《Lord of the skies》 Chapter 1 - Blue box Emptiness was everything that surrounded me¡­ Darkness was the only thing that I could "see"... Nothing was everything that I could feel¡­ Being alone in the dark often scares people¡­ but living in the dark is another thing altogether¡­ the feeling of having no one¡­ the feeling of having no feeling¡­ I don''t know how long it will take to get out of this darkness, but all I know is that once I leave, I will not be myself anymore¡­ But, who am I?.... What''s my name?.... All that I know is that I wish power¡­ But what is power?.... _____________________________________________ I can feel¡­ I can touch something¡­ I can hear some distant sounds¡­ but this place is so small, I can''t even move freely¡­ I only want to rest, I am tired¡­. This warmth¡­ it''s so good¡­. This place is getting tighter¡­ I am being pressed¡­ what is this pain that I feel? Finally, I can see some light¡­ so painful¡­ I could not stop my mouth from opening and tears from falling from my face, some forms surrounded me, I could see a man that was like a light in the place¡­ his presence is so good¡­ a woman take me in her arms, I felt like I was in a fortress in her arms, and nothing could harm me¡­ "Here is your son miss Helena." A man passed me to Helena. "John, our son is so beautiful, he is like the sun illuminating us¡­. Hey little Bryan, Mommy loves you so much..." Helena said to me with a lovely face, John came closer and looked into my eyes¡­ "Little Bryan, you will be a great man when you grow, Dad will take care of you very well." Said John while a tear fell from his eyes. Days passed, I can finally see clearly. The woman and man that take care of me are my parents. I feel safe with them¡­ 9 months go by¡­. and now I can say words... The man is Dad, He has red hair on all his "head, it''s so funny to pull it¡­ his eyes are green, and he is very strong for what I can see¡­ The woman is "Mom" she has such beautiful hair, it''s like the light from the sun¡­ Another 9 months pass. People call me a little genius, I can walk, I can talk, and mommy is teaching me how to read, the word is so funny, I like to discover what they mean. I can almost read everything, nothing escapes me.
Years go by, Bryan grows strong. his hair was red like a flame, and his eyes Blue like the Sky. His growth was full of bumps, he was an exceptional kid, so intelligent that he was shunned by other children. even though he had a great personality, being different is not always good. Now, Bryan is seventeen years old, he is almost finishing high school. He had few friends, but at least they truly liked him. After he hit the teen years, there were a lot of people that tried to get closer to him because of his great looks and intelligence. Friends are not always easy to make. His good body came from practicing martial arts since small, his father, John, was a krav maga and jiu-jitsu master, he was an army instructor and made Bryan train since small. Despite his great body, he never liked sports, his only time for physical exercise was only during his daily training with his father. He stood at 1,85 meters tall, had red hair and blue eyes. his body had an athletic shape and his face was like a sculpture, with rough and slender traits. His only two good friends were Jessica and Samuel. Jessica was a childhood friend, they lived closer to each other since small and their mothers were good friends as well. He meet Samuel about 3 years ago, when he was 14 years old, he only had Jessica as a friend then. Samuel came from a different school and was a lonely kid. he was tiny and nerdy with big glasses. Bryan befriended him because he knew what was like to be shunned by others.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. "Why is it taking so long? It seems like time is not passing..." Said a boy to my right, he is thin and is using big glasses, he has short black hair and seemed tall while seated. "Shut up Sam, If you keep talking the teacher is going to pick on us." Said a girl behind Samuel, she has long black hair, green eyes, and an hourglass figure, with good proportions everywhere. Her name is Jessica, and my good friend. "Don''t worry Sam, the class is almost ending, no need to be so rushed," I said looking at him. He was a good friend, but the games were his weakness. He wanted to left the class quickly and go to his house because there was a new game named Albion that launched today. The time ticked by, and seconds were passing. the students were looking uneasily to the clock above the teacher''s desk. Most of the students did not like to study, most of them just came to class, because their parents forced them to. Samuel is very bright, even though he doesn''t like to study. And since Jessica grew near me, she was influenced by me to study more. After all, which child likes her best friend to be above her in all classes. After a moment, the alarm rang, and the students, that had already packed their things, quickly got up from their chairs and went in the door direction. Bryan waited for everyone to get out and then went in the teacher''s direction. "Miss Audrey, Thank you for the class. Until tomorrow." I said to the teacher. She was a good looking woman that was 25 years old. She has auburn hair, brown eyes, and a good figure. "As charming as always Bryan. Have a good weekend." Audrey blinked with a charming smile in her mouth and waved her hand. Bryan turned to the door direction and saw Jessica waiting there for him with a gloomy face. After leaving class I turned to her and asked. "What''s up Jess? Why this face?" "You wouldn''t understand. Now shut up and let''s go home." She said walking quickly in front of me. I fastened my pace and followed after her. "What are you up to this weekend?" "I may go watch the new superhero movie at the cinema, wanna come with me?" she asked me while walking quickly in front of me. I fastened my pace again. "Well, I may as well go, my parents, are traveling to Europe this weekend to commemorate their wedding anniversary," I answered to her. "Well, that''s good for them. We can go tomorrow at 7 pm." Said Jessica with a smile on her face. Walking to the way to their houses, they went through a beautiful grove, It was full of trees, the ground around the road was full of colorful flowers, birds were singing and the grass was short. After some minutes they arrived at their houses. "Bye Jess, until tomorrow." I waved her goodbye while entering my house. "I AM HOME." I shouted while taking out my shoes. The house we lived in was a normal size in my view. it had a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen downstairs, and upstairs there were tree rooms, one for me and one for my parents, and one for visits. "Hey son, come here in the living room, we need to talk to you." Walking through the corridor, I saw the family pictures on the wall, good moments they were. Walking in the living room, I saw both my parents seated on the couch and eating some grapes. the living room was the biggest room of the house, it has a big couch in the middle, bookshelves on the walls and a chair and table for reading and studies. my parents were wearing some casual clothes and had suitcases beside them. I suppose they were leaving to take the airplane now. "Son, there''s food ready in the fridge, you just need to heat it. if everything goes alright we will be back Monday at night. Be careful and don''t mess up with the house." Said his mother. "Mom, I need some money as well, I will be going to watch a movie tomorrow with Jessica." I asked for this because I didn''t have any money on me, and knew that Jessica wouldn''t be paying for me. My parents showed surprise in their faces when they heard this. a small smile appeared in my father''s face and he said. "Finally showing some courage son. Good, good. Remember, when you bite the bone, never let it go. HAHAHA" After speaking he gave a hearty laugh and reached for his wallet and gave me 200 bucks. "This is too much dad, I won''t be using everything. And what is this talk about biting the bone?" I asked with a puzzled expression. "Well son, you will need that much for a first date. Your mother and I will be going now, Bye." They got up from the couch. My mother came to me and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. my dad passed by me and patted me on the shoulder. after saying goodbye, they called a taxi and went away. ___________________________________ The next day, Bryan woke up early and read some books. he heated the lunch that was on the fridge and read some novels. Finally, the time that he agreed to meet with Jessica was arriving. He showered and put some good clothes. Leaving his house seated in front of his door and waited for Jessica appear. After waiting for a few minutes and seeing that she was not showing up, he got up and knocked on her door. "COMING" I heard Jessica''s voice from inside. After awhile she opened the door. She was using a black dress that went until her knees and using a red coat, and black boots. She was truly stunning right now, even I was baffled by her looks. Seeing that I was looking at her without saying anything, she knocked on my head and said. "Knock, knock. is somebody there?" She flashed a smile and completed it. "Let''s go airhead" I gestured for her and we went to the town''s direction. "How do you think the movie is gonna be Jess?" I asked her after thinking for a bit. She was my best friend and I knew she was not her usual self. She talked a lot usually and liked to comment about the news. She was an avid reader of novels and books like myself, so usually we had a lot to talk about. "Well, the movie¡­¡­."
After watching the movie, we went to a fast-food restaurant and grabbed something to eat, we went to some stores and visited some places. Finally, when it was 10:30 we decided to head back home. The night was magical, I never felt like this before, Jess and I grew up together, although I am slow sometimes to understand people, when you know someone for so long, you almost know what she is thinking. After some small talk, we were passing through a park, the night was cloudless and there was a full moon in the sky. the wind blew slowly through the tree''s making it seem like there was an instrument playing. She slowly stopped and turned to me, a heat began to rise in my chest. My heartbeats accelerated like a car that was running. She came closer to me, and under the moonlight, I could see her blushing face. "Bryan, I have something to tell you." She looked up into my eyes, and her gaze electrified me. "I have¡­ for some time..." Just as she would complete the sentence. "BING" With a sound, a blue screen floated in front of my eyes.
System initializing¡­
Chapter 2 - Instructions
System initializing¡­.
Reading world¡­.
Adjusting content¡­.
I was flabbergasted by this screen¡­ It showed up out of nowhere and surprised me very much, and it appeared at a very inconvenient time. Despite my worries, it continued to appear. "Jess, are you seeing the same thing as me? What the hell is this?" I asked with shock in my voice, there was no way this was natural. "I am seeing it as well" The shock was evident in her face and voice. It was like the world was crumbling in front of us.
Welcome to the Universal system. We are here to save your lives. From now on the world is going to change to temper its inhabitants to what''s to come. A reading of the world was made and some suited myths and legends were selected to be used as a base to temper your world. Have a great game and good luck!
As this message floated in front of him, he became even more shocked, it was not like he has never seen some things like this. But they only appeared in novels and the like. What was happening to this world? Was he going crazy? As a million thoughts began to appear in his head, he looked in Jessica''s eyes and saw that she was even more shocked them him, if the novels and histories were real, they knew what would come next, and it would not be good. "Jess, be calm and keep your head cooled, we are going to get through anything that comes to us!" He said this while looking in her eyes, transmitting as much calmness as he could. He knew that inside, he was just a scared kitty, but now was not the time to be afraid. "I, I am fine... I can handle this." Just as she finished her phrase, a countdown appeared in front of them.
Beginning transmission in 3.
2...
1...
As the countdown was about to end, he felt a moist sensation on his lips and saw Jessica kissing him. The feeling electrified him from head to toe, his world began to spin and everything changed.
Regaining his vision, Bryan looked around and saw that he was in a forest. There was a moist sensation on his face, the ground was soft and there were sounds of birds chirping. Everything around him was green and full of life, the trees almost reached the sky, nature was so vibrant that the life was overflowing everywhere. He saw that there was a blue screen in front of him.
You are now in the tutorial area, you have the mission of surviving here for 1 month, after this period you will be transported to your planet again. Good luck!
after he finished reading it, the message disappeared and in front of him appeared a different screen, he turned his attention to it and saw this.
Your status screen is going to appear shortly, for more information think or say "help".
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 14
Agility: 14
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 16
Endurance: 13
Vitality: 14
Skills
N/A N/A
Perks
NameTaken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Description
Bright mind You can recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily. The brain process power is accelerated.
Points 0
Seeing this Bryan began to think about the meaning of the worlds. He divided the attributes into two parts, physical and mental. Strength, endurance, vitality, and agility were physical, he thought strength was about his muscles power, endurance was stamina and his body resistance, and vitality was his ability to regenerate from wounds, and then, agility. He thought agility was about control of his body, reaction time and finesse. although some people would think that agility was about the body, it wasn''t only restricted to it. It was about control of the mind over the body. a high agility would give the person a higher control of the body and a more equilibrated body shape. The mental attributes were intelligence and wisdom, he thought intelligence was about his ability to recall things and process information, wisdom was the ability to use the information that was in his brain and react to things that happened. Each attribute had an equivalent one. strength had agility, intelligence had wisdom, and endurance had vitality. Looking at the numbers at his screen, he saw that the physical ones were equilibrated, but the mental ones had a four-point difference between them. He attributed that to his Bright mind perk, which gave him a better processing power and other things. Taking his eyes out of the screen, he thought about it disappearing and it vanished. he looked around and said. "Let''s survive then." Looking around he began to walk through the forest. He didn''t know what was around him. What kind of creatures that were lurking in the forest. He only knew that he had to survive for 1 month and that whatever this was about. it wouldn''t be easy. After taking a look around, he saw vestiges of animals on the grounds, there were some broken twigs and some paw marks, judging by the size of it, the animal was pretty big, and had some nasty claws. Seeing the mark on the ground his face became pale, his breath became chaotic and he thought. I have to get out of here. He began to go in the opposite direction of where the marks were pointing. Going as quickly as he could, Bryan finally arrived in a clearing. Looking around he saw some rocks on the ground and a small river flowing in the middle of it. He went into the small river direction and formed a bow with his hands to pick some water. taking a big gulp of freshwater, he felt his mind becoming sharper and his concentration returned to him. I need to make a weapon first, if there are some big creatures here, I need it to protect myself. First, he grabbed a rock and began to break it into another larger one. After breaking it, and picking some pieces that were best suited for his purposes, he proceeded to sharpen them and make to fine rock blades. By the end of the process, he had two sharp rocks in his hands that looked like two small knives. He then proceeded and cut a long branch from a tree and made a spear from one of the small knives. Looking at the makeshift spear and stabbing it in a tree''s direction, he felt satisfied. After the spear was ready, he felt more safe and found a place that he deemed safe near the creek, a small cave in which entrance was covered by bushes. He scanned the small cave and saw that there were no signings of animals and made the entrance more hidden with other bushes that were near the clearing. "The safer the better" he thought to himself. After looking into the entrance and seeing that it was well hidden, he thought "Help". shortly after that, a screen appeared before him.
This is the tutorial for beginners. There are three main functions available to the user right now. They are Galactic store, Fighting tutorial, and Missions. Think of one of them to hear further explanation. To see an explanation about the status screen you just have to concentrate on it and an explanation will follow.
Seeing the tree options that were available to him, he began to ponder about them but shortly proceeded for more information. "Let''s see what this is about. Galactic store." Bryan thought.
Welcome to the galactic store, here you can find anything that can be imagined. There are two sections for it, "Skills" and "Items". Skills can be bought from the "Skills" section, but their functionalities will be diminished from the original until they are mastered to novice. Skills can also be developed from the user''s actions. The "Items" section can be divided in two, combat and living. In the combat section, you can find weapons, armors, and shields of your choice. In the "living" section you can find books, food, entertainment and equipment and a variety of things.
After the explanation, a screen appeared in front of him.
Galactic Store
Skills
Items
Looking at it, he finally chose the "Skills" section.
Skills
Name Points
Flash 200.000
Water constitution 500.000
¡­¡­¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­¡­¡­..
There was an infinity of different skills, so much that even after scrolling for a while he couldn''t get to the end of it. Seeing that there was also a search function, he tipped "Sword". After doing it, another screen appeared in front of him.
Showing available skills.
"Sword" Points
Destruction sword 30.000.000
Fire coating 300.000
Sword steps 250.000
¡­¡­¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­¡­¡­..
A myriad of skills appeared in front of him, all related to the use of a sword. Most of them were elements and ways to apply something to or from a sword, or even if it was sword related, like the skill sword steps. But what surprised him, were the points that were necessary to buy them. He didn''t have any of them, and these skills cost so much¡­ It seemed that while there were skills available to be bought, the system wanted them to develop the skills themselves. As a screen said that there existed this possibility. After exploring the Store a little more, he saw that there were a variety of foods and books from earth, as well as some books from other sources. Next, he thought "Fighting tutorial".
Welcome to the fighting tutorial, it will be available only once. You can choose an area so that you can receive proper instruction. Remember, you can only choose one among them.
Physical fighting
Sword techniques
Spear techniques
Knife techniques
¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­...
