《Warborn -- Part 1 -- Blood City -- A LitRPG Novella》 Chapter 1 -- Jebediah Jeb Stone -- Memories CHAPTER ONE ¨C JEBEDIAH ¡®JEB¡¯ STONE -- MEMORIES Ozarks ¨C Arkansas *** The axe-head flew into the straw target, ripping it¡¯s head off as the long handled bearded axe spun around the man¡¯s waist extending it with his left hand on a back sweep that took another straw head off at it¡¯s shoulder as his thick body moved with the momentum twisting the haft and rotating his body pulling heavy torque as the axe spun over his shoulder bisecting the last of the straw heads as it came down right on the crown of the dome. The man was breathing heavy leaning on the handle of the axe with it¡¯s head in the soft loam of the training area he¡¯d built. Up in the hills of the Ozarks there wasn¡¯t anyone around to really judge what he did with his time or his property which was exactly how he liked it. His closest neighbor was Old Man Jenkins over fifteen miles away. He put a hand to his aching back, spat on the ground, and gritted his teeth. Damn, getting old sucked big sweaty balls. He didn¡¯t even think he would pass Basic nowadays. From E-8 Master Sergeant in an active zone to an old man with an aching back in less than twelve years. His eyes scanned his modest property, a few miles of woods and his one bedroom cabin in the Ozarks of Arkansas. There was at least a small lake down the road that was nice. A couple heavy thunderous barks pounded out from behind him. He smirked and threw a look at his two year old bear of a dog, Bose, sitting on the porch gnawing on a thigh bone. Holy hell boy. Those bones were fifteen bucks each from the butcher in town and it was already half gone. The fucker. He¡¯d just given it to him yesterday. Damn dog. Bose was a cane corso, and small bear was appropriate. Jeb had thought he was getting the runt of the litter when he bought him at six months old from a neighbor who bred them. Turned out he was just a late bloomer. The fucker was close to 150lbs of love manifest, well, unless you were a squirrel. Bose certainly had something against the little rodents. His boy gave him one more meaty bark then went back to gnawing on his quickly dwindling thigh bone. Had to love the fucker even though the dog ate him out of his bank account which was dwindling faster than a middle-aged hooker. He was lucky to have gotten any pension with an OTH Discharge. And he damn well knew if they could have gotten away with denying it altogether they would have. Hell, it should have been a Dishonorable if they could have gotten away with it without the press that would have come along with it. The whole thing had been a cluster fuck. Some said he was a hero, others, the darkest mother fucker since Hitler. His fingers on the handle of his axe started shaking as memories flooded through him again. He grit his teeth, sweat pouring off his face, eyes of bloody kids, old folks, mothers cracking his head apart. No, can¡¯t do it, not again. He went down to one knee, a hand to his head. IF he could punch this shit out of his mind he would but he couldn¡¯t. The images came harder and faster, the smoke, flames from the grenade he¡¯d tossed on entry, the fury he felt, white hot blood pumping, thumps like some tribal drum, the need for violence, retribution. He¡¯d killed everything that moved. A giant tongue slapped against his face accompanied with some whimpers. As always it broke him out of his PTSD. He put a hand on Bose¡¯s big blocky head. ¡°Good boy, the best boy.¡± A hefty bark hammered right into his eardrum. Fucker was gonna deafen him one day. His eyes opened to Bose leaping around. Ahh, the vigor of youth. How the damn dog was so nimble at that size was beyond him. He was fifty-two years old, entering Grandpa age, and felt every scar, every old broken bone, all of it. His years seemed to grow exponential with every calendar added. He was still in decent shape or at least he thought so. He¡¯d always been like Bose, a big beefy boy. He was six foot three but now up to almost two-fifty in weight. Not that far off his fighting prime in the military at two-thirty though the salt n pepper in his hair might have other things to talk about. He¡¯d like to say it was still all muscle but the facts were it was mostly muscle nowadays. He was starting to get a bit of a paunch. Bose curled by his feet giving sympathy eyes towards his pops. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. The VA docs had wanted him on some kind of pills that would keep him calm but in truth it was doping him up to be a zombie. He refused. His entire life had been carved by his quick instincts and ability to be downright feral when he or those around him¡¯s lives were at stake. He might not be in the military anymore and not much danger up here in the hills but he would never give up the shit that had kept him breathing in more fuck fests then he could ever recall. Bose was just fine for him. Before his pup he¡¯d be laid up for days with his PTSD, shaking, sweating, nightmares. Now a couple hammer barks and some fridge sized pup licks and he¡¯d snap the fuck out of it. ¡°Alright boy. Pops is up and good thanks to you. Let¡¯s get you some chow.¡± As soon as the word ¡®chow¡¯ hit Bose¡¯s ears the heavy barks started rolling like a river while he slung that massive weight around like a ballerina. Jeb laughed and ruffled the bear impersonator¡¯s head. He slid over and picked up his axe. It was a beaut and he¡¯d had it made a year before. He had too many memories with his Sigma or Gerber Mark II combat tactical knife if he was being mouthy. It still rested in his foot-locker along with Vlad, up in the cabin, but he¡¯d wanted something without the blood or corpses attached. The VA Docs said he needed some form of exercise for various reasons, mostly to keep his mind off the bad shit as if that would work. To him they were just tossing eggs in the skillet hoping for something good. They always seemed a bit lost every time he turned down the pill popping. He almost had the niggling fucked-up feeling they got some kind of kick back from the drug companies for how often they pushed that bullshit at him. Regardless, it was a good idea that he¡¯d ran with and was happy as a fat kid with a tub of ice cream. He¡¯d been practicing with it every day since he¡¯d gotten it, even leveled this area and made the straw targets which were a pain in the ass. It had reach, could use the different parts of it for offense or defense unlike most axes with the longer solid hickory haft. Damn truth was it fed his little kid fantasy tropes and made him feel like Conan. He¡¯d loved those novels as a kid, bloody, graphic, half-naked women everywhere, good scraps. What else could a teenage boy who played middle linebacker and liked to fight want? He chuckled to himself when Bose almost knocked him on his ass with a hip check. He laughed even harder as he looked down at his pooch who had the goofy dog grin on his face and kept hooking his head towards the house and his promised food. ¡°Alright you greedy bastard!!!¡± Bose took off towards the cabin as Jeb followed but before he¡¯d gotten ten feet the strangest fucking thing he¡¯d ever seen shoved its way into his vision. Congratulations!!! You have the distinct honor of being one of fifty thousand humans who have been chosen to be a Contestant in the Crucible of War!!! You will be given twenty minutes to accrue what you need or say your goodbyes at which point it is required for you to stand within the circle of light that will be presented shortly. If you follow instructions you will be given a boon for your new journey. If you do not. If you run, hide, play with your meat to some old porn mag in some back room, you will still be taken but your boon will be forfeit. Trust me. Don¡¯t fuck around!! What the fuck!! He went back to a knee waving his hand in front of his face, once more dropping his axe as he waved both hands shaking his head, even slapping the side of his head, attempting to knock the fucked up visual. The slap against his head seemed to do it as it went bye bye. His PTSD had led to some strange ass shit in his life but visual hallucinations looking like some video game fuckery wasn¡¯t one of them. Bose was barking up by the door. Jeb peeled himself up from the ground for the second time of the afternoon. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m coming Bose!¡± PTSD was a fucking demon from hell!!! He made it one step before once more the shit kicked off. It¡¯s not your PTSD dumb ass!!! This is really happening!! It¡¯s not a hallucination and unless you want to be a corpse right out the window, get moving Soldier Boy, the clock is ticking!!!! Grab every damn weapon you got and I know you got them, trust me, you¡¯ll need¡¯em!!!! And don¡¯t grab food or TP like every nut case survivalist ever!!! Weapons Soldier Boy, Weapons!!!! His peripheral caught something behind him. As he turned there was a big ass circle of light ten meters across smack dab in the middle of his training area. Alright, deep breaths. Embrace the suck!!! Full Battle Rattle. Don¡¯t be a soup sandwich like some kid just out of boot. Get geared up, minus the food if I was listening to the fucker in the messages. Whoever that was needed a beat down on a hard dime. He started hammering out a call for Bose as he blew his legs up the driveway, past his beat up old truck, past his somewhat less beat up Harley, steps, door, straight to the back room going for his foot-locker. Whatever the fuck this was and no matter how old he¡¯d gotten, nothing and no one would find Jebediah Stone wanting when Armageddon came a knocking. He did violent better than anybody he¡¯d ever known. It had always been his bane and boon. He did his best to ignore the shaking in his hands and the memories clawing to be heard. Warborn -- Part One -- Blood City -- Chapter 2 -- Theres a Definition for Asshole and it goes by CHAPTER 2 ¨C THERE¡¯S A DEFINITION FOR ASSHOLE AND IT GOES BY THE NAME BOGIE Ozarks ¨C Arkansas *** He¡¯d been kneeling in front of his foot-locker for about thirty seconds just staring at it.. He¡¯d pulled it from the deep caverns of his walk in closet buried under old clothes and junk. Bose felt the moment and like when he had his PTSD attacks just lay there, shoulder and head leaning against Jeb¡¯s knee. His hand rested on the lid and had been for several seconds, shaking. This locker held so many memories, a lot of good ones but the bad ones were so bad they heavily outweighed the good. It had been his life for almost twenty years from a snot nosed twenty year old to almost forty. Embrace the suck. He flipped it open as his eyes noticed a countdown ticker in his vision fully cementing it wasn¡¯t some peyote dream he was stepping through. It was down to fifteen minutes. Quit fucking around and get to business coward. Sooner started, sooner done. He flipped the lid and stood Bose matching him with a leap up and an affirmative hammer bark. He rubbed his boy¡¯s head. ¡°I know Bose. Thanks for the patience.¡± His eyes cataloged the contents then cussed under his breath. He¡¯d forgotten he¡¯d sold his flak jacket when he¡¯d been short on rent. Shit. He lifted his eyes towards the pit that was his closet as his mind clamped onto the best alternative. He was wearing his best pair of jeans already and a black tee which would do. He leapt into the closet and ten seconds later came out wearing his heavy leather motorcycle jacket. It was the best he had in the moment and it fit nice. It was super thick leather meant to be able to take a fall from a bike. He reached in and pulled his old shotgun scabbard sliding it up and over himself before locking it up front. He¡¯d had it made a long time ago. He slid his hand and pulled out his sigma, one of the best combat knives ever made in his opinion not to mention it was a gift from some old friends, marines that were as marine as a marine could get. He held the blade up, black matte, reflecting no light as it should. It was the original blade used by Green Berets. In all the tours he¡¯d run through, many of them joint operations, he¡¯d been blessed with making a lot of friends in the marines. Jeb had been an E-8 attached to the Infantry though usually in a joint command with Artillery, more times than not in holding actions in hot zones. All the Marine friends had gotten him an invite three different times over the course of his career to take part in MCMAP Training ¨C Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, After the third time he¡¯d gotten to Brown Rank which for someone not in the Marines was unheard of. The sigma had been his prize from his Marine buddies. It held a and hadn¡¯t been made since the late nineties. It was an heirloom and had saved his ass a shit ton of times but no matter how beautiful it was it was nothing next to what was left in the box. He slid the sigma into the sheathe on the front of the shotgun scabbard strap he¡¯d had made for it. His hand dropped into the locker and everything was if it was yesterday, the rust falling off on the quick. Two bandoleers of shotgun shells, all slugs, went over his jacket. Last step and the hardest but he did it without thought, hands only shaking a bit which was a huge leap. He lifted out Vlad. His only companion for longer than he could remember. Vladimere, the blood-letter, the killer, the Harbinger. The men of his unit, at least the ones that had still lived after the ambush, after that bloody day, named him that, the Harbinger but in reality it was Vlad, his instrument, that led the way to his greatest victory and his greatest regrets. He pulled it out and without thought went through all the checks and when he was finished held it out in front of his eyes. Ten minutes left. Vladimere ¨C Benelli LE M4 Tactical, 18.5¡± barrel, improved cylinder choke. It was specced to fire slugs as that was the only thing Jeb had ever used. He¡¯d always preferred the extra stopping power and accuracy and extended range of slugs. He knew guys that only used buckshot and if Jeb hadn¡¯t been so trained up in hand to hand and knife fighting he might have had a different outlook but anyone that got close enough to need buckshot he¡¯d cut through them like butter with his sigma or his head, knees, fists, teeth, whatever the fuck was needed. He checked the weapon, blew through it, then began loading it, six and one in the chamber. With a heavy sigh he slid Vlad into the scabbard on his back followed by pulling it and sheathing it a few times to make sure it was smooth. Decades of doing something made it a ghost that never stopped haunting you. Seven Minutes. He wished he still had a couple frags but such is life. IF wishes were fishes, someone would be out of business. Bose had been abnormally quiet sitting on his haunches and just watching his pops. He usually was only that calm and quiet when he had a thigh bone to gnaw on. His boy was growing, maturing, that is until he ripped a fart that had Jeb¡¯s eyes watering. He laughed and slapped some pets on his boy¡¯s haunch as Bose stood, baby steps. He rolled out of the cabin towards the bright ass circle of light sitting on his training field. Six minutes. He wondered what Old Man Jenkins was thinking of this shit. There was no way a damn light spearing from the sky to land on the turf when it was sliding into early evening wasn¡¯t noticeable for far more then fifteen miles and some change. Another message popped up. He wouldn¡¯t say he was used to them. It still broke his brain a bit trying to chew this new reality but it no longer spelled PTSD break down. The only one that can see the light is you Soldier Boy, and well, anyone else that was chosen but I think the closest to you is at least sixty miles away. Now get your ass over to the light so I can go over some shit. Also, lose the pooch. He¡¯s a liability where you¡¯re going. Man this guy was a fucking asshole but he wasn¡¯t wrong. His brain had already been chewing on the problem. He had zero clues about what the fuck was waiting for him but he knew whatever it was screamed danger danger Will Robinson. Bose was many things but a combatant wasn¡¯t one of them unless you were talking squirrels. He¡¯d bet money any day all day on Bose against squirrels or pretty much most people he knew that lived around here. His choices were slim though. He wouldn¡¯t survive out here alone. He wasn¡¯t really a hunting breed so there were no instincts for him to fall back on. They¡¯d been bred to be guard dogs, maybe herd some sheep. Jeb wasn¡¯t sure but he thought he¡¯d read somewhere Rome used them in war as battle hounds, unleashing them on formations to break them up and cause chaos so the phalanxes could gut them. Bose understood danger was near. He eyed the circle of light and threw a growl, hackles raised. Jeb sighed. He couldn¡¯t do it. Bose had led him out of the darkness or at least most of it as far as his PTSD. Whatever he was about to face, they would do it together and if he died, he died. He didn¡¯t think Bose would want it any other way nor would he. He took a heavy breath, hands shaking as he stopped to pick up his axe where he¡¯d left it on the ground earlier. Axe, his sigma, Vlad and a thick leather motorcycle jacket. It would need to be enough. A sidearm would be nice too but he hadn¡¯t kept his and literally hadn¡¯t touched a firearm in almost a dozen years besides general upkeep on Vlad. A heavy bark followed by a hip check that had him stumbling a bit added to the list. He rested his hand on his boy¡¯s head which came up past his waist. ¡°Yep, you too boy. We¡¯re a team, no matter what comes.