The night was peaceful. With BFBB gone, no rats remained in the basement. Martha was thrilled she no longer had to take shifts with Gary to avoid getting bitten.
"Martha, wake me early tomorrow. I need a shower, and something to treat this wound on my arm. I have too much to do—this is stressful," Lucius ordered. Only Gary responded with a
low, monotone bleh.
"Martha." Silence again. When Lucius turned to see why she hadn't answered—after treating him like her king all day—the reason was simple: she was sleeping soundly, like a baby, finally safe from the rats and content with her success.
Lucius felt his twisted, blackened heart beat with something other than hatred, envy, or arrogance—something almost like affection, even tenderness. It terrified him. He'd felt this way only three times in his life, and it had always ended badly.
Uneasy and plagued by strange emotions, he left the room and stepped outside the tavern. The night was dark, the wind light but icy. "Must be summer," Lucius thought. He patted his pockets for a cigarette but found nothing in his rags or the tunic he wore as a makeshift coat.
"I'm already here, and I can't sleep, so..." He justified it to himself and began hurling fireballs into the air. Without adrenaline fueling him, he could now feel each one draining him slowly, like exercising without proper conditioning. Fifteen minutes of practice left him utterly exhausted. Sweat dripped from his forehead as he discarded his cloak and collapsed onto the damp grass, surveying his surroundings—nothing but fields and stones. The tavern was surrounded by a beautiful, though now eerily terrifying, pine forest—or this world's equivalent.
As he caught his breath, staring blankly at the shrubs, he froze in absolute horror as a figure emerged from them.
It resembled a wolf but with patches of scaly skin and sparse, night-black fur. It looked sickly, moving sluggishly yet with its gaze locked on Lucius. "Of all the things they could've taken from the real world, a rabid wild animal wouldn't be my first pick" he thought, watching foamy drool drip from the beast's jaws.
"Rabid animal..." he muttered firmly before raising his hand with the rat sigil. With all his might, he tried to summon something—anything—just like with the fireballs. But nothing happened.
The wolf picked up speed, slow but deliberate, before breaking into a full sprint straight at Lucius. He steadied himself, standing motionless, hand outstretched, his breathing controlled.
"Come out, you damn rat!"
A beam of light erupted from his palm, and with a screech, BFBB materialized.
The 100-pound rat acted as a living barricade between Lucius and the wolf, which slammed headfirst into BFBB's girth. Claws flashed, teeth gnashed—a whirlwind of enraged animals trying to gouge each other's eyes out—until they finally broke apart.
No clear winner. BFBB had one eye sealed shut, but the other seemed fine.
The wolf seemed fine—just a few scratches on its muzzle and a bite on its shoulder.
"BFBB, it's too fast for you. Have your rats chew its feet. Then you finish it." For some strange reason—maybe muscle memory from his Pokémon days—Lucius found himself shouting orders instead of attacking. But it wasn't in vain. BFBB obeyed to the letter.
With an unnatural screech to the sky, half a dozen rats erupted from BFBB's fur, launching themselves at the wolf. They clung to its legs, gnawing like rabid electricians chewing through live wires. The wolf wasted precious seconds trying to shake them off—and by the time it looked up, BFBB was already airborne.
The rat slammed into the wolf, knocking it onto its back. Jaws sank into matted fur as BFBB's venom took effect. The wolf's thrashing slowed, its muscles locking up. Within moments, the swarm of rats overwhelmed it.
Lucius patted BFBB's massive head, grinning as the rats retreated into its fur like soldiers into trenches. The wolf's corpse dissolved into pixelated mist—like a low-budget game optimizing resources. A floating EXP bar shimmered into view, filling rapidly. BFBB's bar maxed out first, and a golden light engulfed the rat. Its body swelled, muscles thickening, fur darkening to an oily black.