There were so many options that for a moment I became confused. I took a deep breath and gathered my mind together. Thinking about it more, I already knew how to fight physically, I have been training with my father since I was a child. It was a little difficult to decide If I would specialize or would branch my skills to white weapons as well. Thinking about it more, although to some it would seem like a bad decision. I chose spear techniques. I already had high physical abilities, my body was already a weapon on itself. What I needed now, wanting it or not, was a way to do more damage. The moment I decided, I focused on the spear techniques icon. Suddenly the screen disappeared and I felt my mind being invaded by a foreign force. suddenly I found myself in a white space. Everything until the horizon was white, even the sky. Looking around, the only thing that called my attention was a spear rack. In it there was some different spears, some had bigger heads, some others had longer bodies. A man was standing beside this rack. He had a burly 2 meters tall body crisscrossed of scars. He was wearing some leather pants and boots, and his upper body was laid bare. His eyes and hair were black like the night sky. ¡°Let¡¯s begin boy.¡± Said a deep voice coming from the man. Chapter 3 - Relentless training That deep voice coming from the man¡¯s mouth sounded like a deep rumbling from a machine, his voice was calloused with coldness. The look in the man¡¯s eyes was merciless, like a predator looking at its prey. ¡°My name is B¨¤s, I am going to train you here. You can pick your spear and we can begin the training. You can ask anything related to the way of the spear on this dimension.¡± After B¨¤s finished his explanation, a black spear appeared in his hands. Bryan took a moment and asked ¡°When I am going to return? Is my time training here counting in the one month I have to survive in the forest?¡± Asked Bryan With doubt in his face. ¡°HAHAHHAHA¡± B¨¤s laughed instantly after Bryan finished asking his questions. ¡°You are a funny boy. First of all, this place is not real, we are in a mindscape, basically, we are in your mind. The time in the outside world has stopped, where we can train for how long we want, and the outside world will not change. Of course, there would normally be severe consequences for the body for training in a mindscape because it¡¯s like your brain is racing to keep accompanying the rhythm here. But, as this is your first time here and you are in the system tutorial, your body will not feel any burden.¡± The man finished explaining and shook his spear while saying. ¡°Now that I have answered your question, grab a spear and let¡¯s begin.¡± Bryan contemplated what the man said for a second and arrived in a conclusion. This was a unique opportunity. If what the man said was true, he could train here for as long as he wanted to hone his techniques, doing this he could become more powerful to face what was to come. And above all else, this opportunity would probably not happen again, B¨¤s said that the system would take the burden for him, so, if he wanted an opportunity to train, here again, he would have to pay that toll. Resuming his thoughts, Bryan walked in the spear rack direction and picked a spear that seemed most appropriate for him. The spear was 1,7 meters long, already counting its head length. but its head was a bit longer than the other ones, forming almost a short sword atop it. It was a short size for a spear, but he felt that it suited him better. ¡°Hmm, Good choice. Judging by your way of walking and body movements, you should already have trained in some martial arts. although the length of that spear is not big, it fits you.¡± Said B¨¤s while looking at Bryan''s eyes. ¡°Thanks.¡± Said Bryan shortly. ¡°Ok. So, first, let¡¯s begin with the basics, how to hold a spear and how to use it.¡± The man moved to a holding position, turning a bit sideways and holding the spear with both hands. strangely, the spear that was in his hands changed its form to be the same as the one Bryan was holding. Bryan followed B¨¤s instructions and begin to train the basic forms with him. He was not used to holding a spear, he had trained during his whole life only using his body and short blades. That was one of the reasons that he didn¡¯t choose a big spear, he wanted something that could move quickly. ¡°The training will begin with standing in the same position while holding the spear. you have to get used to the feeling of the spear in your hands. feel its weight, its height. when we finish this we will proceed to its uses.¡± Bryan began to feel the weapon in his hand. feel everything about it. It was a wonderful weapon that could kill quickly if the person in question knew how to use it. He stood tall, concentrating in the spear with his eyes closed, feeling every inch of it. Although he had never trained with a weapon, it came naturally to him, like holding a weapon in his hands was meant to happen. Time slowly passed and he didn¡¯t know how long it took, but he finally heard a voice calling him. ¡°That¡¯s good enough. Now come closer.¡± Said B¨¤s. Bryan stepped forward and began to learn the spear forms from the man. They were not so difficult to learn and remember. The hard part was to use them effectively. The spear was a complicated and easy weapon to use at the same time. Even beginners could do damage with it. It had the reach advantage over a lot of weapons. But the higher grade techniques required a lot of expertise. The ways to attack and to defend using it were fixed. but the variations between the moves and attacks and defenses were endless. ¡°You finally got the forms boy. rest 5 minutes and we will begin with a practical exercise.¡± Said B¨¤s with a brutal glint in his eyes. The five minutes rest was not intended to rest his body, because he didn¡¯t get tired in here. it was supposed to rest his thoughts so that he could reflect on how to use the weapon. After five minutes, B¨¤s got up and assuming a combat instance and said ¡°let¡¯s begin boy. You can attack first. Do not worry about physical strength, I will limit myself to your Attributes.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Bryan took a deep breath and assumed an attack position, and began to slowly go in B¨¤s direction. Getting close enough, he prepared his spear and stabbed forward. While his spear was traveling in its target direction, B¨¤s grinned and made a defensive spinning move, he deflected the spear out of course with the but of his spear and quickly slashed toward Bryan¡¯s head decapitating him in a smooth move. Bryan slowly felt a pain racking his mind. It was so big that he couldn¡¯t even scream, and everything became dark. Moments later the pain ceased and the light returned to his eyes. everything was normal, the only difference was that the spear that was in his hands before was now on the ground. ¡°What happened?¡± Bryan asked B¨¤s with a white countenance. his eyes were red and his breath ragged. ¡°Well, you just died.¡± B¨¤s stated simply like it was nothing abnormal. ¡°WHAT THE HELL? I AM STILL ALIVE!?!?¡± Bryan asked while screaming. despite his good head, he felt panicked at that moment. ¡°Well, after you learn how to use the weapon, the real training begins, live experience. Most people quit at this stage and practice with easier targets outside.¡± B¨¤s said like it was the natural order of things and asked. ¡°Do you wish to quit? the training from here on will be harsh, there are even some people that come with their minds broken if they insist on staying here.¡± Bryan¡¯s eyes were trembling in fear, but deep inside he knew that power was what would move the world from now on, if it was not it, then the training wouldn¡¯t be so ruthless. Gathering his courage, he stepped forward and picked his spear, then said. ¡°Let¡¯s keep going. Now is not the time to quit.¡± With determination burning in his eyes. After that, they began to train again. Death became a usual thing to Bryan, his mind began to distort some times, but he quickly gathered his concentration and rested until he was well enough to continue. B¨¤s was a monster using the spear. although he said that he had the same attributes as Bryan, he moved like a lightning bolt. his attacks were precise and merciless, his defenses were impregnable and invincible. For Bryan, it felt like fighting a force of nature made for killing. Sometimes, he even thought that he couldn''t contend with B¨¤s. After another death, Bryan stopped and asked B¨¤s. ¡°How long has it been since we began to train?¡± B¨¤s looked in Bryan''s eyes and said ¡°4 months. Why, wanna quit?¡± Having opened his eyes in surprise, he quickly made a stance and looked at his opponent. ¡°Not at all.¡± and began to attack again. The training progressed constantly, only stopping for minutes and resuming again. it continued for an indefinite time. Bryan slowly began to truly fight with B¨¤s. in the begging he could only attack before being killed. Slowly he began to exchange two attacks, then three, four... he was slowly catching up with his opponent. B¨¤s became more and more surprised, although Bryan was not a monstrous genius in using the spear from the moment his hand touched the weapon, he was becoming one. He never made the same mistake twice, he always observed from B¨¤s and learned his moves and how to counter them. In a normal situation, this would not happen, after all, there was no time in a fight to observe and learn your opponent moves. But this situation was different, the pain came, but also the knowledge. Bryan was determined to extract everything from this session of fighting. After an unknown amount of time, Bryan finally could contest with B¨¤s upfront. although B¨¤s was limited to Bryan''s status and could not use his full potential because he could not even use energy, it was an unfathomable feat.
Bryan stabbed forward, B¨¤s deflected the attack with the body of the spear and gave a shoulder attack. Bryan foresaw this coming and took a step back positioning the spear between him and B¨¤s. Seeing this B¨¤s shook his spear and attacked with it from below. Bryan stepped to the side and thrust his spear in B¨¤s face. B¨¤s Watched with wide eyes the attack coming in his direction. He kicked the ground and rolled backward quickly getting up and looking into Bryan¡¯s eyes. He lowered his spear and said. ¡°There is nothing more to teach you, boy. You already have everything that I can give.¡± Bryan¡¯s face became surprised hearing this. He didn¡¯t know how many times he thought to give up. to go after his parents and friends. How were they? where were they? These questions came to his mind many times. But he remembered that time was not running in here, and grasping this way to power could increase his chances of finding and saving them. ¡°Do not worry boy. many others have tried to stay here like you did, but the burden of the training was so great that they existed it forcefully so that their mind wouldn¡¯t suffer great damage.¡± Said B¨¤s with admiration in his eyes. He had never seen someone so determined to get power. It moved even him. Although the ¡°he¡± from here was just one of the projections that he spread to serve the system, his original body began to pay attention after some time since the training began. Bryan didn¡¯t know because he was in an almost fanatical state to learn from him, and with the help of the mindscape, the sense of time here was difficult to perceive. But it had already been ten years! It shocked him greatly, this determination was like a mountain that could not be moved. He has never seen someone so young so determined. Bryan¡¯s eyes were wide with shock! ¡®How could this be, is it finally over?!¡¯ he was relieved, he didn¡¯t know how long more he could hold on. So it was a good thing that it was finally over, but at the same time, he wanted more. Bryan quickly suppressed this desire and looked at B¨¤s. ¡°Thank you! I do not have word to thank you enough.¡± After saying this, Bryan bowed to B¨¤s in a signal of respect. The man trained him for a long time, and he was grateful for that. ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHA¡± After laughing heartily B¨¤s continued. ¡°You gave me a big surprise boy, in history, there were only a few people that could master a skill to a mortal''s limit and finish the training. you sure deserve praise. As a prize for ending the training, I have the authority to give you a skill. Now, go to the world and seize its throne. HAHAHAHAHA¡± After finishing speaking, B¨¤s waved his hand and sent Bryan away.
Bryan suddenly opened his eyes and scanned his surrounds. looking outside of the small cave, he saw that it was still day time¡­ He was not certain if it was the same time that he left, but that didn¡¯t matter. the important thing was that he was back and the real fight would begin now. Chapter 4 - Hunting He looked around and had a nostalgic feeling, it was almost as if he had been away for ages. But in truth, he knew from what B¨¤s told him, that it was only an instant. He could feel the moisture on his skin, the bumps of the ground under his feet, and the wind blowing on his face, that refreshed not only his body but his mind as well. Things that didn¡¯t exist on that mindscape. He stopped for a moment and remembered that B¨¤s said in the end that he would receive a gift that now he was permitted to give. He thought ¡®Status¡¯ and the blue box floated in front of him.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 14 -> 24
Agility: 14 -> 24
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 16
Endurance: 13 -> 23
Vitality: 14 -> 24
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 100/Expert
Electrical body 1/Beginner
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You can recall and process information quickly. The information that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 0
Looking at his attributes, he saw that there was a big change to the physical attributes. All of them were upped by ten points each. The only attributes that remained the same were intelligence and wisdom. He supposed the change was caused by the skill electrical body. He concentrated on it and the spear mastery skill to know more about them.
Spear mastery A skill that shows how proficient the user is with the use of a spear.
Electrical body A skill that helps the user manipulate electricity.
The skills descriptions followed two different directions, not only because they were a weapon and body skill respectively, but mainly because the electrical body skill, stated that it helped the user manipulate de electricity. The skill itself looked like it had great potential, but if he remembered correctly, the skill was limited until its tier evolved, like he saw in the box that gave the introduction about the skills shop.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Seeing the skill, he tried to manipulate the energy to appear on his hand. Concentrating his mind he felt the energy flowing through and around him. It was an amazing feeling, it felt like his senses were extended out of his body. An instant later he heard a sound ¡°clack clack clack¡± from his hand. Looking at it, he could see some electricity flowing, it was very little, but at least it was something. He thought that right now it would not be useful in combat, but it had great potential. He looked around and saw his makeshift spear on the ground. He lowered himself and picked it up. He felt its weight and height. Although it was an ugly and shabby spear. It was everything that he had at the moment. He looked outside and saw that it was noon and the sun would set in a few hours. He went into the creek direction and readied his spear. He pointed it down and looked at the fishes that were calmly swimming through it. Waiting a moment, he prepared himself and stabbed it down. ¡°Splash¡±..... Thirty minutes later, Bryan was beside a bonfire and grating some fishes. They were smelling delicious. He was already salivating. The ambient was quiet and moist, the sound of the river flowing through the rocks was mesmerizing. It was a peace difficult to find. ¡°Tek¡± Bryan heard a sound coming from the forest. He picked up the spear that was beside him and slowly got up while looking around, turning his body sideways to the forest direction, while hiding the spear behind him. looking at the shadows he saw a quadruped form lurking. Its form was huge, it had bulging muscles and huge claws. It slowly got up and began to come in his direction. Its hide was brown and was feline looking. The muscles looked like they were fine sculptured bronze. The huge feline got out of the bushes and began to assume a position to pounce. Seeing this, Bryan readied his spear and waited. Cold sweat flowed through his back, there was a palpable tension in the air. He felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He sharpened his eyes and closed his hand tighter around the spear shaft. On the moment the monster pounced, Bryan stepped back and threw his spear into it. The spear hit true at the monster''s right eye and it was embedded deeply into it. The beast lost its foot and it slide on the ground until it stopped in front of him. Bryan lifted his right foot and stopped the beast movement. He lowered down and took the spear out of the creature''s eyes. Its blood was dark red, almost black. He shook the spear and shooked the blood from it. After two hours. He finished skinning the creature. Its hide was tough as steel, to skin it he had to use the creature''s teeth, The stone almost didn''t do anything to its hide. After finishing taking out its hide, he took out some pieces of flesh that were still in it and finally was over with his job. He then let the skin over a rock to dry. He finished eating his meal and made a new spear with one of the claws of the creature. It was suited for it. Bryan looked at his status page and saw this.
Points 100
It seemed that killing it had given him some points. ¡°So, this is how points are earned.¡± he thought to himself. He browsed at the items store and saw that there were some spears in there, but the only one that suited his tastes cost 1200 points. And it was between the cheaper ones. It seemed that he had to kill plenty of monsters to truly have some buying power. Having finished his business, he seated inside the cave and began to try to use his now electrical body skill. He reached for the energy that was both inside and outside of him, but taking control of it was no easy feat. It felt almost as if he was trying to grab some water with his hands, and wanted to hold it there for a long time without letting it slip through his fingers. It felt almost impossible to fully control it¡­. After trying time and time again, the most that he could do was to let the electricity flow through his skin while clacking and making some noises. He felt energyzed like the electricity was making him more then he was.
Electrical body 2/Beginner
Observing his status, he saw that the skill leveled up to level 2. Even though he could barely use it, he still had some improvement. The satisfaction of seeing the level rising gave him enough motivation to keeping testing his skill. After training for a few more hours. He saw that the skill level had risen to 6, 4 more entire levels. He was progressing quickly. After training so much, he felt exhausted. Using the skill took quite a toll on him. He laid on a corner and went to sleep.