¡± A hammer bark rolled out which he pretty much took as agreement especially with the accompanying doggy excited grin. They both took the last twenty feet to the light with Jeb stopping a foot away holding Bose¡¯s spiked collar to keep him from jumping in. Alright Old Man, here we are, balls heavy, balls deep, fuck your enemies up, and take the leap. They stepped together into the light and before he could blink twice both of them were sucked to the center and off their feet floating in fucking mid-air, frozen. What the hell? He couldn¡¯t move, couldn¡¯t breathe, speak, shit. He figured Bose was the same though he couldn¡¯t turn his head but he¡¯d be throwing hammer barks and growls all over the fucking place if that wasn¡¯t truth. The asshole sent more messages. You brought the pooch? Really? Whatever. You want to watch your beast die horribly, that¡¯s on you. Alright, here we go. You followed the instructions with a few minutes to go, look at you Soldier Boy. For that you would normally have the boon of choosing one item on your person to be made into a soul-bound item. And no, I will not go into specifics on what the fuck that is. Get used to it. There¡¯s a lot of rules and regulations and just straight up bullshit when it comes to the System and that¡¯s what this whole shit is, a System, one you are now a part of. You brought the pooch though so I am obligated to also give you the option of instead of creating a soul-bound item you can instead make your beast a bonded animal-companion. What the fuck was he supposed to do? He couldn¡¯t move much less speak..the message interrupted him. Just think it dumb ass. I can pick up surface thoughts utilizing the System interface. I would suggest making the axe or your antiquated firearm a soul-bound item as it would give you a much better chance to not just get killed out of the gate in the Tutorial you will momentarily be dropped into but since you brought the fucking dog and if you want it to live beyond the very first scrap you get into then you should choose the bonded animal-companion option otherwise the System won¡¯t bring it into said System and someone breathing on it too hard would obliterate it. And who knows, if you survive, it might just become more than just fodder to the shredder. It will be tied to your own ascension. Fine asshole but you seriously need a god damn beat down. How about removing the multiple cocks out of your ass and letting up on the full board shit bag routine? Zero responses came. Jeb mentally sighed. I choose Bose, the animal companion thing and I¡­. Everything was shut down as he experienced the most painful shit he had ever chomped teeth into. Everything he was, is, and would ever be, got flayed, broken down to a molecular level, atomized and his consciousness fled into a deep dark hole to never emerge again. *** The Crucible of War *** Next thing he knew he was opening his eyes off his back looking up at gray stone. What the fuck? A small whimpering rolled out next to him. He immediately reached out not yet wanting to move much as every muscle in his body felt like it had been tenderized by a huge ass butcher. He found fur and pulled the mass to his side. Damn. He felt some extra muscle in his boy making him turn his head. Yep, it was Bose looking like he was feeling about the same as he was. He looked a bit bigger, not much as his boy was already fucking huge in the dog world but maybe ten percent at a guess. He wondered if that went for him as well. The movement gave him a bit more of the room which turned out to be inventive, more gray stone but what caught his eye was on the opposite wall was a gray fog swirling looking like some kind of portal maybe? He wasn¡¯t quite sure as magical strange as fuck portals weren¡¯t common place on Earth but he¡¯d seen enough Star Trek episodes to make a from the hip guess. He also felt something behind him, a humming. He twisted his head and there was a similar fog no more then a coin toss from where he was laid out. Speaking of he was beginning to feel better so he pushed himself to his knees. Bose must have been the same as he joined his Pops, popping to his feet as if he¡¯d already forgotten the pain and being in a strange alien room. The life and short term memory of a dog, must be nice. His only doggy concerns was that his Pops was next to him and up and about as Jeb made the final push to his feet. ¡°This ain¡¯t fucking Kansas, that¡¯s for sure boy.¡± A raspy scratchy voice like someone who¡¯d smoked a ton of ciggs and drank a lot of whiskey hit out behind him. ¡°No it certainly ain¡¯t fucking Kansas Soldier Boy!!! And it ain¡¯t the damn Tutorial either!!! What the galactic fuck??!!!!¡± Jeb spun around just as Bose let off some booming barks and growls spinning on a dime and taking two steps forward almost past his hip until he put a hand down on his collar to halt him. Jeb¡¯s eyes did a double take as they landed on what could only be a damn Gremlin floating in the air in a black suit, white shirt, black tie, smoking a fat cigar. And when he said Gremlin he meant like literal Gremlin, like if you ripped one right out of the film and not the cute fluffy one, no, it was one of the fall to the dark side ones down to even having a tuft of white hair down the middle of the pitch black leathery skin and the sharp long bat type ears. The shite tuft of hair was slicked back like some 40¡¯s, 50¡¯s movie actor. He blurted words before even thinking about it. ¡°What the fuck are you?¡± The Gremlin was walking back and forth in mid-air grumbling under his breath pulling hard on his stogie over and over sending rings of smoke above his head. He stopped at the burst of words and crossed his arms, tapping his tiny dress shoe¡¯d feet, floating there. ¡°What the fuck do I look like dumb ass? I¡¯m your personal guide. And you should feel damn lucky I am otherwise this complete cluster fuck would be worse than it already is. Damn...do you know how much I had to pay to get you? I had two Nymphs and a Succubus bidding for your ass. I had to hock myself to the limits to win and than fuck, this!!¡± Jeb was lost right out of the gate and had no clue what the fuck the little Gremlin was talking about besides somehow he bought the rights to be his advisor? Why the fuck would someone buy something like that he had no fucking idea. This whole shit fest was making his brain snap, crackle and pop and it wasn¡¯t rice crispies. And he was damn tired of it. He stomped over in front of the pacing creature while Bose, picking up on his mood, started hammer barking and growling at the little fucker. Jeb planted himself in front of Mr. Guide. ¡°Explain right now you little shit or so God help me I¡¯ll strangle your tiny ass to get some answers.¡± The Gremlin stopped, hard stared him then blew cigar smoke directly in his face though Jeb felt nothing, smelled nothing while the little shit smiled, sharp teeth showing in his tiny mouth. The creature was maybe three feet tall but posed as if he was a fearsome powerhouse. ¡°You won¡¯t and can¡¯t do shit Soldier Boy. I¡¯m here but not really. I¡¯m sitting in a high piece of tech in my house on a station far far away from here. This is a projection, nothing more. I can¡¯t effect anything here physically and you sure as shit can¡¯t do fuck all. Give me a moment though and I¡¯ll throw some tidbits your way. I gots to find a way to salvage something here which requires the miracle of all miracles and somehow keeping your ass alive in the middle of the Endless Dungeon, so pop a squat, and let me get to hustling. I already backtracked to the culprits and these little shits are gonna pay for fucking with my fandango.¡± *** Sub-Station 4652-1B of the Great Galactic Empire -- Basement Level 38 ¨C The System Support Station Alpha 3 ¨C Quadrant 26145 *** ¡°C¡¯mon Larry, give me the good news, did you get¡¯em?¡± Two what looked like Gnomes sat in two chairs way too large for them in front of some high-tech consoles with all sorts of buttons and input keyboards with a myriad of video screens laid out along the wall in front of them. It was a small space looking like a place people no one wanted around were sent. Both Gnomes had thick set of glasses on and vests filled with all sorts of tools for every occasion except most likely the one they found themselves in. Both Gnomes looked similar as if related. One was twice as fat though which was the one that answered. Both had whiny high pitched voices. ¡°We did Theodore, we did, fifty of them. Our payday is on its way!¡± Theodore rubbed his hands together like he saw a future ahead of him filled with luxury. ¡°And you remembered to attach our private recorders and give them the common upgrade stones?¡± His Brother looked at him as if he were a moron. ¡°Of course I did Theodore. What would be the point if I didn¡¯t? The Dark Network ain¡¯t gonna buy pirated videos of contestants dying in the Endless Dungeon if we didn¡¯t actually record the said dying. And yes, I had the System give them upgrade stones for however many things it qualified as weapons or armor. I mean literally Common Copper Weapons ain¡¯t gonna do much to Bronze Ranked monsters but it will look better on video if they can at least draw some blood before they die horrifically.¡± Both looked at each other chuckling like some mad scientists. Larry suddenly started hissing through his teeth as he looked off reading multiple System messages, his worry warring with his irritation. Theodore started rubbing his hands together nervously and scanning for the exits to escape which literally was idiotic as the room only had one door. ¡°What¡¯s going on Larry, did they find us? Are we going to die Larry? I told you this was a horrible idea to mess with a new Recruitment. We¡¯re gonna die horribly I just know it. I should have listened to our Mother when she asked us to go into the family business.¡± Larry looked to be feverishly responding to the messages, irritation growing but the fear on his small pudgy face disappearing. Theodore attempted to say something but his Brother silenced him with an upraised hand. He seemed to have finished but then his hands danced along the command console to the System. That worried Theodore even more. They had to mess with it a bit to pull off what they pulled off but they¡¯d spent almost three years figuring out how to get away with the hoodwink they¡¯d pulled. Larry finally finished then leaned back looking very angry but also relieved. He turned towards Theodore. ¡°Out of all the things that could have happened you got to be yanking my meat bag. One of the fifty has a Guide, can you believe it? Less than 5% of the Contestants have enough potential for a big wig to want to bid for a Guide Slot and we got one? Damn, I wish you could have figured out how to do the programming so we could have selected our suckers.¡± Theodore finally got his back up. ¡°Hey Larry!!! Without me we wouldn¡¯t have been able to do it at all. My deep programming skills are twice yours and it took me almost three years to even create that program. There was no way we could have done what you just mentioned without sending alarms ringing out everywhere. As you well know the only way we pulled it off was to call it a System security and coding check, making the System think that it had ordered it itself. It took a light touch to even make happen. (He stared at Larry begging him to contradict the assertion but was met with only silence.) Granted, your operational skills are better than mine Big Brother which was why you actually implemented the program but without the program itself we wouldn¡¯t have anything. Is the Guide gonna snitch us out? Are we gonna die Larry?¡± Larry shook his head, gritting his teeth. ¡°No, the bastard just blackmailed us to give him a soul-bound stone. Wasn¡¯t that hard as the Contestant didn¡¯t take it when it was offered, instead had some beast he bonded with so I just erased that choice as if he hadn¡¯t made one. The System gets small glitches all the time, especially during a Recruitment when it¡¯s processing all those people into the System while also transporting them to the Crucible. Should be fine.¡± The grin widened on his face. ¡°And hell Little Brother, we got one of the chosen! Even in the Endless Dungeon he should be able to make a fight look good before dying. We will make a killing selling it to the Dark Network.¡± Theodore had a bad feeling about all this but attempted to put a smile on for his Big Brother. *** The Crucible of War ¨C The Endless Dungeon *** Jeb¡¯s irritation and confusion were stepping hand in hand as he waited for whatever his quote, unquote, Guide, was doing. It looked like the fucker was pulling the messaging shit if the expression of needing to take a shit was any indication. He was ancy, an adrenaline dump after stepping into this thinking he was gonna come out swinging. The reality he dropped into was very anti-climactic. There was nothing to do in this room but he did have fun a couple times slow swiping his axe through the Gremlin just to test the whole projection statement but alas, the fucker hadn¡¯t been lying and his axe had just gone right through him. Bose had gotten bored as hell and was lounging near his feet. Jeb decided to join him and popped a squat. Now that he wasn¡¯t stressing out or in ready mode to scrap he realized he felt better than he had in a long time, at least physically. His sore back from earlier was gone, utterly gone. He felt stronger, more fit, and when he looked down, his paunch that had slowly grown over the years as he¡¯d gotten older seemed mostly gone, like he¡¯d lost a decade of age. He ran his hand through his short salt n pepper hair. If he could bottle whatever this diet was he¡¯d make millions. He chuckled and Bose slapped his meaty head down on his lap. He absent mindedly stroked it. Another minute went by until finally the pacing Gremlin shot him a look pulling off a cigar that never seemed to get smaller. ¡°Did you seriously swing your axe through me? I¡¯m here doing work to even give you a slim as fuck chance to actually survive what¡¯s coming and you swinging that thing at me? Talk about ungrateful.¡± Those were fighting words to Jeb and he was back on his feet in a hot sec, axe gripped like iron which got Dose rolling up with heavy boom barks mixed with growls. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°You got to be making a fucking joke little man!!! I didn¡¯t ask to get yanked from my planet to some strange as hell gray room where I¡¯m told I will be fighting for my life, and as far as you go!!! I don¡¯t see a lot of guiding going on!! I got zero fucking clues what the hell is actually happening besides your hints at doom and gloom and that something went very wrong from what should have happened! You made it sound like I¡¯d be in a scrum coming out of the gate which had me all amped up ready to fight for my god damn life only to find myself in this box and you off in lala land doing whatever the hell you¡¯ve been doing!¡± Jeb¡¯s stress levels were amped to the max and his hands started shaking as he felt the first crawl of memories inching their way into his head, kids with corpse skin and vacant eyes and holes in their chest. He sat down dropping the axe putting both his hands to his head attempting to take deep breaths and fight off the encroaching history. Bose quickly pressed into him throwing heavy licks at his hands attempting to get to his face. It took a full minute to get his brain under control and the shaking to stop. A soft voice hit his ears while Bose had half his body on Jeb¡¯s lap. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Soldier Boy. My name¡¯s Bogie. I didn¡¯t quite realize how bad those memories of yours were. War is a bitch and here you are rolling into a perpetual one.¡± Jeb lifted his eyes and clocked the Grem¡­, Bogie, a couple feet away floating in the air, legs crossed still pulling on his cigar. He looked like he actually gave a shit though Jeb was gonna hold judgment. Actions spoke, not words. Words were easy. Now that Bogie had his attention, the little Gremlin nodded his head and continued, taking a big huff and puff, before beginning. ¡°First of all, a couple things to get out in the open. I¡¯m stuck with you for the foreseeable future, well, if you don¡¯t die right out of the gate and with the bullshit those two fuck-heads pulled that might be quicker than I or you want. I got my entire life¡¯s equity tied up in you so believe I will do my best to make sure you got the best shot you¡¯re gonna get. First though, let¡¯s get shit straight. I didn¡¯t choose you, the System did. It chose all 50,000 of you five or so years ago only replacing those that ate the big bullet before the big show kicked off. What I did do was bid to be your Guide. Only about 5% of all of you are bid on, only 5% of all 50,000 get a guide. But I¡¯m not going to get into that and the whys. We need to focus on getting you the hell out of the Endless Dungeon still breathing which has an almost zero chance of happening.¡± Jeb shoved his way into the stream of words. ¡°What is the Endless Dungeon and why are we here and not wherever we were supposed to go? Was there a glitch or something in the fancy System of yours?¡± He wanted to ask why the fuck this little bastard bid or anyone would bid to be some nobody from Earth¡¯s guide but held off for now. Ain¡¯t no one do anything without mula or the equivalent on the other side and this guy said he beggared himself to win which meant the payoff had to be off the cliff huge. Bogie had taken a moment to answer, puffing away on his eternal lasting cigar. ¡°A Recruitment happens very rarely. In fact only two have come down the pipe in my three hundred years of life and every time one does, there is always some low-ball schmucks with some scheme to get a cut of it and make some backdoor money. Normally they are dumb asses and fail miserably and we only find out about it in the galactic news vids after the fact. This time however it was two tech heads and they actually succeeded. What they are trying to do I have no clue and did not have the time to dig into. I got something out of it for you to give you a shot at staying alive.