Chapter 1: [DARK] C001 – For what is shadow but the absence of light?

 

Like every story, there is a beginning. The path you choose, the road you walk and the pain you suffer.

Each leading to a culmination of the powers you sought, the people you needed and the final goal.

Oh how final it was.

 

My cryopod shatters with a start. Waking me up almost immediately as I'm pulled out of the chamber and put almost immediately into chains. Stunned I blink a few times to let my eyes focus on my captors.

"Where?" I barely manage to choke out before overhearing the people talk in a language completely foreign to me. Anger rising up as these must be the attackers who were raiding the facility as I was put in the pod earlier for my final enhancements.

Barely taking a glance around the room to check for the number of assailants before I take action. The chains made of a flimsy low quality iron do nothing to stop my bionics tearing them up like paper. Neither does the bodies of my assailants as I punch a hole clean through the one who slapped the chains on me to begin with, chunks of flesh and a blood mist splattering on the dumbfounded people behind them.

Grabbing a dagger from his belt I go to work on the others in the room using my bionics and magic to slaughter every person in my way. My anger fuelling an unstoppable rage that I pour into every strike. All of my friends at the facility, people I considered family. All of them were attacked and either left for dead or captured, death isn't even the best punishment for these scum who were trying to capture me as well.

Dashing left and right, keeping low, cutting at their legs to break through gaps, I force most of the people in the room to their knees before stabbing a majority of them multiple times in the chest before slitting their throat and moving onto the next. All the while I stare into their dead eyes while my reflection in their eyes stares back at me.

Barely managing to hold onto my sanity as I'm swinging around the dagger, I knock a few unconscious for information. Otherwise all but two fleeing once their leaders are gone, making it easy for me to follow after them while still clearing the rest of the room.

I grab a few daggers from the dead soldiers belts and with a short calculation using my biochip calculate trajectories for throwing them, bouncing the knives off the metal walls with enough force to sink into the back of the skulls of the two who fled.

Catching my breath while listening out for movement I start to take a look around at the bodies. Since I just came out of my cryopod I need clothing or I'll freeze to death. The attackers seem to be a mix of men and women which affords me a variety of clothing options. For many of the bodies I stabbed through the sides of their armour at the weaker points, so most of it is still wearable.

Taking some light armour from some people who seem to be the magic casters I killed, I fasten the gear up tightly to make sure it fits. After taking a few moments to properly equip myself I call up my status.

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Meidu Alou mure-zü Sune (Female)

Age: 24 years (10384)

Race: Genetic Paragon Elf

Current conditions: Malnutrition, Exhaustion Grade 4, Muscle overexertion.

Physical operational capacity : 56.5%

Bionics power storage: 16.2% (-0.5%/day - light activity, -2%/d = heavy. Passive sun recharge = +0.1%/2h)

You are reading story The DARK traversal of 10,000 years. [DARK SIDE] at novel35.com

Baseline stat: 10

─ Physical Strength: 75% (18/24)

─ Constitution: 66% (12/18)

─ Stamina: 25% (5/20)

─ Dexterity: 60% (12/20)

─ Willpower: 61% (16/26)

─ Mental Resistance: 56% (13/23)

Warning/Reminder: Users organs have been made bionic. Users heart depends on power storage, seek immediate power source.

Recommendation: Seek medical assistance to quickly recover peak physical condition.

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After closing the menu that just reinforces this shitty situation I'm in, I grab one of the backpacks in the room. Their equipment seems a bit poorly made from a sort of leather and stitched by hand it seems. Tools, spare gear and High fat foods, jerky meats coated in a type of fat or lard to keep it from spoiling. Suitable for restoring a small amount of energy but not something I want to eat constantly for the next few months to regain it. I use my enhanced eyes to look through the clothing I piled in a heap while scanning for weapons, jewellery and money, pocketing the cleaner and shinier looking coins. I drop my spoils into the bag I claimed.

Quickly swallowing some down for energy I rouse one of my few knocked out guests away with a knife in the leg, making sure to avoid anything major that I would know of but causing enough pain for them to shoot up, smacking their head on the wall behind them. They start crying as I look on apathetically, letting my biochip gather their language and speech patterns for a few minutes while keeping an ear out for anyone approaching. When the man stops talking I apply more pressure to the knife, eventually switching legs to get as much out of them as possible. Translating a lot of information might take some bioenergy out of me but knowing what they are saying is vital, I kept a record of everything they said even amongst the screams and crying in case it proves useful before slitting their throat and repeating the process on the other two, a man and a woman who struggle all just the same before being put to death with my blade.

Scouting out the remaining sections of the facility that haven't caved in over time I hear chatter from outside, it seems the remaining few people have a camp outside. All of them alert to the outside but not expecting an enemy to come from inside.

Waiting for a short while I prepare the weapons I do have, setting up some basic wires and traps where possible, hooking things to the shredded and rusty metal that makes up the facilities aged walls. After a while a few people stand up and seem to agree on something before sauntering down the tunnels entrance.

Slowly moving into position as they pick up a few lighter weapons, seemingly as a precaution to this ruin, my ruin. They immediately end up right on the wires I set up, one stumbles over while the second behind them nearly trips over them to be caught by the third. I pounce, leaping for the 4th of the group who was the only one who isn't off balance, a quick slash to the neck and I turn on the third person, they are the first elf I've seen in this group, most of the others seem to be a type of beast-people, humans and some dwarves. I'm surprised at the lack of rüdäli and rütiyů, halflings and gnomes I think some called them.

Dispatching them a bit cleaner now I aim for weak spots on each of the people to disable them, saving myself getting blood on what might be my new gear. The remaining people at the camp don't seem to be properly aware of what is going on so after disabling the group who entered, I set about eliminating the remaining people in the camp.

After some more food, taking some of their spare clothing to make up for the parts of mine that had holes in from the previous owners. Traps might be on point here. Setting about making the camp look like it was attacked by a large beast that had clawed through some of the tents and pulled up others, as well as setting the bodies around the scene to give that appearance. I take a few moments to flay one of the bodies on the ground, both to collect data on the physicality for future reference and to sell the idea that it was a beast attack.

Packing up I end up with a lot of food, carried in a larger bag I keep in my hand ready to drop when needed. The rest of the supplies including some cookware, survival tools like knives and three different sized axes. A tarp from one of the tents would give me away too quickly but the bags seem to either be generic, or all specifically made for this group. From the emblem that was stitched on before I removed it I can assume these were general bags.

The final thing I grabbed was a map, to a nearby city. The walk should hopefully give my biochip enough time to compile the basics of the language.

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