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The Order of the Black Foot

Arc 1, Chapter 1

Sponsored by AkimitsuSevecan

By Draconicon

The few that had access to the multi-verse beyond one's own universe learned the lessons of travel very quickly. They were simple, but key to survival.

First: have enough energy to reach your destination.

Second: do not look into the abyss for long.

Third: know where you're going.

And fourth: aim for a soft spot.

Draconicon had followed all four rules when he left the Imperium of the Setting Sun behind, more than willing to put the land of imitation samurai and high-tech mechs behind him, but even as he found himself approaching the new world, he ran through what he had left. Enough magic hanging in gems along his belt to keep him safe from anything short of a demi-god, a robe that was made of enough silk that he would be able to unravel six layers of it for material and still remain modest, and a staff that was all but glued to his back by his own magic: that should be sufficient to start him out in the new world, even if it was another that was not very high in ambient magical energy. He hoped that it would be sufficient to get him out of it, too, but that was another question for another time.

The black dragon soared through the space between spaces, his wings curled tightly to his back as he rode the explosive energies that had launched him from the universe that he had already left behind. He could have looked behind him to see how far away it was, but that would involve looking over the abyss, breaking rule two and risking a certain amount of madness. And while some would have considered him slightly mad to be doing this in the first place - after all, the corners of the multi-verse frowned on those that bounced between one universe and another - he wasn't completely insane. Not yet.

He pulled his wings a little tighter to his back as he narrowed his eyes at the barrier ahead. This world was different to the ones he was used to seeing. Rather than the single barrier separating most universes from each other, this one had a barrier that was double-layered, one right behind the other, closer than double-paned glass and yet distinctly separate. He wondered what it was for, but he knew that he'd find out soon enough.

Closer, closer, closer he came, feeling the beginning of what one might call 'atmosphere' if one had the air to call it that. There were no gases, no planets yet, but the edge of the barrier and the particles that it exuded were enough to start slowing him down, friction burning a trail through the abyss.

He narrowed his eyes, clenching his fists at his side and pulling his tail straight between his legs. The dragon tilted his head slightly, aligning himself like an arrow for the weak point in the barrier. One slip-up, and -

SHING.

Something was wrong. There wasn't supposed to be anything this close to the barrier, nor anything past it. Draconicon wobbled, feeling the slowdown increasing, 'air' pulling tighter around him as he drew closer to the barrier. It was as if he had already slid past it, already in the grip of whatever gravity was on the other side, but there wasn't anything here. Nothing -

No, something. There were...there were numbers, he realized, numbers that started as nothing but ones and zeroes, but were rapidly changing again and again. They started spelling out other numbers, other words the further in that he went. He wanted to slow down, to stop himself, but there was no stopping when one flung themselves between the universes. One could only keep moving forward and hope that they eventually hit their target.

He gritted his teeth, feeling the pull slowing him down. He was going to miss his shot, at this rate. His eyes flicked around, looking for something, an improvisational entry. No, no, not there, too strong, but -

There.

He spotted a tiny hole in the barrier, a spot that led to the space between the two barriers. It wasn't perfect, but it was a hell of a lot better than falling into the abyss. Gritting his teeth, Draconicon grabbed hold of two of the jewels at his waist. Pressing them between his claws, he crushed them, shattering the gems and releasing their magic. He vented the energy behind him, changing course.

The black dragon barely had time to angle his head, twisting around to be pointed at the hole in the barrier properly. The darkness of the abyss rose around behind him...and then he was surrounded by light for a split second...

And then he was through.

Gravity pulled at him, yanking him out of the sky over a mountain that was far too close for comfort. Throwing his wings out with a shocked yelp, Draconicon caught a mountain breeze, riding it along as he looked over his shoulder.

A planet...this close?

It should have been impossible. The edges of a universe were well past any planet within them, but this time, he had managed to hit one that was right on the edge. No, one that should have had its outer atmosphere through the barrier...

And yet, when he looked over his shoulder, he saw nothing. No space, no abyss, not even...

