thatdude

Hi, I had a really fun time writing this chapter so it ended up like 3-4 times longer than the last three. Enjoy!

After being manipulated into taking the long trip to the location of the mana fluctuation Brian walked quickly to his home in annoyance. "I'm going to lose so much time that I could use for experiments." He grumbled in his head as he made his way through the maze like city. With the introduction of the Inventory pick pocketing came close to dying out. Who in their right mind would carry their money on their person when they could make it impossible for someone to steal?

Finishing that thought Brian arrived at his home and headed inside. He lived alone in a simple house because with no family to take care of and with him spending most of his time at the guild he felt no need to decorate it. Walking over to his oil lamps in the kitchen he lit a couple so he could make some food in the growing dark. Soon the stars would show themselves and reveal their splendor. Brian had always like the stars because every night he could go outside and see something he had not seen before. The number of the twinkly little things was just ridiculous. Turning his attention back to his food he finished up his dinner so he could sit down by the window in his room to gaze at the night sky. Brian would almost always fall asleep like this, engrossed in the flickering lights.

He woke up with a start remembering he was supposed to leave with his guild mates today. "Shit, it's already 9 o'clock, must have missed the morning bell." He tried to shake off his sleepy stupor but ultimately failed to do so. Sighing he went over to his kitchen to make some koffee. The guy who made the stuff wouldn't tell him what types of magics he used to make the beans taste so good, but it was worth its expensive cost.

Grabbing his finished koffee and drinking it he started to pack his things. He could carry eight items in his Inventory but that wasn't enough for long term traveling, and unfortunately you couldn't pack a backpack full of stuff and then put it in the Inventory. Only the backpack would go in and the rest would just fall out since the thing carrying them just disappeared. In the end Brian chose to put his bedroll, a koffee pot, some food rations, a four gallon water pouch, a light tent, the magic knife he got from his first treasure chest, and a bag of his money leaving him with 1/8 Inventory slots left. The weird thing about the inventory is that small containers like a money pouch or food bags could be put inside of an Inventory without dropping it's contents while anything large would not.

Finished packing Brian walked outside of his house to look back and get the last view of the place he would get for the foreseeable future. Turning away he started the walk to the guild hall. The city always held many sites to see but this time he saw something interesting. In the corner of his eyes he saw a slave market holding an auction, but they weren't selling humans like normal. Somehow they had managed to capture some Elves even though it was almost impossible to find them outside of the area protected by The World Spirit Tree. There were two females and one male. They looked miserable and malnourished. While Brian didn't like that people could be sold like that he knew there wasn't much he could do anyways so he turned away from them and continued to the guild hall.

When he arrived at the guild hall he could see that everyone was already there and waiting for him. They all looked somewhat annoyed at his tardiness. "Sorry guys slept through the morning bell chimes."

Nikolai replied before the others could retort something, "It's alright, but you've made sure you have everything you need?"

"Ya I'm pretty sure I got what I need." he said with a nod.

Looking satisfied Nikolai gathered them around, "Alright this is going to be a long trip but I think it will be worth it, just think about what we could learn from figuring out what caused the Day of Awakening!" Before Brian could muster any form of complaint at the long trip ahead Wikkar, Gregory, and Nikolai started walking without him. Grumbling to himself Brian caught up to them.

*Two week later*

Brian and the others were deep into the forest now and had to deal with either making their own trails or if they were lucky they could find animal trails for easier passage. This irritated Brian to no end because they had to deal with bug and ticks all the time. To the point where they considered trying to research a bug repellent spell. Unfortunately making spells can take a long time to completely nail down. For example, when Brian used a lightning spell on his attacker he didn't fully realize what he was doing until the spell was cast. 

It was almost sun down when Nikolai's body froze and stopped moving as they were hiking. The others noticed quickly and asked him quietly what was wrong. He didn't answer immediately instead he pulled out this funny little device that he carved a monster radar spell on. Looking at the tool and then up at the sky in thought Nikolai eventually replied, "A very powerful monster is about twenty miles away from us, if we want to live we will turn off any and all spells and tools right now."

Gregory whispered, "Fucking new I should have stayed back."

Wikkar looked at him like he was an idiot, "What did you expect out here? After the Day of Awakening creatures with powers far stronger than us have been popping up."