¡± He stood up in mid-air and went back to pacing, cigar pull, pace. ¡°Let¡¯s get to the nit and the grit. You got got, hustled, bamboozled. Your transport signal got hijacked. I looked over the meta data of when it happened which I can do as your Guide and followed it back to the source, finding two lowbie tech shits. They hustled you, I hustled them. (Pause, stare.) The System doesn¡¯t give two fucks about you, you are just a number. You die, you can be replaced so reporting them doesn¡¯t do shit for you or me. So I didn¡¯t, instead I blackmailed them to get you what you should have chosen instead of the pooch, a soul-bind stone. It¡¯s in your inventory and I¡¯ll show you how to get to that but let¡¯s get the quick and dirty explanation out the bag as we need to get the fuck out of the Endless Dungeon as quick as possible. And that means the basics. Focus on the word Status in your head.¡± Jeb had resigned himself to whatever this bullshit was and at least understood two guys attempting to game the System even if it put him up a creek without a paddle. He still had questions but understood you needed basic understanding of the game before you could play. He¡¯d roll with the Gremlin for the moment cause at least he understood having money on the line and that part based on how the fucker was acting held truth if not all the truth. He took a breath and felt a tremor in his hands. He pushed the word ¡®Status¡¯ in his head like Bogie told him and lo and behold something popped up. JEBEDIAH ¡®JEB¡¯ STONE Race ¨C Human Core ¨C Copper (0) Class ¨C (N/A ¨C Please fill all Core Slots to attain a Class) Age ¨C 52 CORE SLOT ¨C BODY (EMPTY) Sub-Attributes Strength -- 1.1 (Empty) Agility ¨C 0.9 (Empty) Constitution ¨C 1.0 (Empty) CORE SLOT ¨C MIND (EMPTY) Sub Attributes Intelligence ¨C 0.6 (Empty) Perception -- 1.0 (Empty) Will ¨C 1.2 (.6*) (Empty) CORE SLOT ¨C SPIRIT (EMPTY) Sub Attributes Soul ¨C 1.4 (Empty) Aura ¨C 1.2 (Empty) Fate ¨C 2.0 (Empty) *Debuff ¨C Induced Trauma UNIVERSAL ABILITIES Galactic Language Translation Identify ¨C Basic Spatial Inventory ¨C Small (20 Slots) (Open Inventory? Y/N) (Equipment) (Open up Sub-Menu? Y/N) Bonded Animal-Companion ¨C Bose (Open Status Sheet? Y/N) As his mind was attempting to understand any of this shit Bogie was dancing like there was no tomorrow. ¡°I knew it Soldier Boy. You a man among boys. Those Attributes make you a beast out of the gate. Well, minus your debuff going on but once we figure out how get rid of those chains, we gonna make you a powerhouse. We just need luck on our side and for you get a really good gem out of the gate, Uncommon or Rare with some synergy, something good to kick you off. Then...¡± The Gremlin¡¯s mouth suddenly shut it as he looked around where they were. ¡°Damn, forgot where we were. Getting you to a City alive is gonna be a mammoth undertaking in itself. Probably gonna have go against the grain and see how sneaky your big ass can be.¡± Jeb was mostly not paying attention to the little man as he just kept staring at the Status in his vision. Was this who he was? Was this all he was? To see everything that made him, him, in numbers, was blowing his mind. To even see his mental issued broken down into a debuff with a -0.6 modifier crumbled everything he¡¯d ever understood about mental health. It also proved it wasn¡¯t just in someone¡¯s head like many had argued, some make-believe symptom with the arm-chair advice of quit being a pussy and tough it out. It was usually said by people that had never been in combat. He didn¡¯t know how he felt about it, seeing the thing that had haunted his brain for over a decade displayed as a condition and a negative to some arbitrary Attribute. Also, why the hell was his Attributes so fucking low? He had to get to the bottom of it especially after Bogie mouthing words like they were good. ¡°Hey, these Attribute seem awfully low?¡± The Gremlin popped hard eyes at Jeb blowing a few rings. ¡°Is that so Soldier boy? Maybe take a fresh peek knowing the average for a human to start is 0.6 than tell me how low they are. Your Spirit Attributes alone are insanely high. The only thing you¡¯re average on is your Intelligence, and you¡¯re a soldier, not a scientist or politician and the likelihood you gonna choose to become a mage is non-existent. That¡¯s why I put my mula on your horse. I don¡¯t trust mages, never ever. They shifty in the eyes I tell ya. Never trust mages, ever. Don¡¯t get cocky though, a lot of other races get bonuses humans don¡¯t like Ork¡¯s average strength is 1.6 to 1.8. Put that in perspective though as they also start with an average Intelligence of 0.2 but that¡¯s how the System works. You get a boost one place, you get the opposite somewhere else.¡± Coming from an actual Gremlin that had shifty eyes that was a bit rich but whatever. And he did say Orks right as in big green steroided out fuckers from Lord of the Rings. He chuckled to himself. Hell if there¡¯s Ghost Gremlins how the hell could there not be Orks. Probably Elves too. He wouldn¡¯t mind meeting an Elf Lady if they was as hot as they showed in art and movies. Damn, been too long. If there really was such things as choosing to become a Mage, the little fucker was right, he didn¡¯t see himself being a mage either. He liked to either shoot shit or hit shit. Jeb guessed it was still shooting shit if you were throwing a fireball up someone¡¯s ass but still, didn¡¯t fit him. Fuck it. It was a lot to take in, all of it, everything. ¡°So Bogie, how does one get these gems the Status is talking about to get a Class and I¡¯m guessing from my toe dip into Wow over a decade ago, it means what I think it means.¡± Bose pressed into his leg, the talky talk probably boring him more than nothing going on. He gave him some neck scratches till he was thundering his leg against the ground. He turned his gaze up from his pooch as Bogie answered. ¡°I¡¯m more of a shower than an explainer if you get my meaning. Let¡¯s just focus on shit to get us going and when you get a gem I¡¯ll explain the whole sha-bang-bang. On your status page you will see towards the bottom your Inventory listing. Focus on that and it should bring up a display of your inventory. You will see what should be four plain looking stones and one fancy one. Focus on them all and think of them coming to you.¡± Within a few seconds Bogie watched five stones falling to the ground and smacked his head. ¡°Yea I should have been specific and said will them to your hands but whatever. Also, a good note here. Did ya see the slight delay to you willing them out and them appearing? Lesson there is don¡¯t put your weapons in your inventory if you don¡¯t want to be shit out of luck when things get hot.¡± Jeb wasn¡¯t planning on ever putting his weapons out of reach but still good to know. None of this was different then boot in the army. You had to give everyone a foundation, a base line before you could build them up into what was needed. He was always a fast learner, almost freakishly so cause he could laser focus. He was ready for the next instructions as Bogie spoke. ¡°Those are common upgrade stones so really all they¡¯re gonna accomplish is making your weapons or armor, in your case, that jacket, into System graded items. That means you can actually scratch something with them and maybe won¡¯t instantly die if you get hit in the chest. The way they are currently they wouldn¡¯t do shit to even a Copper much less what we¡¯ll be facing in here. Don¡¯t get cocky though. Going up a Rank or more like we will be in here, especially with no Class nor Levels and the boost in Attributes they would bring, and those things, even upgraded, will do very little. It¡¯s why when we leave this place you are gonna do your best to be sneaky if we got even a spitball¡¯s chance of getting your ass to whatever City were closest to but I won¡¯t know that till I get peepers on what part of the Endless Dungeon were trolling in.¡± Jeb knelt down and started collecting the stones, the common looking ones first. They were small, holding all four of them in one palm easily. He went to reach for the shiny one when a thought occurred to him. If his weapons as is wouldn¡¯t supposedly do shit to anything they faced in here what about Bose? Jeb couldn¡¯t let his pup be defenseless in here. He plucked one of the common stones in his palm out towards Bose who as always, stayed close to his Pops. He had no clue what he was doing and a glance up at Bogie showed he was doing the eyeball dance again implying he was looking at some System bullshit. Would you like to use your Upgrade Stone ¨C Common on your Bonded Animal-Companion? Y/N He did the mental ¡®Yes¡¯ thing at the same time as Bogie screamed out. ¡°No!!!!¡± A screeching yelp shot out of his boy and his heart went into his chest. What the fuck did he just do?!!! He went to grab Bose but some kind of energy knocked him on his ass as more insanely loud and drawn out yelps shot out of his boy. No!!! Fucking no!!!! His hands started shaking, stress levels rumbling like a locomotive as he pushed forward against whatever the energy was. If Bose was gonna die he¡¯d do it with his Pop¡¯s damn arms around him, fuck the System. His pooch was in mid-air and Jeb saw his entire body being turned inside out as if he was being remade and not in the way when they got transported here. The energy kept shoving against him but Jeb refused to stop. The shaking in his hands halted, the memories receding, the only thing in his head or giving a shit about, getting to what he loved more than anything else, the pup that had saved him. He felt his own flesh starting to unravel as he pushed himself through whatever was holding him back as Bogie was screaming shit. The pain was intense but he didn¡¯t give a shit. Army born ate pain for breakfast. A breath later and the energy ghosted as his arms wrapped around his boy who seemed, fine? He wasn¡¯t moving but his flesh, everything was where it should be though as his hands got a grip on him, his fur and skin seemed tougher, like thick leather. He went to the ground, holding his boy to him. Please don¡¯t die, please Boy, don¡¯t leave your Pops. Bogie floated up looking like he¡¯d aged a decade in a minute, his white hair had gone from slick smooth to shooting out in every direction as if he¡¯d attempted to pull it out. ¡°What the fuck were you thinking Soldier Boy!!! Holy cremated corpse!!!!¡± He ignored the gremlin, tears shedding his cheeks as he rocked back and forth with Bose. Hands shook, memories creeping in, everything he touched, a death sentence. Why?!!! A loud huff followed by a hammer bark had his eyes slamming down. Bose looked at him with love, with eyes that said he would never leave his Pops. He threw another hammer bark though it was half the volume of his usual pound the anvil variety. Jeb didn¡¯t care. He was alive. He bowed his head down as he pulled Bose up to his chest. A big fat ham sandwich lick came a rolling and he welcomed it. His eyes got a bit big as he noticed Bose¡¯s canines. They almost looked they were made out of steel, shiny, extended, his jaws a bit wider and his midnight fur had an almost metallic sheen to it as well though none of it was metal. He ran his hand again through the fur and like before, a thick leather feel to it. Bogie¡¯s voice came into play again. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that fucking worked! You are one lucky damn bastard if I ever met one though looking at where we are, both good and bad. That should not have worked. Upgrade Stones are meant for items, not living things.¡± Jeb didn¡¯t give a shit as Bose seemed to get over whatever he¡¯d gone through, got up to his feet and threw a howl to the ceiling. Jeb smiled, that¡¯s his boy though his hands were still shaking a bit. Bogie stared at both of them then shook his head still confused why it worked but quickly flipped to all business. ¡°Alright. We¡¯ve wasted enough time with the drama. I¡¯ve been repressing the notifications so you wouldn¡¯t get hit with anymore stress towards your condition but you can only stay in a safe room/zone for thirty minutes before you got to exit it and we on the last seven or eight of that. You need to upgrade your weapons and your jacket and figure out what you want to soul-bind and please do not use that on your beast. It will literally kill it. It¡¯s an Epic Ranked artifact and he¡¯s already soul-bound as your animal companion just for transparency sake.¡± Another message slipped into his vision to prove the Gremlin¡¯s point. Safe Zone Occupation ¨C 7 Minutes 38 seconds wremaining to exit. Bogie threw out another piece of info. ¡°We can come back in once we¡¯ve been out of it for five minutes, kind of a loophole but it is what it is. It will reset at that point. A lot of late Copper Ranked and early Bronze use the rule to Level up cause it¡¯s free unlike a lot of the Instance Dungeons in the Cities which are usually owned and controlled by someone. So short words for you Soldier Boy, get to upgrading then get ready for your sneak to be the card played.¡± There was literally still something about Bogie that seriously made his fist want to pop him in the jaw but he knew when to put it away and get done what needed to get done. He put a stone near his Sigma first and it was very anti-climactic compared to Bose. It glowed for a few seconds lifted out of his hand then popped and dropped back to his hand. Only thing he could see was it looked a bit sturdier and the edge and thrusting point finer. He took off his bandoleer of shells then his shotgun scabbard followed by his leather jacket then put another stone near the jacket and the same few second blip rolled. It was now decision time. His axe or Vlad for the fancy stoney thing. ¡°What¡¯s the difference in the fancy stone versus the others?¡± Bogie, sucking on his cigar, eyeballed Jeb. ¡°Huge. A Soul-Bound Item grows with the wielder while those common upgrade stones barely make it effective up to one rank up. (Grunted) Let¡¯s get this out of the way. You are at the bottom of the Metal Tiers. You are Copper (0). It goes up to ten before you get a shot at evolving to the next metal tier which in your case is Bronze, then Iron and so on. There are seven Tiers in each Grade of Tier. Metal Tiers are followed by the Gem Tiers but almost nobody reaches that high as it gets progressively harder to advance and each evolution requires some kind of quest depending on your Class etc...(Sigh). That¡¯s enough info for now. You need to survive to worry about all that shit. It¡¯s like your beast there. It will get influenced by everything happening to you in its own special way. We on a ticking clock Solider Boy, make a decision or were gonna get booted out of here while your pants at your ankles and your shit swinging in the wind.¡± A big part of him said to choose the axe, the safe, damaged part. Vlad and he had so much bloody history, some good and in the right, and another, a single night, where everything went wrong and he¡¯d done dark shit. The old argument slipped into his mind. He¡¯d had no choice, his men were being slaughtered but the rational part knew better, knew he had gone off the deep end and killed everything that moved, judge, jury, and executioner with no mercy anywhere in sight. He grabbed the last plain stone and shoved it at his axe, a few seconds later, the same, the metal and haft looking a bit sturdier, the edge a bit sharper. He pulled Vlad from the scabbard. Do it and get it done. He pushed the shiny stone towards his bane. Do you choose to make Vladimere a Soul-Bound Item? Y/N His eyes and broken mind opened wide. The System calling the shotty by the full name he¡¯d given it made his hands start shaking and creeping eyes of kids and old women. It always churned a macabre gallows humor within him that the images of the actual fuckers with rifles that had slaughtered his unit never showed up. They were in that house too. Before he could waltz down nightmare lane anymore then he had to he mentally hit the yes. Vlad¡¯s transformation was a bit more, the energy even surpassing what happened to Bose as it lifted in the air, a swirl of white energy blanketing it but before he even got a good shot of what was going on a stream of energy shot out of it, hitting him, lifting his big ass in the air as sharp stabs of pain went through his sternum, deep within something, digging into the meat of him then before a few deep breaths passed and he dropped to the ground and somehow, some way, he could feel Vlad a few feet away as he had his head to stone, on knees. He focused on that connection for a second and before be could shout ¡®Bob for Apples!¡¯ Vlad was in his hand. Bogie¡¯s voice hit his ears. ¡°Think [Identify] towards your weapon.¡± Jeb was still numb with his PTSD clawing at him. He was a fighter but what did he think was gonna happen when he hit actual combat? There was a high juiced chance he would freeze, caught in the web of memories and end up chow for some fantastical beast and that was in whatever Tutorial he was supposed to be in where the Gremlin thought he¡¯d have a good shot, not this Endless Dungeon place where Bogie was looking as if his shot at survival was slim at best. Jeb had never ran from anything in his life no matter how difficult, from an abusive alcoholic Father to his leg getting busted his senior year in high school and watching his football dreams and scholarships go down the drain to his military career and being in more hot zones than a John picking up street hookers, not once did he take a backward step or hide from shit. He focused on [Identify] taking a look-see at Vlad. VLADIMERE -- System Enhanced Soul-Bound Benelli LE M4 Tactical Shotgun Soul-Bound Ability ¨C No longer needs outside ammunition. Creates standard ammunition internally with a slight drain from User¡¯s Stamina. Initial Ammunition Max stays the same at seven, six plus one in the chamber. Slight delay once ammunition is exhausted before it is replenished if required Stamina is available. He looked at Vlad which was sleeker and now had no breech to load, glossed over in matching metal. That was, uhm, insane. And Stamina? Still checking out his weapon he threw out the question. ¡°Bogie, it mentioned Stamina as cost to reload it now. What¡¯s it talking about?¡± Bogie was tapping his foot in mid-air. ¡°Damn Soldier Boy, the minutia. This is unimportant shit at the moment but fine. Think resources appearing in your vision.