Charlemagne the rooster awoke from a very odd dream to find himself in a place of total darkness and total silence, causing him to wonder if something had happened to his senses. Feeling something hard underneath him, he flexed the muscles in his legs, pushing against the smooth, uneven surface as he rose to his feet. The sound of his claws scraping against something metallic reminded Charlemagne of where he was: inside a giant metal statue.
Taking a moment to check on his body, the rooster found that, although sore from what must have been a long sleep, he was otherwise in perfect health. His Mana Core, which had been working the entire time he slept, was bursting with energy. He stretched out his wings to see how that went, but the space inside the statue was insufficient for full extension. This led Charlemagne to realize that the only convenient exit was inaccessible to him, seeing as there was no way to fly up to the hole he’d created in the statue’s head. Looking up, he realized the situation was even worse: there was no longer any hole in the statue at all.
The rooster began to think on the problem, using his fully healed brain as best as he could, although the temporary intelligence boost he’d receive from the god of the System had worn off, he was still far more intelligent than he had been at any point before his devolution. He has almost decided on a solution when the squiggles returned. And this time, he finally understood: each squiggle had meaning. The squiggles were not just power…the squiggles were language.
Charlemagne spent a long time reading and digesting the information that the squiggles had brought him. All of it appeared to be good news, except for the part about being asleep longer than planned. The growth in his attributes had been substantial, and he noted with pride that, due to his newest achievements, his attributes were now multiplied by an additional twenty-five percent, giving each attribute point a total boost of one-hundred and forty percent. His Mana Core also beat with more strength after receiving two level ups, making his body both more powerful and more efficient.
The rooster was intrigued as to what this “unread message” was, but understanding his personal growth came first. Thinking himself clever, he asked the squiggles to show him how strong he was with and without the special power from the “System”.
The rooster was shocked. He knew that the squiggles sometimes showed him things when he asked them to, but to be able to command the squiggles to change their nature was something else entirely. That, and the sight of how much higher his attributes were now caused him to swell up with pride.
There were a few things vying for Charlemagne’s attention, but he turned next to the three messages that the System had said were waiting for him. He wasn’t sure exactly what a message was, but it sounded important. After focusing on the portion of the squiggles that dealt with the announcement, he received more information.
The first message seemed to have a happy feeling, so Charlemagne was content to play the messages one after the other. When he focused on the title of the first message, his Patron suddenly appeared before his eyes. The rooster flinched back, cowering in awe of the mighty hunter that has chosen Charlemagne as his Champion. His mana sense went crazy, letting him know that the ambient waves of power rolling off the mighty beast were enough to snuff out his life if he approached too closely. Thankfully, he also sensed that his Patron was not actually there in person: this was something like the vision that he had experienced when he was just an ordinary rooster.
“Congratulations, Charlemagne! You’re ready to get your new class, and I can’t wait to see how you’ll look as a Paragon of Atavism. I know that you can’t exactly understand me, but I wanted to send you a present that will help you once you’re awake and have your new class. Your next special ability, which you will unlock at level 15, will be upgraded. You’re welcome! Also, uh, I don’t know exactly how to say this, but…thank you, the divinity you earned me from fighting the plasmodium Champion allowed me to sponsor another two rooster Champions! Of course, that stupid Flockheart raised the price on me, that dirty...uh, sorry…I got sidetracked there. Anyways, you’ll be happy to know that there are now three other roosters like you out there fighting for me, and maybe someday you’ll all be able to meet up. I think that would be awesome! Who knows, maybe one of you will even be able to ascend to demideity status, but that’s a long way off. For now, just know that I’m proud of you and I’m watching for you. Now finish up your devolution so I can get a good look at you! Bye!”
The young rooster felt another surge of pride. Not only could he understand the message that his Patron had sent, but the apex predator was pleased with him. What a wonderful turn of events! Charlemagne was more determined than ever to make his Patron proud of him. He was also eager to get to the next message, so he moved on without further delay.
The scaled beast appeared in a slightly different position than last time, and the mana that oozed from his projection seemed to be somewhat disturbed. As a rooster, Charlemagne had no idea how to read the emotions of various creatures, but he nonetheless recognized that his Patron was unhappy for some reason.
“Charlemagne, it’s Grimfalk again. The System is telling me that your devolution is taking longer than expected. It also won’t let me choose your class for you. Do you have any idea why? What is going on? And wake up! Integration day is approaching and you haven’t earned any more divinity; if this keeps up I won’t be able to support you the way I was hoping to. But just in case you do wake up soon, let me give you some information about what to expect. Since the early integration was intended for Champions to level up with minimal damage to other species, a lot of changes will take place once the System integration day arrives. For starters, you can still kill anything you want, but there are also things called ‘monsters’ created by the system that have a chance to drop items such as food, equipment, and even new skills. I don’t know if that is going to interest you, but if you keep attacking humans then you’re eventually going to get in serious trouble. They have been the dominant species on the planet for a long time and their deity is the President of GOD. Anyways, be careful once you wake up, but not too careful, right? I still need you to get more achievements. All right, bye.”
Charlemagne was enraptured. He now knew the name of his Patron. Grimfalk, he repeated in his head a few times before offering a short prayer of thanks. Then he opened up the final message, only to be greeting by an angry roar as soon as it had loaded.
