Author's Note

This is my first story and to be honest I've never been a big writer, hope to use this as a learning experience.

In the name of God (Redone)

Alice stumbled to the floor, trying to stay out of the smoke filling their hideout—at least what was left of it. A group of soldiers unmarked and speaking a tongue he never heard, let alone understood, launched molotovs in every window, door, and blown-out wall they could, yelling in what sounded to be anger, but their emotions were lost on him.

His blood ran cold as screams of pain rang. One was close, and with an asphyxiating short and pain-filled breath, he crawled, staying below the smoke the best he could. But this heat, THIS FUCKING HEAT! It was drying his lungs out like dear meet, and he knew he soon would join in the dry screaming as he cooked in this run-down farmhouse. More screams filled his ears, but this time he saw who cried out in pain, even though their face melted. He knew his best friend, Pvt. Matt lay before him, his Kevlar vest melting into his skin, his glasses molding to what once was his face, blue flames covered his body as bits of plastic on him burned, melting into the soon-to-be burned-down house.

"I'm sorry, brother; I failed you." Alice whispered, grabbing at his cross necklace, quietly praying that God would lay his friend's pain-filled soul to rest, he needed to get out of this house before he was turned into hot, burning ash himself. Grabbing his service pistol, he turned off the safety and ran out the first window he could gun at the ready. Landing on one knee he quickly went to get up on two feet and run, but his smoke-filled lungs said otherwise, deciding to send him in for a coughing fit.

"Fucking great..." Alice mumbled to himself, still out of breath, as one of the unknown soldiers brought their gun up and pulled the trigger.

The first two rounds hit his Kevlar. The third shot was on target, hitting his leg. Fighting through the pain, he brought up his pistol and fired, with a snap of the unknown soldier's head he died. Two more soldiers came running around the now-flaming house, he brought his pistol on target, killing both. Their bodies going limp, he then holstered his pistol.

Doing what he could to stay quiet Alice Crawled his way to a small crater, around three hundred feet from the now collapsing house, the smell of burning bodies filling his nose, he knew what he smelt was his friends the ones he bled for, cried for and if needed die for. He would get revenge, they took his family shortly after the war started, first, his dad died in battle, and his mom, heartbroken leaned on him. Alice began to cry as the memories flashed in his mind, silent as it may be, it was full of pain. He now lost everything and lost so much at too young an age, the war started when he was fourteen, he wanted to stay with his mom, but in the name of God he would get revenge for his father and after he was drafted, his mom with a loving smile sent him off knowing Alice would accept no less even at his young age of fifteen, she couldn't handle being alone, the letter of her suicide got to him before boot camp was over. He no longer looked forward to going home, to be alone scared him. The now empty house would only bring him pain it would only remind him of what this war had taken from him, if he was honest with himself he looked forward to dying on the field of battle, finally he might see his dad again, and say sorry to his mom.

Alice grabbed onto the edge of the pit, and with one last burst of strength rolled himself into it grunting quietly he pulled out his med kit, biting his lip in pain as his wounds made themselves more than noticed. The Kevlar stopped the rounds but the force broke ribs, there was nothing he could do about that. His leg on the other hand was bleeding, but not too bad, it missed any main veins and most importantly his bone. Putting on a tourniquet he stopped the bleeding which made moving his leg hard not that he could do much more than limp with it tourniquet or not. Next, he went to check his ammo and reload what he could before he moved his position pulling his pistol back out of his leg holster he switched the half-empty mag with a full one before he could reload the mostly empty one another round hit his chest. His vision went black from the pain his broken ribs shifting around, the air being forced from his lungs made him quietly choke. The kevlar was overperforming at this point it was not meant to take this many hits. Whoever shot him stopped and in the strange tongue from before yelled in frustration, their gun jammed. Alice not wasting any time shot in the direction of yelling, on the third shot he heard a thud along with the jammed gun sliding down next to him in the pit.

-*-
Alice awoke covered in sweat, with his eyes closed face covered in dried up tears he swung his still shoe covered feet over his bed. Before he could recover from his nightmare a gust of cold crisp air ran off him His eyes snapped open. He was in the woods, the computer with all his newly started music was no longer there a tree taking its place.

"What the fuck... Am I still dreaming?" Alice mumbled to himself, his heart beginning to race.

NOTIFICATION
QUEST STARTED "SURVIVAL"
Take no damage till sunrise.
Rewards: Permanent xp boost of 10% and 10 levels.
Optional:HIDDIN

NOTIFICATION
Accept? Failure to accept will result in a penalty.

penalty: DEATH

A blue slightly see through screen popped up in front of him.

"I must still be dreaming." his voice was now normal in tone back to his deep and rough.

Standing up he took a deep long breath smelling everything he could, and with a goofy smile, he accepted the quest.

