I did it…

I DID IT! Yes! How long have I been working on this…? I can't even remember.

[Congratulations! For showing extreme tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds, Gaia has decided to gift you with the Tenacious Gamer System]

[Do you Accept?]

… Thunk

It all started when I was six and I walked into a small shop that I found one day, it wasn't particularly nice looking but it looked interesting and as an Orphan on the streets at the time, I didn't have anyone to warn me away.

When I walked in, an old man walked out from a room and asked me what I was doing here. I didn't understand what he meant, and he seemed to change his tune very quickly after I said I just saw the shop and was interested. Either way, he let me browse around and then I found a book about magic. I was instantly interested and asked the old man how much the book was. I didn't have much at the time, but the book looked scuffed, old and ripped in places.

The old man looked panicked but said that as long as I never shared the contents with anyone, I could have it. I, of course, just thought it was the magicians' code thing and agreed. I looked around some more and found a large chunk of something swimming in a weird liquid. I asked how much that was as well and though I had to pay, the item was barely worth anything.

I left after that and for two months I lived a bit of everywhere and started to read the book, learning about the insides and starting to realise that what I was reading, wasn't fake, but in fact, the genuine thing. It took me another two months, a few dozen blackouts and fits of puking before I managed to change a small nail clipping into cell sludge.

I went back to the shop and for a year, I went back and forth, buying weird pieces of flesh and books about the type of magic I was learning, Cellular Magic, a branch of biology magic. It was as I finally scrounged up the last bit of money I needed to buy the books that I was found by the social services, I did get away and buy the last three books and say goodbye to the old man. He understood and gave me a few gifts, a piece of ghoul flesh which he had mutated to stay alive regardless of conditions. A book he had written himself on how to mutate undead flesh compared to flesh that hadn't gone through the undeath ritual.

A book on how to ration and regulate your mana and lastly a vial of Healing Gorgon's blood. He told me to make it my project, to create something amazing with the flesh and the rest to help me along my path.

I agreed to his request and thanked him, saying my goodbyes before returning to my hideout, collecting all my 16 books, my vials of flesh and blood and placed them in the bottom of my old beat-up leather duffel bag. The benefits of using enchanted test tubes and leather strips were that I was able to hide the books and what else at the bottom of my bag under all my clothes. And if anyone checked, it would just look like the bottom of the bag. I wasn't even able to get out of the warehouse before two cops stopped me.

They took me in and set me up with social services and within two days I was in the care of a middle-aged couple, already taking care of eight other kids. As the second oldest, I was expected to take care of myself mostly, which fit me pretty well. I didn't get along too much with any of the kids, and neither did I get along with most of the kids in the school I was sent to.

I mostly just kept to myself and worked on my magic, slowly getting better and better, experimenting on the ghoul flesh and slowly turning it into something unrecognisable from its original state. It wasn't until I had my fifteenth birthday that I had a breakthrough.

I was splicing and rearranging the structure of the ghoul flesh when for no reason but to test, I used a pipette to drop one drop of gorgon blood onto the ghoul flesh. For that second that I saw, the thousands of changes and alterations interacted and created a cell which I had never seen before, it was unstable and died within seconds, but still.

It took me another three drops to fully understand its structure and figure out how to make its unstable form. From there, it took two months, two months to stabilize it through the addition of human stem cells and recreated Dictyostelids or in other words, social amoeba. The last week of this was spent during a break period of school and so work was done for nearly a week straight.

Finally, though, when it was done, the relief, tiredness and hunger, accompanied by the appearance of floating words in front of me, knocked me out flat.

This is where my story truly begins…

[Do you Accept?]

It took me a bit of time as I walked around grabbing food and water from the little mini-fridge I had. As soon as I had eaten though, I realised what was actually in front of me. I accepted whatever it was, and the second I did, I was blinded by a few dozen flashes of light, all taking the form of pop-up windows with text on them.

As the Creator of Unnamed Cells, you are given the choice of being the sole distributor or if this lifeform is allowed to be born without your consent

Do you allow the free distribution of Unnamed Cells?

Welcome, Jason Silva to the Tenacious Gamer System, an offshoot of the Gamer system wielded by Han Jee-Han in Korea in another reality. As an offshoot, this system has a marked difference to the original.

