by Aaron Oster
Animal Kingdom: Riot
Book One
Aaron Oster
Acknowledgements
As always, there are people to thank for making this book possible.
Thanks to my editor who always does an amazing job. My alpha/beta readers: Darren, DJ and Josh, who I can always count on to give me an honest opinion. And lastly to my fans, who continue to allow me to goof off and call it work!
For my father. Who buys and reads all of my books, just because I wrote them.
Prologue
Arthur stumbled back as choking dust filled the air. The world spun around him as his vision went fuzzy. He fell to one knee, his breath rattling as he inhaled, and he could taste the coppery tang of blood.
Everything hurt.
But he shouldn’t be feeling this pain. It was impossible. Games weren’t this realistic. Then again, he’d stopped thinking of this world as a game long ago.
“Is that the best you’ve got? And here I thought you two would put up more of a fight!”
Arthur coughed, spitting to the side and forcing himself to stand straight. His head was still fuzzy, and the approaching figure swam in and out of focus. Off to his right, he could vaguely make out the silhouette of his partner in this hellhole.
His fingers tightened on the grip of the dull and chipped knife, his red and white patterned knuckles lightening and the veins on the back of his hand standing out in stark contrast.
How could something like this have happened?
He’d been so careful, so sure of himself, and now here he was, facing death. And when he died, he wouldn’t be coming back.
This was not a game.
There were no extra lives in the Animal Kingdom. At least, not in this version of it.
Arthur’s back straightened, his eyes hardening as he watched the cloudy patterned fur of his opponent, the self-assured swagger in his step, and the gleaming pair of Epic quality sickles, dripping red with his blood.
Until now, Arthur had been holding back, not sure where he fit in in this new world. But, facing the end, something in him snapped.
Throwing his head back, Arthur bellowed, his voice drowning out even the roar of the crowd, all eagerly awaiting his death.
Then, he brandished the dull knife.
He charged.
1
Arthur floated in an infinite pool of darkness, the void seeming to stretch out endlessly, robbing him of all sensation. If he hadn’t recognized the familiar darkness, he might have panicked. Despite that, he had no idea how he’d gotten here.
He strained, trying to drudge up the memories of the last few hours. But it was almost as though someone had stuffed his brain full of cotton, leaving him unable to focus for more than a few seconds.
Ever so slowly, the darkness began to fade, and Arthur found himself floating high above a familiar-looking green and blue planet. A moment later, text began appearing before his eyes, scrolling across his vision in spidery lettering.
Initializing…
Welcome to the Animal Kingdom- a world dominated primarily by animals and ani-humans – half-animal, half-human hybrids. The Animal Kingdom is a dangerous and brutal world. Survival of the fittest isn’t just a saying here. It’s the difference between life and death.
Choose your starting Race.
The welcome message vanished, leaving a wall of text showing all the starting Races from which he could choose.
Arthur still had no idea how he’d ended up here, but he did know where the logout button was. Though he didn’t have a body, as he hadn’t chosen an avatar yet, he could still control the interface with his mind. Exiting the Race selection menu, he scrolled down to where the logout button should be.
Except it wasn’t there!
Why was the logout button missing?!
Okay, he thought, trying to calm his racing mind. No need to panic. All he had to do was contact customer service, and they could take care of this.
Quickly scrolling up, he tried looking for the customer service option.
With a pang of dread, he saw that it, too, was missing.
Now he really began to panic.
There was no logout button and no customer service. He tried looking for the in-game messenger, hoping against all hope that it might still be there.
It wasn’t.
What’s going on?!
Arthur’s mind began frantically working, trying to clear the cobwebs to piece together his last few hours. The last thing he remembered was logging out of the trendy Animal Kingdom Online. Even though he would have liked to have kept playing, he’d had school the next day, and his parents would kill him if he overslept again.
He’d gone to take a shower and then…
Arthur’s mind recoiled as a series of emotions flashed through it. He couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but one stood out to him above all others. It made his mind flinch at the mere thought.
Fear. And not normal fear, either. At that moment, Arthur felt terror the likes of which he’d never felt before. Fear that he hadn’t even known was possible.
Giving himself a mental shake, Arthur focused back on the problem at hand. It seemed that he had somehow been transported back into the game, and he couldn’t see any way out.
Mentally shifting back to the character selection screen, he was confused.
If he had indeed been transported back into AKO, where was his level 82 ani-human Cheetah character, Ronin? Why was he being asked to choose a new one?
Scrolling through his user interface – or UI, as gamers called it – he tried to locate his lost avatar. After coming up short, he had to face the reality that he’d need to enter the Animal Kingdom with a new character. It would suck to have to start over again from level 1, but at least he knew how to play the Cheetah. He decided he would just choose that one again.