¡± Jeb restrained from talking shit. The Gremlin was probably right as far as important in the moment, he had no clue about any of it but still, the fucker symbolized asshole. He did what was said and four bars appeared in his vision, tiny, a letter or letters to the left of each bar, all of them currently in green, H, ST, M, SP. He assumed ST was the Stamina but all it did was bring him a shit ton of more questions he wanted to ask but knew they were about to be popped out into insane levels of danger so bit his mind and its want of info down. He took off his bandoleers of shells, tossing them to the side then quickly and efficiently put everything back on, Vlad back in its scabbard, leather jacket rolling on scabbard, his sigma sliding into it¡¯s sheathe. He ended with bending down and picking up his axe. Bose who¡¯d gone back to lounging, stood up with a meaty bark. Jeb had no clue which of the fogs they were going out of it so turned around and stepped towards the closest one before Bogie zipped over between he and the fog. ¡°Hell no!!! That goes to the Fathom Ways. You¡¯d die in the first step, literally. They are drowning in Gem Tiered Eldritch Horrors. No. We¡¯re going to the other door into the Endless Dungeon. And you will, if you want to live, listen to every damn word that comes from my pie-hole. As soon as you go through, get down and hide, stay small till I can figure out where the fuck we are and what¡¯s the closest City and how far we got to go to get to it. (Moved within inches of Jeb¡¯s face blowing ghost smoke.) Are you hearing me?¡± Jeb wanted to argue but he had no foot to stand on, he knew shit of what was going on or what he¡¯d be facing. His grip tightened on the haft of his axe. A part of him wanted the new and improved Vlad in his hand but between the memories it brought and the noise it would make, he knew the axe was the way to go until he could access the threats. ¡°I hear ya Bogie. I¡¯ll keep a hand on Bose¡¯s collar to make sure he doesn¡¯t go commando.¡± The little Gremlin nodded and for the first time got rid of his cigar, it disappearing into thin air followed by him tightening his tie and pulling on his jacket collars. ¡°Alright let¡¯s go Soldier Boy and do our best to keep you breathing.¡± With that inspiring pep talk Jeb gritted his teeth and stepped across the room to the other gray fog. Once he was in front he took a deep breath, skulked down taking a hold of Bose¡¯s collar whispering to his boy to ¡®Stay Close¡¯, and cautiously slid through the magical doorway shit. In for a dime, in for a dollar. Balls heavy, balls deep, fuck your enemies up, and take the leap. Warborn -- Book one -- Blood City -- Chapter 3 -- Into the wide Blue Yonder, Watch the Teeth CHAPTER 3 ¨C INTO THE WIDE BLUE YONDER, WATCH THE TEETH The Endless Dungeon *** This transport was a lot less invasive than the one that moved him from Earth to the safe Zone and actually was devoid of pain. It only took a breath before he went from gray stone room to suddenly being in a small tunnel that from what he could see opened into some large cavern. He held tightly onto Bose¡¯s collar whispering to him to stay quiet. The last thing they needed was one of his hammer barks to bring some hideous monstrosity down on their asses. Bose seemed calm though, unusually so for the hyper pooch. Jeb looked down and got a serious doggy stare coming right back at him. It was strange as if Bose had more understanding there as if he knew the situation but that was crazy. He must have just been picking up on his Pop¡¯s energy. Bogie broke the reverie with a whispered shoot of words. ¡°Stay quiet and still. Give me a minute to access my maps and information to pinpoint where we are.¡± The small ghostly Gremlin floated a bit forwards to get a better view of the cavern up ahead. Jeb followed, inching his way the few feet to the opening. The cavern was at least empty or seemed so. It was huge, probably half the size of a football field, most of it filled with a shallow layer of brackish water that looked to be coming out of the far wall, a small stream of the water dribbling down from a hole near the ceiling which was about a couple hundred feet up. There were two huge opened spaced tunnels book-ending the same wall leading who knew where. It should be pitch black in an underground cavern but there was some kind of moss and mushrooms on the walls that both emitted a good amount of light making vision a bit dim but nothing keeping him from being able to see the entire cavern and a bit into each tunnel. Though his limited view of the tunnels was more a matter of angle then anything else as the moss and mushrooms seemed to be growing everywhere. The water at a glance seemed to be shallow, maybe a few feet though he knew enough from his time in the army that looks could be deceiving. The water came almost to the edge of the cavern on every side. Jeb stayed low and still with Bose following suit, sitting back on his haunches, his head in the air, sniffing, getting a good sense of the area through scent. Not that he was a hunting dog but he could imagine Bose¡¯s senses were still a lot better than his pops, especially smell. Bogie finally came out of his google search eyes which was what he was coming to think of it. ¡°Alright, about as good as it will get. We are near Blood City and only a few miles away from an exit that would get us into the place. The bad news is it will be a tough haul as it¡¯s tunnels with not a lot of room to hide or sneak. The area were in is called the Primal Caves, mostly because of the inhabitants it¡¯s known for, Vor. And before you ask, Vor are big ass lizards with hides as tough as the stone you see around you, insanely strong, aggressive, and very very territorial, even with each other.¡± Jeb thought about it for a second. Big ass lizards didn¡¯t seem to so bad, depending on how big and how fast but most lizards he¡¯d seen, if they were the same, were real fast going in one direction but not the best with lateral movement. Right as his mind was fathoming strategies on how to get him and Bose a few miles around big lizards, thinking big meant, maybe Komodo Dragon size, an endless stream of roars thundered out of one of the tunnels along with the sounds of a vicious fight. A mixed blow-horn of growls, meat slapping meat of what had to be two titanic beasts slamming together, followed. Jeb could feel the actual vibrations of the big bodies crashing into each other in the ground he was kneeling on, intense shaking in the stone itself, a few pieces of stone falling from above. He froze, hand on the haft of his axe, beginning to shake, darkness and memories creeping into his head. Not now. Not now. Please, please. He felt Bose pressing into him licking the side of his face as Bogie¡¯s words seemed a mile away. ¡°Stay very still and make no noise, not a peep. We have a bit over a minute till we can reenter the safe zone.¡± The ground and pound cacophony of noise pummeled Jeb¡¯s body, ears, and mind, children, old women, young mothers assaulting his head. His axe slipped from frozen trembling fingers making a clacking sound that was absorbed by the overwhelming storm of battle when suddenly two massive creatures came tumbling from the right hand tunnel, going at it, blood and wounds covering both of their mammoth bodies. His image of them being Komodo Dragons was as far off as one could get. They were both easily ten feet high and at least twenty feet long, not even count the massive tails that doubled that length. Add in jaws filled with rows upon rows of jagged teeth and he thought he was looking at some form of prehistoric dinosaur. Every movement, every tumble as they rolled, locked together, sent small earthquakes through the cavern almost sending him over. He was so shocked by what he was seeing it snapped him out of most of the encroaching PTSD. The creatures were going for kills. Both of them looked heavily fucked up. The slightly larger one grabbed the other in it¡¯s jaws and slung it across the floor throwing it tumbling across the stone. They were getting far too close and his hands began shaking again, the darkness resurging like a tidal wave over his thoughts. He closed his eyes, the pounding sounds of battles shaking his world. Bose started hammering barks and growling pressing himself against and in front of his Pops. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. The two giants went at each other again, Jeb only knowing this by the sheer wave of force that came off their collision that had him falling on his ass and skidding back followed by Bose being tossed across his chest and rolling past him. Bogie was in his ear in a hot second screaming. ¡°NOW!!!! GET UP!!! GET UP!!!! GET INTO THE SAFE ROOM!!!¡± Jeb worked like a mannequin or an android stumbling to his feet and subconsciously reaching for Bose with shaking hands his mind overwhelmed with corpses dancing in his brain screaming guilty, killer. Another blast of roaring beasts and colliding bodies that weighed many tons sent shock-waves that hit him in the back pushing him towards the gray fog a few feet away, his axe left forgotten behind him. A high pitched dying wail screamed across the cavern before utter silence landed. He pushed himself another step refusing to let go of Bose¡¯s collar, his entire body shaking now, lost in the past, in bloody unforgiving sins. He stopped abruptly as a ghost of a Gremlin appeared directly in front of his face screaming something he could no longer hear, too overwhelmed in his PTSD. It was only Bose appearing in his vision as his Pup kept leaping up to try to take a chunk of the tiny ghost in front of his face, attempting to remove anything that was causing stress to his Pops, that snapped him a bit in. His pup, Bose, his anchor. It bitch-slapped him out of the long shadows enveloping his mind to register what the Gremlin was saying. ¡°Kill it!!!! Go back and Kill it, now!!!! Hurry!!!!!! It¡¯s at critical Health and it¡¯s Bronze (3)!!!! Kill the fucker Jebediah Stone!!!! C¡¯mon Soldier!!!! Snap out of it and go kill that beast!!!! Go take your mind back!!!!!!¡± The words slowly penetrated the haze chewing his head. He forced himself to turn around, did his best to ignore the severe shaking he was experiencing in his entire frame. He stumbled a step, two, three back towards the tunnel entrance to the cavern then stopped, going to a knee, the shaking overwhelming his motor skills, his brain. Bose pressed against him licking his face but he was further gone then he¡¯d been in a long long time, the maggot riddled corpses spinning out of the dark of his mind, accusing dead faces, children with half their faces blown off by Vlad, Grandmothers with their chest cavities broken open by the same. Words once again slammed his ears. ¡°Get up Soldier!!!! The war isn¡¯t over!!!! Your men need you!!!!¡± It was the last statement that dug into something deeper than the horror show, deeper than anything else. His men needed him!!!! They were getting slaughtered!!!! Withering fire cut them down like a scythe from the building they¡¯d just slipped past on foot patrol, lobbed grenades and Molotov¡¯s obliterating boys he¡¯d practically raised, making others walking pyres of oil and flame. His eyes snapped forward, an inferno of rage racing past the shaking and memories. ¡°Kill it Soldier or it will kill what¡¯s left of your men!!!!!!¡± The spur kicked off!! It would not take anymore lives of his men, his boys!!!! He took off like a rocket leaving behind horror shows and twitching limbs, hand scooping up sharp edged axe as legs exploded him across the cavern, a looming blur on four legs hammer barking in his shadow. Two massive beasts were sprawled in bloody water that came up his knees, one unmoving, another, barely so, laying on it¡¯s side, a raspy shutter of strained breaths coming from a bellow of lungs, it¡¯s throat ripped up, eyes roving, insensate. The axe came down on the side of it¡¯s massive head and barely creased the thick skin. The creature attempted to lift itself, a low timbre growl slipping from jaws that could cut him in half. He didn¡¯t care. He saw only red, only death. ¡°You won¡¯t kill anymore of my boys fucker!!!¡± The axe went up and down, up and down, up and down!! The vague image of a canine worrying at it¡¯s already opened throat. His mind wasn¡¯t on but he knew in his gut, the dog was one of his, one of his boys. The axe went up and down like a piston, like machinery, relentless, inevitable and finally blood started splashing up into his face, the blade finally finding something beneath the armored flesh. His shadow kept tearing at the throat while he slammed his axe again and again into the beast¡¯s skull. A few minutes later the Ghost Gremlin was in his ear. ¡°It¡¯s dead Soldier!!! It¡¯s dead!!! Now grab the glowing gems on the ground!!! Grab them now Soldier then run back to the Safe Zone!!!!¡± It took him a minute, the swing of the axe slamming down a couple more times, another last blast of blood and brain matter splashing up in a sluice. He couldn¡¯t remember where he was or what he was doing but his anger had simmered down. ¡°Hurry Jebediah!!! The smell and carnage is attracting another Vor!!!!¡± Another Vor? Everything was slow in coming, his brain in a daze, a cloud of confusion then a hammer bark hit him and his eyes focused to the shadow that had been helping him, one of his boys, a part of his unit, Bose. As soon as that name clicked his mind became his own again. A cavern? The Endless Dungeon, the Gremlin, Bogie. A roar echoed down the opposite tunnel the original beasts had come from followed by another. It seemed far away but the second one moving closer at a hard pace. He shifted eyes down at himself, his axe and both arms, chest, pants, covered in blood and chunks of flesh, below him, a shattered skull and pulped meat that used to be a massive lizard head. Bogie floated closer checking Jeb¡¯s eyes followed by nodding his head. ¡°Good, your back!!! Now hurry the fuck up!!!! Get the gems and get your ass back to the Safe Zone, now!!!!¡± He took a breath. Gems? His eyes scoured the ground around him and floating in mid-air were three glowing things that kinda looked like gems if gems glowed a dim white. Bogie hit his ears again. ¡°Will them into your Inventory then go!! Hurry the fuck up!¡± He did as the Gremlin asked just as another thunderous roar echoed down the far tunnel, a hell of a lot closer than it had been which elicited some barks and growls out of Bose whose muzzle was covered in blood and flesh, his chest and front legs bathed in it like he¡¯d dug himself halfway into the lizard¡¯s throat. He bent down and rubbed Bose¡¯s head who leaned into it. ¡°Such a good boy, such a good loyal fucking boy!!! What would I do without you Bose?¡± Another heavy bark and a doggy grin came back at him. He could see the floating Bogie about to scream at him again and raised his hand, turning, and jogged back towards the small tunnel that led to the gray fog. Within a few seconds he was stepping into it, his Pooch at his side where he belonged, where he would always belong. Warborn -- Part One -- Blood City -- Chapter 4 -- Hard Choices, Harder truths CHAPTER 4 ¨C HARD CHOICES, HARDER TRUTHS Safe Zone ¨C The Endless Dungeon *** Jeb stumbled in with Bose, his shadow, as he once again found himself in the gray stone Safe Zone. Bogie immediately popped up and quickly started spewing. ¡°As you know we got thirty minutes before we will be forced to pop back out and hope that the Vor that was coming our way got it¡¯s fill of meat and wandered off before we have to shit-can this place. We got a lot to go through and you should thank your sweet mother of a Fate Attribute that everything fell into your lap though I will reserve judgment fully till we look at those gems you got and hopefully find something you have Affinity with though your options are almost nil. Take a looking at those Notifications though floating in your head, multiple Levels and a Title. Our chances of getting you out of this alive went from almost non-existent to a bit above non-existent. Go on, focus in your head and the Notifications should just pop right up.¡± Jeb once again had no understanding of what the fuck was going on and he hadn¡¯t forgotten what Bogie had said to him that played with his head to do what he wanted Jeb to do which sparked a lot of things. Ultimately it benefited him so from that angle he couldn¡¯t really get upset but the words he used told Jeb the Gremlin knew shit about him he shouldn¡¯t know. What happened on that day was Classified and redacted all to hell even for those with clearance. Right now though the Gremlin was right and he was on a clock that he was well aware of as it was planted in his vision beneath the bars that had popped up when he¡¯d been looking at Health etc. In fact the one that had ST in front of it was yellow and slowly rising, the one he¡¯d assumed had been Stamina before which made sense based on what had just happened. The whole front of him and Bose, both covered in crimson, was a big reminder of what they¡¯d just done, killed some crazy ass huge dinosaur lizard. Something flashed up in his vision followed by a shit ton more. Your actions have earned you a Title Contestant. Congratulations. You have been given your first Title. [Balls Deep} Balls Deep ¨C Epic Rank ¨C It was half-fucking dead but still you went balls deep in killing something an entire Tier above you, something that would have killed you with one twitch of it¡¯s tail, and you did it with a blood thirsty hunger that the System applauds. Permanent +10% to all Attributes (Minimum of +0.1) and +20% increase in Experience gains in killing anything that¡¯s a higher Level or Tier than you. You have killed a (Young Vor), a creature a full Tier above you. Bonus Experience applied due to Title. Six Levels Gained. You have Reached Copper (6). Before he could even take in everything the messages had just said he was jacked off his feet as a stream of energy shot through the gray fog portal, striking him and lifting him off the ground. Spikes of pain shot through his bones and flesh and mind and soul, gritting his teeth as off to side in his peripheral, he notched a stream of energy spearing off him into Bose who yelped as he joined his Pops in the air. A few moments later, he had no clue how long as the rush of energy and pain had his brain blasted, he came down on his feet and he felt that someone had just shot him full of adrenaline. He felt stronger, faster, his mind clearer. Bogie¡¯s voice interrupted his reverie as he moved within Jeb¡¯s vision, a stogie back to his lips puffing away and looking once more pristine, tuft of white hair slicked back, suit, impeccable. ¡°Now you know what it is to Level-up Soldier Boy. For right now with no Gems slotted and no Class, each Level will bring 0.1 to each Attribute. I¡¯m hoping out of that, a boost to your Will might help a bit with your debuff or at least you being as susceptible to it taking over. We are on a clock though so the next part is the big enchilada, the big break down of how strong you can really be.