In this system, you do not gain points to allocate to your stats, nor do you gain powers at random. In this version, your stats are given ranks, your levels only gained from your class and your access to dungeons, non-existent

Good Luck

Do you wish to name your newly created Cells?

Which Class do you pick?

[Fighter][Ranger][Mage][Rogue]

I blinked the spots out of my eyes and took a few seconds to relax and process the latest things that had happened. First of all, I had created a completely new type of cell. After nearly six or seven years of trying, I finally managed it, despite my extremely small mana pool, my low magical competency and the refining of my mana use. I finally did it.

Not only that, but I had also somehow, gained the acknowledgement of Gaia, the protector of the innocent, the reason the old man was so serious about never showing a soul about the Abyss, as the supernatural side is called. Either way, I had already named the cell long ago and there was no way in hell I was letting my work be found and exploited.

Unnamed Cells have been named [Red Child]

By choosing to be the sole distributor of [Red Child] you have chosen to take them into yourself, gaining yourself the Unique Skill [Red Child]

Blinking the spots away, again, I stared at the text and just sighed, guess thought activation worked. Anyway, my class? Well, I am a magic user, regardless of how shitty.

[Mage][Elementalist][Sorcerer][Warlock][*Arcanist*]

Wait… Why does Arcanist have stars beside it?

Stars or an Asterisk indicate that the skill or class is special in some way

Huh, guess it can answer questions too. Well, I'm choosing that then, now I guess my first question is seeing what my supposed stats are.

Jason Silva

Level – 0

Class – Arcanist [0]

Race – Human [1% Red Child]

Health – 550 [25 Health per Hour]

Mana – 10 [1 Mana per Hour]

Str [Strength] – E+

End [Endurance] – E+

Dex [Dexterity] – E+

Int [Intelligence] – D

Wis [Wisdom] – D

Mag [Magic] – F

As a reward for being the first gamer in this reality, alongside getting the 5th hardest gamer system and creating a new life form, Gaia has decided to gift you three tokens to gain a random Item, Trait or Skill. You can remove choices from the roll to increase the usefulness of the outcome and remove a small number of harmful things.

Well then… I don't know whether to feel happy, for knowing all this and the gifts or have a raging fit for having it so plainly shown to me that I'm absolutely worthless at magic.

You know what, fuck it, just let me roll my gifts, from what little games I've played, I know for a fact that traits are usually the most useful so let's eliminate the rest for the first roll.

First Roll… Roll completed

You gain the Trait [Thaumavore]

This trait is a more aggressive version of what every gamer above difficulty tier 8 has. It allows the user to absorb an increased amount of mana per minute instead of per hour. This is done by aggressively absorbing the ambient mana, regardless of its flavouring.

…

I'm about to lose it… On my first role, I gain something that I desperately needed and that was my first of three roles.

Alright, next one then.

Second Roll… Roll Completed

You gain the Racial Trait [Half-Dead]

Influenced by your skill [Red Child] you and any other [Red Child] will now be able to interact with spirits, ghosts and other spectres that are incorporeal.

Ok, not totally useless but pretty useless nonetheless, let's go for a skill this time. I only have one so far and that's Red Child.

Third Roll… Roll Completed

You obtained the skill [Imperceptibility]

This skill allows the user to become Invisible, Inaudible, have no smell and more. It effectively removes the user from reality for its duration of use. At level 0 the skill lasts 30 seconds, each level raises the time limit by 2.7 seconds until reaching mastery, where the skill lasts 5 minutes.

Ok… that was insane, maybe I should have gone all skill rolls. I heard three sharp knocks on my door and the voice of my foster parent yelling.

"Jason! It's been three days since you've come out of your room, either you come out in thirty minutes or we drag you out"

Shit! Uh… ok, my samples and everything is gone, except for my gorgon's blood. That needs to go into my duffel bag asap and I need a shower.

Rushing out of my room and into the shower, I turn the water on and strip off before getting in. Right, I might have needed this. I can't help the sigh escaping me as I step into the warm water.

