There were no bright lights at the end of the tunnel, only smog and rotting dolls. Faces chipped or warn from age, and the elements stared at me accusingly. Hands of all shapes and sizes stuck out the endless piles of doll bodies, grasping but never touching anything. Mechanical parts fell out of the doll's body cavities like the innards of rotten bodies. Silver, brass, and some heavier metals claimed my attention; with the right amount of work, they could be made into something useful.

 

I picked up a small spring that could have come from anywhere but couldn’t quite place what doll it could have come from.

 

With the angels well and truly behind me, I came to a sudden understanding. I had no food, water, or shelter in Echidna. The angels had dropped me in the middle of a junkyard under a necromancer’s castle with little more than my cube to go off on. I had forgotten to ask for a meat animal as a concession.

 

Maybe there was something on my cube. Uriel had uploaded their system to it.

 

Points: 0

Hero Tier: 0

Shop Items: 9

Shop:

Tier Upgrade 100p

Description: The amount of points required to upgrade the Hero Tier and acquire more items for the shop.

 

Strength Pill S 1p

Description: A pill that increases physical strength by a small amount.  

 

Speed Pill S 1p

Description: A pill that increases physical speed by a small amount.

 

Health Pill S 1p

Description: A pill that increases physical health by a small amount. 

 

Magic Pill S 1p

Description: A pill that increased physical magic by a small amount. 

 

Spell Book: Fire 20p

Description: A spell book that teaches the basics of fire.

 

Spell Book: Water 20p

Description: A spell book that teaches the basics of water.

 

Spell Book: Air 20p

Description: A spell book that teaches the basics of Air.

 

Spell Book: Earth 20p

Description: A spell book that teaches the basics of Earth.

 

Spells and magic, those angels must be playing with me. Why would I subject my body to magic of all things? My original’s brother read mage college-level books on the toilet. Worse, I couldn’t buy food. On the bright side, raising my physical abilities will help me with energy enhancement.

 

While times were trying and I wanted something that could help me, I had to use what I was given. Apparently, it's balanced to give me options that I can’t use.

 

I let my mental rant be over and yanked an edged piece of metal out of a doll before cutting the feet off one of the dolls. Hear me out; I was barefoot. Even my tough feet needed some help dealing with the rusty metal everywhere. Once I squeezed my feet into the surprisingly thick latex, I had to come up with a strategy.

 

My aura was power while still in the lower end of the triple digits and was still perfectly controlled. That was the advantage of being cloned from a guy who mastered concealment. While not everything was working out, I could still rely on small favors. There were still problems I needed to solve that sitting on a mountain wouldn’t solve.

 

I didn’t have a way to reliably replenish my energy quickly, so training would be exceedingly difficult. A growing noise caught my attention from my negative downward spiral. Some guy was running downhill with stitched-together dolls chasing him. Unlike me, the man was dressed in gear that bled angel magic. It seemed someone managed to get a better deal than me, or maybe when he was summoned, a tilted balance allowed the angels to outfit him before tossing him through the portal.

 

Clenching my fists didn’t just make me look edgy; it helped me feel the energy enhancing my body to the limit. I had no idea how strong the dolls were compared to me. I hadn’t bothered measuring with my cube because the pills would quickly make my PL unreliable in determining my attack potency. From what I could tell, I had 3 aura beams in me that were sure to kill. After that, I would be spent.

 

The fleeing adventurer spotted me, and I could tell he felt like he was saved. I took the spring I picked up earlier and flung it. The spring hit the man in the eye, and he stumbled. At that moment, the column of pursuing dolls sprang upon him.

 

I watched, fascinated, as the dolls pealed his clothes away like the wrapper to candy. The man screamed before one of them kissed him and pulled back blood. I watched as some strange magic turned the man’s bitten-off tongue into flesh in one of the doll’s mouth. There didn’t seem to be anything sexual about the exchange; no, the dolls wanted flesh.

 

Why didn’t I save him? He looked saved earlier because he was going to lead them to me and escape. It was clear that if he wasn’t an evil hero, then he would soon become one with his current attitude. What did the idiot do to aggro an entire crowd of dolls?

 

Aggro was a gamer term for gaining the attention of mobs or monsters. I felt my blood pump, and I was raring to go for a fight. My muscles bulged as enhancement brought my strength to superhuman heights. The energy pumping through my body powered me up to my utmost level before I moved. Without the energy reserves for movement techniques, I zigzagged up the hill to save stamina.

 

My fist was ready to bend steel and rend flesh. I was feeling foul and ready to punish these flesh-absorbing monsters. The distance closed before the nearest one reacted. My blow sank through preciously soft TPE, melting as the metals underneath bent and caved before running like wax from the heat.

