James woke up bright and early, he had only slept for a few hours as he needed to get back out to the training grounds and raise his level. "It has already been a month," he thought as he allowed himself to think back to all that had happened since arriving here. He had woken up in this very hut in shock to find that his body had drastically changed. He had red scales that covered portions of his body. The unaffected skin was a deep crimson red that got lighter the closer it got to his chest which was almost pink. His fangs were elongated and very sharp, the rest of his teeth had pointy edges to them but didn't seem to have grown much longer. His eyes had taken the shape of a cat's eye with slits instead of round pupils. Instead of blue, his Iris glowed a bright orange. All his senses were enhanced, and he felt much stronger than before. His Hair was long and black and much thicker which was a welcomed surprise to James since he was badly balding before.
After coming to terms with his new appearance he left the hut and came to discover that everyone within the town had undergone such changes. Many had some type of fur growing on them whereas others had scales that seemed much smoother than his own but none of them were red. Some people had grown wings and others seemed more amphibian. They all retained a humanoid form and most of their human features and appearances were still intact. They just slightly resembled some type of animal or creature. Skin color could be anything in the rainbow.
On the first day he began to search the entirety of the town he woke up in which was called Novice Village for his son Draven. James could be seen desperately running to anyone asking them about his son as he could look like anything now. He was not the only one all the parents were searching for their children and all the children were searching for their parents. One could not walk anywhere without hearing the cries of a child. Many families were torn apart after waking up. He had yet to find someone who was able to reconnect with a family member, friend, or even someone they knew at all. But that was the least of their worries.
The roughly 2 and a half thousand people in this village had to come to terms with the fact that they were in some fantasy world in altered bodies. While outside the village were strange creatures that could kill you at any moment. Luckily Novice Village was surrounded by 2 Barriers. The Outer barrier called the Training grounds prevented any creature above level 5 from entering and the second barrier which bordered the village prevented all creatures from entering. The training grounds also prevented any person from leaving its perimeter until they had reached level 5 themselves or so the Terminal at the adventure's guild said.
In the town were several shops, guilds of various trade jobs called professions as well as the adventurer's guild. All these establishments were manned by computer terminals. After registering with the Adventurers guild, he received a rank card with his name and picture that is used for identification at terminals as well as to purchase items similar to a debit card. From the various Terminals, he learned that there were several novice villages spread out throughout the world. This gave James hope that his son was perhaps located in one of these other towns. Since the Terminals were unable to communicate with other towns, they were unable to give him any information regarding Draven. James's only solution was to reach Level 5 and leave as soon as possible.
For this reason, he spent every waking minute in the training grounds. The monsters there were quite diverse ranging from anything between slimes, horned rabbits, wolves, and small green humanoid creatures called goblins. Even without weapons James easily defeated these creatures with his claws that he could retract at will his larger problem was there weren't enough creatures to kill. He was not the only person out there. Although many people decided not to leave the Novice Village out of fear of dying, there was still a small group of hunters willing to go out into the training grounds. And one could spend the entire day out there and not see a single creature.
James's new routine was to wake up early in the morning and traverse the entirety of the training zone in search of a creature before the rest of the Orb Hunters woke up, he then repeated this late at night as most were too afraid to hunt in the dark. He then went back to town turned in any completed kill quests at the adventurer's guild and sold any items to the terminal vendors that he didn't need such as horns, pelts, fangs, claws, and the goblin daggers. He then trained in his cooking profession, ate what he cooked, and would then trade the excess with the locals. He was a carver and a cook there were many other professions he could have however many of them were too time-consuming and required him to do other things in the training grounds besides killing the monsters.
Being a Carver meant you had the skills to clean the corpse of any monster of anything deemed valuable. Including body parts, pelts, and meat. Cooking was… well cooking, after paying for the profession you would place your hand on the terminal, and it would transfer the information needed directly to one's mind allowing them to perform the profession. This included recipes for new meals that could be cooked with the newly discovered ingredients. For Carving he learned how to accurately remove the valuable parts from the creature in a short time. Even if it was a creature he had never seen before once he began carving, he knew what to remove.
One would contribute to leveling up by consuming the novice Xp Orbs found in the chest of creatures the carving skill made finding them easy and James always consumed these immediately as there were those in town with the rogue type class that could easily steal the belongings of others. James chose the Barbarian class for himself as it allowed him to force creatures to target him and gave him a boost in his attack power and health. However, he didn't receive anything for defense but with his scales defense was already covered. He had yet to be injured by any attack that landed on his scales. He even actively used the scales on his arm as if they were a shield to parry the Goblin daggers.
James snapped out of his memories and with a fierce gaze he exited the hut. James barely made it past a few huts before another merchant weasel was on him. "James old pal you are heading out to the training grounds so early in the morning?" Without stopping his pace James continued walking and gave a simple "yup" as a reply. "Well hear me out I have a bunch of health potions I crafted that I'm willing to part with, for a few XP orbs of course. I'll sell you 5 potions for every orb!" The merchant exclaimed. James, like before, continued walking. "I don't need health potions, nor do I trade XP orbs." "Find someone else." James stated in a very loud and clear voice.