Alright, whilst I'm here I might as well ask the system some questions. Like, what does my class mean? How do I level up? Why are dungeons barred to me? What even is a dungeon? Do I have any skills I don't know about?

The Arcanist class is an even blend of a physical fighter, magic caster and producer, leaning in no specific direction and therefore raising the levelling speed of all skills, jobs and classes.

You level up by fighting or through doing the actions of the job class you have chosen.

Dungeons are barred to you because you instead have access to the Raid function.

Dungeons are self-created pocket dimensions containing monsters and other things allowing for levelling and item acquisition.

The only skill you don't know the full content of is the [Red Child]

Ok well, that explains most of everything. What about the new stuff, huh? Didn't come to mind to explain that at the same time?

No

…

I didn't expect that. Ignoring the obvious, what are job classes? How do I get them? What are Raids? What is a Raids function, and can you tell me everything about Red Child?

A Job class is an extra class that counts towards your overall level but doesn't increase your stats, they, however, apply other bonuses or allow for other things such as Crafting or Fishing.

A job can be obtained through repeated action, though only five can be equipped and if a high-level class is exchanged then your overall level is lowered.

A Raid is the highest form of a dungeon and therefore much harder, you are automatically given a new raid each time you complete one and they are always kept challenging by adapting to your level and skills when chosen. A Raid has already been chosen for you the moment you accepted the system.

Raids supply experience to level up and also supply items, skills and materials, at the end after defeating a boss, however, all items, unlevelled experience, skills and materials can be sacrificed to attain a trait or a high ranking skill, item or material.

[Unique Skill: Red Child Level 1]

As the creator of the Red Child and the sole subject, Jason Silva has started his journey to transform into the first Red Child. Much is unknown about the Red Child lifeform and can only be uncovered with time, their abilities will be known in time, but their first trait is certain.

Racial Trait: [Half-Dead]

Abilities:

[?]

[?]

[?]

[?]

Well, that's a lot to take in. I finished drying myself off and went back into my room. I opened my windows to let fresh air into it, as the air was musky and stale. I put on some warmer clothes and head out, telling everyone I'm going out for a walk and setting off in the cold drizzly weather of Northern England.

The skies were pretty grey and dreary but nonetheless, I forge onward towards the forest a bit away. I might as well experiment with my cells and see where it leads me. I walk a bit faster, hands in my pockets as I pass random people on the road. I don't even manage a step over the road to get into the park that leads to the forest before my arm is grabbed. "Hey, Jason! How are you doing?" I looked back and there stood Amelia Bell.

Amelia Bell is probably the only person I get along with at school, she's a rather beautiful girl, tall yet skinny but with modest curves, to her, but for some she has a disturbing eye colour. She's got a bright and deep amber colour that seems to put others off, me personally as a person and a cellular mage, find it extremely interesting and cool. She's also pretty geeky and into octopuses and don't get her started on the actual plural form of them.

"Hey Amelia, I'm doing good, I finally finished my project I've been telling you about, but what about you, how have you been?" she sends me this frowny pout, "I've told you to stop being so formal, it's Lia, L-I-A." I just shrug and keep walking over the road. "Hey, wait up, don't just leave!" as I chuckle as she slaps me and huffs. "Well, what was the result of the oh so secret near-decade project?"

"I managed to do what I set out to do, but it's still a secret" she went from grinning to a frown in seconds. "Come on… I've been waiting nearly three years to find out, can't you tell me…?" Glancing back, I send her a small glare. "I told you already, I promised the old man I wouldn't tell anyone. Now, do you want to come with me into the woods or are you going to head off?"

Please for the love of god, head off, I just want to figure this stuff out before Monday. "uh… if I come with, can we talk?" I froze, turning to face her, I must have looked like a deer in the headlights because she got flustered and started stammering out objections. "It's not what you think, I just… a few things have been going on and I need someone to talk to" It took me a bit, but I nodded and set off.

We didn't talk for nearly fifteen minutes as we walked further and further into the woods, to a little area I'd built. Any spare money, random pieces of materials I found, all of it went to building this. It wasn't much, connecting eight trees, all of which are tightly packed and held up by frames, heavy-duty rope, and metal zip ties. As I picked up the hidden pole and poked the slight trapdoor, a rope ladder fell, extending down from ramshackle treehouse ten meters off the ground.

