Chapter 2 - That fucker was the boss ?

When he saw the teenage girl, the desire surged but his survival instinct blocked it. This pink-haired girl - pink hair, seriously ? - was the highest level he had seen yet. But, apparently, having a high level did not means you were a powerful warrior. Her only stats worthy of note were her CHA and INT, which were that high probably due to her noble upbringing. Wait…that meant that she was educated ! He had been needing a research assistant for so long…

He hesitated : she was dangerous. Not in herself, but because of the desire. He will have to pay the greatest attention when he modified her to make sure she wouldn't be able to betray him…

The Scientist's face stopped a few inches in front of the bars of her cage, but she still didn't feel like he was looking directly at her. It was as if his eyes were reading something in the air, something slightly above her head. She was about to turn around - what is something was behind her ? - but the the scientist's voice stopped her, a voice far too angelic for a man of his profession.

« Zoe Perona ».

How did he know her name ?

« I know a lot of things, Zoe Perona. I know about you life and about your upbringing. I know about the reason The Voice captured you. But these things do not matter to me ».

That was it : he was totally mad. Voices ? He heard voices ? But how did he know her name ? It probably meant that he was part of the group that captured her, otherwise, how to explain his knowledge ? He gave her far too much information during this discussion, maybe she could use it to gain ascendancy over him ? The Scientist was young : he shouldn't be in charge of the organisation, and thus should not have been paid much for his part in her kidnapping. Maybe she could bribe him, convince him to help her escape and, once back home, ask her father and the guards to kill him ? And then, and then she was going to take revenge on her father's rival, the ones who sold her, even if she didn't know how - and who was the real culprit. Yet. She would have liked to think she was already in a superior position because of the information she had, the scientist knew nothing about her. She tried, but she couldn't. She was still in a cage, with a high-fashion dress turned into rags that didn't fully cover her 17-year-old body : she truly was at the mercy of her warden, whose eyes roamed on her body.

Her thoughts stopped when the Scientist glibly sat in front of her on the stone floor. Their faces were only separated by a few inches and the bars of a cage he could open whenever he wanted. His abyssal eyes had captured hers when he started talking again.

« I was in a worst situation than yours fifteen days ago ».

She scoffed. Was he, truly ? Had he really looked at her ?

« I am - was ? I don't know myself, so much must have changed - a noble of the Luvneel Kingdom, a small island in North Blue. Well, I was before Dr Fritz's men bought me three years ago, a few days after I was sold by my brother to slavers ».

Wait, what ? All her plan immediately crumbled into dust. He wasn't one of her captor, was he ? She wished she didn't believe him. But the memory of Luvneel's King suite during his visit in the Ragnar Kingdom made her pause. She remembered the Prince that clumsily hid his hatred for his white-skinned black-haired little brother, a little brother that had been rumored to be kidnapped and killed…three years ago. Of course, she wasn't going to believe him like that : not only too much was unknown, he didn't exactly look like a nobleman right now. She would nevertheless use him to escape if she had the opportunity.

« Dr. Fritz is the one who got you captured. Some kind of mad scientist who tried to synthesize artificial devil fruits. I was a part of his…main « experiment». I have lived the last three years in a capsule barely larger than me, with an altered memory, an existence composed solely of suffering, ignorance and blackness. Subject #53, he called me. »

Was he talking to much ? Galadriel didn't know. But he had…missed talking to someone. He would never had thought that companionship would be something he would long for. He was divided : on the one hand, the desire and his longing told him to keep the girl near him, but on the other hand, he was not a fool, and his paranoia wouldn't allow him to have a bent-on-revenge girl that would try everything to escape near at arm's length. Fortunately, he had…ways to mold the girl's vengeful spirit to serve his purposes. His dark purposes ? It sounded good - great, even - but he didn't see what was dark in getting his revenge by blood, ashes and the sword, burning and killing all the one that betrayed him, and then meticulously proceeding to hoard all the riches, the knowledge and the power.

Had his experience as an experiment made him insane ? Probably. Did he care ? Meh…

For thinking and having a better comprehending of yourself, you gained + 1 WIS

Wait, what ? He could gain stats points only by performing mundane actions associated with a particular type of stats points ? He would of cours experiment on it further, but that was not the burning issue, on a very short term.

