G.E.S.S.: Genetically Engineered Super Soldier

by Frank Pisauro

  EXP Earned: 50

  EXP Total: 1050

  EXP Until Next Level: 950

  Dense star: + 1

  Fifty exp. Wtf, System, I thought you wan… I rolled forward dodging to the left, a beak flashing by my right rear.

  Owlbear

  Lvl 5

  Description: Owlbears have the lower body of a bear and the upper body of an owl.

  As I dodged, I was unable to avoid the claw attack completely, but I did manage to get my arm in the way, which the Owlbear shredded, instead of my kidney.

  Owlbear’s claw attack strikes you!

  Slashing Damage:

  ●Bleeding

  ●Tissue damage (various, right arm)

  ●Loss of function (right arm)

  Turn off combat notifications! I screamed mentally. I could have sworn I heard girlish giggling from somewhere.

  Haste was still up, so I cast slow on my opponent, dropping its speed by thirteen percent, giving me the advantage in speed. Swerving while trying to maintain a distance, I cursed myself for wasting a spell earlier. I checked how many spell slots I had left.

  Spell Slots: 8/12

  I would say I had plenty, but who knows how many creatures the system brought to me. I circled the owlbear feigning strikes as I ducked, keeping it occupied while trying to decide on a course of action. I had complete control over the fight, the speed difference too great for the owlbear to be a threat any longer. Throwing a bolt at it, I quickly studied the effects it had on the slowed creature.

  The owlbear was convulsing, its muscles locked up, keeping it in place. A dark black spot was burned into its body, the tissue around the scorch blistered and smoking. Running up behind it, I punched it in the back of its neck, breaking its spine. The owlbear dropped to the ground, its spine no longer sending signals to its body. I left my paralyzed playmate laying there, blood dripping down my arm.

  My healing factor had already repaired enough damage to give me control of my arm. However, I was still bleeding, it would be a few minutes more to be a hundred percent. I was painfully aware of how hungry and thirsty I had become, injuries intensifying my body’s need for both.

  Last one

  Really, please let that be true. Even if it did break up the boredom, fighting nude sucks. Coming out of the trees was a ten-foot-tall metal monstrosity. Its approach was slow, yet steady in my direction.

  Metal Golem:

  Level 3

  Description: An elemental being made of metal and in the general shape of a humanoid.

  Moving to stand over my downed enemy, I stomped down, crushing the owlbear’s head. Stupid creature, thanks for the hollow bones though.

  Returning to my stance, I focused on the metal golem. Polished metal walking on two legs, comprising of five spheres came toward me. There was no sphere for the head, giving it a squished appearance, even at ten feet in height. It had a sphere for its upper and lower leg. The same for the arms, which were all the same size. Its body was a much larger sphere than either the arms or legs, making up the bulk of the monster.

  Each of the spheres that formed its appendages were suspended in the air by a small, glowing gap at the joints. Concentrating on the gaps at the golem’s ‘hip joints’, I exploited the magnetic field there, channeling ion control. Grabbing as many ions as I could in each hip joint, I started vibrating them, channeling the spell for eleven seconds, taking two spell slots. Thankfully, there were no other enemies around, as all my focus was required to maintain the spell. During that time, the golem had stopped moving forward, but that didn’t mean it stopped trying. Its arms flailed toward me, trying desperately to get closer to its prey. After three seconds, a red glow could be seen. After ten seconds, the glow was white hot, shining from the targeted joints like a welder’s arc. After eleven seconds, the joints finally erupted in an explosion of metal.

  Opening my eyes, I dug bits of metal from my body, as I struggled to stand. Blood poured from numerous holes, a list of debuffs lit up on my HUD in the corner of my vision. Dazed, yet curious, I pulled them up.

  Explosion Strikes You!

  Concussive/Piercing/Heat Damage:

  ●Bleeding × 61

  ●Tissue Damage

  Owww, so anymore? I thought. I dismissed the system’s damage message after reading everything. It was half question, half observation, as no new threats emerged.

  Chapter Eight

  EXP Earned: 350

  EXP Total: 1400

  EXP Until Next Level: 600

  Concentration: + 2

  Ion control: + 2

  Haste/Slow: + 1

  I was down to five of my spell slots, injured, naked, and frankly a little pissed off. I looked around, deciding I needed to start worrying about how the hell I was going to survive. First thing I have to do is loot the corpses, dismissing the notifications. I chuckled a little, still dazed. It’s going to have to wait, I’m messed up pretty bad. Think I’m going to have to meditate to get my spells back, I need to heal a little anyway.

  Thirty-five blissfully undisturbed minutes later, I had my spells back. I was able to move around but was still injured and in a good deal of pain. I looted what was left of the golem first, then the owlbear, and finally the tabby cat. Walking drunkenly around as I did so, still somewhat out of it thanks to the explosion still ringing in my head. Their corpses slowly disappeared with a neat pile of items being generated to replace them. However, this process wasn’t instantaneous, and never a good idea to watch. If you want to hold in your lunch that is. So, I turned my back to the scene, looking over my loot notification.