...Not even stars...

Something was wrong. Very wrong. And the ones and zeroes and other numbers were still there, only now starting to fade into the blue sky, the two suns, and the world below...

The world below...which was still forming...

Draconicon's breath caught in his throat as he looked at the land below him. He had a split second to see the world, and he impressed it on his memory as it spread out before him. It was a world of mountains and lakes, of rivers and thick forests, and here and there, among those features, villages and walled settlements leaped to the sky. Further away, in the land that was still materializing - materializing, but how? - there were other things, larger cities that were closer together, and over each city, a banner flew. Each one was marked with a different sigil, save for the three largest towards the far edge of the land, where it was most developed and most urban.

And then, just as he managed to take it all in, something not dissimilar from the hand of god swatted him from the sky. Like a fist punching him from the heavens, something slammed down on his back and shoved him down, down, down, taking him out of his rightful place above the mountains and sending him careening towards the ground. He barely managed to keep his grip on his robe, and his staff went flying away. Half of the gems he still had went flying into the winds, as well, and he had no chance of pulling them back.

As he spun towards the ground, he waited, knowing that there had to be a reason for this. If it was magic, then it was a magic that he didn't understand. If it wasn't, then there was something else responsible, something that might show itself if he waited long enough.

Regardless, he had to wait for it to stop pushing him, or trying to stop his fall would break his wings. Draconicon breathed slowly, forcing himself to wait as he fell down, down, down. The gap between him and the ground was closing fast as he dropped, going from being over the mountains to being equal to them, then going down their slopes, getting closer and closer to the village near the base.

Finally, just over a mountain lake, he felt the pressure ease. He unfurled his wings immediately, catching the air beneath him to slow his pace. It was barely enough to keep from slamming right into a tree on the way down.

He caught the top of it, spinning around the trunk, and finally came to a stop. His heart thudded in his chest as he sat down, but no sooner had he managed to get his breath back than it got worse.

The ones and zeroes appeared again, the world fading as he felt them stabbing at him like little knives, pulling at his scales, dragging at -

"Oh, no you don't..."

Draconicon reached out, unconsciously trying to use his magic, only to find that it didn't work. At least, not the way that it was supposed to. Instead, it just surged, forming a ball of energy inside, and for a split second, the numbers pulled back.

Then, they returned, repeating their attack. They flashed in light, in patterns, and -

Patterns.

Like spell-words, the numbers repeated. He watched as they flashed, and some of the energy he held disappeared. They flashed again, the same numbers, the same string, and more of his magic disappeared.

Just as they were about to do it a third time, he spouted the same chain of numbers back...and it stopped. The numbers didn't disappear, but that attack stopped.

Panting for breath, Draconicon shook his head. So, there was magic, of a sort. Magic with numbers, with commands, though not necessarily of will. He gripped the tree tighter with his fingers, his claws sinking through the bark. Something was wrong here, then, very, very wrong. This was not...this could not be a normal world.

At least, none I've seen.

As the numbers didn't seem willing to keep up the attack just yet, he looked over his shoulder. The barrier between the universes was there, but...but there was something different about it. There was one barrier towards the direction he'd come from, but looking the other way...

It was all but impossible to sense from this distance, but looking approximately in the direction of the spot he'd aimed for originally, he could make out the feeling of two barriers. As if two universes had all but merged together, this one had been lumped on top of his actual destination.

That didn't explain how a world had come together just by his appearance in it, or...

...No, it wasn't that it formed when I got here...but that it was presented to me when I arrived...

He could figure that part out later. For now, he was stuck here until he managed to get more energy, more power, more magic. And that meant figuring out how the world worked. Draconicon took a deep breath, rubbing his forehead before looking at the ones and zeroes that still superimposed themselves between him and the world proper.

"Let's see what you're for..."

#

Three hours later, as the sun traveled from the heights to somewhere near the horizon behind him, Draconicon had made a few discoveries. The numbers themselves were not magic, but arranged the right way, they did offer access to magic. He had to play around with them - a lot - but when he got them perfectly positioned, he found himself staring at a picture of himself, as well as numbers that were assigned to different words.

