Shadow Sun Survival Read online

  “They’re going to alter the planet to suit their needs,” he said, catching his parents’ attention. “They consider us a contaminant. That’s why they plan to kill most of us. And they’re going to take out our factories and power plants because they create pollution. We’ll be back in the stone-age.”

  *****

  Allistor was roused from his memories by another blast of sound from the void titan. The sixty-foot-tall behemoth was now several hundred yards past his location, still flattening everything in its path as it pursued his neighbors. It most closely resembled a mythical mountain troll featured in so many fantasy games. All muscle and no brains, the things disliked bright light, preferring to hunt at dawn and dusk. They had horrible night vision and were easily distracted. Which had been the only weakness he and his neighbors had found so far. A few brave souls with guns could distract and lead the creature away from vulnerable groups in hiding.

  He could no longer make out the faces of those still fighting, but he could see that even in the last minute or so that he’d been zoned out, their numbers had declined. He hoped that meant that some had escaped.

  Not wanting to do it, but knowing he’d be unable to live with himself if he didn’t, Allistor went to check on the woman and her child. The rubble half-wall they’d hidden beneath was crushed into gravel where the monster’s foot had landed. He didn’t immediately see any evidence of blood, which he took as a good sign. Maybe they’d found a hole deep enough to save them.

  He kicked at some of the larger stones, then shifted a bent and twisted metal beam slightly. A week ago, he’d never have been able to move the thing. But he and his father had taken the warnings seriously and worked nearly nonstop to develop their bodies and increase their physical attributes. His Strength, just a two on day one, had doubled to a four. Same for his Stamina. A four in Strength made him, as best they had been able to figure, on par with a chimpanzee when it came to muscle mass. Which would be roughly double the strength of a normal human male. Most recently he’d been pushing his body by lifting stacks of tires over and over again. In most of his games, players started with a uniform ten points in each attribute across the board. This System was different. Starting attributes were based on each person’s actual strengths and weaknesses, as compared somehow to the other beings in the system. Humans were physically weak compared to most sentient beings, so an average male like Allistor began with a Strength stat of two.

  Below the beam was a displaced manhole cover. Allistor’s hopes soared! If she had managed to find the open manhole in time, it was possible they had survived the passing of the giant. Another few seconds of searching amid the rubble, and he found the hole. It was partially collapsed, but still open. Keeping his head back from the opening, he called out in a hoarse whisper-shout. “Hello? Are you down there?”

  He waited and listened, carefully avoiding sticking his head over the opening to look inside. That was a lesson learned the hard way on the first day of stabilization. Creatures had spontaneously appeared across the globe when the three-day countdown hit zero. Nightmare creatures that should not have existed even in the worst horror vids. One of them had materialized in his basement. It proceeded to wreak havoc among the items stored down there, searching for human prey. His sister had heard the noise the same time as the others, but she had been closer to the basement door. As Allistor ran to stop her, she opened the door and flicked on the light switch. A tentacled arm wrapped around her torso and yanked her downward with such force that he’d heard her spine snap, cutting off her scream of terror and pain.

  Blinking away the tears caused by that memory, Allistor heard the echo of his voice from below, but no other sound. His hopes for their survival plummeted. There hadn’t really been time for them to move out of earshot in the tunnel. Her failure to respond didn’t bode well. He tried again, “Are you hurt? I can help you. The titan has moved on; it’s safe to come out.” He cringed at that last statement. There really wasn’t anyplace safe anymore, above or below ground.

  A soft and wet rustling sound drifted up out of the hole. Allistor instantly fell back away from the opening, then scooted on his butt still farther. He knew that sound. He’d heard it in his basement. Made by one of those things called an Octopoid that had taken his sister.

  That was it. If the woman and her daughter were down there with that thing, there was nothing he could do for them. They were gone. Likely their corpses were tucked in some corner waiting to be consumed.