*I don't wanna die dream or otherwise.*

Walking some more he sniffed at the air."Do I smell a fire?" He walked toward the smell wondering what his mind would think up, maybe his dad would be there. Sure it was a dream but a talk with his dad would be nice.

As he walked his senses woke up, the air was clean and outside the faint gust when he awoke it was calm, looking around Alice saw trees unlike any he'd ever seen, they looked dead, with little to no leaves, walking up to one he gave a low hanging branch one good tug just for it to snap back in to place.

"What the hell, some strong ass tree." Alice stared at it a minute longer trying to deduce what tree this was only for the smell of fire from before to wash over him, snaping him from his train of thought.

*Oo right ya the fire* Quickly turning on his feet he walked, a little more speed in his pace.

The trees changed from dead to filled with life with almost no transition, that was not his concern, his attention was on the fire, his dad was not there, instead, there was a pony. It was all yellow a reddish mane and tale. It was shivering, not from being cold, no it was surrounded by what looked to be wolves made of wood. looking up what seemed to be a trail close by, there was a small bridge a slow moving stream underneath then a house unlike any Alice had ever seen its roof was green and looked to be moss but in the dark, he couldn't make it out.

"SOMEPONY HELP ME, TIMBER WOLFS!!!" The small yellow pony screamed out, their voice was young and girly.

Alice grabbed his head in pain, memories forced their way to the front of his mind, kids yelling in horror rang, images of burning bodies friend and foe alike. Some holding on to one another as they burned. More voices in his head this time the kids yelled for their mom, their dad, for anybody to save them from the horror. Alice snapped open his eyes, a now red-filled glow to them.

"Must kill, no more pain." Alice whispered, one hand on his head.

NOTIFICATION

Ability: Pure rage activated
"Pure rage"
LEVEL: 1/10
Duration: 2 min.
Effects: All stats are multiplied by two.
Can't feel pain.
Dmg to the player is cut in half.
The player will lose control.

"NO MORE!" He yelled charging the closest timber wolf.

With every step, his shoes left deep prints on the dusty trail. Slamming into the timber wolf, Carrying it with his shoulder he slammed it into a tree, the wolf blew up, pieces of wood going everywhere. Alice turned to the rest of the wolves then with a moment of focus he looked at the stunned pony.

"Run little one."

The pony ran yelling back to him as he did. "Thank you minotaur, sir!"

Alice was still full of anger, taking count he had three more wolves to take care of, and whatever this ability was had 53 seconds left if the timer next to what he just noticed was a map in the left corner of his vision. Running with a speed he'd never had before, he punched the closest one before they got their footing, its head exploding. Turning quickly he kicked one running up, sending it into a tree, it slid down to the ground not moving.

"One more." Alice whispered through grinding teeth.

Dodging at the last second, the last wolf flew past Alice its jaws open. Turning on his feet he charged The wolf was too slow as Alice slammed into it doing what he did with the first one, he slammed it into the closest tree the wolf exploded this time though the tree was unrooted falling over with a loud crunch.

NOTIFICATION

Debuff added: Stressed soul

LEVEL: 1/10

Duration: 20 min.

EFFECTS: Tired/drowsy

Healing slowed.

Any wounds will be ten times more painful.

Out of breath, Alice swayed in place, staring at the notification he read it quickly. And just like the debuff said he got tired, very tired, he began to walk on the trail until the sound of voices was heard, stopping he listened.

A southern voice spoke to somebody behind him.

"Don't you worry Applebloom I got the guards coming to capture the minotaur"

The little pony from before at least what he thought was replied with frustration.

"AppleJack I told you he saved me, there's no reason to bring the guards, he's good."

"Applebloom there are no good minotaurs." Her voice sounded a bit annoyed.

*And with that I'm gone* Alice ran into the woods stumbling as he did.

*I am not in the state to fight off guards, and I'm not a minotaur am a fucking human, what the hell would they do to that.* Alice ran, staying off the trail, hoping not to be so easily followed.

Alice ran the trees long, transitioning back to the dead-looking ones until he was out of breath. * I need off the ground I don't wanna find out what type of snakes roam around a place with wood wolves!* looking up Alice spotted a thick tree limb and with what little strength he had left started climbing up to it, the tree was thick and unlike most in this strange forest had leaves, hoping it would hide him. He proceeded to take off his button up work long sleeve shirt and tie it around his waist and branch.

"I'm starting to think this is no dream." He chuckled leaning into the tree as he did.

-*-

Alice awoke, almost falling out of the tree.

"Awww, shit fucking balls!" His sleepy eyes flew into focus, the adrenalin forcing him awake.

"That's the ground." Alice felt the knot come undone, his stomach turning with the sensation. Bouncing off a branch or two as he fell followed by a sudden stop and a small grown.

