《Kingdom of death》


 Chapter 1: The change.

    Standing next to his twin sister¡¯s grave, Nathan was once again overwhelmed by a sense of loneliness as he suppressed his tears, not willing to give in to his despair.


    "I would never have imagined I would be forced to live my life without you. Just a couple of days ago you were still here next to me like you always had been."


    They had grown up together in an orphanage completely relying on each other for support. In life, they only had each other as family. The bond they shared wasn¡¯t something regular people could understand at all. Nicole had been there for Nathan his whole life no matter what he was going through. She had supported him through thick and thin and even beyond that. Yet worst of all there wasn''t anyone he could even blame for her death, except himself or the world itself. Just this week alone, he had lost count of the numerous times he had resisted the urge to go to the place where she was or drink away his sorrows into oblivion. But whenever these feelings got too strong a deep chill wrapped his whole body with just a hint of warmness in it stopping his self-destructive ways.


    Nathan closed his eyes in the desolate graveyard as he tried his best to calm down the emotional turmoil he had within him. The graveyard was completely silent with the exception of the leaves as they rustled from the wind. It felt like an eternity had passed by until the sound and feeling of wind had suddenly disappeared as he opened his eyes. He wasn¡¯t standing in a graveyard any longer. It was a pure white space with a single woman standing in front of him. She was beautiful with an odd motherly charm to her. Nathan wasn¡¯t the only one that was seeing this woman at this moment. As every single human on the planet no matter the place found themselves standing in front of her.


    "Welcome, Nathan." Her voice gave off a sense of calmness that was seemingly infectious as Nathan¡¯s mind became the clearest it has been in his whole life.


    "What is this pla.." Nathan couldn''t even finish his sentence as information had started to flow into his mind giving him answers he didn''t even know he had.


    "Shall we begin the process, mister Nathan?" He knew the meaning of her question, but it was still so hard to accept what was happening.


    Before they could start Nathan still had to ask her a question. In the information he had just gained he found hope to change the unchangeable. It was the one and only thing he had dreamt of happening ever since she passed away.


    "Is it truly possible to make even the dead return?" The woman who he now knew as the guide smiled at him and answered what he already knew.


    "Yes, technically it is possible." She gestured to him to come closer so they could begin the process.


    "Mister Nathan since you are a bit of a special case compared to others you have the opportunity to receive two gifts instead of one!" Her brown hair swayed as she gestured with her hands the grandiose event that Nathan had the blessing of experiencing.


    A colorful wheel materialized in front of him with the names of the potential rewards he could receive from it. From a simple glance, you could instantly notice that a big majority of the wheel was taken up by the words Tutorial. The rest of them were in a similar game like theme, for example, Random skill, Attribute boost, Random Weapon, Random gear, Random blessing.


    Nathan understood there was no point in wasting his time in this space as he approached the wheel. From the simple push, he gave it began to spin in speed he couldn''t follow with his eyes, before instantly stopping on the option random unique ability. This option was so small compared to the rest of the wheels options he had even missed it when he examined the wheel.


    With the wheel stopping on the random unique ability a blue screen appeared in front of him containing the information of his reward.


    | Unjust gain |


    | Taking the life of a unique ability holder grants their unique ability. |


    "Congratulations mister Nathan you got quite lucky to gain a unique ability!"


    Compared to the cheerful demeanor of the guide about his luck, he felt a sense of discomfort as the thought of killing another felt like an alien concept to him. The ability gave him nothing unless he killed another holder of a unique ability. It wasn¡¯t like he hadn¡¯t gotten in a couple of fights before in his life, but to go as far as kill somebody had never crossed his mind.


    "Yeah... Thank you. I can still spin it one more time right?" Nathan still didn''t know why he had been granted this special privilege, but he couldn''t muster up the will to ask for the answer to the guide. Fearing to hear what he suspected the reason to be.


    "Yes, please go ahead and spin it."


    Getting the confirmation he needed Nathan spun the wheel once more and just like last time it had instantly stopped mid-spin on one of its rewards. Creating a mild dissatisfaction in the way the wheel worked.


    | Tutorial |


    | You are given a chance to adapt to the upcoming changes the world will face in a safe environment where death will only mean the end of the tutorial. |


    "Congratulations mister Nathan, you got one of the best rewards available. Your luck is truly great. Since we are done with your reward distribution you shall be placed where you belong." Before Nathan could say anything else his vision shifted from the white room to a stone brick chamber.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    But they obviously weren¡¯t made of any stone Nathan knew even if they looked like that. Each brick had a small illumination effect letting him see the interior of the room. The room was quite big and equally full of weapons. From the simplest iron dagger to a mighty two-handed battle hammer. Inspecting the weapons in the room a particular four had coughed his eye being noticeably different from the rest of them. They were made from wood with crystal-like gems embedded at the top.


    Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to convince himself this was truly happening and he hasn¡¯t gone completely insane.


    ¡°If there are so many weapons here, they most likely want me to use them on something.¡± With this, though in mind he began to evaluate his options the spear seemed like a nice safe bet giving him the ability to keep enemies at a safer distance than a sword. But before he could come to any final decision Nathan just had to know what were those staffs as he approached one of them to pick it up. The wood had looked quite rough on the outside but when he held it in his own hands it was oddly smooth and soon enough a message had started to hover near the staff.


    | Beginners fire staff |


    | Ability: Fire discharge |


    | Increases Fire element power and control by 5% |


    Seeing the system''s message once again made him recall something he had completely overlooked all this time even if it should have been the first thing he checked.


    "Status"


    | Name: Nathan Bandon |


    | Level: 0 |


    | Status: Haunted |


    | Strength: 5 |


    | Vitality: 4 |


    | Agility: 5 |


    | Sense: 4 |


    | Magic power: 1 |


    | Mana: 1 |


    | Attribute points: 0 |


    "It''s just how they said it would be..." Nathans''s heart instantly skipped a beat as he noticed his status. He didn''t even notice his hand tremble as he reached out to touch the word Haunted in his status screen. From the information the guide had given him he knew this would give him more details.


    | Haunted |


    | You are being Haunted by a spirit with a strong attachment to yourself. |


    | Half of your experience is being transferred to the spirit. |


    | Your maximum vitality is slowly being drained away to sustain the spirit. |


    The image of a girl that was engraved in his soul had instantly appeared in his mind. How couldn¡¯t it if that¡¯s all he was thinking about these days. Her beautiful long raven hair, that she had grown out for such a long time that he loved. Her pale skin and delicate features. Not to mention her piercing blue eyes that shined like two gems. The person he would be willing to do absolutely anything for.


    "Could it really be her?" That was the only possibility that came to Nathans''s mind to who could be haunting him. No, it was the only possibility Nathan could accept.


    "Nicole are you really here!" His voice trembled as he called out to her in the room where he stood alone. In hope, he would be able to hear her voice once again. Yet all that greeted him was the echo of his own voice. Just as he was feeling truly foolish in his naive idea that she was still here with him, that mysterious feeling he had grown familiar with had embraced him with its chill as his body shivered only to recover with the warmness that it contained as well.


    That was the signal that Nathan was looking for. That hopelessness he felt ever since she was gone had started to fade away as he got excited for the possibility of being reunited with her once again. To be able to see and hear here once again. The wooden staff was thrown on the ground as he grabbed the nearby sword and a shield. With these weapons, he had the confidence to be able to take down anything the tutorial would throw his way as he exited the chamber into the stone brick corridor.


    | Welcome to the tutorials stage 0. You will be put against 8 weak opponents almost all could defeat. They are much weaker in power compared to yourself. Your goal is to defeat all 8 of them as you reach the next stage of the tutorial. |


    | Stage 0-3 |


    | Your first 3 opponents are going to be human skeletons that have seemingly infinite stamina. The only way to defeat them is to extinguish the connection they have with the soul that animates them. This can be done by destroying or separating their skull from their body. |


    After carefully reading through the messages the system had given him Nathan began to walk down the corridor soon enough encountering the skeleton system had mentioned. It was just as it was described a simple human skeleton simply standing in the middle of the corridor without doing anything at all. It wasn¡¯t even holding any weapons or even moving.


    Nathan began to approach it yet it still showed no reaction to his actions. This continued until his sword swung straight at its neck in hopes of decapitating it. But before the sword could do just that the skeleton intercepted with his arm as it dug into its bone instead. Not panicking by this development Nathan swung the shield he held in his other hand at the skeleton knocking it down to the floor while freeing his blade from its arm. Without any mercy, the sword was swung once again at its neck just as it was trying to get up successfully decapitating it as its bone skull hit the stone brick floor echoing through the tunnel while it¡¯s skeletal body fell apart losing what it held its bones together.


    | Level 0 Skeleton has been slain. |


    | +10(-50%) Experience |


    Nathan held a goal now, a goal for which he would be willing to sacrifice anything to fulfill. He had gained the opportunity to be once again reunited with her something he had dreamed about countless times. This dream could be fulfilled as long as he kept leveling and growing. His footsteps rang through the tunnel as he met his next foe.


    Another skeleton stood in the middle of the tunnel only this time holding a sword and shield just as Nathan. It wasn¡¯t as passive as the last one as it swung it¡¯s sword at him as soon as he entered its range only to be parried and overpowered and pushed to the ground with the help of the shield. Being put in this helpless position it¡¯s life was taken as well.


    | Level 0 Skeleton has been slain. |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    The minus fifty percent to his experience gain only motivated him even further as he knew with every foe he kills he was one step closer to resurrecting Nicole. Keeping up his momentum unsurprisingly another skeleton stood in the middle of the tunnel only this time it held a bow with its arrow already nocked as it released it as soon as Nathan had seen it. Taken by surprise he panicked as he instinctively raised his shield in front of his face. Only for the arrow to pierce his leg. The sudden sharp pain took him by surprise as blood started to flow down his leg staining the stone brick floor. Clenching his jaw Nathan tried his best not to panic and think of the possibility his artery had been hit. There was a lot of blood that was coming out of his leg as the stench of blood was making him feel a bit woozy or was it just the blood loss? Yet as the idea itself had manifested in his mind more came as well not helping his situation at all. But before things could get any worse that feeling of a chill with its lingering warmness came once again almost instantly clearing his mind.


    For the first time after being wounded in the leg, he looked away from it to see the skeleton had already gotten close enough for it to raise the bow it held up in the air ready to strike at Nathan. The club-like swing of the skeleton hit him straight on the head but at the same time, the sword he had clenched in his arm this whole time had decapitated it.


    | Level 0 Skeleton has been slain. |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    | Congratulations you have defeated the last foe of 0-3. All your injuries will be healed before you face the 4-6 of stage 0 |


    | Your next challenge will be one of the weakest creatures that you can encounter. The goblins can be vanquished easier than a skeleton but they are a creature with wisdom and thought of their own. |


    The arrow that was stuck in his leg was quickly expelled from his body as the wound on his leg healed instantly as soon as the skeleton was defeated. Nathan wasn¡¯t someone who had been training for years to be able to battle without any problems. He was just getting used to it as he reflected on what he could have done better. The pain and hardship meant nothing to him as long as he had the chance to be with her once again.

 Chapter 2: End of stage 0

    Now that his injuries had healed themselves nothing was stopping Nathan from moving further down the tunnel. His next opponent had soon enough entered his vision as well. The goblin was way shorter than himself only being a bit taller than a meter with its skin being in a dark shade of green. It looked human-like, but with proportions that were all messed up. A huge nose as well as a mouth that stretched beyond what would be the acceptable length for a human to have. It¡¯s yellow best like eyes shined in the dark stone brick tunnel as Nathan began to approach it.


    The goblin showed no real reaction to Nathan¡¯s advancement simply standing there in its grass skirt letting him approach it with no problems. Something just felt off to Nathan about this whole situation the goblin didn¡¯t even have any weapons. His worries turned out to be true as soon as he got about ten meters from the goblin it raised its hand waving it at Nathan while speaking in a completely foreign language. A sense of discomfort instantly rose within him as the realization that the creature in front of him was a living being with its own thoughts and aspirations. It wasn''t like those skeletons before that just moved like puppets. Yet to move further in the tutorial he had to take its life. An uncomfortable feeling rose in his heart as he got even closer to it knowing what he will have to do.


    "Sorry... It''s either you or me."


    With those words, Nathan steeled his heart as the sword chopped at the neck of the goblin that showed no harm to him. The blade sliced open the neck of the goblin before it realized what was going on. It¡¯s green skin now split open from the swing as blood started to gush out from the side of its neck. It tried to release a scream of pain only to choke on its own blood from the deep wound Nathan had left on it.


    The goblin kept trying to release cries of pain as it fell on the floor clutching its neck. To Nathan, it completely sounded like the please for its life. The uncomfortable feeling he couldn¡¯t describe with words only rose in strength as he watched the goblin struggle. The metallic stench of blood that now covered the corridor was starting to overwhelm him. Nathan was going to puke if this continued for much longer he needed to move away from it. But he just couldn¡¯t take his eyes away from the goblin knowing it was him that did that to the goblin.


    That familiar chill with its warmness had embraced him once again. Giving him the strength needed to push through as he started to walk once again. The disturbing sounds of the dying goblin were slowly becoming quieter as it¡¯s life faded away. It didn¡¯t take long for the system to confirm it¡¯s death as well.


    | Level 0 Goblin has been slain |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    Nathan understood he needed to change if he wanted to get Nicole back. He couldn¡¯t be so weak-willed anymore. He had to become more selfish and change his moral view if he wanted to succeed in his goals.


    As if the tutorial was testing his own resolve a goblin wielding two rusted daggers rushed towards him. The goblin was warmly welcomed with a kick to its chest as it¡¯s small body flew to the ground with its two daggers dropping to the ground in the process. The goblin clenched its chest in pain as it tried to get up from the fall it just took. Nathan denied it as he threw the shield in his hand at it, Knocking it down once again. This had given him enough time to close the distance between the two of them as he raised his sword, finishing the goblin with a downwards thrust to its head.


    | Level 1 Goblin has been slain |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    ¡°I can do this!¡± Nathan was still feeling extremely uncountable about killing these goblin¡¯s but his goal of being reunited with Nicole completely overshadowed these feelings. The constant chill that was embracing him helped greatly in this situation as well. Retrieving his sword that was getting more and more dyed with red from the goblin¡¯s blood he proceeded to move once again.


    | Level 1 Goblin has been slain |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    | Congratulations for defeating the last foe of 4-6 |


    | Choose a reward: Sword Mastery, Shield mastery, Spirit attunement. |


    | Your next challenge will be against a Skeleton that still holds a skill of his own. Do your best to learn from it. |


    As Nathan read through the system messages the reward spiritual attunement had instantly drawn his attention. He could only believe that it would make his connection with Nickole even stronger if he chose it.


    | spiritual attunement | Level 1 |


    | You have become closer to the spirit realm allowing you to have a much greater sense towards spirits. |


    | +3 Sense |


    Midway reading through its description Nathan felt an odd presence behind him as he turned around to see a very faint white mist a couple of centimeters away from him. It was so very faint that at times it felt like there was nothing there at all. His hand trembled as he reached out to it. His hand passed through the white mist without any resistance, but he could still feel a special connection with it. This was only confirmed as that familiar feeling he had begun to love rose as well.


    ¡°Is that really you Nicole?¡± He couldn¡¯t see any reaction from the white mist towards his words or touch. He could only believe it was her, here with him.


    ¡°Don''t worry, I will bring you back soon!" He couldn¡¯t help but linger there a bit longer just watching the white mist that never left his side. Still, he knew he needed to move further and raise his level to be truly reunited with her.


    As he began to move through the tunnel once again he noticed the change the +3 to his sense had brought him. This increase of +3 had almost doubled his sense stat all the way to 7. The true difference was hard to notice in the dark tunnel but just having the ability to see a couple of meters further was a huge change to his vision.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    If you based his current sight on the Snellen chart it would now be around 20/10 meaning he could see in the same clarity as someone with a vision of 20/20 if they stood 10 feet away instead of 20 from the object they were looking at. Yet sight was only one of the many senses that had improved with his sense reaching 7.


    With this new increase to his vision, he had noticed the skeleton much sooner in the tunnel as it kept swinging his sword with proper technique. It repeatedly did the same set of movements without stopping in a cycle. A weak ghostly flame burned in its eye sockets barely being noticeable even in the dark tunnel.


    "The tutorial did recommend that I learn from it." Nathan put down his shield as he held the sword mimicking the movements of the skeleton. He started by adjusting the way he stood as he began to swing the sword in the same manner as the skeleton.


    His increase to his sense stat had shown its benefits as he mimicked its movements. He had a better sense of balance for the sword he held or even his own body.


    Still, it had taken him longer than he would like to admit for his footing and sword movement to become as fluid as that of the skeleton. His efforts were still awarded as the system informed him of gaining a new skill.


    | Sword mastery | Level 1 |


    | Wielding a sword has become a bit more natural to you. |


    | Increases damage and attack speed when using a sword by 5% |


    Nathan couldn¡¯t help but wonder how the tutorial would have changed if he took sword mastery instead of spiritual attunement. Would they have taught him one of the other rewards as a skill or would it have been a more advanced version of sword mastery? He had no answer to his own questions, but after learning sword mastery he had gained a sense of distaste for using the shield with his sword. The skeleton had taught him how to use the sword with one hand being free enabling him to switch his sword forms at any time, something a shield would just hinder.


    Leaving the shield on the ground Nathan began to challenge the skeleton he didn¡¯t wish to kill after being taught by it. Using the footwork and sword technique with his superior stats the skeleton was easily overpowered as Nathan guided the sword to strike the neck of the skeleton finishing it off. After its body crumbled to the ground Nathan exchanged the sword he held for the skeletons as it suited his way of fighting now much better.


    | Level 1 Skeleton has been slain |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    | Congratulations you''re about to face off against your last opponent of stage 0. The goblin necromancer with his small group of skeleton guards will be a test of everything you learned so far. |


    Nathan did his best to reflect on the way he had fought so far and what he could learn from it to prepare for the final opponent of stage 0. It hadn¡¯t taken him long to encounter a change in the tunnel as he could see a pair of stairs leading up blocked by a gloomy-looking goblin covered in bone accessories with its three skeletal guards near it.


    Without any hesitation, Nathan took the initiative as he rushed towards the small group. Swinging his blade at the neck of the closest skeleton only for his sword to be blocked by its sword prompting the other skeletons to move in as well. Before they could enclose on him Nathan maneuvered his sword into a trust at the skeleton piercing its vertebrae followed by decapitating it. As it began to crumble to the ground Nathan was forced to block an attack of another skeleton. Before the last skeleton could strike at him as well, he delivered a powerful kick towards the skeleton whose attack he had just blocked before following up by striking the last standing skeleton''s cranium cracking it together with his sword. The flames in its eyes became chaotic as it started to wobble before falling to the ground in a pile of bones.


    The goblin necromancer wasn''t idle this whole time he was preparing his spell as another skeleton rose from the ground. After raising the skeleton it became noticeably more exhausted but it didn''t stop there as it began to cast another spell.


    Luckily the summoned skeleton needed some time to get to Nathan leaving him enough time to finish off the last of the original skeletons. Keeping up his momentum Nathan threw the chipped sword as the goblin as he picked up the skeleton sword to deliver a powerful swing at the remaining skeleton. The swing was strong enough to fling the skeleton''s sword aside creating an opening for Nathan. WIthout its sword in a position it could use it to defend itself it was easily finished off by Nathan. Now there was only the goblin necromancer left.


    Nathan threw the cracked sword in his hand towards the goblin hitting its leg, creating a small wound that disturbed its magic casting. It tried its best to keep up its focus to cast the only spell it knew: Summon undead. But seeing its last summoned skeleton crumble to the ground it abandoned its efforts as it reached for a pouch on its waist. Yet it had made its decision too late as Nathan had reached it with the sword he picked up from the skeleton. Trusting it straight into the exposed chest of the goblin necromancer piercing it straight through its body as Nathan¡¯s hands got dyed by blood as it flowed down his sword. It struggled for life as its body was lifted by Nathan¡¯s sword from the ground before being thrown to the ground soon losing its life from all the internal damage.


    | Level 1 Skeleton has been slain |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 1 Skeleton has been slain |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 1 Skeleton has been slain |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 1 Skeleton has been slain |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 3 Elite goblin necromancer has been slain |


    | + 120(-50%) Experience |


    | Level up |


    | Congratulations on finishing stage 0 off the tutorial. Stage 1 will begin once you climb the staircase. |


    | Choose a reward: 2 Attribute points. Randomized soul related skill, Randomized sword. |


    | You have reached level 1 giving you the ability to choose a starting class based on your accomplishments. This includes but isn''t limited to. Your stats, Level, skills, gear, and the actions you have taken. |


    | Available classes: Swordsman, Scout, Novice fighter, Possessed. |


    Before making any decision Nathan opened his status screen as his first step.


    | Name: Nathan Bandon |


    | Level: 1 |


    | Class: None |


    | Status: Haunted |


    | Strength: 5 |


    | Vitality: 4 |


    | Agility: 5 |


    | Sense: 7 |


    | Magic power: 1 |


    | Mana: 1 |


    | Attribute points: 2 |


    Nathan had to think about his further actions. This wasn''t some RPG character he could always reset or delete if he didn''t like how it turned out. These decisions will affect him for the rest of his life. As he sat down on the stairs trying to figure out the best path he could take with what was available to him. He finally noticed the small change to the white mist that always hung around him. It was a very minor change but that blob of white mist has become just a bit more humanoid in its nature. You could barely see it had begun to develop some appendages. As he watched the white mist he came to a decision that wasn''t the best or the smartest, but it followed what his heart wanted the most.


    From his reward of finishing stage 0, he took the two attribute points. Using those and his level up reward he took his sense stat all the way to ten. This was a milestone that gave you a special reward that could only be acquired from reaching ten points for the first time in a stat.


    | You have reached your first milestone giving you the ability to spec even further in that specialty. |


    | Eyesight, smell, hearing, touch, taste, reflexes, spirituality. |


    Nathan didn''t even need to consider it as he chose the spirituality option. It created a great synergy effect between his spiritual attunement. Enabling him to finally see what he longed for so long. The white mist had changed into a transparent figure of his twin floating there. Her long raven hair covered her body as she floated in the air without any expression. A sense of relief and pain washed over him as he tried to embrace her only to pass through her and fall to the ground.


    He could finally see her once again but there was still a long way to go before they could be truly reunited.

 Chapter 3: The path of cooperation

    ¡°I guess I got happy too soon.¡± Nathan could only assume and hope that as long as he leveled up she would return to the person she once was. As long as he worked hard enough they could be reunited once again. That was his motivation to ignore his fears and doubts as he pushed himself further.


    Still just seeing her once again even in this state brought great joy to him as he began to look at his available classes.


    | Available classes: Swordsman, Scout, Possessed, Spiritualist. |


    | Class: Swordsman |


    | A class specializing in using the sword to deal the most damage possible. Unlocks the swordsman class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain for sword related skills. |


    | Class: Scout |


    | A class specializing in gaining information from their environment. Unlocks the scout class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% to any scouting related skills. |


    | Class: Possessed |


    | A strange class for those that have lost their minds to a spirit. Becoming their vessel. Unlocks the possessed class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any spirit related skills. |


    | Class: Spiritualist |


    | A class specializing for those that use spirits as their main means of protecting themselves. Unlocks the spiritualist class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any spirit related skills. |


    As Nathan began to read the short descriptions of each class and their passives he started to have a better understanding of what each class truly did. Being that he already had made all his prior choices dedicated to the path of spiritualism it seemed like an easy choice to just take the spiritualist class. But the option of possessed seemed like a pure opposite of the spiritualist one. That made him think, If possessed gave his body to the ghost would that mean he would gain control of the spirits if he chose the spiritualist class.


    "Should I just play it safe and take the swordsman class?"


    Still, there was the possibility he was just wrong in his assumption on what the spiritualist class did. What if it let him empower her and bring her back even sooner?


    Looking at her transparent beautiful figure floating in front of him as he sat on the stairs his final decision was made.


    | Class: Spiritualist |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any spirt related skills. |


    | Spiritualist skill tree has been unlocked |


    | You have learned the following skills: Spirit command, Spirit mana, Soul slash |


    | Spirit command |


    | Your voice is now able to reach even the dead. Letting you command even those that aren¡¯t among the living anymore. |


    | Soul slash | Level 1 |


    | Send out a slash of spirit mana damaging the soul |


    | Damage: 100% |


    | Range: 5 meters |


    | Cost: 1 Mana |


    | Spirit mana | Level 1 |


    | Your body''s mana has attuned itself with spirit properties. |


    | Passive: Mana regeneration increased in a high spirit mana environment. |


    | Using magic not related to spirt mana takes more mana. |


    | +2 Mana and magic power |


    With the unlock of the skill tree, it had opened itself up automatically as well showing that he had 1 skill point to spend. Only 3 options gloved in a green light while branching paths from those 3 were greyed out showing no information at all.


    | Shared power | 0/5 |


    | You and the spirit can share part of each other''s power. |


    | +10% of each other''s base stats. |


    | Spirit embedment | 0/3 |


    | The power to infuse a spirit inside an object to empower its abilities. |


    | 33% of spirits power can be added to an object |


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    | Spirit enslavement | 0/5 |


    | You can dominate a spirit''s will to your rule. |


    | A spirit that is 50% weaker then you can be dominated. |


    | Current limit: 5 spirits |


    Reading through the skill trees available unlocks Nathan concluded that a spiritualist had 3 general paths that they used.


    The path of domination in which you capture wild spirits to use them at your disposition as you command them to attack your foes, possibly further unlocking more options in which you used the spirits to attack.


    The path of infusion where you use spirits on your equipment to enchant their effects. Possibly gaining the ability to infuse a spirit''s skills into gear creating your own custom sets for each situation. Or possibly creating one use items with superior power as consumable items.


    The path of cooperation that treats the party involved equally while supporting each other in the process. Boosting each other''s abilities and possibly unlocking various synergies further down the skill tree.


