The small door opened without a noise and immediately John was attacked by the slight smell of blueberries? A small cobbled path flanked by bushes stretched out before him, leading to a large smooth stone road. Brightly coloured flowers dotted the deep rich brown soil of the garden. A garden which was contained within a low stone wall, beyond which was a field of rippling purple thigh-high grass, eventually these fields bled into thick forests of huge silvery trees, easily 5/6 stories high, with trunks as thick as small cars. Large, hairy buffalo-like creatures wandered the field of grass, each one had a tag on one ear so they were clearly someone's cattle, presumably the only other neighbour that TIlly had as a small, stone shack was off to one side of the field, much smaller than Tilly's house but still probably a comfortable size for a gnome.

John stepped out onto the path and looked up and down the road, way off in the distance he could make out the few remaining apartment buildings that had survived the teleporting, the other direction was just fields and forests as far as the eye could see. For a moment John just stood there, not sure what to do. For the first time since the system arrived, he had no immediate threats, no urgent tasks and he had to figure out what he was going to do. He spent a little while looking around the garden and the surrounding fields to get as much of a lay of the land as he could then went inside and sat down at the dining room table. He should likely return to the city, he wasn't going to grow or learn anything by just holding up here and there would probably be more mages running around that he could maybe pick off and try to get their magic, not to mention he could at least eat a few of the bodies of people that didn't make it.

For a moment his mind rebelled at the idea, something inside him stirred at the idea of eating a human being, it felt wrong, shoving that feeling back down John decided that was enough planning, he would figure out more once he'd gotten to the city and assessed his situation. He already had everything he needed from the house, he was as rested as he needed to be and the sun was still low in the sky, so he set forth towards the city without another moment of delay.

About half an hour of walking later the trees came much closed in around the road, the world grew dark and the thin reddish light that played down through the tangled canopy gave a rather foreboding air. John found himself moving down the road with haste, his gaze trained on the trees to both sides, which is probably why he almost missed the enormous club that swung down in front of him, only a last-minute hop back had saved him from meeting a grisly end as a red smear on the stone. The earth shook and the stone cracked when the club landed, vibrations up his new small frame and causing him to fall backwards. Looking up at the giant that had swung this monstrous weapon at him he froze for a moment to take it in. A huge creature, easily 2 stories high loomed over him, wide, muscled shoulders descended into limbs that were as long as it was tall and as thick as barrels which held a gnarled looking tree as a club. Its torso was heavy with layers of muscle and fat that bulged and swayed as it's moved and it's relatively short, squat legs were powerful and heavy. Thick, warty, stone coloured skin moved and stretched stiffly across its body.

John was unable to move until the club once more started to descend towards him and he rolled to the side, barely avoiding the blow and being rattled by vibrations once more. This time, however, he managed to shake himself from his shock and quickly manipulated the rock around the club and its hands to engulf them and hold it fast. For a moment the creature was unable to budge the club, a moment that John used to scramble to his feet and start dashing away, then with a bone-shattering roar the monster planted it's feet and yanked, shattering rock and freeing its weapon and it turns to chase after John. Meanwhile, John had shifted to his original form, hoping the longer legs would allow him to outrun the giant but to no prevail. Though his legs were now longer and its movements were slow and clumsy it still beat John many times over in the long-legged department and it was clear it would start to catch up. Pulling a pistol from his inventory John fired behind him into the beast but the bullets just bounced off its thick skin. Without and bigger firepower and definitely unwilling to get into melee range John tried to use his magic again.

A smooth spear of stone flaked away from the road and sailed toward his assailant, it struck and found purchase, sticking into its thigh. He then Manipulated the rock so that it flowed into the tip, ripping open the wound and causing a bellow of pain to erupt from its mouth. Still, it ran at him, barely slowing as he continued to dig the rock into its leg. Another spear flew, this one going wide over the creature's shoulder and causing John to let out a curse. Forming another spear, John sent it sailing towards the giant, sticking into its stomach and clearly doing some damage but John's stamina was fast approaching 0 and it did not seem to be tiring. Stopping, John turned and caused a small wall to raise from the ground, which the creature smashed through with its gigantic foot, but the combination of the heavy club and unexpected resistance caused it to trip and fall, snapping the spear but also causing the head to push deeper into its belly. At the same time, John caused tendrils of rock to rise up, wrapping the hands and eyes of the giant, leaving it blind and stuck to the club. Unable to pull its hands from the club whilst trying to pull the stone from its face, the dumb creature smashed itself in the head with the club leaving it slightly dazed but also chipping and cracking the stone covering its eyes. As it raised the club to hit itself once more, John directs the stone already on the club from earlier to form wicked spikes from the side that would impact its head. Unable to see a new danger and too dumb to care about the shifting weight of the club, it once more smashed itself in the face. However, this time driving 6 foot long stone spikes into its eyes, through the suddenly malleable stone covering them, and the cavities of its nose with a loud squelch. Using the last of his mana he caused the stone spikes to grow outwards and stab into the rest of its head. Its body spasmed for several seconds before going limp, leaving a physically and mentally exhausted John and an exceptionally large corpse.

Walking over to the body he decided to first get some more food. His claws, after a little sawing, were able to get through the tough hide and cut off several slabs of meat. He filled his inventory with as much as he could comfortably carry, which was a decent amount with his increased strength and then ate until he was uncomfortably full. He then used inspect on the corpse, activated assimilate and read through his messages.

It turns out the creature was called a forest ogre and it was level 15, John hoped that there wasn't else anything like this nearby or he would be taken out easily.

Skill activated [Assimilate]

Prolonged contact with a recently made corpse has activated this skill

Your skill [Assimilate] failed.

Notice Skill [Assimilate] has reached level 2 Notice

Level Up!

You have 5 undistributed stat points

Notice

Level Up!

You have 10 undistributed stat points

Notice

Level Up!

You have 15 undistributed stat points

Notice

You have reached level 5, inventory size and weight reduction increased. As a monster, you may now obtain a class.

Classes available;

-Mage

-Geomancer

-Infantry

-Brawler

Your class will provide bonuses when you level.

Achievement- David

You have defeated a foe much larger than you without aid from another party. +10% damage against Giants, +10% chance of intimidation against Giants

Achievement- It's about how you use it

You have defeated an opponent 10+ levels above you without aid from another party. +5% damage against targets that are higher level than you