Path to the Apocalypse

Time passed at about twice the speed in the system world compared to the Beast world, so while only two weeks passed as Andrew's family waited for their new lives to be ready, goblin Andrew had an entire month to work with. He spent a week working on both Observe and Concentrate, before deciding to take Observe as a Class Skill. Both skills were relatively simple to level, but there was clearly more potential in Observe than Concentrate. Which probably should have been obvious considering his Class. In the meantime his Rest skill had increased to sixty-four before petering out while his Introspect had managed to eke up to twenty-four and his level had increased to three, so he'd combined the two into Restful Meditation, which gave him a one point eight eight percent bonus to Energy regeneration and self reflection while meditating per level. Unfortunately, it also knocked the skill back down to level one, so Andrew had to work on raising it again, which let him reach level four in the process. It took another week of working on Concentrate and Observe before Andrew was comfortable merging them as well, after getting Observe to sixty-eight and Concentrate to thirty-six, creating Concentrated Examination, which gave him a two point zero four percent bonus to information gained from prolonged study per level.

After he created his study skill, Andrew decided to focus on other skills for a bit, to give his meditation and study skills time to develop. He just needed to figure out what those skills would actually be. The Shaman suggested he pick up something he could use for combat, which Andrew had initially been hesitant to pursue, but after seeing the bonuses Class Skills provided, he figured it wasn't the worst idea. He knew he wanted to pick up Dodge, but he was a bit torn between doubling down on defense with Block or adding in something like Kick or Swing for some offensive potential. On the one hand, he'd already dedicated half his skill points to getting magic, which should cover any offense he needed. On the other… Well, Beasts that became over reliant on their abilities tended to end up dead the moment something came along that could counter those abilities. Plus he wasn't sure when magic would actually be viable, but kicking someone's skull in was always an option. Andrew nodded as he made his decision, deciding to merge Dodge and Kick for his combat skill, leaving his hands free for whatever magic he picked up.

With that decided, he'd accounted for two more Skill Points, leaving him three more to work with. Inner sight handled magic, Dodge and Kick would take care of combat… What else was there? Andrew frowned, considering the question for a moment. He could take more skills to help with either magic or combat, but that felt… off. As much as he enjoyed the idea of using magic, he didn't want to just be a mage, and the idea of being purely focused on combat bothered him even more. He wanted to be something other than a killer for a change. To be someone productive. So the question was, what did he want to do?

Andrew paused as options began running through his mind, feeling a little overwhelmed by the possibilities. He could do anything! He thought of being like the blacksmith or the apothecary, being a craftsman who made useful tools for people to use. Though he wasn't sure how he felt about being cooped up in some workshop for the rest of his life. He wanted to do something exciting, not just work all the time. Maybe he could explore? Though… that wouldn't exactly help the tribe. Unless… trade was important, wasn't it? Though he didn't particularly want to do the whole trade caravan thing, lugging things back and forth all the time… maybe he could just find the people to trade with and let others deal with it? Focus on finding routes and resources, mapping everything out so others could do the trading and mining and all that crap?

Andrew nodded slowly. That actually sounded like fun! He could travel the world, experiencing different cultures, meeting interesting people, making friends, and braving whatever danger might be out there! Now, what skills would he need to actually do that? Obviously he'd need to be able to make maps. All his exploring wouldn't be very helpful if he couldn't actually tell anyone where he went and how he got there. That could probably wait though, or he could just do it with General Skills. He didn't need to be an expert at making maps, he just needed it to be understandable. What he needed to be good at was negotiating, or diplomacy. He'd be the one representing his tribe out there, convincing others that they were worth trading with. He needed to be able to make a good first impression.

Now, how did he make a negotiation skill? He pulled out the Shaman's list of skills, looking it over. He'd need to be able to figure out what they wanted, which would be… Imitate plus Deduce to make a prediction skill. Then he'd add in Communicate, right? Or was there another skill he needed to merge with Communicate before adding it to the prediction skill… yes, he needed to turn Communicate into an argument skill by adding in Claim. Andrew paused for a moment. Claim was a skill? Like, just saying that something is? How did that work? It was literally just saying you thought something! How hard was that?

Andrew shook his head, putting the weirdness of the Claim skill to the side. His issue now was that he had five skill points available, and he'd needed at least seven to get both skills before his Class advancement, which meant he'd either need to put off his combat skill or only get halfway through the negotiation skill. Andrew considered it for a moment before deciding to go with his combat skill first. As much as he didn't want to be combat focused, he didn't want to be combat inept either. After spending about a day working on Restful Meditation and Concentrated Examination, he reached level five and took Kick as a Class Skill, primarily due to the fact that his Dodge skill was already in the sixties and it didn't look like it was moving any further, which Andrew wasn't entirely surprised about. Dodging was essentially the core of his combat style back on Beast world.