    His choice was blatantly obvious as he would never wish to put Nicole under anything that could potentially harm her. Just as he added a skill point to shared power a change was felt by him. Nicole¡¯s figure had become less transparent after becoming a spiritualist and it was amplified even more after putting a point into shared power. This change didn¡¯t affect only her appearance but her actions as well as before this her figure always hovered around Nathan but now she had started to stick to his body fully embracing him while releasing that chill with its warmness that washed away his worries and doubts and helped him push through the hardship. Her body was cold and felt nothing like humans would. But it had still made Nathan extremely happy in his choice of becoming a spiritualist.


    "Let''s get going we still have a lot to do."


    Even as Nathan began to climb the staircase nothing changed in Nicole''s position as she simply floated there while embracing him. He could only see this change as a positive one as she was becoming more human once again. One day she will be here with him once again the same as it has been all the years they were together.


    Traversing the short trip up the stairs, Nathan saw an empty room with a door. The system message came up as soon as he took his feet off the last step of the stairs as well.


    | Stage 1 |


    | Stage 1 will be done in a party with other lucky winners of the tutorial. You will have to work together to face off against nature that has been exposed to mana. |


    | While in a party each member gets an equal portion of the experience. |


    Approaching the simple wooden door, Nathan opened it into a completely different view from what he had seen so far in the tutorial.


    It was a dome-shaped clearing in the forest with four other people opening the door about the same time he had done. Just as he began to examine them so did they.


    Nathan was around 1¡¯90 centimeters tall with some Slavic facial features. Short black hair with medium length beard. He was dressed in your average black sports attire. His build was quite muscular together with the bloody sword he created an image that was quite intimidating. Not to mention the faint white mist that hung around him. One person from the group could even see a faint figure of a person inside the white mist from time to time, he could even swear he saw two arms reaching out from behind Nathan.


    | All your party members have arrived good luck in surviving stage 1. |


    A fragile-looking guy around 170 centimeters with cracked glasses holding the fire staff was the first one to speak up.


    "Hi, I''m Kyle the mage of the group." He had just finished the tutorial and officially chose his class as a fire mage. He had learned some fire spells as well as chosen in his skill tree an ability that increased the duration of flames on his opponents burning them for a longer period of time as the flames now stuck to his opponents. Nobody else spoke after his introduction creating a bit of an awkward atmosphere before Nathan spoke up as well.


    "Hey, I''m Nathan the swordsman of the group then." After gaining the spirit command skill his voice had turned a bit deeper while carrying a commanding aura to it.


    Following there example, the next one to speak was an obese man in his thirties. Holding a shield and a short spear. "Hello, I''m James. That makes me the tank" He instantly seemed very socially awkward as he spoke. He kept giving Nathan weird glances all the time as sweat was starting to build on his forehead.


    "This is fucking dumb let''s just go losers." He was an Asian teenager with blonde dyed hair. With tattoos covering his arms. He had a cocky look on his face as he looked down on the guys on his team. He was even excited before this thinking there would be some girls in his party that he could show off his new gained power that he was so proud of. Yet there were only some freaks in his team.


    "Don''t be like that we are a team now we should work together." Kyle, dissatisfied with the man''s attitude couldn''t help but speak up.


    This clearly irked the Asian guy. This scrawny looking loser dared to talk back to him? He wasn¡¯t the type of person to just take it without doing anything in return. He approached Kyle in a threatening manner before trying to intimidate him.


    "Or what?" He now stood too close for comfort for kayle as he tried to back off while defending his argument.


    "We are a team now, we should work to..." Before He could finish his sentence the Asian guy had slapped him across the face. Making Kyle fall to the ground as blood started to flow out of his mouth. Kyle was in mid-sentence with his mouth still open, his cheek got torn from his teeth as blood started to flow out of it. There was a clear red mark from the slap on his face as it began to swell up.


    "What makes you think you can command me you little shit." Back home he had a small gang, he was the leader off. He couldn¡¯t even remember how many times he had collected money from kids around the school as a protection fee. No, he wasn¡¯t the type of person to care about things like those. With this new power, he had gained he felt almost invincible as he had slowly become drunker and drunker on the power he was gaining. He had the bad habit of not knowing when to stop as well. Kicking Kyle in the stomach forcing him to vomit on the ground.


    ¡°What, you got nothing to say now huh?¡±


    Until now Nathan hadn¡¯t been paying almost any attention to their antics as he was simply mesmerized by his sense stat being as high as it was now. The world around him felt completely different now even if he felt it was odd that there was a lack of sound from the forest around him. Yet the acidic smell of vomit and blood had drawn his attention enough to speak up as he couldn¡¯t just watch someone do something like that. James even as the oldest looking one of all of them seemed way too timid to do anything in this situation. It even looked like he was about to run away glancing behind himself from time to time.


    "That''s enough, you might kill him at this rate!" Nathan''s deep voice did startle the Asain guy, but that only caused him to become even more pissed off.


    "You creepy fuck you got something to say about this huh?" From his teammates, Nathan seemed to pose him the most treat. Being quite a bit taller than himself with a weapon. But seeing that Nathan had inserted his sword in the ground with no indication of using it boosted his confidence even more as he began to approach Nathan.


    Unimpressed by the actions the Asian guy was taking Nathan closed the distance, as well as the two of them, were ready to clash.


    "Yeah, you should stop acting like a spoiled brat. Before you regret it." When it came to regular humans Nathan held no fear. They weren''t monsters that you are seeing for the first time. The blondie didn''t wait for anything more as soon as Nathan was in his range he threw a punch. But with Nathan''s greatly enhanced sense stat it looked slow as it got easily dodged and countered with an elbow strike to his head. When it came to pure physical power and agility the kid was indeed quite a bit stronger than Nathan but in a fight power and speed didn''t mean everything. But most of all Nathan wasn''t fighting alone at the moment he threw his punch Nicole had reacted as well. Nobody but Nathan could see how ten scratches were left on the blondie¡¯s arm as blood had started to flow down his arm as centimeter deep scratches were engraved in his arm from Nicole''s materialized claws.


    "What the hell did you do to me you freak!"


    He screamed out in pain as he fell to the ground clutching the side of his head while his other arm hung limply as blood flowed from it. Nathan had struck his temple with a hit that had a good chance of killing him if his vitality wasn''t as high as it was. Afterall the temple was the weakest part of the human skull


    "Why don''t you sleep for a bit." He couldn''t understand what Nathan meant by his words. His head was ringing and he felt dizzy.


    "Wha.." A powerful kick was delivered to his jaw shaking his brain and knocking him out for good.


    As the fight was over Nathan relaxed and noticed that James had disappeared at some point in his exchange with the guy whose name he still didn''t even know. Nathan couldn¡¯t know this but James had an extreme fear towards ghosts since he was a child. The ghastly figure of Nicole could be nothing else but a ghost to him and he didn¡¯t dare to be in the same party with something like that. The moment he saw his chance he ran and left the party.


    "Well, there goes half of the party." Nathan wondered if he was just put in an unlucky situation or did most teams end up like his.


    "Kyle, can you get up now?" His cheek had swelled up even more from the slap now and as he tried to speak he choked on the blood in his mouth going into a coughing fit as blood splattered on the ground.


    ¡°Yea-hh just give me a minute."


    Since things had turned out like this Nathan wanted to know his last teammate¡¯s opinion of their further actions.


    "Since James left the party, do you want to remake it so we don''t have that guy in the party?" Kyle raised his head and saw blondie passed out on the ground. He couldn¡¯t help but smile seeing that the guy got what he deserved and was put in his place.


    "Did you kill him?" His eyes shone with madness as he stared at blondie''s body with hate in his eyes.


    "Huh, no just knocked him out." Nathan might have been a bit more brutal than it was needed but death in the tutorial only meant you go back to the real world so he wasn''t too worried about it.


    The yell that Kyle had released completely took him by surprise not expecting such a reaction from the scrawny looking Kyle at all.


    "Kill that bastard!"

 Chapter 4: The murder of a teammate.

    "A bastard like that doesn''t deserve to be in the tutorial!"


    Nathan could see where Kyle was coming from with his hate towards the guy. But he wasn¡¯t willing to go as far as to kill him over something like this.


    "If you want him dead just do it yourself." Even in his rage Kyle still realized the weight of his request as he proceeded to get up with difficulty from the ground grabbing his fire staff and glasses in the process.


    "Fine, I will do it myself." He stumbled towards the Asian guy as he began to gather his mana transforming into fire mana that gathered on top of the red crystal on his staff. Directing the fire to engulf the passed out Asian guy. His body was almost instantly covered completely in flames as he woke up and screamed in pain only for Kyle to look at his struggling figure with glee in his eyes. His struggles died out soon enough as his burned corpse began to disappear into thin air. All that was left of him were two Iron daggers he had hidden on his body beforehand.


    "Fine, I will do it myself." He stumbled towards the Asian guy as he began to gather his mana transforming into fire mana that gathered on top of the red crystal on his staff. Directing the fire to engulf the passed out Asian guy. His body was almost instantly covered completely in flames as he woke up and screamed in pain only for Kyle to look at his struggling figure with glee in his eyes. His struggles died out soon enough as his burned corpse began to disappear into thin air. All that was left of him were two Iron daggers he had hidden on his body beforehand.


    | Level 1 Human has been slain |


    | 10(-50%) Experience |


    After his body had disappeared Kyle stared at the empty air in front of him before swiping his hand seemingly dismissing the message that the system had shown him. From this, Nathan had learned he couldn''t see other people''s system messages.


    "Let''s go farm some mobs!" Nathan felt a bit surprised by how well Kyle was taking this all in. This also was the last push he needed to ask the question that had been bugging him for a while now.


    "Kyle, do you see this as a game?" He had felt that Kyle was too calm for this whole situation and him using gaming slang only reinforced his idea.


    "Yeah, How couldn''t you? This is like a dream come true for me! We can level up and there''s even magic that I can use now."


    "Yeah, it''s pretty awesome let''s go." This was a lie after seeing the goblins struggle for life in front of him he couldn''t just see it as a game. But he understood that people needed something to justify their brutal actions with. After all, he wasn''t any better with his own selfish goals.


    The way Kyle had approached the first stage of the tutorial was completely different from Nathan. He had blasted everything in his way with his fire magic. The only reason they had finished the tutorial around the same time as Nathan was because he was forced to spend quite a bit of time waiting for his mana to return.


    They had to take some time off before Kyle was ready to start exploring the tutorial. His torn cheek wasn¡¯t bleeding as much anymore now. Exiting the clearing in the woods they experience a drastic change. The missing sounds and smells of a true forest finally welcomed them as they had truly entered the first stage of the tutorial. This change for Nathan was such a massive one he felt dizzy, but the chill from Nicole had helped him process it as he began to take it all in. The sounds of beasts in the forest together with the rustling of the leaves from the wind were overwhelming to his sense already not to mention all the different smells he was able to pick up now.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Kyle was confused about why Nathan suddenly closed his eyes and simply stood in place for a while.


    "There is an animal pretty close to us." He lacked the experience to determine what it was but through his senses he could tell it was nearby.


    "Okay lead the way then." Kyle looked quite excited as he saw Nathan''s ability to search for mobs as a great asset for power leveling in the tutorial.


    The animal was closer than Nathan expected as it took them only a bit more than a few minutes to see it in the distance scavenging the forest''s ground for food. It was a huge boar standing nearly two meters from the ground. It must have a weight that was nearing one ton. It had a brown rugged fur coat with many tusks sprouting from its grotesque mouth.


    ¡°Stop, it¡¯s in front of us.¡± Nathan had stretched out his hand stopping Kyle in place as he pointed in the distance towards the boar that Kyle had a hard time seeing between all the trees.


    "Do you think you could bring it down with your fire?"


    With squinted eyes, he replied to Nathan. "If I could just blast it with my fire I think I could."


    An idea on how it would be possible came to Nathan as he pointed at a pretty thick tree with a branch Kyle could stand on that was a bit more than two meters off the ground.


    "I can''t climb that, I invested all my points in mana and magic power."


    "Okay come here I will give you a boost." Nathan stood next to the tree giving Kyle a foothold to reach a branch higher up as he barely pulled himself upon it with the help of Nathan.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°Wait here, I will lead the boar here. Oh, and take your staff.¡± Kyle had forgotten his staff on the ground forcing him to return it to Kyle. Nathan couldn¡¯t help but question the legitimacy of the plan he had created on the spot with the attitude Kyle was showing.


    Nathan had never done any hunting in his life. He didn¡¯t know some of the basic things to keep in mind while doing it. This simple mistake of letting his scent be carried by the wind towards the boar and alerting it of his presence. The giant snout of the boar kept twitching as it began to examine its surroundings before spotting Nathan that had only reached halfway towards it. This mistake Nathan had made might just have been a blessing in disguise as he never expected the boar to be so naturally aggressive as it began to sprint towards him with its massive fame knocking down all the obstacles in its charge towards Nathan.


    "Damn it''s fast!" Even as Nathan was running at the greatest speed he could muster the distance between them was quickly shortened by the huge boar. Knowing if he just ran in the straightest path towards Kyle it would catch up with him before that could happen. Nathan began to zigzag between the ticker trees blocking the line of sight the boar had of him. This was enough to slow down the boar by a great margin as its body couldn''t weave through trees, as well as Nathan, could. Giving him just enough time to reach Kyle before the boar could reach him instead.


    "Attack it!" His yell for Kyle caused an unexpected reaction in Nicole as she let go of him and proceeded to engage the boar as well. Her hands morphed into claws that left white scratches on the boar''s thick hide not even being able to draw blood. At least that is what Nathan could see, but for Kyle, it looked like the white mist that covered Nathan had left his body and had started to cover the boar¡¯s body instead, leaving scratches on its body as two transparent things resembling claws of a monster appeared from the thin white mist. He couldn¡¯t help but wonder how Nathan got such an awesome skill in the first stage of the tutorial as he prepared his magic.


    Nathan had even underestimated her awareness as she backed off as a ball of fire struck the boar engulfing it in the fire. The boar¡¯s fur acted as a catalyst for Kyles flames as they burned with more intensity on its body. A nasty stench of burned hair and meat caused Nathan to cough. The boar tried to put out the fire that had engulfed it by rolling on the ground only to be hit by another two fireballs before it had succeeded. By then it¡¯s coat of fur had completely burned off leaving severe burn wounds on its body creating an extremely grotesque image.


    "I''m out of mana!" Kyle''s yell woke Nathan up as he saw the boar once again standing as it glared with hate in its eyes at Kyle on top of the tree. It let out a mighty roar as it charged at the tree Kyle was on top of. It was ready to do anything it could to kill the horrible creature on top of the tree.


    Nathan knew he had to do something about this or Kyle would die for sure. He did his best to feel the mana inside his body as he gathered it into his blade.


    ''Damn I hope this will work!" The mana in his blade began to take the necessary properties to release the only attack skill he had. With a swing of his sword, the almost invisible slash was released and struck the boor straight on as it passed through its body leaving no marks as it disappeared into thin air.


    Nicole hadn¡¯t been idle this whole time as well. After Kyles flames had died down she had begun her assault on the boar now able to rip bloody chunks of chard meat out of its body with her claws.


    After taking Nathan¡¯s soul slash head on it had become stunned letting Nathan release another soul slash at it. This was enough to make it unable to stand on its own feet any longer as it¡¯s massive body fell to the ground. Not wasting this chance Nathan rushed towards it as he thrusted his blade in the bloody hole Nicole had made on its body. The blade cut open its flesh as it traveled to its beating heart that Nathan had been able to pick up now.


    | Level 4 Elite boar has been slain. |


    | + 120(-50%) Experience |


    ¡°Hell yeah! I got to level 2 already.¡±


    Kyles cheered as he saw the message of him leveling up and growing stronger once again. As for Nathan, he wasn¡¯t even halfway towards the level up. He would still need to kill two more of these boars to get to level 2.


    After the death of the boar, Nicole had returned to her position behind him once again. The look in her blue eyes was as lifeless as always.


    "Nathan can you help me get down from up here!?" Kyle held no confidence in his own ability to get down from the tree.


    "Sure give me a sec." With a small sprint, Nathan used the tree trunk for a boost to grab the top of the branch as he pulled himself upon it.


    "Wha!" Before Kyle could say anything Nathan had scooped him up as he hopped down to the ground while carrying Kyle. Landing into the soft forest ground from such a height while carrying Kyle turned out to be a bit more strenuous than he imagined leaving his legs a bit numb and in pain from the landing, but it was nothing he couldn¡¯t take.


    "There you''re down." With that being done Nathan approached the boar corpse and pulled out his sword before cleaning in some grass, while Kyle was clutching his chest trying to calm down his heart rate.


    "Could you give me a warning next time?" Nathan paid no attention to Kyle as he had already started to explore the nearby area with his senses.


    "Let''s go before the bloody scent of the boar draws more beasts here."


    "Wouldn''t that be great we can just wait here and kill the beasts that come!"


    "Do you have the mana for that?" Nathan had pointed out a fact Kyle had completely overlooked in his excitement of leveling up.


    "Ah... yeah, your right let''s go."


    "What''s your maximum mana anyway?"


    "After the level up, I got it to five. It should take me about half an hour to get it full. If only I had some mana potions."


    Nathan once again began to focus on his hearing and smell as he tried to find any other prey nearby.


    "Hey, why did you stop?" Nathan only gestured to Kyle to be quiet as he just had picked up the howling in the distance that was getting noticeably closer to them.


    "Wolfs or wild dogs are approaching us!" Now that it was pointed out Kyle also noticed that the distant howling had become lauder.


    "What the hell do we do!?" Just imagining facing off against a pack of wild wolves terrified Kyle. One boar had already possessed such a treat to them but a pack of wolves was on a completely different scale.


    "We can''t outrun them in a forest. Our best bet should be to climb a tree and hope they just eat the boar and leave us alone." Even Nathan himself didn''t quite believe what he said as just seeing the aggressiveness of that boar made him doubtful a pack of wolves would leave them alone. But if it was enough to convince Kyle.


    Nathan quickly chose the sturdiest tree in the nearby area, boosting Kyle up on its branches as he soon followed him up there.


    "Let''s climb higher!" Just hearing that statement terrified Kyle he already wasn''t feeling too well at this height and needed help to get down.


    "It''s fine I will stay here. I will be able to use my fire magic better here." As they began to wait on top of the tree branch the howls of the wolves became louder and louder.


    "Nathan, we should be safe up here right?" Kyle was feeling quite terrified with the loud howls that seemed to resonate all around them.


    "Have you ever seen a wolf climb a tree? As long as they don''t have range attacks we should be fine." Just as he was saying that he managed to spot through the trees the first wolf of the pack. A brown coat of fur with height over a meter with length well over 2 meters long. It was following the path they took as it tracked their scent.


    "Quickly climb higher! They could reach us from this height!" Nathan quickly commanded Kyle in a quiet but stern voice as he himself began to climb higher. In the end, he was forced to pull Kyle up by his arm up a further tree branch as he held the staff in his hands.


    "Why does your sword just hover in that white mist when you climb?" So far Kyle tried his best not to question Nathan''s abilities but seeing something so magical as a flying sword in a white mist truly amazed him. In reality, it wasn''t white mist that held his sword but Nicole that Kyle simply couldn''t see.


    "Shush they are here."


    The wolf had approached their tree and began to sniff around it till it stood on its hind legs with the support of the tree looking straight at them.


    "Blast it!" But it was too late it let out a howl notifying its pack of their location.

 Chapter 5: Just the two of us

    Completely terrified Kyle wasn¡¯t able to react in time to gather his mana. His fear has gotten a hold of him, disabling his ability to focus his mana to cast spells. The howling of the wolves held a weak fear effect making it extremely effective on Kyle who was already afraid, to begin with. He kept trying to convince himself to treat all of this just like a highly realistic game.


    Yet just like a chain reaction coming from that single howl of the scouting wolf the rest of the pack responded intensifying the fear effect of their howls. One after another began to appear as they began to surround the tree beneath them. There were exactly thirty of them in varying sizes. One wolf especially stood out as its size overshadowed the rest of them. The alpha of its pack standing well over two meters tall with residuals of blood still coating its jaws. Its fur was shiny and clean being in a much better state than any other wolves. If you compared these wolves to the regular wolves back in their world. They possess much bigger claws that were superior to regular wolves with mightier jaws. Their tails seemed special as well, but Nathan couldn¡¯t determine exactly why.


    If a regular wolf would be helpless of hunting a creature that has climbed a tree they weren¡¯t at all. With the howl of their alpha, they began to move in leaving deep marks in the tree as they shredded it with their claws. They worked in unison with great pace if nothing was done the tree they were on would fall any minute now.


    "Kyle we''re gonna die if you don''t start blasting them with fire!" His fear of being ripped apart alive by wolves was greater than the fear he felt towards the wolves themselves. It took him twice as long as it would have normally, but Kyle was still able to cast a ball of fire at the wolves down below. With them, all bunched up the fire was able to spread as their fur coughed on fire. But that was as far as their luck could carry them as the fire even spread to the very tree they were on.


    Seeing the hesitation Kyle had started to show as soon as the fire had started to spread to the tree they were on Nathan yelled out.


    "Keep burning them, take out as many as you can!" Nathan''s shout was able to wake Kyle up from his panic as he began to cast his magic one again. One ball of fire after another hit the pack of wolves diminishing their numbers greatly before they retreated out of Kyle''s range as they watched the tree slowly burn up.


    They were running out of time as the smoke from the burning tree started to engulf them as the heat kept increasing on top of the burning tree. Still, Kyle had managed to kill a good chunk of the wolves as they burned to death while still leaving a great deal of them with burned wounds. It was enough for Nathan to level up as he checked his system notification.


    | Level 2 forest wolf has been slain x7 |


    | +10(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 3 forest wolf has been slain x4 |


    | +30(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 4 forest wolf has been slain x1 |


    | +60(-50%) Experience |


    | Level up |


    This level up had given Nathan the chance he needed as he added his skill point into shared power raising its effectiveness.


    | Shared power | 2/5 |


    | You and the spirit can share part of each other''s power. |


    | +20% of each other''s base stats. |


    | Name: Nathan Bandon |


    | Level: 2 |


    | Class: Spiritualist |


    | Status: Haunted |


    | Strength: 7(5) |


    | Vitality: 6(4) |


    | Agility: 7(5) |


    | Sense: 11(10) |


    | Magic power: 5(3) |


    | Mana: 3 |


    | Attribute points: 3 |


    Nathan was under great pressure as he tried to figure out a way out of their current situation. They couldn¡¯t run away from a pack of wolves no matter what they did but they had a small chance of winning if they stood their ground against them. If Nathan invested every attribute point he had into agility it should give him enough speed to dodge a much greater portion of the attacks coming his way. But that would leave Kyle to defend on his own, Something he wasn¡¯t capable of. While investing everything in vitality should enable him to tank more attacks from the wolves while guarding Kyle and staying next to him. Investing all his points into vitality could only work if Kyle still had some mana left to kill the majority of wolves while Nathan defends him.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Kyle how much mana do you have?"


    "Uhm... 3 mana after the level up!" The smoke and flames had only become more intense and Kyle with his weaker vitality wasn''t taking it as well as Nathan.


    "We are going to jump down and stand our ground. I will take on as many of the wolves as I can!" With that statement, Nathan invested all his attribute points into vitality as he jumped down from the tree while holding Kyle. The higher vitality made the fall barely bearable even from a height of about four meters.


    As soon as the wolves noticed they had jumped from the tree the howl of the alpha signaled them to attack as the remaining eighteen wolves including the alpha at the back began to rush towards them as they traversed the forest ground pursuing their prey that was running away from the burning tree into a clearing that was just perfect for them.


    ¡°Cover me!¡± Nathan had suddenly stopped as he utilized his senses to the highest degree as the world around him slowed down by a tiny bit. Gathering his mana into his blade he released a soul slash at the charging wolves. Just as his soul slash hit the wolves, a ball of fire blasted a cluster of wolves as well, setting them ablaze as their fur caught on fire.


    His sword intercepted the lunge of a wolf. Leaving his side wide open for another wolf to attack him only to be shredded by the upgraded claws of Nicole. The wolves hadn¡¯t just mindlessly attacked them head-on as by the time two of the lunging wolves were killed the rest of them had managed to form a circle around them cutting off any escape roots they could take.


    Without giving them any chance to recuperate they began to charge straight at them. Six of them went for Nathan while another six went for Kyle. By now both of them had completely lost track of where the alpha had gone as just taking on six wolves took immense focus for both of them. Instead of using his fireball skill Kyle began to channel his mana directly into the staff as he began to discharge a constant wave of flames from the tip of his staff. He arced the flames to cover all 6 of the wolves as he began to roast them alive. Nathan wasn''t idle either as he sent out another soul slash that hit two of the wolves forcing them to stop their rush. His sword shattered into pieces against the skull of another wolf leaving him wide open. This wasn''t ignored as a wolf pounced at him trying to take a chunk out of his neck. Its bodyweight knocked him to the ground, almost causing him to miss the chance to defend against its bite. It''s fangs sunk deep into his arm leaving bloody holes, but before it could do even more harm the broken sword pierced its eye socket ending its life.


    As Nathan lied on the ground from the corner of his vision, he managed to just see a sight he won''t ever forget. From Kyle''s flames, the alpha had emerged using his own flames as a way to conceal its actions. The bloody jaws of the alpha tore a huge chunk out of Kyles¡¯s body. Not even able to utter a scream as his body crumbled to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His body disappearing into particles of light only leaving behind his fire staff.


    Nathan''s mind went blank as he saw the death of his last teammate. Yet the alpha couldn''t care any less about what mindset his prey was in. Almost his whole pack had been wiped out with the exception of the pregnant females and pups in its cave. It was absolutely furious right now even at this point he could see it¡¯s pack being killed in front of it.


    Nicole had been actively killing off all the remaining wolves on Nathan''s side all this time leaving only the alpha and three severely burned wolves still standing. The three of them had already killed twenty-six of them.


    Clenching the broken sword in his hands turned Nathan''s knuckles white while the veins in his arm bulged. He understood Kyle hadn¡¯t truly died here. But he wasn''t able to protect him and what if one day his weakness will cause him to lose Nicole once again! It wasn''t something he could accept.