Gregory just ignored him and asked Nikolai, "So where do we go now?"

"Easy, not the way we are going right now," answered Nikolai like it was the obvious thing in the world.

Their group ended up taking a path that would lead them in an wide ark around the powerful monster, and had walked for two hours before they settled down for the night and made camp. When making dinner Gregory revealed that he had smuggled some expensive wine away from his wife without her knowing. The little group drank in celebration of his successful heist and his inevitable death when he returned to his wife. Eventually most of them passed out but Brian held fast to his consciousness. What kept him awake was the stars in the sky through the tree tops. In his drunk state he couldn't help but wonder if there were this many stars at night normally. It was only a matter of time before he lost his grip on reality and soon fell asleep not noticing the presence watching him from the forrest.

The next morning the four of them complained about their headaches. Gregory complained the most even though he was the one who brought the stuff. Wikkar gave him a sharp look in return but didn't say anything. Gregory however just laughed it off and got up to start packing up. "Hey did one of you guys go through my things?" He asked with a confused face. Brian, Wikkar, and Nikolai looked at him with a blank look. Gregory continued with his questioning, "Guys, we are the only ones out in the woods this far out so who went through my things?."

Brian had gotten up and checked his bag as well and found the items he didn't store in Inventory were strewn around his bag. looking back at the others he said, "Uhh guys, my stuff has been messed with too but it looks like what went through it didn't take anything."

"What the fuck." Nikolai whispered under his breath.

Now that four of them were all suspicious of their surroundings they each checked their bags. It seemed nothing was gone but just jumbled up or on the floor. Nikolai seemed unconvinced though, "Hey guys don't fuck around like that, my radar spell works continuously I would have woken up if something came close." Hearing that confused them until Wikkar whispered with a scared look on his face, "what if it can hide its magical aura?"

The four pondered this idea and it did not bode well for them. Brian asked, "Hey guys, wouldn't that mean whatever went through our bags was intelligent enough to completely hide it aura? From what adventurers have found out it seems like only super strong monsters are actually capable of speech and intelligence." They pondered that before getting startled by Nikolai's clap, "right, if that is the case then we are lucky to be alive. This thing probably does like us being here so lets pack up and get the fuck out of here." They all nodded vigorously and started to pack up as quickly as possible.

The next few hours were nerve wreaking for their small group. They all seemed to develop superstitious like fear of the unrecognizable sounds from the forest and darting motions from its small inhabitants. Brian found it hard to talk under the stifling nervousness he felt, and he could imagine it was similar for the others. A smart monster on their tail felt like a death sentence to them. The groups trajectory did not change but their speed certainly did, they even skipped lunch because non of them felt right staying in one area for too long. Their speed hike away from the mysterious monster ended when the sun set and they could no longer keep going.

Gregory gave out a pained groan while saying, "God dammit remind me to never leave the city again." The other three all nodded in silent agreement.

"We need to have someone stand guard at night now." Wikkar's statement rang true but no one wanted to because they were too tired.

Since no one volunteered Nikolai said, " God fine, I'll do it but I'm waking one of your asses up halfway through." The other three nodded at the proposition and went to set up their tents. Nikolai set his tent up but he sat outside on a rock with his back turned to the campfire watching the forest around them. He wasn't so naive to think they were safe after what happened last night so he kept his radar tool on his lap as he kept guard.

Nikolai spent four hours staring into the dark nothingness that was the surrounding forest. The only thing vaguely visible were the figures of threes close enough to the dying campfire. Unfortunately they did not think to gather wood to burn so the fire was doomed. "Okay, its been about half way" thought Nikolai. He went over to Brian's tent to wake him up because he was the youngest in their party by far so it only made sense.  

Shaking him awake Nikolai told him, "Hey idiot its time for your shift." and left. Brian grumbled something unintelligible and started to get up. 

Seeing the state of the fire Brian complained, "Aw man, you couldn't keep the thing alive? It's almost dead now."

Nikolai looked at him with a tired but sarcastic look, "Okay, how bout you go out into that creepy darkness and get some firewood."

Brian thought about it for a little bit then said with a shrug, "Honestly it's better than being cold." With that he left the sleepy man and went around to gather some firewood.

"Don't go out to far though, I don't want to wake up with you dead." Nikolai told him as he left.