As soon as that thought crossed his mind, a new message flashed in his vision.
You have been taking too long to make your character selection. If you do not choose a Race within the next: 30 seconds, one will randomly be assigned to you.
Arthur felt his still non-existent heart skip a beat when he saw that message and began frantically tearing through the Race selection, searching desperately for the Feline section. His vision kept flicking back to the timer, which was rapidly counting down to zero.
Where the hell is that damn tab?
Text flashed past his vision as Arthur desperately raced against the clock, trying to reach the correct tab before the timer hit zero. The numbers changed from yellow to red as the number 10 flashed, then 9, 8, 7…
There!
The Feline tab scrolled into his vision, and Arthur desperately selected it, not even watching the clock anymore. Dozens of Feline subspecies flashed by as he scrolled down to the C’s.
And there it was!
Arthur could have cheered as the Cheetah came into view. But as things tended to happen, whenever something bad could come to pass, it would always happen at the worst possible time.
The world suddenly went dark around him once more. The last thing he saw before complete darkness overtook him was a brief message.
A character has randomly been assigned to you. Welcome to the Animal Kingdom!
If Arthur had had a pair of lungs, he would have screamed in frustration.
How could he have missed the countdown by so little? Who knew what type of character he might be stuck with now?!
The first sensation that returned to him was his hearing: birds’ songs, insects chirping, and the soft pattering of rain. Then came his vision. He was in a gloomy forest, thick foliage all around, rain falling on his skin, and feeling pleasantly warm.
Arthur froze, his eyes widening as he realized that he could feel t
he rain on his skin. Feel the damp air and the wet ground underfoot. He could smell, too, something which should have been impossible. Even the most advanced virtual technology couldn’t imitate touch or smell. It was impossible!
Yet, here he was, experiencing it firsthand.
The air felt hot, despite the rain, but Arthur found that, oddly enough, it didn’t bother him.
Looking down at himself, he found that the ground was much closer than he’d been expecting. His Cheetah character had been nearly six feet tall, but it appeared that the randomly generated avatar was much smaller. He was perhaps four and a half feet, at best. Though, if he was honest, it was much closer to four feet than he cared to admit.
His legs were also shaped oddly, appearing longer than they should, bending back on themselves. He didn’t know how, but he could sense an immense amount of power in them. His feet were quite large as well, and he was surprised to see that his character was barefoot.
Typically, the starting gear included a pair of boots, even if they were trash quality items. Lifting his hands, Arthur looked down at red and white patterned skin that glistened slightly.
His fingers widened and flattened at the tips, looking like small pads, and there was a thin membrane going up about halfway, giving them a webbed appearance without sacrificing movement.
Flexing his fingers, he could see that they had a full range of motion. Then, bringing them up to his face, he began feeling around with them. The flattened pads felt strange, but soon, he had a pretty good idea of what Race he’d been assigned to.
“A frog?” he groaned, feeling his shoulders slump.
Out of all the Races he could have gotten, the game had chosen a Frog! At least his face still felt human, but he guessed that his skin would carry the same pattern as his hands.
Sighing, Arthur’s vision flicked up and to the right, where all his information such as maps, time, and notifications would be available.
Everything was gone, except for his three status bars showing Hit Points, Mana Points, and Stamina. There was a blinking light as well, letting him know he had notifications.
Might as well check to see what I’m working with, he thought bitterly.
Mentally selecting the flashing icon, he was greeted with a new pop-up message, one that he’d never seen before. As he read it, he felt a chill run through his body, despite the heat of his surroundings.
Welcome to the Animal Kingdom.
While those visiting this world previously may have had endless lives, that luxury will no longer be available. Death is permanent, as it was always meant to be. The rules in the animal kingdom have always been survival of the fittest.
Do you have what it takes?
Quest Available: Survival of the Fittest - I
Do you have what it takes to survive in the Animal Kingdom? Probably not, but you better damn well try!
Objective: Stay alive for 30 days
Failure: Die
Difficulty: A
Rewards: 50,000 XP, Map Fragment
Note: This quest has been automatically accepted.
The message vanished then, leaving Arthur staring into empty space, his mind whirling.
No respawn after death!? This has to be some kind of sick joke. There’s no way this is real.
Then again…
Arthur turned his palm upward, feeling the rain splashing against his skin. If he could smell and feel in this world, he did not doubt that pain would be real as well. And if the pain was real, death could very well be real and permanent as well. Not to mention that the message seemed to have been sent from someone, as opposed to a randomly generated one.
That meant that someone, or something, had taken over Animal Kingdom Online and changed the rules.