    His anger was channeled into his mana as it gathered into his broken sword sending out two soul slashes in a row towards the dashing alpha. Its speed was great enough to dodge the majority of the slash as it got bearly nicked by the edge of the slash. Its bloody jaws snapped shut millimeters from Nathan''s falling body only keeping his life due to a pull from Nicole. Her delicate hands had morphed into demon-like claws leaving ten wounds on Nathan''s shoulders from her pull. She didn''t just stop there as the same claws changed their trajectory almost instantly going straight for the face of the alpha. Even with its thick hide, they dug deep into its skin crippling one of its eyes while tearing off a chunk of its nose.


    But the wolf''s viciousness shouldn''t be underestimated as its fangs began to turn into a deep shade of red as mana began to gather into them, activating it¡¯s skill as it snapped at Nicole¡¯s claws. Due to the mana in its fangs, it was able to do damage to Nicole as both her arms were now stuck in its mouth. Seeing that the wolf was hurting Nicole the last shred of hesitation Nathan held towards killing another living being he had held this long had shattered.


    Regaining his balance with a stomp Nathan sprung into action as the broken blade pierced the singed mane of the wolf. The shattered blade completely broke inside its body as sharp metal fragments tore its flesh apart. Instinctively it had let go of Nicole''s arm from this blow. Only to begin receiving a barrage of claw attacks. But that in itself wasn''t even half as bad as Nathans follow up move. His now empty hand had burrowed into the wound he just created as the fragments of the shattered sword dug into his hand while pushing and cutting up the insides of the wolf even more. After that, it didn''t take long for the alpha to collapse. By the time its body fell to the ground, Nicole had already taken care of the wounded wolves as Nathan began to receive a barrage of system messages as the fight was officially over.


    | Your teammate has fallen in battle disqualifying him from the tutorial. |


    | Experience will be transferred to you based on your level standard. |


    | Level 2 forest wolf has been slain x1 |


    | +20(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 3 forest wolf has been slain x11 |


    | +30(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 4 forest wolf has been slain x5 |


    | +80(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 5 Elite forest alpha wolf has been slain |


    | +300(-50%) Experience |


    | Level up |


    | Tutorial feat has been accomplished. |


    | Exterminating a wolf pack. (Solo) |


    | You have fought alone against a pack of vicious wolves and came out victorious. |


    | Rewards: Wolf-bone sword, 1 Skill point, 2 attribute points, Wolf-blood elixir. |


    After killing all those wolves Nathan had leveled up only once while any other level 2 would have reached level 4 and been more than halfway towards level 5. Yet he wasn''t feeling a shred of regret, just a sense of relief seeing that Nicole was still fine after taking the attack of the alpha only being a bit more transparent then he usually perceived her as.


    "I''m glad you''re alright." Even with both, his hand''s a bloody mess with deep gashes on his shoulders he was smiling as he looked at her.


    She was still here with him.

 Chapter 6: The uniqueness of a spiritualist

    Nicole''s lack of response to Nathan''s words still worried him, but he could only believe that it was due to their low level. The guide did say it was possible to bring the dead back then again did Nicole even count as a dead person with her being here now with him? It was a question Nathan had no answer too. Resting against the corpse of the wolf. Nathan started to sort out his rewards.


    After accepting the feat rewards a pure white sword resembling a fang of a wolf materialized in front of him together with a small vial with sticky red liquid in it.


    | Wolf-bone sword |


    | A blade made out of a complete skeleton of a wolf through alchemy. |


    | Damage: 30 |


    | Ability: Damaged against beasts increased by 15% |


    | Wolf-blood elixir |


    | Elixir made out of the blood essence of an alpha wolf.


    | Consuming the elixir grants: Minor night vision and smell enchantment. |


    | 10% chance to cause a mutation after consumption. |


    Before opening his status screen Nathan invested his two skill points into shared power.


    | Shared power | 4/5 |


    | You and the spirit can share part of each other''s power. |


    | +40% of each other''s base stats. |


    | Name: Nathan Bandon |


    | Level: 3 |


    | Class: Spiritualist |


    | Status: Haunted |


    | Strength: 10(5) |


    | Vitality: 12(7) |


    | Agility: 10(5) |


    | Sense: 12 (10) |


    | Magic power: 8(3) |


    | Mana: 3 |


    | Attribute points: 4 |


    Seeing the massive increase in his stats came as a great surprise to Nathan. At first, he couldn''t understand how Nicole was giving him so much power. But by using his base stats and the 40% bonus he got from shared power he managed to pinpoint that Nicole had to have between 13-14 points for stats that received a bonus of 5. As he couldn''t see her status screen himself this made no sense to him. Unless her stats were different than his own. Yet the more he thought about it the more sense it made to him. How would a spirit use stats like agility, strength, vitality? Or could her class if she had one increased her stats massively? Nathan could only speculate without any proof in his theories until he could access her status screen as well.


    This unexpected boost to his stats enabled him to change his approach for his stat investment.


    | Soul slash | Level 1 |


    | Send out a slash of spirit mana damaging the soul |


    | Damage: 100% |


    | Range 5 meters |


    | Cost: 1 Mana |


    The skill ignored the physical defense completely only being hindered by the mana that flowed inside one''s body naturally unless they had other means of defending against magical attacks.


    After obtaining his class Nathan had also naturally learned how to use the skill itself. Now that his stats were almost doubled by Nicole he had the leisure to not worry about his physical stats letting him invest his attribute points towards the development of his only attack skill. Splitting the 4 attribute points he had Nathan raised his mana to 5 and magic power to 10 with Nicole''s boosts. In the end, the spiritualist class wasn''t technically a melee class. So even if he invested all his attribute points into his physical power it wouldn''t be nearly as effective as it would for a class designed around it. While other classes had the ability to raise their stats through the skill tree the spiritualist didn''t have that option. Instead, they benefited from the power of their companion. Overall Nathan''s class could be counted as one of the rarest classes out there due to the requirements it had for acquiring it and with its rareness came the uniqueness it held as well.


    Holding the glass vial with the sticky red liquid in his hand Nathan contemplated whether he should take the risk of consuming it. The odds of the mutation happening were low while the benefits seemed equally low as well. Removing the vials cover the most potent stench of blood oozing out from the small vial overwhelming all his senses. The liquid smoothly flowed out of the glass vial as Nathan took a swig of it. After entering his body a sensation of heat began to radiate from his eyes and nose that quickly grew to a blaze forcing Nathan to scream out in pain as he began to roll around on the ground clutching his face.


    In the process of receiving the enchantment, he had lost the track of time completely. Sprawled on the forest ground covered in sweat out of breath. The feeling of intense heat had disappeared only to be replaced by intense itchiness that was slowly fading away as well.


    "There really should have been a warning about that!" After going through that suffering Nathan slowly began to notice the change it had brought. The shadowy parts of the forest had become noticeably brighter as well as the increase to his ability to pick up scents and track them. Nathan was forced to take his time and adjust to the changes unlike trough attribute points or skills that just seemed to come naturally.


    Through his phase of adjusting Nathan had managed to pick up an odd sent. The wind had carried a potent stench of decay and rot. There was something else mixed in with it as well. Something that felt odd yet familiar he couldn¡¯t pinpoint what exactly it was but it was enough to pique his interest. Setting it as his next target in the tutorial.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    The Elixir had also restored a portion of blood he had lost while his cut-up shirt made a crude bandage on his arms as his vitality worked on fixing his injuries.


    While traveling through the forest following the stench of decay a few random beasts had tried to attack him, netting him an easy hundred experience. The closer he got to the stench of decay and rot the foliage around the forest became more sparse to the point everything around him had clear signs of lacking vitality. The trees looked dry and on the verge of death while having almost no beasts in the nearby area around the forest. In the distance, a stone temple stood surrounded by death. As Nathan began to examine the clearing around the temple, he could spot four weapons sprawled on the ground in the distance.


    "Those are spirits right?"


    All around the temple were disfigured monsters as they aimlessly wandered in the surroundings of the temple. This was the first time Nathan had seen another spirit that wasn''t Nicole. Their body portions didn''t match their bodies while some even had more limbs than regular humans. Some of them looked more transparent than others while some of them kept constantly switching between being transparent and solid for Nathan. A spirit with disproportionate arms that were way too huge for its body had approached especially close to the tree Nathan was hiding behind. It aimlessly wandered around dragging its arms on the ground leaving trails in the grey sand-like ground that surrounded the temple. It had entered the minimal range for Nathanas¡¯ soul slash. Not wasting the opportunity Nathan released his soul slash as it. The transparent blade cut the spirit¡¯s body into half before it realized what had happened as its body disappeared into thin air. This was the power of a class made for dealing with spirits.


    | Level 2 wandering spirit has been slain |


    | +20(-50%) Experience |


    The death of the spirit had caused a chain reaction as every single spirit wandering around the temple had stopped their aimless wandering. Their bodies began to twist and turn as they began to focus their gaze towards Nathan creating an invisible pressure on him. Almost at the same time, they had set their gaze on him. They began to rush at him simultaneously as well. The thought of facing over a hundred spirits didn¡¯t even cross his mind as Nathan spirited away. The spirits ignored every obstacle in their way as they chased Nathan, simply passing through the trees or even using them as a way to boost their speed in the pursuit.


    It was simply impossible for him to dodge and escape every attack the spirits did, but this is where Nicole had come in with her claws intercepting the attacks of the spirits as she defended him.


    After running for a couple of minutes Nathan noticed the attacks from spirits had stopped as he turned around to see them slowly walking back towards the temple.


    "Why did they stop pursuing me?" Nathan was puzzled by this sudden discovery.


    "Could they not leave a certain area around the temple?" That seemed like the only logical explanation to him as he examined them going back to the temple after suddenly stopping. Just before this, their attacks had only increased in intensity as more spirits had been able to cover the distance between them. He needed to test out his theory and he had just the tools he needed for it.


    "Nicole moves as far as you can from me." He had never tested the limits of the distance they could be apart from each other. She began to float away from Nathan until she reached about 30 meters away from him. With every step he moved towards her she could move that distance forward it worked the same way backward as well. If Nicole was bound to him then the spirits around the temple must have been bound to the temple instead or something inside it.


    "Come back!" Now Nathan had gained a better understanding of spirits. A plan had begun to manifest in his mind for a way to deal with those spirits.


    As soon as his mana had returned to full the plan was put in motion as Nathan once again entered the temple grounds. Aggroing the spirits once again by killing one of them just as before they began to rush at him. Only this time they weren''t nearly as spread out as before as a wave of spirits began to rush at him. Nathan began to release one soul slash after another before sprinting away once again. This reckless and simple plan of tining their numbers was only possible due to Nicole defending him against any attacks from the chasing spirits.


    Just like before the spirits had reached the invisible border unable to move any further away from the temple. Only this time lingering longer on the border before returning.


    After sitting down and waiting for his mana to return once again Nathan looked through the system messages.


    | Level 1 wandering spirit has been slain x12 |


    | +5 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 2 wandering spirit has been slainx4 |


    | +20(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 3 wandering spirit has been slain |


    | +30(-50%) Experience |


    | Level up |


    Nathan proceeded to invest his skill point into shared power as it reached 5/5. The branching paths from shared power lit up as they unlocked.


    | spirit familiar| 0/1 |


    | You can make a spirit your familiar, enabling you to view their stats and manage their growth. |


    | The spirit must be willing to become familiar with you. |


    | Having a familiar disables any gains from having multiple spirits. |


    | Shared energy | 0/5 |


    | The spirit can transfer their energy towards you |


    | 20% efficiency |


    "Just one more level up and I will finally be able to learn more about Nicole''s situation!" He will be able to understand how 50% of Nicole''s stats were giving him +8 to four of his stats. The 2 attribute points he had gained were invested in magical power as it reached 7 but with the help of shared power, the final number was 15. A number he could have only reached by investing all his so far gained attribute points into magic power.


    It was time to decimate some spirits! One soul slash split a great chunk of spirits in half as they rushed at Nathan. One soul slash after another split them in half.Only a few of them were able to resist a soul slash together with the lucky few who had only gotten nicked by its power or had their limbs severed. After retreating, Nathan saw the spirits screaming and banging at an invisible wall as they glared at him. They were helpless in front of the duo that countered them so well. A fighter couldn''t even hurt them while a mage would never be able to escape their rush. Even with their pitiful awareness, they were filled with deep hate towards the duo.


    This was the power of a spiritualist that was only growing stronger with each death of their companions.


    | Level 1 wandering spirit has been slain x24 |


    | +2.5 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 2 wandering spirit has been slain x13 |


    | +10(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 3 wandering spirit has been slain x4 |


    | +30(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 4 wandering spirit has been slain |


    | +40(-50%) Experience |


    Even after killing 42 spirits, his experience wasn''t even halfway towards level 5. Showing the difficulty of leveling up as your level rose. Still, it didn''t discourage Nathan one bit because by the end of his spirit slaughter he should be able to reach level 5 and gain access to Nicole''s status screen.


    Through the constant waiting of his mana to regen, Nathan began to experiment on ways to increase speed his mana could come back. Seeing if it was possible to sense the mana in the air and draw it in. At first, it only came as something vague that might not even be there. But through constant repetition of trying to sense and draw it in while fully focusing on only that, Nathan managed to gain some success in it.


    | Meditation | Level 1 |


    | Through practice you have learned to achieve mental clarity and an emotionally calm state of mind. |


    | While meditating natural mana and health regeneration is increased by 10%. |


    He didn''t even want to imagine how long it would take to restore his mana if it was 50 instead of 5. By the time it was full once again the sky had become darker as night was approaching. It wasn''t bad enough to make him unable to see the ground with his minor night vision helping him but if it got even darker the chances of him tripping as he ran in the forest would greatly increase.


    This time the spirits had instantly reacted as soon as Nathan entered their domain as they began to rush at him through the forest from all sides. It didn''t take Nathan long to notice this fact as he backed off to the very edge of their domain. Their terrifying howls and screeches almost ruptured Nathans''s eardrums as they banged on the invisible barrier. Their terrifying demeanor meant nothing for Nathan as he released a soul slash towards them. Cutting a chunk of the spirits in half but this attack evoked a change in the spirits!


    The bounds they once had were seemingly removed as they once again were able to rush towards him. They gave no care to their lives as they mindlessly rushed at him willing to do anything to rip him into pieces. Nathan''s soul slash cut through them only being resisted by a few that took two slashes instead of one. The most threatening spirit that was ahead of the rest only went down after taking 3 soul slashes to its body leaving Nathan with only 1 mana.


    The spirit''s limbs morphed as they attacked Nathan only for them to be shredded by Nicole as he began to retreat once again. Nathan wasn''t limited to the use of a sword when it came to his skill as he turned around and waved his hand sending out a transparent slash cutting up the spirits as it traveled 5 meters. The blade just made it more convenient to use.


    The spirits had once again hit another invisible barrier after Nathan had run twice as far from the temple then before. The spirits'' savage pursuit of them was truly fierce as even with Nickole defending him his back was covered in bruises and slashes. Not daring to stand so close to the invisible barrier again. Nathan retreated deeper into the forest climbing a tree as he began to treat his injuries as night was quickly approaching.

 Chapter 7: With acceptance came ruthlessness

    Completely exhausted from all that had happened today Nathan fell asleep soon enough at the top of the tree. He was unaware of the danger that lurked in the tutorial during the night. A treat big enough to even force the nocturnal predators to hunt at day. Not everyone was as lucky to choose a place close enough to one of the boss zones where they didn¡¯t go often to hunt. These creatures¡¯ bodies were attuned to the dark as they traversed the forest encountering another team in the tutorial completely wiping them out in seconds before they could even put up a fight. With the death of this team, there was only Naththan¡¯s team and a team that held a naturally born unique power holder left.


    Waking up from his deep sleep Nathan was instantly hit by his body screaming for food. It felt like he hadn¡¯t had any food for days. He had yet to realize this but as his stats grew so did his need for resources to keep his body functioning. His vitality had even taxed him greatly in the process of healing his injuries, something that he will have to get used to in the future.


    "Let''s go get some food and water before wiping out the remaining spirits!"


    Just as always Nicole was staying by his side making his emotions just as complicated as they were from yesterday. He felt great joy seeing her once again, but the state she was in worried him greatly. Yet he believed and hoped she would return to the person she was one day. That was his motivation to push forward and face this new dangerous world.


    Finding the food he needed, proved to be much easier than he initially anticipated. There were quite a few fruit trees in the forest that sated his hunger. Water was a bit more challenging as even if the water in the river looked clean he wasn¡¯t sure if he wouldn¡¯t get sick from drinking it without first boiling it. Still, he took the risk of drinking it without boiling it. Trusting his now higher vitality should take care of any bacteria or viruses in the freshwater river. His lacking ability to start a fire made him recall Kyle. He would have been a great help in this situation he could have even had some cooked meat instead of just fruits.


    After taking care of all he needed Nathan once again approached the temple seeing the changes he had brought after his yesterday raid. The spirits surrounding the temple seemed to have returned to the state they were before he attacked them as they were back to just wandering its grounds. Their numbers had dwindled greatly enabling Nathan to count how many of them were there. Exactly thirty-eight spirits were left. This was a number he could try to take head-on now that his confidence was at an all-time high with the level up of his soul slash.


    | Soul slash | Level 2 |


    | Send out a slash of spirit mana damaging the soul |


    | Damage: 125% |


    | Range 10 meters |


    | Cost: 1 Mana |


    Its range had doubled while its power had gone up! With this increase of power, the lower level spirits die from a single soul slash while even the highest levels need only two or three slashes to be finished off. As Nathan continued to run around the temple grounds the spirits became more and more clustered letting his soul slash hit multiple targets simultaneously decimating their numbers even quicker. Their attacks couldn¡¯t even touch him with the tight defense Nicole had made for him together with his ability to dodge their attacks.


    In a short span of time their numbers had dropped greatly as now there stood only five spirits and even those were already injured. But with only one point of mana remaining and his stamina getting low, there was no way he could use his soul slash to finish them off.


    Three of them were well over two meters tall with odd body modification. Two of the spirits were bound by chains while the last one had spikes embedded in its body with a constant look of pleasure on its face. While the last two seemed to be quite different from those three. One looked like a mix between a human and a spider with its limbs morphed into disfigured angles as it walked on all four. The last one had a constant look of agony on its face as it constantly kept scratching its body with its elongated nails leaving marks on its body that soon enough reverted back to the state before it had scratched it only to be scratched again by it. The last one especially disturbed Nathan there was just something off about that spirit.


    He didn¡¯t want to just simply run away from the spirits and wait for his mana to regenerate now that there were only five of them left as he started his guerrilla warfare with them. Compared to the over thirty they were at the start Nicole had the opportunity to counter-attack their attacks as well leaving deep claw wounds on their bodies as they became more transparent with every swipe she did.


    This continued for quite some time until the perfect opportunity came up for Nathan¡¯s soul slash enabling him to hit all 5 of the spirits killing three of them in the process. While the two that remained were quickly finished off by Nicole.


    The battle was over as Nathan fell down on the ground exhausted as he began to look through the system notifications.


    | Level 1 wandering spirit has been slain x10 |


    | +3 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 2 wandering spirit has been slain x6 |


    | +10(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 3 wandering spirit has been slain x8 |


    | +30(-50%) Experience |


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    | Level 4 wandering spirit has been slain x10 |


    | +40(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 5 wandering spirit has been slain x4 |


    | +50(-50%) Experience |


    | Level up |


    Finally, Nathan had leveled up and could unlock the Spirit familiar ability in the skill tree. Investing his newly gained skill point into it, he felt a strange energy connect him to Nicole. From now on he would always know her location. Opening her status screen his questions were finally answered.


    | Name: Nicole Bandon |


    | Class: Emotion spirit |


    | Level: 5 |


    | Status: Familiar |


    | Corporal manifestation: 27(19)


    | Soul power: 21(19) |


    | Awareness: 11(6) |


    | Attribute points: 0 |


    | Skills: Soothing Level 5 | Emotion sense Level 1 | Claw manifestation Level 3 |


    Skill tree


    | Spirit reinforcement | 5/5 |


    | The spirit gets reinforced and purified, increasing the abilities of the spirit. |


    | +10 corporal manifestation and soul power |


    | Class: Emotion spirit |


    | A class designed around a spirit who is still lingering around the world due to their strong emotional bond to the living world. Unlocks the emotion spirit class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any spirit related skills. |


    Nathan reread all the information multiple times as he gained a better understanding of Nicole''s situation together with the information he gained as she became his familiar. After taking it all in, a weird feeling welled up inside him.


    "So you''re an Emotion spirit." A spirit who only lingered into the world of the living with fragments of the emotions of their past lives. They had almost no memories of their past lives, just the emotions that bound them.


    Could a spirit like that be even seen as the person they once were? A person was made by their memories and the encounters they have gone through. Nathan felt his whole world had just become a lot darker as this realization had hit him. He had started to question things he had tried to avoid all this time as the information he didn''t have before had hit him straight in the face as he was facing a rude awakening.


    That constant feeling of a chill with its warmness he had felt all this time had intensified in magnitude as Nicole had felt his emotional distress embracing him in an even tighter hug. Even if she had lost most if not all her memories she still cared for him just as before.


    They had always been together since birth and she had been, no is the closest person he could always rely on. Their relationship wasn''t one that others would see as healthy but they had never cared about the opinions of others. Nathan couldn¡¯t help but start recalling the memories they once shared together.


    "Remember when we were little and you got picked on by the other kids in the orphanage and I wasn''t able to take it seeing you be picked on due to your shy nature and got into constant fights with the older kids in the orphanage. And then they said I picked a fight with them, making me get punished instead." Tears had started to well up in Nathan''s eyes as he was the only one to ever remember the past they once shared from now on.


    "Or when we had gotten too old to share a room together anymore in the orphanage as we threw a tantrum. We weren''t able to have a decent night of sleep after that for such a long time." His tears flowed uncontrol as he held her in his arms.


    "I missed you so much after you died!"


    Both of them had been flawed humans that were overly emotionally dependent on each other. That fact never bothered them, they were just happy to have each other.


    Letting out all his emotions had helped Nathan greatly as he began to calm down. He had accepted that the Nicole he once knew will never be back and things will never go back to the way they were. But her emotions and feelings were still here with him and he will ensure that the loss he once felt would never happen again. As he got up from the ground a sense of ruthlessness had manifested inside of him.


    Nathan began to compose himself he started to meditate regaining his lost mana as he got ready to enter the temple. The particles of mana in the air suited his mana, increasing his mana regeneration as they entered his body refiling his mana. After investing his 2 attribute points into mana it had reached 7 as he began to climb the stairs of the temple.


    Standing on top of the staircase Nathan could finally see what was inside the temple that the spirits had wandered around. Everything inside was made with the most beautiful marble he had ever seen with a row of pillars leading up to the throne where a giant human skeleton bound with chains to the throne sat. Two undead beasts resembling canines were chained to the throne as well as acting as loyal guardians for the giant skeleton.


    "You dare enter my temple!" The skeletons booming voice ruptured Nathan''s eardrums making him lose his hearing completely as all that remained was the constant ringing from the loss of his hearing as the blood started to flow down from his ears. The constant chill that came from Nicole held his emotions in check as he didn¡¯t get flustered by the sudden loss in his ability to hear as he rushed towards the skeleton.


    As soon as he got in range the transparent blade slash from his skill struck the chains on the skeleton leaving white marks on them. Before he could release more soul slashes the two guardian beasts had begun their rush towards him. The skeleton wasn¡¯t idle either as his voice shook the whole temple as he struggled to free himself from the chains.


    "Right one!" Without hearing his own voice Nathan directed Nicole to take on the right beast as he engaged with the beast of the left as he sent out a soul slash while dodging its attack. The white bone blade left deep marks in its rotting flesh and bones with every Nathans attack as they engaged in combat.


    A sword strike together with a soul slash hit the beast straight into its skull as Nathan was sent flying from its paw. After taking Nathan''s attack it was completely dazed as Nicole''s claws took its life. She had already finished off the beast on the right all by herself but with every death of the guardians, the chains bounding the skeleton to its throne loosened up. Becoming transparent as they snapped bearly bounding the skeleton at all.


    With a stomp of its feet, mana began to travel towards Nathan as spikes resembling bones sprouted where Nathan just stood. Yet had managed to sense the mana and dodge its attack just in the nick of time as he countered the skeleton forcing more of the chains to snap letting it free from its bounds.


    A spear made of bones manifested in its hands as it flew at Nathan forcing him to use his blade as a shield. The force of the impact pushed him to the ground as the sword he held cracked. Nicole had begun to engage the skeleton in combat in the meanwhile as her claws made marks on its skeleton. The skeleton raised its hands up in the air as mana gathered into its hands with an ear-shattering clap of its arms a bone coffin manifested around Nicole as she was pierced by the bones inside it. Nathan couldn''t see her anymore as the bone coffin had completely enclosed around her.


    His eyes became bloodshot as he screamed rushing at the skeleton. Amused by Nathan''s visible pain it laughed as its arm morphed into the blade. He met the cracked bone sword head-on as it shattered from its strike taking Nathans''s arm with it. The pain of losing an arm didn''t even register in his brain as he sent out a soul slash with his other hand at the skeleton. Only to be blocked by the skeletons blade arm as it used his other arm to strike at Nathan. The impact of the punch had broken something in his body but before he could be sent flying using his only arm he grabbed the forelimb of the skeleton holding on to its body as he used his leg to kick at it while sending out a soul slash with it.


