Guild Wars-Novel



Gage only spent a few moments admiring himself before his focus returned to the frightened robbers who had fallen to their asses and were shivering desperately. Despite being armed, none of them even thought to raise their guns and shoot. 

After all, most of the residential and civilized parts of Africa had relatively strict gun control. When it came to dangerous situations, the African's first thought was either to use a bladed weapon like a cutlass… or to scram as fast as his two legs could carry him. 

These fellows were clearly choosing the latter path. Unlike foreigners who might see a 'demon' like the current Gage and then say 'we don't negotiate with terrorists!' then blast out their shotgun bullets in futility, these fellows had grown up in Sub-Saharan Africa where some supernatural things were not so supernatural. 

"You menners, I hope say you not go flow anyone what happen ridii." Gage asked then while folding his arms… his real human arms. 

(TL: You fellows, I hope you wont tell anyone what happened right now?) 

"No, no, no! Boss, we not go tell anyone, walahi talahi! I dey beg you, let us go!" One of the fellows practically screamed while tears and snot flowed down his face. 

(TL: No way boss! We wont tell anyone, we swear! I am pleading with you, let us go.) 

Gage hummed and leaned forward. "Good, seacof if you flow anyone and I find you… hehe." (TL: Good, because if you tell anyone and I find you… hehe.) 

Their hearts became cold in their chests. Gage was not really being threatening but he didn't need to with 6 blood red appendages sticking out of his back and moving independently while he spoke. 

Eventually, he let the fellows go because he was not a bloodthirsty murderer and this was Africa. Even if they told anyone, it would just form a deterrence rather than an issue. 

Here, when people heard or encountered supernatural things, the general consensus was to stay the fuck away and not investigate. Even the police wouldn't touch that shit and there were no secret governmental bodies that researched or policed that shit. 

As for the corpse of Kobby, it probably landed somewhere far off. Even if they investigated it, what would it have to do with Gage? You think African police were CSI-level detectives? 

Gage stood alone in the busy area and looked at his back. He was pondering what to do next and more importantly, how to handle these… things. 

The obvious answer was to retract them and quietly return to his apartment, and Gage had no qualms with that. His problem was not the retraction of the arms, but how to get them to appear again later if he wanted to. 

Gage was not the type of cliche fool who would receive a new freakish power and then panic, and do everything they could to get rid of it and be 'normal'. Fuck being normal, that shit was lame. 

His whole life had crumbled when his father decided to remarry and abandon his previous family, and his mother, who was a pure housewife with no skills or talent, immediately became crippled financially. 

She simply returned to her family home in the village and dropped him off at the orphanage because seeing him - with his fair skin and previously blonde hair - reminded her too much of his bastard father. 

If it wasn't for those four boys who became his family and his pillar throughout those difficult days, Gage was not sure what he would have become or what he would have done. 

So yeah, he liked these bizarre spider-like legs that tuck out from his back because they gave him something he never had before, a way to carve out his piece of territory in this world using force. 

Gage began practicing with them in this bushy area to familiarize himself and to extend the time he could spend with them. After all, he was not sure if he was dreaming or hallucinating, but it felt too real to pass up. 

Even if it was real, he was not sure he could pop them out again, so many using their more would make them stay? If not, then he would just enjoy it while it lasted. 

He practiced movement, combat, and blocking. He came to the conclusion that there was nothing these appendages could not do. He was even thoroughly excited when he found that their biggest weakness, which was their length, could be changed as they could freely extend and retract as he wished. 

Eventually, it hit midnight and Gage felt extreme fatigue for the first time in a long while. Usually, he was bursting with stamina and power and only ever had to sleep because he was supposed to, not necessarily because he wanted to. 

He yawned and then retracted his arms with ease, shocking himself. They just 'crawled' into his back, but since it wasn't actually connected to his flesh, they seemed to enter some void of sorts. 

Gage was too tired to deal with this now and return to his apartment, falling to his bed without even undressing and sleeping deeply. He had a dream that was similar to the ones he always had where he was a humanoid with 8 extra legs, only this time it was far more vivid and lucid. 

He seemed to be speaking to others like him who were just as powerful, but had different characteristics and features. There was a burly bronze-skinned fellow holding a giant axe that looked like it could cleave the universe along with another handsome fellow wearing all black standing beside a supreme beauty wearing white robes with a celestial symbol behind her back. 

They seemed to be telling him something, but he couldn't hear their words. 

