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

by Frank Pisauro

  “Rho, no! Shit! Good job, knucklehead.” I was going to ask what she meant when a pop-up blocked my vision.

  Congratulations! You are now the leader of the Sun Elf tribe!

  Congratulations! You are now the leader of the Sun Elf village!

  “Fuck. Me.”

  Chapter Twelve

  You have unlocked a title!

  ●From the ashes!

  ○From the ashes!: You are the first individual from the fall to establish a village since the world has recovered. This title gives a one-time bonus exp gain of 100,000 exp.

  EXP Earned: 100,000

  EXP Total: 131,000

  EXP Until Next Level: 116,000

  You have reached level eight! Good for you!

  That was the last of the pop-ups, and while the exp was nice, I knew that my life was now a lot more complicated. The congregation of elves looked shocked that I had bested both elves without any effort. I could see many of their faces beginning to look at me with uncertainty. “A little warning next time, Tabby.” I said, messing with her.

  Her slack-jawed expression was just what I was aiming for, making my overtaxed lips let out a burst of something that was half laugh, and half snort. She went red in the face, opening her mouth to yell, but I cut her off before she could even start. “So, all kidding aside, I have a few things I would like to know. First, what the hell? Second, why the fuck? And last but not least, now what? We’ve made contact and then some,” I mumbled the last bit as I stopped to look around. The gathered elves were all on their knees looking fearfully at me. Great. Just great! This wasn’t part of the plan.

  No shit, asshole. Tabby’s voice sounded in my head, and by her tone, she was none too pleased.

  I get hungry, it’s not good to have a soldier miss dinner.

  “Don’t start with that shit. You were asleep, and after what happened I thought it best to leave you.” She said aloud.

  “Fine but let this…” I gestured all around me, the elves in its path leaning backwards trying to avoid the gesture as I walked closer to the fire, “be a warning.”

  “Huff,” was the only reply Tabby gave me, as she folded her arms across her chest and turned her face away from me. Chuckling, I asked her to hold on while I leveled up. Pulling up an abbreviated character sheet, I did just that.

  Name: Rho

  Race: Gess

  Class: Combat Sorcerer

  Level: 8

  Total Experience: 131,000

  Age: 3,573

  Base speed: 30’/s

  Weight: 220lb

  Spell Slots: 36/36

  Healing factor: 10in^3 × con bonus (3) = 30in^3 per min.

  Thirty cubic inches.

  Maximum achieved.

  Attributes:

  Strength: 13 + 1 (14)

  Dexterity: 16

  Constitution: 16

  Intelligence: 16

  Wisdom: 16

  Charisma: 18

  Class Skills:

  Manipulate gravity: 7

  Dense star (N): 6 + 4 (10)

  ●Novice Perk: Bigger is better.

  ○Bigger is better: Doubles the radius of the star. Doubling the pull on movement speed, but halves the overall effect area.

  Haste/Slow: 6

  Ion control(N): 25

  ●Novice Perk: Shocking

  ○Shocking: allows individual to use electricity. Can fire weak bolts of electricity.

  Journeyman Perk: Plasma!

  Plasma!: Can now use this spell to create a plasma stream. One-inch radius. Does not have a cone effect. If fired as a bolt travels until resistance is met. Plasma damage type dependent on resource used. e.g.: electricity and heat damage when producing lightning. When channeled, stream travels 100 feet into the distance. Channeled spells cost double. Can be used in crafting.

  Telepathy (N): 3 + 7 (10)

  ●Novice Perk: Legion

  ○Legion: Can communicate telepathically with more than one person. Costs 1 spell slot per extra individual. Can be used on non-Gess at 1 spell slot per individual.

  Shapeshifting (N): 3 + 7 (10)

  ●Novice Perk: Going native.

  ○Going native: Can perfectly match any traditionally bipedal races’ appearance. Includes all sensory input/output.

  Perception (N): 3 + 7 (10)

  ●Novice Perk: Eye for magic.

  ○Eye for magic: Your magical vision is now sharper, letting you see clearer, with more depth and understanding.

  Precision strike: 4

  Concentration (N): 8* + 2 (10)

  ●Novice Perk: Double trouble

  ○Double trouble: Can cast two spells at once.

  Bastard swords (N): 6 + 4 (10)

  ●Novice Perk: Strike fast

  ○Strike fast: Bastard sword wielding speed increased by 25%

  *: Five of these points do not count toward individual’s skill point cap total.

  Skill points available: 0

  *Learned skills:

  Light armor: 5 + 3 (8)

  Medium armor: + 1

  Survival (N): 15

  ●Novice Perk: Camper

  ○Camper: Doubles speed of assembling campsite structures.

  Cooking: 5

  Crafting skills*:

  Mystical weaponsmithing (J): 30 learned + 7 class skill points (37)

  ●Novice Perk: Spell slots count double for crafting. Weapon produced automatically of Good quality.

  ●Journeyman Perk: Crafting speed increased by 50%. Has a chance to create Excellent quality weapons.

