the screen moved aside to not hide the wolf.
[Ding!
Name: Exiled dire wolf
Level: 3
Description: A wild wolf of great height and solid physic.]
‘Truly unbelievable, why cant you be level 1 slime?!’ Ethan asks himself mentally, half terrified, half exasperated. ‘Jokes a side, seems like years of games and being a fan of the genre might comes to fruition, let’s hope I'm not a side character’
Taking the bug killer spray on his left hand and a 45 cm curved steak knife on his right hand from his bag tossing it a side, he takes an improvised fighting stance.
“Please step aside, I’ll take the honor of the first dance, whenever you can just run to that house entrance over there, and stay low, I’ll join you soon” he smiles and points to a house as he adds to himself in his mind, ‘hopefully’.
“We shall not leave” his mom demands, surprised by how lightly Ethan takes this encounter, ‘Was he expecting that?’.
“I need you to leave because if it will target one of you, I’ll be at loss and would have to change a plan I have in mind” Ethan declared as if he had a plan - he didn’t, fighting for his family was a nice concept, not a good plan though.
Reluctantly they use the time window he made for them to slip as he kept on taunting the wolf, “Fleas bag, come and be my first blood” his eyes turned angrier it’s like he felt the meaning of the words.
‘The least I should expect from a magic wolf coming from a space rift..’ he murmured letting the wolf act first, ‘one thing for certain, angry beasts act rashly’.
And as he expected a full power straight charge initiated by the wolf, right into a condensed cloud of bug spray cloud. spraying until the very last moment Ethan gave a side roll that would not shame the finest of soul games players.
Not giving the already wounded wolf a moment to grab his bearings, a knife slices the neck of a whizzing closed eyed wolf at speed Ethan didn’t know he can reach. Unable to even give a final death stare to its prey, it limps down, the wolf’s fire flickering from his tearing eyes until it dims.
[Ding! level 3, Exiled dire wolf was defeated]
[Ding! level up! Level 2, 2 points available]
[Ding! bloody start achievement unlocked - killing an enemy less than a minute after the world
awakens.]
‘So the emergence of the new monsters was the starting shot, noted’ Ethan stated to himself.
White orb suddenly manifested by the wolf’s chest, approaching it he picked it up as it took the form of a ring.
It looked like a worn out metal circle the size of a bracelet with claw marks on it.
‘...inspect?’ he murmurs
[Ding!
Name: Old ring
Rank: common
Description: A ring that was once a property of a humanoid creature lost in the woods]
‘Wow…what kind of humanoid creature is big enough to wear this as a ring?’ This whole interaction threw him into shock, he almost forgot about the family reunion. So many questions popped up in his mind.
As Ethan ran to the house he called his family to wait by, he tried his luck, ‘so random voice, a mysterious system, RPG like game setting, and monsters that drop loot appear on earth - did something just MMORPG-ed earth?!’ Ethan asked, hoping he got the gist of it right as he power walked to his family’s location.
When he arrived at the entrance of the ground level private home he directed his family to, he met his family, “All bark, no bite..” he tried to laugh off the encounter he had been through earning him looks of disbelief and worry.
At the moment of awkward silence, overthinking his own geeky monologues a coin dropped, ‘No…do tell me! No! Status’ Ethan calls mentally.
The system pops up a new window he saw in video games, he was correct. Black background and pink-ish white text screen came to be with a title on the upper part of the frame, it said ‘fractured protocol’.
[Ding!
Name: Ethan Tesher
Class: None
Level: 2
Race: Human
Stats:
Strength: 5 (+2)
Constitution: 5 (+2)
Agility: 6 (+2)
Mind: 8 (+2)
Charisma: 6 (+2)
Free point: 2
Skills:
- none
Bloodlines & talents:
- a spark of unknown origin (rare)
A bloodline originating from ???, with the potential to ???, capable of ??? beyond limits.
Talent 1: guided by ???
