Born a Monster

Chapter 5: Born A Monster – Chapter 5 – The System

Born A Monster

Chapter 5

The System

“Before you ask, nobody knows for certain where the System came from. Some say the Gods are just those who learned to use the System and cultivation to gain power beyond mortality. But whatever its origins, it has been with us from before recorded history. There are those who believe the System and the Akashic Record to be one, and others related, and still others who hold they are separate legacies.

“We’ll discuss the Akashic record some other night. What do you know about the System?”

“It allows me to track my status. It – quantifies my being.”

“The status screen is one of the more common effects of the system. But it doesn’t just quantify you. Think of the System as reading and gathering your memories. It takes what you know, and provides an understanding of the scale of things. But because it goes by your personal experiences, it can be wrong.”

.....

“But how can I experience anything that is false.”

“Consider level, and the feeling of threat you get from – what did attack you anyway?”

“A small hawk, I think it was only a level two.”

“And what level of threat did you feel?”

“I was terrified. It was hitting me more often than I was hitting it. I think it could have really killed me.”

“But did you feel an aura of fear, a sense of danger, radiating from it?”

“No.”

“And from me?”

“I’ve sensed your emotions. Sometimes I’m afraid when you feel angry or hungry. But my fear is just – you’re the most powerful being I’ve ever met. I mean, you’re level 16.”

“I’m only level... Interesting.” He paused, lost in thought. “That squirrel there, what level do you see that as?”

I shrugged. “It’s a level two.”

“I see it as a level zero. Your System is tracking more than mine does. What is the highest level?”

“I don’t know.”

“My System tells me the highest level mortal creature is level 100. Yours, I would guess, is currently higher.”

“Is my System broken?”

“Not broken. Just – aligned differently. Your system is getting readings on things that the rest of us ignore. Try telling your System to ignore Might. Does my level change?”

“That would be silly. Might is absolutely a sign of a being’s physical power.”

IRRITATION. “Humor me. Ignoring might, does my level change?”

“Not by much.” I admitted, as his level reset to sixteen. “You’re still a fourteenth level magical creature.”

“Your System may be broken, then. It happens sometimes, for the mad. Does your system recommend certain abilities from your classes?”

“Not yet. But – it tells me what I need to do in order to get certain powers or traits.”

“That is normal. Spells as well?”

“Yes.”

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“You remember achievements? Have you discovered any others?”

“Apparently, I’m a Wanderer, for having discovered three different terrain types.”

“When the goblins were screaming, did you understand their words?”

“Some of them. How do I know words without being taught?”

“Babylon. It’s a nation from another world. One of the earliest sets of summoned heroes came from there. While forging their legend, they made sure that the System could translate languages, explain cultural nuances. The split between the original civilized races and the Beastmen goes back to the races they accepted as allies.”

“Wait. This System thing can be improved?”

“It can be improved, it can degrade. Some can enable cultivation methods, sometimes unique methods. Sometimes the System can be passed down from mother to child, and others – sometimes a child just has to learn on their own.”

Oh, that led to questions – but they are for parents to explain to their own children. And it is a process that probably pre-dates the system.

“What other things have been added to the system?”

“Quite a bit has been done with the mapping system. For example -”

I had questions about what maps were, again not salient to our discussion.

“Yes, you can track animals through it, and nodes to harvest resources. When in a party, you can track party members through the System. But always, always, it uses your knowledge, skills, and experience as a base. For example, those goblins never knew I was there, because of my skills and aptitude towards stealth.”

“Wait, so the System can use my skills without my consent?”

“No, never without your consent. But many people do let the System use their skills, for example, for repetitive crafting, or you with your search for food.”

“I – I never even considered letting it search for food. How would I even find food, without searching for it?”

“Over millennia, the System has been used in different ways by different people. Some of the abilities seem innate to the System itself, and others require faith, and still others require an understanding, a depth of knowledge that those who rely only on the system never gain.”

“So I should keep cultivating. I already planned to do that as much as possible.”