"Ya ya, whatever." Brian replied back while turning away to get firewood. While he collected sticks for the fire he realized that pretty much all the wood around their camp were just a bunch of sticks. They would get consumed by the fire too fast so he had to find something larger to burn, but to do that he needed to go further away from the camp. He looked back at the camp and its dying fire as he left. Brian wasn't so foolish to leave the area completely, but just far enough that he could barely see a faint light peaking through the trees.

Brian finished collecting all firewood he would need for the night and started to head back. Something stopped him though, there was a shift in the air. The light breeze that had been wafting through the forest earlier disappeared. He picked up on this almost immediately because night time forest excursions are not Brian's most favorite thing in the world. His body froze when he heard a quite whisper enter his ears like a smooth melody.

"Who are you?" It was not aggressive in nature but he could tell whatever was behind him was dangerous. Slowly he turned around to see two stilted cat eyes with silvery blue irises gleaming out of the darkness piercing into his own. It took Brian some time to get his terrified body in control.

Eventually he said in a voice taut with nervousness , "I'm Brian, I mean you no harm. If my group and I have offended you in some way by being here we will leave."

The pair of eyes regarded him for a minute before saying, "You look like us but don't, and you talk like us but your different. What are you?"

Brian was surprised by the question then his expression morphed into shock. "You don't know what humans are?" He was incredulous, who didn't know what humans are? They were the most common race on the planet. 

"Huumans? What a strange name." The eyes pondered. "Ah right forgot, She told me to tell you that there will be an update soon."

Brian didn't know what the strange eyes meant by that so he asked, "Update? What does that mean? And who's this 'She' person"

The eyes closed and made a sort of purring sound. They slowly opened again and said, "Hmm, She told me you call her the System. I'm not sure what an update is though. Anyway I need to leave but before I go I will give you something. You will not tell the others about this nor what you see." After telling him that she walked up to him soundlessly. Brian was surprised because he had not been expecting her to be naked. From what he could see in the dark she looked around seventeen years old but there was no way that someone at that age could be this powerful. As she drew nearer he saw her pure sliver hair going all the way down to her hips covering her so he couldn't see anything important. The rest of her figure though, was eye opening for Brian because he had never known someone could be so beautiful. To him it was like looking into the night skies almost otherworldly beauty. When she came close enough for her to reach him she stretched an arm out and lightly touched his forehead with the tip of her nail. With a rush of wind around him he felt a pulse of mana shoot into his brain knocking him out old. Unseen to Brian, the mysterious women caught him before he fell to the ground and placed him in his sleeping bag before vanishing like she was never there.

*The next morning*

The rest of the party were starting to get up from their sleep to find Brian completely asleep tucked in his sleeping bag. "Hey Brian weren't you on second watch?." Nikolai tried to get his attention but Brian was still fast asleep. Wikkar walked over and grabbed the bottom of his sleeping bag and dumped him out my lifting it. Brian landed on his side with a yelp. "Holy shit!" The terrified half awake Brian realized his friends were standing around him and looking at him with disappointment.

Wikkar looked at Brian then the other two standing next to him, "Goddamn, he's the youngest one of us and cant even stay up for a few hours."

Brian finally starting to wake up replied back, "NO YOU IDIOT, IT WAS HERE! THE THING THAT WENT THROUGH OUR BAGS! She must have put me to sleep or something" This news sent an unpleasant nervous shiver down the other three's backs. Nikolai was the first to act.

"If that thing came to our camp why did you not wake us up and if it was able to put you to sleep how do you know its a she?" His face tense with unease. Brian looked at him replying, "Well I talked to her before she knocked me out but I don't think it wanted to hurt us. It didn't even know what humans were, I think that's why it went through our things. She was just curious. Anyway your distracting me. That's not the important news." His three friends started at him like he was an idiot. How could that not be important.

"She told me that there was going to be an update."

This time it was Gregory who asked, "Are you okay man? You sound crazy." Brian continued. "Am I okay? No I'm not. Anyway she said that what we call the System told her that there was going to be an update. Now I have no idea what that means or what that entails but it sounds serious"

The four of them sat in silence looking at each other before Wikkar asked, "What did this thing look like?"