  Anger flashed within him. He was sick of these things killing his people. His family, his friends. It had taken two days and half a dozen close calls, but he and his father had figured out how to kill the thing that ate Leah.

  They were sensitive to fire, for one thing. And acid, especially in powder form. Regular old Comet cleaning powder ate away at their skin quite effectively. And their bodies were vulnerable at each of the spots where a tentacle connected with its trunk. A lucky knife throw from Allistor as the thing charged up the stairs toward them had struck it in what he thought of as its armpit, causing it to scream and thrash before falling back down the stairs.

  They’d learned that like most of the newly arrived terrors that were steadily wiping out the human race, it was sensitive to the scent of blood. Allistor looked around, finding a broken and slightly bent length of rebar close by. He pressed the bend down against his leg, mostly straightening it back out. Then he used his improved strength to apply pressure as he rapidly scraped one end back and forth across the side of the steel beam until it had sharpened to a point.

  Taking a deep breath, he looked down at the hole a few feet away. “They were the last humans you’re gonna kill.” He dragged the rough point across the back of his hand, drawing blood. His interface flashed with a red negative five, indicating he’d taken damage. Waiting until a decent amount had pooled, he flicked his hand toward the manhole. Droplets sprayed across the ground, with just a few making it down into the darkness. But he knew it would be enough.

  He carefully moved around through the debris until he was on the opposite side of the hole. Crouching down behind a mound of rubble and metal, he put the back of his hand to his mouth and sucked the blood from it. Keeping his mouth on it to prevent more open bleeding, he waited. After a few moments, the bleeding stopped, and he watched as the small wound began to heal over.

  The wet sound returned quickly. The scraping of scales against the concrete sides of the tunnel below. A moment later first one, then a second tentacle reached up and grasped the edge of the manhole. A third emerged and wandered back and forth around the edge, searching for prey. When it found nothing moving, the creature’s octopus-like head emerged to look around with two of its bulbous eyes that swiveled in protruding sockets. It sniffed the air, turning toward the line of blood droplets in the dust. One tentacle reached out to touch the nearest droplet, returning to the creature’s maw, where a purple tongue flashed out and tasted the blood. It gave a gurgling purr as it lifted itself the rest of the way to the surface.

  The moment its torso cleared the hole, Allistor lunged. He drove the point of the rebar spear into the uppermost tentacle joint, twisting it violently as it penetrated the thing’s rubbery flesh, scoring a critical backstab. It screamed and fell forward, off balance with the lower half of its body still in the hole.

  Allistor jerked the threaded rebar free, sending a spray of purplish blood and the reek of ammonia into the air as it shredded more of the thing’s flesh and muscle on its way out, disabling the tentacle. Then he rammed the makeshift rebar spear back into its torso, right at the base of what he assumed was its soft skull. He put all his weight into the thrust, pinning the nasty-smelling thing to the ground. This strike also earned him bonus damage, hitting an incapacitated opponent in the back.

  Octopoid Reaver

  Level 6

  Health: 460/2,000

  It wasn’t exactly like an earth octopus. Generally humanoid in shape, it had six tentacle arms like an octopus, flexible and strong, co
vered with suction cups that each held a tiny but razor-sharp hook inside. But the octopoid’s other two limbs were stubby legs that ended in small feet. These legs helped it ambulate across solid ground much faster than an octopus would be able to. Mainly a water creature, the amphibian had gills on either side of its bulbous head. But it also had lungs that allowed it to function on dry land.

  The five working tentacles blindly thrashed and grabbed at him. One of its four eyes rotated backward to focus on him, and the tentacles quickly became more effective. One of them wrapped around his boot, tugging hard in an attempt to tip his weight off the spear.

  In answer, Allistor roared his rage at the beast and twisted the spear inside its body. He lunged his own body forward, taking the spear shaft with him and changing the angle to widen the hole in the creature’s body. It convulsed, causing the one tentacle to release his boot while another whipped across his back, tearing his shirt and a good amount of his flesh as it passed.