    The bones on the skeleton''s arm morphed as they pierced Nathan''s hand. The soul slashes did great damage to it even if he blocked it with his bones. Its mind had become hazy after taking the last slash without anything blocking it as its control of mana weakened greatly. This had given Nathan just enough of a chance to strike the skeleton''s jaw with his foot as his fingers ripped off from bone binding him to the skeleton. The soul slash he released in the process had hit the skeleton''s biggest vulnerability as its soul got cut in half. Its body crumbled to the ground as the magic it once controlled began to disappear

 Chapter 8: The forest god

    Nicole¡¯s body began to appear riddled with holes all over her. She had become completely transparent as if the slightest breeze would extinguish her existence. If Nathan had killed the skeleton only a couple of seconds later she would have died right here. The system that governed the tutorial didn¡¯t seem to treat her the same way it would a player, making Nathan question if she died would she return back to the real world as he would? He wasn¡¯t willing to test it out even if he had to sacrifice himself in the process. With one of his arms completely missing and the other''s arms hand completely cripled he didn¡¯t see himself lasting much longer in the tutorial as well. But before that could happen he began to accept the rewards of killing the giant skeleton.


    | Level 5 Elite corrupted guardian has been slain x2 |


    | + 100(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 5 Boss sealed bone king has been slain |


    |+ 250(-50%) Experience |


    | Level up |


    | Tutorial feat has been accomplished. |


    | Conquest of the sealed king. (Solo) |


    | You alone have done the impossible and won against a small army of spirits and dethroned their king. |


    | Rewards: Osteokinesis, 1 skill point, 2 attribute points, Sealed kings cloak. |


    | You have surpassed the max level of the tutorial enabling you to leave the tutorial. |


    As soon as Nathan accepted the feat rewards the knowledge of osteokinesis filled his mind as well. He had gained an understanding of how to control and create bones with his mana. With this newly gained power, he saw a ray hope to still continue the tutorial. Using his mana he began to grow out the bones in his arm while using them to seal off the bleeding wounds. They clamped around his open wounds stopping the bleeding while investing 3 of his attribute points into vitality raising it all the way to 20 with the bonus from shared power ensuring his vitality will be able to sustain his messed up body.


    Taking care of the immediate danger Nathan checked out his gains in more detail as he began to meditate to regain his mana.


    | Sealed bone kings cloak |


    | The cloak that had been with the sealed bone king since the very start of his journey. |


    | Increases osteokinesis experience gain by 10% |


    | Decreases osteokinesis cost by 10% |


    | Increases magical power by 10% |


    | Osteokinesis | Level 1 |


    | By using mana you can control and create bones with high enough mastery you can change the properties of the bones. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    | Using osteokinesis on already existing bones greatly reduces mana consumption. |


    | Unsuitable base mana: Cost of Osteokinesis increased by 25% |


    Taking off the bloody rags that his shirt had become, Nathan replaced it with the sealed king¡¯s cloak that had shrunk to fit his body perfectly. Nathan especially enjoyed the look of the cloak with its deep dark color that seemed to just suck the light around it in with the runes in the color of bones that covered it. With its length, it could hide his shirtless body completely as it reached down all the way to his ankles.


    Now with the bonus from the sealed king¡¯s cloak and full mana, Nathan began to grow out a skeleton arm out of his stump of an arm. It was a slow process but slowly and surely he had manipulated his mana to create a bone arm and restore his fingers. In the process of restoring his arm, Nathan even acquired a new skill as well.


    | Mana manipulation | Level 1 |


    | Your control over mana has reached the threshold to be counted as a skill. You''re able to support your spell casting with the natural mana of the environment. |


    | Mana consumption up to -5% |


    | Mana control +5% |


    The effects from it were quite minor but in the end, it added up saving him quite a bit of time as his control over mana grew better together with the environment that boosted his mana regeneration. The restored arm wasn¡¯t anywhere near perfect with lots of minor errors all over the bone arm but it was good enough for his first attempt with Osteokinesis. Still, unless he controlled it with mana it only limply handed on the stump that his arm had become making him now constantly use up his mana but it was better than just having a stump. The last attribute point was added to mana while his 2 skill points were added into shared energy.


    Now that his situation has completely stabilized Nicole had signaled to him through their connection that she was lacking in vitality to restore her body to its peak state. Even after all this time she was as transparent as before only the holes that riddled his body had been closed restoring her beautiful appearance.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Take it" He could feel the vitality from his body leaving as it transferred to Nicole as her body slowly became less and less transparent with every second his vitality was drained. His base vitality of 10 had dropped to 9 afterward. Compared to most Spiritualist Nathan''s situation was quite different as having a spirit that didn''t linger in the world of the living due to malicious intent was a rare event and finding a spirit that would collaborate with you willingly is even harder. Mostly they would do everything they can to tax their host''s vitality for a greater chance to possess their bodies and gain a living body for themselves. Even sometimes going as far as to take damage purposefully so their master would be forced to spend vitality to restore them.


    Now that Nicole had returned to her peak form, Nathan had left the desolate temple in search of more benefits from the tutorial. As his stats kept increasing so did his apatite causing quite a big problem with having no way he could start a fire until he recalled something so obvious he had completely missed it leaving him feeling quite dumb.


    Retaking the path he took to get to the temple Nathan soon enough found the corpse of the Alpha wolf picked clean of its meat by the beasts of the forest. Near its body was the broken staff that Kyle once used. Removing the red crystal from the damaged wood he acquired a fire crystal.


    | Fires crystal |


    | A naturally formed crystal filed with fire mana. |


    Now that Nathan had acquired a way to create a fire by infusing his mana into the fire crystal. He quickly proceeded to hunt down a mighty deer with the help of Nicole and his soul slash netting himself some cooked meat. Without any proper tools or spices to enchant its flavor, it didn¡¯t taste too good but it still made him extremely happy as just munching on wild berries and fruits couldn¡¯t restore all the energy his body needed.


    Through the constant use of his mana manipulation to control his bone arm and the four fingers he was missing it had leveled up.


    | Mana manipulation | Level 2 |


    | You''re able to support your spell casting with the natural mana of the environment. |


    | Mana consumption up to -10% |


    | Mana control +10% |


    As it didn''t seem worth it to run around and hunt down the random beasts in the tutorial Nathan began to walk upstream near the river he had found. It was Nathan''s second day in the tutorials stage 1 and the world outside this safe environment had already changed drastically. Three factions had gained access to Nathan''s world. The faction that could be viewed as a neutral faction that gave the world its system letting it defend against the invading forces. The guide was also part of this faction and had given Nathan an explanation of what had happened. The mana that had invaded his planet had already started to drastically change the natural environment of the planet. While the tutorial was a great place to find your way of combat that would suit yourself and by overcoming challenges and gaining rewards that would give you power beyond others the neutral faction didn''t offer these benefits to those that weren''t in the tutorial. While in stage 1 of the tutorial the max level of creatures was restricted to 5 while in the outside world it was free for all with no major restrictions making Nathan wonder if it was truly worth staying in the tutorial for this long. He had yet to realize that more than a billion humans had already died with that number becoming higher every second.


    Still, the benefits of getting a feat done in the tutorial were just too good for him to leave just yet and soon enough he had found a target. Near the river was a cave with bones all around it. Inside the cave was the biggest creature Nathan had ever seen a bear with a physique greater than that of an elephant. Compared to a normal bear it''s appearance had changed greatly as well. Its claws were much greater in size while its fur was a mix of green and brown with vines and moss growing from its body.


    It was currently sleeping inside the cave on a pile of bones. There was even a recently half-eaten deer still in the cave. Its massive body required a lot of food giving it a habit of storing extra prey in its cave while over time more and more remains of its prey had amassed in its cave. The bear was known as the forest god. One of the strongest opponents in the whole tutorial.


    Its nap had been completely ruined as the bones all around it rose into the air as they morphed into sharp spikes that pierced its body from every angle making it look like a giant porcupine. The attack had barely pierced its tick hide but had greatly annoyed it. The natural mana in its body began to mix with its blood as its wounds healed with visible speed as bone spikes fell from its body. Its two gigantic front paws slammed the ground sending out a wave of mana rooting Nathan in place as the roots of plants entrapped Nathan in their embrace as they began to sprout thorns, lodging themselves in Nathan''s body.


    Before things got completely out of hand Nicole had freed him from the root¡¯s clutches as Nathan jumped and rolled out of the way of the bear''s charge. Its body had hit a tree instead uprooting it from the ground itself. The forest king clutched the fallen tree in its paw before throwing it at Nathan with the help of its mana. Only for Nathan to intercept it as a blade resembling the head of an axe manifested in front of him splitting the tree in half from the force of the bear''s throw. The ground trembled as the forest king began to charge at Nathan once again as it tanked the soul slashes that were thrown at him.


    Nicole had already left Nathan''s side by now as she manifested her claws and engaged the bear leaving claw wounds all over its body that were visibly healing. The forest god''s claws glowed with green light as he swatted her only to be intercepted by a bone spike giving enough time for her to circle it as her claws left marks on its body. The vines on its body began to grow and thicken as he began to use them as whips to strike at her body. She intercepted the vines with her claws as the ground beneath the forest god got littered with pieces of shredded vines.


    "Come back!" Nathan''s mana was running low. He needed her to return to begin energy transfer so he can start using his soul slash once again. Physical attacks barely did anything to the forest god with its high defense and insane regeneration. The forest god began to send out waves of mana towards Nathan as he kept chasing him. In terms of speed, it was faster than Nathan but its gigantic body hindered its pursuit as the trees kept getting in its way. Before he knew it Nicole had run out of mana she could transfer him as her body grew transparent.


    "Consume my vitality to restore your mana!" He didn''t believe the forest god would be able to take much more of his soul slashes as its healing abilities didn''t encompass its soul. His bet had paid off as after taking another 5 attacks its body crashed to the ground to never move again. It had cost him 1 of his base vitality to take it down but it had been well worth it as he began to read the rewards.


    | Level 5 Boss Forest god has been slain |


    |+ 250(-50%) Experience |


    | Tutorial feat has been accomplished. |


    | Mightier than the forest god. (Solo) |


    | You have vanquished the forest god without a team, a feat deserving an equally great reward. |


    | Rewards: Plant magic, 1 skill point, 2 attribute points, Lesser health regeneration. |


    The information about his two newly acquired skills began to flow in his mind as he gained the understanding to use them.


    | Plant magic | Level 1 |


    | By using mana you can control the plants around you with high enough mastery you can even create plants. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    | Using plant magic on already existing plants greatly reduces mana consumption. |


    | Unsuitable base mana: Cost of plant magic increased by 25% |


    | Lesser health regeneration | Level 1 |


    | Passive: Increases bodies natural healing properties by 20% |


    A few of his skills had leveled up as well.


    | Spirit mana | Level 2 |


    | Your body''s mana has attuned itself with spirit properties. |


    | Passive: Mana regeneration increased in a rich spirit mana environment. |


    | Using magic not related to spirit mana takes more mana. |


    | +4 Mana and magic power |


    | Soul slash | Level 3 |


    | Send out a slash of spirit mana damaging the soul |


    | Damage: 150% |


    | Range 15 meters |


    | Cost: 1.5 Mana |


    Nathan added a point in his mana and magic power raising their base value to 12 and 10. As he began to use his bone arm to butcher the corpse of the forest god preparing to cook its meat.

 Chapter 9: End of the tutorial

    The meat of the forest god was simply delicious even without any seasoning to it. After being forced to sustain himself on fruits and berries all this time he couldn¡¯t help but overeat it. In this process, he had found something quite interesting as a system message appeared in front of him.


    | Forest god¡¯s gallbladder |


    | The gallbladder of the forest god is potent enough to work as a natural elixir of its own giving benefits to the body on consumption. |


    | Increases the natural strength of your immune system. |


    | Increases the efficiency of your digestion. |


    | Has a synergy effect when eaten together with forest god¡¯s heart. |


    | Forest god''s heart |


    | The heart of the forest god still contains the residual essence of its power after eating it you can inherit some of its innate power as well. |


    | Increases your natural health regeneration by 10 points. |


    | Has a synergy effect when eaten together with forest god¡¯s Gallbladder. |


    | Forest god¡¯s power |


    | If a forest god''s heart and gallbladder are eaten at the same time their effects will be greatly boosted and create new ones in the process. |


    | the immune system will be greatly strengthened. |


    | The body will be able to digest a much greater variety of substances without harming the body as well as utilize them for the benefit of your body to a much greater degree. |


    | Body¡¯s natural regeneration will be strengthened, raising it by 25 points. |


    | You will acquire a minor plant magic affinity. |


    | Increases experience gain of plant magic by 25% |


    Nathan was truly surprised by this discovery, he would have missed it completely if he hadn¡¯t been so greedy with its meat and butchered the forest gods corpse so much. Now he couldn¡¯t help but wonder what else he had missed so far if things like forest god¡¯s power from eating it existed.


    While most would feel disgusted about eating a raw gallbladder and a heart of an animal. Nathan felt excited for the increase in power they would give him as he gobbled them up. Their taste was truly rancid with his increased sense just making it even worse as he held back from puking it all out. His body felt numb now with a tingling sensation all over his body that lasted for a couple of minutes before the system notified him of gaining the forest god¡¯s power.


    Something unexpected had happened as well, he had unlocked the ability to look at his health and mana regeneration after gaining forest god¡¯s power.


    | Health regeneration: 31/m |


    | Mana regeneration: 0,6/m |


    Nathan couldn¡¯t see his maximum health value so he was quite unsure how potent 31 health regeneration per minute was. But after gaining forest god¡¯s power he now felt full of energy and hungry once again as he proceeded to cook more of its meat before following the stream once again.


    After a couple of hours of walking upstream, Nathan finally reached a gigantic lake that was connected to the stream he was following. The other side of the lake was covered by a massive wall of mist that covered the sky and land obstructing his view of anything beyond the lake. Still, the view was truly beautiful as the sun glistened on the surface of the lake, only the surrounding peaceful environment was ruined by the sound of battle. There was a group of four humans battling a creature made purely of water. It used the water of the lake to bombard the party four with all kinds of water-related attacks leaving the shore of the lake a ruined mess. But the party of four was holding against the creature quite well. Somehow all of them knew how to use fire mana as two of them were throwing fire magic at the water elemental while another two had their weapons covered in fire mana as they engaged the creature.


    Nathan had no way of knowing this but they had just come from the fire lands of the tutorial one of the five boss areas of the tutorial. The Fire lands, The great lake, The sealed King''s tomb, The never-ending mountains, Forest gods cave, were the five boss areas of the tutorial they were in.


    As Nathan watched their fight they were oddly even in terms of power with no clear winner in sight. But one person had struck his interest a lot more. Compared to others he just stuck out way more as he created a sense of hunger in Nathan that he had never felt before. It wasn¡¯t lust he felt, but the natural reaction of a predator finding a juicy plump meal. The very first skill he had ever acquired had activated for the first time.


    Unjust gain, a unique skill he got from the system that seemingly had done nothing all this time had started to bare its fierce fangs.


    Nathan knew if he killed this man right here and now he will become much more powerful. In these seemingly two short days, he had been in the tutorial he had completely changed his way of approaching things. The hesitation he once felt from the idea of taking another''s life had completely disappeared. He could no longer afford to have such a mentality if he wished to stay together with Nicole in the world that had become so much cruller.


    Nathan couldn¡¯t handle this newfound feeling of needing to kill that man as he entered back into the shade of the forest as he started to creep closer to the group of four while examining their abilities in more detail.


    At the back of their small group stood a pretty average looking black guy. He was clearly a fire mage as he kept gathering his mana into his fire staff he held compressing a dense cluster of fire mana into a ball before making it strike the body of the water elemental. The compressed ball of fire mana travels at around 100 meters per second before exploding and covering a good chunk of the water elementals body in flames that lingered on its body for quite a while before naturally extinguishing due to its water-like body.


    The only women of their group could also use fire magic, but it was lacking in power. She was mostly using a different type of magic on her teammates.


    A chubby guy with a burning shield was mainly drawing the aggro of the water elemental as they engaged it in battle but from all of them, the most eye-catching one was still a blonde guy around 180 centimeters tall with great physique wielding two burning swords as he sliced the water elementals body leaving sizzling wounds on its body. He even seemed to be able to tank the water creature better than the chubby guy as the attacks that hit its body left fewer marks while healing at a faster speed.


    Yet the most intriguing part about their way of fighting was their seemingly endless mana compared to Nathans. By observing them long enough he had gotten his answer to that mystery. All of them seemed to possess red orbs from which they drew mana to refill theirs. Nathan still didn''t know what they were, but with its help, they were slowly winning the battle as the water elemental was slowly being overwhelmed by all the magic thrown at it.


    By now Nathan was already behind them as he waited for a good opportunity to attack them. Yet if nothing changed soon they would defeat the water creature, but it wasn''t any sitting duck that you could just attack with no repercussions. It began to release a lot of mana as a giant wave formed in the lake that soon swept everyone away from it except the blonde guy that lodged his two swords into the ground stabilizing his footing. The two mages in the backline had been swept all the way into the forest where Nathan was hiding, giving him the opportunity he was looking for. Signaling Nicole to take out the women Nathan morphed his bone arm into a blade that he plunged into the fire mage''s skull ending him on the spot. While Nicole''s claws took the women¡¯s life just as quickly as well.


    Nathan and Nicole were currently level 6 while all of them were only level 4 the difference of 2 levels was nothing to look down upon. Not to mention Nathan counted as a solo player that gained all the benefits from feats to himself while the party of four had to split it between themselves. The death of their two teammates shocked them greatly as they turned around to see the ghastly image of Nathan.


    The black cloak completely covered his figure as a skeletal arm pierced their comrade¡¯s skull while blurry white mist resembling a girl with demon-like claws was returning to his side as it left the shredded corpse of the women behind. This attack had taken them complexity by surprise and it terrified them as they got completely distracted by it. As if the water elemental knew what was going on it launched a dense stream of water towards the fat guy sending him flying towards Nathan as he screamed in panic. Not wasting this chance two soul slashes were released in a row passing through his body as the life in its eyes had disappeared as his body vanished into thin air leaving behind his shield and weapon with two red orbs.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Hey, nice to meet you." Nathan waved at the blonde guy with his bone arm that was still covered in blood in a friendly manner.


    "Wha..." This action had completely distracted him as the water elemental launched compress blades of water at him splitting open his skin as he screamed from the pain. Not giving the poor guy any chance Nathan started to assault him with his soul slash. unexpectedly he was able to react in time as his flaming swords intercepted the soul slash diminished the damage it did to him greatly. His swords maneuvered with great speed as he blocked both Nathans and water elementals attacks with his swords as he dodged their attacks. The wounds on its body were even healing with visible speed as the battle between the 3 parties continued. He was putting on a great fight as with every second he was in battle he was becoming more proficient.


    Still, the power of a level 5 boss and Nathan wasn''t something he could deal with now that he has been battling the boss for such a long time. Nathan began to use his plant magic on the local plants to entrap the guy as thick roots reached out entangling his feet messing up his flow while bone needles began to materialize all around him as they pierced his skin. The momentum he had been building up all this time had completely shattered together with the hope he held to survive in this situation. The water elemental seeing the opportunity Nathan had created for him began to use highly compressed but still nimble tentacles to whip the body of the blond guy leaving long lacerations on his body. This had forced him to put his full focus on the water elemental as he tried his best to defend himself while rooted to the ground with his two burning swords leaving his back wide open for Nathan as one soul slash after another began to bombard his back leaving him dazed and his mind cloudy. Unable to make the correct decision to focus on blocking Nathan instead of water elemental as his soul got chopped into pieces.


    "Thanks for the help, but it''s your turn now!" Nathan began to launch his highly effective soul slashes towards the water elemental who was on verge of death already from the battle before, ending its life soon enough as well.


    "Why isn''t his body disappearing?" The blonde guy''s corpse was still here and hadn''t disappeared like the rest of his team. But the battle was clearly over as the system began to give out its rewards


    | Level 4 Human has been slain x4 |


    |+ 20(-50%) Experience |


    | Unjust gain has been initiated. By the right of unjust gain, the killing of a unique ability holder is final. |


    | Tutorial feat has been accomplished. |


    | Last one standing. |


    | From the 16 people that entered the tutorial you alone stand in their place. |


    | Rewards: Lone wolf, 1 skill point, 2 attribute points, Survivor. |


    | Level 5 Boss Water elemental has been slain |


    |+ 250(-50%) Experience |


    | Tutorial feat has been accomplished. |


    | It''s just water (solo) |


    | You have proven that even a creature made from pure water means nothing in front of your power. |


    | Rewards: Water magic, 1 skill point, 2 attribute points, Lesser mana regeneration. |


    The information on his newly acquired skills flowed in his mind as Nathan began to read their effects.


    | Perfected adaptation. |


    | Your body and mind can naturally adapt to any situation much faster than normally possible. |


    | +1000% to natural bodies adaptation |


    | Lone wolf |


    | You have proven to work your best alone |


    | Passive: +10% to your stats when not in a party |


    | Survivor |


    | Surviving is a major element of life and you have proven you have what it takes to be called a survivor. |


    | Passive: Your ability to survive in different environments is greatly boosted. |


    | Water magic | Level 1 |


    | By using mana you can control and create water with high enough mastery you can change the properties of the water. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    | Unsuitable base mana: Cost of water magic increased by 25% |


    | Lesser mana regeneration | Level 1 |


    | Passive: Increases bodies natural mana gathering ability by 20% |


    The change perfected adaptation brought him was the biggest change he had experienced so far in the tutorial well-deserving its title of a unique ability. It had an effect on pretty much everything as the skills he learned now felt more natural to use the same with his body and it¡¯s stat increase. Even recalling the battles he had so far he could now notice so many more mistakes than before and what he could have done to make those battles so much easier. Yet all of that was just the icing on the cake that was a perfect adaptation. The benefits of this fight were truly the greatest he had gotten so far. Opening his status screen it had changed so much compared to when he opened it the first time.


    | Name: Nathan Bandon |


    | Level: 6 |


    | Class: Spiritualist |


    | Status: Haunted |


    | Strength: 16(5) |


    | Vitality: 19(8) |


    | Agility: 16(5) |


    | Sense: 14(10) |


    | Magic power: 22(10) |


    | Mana: 13(12) |


    | Attribute points: 4 |


    As Nathan sat near the lake enjoying its beauty he began to invest his available points raising his base sense stat to 14 as well as investing his 2 skill points into shared energy.


    | Shared energy | 5/5 |


    | The spirit can transfer their energy towards you |


    | 100% efficiency |


    This had unlocked more options from his spiritualist skill tree.


    | Shared body | 0/1 |


    | The spirit is able to enter your body giving you 75% of the spirits stats as well as gaining access to its skills. |


    | The spirit must be willing to share your body. |


    | Both individuals involved will have control of the body. |


    | Soul protection | 0/2 |


    | As a spiritualist, your soul is the most important aspect of yourself. |


    | Passive: Creates a barrier that protects your soul from attacks equal to 50% of your magic power. |


    With that being done Nathan began to gather the equipment that has been dropped around him.


    | Fire mana core |


    | Created by an aspiring mage to store excess mana |


    | A core that contains fire mana. |


    | Mana: 10/10 |


    Nathan put 5 of these cores in an animal hide sack that one of them had left behind. There was still so little he knew from all that had changed with the introduction of a system and mana to the world and he was finally ready to embrace it.


    Doing all he needed he held Nicole''s arm as he pressed the option to leave the tutorial.


    | You have completed stage 1 of the tutorial |


    | Teleporting to tutorials shop |


    Everything disappeared around him as he once again stood in front of the guide with a new system message.


    | Calculating current balance |


    | 1 point for each experience point acquired in the tutorial. The total experience acquired is 4896. |


    | 500 points for each feat accomplished total is 2500. |


    | Current balance: 7396 |


    "Welcome back mister Nathan did you enjoy your stay in the tutorial?" The same woman he knew as the guide welcomed him once again with her calming effect.


    "Mhmm, Yeah it was truly a pleasant experience." He still held Nicole''s cold hand into his now restored arm. She was here with him and that was all he ever wanted.


    "I would expect nothing less from one of our most promising candidates of the tutorial." Her demeanor was truly calming and pleasant to be around.


    "I''m pleased to announce that mister Nathan has reached the highest amount of points so far. So shall we begin?" The information on how the shop worked had already entered Nathans''s mind as they were talking similar to how a skill would be learned.


    Every single option costs exactly 1000 points the required experience to reach level 4 for a normal participant of the tutorial while Nathan had to acquire twice that amount to reach it. Just based on the amount of experience he had gotten it would be enough to reach level 10 something that was impossible in the tutorial.


    In this calm atmosphere making difficult decisions came much easier as Nathan went over his options on what would be the best for him.


    | Shop | Cost:1000 |


    | Random item |


    | Random skill |


    | 1 skill point |


    | 2 attribute points |


    The two random options could give him massive gains but it was all up to luck. Something Nathan didn''t want to take his chances on. The ability to gain 7 skill points or 14 attribute points seemed way more enticing for him. Now he just had to decide which one would benefit him more. The attribute points would be nice but his skill tree made his connection with Nicole even deeper swaying his option to choose 7 skill points instead. Those points were quickly invested in his skill tree as more options unlocked.


    | Shared body | 1/1 |


    | The spirit is able to enter your body giving you 75% of the spirits stats as well as gaining access to its skills. |


    | The spirit must be willing to share your body. |


    | Both individuals involved will have control of the body. |


    | Soul protection | 2/2 |


    | As a spiritualist, your soul is the most important aspect of yourself. |


    | Passive: Creates a barrier that protects your soul from attacks equal to 100% of your magic power. |


    | Spirit magic | 4/5 |


    | As you travel further down the path of a spiritualist so does your ability to utilize spirit magic. |


    | Passive: Increases XP gain of spirit related skills by 20%. |


    | Increases the power of spirit related skills by 20%. |


    Nathan was just one point shy of unlocking the next skill trees boon. Now that he had made his choice the guide gave him an option.


    "Mister Nathan since you have been staying in the tutorial for quite some time the area you were in can''t be seen as safe anymore. You can choose to be teleported to a random place that is deemed safe for living."


    "I let you choose that for me." Nathan smiled at her as his body began to disappear from the white room.

 Chapter 10: Holding onto false hope

    The graveyard where he once stood had disappeared as he found himself in a completely foreign area that looked like a rural farming area. Nathan was standing in the middle of a newly created camp where quite a few people were doing random chores or just lazing around looking bored. Before he could take in the situation at the camp any more himself an old man in his fifties with a noticeable beer gut had approached him.