At that point, two things began to bother him. First, it was taking him longer and longer to level, the time it took practically doubling every time! If things continued this way, it'd take him months to reach level ten! The other issue was that despite all the time he had to work on Restful Meditation and Concentrated Examination, they were both only in the high teens, and they were progressing slowly. He brought his concerns to the Shaman, and the Shaman literally burst out laughing in an almost crazed cackle.

"Ha- oh, that is- Haha! Ah, sorry! Ahem, sorry." The Shaman calmed down, still snickering every now and then, while Andrew frowned at him. "Artek (Andrew's goblin name), let me ask you, what have you been doing all this time?"

"Working on my skills?" Andrew offered tentatively.

The Shaman nodded. "Yes, and what have you accomplished in this time?"

Andrew paused. "Uh… level five?"

The Shaman snickered, shaking his head. "No, Artek, levels aren't an accomplishment, accomplishments are levels! You have simply worked on yourself all this time, which only grants you the bare minimum of experience for using your skills. If you want to level, you must actually do something with your skills, something difficult. Instead of meditating in a quiet room, sitting on a soft pillow, try meditating in the middle of the training yard while the guards are running drills. Study something hard to see or understand. Then you will level up faster. But why would you want to push yourself like that at this point? As you've noticed, the more complex a skill is, the more difficult it is to train. Take the time you have to grasp your skills first, then worry about leveling."

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Andrew got back to work. He mainly focused on training Kick in preparation for the merge with Dodge, adding in Restful Meditation when he needed a break and Confused Examination when he was bored, but he also made sure to take the time to pick up the General Skills he needed for his negotiation skill, to see which ones he should merge first. To his surprise, Claim was the clear frontrunner, jumping to over forty practically the moment he got it! "Why would my Claim skill be so high?" Andrew asked Cathryn and Li Jing, frowning slightly.

"What's a Claim skill?" Cathryn asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Uh… essentially it's the ability to say something is true. Like claiming that the sky is green, or that you own something. Stuff like that." Andrew explained.

Li Jing blinked at him. "And you wonder why you're good at that?"

"Yeah?" Andrew replied hesitantly.

Cathryn shook her head. "Andrew, what do you think of Benjamin?"

Andrew frowned. "He's a douche, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Why is he a douche?" Cathryn continued, ignoring his question.

"Because he sucks!" Andrew replied, getting frustrated.

"Andrew, that's a claim." Cathryn pointed out, grinning slightly.

Andrew paused, before beginning to flush. "Oh… okay, yeah, that makes sense now."

The rest of his skills were normal. Communicate was in the twenties, while Imitate and Deduce were in the low teens. Pretty much any skill he actually used in his regular life he could get at a little over twenty, while the more esoteric skills had to be trained more. Still, with all his experience from his other life, none of the basic skills were that hard, and he didn't think they were meant to be. These were skills meant to be gained by young goblins, like the ones he'd been born with. He'd visited them a little after he'd talked with the Shaman, and they were dumb. He understood how they could take over a month to get a skill over twenty. Though considering he had sixteen years on them and his skills were only in their twenties… maybe he shouldn't be so judgmental.

While goblin Andrew was working on his skills and leveling up, Beast Andrew was working on getting his own power back. While they waited in the Outside for everything to be ready, he could hunt pretty much constantly, almost like it was summer again. Plus, now that he knew he could move his aura around, he could be less discriminating with the crystals he absorbed. It didn't give him much of a boost, since he already had a wide range of Beasts he could hunt, and his aura sense and Human ability helped him track down exactly what he needed, but he went from about fifty ability power per week, to about sixty. It was still going to take him a while to get back to where he'd been before he'd been shot.

He was also trying to figure out how to grow his aura sense, but no matter what he tried, it didn't seem to make a difference. Ability crystals didn't help at all, and nothing he'd learned to do with his aura did anything. Killing Beasts with his aura just lost him the ability crystal and taking their core just gave him a new form and ability, which at least he could ignore now thanks to his aura shifting. He'd even tried shifting the aura from a Beast to himself, but even that didn't work. The aura was just stuck inside the Beast, and no matter how much he tugged, it wouldn't budge.

Something he did notice, however, after probably a bit too much time had passed, was that his goblin self did have an aura sense, though not as large as his was, only reaching about sixteen meters by his estimate. He was just so used to having an aura sense that it didn't strike him as weird when his goblin self had one too. But now that he was thinking about it… It essentially confirmed that his aura abilities had nothing to do with him being a Beast, didn't it? After all, his goblin self wasn't a Beast, but he still had them, didn't he? And normal Beasts couldn't just ignore their heads exploding. So… What did that make him? What was he? Was he even human?

