Scott put on the vest then took out a pair of strange looking pants that expanded to a size that would fit him. After analyzing them he recalled what they really were. They were chaps, specifically batwing chaps. They were a leather item meant to be worn over the top of his pants.
Batwing chaps were cut wide with a flare at the bottom for easier leg movement. They had several straps along the waist and thigh that were used to fasten them, and were the same color as the vest. Upon further inspection he noted a second set of straps near the bottom flare.
His ability to analyze items was still low, but he could tell that this was a customization option. It also did not take long to realize why they existed. He would need to kick a lot. He might trip on his own chaps if he performed a lot of fancy footwork in a low-position. The straps would allow him the protection of the leather armor, and the ability to kick like normal as the flare would be negated.
There were a few other items in the box. He pulled out a leather strap that had a wide oval-shaped metal disk on the front. It was sewn together tightly in a complete circle. Scott slid the headband over his head and positioned the disk in front. It tightened when it was put into place and he sighed in relief. It actually helped his headache a little due to the slight increase in pressure.
The other items were a light brown cloth bag, a light brown leather belt, and a pair of leather gloves with a hardened leather band across the knuckles. He equipped them all then nodded.
Scott performed a few experimental punches and kicks. The new items were light weight, not that their weight would have mattered much with his level of strength anyway, and felt comfortable.
He put the envelope back into the letter and then the envelope and his money into his little bag. When he did so he was delighted to see that the letter shrank down to the size of his pinky. The little bag could hold a lot more than it seemed! Though the coins remained the same size, about the size of an American nickel.
After looting the metal box he tried to pick it up and take it with him. It refused to budge no matter what he did.
The metal cot proved to be comfortable when he checked it, a little too comfortable. He wanted to take a nap as soon as he sat down. Scott had to force himself back to his feet.
"Man, this is great!" Scott smiled to himself. The headache aside, everything he had seen of this world had him excited.
There was nothing else to do in the room, so he moved to the only exit. Scott took a deep breath then released it slowly. There were forty monsters in this area that he had to deal with before this mission was completed. They should have levels equal to his stats, but were low grade monsters. He was not certain what that meant, but he was about to find out.
Scott opened the door and stepped out into the subterranean transit authority building. The first thing he faced was a wall. He stepped further out and turned to see the door close behind him on its own. The door faded partially from sight. It was like it was trying to enter stealth mode. Perhaps it was doing exactly that. It led to a safe room after all.
He looked around and noticed that he was currently in a dead-end corridor that had little in the way of decoration. There was a sizeable map on the back wall that caught his attention. It held the floor plan for the building.
The old Scott, the one who thought he was a badass gamer, would probably just wander around and fight monsters for their loot. However, the new and more balanced Scott remembered a bit of his military training. He needed to know the strength of his enemies, their position, how smart they were, and various other things. In short, he needed intelligence. There was one place that seemed to offer it. Scott traced a route from his current position to the security room on the second floor.
According to the map, the transit authority building was neither particularly wide nor was it tall. It had three floors.
He left the map behind and headed down the corridor as quietly as he could. He slipped close to the wall and listened carefully as he moved. It was not long before he sensed a nearby presence. It felt relatively strong. He knew that it might be a difficult fight.
Scott stopped near the edge of the corridor and listened carefully. He heard voices.
"Stupid humans." muttered a low-pitched voice. The dull sound of something meaty being kicked could be heard.
"Their meats taste good though." said another low-pitched voice, with a laugh.
He could not be certain, but he thought there might be only those two monsters up ahead. He had no idea what they were exactly, but that was part of the challenge.
Scott took a risk and quickly poked his head around the corner and then it back. They had both been facing away from him. They were humanoid and somewhat large, but he could not be certain what they were otherwise.
He quietly took a breath then spun gently around the corner. He had to defeat the monsters that had taken over this building. That was the task at hand. This battle would tell him what he would have to contend with in the near future.
"You think boss will get the city to pay?" asked one of the two monsters.
"Who cares as long as he pays us?" asked the other creature.
Scott noticed that they both wore what looked like heavy rain coats with the hoods up. It was impossible to see what they looked like, or their equipment. He had no real choice but to attack from behind and hope for the best. The corridor they were in now was too small to slip around them so that he could get a better look from the front.
He leapt into the air and launched a powerful flying kick that caught the monster on the left side square in the back. The impact elicited a beautiful crunching sound upon impact, but despite the force of the strike the creature only staggered forward a few steps and shouted.
"What the hell!" snarled the creature before both it and its companion turned toward Scott. He could see them clearly now. They had dull red skin, bright yellow eyes, and small horns jutting from their forehead. They also wore expressions of surprise and anger. Two small tusks jutted up from their lower jaws adding to their monstrous appearance.
"A human? Eat that bastard!" roared the hellion that Scott had attacked. The creature then lifted its arms from behind the raincoat like outer garment and revealed its weapons, a set of twin pistols that did not appear to be made of metal.