    "Hey, you must have just returned from the tutorial so welcome to our small camp, I''m Bryan the owner of this small farm.¡± The man reached out for a handshake that Nathan accepted, His hands were big and rough from doing hard labor over many years.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m Nathan glad to be back with all my limbs again.¡± Before losing his arm and several fingers he had never appreciated then actually being there and not having to use artificially self-made ones.


    ¡°Sounds like you had quite the rough time over there young man, come next to the fire and have some beef stew. It¡¯s my grandfather¡¯s recipe so I¡¯m sure you would enjoy it.¡± Like the old man¡¯s offer, Nathan joined him near the fireplace as Bryan poured him thick beef stew in a bowl.


    ¡°Young man you must be curious about what has changed since you were in the tutorial with all the scary stuff the guide put in our heads!¡¯ Nathan nodded as he immensely enjoyed the beef stew it had felt like forever since he ate something with proper seasoning and spices.


    ¡°Hmm well, where should I start. Since all of this happened there has been no electricity. The phones have no signal as well so have no idea what¡¯s going on out there.¡± While listening to the man he had already finished his bowl of stew and was going for seconds.


    ¡°Ah, I¡¯m glad to see you¡¯re enjoying the stew. We got plenty of meat for it since the farm animals went all crazy and we had to put them down. Sigh even that good boy I had for over ten years went all crazy.¡± The old man instantly looked sad as he recalled that sad memory of him needing to put down his loyal companion.


    ¡°Sorry about that, where was I? Ah yes, we got plenty of food due to it but other supplies like toilet paper and other essential things are running out. So some of the young lads around the camp have decided to go to the town to see how things are there. Yuuki over here will be acting as the leader for our trip to the town.¡± Bryan pointed to a young Asain man in his late teens that was eating some stew near them.


    ¡°Nathan was it? You look quite strong, do you wanna join us in our expedition to the town?¡± Yuuki had been listening to their conversation on the side this whole time. Finally getting the opportunity he was looking for.


    ¡°Sure, how far away is the town?¡± Nathan saw no reason not to join them. This was even a great opportunity to grow his level even further.


    ¡°It¡¯s 5 kilometers away so about an hour¡¯s walk I would say. What level are you? What can you do?¡±


    ¡°Level 6 and mostly magic.¡± As Nathan talked he summed some water mana while making some shapes in the air with it. Demonstrating that he wasn¡¯t just bull shitting them.


    They kept chatting for a while as they got to know each other better as well introducing the rest of the people that would be going on the trip. Nathan found out the highest level prior to him showing up in the camp was only 4 while most of them were only level one or two. Turns out now that the system was introduced to the world it had some hidden benefits as well. For example, it automatically translated any language to the one the person understood the best as Yuuki had been talking in his native tongue this whole time as well as hearing it.


    After they had chatted for a couple of minutes the last member they were waiting for had returned and they were ready to go.


    "So, Nathan I meant to ask you before this, but what¡¯s up with that white mist that always hovers around you? Around the camp, there was none that could see Nicole at best only the white mist silhouettes that hovered around Nathan.


    ¡°It¡¯s just one of my skills.¡± Nathan didn¡¯t want to tell others about Nicole, knowing most would find it really strange. The fewer people knew about it the better it was for him.


    An eager looking small lady had approached Nathan as well as she began to chat with him. She was the last member they had been waiting for


    "Could you teach me some of your magic?


    "I can teach you wind magic in return!" She was one of those people that we''re fascinated by the newfound ability to use magic there were a surprisingly small number of people that could use magic in the camp. That was also the reason the rest of the group was waiting for her. She was off learning magic from another guy in the camp.


    ¡°Sure, I can try teaching you water magic.¡± It was a trade of equal value as Nathan began to tell her how water magic worked while demonstrating it. Subconcensily they had both moved to the back of the group as they created a distance between the group. It was a trade between the two of them there was no reason to let others benefit from it. It took her about an hour to finally be able to change her mana into water causing quite a bit of frustration in Nathan seeing her not able to do something he viewed as easy.Stolen novel; please report.


    "Thank you, uhm let me teach you wind magic now then." Her name was Elizabeth, she had long lush blonde hair and bright blue eyes. With a friendly demeanor that made her quite the charming little lady. Teaching magic turned into quite the interesting experience as they knew how to use it only by the information they got from the system and rephrasing it into words others could understand turned out to be more difficult than initially assumed but Nathans perfected adaptations was in full effect as he felt the wind mana Elizabeth used and her being a better teacher than him as he quickly picked it up.


    | Wind magic | Level 1 |


    | By using mana you can control and create wind around you. With high enough mastery you can change the properties of the wind as well. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    | Unsuitable base mana: Cost of wind magic increased by 25% |


    By then they could already see the small town in the distance and things were not looking good. Both of them rejoined with the group as they began to decide on how they would proceed. They could already see a lot of the buildings had been greatly damaged as if a war was fought in that small town just a couple of hours ago.


    ¡°There is a weird creature in that building!¡±


    A guy looking through binoculars exclaimed in shock as he pointed to a building with a destroyed wall, drawing everyone¡¯s attention to it.


    Nathan with his enchanted sight had an easier time seeing the creature compared to the rest. It was about four meters tall with a hunched back. Its whole body was covered in reptilian scales. Even with those scales covering its body you could see it¡¯s unnaturally muscular physique together with that massive tail covered in spikes it would definitely pose a great problem for most in their group.


    ¡°Fuck I can¡¯t believe such monsters now exist in our world!¡±


    "Yeah, what the hell are the government and the army even doing, letting such creatures be in town!¡±


    "Yeah, what the hell are the government and the army even doing!" Like a chain reaction from those that had yet to accept the world had truly changed started to well up. They had been split up from their families and seeing such a threatening creature here in their world worried them deeply. What if their mothers or wives were attacked by something like that? Even if they had grown a bit stronger facing something like that seemed impossible. Most of them still believed things would return on how they were in due time.


    "Calm down everyone!" Yuuki tried his best to calm down the group as their leader but it wasn''t too effective.


    "Yuuki, do you plan to fight such a beast? Can you even do anything to it?"


    "We can just enter the town from a different angle. We still have to find some supplies for our group!"


    "So are we supposed to risk our lives in that town while they just sit there doing nothing!"


    "No, but..." Before things kept escalating, even more, Nathan passed them by as he started to walk towards the town.


    "Let''s not waste our time here if you''re too scared to enter the town, leave." With that being said Nathan kept walking ignoring the group behind him. He was fully confident in his own abilities, something that most lacked in the group.


    "Nathan wait up!" Elizabeth called out to him as she ran towards him leaving the group behind as well. In the end, their group of 9 people had split up as 4 of them returned to the farm. Surprisingly the group that entered the town had two females while the group that left had none.


    Yuuki had approached Nathan''s side as he quietly spoke to him.


    "Thanks, I didn''t know what to do there."


    "Don''t worry let''s go."


    One of the rare people that were originally from the area spoke up as they had almost entered the small town.


    "There''s a small shop quite close to us." He pointed to the desolate street where they could see a building with its windows destroyed as the sign that once let others know it was a shop had blocked its entrance.


    "Alright let''s go." It was much better than just wandering the town with no goal in mind.


    Halfway towards the shop, Nathan had suddenly noticed a pair of claws reaching out from the side of the alleyway. The hand of those claws was covered in the same dark scales letting him know it was the same type of creature they had spotted before.


    Reacting fast Nathan rushed towards it as the mana in his body gathered into his hand as he began to convert into a dense cluster of wind mana. The compressed wind mana in his hands blasted the creature off its feet as it''s two claws left deep marks on the sides of the buildings. The blast of wind had done no damage to the creature but had created an opportunity for Nathan''s follow up attack. The skin in his hand split apart as a bone spike emerged from it condensing into a dense and sharp spike that quickly plunged into the belly of the creature as Nathan dodged the kick it threw at him. Not stopping there from the plunged bone spike, more spikes sprouted as they pierced the insides of the creature that looked like a mix between a human and an alligator that had been fed steroids since its embryo phase.


    It let out a roar of pain as it clutched the two walls that entrapped it using them as support to lunge at Nathan with its alligator-like jaw. Yet before it could succeed and rip Nathan apart Nicole emerged from the wall next to it as her claws materialized enclosing around its neck leaving deep gashes as it split open its scales. Giving Nathan the time he needed to dodge its attack as he cut off his connection with the bone spike. From the lunge, it¡¯s body fell on the street in view of the rest of the group.


    ¡°I got this!¡± A bone sword materialized in Nathans¡¯s hands as it pierced the eye socket of the beast. Using all the strength in his body Nathan plunged the bone sword even deeper in its head reaching its brain and ending its life. The beast stood no chance from the moment it got struck by the surprise attack of Nathans.


    | Level 9 Laceromo has been slain. |


    |+ 270(-50%) Experience |


    "Let''s go before more show up!" Nathan''s strength had truly surprised them, he had told them he was just a mage but his physical powers seemed even way better than Yuukis creating a lot of questions they had towards him. Still, they were grateful for having such a strong member of their group even if it was a pity he wasn''t in the party and they didn''t get any experience.


    They were smart enough to realize this wasn¡¯t the right time to question Nathan about his abilities as they quickly entered the shop through the broken window. A nasty stench had suddenly hit them from inside the shop. Without electricity, some of the products had gone bad not to mention it was quite hot outside. Even worse those that had come before them had ruined a lot of the food as it was thrown on the ground and stepped on or even half-eaten and just thrown on the ground afterward.


    Just as they had started to scavenge the shop of supplies they could take with them Nathan had picked up an odd buzzing sound that was becoming louder with every second. Not wasting any time Nathan rushed out from the shop only to see the distant sky and land had turned dark as an absolutely massive swarm of insects was approaching the town fast. The newfound power he had found so much confidence before meant nothing in front of such a force. For the first time after coming out of the tutorial, Nathan began to feel truly hopeless in front of the changing world he had just begun to explore.

 Chapter 11: Light gods blessing

    Nicole¡¯s soothing skill was in full effect calming down Nathans¡¯s emotions. As he tried his best to come up with a solution in this crisis. For all, he knew the swarm of bugs could occupy the town for days if not weeks if there was enough food for them here. He had enough time to just run away from here, but he would be leaving all these people to die. He hasn¡¯t become so cruel yet there must be another solution here. Nathan didn¡¯t have the time to consider all the possibilities as he began to act running back into the store.


    ¡°Grab all the food you can and throw in the backroom of the shop.¡± It was a small room the staff of the shop had used for rest and some paperwork. There was only one window there and two doors that he would need to barricade for them to bunker down there. As long as he blocked all the entrances with his magic, the bugs couldn¡¯t get in and would hopefully pass them by in due time.


    Seeing Nathan''s frantic movements as he threw in the bags not caring if anything inside could break, Yuuki began to question him. while Elizabeth ran outside as she looked at the sky just as Nathan had done.


    ¡°Nathan, what the hell is going on?¡± He couldn¡¯t understand why a man like Nathan with his strength would suddenly be acting like this.


    "There''s a huge swarm of Insects going straight for the city! We will hide in the back room of the store until they pass by us.¡± He couldn¡¯t believe Nathan¡¯s words. How could there be such a massive swarm of insects suddenly near the city has he gone crazy? Still, he went outside as he passed the pale-faced Elizabeth that had just returned.


    She had heard what Nathan had said to Yuuki but facing such a swarm of unknown bugs was just too terrifying.


    "How confident are you that''s gonna work?"


    "About 60% sure we''re gonna make it through this way." She had seen how strong Nathan was before this and 60% was enough to earn her trust in his plan as putting her trust into him seemed safer than just trying to survive on her own.


    ¡°Nathan do you really think we can survive like this? Because we are putting our lives in your hands by barricading ourselves in that room.¡± Yuuki seeing such a massive swarm was extremely doubtful in the success of Nathan¡¯s plan.


    ¡°If you have a better idea go for it. If not come inside the room I will be preparing my magic now.¡± Nathan felt a bit upset he could have just run away by himself but decided to stay with the group and try to save them while risking his life in the process.


    Before casting his magic Nathan gave the room one more look. All the bags of supplies were thrown into a corner of the room. The man that was from this area originally looked lifeless as if he didn¡¯t believe he could survive through this. The other woman''s face showed an expression that wasn¡¯t far from his as well. Yuuki and Elizabeth looked a bit more composed but not by much.


    Nicole¡¯s skill helped him keep his composure as he focused on gathering the mana from his body into a barrier of bones that began to cover the two doors and the window. The already dark room became pitch black as all the source of light it had was covered by the bone barrier. The small millimeter air holes that took immense focus to crate throughout the bone barrier didn¡¯t do much for light.


    In the pitch-black room, the sound of buzzing from the thousand if not millions of bugs that had already reached the city was absolutely terrifying, putting great pressure on everyone¡¯s minds. Nathan didn¡¯t have the leisure to calm down his teammates as he was forced to sit down and enter meditation as he began to try to draw in more mana from his surroundings to help him keep up the cost of having the bone barrier up.


    It didn¡¯t take long for the bugs to find their first prey inside the city as they tore him alive as his screams of pain rang throughout the city. It was like a chain reaction as bugs found more prey to feast on in the city even the 4-meter tall lizard creatures that prowled the city were helpless facing such numbers of bugs as their screeches of agony could be heard all over the city before being covered by the constant sound of buzzing.


    Only a couple of minutes later the swarm had surrounded them as they banged on the walls and bone barrier terrifying the group. Somehow the bugs knew they were inside the room and were doing anything they could to get inside.


    The sudden scream of a woman inside the room shocked them greatly.


    ¡°What happened!¡± Yuuki yelled out loudly in panic.


    ¡°Something bit me! It hurts!¡± She was crying completely frightened not knowing what she should do.


    ¡°There are bugs inside the room!¡± The alarmed shout of the man-caused panic as they didn¡¯t know what to do in this pitch-black room versus the bugs they couldn¡¯t even see! All of them had been regular people that had never faced any danger of such a scale but now they were forced to live in this apocalyptic world.


    ¡°Somebody help me!¡± More and more bugs had started to enter the room as they started to tear the people inside alive. Nathan began to use his senses to track down the source of the bugs. It was a small electric outlet behind a couch in the room. They were squirming through it as they entered the room. Acting fast Nathan began to trying to create a bone barrier there as well but the bugs were in the way. Their bodies got crushed between the bone barriers but as they got crushed they released their acidic body liquid melting the newly created bone barrier in the process.


    Nathan felt helpless not knowing what he should do. He could still escape by himself but there must be a way to at least save Yuuki and Elizabeth who hadn¡¯t been eaten alive by the bugs yet. While Elizabeth was doing a decent job defending herself with her magic Yuuki didn¡¯t have that as he kept swinging his sword in the corner of the room trying his best to defend himself as he grew extremely desperate.


    "I can''t die here!" His body was constantly bitten by the small bugs while two other of his teammates had already fallen to the assault of bugs as they rolled on the ground screaming while the bugs were eating them alive. He couldn''t accept dying here in such a way he was ready to give up everything just so he wouldn''t die here and get the chance to see her once again and finally tell her how he feels. His desperation was answered soon enough just like the plea of so many other humans in this changing world. He momentarily paused as he read the sudden system message before accepting the Light God¡¯s blessing.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    The mana in his body began to change and increase rapidly as the light god''s blessing gave him newfound power and ability to survive this. He released one of his newly acquired skills Light nova in the pitch-black room lighting it up as they saw the situation in it for the first time after the bugs had invaded. Two of their comrades were only bloody bones now while his own body was visibly bloody and riddled with holes. But holy nova and the mana in his body was healing his body rapidly as it began to cover the whole room frying the bugs alive as their bodies exploded into a rain of acid in the room. But it didn¡¯t matter holy nova healed any wounds the acid created.


    The holy nova soon reached Elizabeth as well as healing her injuries while frying the bugs near her. But just as it had reached Nathan and had started to heal his mild injuries his yell had surprised Yuuki greatly.


    "Yuuki stop that at once!" His voice had turned noticeably deeper while carrying the tone of absolute command.


    "What? We will die if I..." He couldn''t even finish his sentence as Nathan had cut him off.


    "Stop it now!" Nathan could only see the power of Yuuki''s newly obtained skill grow in power with no sign of it stopping. With every second his skill was active it was doing great damage to Nicole. Through their connection, he could feel the agony she was feeling while covered in the light mana as her body was starting to become more transparent with every second she was engulfed in the light mana. He simply couldn''t tolerate that skill being up for any longer and if Yuuki wasn''t going to turn it off himself he was left with no other choice.


    Each of Nathan''s hands released a soul slash straight at Yuuki as they cut the wave of light mana he had released in their wake until they reached Yuuki as they passed through him before his skill suddenly vanished as he dropped to the ground dead. With one look you could see Nicole had become noticeably more transparent resembling the time she was impaled inside the bone coffin but only her beautiful skin now had been left with burn wounds all over it. With the death of Yuuki, all that reminds of their past party of 4 was Elizabeth as she stared in shock at Nathan''s sudden actions.


    ¡°Why would you kill him!¡±


    Nathan didn¡¯t have the leisure to explain anything now as more bugs kept rushing in the room. He couldn¡¯t save them all but he could at least try to save Elizabeth. Gathering his remaining mana while transferring his vitality to Nicole he summoned a large ball of water mana that struck the hole where the bugs were coming in. Pushing them back inside the wall as they got stuck biting each other to create a path in the room once again. These insects weren¡¯t native to his planet, they were an alien species never seen in the world. They resembled a locus mixed with a dragonfly with their four wings and long back legs.


    Now that he had bought a bit more time for them Nathan took two of the loot bags with him as he approached Elizabeth. Without Yuuki''s skill lighting up the room it was once again pitch black but he was able to manage with the minimal light from the air holes together with his night vision. Elizabeth was completely exhausted sitting on the ground with a pale face. He will at least try to save her!


    A small barrier of bones started to enclose them as Nathan sacrificed its size greatly for its thickness. Multiple holes in the smallest possible size Nathan could create were made in the barrier to let in the air with the help of wind magic as he once again entered meditation to recover his mana faster. The system had also recognized this as the end of a battle.


    | Mana manipulation | Level 3 |


    | Your control over mana has reached the threshold to be counted as a skill. You''re able to support your spell casting with the natural mana of the environment. |


    | Mana consumption up to -15% |


    | Mana control +15% |


    | Osteokinesis | Level 2 |


    | By using mana you can control and create bones with high enough mastery you can change the properties of the bones. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    | Using osteokinesis on already existing bones greatly reduces mana consumption. |


    | Unsuitable base mana: Cost of Osteokinesis increased by 25% |


    | Meditation | Level 2 |


    | Through practice you have learned to achieve mental clarity and an emotionally calm state of mind. |


    | While meditating natural mana and health regeneration is increased by 20%. |


    | Level 4 Light Gods blessed has been slain. |


    |+ 40 (-50%) Experience |


    | Due to killing a holder of Light Gods'' blessing a bounty has been set on your head. |


    | Light God''s bounty: Anyone blessed by Light God will gain 2x as much experience from you as well as a special reward from the Light God. |


    | Level 0 Secerea armare has been slain. x356|


    |+ 1 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 1 Secerea armare has been slain. x45 |


    |+ 1 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level up |


    | Lesser mana regeneration | Level 2 |


    | Passive: Increases bodies natural mana gathering ability by 40% |


    | Lesser health regeneration | Level 2 |


    | Passive: Increases bodies natural healing properties by 40% |


    Now that both of them were inside the dome-shaped barrier he stopped supplying his mana to the bone barriers covering the window and the doors as the bugs began to enter the room in a frenzy only to see another barrier stopping them from getting to their fresh meat.


    Nathan now solely focused on controlling the barrier that surrounded the three of them. It was quite hard to keep your focus up with the constant buzzing from the swarm. They didn''t know how long had passed before Elizabeth decided to speak up.


    "Nathan... why did you kill him?" She needed to know the answer to why had he acted in such a way. From their session of teaching each other magic, she had started to view him in a favorable light and not a person that would just kill somebody with no reason.


    "His ability was hurting Nicole and he refused to stop its effect." Nathan''s answer made some sense to her but she still didn''t understand who was Nicole?


    "Could you explain to me who Nicole is?" She wanted to understand the situation better before coming to any decisions.


    "Hmm, Nicole is the emotional spirit of my dead twin. Through the system, she had agreed to become my familiar now as we support each other. You can see an emotion spirit as a ghost that holds only the emotions of their past.¡± This had given Elizabeth some insight into Nathan''s perspective on things as she tried to look at it from his point of view.


    ¡°You probably can¡¯t see her too well let me show you.¡± He took the fire crystal that radiates a weak light from his bag while instructing Nicole to materialize.


    The white mist that always hangs around Nathan began to shift as it took more of human-like properties before taking the form of a young woman in her twenties with long raven hair covering her body. For Elizabeth, she was completely see-through.


    ¡°Can she talk?¡± It felt so odd for Elizabeth to see a naked girl suddenly materialize in the small barrier out of that white mist.


    ¡°Not yet, but one day she will.¡± She had never seen Nathan take such a look of care and warmness to his expression and way of speech as when he looked at her.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking how did all of this happen?¡±


    Nathan might have just been feeling too guilty about his powerlessness when it came to saving their comrades but he started to open up a bit for Elizabeth.


    ¡°It was a couple of days before the apocalypse started, we were on our way to celebrate her first album release when a car that had malfunctioned struck the side of my car. Killing the driver of that car and Nicole almost instantly while I was just fine with just some bruises. After the system was introduced I understood she was still here with me in this form.¡± Feeling his emotional distress Nicole activated her soothing skill with more intestacy calming Nathan down.


    ¡°Sorry I shouldn¡¯t have brought it up.¡± Seeing the pained expression of Nathans as he talked about it she could see how much he truly cared about her.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, what did you do before all of this happened?¡±


    ¡°Uhm, I was in my second year of college for archaeology. I was in class before suddenly being summoned to that room with the guide before getting the reward of experiencing the tutorial.¡±

 Chapter 12: Queen of the swarm

    ¡°In the middle of the night, my team was suddenly attacked and before I could do anything I was back in front of that guide.¡± Elizabeth had just finished telling Nathan her experience so far with the tutorial.


    ¡°Hey, Nathan I was wondering if we could kill the bugs while inside the barrier for some easy level ups?¡±


    Nathan hadn¡¯t considered this before as the bugs only gave him 0.5 experience points per bug but there were thousands of them and if he manages to kill a good chunk of them leveling up shouldn¡¯t be a problem.


    ¡°As long as they don¡¯t die on the barrier it should be doable.¡±


    ¡°Okay, let me send you a party invite!¡±


    | Elizabeth White has sent you a party invite of equal rights. |


    | All experience will be shared 50/50 |


    | Accept | Decline |


    Pressing accept he could now see a small portrait of her in the corner of his vision showing her mana and health as well as her level.


    ¡°Wow, you''re really level 7! No wonder you are so strong compared to the rest of us¡­¡±


    ¡°Before we start I need to use up my stat points and skill points after the level up.¡±


    | Name: Nathan Bandon |


    | Level: 7 |


    | Status: Haunted |


    | Strength: 15(5) |


    | Vitality: 17(7) |


    | Agility: 15(5) |


    | Sense: 18(14) |


    | Magic power: 20(10) |


    | Mana: 12 |


    | Attribute points: 2 |


    Nathan added his two attribute points into his sense stat raising it to twenty with the bonus from Nicole. He wanted to raise his base sense stat all the way to 25 that¡¯s where the next specialty bonus was at. Now that he was in a party with Elizabeth he had lost the 10% bonus from Lone wolf making him a bit weaker. All that was left now was putting his one skill point into spirit magic.


    | Spirit magic | 5/5 |


    | As you travel further down the path of a spiritualist so does your ability to utilize spirit magic. |


    | Passive: Increases XP gain of spirit related skills by 25%. |


    | Increases the power of spirit related skills by 25%. |


    As he fully unlocked the spirit magic option something odd he had yet to experience had happened. The next ability in the skill tree hadn¡¯t unlocked.


    | Locked | Requires 20 points in spiritualist class tree to unlock next tier |


    He had fully maximized all the options in the skill tree he deemed is from the path of cooperation. Leaving only two options he really didn¡¯t want to take as he was worried about their effects on Nicole.


    | Spirit embedment | 0/3 |


    | The power to infuse a spirit inside an object to empower its abilities. |


    | 33% of spirits power can be added to an object |


    | Spirit enslavement | 0/5 |


    | You can dominate a spirit''s will to your rule. |


    | A spirit that is 50% weaker then you can be dominated. |


    | Current limit: 5 spirits |


    Nathan still had time before he had to choose one of those options if he wanted to progress further down the spiritualist skill tree. Still, it was another troubling decision put on his shoulders.


    Clearing his mind of all these distracting thoughts that were plaguing it, Nathan exited his system panel.


    ¡°I have a good idea of how we could kill a bunch of the bugs outside!¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°I will make a small hole in the barrier where I¡¯m gonna put this fire mana core in before launching it out with wind mana and exploding it.¡± Before Nathan could do this he needed to quickly learn fire magic and he had just the tools necessary for as he took out the fire crystal he had gotten for Kyles staff as he began to infuse his mana into it trying to mimic the properties his mana took in his other hand. His unique ability perfected adaptation was in full effect as his mana began to change into a lit flame in his hands.


    | Fire magic | Level 1 |


    | By using mana you can control and create fire with high enough mastery you can change the properties of the fire. |This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    | Unsuitable base mana: Cost of fire magic increased by 25% |


    ¡°Here take this, with it you could learn fire magic as well!¡± Nathan handed the fire crystal he had no more use for to Elizabeth as he took out the fire mana core from his bag as he proceeded to insert in the bone barrier facing the window.


    ¡°Thanks, let me do the wind magic part at least.¡± Nathan saw no reason to refuse her offer as she was even quite a bit better than him when it came to wind magic.