"fuuuuuuuuuck, I don't think this is a dream." Alice with his face still on the grass filled forest floor spitting out a bit of grass as he spoke, was pulled out of his dramatic faceplant, with a notification.

QUEST COMPLETE: "SURVIVAL"
Rewards: Permanent xp boost of 10% and 10 levels.
Optional: Save AppleBloom
Rewards: Double the quest rewards.

New rewards: A permanent XP boost of 20% and 20 levels.

"Cool, what was my level before anyway? " Alice practically yelled, forgetting his embarrassing face plant quickly.

Name: Alice
Level: 25
Xp: 1365/15000
Points: 36

Strength:30
Perception:30
Endurance:30
Charisma:30
Intelligence:35
Agility:30
Luck:30

Buffs:
Happy gods: Permanent
Debuffs: None

*I must have been level 10 to start with. Why do I have 36 points? Do I get five points for every five levels and one for every level? It also seems I get a level in every stat every time I level up, shit I really have to test out my stats I don't know if they're good or not.*

Alice looked at his HP it only dropped down to 87/100. Surprised he realized the twenty more levels in his Endurance probably saved him. He stood up and looked around for his failed safety rope. Finding it quickly he put his shirt back on, the arms stretched from the use.

"That could have been worse." Just as he finished speaking, a loud crash followed by a deep scream of pain came from within the forest, Alice ran towards the crash instinct driving him. The crash was a bit away. Guessing there would be a fight, Alice brought up his stats and started to dump points into Strength, Endurance, and Agility, putting ten in each. The last six he put in Perception. He hoped this would give him the edge in whatever fight was to come. Alice jumped through a bush landing on some kind of trail looking around he saw a cloaked bipedal creature holding their side blood pulling around him. Alice, thinking it was another human, ran over, sliding on his knees and stopping just before the unknown person.

"Hey, wake up! You still alive?" Alice shook the cloaked figure. He was met with a cough, blood spraying from his mouth.

"I'm still alive, haha, at least for the moment." The cloaked figure went into another coughing fit.

"How'd this happen? I don't see any wounds on you, but there's so much blood?" Alice frantically looked around his friend's body finding no noticeable injuries he grew scared he would lose his only fellow human in what he thought was a dream just a day ago.

"Stupid Manticore whacked me into this tree, and the cloak hides my face and wounds." The cloaked figure fell on his side, coughing up more blood as he did.

"I won't make it *cough* but you can have my cloak and sword, but you must avenge me and kill that foul creature that killed my family and my tribe. Please, strange creature *cough* do this for me." As he talked, he undid his cloak and revealed his face to be that of a minotaur. Old and gray his horns long broke his one eye gray a scar going across it. He handed it to Alice then unclipped his sword belt and holster handing it to a dumbstruck Alice.

"Please grant this old minotaur's wish!" He fell into another coughing fit, then just laid there, barely breathing, the deep cuts and broken bones clearly about to take his life.

Alice brought up his right hand and grabbed the minotaur's hand, his other hand on the minotaur's shoulder. "I know your pain all too well, I will get revenge for you." Alice held back tears, he had done things like this before, telling one of his men one of his friends moments before their death, that he would kill whoever did this and make them pay.

"Thank you, young creature." A smile crossed his face, followed by his hand going limp.

NEW QUEST
"Help your fellow "man""
Goals: Kill the manticore located on the map.
Rewards: 10000 XP
Difficulty: Hard
Time limit: 24h

Alice looked at his map, seeing the manticore only 300 feet away.

"I'd kill it before it even knew what hit it," Alice spoke to himself opening his inventory as he did.

*The black cloak, named Cloaked Pain makes one look like a cloaked minotaur using illusion magic to hide one's face and make one's body look like a minotaur, which is perfect for me even though those ponies think minotaurs are evil. It's better than the alien from another planet. The sword is legendary, named Unrelenting can't be broken without extreme levels of stress, and can repair itself slowly as long as it is not completely broken.* Clipping on his newfound equipment than walking over to the dead minotaur he laid him straight crossed his arms and closed his eyes, Alice then covered his face with his long sleeved button shirt, leaving Alice with no shirt just the blue jeans and boots he was happy he forgot to take off before bed. Alice may have been 6'1 and 200 pounds, the minotaur though was at least 7 feet tall and pushing 400 pounds making the shirt too small to cover any more than his face and upper chest.

"I might not be able to bury you, and I am sorry for that but I will avenge you and your family." Grabbing his cross, Alice prayed for his short-term friend to rest in peace. Looking at his map, one hand on his sword, he began his short walk to kill this beast of myth.

"After this, I need to get everything in order I still have trouble believing this is real, and if it is how the hell did I get to this place and with my bed." Alices face turned to one of annoyance.

"Fuck I just bought that bed."