  He leapt up, using the spear shaft like a vaulter’s pole to push himself higher, and used gravity and muscle both as he slammed the heels of his boots into the back of the monster’s head. It caved in with crunch of cartilage and a wet squelching sound. The tentacles flapped about for a moment, then went still.

  A little green number flashed +2300 in the upper left corner of his interface. That was the experience gained for killing the beast. More surprisingly, another number, this one a golden +150, flashed up right after. Those were fame points. Someone somewhere must have been watching his fight. Another notification popped up next.

  You have learned the skill: Spearwielder.

  Using the sharp end of your weapon to puncture your enemy has taught you the value of a sharp weapon with reach. Continue to use stabbing weapons to increase your skill level.

  Bending to loot the corpse, he received twenty klax – about average for monsters of that level. Though the world’s trading currencies remained as they had been pre-assimilation, rewards for kills and completed quests, as well as payments for items sold on the open market, were paid in klax.

  The creature also yielded four pieces of octopoid hide, ten barbed hooks, and two octopoid eyes. The hide could be used for crafting armor or weapons, or so the description said. So far Allistor had not met anyone who had learned much about crafting. The hooks would make good fish hooks. And he had no idea what to do with the eyes. But he dutifully put all the items in his pack, his gaming experience telling him that as long as he had room for it, he should take it all. Even if the eyes were useless for crafting, they might make a tasty cooking ingredient or good bait for fishing.

  Lifting his makeshift spear, he Examined it. Examine was a skill he’d learned on day one of the stabilization. He’d been staring at one of the creatures that roamed the street outside when suddenly an information block appeared on his interface, along with a notification that he’d learned Examination, Level 1.

  Makeshift Iron Rebar Spear

  Quality: Common

  Durability: 230/300

  Damage: 300 piercing/100 blunt

  Bonus damage: 100 tearing

  The spear was heavy, and not an ideal weapon. Even with his improved strength, he’d not be able to throw it far. But it was a good heavy bludgeoning weapon. Though the threads had roughed up his hands a bit as he’d pressed it into the ground. An idea struck him. Pulling one of the pieces of hide from his bag, he used his teeth to tear off a long strip. He wrapped the hide tightly around the rebar near the butt end, where he’d held it. Just as he was finishing the wrap and searching for something to tie it off with, the hide seemed to seal itself to the metal, and another notification popped up.

  You have learned the crafting skill: Weaponsmithing!

  With this skill, you will be able to combine materials to create viable weapons. Existing weapon schematics can be purchased on the open market, or from smiths at Journeyman level or higher. You have earned additional skill points for creating a viable weapon from scratch using makeshift components you found lying around and a little creative thinking.

  Allistor blinked a few times as he read the prompt, then he stared at the spear in his hand. The description hadn’t changed, but now with the new skill, he could conceive of ways that the weapon might be improved by further sharpening the point, tempering the metal, sharpening the threads to increase tearing damage, and adding a weighted butt cap for smash damage.

  “Holy shit!” He did a little dance as he held the spear at arm’s length. “I can make weapons!”

  *****

  “You open the door, and it leads to a small, dark room with stone walls.”

  “I umm… what do you call it? I roll for a perception check.” A twenty-sided clear crystal dice rolls across the table, landing with the number 17 facing upward.

  “Hel, you notice a gold ring on the floor in the center of the room.”

  “Really, Loki? Just like that? A gold ring out of nowhere?”

  Loki rolled his eyes at her. “Don’t blame me. This is a human game. I didn’t make the rules. Though I like the possibilities generated by the random dice rolls.”

  “You mean you like being able to control the dice rolls and thus the direction of the game.” Hel glared at him, scooping up the dice. “There’s nothing random about this game with you.”

  Loki chuckled. “Fair enough. Let us take a break and check in on these humans.”