« He left the base, leaving behind him a powerful explosive. I learned this by reading his journal. But this was not the only thing I learnt. I learnt that I was the explosive. But he hadn't mastered the biochemical cocktail he'd injected me with. So instead of an explosive with powerful potential energy, he created a being with explosive potential. And I thus escaped, killed his remaining servants and took control of this place. My lab. Now. My place. Mine ».

There was something wrong with the Scientist, even if Zoe Perona couldn't tell what exactly. Maybe it was the way he spoke - a jerky, almost mechanical speech - or the lack of facial expression except for the amethyst fire burning in his eyes, she couldn't tell - but there was definitely something wrong with him. She didn't think he would lie : not only he had no reason to, if he lied he would probably have made a more trust-inducing speech. No, he didn't need to lie to abuse her : he only had to act. He only had to open the cage and take advantage of her weakened body. It didn't mean she would believe - or completely understand - him. His…story was peculiar, to say the least. She wasn't even sure she understood how someone could be an explosive, and how the « explosiveness » of someone could fail so much as to make him some sort of superhuman. But it didn't matter : the fact was that she knew his strength - she saw him taking away the other prisoners - and that he knew her strength, or rather her lack of strength. He was the dominant side in this negociation, and would stay the dominant one as long as she had no guards to protect her, and that she was in a place where her status and title of nobility meant nothing.

« However, in spite of my genius, I am not able to complete my experiment alone efficiently and I am thus in dire need of an…assistant of sorts »

Perona didn't know if she believed him. In the one hand, he had no reason to lie. In the other hand, maybe that was the part of his story that was designed to deceive and exploit her. Indeed, if he didn't need to manipulate her - he was both stronger and benefited from the situational context, it didn't meant it wouldn't be easier for him to made her do what he wanted her to do by manipulating her. What to believe ? She would have like more time to think but..

« Here are your two options. You could stay here. I will probably leave the base in a few weeks once there's nothing for me to exploit left, so you will probably die from thirst and hunger. You probably guessed it, the second option is serving me. Of course, and I hope you don't doubt it, I'm not stupid. I know who you are and what you think, and you can't picture yourself as a subservient being, even if I'm - was - a Prince whereas you are but the daughter of some noble, maybe a major one, but nothing greater than a Duke. For your information, it will of course come with greater liberties than the cage, and greater comfort than what would ultimately lead to a death from thirst and hunger in your own dejections. But I must warn you : I have ways to control you, ways that will change you forever, ways that will make you physically unable to disobey me. I'm to a certain extent, after all, the heir to our common torturer, and it comes with mad science and mental control. But here's what's going to tip the balance : I am both strong and able to make you stronger. Your willingness - not necessary mentally, orally will suffice as it's recognized as such by...me, let's say - to let me transform you will both increase your skills and obedience. So, here's the deal : you serve me, I avenge you. I'll let you three days to think. And to give you an idea of how it's going to be once I'm left, I'll stop guarding the room ».

He left the cage room, not turning around to look at the hesitation in his prisoner's gaze. He knew she would accept his deal, if only because she thought she would be able to use him and then betray him in the long term. But he couldn't take the risk of her saying no. After all, not only he needed an assistant, he wasted more than three days thinking about all the transformations he could potentially do, all the modifications he would perform to make her obedient while keeping her entire potential and whole personality. He needed a confident and a companion : she would never be his equal, but maybe - maybe - having a devotee, a trustworthy servant that would stay with him his whole life was the first step toward sanity. Who was he kidding ? It was the first step toward looking like he was sane. But not only he knew he was a «lost cause» so to speak, he didn't want to go back to his ancient path, to return to his kingdom and take back his status as a Prince, but as a mere human, unaware of the wonders of science, unaware of true power., unable to avenge himself.

So he would wait three days. And each night, he would push the duke's daughter toward the decision that suited him the most. After all, if he couldn't control Fritz's zombies, he was strong enough - with the assistance of his own morbid minions - to encourage them to visit certain places during the night.

It was a nightmare. It had been three days since the Scientist made his proposition, and something changed. She didn't know if it was his doing, or if it was because of his so-called « protection of the room » that he really had stopped, but the difficulty nights in the cage had transformed into nightmarish ones. The first night, she couldn't see. The gobbling moon was hidden by the clouds, and the well of light that normally illuminated the underground room was useless at night. So she couldn't see, but she heard. In the middle of the night - probably around three o'clock in the morning, but she had no sense of time, she heard something that she recognized immediately : the heavy metal door pivoting on its hinges. But it wasn't as smooth as when it was the Monster or the Scientist's minions actioning it. No, it was jerky, with scratche-like noise against the panel. Was…was something trying to enter ?