    ¡°Alright, I have positioned so it would shoot out of the window when I give you the signal push it out with the strongest force you can¡± Nathan carefully gathered a big chunk of his mana but leaving enough to keep sustaining his bone barrier. His fire mana had started to engulf the fire mana core as it started to blink rapidly, completely overstuffed with energy that was trying to invade inside it compressing even more inside the core as more of Nathans mana kept constantly trying to enter it.


    ¡°Now!¡± Elizabeth gathered her mana into a condensed cluster that launched the fire core with an extreme force outside the bone barrier. The fire core crushed and pushed all the bugs aside as it started to become more and more cracked letting even more fire mana invade the small space inside the core. Just as it had reached outside the window Nathan needed to act as he ignited his fire mana into a blaze that broke the fire core with explosive force as a giant wave of flames engulfed the bugs outside burning them to a crisp.


    After a couple of minutes, the system message came up as the last bug that could die from their attack had died.


    | Level 0 Secerea armare has been slain. x859|


    |+ 0.5 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 1 Secerea armare has been slain. x121 |


    |+ 0.5 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 2 Secerea armare has been slain. x26 |


    |+ 2 (-50%) Experience |


    ¡°I never imagined leveling up could be this easy!¡± Elizabeth had already leveled up from that one attack. While Nathan was a bit less than halfway towards level 8.


    ¡°I got a couple of more fire mana cores still.¡± Restoring their mana they launched two more fire cores into the swarm gaining enough experience for Nathan to reach level 8 while Elizabeth had gone from level 3 to level 6. While in a party, experience was calculated based on how much experience the highest level member in the party got from the creatures they killed.


    Just as they were restoring their mana to use another fire mana core the constant sound of buzzing had started to become quieter by the second before completely becoming silent. Noticing this odd event Nathan peeked outside his barrier to see their room had been completely covered in bugs as they stood still on the walls, ceilings, and floor completely still.


    Just then Nathan saw outside the window a bug that was easily ten times the size of the regular ones was silently floating in front of the window looking straight at the bone barrier. It looked similar to the regular ones but it had one drastic difference. Varying sizes of crystals were covering its exoskeleton. They were red, green and brown in color with constant swirling energy inside of them. They kept shifting and merging all around its body constantly. Its exoskeleton was constantly bulging before it spat out a glob of acid straight at the bone barrier.


    Reacting fast Nathan slammed his hand against the hole in the bone barrier releasing a burst of air that slammed into the glob of acid splashing all over the room as it melted the bugs in the room. He knew he couldn¡¯t hold back any longer and had to give it his all if he wanted to survive this.


    ¡°Nicole, merge with me!¡± For the first time ever Nicole had entered inside of him as he began to transform. His hair grew out long as his body took on a ghostly form between the states of a spirit and living being. His hands had started to take the shape of the demonic claws Nicole had always used for her attack as he phased through the bone barrier.


    His speed had increased immensely as he leaped towards the giant bug swiping with his claws while discharging his soul slash together with it. His claws dug into the exoskeleton leaving clear centimeter long marks while his soul slash had a completely unexpected effect on the bug. Unlike other creatures, they had fought so far this was the queen of secerea armare having the skill hive mind letting its soul be connected with every single insect in the swarm. Using this connection it had transferred all the damage its soul would have taken to the colony instead, killing a good chunk of it. Sensing the dangers this creature posed to the colony every single secerea armare was alerted.


    Without any care for their own lives, they began to rush at Nathan trying to tear him apart alive. Only to be burned to a crisp as Nathan discharged a burst of flames all around him. Before the queen could fly into the sky and escape Nathans¡¯s range Nathan proceeded to assault it once again only this time he was aiming at the four wings that let it fly. His perfected adaptation was in full effect letting him move and cast multiple types of magic almost simultaneously as the queen was hit by a burst of flames as well as his physical attack and soul slash.


    Even with his constant bursts of flames from his body, the bugs didn¡¯t care as they constantly kept rushing at him taking bites out of his flesh constantly. The only way he could keep up this constant use of magic was by sacrificing his vitality to gain mana as he tried to tear the queen apart with his claws.


    The queen¡¯s exoskeleton kept healing at incredible speed as the gems all around its body began to crack and break as their energy got used up to heal its body form Nathans¡¯s constant attacks. She had been put it an immensely dangerous situation as it used it¡¯s a most powerful attack.


    An invisible wave of energy was released from its jaws aimed at Nathan. It was an attack that directly destroyed the soul of her opponents with its massive soul energy as the queen of a hive.


    Yet the attack it had put so much faith in had seemingly done nothing to the odd creature that had killed thousands of its kin already. Could it really not have a soul? After its attack hadn¡¯t shown any effect on the strange creature in front of her she was momentarily confused. Together with the weakening of the queen''s soul after she had used the attack, it created the perfect opportunity for Nathan.


    Nathan''s two demonic claws started digging out the eye sockets of the queen in her moment of weakness as his claws tore apart everything it could before reaching her brain while constantly releasing a wave of flames. His two claws diced up the queen''s brain ending her life almost instantly no matter how high her regeneration powers were due to the crystals it couldn''t restore her brain. But the queen before dying had been able to release one last attack dousing Nathan in acid.


    With the death of their queen, the swarm became chaotic attacking everything on sight to satisfy their hunger as they started to cannibalize each other.


    With the last of his strength, Nathan used wind magic to remove the acid that had covered his body as he limped back to the bone barrier. His body had been severely wounded as he struggled between life and death only being able to hold on due to being merged with Nicole.


    He needed energy to restore his broken body desperately as he started to ravage any food that was inside the bags they had looted, not caring what it was Nathan stuffed it in his mouth in a desperate attempt to give his body energy it needed to fix itself. After he had started it a couple of seconds later the system had notified him of the end of the battle.


    | Level 0 Secerea armare has been slain. x5390 |


    |+ 0.5 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 1 Secerea armare has been slain. x1234 |


    |+ 0.5 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 2 Secerea armare has been slain. x456 |


    |+ 1 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 3 Secerea armare has been slain. x232 |


    |+3 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 4 Secerea armare has been slain. X80 |


    |+5 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 10 Elite Secerea armare queen has been slain. |


    |+ 200 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level up |


    | Level up |


    Nathan had almost reached level 11 from all those bugs he killed yet the most shocking transformation had happened to Elizabeth as she didn¡¯t have the -50% to the experience Nathan had leveling up all the way to 11 from level 6 almost doubling her level. Yet even if her level surpassed Nathans she didn¡¯t have the insane amount of levels Nathan''s skills had experienced after this battle.


    | Mana manipulation | Level 5 |


    | You''re able to support your spell casting with the natural mana of the environment. |


    | Mana consumption up to -25% |


    | Mana control +25% |


    | Spirit mana | Level 3 |


    | Your body''s mana has attuned itself with spirit properties. |


    | Passive: Mana regeneration increased in rich spirit mana environment. |


    | Using magic not related to spirit mana takes more mana. |


    | +6 Mana and magic power |


    | Wind magic | Level 2 |


    | By using mana you can control and create wind around you. With high enough mastery you can change the properties of the wind as well. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    | Unsuitable base mana: Cost of wind magic increased by 25% |


    | Fire magic | Level 3 |


    | By using mana you can control and create fire with high enough mastery you can change the properties of the fire. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    | Unsuitable base mana: Cost of fire magic increased by 20% |


    | Lesser mana regeneration | Level 3 |


    | Passive: Increases bodies natural mana gathering ability by 60% |


    | Lesser health regeneration | Level 5 |


    | Passive: Increases bodies natural healing properties by 100% |


    | Soul slash | Level 4 |


    | Send out a slash of spirit mana damaging the soul |


    | Damage: 175% |


    | Range 20 meters |


    | Cost: 2 Mana |

 Chapter 13: Communication

    After stuffing himself with food for two solid minutes Nathan had passed out as his body struggled to use up that energy to fix itself. He was still merged with Nicole as she was keeping up the bone barrier in place for him.


    Elizabeth watched as Nathan¡¯s flesh kept squirming and repairing itself in his sleep as all the torn flesh from the bug bites was healing while his skin that had been splashed by acid was getting restored back to normal.


    Nathan had risked his life to save herself yet she just couldn¡¯t feel safe with him anymore. To her, he was just too much of a wild card. He was strong and unpredictable. What if she accidentally one day hurt Nicole would he kill her in the same way he had done with Yuuki? The chances of that happening were low, but the chance was still there.


    The apocalypse had only happened two days ago most people had yet to change and embrace it as Nathan had. Murder was still a great sin that people couldn¡¯t accept. Elizabeth was no different in this regard. She did feel grateful towards Nathan there was no doubt in that, but she felt too uncomfortable to stay here any longer. Using up her attribute points and skill points Elizabeth had made her choice.


    ¡°Nicole, could you let me out of the barrier?¡± She was a smart woman and understood that Nicole was the one controlling the magic now that Nathan had passed out.


    The bone barrier behind Elizabeth began to change as a hole opened up in it. Using it she quickly left the confines of it as she sent a blast of wind killing all the remaining bugs in the room. She was level 11 after all and killing a few level zero bugs meant nothing to her now. She wasn¡¯t even gaining experience from it.


    Maybe one day she will realize that Nathan had just adapted to their new world rules so much faster than others. Yet for now, she couldn¡¯t accept his behavior and had to leave. Leaving Nathan to wake up a couple of hours later all healed up. He hadn¡¯t felt this weak in what felt like forever as he opened up his status screen.


    | Name: Nathan Bandon |


    | Level: 10 |


    | Class: Spiritualist |


    | Status: Haunted |


    | Strength: 16(5) |


    | Vitality: 13(3) |


    | Agility: 16(5) |


    | Sense: 23(16) |


    | Magic power: 24(12) |


    | Mana: 15(14) |


    | Attribute points: 4 |


    His base vitality had shockingly fallen all the way to three from sacrificing it to regain his mana in that fight. No wonder he was feeling so weak after losing so many points in it. He couldn¡¯t leave it that low for long as he invested all four of his attribute points back into vitality raising it to seven. This was slowly starting to become a very major problem for Nathan as every time he had to fight a tough opponent he was forced to sacrifice his vitality in the process. He had leveled up two times in that fight yet he had also lost 4 vitality in the process.


    Nathan needed to come up with a solution for that problem as fast as he could but for now, he was looking forward to seeing the locked option of his spiritualist skill tree as he invested one of his skill points into Spirit enslavement. Opening up the locked option that required 20 points.


    | Class upgrade | 0/1 |


    | You have reached the next tier of your class |


    | Class: Spiritualist |


    | A class specializing for those that use spirits as their main means of protecting themselves. Unlocks the second tier of the spiritualist class tree. |


    | Passive: +50% XP gain to any spirit related skills. |


    | +5 points to all stats |


    ¡°This¡­¡± Nathan got completely shocked as he read the bonuses of the second tier of a class! He didn¡¯t need to consider anything as he invested his skill point into it. His whole body felt reborn as all his stats began to increase by 5 points! It felt like he had completely reborn for example his strength stat with the bonuses Nicole gave him had reached 21. He could easily kill a man with just one hand now. He wasn¡¯t disappointed about the power of tier two skill tree options as well.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    | Shared soul | 0/5 |


    | You can bond your soul with your familiar strengthening the bond you two share even more. |


    | Strengthens any preexisting shared spirit effects by 5% |


    | The spirit gains the ability to communicate with you |


    | Spirit hoarder | 0/5 |


    | Your ability to dominate spirits to your will has grown exceptionally |


    | Increases your power to dominate a spirit to your will by 20% |


    | Increases the limit of the spirits you can dominate by 20 |


    | Current limit: 15 |


    | Spirit theft | 0/5 |


    | The ability to steal abilities or stats from spirits for your own use |


    | 2% chance to gain a stat point or ability if you kill a spirit that is equally as powerful as you. |


    | 0.5% chance to gain a stat point or ability from a spirit that is weaker than you. |


    One option stood out beyond any other for Nathan. Shared soul would finally give him the ability to communicate with Nicole! Investing his last skill point into he called for her.


    ¡°Nicole, can you talk now!¡±


    As he called out to Nicole who was floating in front of him he was met with silence one again. Did the skill not work?


    ¡°Can you use your voice again?¡± Nathan tried again but this time he felt a change. It was weak but Nicole had signaled him through his bond that she couldn¡¯t.


    She had gained the ability to communicate with him, but it wasn''t through her voice more of a way to convey or transmit her thoughts or will to him. Nathan couldn¡¯t help but be disappointed that he couldn¡¯t hear her voice again, but still, it was already a great step forward for Nicole to regain her humanity as long as he kept leveling up and pushing himself, she will regain more of what death had taken from her.


    With all of that taken care of, Nathan was once again full of motivation to go level up even further. Unsummoning the bone barrier he was welcomed to the broken room with holes all over it from the blood(hemolymph) of the bugs. The thousands of bug corpses that were half corroded covered the street outside the store. Most of the bugs seemed to have scattered and were no longer in the city as Nathan began to approach the corpse of the queen. He had learned from the forest god¡¯s corpse that strong monsters had a chance to give him benefits if he looked for them inside.


    | Blood nectar |


    | Tier 1 |


    | The condensed substance of the creature¡¯s blood by Secerea armare. |


    | Can be used to restore Health. |


    | Can be used in alchemy. |


    | Plant nectar |


    | Tier 1 |


    | The condensed substance of the plant essence by Secerea armare. |


    | Can be used to restore health. |


    | Can be used in alchemy. |


    | Secerea armare Nectar |


    | Tier 1 |


    | The combination of plant and blood essence made by Secerea armare |


    | Can be eaten to increase vitality up to 10 points. |


    | Can be used in alchemy. |


    Nathan dug out each of the crystals that hadn¡¯t been shattered. While digging out the crystals from the queen¡¯s body he noticed a lot of them were connected by a strange appendage that went deep into her body. Nathan continued to butcher her corpse even more before reaching a strange organ that connected most of the crystals to it.


    | Secerea armare nucleus |


    | The nucleus of secerea armare that lets it collect the essence of biological beings. |


    | Can be consumed to receive the benefits of the dominating essence it has collected. |


    | 25% chance to cause mutation. |


    ¡°Damn.¡± He wasn¡¯t willing to gamble with the 25% chance it was just a bit too much for Nathan to risk. What if the mutation ruined his life completely? It was just a risk not worth taking for him. Still, it was worth keeping as he went back into the store and grabbed a backpack. Putting the nucleus in a zip lock bag while putting the nectars into a different zip lock bag in case he needed them in the future. Before going back into the store and grabbing the supplies he needed as he got ready to explore this changing world and level up.


    Nathan began to explore the town to look for more supplies as he considered his options. The fact that he had woken up alone without Elizabeth being there was all he needed to know that she couldn¡¯t accept his actions of killing Yuuki. He still felt guilty about what he had done to him. But he didn¡¯t regret it as if he hadn¡¯t acted there was a great chance Nicole could have died. There was also that small factor he didn¡¯t want to acknowledge himself that he wanted to kill Yuuki for hurting her even if it wasn¡¯t intentional.


    Even if he had grown so much more powerful now it didn¡¯t feel enough as he considered his options on ways he could increase it. The hardest yet the most rewarding would be if he started to hunt down the unique ability users for their power. In that way sooner or later he would find the abilities that would make him truly powerful. But for now, he could constantly train his magical ability. By summoning a small piece of his mana that only took as much mana as he was regenerating to sustain Nathan began to change its shape as it floated near him.


    As long as that mana didn¡¯t consume more then he regenerated he could use it permanently advancing his skills in mana manipulation and the magic of his choice that was fire magic.


    His perfected adaptation was in full effect as his mind adapted to using magic while exploring the town as he constantly kept changing its density and form of the flame. His mastery of magic was slowly but steadily increasing over time as he constantly kept practicing with it.


    It hadn¡¯t taken him long to find what he was looking for, the map of the local area. Now that he knew his current location he could find his next destination which was one of the biggest towns in the area. The more people in a location the higher his chance of finding people with unique abilities. Nathan was right in his assumptions about unique ability holders but what he didn¡¯t know was that the higher the population of humans in the area was before the apocalypse the stronger the invading monster will be.


    Nathan spent a bit more time in the town to find some more of the crucial supplies he would need as well as a new pair of shoes and clothes in general. The soles of his shoes had been completely shredded from the force of his legs as well as the acid that they got covered in. After a whole hour had passed by he was ready to leave the town. He wouldn¡¯t be returning back to that farm settlement, it would just feel odd after he had killed Yuuki. He was going to go on a journey to look for more unique abilities to add to his arsenal.

 Chapter 14: Treant Kings territory

    Nathan had jogged down the asphalt road for a full hour before seeing the outskirts of the town in the distance.


    ¡°What the hell happened here?¡± The city had become fully overgrown in nature. Tall trees in height of over 50 meters covered the city. Surprisingly a lot of the buildings looked still intact with the expectation that they had almost completely been covered in vines. Nathan began to notice the plants in the city could be even seen growing over time.


    As he got closer to the town his skill, Unjust gain had activated by itself as it began to signal him on the position of two unique ability holders in the city! Nathan locked in on the position of the closest unique ability holder as he began to jog towards it.


    | Treant kings territory |


    | You have entered the territory of the Treant king |


    | Power of plant-related magic is increased by 100% |


    | Experience gain of plant magic increased by 50% |


    | Fire magic is 50% less effective |


    | Your location will always be known to the Treant king |


    The bonus to plant magic was really great but the fact that the Treant king will always know his location worried Nathan a lot as he increased his speed trying to find the holder of the unique ability. When Nathan looked at the city from the distance it hadn¡¯t looked that bad. But now that he was up and close he noticed all the remains of humans that had lived in the city their bones had become the nourishment of the plants of the city.


    ¡°Is that a spirit?¡± There was a tree that gave off the same feeling a spirit would have. It was an odd-looking tree that had unnaturally large pea pod looking fruit all over it. Well the tree itself was around 40 meters tall so a meter and a half tall pods didn¡¯t look too strange on it considering all the things Nathan had seen so far.


    He wasn¡¯t sure if he should investigate this tree that gave off the feeling of a spirit but the potential of benefits it could give him was too big to just ignore as he carefully began to approach it in hopes of the system giving him a message about the tree. Even as he stood a meter away from the tree there was nothing from the system as well as from the tree as it had shown no reaction to his approach.


    ¡°Am I being too cautious?¡±


    | No, danger. | This was the message Nicole had given to Nathan as her hands had already changed into claws as she looked at something inside the tree.


    That was all that Nathan needed as he jumped a couple of meters back releasing two soul slashes straight at the tree. As they passed through the tree, it began to shake as it released a scream of pain that Nathan could barely hear because of his attunement to the spirit realm.


    With that scream, it had alerted all of the other plant lifeforms in the area as they began to rush towards it in help. The tree had no way to defend itself as it wasn¡¯t its purpose. Yet before anything could come to its defense Nathan started to assault it more with his soul slashes and on his fifth strike the tree had stopped shaking as it began to wilt and crack apart as the pods began to fall to the ground shattering to reveal what it held inside of them. Almost all of the pods had half-melted human bones inside of them. The tree was using humans as nutrients and worst of all it wasn¡¯t just the body but the soul itself as well. As Nathan managed to see for a couple of seconds the existence of those human souls disappearing with the death of the tree.


    | Level 13 Nutrition provider has been slain. |


    |+ 260 (-50%) Experience |


    Before Nathan could anything else the enraged mob that had started to rush to defend the tree had arrived as they began to attack Nathan.


    There were two groups of creatures, ones that looked like oval balls of moss with human appendages with a wooden mask that covered 70% of its body. They were quite fast and were in the lead.


    The other group was even stranger, they were walking trees! They used their thick roots as tentacles as they rushed towards him behind the 2-meter tall moss creatures.


    Nathan took out one of his last fire mana cores as he began to retreat and infuse it with all of his remaining mana. Even if fire mana wasn¡¯t as effective in the treant kings territory it should still be the best way to deal with a group of plant creatures chasing him.


    Nathan threw the flame core straight in the biggest cluster of those moss creatures before igniting it into an explosion of flames as he proceeded to run away with his full speed. The moss and wood easily caught on fire as they burned to death in agony helpless to do anything. But this event hadn¡¯t gone unnoticed as the treant king let out a yell.


    Sadly Nathan couldn¡¯t understand what It had said himself but Nicole did as she notified him of it.


    | No, fire magic. Or death | Her speech was still so simple and butchered, but it was enough for Nathan to understand what she meant. The treant king had forbidden him from using fire magic in his territory or he would personally go and kill him.


    He was going to accept the treant king¡¯s warning for now as he still had things left to do in the city as he proceeded to enter one of the buildings sitting down to regain his mana.


    | Level 6 Boggart has been slain. x6 |


    |+ 15 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 7 Boggart has been slain. x4|


    |+ 25 (-50%) Experience |


    | Level 8 Boggart has been slain. x3 |


    |+ 40 (-50%) Experience |


    Since Nathan was now banned from using fire magic he might as well start using his passive training method for plant magic with the increase the territory gave him. He had also been moving towards his target as he ran away from the boggarts and those tree creatures. Within a few minutes, he got his first sight of the target!


    A guy over two meters tall sat on the corpse of a tree creature as he drank a bottle of jack daniels while a fire axe lay next to him. He looked to be over thirty years old and quite strong.


    He had chugged the whole bottle in a minute before throwing it on the ground, shattering it. He grabbed the fire axe and rushed towards the tree that had slowly crept towards him all this time. The fire axe shone with light as he activated a skill of his before striking the tree and leaving a deep mark in its trunk before using the skill three more times and bringing the tree down.


    ¡°Timber!¡± From his yell, Nathan could tell the guy was completely wasted as he started to stumble down the road before reaching for another bottle of booze from his bag as he started to chug it down again.


    Nathan continued to stalk the drunk man that held a unique ability as he wondered the town drinking while chopping down anything he met. This guy was the strongest human Nathan had seen so far. By the looks of it, his strength stat was even higher than his!


    Nathan held no ill will towards the guy, but in the way, he was acting he was going to die sooner or later anyway. So might as well it will be to him, so he can get his power and use it for something better.


    ¡°Merge with me.¡± Nicole had entered his body once again as his hair grew out long while his hands morphed into two demonic claws. His body took the properties of both living and spirit giving him the ability to phase through buildings as he rushed towards the man while making absolutely no sounds.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Just as the drunk man had entered an alleyway Nathan¡¯s decided to attack him as he came out from the side of the building with his claws swiping straight at the guy¡¯s head while releasing two soul slashes from them. Yet at that exact time, he released his attack the drunk man stumbled. This seemingly drunken misstep had saved his life from Nathan''s attack, but most shockingly after dodging Nathan''s attack he spun around with his fire axe and struck Nathan¡¯s hand. It got completely severed from the attack.


    This seemingly drunken fool had managed to react to Nathan''s attack fast enough to dodge his surprise attack while even activating a skill and chopping his hand off? Nathan couldn¡¯t help but be momentarily shocked by this but Nicole wasn¡¯t as she used plant magic to toss the severed hand towards them as she grabbed it and attached it back.


    ¡°What kind of fucker are you?¡± He had looked completely wasted from the distance but up close Nathan noticed his eyes were as clear as water as if the drunkenness hadn¡¯t affected his mind at all.


    Nathan responded to the man¡¯s word with only an attack as plants all around them began to reach out towards the guy trying to entangle him. Yet with a seemingly simple stomp of his leg infused with energy the plants all around him shattered before his speed suddenly doubled as his glowing fire axe chopped at Nathan.


    Nathan slammed his demonic claws covered in bone armor against the fire axe while a bone spike grew out of his palm striking straight at the man¡¯s chest only to be intercepted by his arm piercing it instead.


    | Nicole uses my magic to support me! | Nathan had transferred his message with his will to Nicole as he fully started to focus on combat without the need to use magic himself as he started to use his superior agility to evade the man while attacking it with his claws. With the help of Nicole using all of his magical abilities expect fire to hinder or injure the man.


    Even with all of that thrown against him, he was one though fucker, as they continued to battle for a couple of minutes before he got too overwhelmed as one decisive sword had ended his life as his head got severed.


    | Unjust gain has been initiated. |


    | Level 10x2 Human has been slain. |


    |+ 200 (-50%) Experience |


    | Class collector |


    | Every 20 levels of your main class you can add another class. |


    | Treants king''s quest |


    | The treant king has noticed your actions of removing one of the pests from his territory and is giving you a quest. |


    | Kill the two remaining pests that are bothering him |


    | Reward: Friendly status with the treant king, 1000 Experience, ??? |


    | Accept/ Decline|


    | Warning: Declining the quest will make you be viewed as a pest as well. |


    Turns out the drunk guy had two, level ten classes. With a unique ability to gain a class every 20 levels starting with two classes at level 0. He had invested his skill points into stat-boosting abilities from his skill tree raising his strength and vitality to the low twenties. But now that power belonged to Nathan instead. Every single unique ability Nathan had seen so far had the potential to make somebody truly powerful in this new world as he felt blessed with his luck of getting his.


    When it came to the treant king''s request he didn¡¯t dare to not accept it. Worst case scenario he will just run away from its territory if it turns out to be impossible to do. Pressing the accept another message popped up after it.


    | Treant kings pest control. |


    | The treant king has a reward for your efforts of killing one of the pests in its territory. |


    | Reward: Treant king''s seal |


    After Nathan had accepted the quest reward, a wood token with a symbol of a great tree had materialized in his hands.


    | Treant king¡¯s seal |


    | Symbols the treant kings trust in you giving you benefits while in his territory. |


    | Minions of the treant king won¡¯t attack you unprovoked. |


    | The cost of plant magic is reduced by 15% in his territory |


    It was a nice bonus that will make Nathan''s pest control job only so much easier as he wore the seal as a necklace as two plant appendages reached out enabling the seal to be worn like that.


    ¡°Status¡±


    | Name: Nathan Bandon |


    | Level: 10 |


    | Class: Spiritualist |


    | Status: Shared soul |


    | Strength: 21(10) |


    | Vitality: 23(12) |


    | Agility: 21(10) |


    | Sense: 30(21) |


    | Magic power: 30(17) |


    | Mana: 20 (19) |


    | Attribute points: 0 |


    Nathan pressed the class option to bring out another menu.


    | Main class: Spiritualist | Level 10 | 1161/1250 Experience |


    | Second class: None | Level 0 | 0/100 |


    As the night was quickly approaching Nathan was left with a decision of his second class as he pressed the options to take a new one.