 

The body of the doll spun in the Air as I delivered a kick to its mid-section. Then I turned up the heat, letting loose with my aura for the first time since my creation. I stepped through its chest cavity as its inner workings melted and crumbled. Circles burned out, and metal slag ran like blood as I yelled with my first killing blow.

 

One of the dolls leaped from its killed mouth agape with metal teeth covered in chipped paint and blood. I failed to shift my hips to deliver a good blow and felt myself tumble down the hill while the monster bit at me. Parts of my barrier weakened, and the monster’s long metal fingernails scored long gouges out of my skin.

 

While we tumbled, I saw one of the mobs rise from the kill to join and secure my death. That would be pathetic to die to this trash after bringing those girl’s hopes up. My hand shot out and claimed the throat of the doll on top of me. Its eyes were that of the adventurer before they burst into flames from my aura. I lost some strength from enhancement to rev up my aura and burn the doll.

 

Using a bit of strategy, I threw the mob off of me in the way of the other doll. They tangled in each other’s limbs, giving me the time I needed to get up. The ground shook as more of the dolls started crawling out of the massive garbage dump. I pulverized the skull of a doll with a full-power hit and leaped back.

 

It made sense that the mobs could appear from anywhere. This entire hill must spawn them.

 

When I said hill, it was more a mountain leading up to a castle on a tall cliff that dumped the dolls in the first place. I didn’t know the story here, and that was ok. First, I needed to survive.

 

Points 2: I purchased a Strength Pill S and a Speed Pill S

 

In a flash of light, the pills materialized in a small box. After swallowing them down, I felt changes spreading rapidly through my body. Light flowed within me, changing my cells in a controlled mutation. Suddenly, I felt stronger, and when my enhancement was added to the mix, I was so much stronger. I moved in and punched, driving the nearest doll off its feet to crumble against another, breaking the both of them.

 

While it was only a little bit, increasing my physical strength gave my enhancement more to work with. I began smashing the rest with abandon; with my slightly increased strength and speed greatly enhanced, the dolls couldn’t survive more than one or two hits.

 

After defeating the mobs and collecting 12 points, I looked over the corpse of the adventurer and took his boots. That was the only part that hadn’t been destroyed by the dolls or the battle.

 

…

 

To go any further, I needed a base of operations. I braved two more mob encounters, increasing my points to 19 with no chance of changing the cycle. Even my increased strength wouldn’t matter if the mobs continued cutting me to ribbons. I was healing but not fast enough, with my energy levels so low. I had techniques that could regenerate a lot of damage but not enough fuel to power them. My original was in the 5 digits while I was in the 3 digits.

 

Digit problems led me to my first need for shelter and a place to recover my energy. With that in mind, I needed to build something that could come with me. Cut and scraps covered my body along with hardening metal.

 

I knew there were techniques to move objects with my mind, but I didn’t have them. I made some space and started writing runes on the back of a doll. Then I took the doll and planted it on the side of the hill. I repeated my actions between attacks until I formed a net and felt the seals activate.

 

Above, I heard a crashing sound as the castle above released a massive payload of dolls.

 

There was so much to do and little time to do it. I managed to build a space to transform the mana in the Air into usable energy and tried to recover.

 

…

 

The angels watched below as their beloved hero, who pledged himself to them, relaxed half naked, covered in wounds, and possibly filled with diseases in a pile of garbage. His muscles bulged from the effects of two pills more than any hero should take at one time. The battle earlier and the callous way he sent the hero before him to his untimely death had impressed them all greatly. A hero should be decisive in putting down deserters.

 

“I think he should climb the hill already; the dolls higher up aren’t that dangerous,” Satanos said.

 

Helel sighed as she looked over the hero they had copied from another world. Truly, the man was a beast no matter where he ended up. The way Atom shattered those dolls with his punches alone sent a shiver through her. No other hero would have been sent to a dangerous place like the necromancer queen’s territory. To balance out his already great capabilities, they were forced to place him in an exceedingly dangerous area.

 

“He’s holding his position, recovering his stamina, and preparing to charge into the thick of it. Did you see those flames and the way those slags melted?” Uriel shivered. “I think this one might be perfect. Do you think he will choose the fire spell book?” Uriel said.

 

“Light is the way to go. If he was smart, he would wait and choose it, snag darkness, and then spec in darkness and light.” Satinos said.