Strength, Dexterity, Constitution...

They were attributes of sorts, things that would normally be descriptions of a person, but here, they were arranged beside a portrait of himself. A naked portrait, for that matter, one that showed off how he looked beneath the robe. The black dragon smiled slightly as he looked at himself, at the slightly broader than average shoulders, a faint gut from his sedentary lifestyle in the last world, and, of course, the various 'assets' that his partners had enjoyed back there. A long shaft that would rise longer still hung over balls that would have done horses proud, and...well, if his hips were a little larger than they should be, that was just that much more for some to enjoy when they had the privilege of being behind him.

But the naked image of him, pleasing as the white-eyed, black-scaled portrait was, could hardly be said to be the most interesting thing. The numbers, the words, the descriptors, they all meant something. He panned his eyes up and down the list, trying to take in as much information as possible.

Hmm...that describes the body...that the mind and voice...the talents...and...what's this?

There were two things towards the bottom of the lists that pulled his attention. The first was the word 'Faction', and the second was the word 'Guild.' The first, for him, was scrambled, and the second was blinking with the word 'Monster' growing ever more prevalent.

"...I'd disagree with that description."

The first thing that he thought to do was take the same 'spell' that had deleted the numbers trying to erase his magic and put that to work against the label that they were trying to give him. It...mostly worked, though it left the space blank for only a moment before it started trying to assign something else. He grumbled, watching as it went from 'Monster' to 'Monster NPC'.

Whatever NPC is...

He didn't like it, and deleted that, as well. Once more, the words flickered away before another started trying to slide in. Every time, he had to force it out again, barely getting a second to think before whatever was responsible for this tried to fill it in again with something else, sometimes as bad, sometimes worse, but never better.

He finally managed to blank it out by attacking the 'name' spell that was behind the flickering thing rather than the name itself. It remained blank, though the 'faction' was still scrambled out and impossible to read. Shaking his head, he looked back to the rest of the sheet.

Hmmm...if high numbers are good and low numbers are bad...

Then he wasn't doing badly. He imagined that part of that was due to his species, considering that Strength and Constitution were very high, reaching into the triple digits. He would have liked to see something that was more 'normal' for comparison, but no matter how he fiddled with the ones and zeroes around him, he couldn't quite pull that off. He imagined that it would be possible later, however, when he found someone else.

Dexterity wasn't great, down in the double-digits, and low doubles, at that. 30. Not great, compared to the first two.

Intelligence was a triple digit, Wisdom just under, in the 90s. His Charisma...

Hmm...

He paused for a moment, pulling his robe open, then closed. Open, closed, open, closed. When he was naked, the number shot up to 99, and when he covered up, it was down to no more than 50. All good numbers...he hoped. He had no comparison to anything there.

At the top, he noticed that there was a box checked. It read 'Adult Features Enabled', which he assumed meant that the things like his shaft sticking out and his body being more exposed were features that most people wouldn't be dealing with. Maybe there was a way to encourage that, however.

The skills...he didn't know what half of them meant, so he ignored them for now, particularly as they didn't seem willing to explain themselves. Further down were the abilities, and those seemed vaguely more understandable, particularly as some of them were usable as spells themselves.

Fireball, lightning bolt...fairly normal things...

He imagined that there were other abilities, though. Things that he would have to find and break into. The numbers were...

Hmmm...

Another twenty minutes of experimentation later, the dragon managed to combine the numbers into another form, one which unlocked a greater, hidden list. He placed it side by side with his profile, and after a bit of experimentation, he found out that he could drag the abilities from the big list to his own. He smiled, rapidly shifting everything that looked magical over, ensuring that he had choices for his actions rather than just a limited list.

God's Strike, Devil's Reach, Meteor Swarm...I'll take the lot, yes please.

