"Kane, get to work!!!"
"Hu...HUH!?!?"
Kane jolted up from his desk and looked around in panic.
"Sleeping on the job? I'm not paying you to sleep. Maybe I should take this time out of your paycheck." Kane's boss said before walking away.
Kane looked at his hands in horror.
"It... it was a dream?... of course it was... nothing that good could ever happen to someone like me."
Holding back tears, Kane looked at his computer.
"better get back to work. won't be able to pay rent this month if I don't..."
Reaching for his computer, the desk began to move further and further from him.
"WHAT!?!?"
He jolted out of bed.
*panting*
He looked around.
He saw a room with a desk, a chair, a candle that had been put out, and the bed he was laying on.
Pinching his arm, he winced slightly.
*sigh*
"It was just a nightmare. I won't have to go back to being a wage slave."
Calming himself down, Kane scratched his head.
"I managed to end my first day in the Infinite Lands in an inn. Pretty lucky considering I dropped in a forest."
He looked at his nails.
"If I wanna keep this life, I gotta work hard to be stronger. I don't want that life anymore. Being under someone, forced to work constantly with no breaks and no rewards. First I think I should try and work on (Genetic Mutability). Then I have to see if I can still get stronger through working out. Hopefully (Regeneration Factor) allows the muscles to regenerate stronger after I break them down. If not I'll have to find other ways to get stronger."
He focused on trying to make his nails become sharper, harder, and more claw-like.
Concentrated, he watched his finger nails grow and develop a point.
"Let's see if it worked as well as I hoped."
He grabbed the candleholder and scratched it.
A small, but visible, scratch was left on it.
"Ehe ehehe. It's getting better. But I need to be able to swap between normal nails and claws faster."
He tried to revert them to normal nails.
Slowly, as second by second passed, his nails returned to a normal length and shape.
"About a minute and twenty seconds. I can get better. Once I can get this basic level mutation down, I can move on to more complicated ones. Night vision, generating electricity like an eel." He fantasized about the things he could do.
"Wait, maybe I don't have to leave them completely normal. Maybe I can leave them hardened."
He hardened his nails.
"Now when I need them, I just have to focus on sharpening and lengthening them."
*Grrrrrrrrr*
His stomach rumbled.
"I should definitely eat." He stood up and began walking to the door.
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Walking into the main room of the inn, Kane saw the young man from yesterday working the counter.
"Oh? You rented a room?"
Kane nodded.
"I did, but on a more important note, can I buy a meal ticket?"
"Of course. Five copper."
Kane handed him the copper and the man handed Kane the ticket.
"Today's breakfast meal is fried eggs, sausage, and sauteed potatoes."
Hearing this, Kane could barely hold back his drool.
"Thank you." Kane said, quickly walking to the dining room where he handed the older man his ticket and had his meal.
After eating, Kane, satisfied, walked out of the inn and walked towards Sally's clothing shop.
"Let's get something custom made for me. What kind of clothes should I go for? Maybe some adventuring clothes with a cloak?"
As he walked to Sally's store, suddenly, the silver screen appeared in front of him, causing him to stop dead in his tracks.
"Huh?"
"What! The village is going to get raided?" He mumbled to himself.
"I need to warn the guards." He said as he changed directions and began hurrying to the gate.
"Wait. How do I explain me knowing this? God damn it! I can't let them die, but will they believe me if I just go and say the village is gonna get raided? I don't even know how big the group is or what direction they're coming from." He began to panic.
"Calm down, calm down. I can figure this out. Hmm. Those two guards know I came from the Desolate Forest. Maybe I can convince them I have some sort of danger sense? All I need is for the villagers to be on guard and ready."
"It's all I got right now, worth a try." He mumbled as he began running to the gate.
As he got to the gate, he noticed that there were two different guards standing there, one average sized man, and one tall woman.
"Excuse me." He approached the female guard.
"Hmm?" She looked at him.
"How many guards does this village have?"
"About sixteen or so. Why?"
"Well I wanted to know where two of them are. You know the two that were guarding yesterday? The tall one with a voice like a teenager and the short man with a weathered voice?"
"Rylan and Harry? Yeah, I know them."
"Do you know where they are right now?"
"On their days off, you'll probably find Harry in the pub. Rylan is probably training by the guard station."
"Where's the guard station? I have to go." He quickly thought of an excuse. "I have to thank Rylan for helping me out yesterday."
The guard smiled and pointed. "It's down that way. You'll be able to tell because it has training dummies around the side of the building."
"Thank you very much!" Kane ran in the direction she had pointed.
"What a weird guy." She chuckled.
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Running down the path, Kane quickly came to a building with training dummies on the side.
Swinging and thrusting a wooden training spear at the dummies was a tall boy with curly red hair.
"RYLAN!" Kane yelled as he ran towards him.
Rylan turned around and waved. "Oh, it's you. How are you enjoying the town so far? Better than the forest right?" He smiled.
"Rylan, would you believe me if I said that the only way I survived the forest was through an impeccable sense of danger built out of the need to survive?"
Rylan seemed slightly confused, but nodded. "Yeah, you'd need that sort of instinct to survive there for a long time."
"Then would you believe me if I said that sense of danger is going off like crazy?"
Rylan frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I think something really bad is coming, and I don't know who else to tell. I only know you and Harry from the town's guards. I needed to warn you so hopefully you can get the guards ready."
"You mean to say that something bad is coming for the town? How bad?"
"I don't know the exact threat level, but I know something is coming. My guess is something like bandits. I don't have any proof, but please help me. I just know it'll happen in the next five or six hours. I think we should try and set up for defense."
The frown on Rylan's face deepened.
"If what you say is true, then we do need to let the guards know to be somewhat more alert for the next six hours or so... Hmm. Fine. I'd rather be wrong than ignore it and you be right. Follow me."
Rylan began walking into the guard station with Kane behind him.
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Rylan quickly put on his armor and got his spear before going to the front gate with Kane.
When he arrived, the guards at the front seemed surprised.
"What are you doing here Rylan? Normally you're training on your days off."
"Lindsey." He called out to the tall woman. "There's a chance that bandits will attack today. Sometime between now and the next six hours is the current guess. Hopefully it's a false call, but I think we should get everyone on the alert."
A serious expression slowly appeared on Lindsey, the tall female guard's, face.
"What are the chances?"
"I don't know but I'm not willing to take the risk of it being real."
She nodded. "You're right." She turned to the male guard. "Simon, stay on guard, I'll go with him to get the others."
He nodded.
Lindsey looked at Kane before turning to Rylan. "I'll assume he's the one who gave the warning?"
Rylan nodded. "He came to the town from the Desolate Forest, I'll trust in his instincts at least once."
Lindsey turned to Kane and scanned his face before nodding.
"Doesn't seem to be lying. Then let's hurry up, every second is precious." She said before leading the group.
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Lindsey, Rylan, and Kane made their way around town to gather the other thirteen guards and tell them to prepare. After doing that, they began to prepare at different corners of the village.
Some guards stood on raised platforms behind the wall with bows, others stood at the front of the gates with spears.
Kane stood at the south gate, the gate opposite where he came in for the first time, with a spear watching as the time ticked away on the silver screen.
The instant the timer hit zero, in the distance, Kane saw a cloud of dust gradually getting closer.
As it got closer, the sound of horses became louder and louder.
Kane yelled. "IT'S THE SOUTH GATE!!!" Before mumbling to himself. "Time for the event to begin."