Book 1 Chapter 23: Put through Hell, Part 3

Chapter 23: Put through Hell, part 3

"ROOAR" A wolf dashed forward and tackled a vampire to the ground biting it at the throat. The werewolf was about to rip its head clean off when a bullet landed straight at the top of the vampires head taking its life. The silencer Jaeger had on his gun came into full use, because even as it tried to direct the sound of the shot, 2 vampires careened the wolf off from its fallen comrade. Each sunk their hands into its flesh in various places before tearing out large chunks of flesh.

The only thing the vampires didn't lose out to the wolves was in terms of their claws sharpness. A swift strike was just as deadly as an axe blade in comparison to the wolves.

Wolves bounded forward, but unnoticeably every time one or their enemy vampires was to die; a bullet would enter their skull. Jaeger was holding himself up as best he could, watching the ball of light behind him slowly grow in size.

The vampires and wolves shot back from each other and huffed. More of them were dying then was worth it in capturing this human. They turned their heads to Jaeger. Red crimson eyes to the right, and golden crimson eyes to the left. The smell of one's own blood, the sound of the trees swaying in the wind, countless creatures of deadly unknown origin staring you down, was a feeling Jaeger wouldn't forget for the rest of his life.

'Now is the time'

The werewolves looked at the vampires once more and waved their arms towards Jaeger. The vampires conceded and nodded, they would take half the prize each. Or in other words cut Jaeger in two and each take a half. A dismal and gory thought.

*strum* A lyre floated in the air just ahead of Jaegers stomach. Slow notes were struck, before the pace picked up and then slowed again. The sound was enchanting, stirring the heart of all those that heard it. A fog slowly rolled out from the forest, covering the ground in a light blanket of soft mists. Shapes constantly moved about this mist in motion with each note that was played, the sound was equally melancholy.

Jaeger played not as his life depended on it, but as if the Lyre was the only thing in the entirety of the world.

His figure slowly sank against the door, but even as his mortal arms hung to his side the ethereal arms continued to play the Lyre without tiring. The werewolves and Vampires slowly tread forward through the mists, that wouldn't scatter even with their bodies pushing through them.

Jaeger closed his eyes and listened to the sound, his heart beat a metronome.

The creatures slowly pulled closer before pouncing towards the dying man before them. 5 wolves, 6 vampires. They didn't need to fit through the door, and instead smashed through the wall next to it.

They tore Jaeger to shreds, ripping his body to pieces and throwing gore to the walls. Droplets that shone like rubies glinted like stars across the room.

The sound of blood dripping was slowly washed away by the sound of rain fall. It came in a torrential wave, and yet hidden behind it was the sound of the Lyre still playing its notes.

The werewolves and Vampires heard this of course, but with the prey dead this sound had no meaning. The golden orb was pulsating with golden light in the center of the room, but for some reason the creatures just a mere several feet from it were unaware of its presence.

Jaeger stepped away from a wall, watching them all with weak luster in his eyes. He didn't have much energy left to even move. The illusion of the lyre was mighty, and yet it required a lot of energy. As his presence was given, the illusion fell. The gore that once littered the walls, the blood that flooded the floor, it was all gone.

The werewolves were chewing on old furniture, the vampires were licking blank stained wood.

They all raised their heads in confusion, out of the corner of their eyes they caught sight of a figure standing there. The sound of his Lyre was evident, but when they turned he had vanished into thin air. The notes of the lyre decaying with his disappearance.

They all turned their heads to the mass of golden light, as cracking sounds rang out from the ball it was contained to.

There was no explosion, just a washing of light. The sound of the crystal ball rang out, and then a blazing light was unleashed like a holy blight.

The vampires with their weaker physiques were the first to go, their skin vaporizing to the pure light. The werewolves skin dissolved and faded, and by the time the energy stopped washing over them several inches had been taken off from them starting from the skin layer.

Even if they didn't die immediately they would most certainly bleed to death.

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Jaeger landed 450 feet away from the cabin amongst trees, bushes, and debris left by the passage of the werewolves racing to meet the vampires.