He described all he knew about her, leaving out the part where she walked up to him. "I'm sure 'it' was a 'she' because her voice was soft and melodic and she had the most beautiful silver blue eyes I have ever seen. But you know the strange thing was that her eyes were stilted like a cats."

They pondered that for a while before Wikkar spoke up again. "As the oldest here you might not know but when I was little my mother would sing me songs and tell me stories. Stories about adventurers of old, of ancient magics, but most importantly she sang of the dragons and their kin. From what I remember they used to be more common in the old days long before I was born, anyway dragons loved to mate with the other races while under a type of polymorph spell. No one knows why they like to mate with non dragons but when they did those born from them would look exactly like their non dragon race except for the eyes. Their eyes were always like a dragons."

Next to speak was Gregory, " Wait I thought dragons went extinct when the races banded together to exterminate them?" Wikkar thought about that for a while before answering.

"No I don't think that would have been possible. In the legends their are stories of ancient dragons so powerful they could be considered demi gods of their elemental magic. I'm sure that dragons around that level of power would have survived."

While they absorbed this information Nikolai spoke, "I've heard of those dragon kin but from what I know after most of the dragons got wiped out they stopped mating with the other races. And if one of the dragon kin had been born relatively recently does that mean that the dragons are planning a comeback?"

Wikkar shook his head at this."No I don't think so because dragons are so powerful that they wouldn't need the help from dragon kin. I think this is different somehow. Any we should pack up and keep going. but lets not go as fast as yesterday my old bones cant take that kind of treatment much longer." They nodded in agreement and started cleaning up camp. However they did not get very far when they received a message.

...ANNOUNCEMENT...

...AN ERROR HAS BEEN FOUND WITHIN THE SYSTEM...

...INSTALLING UPDATE PATCH...

With that news playing in their heads and showing up on their pop up menus they looked at each other nervously. Not long after the announcement a huge wave a mana hit them like it did five years ago and the world started shaking. Thankfully this time it was not nearly as painful and destructive as before.

The mana wave soon subsided and several messages popped up.

...GLITCH FOUND WITHIN EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEM...

...GLITCH FOUND IN SKILL SYSTEM...

...GLITCH FOUND IN MONSTER TIDE SYSTEM...

...RE-IMPLEMENTED EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEM... 

...RE-IMPLEMENTED SKILL SYSTEM...

...RE-IMPLEMENTED MONSTER TIDE SYSTEM...

...SEARCHING FOR PEOPLE WHO MEET EVOLUTIONARY REQUIREMENTS...

...THREE HAVE MET THE REQUIREMENTS...

...SENDING PROMPTS...

Following the announcement the four of them gawked at their System menus thinking about the implantation of what this meant. For years they had wondered what might happen when someone evolves, sadly it seemed the requirements needed were hard to get since only three people on the planet had seemed to be chosen. Brian was first to talk since the new information arrived, "Do you guys have any idea what the Monster Tide is?" They all shook their heads and Brian continued, "Damn that sucks because it does not sound good to me. I mean, how can Monster Tide sound positive?"

Wikkar thought of something and said, "We should check our Systems just to be sure that nothing new has popped up." The rest responded with a silent nod and opened their stats. In Brian's menu.

[Brian Siges]

[Level] : 24
[Next Lvl] : 78%

[Health] : 120/120    [Stamina] : 110/100    [Mana] : 440/440

[Constitution] : 12[30]   [Intelligence] :  22[30]  [Wisdom] : 15[30]

[Strength] : 11[30]    [Charisma] : 11[30]   [Dexterity] : 13[30]

[Luck] : 6[10]

...INVENTORY...
[bedroll]
[koffee pot]
[four gallon water pouch]
[light tent]
[Small Magic Dagger]
[Small Bag of Coins]
[Light Rations]
[01 SLOTS LEFT]

...EVOLUTION...

[Stats not met current requ!r#me^&s%]

[SYSTEM OVERRIDE]

[AUTHORIZATION CODE: A#M&*^%]

[INITIATING]

After reading that in shock Brian yelled out to his friends but before he could formulate any words pain shot through him. Screaming out in agony Brian fell over he started shaking and jerking around. Nikolai ran to sit next to and said, "Shit, I think he's having a seizure." They could only try to restrain his body so he couldn't hurt himself as his body seized uncontrollably in pain.

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