He looked up while laying on a rooftop. He saw beautiful stars that were shining so brightly that it felt almost like daytime. He felt the cold wind blowing on his skin and moving his hair. A desire to close his eyes came to him, but before he could do so, he saw a star falling from the heavens. The calm and soothing dream quickly degenerated after that, letting the world be covered on fire. He woke up with a quick breathing, he looked outside and saw that it was daytime already. He grabbed his spear and trotted out of the cave. Bryan bent down and took a big gulp of cold water from the creek. He picked a smoked fish that was hanging on a branch above the now quenched bonfire, that was only emitting a small like of smoke. The fish didn''t taste so great, but for now, it was all that he had. He went into the forest direction and passed through the pit in which he buried the monster''s body and proceeded to hunt. Yesterday, he was the hunted. But now, he would be the hunter. He sneaked through the dense leaves and bushes, looking at the ground and the trees, searching for marks that indicated that some creature had passed by here. After looking for 20 minutes, he finally found a fresh track. Bryan slowly went forward and readied his spear. Laying on the shadows of some trees, he saw another hulking feline with its monstrous claws. This time, he didn''t choose to throw the spear. But instead, he made a stance and quickly stabbed forward. The creature, while laying there, suddenly opened its eyes and seeing the attack coming, turned its head sideways, letting the spear leave a huge gash on its cheek and back. ¡°ROARRR¡± The creature howled in pain and stood up. Bryan took a step back and looked at the creature''s eyes. The pain was evident in them, but also its rage. Is slowly circled him, trying to finding an opportunity to attack. After some time, the creature lost its patience and advanced, it attacked with its right paw. Bryan stepped aside and slashed with his spear. The creature flinched and turned trying to retaliate with its left paw. But Bryan jumped back and gave another attack, almost maiming its paw. The monster howled in pain. Bryan felt great pain in his heart hearing it, but new it was necessary. He quickly finished the job after that. He looked at his point and saw that he earned 100 more points.
Points 200
He then proceeded to continue his hunting. Chapter 5 - Cultivation He used all day to locate and slay some beats. He discovered that each of then had a territory and that they would only sometimes leave it. One time, he even encountered two monsters fighting each other. waiting until they hurt it other he entered the fray and killed them. It was a great harvesting today, he looked at the blue screen and felt proud.
Points 1400
He looked at the sky and saw that the sun was almost set on the horizon. hearing the sound of the water hitting rocks, he felt relaxed and safer. He arrived near the river and picked some fishes. making the bonfire was easier now, after all, he could light the fire with his electricity. grilling the fish after a day of fighting felt good. he ate, picked the skin from the rock and went into his cave. Bryan put the skin on the ground and sat on it. ''hmmm, much better than sitting on a rock.'' feeling his body, he felt that power was overflowing on him. the higher attributes made some real difference. He began to move the electricity inside of him to practice the skill. The process was slow and boring. Bryan felt that the energy was using him as a source to exist and it consumed a lot of his strength to use it. After training for a few hours, he was exhausted again, the feeling of being empty of strength was horrible. But at least there were some results.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 24 ¡ú 25
Agility: 24 ¡ú 25
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 16
Endurance: 23 ¡ú 24
Vitality: 24 ¡ú 25
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 100/Expert
Electrical body 12/Beginner
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 1400
His Electrical body skill had jumped 6 levels, and now was lvl 12, he realized that after breaking through lvl 10 all his physical attributes were up by one point. It seemed like his body was being tempered as a whole from it. The process was slow, but at least there was evolution in it. Bryan closed his fists and felt the electricity coursing through his body, he punched the air and felt the place trembling.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. He concentrated on the tier of the skills and a screen appeared in front of him.
Skills tiers
Beginner
Novice
Expert
Master
Grandmaster
Epic
Legendary
Mythic
Looking at the tiers, his eyes went wide open and gasped. He still had a long way to go, the skill had 8 tiers in total, and his strongest one was still at expert tier. The electrical body skill left him exhausted now and imagine the cost of having a skill and epic, legendary or mythic tier astounded him. His body still needed to get much stronger. Bryan discarded the thought about the tiers from his mind and proceeded to the store. Looking at the item section, there was indecision in his mind. The spear cost him 1200 points, but, there was an item called beginner''s pack that cost 1000 points. Indecision was flooding him. But after thinking for a while, he finally decided. He clicked and bought the beginner''s kit. A box appeared in front of him, it was 1 meter wide and 50 centimeters tall and made of wood. opening it, he saw the following items inside. There was a black backpack, made of what he thought was leather. it was pretty strong and flexible, it was just the right size so that he could use it even while in combat. There was one set of clothes and boots as well. it was all black just like the backpack and made from the same material. Looking closer, he saw that there were little inscriptions over them. that made a format just like a diagram. he forgot it by now and proceeded to the next item. A book. This was the item that got him by surprise because in the cape there was written in big gold letters. Energy cultivation. The title got him by surprise and shook his heart. Bryan put everything else aside and began to read the book. it was divided into three main themes, sensing energy, way of cultivation and Tiers. He opened the book and began to devour its contents. The description of how to feel the energy was unreal, the book said that the energy that permeated the universe had many names, and had infinite uses. by the way to use it could not be easily taught. everyone had a different comprehension about the ways to apply the energy, and even the nature that it would demonstrate. Every aspect of nature could be demonstrated by the use of it, electricity, plasma, water, ice, rocks, and even real trees could be created by using it. He stopped and looked at the skill electrical body. Maybe he received it because he had a talent for it. At least, that was the way that was presented for him for now. Bryan went back and finished reading the book. There was a feeling in his heart that he knew was because he wanted to begin right now. He seated cross-legged on the ground and began his cultivation. the book described the three first levels of cultivation, they were Mist, Liquid and Solid basically, the person should begin to gather the energy in his body, first fulfilling his body with mist, so that it could flow together with all of his existence. the second level "Liquid" was where things began to get more complicated because there was a decision that should be made, where the energy should be concentrated. there were two possibilities. First, concentrate the energy in liquid form in either the head or in the heart. depending on where you choose to concentrate, the energy would be used differently. If it was concentrated in the head, the person could easily use the energy outside the body, being labeled as a "mage", the energy could be used on the body as well, but not in the same efficiency as a "warrior". The "Warriors" were people that choose to condense the energy in their hearts. they can use the energy easily and naturally through the body, but there were some difficulties in using them outside of it. The second possibility would be to concentrate the energy in both the head and the heart. although the power would be greater because there would be an easiness in using the energy outside and inside the body, the difficulty of doing so was gigantic. The person would have a 90% chance of dying during the process of condensing, mainly because the person would have to reign the energy and condense them at the same time. Any slip would let the energy run amok through the body, instantly killing or crippling the person instantly. Most cultivators would choose the first option because doing so would facilitate the way to get power, because the concentration would go to only one thing, and you would have only one nucleus to cultivate, making it much faster than having two. He dismissed this decision, for now, he recalled the methods and began to feel the energy. He only concentrated for a moment, following the instructions of the book, he emptied his mind and began to unite his mind with his surrounds. it was different from feeling the electricity because he was not only feeling, but becoming one with his surrounds. The process came naturally to him, he felt like fish in the water, the energy around him flowed like the wind. He tugged at it and pulled. The energy began to gather in his body, forming a little bit of mist in him. The mist was very thin and transparent, but with time it would become thick. His body felt full of energy and power. The fatigue that he felt and away and he was refreshed. Bryan breathed deeply and sucked the energy to him. The process went on until he felt a light coming from the entrance. He opened his eyes and looked outside. It was already morning, the light was coming inside and touching the ground. He got up and picked his spear. Bryan briefly looked at his status screen and gasped.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 25¡ú 30
Agility: 25¡ú 30
Intelligence: 20 ¡ú 27
Wisdom: 16 ¡ú 22
Endurance: 24 ¡ú 29
Vitality: 25¡ú 30
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 100/Master
Electrical body 12/Beginner
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 400
All his attributes increased by at least 5 points, and his mental ones increased by even more! And he just began to cultivate. another thing that he noticed was that there was no skill called cultivation¡­. It meant that there was no restriction nor control from the system over it. He pondered for only a moment and continued to go to the forest. Chapter 6 - Upgrades Bryant moved through the forest with his spear bloodied. He had already killed 8 more of the huge felines. it had already been 2 hours since he last found one. he was begging to get worried. Maybe he had warded off the rest of the creatures from the region. Bryan suddenly felt a chill on his back and stopped. he saw a huge shadow coming from his right. Without the time to evade, he just positioned his spear in a defensive stance. "Bang" Bryan''s body went flying for 5 meters and stopped after hitting a tree. He coughed blood from his mouth and slowly got up while looking at his attacker. It was a huge tailed gorilla. it had four arms and its tail was swaying menacingly with a spike on the end. the monster stood at almost 2 meters tall. He sharpened his eyes and assumed a stance with his spear. Luckily, the wood from the shaft was soft, because of it, it didn''t break. Unfortunately, by what he could feel, some of his ribs were broken. The pain was racking his mind, but he got used to it during his training with B¨¤s. The strange gorilla advanced at him with its four arms. Bryan ignored the pain and advanced at the enemy. He put some strength on his legs crouched and jumped, using the monster arms as a springboard he jumped higher and slashed at the monster''s spine. instantly killing it. its body fell on the ground with a huge "BUM". he looked back to be sure that it was dead, and after making sure he half kneeled on the ground. making such an exertion after taking a big hit made his wound worse. he coughed blood again and began to return to his cave. but while returning he began to hear some noises coming from the crown of the trees. looking up, he saw three more of the monsters. He instantly turned back and began to run. If he was in his top state, he could take care of these monsters. But at the state he was in, it would be very, very difficult. He ran in the direction of a flat land that he saw a while back. the gorillas swung between the trees and followed after him fanatically. Bryan stumbled forward and didn''t stop despite the pain. He knew that if he was still a normal human, he would be dead by now. Only the impact with the tree would be enough to kill him. arriving at his destination, he looked back while running and saw that the monsters stopped for a moment and seemed to be pondering if they would continue the pursuit or not. Bryan didn''t stop and continued to run away from the trees. Looking back, he saw that the monster seemed to have given up on the pursuit and relief came over him. He was too careless, he was too full of himself and didn''t consider the creatures of the forest worth his concern. He stayed in there for a few moments pondering about his mistakes and went into the direction of his cave. ________________________________ Arriving there, he felt relief wash over him. He was finally out of danger and could heal himself. He caught some fishes and prepared them. after finishing his meal, he want over to the cave to meditate. Bryan sat crosslegged and began to gather the energy unto him. It came like a spring wind, awakening his soul from the tiredness from the day and energizing his body. He felt that while the energy was entering him, his body was healing faster, the ribs were re-aligning and mending, the bruise on his skin disappeared and his body was cleansed. The sensation was like he was in heaven, like being reborn. Bryan practiced for a few hours and stopped. He turned his attention to the Electrical body skill, the electricity began to flow over him, helping him heal as well. this was the first time that he experienced such an effect from this skill. He began to feel the control over it becoming more and more refined. He could now even let it concentrate on his hand slowly to form a ball of energy. This time, the exhaustion from using the skill didn''t come like the previous time. He turned his attention to inside and realized that the skill was using the energy that was gathered through cultivation as a fuel. He stopped using the skill and cultivated again. Bryan saw that the energy that he used could be restored much more quickly than if he was cultivating, but it was just refilling itself, the denseness of the mist stayed the same since his last cultivation. He practiced with the skill for a bit longer and cultivated the rest of the night. _______________________________ Morning came once more. His body was feeling refreshed. It was the second night since he began to cultivate instead of sleeping, but it seemed that there was no need to sleep anymore. His body was well-rested, but it seemed that his mind was not at 100% there was still a bit of pressure. He went into his morning routine of eating and washing to change into the new clothes that he received from the system to relieve the stress from the prolonged section of cultivation. The clothes fitted him perfectly. They were likely custom made for him by the system.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ''I have to investigate the uses of the lines in the clothes.'' Thought Bryan to himself. He turned his attention to the status page.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 30 ¡ú 32
Agility: 30 ¡ú 32
Intelligence: 27
Wisdom: 22
Endurance: 29 ¡ú 31
Vitality: 30 ¡ú 32
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 100/Expert
Electrical body 34/Beginner
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 1400
Looking at it, Bryan realized that his last conjecture was true. Every ten levels in the Electrical body skill awarded him with 1 point to all his physical attributes. He felt more and more powerful. After seeing the results of the cultivation section from last night, he was more motivated to refine his skills. He turned his attention to the Galactic shop and bought the spear that cost 1200 points and suited him. The spear appeared in the air in front of him. He quickly grabbed it and felt its height and weight. The spear had a black shaft and gray head. It was the same size as the one he used to train with B¨¤s. the blade was a full 30 cm and the shaft 140 cm. it was almost a short spear. He moved the spear and made some movements, and saw that its balance was perfect. He touched the blade and his finger instantly bleed. It was very sharp. A small smile appeared on his face. ''Now I have a big decision to make¡­ I can stay here to cultivate and refine the use of my skill, or I can go hunting to farm for points to buy more powerful equipment.'' Bryan pondered with a frown on his face. It was a very difficult decision to make. both of them had their benefits. But in the end, your power counted the most. After considering everything, he decided to stay in the cave for now. Bryan had a source of water a few meters away from the cave, and there were fishes in there that could feed him as well, and even if he took everything out of consideration, he still had the store to buy supplies from. He slowly turned to inside of himself and began to temper his body with both the energy from cultivation and the electricity from his skill. His body was like a vessel that was empty before, but now was beginning to get some content. The electricity tempered his muscles, bones, and skin. it was a magical feeling to have pure electricity coursing through you, almost like he was becoming the energy. The synergy from cultivation and the skill was magical, each one reinforced the other. The energy was used as a source by the electricity so that it could grow more powerful, and the electricity tempered the body, so that it could take larger quantities of energy. It was a cycle that kept repeating itself. His body began to glow under the darkness of the night. If a person stayed outside the cave, he could see electricity flowing in the air like little lines. This phenomenon represented his advancement, but this static energy was not enough to vanquish powerful enemies. Bryan still had a long way to tread until reaching his maximum potential. ________________________________ Two weeks had passed since he began to cultivate in seclusion and hone his electrical skills. He now had an almost permanent electrical aura surrounding him in the cave. Bryan took a deep breath and got up from his place. He looked at his body and saw that the ground was burnt beneath his seating place. Going out of the cave, he saw the sun rising on the horizon, the supreme force that made all life possible. The deadline was still two weeks away, he knew that right now was the time to use his abilities in battle, and the Gorillas would be the first to taste his powers. Bryan concentrated the electricity fueled by energy and began to run through the forest with the spear in his hands. his surrounds looked like a blur, and despite this speed, he still could keep going without hitting anything. The energy from cultivation had many applicable ways to be used. one of them was being used as fuel to his electricity, and another one was to enhance his body. He discovered after his seclusion, that this energy could be used almost anywhere. By imbuing his weapon with it, it became sharper and stronger, by placing it on his legs, he could run faster. it could be used in a multitude of ways, but right now, he didn¡¯t have enough control to use it precisely. After running for a few minutes, he arrived in the place that he previously encountered the gorillas. He looked around and up. he made sure that this time he would not be ambushed. He extended his senses through his electrical skill and sensed. He was doing right now was feeling the static energy around him, he could feel the difference between a living thing and a plant through this. He felt five energy signatures 400 meters to his right. Sensing the direction and position of his foes, he did not waste time and went in their direction. He felt the energy and the electricity coursing through him and through his weapon when he arrived fifty meters from his targets, he concentrated a ball of lightning in his hand and launched it in one of the gorilla''s direction. ¡°BOOM¡± The sound of thunder echoed in the air, the monster became stunned and fell on the ground from the tree. The other ones looked in their friend''s direction without knowing what happened. Bryan took the opportunity and run his spear through the throat of one of the monsters. the other three looked in his direction and roared. He got down from the tree and finished the one that was on the ground. The tree gorillas got down and began to surround him in a triangular formation. Bryan held his spear while attentively looking around. The first one that attacked him was the one on his back. He quickly spun and stabbed the monster through the chest. another one came from his right side and the other jumped above him. Bryan jumped and slashed the neck of the one coming from above, instantly decapitating it. The other one that was on the ground quickly reacted and jumped after him. seeing this, Bryan used the body of the dead one as a foothold and bounced in the air, evading the attack coming from below. He stabilized his footing and looked at the monster. Seeing that its comrades were dead, it quickly turned around and tried to flee. Bryan concentrated another lightning ball on his hand and attacked the monster. The monster convulsed and fell on the ground. Bryan walked in the monster direction and beheaded it, quickly ending its life. He looked above and breathed slowly. Seeing the sun rays coming through the canopies of the trees. he smiled feeling the sensation of having power in his hands. Chapter 7 - The Great Hunt Seeing the power that he now had, an exhilarating feeling coursed through him. He thought ¡®Status¡¯ and this page appeared.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 32 ¡ú 40
Agility: 32 ¡ú 40
Intelligence: 27 ¡ú 29
Wisdom: 22 ¡ú 24
Endurance: 31 ¡ú 39
Vitality: 32 ¡ú 40
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 100/Expert
Electrical body 99/Beginner
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 1200
The gorillas earned him two hundred points each. But more importantly, seeing the results of his seclusion, he was very happy. His electricity was not strong enough to kill his foes yet, but it could at least paralyze them. Its advancement made his body stronger and that was what was most important. He had earned 6 points to his physical attributes from his skill and 2 points to all of his attributes through cultivation. He knew that these balanced results through cultivation would only continue if he chooses the two-way cultivation on both his heart and mind. if he specialized, the result would only come to either the physical or the mental attributes. Bryan shook his spear to clean it and continued his hunt. Now that he could kill the monsters easily, there was no challenge for him around these parts. He could only strive forward and earn more points.
