"Speech"
'Thoughts'
[System]
…
(A/N: Originally I wanted to keep the word count at around 2,000 but due to not being able to fit all the details I want, I decided to say fuck it to that rule. Chapters will be the length I feel I need them to be to be finished. 2k words or more. That's mostly the reason most things were given such short descriptions.)
...
(Third POV:)
[???, ???, 22??]
It all started with temptation.
A healer had found a book, or was it a curse? The details of the beginnings should be kept in the deepest darkness.
The curse caused the healer to see a beautiful woman. Unlike any possible human before her, the woman tempted the man.
Her eyes were an enchanting pink that seemed as if it would shine if it reflected just a bit more light.
Her white hair and long ears were a sight to behold, and beyond that, her enchanting figure. Many men would fall to their knees at the sight of such a being; however, the healer carried on.
The healer had deemed the woman a figment of his imagination yet kept talking to her as if she were real.
'There's no reason to not talk; after all, it is rude to ignore anyone or anything.' The healer thought to himself after the first few hours of trying to ignore the woman.
Quickly, they fell into a rhythm of conversation. The conversation they had was always light until the thirty-minute mark.
Upon that amount of time being reached, the woman would always try tempting him with flirting, wealth, power, and more.
Yet the man persisted. He would always brush the comments off. His impeccable defense was more of a byproduct of his unwillingness to accept that someone could be truly interested in him.
"Why do you honor your words to such a degree?" The soft and seductive voice of the white-haired woman reached the healer's ears as he sat on the bench.
"It's not about how much I honor my words." The healer gave a soft smile as if reminiscing about something, as he spoke. "I am a healer. I am not strong, not fast, and not perceiving, but I can be something better.
A man is valued at nothing upon birth, but by honoring his words as if they're gold, by being noble in his ways, and by being pure in his ideals, that man can become someone seen as a true king by all."
To the woman, as she watched him with his pure smile and eyes full of freedom with hints of innocence, she couldn't help but softly smile.
She would break him. Not physically, but mentally. To have all that innocence, will, honor, and honesty drowned in depravity and excess. Truly a sight to behold.
The sensations it would bring and the pleasure it would sprout. It was all too alluring, but she would have to play the long game.
It had been a month since they had been brought together, and she would receive a nickname. Neshi, it was a surprising one, but she accepted it with an alluring smile nonetheless.
Corrupting the man had been a slow process, slower than she'd like to believe, but he was showing signs. He was more talkative, more relaxed, and more affected by temptation.
And only a few weeks later did she ask a question.
"What do you feel when you talk to me?" She held a soft smile on the outside as she said it, but on the inside was a grin so wide it would split the body of any mortal.
"What's that supposed to mean? How should I give an answer to that?" The healer simply smiled, looked away, and sighed.
"Come on, give me something, anything~." She pressed forward, her words seeping into the cracks in his defenses.
"Hmm." The healer hummed as he thought of a response. Putting a hand on his heart, he finally decided what he wanted to say. "I think that you're a good friend—no, an amazing best friend. You've listened to all my problems and more, even though I thought of you as evil when you first came into my life."
The smile he radiated was too pure. It almost overshadowed the fact that the walls she had been breaking down were actually a multilayered defense of friendships, almost...
As time passed further, the healer seemed to be more influenced by his 'imaginary' friend.
Subconscious ideas, alluring thoughts, and even some hint of a future. All of it and more were displayed, and finally, after two and a half months of being, something changed.
The healer, instead of looking desperate, depraved, and wanting to indulge in sensation, looked angry.
Rage overtook him. So much so that he cast away being a healer. Instead spouting words of disgust and distaste about how others had let him down time and time again.
She tried again and again to stop his attempts at pushing through with the ideas he had, yet ultimately failed.
His last words to her were...
"When I cast away my abilities, I'll no longer have enough Arcane to speak to you like this. This will be the end. I'm sorry." The man, no longer a healer, spoke solemnly as if their time meant nothing in the face of his present fate.
And that was, in fact, the end. But before being let go, the temptress could only say one thing. One thing that most of the depraved loved watching and starting.
"Was I just NTR'd?"
She could feel it. The blood god's aura. It was so small that she wouldn't have felt it if he hadn't been so close.
To think her plans were in ruin due to one suggestion from another chaos god. She had been too busy playing the long game and indulging in his innocence being corrupted to see that another god had come and taken him.
This was a loss she could not take.
…
(First POV: Boros)
[June 7th, 03:10:14, 2248]
My singular eye slowly opened as I was mentally awakened. I felt as if I had had a very pleasant dream, yet I hadn't been able to recall what it was about, no matter how much I thought about it.
To indulge in a favorite pastime of mine was truly something I didn't deserve at the moment. Any being that doesn't see the beauty of being able to sleep is one that hasn't known true happiness.