Allows the user to use the ??? of the ??? to guide the user to a preferred and optimal outcome, based on duration and amount of guidance it receives, there shall be a weakening period after use.
Talent 2: ???
???
Talent 3: ???
???
Achievement:
- Bloody start - rare:
Killing an enemy at the first minute of the world awakening.
Buff: +2 to all stats]
Flashbacks from the collapsing staircase popped up in Ethan's mind about the system messages. The weird power up, the hyper focus state, his sense of dizziness he felt, reading his bloodline clause gave him a vague understanding of how things came to be as they are, ‘Mutation detected? Bloodline? Talent?’.
Ethan stops moving, unable to fully process the situation he mutters “Holy mother of….”
“Yes, Ethan?” his mom responds as he looks at the air.
“Nothing, I was thinking out loud” Ethan shook his head.
“We need to head in first. It’s not safe out here”, Finding a low area of the fence, Ethan jumped over and opened the garden door from the inside. ‘Never trusted these ground-floor houses…’ he grumbled.
Looking around nervously, Lily asked cautiously, “Is this really the right thing to do? That’s someone’s house”
The rest of the family looked torn between their will to survive and the moral weight of what would have been a crime just thirty minutes ago.
“Sure, let’s wait in a clear, see-through, glass-windowed lobby. It’s a public place, after all,” Ethan quipped sarcastically. “Next wolf is on you, though”
Lily shuddered and dropped her gaze, choosing to follow silently.
“I hope someone’s inside. It’ll make me feel less like a burglar, too” Ethan said, attempting to cheer up his family’s conscience.
He crouched low, hidden by a wall. ‘Let’s try the polite way first’, he thought, knocking on the balcony door. The curtain and plastic blinds were tightly closed.
“Anyone in there? We come in peace. I know what’s happening, and I’m willing to share what I know if you open the blinds and let us hide inside,” he called out, taking a blind shot at gaining trust in case of the house owner present.
Even his family didn’t stay indifferent to his comment, their eyes silently screaming: ‘Do you really?!’
“Last chance before I brute-force my way in. I don’t want to harm the blinds or become your enemy,” Ethan warned, gripping a solid, wide-bladed knife from the bag. He prepared to use it as leverage to pry the blinds open with his family’s help if needed.
“Seems like we need to bru—” Ethan began, turning to address his father, but a voice interrupted him.
“How can we trust you?” a weak, feminine voice came from behind the blinds. Relief washed over everyone’s faces.
“I can teach you a magic trick,” Ethan offered, leaving his family dumbfounded. “One must give, before he asks for favors”.
“Excuse me?” the voice behind the blinds asked skeptically.
“Try calling out mentally, ‘status’” Ethan replied with a grin.
Of course, his family tried it too. Multiple gasps of disbelief echoed around him.
“This…how did you…? What is this?” the feminine voice asks, full of doubt.
“I have a lot more to teach you, and a lot to check for myself but things are so chaotic out here, I can’t even get a moment, therefore I ask of you, please, let us in, and you’ll be shared with whatever I’ll manage to gather. As soon as things will calm down, we shall leave” Ethan offers
He didn’t miss the disapproving looks of his little sister and father for what they considered an unfair trade. “But do w-” his sister was about to interrupt as he shot a warning gaze towards the two.
Less than a minute later, the blinds began to lift, just enough for them to crawl inside.
A few moments later a young woman, around her late 30’s with a broken broomstick and a 12 years old son behind her a few steps, visibly wanting to hug her legs, but his mom doesn’t let him this will interrupt her if she needs to take action against the potential threats.
With a ‘lower your guard’ gesture to his family he breaks the uncomfortable silence, “Mind me compliment you for a great choice of weapon. Long ranged, effective, easily put together, also being defensive towards you child, prioritizing his safety and your ability to react with placing him a few steps back , very wise and respectable course of actions overall”
Baffled by the weird way of breaking the ice with a comment that almost read through her thoughts completely she stammered, “T..Thank you..”, she spoke in a non-cohesive manner due to the confusion and indecisiveness regarding what stand she takes against the new arrivals, sadly for her, Ethan was not merciful, time was a luxury he didn’t have. sitting them down he speaks up.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Now an info dump, we all saw the announcement, is it a god? Higher being? Advanced technology? I don’t know, what I do know is that this system is most likely a way for some entity to keep everything under control, it’s using a game-like system allowing things to be easily controlled, for us and most likely for itself too.
