Re: Monster - World's Reversal

"So ladies, how'd you get kidnapped by goblins?"

…

…

…

Ok I've spent enough time waiting and being considerate, wake up you shellshocked s-daughters of… Nevermind. Can't rush these things.

"Oi vey, I'll just come back later"

Making for the door that leads to my room, I hear a small voice. Something I'm already getting sick of despite it only happening twice.

"... Y-you can, speak our language?"

With an exasperated sigh I turn around to reply, trying to get them to realise that I do in fact have very little patience at the moment. I can suffer through raging anger without releasing it, but I would really rather not.

"Yes. I can in fact speak your language. I will not, however, answer any questions on HOW I know it. My village burnt down rather recently and I'm still not sure whether I'm entirely open to talking about it."

The redhead looks slightly startled for a moment, but takes a deep breath before finally speaking. One small step I guess.

"We… We were travelling to the fortress city Trient. I-I'm a member of the guild 'The Sword of the Weak' and… We were told to protect the members of the travelling 'Star God's Pavilion' on their way to deliver rare materials for advanced forging..."

…

…

…

"Yes? Then I take it you were ambushed on the road, and everyone but you five were killed. I'm not asking you to say this so I can take p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e in your pain you know, what I want is to know how skilled your party was in comparison to the goblins and what level of strategy they can employ so that, if push comes to shove, I know how much to expect from my opponents… Don't look at me like that, as far as they see it I stole their f*cktoys, how did you expect them to respond?"

They all started staring at me quite early on in my speech. It's quite interesting really how effective simple acts of kindness are in gaining trust from people who've been in harsh situations. Kindness however, is entirely different to pity. Something that I would be reluctant to give even if they did (they don't) need it because it seems incredibly stupid to hire adventurers who can't protect you from simple hobgoblins. These hobgoblins aren't even particularly strong! Rou isn't a normal hobgoblin, so he doesn't count.

"W-well uhm…" Again it's the redhead, struggling to get out a sentence. "Most of us had, just a bit of experience… The hobgoblins they- stopped o-our c-captain from doing anything while the rest of them *sob* tore everyone apart!" I give her a moment to let it all out and collect herself. It looks like they it was a simple rush with some basic stall tactics involved. Not even arrow volleys to thin out the numbers. Well, they didn't have the wisdom of a reincarnator growing up so I guess this is as much as I can expect. After letting out a deep, broken breath, redhead continued "We killed a few of them, but it wasn't enough. A-and after the… They took everything off the other bodies and tied us up while we struggled. After that… Well, here we are."

"I appreciate this. Truly, I do. And I'm incredibly sorry that you had to go through that again but I have to be able to prepare. For the next few days I ask that you just remain here. I will try to bring you anything within reason that you think you need on top of the necessities. But one last question before I leave, what are your names? It would be inconvenient to say the least, just calling you redhead, blondies 1 and 2, glasses and shorty."

This caused the corner of 'shorty''s mouth to curl up. Just for a moment, but it was there.

"Ah. My name is Rubellia Walline"

"Emery Furado"

"Felicia Timiano…"

"Alma Timiano…"

"Spinel Fean."

"Nice to meet you all! Now if you don't mind, and probably even if you do, I need to get back to work. Actually it's more 'experimentation' but… Bye."

I was showing them that I too can make awkward comments and not know where to go so that they feel less guarded around me… Yes. That was my plan.

----- Day 28 -----

Fought with the new goblins a couple of times. Got a few nice bonuses. Helped fix up the orc mine. Learnt more about my quarries and got them to offer help.

[Ability gained: Tyranny [A] - Damage +50% against opponents with fear of the user]

[Skill gained: Abyssal Flame [F+] - Torch the world with flames from hell]

[Trait gained: Endless Warmonger [U] - +1 END per level]

Yes. Goblins are officially broken. Or maybe it's just the tribespeople of the separated players… Yes, that must be it. Yep.

…

F*CK!

----- Day 29 -----

I've finally stopped sobbing over the possible loss of other OP traits... And one must note that I did at least preserve my dignity by retreating before I started doing so. I trained all of my skills up like mad in preparation for travelling, because every little helps in a world where, for all I know, I could have a dragon swoop down on me at any given moment.

----- Day 30 -----

I've finally worked up the courage to confront Rou about his humanity. Mainly because I'm not likely to see him again for a while, by which time I will hopefully have established myself in a far more civilised area. As much as I would love to, I can't take the five humans with me, because A: They're too weak and even the golden spider things could kill them if I didn't notice in time, and more importantly B: They're just so damn slow. I can move at least 30 times faster without them, and that's a LOW estimation.