The Hive's mental probing had done its job of acting as an alarm, not letting me sleep for longer than the amount I had planned.
Over the course of almost four hours, more players funneled into the dungeon at an alarming rate. They began quickly pushing the rabbits back from their positions; however, instead of killing them all as quickly as possible, they began suicide in the wave of white.
As someone who used to be a gamer myself, I knew what they were doing. By killing, dying, and resurrecting, those players could constantly gain levels.
It was only when the rabbit population couldn't keep up with the growing mob that more of them began feeding the population with their own bodies, like a horde of ants scurrying around an ant eater.
This process exponentially increased the grade of the last replicating rabbit while also speeding up the growth of the players.
For the first hour until now, they had been in a semi-deadlock of death. It was something I couldn't allow anymore.
By the first hour, I had made nearly half of what I needed to buy the Hive. By the second hour, I had bought the Hive and placed it down.
With it placed, it had begun spawning eggs. These eggs would, 100 percent of the time, spawn a Skulk.
The Skulk was around the size of a large dog. Its mouth held sharp teeth, easily able to lacerate its targets.
Its four legs had only sharp tips where the feet should be, allowing the creature to move in places normal creatures would never be able to.
The Skulk looked demented, with carapace lining its body, with the majority being on its legs and top of the head.
It has two orange eyes and three long tube-like protrusions growing on its back, along with multiple other vein-like growths on its body.
[The Skulk]
[Status]:
[Vitality]: 7.5
[Strength]: 10
[Dexterity]: 20
[Endurance]: 9
[Intelligence]: 3
[Arcane]: 0
[Talents]:
[Protective Carapace]
[Rarity: Epic+]
[Description]: The protective carapace on the creature absorbs most of the damage. When the carapace comes in contact with an attack, it reduces damage by 75%.]
[Alien Vision]
[Rarity: Rare+]
[Description]: Sight is different for all creatures, this type of vision allows this creature to see enemies, in the dark, and much more.]
[Parasite Carrier]
[Rarity: Rare++]
[Description]: Shooting out a parasite from its mouth, the sharp and small object penetrates the bodies of unaware creatures, allowing the Skulk and its Hive to sense the enemy's location.]
[Leap]
[Rarity: Epic]
[Description]: The Skulk leaps into the air yet finds itself unable to reach its opponent. Worry not, for this creature has a small extra leap that he can use even while in mid-air.]
It seems that the Hive has already finished working on a few abilities. Over time, the creatures that it speeds out will go through upgrades.
Once a Skulk is hatched, it has the ability to be fed resources by the Hive. Given enough it will be able to turn into one of four things: the Gorge, Lerk, Fade, or Onos.
The Gorge is a bulbous, mossy, and pudgy creature. It looked as if someone had given a hippopotamus dwarfism and then given it a small amount of Down syndrome.
The armored natural plating it had looked more awkward than intimidating, and with its orange-colored stomach, even with it being a bit bigger than a Skulk, it still looked mediocre.
However, the Gorge's main abilities are support. Its special breath can astronomically increase the healing speed of its allies.
At times, to get away, the Gorge will slide around on its soft stomach, and it seems to take great satisfaction from sliding around at fast speeds.
[The Gorge]
[Status]:
[Vitality]: 19
[Strength]: 8
[Dexterity]: 12
[Endurance]: 17
[Intelligence]: 3
[Arcane]: 0
[Talents]:
[Protective Carapace]
[Rarity: Epic+]
[Description]: The protective carapace on the creature absorbs most of the damage. When the carapace comes in contact with an attack, it reduces damage by 75%.]
[Alien Vision]
[Rarity: Rare+]
[Description]: Sight is different for all creatures, this type of vision allows this creature to see enemies, in the dark, and much more.]
[Healing Spray]
[Rarity: Unique]
[Description]: Exhaling a disgusting breath of bacteria, this creature is able to speed up the spread of bacterium and speed up the healing of allies.]
[Fortification of Life]
[Rarity: Unique+]
[Description]: Allows the Gorge to select the Hydra, Clog, Bile Mine, and Web to build.]
[Spit]
[Rarity: Common++]
[Description]: Spits a wad of acidic goo over a long distance.]
[Bile Bomb]
[Rarity: Epic+]
[Description]: Launches a metal-corroding bile sac that explodes on impact, dealing damage over time to all Enemies and structures in the splash radius.]
The Gorge's help in spreading the bacterium, the green disgusting substance that grew on every surface of the building that it quickly took over, would help immensely.
The ability to block off pathways by throwing acidic bile down a long hallway or completely block off a corridor by placing clogs.
The next creature was the Lerk.
The Lerk was a winged creature similar in size to the Skulk. Being similar in structure to that of a bat, the Lerk has a head carapace to protect it while also having two openings on the side of its face.
Those holes are quickly filled by two small spikes. These spikes can be rapidly fired, similar to an automatic rifle.