"What's got you so mopey?" Stephen asked, nudging him slightly as he sat next to him on the couch.

Andrew sighed. "Nothing. Just- I'm so freaking weird!"

Stephen snorted. "Every teenager thinks they're weird, Andrew. And they're right! But that isn't a bad thing. Everyone is unique in their own way, and that's why people are so interesting, and why it's so tragic when they're gone. Even after centuries, you'll never find a replacement for a lost friend."

Andrew frowned, raising an eyebrow at him. "I think my weirdness is a little more weird than people usually get."

Stephen coughed. "Yes, well, you may have a point there. However, your weirdness is based on what you are, not who you are, so it doesn't really matter, now does it? You're still a person, with all that goes along with it."

"Technically I'm two people now." Andrew grumbled.

"You and Cathryn being Bonded doesn't mean you're two people, Andrew." Stephen scoffed.

"Actually I was talking about the fact I've been reborn as a goblin in another world." Andrew sighed. "I literally have two bodies at the moment."

Stephen blinked, then blinked again, shook his head, pinched the bridge of his nose, looked back at Andrew, and finally let out a weary sigh. "Helen!" He shouted through the house. "The boy is keeping things from us again!"

"Married or pregnant!?!" Helen shouted back.

"Neith-!" Stephen began to shout back, before pausing and turning back to Andrew. "You haven't married anyone or gotten them pregnant yet, have you?"

"I would tell you if I got married, Dad!" Andrew protested.

"At this point I'm not so sure." Stephen muttered, shaking his head. "And pregnant?"

Andrew flushed. "I-I don't think so… but it could happen."

"So sleeping together, but no warning signs, gotcha." Stephen nodded, causing Andrew to let out an embarrassed groan, before turning to yell again, stopping himself as Helen entered the room with a frown. "Did you catch that?"

Helen nodded. "I'd assumed they were, though it's nice to have it confirmed. Is that what he was keeping from us? You didn't need to call me for that."

"No, it's something weird again." Stephen sighed.

Helen's frown deepened. "Did he Bond with another mortal? Not one of the girls, I hope."

"No, no, something new." Stephen replied, gesturing towards Andrew. "Explain."

"Okay, so, after the second machine showed up-" Andrew began.

"Second machine?!?" Helen interjected incredulously.

Andrew blinked. "Uh… yeah. It happened on the first day of school."

"That was over a month ago!" Helen threw up her hands in exasperation.

"I told Arose?" Andrew offered nervously.

"Of course you did! Because for some reason, you trust him more than you trust your own parents!" Helen yelled, glaring at him.

"N-no! It's just- he actually has the connections to deal with this kind of stuff! I was looking for- for like…" Andrew stalled, not finding the right words, so he started over. "If I'd gone to you, you would have just called Elder Barry, or gone to Arose yourselves! And Elder Barry would have just gone to someone like Arose! It made sense to just take it to him in the first place! It wasn't like I was hurt or anything!"

"He has a point, dear." Stephen commented. Helen huffed angrily, before gesturing for Andrew to continue.

Andrew gulped nervously. "O-Okay, so, the machine…I was playing with its core, and I found a core- uh, an aura core inside it, so I took it out to see if I could figure out what was up with it. When I did, it sort of… attached? itself to my Lizard core, sucking out its aura. I panicked and yanked all the aura out of the machine core and it disappeared. Then, about a week later, I started having these dreams about being trapped in a sack, which I now know was probably the egg or whatever goblins are born from. Then about the same time we moved to the Outside, I was born there, and now I have a goblin body in this world that has a system, and I'm learning how to use it and stuff. I think I'm going to try to be an explorer."

His parents blinked at him. "So what you're saying is, even if you do die, you'll just be reborn somewhere else?" Stephen asked hesitantly.

"Uh… yes? But also, I… kinda can't die. Well, I kinda can, but really it just resets me, which, you know, annoying, but better than nothing, right?" Andrew replied, babbling nervously.

"And how, may I ask, did you learn that?" Helen asked in a dangerous tone.

Andrew gulped. "Uh… well, when- when I was shot? In the head? The reason we had to move?"

Stephen blinked. "Wait, you mean, when you were shot it- it worked?!?"

"My brains went everywhere." Andrew nodded. "But then I got better, because I'm bullshit."

"Huh." Stephen grunted numbly. "So you're immortal immortal. Neat."