Dings sounded out from his watch, but he couldn't care less. He didn't have the energy to even process his surroundings. A light mist appeared on the ground and out from it a frog. It opened its mouth and warped Jaeger inside itself to the extra dimensional space before hopping off to a random direction.

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"You crazy bastard!" Ito screamed at the display in front of them all.

Tao was shaking his head as well, "That was beyond reckless…if they had caught him off guard, or he had waited too long he would be dead…not even that…if the werewolves hadn't come, when he was pinned then the rest would've came after him…his luck his beyond reason"

Even the shop keeper had a raised brow, but didn't make any signals of his opinions to the matter. Jaeger had lived, that was all the history would know.

He hadn't even finished what was to be done though; the werewolves and vampires were merely a beginning to it all and even at that they were summoned by a quest dictated by the boon of mystery. Which in its self was an enigmatic boon, granted by unseen forces. It was devious, deadly, but the reward was equally as mighty.

The shopkeeper never said this though, only on 4 other such occasions through time did people choose this boon. Each time, those people had remarkable luck and left large foot prints the size of meteor craters on history. With such a pyric event as that which was being held over the gods in this very city, why not stir things up a bit at the same time gamble on some mortal?

Ito sat down after smacking his forehead. However, he wasn't the only one reactive to the latest circumstance with Jaeger. Kito had her eyes glued to the screen, and hadn't moved them since Jaeger had begun to play his Lyre.

The sounds it had emitted had stirred her heart greatly, and currently to her, Jaeger was no different than some amazing artist even though she knew they had just granted him greater skill over the Lyre previously.

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Jaeger only woke up after over 12 hours of sleep within the dimensional space. It was neither cold nor warm within. The potion he drank before being pulled inside had clotted blood around the wounds on his shoulder but a deeper pain than could be described still hung around the nerves.

*Ding*

It was as if the watch had patiently waited for him to awake before sounding its notification within his mind. Jaeger almost begrudgingly flicked the top of the watch to display the screen.

'You have succeeded the Quest of: Kill ten Werewolves and Vampires.'

'Your reward is a choice: However choose wisely, as the following quests will always be based on your decisions and the variables are infinite within nature. The choice you make now, will affect the options of the future.'

'Werewolf: Gain the Strength, Speed, and tenacity of the wolf…at the cost of a curse.'

'Vampire: Gain the magical resistance, speed, and senses of the vampire at the cost of the 'changing' of the blood'

'Be aware that the choice of the other two each has a classe system, which upgrades and give abilities over time. The vampire allows the skill life steal, drain, transfusion, illusion, physical mutation like wings or shape change. Apart from starting at Vampire I, you upgrade to vampire ii, and so forth over time. For the werewolf you gain superior and supernatural strength, speed, cunning, instinct, and healing factor. This can allow you later to control animals, repel the undead, and summon wolves from the plane of spirits. Starts at Werewolf I and so forth.'

'Demi human: Beware the choices of the other two, as this one has its own short coming in turn. Gain the physique of a random entity or blood line, the choice is not of your own, the power that comes forth from it is unknown. It could mutate you, kill you, or otherwise have effects unknown to man.'

"How…how is this reward, how in the…can I not choose?" Jaeger blurted out several curses as he rubbed his sore neck.

As if to answer his question the watch stated simply 'You must make a choice, the Boon of Mystery will not allow otherwise.'

"Fuck me…" Jaeger whipped the bracelet on his wrist and recharged the runes until two bolts appeared on the back of his hands glowing blue for lightning. His mind with its increased capacity reeled at endless possibilities.

The werewolf curse had its drawbacks, but since it wasn't a bloodline type like the one Genome the god of genetics offered, it actually was better. If one controlled the curse, they had supernatural skills at their disposal.

As for the vampire, it was a commitment. It could change you over time; due to the fact it was of the blood it meant you had to physically supplement it with the blood and life force of others. Not my cup of tea.

The last choice, albeit random probably wasn't as bad as it seemed. If something killed you, it mostly likely came from the fact you were a certain type of being in the beginning. If an angel by chance got the bloodline or curse of a demon of course they would be killed. Humans however, were the vanilla of the world in the sense they could meet up with any other flavor. That was why Genome prized the race so much.