"C'mon James you are out there nonstop what's a few orbs just tell me what you want, and I'll get it for you I need to level up to increase my alchemy profession which will in turn help you and the other orb hunters." James finally stopped his forward march and turned around to face the merchant. He had enough of people constantly trying to weasel him out of his hard-earned XP Orbs every day someone else begging him for Orbs with a long-winded story of how important it was that they get some but none of them have ever stepped foot in the training grounds.
The veins in his forehead began to bulge outwards as he yelled at the merchant. "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT YOU NEED THEM FOR!" James forced his anger down a bit as everyone began to stare at them. "If you need orbs then get your ass out there and farm them yourself! Every orb I give you or anyone for that matter is 1 orb I still need to level up to 5 so I can get the hell out of here and search for my son!" James could feel him losing control over his temper again, so he quickly turned around to leave, before saying "Don't bother me again I don't have time for your Nonsense." James was already walking away as the Merchant stood back up upset over being humiliated by James.
"Nonsense?" The merchant laughed. Do you want to know what nonsense is? Searching for your son! We are a town of strangers and so are the other towns your son isn't here he's not going to be there! he's either still at home or already dead!" Everyone hearing this conversation gasped as nearly everyone was in a similar situation as James. They wouldn't dare make fun of someone putting their all into searching for their family especially not James. Many respected him for his dedication and those who didn't respect him feared him for his power. He was unlike the others from the reptile groups he had strength that the beast men couldn't even compare to.
James once again turned around and an Aura radiated from his body if you looked at the crowd you could see all the different emotions in their eyes some were terrified others were gleaming at him with respect and many of the women began to blush. But none of them dared move even a step closer to him many who were already too close jumped back immediately. The merchant's attitude quickly changed to that of fear as his instincts told him that if he made any sudden movement he was going to die and there wasn't anything he could do to stop it.
James took a step toward the merchant as the orange in his eyes was now blood red. "You have the balls to look me in the eyes and call searching for my son nonsense? You even went so far as to assume his death?" James grew out the claws on both of his hands. "I dare you to say that again," James said in a deep cold tone. The merchant's legs began to shake until they were void of all strength. The merchant fell to his knees as his entire body became a trembling mess. "Ssstop! You ccant hurt me within Novice Village!" He started nodding frantically at his own words. "That's right you'll get sent away for who knows how long." The merchant began to form a grin again pointing at James. "You remember that rogue from the first day? He still hasn't come back. Do you want to risk that? Seeing that you're on a schedule and all! The merchant began to get some of his confidence back after his life-saving retort.
James took a deep breath after hearing this, the merchant was right the terminals had a policing force that enforced its laws on the inhabitants of Novice Village and the biggest law was we were not allowed to purposefully cause severe harm to one another while inside the village. If we did, we would be transported away. No one knows exactly what happens since as of, yet no one has returned. After calming down James came up with a plan and began to smile "What was your name again merchant?" "The merchant had a grin on his face as he could see he was going to win this in the end after all. No matter how powerful you were we all have to submit to the village rules. The merchant let his voice ring out throughout the crowd
"The name is Kyle Raymond I'm an alchemist and will be supplying those with potions not available in the shop very shortly. Be sure to visit me at that time!" Kyle said smiling. It was James's turn to face the crowd "Let me make it very clear to all the hunters present. I don't care what your business is with Kyle over here but if I find out anyone is supplying him with Xp orbs that he did not earn himself I will kill you in his place in the training grounds." Without another word, James made his way through the crowd toward the adventure's guild. Had he looked back he would have seen Kyles's face go from a wide grin to a face of utter despair.
Arriving at the Adventurers guild James checked to see if there were any new kill quests which there weren't. He then left a note on the notice board explaining his situation with Kyle. So that everyone knew that if they were farming orbs for Kyle, James was going to take them out. James wasn't planning on killing anyone that had nothing to do with it nor was he going to waste his time on tracking down whether someone was handing Kyle any orbs. But James knew that the threat alone was enough. If Kyle did decide to farm himself, he better hope to not come across James or he was going to get into an accident.
James was at level 4 and there were only 2 people who hit level 3 yesterday. James was leaving everyone else in the dust. James returned to the training grounds and saw that he had won the lottery as he noticed 3 goblins sneaking their way through the fields looking for a spot to hide and set up an ambush. This was why others were afraid to hunt in the dark as you never knew if a goblin was hiding somewhere to suddenly come out and stab you in the back. James rushed towards the goblins having seen them meant they were easy picking as goblins were only dangerous when hiding. Without the element of Suprise, they were no different from a small child with a knife.
He let out all the rage that he had restrained with Kyle out on the goblins as he slashed their arms that were holding the dagger. He then grabbed the necks of 2 goblins and squeezed until they snapped as he stomped the last goblin to death. As always he removed the XP Orbs from their chests and after rubbing them clean from blood ate them on the spot. After 6 hours of Tracking, he got lucky again and found a Horned rabbit which he killed instantly. James called it an Afternoon and headed back to the adventurer's guild to check his status. Placing his ID card in the terminal with his hand on the panel a message suddenly appeared.
Congratulations User James has reached Level 5!
Please enter the chamber behind the counter to Rank up!
James had heard about Ranks from the terminals, but he was so far the first to achieve it and had therefore no idea what was involved in it. Excited to finally start his search for Draven he entered the capsule to Rank up. The Capsule closed and with a smile on his face, everything went dark.