Jonathan felt like he was struck by lightning. He was worried that he would have to work harder to protect Runt, especially after what happened with the large ogre. He was sure that Runt would not be suited for any sort of front line fighting. He clearly had some scars. With the ability to allocate stat points, he would be able to put Runt in a support role - although he had to ask Runt for his permission first.

Jonathan still had no idea what kind of role it would be, would Runt scout? Would he make traps? Jonathan decided to choose after seeing Runts status. Besides his worries about Runt he wondered what he did to earn this ability:

“The voice said I earned his trust. After one day? I doubt it. No one can earn anyone’s trust that easily. Even if I did save his life, I did it under duress. I’m sure he recognized that.” Jonathan muttered to himself.

“Maybe he was just too scared to notice. Even then, I don’t know if I would earn his trust that easily.”

Jonathan gathered some tree branches and covered himself to ward off some of the cold night air. He left the poncho running away from the ogre and he was sure that going back for it was suicide. He lied down.

“Why did I get such a forceful notification? I never had any notifications that forced me to do anything I didn’t want to. None of the quests forced me to do anything. If I wanted to die following the [Plaything of Fate] quest, I would have stayed with the assholes in the Empire. Then I suddenly get put into a situation where I would be disadvantaged if I didn’t follow a very specific sequence of actions. It makes no sense.”

He heard Runt stir from his sleep-false alarm-he went right back to sleep.

“What happened?” He asked out loud to nobody in particular. He waited for nobody to answer him. To nobody’s surprise, he got no response.

“Is it the [Usurper] quest? Shit. Why did I get a reward afterwards? I never got a reward before, even when I broke out of the damn Empire. Then I get one for saving a single ogres’ life?” He looked over to see Runt still asleep. Thankful that he didn’t hear him and feeling guilty over what he had just said, Jonathan continued quietly.

“Think Jon. Think. Everything has an explanation. First I get brought to this hellhole as part of the natural sequence of things on this planet. Then I get tortured and ‘readied for work’. Again, normal.” He spat out the last word, disgusted by everything that it implied.

“Then I meet other slaves. Normal. Then they try to break out. Any normal person would. How I met them was abnormal. Augus wanted me to meet them instead of other, easier to handle groups. Why? He could read their statuses. He knew they would be problematic.”

Jonathan thought back to a runaway thought he had about Augus.

He clearly had schemes of his own.

Jonathans’ eyes widened.

“He wanted them to break out. He wanted me to be there when they did. Why? I’m just some random asshole. Why me? I don’t get it.”

Jonathan slowly exhaled.

“For whatever reason, it makes sense. He wanted me there. I got the [Plaything of Fate] quest as soon as the [Chosen] five challenged the Empire. From what the guy who gave me the [Usurper] quest said, these were the normal sequence of events, had I not been there.”

Jonathan felt himself get drowsy, but couldn’t sleep. Not when he felt so close to getting to the truth.

“So because I was with the [Chosen], I caught the attention of somebody and got the [Plaything of Fate] quest, the quest description talked about ‘Fate’. So this ‘Fate’ wanted me dead because I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Jonathan yawned before quietly admitting that he had always wanted to say that.

“Then I escaped through the sewers and got out of the Empire before the [Chosen] who as far as I know, are still in there. This earned me an update to my quest. Fate meant business. Still didn’t force me to do anything. Everything I did was on me.”

He shuddered. Jonathan decided to blame it on the cold.

“Then I get the second quest and now I’m hearing voices where there were none. Is it Fates’ voice? Why is the [Usurper] quest so important? No matter how relevant it is to the ‘narrative’, it’s just a quest right? There’s something I’m missing here.”

He yawned, trying his hardest to fight off his drowsiness. He failed.

Jonathan awoke from a dreamless sleep to a start. He looked around. The forest Runt was sitting on a rock holding a rabbit. He puffed out his chest when he realised that Jonathan was awake. He had hunted it in Jonathans sleep. Runt hoped Jonathan understood how impressive he was. Jonathan was very impressed.

He started a fire using the short sword to stone method he had taught himself. As he did Jonathan had a sudden realization. He wasn’t taking care of his weapon. If he wasn’t careful he would lose his only advantage when it had shown itself to be so useful. Jonathan tried to skin the rabbit. He knew how bad an idea it was to cook a rabbit with its fur still on its body from an episode of Game of Thrones.

He had a sudden longing to go home. He still hadn’t watched the final season when he was summoned. He wondered if he was ever going to make it back. Due to his lack of experience and concentration, he wasn’t very successful at skinning the rabbit. He put up the fur-what was left of it-to dry in the sun. He put the rabbit over the fire. As he sat down he got a notification:

[You have killed: Three Cobalt Imps and Usurper a portion of the Ogre Kings authority.]

[You have gained 1000 experience points.]

[You have reached Level 9.]

[You have earned 3 stat points.]

[You may use ‘Appraise’ to view your attributes and allocate points.]

Jonathan smiled. He didn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t allocate the stat points.