    ¡°There are too many options!¡± There were well over 20 class options to choose from!


    **********


    ( Authors note: feel free to skip this; it''s just a list of all-ish available classes for Nathan for world-building.)


    | Class: Swordsman |


    | A class specializing in using the sword to deal the most damage possible. Unlocks the swordsman class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain for sword related skills. |


    | Class: Scout |


    | A class specializing in gaining information from their environment. Unlocks the scout class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% to any scouting related skills. |


    | Class: Possessed |


    | A strange class for those that have lost their minds to a spirit. Becoming their vessel. Unlocks the possessed class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any spirit related skills. |


    | Class: Mage |


    | A class meant for those that specialize in everything that is magic. Unlocks the Mage class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any magic related skills. |


    | Class: Bonemancer |


    | A class for those that use bone magic or similar type of abilities. Unlocks the bonemancer class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any bone related skills. |


    | Class: Water mage |


    | A class for those that specialize in using water based abilities. Strengthens water magic effects. Unlocks the water mage class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any water related skills. |


    | Class: Fire mage |


    | A class for those that specialize in using fire based abilities. Strengthens fire magic effects. Unlocks the fire mage class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any fire related skills. |


    | Class: Wind mage |


    | A class for those that specialize in using wind based abilities. Strengthens wind magic effects. Unlocks the wind mage class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any wind related skills. |


    | Class: Nature mage |


    | A class for those that specialize in using plant based abilities. Strengthens plant magic effects. Unlocks the plant mage class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any plant related skills. |


    | Class: Goremet |


    |A class for those that consume the raw meat of their kills. Unlocks the Gorement class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any gorement related skills. |


    | Class: Spell sword |


    | A class for those that specialize in using magic and swords. Strengthens body and magic. Unlocks the spell sword class tree. |


    | Passive: +15% XP gain to any sword related skills. |


    | Passive: +15% XP gain to any magic related skills. |


    | Class: Pugilist |


    | A great class for those that wish to fight with their fists and body. Unlocks the pugilist class tree |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any pugilist related skills. |


    | Class: insect exterminator | (this was almost incest exterminator ><)


    | A class for those that specialise in dealing with insects. Unlocks the Insect exterminator class tree. |


    | Passive: +20% XP gain to any insect exterminator related skills. |


    |Passive: +10% damage versus insects. |


    | Class: Hunter |


    | A class that deals with anything related to hunting. Unlocks the hunter class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any hunter related skills. |


    | Class: Survivor |


    | A class specialized in every aspect of survival. Unlocks the survivor class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any hunter related skills. |


    | Class: Soldier |


    | A class that is designed to work the best for a soldier boosting your performance while in a group or led by general. Unlocks the soldier class tree. |


    | Passive: up to +50% xp gain when working together with other soldiers. |


    | Class: Claw user |


    | An unusual class used by humans that wish to pursue using claws as their main means of attacking. Unlocks claw skill tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any claw related skills. |


    | Class: Spirit hunter |


    | A class meant for those that wish to deal with spirits in more of a physical way instead of magical. Unlocks the spirit hunter class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to spirit related skills. |


    | Class: Shield user |


    | A class meant for those that use shield as their main way of combat. Unlocks Shield user class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP to any shield related skills. |


    | Class: Alchemist |


    | The ancient class of alchemy can be almost used in anything from items that are beneficial to your body or even poison to kill your enemies. |


    | Passive: +25% XP to any alchemy related skills. |


    | Class:....... |


    ¡­.


    ¡­


    ..


    .

 Chapter 15: Hidden effects

    Before making a decision on what class he should choose as his next one Nathan decided to find an abandonment building he would be staying in for the night. After some pondering, Nathan chose a hotel that had been overgrown with vines and flora. The plants had even breached inside the buildings, not just on the outside.


    While making sure the building was safe Nathan unexpectedly found some survivors in the building as well. It¡¯s not like he hadn¡¯t seen any before in the city. He had just chosen to ignore their existence as after all no matter how efficient the monsters were they couldn¡¯t wipe out everyone in two days.


    ¡°Who are you two?¡± Even more unexpectedly he was able to see Nicole as well. The guy looked to be in his late twenties with a weird shine to his eyes.


    ¡°Just here to stay the night, nothing more.¡± Nathan was feeling too exhausted to deal with other humans. He just wanted to eat something before he went to sleep. It would be hard to find other humans as powerful as Nathan so soon in the apocalypse. So he had the freedom to ignore them if he wanted that.


    ¡°Go elsewhere our group doesn¡¯t want others to stay here!¡±


    ¡°...¡± He got completely ignored by Nathan as he watched the two of them enter the kitchen area.


    ¡°Are you deaf of something I said you can¡¯t stay here!¡± He chased after Nathan as he yelled out.


    ¡°Should you be making so much noise?¡± Nathan had already started to prepare a meal for himself by the time he had entered the kitchen leaving him helpless.


    ¡°Fine you can stay, but don¡¯t cause any trouble and leave in the morning!¡± His voice wasn¡¯t nearly as loud as before now that he heard Nathans reminded.


    His name was Samuel and he had gotten a random ability from the wheel called eyes of truth. That let him see more than others with this ability he could tell Nathan was freakishly strong, but he didn¡¯t have any ill intent. Even if the whole group that was staying in the hotel fought against him they would stand no chance.


    ¡°Are you from this city?¡± Nathan didn¡¯t look like he was from this country, but he could be just a tourist that got stuck here like so many else.


    ¡°No.¡± Nathan was using his fire magic to boil some water for a cup of ramen.


    ¡°How is it out there? Does it look like the army will help us?¡± Samuel and his group were still hoping that some government organizations would be able to help them and get the world back into order.


    ¡°It¡¯s fun, but you shouldn¡¯t rely on others anymore.¡± Well Nathan himself was enjoying the apocalypse a lot, he was once again reunited with Nicole and was given the ability to bring her back.


    | What¡¯s up. | Nicole had started to look above them for a while now getting Nathan curios.


    | Item of power, up. |


    | Okay, we''re gonna go see it soon. | This had made him quite curious about what kind of item could draw Nicole¡¯s attention.


    After eating his 5th cup of ramen Nathan left the kitchen area and went upstairs guided by Nicole.


    ¡°Hey, where are you going! Let me show you a room you can stay in!¡±


    | Here. | Nicole had led him in front of a door upstairs.


    ¡°Stop that room is taken!¡±


    Nathan proceeded to enter the room as Nicole led him to a nightstand near a bed where a shocked girl had just been woken up by them.


    ¡°Why are you in my room!¡± Could this stranger and Samuel come into her room for nefarious purposes?


    Seeing Nathan approach the girl¡¯s bed Samuel started to panic a bit could Nathan have the ability to hide his intent?


    ¡°What are you doing!¡±


    He couldn¡¯t bother dealing with these people as he picked up the sword that rested against the nightstand.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    | Sword of uprise. |


    | After the brave hero had slain the evil lich he sealed the soul of the lich in this sword. |


    | Damage 76-164 |


    | Deaths call: Has a 5% chance to bring those you kill back to life as your undead servants. |


    | Life steal: 5% of the damage you deal with is gained back as health. |


    | The soul of the lich still resides in the sword. |


    ¡°Hey, you can¡¯t just take my sword!¡± The girl that had just been rudely awakened protested as Nathan took her sword. It was the prize she got from the wheel.


    ¡°Let¡¯s make it an exchange then, here take this.¡± Nathan threw the nucleus he didn¡¯t wish to use himself towards the girl before he started to leave the room.


    ¡°Katarina, wait I will deal with this.¡± Samuel chased after Nathan as his headache grew even bigger. How could there be such an unreasonable person?


    ¡°Man, you can¡¯t just do that.¡±


    ¡°Or what?¡± Samuel was flabbergasted, it was true their group could do nothing towards Nathan as he could see his strength and knew if he wanted he could simply kill all of them.


    ¡°Uhm, let me show you a room you can stay in. But promise me you will leave in the morning and won¡¯t cause any more trouble.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    Now that Nathan had settled in one of the empty rooms in the hotel it was time to choose one of his classes but something was bothering him too much that he needed to figure out.


    When has his attitude towards other humans had changed this much? He hadn¡¯t been like that in the past so what exactly had caused this change in him? There were a couple of options that came to mind one would be as his connection to the spirit world and Nicole grew closer his connection towards other humans grew weaker. Or could it be his unique ability perfected adaptation was changing his mindset? It could even be all of the above or something completely different. But Nathan had acknowledged he was changing fast.


    Nathan believed as long as he paid attention to his action a bit more in the future he won¡¯t be affected in a too negative way and do something he will regret immensely. It was time to pick his second class now. Going through the list of all the available classes Nathan began to choose those that he saw could be the most beneficial towards him.


    After a long time considering what the classes could give and what would benefit his growth the most he was down to five classes.


    | Class: Possessed |


    | A strange class for those that have lost their minds to a spirit. Becoming their vessel. Unlocks the possessed class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any spirit related skills. |


    Nathan believed that the possessed class would increase his connection to Nicole the most from all of his options so far. It was definitely the class that would increase her power the most. Yet Nathan was worried if he chose it there was a possibility Nicole would gain his body and he would die.


    | Class: Mage |


    | A class meant for those that specialize in everything that is magic. Unlocks the Mage class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any magic-related skills. |


    Considering all the magic he had it was a class that was hard not to take. It will most likely increase the power of his magic by a lot while giving him the mana he needs for his battles. With the mana, he would get from this class he wouldn¡¯t need to sacrifice his vitality to gain mana anymore. It would most likely increase his leveling speed by a lot as well if he could just kill large groups of monsters with his magic.


    | Class: Goremet |


    |A class for those that consume the raw meat of their kills. Unlocks the Gorement class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any gorement related skills. |


    He had mixed feelings towards the Goremet class since what he would need to do to utilize it would be quite unpleasant, but the potential it had can¡¯t be underestimated. If just eating a lot of monsters could give him stat points he could grow so much more powerful than anyone else. Nathan also believed at later ranks of the skill he could gain skills from monsters he ate and such a power seemed way too good to pass up.


    | Class: Spell sword |


    | A class for those that specialize in using magic and swords. Strengthens body and magic. Unlocks the spell sword class tree. |


    | Passive: +15% XP gain to any sword related skills. |


    | Passive: +15% XP gain to any magic related skills. |


    The spell sword seemed like the most solid option for him since in combat he utilized both. It would definitely increase his battle powers a lot. It would also allow him to excel in his combat style even more since he was basically already doing what the class was meant for. Yet compared to the other classes it lacked the immense potential other classes had. It would just straight up increase his battle power and that seemed like it.


    | Class: Spirit hunter |


    | A class meant for those that wish to deal with spirits in more of a physical way instead of magical. Unlocks the spirit hunter class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to spirit related skills. |


    Spirit hunter was definitely the class with the best synergy with his spiritualist class, it was basically the physical variant of it. If he chose spirit hunter his XP gain for spirit related skills will increase to 100% and later this bonus will go even higher increasing the appeal of the spirit hunter class a lot. But there were a couple of things that worried Nathan about choosing this class. It wouldn¡¯t benefit his magical abilities at all, only his physical ones. As well as if he chose spirit hunter wouldn¡¯t he be too specialized in dealing with spirits? It had worked out so far but who says he wouldn¡¯t encounter an enemy that countered that in the future?


    ¡°If only I could see what each class did exactly.¡± If he knew the possessed class wouldn¡¯t kill him or harm him greatly he would have chosen it without a doubt.


    The spell sword class lacked the potential compared to the other choices he had.


    The mage class seemed wonderful and beneficial in all aspects with no real downfalls but the same as the spell sword it was a bit lacking compared to spirit hunter and goremet.


    After considering the five classes Nathans was down to two, spirit hunter and goremet. Both of these classes seemed really good and beneficial but he had to make a decision on which one would bring him the most benefits.


    The goremet seemed really good and it definitely had the most potential of any of the classes he had the ability to take. But for now, he had to choose the spirit hunter that aligned with his goals the most. There was always the possibility that goremet didn¡¯t do what Nathan thought it did, that risk pushed spirit hunter just enough ahead for Nathan to choose it.


    | Class: Spirit hunter |


    | A class meant for those that wish to deal with spirits in more of a physical way instead of magical. Unlocks the spirit hunter class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to spirit related skills. |


    | The hidden ability of the class collector has been activated. |


    | Spiritualist and spirit hunter has enough in common to for the hidden ability to take effect giving you the option to combine both classes together |


    | Do you agree with spiritualist and spirit hunter combining into one new class? | Yes/No |

 Chapter 16: Pest control part 1

    | Class combination is successful |


    | New class: Spirit seeker |


    | Passive: +100% XP gain to any spirit related skills. |


    | Skill: Spirit enchantment, physical boost, Spirit tracking. |


    From the class combination, there were a few things of note that Nathan noticed. The first and most drastic was the changes to his skill tree as another path had opened up focusing on the physical aspect, unlike his other skill tree options. The first ability in the physical path of spirit seeker was quite powerful and was the one thing his previous class the spiritualist was lacking in compared to other classes.


    | Physical reinforcement | 0/5 |


    | Your physical core is starting to change towards something greater. |


    | +2 Strength, vitality, agility, sense. |


    Sadly Nathan lacked any skill points for it as well as shared soul took precedence over it. He was quite curious about the tier 2 of this path as it hadn¡¯t unlocked showing he needed to fully unlock physical reinforcement for it to open up. The three skills he got for the spirit hunter class were quite good as well.


    | Spirit enchantment | Level 1 |


    | The ability to apply your spirit mana into objects improving their effectiveness. |


    | Cost: 1 mana per minute |


    | Current damage bonus: +30 |


    | Physical boost | Level 1 |


    | Your body is strengthening itself as it starts to grow more powerful.


    | +1 to Strength,vitality,agility,sense. |


    | Spirit tracking | Level 1 |


    | You have gained the ability to sense and locate spirits to a much greater extent in your pursuit towards them. |


    | Range of spirit tracking is 100 meters. |


    Now that his main class had combined with the second class he wanted Nathan was left with another choice for his second class. Possessed was similar to spiritualist and spirit hunter but the worry of its effects was still too much for Nathan to consider it for now. He needed to experiment more with the hidden effect of class collector or meet someone with possessed as a class to be sure about choosing it.


    From all of his current available classes, the mage ones seemed to have the highest chance for the synergy effect to take effect with all the other classes he had unlocked and just to play it safe Nathan decided to take the base magician class the mage.


    | Class: Mage |


    | A class meant for those that specialize in everything that is magic. Unlocks the Mage class tree. |


    | Passive: +25% XP gain to any magic-related skills. |


    | Adjusting skills do to already owned skills. |


    | Spirit blast, Meditation level up. lesser magic affinity. |


    | Spirit blast | Level 1 |


    | A condensed blast of spirit mana that shakes the soul. |


    | Cost: 1 mana. |


    | Damage: 100% of magic power. |


    | Meditation | Level 4 |


    | Through practice you have learned to achieve mental clarity and an emotionally calm state of mind. |


    | While meditating natural mana and health regeneration is increased by 40%. |


    | Lesser magic affinity |


    | Increases your overall affinity to magic |


    | Cost of magic is reduced by 5% |


    | Mage class tree |


    | Mana veins| 0/5 |


    | The mana veins lets you gather magic much faster to any part of your body while increasing your magic power. |


    | +2 Magic power |


    | Mana pool | 0/5 |


    | Your mana no longer is sprawled around your body but is gathered in a specific part of your body. |


    | +2 Mana |


    | Magic sense | 0/5 |Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    | A magician without the ability to sense the magic around them is no magician at all. |


    | +2 sense |


    This was just the thing Nathan was looking for as he invested his 1000 experience points from the main class into the mage class raising it all the way to level 4! With the four skill points, he had gotten just now he put two into magic sense while putting one point in mana pool and magic veins. He could feel his body change and shift as he was becoming even more powerful in rapid speed. Yet if you looked at everyone that was originally from his plant currently Nathan ranked in the lower top 10. There were those that had done the seemingly impossible like the person who tamed the forest god in the tutorial or the person that had already reached level 38.


    | You have reached your second milestone giving you the ability to spec even further in that specialty. |


    | Eyesight, smell, hearing, touch, taste, reflexes, spirituality, mana. |


    Once again it was an easy choice as Nathan chose the spirituality option strengthening its effectiveness even more. The range in which he could sense spirits had grown even more while giving him the ability to even grab a spirit that hasn¡¯t materialized as his hands couldn¡¯t pass through Nicole anymore. He was once again one step further in reaching his goal!


    After two hours of sleep, Nathan felt refreshed as if he had slept eight hours instead of a puny two. The changes in his stats allowed him to sleep for less time to recover. Changing his plans as he left the hotel through the window.


    It was the middle of the night with the only source of light being the starry sky as Nathan traversed the city that had become a mighty forest in three days. The treant king¡¯s seal made his minions ignore Nathan as he rushed towards the closest location for the treant king¡¯s quest. It was a pity he couldn¡¯t kill them for the experience if he wanted to finish the treant king¡¯s quest. But the 1000 he will get for finishing it should be more than worth it.


    With his speed, it didn¡¯t take him long to reach the edge of a town where he saw the camp of a few thousand humans. This camp was created by the brave policemen of the town as they used their guns and abilities gained from the wheel to fight off the creatures that had invaded their world making them be viewed as pests in the eyes of the treant king.


    If Nathan wanted to complete the quest he had to deal with them as one would with pests and exterminate them. If it was the old him he wouldn¡¯t have even considered doing something so vile as killing a thousand innocent people.


    ¡°A thousand people mean nothing if I can reunite with you sooner.¡± Even if she was here with him like this Nathan wasn¡¯t satisfied at all. He wanted her to become the person she once was and bring her back to the world of living or at least bring her back to a level where she became closer to the person he knew and not this.


    Nathan wanted to believe that he was a better person than this, but now that the choice was in front of him he felt seemingly nothing. Unbeknown to him the unique ability perfected adaptation has changed his mentality towards his goal after the death of Yuuki removing the guilt he would feel from killing other humans. It viewed that feeling like a hindrance that would obstruct him and needed to be overcome. That was the scary part of perfected adaptation even without the acknowledgement of the owner of the skill it was rapidly changing the state of Nathan¡¯s mind and body without him even really noticing its drastic effects on him.


    ¡°Merge.¡± Nicole entered his body once again as he quickly left the rooftop of the building that he had watched the camp from as he phased through the buildings clenching the sword he had infused with his spirit mana enabling it to pass through the walls as well. He made no sound as he took out the sleeping people one by one with it.


    Even if he felt no guilt or negative emotion in his actions Nathan understood that what he was doing currently was wrong. It was a weird state where he felt no different than killing the monsters now even though he was slaughtering the sleeping humans. The floor flowed with blood as skeleton¡¯s rose from their corpses joining Nathan in the killing, but waking them up in the process.


    Their screams and voices just became white noise to Nathan as he continued his slaughter in the middle of the night. The bullets they shot at him simply passed through him as they contained no mana. They couldn¡¯t even harm him as those in the camp began to run away in chaos as the small skeleton army began to chase them down.


    Nathan regained most of his consciousness when most of the humans in the camp had already died or escaped. At some point, he had simply let go and let Nicole control the body and continue the killing. Nathan simply stood among the corpses as he acknowledged the actions he had just done before reading the system message.


    | Level 0 Human has been slain. x743|


    | + 1(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 1 Human has been slain. x254 |


    | + 1(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 2 Human has been slain. x43 |


    | + 2(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 3 Human has been slain. x27 |


    | + 3(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 4 Human has been slain. x15 |


    | + 6(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 5 Human has been slain. x7 |


    | + 10(-50%) Experience |


    | Level 8 Human has been slain. |


    | +40(-50%) Experience |


    | Sword of uprise has collected the souls of over a thousand humans awakening the sealed soul of the lich within it. Do you wish to use a thousand souls to unseal the soul of the lich? |


    | Yes/No |


    | Treant kings pest control. |


    | The treant king has a reward for your efforts of killing one of the pests in its territory. |


    | Reward: Lesser space pocket |


    | The Gods and Devils have noticed your actions. |


    | The Gods have started to view you in a negative light. |


    | The Devils have started to view you in a positive light. |


    Nathan felt absolutely calm as Nicole¡¯s soothing skill was in full effect removing anything that would disturb him together with his perfected adaption. Pressing yes the blood-covered sword began to shake as a skeletal soul was released from the gem that was embedded in it.


    The lich laughed with joy as he had finally been set free after all this time.


    | Oh, what an interesting guy had released me from my seal. |


    | Hmm, strange. This is a different world. |


    | Since you have released me from my seal let me reward you a bit! |


    A massive wave of mana got discharged from the lich covering all the humans Nathan had just killed. One by one their skeletons began to rise as undead. An army of over one thousand skeletons had just fallen in Nathan¡¯s hands just like that.


    | Hehehe, what do you think of my little reward? |


    | Kekekee, but it seems like you can¡¯t even control 1/10 of them so I will be taking the rest and leaving. |


    Before the lich could escape into his army of skeletons a ball of spirit energy blasted straight into him. The atmosphere around the lich had instantly changed as it knew it hadn¡¯t fooled the man in front of him. As Nathan¡¯s attunement grew towards the spirit realm so did his understanding of it as well. Now with his sense specialty upgraded once again, he could feel the intent of the spirit now as well. Knowing that the lich was up to something.


    | Ah, I always hated the spirit mages. | Waving his hands the skeletal army he had just raised began to rush towards Nathan. Yet before their first attack could reach him he sent a soul slash straight at the lich turning its image more transparent. That one soul slash had caused the wave of skeletons that had started to rush towards him to stop in their place as they lost their connections with the lich. Buying enough time for another spirit blast to hit the lich shaking his soul. Each spirit blast caused a small stun effect to the lich souls as it got stuck in a stun-lock due to the improved casting speed of Nathans with his mana veins and mana pool now.


    The lich felt absolutely horrible why it had to be a damn spirit mage to unseal him. Almost anyone else and he could have escaped safely or at least trick them. Yet now he was simply too week to fight of Nathan if only he was given a bit of time to build up his power once again.


    | S-stop... I .. give up! | The lich called out to Nathan just bearly with the constant assault of spirit blast he was under, hoping Nathan would spare him. Yet sadly he had no luck as he started to grow more desperate and transparent simultaneously with each blast that struck him.


    Why would Nathan listen to him if he could just enslave the lich as his own spirit!

 Chapter 17: Pest control part 2

    The lich felt absolutely helpless as he couldn¡¯t do anything in this state of being constantly bombarded by spirit blasts. He cursed in his mind about his ill fate from being defeated and sealed in the sword to now being on the verge of death.


    Using his will Nathan started to overtake the soul of the lich that had gotten too weak to resist Nathans¡¯s enslavement. His free will was completely destroyed as he became a faithful servant of Nathans without any power to resist.


    Nathan had stopped his magical assault on the lich as he knew he had successfully enslaved the lich.


    ¡°Come here!¡± Nathan commanded the lich to arrive in front of him as he prepared to question him.


    | Yes, master. | His tone had changed to one of absolute obedience as he responded to Nathan¡¯s wishes.


    ¡°What do you know about the gods?¡± Nathan was quite desperate to know more about the entities that had given him this chance especially now that they had put their attention on him.


    | They are beings that have risen beyond the limits of any mortal creature. They have a great understanding of the laws of the universe as they abuse their power to fulfill their selfish goals. | The tone of the lich had changed to one of contempt as soon as he started to talk about the gods. Clearly showing his displeasure if not even hate towards them.


    | They had invaded my world just as they did with yours. They sent their zealots to kill me in waves as I didn¡¯t fall for their deception. | There was pain and anger that came from the very soul of the lich engraved in it for all eternity.


    Nathan was unsure of how much he could trust and believe in what the lich had just said. There was a great part of him that felt immensely grateful towards them for reuniting him with Nicole, but if what the lich said held true he might need to rethink his future actions a bit more. But the question still remains how much of it was the delusions of the lich or the fact of the situation.


    ¡°Is there any crucial information I should know about them?¡± Nathan had felt that the lich had held back on something before.


    | You cannot trust them at all. They can¡¯t enter these worlds themselves but they have their ways to access them. Like through their believers or the minions they send here. |


    This was quite an important piece of information from the lich. If the gods couldn¡¯t enter the world themselves he wouldn¡¯t need to worry about them just killing him instantly. Nathan felt quite satisfied with the information the lich had given him.


    ¡°You shall be known as Azrael from now on!¡± Nathan couldn¡¯t refer to him as the lich, all the time after all.


    | Thank you, master. |


    ¡°Azrael, send the skeletons to search the area for treasure.¡± There used to be quite a few people in the camp and Nathan didn¡¯t believe he couldn¡¯t find anything of worth from all these people that had gotten something from the wheel.


    Nathan had no way of knowing this himself but quite a few powers of the old world had used this exact method to rise to power once again. Even if they hadn¡¯t gotten anything great themselves, they could use their human resources to hoard all kinds of treasures from those that knew no better or were just simply too weak to resist them. In the end, Azrael with his knowledge knew much better of what was worthwhile to take or what wasn¡¯t as his skeletons started to pile a bunch of loot in front of Nathan who was examining the space pocket he got from killing all these humans.


    It was an extremely useful tool that let him store items inside a separate space. Food could last pretty much indefinitely in it and it was somewhat specious. In size, it was around 10 meters in diameter or so.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s see what we have here.¡± Nathan started to rummage through the pile of items as he read their description. There were quite a lot of weapons in the pile that Nathan gave to the skeletons boosting their power. It was the same with the armor he couldn¡¯t use himself as well. A pleasant surprise was among the items that was a grimoire! It was a simple-looking book with hard leather covers. that looked to be made of unknown animal skin. He wasn¡¯t able to open it as well.


    | Unclaimed Grimoire |


    | The grimoire lets it¡¯s user store spells while helping in the growth of the user |


    | Requirement: 20 mana and spell power |If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    | Current mana limit: 100 |


    | Current spell limit: 5 |


    | You meet the requirements to claim the grimoire as your own. |


    Without any hesitation, Nathan had claimed the grimoire to himself. As another system message popped up.


    | You have acquired a growth item. A growth item has the ability to evolve with the user while acquiring abilities that suit the user. |


    The grimoire had changed its appearance now that Nathan had claimed it. Its design was still as simple as before only now changing its color to ash grey while a chain appeared out of nowhere as it settled on his waist.