One week later¡­.. POV CHANGE. While cultivating inside of my cave, I felt the energy around me answering to my commands. I could look inside and see that the mist was getting harder and harder to condense. in the beginning, each step was easy and quick, but the more I progress, the harder it is. From the book that I received from the Noob¡¯s pack, I knew that I was not even close to a breakthrough, the book described the peak of the mist ream as a place where no light could go through, and seeing the denseness of it, it was obvious to me that I was still far from the limit, very far. There was still one week until the limit of the mission. Looking around and seeing that it was still morning, I got up and went into the forest direction to look for more prey. I briefly invoked at my status page and saw this.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 40 ¡ú 45
Agility:Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. 40 ¡ú 45
Intelligence: 29 ¡ú 34
Wisdom: 24 ¡ú 28
Endurance: 39 ¡ú 43
Vitality: 40 ¡ú 45
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 100/Expert
Electrical body 99/Beginner
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 26400
The results of my cultivation were coming slower, and most importantly, my Electrical body skill was stuck on the beginner level. I did not understand, but I could not advance it further. Something must be lacking from my side, that must be it. Because of my recent killing spree, I could find less and less creatures near my place of rest, each day I had to travel farther and farther to hunt. I almost thought of changing places, but the cave was very cozy for me, and I didn¡¯t find a place where I could have easy access to food and water. Running for more than 2 hours, I was almost losing my patience, I could not find anything to hunt. I stopped and looked around. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ I could not hear anything, there was total silence in the forest. no insects buzzing, to birds chirping¡­ It was an abnormal feeling to only hear the sounding of swaying leaves. I quickly activated my electrical body skill and felt the static energy around me. I looked around and found nothing¡­ just trees, not even an insect. This place is to eerie,I have to leave now! Feeling my heart pounding crazily in my chest, I turned around and ran as fast as I could to leave the area. The uneasiness was killing me,this feeling of being powerless to do anything¡­. After I ran for a minute, I realized something, I was still in the same eerie forest, I haven''t left it yet. I marked a tree and kept running. After another minute, I looked to a tree beside me and realized. I am stuck in a maze. I didn''t know how this happened. I only know that I have to leave here immediately! I stopped for a second and felt the static energy again¡­ Nothing¡­. There was no other live being besides me for 500 meters, that was the limit for my ability. Keeping running in circles would be no good as well, I would only waste my energy and if a enemy showed up, I would be tired. Until now, i don''t understand the limits of my powers. My attributes have grown to more than double of what they were originally. I didn''t have time to confront a worthy foe to access it. I sitted down and began to ponder, how I could be running in circles with my supernatural senses¡­. I could not possibly have perceived wrong. The only options were that my senses were tampered with. An idea came to my mind. I readied my spear and threw it. It went like a lightning bolt through the trees. There was only a strange thing, it seemed that the spear curved to the right as it was flying. I arrived at the conclusion that it was my senses that were eluded. I followed the spear holes and walked for 40 meters until I found it laying on the ground. I picked it up and was about to throw it again when I felt a strong chill in my back. Without time to think properly, I rolled on the ground. SWHOOSH I only felt a stinging pain from my back, as if something had pierced it. Looking at the creature that was standing on the place I was previously, I froze. It was a GIANT SPIDER, it was a black body and dark blue legs, its eyes were glowing red and on its fangs there was some blood dripping. I believe that the body on its mouth is mine¡­ With the spear in hand I took a fight position and analyzed the situation¡­ I was in the spider territory, I knew nothing of the ways it used to confound me, and above all, the feeling of pain from my back vanished. It vanished to quickly, I arrived at the conclusion that I was poisoned as well. I knew that I was in the disadvantage in almost every possible way. I had almost nothing over my enemy. Feeling the burning pain in my back and the icy feeling of the venom in my vein, I began to circulate the mist inside my body to get rid of these things. After I began to circulate the energy around, my body felt more relaxed and free. The cold sensation on my veins vanished and the burning feeling from my back receded. I gripped my spear tighter and began to circulate the electricity in the spear, so that my attacks could stun the enemy as well. It was looking in my direction as if waiting for something. Seeing that the poison didn¡¯t take me down, it jumped again and began to move its legs as if it was moving something. My surrounds began to change, and the spider vanished before my eyes. I feel that I have wasted my opportunity, I knew its going too come back, and I an in an disadvantage position again. I gripped my spear and expanded my senses through the static domain to feels the livings beings energy.... Nothing again, there was no living being near me. Now I was sure that my senses were more tempered then I thought. I could not throw my weapon again, because if the creature was waiting nearby, I would be to vulnerable. The only solution was to find and kill it. Bryan was becoming desperate, he didn¡¯t know what to do. The spider had vanished, he had no way to detect it, and if there was a surprise attack, his reaction could not be enough. My lips were dry and cold sweet was flowing through my back. The sensation of having an unseen enemy was terrifying. I instantly gathered my thoughts and breathed deeply. I extended a permanent electric field around me and waited. I relaxed my shoulders and stretched my neck, and finally, closed my eyes. The field was 5 meters around me, on it I could feel the movement of everything that had life in it. I waited for 3 minutes, and I finally felt some movement to my right. The spider was truly a great master of concealment, it took my all to unravel its cloak. It was moving stealthily in my direction. I turned around and slashed at it with my spear. The creature frightened spilled a green substance in my direction. My spear was already midway and I had no way to stop it. I gritted my teeth and continued my attack and revolved some energy around me for protection. The spider seeing that the blade coming towards its face would be fatal if the attack connected, shifted sideways and evaded the attack. Only a green cloud filled my view, there was nothing else in it, and worse, I didn''t feel my spear connecting with anything. I looked around after dispersing the poison with my electricity and sow no monster, nobody. The only thing left here was me, infected by this poison. It was the same poison as before but in much bigger quantities. My body felt weak, my veins were burning and my body was shaking in pain. I turned to the direction contrary to where my spear left hole on the trees and began to run. I don''t know how long I ran through the forest, the only thing that was on my mind was surviving. My body was in shambles, my will was crumbling, but I kept going because life was my only hope. I have long left the eerie forest, there was the sound of insects and birds around me now. Although it was still daytime, my vision was so blurred that I couldn''t see properly. After I don''t know how long, I could finally pick a running water sound from afar. My heart finally felt relieved. Chapter 8 - Encounter After finally arriving at the cave, my thoughts were coming back to me. First, I sat down and began to meditate to cleanse the venom from my system. Although I already had circulated my energy, I could only control it, and not get rid of it from my system. _________________________________ Time passed quickly, It was already the last day of the test. I could not wait to leave this godforsaken place. After the meeting with the spider, my thoughts were not the same. I was too full of myself previously, I could not even identify why It a disadvantage. Ignorance truly is bliss, before, I thought that my development was unstoppable, but now I know that everyone has their limits and that true power cannot be achieved instantly, a long training was required. Since I was poisoned a week ago, my progress stopped. All my time was invested in getting rid of the venom from my body. The venom was not very powerful, it could be suppressed with the energy from my cultivation, but I could not keep doing it indefinitely. Getting rid of it was truly a great burden, but now, after an entire week, it was finally done. After getting rid of the last strand of venom, my body felt liberated, my energy could flow freely in my body without the necessity of suppressing the cursed venom. Looking at the sky and seeing that the time to go away was arriving, I quickly adjusted myself and grabbed my things in preparation to go. Looking at myself, I could see great changes. Although my new clothes that I received from the system were great, they left the impression that I was a person from medieval ages. My body was more defined now, my muscles a little bigger, not too much at least, and my hair was already reaching my neck. Black clothes, red hair, blue eyes and a spear in hand. I looked quite dashing in my opinion. Taking a deep breath and calming my mind I waited for the fated time.
Congratulation! You have survived the first trial. You will be shortly be transferred to the new hub city of your region. The city is already occupied by people older 60 years and younger then 15, they have received the instruction on how to take care of the city and operate its stores. From now on new missions will be available in the city hall of your city. Now the rewards for completing the mission will begin¡­.
Seeing this message, Bryan was relieved. Everyone that he knew would probably be in there if they survived the mission and there would be a safe place to rest for a while. He looked at the window that appeared next.
Rewards calculated! For getting through the basic mission of surviving 1 x Protection Badge. For exterminating the monster in the vicinity of where you stayed 500 City points. For completing Basic combat training 100 city points.
Seeing the city points that he received Bryan wondered for what purpose they would serve. He looked down at his hand and saw the blisters in them for wielding the spear, he clenched his teeth hard and vanished from the place, leaving behind the peaceful clearing. _________________ Bryan only saw a distortion appear in front of his face and he suddenly was between a multitude of people. The sight startled him momentaneously but he began to look around for faces that he could recognize. It was not a good sight, there was a lot of people that had nasty scars and clothes full of blood, most of them was wielding some kind of weapon in their hands, but there were many people that were pretty thin and emaciated. in his vicinity, unfortunately, there was no face that he could recognize, but people began to murmur between themselves and at least he could recognize the accent from them, and it was from his region at least. ¡°EVERYONE, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION.¡± A strong and seasoned voice came from above, Bryan looked and saw some elderly people on the balcony of a huge building. Looking up, he could finally see the scenery around himself, the building was big in the place they were in, most of them had at least 6 floors and were made of pure stone by what he could see, they were gray and strong. ¡°Now that I have everyone''s attention, I shall introduce myself. My name is Peter and together with my colleges besides me, we form the city council.¡± The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Before he could proceed with his speech, a voice came from the crowd. ¡°And what gives you the right to be part of the council, no one here has voted or agreed with that yet.¡± Bryan couldn¡¯t see the person that was saying this, but he could hear the murmurs from the crowd already. ¡°The system has deemed us worthy, this position was imposed upon us as well, but we assumed the duty to guide the younger ones.¡± Answered Peter with a stoic face. His answer to his instantly quieted the crowd. ¡°I need not explain myself about what humanity is going through right now, I believe most of you have read the messages that the system threw at us. The thing that I can tell you is this, there are only hub cities per region now. We haven¡¯t had any communication with other cities, so we do not know the status quo of them.¡± ¡°This city will be our home from now on, wanting it or not we must be able to coexist inside these walls. The city has its point system as you should be aware by now. The points that you receive by completing the mission will serve to buy houses and apartments where you can live in. The cheaper apartments cost 100 city points, that is the prize that you have gained for completing the surviving mission, while the most expensive one is 10.000.000 city points. The houses can be redeemed on the 2nd floor of the city hall where the system will show a map of the city and the prices according to the region. the houses on the outskirts of the city are cheaper, while the closer to the center they are, the more expansive they are.¡± Finishing speaking about this, Peter motioned to his right where a huge black building was standing and said. ¡°That building is the city hall. Now Roxanne will speak about the children.¡± Saying this, he took a step back and an old lady with white hair and soft expressions took a step forward. ¡°Welcome to our new home. The parents that want to find their children can proceed to the building on the right side of the city hall, there, some seniors will be waiting to identify the children and bring them to their parents. I beseech you all to be patient, we are having a new beginning in here. There will be houses for everyone in the city, so, do not worry about being left on the streets. For those who want to find someone, they can proceed to the 3 floor of the city hall, there you can post your name on a board and search for someone that has already done so.¡± Finishing saying this, the people began to talk between themselves while throwing some questions to the council. Bryan instantly proceeded to the 3 floors of the city hall to search for Jessica, Samuel and their parents. He knew that it was useless to search for his parents because they had traveled to another continent, and that he couldn¡¯t find them in here. He could only hope in his heart that they were safe. Arriving in the city hall, the sight stunned him. The place was huge, the ground floor was 7 meters tall. with a lot of pillars standing to support the structure. The floor was white while the ceiling was blue, just like the sky. Entering the building, he saw that there was a balcony on the right side with some older people waiting for it. He proceeded in their direction, arriving before them, Bryan saw that there was already a crowd gathering around to ask for instructions. He went through them and asked one of the elders. ¡°Hi, sir! How do I proceed to the third floor?¡± Asked Bryan to the man The old man pointed in a direction and said: ¡°There are some stairs in that direction, from there you can get to the third floor.¡± Bryan thanked the old man and went in the direction of the stairs. The stairs were very wide so that a lot of people could go up and down at the same time. Bryan proceeded to the third floor. Arriving there, there was a big screen by the end of the room, there were already a lot of people buy it. Approaching the big screen, a message appeared in front of him.
Do you wish to register?
Yes No
Seeing the question, he quickly clicked on the Yes button. Looking up, he saw that his name appeared on the screen, next, another box appeared before him.
Looking for someone? Type the person''s name below.
¡­¡­¡­..
Seeing this box, he quickly typed Jessica Darkrose. Instantly, an arrow appeared before him, he followed it, until he saw in a corner of the room, a lad with black hair descending through her back like silk, she had two big green eyes that were looking at the air as if looking at something, her pink lips were half opened as if she was distracted. The girl raised her head and looked at his direction, her eyes following the movement of something. She looked directly into Bryan''s eyes, surprise was shown on her face, suddenly, a smile so appeared in her mouth, in Bryan¡¯s vision, it was as if an angel was descending upon the earth, so beautiful and holy that no words could describe what he was seeing. She was using the tutorial clothes from the noob pack, and she had a bow and arrow with her. The happiness of seeing someone so dear to him now was indescribable, after one month of loneliness, there was finally a ray of light in this new world. Bryan stepped forward and went into her direction. Jessica quickly did the same and in an instant, they were embracing each other tightly. The feeling of holding her in his arms was as if holding a precious jewel and didn¡¯t want to let go. They looked at each other eyes and their faces approached slowly, their lips touched each other. Feeling the soft sensation a second time on his lips, Bryan felt relieved. His emotions finally came upon him and at Jessica as well, silent tears began to fall from their eyes and mixed at their lips. Sensing the salt taste, both of them separated and looked at each other eye. A smile appeared on their mouths and there was peace for a moment. ¡°How are you?¡± Asked Bryan looking at her. ¡°I am fine, it was difficult, but I am still alive, that¡¯s what matters.¡± Said her smiling. ¡°Now help me find my parents.¡± Bryan nodded his head and tipped her parent''s name¡¯s on the screen, Willam and Jasmine Darkrose. They searched their names but nothing showed up, it seemed that the other person needed to be registered to be found. They waited for two more hours, but nothing. countless people were showing up, but the room was big enough to support the flux. countless families reunited and walked away. After an entire day of waiting, they still didn¡¯t show up. Samuel showed up and informed him that he had found his parents and that they had bought an apartment, after the explanation he gave Bryan his new address, saying that they should meet up later. Jessica¡¯s expression was becoming darker and darker, she was beginning to become desperate because they weren¡¯t showing up. Both Jessica and Bryan were the only children their parents had, so they only had them, it didn¡¯t make sense that they still didn¡¯t show up after so long. The only possibility was because both of them had perished during the month of the test. They were not the only people that were still waiting, but most of the others realized what had happened and left. Only a few stayed and hoped that everything was alright. Bryan knew that the chances of something bad were greater, he only hugged her and said. ¡°We need to find a place to stay Jess, let¡¯s go.¡± Bryan took her by the hand and guided her away carefully. Chapter 9 - The new beginning Going down the stairs, Bryan was feeling the heavy atmosphere that was surrounding them. Jess just suffered the loss of her parents, and Bryan, seeing the sadness in her eyes, felt his heartbroken and the concern for his parent''s safety got bigger. After slowly going down the stairs Bryan arrived on the second floor, where the building could be bought. entering the room, he could see a big map on the far wall. Getting closer, he saw a lot of places in the suburbs that were marked yellow, some red, but the majority of it was blue. Looking bellow the big map, there was a subtitle.