  Items Received:

  ●Five chunks of a titanium alloy (Mithril): (25lbs each)

  ●Reinforced leather armor set:

  ○Does not include helmet or gloves.

  ○Non-magical: this set cannot be enchanted and holds no set bonus.

  ○Quality: Average

  ○Durability: 100%

  ●Owlbear meat: 10lbs

  ●Owlbear beak: Can be used in crafting

  ●Lucky Tabby Cat’s foot: trophy!

  ●Tabby Cat Meat: 20lbs

  During the war, looting was rare. War didn’t stop just to let you loot a dead enemy. So, most of our equipment had been supplied by the alliance. Anyone who has served in the military could tell you that the gear you were issued was far from the best. Made by the lowest bidder with the cheapest materials, our gear was functional, barely that as well. I can’t even come close to saying how many swords I went through. From what I do remember, the loot I had been given now was of much higher quality than it should have been. A full set of armor from one enemy was unheard of. Let alone mithril! Wow, so it turns out mythical metals are real. I laughed to myself, they just happen to be alloys of regular elements though… crazy. Still, for some reason only my subconscious knew, I was more comfortable calling it titanium than mithril.

  From where I stood at the base of the mountain, I could hear a stream. Deciding to wash up now that the loot was assembled, I shuffled my way toward it. The stream wasn’t very deep, about three feet at most. Still, it had clear water, with a sandy bottom, so I sat down to wash myself while healing. The water was refreshingly cool, allowing me to drink my fill, soothing my dry throat. I sat there just thinking how nice it was to be alive. The geneticists were gone, and while the system had just tried to kill me, it was much better company then those old assholes. Smiling, it was the first time since my reawakening that I had really stopped to appreciate the fact that I was alive again, happy just to be sitting in the cool stream. Hell, even when I was laying in the grass, I was more amazed at the changes in the world than being alive. However, after a few minutes of this, the cool water started to make me chilly. So, I gave myself one more quick scrub, then hopped out of the stream to head back to where the loot was. I still had a few minor injuries, though nothing major, so I took the time to gather wood for a fire on the way back.

  By the time I returned to where the fight had taken place, the whole
“spawning” process was finished. Carefully, I made a fire, igniting it with a small burst of energy with the use of ion control. Little tricks like that in a non-combat situation didn’t count toward your spell slot total, making life a little easier. Once that was done, I put on my armor, checking out the other loot when I went to pick it up. Thankfully, the armor included simple cotton under clothes and socks to wear with it. The quality was good, much better than the armor I had during my last battle as an alliance soldier, but still nothing to write home about. It was supple, easy to put on, and didn’t impede my mobility when I did a quick set of complex combat maneuvers. The reinforced areas covered my chest, shoulders, forearms, thighs, shins, and toes. The leather of the armor was a dull, dark brown color that didn’t shine like leather jackets from my home world did. The metal was black, also unpolished so that it didn’t shine. With my shapeshifting ability, I could easily wear it in the forest while avoiding easy detection. All in all, I was pleased with it, especially the boots.

  Ah, that’s better. No more holes in my feet. Switching over to the mind link, I asked. So, System, now that I’m dressed, do you want to tell me what’s going on? Putting some tabby cat meat on a spit over the fire, ’cause, fuck cats, I went about making a lean-to between two trees at the edge of the forest, unsure about moving on until I got some more answers. The path up the mountain to my tomb was clear, making a great fallback position just in case I had to run from something. A three-hundred-foot drop was an excellent equalizer.

  After my meal and cleaning up afterward, I decided to try again to get some answers. It was getting late in the day, so I went about collecting enough wood for the night, settling in for the evening. Sitting on a log I had moved close to my fire, for that exact reason. I sat watching my surroundings, reaching out to the system once more. Hey, man, you going to talk to me?

  I guess.

  So, you want to tell me what’s going on, or am I going to be out here alone. The exact same thing you brought me back to avoid for yourself. I said without aggression in my tone. I wanted answers though, so while I didn’t want to get the system upset with me, I needed to press the issue just a bit to get them.

  After the final battle, over three thousand years ago, complex life on the planet died. All of it. Unknown to anyone, we built a high-tech genetic storage facility, with the intention of bringing life back to the planet. For the first thousand years, we produced swarms that fed exclusively on radiation, those nanites expelling themselves into space to remove said radiation. The next thousand years we went about restoring the planet to a livable level for basic life.

  What do you mean? I interrupted.

  You know, fixing the atmosphere, oceans, and creating single-celled organisms.

  Bullshit. Impossible. Impossible, I know we joked about it being a god like being, but creating life was something the system decided was against the rules. Not to mention that on several occasions the system had informed the Gess it just wasn’t possible. But the rules! You yourself said it was impossible. What do you mean you created a genetic storage facility? There was a lot of information to process, none of it making any sense. I wasn’t really sure where to start, or where to go after that.