"Stephen!" Helen chastised him. "Focus! Our son died and he didn't tell us!" She turned to glare at Andrew. "Let me guess, you told Arose." She growled, her tone dripping with disdain.

"No! I only told Cathryn and Li Jing!" Andrew protested. "Well, I didn't tell them. They were there, so obviously they know." Andrew continued, before suddenly pausing. "Uh, though, I did tell Elder Barry… I had to get my ability strength tested to confirm I was weaker, and… well, it would have been rude not to explain, right?" Andrew offered with a nervous smile.

Andrew could practically see the smoke billowing from Helen's nostrils. "It would have been rude to keep it from Elder fucking Barry, eh?" She snarled in a terrifyingly steady tone. "Because Elder Barry deserved to know, but not your fucking parents!"

"I-" Andrew began.

"I'm not finished!" Helen yelled, cutting him off. "Starting now, once a week, you will sit down and tell us everything that has happened in your life since the last time we talked. And I mean everything! Whether it's in this world, or the other! No matter how embarrassing! And if I figure out you're hiding something from me, I will- I'll-" Helen stumbled over her words as she tried to think of a suitable punishment. "I will throw a feast and make you the guest of honor! You'll have to greet everyone, sit at the high table where everyone can see you, listen to speeches about your 'great' deeds, and everyone will make a big deal out of you!"

Andrew went pale. "No, please, I'll be good!"

"Then talk! What have you been doing!?!" Helen demanded.

Andrew quickly began to tell his parents everything that he'd been dealing with over the past few months. He didn't remember what he'd already told them, so he started with what happened with the Lizard and how he'd begun exploring his aura abilities. As he kept explaining, it slowly turned from just telling his parents what happened, to something more… therapeutic. "And now… I don't know. I know we had to make this step at some point, but I'm still kinda worried that sex is going to complicate everything and someone's going to get hurt and it'll all fall apart." Andrew sighed.

"Andrew…" Stephen sighed. "Okay, yes, things may get complicated, and someone might get hurt. It happens. It happens in any relationship! No one can be perfectly rational all the time, and there will always be disagreements and conflicts. However, what makes a relationship work isn't a lack of conflict, but a dedication to make it work despite conflict! As long as both- er, all three of you are committed to the relationship and willing to work on it together, then you don't have to worry about something ruining it for you, because the only ones who could ruin it would be yourselves."

Helen nodded. "Every relationship has its own struggles, because no one will ever be one hundred percent on the same page as anyone else. The key is that when you do disagree, you work to find the solution that works for everyone, instead of fighting to get your own way."

Andrew carefully considered his parents' advice, going over his relationship with Cathryn and Li Jing as he did. Isn't that what they'd been doing? Since they knew their relationship could be difficult, that there would be problems they'd need to deal with, they'd all been so careful. They didn't let any problems go unaddressed, dealing with everything as well as they could, making sure everyone was comfortable and happy with how things were going. "That makes sense…"

Stephen chuckled. "Well, we have been around for a while. We do know a thing or two." He then leaned forward with an interested expression. "Now, since you're feeling better, I do have a thought. You have multiple cores, you can pull cores out of others, and you've already shown that you can have multiple bodies at once, so… have you tried putting one of your cores in a different body? To see what would happen?"

Andrew shook his head. "Cathryn doesn't like it when I do weird experiments with my ability. She thinks somehow I'm going to end up screwing myself over or something."

Stephen frowned, sitting back and crossing his arms. "Well, that's just unreasonable."

"Stephen!" Helen chastised him.

"What? It is! The boy has this ability, and if he never explores it, how will he know what he can do?" Stephen protested.

Helen rolled her eyes. "Stephen, how is it that you can be almost five hundred years old, and still not get that not everything needs to be done immediately?!? The children are still figuring their relationship out and finding their place in society! They can take some time to just be before delving into the mysteries of Andrew's ability!" Stephen grunted noncommittally, but didn't disagree. He was just so curious! Andrew's ability seemed to have so much depth to it, and he was eager to see how far his son could go.

Andrew hesitantly looked between the two of them. "So… are we good? I don't think I have anything else."

Helen narrowed her eyes at him. "If that's all… Andrew, if you had talked to us, we could have been helping you deal with all of this!"

"I know, but… I guess I just didn't think I needed help, you know?" Andrew replied. "I mean, the things I'm dealing with aren't difficult, they're just weird. It just seemed kinda petty to complain about it."

Helen shook her head. "Andrew, talking about what you're going through isn't complaining! Letting the people you're close to know what's happening in your life is normal! It's how you bond!" Helen sighed. "We're doing this again next week. You don't get to hide your life from us, understood?"

Andrew nodded sheepishly. "Understood."