Accidental Champion of Earth - Chapter 8: This New Reality (Patreon)

I think I’m an idiot.

The Lesser Goblin’s short sword came down to strike straight at Xavier’s head, and he wasn’t moving out of the way. But the moment the silver sheen of Spiritual Guidance had enveloped him, it infused him with a sense of confidence.

It felt different to last time, however. It didn’t guide his attacks, it simply made him feel as though he could take anything the enemy could dish out. Without the spell, Xavier would have winced and tried to dodge the goblin’s strike. With the spell, he stood tall, raised his chin, and waited for it to hit him.

Pain split his skull as a strike came down. He stumbled back a few steps. Touched a hand to his head. To his surprise, there was no blood. The strike had hurt, but it hadn’t split his skull.

Hell, it hadn’t even split his skin!

The Lesser Goblin looked just as surprised as Xavier did. Maybe even more. Xavier had already figured out that the little beasts were cowards. The goblin backed away, glanced behind him, looked like it would run.

The silver sheen had dissipated the second the short sword had hit him in the head, so Xavier knew the countdown on his cooldown would have already begun. I can’t let the goblin run. I can’t let it get away. But I can’t kill it until the cooldown reaches the end, or I won’t be able to use Spiritual Guidance to strengthen my magic during this fight. He wondered if he should run again. The goblin might be afraid, but it was still a predator. If Xavier wanted to make it think he was prey, he had to act vulnerable. Had to act like prey.

So he backed away, checked his cooldown.

Seven seconds.

He widened his eyes, made his movements jerky.

Five seconds.

The goblin hesitated. Stopped backing away itself. Tightened its grip on the short sword’s hilt, steeling its gaze and smiling wickedly.

Three seconds.

Xavier shook his head. Raised his hands—his left still holding his staff—as though in surrender.

The goblin approached. Looked about to run straight at him.

One second.

It sprinted forward. Leapt up into the air again. Cackled louder than before.

Something clicked in Xavier’s mind as he felt the cooldown reach its end. He cast Spiritual Guidance, focusing it on his magic.

The goblin cocked its sword back.

A silver sheen enveloped Xavier.

The goblin’s sword came down.

Xavier thrust his staff forward as he cast Telekinesis. He was infused with a massive amount of energy. The power moved through him. Before the goblin’s strike reached Xavier, it was yanked back, thrown all the way across the hall. Must have flown forty feet until it crashed into the far wall. It dented the wall when it hit, bones breaking on impact, and slid down to the floor in a heap.

You have defeated a Level 2 Lesser Goblin!

You have gained 200 Mastery Points.

You have gained 200 Spirit Energy.

“Yes!” Xavier pumped a fist into the air. Then the silver sheen wore off. Mental, physical, and perhaps even spiritual exhaustion slammed into him. His body wanted him to fall to his knees. His legs faltered, worse than they had when he had been injured, but he didn’t let himself get taken down.

He took a deep breath. Let it out. And kept standing. The exhaustion soon left him. When it did, he felt a deep emptiness where the power used to be. That, too, soon left him.

He brought up his Upgrade Quest for Spiritual Guidance, looking only at the one for Spiritual Trifecta.

Spiritual Trifecta – Enhance one’s physical and mental strength and defence, as well as one’s magical power, while in combat - to upgrade, fight an enemy while this path is active. Progress: 1/5

Xavier smiled. Couldn’t help it. He’d been right. He didn’t need to use all three of the spell’s abilities simultaneously—perhaps that wasn’t even possible while it was still at Rank 1. He just needed to use all three of them during the same fight.

Though he instantly saw the problem with this approach when he looked at his Spirit Energy.

Available Spirit Energy: 600/1500

While his capacity to hold Spirit Energy had gone up to 1500, that hadn’t actually added any Spirit Energy to his pool. He’d defeated two Lesser Goblins, gaining him 400 Spirit energy, but it had taken five spells to manage it.