Eventually, Gage woke up from his dream, realizing that his body ached all over like he had been exercising for hours at a gym and was now facing the soreness. 

Especially at his back, the soreness and pain were excruciating and he didn't even dare to move. He just continued to lie there like a dead dog and closed his eyes, sweating as he occasionally spasmed in pain. 

By the time he could think again, he realized that this might be due to what happened yesternight. Thinking about that made him think about his appendages, which also made him remember his dream. 

At this point, Gage could obviously tell that there was something special going on with him, and he was curious to find out how deep it went. The pain was dying down too slowly, and he was bored, to gage envisioned his appendages coming out from his back. 

What he didn't expect was that his stamina was drained slightly and he immediately felt his extra limbs pop out5 from his back like they had been suppressed elsewhere. 

Interestingly, the moment they came out and unfurled around him, the soreness he felt died down significantly, and became stable, but instead of being on his entire back, it was at the base and segments of these spider-like limbs. 

At this point, how could Gage not understand? He likely had this power his entire life but it had only begun manifesting itself recently, so the appendages, while powerful, were practically atrophied. 

And he spent hours after the encounter with the thieves using and abusing them stupidly because he thought it would be his last. How could he not be sore the next day? 

Gage cursed himself but felt happy. Knowing that he could easily call them out whenever he wanted made him feel secure. However, more than yesternight, he could notice that keeping the extra limbs out drained a bit of stamina every second. 

No, this wasn't the same as stamina. Gage knew this feeling, this 'energy'. It was the reason why he felt energetic all the time and hardly got affected by disease, weakness, alcohol, or drugs. 

He could finally attribute that energy to this strange power of his. What Gage was now wondering was, what else could he do? Was manifesting overpowered spider-like appendages all he could do, or was there more? 

Gage certainly felt like there was more and even hoped for it. Eventually, he got up and did some stretches to relax his tense body. Funny enough, his appendages helped him achieve some strange postures that helped him loosen up further. 

Gage reached out for the door to his bathroom, but an appendage beat his arm to it, coiled around the doorknob, and opened the door gently. Gage was surprised and supremely pleased. 

God, these things were so useful. 

After taking a bath, where he was continually assisted by the appendages for even the smallest thing, he came out and sat on his bed, wondering what to do now. Hearing his rumbling stomach, he smiled and went outside to buy some waakye and came back. 

Obviously, his appendages had been retracted for the outside journey and released the moment he came back. Gage then switched on his TV, opened a pirate site for watching movies online, and began watching Spiderman 2 from 2004. 

He specifically watched how Doc Ock handled his four appendages rather than Spiderman himself, and Gage felt like he had learned a lot from it. While he may have 8 thin legs rather than Doc Ock's four large and thick ones, his were far more versatile. 

The thing now was how to maximize the use of his appendages to better his life. Always hiding it in his house and using them for things of convenience was the dumbest way to use a superpower. 

Gage thought about crime first but ruled it out. This was a third-world country, every single bit of money was counted. If he was abroad, it would be easier, but he had no plans of leaving his homeland. 

As such, his next thought was military and war. He could sign up a mercenary or private contractor and then use his advantage to clear out high-difficulty missions. Though, Gage was not yet sure his appendages were bulletproof. 

Alternatively, he could search the dark web for assassinations and stuff and then be like a super spider assassin. With his appendages, he could likely get in anywhere, and leave no trace behind. 

But that was just thinking. Gage was not sure if he could accomplish such stuff and he wasn't much of a crazy killer anyway. While his childhood and living in Africa had desensitized him to death, so he could overlook what happened to Kobby, it didn't mean he would actively seek to kill. 

Gage was frustrated because he finally had what he had dreamed of all his life while watching movies in the orphanage and the few times they could play video games during the holidays, and that was superpowers! 

Sure, it may not be flight or laser beam eyes, but this was much more to his taste. 

However, he couldn't use it easily to better his life! At least, not in a way that was low-risk, low-stress, and could not get him into any sort of trouble. 

Gage angrily munched on the fishtail in his mouth while he thought, and then the TV moved onto showing news about Boundless World. Gage listened for a while and then his eyes lit up. 

That's right, a video game based on virtual reality! If he could use his appendages in that game, he would be able to rise above most players and since he knew that this game had made so many people rich, it could also make him rich! 

Gage was immediately excited and was about to go do some research when he sat down, as he heard the news state that the game was down due to an update. 

Meanwhile, when it came back up, the studio behind the game announced that they would be shipping out the first generation of FIVR Game Pods!