Jaeger had no other option but to make a decision, and so with a tap the Demi human was chosen.

The watch blanked out, as if it had lost all power completely. Several minutes later it flashed back on, before the display flickered back to life.

Jaeger was stupefied at the following words that it stated, "You have acquired the bloodline of Dimensional Traveler. This bloodline isn't by genetics, but a conglomeration of the variety of the universe itself. This was acquired by chance through your innate trait to combine with the elements of the world.'

'Your trait as the Dimensional Traveler has acquired you a curse of the spirit. Although referred to as such, the curse is placed on your spirit summon instead as it is attached to your soul'

"Don't fuck with my frog!" Jaeger screamed at his watch, surprising even himself.

'Curse: Your frog will now grow on what it consumes, rather than be able to dispense that which it combines with itself. This is the curse of gluttony, but with it comes advantages as well.'

"i…well actually that isn't as bad as I thought…I thought it meant it would get wolfism or something and be hairy. It would go from frog to…dog at that point…Dimensional Traveler though…" It was a strange thing, with many meanings.

A being who travelled planes? Dimensions? One specific dimension? Or someone with the power itself to walk through dimensions?

'You have acquired a trait to your power as well. Your wings of transmutation clothe can now take on aspects of the elements you combine into yourself. These will become the focus of your bloodline as the Dimensional traveler, as all travelers rely on a material to travel.'

"I already have that though what the hell?" Was this not the same ability the wings already possessed with being able to transmute his runes into itself?

Jaeger looked at his wings, that were currently layed on either side of him. What was strange was that even though he had two runes of lightning currently, it didn't have the single rune for lightning it could take on anywhere on its body. Jaeger looked at the large piles of materials around him of metals, and other things he had stored within frog. Steel was the closest, and so after several moments a large chunk disappeared into Jaeger until the metal rune appeared on his hand filling up the last line.

A strange sensation permeated his back the second that it had formed. Jaeger had noticed that he had taken in far more metal then was required to cover his skin. The same amount he would need to convert his bones. A tingly sensation formed from his spine as the feeling crept on, and that's when Jaeger noticed finger sized points slowly forming through the cape!

The metal was changing into a wing skeleton! It slid across the outer layer off the cape like a ridges to wings, before two branches forked down twice across the wings. Suddenly, the wings felt even more a part of his body and with a flex of the back they expanded much larger than before. Jaeger poured the metal stored in his rune back out, layering a puddle of metal next to him that hardened back into steel. However, the metal skeleton within the capes wings didn't disappear along with it.

It would seem, that by taking on an aspect it was an indefinite process and unless he stopped it halfway through it would become a true aspect of the wings.

Jaeger hesitated for a long time as he looked at the materials he had once casually used and abused. The boon forcibly gave him a bloodline that would make what choices he made with the materials and elements of the world detrimental to his growth. The metal for example was now inextricably apart of his wings. What if he took in fire and his skin simply burned forever? Now this might not be true, but the thought would of course pop up.

Wood, rubber, rock, stone, crystal, glass, textiles, paper, fiber, leather, soil, nylon, cork, plaster, aluminum, plastic, low metals, high metals, gas, clay.

In a sense the list could go on if he so choose to think of every piece of the world, but Jaeger would only be tormented by this in the long run and many of them would have no use. For example, cork at best could make him float.

A strange thing though, is that the same amount of steel came out from his body as what went in. It looked even more polished and shiny, and after considerable thought the main thing that was missing was the carbon within the steel. Pure carbon itself or whatever the wings had turned the carbon into or combined, would be far stronger and lighter then pure steel. If he had a steel skeleton jutting from his body, he would mostly certainly fall ass first to the ground or plummet from the sky.

This meant that it was taking certain proportions of the things he brought in. To him if he took in metal and saw a metal rune, why would it take carbon? It was a large aspect of metals, but not always.

In the end, this only made it more confusing because now Jaeger had to think about quite litterly every single aspect to a material. Glass if made from sand, would have countless structuring as well as many minerals depending on the type of glass he pulled from.

This only served to make it more confusing, and far more complicated.