The Surface

As the door opened, James had to slightly cringe away from the sun. His body hadn't experienced it yet, so it wouldn't know what to do. He looked around, and saw a slew of beings. Humans, Demi-Humans, Inhumans, Demons, and other forms of sentient beings were walking around, trading, and talking with eachother.

It was something that couldn't be achieved on earth. There were men and woman with cat ears, dog ears, or bunny ears. Some people didn't even look like humans. They were either completely animal-like, or something that he couldn't identify. The demons had horns, although the shape and size varied greatly.

Caine walked through the crowds of people, as James looked in awe, at least internally. His mouth on the outside grinned. It was insane, but what else should he expect? A new world, and he was a worm. What next?

Caine looked up, and saw a large building, made of a brick-like substance. He went through the double doors, made of oak, as the noise of a guild spread around them. Large lions could be seen, acting like a pet to a human. James was also doing that, but that didn't matter.

Caine walked up to a counter, where a female human, named Claire, waited. She wore a black jacket, black pants, accompanied by a white shirt. "Welcome to the Tamer's Guild! What can we do to help?"

"Hello, I would like to register with the guild, if that is all right?", Caine answers, with a smile on his face, while placing some form of ID down on the counter.

"OK then", she looked at the ID, "Caine Lockheart. You need a pet to register with the tamers guild, and I see that the worm around your shoulders is that pet. As you know, each pet has some sort of ability. Let us see the worm's ability."

James slid off of Claines shoulders, as Caine whispered to him.

"Do not speak, but showcase your ability. Like that thing you did to reach my shoulders in less than the blink of an eye."

James nodded, and this time, thought of the words 'Za Warudo', like how he said them last time. It worked as it did last time, he just didn't think it was as cool. He slithered off of Caine's arm, and slithered up the arm of the woman, Claire, and lay across her shoulders, like he did with Caine, before letting time resume.

To everybody else, he was simply gone, as Claire looked at her shoulders, seeing the large pink cylinder, or the worm, lying across it. She let out a short gasp of surprise, before clapping her hands.

"That is impressive. Nothing that a worm should be able to do. It could truly be a dangerous enemy. All you have to do is give it a weapon, and off it goes. I really shouldn't need to do this, for a worm, but I need to call down the guild master, so he can decide what to do with this amazing worm. I do wonder what else it can do..."

Claire pressed a button, and an orange light flash in the room of the guild master. They got up, walked down the stairs, and stood their. Their aura was simply overpowering. It was...

A little girl. A little girl with bunny ears. Everybody there seemed scared of her, so James reasoned that she must be strong. She was wearing something like a dress made of iron, yet it was still easily movable. Like a lightweight battle suit.

"I was called down here... for a worm? Claire, why would you summon me here for this disappointing monster?" Claire responded by pointing her hands to her shoulders, and telling her about the worm.

"This worm is quite impressive. Caine, would you please get it to show the guild master her abilities?"

Caine then extended his hand, and whispered to James. "Do that again, please". James silently agreed, before thing about the words 'Za Warudo' again, as the time stop noise played, followed by a change of colour in the world. The world became slightly grey, for everybody except James, who was the only one who knew what was going on. Only he was able to see this.

He slithered up to the guild master, before relaxing on her head, like a pink hat. He let time resume, as a different noise played, and colour returned to the world.

The guild master shivered, for she felt the top of her head get suddenly heavier, as she felt the soft body of the worm on her skull. As any normal person would do, she picked up the worm, and threw it to the ground, put of sheer shock.

[7/10 HP]

[Reason: Blunt Force Impact]

The guild master than realised what she had done, and picked him up, and handed him back to Caine.

"Please, tell the worm to never do that again. It is an amazing ability, not one befitting of a worm, but still. I would like to talk to you in my office, if you wouldn't mind. I want to know more about this worm."

James and Caine thought that they were in trouble. James, simply because of the girl's aura, and Caine, for the reason that last time a person went into their office, they came out black with bruises. He didn't think that would happen, but he at least had a reason to be afraid.

Caine followed the girl, with James on his arm, like an extendable fist, as they entered quite a large room, which had a large desk, an accompanying leather chair, and a few couches inside. The girl sat up on the chair, and was surprisingly able to see over the desk. She indicated for Caine to sit down on one of the couches, so he sat on the one that put him directly infront of the guild master.

The girl took a deep breathe, exhaled, then started to speak. "That worm. It isn't like any other, Caine Lockheart. It was able to move through what seemed to be space, without me realising. It is unheard of. I'm going to guess that it can do other things. Tell me, what other abilities does the worm have?"

Caine was about to respond, but James, surprisingly, spoke up.

"I don't appreciate being only called a worm. I have a name. James. James Doyle."

The guild master was shocked. "Only monsters from under the 50th floor can speak... Why can you? Are you from the 51st floor!?"

Caine quickly spoke up, before James could. "No, he isn't. I found him just at the entrance of the first floor, inside the dungeon. He had only been alive for about 10 minutes when I found him. That's why he looks like this. Usually, an hour after being created, they will grow a harder exterior, but only on their top, like plates. Most people only find them after the hour mark."

This just scared the guild master.

"Ten minutes old... Yet they are able to speak... With their own name. What the hell is going on?", she muttered under her breath. She then started to talk to James. "Well, since you can speak, would you mind telling me what that ability you used was, James?"

James's mouth just grinned. "Well, if I told you, wouldn't you try to replicate it? It's a piece of magic that seemingly nobody else possesses."

The guild master just laughed. "A signature set of magic? Impossible. A set of magic can't just pop into existance! It's simply not possible!"

"Well, consider it possible. What do you think it would be like, and hear me out, to stop time?", James countered, proving her wrong.