  A wave of his hand brought up a three-dimensional hologram of the planet currently labeled UCP 382 hovering above the gaming table. The planet spun slowly, showing the observers each of the continents and oceans as it turned. Loki moved his hand toward the display and tapped the continent known as North America. The view zoomed in so that the continent filled the display, except for a stream of information scrolling along the right side.

  “The extermination of the humans seems to be going well. The focused attacks on the major cities has eliminated fifty-five percent of the population in this first week. The ones in charge of this continent actually did some of our work for us, detonating nuclear blasts in hopes of containing the spread of the void titans and drakes we set to spawn there.”

  Hel zoomed in on the area that had once been New York City. It was now a blasted wasteland with only some steel skeletons of broken buildings to suggest it had once been a city of millions. “We’ll need to seed some of the slimes and silicoid fungus to absorb the radiation and return these areas to habitable status.

  “Already done.” Loki pointed to a section of the info feed which stopped scrolling. “Still, it will take more than the solar year Stabilization period for the land to be viable again. Maybe as much as two years. There are several similar spots where their primitive nuclear power plants have malfunctioned and contaminated large tracts of land.”

  “These human creatures seem to have no concern for their planet. Short-sighted of them, really. It’s good that we claimed their world when we did. Another century or two and they might have destroyed it.”

  Baldur, who had been observing the game quietly, said, “I believe they lost their way when they stopped believing in us. This new god that so many of them adopted was one of fear and revenge, fire and brimstone. They lost sight of honor and duty, the glory of battle and rightful plunder. Strength of arm and stout heart were replaced with politics and greed. Men and women have forgotten the ways to Valhalla. And I believe that was your doing, Loki.” He scowled at the deceiver through the mist that drifted throughout the room. The alien beings preferred a moist environment.

  Members of a race so old that none but themselves even knew its name, they were effectively immortal. Their people were born on a planet that orbited one of the universe’s first stars. They had long ago discovered the Neutrocosm and harnessed its powers, and they had the ability to alter their forms at will. But in these casual settings, they preferred their natural, vaguely amphibian forms.

  “That may be.” Loki breathed a puff of mist at his brother- the species’ equivalent of a ‘talk to t
he hand’ gesture. “But the weak and foolish deserve their fate.”

  The three watched the display as Loki spun the view westward into a mountainous region. “These areas, where fewer cities grew and people lived closer to nature, the humans have fared better. There are some true warriors here. With survival instincts that will serve them well. Some remember the old ways, others have learned from the games we sent them. The human race is not totally without merit.”

  Not true gods, they lacked omnipotence or omniscience. But to the simpler life forms of the universe, like the humans they visited every few thousand years, the powers they displayed seemed godlike. And their names became legend. Creatures of myth in whatever lands they visited. Most of their race had become bored with planetary life, and either let themselves perish or assumed forms that allowed them to travel the stars, seeking adventure or knowledge of the universe’s origins. Some few had remained, forming the System and gathering worlds into the Nexus. Fostering younger species with potential.

  Loki scanned the scrolling information on the display, then pointed a tentacle-like finger and stopped it, highlighting one section. “Here is an interesting one. Abnormally high initial Adaptability of six, and Intelligence of five, yet he seems to have chosen to develop his Strength, having already doubled it in a matter of just a few days.”

  They watched in silence as Loki zoomed in on a young human male battling an octopoid – one of the low-level creatures regularly pulled from the Menagerie and transported to newly claimed and overpopulated worlds. A distant cousin of the gathered beings, they were semi-intelligent and quite deadly.

  “See how he improvises a weapon? This one will go far.” Baldur admired the young man’s spirit. He applauded when the human defeated the octopoid and earned a new skill. His approval automatically awarded some Fame Points to the young man.

  “He is young and foolish. If this trash doesn’t kill him, another will soon enough. He believes his limited knowledge of our System makes him stronger than he truly is.” Hel spat on the floor in disgust.