Name:

Race:

Gender:

Title(s):

Class:

Level:

Traits:

Jonathan Sipho Mthembu

Otherworld Human

Male

-

Formerly Enslaved Human

8

[Racial] Tenacity [Character] Monster in Mans’ Clothing

Attributes:

Strength:

Attack:

Defense:

Agility:

Magical Power:

Magical Mending:

Magical Defense:

Luck:

19

22 (+3)

13

23

0

0

2

1

Skill Points:

5

Skills and Magic:

Skills:

Magic:

[Quick Learner][Calm Mind][Attention to Detail][Pain Tolerance Lv.2][Will to Live][Paranoia][Temperance][Appraisal][Desperation][Starved][Mantra of Madness][Lead]

-none-

Abnormal Status Condition

Former Slave

Gods’ Displeasure

Your physical scars mark you forever. Your likeability towards the Octavian Empire and its allies decrease. All allies of the Empire will attack on sight.

Due to your status as an otherworldly human, you have earned the being in charge of Arda’s displeasure. You have no ability to use magic as a result and your luck decreases.

Jonathan was glad the Slaves Collars’ Curse was gone and that the Chains of Commanding was not on his status, taking it to mean that the curse was activated in certain situations. [Mantra of Madness] was already giving him a headache. At first It seemed to activate every time he felt stress, which on Arda meant all the time but now it was activating erratically. He hadn’t felt the effects of the skill yet, but he wasn’t looking forward to it.

If Jonathan had to use one word for the skill it would be ‘unhealthy’.

“Mental anguish is like an ex when you’re in a new relationship. It’ll keep coming up and ruining your day until you address it.”

Jonathan mouthed out unconsciously. It was one of his fathers’ many gems of advice. He had always felt the comparison was a little much but he knew his father spoke from experience. The scar that ran down the side of his fathers’ face onto his throat always reminded him that he did.

He put 2 stat points into Strength and 2 into Agility. He put the remaining 1 into Luck. It was ludicrously low but Jonathan still had hope. He told himself that one point would make a huge difference going forward.

“Runt, come over here.” Jonathan called out.

Runt came over, a little startled by Jonathans’ sudden need for him.

“Listen, about yesterday-I don’t know if you understand me fully and if you do I’m sorry if I sound patronizing but…”

Jonathan rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“I…I’m sorry about trying to leave you behind. I know you saw me, and I saw you yesterday. The ogre had you terrified. Truth is, I was scared too, so I tried to run as soon as I saw what was coming for us. I left you behind. Even if I did come back for you, that was still a dick move. So if you wanna leave, you can do that man. I won’t hold it against you.”

Jonathan waited, hoping for some sort of response, not sure what it would look like from somebody so fundamentally different from himself. Runt barely looked fazed by the confession that Jonathan almost left him behind. If anything, Runt looked confused. Jonathan couldn’t tell if Runt understood what he had just said.

Jonathan thought about telling Runt about what he did but slower-like on TV. He decided not to based on the fact that if one does not understand a language, saying a sentence to them in that language at any speed would not allow them to understand it. Feeling a little awkward Jonathan tried to think of other forms of communication.

Just as he did, Runt gave his right hand to Jonathan, palm side up, the same way he did when he asked to be Jonathans subordinate. Jonathan understood. Runt knew what Jonathan was saying. Jonathan was forgiven, although Jonathan was sure that Runt was still sour, who wouldn’t be?

“Uh, now that we got that past us, can I call you by something besides ‘Runt’? It’s just so demeaning.”

Runt had glassy eyes as he nodded. Jonathan noticed that his hands were balled into fists and were shaking.

“Um, how about ‘Hlaza’*?”

Hlaza immediately gave Jonathan a thumbs up. It looked like any name was better than ‘Runt’.

“So, yesterday I got the ability to assign skill points for you. If you don’t mind, could I read your status? Don’t worry, I won’t do anything without your permission.”

Hlaza hesitated before slowly giving his hand to Jonathan to touch. This confiemed one thing in Jonathans’ mind. Hlaza didn’t give him the ability to assign his skill points and maybe he couldn’t but somebody did.

‘Appraise’

Name:

Race:

Gender:

Title(s):

Class:

Level:

Traits:

Hlaza

Ogre Runt

Male

[Spawn of the King][Beneath notice][Heretic][Unwanted]

Ogre Mage

13

[Racial] Hunger [Character] Anxious

Attributes:

Strength:

Attack:

Defense:

Agility:

Magical Power:

Magical Mending:

Magical Defense:

Luck:

5

12

13

17

10

14

10

7

Skill Points:

9

Skills and Magic:

Skills:

Magic:

[Fear][Instinct][Follow][Desperation][Starved][Survivor][Hunter Gatherer]

[Paralysis]

Abnormal Status Condition

Heretic

Mages’ Curse

Runt of the litter

Failed Mage

Your status as a mage in an Ogre horde leads all ogres to deem you unnatural. All Ogres have an instinctive dislike of you.

Your physical strength is always half your Magical Power

Your growth is slower than all the members of the same generation of Ogres.

Your anxiety causes you to mistime and misaim spells.

*’Green’ in Zulu