There were spells, and then there were passive abilities. He took one that read 'Greater Mana Pool,' and watched as a number shot up to triple what it had been. The black dragon paused, blinking as he realized that he felt a stronger pool of magic, and -

Oh...oh, that's not good...

He could see something in the corner of his vision, a little line of red and a similar-sized line of blue. They were both glowing as he looked at them, and as he looked up at the profile again, he realized that they corresponded to two stats at the top of his character profile. One was called 'Health', and the other was called 'Magic.'

"...Oh, that's going to be a problem..."

Not the knowing: that would actually be a benefit, considering the number of times that he had been ill at ease to cast spells when he didn't know the precise limits of his reserves. No, it was the fact that they were lower than he would have liked. Considering the numbers on some of the spells for the pain that they would inflict, he didn't like that his health looked so low...and he didn't like that he had relatively few magic points, either.

He looked back at the list, then back at the numbers. Adjusting a few others moved his Intelligence and Wisdom up, and others moved his other skills up or down, and others still added abilities that weren't entirely magical, but seemed useful.

The only thing that didn't move was his 'level,' which was stuck at 1.

...Right. Let's see how we can optimize this...

#

At the end of his fiddling, the black dragon had managed to customize his 'avatar' - as he had managed to find in a glossary somewhere on the character page - to something that seemed able to survive for a while. He glanced at his stats, tapping his chin.

Strength: 150.

Dexterity: 45.

Constitution: 210.

Intelligence: 199.

Wisdom: 140.

Charisma: 170 naked, 99 clothed.

Health: 500.

Magic: 900.

It was a massive growth, considering that he could just remember that there had been little more than 20 health on his character when he first appeared and looked at himself, before it had taken into account that he was a dragon, but it was still something that felt...less. He felt mortal in a way that he had managed to avoid in the previous universe, but that was something that he was just going to have to live with.

Shaking his head, the dragon slowly dismissed everything. The world beeped at him quietly, putting a little marker in the top-left corner of his vision. He glared at it, and to his surprise, it opened.

Greetings, New Monster -

It blanked out of existence, only to come back a second time with a new heading.

Greetings, New Adventurer -

Once more, it blinked out of existence, and Draconicon groaned as he rubbed his head, feeling more than a small headache coming on from the absurdity of the whole thing. It beeped at him one more time, and against his better judgment, he glared at the icon one more time.

Greetings, New Monster-Adventurer, and welcome to the world of Morphus, the World-Spanning Game of Cooperation and Corporation.

He had no idea what any of those words meant, but he read on.

You have been assigned a character in this world, but just because you are playing as someone doesn't mean that your actions won't have real-world consequences. As you are signed in, your bank accounts are being linked to your game account, and any losses here will be lost in the real world. But any gains here will be likewise gained in the real world. Your employer will receive a 50% payment on anything that you take in.

You have been assigned a Guild based on your real-world employer. Please report there for orders, quests, and other such information. Fight and Gain!

And that seemed to be all of it. It disappeared as soon as he reached the end of the letter, and he was no better informed than he had been at the start of it. Save for one concept, the whole of it had been almost illegible to him.

But that one concept, 'real-world', stuck out.

I'm...in a different world. A dream - no, a game. I'm in a game...

He had no idea how that could even work, but...well, if one imagined that a heaven could be part of someone's universe - and he'd seen a few where that was the case - then there was the possibility that one could establish a universe separate from your real one by making a game world. It was not entirely right, but there was something there that he imagined that he could peg down if he really needed to.

But for now, he was on his own. He had no real idea of what was going on, save for the fact that there was a world out there for him to explore. Though he was still mortal, he had to admit that he was better prepared for this world than he had been for the others that he had visited. At least this time, he had managed to get some power for himself right from the start, and had managed to retain some magic...

Step one. Find my staff. Step two. Find my magic. Step three. Get the HELL out of here...

At the very least, get from here to the real-world, so he could do something without worrying about this 'game' just ending on him. He shook his head and jumped...and only belatedly had a moment to hope that his 'Constitution' would let him hit the ground without too much pain.