Red: the building was occupied.
Yellow: There are still apartments in the building.
Blue: The majority of the building is still vacant.
There were still some marks that indicated if the place was an apartment or a house. Looking at the prices of a house, his eyes widened. The cheapest house cost 10.000 city points. Looking at the prices of the apartments, he was relieved. Most of them that were near the walls cost 100 city points, but they only had one bedroom and a bathroom. some bigger ones were more complete and had more rooms and bathrooms. Looking at the price range of 600 city points, he found an apartment that was perfect for him for now. It had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. spending all his points, he bought that apartment and headed towards it with Jessica. The moment he confirmed the purchase, a key appeared in his hand, it had an arrow indicating the direction of the place. ____________________________ Opening the door, Bryan saw that the house already had the basic utensils. There was even a magic fridge in the kitchen. His apartment was on the last floor of his building, on the tenth floor. By what he could see, although the city was pretty big, it was made with a lot of buildings to accommodate as many people as possible. The city was filled with building on the periphery and towards the center, although there were fewer buildings, most of them were still majestic constructions. He took Jessica to the living room and seated beside her at the table. Looking into her eyes he said. "Jess, whatever is to come from now on, you must know that I am with you. I know that you are shocked right now, but at least take a shower and rest, that will make you feel better." She nodded slowly and went to find the bathroom. Bryan looked around and saw that there were some towels in a closet. He picked them and left the towel at the door handle of the bathroom. He went down to his room and closed his eyes in the bed, instantly falling asleep. _________________________ The light from the sun was entering from the window, illuminating the lower part of the bed. Bryan felt the warmth of the sun on his legs and a heavy feeling on his chest. Looking below, He saw Jessica sleeping beside him. She was using his chest as a pillow and shrank almost like a ball. She was wearing the tutorial clothes, her hair was disheveled and her clothes a mess. She was like an angel that had fallen from the skies and crashed beside him. He got up slowly and went to the bathroom to do his needs. Finishing them, he looked at the galactic store and bought a set of casual clothes for him and one for Jessica. He took a bath and changed, after finishing, he went into the bedroom and slowly woke up Jessica. Opening her eyes, she saw the sight of Bryan sitting beside her on the bed, she got up and said.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. "Good morning." "Yeah, Good morning. Here is a change of clothing, I will buy some food from the store and will be waiting for you in the living room." After finish saying this, he got up and left. In total, Bryan used 100 points from the total of 26400 that he had, with the points he used, he fulfilled the fridge and the storage of the kitchen. The everyday stuff in the shop was pretty cheap, he could buy months of food with it. Getting to the kitchen, he prepared a breakfast with eggs, vegetables, and cereals. After finishing everything, he prepared the table and waited for Jessica. After a few minutes, she arrived and they began to eat in silence. She forced a small smile on her face and asked. ¡°What are you planning for today?¡± Bryan looked up at her and said. ¡°Well, I want to go to the hall and get some missions from the system, or at least see what these missions are about. After that, I want to talk to Samuel, to make a team to explore town surrounds to do the missions. That¡¯s pretty much everything. What about you? want to make my company or do you want to do something else?¡± Jessica looked into her eyes and said. ¡°I am gonna go with you, what I want to do now is to kill.¡± She said with a cold glare in her eyes. It was obvious from her action that she now had a boiling anger toward the world they were in. She lost almost all that was dear to her, it was truly a big blow. ¡°Ok, we are going to kill some monsters, but first, tell me how you managed to survive.¡± After making the question, Jessica explained to him that the first thing she did was to hide. She had spawned in a forest as well, but the monsters there were different from the ones that he met, according to her, they were goblins. After getting on par with the situation and the monsters, Jessica followed the tutorial and made the weapon training in archery. she made a makeshift bow and slowly hunted the monsters while making traps and ambushes. She made enough money to buy a set of bow and arrows that made her hunt easier. She didn¡¯t complete the training like him, but according to her, she proceeded very far, after all, she was not a defenseless girl of your neighborhood. She had trained with Bryan and his father as well and knew how to defend herself. After she got the noob pack, she cultivated as well and make great advances. By the end of the tutorial, she got enough points to buy a skill called ice arrow that made her hunting easier because it could slow down the enemies and even freeze them to some extent. After she finished telling her history, Bryan told how he survived as well, and even showed her the electrical body skill. She was amazed by it, after all, it had combat uses and could make his body stronger. After they finished telling each other how they survived Bryan proceeded to the address that Samuel gave him the other day. After a short walk of 15 minutes, they arrived at the place where Samuel was staying with his family. The place was of a normal size, it was smaller them Bryan¡¯s apartment, but with the presence of Samuel¡¯s family, the place felt cozy. Bryan and Jessica talked to them about how they survived in the mission and how they were in here. Both of Samuel''s parents hid and survived by scavenging food from the forest. Samuel did the combat tutorial and learned to yield a sword and shield. Samuel¡¯s parents went to the mission¡¯s screen the previous day and told them that there were also missions related to taking care of the town and to sell things. By what they heard from the council of elders, the galactic store could provide everything, but by cultivating them themselves, it would be safer, because there were certain occasions where the access to the store would be denied. And only in the initial phase of the great change, it would be available. The store was there to give them a path in the beginning, but after some time, the consumables like food and clothes would be taken out of it. They also told him that the council of elders were there to guide them through this tough time and that the council also had a paper to fulfill. After being briefed of this information, Bryan, Samuel, and Jessica departed to the mission¡¯s hall direction. The mission¡¯s screen was located at the city hall. Arriving on the fourth floor of the city hall, they looked ahead and saw a big screen by the end of the room. The screen was divided into two sections, monster subjugations and city accomplishments, the latter in the right part and the earlier in the left. There was also mission by level from bottom to top.
Missions Monster subjugation City accomplishments
Mythic
Legendary
Epic
Grandmaster
Master
Expert
Novice
Beginner
Looking at the board, there were uncountable missions from bottom to top, but the more you looked above, the fewer missions you could see. Looking up, he could not even see the missions, the only thing he could see was ¡°Level not up to standard¡±. He could only shake his head and begin from the bottom. After talking with Samuel and Jessica, they decided to do the mission ¡°Mountain beasts¡±.
Name Description Prize
Mountain beasts You must kill 100 beasts from the outskirts of the mountain range to the north of the city, the variety does not matter. 10.000 points
Looking at it, they thought it would be enough for them. although the mission was hard, because there would be 100 monsters that they must slay, the three of them could take care of it together. They followed the instructions of an elder that was nearby guiding the adventurers and both Jessica and Samuel put a hand on Bryan''s shoulder. After clicking to receive the mission, it appeared on his mission page. ¡°Let¡¯s begin the mission team!¡± Said Bryan with determination. Chapter 10 - Decisions After sharpening their weapons, packing up their bags and calming their minds, the trio proceeded to the north side of the town. There were a multitude of people leaving the town as well, but there were much more working on cleaning the streets and keeping the order. Bryan thought that they must have received some missions for the city''s accomplishments. It was also a necessary path, but true power was what mattered the most in his opinion. leaving through the north gates, they could see that some people were coming back bloodied or hurt. It served to show everyone that although they had left the tutorial, the world was not the same anymore. keeping walking forward, they entered a forest and could see on the distant horizon some mountains. Getting at the forest, everyone got their attention up and readied their weapons in case some monster appeared. Bryan felt an excitement rising inside of him, although it was dangerous, the thrill of a hunt felt good. Bryan and his team proceed through the forest in the mountain direction. They walked for more than 6 hours and finally could see the mountains through the crown of the trees. By now, they felt a little bit tense, after all, they had to travel through a forest while paying attention to any monsters that could be nearby. They had been attacked by some creatures through the way, but it was nothing that they couldn¡¯t take care of. The protection that Samuel brought to the team was great, he had a skill that could create a bigger energy shield around his shield, making the surface he could protect from much bigger. Bryan knew that they were a well-balanced team, the only thing that was still missing was a cohesion, they were not used to fight beside other people. Walking a little further, they arrived before the behemoth that was the mountain. It was so huge that even looking up, they could see it piercing the skies. there were many mountains beside each other, forming a gigantic wall from one side of the horizon to the other. The sight was something godly, the rocks, reflecting the light from the sun, the trees clinging on it, exuding infinity vitality. it was like a heavenly meteor fell on earth emitting power. They were stunned by the sight, but quickly regained their wits and proceeded to the outskirts of the mountain. The first thing they did was to be information. in front, there would be Samuel and Bryan and behind Jessica. it was a triangular formation as Jessica serving as the point behind. The purpose of this formation was that Samuel could be near Bryan and Jessica, to attend to any attacks that they might receive, to Bryan, it was only a step sideways, and to Jessica, a step behind. Treading forward, they finally arrived at their destination. From even were they stood, they could hear countless cries from monsters. It was a bass tone, with a lot of guttural sounds in it. They quickly made their way stealthy through the trees and arrived before a camp. there were many little green and nasty creatures there, with pointed ears and sharp teeth. many of them were eating raw meat and there were some other preparing some things in a cauldron. The tribe had at least fifty members, they were well organized and had a social latter. "We can do this guys, we can take cover on the trees and take them out slowly." Said Jessica looking at them. "Let''s do it then, go to the top of that tree and I and Samuel will take the ground." Said Bryan while looking forward. After they got ready, Jessica readied her bow and loosened an arrow. "Swoooosh" The arrow broke through the air and went into the direction of a goblin shaman. The arrow hitted the monster perfectly and it''s head rocked backwards and it fell on the ground.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. The other goblins began to scream and headed it''s way. Jessica began to fire one arrow after another and they quickly identified the direction they were coming from and began to head their way. Samuel readied his shield and Bryan grabbed his spear thighly. They came like waves. Bryan stabbed his spear forward and slashed sideways. the goblins easily fell like grass being cut. After cutting the first line, Bryan stepped forward and standing on the bodies began to kill again. After more or less 10 minutes of relentless killing the enemies stopped showing up. looking around the forest, all he could see were goblins on the ground. there were more than one hundred of the nasty creatures by what he could see. Samuel had one knee on the ground and was breathing deeply. He was full of sweat from head to toe. Jessica got down from the tree''s and seemed fine. Bryan was a little bit tired as well, but not so much like Samuel. The fight was very difficult in Bryan''s opinion, if he didn''t have the cover from both Samuel and Jessica, the huge quantities of enemies could simply swarm him like a tide and there was nothing that he could do. Looking at the mission tab and seeing that the mission was completed, they headed back toward the city. ________________________________________________ After a long trek they finally arrived at the gates when it was dark. There were men patrolling both the gates and the walls, to make sure that no monster could invade the city. After entering the city, Samuel headed toward his own house with the promise of meeting at the mission hall the other day at 10 am. Jessica and Bryan were silently heading toward their apartment. "How are you feeling Jess?" Asked Bryan while poking her belly and with a grin smile on his face. Jessica looked into his eyes and said "Not on top of the world, but I will get better." After today''s events, much of Jessica grief and anger were directed toward the green creatures. She was indeed feeling better, but the sense of lost was still there. Having small talks through the way, Jessica''s mood was lifted. After they arrived on the house, Jessica quickly proceeded to the bathroom to take a shower and get all the sweat and dirty out of her body. Bryan seated on the ground of the living room and began to meditate to gather the energy around him and refine the "mist'' on his body while waiting for Jessica to get out of the shower. Jess got out of the shower with a towel around her body and steam coming out of her body. She quickly passed by the corridor and went into the direction of her room. Bryan got up and did his necessities. Under the hot shower, he began to ponder about these past few days. They were full of unimaginable stuff and could kill most of the people that went through it. He was luck that Samuel and Jessica survived the thing. He didn''t even know how to name it. After finishing washing himself and emptying his mind, he took a towel that was beside the shower and dried himself. Bryan went into his room and changed his clothes. After getting comfortable, he meditated the rest of the night. ___________________________ his nightly meditations went quickly, time passed quickly for him while he was in this state. In the morning he got up and went to the kitchen. Arriving there he had a surprise, Jessica was waiting for him at the table with breakfast ready. "Wow, thanks Jess! These are smelling pretty good." Said Bryan while pointing to the fried eggs and a baked breads. He seated beside her and began to devour the food. Jessica ate quietly and they chatted a little about the city, the places that they could go in it, and how they would proceed next. Bryan took some courage during the conversation and held her hand. Both of them were nervou but Jessica let it slide. She tightened her grasp and they proceeded. Bryan didn''t do this to take advantage of her or anything, he knew that she needed comfort right now. She had lost both her parents and her mind was in chaos. Now was definitely not the time to try anything funny. After ending their conversation they went to Samuel''s house to define how they would do things. In the end, they decided that they would do some missions with intervals of two days between them. They decided that the next mission would be two days from now. After setting everything into stone, Jessica and Bryan walked around the city to see how it was going. The city was definitely big. It had 10 kilometers from one side to another. Most of the buildings in it had were abtational places. Only the ground floor had some stores from what it looked, but they still were not available to be bought. Most of the skills from the store were to expensive as well and could not be bought in this stage. the only thing that could be of use were the foods and clothes, but by what the elders said, they would not be available for long, and the foods could not be bought indefinitely, they had a limit as well. After they walked around the city, they discovered a very interesting building. It was named training center. Walking into it, they saw that the place was empty. Most of the people that arrived from the survival were more interested in surviving or amassing coins with companions then training endlessly. The building looked like a shoebox. Entering it Bryan and Jessica saw an older man waiting in the balcony. "Hello newcomers, what could I do for you?" Said the man with a kind expression. "Could you please describe the functions available here please." Bryan Asked. "Well, as the entrance says, this place serves as a training center. Here you can train alone or in teams. The training occurs in a mindscape and there are many variations to it. The cheapest variation cost 1.000 points per hour by the individual, in there you will face a variety of monsters that would be available and could train and synergize your skills efficiently, and you can choose the place as well. The first option does not have time dilation, the time ratio is 1x1. The second option costs 2.000 points per hour, it comes with a time dilation of 2x1 and with the same options from the previous one. From the third option forward there is an option of choosing a tutor for guidance. for each option, the price is multiplied by two. the third costs 4.0000 points, the fourth 8.000 and so forth. The more expensive the option, the better the trainer will be." Bryan was fascinated by the training options, if he had enough points, he could only train here and become stronger. But now he understood why there was no one here. The prices were too expensive. He said thanks to the man and went back to his house with Jessica in tow. Arriving there, they decided to call Samuel the next day and train for at least three hours to hone their teamwork. They chatted for the rest of the day and went to meditate when it was dark. Chapter 11 - In search of answers Following the next day, Bryan opened his eyes with the rising of the sun and took a shower. After getting out and wearing his clothes, Jessica showered and changed her clothes as well. They ate some breakfast and went to Samuel''s house call him to train in the training center. Arriving there, they asked the elder to begin the training and they finally began. Bryan suggested that they chose a different variety of monsters this time, they chose the big felines that Bryan fought against and the goblins. the place was a forest and the quantity was in hordes. By what the elder explained to them, After everyone died, the place would reset and the training would continue until the time expired. As they had chosen the second option, they would stay there for two hours in the mindscape but only an hour would pass in the reality, and their bodies would be stored in a special place until the training ended. After getting everything ready, they began to train. The difficult of the training was pretty high. Although the strength of each individual monster was not so great, they had the number on their side, and they could even cooperate as well, wich made things even harder. They trained incessantly for the time available and died a few times from exhaustion and from being swarmed. The creatures could be killed easily individually. but once you were surrounded from every side, fighting was not so easy, you had to pay attention to the enemies behind and besides you. But above all, trust your companions that they would cover you. Cooperation was not an easy thing to develop, unlike some novels and histories, they were not born fighting and were not extreme geniuses in cooperation. Training was the only solution to fill in the gaps between them. They trained for 6 hours inside the training space, which counted as 3 hours in the outside. After finishing the training, they felt more in sinch with each other, but they still had a long way to go. It was still morning when the training ended, almost midday. They felt exhausted. Although they didn''t do any exercise with their bodies. The mental burden was still there. After parting ways, Bryan and Jessica went to eat lunch. Arriving in the house, both of them took out their shoes and went to the kitchen. Bryan cut the vegetables while Jessica seasoned and prepared them and the meat. After eating, both of them were happily chatting. Bryan was very happy because Jessica''s mood seemed to be better. She gently put her hand on his while they were talking and Bryan became a little bit nervous. "Jess, what were you going to tell me before all this happened?" Asked Bryan nervously. Although he had a notion of she was going to say, he wanted to hear it from her mouth. Taking a deep breath, Jessica closed her eyes and opened them after a moment and began to say. "Well, We have known each other for so many years. I never had any interest for anyone else, and I think you know why. We are almost eighteen years old, I wanted to tell you my feelings while we had the opportunity. Before all this, that was the last year we had in high school, after it we could only see each other after a long time. You could go to a university far away from me. So, I wanted to tell you how much I like you, How much I love you, both as a friend as as something deeper. through all these years knowing each other we didn''t show this, but I picked some hints from you. You were too slow, so I gathered the courage to say my feelings out loud." By the end of the phrase, she was blushing and looked like a tomato. But she was still looking at Bryan''s eyes. Hearing what she said, Bryan took the initiative this time. He slowly approached her and looked at her red lips. He closed his eyes and after a moment, he felt a moist sensation on his lips. Jessica responded to his initiative and kissed him back. Their lips interlocked with each other and they began to slowly kiss. Bryan put his hand behind her head and stroke her hair. After a moment, he felt a salt taste on his lips, opening his eyes, he saw that Jessica was crying. Separating their lips, Bryan hugged her and began to console her. Jessica''s emotions were still very vulnerable, although this was a moment of happiness, she was still sad inside, and these strong feelings made her remember them. Bryan took her to the coach and they stayed there quietly. After a while Jessica and Bryan parted ways and both went to their rooms.
