I woke up confused in the middle of the forest, with a headache so strong that it felt as if it was split by an axe.
I looked around me, and saw a giant black bow lying on the ground, when suddenly some memories struck me with a strength of Zeus' thunder.
"Those fucking bastards" I growled angrily "You will pay, for what you did to me Apollo and Gaia!!!"
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Congratulations on awakening hunting system.
---
A blue half transparent panel appeared in front of me. I looked at it, still confused after remembering everything.
I was Orion, the only male hunter in Artemis' group. After I fell in love with her, Apollo probably thought that I would do something she would disagree with, but how could I?! I loved her more than anything and Apollo cursed me to want to kill every animal on earth. Then I was killed by Gaia, my own mother killed me! I want to swear I will have my revenge, but do I have enough strength?
I focus my gaze on the screen in front of me.
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Congratulations on obtaining a beginner hunters gift pack
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"Am 'I', the begginer hunter?"I laughed feeling anger, before clicking on the gift pack.
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You have obtained Hunter's Freedom
You have obtained Bow Upgrade
You have obtained Nature Travel
You have obtained Hunter's Armour.
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I clicked at the descriptions and looked with surprise and happiness at what it offered me.
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Hunter's Freedom - You can't be bound or influenced by any connection or rules {e.g. family bounds, higher beings suppression, higher power (bloodline) supression}.
Bow Upgrade - you can use it to upgrade any bow to god's bow level {Stronger bows need more strength}.
Nature Travel - You can merge into nature in a place full of it, and travel to another place like that {The nature of those two places has to have some connection e.g. same forest, close plants} (upgradable).
Hunter's Armour - a very strong armour {Automatically fits your body and can change into a desired shape (colours and style will remain the same)}.
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"Haha, I finally don't have to worry about Gaia controlling me!"
When I was in Artemis' hunt, I was worried that the giantess of earth will use me against my love.
'Now I won't have to worry about it anymore' I think as I clock the button accept.
"Aagghhhhh" an overwhelming pain started coursing through my body. I held a tree trying to contain my pain. Suddenly I realized my point of view was lowering.
'Am I getting sucked by the earth?' I looked down in terror 'No, I'm shrinking!' I realized after seeing the ground getting closer and closer.
I fell to the ground overwhelmed by the pain and tried my best to keep myself awake. After a few minutes the pain subsided and I got up leaning heavily on the tree. Clothes on my lower body slid down, with my shirt fortunately covering everything that should be covered. I looked around, and calculated that my height should be around 240-250 cm tall now. It seems that severing connection with Gaia made me lose part of the giant's heritage, fortunately I didn't shrink to a height of a normal human or it would be humiliating.
I looked at my bow, that almost reached above my forehead now, and wrinkled my face.
After trying to pull the string of my bow I barely managed to do it. Thankfully I didn't use bow upgrade, or I wouldn't be able to use it anymore.
I looked at the system panel again and chose the Nature Travel.
This time, except for some discomfort, I felt nothing. After a few seconds the tingling feeling subsided and I felt memories on how to use my new ability transfer into my head. Unfortunately it didn't mean I was proficient in it, but only knew the basics.
After accepting the armour that fit perfectly on my body, I decided to scout around.
Soundlessly creeping through the forest I saw a beaver cutting a tree.
I took out an arrow from the quiver and put it on the string. After barely managing to pull the string back I released the arrow.
The beaver hearing the sound wanted to turn around, but it was too late. The arrow nailed the animal to the tree.
I went closer and pulled out the arrow of the tree. Looking at the system I saw a new notification.
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Congratulations on killing a beaver and obtaining 0.6 points.
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"What can I use those points for?" I asked myself, clicking on the points that appeared.