With its air superiority and small stature, this creature can instantly appear behind something and disappear quickly with just a flap of its wings.
Its orange eyes, dark skin, and wing membrane seem to have just minuscule hints of orange. A very efficient flying supporter.
[The Lerk]
[Status]:
[Vitality]: 18
[Strength]: 5
[Dexterity]: 40
[Endurance]: 12
[Intelligence]: 3
[Arcane]: 0
[Talents]:
[Protective Carapace]
[Rarity: Epic+]
[Description]: The protective carapace on the creature absorbs most of the damage. When the carapace comes in contact with an attack, it reduces damage by 75%.]
[Alien Vision]
[Rarity: Rare+]
[Description]: Sight is different for all creatures, this type of vision allows this creature to see enemies, in the dark, and much more.]
[Poisonous Bite]
[Rarity: Rare]
[Description]: Bites can inject poison into the enemy bitten.]
[Spikes]
[Rarity: Rare++]
[Description]: Rapidly shoots spikes over long distances. Spikes deal extra damage to players.]
[Spores]
[Rarity: Epic]
[Description]: Exhales Spore clouds that deal damage over time to enemies.]
The second to last one was the Fade. It stood on two legs with around the same height as a human but was incredibly hunched.
Just like all other aliens spawned by the hive, it had a protective carapace that covered its head, feet, arms, and knees.
Its arms had no hands, only massive scythe-like singular claws. Its face held orange eyes with crooked teeth and two fangs that hung out the mouth from the top jaw.
The Fade was a personal favorite of mine with the close second being the Onos. It was a master assassin designed to be anti-infantry that could teleport in and out of enemy lines.
[The Fade]
[Status]:
[Vitality]: 25
[Strength]: 35
[Dexterity]: 45
[Endurance]: 30
[Intelligence]: 3
[Arcane]: 0
[Talents]:
[Protective Carapace]
[Rarity: Epic+]
[Description]: The protective carapace on the creature absorbs most of the damage. When the carapace comes in contact with an attack, it reduces damage by 75%.]
[Alien Vision]
[Rarity: Rare+]
[Description]: Sight is different for all creatures, this type of vision allows this creature to see enemies, in the dark, and much more.]
[Blink]
[Rarity: Legendary+]
[Description]: Enter hyperspace to traverse quickly. While in hyperspace, become intangible to beings and objects in the real world. Increases dexterity by 250% while in hyperspace.]
[Critical Stab]
[Rarity: Rare++]
[Description]: The Fade uses both scythe-like appendages to stab deep into an enemy. This causes a 1.5x increase in damage, but if the enemy is unaware, it becomes a critical stab and does 2.5x increased damage.]
The last creature on the list was the Onos. A behemoth of a creature, standing at 12 feet tall and being built as if it were a mixture of a rhinoceros and a gorilla.
The carapace on its head looked as if it were a shield. It has three blade-like protrusions of carapace on each side of its head, along with a sharp, long horn on its snout.
Most of the carapace on its body was on its head, chest, and front arms; the four-legged behemoth was the main defender of the aliens.
Its teeth were much smaller compared to its size, but with its piercing orange eyes, massive height, sharp horn, and willingness to put anything into the ground, it was something to not be tested.
[The Onos]
[Status]:
[Vitality]: 115
[Strength]: 75
[Dexterity]: 25
[Endurance]: 65
[Intelligence]: 3
[Arcane]: 0
[Talents]:
[Protective Carapace]
[Rarity: Epic+]
[Description]: The protective carapace on the creature absorbs most of the damage. When the carapace comes in contact with an attack, it reduces damage by 75%.]
[Alien Vision]
[Rarity: Rare+]
[Description]: Sight is different for all creatures, this type of vision allows this creature to see enemies, in the dark, and much more.]
[Bone Shield]
[Rarity: Unique+]
[Description]: Extends the bone blades on the Onos' forehead to shield against damage from the front. Negates all damage from the front but reduces movement speed by 75%. (Does not negate: Status effects, damage over time, or damage triggered by massive explosions/elemental destructive piercing attacks.)]
[Stomp]
[Rarity: Epic]
[Description]: Stomps the ground to create cracks and a shockwave along the floor, which causes nearby enemies to lose their footing temporarily. (Causes effect [Highly Unstable Footing] to enemies.)]
With all of the creatures checked off, I waited for the bacterium in the area to spread with the help of the Gorge and the Hive making eggs.
I would give these newly spawned creatures more time before throwing them to the wolves. I still needed to try and do menial tasks on the chance that it might give me another perk.
Other than that, I don't think I can gain status points from working out like a normal person would, but I can always get perks from doing things over and over, like how I got [Sprint].
With my total points:
[Points: 1,485.62]
I'll definitely be able to make another floor and put together another one of my plans. This should separate me from the other floors when completed.