In the morning, Bryan felt relieved. The nightly meditation made his mind clearer and he felt refreshed. He stretched his body and manipulated the electricity on his right hand.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡®Why can¡¯t I surpass the Beginner level in my electrical body skill and the expert level in the spear mastery?¡¯ Looking at his status sheet, he felt depressed, although he had powerful skills, he had encountered a bottleneck, and still couldn¡¯t pass over it.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 45
Agility: 45
Intelligence: 34
Wisdom: 28
Endurance: 44
Vitality: 45
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 100/Expert
Electrical body 99/Beginner
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 23634
City Points 0
These skills were harder to master than he thought, he was not even progressing in energy cultivation. Not everything in his life could go smoothly, but at least he was alive and Jessica was with him. Getting rid of these thoughts, he got out of his room and washed his face and mouth. ¡°Hey Bryan, Good morning.¡± Looking behind him to the entrance of the bedroom he saw Jessica by the door looking at him. Her expressions were much better now than yesterday, he felt relieved seeing that she was getting better. ¡°Hey sleepyhead, did you cultivate last night?¡± Asked Bryan while looking at her eyes. ¡°Well, cultivation clear the mind, so I cultivated to calm my emotions¡­ Why don¡¯t we go to the kitchen, the breakfast is ready.¡± Said her with a smile on her face. Seeing that, Bryan was fascinated by the beauty of her smile, he slowly got closer to her and embraced her. After a few moments he let go of her, put two fingers on her chin and made her looking up, he slowly kissed her red lips and after it said. ¡° Let¡¯s grab something to fill our stomachs.¡± with a smile on his face. Jessica instantly blushed and ran to the kitchen. After sitting down, they ate and got their thing ready to go to the next mission. Both Bryan and Jess were more confident this time, their time training in the simulation gave them plenty of experience on how to work as a team, they were still in their baby steps on this direction, but at least they were already walking. They meet Samuel in front of the City hall and got a mission, another mission to hunt the monsters on the vicinity of the mountain, but this time, each one got the mission individually, so that each had to hunt a hundred monsters. Their idea was to each one to complete their mission, so that the points wouldn¡¯t be divided like the last one. Getting everything ready, they departed to complete the missions.
After a whole day of hunting, they came back exhausted. Blood was dripping from their clothes and there was a smell of shit and piss. Bryan swore to himself that he would never again kill a monster from it¡¯s belly, differently from some histories, there were plenty nasty things inside a creature body. The mission today was successful, each one of them completed the mission and received the points. Although they were even more exhausted than the previous mission, it was worth it. They parted ways with Samuel and went to their apartment. After getting rid of the filthy and cleaning themselves, they meditated for the rest of the day.
The days quickly passed, and suddenly, three weeks had gone by. Jess and Bryan were still developing their relationship, after all, they had to focus on getting stronger to survive in this world. Bryan finally had a breakthrough in his cultivation and all his attributes were augmented by 8 points. Even though the attributes were getting higher, there was a need to train to get used to them. Bryan was still having some problems controlling his body to get used to the new powers. After beginning to do missions, they attempted harder missions to hunt lone monsters that were more powerful. They chose to hunt the Fire lions that lived in the mountains, with Jess ice arrows, they could control the monster movements and restrict it. Looking at his points, he was happy, He now had 331.634 points, more than enough to buy a limited skill that was selling on the store, a skill named ¡°Cloud walker¡± that costed 300.000 points. the skill description were like this.
Cloud walker A skill that helps the user manipulate the moisture in the air to form clouds around the user to initially boost his speed and conceal his actions.
A boost to his movements were everything that he needed. he had attack power and a control ability in his electricity. The skill described that the clouds formed through the skill could conceal the movements of the user as well. Getting out of bed, he did his morning routine and had breakfast with Jess. ¡°Hey, I think it¡¯s time for us to pay for the third tier in the training hall, both we and Samuel are having difficulties in breaking through in some skills.¡± Said Bryan to Jess. According to the old man from the training hall, from the third tier on, they would receive a instructor according to their necessities. ¡°You¡¯re right. We have gathered enough money for the skills that we wanted to buy, now it¡¯s time to buy them and evolve the old ones to the next tier.¡± Said Jess agreeing with Bryan. After finishing the breakfast, they went to meet with Samuel and proceeded to the training hall. ¡°Hey old man, today we want to do a third-tier training individually.¡± Said Bryan. ¡°The point will be discounted and you will proceed to the mindscape, good luck¡± Said the old man while pressing something in the air, the next second, Bryan opened his eyes and found himself in a dojo. Chapter 12 - Movements Looking up, he saw a woman dressed in a green robe, she had an air of mystery around her, her brows shot up like sword and her hair was black as the night. Bryan instantly went before the woman and bowed while saying "Greetings instructor, I am here to learn from you." Bryan looked up and the woman nodded. "At least you have some manners. Say your doubts for once so that I can help you." Said the woman with a straight face. Bryan looked at her and said. "I have two skills, one is named spear mastery, and the other one is the electrical body. The spear mastery has stopped at the expert tier, and the electrical body is at the novice tier, I can not breakthrough with both of them." "Simple. First of all, the one named spear mastery must involve the use of energy. You have consolidated the use of the weapon until the expert tier, but from the master tier on, you must realize the use of energy in the weapon." After the woman said this, realization struck him. it was so obvious all the time, but he didn''t try it. "The other skill is a little bit more complicated, the skills that involve a force or a concept require the enlightenment of the respective element from the user. In other words, you must understand the force of lightning." "Understand how? I have to look through the scientific side?" Asked Bryan puzzled. "No, not through science, but feeling. It''s complicated to explain the concept of enlightenment, but it''s almost as if you were meditating over nature, how it works, not through science, but feelings. Only by trying it you will understand." Bryan nodded and asked. "Which one I begin to do? The lightning or the spear?" "Let''s begin by training the enlightenment over the nature of lightning. You have trained the spear mastery until the expert level already, the electrical body skill will be harder to break through." After finishing, the woman waved her hand and the scenery changed to a storm. The lightning was ravaging the earth, engulfing everything and burning the forest even amidst the rain. "Look at it, see where it comes from and its destiny. Everything in nature is related, nothing comes alone." looking at the amazing scene occurring before him, Bryan was flabbergasted, the force that nature could exert was immense. its power was boundless and almost infinity. Everything was connected, it was almost as if the lightning was the force that the nature used to punish the earth and all creatures. Bryan''s mind became illuminated by the scene and the woman worlds. Everything made sense now, it was not a matter of understanding the science of the things, it was how it worked, how the world dictated it happen. Bryan seated amidst the storm and began to meditate over the images that happened before him while hearing the sound of thunder. He didn''t know how much time passed, but he could feel as if he was the nature himself, and the cycle of the lightning happened through him. He was the cloud where the lightning was born, the earth where the lightning struck, the air where the sound echoed, the trees that burnt with the aftermath. He was nature itself. Bryan opened his eyes and saw that he was back in the training hall, looking at his body, he saw serpents of lightning coursing even strongly them before, the sound it made was might and majestic, he felt as if the force of lightning was at his disposal. He briefly looked at his status and was astounded.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 53 ¡ú 73
Agility: 53 ¡ú 73
Intelligence: 42 ¡ú 50
Wisdom:If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. 36 ¡ú 44
Endurance: 52 ¡ú 67
Vitality: 53 ¡ú 68
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 100/Expert
Lightning body 1/Novice
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 315.634
City Points 0
Although the skill was only at level 1 of the novice tier, he truly felt the difference between them. So this is what the system meant by not using the real power of the skill until the novice tier. Even the name of the skill changed, it was like the enlightenment that he had affected it. Bryan looked at the skill''s description.
Lightning body A skill that helps the user manipulate lightning through his body.
He felt that the changes were not so great, what was important was that he could feel more free in the use of the skill. His attributes were augmented as well, but this time the focus was on strength and agility, the others received fewer points. He looked beside him and saw that both Jess and Samuel were standing in place. Jess had an icy air coming out of her, and there was a faint light that looked like an armor around Samuel. "Hey, was it worth to spend that many points?" Asked Bryan taking them out of their stupor. They looked at him while grinning and said: "It was worth it." Looking at the points that were discounted, it seemed like they stayed in there for four hours. "Now that I had a breakthrough in one of the old skills, I will buy the new one and begin to practice with all of them together," Bryan said with a happy smile on his face, the fact that he could finally understand how to progress now made him very happy. He bought the skill and there were 300.000 points less on his status page, only left him with 15.634 points. he innately felt how to use the skill, to apply it on combat was still another whole thing, but time would help him. picking up Jess''s hand, he asked her. ¡°How did it went? have you broken through?¡± ¡°Yeah, my ice arrow skill has broken through and evolved. I can apply it in different ways now to help us in our missions.¡± She said with a smile on her face. ¡°Hey, love birds. You didn¡¯t ask but I have advanced as well.¡± Said Samuel while punching Bryan on the shoulder. ¡°HAHA, I saw it, bro, we have all advanced. Now we can strive for harder missions and acquire more points.¡± Said Bryan with a big grin on his mouth, he put his hands on both jess and Samuel¡¯s shoulders and left the training center. ¡°Hey, You trio.¡± Bryan looked to his side and saw a man wearing a brown cloak, he had tanned skin and blue eyes. ¡°I have something to tell you, come closer.¡± Said the man. While the man looked a bit suspect, there were many people on the streets, manly where they were, in the center of the city. Taking things into consideration, Bryan led the two of them and stood in front of the man. ¡°You can speak, let¡¯s hear what you have to say.¡± Said Bryan. ¡°All of us know that a change is bound to happen in the system according to the elders. We are a faction of people that intend to take care of the town if you understand me, all of the people who side with us are bound to receive great care. We are allowing you to join us. What do you think?¡± Said the man with a smile on his face during the whole speech. Bryan was surprised by what the man said. But he quickly answered. "Thank you for the offer, but I am not interested." Bryan had other priorities for now, and training was one of them, entering a political struggle would not get him more power. "What about your friends?" The man turned to Jess and Samuel. "Not interested" Me either." Said both of them. "I see¡­ the doors will still be open for some time. Thank you for your attention." After finishing his piece, the man turned away and left. "We are in an important moment right now, we have to train and get stronger. The time that the survivors fight for supremacy is arriving I think, and we have to get more powerful." Said Bryan with surety in his voice. They went to their houses to prepare. Bryan was walking holding hands with Jess, their relationship had advanced well, but they still hadn''t taken that step. Both of them were afraid of the circumstances and there was not any prevention means in the city, the system provided a lot of things, but the condom was not one of them. Arriving at their apartment, Bryan gave a deep kiss into Jess''s lips and went into his room without looking back. The fire inside him was growing stronger by the day. In this new world there was only killing and training, there was no other thing to do most, so sex was a thing that many people turned to, and waiting was killing him. Arriving at his room, Bryan meditated to gather more energy from the atmosphere into his body and to get used to the flow of the now stronger lightning through his body. The feeling of power was much greater, and his body seemed to be transformed by the skill to get used by it, and there was a proven fact that although your energy could hurt yourself because you are its origin, the resistance was much, much greater. After getting used to the energy, Bryan went into the terrace to train his spear moves combined with the energy and with the lightning, he wanted to breakthrough with the Spear mastery skill as soon as possible as well. going through the stairs, Bryan saw the light coming from the terrace, it was still noon and the sky was dyed in orange color. Getting up, he saw a figure training with a spear in hand, although the spear was longer than his, the figure was moving it quickly like a comet through the sky, orange flames were dancing around the person, hiding its figure. The fire spin around like a tornado with the person spear and suddenly the fire vanished, leaving in its midst a ginger girl, with orange eyes and tender white skin. the woman figure was stunning and mesmerizing, she had a hot figure and a fiery hot air around her. The woman turned into Bryan''s direction and readied her spear, tongues of fire danced around her as if she was a fairy. "Stop right there if you don''t wanna die." Said the girl with furrowed brows. Chapter 13 - New challenges Bryan was stunned by such a beauty only for a moment, the next thing he did was getting his spear and getting ready for a clash. ¡°I am only here to train, it¡¯s better if both of us put our weapons down. Don¡¯t you agree?¡± Said Bryan with his spear on hand. ¡°Put your weapon down first and then I will consider.¡± Said the girl with a steady gaze. Bryan took a deep breath and lowered his spear. Although he conceded first, he was still alert of the girl. Although the criminality in the city was low due to the missions of guarding the city, there was still some criminality, and people could be unpredictable. After the spear was pointing down, a grin appeared on the girl''s face. She erupted with power and bounced toward Bryan. Seeing this happening, instead of falling back, Bryan advanced. There were only stairs at his back, and he would be at a disadvantage if he went backward. Quickly grabbing his spear and stepping forward, Bryan circulated the lightning through his weapon and clashed with the woman. There was no mystery, the stalemate was quickly broken and the woman was thrown backward. Although Bryan didn¡¯t gather a lot of momentum, his training until now had given him an edge. The lightning coursed through the woman¡¯s body paralyzing her and making her stop in place. There was still a ferocious light in her eyes. Seeing this, Bryan didn¡¯t hesitate and unleashed a lightning bolt at her, making the woman fall to the ground. Looking at her eyes from a distance he asked her. ¡°Why did you suddenly attacked me? I have no enmity against you!¡± Seeing the sincere expression on his face, the woman instantly relaxed her expression and the anger vanished from her eyes. ¡°Most man nowadays approach you wanting to do something not so pleasant. As a woman, I just want to protect myself from these scum!¡± Said her with an icy voice. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t touch you.¡± After finishing his piece, Bryan went to a corner of the terrace and began to train his abilities. The woman looked at him blinking without knowing what to say and proceeded with her training. *** Bryan focused on his spear strikes. Every movement of his weapon could be felt by his body. Feeling and controlling the weapon was easy to him, but now he would begin to infuse the energy on his weapon. The feeling of control began to get higher as the energy was infused, after all, the energy was part of him, it was the same thing as his blood or as his flash, just a different part. Bryan felt the energy slowly seeping and integrating into the weapon and proceeded to fell it. After infusing enough, he makes a stabbing movement with the spear. ¡°Swhoosh¡± Although the attack was powerful, the energy dissipated from the weapon and in a moment there was no more of it in the spear. Bryan figured that he should keep his concentration on the energy on the weapon as he attacked, although the energy was part of him, after leaving the body controlling it was harder. He began to try again and again, unceasingly striking and infusing the energy in the spear.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Through all these days in the apocalypse, he had refined his control over the energy through cultivation and the control of his lightning. although the nature of the use was different, control was still control. After training the rest of the afternoon and three hours into the night, he had progressed on the skill tier. He didn¡¯t feel a great change or a sudden powerup, the only thing that changed was the tier and level of the skill that now was appearing like this.