Lucius fumbled through his mental UI, searching for buttons until he found a tiny [More Details] option beside his abilities. He skimmed past his own stats and zoomed in on BFBB's upgraded profile:
[ABILITY: Forced Acquisition (Lvl 1)
- EXP: 20/100
- STORED: BFBB (1/1) Lvl 1→2
- EXP 30/160
- SUMMON TIME: 1→2 hr/day
- NEW TRAIT: Rat King (Summons 12 "Lvl 1 Rats")
- STATS:
- STR: 8→10 | INT:0→ 1 | CHA: 0]
Lucius couldn't have been prouder. "You've earned a promotion!" he repeated, scratching BFBB's head. The rat twitched its nose—clearly unimpressed. The "promotion" was just head-pats and maybe extra rations at lunch, but for now, it was enough. With a theatrical flourish, Lucius commanded, "Return, champion!" BFBB vanished in a crimson flash, tattooing itself back onto his left palm.
Lucius navigated back to [More Details], where a new card flickered to life:
[PASSIVE: Natural Born Mage
- Fire & Summoning Magic:
- +15% damage
- -20% casting time
- +50% EXP gain
- No summoning circles required]
[PASSIVE: Born to Conquer
- Leader: Allies gain +35% confidence when following orders.
- Limit Anatomy:
- Reaction time at human peak.
- +80% to STR, DEF, AGI, DEX.
- Natural Tendencies:
- +60% Pain Infliction
- -60% Enemy Morale
- Half-Assed Work:
- Marked Targets: Fleeing enemies gain status [Mark].
- +40% damage vs. [Marked].
- Track [Marked] through walls (60m range).]
[STATS. STR: 12 DEF: 10 AGI:15 DEX: 12 INT: 17 CHA: 20]
"A goddamn monster" Lucius thought.
And he wasn't wrong. For a Level 1, these percentages and stats weren't just good—they were ludicrous.
Staggering, Lucius returned to the tavern, exhausted and ready to sleep. Even in the absolute darkness of the room he shared with Martha and Gary, he could see his bed—some old, frayed winter blankets Martha had saved, spread over the cold floor, and a battered pillow. But he was so tired that the moment his head touched it, he fell peacefully asleep.
BLEEEH woke Gary, who served as a replacement rooster, being even louder and more annoying.
In his exhaustion, Lucius seemed to blink and the day had changed. "Shit," he said as he tried to get up and his body protested the previous night's activities. But it was good to know this wasn't a dream—with so many strange things happening, it was hard to tell for a newcomer.
"Martha, I need to shower," he said, and with low complaints about being woken up early, Martha gave him an old blue towel and directions to the nearby river to bathe. "I'll go later," she said goodbye, still with her eyes closed, and shut the door in Lucius's face. She also gave him a change of clothes: some loose brown pants, an open-chested shirt with sleeves to the forearms, and comfortable sandals—everything needed to shower properly.
Following the not-very-clear instructions, Lucius managed to reach the designated shower spot after about 30 minutes—a small lagoon away from the river's main current. It was beautiful. The water was sky blue, and the lush dark green trees surrounding it seemed to part on purpose to let the sunlight reveal this wonder. Not that Lucius could appreciate nature's beauty anyway, tired as he was from going in circles following horrible directions from someone half-asleep. This trip shouldn't have taken more than 7 minutes.
Leaving his dirty clothes immaculately folded near his boots, with his towel and clean clothes within reach, Lucius felt the cold water wash away his sins in the form of bloodstains and sweat clinging to his skin. His bones shuddered and his muscles trembled from his lack of habit of cold showers. But little by little his body loosened and began to relax, letting the water envelop and absorb him before properly washing.
"Martha BOMB!" were the last words he heard before a terrible splash that soaked not only his entire face but both his dirty and clean clothes alike. When the water stopped falling and he reopened his eyes, he saw a natural wonder he could indeed appreciate. Two double-Ds, bouncing as if they had a life of their own in arrhythmic sync, capable of attracting the gaze of the holiest monk in all of Nepal, attached to the problem named Martha.