¡± Bogie floated closer blowing out perfect smoke rings then closed one eye and pushed his other even closer, hard staring Jeb. ¡°I literally bet all my life savings on you being the Hoss, the Big Kahuna. Let¡¯s see if I was a dumb ass or brilliant. Those Gems are gonna go a long way in showing the truth one way or the other but more pivitol is the first Gem you attempt to [Identify] the System will analyze, access, and judge your Core Causality. You probably saw it when you took a look at your Status?¡± The big answer to that was a no since he didn¡¯t understand fuck all on most of what was happening and he got lost on the debuff and his mental trauma being shoveled into his face in numbers. Bogie obviously noticed the blank look on his face. ¡°Never mind Soldier Boy. The higher Grade it is the more boost it will give to whatever Affinity you have with whatever gems you come across. It is important. If you have at least a C+ or above, we will be in business. The average in the Great Galactic Empire is D+, within the Crucible, C-. The biggest, baddest, toughest of their worlds are who are Recruited to the Crucible of War, anything less makes for bad entertainment.¡± Jeb¡¯s irritation flashed for a moment. ¡°Entertainment? What the fuck does that mean? All of this, all the people including me that were taken from Earth are for entertainment?¡± Bogie laughed and nodded. ¡°Of course, the greatest entertainment in the Great Galactic Empire. You are on the Crucible of War, Soldier Boy, a giant asteroid floating through the universe with eight cities and a million people for no other reason then to supply perpetual entertainment for the rest of the Empire; the murder, the intrigue, the romance, the betrayal. It is how the Empire stamps down on rebellion within it¡¯s borders. If your people are constantly enraptured watching their vid screens they have less time nor desire to plot against their ruler. I believe your own world uses your entertainment for similar reasons.¡± A grinding low burning anger broiled within his bones. The worst part was he couldn¡¯t argue to a degree about his last statement. He knew the powers that be controlled the media, the information, so therefore, for the most part, people¡¯s minds, even more so if you went into third world countries where it was more pronounced. Still, that he was stolen from his home, and all the other humans, to play some kind of gladiatorial Roman Coliseum for the entertainment of a bunch of fuck twats. He mentally slapped himself as Bose rubbed against his legs whining a bit. Fuck, he hadn¡¯t even checked on his boy after going through some kind of amp up. He knelt and ran his hands down Bose¡¯s body and flanks. He¡¯d gotten a bit bigger, a bit more musculature. Damn, he had to be closer to hundred and seventy or hundred and eighty pounds, all muscle. ¡°Damn Bose. You becoming a beast.¡± His pooch pushed his big blocky head into his chest. Jeb scratched his boy¡¯s head at the same time as Bogie made tick-tock clock sounds. Damn fucking asshole. Jeb swore if he looked at the definition of cock-sucking self-serving asshole there would be a picture of a little cigar smoking Gremlin. He chuckled at the image but stood. The little Bastard was right. ¡°Alright Bogie, what do I do?¡± The little Gremlin nodded, his cigar disappearing as he smashed his little claws together. ¡°Alright Soldier Boy, the big boom boom. Time to see who you are and what you¡¯re capable of and hopefully get you some good options for your build, ones that you have high Affinity with though our location currently is going to limit our options. (Gritting his teeth) I¡¯m still gonna get those fuck-twat techs. (Ghost spit that landed nowhere) Bring up your inventory and take out one gem, only one, and when it¡¯s in your hand, [Identify] it. Do not and I repeat, do not slot it. You will [Identify] all three gems then we will talk about options and what they mean.¡± Jeb nodded watching the time in his vision ticking down to a bit more than twenty minutes left. He opened his inventory and willed the first stone, to his hand this time. He didn¡¯t feel like getting on the floor to get it. Bose laid at his feet looking up at him with only three things in those eyes, love, loyalty and faith. He knew, inside his bones and flesh, mind and soul, as long as Bose was at his side he could face whatever the fuck this place had for him. He glanced back as he felt the weight crease his palm. It was an iridescent stone, a multitude of hues permeating it, an endless array of colors in every spectrum that ever did or would exist. He used [Identify] on it. System accessing Core Gem --- Analyzing. First time User detected. User Interface accessed. Analyzing User¡¯s Core Strength, Potential, Causality. Assessing. Finished. User¡¯s Core Causality Rated and Ranked ¨C Perfect ¨C S+ +50% to the Affinity of all Gems. Jeb heard a gasp out of Bogie but was too caught up in what was happening as he felt a flame, an intense core of limitless power birthed within him or more, that it was always there but had been awakened. The next message slipped into his vision. Core Gem analyzed and Identified ¨C Gem ¨C Brute ¨C Uncommon Ranked ¨C Affinity with User ¨C 84%. Brute ¨C Uncommon. Sometimes the straightest most direct path is the best path. Brutes are that personified, no duplicity, no subterfuge, only direct brutal action when it is required. It does not mean all Brutes are simple, they just have little patience for playing games when action is called for. Associated with extreme violence within straight forward avenues. The Gem had changed, now holding a dark brown color mixed with clay red. He still had no clue what it all meant but Brute huh? And he had 84% Affinity, that seemed pretty good. The description certainly fit him. When faced with conflict he tended to be direct in his solutions and actions. Food for thought. He pulled the next stone and used [Identify] on it again. System accessing Core Gem ¨C Analyzing. Core Gem analyzed and Identified ¨C Gem ¨C Holy ¨C Rare Ranked ¨C Affinity with User ¨C 16%. Holy ¨C Rare. To bring the gift of final rest to the Undead is our purpose and our calling. To protect the weak is our prayer. The ecclesial home of all things considered pure and good. It is known for using Heaven¡¯s infused light to heal and protect. Their main purpose is to fight all that is considered Unholy. The tool is neither good nor evil regardless of the rhetoric. It is the actions of the User that define those paradigms. Associated with Healing, Protection and Light. This one took on a shimmer white color with maybe a hint of gold. The Gem sounded better than Brute but it looked like Holy wasn¡¯t fond of hone Jebediah Stone. Made sense. What the hell about him and what he¡¯d done in his life was Holy? Brute? Yea, that fit him like a glove. He pulled the last Gem. Let¡¯s see what the last one held. He threw the [Identify]. System accessing Core Gem ¨C Analyzing. Core Gem analyzed and Identified ¨C Hell ¨C Ancient Ranked ¨C Affinity with User 91%. Hell ¨C Ancient. The home of Devils and their endless soul-bound beasts. In Eternal War with not only Heaven but with the Abyss as well, the birth place of Demons. Hell is the origin of hellfire, a black and red flame that not only burns the flesh but the soul as well. The variety of Devils is vast and are renown for both very powerful warriors but highly skilled Mages and a small smattering of spiritual entities. They desire order within violence, structure within dominion. Associated with infernal power, hell fire, destruction, and inviolate discipline. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Hell. Jeb froze. 91%. The gem was a deep black and dark red the color of blood. Memories began seeping in, corpses. He bit his own lips, gritted teeth, escalated it with teeth to tongue till he felt blood trickling out of his mouth. The darkness that was his history receded and in doing so confused him. Did he just fight it back without Bose, without falling to knees and becoming a whimpering mess? He looked at his hands watching them tremor but not escalating to actual shaking. Bogie¡¯s whoop blasted his ear drums causing Bose to growl and hammer bark at the Gremlin. ¡°I was trying to keep that in Soldier Boy but I just couldn¡¯t. Kick an Elf in the ass and call her sweetie!!!! S+!!!! S+!!!!!! No one as far as I know in the history of the Empire besides legends long dead had such a powerful Core, not even the Emperor himself who is purported to be A, maybe A+. If you live, if you survive.(Pause, another glance around) well, one foot in front of another, and an Uncommon, which in the Tutorial would have been good, a Rare, which is about as high as anyone sees in a Tutorial, and you got one of those, though the Affinity, ughh, but Ancient? Ancient? Powerful beyond measure...I¡± The clock was ticking but he needed answers, information. ¡°Stop chattering Bogie, especially when you haven¡¯t explained shit about shit. What are the rankings? What do they mean? Affinity? S+? All of it dammit?¡± He chewed on the end of his cigar, his brain, in that little Gremlin head spinning. ¡°We don¡¯t have the time for me extrapolate on most but I will do my best in the abridged version as you still need to slot at least one of those bad boys if you even have a shot to survive. If we were in the Tutorial with your combat skills I would say hold onto all your gems till we figured out the best combination for you but we ain¡¯t there, we¡¯re here, so I would say you need to at least slot one and get the innate gift whatever it is throws at you. My advice though is too slot two, the Brute as well. Info. Real quick, rankings as far as items, gems and the rest; Poor, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Ancient, Legendary, Mythic and Divine. So getting anything Ancient right out of the gate is unheard of. As I said, a Rare Core Gem, would be a big boon to anyone that found it in a Tutorial. Quick and Dirty. Your Core Causality is basically the strength of your Core or the potential of who you are and can be. It adds whatever bonus you get to the Affinity of any Gem you slot. (Pull of his cigar) And I know what¡¯s spinning in that dome of your Soldier Boy. You would think a hundred is as high as it can go right? Nope. Your S+, 50% boost to Affinity, means let¡¯s say, your Brute Gem which is 84%, once slotted, would be at 134%, meaning any ability garnered under it¡¯s purview would be 134% in effectiveness, strength etc. but that¡¯s as far as I will dive into that as we literally have no time left. As I said before, if this was the Tutorial, I wouldn¡¯t be having you slot anything as the System only drops you Core Gems until all three Core Slots are filled at which point it then starts dropping Attribute Sub-Slot Gems until all those are filled. And the best part, the real kicker? You can keep all the Gems you don¡¯t use and that¡¯s how people get a good out of the gate nest egg or at least fill out their equipment once they hit the Crucible. (Exasperated breath.) Every City has what¡¯s called the Emporium which is the only safe space within each said City, enforced by the System itself, where the fulcrum of commerce happens, neutral territory. Gems can be sold for a good amount depending on the Gem, Rarity and obviously the attunement or concept it is tied to.¡± Jeb put up a hand to shut the man¡¯s mouth as he took everything in and felt like even the avalanche of info was but a toe dip into a massive ocean of complexity. He wasn¡¯t an idiot. He might not be school educated but he¡¯d had an endless road of lessons taught on the hard turf, real world knowledge that kept people breathing. He¡¯d take that over a college education any day. Bogie¡¯s patience to be quiet seemed lackluster to say the least as he ignored the universal raised hand to shut his yapper and continued. ¡°I saw a bit of your revulsion at the Hell Gem but it¡¯s Ancient and you have 91% Affinity and with your Causality, that¡¯s a whopping 141% and if we were in the Tutorial you could choose to hold off but as we have already gone over numerous times, we are not, you are not, so slot it and the Brute as well. The Hell in your Body Slot would be the move first. Your first Core Slot dictates the orientation of the Class Options, meaning Body, physical, usually melee Classes, also depending on your Main Attribute choice but we will get to that when it¡¯s needed. If you threw it in Mind, more then likely some kind of Mage, and Spirit, Priestly or that area of influence. Up to you in the end but we both know where that first slot is going. Make a decision. We got less than ten minutes left before we get the boot back into the Endless Dungeon.¡± He couldn¡¯t argue with the little shit. Mage or some Priest Class wasn¡¯t him but Hell? He still felt he didn¡¯t know even a tenth of what he should know and probably would at least have a better grasp on if they were in that Tutorial but that wasn¡¯t the Gremlin¡¯s fault and no amount of hand wringing was gonna change reality. He had no problem with the Brute one. That was him all day, any day but Hell and his high Affinity with it stuck in his gullet, square to circle. Facts were facts and the concrete of where he was as hard as a fucking punch to the face. He was stuck in a place he had to escape that had the Vor, massive dinosaur lizards, that would squash him with one swing of their tails. Only reason he¡¯d killed the one was it had been on death¡¯s door and far beyond being able to fight back and still it took him swinging like a lumber jack over and over and Bose digging into it¡¯s throat to get past its stony hide and kill it. The only thing holding him back in the face of that bitch slap was he just didn¡¯t know what this choice would truly do to him? And Bose was tied to him right? What would happen to both of them? Would they be turned into Devils, some infernal influenced mass murderer? Jeb was irritated with himself. In his days in the Army all this moral mental wrestling and indecision would have seen him dead a hundred times over. He buckled down and willed the Hell Stone into his hand. Immediately something popped up. Core Gem ¨C Hell ¨C Ancient, detected. User has empty Core Slots. Would you like to Slot Gem ¨C Hell? Y/N Before he could talk himself out of it he mentally hit the yes as Bose sensing his stress, hands tremoring a tiny bit, stood and pressed into his hip. Another message rolled on in. Choice made and confirmed. Which Core Slot would you like to insert Gem ¨C Hell? 1 ¨C Body, 2 ¨C Mind, 3 ¨C Spirit? Understand that this decision cannot be reversed and has far reaching ramifications as far as Class Choices, Abilities and overall trajectory of the User¡¯s Path. Please make a Selection. There was only one place, one, that fit who Jeb was and would ever be. He chose Body, and fuck the System and everything and everyone everywhere. His body froze as he was planted face first into the gray stone accompanied by a piercing yelp from Bose that broke his heart. Oww. Everything within him was burning, a darkness and flame that ate away at him, bones, flesh, once more being remade. His mind shoveled itself into a box, one pitch as night. He woke, freaking out, ready to fight, now knowing how long he¡¯d been prone but as his eyes slid to the count-down in his vision, a breath released when he saw it had only been about fifteen seconds. Still, they were down to less than five minutes before they were booted. His hand reached out to grab the handle of his axe. Bose crawled next to him and as soon as Jeb felt his weight at his side he immediately pulled his boy to him. And once again he felt changes not only in himself but in his boy. He took a quick look as he pulled himself to his feet and took a step back as Bose¡¯s eyes were now red and looked to have some black and red flames in their depths. What the fuck? He was also, once again, a bit bigger, again not by much but probably pushing two hundred lbs. He wondered if he himself was larger as well and also sporting demon eyes or well, based on the description, devil eyes but wouldn¡¯t his jeans or t-shirt or jacket or work boots have ripped? Bogie appeared in front of him pulling on his cigar with a big toothy smile. ¡°Looking good Soldier Boy and yes your eyes are like your beast¡¯s and skin a bit duskier but that¡¯s about it besides being a bit larger, maybe a couple inches. Don¡¯t worry about your clothes though. Everything fits it¡¯s size to it¡¯s user inherently when it comes to clothes or most equipment like armor.¡± Burning eyes? He had burning hell eyes now? Ugh, this place sucked big sweaty balls. Embrace the suck soldier. It was less than he thought might happen. At least he didn¡¯t have horns or a forked fucking tail coming out of his ass. ¡°Hurry it up Soldier Boy, we about to be booted. This is going to be a bitch to get you a few miles so I¡¯d say slot the Brute as well, anything that would help you survive is a big get at this point and your Affinity is high with it. If you do, I would suggests Spirit as I¡¯m not sure but putting something like Brute in your Mind might have heavier implications. Hold onto the Holy to sell especially as your Affinity with it is shit.