"Wait... Are you implying... That you can stop time!?", both Caine and the guild master yelled, realising the power this worm held.

"That I can. When I became something like a hat on your head, guild master, that was me stopping time, climbing up, positioning myself, and resuming time. Also, that hurt, when you threw me to the ground."

"Well it's your fault for being so... worm-".

She didn't get to finish that statement, for suddenly, an iron katana was flying towards her, yet Caine hadn't moved. She dodged, but only by an inch. She looked at the katana as it went by, and suddenly, it was gone. She looked back at the worm, who simply smiled a devious smile at her.

"I wouldn't recommend using the word 'wormy' around me, guild master. It is quite rude. Would it not be rude if I called you childish?"

This word angered the guild master, as a blue ball of electricity built up in her hand. She yelled, and tried to run towards James, but before she could let the electricity destroy him, a sword was at her neck, held by James, using his mouth. He spoke to her, although his voice was slightly muffled.

"I may not have arms, but I can still kill you. Think about it for a second. You don't like being called childish, and I don't like being called a worm. We can reach a compromise of using each others names."

No guildmaster had ever revealed their names to anyone, except people who knew them beforehand. She cringed at the thought of giving her name to a worm, but this ha dto be an exception.

"Fine. My name is Astella. Astella Heidegger. You are James Doyle. OK, now that that is over with, I presume you have more abilities to use? Any information would be helpful, even though nobody else could probably use it."

James sighs, before using his title, JDShadow. 5 shadowy versions of himself slither out from the corners of the room, siding with James.

"This is one of my special abilities, you could say. I can create clones of myself from shadows, which won't dissolve in sunlight, and can transport myself between shadows."

"I also have another ability, which gives me an extra life, which replenishes an hour after use, and I can summon a skeletal being to take three hits for me, no matter how strong they are."

Both Caine and Astella just stared, wide-eyed. An extra life? Clones? This was just ridiculous. Nobody should be able to live after dying. What did this worm do to gain these abilities?

"Also, once I get better at using my time stop ability, I will be able it go back and forth through time. Yes, I will be able to fully manipulate time, at some point."

This information just made the guild master faint, while Caine fell backwards into the couch, also fainting. This information seemed to be too much for them to handle. Well, time manipulation was quite a big thing to take in.

He got his shadowy clones to go up to each of them, and give them a wake up call, by getting one to sit on their stomach, and one to sit on their face. The other clone was told to let James stand in it, so he could be elevated.

Not long after the shadowy worms started to lie on them, they got up, and the worms jumped off, before they could be slammed down.

"So, time manipulation is a bit too much information, huh? Well, then you wouldn't like the next ability."

The humans seemed to have a knack for saying the same things at the same time. "What... Ability?". James then mentioned it.

"∞ storage."

Caine fainted again after hearing that, but Astella ran up to the elevated worm, and lifted him. "You do realise what this means, don't you? It means you are the best storage system ever created! If someone got their hands on you, you would be forced to hold anything they wanted. You are simply amazing, worth an ∞ amount. Here, I have an idea. If you accompany me in some dungeon quests, I will pay you, so that you can buy some things for yourself. Nobody would actually expect it, but with your time stop abilities, you would be the most fearsome monster of them all. If you wouldn't mind waking up Caine, I will get him registered to the Tamer's Guild. We go on quests alnost every single day, as a group, and some people go off on their own. We will accompany the lowest class of fighters first, just to see how strong the monsters they fight are compared to you. I will get you kitted out in little things that you can use, and you can bring that sword with you. You would be extremely dangerous if you could throw throwing knives that returned to you. I think I can secure some for you. I believe you would be a very valuable asset."

James just smirked. He remembered a scene like that from the show that gave him the idea of words to say while stopping time. The guy in yellow was able to throw knives which stopped in time, and was able to really hurt the guy in black. It could be very useful.

"That sounds like a very good idea, Astella. A set of returning throwing knives would work really well, I think. It would also look cool. OK, I agree to the offer you proposed. I will join you on quests, for pay."

James sent one of the clones to sit on Caine's face, and he woke up almost instantly. How did that work? Not even James knows. Astella relayed the agreement to Caine, and he was fine with it. At least he got paid.

Astella went downstairs, as Caine and James followed, James lying across Caine's shoulders, as Astella asked Claire, the receptionist for the guild, to make Caine into a member. He would be in the lowest rank, or group, Rank F. This would make him seem not too suspicious, as the lowest was rank G. Both the rank G and F groups went only to floor one in the dungeon. It was just different pay.

Caine got his status plate, which showed him basically everything James's system had, except for the fact that only James knew about the system. There was a quest for F ranks in about two hours, so that gave Caine, James, and Astella plenty of time to check around the shops.

They walked around the market, staying in the Weapons section. They were looking at blades, when they saw a section for throwing knives. There were a few sets of returning knives, and for some reason, they were cheaper than the normal ones. They were on sale, because the shop owner hadn't been able to sell them. They were at the cost of 5 large silver skrets.

The currency system goes as follows.

10 small brown skrets = 1 large brown skret

10 large brown skrets = 1 small silver skret

10 small silver skrets = 1 large silver skret

10 large silver skrets = 1 small gold skret

10 small gold skrets = 1 large gold skret

10 large gold skrets = 1 holy skret

They picked up about 10 sets of these, with ten knives in each set. This men t that James had just revived a whopping one hundred returning throwing knives. This would be fun. He declined the offer for any other weapon, for he had enough in the form of those throwing knives.

Time passed by ever so quickly, as the guild master realised that they should be headed towards the quest area.

James just smirked, as he thought about one thing, and one thing only.

'How will I kill my first monster?"