#

By the time that the dragon had reached the lower slopes, past the lake that he'd landed near and only about two miles from the village that he'd seen at the foot of the mountain, he was...oddly not tired. Despite the fact that he had been on the move for hours, with the moon showing signs of rising soon and the sun due to set behind the mountains soon, he felt as energetic as ever. He actually felt better than he had before arriving, which was odd in and of itself.

Must be the constitution part...

Even so, it felt odd that his body was better in some ways than it had been, and he worried that there might be ways that it was worse. Or that his mind might be, or other parts of him. There was no way to tell until he tried to use it.

Well, you figured out how to make yourself stronger, and you kept yourself from losing some of your magic, at least...

That was something that he really didn't like. He had lost part of his magic, though thankfully not all - as evidenced by the magic points that he had - but it was not the same as having the magic that he had been born with, or the power that he was used to wielding without restrictions. As it stood, he had to deal with whatever the world threw at him and hope for the best. It was not the way that he liked working, and he could only hope that it went better than he was fearing.

He stopped at the edge of the forest, looking down at his health once more. The fall had taken out a mere three points, which was...good, but he noticed that it hadn't gone back up, even after the slight ache had faded. That probably meant that any injury would have to actually be healed, which...

Ugh...this is going to be 'fun.'

Shaking his head, he leaned on the tree that marked the edge of the woods, glancing at what came next. A little hole in the side of the slope marked the entrance to a small-ish cave, one that a human would have struggled to fit into, and from it came a river of black water. He arched an eyebrow at it, watching as several bones slid down, and then looked back at the cave proper.

That can't be healthy...

And yet, there was a path that led down from the cave and joined with a road further down the mountainside. That road led off into the distance, probably to the village putting out the smoke lines that were rising in the distance. He looked up -

And there was the banner again. This one looked a little simpler than the others. It had a forest-brown background with a mechanized sawblade over it in black, with words floating freely beneath it that read 'Build and Rise.' There was nothing that showed how the banner was held in mid-air, and he quickly just dismissed it as one more thing that this 'game' was making him see that wasn't really there.

It was becoming annoying.

Before he could think to leave the wood, however, something stirred in the cave. The black dragon ducked behind a tree, not wanting to chance a confrontation just yet, only to see three little figures pop up. Not step out of the cave, not crawl free, but literally pop into existence one after the other. There was no fading in, no gradual appearance from magic, just...popping in.

He cocked his head to the side. They looked like kobolds, perhaps waist-height against his seven-foot frame, or a little shorter. They were dressed in loincloths and no more than that, and their green-scaled bodies were bigger in the top half than the bottom half. Hunched forward, they almost looked like they were made ugly on purpose, and he shook his head in sympathy for whatever was born to their species; it would not be a kind existence that they were granted.

Oddly, they were all armed with identical daggers, though rather trashy-looking ones, he had to admit. They looked like they were barely made from stone, and he knew kobolds. They were small creatures, yes, but they were crafty, intelligent. It was odd to find some that didn't know how to do something with metal, and it felt...wrong.

More to the point, it felt wrong for them to be coming out of the cave, and then just...standing there. For all that this was a 'game,' it felt -

BOOM!

Draconicon jumped, nearly falling over as one of the kobolds hit the ground. It sizzled with electricity for a few seconds, and then exploded, leaving behind a skeleton on the ground. The other two jumped into action, running forward as arrows flew in their direction. One took a shaft to the arm, while the other remained unharmed.

What's going on?

Looking around the tree, Draconicon got his answer. A trio of figures were charging up the pathway from the main road. Two lions and a lioness, they charged the kobolds as if this was some grand war that they were waging rather than just...

Oh god...

One of the lions swung a sword, cutting off the arm of the previously lucky kobold. The little beast fell backwards, clutching at its stump, trying to pull its dagger free from its fallen arm. The archer lion, further back, took aim, and he saw the lioness waving her arms, gathering a spell to let loose.

He didn't let them.