¡± Should he? Make a choice, keep it moving. If ya take a step soldier then fucking leap, no regrets, no second-guessing. Do what needs to get done and get the mission in the bag. He willed the Brute Gem, quickly went through the prompts and slammed it into his Spirit. This time he didn¡¯t just drop only bent ever with some sharp cuts of pain, nowhere near what the other Gem had done. He didn¡¯t know if it was cause it wasn¡¯t his Major Core choice or difference in rarity or whatever. It didn¡¯t matter in the end. Instead of a yelp Bose threw a low-key whimper. His boy was the man, tough as tough got. He went to a knee, ignoring the pain, dropping his axe and this time holding his boy to him. It ended after only five or so seconds. He grabbed his axe back up and stood at the same time as the ticker was falling on its last breaths in his vision. Bogie nodded his head as if seeing something he really liked in Jeb¡¯s new devil eyes. Jeb had to agree he felt a lot stronger not only physically but mentally. He knew the memories still lurked in the shadows and had not weakened whatsoever but his mind felt more concrete and solid than it had in a long long long time. He knew he didn¡¯t have time to truly go over it but he mentally willed his [Status] up. JEBEDIAH ¡®JEB¡¯ STONE Race ¨C Infernal Touched Human Core ¨C Copper (6) Class ¨C (N/A ¨C Please fill all Core Slots to attain a Class) Age ¨C 52 Core Causality ¨C S+ Titles ¨C Balls Deep CORE SLOT ¨C BODY (HELL ¨C ANCIENT) (Major Core) Inherent Gift ¨C Infernal Heritage Sub-Attributes Strength -- 3.0 (Empty) Agility ¨C 1.5 (Empty) Constitution ¨C 3.0 (Empty) CORE SLOT ¨C MIND (EMPTY) Sub Attributes Intelligence ¨C 1.3 (Empty) Perception -- 1.7 (Empty) Will ¨C 2.5 (1.9*) (Empty) CORE SLOT ¨C SPIRIT (BRUTE ¨C UNCOMMON) Inherent Gift ¨C Brutal Savagery Sub Attributes Soul ¨C 2.1 (Empty) Aura ¨C 2.5 (Empty) Fate ¨C 2.7 (Empty) *Debuff ¨C Induced Trauma UNIVERSAL ABILITIES Galactic Language Translation Spatial Inventory ¨C Small (20 Slots) (Open Inventory? Y/N) (Equipment) (Open up Sub-Menu? Y/N) Bonded Animal Companion ¨C Bose (Open Status Sheet? Y/N) The only thing that truly stood out besides the heady and heavy increase in his Attributes was his race. He was no longer human. That hurt but it was what it was. He¡¯d learned a long time ago you do what you needed to survive war. Bogie¡¯s voice whispered in his ear. ¡°Remember Jebediah, stay low, stay quiet and that includes your pooch. I¡¯ll do my best to scout but I can only move about fifteen feet from your position. Trust me and I¡¯ll trust you. I got, what did you human soldiers say? I got your six.¡± He didn¡¯t have a lot of choices but there was something about the Gremlin. He was irritating as fuck and he could tell, self-serving but in this, he trusted him. Once more into the damn Crucible. Good name they chose for this fucking place. He kept low, fingers pressed into the hickory wood of his axe as his other hand held Bose¡¯s collar. Into the gray fog, he waded, into blood drowned trenches he felt like his whole life had been spent stepping through. Warborn -- PArt One -- Blood City -- Chapter 5 -- My my Grandma, What big... CHAPTER 5 ¨C MY MY GRANDMA, WHAT BIG... The Endless Dungeon *** As soon as they exited Jeb made sure to not only have a good hold of Bose¡¯s collar but that he would stay quiet as no more then seventy, eighty yards away was a very much alive Vor who was a good portion bigger than the two earlier ones. The strangest to the image was one of the corpses was untouched while the one Jeb had killed was shreded of most of its flesh and the new Vor was lounging next to the untouched one periodically nudging it with their snout and keening. He didn¡¯t know anatomy and couldn¡¯t see the undercarriage but he would guess the new Vor was a female and the mother of the corpse that was untouched. Bogie was staying low to the ground. He might be a ghost and couldn¡¯t be touched but he was manifested and could be seen. The little Gremlin made hand motions to stay still and stay low and quiet. It was unneeded. Fucking with a grieving Momma who was even stronger than the earlier behemoths that had gone at it was not high on his list. He tossed an [Identify] on it. ADULT VOR (ELITE) Bronze (5) Beast ¨C Reptilian Bogie had earlier said the one beast he¡¯d killed was Bronze (3) and the System had named it a Young Vor. He pushed the thought aside as he had the gist of what Bogie was going for based on the Momma¡¯s choice of lounging and obviously having just eaten. He was hoping it would take an after lunch nap. Knowing they were just going to sit there and in a few more minutes have the option if needed to pop back into the Safe Zone he decided to at least take a peep at what had changed within him and Bose and if there were any tools beyond that enhance physicality and the new devil eyes that would help them. Speaking of devil eyes he noticed he could see perfectly in the dim lighting which was a boon. He tossed his Status up again and focused on what was new, his eyes zeroing in on the entry below his Body Slot. Inherent Gift ¨C Infernal heritage. He focused on those words, Infernal Heritage. Infernal Heritage -- +0.2 to Constitution, +0.1 to Strength, +0.1 to Will, +0.1 Aura Per Level. Racial Change ¨C Infernal Touched Human ¨C 15% Fire, Unholy(Necrotic), Poison Resistance. 60% Hellfire Resistance. Weak against Holy (Radiant) +10% Damage against User. 8% Physical Resistance ¨C Stacks with Armor. Night Vision. That certainly explained some of the boost he saw in his Attributes and his vision. And Hell¡¯s biggest focus seemed to be Constitution, so his Health, Vitality? And with how tough his body actually was with the 8% Physical Resistance? Also good to know he could take hits from Fire, Poison and he had no clue what constituted Unholy, necrotic and Hellfire but any defense he¡¯d take. Still a shit ton to figure out. Whatever the System was seemed to be insanely complex and he felt everything he¡¯d seen so far was just a drop in a dump bucket that would keep going and going. Like how many of these Core Gems were there? Off the top of his head and thinking of things that had been mentioned, he assumed thousands upon thousands, like basic elements, air, fire, earth and water then esoteric shit like Hell, Holy, Unholy etc etc. His eyes scanned down his Status and stopped under the Brute Slot. He focused and pulled up Brutal Savagery. Brutal Savagery (Infernal) -- +0.1 to Strength Per Level. When Health is within the Red Zone for the first time in combat, Health Regen is increased by 500% while all Body Attributes are Increased by 20% in addition to all Resistances from Infernal Heritage doubled for fifteen seconds. All healing received from outside sources is boosted by 40% for the same span of time. Cool-Down ¨C 30 Minutes. Cool-down does not begin until Combat ends. Well that kicks ass. When he was fucked up he¡¯d get stronger and his healing would blow up though he had zero clues how much 500% boosted healing actually meant but it sounded like a lot. The boost per level to his Strength was cool but overall a lot less than his Hell Gem and only in one Attribute. Again though he wondered whether it was because of the difference in rarity or Hell being his Main Core or a combination. He took his eyes out of the System for a moment to take a gander at the Momma Vor who looked as if she was bedding down though not asleep yet. He trusted that Bose would tense laying next to him and leaning into his leg if anything changed. He wondered how strong he actually was now? Bogie had said the average Attributes for a human was 0.6 so at 3.0 did that mean he was now five times stronger than the average human? At a guess that would put him at about the level of an Olympic weightlifter. They seemed like they would be about five times stronger than the average Joe if not honestly a bit more depending on what they thought of as the average human and if they were throwing women into the whole thing which no offense to the ladies, would knock the average down heavily though probably smack some other Attribute up. It also flashed into his head that Bogie had mentioned an Ork averaging like 1.8 in Strength out the gate. One last thing he wanted to look at before attempting to slide past the Vor and hoping the beast didn¡¯t have ultra powered senses. He pulled up the part of the Status that was Bose. BOSE Bonded Animal-Companion Race ¨C Infernal Touched Canine (Beast) Core ¨C Copper (6) Beast Traits ¨C ??? Age ¨C 2 Core Causality ¨C B Alright so his Status was nowhere near as complex or as detailed as his own but his boy did Match his Level and B Causality. You go boy! The Beast Traits section with the question marks had him intrigued meaning there was something there but they would have to figure it out? He felt said pooch flex against him so snapped his eyes forward. Bogie was motioning towards him and pointing to slide around the edge of the cavern. The Vor looked to be out, eyes closed, her massive chest bellowing up and down. He made a choice looking at his axe. If he was forced to have to brawl the creature doing so in melee didn¡¯t sound like a smart choice. He knew he¡¯d said he¡¯d never want his weapons out of hand but his axe was too long to carry around if it wasn¡¯t his choice to engage. He focused and after a breath it disappeared, going into his inventory. He pulled Vlad from its scabbard. If he had to go at it with the creature and didn¡¯t just run his ass off to get away from it, it would be doing it at range and using mobility. The only thing that really worried him if that scenario happened would be Bose. He looked down, his hand still on his boy¡¯s collar. Bose would want to attack anything going after his Pops and against something that size it would lead to dead doggo on the quick. He couldn¡¯t for the life of him though figure out anything in his head to prevent it from happening if it kicked off. Unfortunately he had never trained up Bose like that. They had a casual relationship as he¡¯d felt no need to train him up sitting out in the boondocks in the Ozarks. He knew simple commands like come, kinda but that was from an easy going standpoint. When he raised his voice and barked in his Master Sergeant bass Bose certainly hopped to. It would be what it would be. Some of this mind scrambling theory humping was also attempting to not think about Vlad being in his hand once again with violent intent. He hadn¡¯t even let his eyes drop to it since he¡¯d pulled it. When did take a look-see his eyes widened. What the fuck? Vlad had changed once more, a slight dark red hue mixed into the steel and black matte and along the top of the barrel there was now a few spikes? Small certainly but a few ridges along the top now cut out. He had no chance to investigate because Bogie dropped a few inches from his face motioning like some jacked up toddler on a sugar binge. Well the fucker wasn¡¯t wrong plus the less he had to think about Vlad in his hand the better as he had already began to feel the creeping of memories inching their way into his head, much less so than in the past which maybe had something to do with his Will getting higher? He still didn¡¯t trust at all that he was free from those chains, especially since it still showed up on his Status. He kept his eyes on the beast with one hand holding Vlad and the other to Bose¡¯s collar leaning down and throwing the slightest whisper in his Boy¡¯s ear. ¡°Quiet Bose.¡¯ He begin to lead him as they inched their way along the walls of the cavern, crawling their way to the right side tunnel which was where Bogie seemed to want them to go. The Ghost Gremlin was the one that knew where the entrance to the City they were closest to was though the name ¡®Blood¡¯ wasn¡¯t particularly inspiring that he was moving to a better place. There was so much information he was lacking and back in his army days he wouldn¡¯t have stood for it, hindering any kind of tactical options he could come up with when he literally knew fuck all about anything. He understood the reasoning as they had been on a push your ass time limit since the word ¡®go.¡¯ and he didn¡¯t see it changing anytime soon. Jeb considered they could have popped in and out over and over into the Safe Zone playing the five minute freeze out but he didn¡¯t know enough about the environment nor the Vor to know if he played that hump game he wouldn¡¯t end up being cornered by two or three of the fuckers camp sitting on the Safe Zone. He skipped along the wall and was more than halfway to the tunnel when the massive body of the lizard shifted, rolling itself over. Jeb froze but within a moment realized the Big Momma Lizard was just doing a normal conked sleepy time shift. He let a breath go but the stress level rising had other ramifications, the darkness soft stepping into his head, the hand on both Vlad and Bose, trembling. And then shit went face first into the spinning fan. Bose feeling him succumbing to his PTSD his Boy twisted towards that which was causing it and threw out several hammer barks mixed in with heavy chest deep growls. Bogie stuffed a tirade of cussing and Jeb wanted to join him but he was too busy pulling hard on Bose¡¯s collar trying to get him to turn from his aggressive face off to take tail and run their asses off as the Momma Vor snapped her head up to the sounds of a Cane Corso throwing slap barks in her direction. Oh shit!!!! Bose was not cooperating whatsoever, his hackles raised in squirrel hunting mode except this was no fucking squirrel. The massive lizard faster than one would think something so big could be popped to her four legs and took four steps in their direction before letting loose with a roar that literally pummeled them both, Bose letting out a whelp as he and his Pops both tumbled across the ground slamming hard into the stone wall of the cavern. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. His eyes caught the green bar with H next to it dropping into Yellow but he didn¡¯t need to have a bar to tell him that shit hurt. He lay crumbled against the wall, his knee and back sending spikes of pain through his frame. Vlad lay a couple paces away just out of arm¡¯s reach. He pushed through the pain even as the darkness invaded his mind and both hands began shaking. He had to get up. He pushed with his arms to pull his old ass up, ignoring the spikes punching into knee and back but then collapsed to the stone on his hands. His consciousness slid for a moment as half decomposed smiles with no teeth creasing the faces of children danced a macabre stage play through his mind as his hands went from shaking to twitching like someone rolling through an epileptic shake down. Even with his mind baking in history he could feel Bose stand, shifting his body past his Pops with increasingly loud anvil barks and growls as the whole floor shook from a several ton animal charging towards them. Bogie screamed in his ear. ¡°Leave your beast and run, run for all your worth Soldier!!!!!¡± Jeb added his own growls to that of his Boy. The fucking Gremlin didn¡¯t understand him at all no matter what dossier he¡¯d read. If he had, he¡¯d know, Jebediah Stone would never abandon his men ever so there was zero fucking chance he¡¯d leave his boy, not in any lifetime ever. His life wasn¡¯t enough to sacrifice who he was and would always be. He pushed everything he had into his Will, and by sheer violent stubbornness, pushed back on the darkness caging his mind and body. More thunderous steps pivoted towards them as Bose¡¯s growling and hammer barks reached a new crescendo, then an excruciating yowl that fully snapped Jeb free to watch his boy flying through the air to skid across the stone down the tunnel they¡¯d been heading for, broken and still. Vlad leapt and rolled coming up with Vlad in one motion to his shoulder to catch the damn Lizard Bitch not even paying attention to him, her entire beady eyed focus on the creature that had irritated her and woken her up. She wanted to finish what she started if she hadn¡¯t already. Bose still lay unmoving. Jeb growled, anger pipe smoking his lungs as he took another look at his Boy¡¯s dead looking body. He took aim. The greatest thing about Vlad and Benelli M4¡¯s were they were semi-auto, no slow ass pump action and his finger on the trigger guard was like coming home as if no time at all had passed. The Vor had begun the locomotive process of churning it¡¯s massive legs to propel her towards Bose. It would not stand. His finger went to work as he laid a steady line of shots up it¡¯s neck, the last landing on the side of her head. The chug pound sounds of Vlad letting loose was music to his ears, a song and dance he¡¯d spent a lifetime moving to. Unfortunately, even with the accurate line of shots, they¡¯d barely penetrated the stone like hide, just enough to draw a small trickle of blood out of each hit, no more than an irritant to such a massive creature. He had accomplished one thing which he was thankful for. The Vor had come to a stop and pulled all it¡¯s attention away from his Boy and directly onto him. As he contemplated how the hell to use his Stamina to reload Vlad he prepared to dodge the beast and stupidly forgot one important thing. It had a tail. It whipped it¡¯s body with an insane amount of torque as Jeb felt the impact, his left arm immediately shattered along with several utterly destroyed ribs as he rag dolled through the air landing once fifty feet away then bouncing at least three times and smacking against stone. His bar next to the H was in the deep Red. He¡¯d barely hung onto consciousness by whisper threads and somehow kept a grip on Vlad which he still felt in the grip of his somewhat still good arm. The pain was excruciating, not a part of his body left unbruised, though his left arm and ribs on that side felt like splintered pulp but it was in that exact moment the System decided to have a say. Brutal Savagery (Infernal) Activated. He felt multiple things at once, the first, a river of warmth pulsing up his fucked up side, ribs and cremated arm in no way fully healing but bones rolling from splinters back together to just heavily fractured but once more connected marrow. The deep Red in his vision flickered to a low Yellow/Red. Simultaneously he felt a dark flame dance across his flesh, his hands taking on a scaled reddish hue, two things pushing from his forehead, a red haze across his vision, stronger, faster. He was still a broken mess but not enough to keep him down when his Boy might still hold to life though he knew that hope was probably as broken as his bones. He jacked his eyes open and pushed past the fucked up arm and ribs holding hard to Vlad. He¡¯d gone thirty yards past his boy down into the tunnel. Bose still hadn¡¯t shifted or moved. Jeb¡¯s anger and fury had climbed it¡¯s way through his flesh as he stomped back towards the slowly stepping lizard. The fucking Lizard for some reason thought this was over, thought it had already won in the slow arrogant stomp it was chomping in as it slid closer. Bogie once more floated in front of Jeb. ¡°Run you stupid asshole. Your dog is dead and so will you be if you don¡¯t get the fuck away. It will stop a moment to eat it¡¯s prey, it will give you a chance to make it, to live!!!!