I’m going to need to be careful of that. He held up his staff and looked at the green blood that now covered the crystal. The description said that Mages could be close-combat fighters. Now he was starting to realise how. Spiritual Guidance. It can make me physically and mentally stronger. He imagined there must be other spells that were similar to it. It made him wonder if he should add a point to Strength and Speed each on his next level up. Maybe he was going about this all wrong.

He looked across at the dead Lesser Goblin. Forty feet, he’d flung that thing. Its corpse was mangled, the neck turned the wrong way from the force of hitting the wall. I wonder how much farther I could have thrown it if the wall wasn’t there.

Xavier frowned. Was that a twisted, morbid thought, or just a practical one?

He shrugged it off, cut the goblins’ purses, then kept moving through the halls. I just need to manage this four more times. Stalking down the halls, searching for more goblins, it made him wonder how other people might be faring in this new reality.

~

Alistair Reed had planned everything perfectly.

His target was alone. He had studied the building from every side. Knew how he would get in and out without being seen. Knew how to make the kill a quiet one.

The last thing he needed was to become a target himself, especially when this was going to be his first kill. First of many.

He had gotten to the target’s door. Picked the lock as silently as an expert thief. His weapon was sheathed at his hip, beneath his coat. The lock clicked and he almost laughed. Adrenaline was surging through him. Hadn’t felt this excited in a long time. Not since he was a kid, playing with the neighbour’s dog.

Watching it squirm and listening to it whine as he poked holes through its flesh with a freshly sharpened hunting knife.

That’s when he had heard a noise outside. Thunder booming. It had been rather dark, and gloomy. The sky had an odd colour to it. Reminded him of blood. Then again, most things did.

Then time had frozen.

Interlopers have discovered your world. Your Solar System has now been marked for integration into the Greater Universe.

System integration begins in:

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

System integration commencing.

He had been terrified, at first. Then confused. Then enraged.

Something had pulled him away from the most important moment in his life. He was finally going to achieve his childhood dream. Something he had been working up to, something he had been fantasizing about for years.

The murder of another human being.

Now he had been yanked out of his reality and thrown into darkness.

Text kept appearing over his vision. It knew his name. It judged him in three categories: physical skills, intellectual skills, and spirit skills. He had gained high in all but the last, which had only been minimal.

Then it had asked him to choose a moral faction. He didn’t know what was happening, but he was nothing but delighted when he saw that “fight for chaos” was an option.

Much of his rage had dissipated by then. Instead, he was caught in the clutches of curiosity.

This was new. This was different. Like the murder he was about to commit, this was something he had never experienced before. Perhaps someone else might have thought they were going mad, with all this happening.

Alistair Reed had long ago realised going “mad” was simply a matter of perspective. From where he stood, everyone else looked like the mad ones.

When he had chosen to fight for chaos, he had then been forced to make another choice. A choice between two classes—that of a Warrior and that of a Mage.

Alistair had never been much for playing video games. His mother had thought that was a good thing. Always droning on about how violent they were. Alistair had simply never found them to be as violent as his dreams. As violent as his fantasies.

They had simply never lived up to his imagination.

This, however, felt like it might be different. Very different. As he was someone who very much liked to use his hands—he touched the hunting knife strapped to his belt, beneath his oversized coat—he couldn’t pass up choosing Warrior.

The System, as it appeared to be called, then sent him into the middle of a city. One he didn’t recognise. One where something called a “tutorial” was going on. And he was given a quest. One he quite liked the sound of.

Quest Log Activated

Current Quest: Destabilise the tutorial.

Progress: Incomplete

Reward:

1. Unknown item.

2. Bonus Mastery Points.

Alistair grinned. He had been given three weapons when he arrived back in the world: a sword, a dagger and a bow. His coat was gone, replaced with thin leather armour, cheaply made.

He tucked a strand of shoulder-length blond hair behind an ear, then strode into the middle of a mess of people.