Monsters and items can be ‘scanned’ by using the command ‘inspect’, feel free to use later on, and your ‘status’ page, you saw it already.
When I killed the wolf, an white orb manifested from its body, picking it up, it turned into a ring. Everything, this whole thing is working so much like a video game, to the very tiniest of aspects, this makes me wonder how it even works, It is possible that it is not a coincidence.
I need five more minutes to gather more information, meanwhile, lay low, stay quiet and process the whole thing.” He stops for a moment and let the captivated crowd to show any reaction.
Seeing him waiting on their reaction they nod with anticipation, giving him a sigh to go on.
“It feels like the rumbling around here is relatively more tuned down, I assume this place will not be wreaked in havoc, for now, at least. Also you can inspect the ring” he presented the ring, the residents of the house still on the ‘the wolf I killed’ part.
“Now I would need to ask for a quiet moment” Ethan drops the bomb and sits down in a meditating pose, the people around him having their eyes flying all over wildly, clearly trying out the new command they were told about inspecting the house and furniture in it.
‘So, a system bestowed upon us, and mine detected this weird bloodline that mutated it? Only my system is different in color? What’s different? What consequences does it hold? Was this half-ly explained talent in my bloodline the reason for the state of hyper-focus and strength I managed to reach in the staircase ripping a handrail aside? That explains the moment of fatigue I felt’’.
Thinking of looking at past notifications, the announcement he saw on the balcony pops up, ‘this is like a super advanced computer interaction’, Ethan stared amazed at the screen.
This time the old message popped up with the altered black screen.
Reading part by part he tries to figure what everything means, at least he guessed.
[The lower Layers of creation converge, their fractured…] - the gates
[Trial of Ascension begins anew—an ancient rite for the forsaken…] - so it’s all a test, one that has happened not once.
[exiled races have wandered their mortal prisons, stripped of divinity…]- we were born with magic power? It was stripped from us? Were we about to be bestowed with it, but failed?
[the cosmos..] - universal, maybe a multiversal trail?
Thinking of the words “the system will follow and record” he contemplate about the records and soul, a concept of ancient and more mystical cultures.
Closing his eyes, He tried to focus his attention on the place where he felt being punched when the system first announced his bloodline. All of a sudden he felt the most weird feeling ever, trying to make a clear and rational conclusion and sense this pained area, it was like he was sprinting head first into a wall. getting a bit woozy and dizzy from the weird experience, he almost lost his balance while sitting.
feeling that reading into it any further will do more harm than good, he let it be for now.
And as if the system supported this wise decision, a ring sounded in his head.
[Ding! Mind increased by 1!]
The concept of meditation and soul just received a special place in his to do list, ‘so soul and records are now a thing, magic power or this weird energy is also a thing and the world looks like a video game, there has to be a reason for this’.
Standing up, waking from his thinking process, he looks around and it seems like his Family already took initiative in speaking with the nice house Owner.
“Ethan, this is Leah, and her son Max, they live here with her husband and daughter who are yet to come back from his shift at the office” John explains.
“I'm sorry, I hope for your reunion as soon as possible. What were you caught up to speed with my family about? I would like to give my two cents, also I would like to know what you all are thinking?” He began to address Leah but soon it became a call for the group's attention.