The noise stopped, but it didn't reassure her : it only meant the door had been totally opened, and that whatever had been trying to gain access to the room was successful in its endeavor.

And then she heard the screams : she recognized the voice of the man who usually slept leaning against the bars of the big cage, bars spaced far enough apart for someone - or something - to stick their hand...or their head through. She wished she would see what was happening : unable to sleep, she spent the rest of the night in a panic, on the lookout for the slightest noise.

The second night, she wished she couldn't see. The gobbling moon had grown, and the sky was cloudless: a few faint moon-rays lit up the room. Not enough to see clearly, but enough to detect shapes and movements. And she saw - she felt, rather - the things come back. She saw them trying to enter the great cage, and succeeding : if none of the prisoners slept leaning against the bars after what happened the previous night, it seemed the things, although really slow - were strong enough to bend the bars. So the things entered the cage. They were slow, but the prisoners had nowhere to escape. She closed her eyes : Zoe didn't want to see the image associated with the noise of mastication, the screams of the prisoners, and the crunching of bones.

At dawn, she was the only one left in the room, and she knew the creatures would came back at night. So when the creation of the Scientist entered the room to feed her, she asked for him to be called, for she had her answer.

« I have taken my decision ».

Galadriel did't doubt her for a minute, after all, he had conveniently made it so some of the last Fritz's zombies entered the cage room at night. After each expedition, he ended them : no point in losing free stats points, but the five zombies were not enough for him to level up. He was nearing level 13, he knew it. Having disposed of all the zombies he could find, even if he didn't dare try and exit the lab, for he knew he would meet the boss in doing such an action, he was now level 12. Having used some of his points to augment his pathetic STR, END and DEX - he needed the later during his operations - he lost a part of the debut [Experiment] : -2 END, STR for having crossed the 10 STR, WIS and END threshold with his base points.

« Status »

What he had dubbed as his « character sheet » materialized.

Galadriel Luvneel

Level – 11

Class – N/A

Race – Human

HP – 130/1300

MP – 260/260

STR – 13

END – 13

DEX – 8

INT – 26

WIS – 24

CHA – 1 (+2)

LCK – 6 (+2)

Money : 2 500 B

He had ten C1 zombies and four C2 monsters, which used 18 of his INT points, but he didn't know if 8 INT points would be enough to control Zoe Perona. With a sigh, he let decided he would have to go and fight the boss before transforming his newest minion. How delightful it would be to have an intelligent - and quite beautiful, even if her pink hair were quite particular - assistant with whom he would talk, and someone he could trust with complex tasks during his experiments. He had locked Perona with enough food and water for fifteen days - better safe than sorry, he didn't know how long he would take to kill the boss and finish securing the whole subterranean complex - before his return, in what should have been Fritz's bedroom. Of course, she wasn't to stay idle : he left her with ten elementary books on biology and chemistry that she was to read, understand and learn while he was « away » - he didn't told him what he was going to do. Of course, she hadn't the power of the gamer, and he had only left her with only one corpse to experiment : she had no way to make enough zombie of her own to threaten him - not that he thought she could make zombies without the power - before he transformed her.

However, as peculiar as he was, Galadriel wasn't stupid. He knew - for reasons he ignored - that the final monster would be a lot stronger than the ones he had affronted and vanquished until then. He had deduced his existence when the third part of the tutorial wasn't completed when he killed all the zombies he could find. He may have grown a lot stronger since he completed the second part of the tutorial and fought with Frank and Stein, but he wasn't the type to take risks if he had other alternatives, no matter how great the recompenses was. Sure, if taking risks was the only way to gain stats points and exact his revenge, he would take them. But it wasn't like the boss was actively looking for him, and that meant - like any good scientist - that he had time to prepare.

The boss was going to be briefly surprised - and then, dead.