“Not just cultivating. You should never stop LEARNING. You should never stop THINKING. Use the System as well, of course. But know your path, what you want from this life, and pursue it.”

“What do you want, Eihtfuhr?”

“I want only to pass on my legacy, to teach a new generation, a clutch of spiderlings, what it means to be a Child of Anansi. So I keep this wood safe, a region for those children, for whenever a female Child will enter this wood. When that blessed day comes, you will need to leave. Spiderlings – have healthy appetites, and you are made of meat.”

A cold wind blew through me, a wind that had no connection to the air. I regarded Eihtfuhr as a helpful friend, as a source of knowledge and wisdom. To him, I was ... well, maybe not a hobby to pass the time.

But there was a time when we would not be so close, and that knowledge hurt.

There were other lessons that night, but I was not focused on them as I should have been.

#

I had meant to sleep through that next day, but my hunger would not allow it. It made no sense – over twelve hours of foraging, I could easily find about twenty four biomass. As long as I wasn’t picky. My normal metabolism used up nine of those a day.

Still, no matter how much I ate, there was the compulsion to eat more, to eat faster. I caught myself eating grass, stripping fallen limbs of green leaves and sometimes even bark. I would dig deep into the earth, just to consume the worms wriggling underneath.

A week passed this way before the next event, and I had begun the changes to my hands. Still, no matter how much food I took in, I still wanted more. Adaptions that would expand my stomach looked appealing, and I even considered upping my metabolism to increase my digestion speed.

“You must move.” Eihtfuhr said to me one night, when we were to discuss travel and portals and other things. “You are eating too much to remain near the center of the forest. I have found one near the eastern fringe of the forest. You will have access to both the woods and the plains, and the strain on the animals I eat will be less.”

Well, I had been eating quite a lot. There were no objections I could think of.

I could carry only the flint and steel, each under a different side of my tongue, and the pathetic wood axe. I had great hopes for those things, once my hands finished developing.

“So tell me,” asked Eihtfuhr when we arrived, “why did you not just carry those things in your System Inventory?”

My jaw dropped, as did the axe. “I forgot I even had access to that power.” I admitted.

“Be careful here. This is the direction where the goblins come from.”

Having learned goblins were nocturnal, I resolved to be active during the day. Knowing from eating so many of them that their sense of smell was even greater than my own, I washed in the river before each night of sleep.

But the goblins came anyway.

#

There were six of them, and – something else. If a goblin were refined, the arms and legs built thin yet muscular, and the whole thing wrapped in black scales, topped with a reptilian head it might look like that thing.

It radiated a wicked, hunting intelligence. Although it carried no weapons, its claws were flat and curved, more like blades than talons.

It pointed out my lair, and a goblin reluctantly scouted it out with a knife. I remained on the far side of a tree trunk, listening and smelling and slowly changing my skin patterns to match the bark.

Well, I lost my food stash, but kept my life.

When they moved deeper into the wood, I followed, from a distance. When dusk settled, they formed a rough circle around the reptilian one. He adjusted them into a hexagon, and stood in the middle.

They said some words in goblin that I did not catch, and then Eihtfuhr was among them.

“Attack!” shrieked the reptile, and they did.

Then it turned to flee east, back the way they had come.

I don’t know why I tried to run forward and grab its ankle, but I tried. A passing swipe of its claws took away nine of my fifteen health points, leaving me sprawled and defeated.

Well, that was that, then. It would take two weeks, but my next priority was raising my Might score, particularly my Health.

“That was stupid of you.” Said Eihtfuhr, as he set off in pursuit.

I had the spare biomass, and the dead goblins had two healing potions. I took one, and didn’t have long to wait before Eihtfuhr came back, lugging the corpse of their leader.

“Pay attention, this is a kobold.”

.....

Its hide resisted the efforts of my claws, and that of the goblin knife. I had to position the blade under the scales to cut the flesh beneath, which was more resilient than it had any right to be.

“There are several differences. Do me a favor, open one of those healing potions for me.” Like most things I had trouble with, he made the act of drinking a potion seem simple.