Leah takes the Stage “I felt The world shake and heard screaming everywhere so I locked up everything and waited, phone signal died instantly and a moment later all electronic screens shut down some ever cracked. I thought I heard what sounded like a giant glass broke, but the house seems fine, with everything shut tight, I hoped...I still am hoping for this to finish up sometime soon. Speaking with your family, I understood that the world itself is getting bigger by the moment, cracks appear on the ground and mountains, forests and otherworldly views coming to existence in the far horizon as we speak. An horizon which is also getting farther away by the moment. Your family spoke with me about a giant wolf that separated you for a moment…” Her breathing turned shallow and she broke down crying, her tough facade she kept in front of her child collapsed. It might have been the fact that she spoke it all out loud for the first time made it sink in, also there were so many things she didn’t even take into account just a moment ago.
Max hugged his mother, she couldn't spill the last sentence out, her crying was heart wrenching and choked abbreviations and sounds made it clear what she wanted to finish with.
Max, although 12 years old, caught the gist of it and took a stand that left Ethan, his family, even Leah still in the peak of her panic Attack positively surprised about the young boy.
Standing up, his eyes streaming tears, his nose too, it was not a majestic appearance by any means but with how his next words came out it was as if they stood among The bravest of children.
“Your Family, you too, you said you killed a monster, please go and save my family from monsters too! Please!” The choked voice aside, it was absolutely inspiring.
Kneeling down to meet the boy at eye level, Ethan ruffled his hair, “You are truly magnificent, but for this I need you mother to calm down so I can get some information from her, can you hug her very tightly so she could calm down and speak with me?” This offer was announced in a manner that everyone In the room could hear, specifically Leah.
After a few moments of realization, his family voiced their opinions out loud, forgetting all courtesies in front of a whipping woman, rejecting his offer of needing to go out when the world is in such a state.
“Are you mad?!” his two sisters called angrily.
“You are not going!” Sarah stated.
His father on the other hand, was standing there, his face hard to read.
Leah didn’t even understand how the scene evolves to this, but the realization that a one time chance appeared, and even her youngest son was brave enough, she could not falter behind.
“Please, hear out my son, it is not far away, the office was located at the community shopping center close by! We can still reach them!” Leah’s voice still choked but resolution found a place among the many feelings she felt, and honestly, poorly hidden.
“First, I believe this is a trial. the first steps we are to take shall forge what path we take, and when the world changing like this, it’s those little things that decide if we will rise up against all challenges and reclaim humanity to be the happy livable safe haven it was in the past or become a pit of snakes” Ethan gave the room a meaningful look.
“Secondly, like the wounded wolf we met, I believe the first creatures to arrive will not be of great power. not easy to deal with, being unknown creatures with obvious racial advantages, but with enough brains it possible” he reasoned
“Thirdly,“ he grinned at the whipping woman “You are coming with me, my family will do the babysitting on max. You and I will go and check my theory. Killing the wolf leveled me up. I have free points to add and if we use this momentum we can start this with an advantage. soon gangs and less honorable people will catch on to this knowledge intuitively or by chancing upon people like me and get creative in getting this information from them”
“Lastly, I'm sorry for being rude but there's something I need to clear with my family before we head out, if you want to join me, find everything that might be used as a weapon and I’ll go through the items in a moment” he asked Leah for a private family moment.
Taking his family aside he asked “Does anyone of you have anything other than stats? Bloodline? Talent? Skills? Achievement? I can't explain it but the wave of weird energy we felt as if something is different now with my body”
Taking him a few steps aside, Sarah confronts her son about her suspicion. “Your ‘system’ thing isn’t like ours? You said something about it having a black, we spoke about it, we all have blue screens”
“Yes, I will not go into details but tell me, there is a title on your status page? what does it say?” Ethan admits and returns a question
Her Eye’s narrow, “There is no title, just frame and the details”
“I see, let’s leave it be for now” He concludes with finality, checking his status window again a clear title shows ‘Fractured protocol’.
A few moments the mother-son duo returns to the family circle and the conversation about Ethan heading out is at full swing.
“No! You can’t just base your knowledge on games and act like a superhero outside” his mom said, her voice seemed calmer though, his reasoning and resourcefulness he showed clearly affecting her opinion. She could still see in her mind how he automatically took a fighting chance against the bloody wolf.