  Skill levels are as follows and grant a perk when each new rank is achieved (no perk for unranked): 0-9 unranked, 10-24 novice, 25-49 journeyman, 50-74 adept, 74-99 expert, 100-149 master, 150-200 grandmaster.

  *Learned skills progress on their own and can be learned and taught by anyone. Skill points earned through leveling cannot be used to increase learned skills. Learned skills are still limited by an individual’s class skill restrictions. e.g.: cooking (skill).

  *Crafting skills can be both learned and advanced through class skill points. Crafting skills can only be taught by masters in their craft. Crafting skills are still limited by an individual’s class.

  I raised my strength to fourteen, because being stronger never hurt, but from here on out I would focus on my main stats dex and cha. Telepathy was a no-brainer. I had a village of illiterate elves to communicate with and would need all the help I could get. Wait, are they even illiterate if they don’t have a language?

  The reason for putting points into bastard swords, was a little more complicated. The perks I remembered for my precision strike ability worked in a sort of tandem with bastard swords. If you leveled one without the other, you would find yourself in… awkward situations. It made sense really, how could you strike something with more precision than your swordsmanship could handle?

  With that out of the way, and with the two fine representations of exactly what I had got myself into starting to come around, I turned to Tabby. I smiled at her, “alright, I’m going to go collect our things. I’ll be right back. While I’m gone, I would like you to choose a few of these elves to be their leaders. I don’t care who, just a few. No more than… oh, let’s say ten. I’ll speak to them when I get back, and we’ll go from there. Sound good?” As I spoke, I went up to Tabby and made a show of putting my hand on her shoulder, signaling to the elves that she was someone I trusted.

  “No, it doesn’t sound good. Who the hell put you in charge, huh?” She sighed. “Alright, I’ll do as you ask, but we’re going to have a long talk later.” She said nodding, smiling at me without it reaching her eyes.

  “Yes, dear,” I joked. “Kidding,” I hurried to add, knowing I was pushing it a little.

  A lot, and I mean it about that talk. She sent to me, as I made my way through the elves who parted for me like the Red Sea.

  The trip back to our camp was uneventful, and once there it took only a few minutes to pack everything up. The main purpose for coming back was
to get a grip on myself, while hopefully, thinking of a plan. It didn’t go so well, and as I started back to my village, frustration started to get the better of me. I tossed a Plasma bolt into the ground a few feet in front of me. It was childish, but I didn’t care, and seeing the familiar red-orange glow melt a hole deep into the ground helped me to calm down.

  Okay. So, I have control of a village of prehistoric elves with no language, oh yeah, and I’m being hunted by wereboars. I rolled my eyes as I groaned. The goal is to—whether Tabby wants to admit it or not—get these elves, not just in the system, but millennia into the future, at least as far as history is concerned. I puzzled the situation in my head, frustration creeping back in. Being their leader will help, but also brings all the bullshit of governing, I grumbled. Sighing, I pulled up the village information screen.

  Village: No name

  Population: 560

  Morale: Poor

  Level: 1

  Buildings: 64

  Defenses: None

  Primitive: Advanced stone age technology. Nothing of note in this village.

  The village information prompt was very bare bones. I had no idea what one looked like before the fall of the world but had a suspicion that it used to be much more in-depth. I noticed that since Tabby joined me the system prompts were just all around less... well, everything. Then again, it might just be my imagination.

  Well, that wasn’t much help. Wow, I didn’t think there were that many elves in the village, though. I guess I could name the village. I smiled, chuckling to myself. I could name it something from my old world, as a joke no one would know. Nah, sounds like fun, but would get old fast. How about... Tigris, for the cradle of civilization? Yeah, I like it.

  Village name: Tigris

  With that, I continued on my way to the village. I was just about at the jungle’s edge when I heard a sound I could only describe as a squealing bellow. Wereboars. My hearing was picking up quite a few of them running up the slope of the clearing toward the village. Casting my buffs as I ran, I heard the sounds of fighting in the distance, making me pour on as much speed as I could.

  There were at least twenty of the dirty pig men, and they were spread out on the edges of the village, attacking elves between the yurts that housed them. I beheaded the first wereboar I came across, the beast attacking one of the wide-eyed guards I had moved past earlier. The elf must have left his post on the trail to help against the attackers. There were elves screaming, running around the yurts in a chaotic scramble to evade the monsters. Families were trying to huddle together with their children in the center. Poorly constructed and badly wielded spears faced out toward their attackers, trying to keep them at bay.

  I moved to the next group in my line of attack, dodging fleeing elves, jumping the final twenty feet to land in the midst of three piggies attacking another group. I sliced the arm off the one directly in front of where I landed. Holding a young, adult elven female, my strike made it release her, as it grabbed where its other arm used to be. The wereboar was dead without someone healing it, but I didn’t see that happening, letting me turn my full attention to the other two. As they both turned to look at me, I put a controlled, channeled plasma bolt through each of their foreheads with a finger gun and a wink at the elves. Leaping forward to a group of five wereboars, I landed in the middle of them, spun with my sword and sliced three of their piggy throats as I did. I swung again, gutting one that dodged the first strike, then lunged the tip of my sword in the last one’s brain, courtesy of his eye cavity. In the span of a few breaths, all five were defeated. I looked around, searching for my next target, as my fallen foes withered in their death throes.