Spear mastery 4/Master
The skill was just like the description, it only showed how proficient he was in using a spear. Although he didn¡¯t receive any points, he was satisfied with his progress, after all, his attacks were now much stronger with the infusion of energy in his attacks. After being satisfied, he walked in the direction of the stairs to meditate for the rest of the night. looking briefly to the side, he saw that the woman was still training there without stopping. There was fire dancing on each of her spear strikes, and there seemed to be orbs of fire that accompanied it. The sight was truly mesmerizing, the woman must have her motives to be so guarded against men. Taking this thing out of his mind, he proceeded to his daily meditation. *** After another daily routine of meditation and training, Bryan¡¯s mind was feeling more free, mainly for the progress that he had. His Birthday was coming closer as well, and not having his parents with him was a sad thing. The next day, Bryan went to the training hall to train with Samuel and Jess and saw the results of their evolution. Samuel was now a human fortress, nothing could penetrate his defenses, and although he had a big armor and shield, he was still agile enough to defend his partners when needed. After a long day, he went to the roof to train again, and once again the fiery girl was there training her spear. Bryan went to a corner and began to train by himself, he trained both the spear and his lightning skills, and most importantly, he trained his new skill, the cloud walker. The skill truly allowed him to move much faster than before, but his gains on attributes were much lower than the lightning body one. By the end of the day, his status got upped by a bit. (status pages are going to be put at the end of the chapter.) He turned toward the stairs to get down from the roof. ¡°Hey.¡± he heard a voice calling from the back. As he was the only other person there, she could only be calling him. Turning around, he saw the fiery girl looking at him, without waiting for him to say anything she said. ¡°Train with me.¡± She said this without the slightest nervousness in her voice or change of tone as if her words were a command. Seeing she saying this, Bryan said. ¡°I can, but first you will have to tell me your name for me to consider doing this.¡± She grinned and said. ¡°You can call me Lasair.¡± ¡°My name is Bryan. We can train tomorrow if you want to.¡± Saying this, he turned and went downstairs. Lasair had a face full of fury right now, instead of attending to what she wanted, she said a phrase and left. ¡°I¡¯ll pay him back tomorrow.¡± said her in her mind. *** Arriving at his apartment, after this long day, Bryan felt relieved, now he would have dinner with Jess and meditate on the night to rest. opening the door, he saw that the magical lights of the house were off, but there was a flame light coming from the kitchen. Arriving at the kitchen, he saw Jess seated by the table, with a sumptuous feast of different foods. She was wearing a black dress that made her even more alluring. She smiled toward him and said. ¡°Did you think I would forget about your birthday? I bet even you forgot the exact day because of all this mess. Go take a shower and get dressed so we can enjoy the food together.¡± She pointed toward a set of clothes that was already folded on a chair together with a towel. Bryan picked the things and went toward the bathroom to clean himself. After finishing everything, he got dressed and went toward the kitchen to enjoy the rest of the night with Jess. On that night, Bryan didn¡¯t meditate. *** Waking up in the morning, he felt a weigh on his chest, looking down, he saw Jessica¡¯s head on his chest, using him as a pillow. He smiled with all his heart and began to brush her hair slowly. Feeling the hand on her head, Jessica woke up and looked into his eyes. They both smiled at each other, but Jessica blushed a little after seeing that his eyes departed from her smile and went to explore other parts of her body. She covered herself with a sheet and went toward the bathroom. The previous night was like a dream to Bryan. After eating dinner with Jess, he had the time of his life feeling all of her. Her silk skin, that was smooth like the clouds floating in the sky, her beautiful curves that were more slender than a thousand violins, and the amazing movements of the two moving together, like a boat on a storm. That was truly an amazing night. He looked toward the bathroom on the corridor and saw that the door was not locked. Seeing this, he got a towel and went toward the bathroom as well. *** After having dinner, he went toward the city hall to get a mission with Samuel and Jess, they wanted to get a more challenging missions today, mainly to test their ability, but because they sensed that time of chaos was approaching the city as well, and they had to move as fast as possible. Meeting Samuel at the mission hall, they went to the board to look for a mission that would challenge then, looking at it, they agreed to get a mission.
Tier Name Description Prize
Expert Troll hunting Hunt a forest troll that lives in the forest northwest to the city. 500.000
Chapter 14 - System message Preparing the things that they would need to camp in the wild, he saw that the barracks and the supplies were enough. After making sure that everything was ready, they left the town. Treading toward the direction that the mission gave, they began to look at the forest for clues of the forest troll. They didn¡¯t know what it looked like, after all, there were not many people that got an expert mission and left alive, many people died trying to advance in tier, and mos groups that did it had many people in it, at least a few dozens. They were being a big insensate to try this kind of mission with only three people, but they had the confidence that they could do it. They walked through the forest during the whole morning and afternoon, without finding any monsters. The night was getting closer, and the air was getting heavier. Seeing the approach of the darkness, they made camp and lit a bonfire. The night was quiet, there was only the sound of the insects in the forest. They rested and fortunately didn¡¯t suffer any attack during the night. Walking around in the morning around the forest, they had to redouble their attention. there was a mist surrounding the forest, and the animals were lurking in there. After a few combats against weak monsters and some animals, they finally encountered something. ¡°Stop¡± Said Bryan while analyzing with his arm. He could sense that almost 200 meters in front of them, there was a huge vitality energy. it was so big that it looked almost like a sun. ¡°Let¡¯s get ready, I think we have found our target.¡± Both Samuel and Jess nodded their heads and agreed. Bryan grabbed his spear and circulated the energy only on the inside to not alert the creature, he went forward while both Samuel and Jess went with him. Moving for a bit, he could see the creature, it was a humanoid monster, full of green roots around its body, and it was carrying a huge wooden mace. He stepped forward and attacked the creature with his spear on its right foot. ¡°Slash¡± His spear only left a shallow cut on the creature''s skin and made it awaken. When the forest troll opened its eyes, it was as if the nature around them was raging. The creature ignored the wound on its foot and swung its mace in Bryan''s direction. Seeing the attack come, Bryan activated the Cloud walker skill and stepped backward. He barely evaded the mace, but the trees that were on its way suffered from the attack. ¡°BOOMMM¡° It was as if the earth had crumbled. There was a ten meters gash on the direction where the troll swung its mace. The trees and the ground were devastated. Both Bryan and Samuel made scared faces. Jess was still a distance from there to offer support and couldn¡¯t be seen. Even after seeing the creature¡¯s power, Bryan concentrated his energy on his spear according to how he practiced to advance its mastery, coated it with lightning and attacked. The troll swung its mace in Bryan direction again, He rolled on the ground and let the mace pass over him. He arrived at its foot again and this time delivered a powerful attack. this time, the troll roared in pain, there was a huge gash on its leg, almost severing its foot away. but the monster didn¡¯t stop and continued to fight, it swung it¡¯s left fist to Bryan. He was surprised by its attack and couldn¡¯t react in time.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Just as the attack was arriving, Samuel appeared in front of Bryan and received the attack in full. Samuel flexed his knees and angled his shield, the fist arrived. Samuel successfully averted the attack and backed away with Bryan. They looked at the monster''s foot and saw that it was already regenerating at a monstrous speed. just as the regeneration was beginning to pick up speed, an arrow came out of nowhere and frozen the wound, stopping the bleeding but also stopping the regeneration. Picking on this way, the three continued to fight the monster. it¡¯s power was incredible, the regeneration was out of this world, but it was alone in the end, and couldn¡¯t fight against three people. after 2 long hours of arduous grinding, Bryan was almost falling on the ground from exhaustion. Although he didn¡¯t suffer any wounds due to the monster''s slow speed and good teamwork, it was still a difficult target to have. They laughed and commemorated for defeating the troll. they looked at the mission page and saw that it was completed. They turned back toward the city direction and proceeded there. **** Before arriving at the town, they felt something huge happening. A blue screen appeared in front of them.
The system has deemed its assistance with food, clothes and special items irrelevant. from now on, this world citizens won''t receive more assistance in this way. There will also be a competition in the cities to define the leader worth of leading it.
This announcement came a lightning bolt falling from a clear sky. although changes were awaited, but everyone thought that they would take longer. They quickly proceeded toward the city to see how the situation was going. Arriving in front of the city hall, they saw a multitude of people there, waiting for an announcement coming from the elder council. Soon after, the six elders arrived and elder Peter gestured with his arm to make the crowd calm down. Bryan was surprised by the looks of the man, he was much, much younger now. he looked around 35 years instead of an old man. and the elders that were around him looked much younger as well. It seemed that the elders also received benefits for being left behind, he could feel a powerful cultivation of the mist realm coming from them. ¡°As you all have seen, we have received a message from the system. Now that the balance has once again been established, the system will hold some kind of competition to see who will hold the power over the city.¡± Said Peter calmly. ¡°What about our houses?¡± Asked someone in the crowd. ¡°About that, there is still no answer. All that we know is that the change is coming to everyone, no matter if you are young or old anymore. That¡¯s it for today, we only ask our citizens to maintain order in the city and to not cause mayhem. after all, the missions to guard the city are still available.¡± After saying this, Peter turned around and left the place together with the rest of the council. Bryan found it strange that they were acting this way, Peter was acting to quietly for a man that was about to lose his power. Bryan ignored this and proceeded to his apartment together with Jess to relax after the long trip. Arriving there, Jess took a shower with Bryan and they laid on the bed to rest. ¡°What do you think about all these changes Jess? It¡¯s almost as if the system is orchestrating something and want us to play in its hands.¡± Asked Bryan with furrowed brows. This situation was truly worrying about him. It was almost as if the system was pushing people against each other. ¡°Do not worry about it, all we have to do is to get more and more powerful. we are already one of the most powerful teams in the city, if not the most powerful. Power can safeguard everything honey.¡± Said Jess with a powerful glint in her eyes. She understood since the day that her parents died that only personal power could keep them safe. ¡°You¡¯re right. We have to get even more powerful.¡± Bryan kissed her and went toward the roof to train his spear. Arriving there, he encountered Lasair training with her spear with flames around her. ¡°Hey, still want to train?¡± Asked Bryan to her. Instead of answering, she only pointed her spear at him and said for him to come. Bryan readied his spear and began to train with her. ***** The days began to pass in the city, Bryan, Samuel, and Jess began to train even harder than before, even Samuel¡¯s family was training or cultivating food around the city with the farmers. A new profession that showed necessary after the system stopped providing food. They were getting more and more powerful, the tree of them trained, accomplished missions that were way harder than other teams and trained in the training hall with good trainers and spend many hours there per day. The tension in the city was growing by the day, people were always speaking quietly on the streets, and many factions were forming by what they learned during the last few days. These factions were focused on making missions to becoming stronger, they made expert ranked missions to earn more points, but because many people were doing it, the points earned were few. Bryan and his crew proceeded with their training and missions. Eventually, Bryan invited Lasair to come to their team, but apparently, she was a high ranked person in one of the biggest factions of the city, named the ¡°Flame Phoenix¡±. Three months had now passed since the announcement from the system, and Bryan looked at his status.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 117
Agility: 141
Intelligence: 95
Wisdom: 91
Endurance: 113
Vitality: 111
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 98/Master
Lightning body 53/Expert
Cloud walker 95/Novice
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 7.415.634
He now had advanced almost all of his attributes near 100 points or more. all his skills had advanced pretty well. although the element skills were harder to train, they still were progressing. He had now amassed a huge quantity of points with the intent to buy an inheritance weapon that had only one unit on the system market. He was now finally feeling ready to advance against what was arriving. Chapter 15 - The calm before the storm The city was becoming more and more complex. In the beginning, the elders held the power while the others were only mere paws of the system. Now, the system was slowly taking its influence away from the city, and it let everyone know that eventually, someone would control the city. Factions were forming everywhere with the intent to control the city when the time arrives. the city missions were almost unavailable because people thought that they would have great importance and began to amass them. The complexity was becoming bigger and bigger. Bryan didn¡¯t like it. He only wanted to survive in this cursed land. Although a long time had passed since the system gave the message, nothing happened. It was as if the system was giving the people time to prepare. Bryan and company were not preparing to fight for control of the city, but control of their fate. They had amassed enough money through these last months to buy something that would change the balance if something were to happen to them. There were some items and skills that were limited and had requirements to be bough. they were very powerful according to their descriptions. The unique item that Bryan was interested in was named Zeus Bolt. A spear that was supposedly made of lightning. With it, Bryan expected that his powers could be augmented enough so that he could get more safety for him and his friends. Selecting the weapon on the blue scream, it appeared in front of him after deducting almost all of his points.