Scott's eyes widened in terrified fascination as the monster that he had attacked opened fire with its twin-pistols. Each shot missed him completely, but the little bursts of light made a surprisingly adorable Ka-pew! Ka-pew! sound.
The gun-wielding beast roared in frustration when his ammunition ran out and he was forced to try and reload. "Stand still meat!"
"He is standing still you idiot! Stop trying to look good cuz you got two guns!" snapped the other hellion. He whipped out a massive battle axe that he obviously could not have been hiding under his coat.
A hint of relief washed over the sorcerer. An axe was something that he could deal with easily. Scott half-stepped back to avoid the hard swing of the monster's horizontal attack then rocked forward and launched a hard palm strike that slammed into the monster's nose.
Disappointment settled in a moment later and he frowned. He had hoped for a clean break, but all he accomplished was bloodying its nose a bit.
"Fucker!" roared the hellion before rushing forward in a sloppy charge.
Scott slipped sideways and kicked out at the beast's legs in the passing. Its knee buckled and it fell forward in a heavy heap.
"Shit!" snapped the other hellion as he fiddled with a spherical device. The sorcerer would not allow him to do whatever it was that he intended to do. It could not possibly work out well for him.
Scott rushed forward and launched a hard straight punch toward the hellion's head. Surprisingly, the beast snapped its head sideways quickly and then whipped its right arm around it a circle to knock Scotts arm sideways before he could recover. The entire sequence of events had taken far less than a second but Scott was already off-balance and open to the beast's next attack, a hard rising knee s
trike to his solar plexus.
The sorcerer gasped as some of the wind was knocked out of him, then cried out in surprise when a sharp elbow rammed down to strike his shoulder blade. He was unable to recover due to the rapid-fire counter-combo and the finishing blow from the monster came in the form of a hard spinning left hook that slammed into the back of his head with great force.
Scott was heavily staggered by the rapid strikes and was knocked to the ground, dazed by the heavy blows. Obviously, the hellion was a gun-fighter that specialized in firearms and unarmed combat. It proved to be a devastating combination.
"Fucker wasn't much." laughed the gun wielding hellion before he lifted his boot. The creature's metal clad boot rocketed downward and slammed into Scott's back with bone-crushing force. The strength of these monsters was as hellish as their name.
"Save some for me." muttered the other hellion as he rose to his feet. Blood poured freely from his nose for a moment before he held it closed and began to breathe through his mouth.
"Why? It kicked your ass. These meats is mine." said the gun-hellion.
"The hell they is! If I hadn't kept it busy it would have killed you."
"Really? Cuz' the way I see it, you didn't land a single hit and I smashed it on my own."
The hellions were a physically strong race with lots of vitality and stamina. However, they were not particularly bright in comparison to other humanoid races. They were smarter than an average ogre, but not by much.
The monsters began to argue heavily about who got to claim the corpse despite the fact that their meal was not among the deceased. That proved disastrous for the brutes as Scott was given time to recover.
"I killed the human! Its meats is mine!" shouted the gun-fighter.
"You sure it's even human? It don't smell human." snorted the other hellion.
"Don't care. Meats is meats." muttered the gun-fighter.
"You gotz no class, fucker. These meats is wasted on you." snapped the axe hellion.
"Oh? I gotz no class?" snarled the gun hellion. "Me?"
The meat that the two monsters fought over recovered enough to form a stupid, but logical plan. Scott launched a feeble kick toward the shin of the axe hellion then went limp.
Neither monster noticed the origin of the kick, and had thought the meat to be dead and well-tenderized. So, it was natural that the axe hellion came to the conclusion that he did. "No class fucker! You kicked me!"
"No I didn't! Stop saying lies." snapped the gun hellion.
Soon the conversation devolved into a shoving contest. Finally, the axe hellion snarled at the gun hellion and swiped at him with his axe. "You don't touch me, no class fuck!"
"I gotz class you assbag! You the one with no class!" snapped the gun hellion.
"Me?! I got class! I'm softsticated as hell. Ugly shit." snorted the axe hellion.
The gun hellion stopped for a moment then snickered. "Yeah, you soft alright." He ran his tongue along his upper lip. The other hellion shuddered in disgust and caused him to step back. That was all the gun wielder needed to see. The axe fighter was weak meat! He made a kissy face at the axe hellion then launched a hard right cross toward the face of the axe fighter.
The axe hellion was not able to dodge completely, but it did not matter. He took a punch that skipped across his cheek, but managed to ram his axe handle up with under his former companion's chin with enough force to stagger him.
The gun fighter was hit with a strong follow-up attack that cleaved through his leather rain coat and tore into his chest. A fountain of blood showered out as the monster fell back, knocked to the ground by the blow. The axe hellion wasted no time in chopping downward with brutal efficiency. Meat was back on the menu tonight!