“Look, you…absolute waste of a rooster!! Integration day has arrived and I am DONE waiting for you! I don’t know what you are doing in there, but I have to move on. Apparently I am not allowed to remove you from being my Champion, but unless you majorly redeem yourself when you finally wake up this stupid process, we are through. I have another rooster at level ten now…his name is Ricardo and he is just amazing. His devolution has made him an absolute brick! Anyways, this is the last message you’ll be getting from me. I’m turning off my notifications so don’t even bother trying to respond! If you somehow survive the new world and make a name for yourself, I MIGHT forgive you. Maybe. Bye.”
The poor rooster was confused by his Patron’s anger. Why had he been so abruptly abandoned? In the back of his mind, a memory began to surface that suggested there was another path, but Charlemagne stubbornly pushed it back down into the recesses of his subconscious. He was determined to win back Grimfalk’s favor, sending up a short prayer to the deity asking for forgiveness for his unintentional slight.
Now in a foul mood, Charlemagne began to reevaluate his condition. The air inside the statute was stale and musty, but that didn’t stop the rooster’s stomach began gurgling as he tentatively sniffed the air. Not only was he hungry from his devolution, his Special Ability, Food for the Stomach and the Stomach for Food, was informing the rooster that he was surrounded by highly nutritious sustenance.
The roosters senses also told him that the air was now rich in mana, which was a welcome change. Cycling his mana a few times through his newly-enhanced body, Charlemagne determined that not only was his Mana Core nice and full, but his body itself had absorbed all the mana that it could currently handle. There was one thing, however, that didn’t make any sense. There was a second form of energy that he didn’t recognize in the air, and it was all around him.
Leaving the nagging questions behind, the rooster allowed his baser instincts to take over. It was time to find food, after which he would see what creatures he could dominate and/or mate with. With no other alternatives, the rooster activated his new combined skill, Strike, and pecked straight ahead. A loud clanging almost deafened Charlemagne, and the recoil from the attack caused his body to vibrate painfully. The rooster didn’t understand why his beak was ineffective, since he had forcefully entered the statue when he was much weaker. What he didn’t know was that the bronze layer coating the statue had been transformed as well.
The enormous metal Amazon had actually been transformed twice. The first time was when it was irradiated by the fallout from the atomic bomb that had destroyed the city of Porto Novo. That had led to the metal becoming harder and more brittle while also creating some germanium isotopes in the metal itself. The second transformation had occurred during the System integration process, where the ambient mana combined with the essence leaking from Charlemagne and the latent radiation from the irradiated bronze to form a never-before-seen magical alloy. This alloy absorbed kinetic impacts without deforming far better than bronze could.
The rooster, only knowing that he was trapped, began to flail against the hard metal with powerful attacks, breaking his claws and chipping his beak as he slammed into the statue’s walls again and again. The flurry lasted over a minute until he ran out of breath and had to wait, panting in the thin air, for his energy to recover.
The beating of his Mana Core rapidly refilled Charlemagne’s stamina and erased the self-inflicted wounds caused by his rash assault. The soothing sensation of mana repairing his body reminded the rooster that he had another attack that might work better, especially now that the ambient mana was denser than it had been since the last time he tried it.
A tiny spark of light illuminated the pitch darkness as Charlemagne began to charge up his only ranged attack, a compressed ball of mana that he hoped would punch a hole big enough for him to squeeze through. As usual, the mana fought against being squeezed into the desired form, but the rooster’s recent gains in the Mana Core skill allowed him finer control over larger volumes of mana. Of course, this didn’t mean that Charlemagne couldn’t push the skill past his limit, it only meant that the consequences of doing so would be more catastrophic if he did.
The inside of the statue was now positively glowing with blue light as Charlemagne’s attack continued to gather strength inside his open mouth. All of his willpower and focus went to packing as much power as he could into the ball of mana. Since he wasn’t sure if he’d have enough mana for a second attack, the rooster was determined to break through on the first try, or at least weaken the metal enough to peck his way out.
The screech of metal on metal almost caused the poor roosters to completely lose control of his attack, and a few stray beams shot out of the rooster’s mouth before he could impose his will on the slowly gathering mana. The screeching sound stopped for a moment before resuming. Light suddenly streamed into the statue’s interior. As Charlemagne’s eyes quickly adjusted to the change in lighting, a figure appeared in the newly-created hole in the statue, casting a shadow once again over the rooster. Without hesitation, Charlemagne unleashed his attack and dashed forward. While the other creature managed to dodge the attack by the barest of margins, it had flung itself backwards with such force that it had landed far away on its back. Taking advantage of the space his attack had opened up, Charlemagne snagged a piece of the metal statue that had been torn entirely off and flew away as quick as his wings would take him.
Francois the gorilla was not having a good day. First he had been driven off by the human fortress that had replaced what used to be the city of Lagos, and then he had almost had his head taken off by a demented part-dinosaur bird thing. He flexed his powerful abs to pull himself into a sitting position as he tracked the strange creature flying through the sky, which was heading north east towards the irradiated zone. When he could no longer see the bird, he rose to his feet and went searching for his hat.
It didn’t take long for him to locate the black beret, but, upon examining it, the gorilla threw the hat back down to the ground. The crazy bird’s attack had ruined it. Francois shivered as he processed his near-death experience. If he hadn’t been spooked by the blue light coming from inside the statue and preemptively dodged, his body would have suffered the same fate as his beret.
“Incroyable,” the gorilla said to himself as he dusted himself off and continued to head west along the beach. “How strong is that stupid bird?”