As Amelia headed up, I looked around some, checking my small traps and finding two rabbits, one in a snare trap and one in a little hole. The one in the snare is killed pretty quickly, its hind legs are easy to grab and hanging it upside down I just grab the head and break its neck with a pull and push. The second one is a bit harder. I get a hold of it but this one has a bit more fight in it and manages to escape so all I have is one dead rabbit.

Climbing the ladder with the rabbit still snared and attached to my belt, I get up quickly to the gasp of outrage from Amelia. "Why do you always do that! You don't even eat them!" I sigh and just place the rabbit in the little game bag I have up here. "Because it teaches me how to survive and because rabbit sells well. Which pays for the upkeep of this place. Now, what did you want to talk about?"

That took all the air out of her sails, as she slumped down onto the little cot I had set up. "Have you ever heard about something called the Abyss?" I froze, fear setting in and a hell of a lot of wariness started shooting through me. "Yes…" Her head shot up and stared at me in shocked relief. "Do you know what it is?" My reply was instant as this could get me killed if I didn't do this right. "Do you?" she was very slow to answer but her looking away and mumbling a no got it out loud and clear.

"Listen to me very carefully Amelia… The Abyss is nothing you want to deal with, as long as you don't know, you're protected, but the second you do, you're on your own. Do you understand?" she looked so confused. I didn't want to feel any sympathy, but I did. Despite not being too close, she was the closest to a friend I had.

"I can see things… things that haven't happened, won't happen or sometimes might happen. I never know when I'll see anything but, sometimes I just do. I saw something, two weeks ago where I overheard two men talking about some deal and the Abyss auction, then four days ago I'm walking down the street and I realise where I am. A minute later, I'm walking past an alley and hear them, just like I heard them two weeks before, their voices exactly the same."

I felt sorry for her, Clairvoyants didn't last long no matter their knowledge. One of the few things the old man told me about. "I've thought I've been going crazy for months, and now here I am, talking to you, and you know what I'm talking about… But you won't tell me"

I sit down in the small chair by the desk. "Amelia, you have to understand, you are safer not knowing, even if you want to know, you would be in danger within the day. This isn't just another secret, this is something that will change your life forever, and you can never get it back"

I looked over to her, she was just laying there, all quiet and sad. "I'll give you until Monday to think about it ok, if after that point, you still want to know, I'll tell you" she looked up, a few tears rolling down her rosy cheeks.

"Really…?" her voice cracked, and I could actually see the hope in her eyes. "Yeah, really" the treehouse wasn't big so when Amelia threw herself towards me, I couldn't do anything but brace myself. "Thank you…" she choked out as she squeezed me. I just squeezed her back and then lay her back down on the cot. As she lay there, I lay a blanket over her, getting a small thanks for my efforts and then sat down and grabbed my skinning knife and started to skin the rabbit.

As I did, I tried anything and everything, willing my cells to do something. Twenty minutes, a bucket of blood and a rabbit in a plastic bag, it finally happened. I felt a sting on my finger and with my hand in the bucket, I saw slowly, the blood get absorbed into my finger and as it did I saw small notices pop up telling me my Red Child skill was levelling like crazy, going from one to fifteen in just one bucket. That's when I realised though, I could absorb other cells to turn my human ones into Red Child cells.

I placed the skin in my skinning box and as I stood there, staring at four skins, I started the same process as before, absorbing the skins. It took longer but from fifteen to forty-five in two minutes wasn't bad. I wanted to try some more but all I had was severed head and I figured it would be easier if that was broken down a bit. Putting the head in the trash box, I started to use some magic and with a jolt, I felt it all drain away and my RC level shoot through the roof, going from forty-five to eighty-three.

That was a whole lot of things to digest, apparently, RC cells were like Thermophiles but for Mana, Manaphiles. Not only that, but a small amount of mana could also shoot me that far up the level bar. A thought struck me, what if I sacrificed a few cells to see what it did.

Two seconds was all it took to realise the mana I put in was much less than what I got out because I felt bloated. I threw it all back in and watched eighty-three grow to ninety-five. There wasn't much left until I maxed it out, so I focused back on the head and slowly started to absorb the thing.