¡± Jeb growled. He spits the words out in a low tone thrum that matched the anger boiling in his bones. ¡°You don¡¯t know shit about Army or loyalty Gremlin, now get the fuck out of my eyes, I got a lizard to put down.¡± His anger was so deep and burning so hard he didn¡¯t feel a moment of shadows encroaching, no tremble in his hands, nothing, only one target, one intent, one gravestone that needed to be filled. He pushed his Will into Vlad and mentally ordered Stamina into it. His eyes opened a bit as he felt something deeper, another option, a bigger price tag but more power. He paid it and Vlad vibrated in his hand as it took on a more devilish cast and the tip of the barrel spun black and red flames into the air as he felt the internal chamber fill. The Lizard stopped, eyeing him, predator to prey. Jeb felt something he hadn¡¯t felt in over a decade, home. This was his zone, the place he was born, the place where he thrived, in the pit of war, violence dancing along his feet and teeth. He brought up Vlad and laced half it¡¯s payload, four shells dancing out, planting their expression right into the big square noggin of the pompous piece of shit, this time eliciting a lot more reaction as each shell penetrated deeper, not by much but as each shell hit hide and flesh a small burst of black and red flames lit the beast. Jeb tossed a death head grin on his lips as he walked the beast down laying the last three shells into it¡¯s broad chest, more pitch night and blood red flames dancing and oh how the creature howled, back stepping, forgetting who was prey and who was predator. Jeb¡¯s feral teeth showed even more. He ignored the screaming out of the Ghost trailing his six. This thing had killed his boy, killed Bose. It would not live. ¡°You hurt my boy, killed him. You will see why they called me the Harbinger.¡± More Stamina lit from his body, flashing red in his vision, he didn¡¯t care. Vlad filled once more with a full load of Hell. His finger slid to trigger, another four shells pelting its already burning head, bone beginning to show through, the hide eaten away. No more roars came from its massive jaws, only shrieks of agony as the black and red heat chewed through it. The Beast stopped back pedaling as if realizing if it didn¡¯t kill the old man walking it down it wouldn¡¯t hold to life. It put its head down and charged just as the fierce energy that had helped heal him, make him stronger and faster, faded. His ribs and arm had healed more but not enough as he needed to roll out of the way of the charging beast, not quick enough as his ribs protested from the move, clipped by a thundering leg that was almost larger than he was. He was spun out of the roll by the clip becoming a spinning jack crashing through the water of the cavern. It was nowhere near the hit from the tail but it was not nothing when he was still fucked up. He felt his shin bone crack and his back flared again as he tumbled through muddy water. This time Vlad skidded from his hand though only a few feet from where he ended up against the back wall, his legs immersed in the water. His H in his vision was once again in the deep Red. Without the boost from [Brutal Savagery] the wracking pain was tough to get his mind past but the mission wasn¡¯t done and there wasn¡¯t anything gonna keep his ass on the ground. His mind was a bit spun from the tumble but after a painful breath his eyes focused. The Vor was slowly limping its way towards him snail pace, small bits of black and red flame still eating away at it, half it¡¯s chest and head and one of its front legs charred down to bone. There had to be something about hellfire that the creature was susceptible to as it was night and day from the first time Vlad played on its hide to the hellfire shells which he hadn¡¯t known it could do. It was a race of two fucked up enemies seeing who would break first as Jeb crawled his way to Vladimere. It still had three shells in the chamber and he was hoping all to Hell it would be enough to end the fucking creature as his Stamina was in heavy Red, matching his Health, which wouldn¡¯t be enough to load it up with more hellfire shells. The pain of losing his Boy was still fresh and a blade in his chest but he had no time to let it break him, not while Bose¡¯s killer still breathed. His hand landed on Vlad which made the Vor flinch its corpse looking head as he brought it up and laid the last three shells on it¡¯s approaching chest, dead center. Another screech came while more blood and night flames lit it up but it wasn¡¯t stopping. It became even slower in its approach, the hide and flesh on its chest dropping as ash, the already fucked up leg a chew toy to the flames as it crumpled beneath its weight. It landed hard enough to send a shock-wave through the stone under neath him but he was spent, his Stamina bar now not just red but a flashing Red whatever that meant but he could take a guess as weakness flashed through his entire body. He fell back to where he¡¯d originally landed, his back against the back wall. The teeth filled jaws inched closer as the Vor dragged itself through the water and over the stone, no more then a dozen yards out. Bogie flashed before it waving his arms and screaming at the creature but once it crashed its jaws through the Ghostly figure and found no substance, it crawled right through him. Jeb felt empty. A whisper escaped his lips, an ode. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Boy. I brought you to your grave. Your Pops couldn¡¯t save you and couldn¡¯t avenge you. You deserved more, so much more from me.¡± An anger simmered inside him. He didn¡¯t give a shit if he died but fuck this creature living after taking Bose from him, taking his Boy. He dropped Vlad and pulled his sigma. He¡¯d take this fucker with him if it was the last thing he did. He owed Bose that a thousand times over. He reached inside himself to find the energy somewhere, anywhere and dug into the stone and the wall behind him to drag himself to his feet, leaning of his cracked shin onto one leg. He was empty of any kind of anything but when had that ever stopped him. Pure grit would need to be enough as he flipped his sigma into an ice-pick grip. He¡¯d need to go for it¡¯s eyes and hope to somehow get to its brain before it chomped him in half. Just as he took a tottering step forward and the creature had crawled within a few feet looking as if coiled itself to lunge at him with all those teeth, the sweetest song Jeb had ever heard laced his ears as multiple hammer barks sounded out behind the overgrown lizard. He felt tears lacing his cheek. Bose! Shock laced the Vor¡¯s pain skewered eyes as it turned its massive bulk to look behind it giving an open glimpse for Jeb to lock onto his boy Bose who¡¯d parodied the Vor and had crawled his way to fight beside his Pops. His front left limb was held up against his chest and he looked like his own ribs were caved but a look of pure violence lay in his Boy¡¯s eyes as he peeled his fangs and hammered out three more weighted barks that echoed through the cavern followed by doing something that had Jeb¡¯s mouth left gaping. He now knew what the question marks were hiding. Bose opened his jaws and took a deep breath then let out a jet of black and red flames that shoved their hungry heat over the backside of the Vor and part of its upper shoulder which had turned to find the prey it thought dead. The sounds it made as the flames lit up all the hide that hadn¡¯t felt Vlad¡¯s touch caused rocks to drop from the ceiling. It spun to it¡¯s back attempting to put the flames out in the water but the water didn¡¯t seem to do shit and Jeb took his shot as he half fell/leapt onto its head ignoring the slight pain in his chest from the remaining hellfire on its head as his stigma lanced down into its eye, again and again as he wrapped his legs around its neck or did his best to, ignoring his ribs, busted arm and fractured shin as he shoved his blade again and again, the new flames joining the old in eating away at its life as Jeb helped it along. A toss of its head in jerking spasms throughout it¡¯s frame sent Jeb once more flying to land in center of the cavern floor and pond. He quickly popped his submerged head out of the water pulling himself to a sitting position, the water up to just below his upper chest. He was a few feet away from the half eaten corpse from earlier and the Momma Vor¡¯s kid¡¯s corpse. He wiped the water from his eyes in time to finally see the beast fall into the water, gasping, as the hellfire continued to eat at it and a last heaving chest rise before stilling to an end. He didn¡¯t know where his stigma went but didn¡¯t give a shit as he crawled, half stumbled and inched his way through the water, over the stone until he had his collapsed boy in his arms. Bose¡¯s breaths were coming heavy and hard and he felt his pooch¡¯s life slipping through his fingers. Tears carved his cheeks as he rocked his boy in his arms ignoring the pain from ribs and arm and all over his body spiking into him. ¡°Don¡¯t die on your Pops Bose. I need you.¡± A couple final rasps came out of his boy¡¯s chest and Jeb knew where it was headed, Bose too fucking hurt. He pressed himself into his Boy whispering he loved him. He wouldn¡¯t leave the world not knowing that. One more straining breath then his chest stilled and tears fell. You have killed an (Adult Vor, Elite), a creature almost a full Tier above you. Bonus Experience applied due to Title. Four Levels Gained. You have Reached Copper (10) and are primed for Evolution into Bronze. A stream of energy slammed into Jeb and through him, a rope of it lashed out into his Boy. Did that mean?! They stayed like that for several breaths as once again he felt his body refreshed, reformed, and rebuilt, better than before. He was released as he landed on one knee, fully healed. Two hammer barks slammed his ears as he opened his eyes to a bouncing Bose, good as new. He dropped to both knees and pulled the best pooch in the world to him sobbing like a small child. ¡°I¡¯d thought I¡¯d lost you Bose.¡± Heavy slap licks crashed against his face and his heart felt like a mountain had been lifted. Bose¡¯s eyes told him their bond was unbreakable and that he¡¯d never leave his Pops. He crushed his Boy to him again and took the non-stop sandpaper tongue smacking his face as a welcome price. Bogie watched them with heavy guilt in his eyes and a hunger to know that kind of loyalty and love. He was a Gremlin. No one gave a shit about Gremlins, not even their own. Warborn -- Part One -- Chapter 6 -- Gems, Final Slot, Bring the Classes CHAPTER 6 ¨C GEMS, FINAL SLOT, BRING THE CLASSES The Endless Dungeon *** The hug lasted about another ten seconds before Bose leapt off him to go throw anvil barks and growls at the dead Momma Vor which brought Jeb¡¯s attention to two things, the first, three more glowing Gems hung in mid-air, and two, a guilty looking, sad looking Ghost Gremlin floated a few feet off halfway between him and the Gems, a Gremlin who couldn¡¯t seem to lift his eyes and look at Jeb. A part of Jeb wanted to cut off all ties with the bastard for his suggestions in running and abandoning his Boy as a snack for the Vor so he could escape but another part, a part mired in reality and the pragmatic mindset only decades in war zones could bring, flipped on. If a soldier attempted to bring an American morality to a third world country they were stationed in, especially if it was months at a time, it would cause problems both long and short term. If you were in a place where the only way people survived was to steal, cheat, and hustle just to make sure their children had something to eat, condemning them for it became a slippery slope in a hurry. It didn¡¯t mean a soldier needed to put up with shit or not pass judgment if someone was attempting to take them for a ride, in all contrary, in such a place, they would be thought of as weak and a mark if they did but making quick judgments on people for doing so was a hard stance to keep. Jebediah had no clue what it was to grow up in this fucking Empire but based on his taste so far, it couldn¡¯t be easy, especially not for something like a Gremlin. His wandering mind made him miss that Bose was actually eating the corpse. Damn, fucker. ¡°Bose, get the fuck away from there right now!!¡± His Boy looked at him confused as if was perfectly natural to chow down on the huge ass dinosaur lizard he¡¯d helped kill. Bogie finally etched some words into space. ¡°He¡¯s fine Jebediah. The meat won¡¯t hurt him. In fact for a beast it would normally be a necessity for them to evolve, consuming the DNA of stronger creatures and it would subsequently influence that Evolution. I don¡¯t believe that will be the case with Bose as he is a soul-bound Companion, tied to you, so therefore his evolution will be derivative off your own, his changing appearance and that Hellfire Breath he used.¡± Wow, the one-eighty of a docile, respectful Bogie, threw him off and kinda irritated him more than if the little fellow had continued with his bullshit. He didn¡¯t know if he approved of the submissive version he heard in the tone. In fact as he stepped forward to gather the floating Gems he put a parlay to slap an end to it, to a degree. ¡°Don¡¯t become a kiss ass Bogie. You fucked up and pissed me the fuck off but, and I mean this, everyone fucks up and to be straight up with you, I got zero clues about you, what you grew up like, what you¡¯ve had to do to survive in this Great Asshole Empire you got going on, maybe running is the only thing you¡¯ve ever known when shit gets hot, maybe true loyalty doesn¡¯t exist in your world.¡± Bogie peeked up as if he couldn¡¯t believe Jeb was being forgiving, like it was some kind of deception or hustle which told Jeb a lot and at the same time, not enough. He was in a blind man¡¯s cul-de-sac that had only one entrance and exit he could feel but not see and zero clues on whether there were some back doors hiding in the bushes. He chuckled to himself. That was a fuck all analogy but not really his strong point so he let it go. He threw his direct gaze back at the small man until he could see that he was as he appeared to be, Jeb, nothing less, nothing more, retired Master Sergeant of the US Army. Bogie was about to say something when another Notification that had been waiting in his vision, shoved its way into his sight. Your actions have earned you your second Title Contestant. Congratulations. Prodigy/Forerunner - You are the first of your Recruitment group to reach the Pinnacle of Copper and sit at the cusp of Bronze. Permanent +0.5 to all Attributes. +10% to all Attributes. Quest ¨C To Rise (Mandatory Quest) The First Threshold, that of moving from Copper to Bronze, holds simple Requirements. Please fill out all of the User¡¯s Core Slots followed by designating your Main Attribute then choose a Class based on options provided. Rewards -- Evolve to Bronze, gain a Class. A shot of energy knocked Jeb on his ass as another yelp slapped out of Bose. It only lasted for a few moments but damn, this power-ups packed a punch. He found his feet again and felt another layer of power sculpting his flesh and mind. Damn, this shit could get addictive. Bogie picked back up whatever he had been going to say adding the addendum of what Jeb had just got. ¡°Damn Jebediah, your Attributes already have you in the Elite Status and you still have a Core Slot to Fill and a Class to get. Your potential is, well. One small claw over the next. I¡¯m sure we can find something that fits in those three Gems you just received. In a Tutorial most people would only be getting one Gem from each encounter though that¡¯s with fighting things their own level. They would also have to scrap over every Gem with whoever else was involved in the fight so even though you being kidnapped into the Endless Dungeon sucks and will continue to suck, the prizes you¡¯ve gained might be worth the extreme danger.¡± Bogie fidgeted his hands and still hadn¡¯t brought out his perpetual stogie to puff on. His voice was still a bit too ass-kissery but it seemed Jeb¡¯s words had loosened him up a bit. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Jebediah. You¡¯re right, in the Empire, it¡¯s as you humans would say, dog eat dog, and , uhm, Gremlins are even worse, not even your parents give two shits. We as a race are towards the very bottom of the scale and we get no more than a couple years with our parents before we¡¯re thrown on the street and told to survive. For me to get where I am, which really isn¡¯t that far, I¡¯ve had to claw, bite, cheat, do anything I could do to get ahead, to survive but, what I saw, what you showed me, the loyalty and care you got for your poo¡­.for Bose. I don¡¯t know if I understand it but well, I want to.