Chương 3: Home Intruders

CH 3 - Home Intruders The battered door to Grey's apartment barely hung from its hinges. Clear golf-ball shaped imprints on the door and wall meant that the ants had been active. Grey had briefed Jim on his encounter with the ants, and they crept forward. Grey remembered his last encounter and decided to try something out. The system had granted Grey a shapeshifting ability, and with it, a new sense was unlocked for him. Almost like seeing or hearing, Grey could now change his body at will.

From his wrist, a bone buckler shield appeared. He also wielded a knife he found at Mrs. Jensen's place. Gingerly, he stepped into the doorframe and looked inside. Little light came through the blackout curtains he kept up to let Grey sleep in through the day. Now, without power, the room became nothing but darkness after a few feet. From the shadows, a familiar black projectile shot forward. Grey noticed it, and turned to dodge. When the ant slammed into the wall behind him, it let out a loud cracking sound.

He followed up without hesitating, killing the monster before it could unlodge itself from the wall. Another ant charged, meeting the same fate as the first. Then another, and many more. Before long, a storm of ants were firing at him all at once. Grey dodged back into the hallway, but a small flood of ants had already turned, and prepared to fire themselves at him. Jim's fists let off a subtle glow, and the ants seemed to hesitate.

"Don't like that? Do ya?" Jim taunted, his fists raised threateningly. A particularly fast ant jumped directly at him in response. It's attack was deflected by the boxer, but clearly his aura wasn't enough. Grey remembered Mrs. Jensen's cat. The air of intimidation it let out through the room. With the ants hesitating, Grey made the most of it. He stabbed two ants before the rest began jumping towards him once more. Jim landed a kill, slowing the ants progress as the two retreated towards the stairwell.

Grey was stepping back when an ant jumped at him. He moved to avoid it and found himself caught in the trajectory of two more ants. It's almost as if they are working together. One of the ants collided with the small buckler on Grey's wrist and found itself stuck in the wall. The other struck him directly in the side. OW! Grey felt where he got hit. A few ribs are definitely broken. Nothing he couldn't deal with for now. Jim came to back him up, taking out a few ants.

His punches were flashy and full of power, but lacked finesse. The bugs were simply too fast, firing at him faster than he could kill them. The herd of ants had been thinned now, and Grey realized he leveled up. He started working on healing his ribs with his ability. It was slow work, but he managed. Healing his arm took a lot of studying, but Human Anatomy Manual (F) had taught him how to mend bone and flesh. He glanced over his numbers and decided to continue leveling INT.

The stat provided him with a crucial boost in understanding of anatomy. He could only utilize his ability to the fullest by understanding how he could use it. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Unsure of what WIS did for him, he decided to experiment with a point in that as well.

Name: Grey Falsen Level: 3 [0/10] Race: Human (F) Class: n/a Ability: Shapeshifting (F), Bone Manipulation (F) STR: 8 DEX: 6 END: 10 WIS: 7 INT: 12 LUCK: 8 Leveling INT had shown him considerable rewards. As if he had become smarter, he could think much faster and with greater clarity. Grey got to work finishing up the surrounding ants. He hesitated to use his ability any further. Hunger gnawed at his stomach, and each use made it worse. His knife slashed forward, piercing an ant and digging into the floor.

Grey tried removing the knife as he had many times before, but the cheap kitchen-grade handle slipped off the blade in his hand. Suddenly, Grey found himself without a blade. He turned, narrowly parrying an ant flying at his stomach with his bone shield. Instead of cartilage, Grey summoned a bone knife from his hand and used it to finish off the last few ants. The knife didn't seem to use as many calories as his cartilage horn had, but it was draining.

Finally, all the ants were left scattered from his room to the stairwell. Jim returned to Grey's side and crouched behind him.

"Happy you're safe." Grey told his friend. Jim was uninjured. Grey could heal himself, but if Jim got hurt, he wouldn't know what to do. This was the reasoning behind Grey leading their attack. After eating some candies, Grey hefted himself to his feet, and hobbled through his doorway.

"Home sweet home." It was just as he had left it… Except all the furniture was destroyed, and golf ball holes patterned the walls. Without hesitating, Grey opened the fridge. His eyes widened, and saliva built at the back of his throat. When the door became ajar, Grey's disappointment was only overshadowed by his rage. His leftover pie wasn't only gone, but all of his snacks had been looted from his fridge. Did the ants eat it? The fridge still had some items leftover, like condiments.

And suspiciously, only the tasty snacks got eaten. Grey's ears perked upwards. A muffled sound came from his bedroom. The sound became louder, as someone behind the door pulled a dresser across the floor. An uncomfortable screeching sound fittingly announced the home intruder. The door slowly opened, and a familiar man stepped through. This guy? A scowl rolled over Grey's face, and he stepped forward to confront the pie thief.

"Hey man relax! World's ending! I.. I thought you were dead!" The guy struggled to put his hands up in the air, moving in slow motion. His eyes sagged. The slurring of his words combined with his slumped posture reminded Grey why he didn't like this guy. Alex …. Our local bum. He always got high around the parking lot and slept in the alley. Crumbs of what was clearly apple pie clung to his matted, unwashed beard.

"Get the fuck out of here, now." Grey said, completely loosing his cool. He ate my pie, didn't he.

"Hey man, isn't that too far?" Alex said. Jim looked over expectantly, as if to agree with Alex.

"Dude you broke into my house and ate all my food, then barricaded yourself in my bedroom while killer ants took over the rest of the place." Alex looked to the floor. A mix of shame and embarrassment rushed over him.

"Fine man, let me get my stuff." He said, stepping into Grey's bedroom. Grey let his shoulders relax when he suddenly smelt something vile. He looked to where Alex had gone and found him smoking something off of some tin foil.

"Aw dude, what the hell?" Alex looked up from the drugs with a look that could terrify even a demon lord. A wave of aura flooded the room. In the next moment, Alex was atop of Grey, holding him to the floor in a strangle. The drug that Alex did had somehow boosted his speed and strength to insanely high levels.' Fingers wrapped around Grey's throat, and pressure began to build when Jim's foot swung by his peripheral vision. Alex's body took a limp tumble. He rolled to his feet and jumped past Jim towards the door.

"No way, asshole!" Grey looked at the small bone knife in his hand, and focused on detaching it from his body. Effortlessly, it detached from him, and he flung the weapon overhead. The blade spun as it zoomed past the room, sinking into Alex's shoulder before the drug addict escaped.

"Shit!" Throwing that knife cost me lots of energy.

"Well. I need food, bad. My ability needs it to work properly." Grey told Jim. Grey gathered what he could from his apartment for their adventure ahead. A camping backpack stuffed with tools, supplies, bandages, and water hung from Jim's back.

"Ready?" He asked. The cooking pot dangling from the pack made a clanking sound as Jim stepped into the hallway. They weren't sure where to go, but for now they needed food; or at least a means to cook their own. A notification had appeared when the last of the ant were slain earlier, but he was too distracted to check it sooner: [Quest: Exterminate ants in your Apartment (E)] [Reward: King-Ant Carapace (E), 200 Wishing Coins] I still wish I knew what Wishing Coins were for..

Grey looked at the glowing ant carapace, now sitting on his living room table.

"Looks valuable, right?" Grey asked Jim. Jim approached the carapace and rapped his knuckles on it.

"It's hard. Maybe it's good for crafting something?" Grey collected the loot. The ant shell dangled wildly from the back of his pack. I wonder if there is item storage I could find. I'm already running out of carrying capacity…