"Oi Rou! I'm heading out now, but before I do could you come here, I want to ask you something."

Walking over in his usual lazy, confident way… Which I have to admit is scarily similar to mine-

"Yeh sure, what is it."

*Inhale*... *Exhale*... This is going to be interesting.

"What do you think the odds are for two creatures to recognize each other just by nature, even if they're wearing different skins? Just a little while ago, I would have said it would be astronomically low, if not impossible… Now, on the other hand… I'm beginning to think it's a little higher than that."

I kick off and start running as fast as I can, before webbing myself out of sight, naturally with Rou loudly shouting "WAIT!" behind me. Like I'm gonna fall for that.

----- Day 31 -----

Two interesting things happened today, and that's it. The first is… I met some sort of imp. Or at least, it looked kind of like how I would picture an imp, but completely black and billowing smoke. Stuck a dome around it and filled that with water until I got the notification.

[Ability gained: Shapeshifting [D+] - Change appearance. At this level, can fully customize colour and up to 19% girth.]

[Ability gained: Dark Lord [E] - The skill of the user in manipulating dark magic is low]

[Ability Rank Up! [Dark Lord - Chaos Control [E]!] - The user can manipulate light and darkness magic to a small degree]

[Title gained: Chaotic Magus [SS-] - Origin and Demise are the pinnacle of opposing forces, the ability to harness both grants +50% efficiency to all light and darkness magic]

The very fact that it mentioned origin and demise makes me believe that I have the trait [Daughter of Nyx] to thank for this. I will not complain.

As for the second thing that happened, it's in regards to [Regeneration] and [Healing Hands]. I've realised that I can use nature magic to speed up practically all natural processes, not just growing plants. This means that as long as I pump enough mana into my nature magic, I can heal most wounds, even fatal ones, in seconds. The problem is that I still don't know exactly how I'm directing the plants with nature's command, and in a similar way, if a bone is broken and not put back into place before I channel my magic, it'll set wrong, and I can't grow back limbs… So I'm not invincible just yet. But I'm working on it. It's going to take a while though, since altering the course of natural events seems like it should have some seriously complicated magical science behind it.

----- Day 32 -----

Finally, I arrive at the fortress walls. Surprisingly enough, I didn't meet any humans until I came out of the forest. It seems to me a bit odd for the city to have massive walls, but at the two major points of entrance, there aren't even gates, just a wide stretch of land not covered by walls. I guess it makes it easier for the wagons rolling in and out all the time, but surely this makes it much more simple a target in wartime? Eh, I'm no general, but it just seems like common sense.

Merging with the road got me a few odd looks, a number filled with suspicion, but that's to be expected. It's not every day you see someone clad in luxurious furs and casually carrying a staff across their back against the shoulders. That's what I'm going with by the way, as a quick wardrobe update. The red bear pelt got me more than a few impressed looks the day I brought it out, but it's just clothes at the end of the day, the only people who need to care about them are nobles who have someone to impress. Even then, everyone is trying to do the same, so it really makes no difference. The staff I'm just holding to tell people that I'm a mage. It doesn't do anything and it's just simply carved from elder wood, just to be at least slightly reminiscent of Horry Patter's elder wand.

"Oi, redhead!"

Hmm, yes I can see how that nickname could get annoying. It's effective though, whoever it is clearly wants to talk to me in specific. The hair colour isn't exactly common. Without looking very hard I can tell who the speaker is- Stocky man, 5"5 and slightly tanned, with black hair cut really short, probably because even at this length the curling is pretty obvious. Behind him stand 3 others, 2 male and a female. Unfortunately for me, they're in full plate armour with helmets on, so all I can tell is that one of the males has only 1 arm, and that the female's c.h.e.s.t is emptier than my soul... In other words, A-cup would be pushing it.

"That would be me right?"

"Who else around you fits that bill? Get over here!"

Big man thinks he can push me around because he has assistance. I'll play ball for now, but this seems troublesome. He probably wants me to test my capability as a mage and then use my strength to benefit himself… Annoying. Shaking my head a little, I let out a sigh and resign myself to this troublesome thing. On the other hand, it's a helpful way to get myself at least something of a reputation.

"Tch, fine. Don't waste my time though, I have places to be."

And a healthy dose of falsehood never hurt anyone. Apparently I hit a wrong note though, because I definitely saw someone's only hand twitch towards his sword though. Frowning, the presumable ringleader continues.

"I am going to test your magical aptitude. If it so happens that you pass, you will be recruited for a raid on an elven village recently located in the Kuuderun Great Forest."