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Strength: 21.3 points (includes strength of every body part)
Speed: 9.8 points (includes reflexes, agility and everything regarding movement)
Endurance: 15.5 points (includes the body's durability, survavibility, stamina and partially regeneration)
Energy: 7.4 points (includes divinity, magic energy and other usable energies. Might also partially help with regeneration)
(Normal healthy human at his peak has 0.2 for all except Energy, which he has less than 0.001)
Current points left: 0.6 points.
---
I looked at the panel and sighed thinking about how much I will need to hunt to get my revenge.
·
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Congratulations on killing a fox and obtaining 1.3 points
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I picked up another corpse and decided it was time to add the points. Through the last five days, I accumulated a whole 147.8 points. Obviously I had to move looking for the prey and moved far from the original location, but it's not like I had anything to return to. And if I want to I can always use Nature Travel after I get better at using it.
I decided to first add to endurance, since I don't know whether the system would help me survive an increase in strength without durability.
After I added one point to test it, I felt warmth coursing through my body and added another 43.5 points until fifty.
Suddenly the warmth started transforming into terrifying heat. My whole skin turned red and I, once again, fell to the ground in pain. Thankfully I was standing on the grass and not near the mud, or I would have to clean my armour later.
After the pain subsided, I didn't feel anything different, except for my skin being whiter. I took out my arrow, and it barely left a mark after scratching the skin.
Although it doesn't sound like much, my arrows were crafted especially to kill magic creatures, and they could even pierce, although barely, hydra's skin.
I stabbed my hand, and the blood started flowing out. Looking at the slowly closing wand I assessed that I had less than half of the regeneration speed, that I had before severing my connection with Gaia.
'That means that around a hundred and thirty, or rather hundred and twenty points are average for giants' I calculated mentally ' That's obviously not same for strength, since my ex-brothers always excelled at this point' I remembered the imposing statures of other giants.
I looked at the strength statistic and started by adding 5 points.
This time the feeling was different and also weaker, but I decided to be careful and wait for it to subside, before adding another 5 points.
Like that, I finally achieved 50 points in strength and tested it by hitting the tree. I managed to blow up a hole, and my knuckles barely even had white marks on them. Afterwards I did the same with speed and energy, of which I only felt changes brought by speed. Now I could move almost as fast as when I was a giant, and faster than my ex-brothers. I added the remaining to endurance and checked my stats.
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Strenght: 50
Speed: 50
Endurance: 51.8
Energy: 50
Current points left: 0 points
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"So, now time to get back!" I stood up from the sitting position "Fuck, I forgot I don't know where I am" I looked around, and decided to walk in a random direction, and maybe I will encounter civilisation.
·
I looked at the vast body of water in front of me and sighed.
"I guess I went the wrong way" I crouched and carefully examined the sand. Together with fauna and flora, I could infer I was somewhere in the America, more precisely North-western part, near Pacific ocean.
I remembered Artemis saying something about her brother living somewhere near camp half-blood and maybe I could find him there.
"So it seems I need to go South-east" I sighed "And since a mortal would need somewhere around two months to walk that far, it will take me about a week while hunting on the way.
I stood up straight, and started walking back the way I came. I suddenly remembered something and stopped dead in my tracks.
"I still have the bow upgrade!" I chuckled, slapping myself on the forehead " let's actually use it now"
I took my bow off my back, and it must've looked hilarious when I was wearing it before. Since the vow was bigger than me I had to hold it by the bowstring, so that it wouldn't make a row in the earth behind me.
I placed my bow in front of me and chose Bow Upgrade.
The bow started slowly shrinking, and transformed into a black bow with white string. It's specifications also appeared on the panel in front of me.