¡± Jeb put him out of his misery as he walked around searching for his sigma and Vlad, gathering them as Bose leapt around after taking a few more chunks of meat when he thought his Pops wasn¡¯t looking. Jeb had to admit, he was fucking hungry himself but he wouldn¡¯t be eating any raw lizard. He hoped this Blood City had some kind of food and that he could get some good money or whatever they used for the Holy Gem and whatever else he didn¡¯t use. As he put Vlad in it¡¯s scabbard and slid his sigma into it¡¯s sheathe he paused for a moment to pull his axe back out. ¡°Bogie. Let¡¯s start fresh buddy. From here on out, if you got mine and Bose¡¯s back, I got yours. I don¡¯t abandon people I care for, ever. If you want to get put in that corner, then understand that truth and don¡¯t ever ask me again to abandon my Boy. You do that and give it some time, know I won¡¯t ever abandon you either.¡± He paused to give a serious stare at the fidgeting Gremlin who looked as if Jeb had just shown him a treasure he thought he¡¯d never see in his lifetime if not straight up considered a fairy tale for suckers. Damn, other people were shits. ¡°Enough of the pussy footing though Bogester. Show me how the fuck to get out of this place then help me choose a Gem and one of these Classes. I don¡¯t fancy having to fight another one of these fucking Vor, at least not until I¡¯m a bit stronger.¡± His eyes drifted to the bouncing Bose and the image of him almost dying flashed through his head. ¡°Till we¡¯re both stronger, right Bose?¡± Bose went low on his front legs like they were about to play catch and threw out a hammer bark. For a second it was as if they were back at the cabin and he had a tennis ball in his hand though the flaring red and black lit eyes on Bose peeking back at him kinda ruined the nostalgia though it did make him look kinda bad ass, like a hell hound. Bogie snapped him out of his day dream already about ten feet towards the right hand tunnel. ¡°Alright Soldier Boy, let¡¯s get this road a stepping. It¡¯s only a few miles to the Safe Zone leading into Blood City and with the scent from three Vors in the area we should be good. I believe the first you killed was an invader of a Mother and child¡¯s territory while said Mother was out hunting. It should be several days before another takes over their territory.¡± Jeb smiled at the return to Soldier Boy, a step in the right direction for the Gremlin. He motioned for him to lead the way as he followed, Bose bounding past him, splashing water, though not too far from his Pops. He¡¯d keep an eye but he trusted the Gremlin in his assessment of what they¡¯d dealt with as it was his take as well. He pulled up Bose¡¯s status as they walked. BOSE Bonded Animal-Companion Race ¨C Infernal Touched Canine (Beast) Core ¨C Copper (10) Beast Traits ¨C Hellfire Breath ¨C Common ranked Hellfire. 20 Minute Cool-down upon use. Age ¨C 2 Core Causality ¨C B Good to know his Boy could only use it once before having to wait twenty minutes. Kind of like his [Brutal Savagery]. He tossed up the info on Vlad as his feet trudged after the floating Gremlin. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. VLADIMERE ¨C Infernal touched System Enhanced Soul-Bound Benelli LE M4 Tactical Shotgun Soul-Bound Ability ¨C No longer needs outside ammunition. Creates standard ammunition internally with a slight drain from User¡¯s Stamina. Initial Ammunition max capacity stays the same at seven, six plus one in the chamber. Slight delay once ammunition is exhausted before it is replenished if required Stamina is available. With an expenditure of a much larger portion of Stamina User can infuse shells with a Common Ranked version of Hellfire. They weren¡¯t kidding with the bigger cost on hellfire shells. He¡¯d done two loads and it had almost knocked him on his ass with the Stamina pull. He¡¯d have to pick his timing on when to do it though his Constitution just went up with the Level-ups and the new Title so he¡¯d have to see. He wanted to hold off on looking at his new Attributes until he¡¯d filled his other Core Slot and got whatever the Class brought. He hated to admit it but he was looking forward to seeing what he got as far as options with the Gems. He could give himself shit for it but he¡¯d learned a long time ago that a soldier in the field that doesn¡¯t use ever tool available to keep himself and his people still breathing was a soldier with a short shelf-life. *** Safe Zone ¨C Endless Dungeon ¨C Blood City Entrance *** That was a first since he¡¯d landed. It had been a nice peaceful stroll the few miles to the Safe Zone, giant lizard free. It was nice not having something try to kill him for a bit. The gray fog had been right where Bogie said it would be, a bit around a blind curve in the tunnel then as he¡¯d cleared his eye line he¡¯d seen it set in the tunnel wall to the right at the same time the tunnel had opened up into another large cavern minus the water this time. This cavern had about five tunnels peeling off it counting the one he¡¯d just emerged out of. He stepped through the gray foggy shit holding Bose¡¯s collar and the gray stone room on the other side he stepped into looked about the same as the other one with another portal on the far side of the room with a few stone steps leading up to it. This portal though if Bogie was right led up to Blood City in a section of the City called the Skull and Bones territory which was according to Bogie, controlled by what he called Greenskins. He hadn¡¯t really dug too much yet into what the fuck Greenskins were as he¡¯d been focused on getting them to Safety and there was a shit ton of information about all sorts of shit that Bogie had been trying to cover. He would need to at least get the basics before heading up but now that they¡¯d entered they were on another thirty minute timer. This whole experience had been move move move, no time to take a breath which was another major difference between where he¡¯d been bamboozled and the Tutorial. According to Bogie, in the Tutorial there was Safe Zones without time limits where people could find sleep, and food, was usually abundant in various shapes. He did not have those luxuries which meant by this time he was tired and hungry as fuck but Bogie said for the first week after a Tutorial, new Recruits were given a space inside the Emporium which acted somewhat like a Safe Zone in the sense it was guarded by the System itself and no violence was allowed but since unlike Tutorial peeps who were dropped right in front of it at the end of said Tutorial, Jeb and Bose, would be popping out at least ten to fifteen miles from its location. Another thing he hadn¡¯t dug into yet but based on the worry in the Gremlin¡¯s eyes when he¡¯d said it and mentioned these Skull and Bones characters he¡¯d have to pull some more info before taking him and Bose through. The only boon he could see from this whole shit fest was most people out of the Tutorial would be only at most, Copper(8), at the tippy top for the real go-getters though they would have their Classes and more than likely a few of their Attribute Slots filled which he was told is what gave the User actual Abilities based on the Class taken, which was in turn was influenced by one¡¯s Main Core selection and the three Core Gems slotted. It all spun his head like a corkscrew, too many fucking variables for him to keep up with. The reason why they would have more Slots filled than Jeb was the tutorial lasted two weeks which gave them the time to accrue a lot more Gems even if they would for the most part be far lower ranked than the Ancient Hell Gem he¡¯d found and slotted, most of them having to make due with Common and Uncommon Ranked Gems. Bogie broke him out of his lost in thoughts moment with a bit of help by a hip check from Bose. ¡°As usual Soldier Boy, tick-tock, so get those Gems out and identified then we can go from there and get you a Class. There¡¯s still key information I have to go over before we head into Blood City if we want to keep you and Bose breathing until we can get you to the Emporium.¡± That sounded ominous and was the second time he¡¯d hinted at some heavy danger when they entered Blood but first things first, Gems. He was excited. What the fuck was he gonna get? It was like a cracker jack box when he was a kid. He focused and pulled the first one which took a few seconds. It landed in his hand and he tossed the [Identify]. Core Gem analyzed and Identified ¨C Gem ¨C Heaven ¨C Ancient Ranked ¨C Affinity with User ¨C 18%. Alright, so the opposite of Hell? But looking at his Affinity with it had him dejected. For a second he imagined the avenging angel blasting demons with light and flame. He heard a moan from Bogie which made him turn his eyes. The Gremlin shrugged his shoulders. At least is another Ancient and he could sell this one. Bogie matched the thought. ¡°Hey, at least you¡¯ll be able to get some good money for it. The type of races in Blood might not be the best customers for that kind of Gem but the great thing about the Emporium is whether you sell it to the system or one of the merchants there they have access to buyers from the other cities. Alright, next.¡± No point in being depressed about it and it wasn¡¯t surprising, Heaven and Holy and the good guys wanted nothing to do with him. Fuck it. He didn¡¯t give a shit. He was what he did not what other people saw him as, not even the almighty System. Every day was a new day with new choices, new paths. He felt a slight tremor in his hands that put a bit of a lie to the thoughts. He shook it off, threw the Heaven Gem into his inventory and focused on bringing up another Gem. It took a moment but than appeared. He tossed another [Identify]. Core Gem analyzed and Identified ¨C Gem ¨C Magma ¨C Rare Ranked ¨C Affinity with User ¨C 41%. Magma sounded real cool or hot. A small chuckle but again shit Affinity. With his Causality thing though it would be 91%, not quite as good as his other two Gems but he was kinda pressed here as Bogie and he agreed. He didn¡¯t want to enter Blood City without the boost a Class would give him as well as another Core Slotted. He had to get to the Emporium to find any kind of safety according to the Bogester. He had one Gem left to check. Magma at least sounded like if not the best choice, still a choice, and it was Rare though he didn¡¯t think it really meshed with the Hell motif, really but it was better than nothing. He absently rubbed Bose on his head who was sitting on his haunches leaning himself into his Pop¡¯s hip. He threw eyes at Bogie who confirmed what he himself was thinking. ¡°Not the best, not the worse. We can make it work but it kinda clashes with your main Core though no one ever knows how the System meshes things until you slot it. The Class choices of slotting Magma with Hell and Brute would probably be strange as fuck but who knows. You got one more, let¡¯s hope it¡¯s something you have better Affinity with and fits better.¡± He sighed. This was why he never gambled. He didn¡¯t trust his luck enough to pull the trigger on that type of vice though vices in general weren¡¯t really his rut. Drinking, smoking, all of that shit lost his interest by his mid-twenties. He threw the Magma Gem into his inventory and pulled the last Gem. C¡¯mon baby, give me something good. He tossed the [Identify] with a hard wish. Core Gem analyzed and Identified ¨C Gem ¨C Faith ¨C Epic Ranked ¨C Affinity with User ¨C 96%. A gasp slipped from Bogie¡¯s lips while Jeb just stared and Bose feeling his Pop¡¯s conflicted emotions whined a bit pressing himself into Jeb. He threw Bose some pets while looking at the Gem. It was light blue mixed with a really light yellow. It looked beautiful. Faith? Jeb had never really been very religious at all nor had his parents who were just forty hour a week blue collar people, his Pops, ex-navy for just one tour, then falling into working on a manufacturing line for thirty years, his Moms, a seamstress at a clothing factory. They would go to church on Christmas and Easter, that was about it. It had more Affinity than even the Hell Gem and he got the gist that Faith maybe didn¡¯t so much mean religion as it did just Faith, in one¡¯s self maybe? Most of his life except for the last decade he had a shit ton of that. It was how he¡¯d been able to grind his way up into an E-8. He jumped causing Bose to throw heavy barks and growls as Bogie literally blasted his ears from a foot away. ¡°Boo yah!!!! So good Jebediah!! The Affinity is off the charts combined with your +50% boost, powerhouse, and Epic, your Class options should be amazing!! I¡¯ve only seen that Gem used by really wealthy Sub-Factions of the Empire in Holy builds, you know, mixes with a Holy Gem or Light or Sun Gem and usually as the Core Slotted Gem. I can¡¯t imagine what mixing it with Hell and Brute will do but just at a glance I think they will all find symmetry and, for some reason, it just fits you. If you had gotten it earlier I would have had you slot that in your Body. Oh well, still impressive.¡± Bogie squared his eyes off into the distance obviously looking at the System then snapped back to Jeb while finally popping out an already lit cigar taking a few puffs. Bogie back to himself, good to see and the excitement and needled toothed smile was infectious, Jeb finding himself smile back. ¡°We got a bit less than twenty minutes left so slot that bad boy, choose a Main Core Primary Attribute which has to be one of the three Attributes tied to your Major Core. I would suggest Strength but do what you will. The Choice will effect Class options in addition to everything else, in some ways more. Though I certainly don¡¯t see you choosing Agility and I don¡¯t think you would be happy with the Classes it would give you. Agility focused builds tend to be more long ranged physical or rogue types.¡± All this information was a bit of an overload for Jeb but it did make it very obvious that he needed more before making such a huge decision. Time for a few questions. He¡¯d have to keep it quick with the time crunch. ¡°So wait, the Attribute I choose is what dictates what Class I get, not the Gems?¡± Bogie shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s complicated Jebediah. It will dictate the bend in the direction of the Class. If you choose Strength, it will give you Class options that will emphasize that, same with Agility and Constitution but the flavor of the Class will be effected mostly by your Main Core, in this case, Hell but will still have subtle influences or at least a couple options off your Secondary Gems. And even then you still might get a few off-kilter Classes offered leaning more towards one of your other Body Attributes.¡± The blank look on Jeb¡¯s face must have communicated everything as Bogie laughed. ¡°It will be fine Soldier Boy and we don¡¯t have time for me to go over an entire Class, System theory crafting seminar. Just slot it and let¡¯s get the bones thrown!¡± He was right, time wasn¡¯t there friend and it really didn¡¯t matter as he knew he was slotting the Faith Gem though now that he thought about it would have probably been better in his Spirit Slot but fuck it, hindsight was an ex that wanted alimony. He threw some Will at the Gem in his hand. It didn¡¯t give him options this time cause fuck, all he had was Mind left. He gritted his teeth waiting for it come down the pipe and it did, hard, his body lifting off the ground while another shot over to Bose, this time instead of a yelp, a growl came out of him. Through his own clamped jaw and eating of pain, pride shined through him. His Boy was becoming a hell of a bad ass. He landed back on his feet just a few seconds later. He wasn¡¯t sure what actually had changed but his mind felt, stronger? Another System Notification hit his eyes. Congratulations User, you have filled all three Core Slots and are but one step away from moving to your Class Selection. Please indicate which of your three Body Attributes will be your Primary. 1 ¨C Strength 2 ¨C Agility 3 ¨C Constitution? Please make your selection now. This was a tough one. He agreed with Bogie and knew Agility was right out the door off the cuff. That wasn¡¯t who he was, skulking around and he certainly had Vlad, which was ranged but there was a reason he¡¯d chosen a shotgun as his go-to as opposed to an assault rifle. And fuck-no he could never imagine bouncing around like some gymnast. He wasn¡¯t built for that. He was an in your face pummel you down type of guy. Strength was the natural direction he was drawn to but he wasn¡¯t alone. He had Bose and he imagined Bose in this System shit becoming a bad ass but probably never being a sponge for punishment. Jeb made his choice, Constitution. He need to be able to shield his Boy, let him do what his Pops felt he was best suited for, hunting squirrels. Another shot of energy slid through him and this time both he and Bose yelped, the pain excruciating. He felt his bones and his flesh itself rewoven to be denser, no better way to explain it, the durability of his entire frame enhanced. It only lasted a few seconds but he felt like someone could break a bat on his head and he¡¯d barely feel it, well, depending on who was swinging the bat. Still he imagined if that Vor had hit him now with that tail swipe he would have tanked it a lot better now then he had. He couldn¡¯t even guess what his Constitution was at but had to be by far his best Attribute. Stand by. You will momentarily be transported to Class Selection. Compiling all available information and contributions. Analyzing, collating options, Class Choices chosen and populated. Transporting now. Once again he felt the vibrations within his flesh that said he was about to be transported but not like the gray fog, more like the original teleportation from Earth. A spliced reverb of energy shot through him as within a breath he and Bose were gone and a moment later Bogie himself got sucked up.