Behind all the robes, bandages and intolerable attitude hid two glorious reasons why Martha fought for first place as Lucius's favorite servant. "Martha! What are you doing!? My clothes!" Lucius stammered, his gaze decidedly not fixed on Martha's eyes.
Kyaaa Martha dropped a gut-wrenching scream, sinking on purpose to hide. "Don't look at me, perverted dark lord!" she ordered. "But you're the one who jumped in! Why are you blaming me?" Lucius defended himself, but being a gentleman, and with nothing left to see, he turned around.
"I thought you were my brother," Martha whispered, almost as if she didn't want to talk about it. Something in her gaze seemed to matter more to Lucius than those other two beautiful, round secrets she'd been hiding. "You have a brother? Why didn't you tell me, and what would he be doing here?" Lucius said, looking around for said brother.
"Well, it's complicated. Technically it's you, because your body, you know, is my brother's. And being sleepy and—" Lucius didn't hear anything after that, staying in complete shock upon learning this body not only belonged to someone else but was related to Martha. The strange affection he'd felt seeing her sleep, why his curse hadn't activated—it all made sense. Everything except Lucius's jaw, which hung completely out of place in infinite surprise, like a snake trying to swallow an egg whole.
Without another word, Lucius wrapped the towel around his waist, gathered his things, and walked slowly away. "There's a prettier river further down!" Martha called out just before he disappeared among the trees, still reeling from the revelation. Following a small water trail, he reached a deeper section - not the main river, but enough for a proper wash. Still distracted, his mind wandering during the entire walk, he decided it was time to process everything and dunked himself completely underwater, letting the icy shock reset his thoughts. This time, the cold barely affected him - or at least not as much.
When he surfaced, gasping for air but calmer, he began washing properly, carefully scrubbing his borrowed/stolen/gifted body. He examined it in detail: sun-bathed skin, tall frame, defined musculature, and what felt like perfect average weight. The cold water left no doubt about his friend - he was definitely a shower, not a grower. As the ripples settled, he leaned back to relax and finally saw his reflection. The family resemblance to Martha was undeniable.
The face staring back was handsome - sharp features locked in permanent seriousness, eyes slightly lighter than Martha's (a warm hazel), with dark brown dreadlocks falling just past his shoulders. "I look like a bad Rick James impersonation," he muttered to himself.
Ngha A distant, almost imperceptible sound. Probably Gary or some forest creature, he thought, ignoring it.
Nga nga Closer now. Annoying, but not concerning. Martha would've warned him about real dangers, right?
NGHA! THWACK
The world exploded in pain as something smashed against his skull, forcing him underwater. When he surfaced, blinking through the agony, two greenish creatures - some grotesque goblin-human hybrids - stared back in terror, the remains of their broken club floating between them.
Nga? Nga! One creature scooped up a riverstone and launched itself at Lucius, trying to finish what its companion started. Mid-leap, Lucius' hand snapped out, catching the thing by its scrawny neck.
"DIE!" he roared, plunging it underwater, his grip tightening as bubbles erupted violently.
Crash A branch shattered against Lucius' arm and chest as the second creature desperately tried to save its partner.
"STOP BOTHERING ME!" Lucius released the half-drowned goblin and grabbed a submerged stone, bringing it down with brutal force on the second attacker's skull.
Crunch The sound of fracturing bone mixed with the river's flow as tiny fish already nibbled at the floating carnage. Slippery with blood and missing part of his scalp, Lucius struggled to maintain footing. By the time the first creature regained consciousness, he'd found his balance - and a perfectly weighted stone now flew at terminal velocity toward its forehead.
Splat The creature's skull erupted like overripe fruit, gray matter splattering across the water and painting the distant grass. What happened next became a blur of pain and copper-tasting blood - unsurprising, given part of his parietal lobe now decorated the goblin's club, and more blood had entered his eyes and mouth in these moments than in his entire previous life.
Victorious and barely conscious, Lucius attempted a battle cry: "AHNG-HAA!" before collapsing naked and half-dead onto his clean clothes.