“So, what do you notice?”

“It’s like muscle... but... Wait, is this tier two muscle?” I tasted it. It was.

Almost every part of the kobold was better than my own body. The bones were the same, but we might as well have spawned from different – well, technically we had.

It was my first experience with Digestion Frenzy, where even my brain got less oxygen just to bump my stomach and all things connected to it by a factor of two. That one night, my System learned almost twenty four thousand biomass points worth of evolutions. Several things that had started when I’d eaten goblin just – aborted, and set about on different projects.

“It’s just – It’s just-” I gasped.

“I can see your sanity meter from here. I could have stopped you, if I needed to.”

“I think I know what’s been going on – why I gain levels without gaining statistics.”

“What do you think is going on?”

[Goblinoid transformation begun.] A counter for sixteen minutes started.

Oh, I screamed and screamed for twenty-four minutes. Twelve to reach a point where my System stopped the transformation, and notified me I didn’t have enough Health Points to complete the process, and twelve more as I returned to my lizard-like form.

I exhaled, and the pain subsided to a dull ache. I actually took two bites before I realized I was eating goblin rather than kobold. “Well, that’s apparently something the System’s been doing for me.”

Eihtfuhr blinked at me. “That shouldn’t even be possible. Not without more mana than you can possibly have access to.”

“Aawg, so hungry!”

AMUSEMENT. “Welcome to my world.”

It was hours later when he pulled me off the corpse, and we yielded the combat site to the wolf pack.

My gluttony score had gained 6 XP, and was nearing the point where it would rise to level two.

#

“We must speak of last night.” Eihtfuhr said. I had spent the day gorging myself, and watching as the System just burned biomass with wild abandon.

My jaw hurt, but the HUNGER had resided into mere hunger.

“What part?” I asked. “I’m still processing-”

“Oh. Basic tactics.”

I rolled over, showed the side, fresh leaves stuck into the blood clots. “Lesson learned, I do not fight with things more than twice my size.”

“Heh. Doubtful. Well, perhaps strategy is a better word. I think a vast number of goblins are going to put in an appearance before winter does.”

“How vast?”

“Oh, perhaps two hundred. And with just goblins, I’d pick them off in isolated groups over a period of days, maybe a week or so.”

“Or two. Goblins are vile.”

“No, I don’t want them eating my wildlife. Not more than I can stop, anyway.”

“Okay, so there are some kobolds in the mix. They seem – formidable.”

“As good a word as any. But, unless I am blessed to be wrong, this is more than just kobolds and goblins. These aren’t the normal seasonal scouting parties. Something is organizing peoples that shouldn’t be seen together.”

“Something?”

“I think we are seeing the rise of a new Beastman chief.”

“Well, how dangerous are those?”

“They are as much beyond my ability to handle as the kobold was above yours. But that is not why we should fear such a being. With the power they hold over the barbarian races, they can amass an army. A number of warriors so many that no single being can hope to resist them.”

“And how do we fight such a thing?”

“We cannot.” He admitted. “I may have to employ a human tactic, and set the entire wood on fire.”

“But – you said the destruction-”

“Will not leave enough for me to survive on, yes. It is a tactic of spite. I’ve not guarded and nurtured this wood just to see it used as fodder for others.”

“Well, what can we do before that?”

“You will likely die.”

“How many times would I be dead already, if not for you? Is there a plan that saves you, or not?”

“Not yet.” He admitted. “But give me a few days. Will you have finished your hands by then?”

I consulted my System. “I can put extra biomass into the process to gain speed.”

“Do so. For what comes next, you will need them. And prepare to expand the size of your brain. You’ll need that soon, too.”

“That sounds – like you have a plan.”

“Nothing concrete. But you will need to learn how to brew healing potions, and quickly.”

“But... I have no formula for healing potions...”

“Then you will also want a Might of at least three.”

“Three?” It seemed utterly beyond doing.

I knew the pieces, but I hadn’t yet learned the full power of my System.

#