Galadriel heard a hoarse rasp as he was going through the only tunnel he hadn't explored yet, the corridor leading up to what should be the surface. One of his zombies moaned, averting him that it had met something. With a gesture of the hand, he ordered his minions to stop. Flanked by three of his Class 2 minions, the [Zombies variant], he mentally ordered the two groups of six zombies - one variant and five weak ones - that were alternately one hundred feet before him and behind him (in cas he needed to surprise the boss or whatever crossed his path) to stop. Slowly, paying attention to his every step, his eyes glued to the surroundings, he progressed through the dark corridor to join the first group. They had stopped their advance because of what appeared to be a large trap door - probably the exit - wedged in the black stone.

« Open ». The variant zombie leading the first group, probably because he was the only one intelligent enough to understand the simple order, pushed. In a resounding noise, the trap door was opened, and light filled the corridor. « Enter ». The members of the first group struggled their way through the hole, while Galadriel and his strange bodyguards stayed there. Taking in his right hand the pencil-case-sized instrument that was in his pocket, he listened.

« Groaaaaaaar »

« Fuck »

A monstrous roaring shook the building and Galadriel sweared. That thing should be gigantic to make so much noise. He didn't know if he should be satisfied. In the one hand, it was for this type of situation he took two days to prepare. In the other hand, what he was going to do was irremediably going to dommage the carcass of the boss, which he thus couldn't use for himself.

He head the beast moving, probably charging his zombies. When he felt one of the link he had with one of the weak zombie disconnect - which meant the beast had reached his minions - Galadriel smiled.

« Time to sleep motherfucker ».

He pushed the button, and the mixture of shrapnel and ammonium nitrate in the cases he had attached to his zombies exploded in a resounding detonation.

He murmured what he remembered the Voice - he should take the habit to call it Dr Fritz, and only Dr Fritz - had said.

« Work smart, not hard »

The mad scientist had been right. But that would have been the most disappointing, anticlimactic and less enjoying fight he had ever had. Not that he was one to complain, of course.

Congratulations - You have defeated [Subject #1 : Zombie-Ogre]

You level up x 4

[Notification]

You have completed the tutorial !

Rewards :

1000 XP - You level-up x 2

10 000 B

[Skill : Drain Life]

You unlocked :

[Class system]

[Party System (3 slots - Non-ameliorable)]

The Game is going to calculate, based on you actions during the tutorial, your class and your awards

…-Processing - Achievements -…

Insane Scientist

Madman

Domination

Work smart, not hard

Boss fight without a scratch

[Revenge quest-line] x 2

The Desire

You are awarded with special class [Mad Scientist]

You are awarded with Class item [Soul pendant] (Ameliorable]

You are awarded with Class item [Soul scalpel] (Non-ameliorable)

You are awarded with Special Item [Ring of Sins] (Ameliorable)

Welcome to the class system !

Your main class has designed as [Mad Scientist]

You cannot change your main class

As you progress during the game, you will be able to choose secondary classes

Leveling your class will give you special points

Leveling your class will give you special skills

Your main class unlocks [Class quests]

[Mad Scientist] Lvl 1

A strange combination between engineer, necromancer, biologist and chemist. Beware, for if you are polyvalent and benefit from the strength of all these classes, you have gained their weaknesses !

Each level : + 2 INT, + 2 WIS

Permanent class buff [The Bright Mind of a Scientist]

Permanent debuff due to multi-class [The Dark Mind of a scientist]

For having reached [Mad Scientist] lvl 1 : you gain [Scientific Polyvalence]

[Scientific polyvalence]

You have a natural understanding of all hard sciences and have a remarkable learning and understanding ability in bot hard, soft and political sciences.

This skill is not ameliorable.

[Notification]

[The Bright Mind of a Scientist]

As a rational scientist, you are not prone to irrational thinking. Before taking action, your brain calculates costs and benefits. You have a natural understanding of all scientific things and have a remarkable learning and understanding ability.

[The Dark Mind of a Scientist]

(Partially negates positives benefits of Bright Mind in rational thinking)

As a Mad Scientist, you have lost nearly all notion of ethics

You are prideful and you pursue knowledge and Power, which makes you prone to ignore ethical and legal rules. You may take unnecessary risks by giving to much value to knowledge. Beware, for if the Marines discovered your dark plans and experiments, they may try to stop you !