"Yeh, thas great an' all, but what do I get out of it."

Yeh, that twitch is definitely growing. I wonder if I can get him to ambush me outside somewhere, it might give me some decent skills. Then again, he is just a swordsman. The main man is just bobbing his head slightly, probably accepting that I had a decent question.

"Naturally payment will be granted based on the outcome of your aptitude test."

I shrug with my palms up.

"Well in that case I have no more questions. Lead on."

If they ambush me, I have my earth control ready… But hopefully it doesn't come to that and they really are just lacking mages.

I could feel insulted that he just motioned for the girl to lead me away, but it's the logical thing to do, and they don't realise how special I am, so I won't fault them for it, and instead try to converse with my glorified tour guide.

"So what's your name?"

"Stop talking maggot."

…

"Stop Maggot eh? I can work with that. So what're your hobbies Stop?"

"..."

"Alright alright, you aren't one for speaking, got it. Let's go with a joke then. Why did the blonde have square b.o.o.b.s?"

Ah. Malice is radiating strongly from this one. It's a blonde then.

"Ok, ok, but serious question: Whenever you're taking a dump, all alone and in silence, do you ever think something is crawling up to where you are and then is going to suddenly slither up into your butthole?"

"No."

"Ah. Well you will now. And please don't hate me for… Whatever reason you hate me for at the moment. It's probably not something I can help."

"... I have two reasons to hate you right now, but only the first one isn't your fault."

Two? Mn. Diagnosis complete..

"You know, it does actually make it pretty annoying to fight, and the guys look at you like a piece of meat, so you really aren't missing out on much."

Inferiority complex. Also known as the big little-man syndrome. Judging from the slight stumbling, I believe this to be an accurate analysis.

"Please. Just be quiet. My name's Rachael alright?"

"Alaya. Pleased to meet you."

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[Name: Alaya]

[Level: 35]

[Species: Hesperide]

[Focus: Learning]

[Titles: Reincarnator [EX++], Chaotic Magus [SS-], Kingslayer I [C - 0%]]

[Craftsman [B-]:

Skills: Golden Thread [B - 14%], Appraisal [E - 80%]

Abilities: Eagle Eye [D+], Mental Mapping [A]]

[Druid [C]:

Skills: Healing Hands [B - 28%], Nature's Command [B - 3%]]

Abilities: Adaptable [D-], Aura of Growth [B-]]

[Magician [D+]:

Skills: Abyssal Flame [F - 75%], Air Slash [D - 21%], Basic Elemental Control [C - 3%], Chaos Control [E - 0%], Electromaster [D - 0%]

Abilities: Mana Control [D+] Regeneration [B]]

[Armed Combat [D]:

Skills:Cleave [C - 86%], Swift Strike [E - 81%, Consecutive Raging Strikes [A - 0%]]

Abilities: Weapons Mastery (Swords [D], Spears [D+], Bows [E+])]

[Offensive:

Skills: Ambush [B - 32%], Bloodl.u.s.t [C - 0%], Call to Arms [B - 0%], Evasion [E - 61%], Venomous Bite [E - 0%]

Abilities: Lesser Leg Strength [E-], Natural Predator [S+] Vampirephilia [C]

[Defensive:

Skills: Adamantium Carapace [E - 11%], Endure [A - 0%]

Abilities: Stench [B], Slime Form [C+]

[Social:

Abilities: Dominating Presence [B-], Language (Goblin, Human, Orc, Kobold), Leadership [C], Shapeshifting [D+], Tyranny [A]]

[Misc:

Abilities: Absorption [U], Echolocation [A], Muscle Strength [A], Streamlined [A], Waterproof [B], Night Vision [C], Sense Presence [D], Paralysing Breath [A]]

[Resistances: All-Element [E], Bludgeoning [A], Earth [A], Heat [A+], Paralysis [A], Petrification [A], Poison [B], Thunder [A-], Water [B], Wind [B+]]

[Traits:

Natural: Durable [D], Follower [C], Genius [D], Living Arrow [C], Merciless [D], Scholarly [C], Swift [D], Wall of Flesh [C], Wise [D]]

Unnatural: Accelerated Growth [R], All return to the Cycle [U], Daughter of Nyx [EX++], Endless Warmonger [U], Natural Titan [U]]

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[Stats:]

[STR: 48]

[END: 138]

[WIS: 142]

[INT: 143]

[SPD: 103]

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[Racial multiplier: 2]

[Free stat points: 0]

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Will update with as much as possible tomorrow because looking at it, I really should have written more, but it really did seem like more than it is in a google doc.