While the axe fighter finished off its friend, and thus won the conversation, Scott quietly rose to his feet. The axe hellion laughed maniacally as he chopped at the gun hellion and soon the other monster was no more.
"Show you who gotz more class, meat." said the beast with another laugh.
He turned back to the other white meat. The tender morsel should have been lying dead on the ground, but instead of seeing his dinner, the beast only saw a powerful fist rocketing toward his face. The hellion's nose broke cleanly this time. It was no longer able to withstand the force of the blow after having been weakened by a similar strike before.
The hellion cried out in agony before he was swept to the ground with a strong, confident spinning hook kick to back of his knees. Scott leapt atop it, snatched a hunk of its hair and started to bash the monster's face into the ground with brutal efficiency. When he felt that the hellion was properly dazed, the sorcerer began to unleash a series of hard punches to the back of the thing's head. It was not long before it went limp.
Scott panted a little. That battle had worn him out a great deal. The girls had not been kidding when they had each warned him that fights on the classic server were much more difficult. This had been like fighting real people. Real stupid people, but still real people.
He sighed loudly, then stood up and started to collect his loot. He took the guns and the axe and stuck them in the bag. The axe took up a good bit of room as it was a large item and only shrunk down to about the length of his palm.
The monster's pockets were searched and he found eighteen copper coins, each about the size of an American quarter if he had to guess. There were also a few of those little glowing spheres that the gunner had tried to use before, and two doses of a health restoring potion if the label of the bottle was to be believed.
There was more to take, however. Scott stripped the corpses down and stuffed everything that they wore into his bag. That alone took up a lot of space. If he had to guess, he might be able to store the equipment of perhaps a dozen of these monsters. He would have to pick and choose then hope for the best.
He left the naked corpses where they lay, there wasn't any way to hide them other than to drag them around the corner. There was no way to clean the blood splatter and gore at the moment, either.
Scott considered moving on, but after a moment he decided against it. He went to go take a look at the salvation mirror and to rest for a while. If more monsters came out in search of these two, he would die if they saw him. He did not want to risk losing whatever experience he had gained or his items.
Back in the safe room, Scott checked the salvation mirror then sighed. He had not increased his level. Truth be told, he was not surprised. He had not done particularly well in that fight. Still, his information was saved for later. Whatever combat experience he had gained would not be lost if he died.
He hopped on the cot and closed his eyes. The battles to come would be fierce, he could tell. He needed to be as healthy as possible when dealing with them, and for now he would try to fight them one at a time if possible. Without the element of surprise, perhaps even with it, he would not be able to win even a one-on-one battle with these monsters easily.
Chapter 3
Time was a funny little thing. It was not quite Danny DeVito, but still it was a funny little thing. It became even more humorous when it was experienced by a race of immortal beings that could exist on multiple time-axis at the same time and actively engage in those timelines without causing a paradox. For instance, Aria Ardent could simultaneously exist on the mortal frame of reference that Scott Jacobs was normally part of, even while he existed in a timeless space outside of both time and normal space.
In short, even though time did not pass in relation to Scott, Aria could still exist in a timeline that did not currently include his presence though it still held reference to his existence and his future presence would still be relative from the moment of his re-insertion. The concept was simple, but it could be quite confusing to the mortal mind. It is a rare mind that can accept that one thing can simultaneously be two opposing things and rationalize how said thing can exist without falling prey to the need to cite logic and consistency.
It was in some ways like the old grandfather paradox. It is
said by mortals that if a man goes back in time and kills his grandfather, he himself would cease to exist. However, if he ceased to exist then he could not go back in time to kill his grandfather and thus would exist. This is used as a thought experiment and as a means of trying to explain why time-travel is impossible without citing poorly understood physics.
That paradox seems logical, but only from the limited perspective of a mortal understanding of time. For most mortal minds time flows in a distinct line. One event leads into another. However, for those who became known as the gods time did not flow that way. Linear time did not actually exist for them unless they chose to experience it. There were events and a flow of awareness, but they were omni-existent. If such a thing as a point could exist in time and space, then all points existed simultaneously for the gods if they were in their natural state.
The gods of the divine city chose to continually experience the concept of a mostly linear time progression for the sake of being authentically human-ish. It was sometimes as hard for them to experience linear time as it was for a normal human mind to experience the true nature of time and space. It was a bizarre, alien, concept that took a lot of effort to comprehend properly.
Currently, the goddess Origin had split her consciousness into six separate instances. Four of them currently existed in the four servers of ARS as the local planetary goddess who was also known as Origin. The fifth was her core persona that resided in the divine city. The sixth was currently driving down a busy street at the wheel of a pink Cadillac. Though her fiancé was outside of time and space, she chose to exist in his original space in order to handle some of his business. Any paradoxes that occurred during the process would be cleaned up later.
Aria swayed her head from side to side and sang along with the song on the radio. It was Michael Jackson's song Smooth Criminal. "Ba da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da duhn."
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