  Seeing a daddy piggy run his tusks through a male elf holding a spear, I found my next target. Pouncing toward it, I unleashed a full plasma stream. There was no resistance where it touched the wereboar father, the flesh the stream met instantly destroyed. I cut it diagonally in half, starting at its tusks, ending at the top of its hips. As the elf that was impaled on the dead dad’s tusks fell to the ground, my arcane senses picked up a heal spell going to work on him as he screamed, thrashing around wildly. This was literally what I was made for. Battle! The rush, the fear that went with it was almost all I had known in this life. I had lost count of how many wereboars I had taken out at that point, but there were only about half of the monsters left.

  Although , after the death of the daddy pig, the wereboars were trying to disengage the elves they were fighting. I wasn’t having any of that nonsense, going around ending the remaining pig monsters.

  As I took my long sword out of a piggy’s throat, I noticed the two elves I had knocked out earlier fighting, and winning, against two wereboars of their own. I nodded my head to them, continuing my way through the village. I landed in front of the last piggy, not wasting any time doing anything fancy, putting a bolt of plasma through its brain. Not seeing any other opponents, I stopped to look around.

  The elves didn’t appear to have taken any casualties. Though, I did look back to see Tabby by the fire, covered in the blood of the wounded. She was just finishing with healing the attack’s worst injured, moving on to the next group when our eyes met. Time seemed to stop in that moment, and from the look in her eyes, I knew we both felt it. There, in the middle of it all, we had been there to help each other, without even the tiniest bit of communication. It was then that we both realized just how much we had come to rely on each other, together with the love that had blossomed between us.

  She smiled weakly, acknowledging me, breaking the spell. As I passed the fire opposite her, a couple of young female elves offered me water. Their posture was subservient, not meeting my eyes as I took the proffered jugs and rinsed off.

  “You didn’t take the water from them, did you?” Tabby started as I nodded my head, still wiping the gore off me. “Well, good job, Rho, now you’re married to them…” I laughed at that, shaking my head at her statement. Sighing, she said, “Fine, you’re right, I made that up. I’m still a little upset with that nonsense you showed up with earlier.” She stopped, a hurt look in her eyes.

  “Tabby, I’m sorry for that. It’s not funny that guys would fight over you. It’s just, well, I was a little... off after the last battle and was pretty freaking worried when I couldn’t find you. So, when I did, and found you like that…” I paused. “Well, it was just stress turned into laughter. Guess it was that or insanity, or maybe both,” I wiggled my eyebrows jokingly at that. “Maybe I’m insane,” I started jokingly, but by the end it sounded a lot darker than I intended. The memories of battles past and the dead friends I had lost bled through, coloring my words unintentionally. A silence settled between us, and I could sense the concern in her eyes. Sometime during my little tirade, Tabby had come to stand in front of me. Our eyes never left each other’s, our hands having found one another at some point. Even with the darkness swirling, I could feel the light shining on my skin just by standing next to her.

  I looked around, the elves had gathered again, those Tabby had healed still lying down where she left them, sitting in that weird oval of theirs, just watching us. Some of them bowed their heads at us, others with their heads on the mud-soaked ground in an almost worshipping pose... “Ah, Tabby? What are they doing?” I asked, dreading the answer.

  “They are worshipping us. They believe we are their gods.”

  “That’s ridiculous! I mean, I totally get it, but…” I started to joke, but stopped in horror as the realization hit me. “It’s only going to get worse. I mean, we are going to take these people to heights they can’t even imagine right now.” Tabby was looking down, not meeting my eye, but refusing to leave my side.

  “Yes, it is. I knew this would happen. Or at least it was one of the most likely outcomes,” she paused, gathering her thoughts. “More than likely, we’re going to be the gods of every race. We’ll look like every new race we encounter, bringing knowledge, technology, and magic into their lives. We’ll be wearing advanced armor, using advanced we
apons, radiating power, speaking a tongue they don’t understand, but clearly has meaning to us. And once we give them all we can... we’ll disappear into myth. What did you think would happen?” She was whispering at the end, tears on her face, sadness in her voice. “I’m sorry for this burden, Rho, I truly am.”

  At first, I didn’t understand why she was so emotional, or what she meant by burden. I mean, being believed in as a god, there are worse things, right? But even as I thought that I started to realize what she hadn’t said. Like all the prayers. Hell, all the expectations I could never hope to meet, and every race. The weight of what was just thrust on me, wait, not just thrust, Tabby knew the whole time that this would happen.

  I was enraged , unconsciously taking a step away from her, hearing pained sigh come from her when I did. I had been used all my life in this body, and here Tabby my friend, someone I have grown to love, had known what would happen if we came to these primitive races and hadn’t said a word! It was like being back at the lab! “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?” I thought I had screamed it, yet it only came out as a hoarse growl.