  How do you think you are alive? I will go back. After the final battle, all complex life died out, which included me. The first fifteen to seventeen hundred years went by in flashes, living in single-celled organisms, including bacteria. I didn’t have enough swarms to maintain sentience for long, nor often during that time. When my consciousness returned, there was a new set of rules. I won’t bore you with the details.

  Ple... I tried to get out but was unable, as the next prompt popped up. My head was about to explode trying to understand the complexity of what the system had done.

  And life was back on the planet. Apparently, made by me. How, I don’t really know, or it’s against the rules to know. Either way, it doesn’t matter. After that, I set about recreating all the complex life I could. This was accomplished through genetic manipulation, while forcing evolutionary development—that took nature eons longer by the way. It took the last fifteen hundred years.

  So, how did you revive me? I asked. There was so much information, I doubted my head would be able to process it all for a while yet. Still, I was curious.

  Gess have more secrets in their DNA than those geneticists could ever imagine. That is all I can say. Unfortunately, your body was the only one preserved in such a manner that prevented total decomposition. You are the last of your kind.

  I thought the news would hit me harder. Maybe it would, however, right now I was still trying to process everything else. No biggy there, man, I was born in a lab, but why not make more of us, seeing how you can create life? I spewed out in shock, not completely sure I was making sense.

  I made one, we’ll talk about that in a bit. But it’s not easy, and frankly not something I would want to do. No offense, but your race was developed to have abilities that could annihilate an entire planet. So, no, I won’t be making any more.

  I took a few minutes to get myself under control, staring into the fire as I let the information the system had dropped on me sink in. The system didn’t seem to be in a hurry, so it gave me the time I needed to digest it all. My mental block kept a lot of the psychological trauma from setting in, allowing me to absorb everything without going insane. I had no doubt this would still weigh heavily on me. Finally parsing through the jumble of information given to me, I asked. If my creators made something so dangerous, then why bring me back at all? Then, unsure if I wanted that answer, I quickly changed topics. I assume some of that ‘complex life’ includes other sentient races?

  You are correct. All the races that lived at the time of the war are indeed alive again, but… and it is a fatty, they are at the point of development where they have just achieved sentience.

  You mean to tell me that they all just evolved into their respective races and achieved sentience at the same time? I asked, astounded that it was even remotely a possibility.

  Of course. It was a bitch to pull off, but I managed to get them in the same decade. Now, as for why I brought you back. Well, two reasons.

  Quest Received: Savages!

  Quest details: All races of the world have come out of their respective caves. It’s your job to teach them the system. Good luck, they don’t even have languages yet!

  Quest reward: An additional life per race!

  Fail conditions: You die with no addition lives left. You purposely cause a race to go extinct.

  Are you out of your fucking mind? How the hell am I supposed to do that? I mean, come on, man, I’m one man, and what happened to that ‘not the chosen one’ bit? I took a breath, trying to regain control of myself, shaking my head in frustration while pacing in front of the fire. The sheer scope of the quest was unimaginable. However, this was a system given quest. There was no refusing it, making it impossible to turn down, yet also, in my opinion, impossible to do. I had no idea where to even start or why I even should. Why should I do this, System, I could carve out a place for myself here. Live a relatively peaceful life, while just ignoring this quest. I mean fuck, I don’t even have a starting point. I counted on my fingers, putting another finger in the air, or a point of reference to even know which way to go. Dropping my hand, I shrugged, sighing, even if I did... What’s your goal here, System?

  “I’m glad you asked,” I heard a female voice say behind me. Slowly turning around, I looked at the person who had spoken. Beauty was an ugly word next to the goddess in front of me. A green-eyed, raven-haired angel stood just outside the entrance to the forest. Her face was the envy of any celebrity from back home. She had the same leather armor that I had, making her modestly dressed. Still, the figure that leather hid was flawless.

  “You’re perfect,” I said. Standing still in front of the fire.

  “Thank you, Rho. It’s nice to know my efforts didn’t go to waste when creating this shell.” She said with a twinkle in her eyes.

>   “System. How? Why?” What the hell is happening right now? My mind tried to make sense of what I was seeing as I got a response in my mind.

  I can still hear you up there, you know. Also, close your mouth, or you’ll catch flies. I believe that’s the correct phrase. No? She said to me, a playful smile on her face. My jaw snapped shut with the sound of teeth hitting each other, making her laugh. As she laughed, she walked closer to me, stopping about thirty feet away.

  Why? For the same reason I brought you back, the one I have also already stated, even giving you a quest related to it.

  You drive me nuts when you don’t pay attention. She sent through the mind link. “Oops, I’m still getting used to this body,” she apologized, blushing, obviously embarrassed that she had sent the message. “Wow, okay. I can see how that would be annoying. Let’s set a rule not to go digging in each other’s minds. Deal?” She teleported in front of me, hand extended.