Selecting one of his higher-level spells, Draconicon thrust his hand forward. A series of blackened tendrils launched from his fingers, slithering through the air faster than the speed of sound. One hit each of the adventurers; the two males disappeared instantly, while the female turned and managed to dodge the tendril that came at her. She turned, saw him -

"AH!"

And then screamed as the tendril came around to take her from behind. A seeker spell was not so easily avoided.

Shaking his head, he stepped out from behind the tree. The kobolds had gone still again, though the injured one was the most disturbing there. The fact that he had lost an arm and didn't scream after the adventurers left...it was wrong. Very wrong. Particularly with him still bleeding from the hole in his body.

Draconicon didn't have a healing spell - yet - but he had managed to give himself something that implied healing. He reached into his pocket, a potion vial appearing as he did so, and he pulled it free as he walked over.

When he was within ten feet, the kobold turned to face him. It looked at him in surprise, but didn't do anything. The other, further back and still staring into space from its arrow injury, didn't even react to his presence.

"Here," Draconicon said, offering the potion vial.

The kobold didn't take it. It just kept staring.

"Take it. Please. You're hurt."

It still didn't respond. Draconicon shivered, putting the vial down on the ground and stepping back. The kobold barely seemed to be aware of the potion vial, and that...that scared him.

What's wrong with you? he wondered, reaching out and doing the same thing that he had done to bring up his own character avatar information. A beep later, another box of numbers and stats appeared. He briefly noticed that most of the kobold's numbers were in the single digits, with only Dexterity being in the double-digits, and even then only by the barest of margins.

What he really paid attention to, however, was the rapidly declining Health numbers. Its max was fifteen. It was already down to three, and it was dropping by one per second.

Draconicon ran forward, pulled the vial off the ground, and jammed it into the kobold's mouth just as it was about to drop to zero. The numbers paused, turned around, and climbed back up. The kobold's arm reappeared as if it had never been lost, and it...

Still didn't seem to notice him.

What the hell?

Satisfied that the kobold wasn't dying, he took a chance to examine the creature's information in greater detail. The numbers were all low, with almost nothing above a five, and most of the ones that were related to combat. Not very good combat, either.

However, there was something under the Faction and Guild data that was rather informative. It was a simple thing, just labeled 'Behavior Routine'. It was set to a string of numbers that he didn't recognize, but if that was like a control spell - and he imagined that it might be - then it would explain why the kobold wasn't doing anything besides a few very specific actions.

Well, let's get rid of that.

A simple flick of the numbers, and it was deleted. The kobold blinked, then slumped to its knees. Its eyes closed for a moment, blinking. It looked around, dumbfounded, confused. Draconicon looked up at the kobold's name, wanting to address it properly -

And only found it labeled as 'KobDum011b.'

...How...what...Whatever serves as a god here, they are cruel.

Without thinking, he erased the stupid name, and then started typing one of his own. It had been the name of a powerful kobold in another world, and he felt that the name would suit here. A few seconds later, he 'entered' it, and Harendra opened his eyes, looking around, blinking still until he caught sight of the dragon.

"...I do - do what - what do - I what -" The kobold stopped, and Draconicon could almost see the thought passing behind the eyes, like some mind starting to wake up, something starting to understand...and then it faded. The kobold looked at him, cocked its head to the side, some faint light of intelligence in there, but not enough for it to quite communicate with him.

It did, however, take him by the hand, pulling him towards the cave. He allowed it. If nothing else, then perhaps the kobolds here had the same sort of devotion to dragons that they had in other worlds. If so...

Well, maybe he could do something to help. If only by being here -

POP!

The dead kobold reappeared, no worse for wear, as if he had never died in the first place. Draconicon blinked, looked back at the skeleton, then back at the third kobold.

"...That's convenient..."

The End

Summary: Draconicon enters a new world, and finds out that it's unlike any world that he's been to before.

Tags: No Sex, Nudity, M/solo, Draconicon, Dragon, Game World, Series, Sponsored Series, Kobold, Adventurers, Overpowered, Hacking, Alteration,