Enable RANDOMS ENCOUNTERS TYPE 763

[Notification]

[Mad Scientist] absorbed [Mad Science]

- Your now are [Mad Scientist] lvl 6/100

« Revenge on Joker quest line » Part 1 have requirements Lvl 50 in [Mad Science] Changed to lvl 20 in [Mad Scientist]

You gain + 12 INT, + 12 WIS

[Notification]

[Mad Scientist] reached lv 5 ! You gain two class skill

[Create Bio-mechanical Servant] - LV1

You can create a [Lesser Bio-mechanical Servant] with 1 [Corpse]

[Cybernetic augment] - LV1

You can augment any living being with cybernetic members

Galadriel could not help : he cackled madly. After sending five other zombies - better safe than sorry - through the trap door, he hauled himself through the opening, while talking to himself - as an official Mad Scientist, it was part of his job after all.

« So many stats…Let's invest all the ones I gained from my sextuple level-up in STR, END, DEX, WIS and LCK, with the [Mad Scientific], no need to focus on INT and WIS for the moment. Even if they will be crucial on the long term, I should increase my resistance and ability to survive for the moment. After all, I know for a fact I'm far from being the most powerful being on West Blue for the moment, not to mention the Grand Line ». He was prideful, but he knew better than thinking he was a god. After all, as a Prince, he had seen black-suited men that came talk to his father sometimes walk in the air and take bullets without being affected.

Galadriel emerged in what seemed to be some time of warehouse. Large wooden boxes measuring about 6 by 6 feet were stored against walls lined with bloody pulpit, and sometimes punctured by shrapnel. The Boss's huge carcass had been scattered around the four corners of the several hundred square foot warehouse. Galadriel gulped upon seeing the undamaged skull of the Zombie-Ogre. The thing should have measured, taking into account zombie's tendency to cranial dimorphism, nearly fifteen feet. He wouldn't have defeated him with his pathetic dozen of zombies, not to mention alone. He had to grow stronger. And the first key to his path of strength was in his basement. But it had only been a few hours since he had been gone, and she hadn't had the time to learn anything. Nothing was urgent : he would use fourteen days to use gears, bits of scrap metal lying around, chemicals and his far-too-useless zombies' corpses to create these « Bio-Mechanical servants ». For the moment, quality primed on quantity, as he hadn't thought of a way to discreetly move with what was obviously fifty walking corpses following him.

The budding scientist ordered the zombies.

« Open the boxes. Do not damage their contents »

You never knew, maybe their contents would prove to be helpful ? Sadly, the first dozen of boxes were either empty or containing various fabrics. The lab must have been hidden by a fake linen shop, or some other shit, before being abandoned.

Gesturing the variants to follow him, Galadriel walked toward the large but thin iron door. One of the zombies slided it and, for the first time since - it had been three years ! - Galadriel felt fresh air. He could smell the sea spray ! And so much blue ! And green !

They would pay, bleed, burn and die, for they stole that from him for three years.

But it was colorful ! A genuine, innocent smile lighted his far too pale face while Galadriel looked around him. The warehouse stood near a calm sea. On Galadriel's back, a patch of grass separated him from a forest. A few miles from here, perched on a hill, a small village watched over the green expanse. Nothing he recognized, but it was nevertheless infinitely familiar to him. So, this was life ? He had forgotten. He had forgotten so much.

Suppressing a tear, Galadriel returned to the warehouse.

The tear was soon forgotten as he discovered that two of the boxes contained various chemical, precision tools and mechanical and electrical components of remarkable finesse. Maybe he wouldn't have to wait to test this cybernetic improvement. And there was so much to discover about the Party system and all the new object stored into his inventory ! And his new skill !

« Drain life, was it ? »

Cackling, he stepped into the stone bowels leading him to the laboratory, the image of the green expanses slowly fading from his mind.

It had been thirteen days, three hours and fifty-four minutes. Now that she had a clock, Perona would be thrice damned if she lost count of the time. The ringing of the clock every hour was the only thing disrupting her monotonous quotidian. Waking-up, eating, reading about chemicals, eating, reading about biology, eating, reading about mechanics, sleeping, waking-up…She almost wished the science-maniac would finish what he was doing and joined her. Who was she kidding ? She was terrified of what he may do to her and her youthful body…unless he preferred corpses. Yikes.

« It's time, Zoe ».

Don't forget the only things that makes me publish my work instead of keeping it on my computer are reviews !

I have an important exam in 49 days, so the update rythm will be sporadic at most for the next fifty days or so.