Arthur suddenly felt very afraid. He was all alone in the middle of a forest without so much as a stick with which to defend himself, and an ani-human character with a Frog template. Now having the game choose his avatar felt less like an inconvenience and more like a death sentence!
2
His heart thudded painfully in his chest, and Arthur began to hyperventilate. His breathing turned ragged, and he hunched over, feeling on the edge of panic.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the feeling vanished, leaving him calm and clear-headed.
What just happened?
Arthur couldn’t understand it. One second he’d been about to lose it, and the next, any trace of panic was gone. He tried to dredge up the emotion once again, but it simply refused to come. His brow furrowed in confusion.
What is happening? Is this game messing with my head?
It seemed more than likely, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. All he could do was try and get a handle on the Frog character the game had chosen for him.
Status, Arthur thought, and a second later, his new character status flashed in his vision.
Character Status
Name: Arthur
Race: Humanoid - Poison Frog
Class: None
Level: 1
XP: 0/100
AP: 0
Survivability
HP: 40/40
MP: 70/70
STA: 110/110
Armor Rating: 0
Attributes
Strength - 4
Constitution - 4
Endurance - 11
Agility - 11
Intelligence - 7
Wisdom - 6
Charisma - 7
Luck - 5
Skills
0/8
Abilities
0/8
Racial Bonus
Poison Touch: Tier 1
Spring: Tier 1
Arthur winced when he saw his abysmally low HP and Strength. Clearly, his smaller size came with some penalties. His Agility and Endurance were high for his level, though the former didn’t even come close to matching the level of his Cheetah. His Endurance was much higher than the Cheetah’s, which might be better for him if he needed to run long distances without running out of Stamina.
Selecting the attributes tab, Arthur refreshed his memory on what each of them would do.
Attributes
Your character will have eight total attributes that will determine growth. Each level will award 5 attribute points, or AP. Below is a list of the attributes, as well as what they signify for your character.
Strength: Determines how physically strong your character is. It also determines carry capacity, as well as damage with Strength-based weapons.
Constitution: Determines your character’s total health and how well they will recover after an attack.
Endurance: Determines your character’s total stamina and how well they will recover after strenuous activity.
Agility: Determines both speed and dexterity, and how well your character can avoid attacks. It also determines damage with Agility-based weapons.
Intelligence: Determines your character’s total mana, as well as how well they will recover after using mana-based skills.
Wisdom: Determines the speed at which your character will learn new skills. It helps with identifying objects, items, and people.
Charisma: Determines how attractive you are to others, as well as how they will react to you in any given situation.
Luck: Determines how lucky you are.
He noted that nothing had changed. AKO was different than other games in many ways, and one of them had been the lack of automatic HP, MP, and Stamina regeneration during battle. This meant that if he got hurt in battle, he would have to either run away, take a potion, or win his fight if he wanted the points to regenerate. The rate of regeneration would depend entirely on his individual attributes.
Next, he checked his Abilities and Skills tabs.
Skills
As you make your way through the Animal Kingdom, you may pick up skills by performing specific actions. Your Wisdom attribute will determine how likely you are to pick up a skill. You will be limited to the number of skills you can have, so please be caref
ul when making your selection. Skills will level up as they are used, and each time you pass a level threshold – every 10 levels – the effects of the skill will become more potent.
Abilities
Abilities differ from skills, in that they will cost either Stamina or Mana to activate. Some abilities can be learned by everyone, while others will be either Class or Race-specific. Abilities, like skills, will level as they are used and will grow stronger when a threshold is passed – every 10 levels.
These, too, looked the same as before. Arthur knew he’d be limited to 8 skills and abilities each, so he’d need to be careful when choosing them. A good skill and ability layout could mean the difference between life and death, literally in his case.
Since he didn’t have any skills or abilities yet, he moved on to the final tab. This tab was the one that contained his only chance of survival if he ran across an enemy.
Racial Bonus
These differ from skills and abilities, in that only those of a specific race can learn them. For example, it would be impossible for a land-based creature to learn a skill involving flight. Racial Bonuses are measured in Tiers of power, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest. There is a theoretical 11th Tier, though it’s never been reached.
The Tier will determine the potency of the bonus, as well as its power. Racial Bonuses can get upgraded by completing certain actions specified in the description. Unlike skills and abilities, bonuses cannot be learned but will be offered when reaching certain levels.
Arthur noted that there was a new bit added to the description. There had never been an 11th Tier bonus, theoretical or otherwise. This was a definite change from the way the game was before. He wondered what the bonuses would be, so he opened them to see what their effects were and what he needed to do to upgrade them to the second Tier.