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Hell Hunter's Bow
Abilities:
-Growth {Every day, when you feed it a drop of your blood, it will get stronger to the level you want it to, but the strenghtening every day is limited}
-Transformation {It can turn into a black ring, or temporarily change it's size}
-Energy Arrows {It can create a pitch black arrow after the bowstring is pulled, the cost of the arrow is 2 energy}
-Homing {The energy arrows can be controled by the owner, at the cost of}
-Curse {The arrows can be imbued with curse, that can affect anyone. The more hatred towards the target the more energy can be put into the curse, with current minimum of 33 and maximum 593 points of energy. Currently available curses: pain, ugliness, sloth, impotence and madness (the curse can affect anyone, with duration depending on the owner's strenght and how much it affects the enemy, and severity on the energy put in it)}
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"Haha, such a great weapon" I laughed happily "Especially the last function, with it I can take my revenge" I added, my eyes turning stone cold.
I started traveling through the forest, while feeling the energy of nature inside me. I used the Nature Travel ability, to move about a hundred meters forward and checked the energy usage.
As I looked at the panel wanting to see the consumption more precisely, I saw something surprising.
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Congratulations on using special ability for the first time, and obtaining Transformation.
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I looked at the notification in surprise.
"So it gave me an ability for using an ability?" I said to myself in desbelief "That sounds almost too good to be true"
'Well, it's not like I'm unhappy with another ability' I shrugged as I clicked on the ability's description.
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Transformation - allows you, with necessary knowledge, to temporarily transform into a mortal animal (Not possessing divinity or magic) at high energy cost (depending on the size it can cost from 1-17 points per minute).
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(A/N Sorry for giving him ability for no big reason, but I accidentally stuck mc on an island soooo, yeah...)
"Well, it's not very useful for my current situation" I thought to myself, as I checked the energy usage of Nature Travel. For just 100 meters it used 5 points of energy!
"It seems traveling on foot is a better choice" I grumbled a bit and staryed walking.
I stopped for a few seconds to drink some water from the stream, and suddenly I saw a handsome face in the water.
"Is it... really me?" I asked myself extending my hand, but stopping myself before touching the water's surface.
Before when I was still a giant, although I could be described as handsome, I still had parts of a buff physique of my brothers. Now after shattering my connection with Gaia, my face looked like a masterpiece.
Sharp facial features and lustrous short black hair, outlined beautiful starry eyes. I could still recogninse myself, but when changed height was added to mix it was a little hard.
After staring at my reflection for a few seconds, I shook myself away from the stream. I felt that if I stared a bit more, I would turn into good ol' Narcissus with his underwater mirror.
I checked the panel once more, and started moving, determined to get revenge as fast as possible.
·
I stared dumbfounded at yet another vast extense of the water. How did I get to this place? Am I trapped?
I turned around to the forest and started checking which side of the world I'm facing now, but everything seemed right.
"So, I'm on an island?" I grumbled in annoyance "It seems I can only use Transformation. I don't want to risk with the Nature Travel, since I'm not very skilled with it"
I transformed into a peregrine falcon, a bird I once hunted and dissected with Artemis. It's a fastest bird in the world, achieving 100 km/h while flying.
After waiting for a minute standing in the sand, I transformed back into my human form.
"Hmm, 1.6 points per minute. Not bad!" I said while putting 35.7 points I gained through the five days of travel into the energy.
After I was back in the top shape, I transformed back and started flying east.
After flying fifty kilometers I started to get worried, bit shrugged it off. Even if I do fall, it will at most be cold and wet. Well, except for the fact that if I am too long in the water, it might attract Poseidon.
I am surprised anyway that Zeus didn't smite me for flying, but now that I think about it, it's not like he had time to focus on every single bird and try to see through them.
After I flew for 90 kilometers, I finally saw land. With my energy almost exhausted I dived at more than 300 kilometers per hour.
Just when I started slowing down, my energy got exhausted and I turned back into my humanoid form.
I tried turning my armour into a full body one, but unfortunately it didn't work without any energy and I crashed into the forest, piercing few trees and making a deep trench in the ground.
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Hello, I decided to try out writing in first person.
If you don't like my style, or see some mostakes, comment it and let me know.
I hope you liked it. ; )
Comment and let me know.
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P.S. how many people are in Artemis's hunt?
P.P.S. Did you like the chapter? (Honestly...)