    Nathan took the grimoire in his hands now able to open it up and see that it only had five pages. In these five pages, he could store any spell he knew and cast it with the mana he could now put inside it. As long as he kept using the grimoire it would evolve specialized abilities making his choice of magic it held quite an important decision. In the end, he decided to simply store his soul slash on the first page.


    ¡°Azrael what is the exact difference between spells and just controlling the elements to do the same?¡± Nathan would have to be a fool not to use Azrael''s vast information about magic for his own gain.


    | Master the difference between spells and just controlling the mana is quite large as spells make the process of casting magic a lot faster as well as having the ability to grow in power as your proficiency with them increases. | The biggest downside to spells that Nathan could see compared to his way of using magic was the lack of flexibility it had. A good example would be his use of the bone spike if it was a spell it would be stronger, but he couldn¡¯t create extra spikes from it to pierce the target even more.


    | Werewolf paws |


    | Gloves made from the corpse of a werewolf. |


    | Agility +3 |


    | Increases claw damage by 15% |


    These gloves looked just like they sounded greyish brown in color with fur covering the top of it while the bottom half had no fur. They even had a special ability or having claws that came out of the fingers that could be toggled on and off.


    | Boots of the swift |


    | These boots were made by an elven craftsman as a gift to his son on his 100th birthday so he could always escape from danger. |


    | Increase movement speed by 25% |


    | Amplifies wind magic cast through these boots by 10% |


    They looked pretty much how one would expect elven boots to look like they went higher up the leg then regular boots would and had many shoelaces to adjust the size of them.


    He gave all the rest he didn¡¯t want to use to the skeletons as he left towards the location of the last pests in the city. Near that location was also the last holder of a unique ability that Nathan was looking forward to. The location was on the completely opposite side of the city and he just so happened to see the treant king himself. There was no way it was anyone else but him.


    A tree that stood right in the middle of the city with a human-like face on top of it. In height, it could easily be compared to the highest skyscraper, but most impressively was the circumference it had. As Nathan examined it in more detail he noticed that the two branches that reached from its trunk into the sky were actually its hands that it had raised into the air covered with leaves. While the bottom of its body was completely covered in soil, Nathan could easily imagine the tentacle mess its roots had created in the soil beneath the ground. It had most likely covered the whole city as it fed on it. Nathan wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the treant king saw other species simply as fertilizer for himself may it be their bodies or soul.


    ¡°Azrael, what level do you think the treant king is?¡±


    | It¡¯s a boss around level 60-80. | The small army of a thousand skeletons that had gotten somewhat near the treant king had drawn his attention as his gigantic eyes opened and moved to look at them. The treant king didn¡¯t say anything to them as he once again closed his eyes after a minute and continued to enjoy all the delicious fertilizer he was constantly getting in the city.


    Nathan¡¯s speed had fallen a lot now that he traveled with an army of a thousand skeletons that was the limit of Azrael''s control. But he felt like it was worth it if he didn¡¯t need to dirty his hand with blood like that again if he could just let the skeleton do the dead. It was quite annoying for him to use so much water magic to get all the blood off him.


    But it¡¯s not like there weren¡¯t any other benefits to him slowing down his speed he could now put more focus on his magic training as his mastery of plant magic was rapidly increasing in the treant kings territory. The mage class was now granting him a 25% bonus as his lesser plant affinity was giving him another 25% together with the territory bonus it rose to all the way to 150% experience gain for plant magic.


    | Plant magic | Level 5 |


    | By using mana you can control the plants around you with high enough mastery you can even create plants. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    | Unsuitable base mana: Cost of plant magic increased by 15% |


    It had only been a few hours since he entered the city yet plant magic had already leveled up a few times just with him using it passively as he moved around. Yet this passive training was increasing some of his other skills as well. He was steadily growing stronger even without killing.


    Currently, at Nathan¡¯s destination, the leader of the group was having a conversation with one of his gang members. They were already a nefarious bunch of people before the apocalypse exploiting the underworld of the city as much as they could from prostitution to selling drugs and guns to even hired killing. There were always desperate people out there willing to do anything for money. One wrong step and you were set for life to walk down the wrong path.


    ¡°Brother white, why don¡¯t we go look for more survivors in the city tomorrow?¡± They had just finished having their fun as they smoked their cigars and were having a drink discussing their future plans.


    Brother wite smirked with a lewd smile as he recalled all the fun they had these past few days. ¡°Definitely they just break too soon now that our power has increased so much.¡± He laughed with joy before his mood got ruined a bit by what brother black said.


    ¡°But damn that fucker, James has been going too far these days even for our standards.¡± He couldn''t help but be disturbed by all the fucked up shit James had been doing now. Even before the apocalypse, he was a freak that liked to take a bite out of the unripened fruit.


    ¡°But what can we do, he is the strongest member of our group now with his weird-ass ability.¡± Brother white felt helpless even if he was the main boss of their gang. The ability of James was too valuable for him to intervene in his twisted hobbies.


    ¡°Sigh, I just don¡¯t get how a man like that could still call himself a vegan!¡± In the end, this is what bothered him the most about James, how can a man that did such bloody things call himself a vegan and criticizes others about not being one!

 Chapter 18: Finishing the quest.

    Nathan didn¡¯t know how powerful the unique ability holder he was quickly approaching was. So just to be sure of defeating him Nathan opened his status screen to add the eight attribute points he got from leveling his mage class to level four.


    ¡°Status¡±


    | Name: Nathan Bandon |


    | Class: Spirit seeker | Level 10 |


    | Class: Mage | Level 4 |


    | Status: Shared soul |


    | Strength: 23 (11) |


    | Vitality: 25 (13) |


    | Agility: 23 (11) |


    | Sense: 37 (29) |


    | Magic power: 36 (21) |


    | Mana: 25 (23) |


    | Attribute points: 8 |


    There was a sense of satisfaction as Nathan looked at his stats and how much he has grown in such a short time all things considered. Nathan added one point into his sense stat raising it to thirty while investing the last seven into mana raising its base value to thirty as well.


    ¡°Azrael, is it possible to use another type of magic on the skeletons to increase their battle powers?¡± Nathan had felt like he could use bone or plant magic to create a piece of headgear that ensured the skulls of the skeletons wouldn¡¯t be so easily destroyed. This would increase their battle power tremendously and who would be better to ask that then the lich who had worked with the undead for years.


    | It is. As long as you use the magic in a way it won¡¯t hinder the movement of the skeletons or damage it. | Getting the conformation Nathan needed for his idea, he began to act on it. Approaching one of the skeletons Nathan began to manipulate the plants around him as they crept up to its body before settling on its head creating a crude-looking helmet. He didn¡¯t stop just there as a vine that connected to its headgear began to travel down its bones before reaching its arm creating a sword made from wood while another vine traveled down its other arm creating a crude wooden shield.


    The first time Nathan added the plant equipment to the skeleton it had cost him around two mana yet as he kept doing the same to others skeletons the cost slowly decreased as his proficiency increased. After a bit more than ten skeletons had received Nathan''s plant armor the cost had fallen to one mana. This was the threshold for the system to recognize it as a skill as well.


    | Plant equipment. | Level 1 |


    | Using the mastery over plant magic to create equipment out of plant-based material. The strength of the armor and weapons created is based on plant magic level and magic power. |


    | Cost: 1 mana |


    | Duration: 10 minutes. |


    | +10% of caster¡¯s magic power as strength, agility, and vitality. (3) |


    Now that it was recognized as a skill the casting process of it had become a lot easier as Nathan didn¡¯t have to manually manipulate the mana to cover the skeletons how he wanted. The 10% of his magic power increased the strength, agility, and vitality of the skeleton by 3 points as well. This was quite a big boost to the skeletons¡¯ battle powers. The sword and shield looked a lot more refined now as well.


    | Master, your talent for somebody without magical heritage is quite impressive. |


    Nathan himself hadn¡¯t interacted too much with other people who used magic as well so he had nothing to compare with it, but as he continued to constantly use magic it had become easier to use overall as well. He had just thought it was due to his magic skills leveling up. Yet as he recalled when he noticed this small but gradual difference in his utilization of magic it all started back when he gained the unique ability perfected adaptation. Nathan himself had yet to truly discover it but perfected adaptation had the hidden ability to improve the talent of the individual as they used abilities related to the talent in question. It was a small increase, but with time, it all added up, creating quite a big difference overall.


    By now Nathan could already see the building that was marked as his quest destination. As long he got rid of all the pests in there he would be officially done with the quest the treant king had given him.


    ¡°Send the skeletons to attack!¡± Before the apocalypse, it was a car repair shop that acted as a front business for the gang. The building was covered in black soot. It was the same for all the surroundings near the car repair shop as well. The gang was actively fighting back against the nature that had overtaken the city as they assaulted it with fire magic and any other flammable object that could help them burn down the plants. Covering the ground and buildings in soot even now the gang members were still burning down the plants that were actively growing. Seeing the army of skeletons quickly rushing towards them they surprisingly reacted in a composed manner as one of the guys who had run out of mana rushed back to their base to inform the rest of the gang. The five other people who were burning the plants before prepared their tools for attacking. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    A thug looking guy wearing shorts and wife-beater took the lead as his body morphed and transformed into a strange beast never seen in the world before the apocalypse. His skin took on a blue tint to it as his size rapidly grew to three meters. His neck bulged as gills appeared on the side of it. He had transformed into an odd type of aquatic beast with webbed fingers and feet.


    The gang had thought it was just another monster raid that they had faced so often these days. Just with skeletons covered in plants instead of the regular plant made creatures. The skeletons didn¡¯t even look all that powerful as the aquatic brute rushed in first. Striking the head of the rushing skeletons with his meaty hands.


    Yet these weren¡¯t your simple everyday puppet skeleton they were led by lich with rich experience in leading an undead army. The skeletons upfront raised their shields creating a wall with them to intercept the brute¡¯s attack. He had fully expected to blow the skeletons away with his smash like he had done so many times before. Yet the wall of shields that the skeletons had created stood strong while swords began to pop from every gap in the shields piercing his arm.


    The skeletons used their comrade¡¯s bodies as support as they began to use them as platforms to jump over the wall of shields onto the small giant piercing him with their swords while another group of skeletons began to surround the brute from all sides while assaulting it with their blades.


    ¡°What the fuck are you doing! Help me!¡± The brute yelled out for help as he was quickly overwhelmed by all the skeletons. In his rampage, he managed to tear and throw away just enough skeletons from his face to turn his head around to see his fellow gang members running for their lives as a wave of skeletons pursued them.


    ¡°Bastards, how could you leave me here to die!¡± He roared with rage as he fell to his knees his tendons severed making his legs give out. His fate had been sealed the moment he rushed in the army of skeletons thinking they were only a bit stronger than those he had heard of in the tutorial.


    Gunshots rang throughout the city as the gang had started to open fire on the skeletons. They had even managed to raid one of the police stations before increasing their arsenal even more. Yet to take down one skeleton it had to be shot in the skull multiple times which proved to be an almost impossible endeavor with them moving constantly in a swarm-like manner as they broke into the soot-covered building killing everyone on sight.


    A strong explosion made it seem like the world itself was shaking as a propane tank exploded among the skeleton army one after another reducing their numbers greatly yet it still couldn¡¯t stop them rushing in.


    Nathan wasn¡¯t idle as he felt the presence of the unique ability holder in the basement of the building. While the skeletons were admins killing all the gang members in the building he entered the untouched basement.


    You could instantly notice the difference in the atmosphere here compared to the outside. It was much colder and richer in spirit mana. This increase to the spirit mana in the surroundings was caused by all the deaths that had taken place in this basement. The unpleasant stench of meat and filth in the basement forced Nathan to cover his nose as he moved deeper into the basement before seeing James sitting at the table. He was 1 meter 80 centimeters tall with extremely white skin that looked unhealthy. His brownish-black hair looked unkempt and unwashed as it swayed as he turned his head to look at Nathan.


    ¡°Care to join me for a meal?¡± The room was dark but there was enough light for Nathan to see the bloody piece of meat that James was eating with a fork and a knife as it was a pristine steak.


    ¡°Sure, what are you serving?¡± There was a sense of curiosity in Nathan when it came to individuals like James. What had caused him to be the way he was? Even with all that was going upstairs he had been calmly sitting here enjoying his meal. Not caring about the screams of help from his gang members.


    ¡°Meat.¡± As Nathan sat down at the table in front of a plate James began to use magic as a big cluster of mana cover the plate in front of him before turning into a piece of uncooked meat.


    ¡°Ah, where are my manners, I have yet to introduce myself to you. I¡¯m Gregory James. What would be the name of the gentleman joining me for a meal?¡± Gregory James had always been a weird guy. But after acquiring a unique ability called flesh forging that lets him use mana to recreate flesh of living creatures made it only so much worse. His class being cannibal didn¡¯t help much in that as well.


    Yet those two things together created an insanely strong combination that let James become powerful fast. It was one of the reasons he didn¡¯t feel threatened at all by Nathan''s presence and his attack on the gang, it just meant he would have more research subjects for his unique ability.


    ¡°Nathan, It¡¯s quite impressive how many people you have already killed.¡± For those that had killed a lot of people, there was always a weird aura around them that those with high enough sense stat could feel.


    ¡°Oh, I feel the same way. It¡¯s surprising to meet somebody who had killed more humans than me in these few days.¡± Looking at pure base stats James was quite superior to Nathan but he lacked in the number of skills and their mastery. Both of them knew that only one of them would be leaving the basement at the end of their conversation.


    ¡°Since I¡¯m not really hungry shall we start?¡± With those words, Nathan quickly stood up as he swung his sword of uprise launching a soul slash straight at the siting James.


    Using his superior agility James easily dodged the soul slash before throwing the knife in his hand straight at Nathan''s head only for it to be brushed aside by the materialized claws of Nicole.


    ¡°And here I thought you would fight me honorably in a one versus one battle.¡± He was feeling excited as he drew his special knife before rushing straight at Nathan with incredible speed covering the distance between them in less than a second as he plunged the knife straight at Nathan''s heart. He could already taste the delicious increase in his power after he killed Nathan.


    The bone magic reinforced foot of Nathans was first to connect with the chin of James as he was sent flying into the cement wall with a nasty crack sound coming from his broken neck and chin that had shattered from the force of Nathan''s kick. Yet unexpectedly after taking such a devastating blow from Nathan he still got up and adjusted his neck to its right place with another crack.


    The moment Nathan''s foot had connected with James'' chin he had managed to adjust the direction of his knife leaving a deep slash on Nathan''s leg as well.


    James laughed with joy knowing he had won the battle already! His knife held a very potent poison that could even kill him if he was slashed with it. There was no way Nathan could survive after receiving such a large wound from his knife. Nathan almost instantly began to feel the effect of the poison as his body felt sluggish and his head muddled, not able to react in time as James thrusted his knife straight at Nathan''s heart once again.


    Only for James'' hands to be pierced by the claws of Nicole as she grabbed his hand while intensifying the soothing effect of her skill. Clearing Nathan¡¯s mind of the effects of the poison as his body went on an overdrive to fight back against it. It gave him just enough time to catch the other fist of James. Before counter-attacking him with a headbutt as a horn grew out of his skull piercing the head of James.


    Even after taking such a strike, he was barely clinging to life before Nathns fire covered fist evaporated Jame¡¯s brains. And so the Cannibal that has a seemingly infinite supply of meat to raise his stats with had fallen in battle as Nathan gained the unique ability flesh forging.

 Chapter 19: Skill rank up

    With the end of the battle, the system began to inform Nathan of his rewards.


    | Contribution from Azrael: + 330 (-50%) Experience |


    | Unjust gain has been initiated. |


    | Level 12 Human has been slain. |


    | +240(-50%) Experience |


    | Flesh forging |


    | There has only ever been one person who had learned the innate ability of the Manivlee race quality for the rating of a unique ability. |


    | Flesh forging lets you recreate the flesh of creatures you have killed and eaten before. |


    | Treants king''s quest | Completed |


    | The treant king has noticed your actions of removing one of the pests from his territory and is giving you a quest. |


    | Kill the two remaining pests that are bothering him |


    | Reward: Friendly status with the treant king, 1000 Experience, Plant knowledge. |


    The information on how flesh forging worked rushed into Nathan¡¯s mind together with the knowledge of plants the Treant king had given him. The unique ability flesh forging worked in a pretty odd way. Nathan had to kill a creature that had flesh and eat it himself to be able to use it all. The cost of utilizing it was quite absurd as well. To create a fist-size chunk of meat from a level one beast he would need to spend about five mana. While in comparison creating a fist-size ball of fire wouldn¡¯t even cost him one mana.


    There was still the questionable usefulness of creating the flesh of other creatures in itself. One could do something similar to what James had and use its ability to create flesh together with an ability that gave bonuses from eating it, but could that really be all that this unique ability was capable of?


    Well, there was the possibility to recreate the natural body parts of beasts that could be consumed for stats increases and more bonuses it held. But from what Nathan understood of the system doing that would lessen the effects of those items drastically with each time one would eat them. As well as increase the chance the body would reject the effects causing a mutation in the body.


    When it came to the treant king¡¯s reward, Nathan was more than satisfied with it. The one thousand experience was quite a lot while the plant knowledge was extremely beneficial. It showed him how to create all kinds of useful plants out of plant magic as well as raising the level of plant magic all the way to ten.


    | Plant magic | Level 10 |


    | By using mana you can control the plants around you with high enough mastery you can even create plants. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    The unsuitable mana had disappeared from the text as his body had naturally adapted to the utilization of plant mana no longer hindering it and increasing the cost it would take to use it. But for Nathan to utilize plant creation, hee needed to level it up one more time so it could reach the next tier of the skill. This was the last thing he wanted to do before leaving the treant kings territory that gave him such a huge boost to plant magic training speed.


    After Nathan had finished receiving all the information he didn¡¯t feel too good about leaving the people James had kept in his basement. The problem was James had scared them physically and mentally too much. From the eight people that were in the basement. Only one of them was still in a somewhat sane state of mind still.


    His clothes had become nothing but bloody rags yet he had incredibly strong vitality for somebody who was only level three. Still, his body was in a horrible state as if he had been starved for months. This was due to his body automatically taxing it for all it had to heal the injuries James had done to him.


    ¡°W-water¡­ please.¡± His voice was beyond raspy and dry as he looked at Nathan with a bit of hope still left in his eyes.


    Nathan freed him from the shackles that bound him before giving a 2-liter bottle of water that he chugged down in less than a minute.


    ¡°Do you have any food?¡± After drinking the whole bottle, his complexion had improved quite a bit while his voice didn¡¯t sound as dry.


    Nathan took out two packs of cookies that he wanted to give to the man before he instantly grabbed them out of his hands tearing them open and forcing them down his mouth while barely even chewing them.


    The man was called Daniel and he had been captured by the gang and given to James two days ago just as he had left the tutorial. He had refused to join the gang in their immoral actions but while he was in the tutorial his party had managed to kill the forest god and from his group, he got the health regeneration skill that had let him live as long as he had while captured by James. The skill had risen all the way to level eight already. With the skill being as high level as it was giving him 160% increased health regeneration had let him survive for so long in this basement. His class giving him some extra points in regeneration had helped with that as well.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    As Nathan questioned him why he had returned to the town instead of choosing a safe area after the tutorial he had hit a sensitive spot for Nathan. The whole reason why he even returned to the city was that in the nearby city lived his only family member, his younger sister that he was worried about.


    After hearing this Nathan couldn¡¯t just leave the man alone without giving him at least a helping hand. He wouldn¡¯t go as far as to escort him to his sister but he could increase his battle powers by a bit. While testing out his newly acquired flesh forging ability.


    Nathan took out his grimoire before using up two of its pages to register the level 5 forest god¡¯s gallbladder and heart on two of its pages.


    | Page 2 |


    | Cost: 100 Mana |


    | Forest god¡¯s gallbladder | Level 5 |


    | The gallbladder of the forest god is potent enough to work as a natural elixir of its own giving benefits to the body on consumption. |


    | Increases the natural strength of your immune system. |


    | Increases the efficiency of your digestion. |


    | Has a synergy effect when eaten together with forest god¡¯s heart. |


    | Page 3 |


    | Cost: 100 Mana |


    | Forest god''s heart | Level 5 |


    | The heart of the forest god still contains the residual essence of its power after eating it you can inherit some of its innate power as well. |


    | Increases your natural health regeneration by 10 points. |


    | Has a synergy effect when eaten together with forest god¡¯s Gallbladder. |


    ¡°I can help you get out of the town as well as increase your power a bit. With that, you will have a better chance to reach your sister.¡± Daniel couldn''t understand why Nathan was going so far for somebody he just rescued but still, he felt extremely grateful towards him.


    ¡°Damn man I don¡¯t know how I will ever thank you for all you have done for me!¡± Nathan picked up the dagger that James had used before giving it to Daniel as they left the basement. Azrael welcomed Nathan with all the loot he had gained from killing off the gang members in the car repair shop. They had hoarded quite a lot of good stuff for themselves with their abuse of the weaker humans. Among those items, there was only one item that piqued Nathan''s interest a lot.


    | Encyclopedia of runes | Volume 1 |


    | It holds the contents of a vast array of runes that the system has encountered. |


    He gave some of the items to Daniel to help him out a bit more while giving the rest to his skeleton that was slowly becoming fully geared. There were about six hundred of them left after the fight.


    The skeletons themselves could also level up from killing but 50% of their experience went to Azrael and 50% of that went to Nathan as Azreals master. But it was quite interesting how they gained experience based on the average level of the skeletons in the group instead of it being based on Azrael¡¯s level or Nathans. This way of calculating experience made it really efficient to hunt down low level mobs using the undead instead of doing it yourself. It was actually one of the reasons Azreal had risen to power as fast as he had back in his world before being defeated and sealed.


    ¡°Daniel eat these.¡± As his grimoire was full with mana before and it didn¡¯t take too long to fill it with a hundred mana again to create the other piece of forest gods flesh. At first, Daniel had felt disgusted about eating the raw heart and gallbladder of the forest god but after reading their effects he forced himself to eat them. Understanding the opportunity Nathan was giving him and not letting it go to waste.


    ¡°Azrael, take the sword of uprise and wait for me at the edge of town with the skeleton army. Take Daniel with you as well.¡±


    | Yes, Master. |


    There were a few reasons for Nathan to command Azreal to wait for him at the edge town. For one he didn¡¯t want to bother the treant king with the presence of his undead army and they would slow him down too much. As he was hoping he could use the friendship he had with the treant king to advance his plant magic to the next tier. Escorting Daniel was just an extra insurance of him making it out of the treant king''s territory safely.


    Without the hindrance of the skeleton army, Nathan could use his speed to its full extent reaching the treant king in a couple of minutes while before it had taken him more than an hour.


    | Why have you come here, exterminator? | The skyscraper size treant had opened his giant eyes as he stared at Nathan who looked like a tiny ant compared to him.


    ¡°Treant king I hope you could guide me in the use of plant magic!¡± Even if the treant king looked down upon species of flesh that he saw as nothing more than fertilizer for him. His pride wouldn¡¯t let him deny Nathan¡¯s request as he had promised friendship between them.


    | As I sign of our friendship let me teach you the way of plant magic! Sit down in front of me and experience the essence of plant magic. |


    Just as Nathan had sat down in front of the treant king it began to release a large amount of condensed plant mana out of its body that enveloped Nathan. It was so condensed that it wouldn¡¯t be wrong to call it the essence of plant magic. In this essence of plant magic, Nathan could feel and understand the true nature of plant magic.


    Nathan began to feel like he had become a plant himself in the process of being enveloped in the essence of plant magic as his plant magic-related abilities rose rapidly. He experienced the feeling of being a tiny seed that slowly sprouted and grew into a fully-fledged plant before regaining his awareness. The dense plant mana that had enveloped him just before began to enter his grimoire before completely disappeared as the treant king spoke.


    | We are done here. Leave. | The treant king had closed his eyes once again as he immersed himself in completely conquering this piece of land before he could make it truly his domain.


    Knowing the treant king wanted him to leave his side Nathan got up as he began to walk towards the direction where he had sent Azrael before. Out of respect, he waited until he was a good distance away from it to check out the progression of his skills.


    | Plant control | Level 1 |


    | You have reached the second tier of plant magic. You can control almost any plant-based organism with your mana as well as create plants out of it. |


    | Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |


    There were a couple of huge differences between plant magic and plant control. For one Nathan could now directly control the plants with the mana they held themselves while before he needed to send his own mana out to do that. But most of all he had gained the ability to create plants of his own while before he was simply limited to using those that were around him. Creating a plant cost about half of what his flesh forging ability did.


    There was a pleasant change to the grimoire that had sucked up the plant essence as well.


    | Nathans Grimoire |


    | Current mana limit: 200 |


    | Current spell limit: 10 |


    | Page 1: Soul slash | Page 2: Forest god¡¯s gallbladder | Page 3: Forest god''s heart |


    | Treants blessing |


    ( Passively intakes the nearby plant mana based on the surrounding environment)


    The before dull look of the grimoire had started to take a forestry green too as the cover became more wood-like then before.


    Nathan gave the city one more look before leaving the treant king¡¯s territory. In the seemingly short time he was here in the city it had changed drastically. It was slowly but surely becoming harder to see the city that once stood here as it had completely been overtaken by nature. In a couple more days the treant king would be able to claim this past city as his own territory becoming almost invincible in its boundaries. By Nathan''s estimation, he would only have a chance to kill the treant king in the next four days. But for him to become powerful enough to do that seemed almost impossible. Yet leaving a presence as the treant king in the world left a bad taste in his mouth.