The Doomsday Reaver Chapter 2: Chapter 3 Hunter

Read chapter 2 of The Doomsday Reaver by icohalliday on NovelPedia.

Who are you? I heard the words in my head, these spoken by a chorus of voices. Unlike the robotic undertone of Alpha's voice, however, these were lilting and ethereal, as I opened up my character portrait. I was transported somewhere that strangely resembled my own home, though it wasn't the messy apartment in London that I knew. It was like a movie set, the living room unnaturally large and pristine, devoid of the takeout boxes and piles of unwashed laundry that were the usuals of my actual home. It was lit impossibly well, as though there were several spotlights behind me, flooding the tiny London apartment. It had never looked so good, or well-lit. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd actually opened the curtains in real life. I was standing in the centre of the living room, wearing the primitive armour and standing very straight. Good posture, better in fact than I'd ever had in real life. I looked down, but I had no body. Seemed I was a floating camera for this bit, as my own avatar stared at me, with a little gesture as though urging me on. I guessed this was the man behind the character portrait. To the side of my avatar I saw several options, some of which were completely locked, like race, gender, and background. That seemed to imply that some people coming into this could change those things. The background tab was intriguing, and when I hovered the cursor over it, I saw [Listen to the character's backstory?] Okay. Now I was intrigued. I clicked on it, and the spotlights dimmed, my avatar raising his head and staring out with steely eyes, with a smouldering intensity that I had certainly never had in real life. But it wasn't cringe, it was…magnetic, forceful. It was like watching a one-man play of myself, and when he spoke, it was clean, enunciated. 'I hail from the city of London,' said the avatar, 'in the last epoch before the incursions began.' He swept his hair back, with exaggerated swagger. 'I have spent my life simulating war. Learning all I could, honing my senses from Age of Empires to Doom. From Mortal Kombat to Enshrouded. Now I join the trials, that I might turn back the Great Enemy, and save the last of humanity.' Okay. That was fucking awesome. Not that it made any sense. I hadn't played video games for any war. I didn't even watch the news. Still, cool start. There were a myriad of options, but I remained conscious of the time limit. So many options, I was worried I wouldn't be able to complete the levelling process, but thankfully as I clicked through I saw that much of it had already been pre-filled and apparently linked to my own natural statistics. I had two tags. The first was headstrong. [Headstrong - A head as hard as sky-forged iron and twice as thick. +2 to willpower, -2 to morality.] I couldn't tell whether this was a compliment or a backhanded insult. Maybe both. The second was slither. [Slither - Silent and waiting, the snake strikes when victory is assured. +1 to stealth, -1 to performance checks.] Okay, that seemed pretty useful. The negative to performance checks did not seem like a big deal at all. Wasn't like I planned to juggle my way out of combat encounters. I could check the rest of it later, right now I needed to pick a class. The class screen was enormous. I mean literally, a tower of classes that stretched apparently infinitely, but almost all of it was blacked out and blurred, hidden behind restrictions that I couldn't even read. Right now, there were three classes that could be selected from. [Barbarian - You have chosen the path of the first warriors. You are the first into battle, and the first to draw blood. +2 strength, +1 endurance. Proficiency: club, spear. Abilities: Wild rage - you enter a rage mode for ten seconds during which damage is doubled and damage to you is reduced by half. Beast throw - thrown weapons increase damage, scaling to your strength. Chance to hit also increased by 5% per level. Once per long rest, you may bind one weapon to you, which will re