The quest wasn’t very specific. There was no time limit. But that made it seem all the more fun—it meant he would have the freedom to do… whatever he wished.

What looked like a hologram flickered into being in the middle of a large city square. The hologram was of a wizened-looking, bearded man in shining golden armour. He had a hand resting on the pommel of his sword and a serious look about him.

And he stood fifty feet tall.

The hologram spoke, “Citizens of Planet Earth, I am here on behalf of the System to welcome you to the Greater Universe.”

Alistair slipped into the crowd. One among hundreds of confused looking people wearing an odd assortment of robes—grey and white—medieval looking trousers, tunics and dresses, and leather armour identical to his own.

Something told him this “Greater Universe”—this new reality the world had fallen into—was going to be fun.

~

Mellissa Donovan sat alone in her one-bedroom, studio apartment, eating cold baked beans straight from the can. She could hear her neighbour screaming at their kids through the thin walls. But that was nothing new. Mother of the year, that one.

Reminded her far too much of her own mother. Her own mother being the reason she was here.

Her place was a dump. The only damned thing she could afford. But it was her dump, and she was proud of it. She worked evenings and weekends just to afford the place, trying to get through her last year of High School. She was at that edge of life where she was legally old enough not to be forced to live at home, but also nowhere near being able to properly support herself.

That will change.  She had a scholarship to the local university. A full ride. Accommodation. Food. Tuition.

She’d worked herself to the bone to get the opportunities she had. All she needed to do was get through the next six months.

And I don’t need anyone’s damned help.

When she was finished with her poor excuse of a breakfast, she rinsed out the can and threw it in the recycling.

It froze in mid-air. Everything froze.

What the…?

Text appeared across her vision. Something about interlopers, and being integrated into the Greater Universe. Am I dreaming? She was yanked from her room. Judged by emotionless text. It deemed her physical skills to be middling, her intellectual skills high, and her spirit skills middling.

She had no idea what any of it meant.

Then, she was given a choice. Three moral factions. Though she didn’t understand what was going on, not making a choice didn’t seem to be an option, so she chose the only one that ever made sense. It’s what I’ve been doing for my entire life. Maybe this was some sort of dream. She didn’t know.

But she would always choose to fight for herself. She was given stats, then made to choose a class.

Choose your preferred basic fighting class:

Warrior

Ranger

Mage

One cannot walk backward on the path.

This was all beginning to feel very strange. Like some sort of video game. She’d never had the time for those. There simply wasn’t room in her life for leisure activities.

Not knowing any better, she chose Ranger.

The moment after she chose her class, she was pulled from the weird room of nothingness and taken to a forest. Her clothes had been changed—she now wore sleek leather armour, a green cloak adorning her shoulders. In her right hand was a bow, at one hip a quiver, at the other a dagger.

Quest Log Activated

Current Quest: Survive in the wilderness.

Progress: Incomplete

Reward:

1. Unknown item.

2. Bonus Mastery Points.

Melissa frowned. She still had no idea what was going on. Perhaps she should have been afraid. All alone in the middle of a forest. She had never used a bow before. Never hunted. Never needed to gather food in the wilderness in all her life.

But why should she be afraid, when she had the only person she would ever need with her?

Me.

There was a crack nearby, like the snapping of a stick. Clumsily, she pulled an arrow from her quiver and fumbled trying to get the nock on the string. Something was bounding along the forest floor. Heading toward her. She whirled. Spotted it through the trees. Saw it immediately.

She frowned. What is that?

{Rabbit – Level 3}

It looked nothing like any rabbit she’d ever seen. Its teeth were sharpened to a point, and it was the size of her mother’s annoying beagle.

And it looked like it was out for blood.

Whatever happened to the world, it changed everything. Even the animals.

Melissa drew back the string of her bow, took aim.

And loosed.

She didn’t understand this new reality, but she wouldsurvive it.