Ten minutes, that's how long it took, it felt so slow compared to the skin or blood. It maxed me out though and with a small bell chime a notice popped up

[Unique Skill: Red Child] has been mastered, race change is complete, the two racial traits have been revealed

[Unique Skill: Red Child]

As the creator of the Red Child, Jason Silva is the first Red Child. The Red Child is a Manaphilic Hivemind Lifeform, making physical food and water unnecessary. The amount of mana a full-body requires is minuscule and the regeneration rate far outstrips the cost.

Racial Traits: [Half-Dead] [Living Hive] [Formless Mind]

Abilities:

[Cell Death]

[Cell Absorption]

[?]

[?]

[Living Hive]

This trait is special to the Red Child as each and every cell is its own separate organism. With all of them together, they build a Hivemind like structure which is control by the Overmind, the individual.

[Formless Mind]

This trait is shared by only a few races, but Red Child has acquired it, thanks to its structure. Because each cell houses the mind and collectively make up the individual, the mind is, therefore, formless and is nigh impossible to affect for anyone trying to use mind-altering magic.

[Cell Death]

Cell Death is an ability which the individual can use to sacrifice several cells to replenish their mana.

[Cell Absorption]

Cell Absorption is an ability which allows the individual to absorb other cells through various means, this can be used to rapidly heal, replenish mana or maybe something else.

I didn't have any words to describe the sheer shock I felt running through my body. How could something so tiny, be so extraordinary and powerful. I also had two abilities left to discover, so, I still had work to do.

"Hey Jason, you want to head back? It looks like it's about to rain" I looked over to Amelia who was sitting up in the cot. "Yeah, sure, head on down and I'll be right behind you" she nodded and headed down the ladder. I grabbed the rabbit, tied it to my belt and pulled the rope ladder up, sticking it to the trap door and latching it before walking to the small window and climbed out.

"Be careful!" looking down I saw Amelia looking back at me, wringing her hands. Grabbing the tree trunk and shimmying down its branches, I arrived on the ground unharmed. "I don't like you doing that" rolling my eyes, I sighed and said "So you've said, many times before" she just huffed and set off.

As we walked back, we talked about the kind of squid she was contemplating getting. What made me barely listen was the fact she had been saying she was getting a squid for about two years now.

As we neared the edge of the forest, however, I tried a few new things, by willing my cells to create a teardrop of my cells and then used some magic to rip some of my cells to bits and reconstructed them into a leather strap which the teardrop was fastened around.

"Amelia, listen to me closely, go home, don't leave your house if you don't have to, also, wear this until Monday, don't take it off for any reason ok." She seemed a bit weirded out by the little blood-red teardrop but agreed to my request.

As we were saying our goodbyes I made sure to stay in her line of sight if she looked back, all the way until she turned the corner to the street leading down to the bus stop needed for her to head home. As I lived close by and the market along with the butchers wasn't too far off, I jogged at a light pace over there.

As I kept jogging, I noticed new things, my senses were sharper, not by much but enough for me to notice very subtle, very small ripples in the air which thanks to my books, I knew was a barrier. Why this relatively small town in the middle of nowhere England had a random barrier, I don't understand.

Deciding to just remember the place, I sped up slightly and within a minute, I stood outside the butcher's shop. With a bell chime, I stepped through the doors and smiled at the butcher's wife. "Hi Mary, how are you?" the elderly lady smiled at me and got up somewhat shakily, saying. "I've been doing fine Jason don't you go worrying too much too. Now, what can I help you with?"

I took the bag off my belt and placed it on the table. "How much can I get for this? It's been about an hour since it died and a half such since I skinned and cleaned it" I decided to ignore the disapproving look she sent me. "You've got to stop terrorising the poor rabbits up in that forest, there mightn't be any left if you don't"

She was opening up the bag, checking the carcass and weighing it as well as she spoke. "Well, if I'm not mistaken Henry would usually buy the fresh game for around forty pound or such, right? That's the usual he pays you isn't it?" I nodded to her words, turning as the bell chimed. "Hi Henry, how are you?" the older man smiled at me. "Jason! How nice of you to visit us. I'm doing well, had to deliver the taxes to the office, I see Mary's got you in good hands though" I smiled and nodded to his words. "And yes, I usually pay him forty for anything under a thousand grams metric, anything above that and it depends on the stock I have. We're running low though so it should be maybe fifty-five. Does that sound good Jason?"