 

Helel looked at her sister with pity. The hero disliked everything to do with magic, and she was forced to make concessions like not changing the techniques, pills, or at least the wording in the hero’s system. Still, with only two pills, he was well on his way to becoming truly strong. She wished he would study light magic so maybe they would have something to talk about. They had gained a tiny concession from keeping the unnecessary parts of the shop integrated. Their names were added to his contact list, though they could not call him; only he could call them.

 

“I will take that bet. Water is life; a smart hero will invest in the water spell book.” Gabriel said.

 

Helel sighed at the only angel with lactating tits.

 

“He won’t choose any magic. Atom’s people have a stigma against it.” Helel said.

 

“I don’t know; maybe he just needs the right angel to show him that magic isn’t so bad,” Tyrael said.

 

The dirt-covered, flat, chested tomboy of an angel said with all the subtlety of a war hammer. Her dark skin and white wings contrasted well with their sisters. Tyrael was the only one among them that could go to Echidna. It would take time to keep the balance in check, but it was possible they could keep their newest hero with them. No hero could resist her sister’s phat ass.

 

“What is he building?” Uriel asked.

 

…

 

Seals were a tool to alter the flow of energy, transform it, and grant effects on objects. My impromptu fence was used to, in essence, restore my strength and keep the dolls away while I drew up some plans. My cube luckily had a built-in interactive hologram projector, or I would be drawing in blood on doll flesh.

 

My aura wasn’t quite telekinesis compatible, but I could use it to forge metal into various shapes. From what I could tell, the dolls mostly had engines in their bodies that ran off the mana in the Air. They were tiny in some cases and massive in others. A few were powered by spires sticking out of the hill, feeding power to receptacles in the dolls. What that meant was simple: there was power.

 

With that in mind, I opened my cube’s files and searched for a means of propulsion that could be powered by the mana engines. A metal platform was easy enough to construct and cover liberally with seals. Impact, heat, cold, shock, and curse resistance were normal for me at this point. While I couldn’t cover every conceivable manner of attack, I could hit the most likely. From there, I drilled holes for the wires to go through and started working on the walls of my eventual floating training home.

 

Dolls rose and attacked the walls of my fence, and I lasered them from the safety of my walls. I didn’t need much more than 10,000 square feet to build my craft, making it relatively easy to keep the dolls out. Every one of the dolls I slew gave me a point, and I had plenty of energy behind the fence.

 

I made my craft circular and used seals to give the option to make walls one-way mirrors on demand. My cube was connected to the ward key to use a mage term, giving me tons of options for control. When the sunset and night really started setting, my ride was mostly together. When seals locked the roof into place through magnetism and then welding, I entered it.

 

Lights from seals flickered on, and I had my shelter. Gravity seals, while originally used for training, would keep my feet on the ground no matter how my home faced. I made a wall transparent before activating the propulsion engines on the bottom of my craft.

 

The ground shrunk away, but I didn’t feel it within the craft. As I rose, my cube’s AI noted the presence of a village in the distance, so I sent my ship to the target. Trees blurred as I left the sight of attacking dolls, confident my little stronghold would remain when I returned.

 

At the moment, I had a far more important task: food.

 

I stumbled out of my new ride and fell on my face. My ship had landed upside down. The propulsion engines didn’t seem to care what direction they were facing. I installed them upside down, and the gravity controls kept me from feeling the shift.

 

That was going to be hours of work I wouldn’t get back.

 

The village came into view under the light of a yellow moon. Not a single villager had stirred on my approach; there weren’t even any guards. I only knew there were people by the presence I felt in the homes around me. I approached from the direction of the doll mountain; maybe this reaction had something to do with that.

 

Further in the distance, I saw pastureland and cows. That, at least, was normal. As I continued moving, I felt a strange presence move across my senses. In the center of town, I remember seeing a statue of a man with a sword, but within the village, I couldn’t see it.

 

As I moved further in, no one emerged to greet me. While that thought passed my mind, I heard a gurgling sound.

 

“You can do it, Melty. Eat that statue and show this village who the real hero is.” A young man said.

 

A teen with a sword on his belt and armor too large for his frame cheered on a silver woman who forced the statue into her body. I realized then that I was dealing with one of the fallen heroes and their slime girl. They were terrorizing this village to show them who the real hero was.

 

While it was obvious from the guy’s words, I thought it needed to be reiterated. This guy summoned, presumably from another world, to be a hero and save the world from monsters had decided to betray his summoners. I understood that monster girl pussy might be great, and there seemed to be no consequences for his betrayal. Did he not understand he lived in the world he terrorized? He sat on a cart cheering while eating an entire roasted cow. The burnt smell hit me as I closed in on the fallen hero and his monster girl.

 

At seeing him with a whole cow to himself, I suddenly felt vindictive.