His sisters still haven’t processed things completely, one’s insecurity feeding the other’s panic, they just shook their heads in a sync. “Please don’t go out” “You must stay…y-”
His father took a step forward, cutting the sisters’ words of distrust and making his reply to be heard by everyone present, “Go, Ethan, Go and come back alive, we shall not move and fortify this house, we shall also keep the young boy safe”.
Everyone looked at John with surprise, as he gave his son a huge grin, “You must come back and teach me how to help out too for next time so you wont have to bear it all by yourself” he jumped at his son and hugged him tightly, whispering in his ears, mostly the avoid the anger of a certain mama bear “This is how men need to act like, I am proud of you”.
A long moment of silence passes by, ‘Is that?’ surprised by his own body reaction, Ethan wipes a tear and breaks the hug, just for it to become a five-person-hug that squeezed his lungs out.
“OK, leave me alone!” he shakes them all off, “no one is to leave this place, Only I'm allowed to play superhero!”
The room becomes a maelstrom of emotions, mom’s worry, sister’s amazement, dad’s pride, Leah’s disbelief and a young child's eyes burning with intense admiration.
[Ding! Charisma increased by 1!]
‘Not what I need right now, but I’ll take it, also…’ When a mental command he adds the two free stat points to agility, ‘with hopefully weak monsters, and a need for possible quick escape, agility is the right pick, ‘status’’ he called out mentally.
[Ding!
Name: Ethan Tesher
Class: None
Level: 2
Race: Human
Stats:
Strength: 5 (+2)
Constitution: 5 (+2)
Agility:8 (+2)
Mind: 9 (+2)
Charisma: 7 (+2)
Free point: 0
Skills:
- none
Bloodlines & talents:
- a spark of unknown origin (rare)
A bloodline originating from ???, with the potential to ???, capable of ??? beyond limits.
Talent 1: guided by ???
Allows the user to use the ??? of the ??? to guide the user to a preferred and optimal outcome, based on duration and amount of guidance it receives, there shall be a weakening period after use.
Talent 2: ???
???
Talent 3: ???
???
Achievement:
- Bloody start - rare:
Killing an enemy at the first minute of the world awakening.
Buff: +2 to all stats.]
Letting the family realize the situation, he heads to Leah and max.
“Max, Your mom and I need to go and look for your father and sister, can you give her a quick hug and wait over there with my family? Help my dad with what he asks of you” Ethan asks his hand on the boy's shuffled hair, yet to be fixed from the first ruffling of his head pats.
As the hug of the two takes too long he urges “not to be rude but we really need to go and look for your family by now…” he states, internally Ethan was just really excited to head out.
Quickly improvising a crude full metal shield using a big pan’s led, and her spear, now improved with knife duct taped to its edge, she looked very much like a poor anime-con cosplayer.
Looking at her he was impressed but couldn’t hold his laughter, “if humanity returns I am taking you to one of those geek cosplaying concerts” Ethan said as he took a broomstick and made a improvised spear for himself as well.
He was about to make a small buckler shield for himself but decided to go with leather clothes tied around his forearms like an armguard.
Trusty bug killer spray in a flappy pocket and 3 deodorants with lighters duct taped on them were taken as well in a backpack, ‘flamethrower 101’ he chuckled.
Finalizing the plans with Leah, an empty 70L backpack was taken as well. There is a big grocery store in this community shopping center and if it stands intact we can recharge on rations for hopefully enough time until a solid plan will be established, he explains to the present people.
With final goodbyes, an improvised spear at hand, a curved 45cm butchering knife belted on him, bug spray in his pocket and a buckled spear woman at the toe, he departs living his family to fortify the private 2 floor ground house, with a clear instructions of not letting anyone in until he and Leah comes back.
“Let’s go help your husband do some shopping,” he jested with Leah.
“You are insane…” shy let a small chuckle out her eyes full of determination and unease.