I looked up from the slight focused state I'd been in as a fly landed on me and was absorbed into me. I'd been watching the process and for some reason, I could somewhat read the cellular makeup of the fly and also tell what made it special. Either way, I focused back on the two and said "Sounds about right, and that's okay with me, the treehouse isn't in too bad a shape this month so I'm not as short of money right now"

The cashier dinged as Henry opened it up and pulled out a fifty and a fiver. He handed it over to me saying, "Well, I'm still surprised you've managed to hang onto that thing for as long as you have, the hunting and survival store cross the road is having a sale if you need some more bait or rope for your traps"

Thanking him and saying goodbye to them both, I headed over to the aforementioned store. It was pretty quiet in there as not many were out late evening and buying hunting equipment. I was pretty quick, grabbing a discounted bunch of metal wire and then head to the counter. "Hi, can you wring this up for me?" the older man nodded saying "Anything else you want with that sonny?" I shook my head "Unless you have a grappling hook laying around for cheap, then no" the old man stopped for a second.

"Actually, we do, the old thing is pretty old as it's from the second world war but we've got it, I'd be happy to get it off my hands, hell I'll even throw in about a hundred and fifty meters of rope too" I was joking but I won't say no to some extra gear.

Paying the cashier, the extra for the hook, adding up to forty pounds in total, I grabbed the hook, rope and wire. Going back out into the drizzle, I jogged quickly home, being careful not to stab myself with the business end of the hooks.

It started raining pretty hard as I started getting close to the house. I sped up because of it and managed to just make it before it started to really pour down. Unlocking the door, I walked in and being careful, I walked into the washroom, making sure to avoid dropping too much water. I placed the wire, hook and rope next to the heater before heading to the fridge, getting some food and going upstairs to play around some more with the cells.

Using what little I had, I started to absorb a small piece of chicken making sure to do it slowly as to pick out and identify as many traits that the DNA offered. I got through a few slices during the process and even finished my food before I dropped the last slice, the one I was absorbing in shock.

I noticed something unbelievable, the Red Child Cells, took the DNA information and after breaking it down, looked like it was about to absorb and make the traits that the chicken had, a part of itself. I ate the last slice quickly, stopped the process and carefully got out the gorgon's blood vial.

One drop, barely a second to absorb and woosh… My world turned inside out, upside down and started to shake as my cells analysed the incredibly mana rich blood.

But within that haze, I still saw the flashes of light as the world and my higher thought processes spiralled further out of control.

You have gained the status [Mana High] from source [Gorgon's Blood]

You have absorbed and assimilated the Trait [Healing Blood] from the Gorgon Species.

This Trait causes your blood to gain an incredible healing effect, close but not quite as effective as Phoenix tears.

The Trait [Healing Blood] has mutated and adapted to the Red Child Cells becoming Racial Trait [Red Children's Blood]

This Trait causes the blood of the Red Child to be a universal blood type for all races and eliminates any other possible blood type for the Red Child species. It also has the power to increase mana regeneration and heal nearly anything as long as the being to be healed isn't in imminent danger of dying. When blood is donated outside of Barrier zones, Red Child cells are eliminated, and the healing effect is negated.

Unique Skill: [Red Child] ability three has been uncovered

[Trait Assimilation]

Through the absorption and analysis of cells and DNA, Red Child cells can assimilate and take in other traits. For any Red Child beside the Primogenitor, the traits are individual, but the Primogenitor can change individual Traits into Racial Traits for the species, the Primogenitor can also update all cells from anywhere.

Unable to read, and not able to move, I passed out in the desk chair.

Hey, guys!

It's been a while. I haven't been in the right headspace to post or write for that matter for some time. Hopefully, though, it stays on the right track. This story is more for me to let loose whilst I work on King of Albion and fix the mess that it is. After that, we'll see.

Thanks for reading!