Points 7.415.634 ¡ú 165.634
The spear was blue all over its surface, but not because of the metal but because of the symbols like runes that were freely flowing over it. The material used to forge it was something that looked like silver but was much stronger. Bryan could feel the power of the weapon. He tried to infuse a little bit of lightning in it, and the result was surprising. ¡°WONNN¡± The energy was multiplied by it. making its power even more deadly. Bryan was amazed by the effect of the weapon and began to swing it. He was now on the roof of his building. When he made the first swing, the energy left the weapon, leaving a huge gash in the ground. His eyes almost popped out of his socks. The weapon was even more powerful than he imagined. Until now, the building had proven to be very resistant to damage, and almost nothing could destroy it, now, he could. He immediately left the building and went to the training center to see the full potential of it. arriving there, the place was a desert, because there was no one there. not even the elder that usually stayed there was in it. He found it strange but dismissed it. After arriving there, he signalized the system and entered the mindscape. Arriving there, he selected a horde of monster and began the slaughter. The creatures didn¡¯t stand a chance, the spear made his attacks even more powerful and concentrated, the blue lightning flashed from one side to the other of the place and the monsters fell one after the other. After the time was up, Bryan left the mindscape and was amazed by the weapon, even more, its effects were grander than he thought. Samuel and Jessica were going to buy unique weapons as well, he wanted them to buy them as soon as possible to get used to it. ***This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. After getting home and cultivating for the rest of the night, Bryan felt refreshed, he was a new man now. His powers had soared beyond what he thought possible with the spear, and there was still much ground to go yet. He got up and went to the kitchen to eat breakfast with Jess. ¡°Honey, did you buy the moonlight bow? If not, you should. The spear¡¯s powers surprised even me.¡± Said Bryan after arriving at the kitchen. ¡°I know what you are talking about. After getting the last needed points from the mission yesterday, I brought it. I believe what you¡¯re saying, the weapon power is amazing. But I still think it was to cheap for the power that the bow holds, I think there is still something more to it.¡± Said Jess with a frown on her face. The weapon power was unbelievable, but it was too cheap for the power that they got, they only trained and made missions for a few months to get them. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it honey, the important thing is that the weapons are now in our hands, no one''s gonna take them from us.¡± Said Bryan with a reassuring face. ¡°Well, if that¡¯s what you say, I¡¯ll try to keep my mind at ease.¡± Bryan smiled and caressed her face. then said. ¡°Samuel must have gotten the Aegis shield by now. We should go to the training hall to test the weapons together. ¡° Said, Bryan. ¡°Of course we should, the dynamics of our combat must have changed a lot after getting our hands at these weapons.¡± Completed Jess. After finishing their morning activities, they went toward Samuel''s house and called him to go to the training hall. After getting there, they accessed the system terminal and entered the mindscape to train. The bow that was now in Jess''s hand almost looked like it was forged from ice. It had a mysterious aura around it and looked godly, there was no bowstring to be seen, but when Jessica put her hand on it, a mana string magically appeared. Just like his weapon, various runes were flowing over the weapon surface. Samuel¡¯s shield looked majestic, it had a lion carved in the surface roaring, on the border there were dragons coiling around the shield, eating the other one''s tails, looking almost like an ouroboros, but instead of having only one snake, it had three dragons. The monsters surged from the plains. Samuel went to the front and activated the shield, a golden aura began to appear around him, together with the aura, a golden armor also appeared. Samuel brandished his shield in front of him and dashed in encounter of the horde. He slowly approached them and the impact finally came. But instead of standing his ground or stopping, he continued to advance. the monsters looked like insects on his way and nothing could make him stop. A few seconds after the impact, some shadows began to appear from the sky, and some things began to fall. Arrows began to descend like raindrops. The arrows killed many monsters and stopped the ones in the back to advance, after all, all the ground and creatures around where the arrows fell freeze like icicles. ¡°Hey Jess, you didn¡¯t let any monster for me to defend from!¡± Complained Samuel from the front. ¡°It¡¯s not like you didn¡¯t test your powers muscle brain.¡± Said her while laughing. ¡°Now that the two of you have shown what you are capable of, let me do it as well,¡± Said Bryan while running to the front. Lightning began to appear around him, and some clouds was revolving around him as well, hiding his features and his body completely. It was like a monster was hiding inside these clouds, and it was preparing to hunt. Bryan jumped above the frozen space that Jess created and appeared above the rest of the monsters that were left behind. Blue lightning and thunder began to concentrate inside the cloud where he was hiding. Suddenly, lightning began to fall like raindrops from the cloud as a center, enveloping the whole battlefield, destroying the ground and all the monsters the were in the way. Bryan slowly descended amidst the clouds and was amazed after seeing the damage that he had done to his surrounds. The ground was almost leveled, there were only charred remains left. Everything was quiet for a moment. There was only the silence left behind. Suddenly a voice interrupted saying. ¡°WOOW, you got some power behind these punches buddy.¡± Said, Samuel. They laughed and continued to train. *** They passed the rest of the day training on the mindscape and only left when it was already night. The streets were deserted, and no soul could be seen walking by. ¡°Hey guys, it¡¯s only me that thinks it¡¯s strange that there is no one walking at this hour or do you guys think the same?¡± Asked Samuel. ¡°I agree with you Sam, something very strange is happening, let¡¯s go home and try to discover what this is about tomorrow.¡± Said Bryan. Jessica and Bryan parted ways with Samuel and went toward their apartment. ¡°Do you think the factions are preparing to fight? The system has not moved yet, so how could they do something?¡± Asked Jess. ¡°Maybe, they don¡¯t think the system will involve itself in the fights before some announcement, but the storm is arriving, everyone can feel it.¡± Said Bryan. ¡°Maybe they want to eliminate the competition before the fight begins. there are only two main factions from what we know, the elder faction and the Shifters. The rest are just trash trying to get a piece of the cake.¡± Said Jess. ¡°So, do you think this is one of the big factions doing? The elders had amassed quite a bit of power from commanding the city for some time, so it could be them.¡± Said Bryan. ¡°Maybe it could be the elders, but we can¡¯t know for sure. We can be sure that the elder faction is making their moves as well, these days it¡¯s hard to see anyone from the elder faction on the system buildings. Maybe it has already begun for some time now, and we were the ones that didn¡¯t realize because we were focused on training.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter now, I think we made the right decision from focusing on personal power. I think that now, neither of the two factions would want to mess with us.¡± Bryan smiled while saying this. ¡°For us, personal power is enough. But for others¡­ I don¡¯t know, there is still something strange to me.¡± Said Jess. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Nothing, just a hunch. let¡¯s wait for tomorrow to come first. let¡¯s rest for today.¡± Jessica said while pointing at the building that was in front of them now. They had finally arrived at their apartment. Chapter 16 - Slaughter That night, Bryan and Jessica slept soundly. Although some things made them concerned, by the end of it all, they had enough confidence in themselves to feel safe. Getting up in the morning, they did their morning routine and went directly to train on the training hall. on the way there¡­ "Jess, it''s only me or the city is empty even in the morning? what the hell is happening here?" Asked Bryan with a frustrated voice. Even though he had been bothered by what was happening until now, seeing the city empty was, even more, scarier than being left alone in a forest. "Something is happening¡­ I think we should go back to our home for now. something is surely bound to happen today!" Said Jess. "Yeah, it''s better to go back for now." Bryan and Jessica gave up training and began to head back to their apartment. there were only some people that quickly passed through the streets, but vanished on the houses or the alleys. Before they could arrive at their house, a so awaited message appeared before them.
A faction or an individual? Sometimes both things are needed, but to govern a city, a faction is needed. The factions can be registered under one individual and need to have at least 200 people, the great struggle will begin. The faction, that by the end of the week controls more city facilities will win!
Rules
1o The control of a facility is classified by exterminating or driving out everyone from an enemy faction from the building.
2a After driving out the enemies, the building must be kept for at least 5 hours to be considered conquered.
3a By having control of more than 80% of the buildings, the faction will be considered the winner.
4a Points to reinforce the defense of the buildings can be acquired by killing enemies from another faction or people that do not have any affiliation.
5o Points acquired by killings foes according to the fourth rule can be used to reinforce conquered buildings and to attack them with special attacks.
Seeing the message and reading its contents, Bryan was surprised! Both he, Samuel and Jessica didn''t have a faction to cover for them, so they could suffer attacks from anywhere. Although he did have the capital to defend himself, the same could not be said about Samuel''s family. "Jess, we have to go after Samuel to help his family! They need our protection!" Said Bryan with a tone of urgency. "Of course we need to. Let''s go!" After finishing saying this, both of them began to go in the direction of Samuel''s house. On the way, they could already hear many cries coming from a lot of different places. There were buildings on fire and around the system facilities, there was only chaos!! Although the majority of the system facilities were concentrated around the center of the city, there was still the city gates and protection towers, that were still considered system facilities.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. "Hey, there are two here on the street!" Bryan heard a voice calling from a distance. He made a signal to Jess and she got her bow from her back and drew the string. Many people were coming from the buildings and surrounding them, blood could be seen over their weapons and armors. They had entered the buildings to kill the people inside of it to get points. These factions didn''t have many people, but they would do anything to get an advantage over their foes. They had a strange glowing symbol on the right side of their chests. Bryan readied his spear and got into position. "Hey dude, you should lower your weapons and let this be quick, you don''t want us to lay with the girl as well, right?" Said a man that was leading the group. He looked at Jessica with a dirty look. Seeing this, Bryan was instantly enraged. "You should have let us pass when it was still time! Now you have sealed your fate." A cloud began to surge around Bryan, hiding his features, and lightning began to cackle inside of it. Jessica stepped on the ground, and an ice platform appeared and lifted her 5 meters from the ground. "ATTACK!!" Screamed the leader of the group after seeing his enemies getting ready. Bryan advanced at his enemies and clashed with a huge man that was wielding a broadsword. He stepped aside, letting the weapon pass beside him and stabbed the man''s heart. instantly killing him. Another one tried to sneak attack him from behind, but touching the lightning cloud was the man''s last mistake. He fell on the ground charred in black. Jessica began to fire arrows at the group and evade the attacks that were thrown at her. She looked like a fairy dancing beautifully at the pillar to Bryan, but to their enemies, she looked like a demon watching over them from above. The group was quickly killed or subdued and they proceeded to Samuel''s house. They were having a bad feeling after getting close to his neighborhood. This part of the city was where most people were concentrated, where the population was the most dense. The chaos and killing was happening all the time in here, and Bryan and Jessica were attacked many times by people on the streets. There were dead bodies left on the ground everywhere, children were crying and mothers were screaming. All the hope and faith that these people had gathered to live had suddenly disappeared after the message the system had send this morning. After a long journey, they finally had arrived at Bryan''s apartment. Surprisingly, there was no one there. although there was no blood, there was a message that Samuel left for them beneath the door. Sorry guys¡­ I had to take care of my family in this chaos. The revolutionaries showed up just after the message arrived and offered to protect my family in exchange for my services. We were already a well-known group and they were already waiting for this opportunity to get my help. Their base is southwest of the city, in this coordinates that I will be left for you. If you want to find me, search there. Take care of yourself. Samuel. Both Bryan and Jessica were not so surprised after reading this message, they didn''t feel betrayed at all as well. They had no bounds and no one to take care of, so they could be relatively free and not join any side. But Samuel could have his relatives targeted so that they could persuade him. In Samuel''s case, his power came with great responsibility, and it was to protect his family. "What do you think we should do now? Samuel has made his decision to protect his family. Do you think we should help him?" Asked Jess. "It''s obvious that both sides are not saints, they knew that something was coming but didn''t even care to protect the civilians. There are no saints in this war, only pure interest." Bryan. "But even so we must make a decision, we can either be neutral and wait for the storm to pass, or we can help one side, but now that Samuel is with the revolutionaries, that side is restricted to their." Said Jess. "This is a difficult decision to make. We don''t know what the full strength of both sides are. But now, it doesn''t matter anymore. We must help our friend." Said Bryan with a determined glint in his eye. He continued. "Let''s go to the place Samuel indicated in the letter, after that, we can decide what to do." "Fine, let''s go." Answered Jess. They went to the stairs and began to descend. A sudden trembling could be heard on the ground, the chaos that was happening on the outside began to recede, and cheers could be heard. Distant voices could be heard shouting something. They went to a window and finally saw what was happening on the streets. Squads of soldiers could seem walking on the streets, killing the rioters and offering assistance to the people that needed it. On their chest, there was a symbol of an angel holding a sword. They could now finally hear what was being said. "The elder faction is here to offer assistance to those in need. If you see any rioter or killer inform us and we will take care of it." Said a man with a voice loud enough that everyone on the block hear. "The elders were quick in their actions. instead of stopping the chaos before it began, they waited for it to happen and then interfere." Said Jess. "You are right, they could have stopped or at least lessened the loss of life. But now they killed two birds with one stone, they are getting points from the other factions and have the image of a hero coming to rescue those in need. At least they are doing something." Added Bryan. "It''s gonna be harder to leave now that the streets are full of squads. We have to leave as soon as possible." Said Jessica while tugging on Bryan''s sleeve. "Yeah, Let''s leave." Agreed Bryan. They began to weave through the alleys and shadows of the city, avoiding meeting with any factions. With their speed, it was not difficult to get through the crowds and squads that were patrolling the surrounds. After some time, they could see different factions doing the same thing as the Elders''s faction. They were killing the rioters and protecting civilians in the name of "Justice". After some time getting through the mess. They finally made it to the place that was marked on the letter. Looking from a distance, they could see that the building was full of scouts and lookouts, they were well organized and full of powerful equipment. "Once we take this step it''s gonna be difficult to go back. That base has a lot of powerful people by what we can see. The rioters from the other factions were only small fry and couldn''t do anything to us, but the people on this base hold power." Said Bryan. "Let''s first observe the situation for some time, how the people of this base are moving, then we can decide." Said Jess. "Yeah, Let''s do this for a while." Agreed Bryan. Chapter 17 - The meaning of friendship Jess and Bryan waited there for about half an hour. They saw many people entering and coming out of the building, there were even many refugees that were taking shelter in there by what it looked. Although most of the factions looked only at their interests, Samuel was with them now, so it was both Jess and Bryan''s interest that his faction won the competition. "I think this is long enough, let''s go in." Said Bryan. "Fine, let''s go." Agreed Jess. They got up and began to slowly walk to the building direction. The moment that they got close to the building, the outlookers shouted. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" After a few moments, they were surrounded. "What is your business here?" Asked one of the soldiers. "We are Samuel''s friends. He told us we could come here and see him." Bryan said slowly. "Wait here." The man ordered the other soldiers and went inside the building to talk with someone. The soldiers that were surrounding Jess and Bryan could feel the pressure coming from them. The power that emanated from their bodies was incredible. Generally, people that were at the mist energy cultivation couldn''t suppress their energy, and some of it leaked, making the people around them able to identify the level of their powers. The soldiers that could feel how powerful they began to sweat and get nervous. They were looking at the weapons at Bryan and Jess backs with amazing looks as well. After a few minutes, three people left the building. One of them was the soldier that entered it, the other one was a woman clothed with a shining armor and with a greatsword on her back, and the other person was Samuel. "Hey buddies, how are you?" Samuel greeted them with a smile on his face. It seemed that although the situation was not ideal, with his family safe he was comfortable enough. "Hey man, how are you doing? Is your family alright?" Asked Bryan almost immediately. "Don''t worry, they are taking good care of my family, if it was not like this I wouldn''t even be here." Said, Samuel. "Very good, it''s good that they are doing fine." Said Bryan with a smile on his face. "What are you doing here?" Asked Samuel. "We are here to help this faction." Said Jess. When Samuel heard this, he flinched. He knew that both Jess and Bryan didn''t want to involve themselves with any power struggle, it was to complex for them. He also knew that they were only doing this because of him. This move by their part touched him. "You don''t need to do this guys¡­ I know that you don''t want to involve yourselves in this kind of thing..." Said Samuel with a sad face. Bryan patted Samuel on his shoulder and said. "We are friends, I wouldn''t let you down when you need it." Samuel slowly nodded and with his head down said. "Thanks." Bryan could see that there was a tear rolling down on Samuel''s face. He didn''t have any good friends most of his life, and this gesture of sincerity truly moved him.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. "Let''s go in then." Samuel said while rubbing his face with his left hand. Getting rid of the crowd of soldiers surrounding them, they proceeded to the interior of the building. The woman in armor said. "My name is Samantha, and I am one of the superiors around here, we will meet our leader now so that he can discuss our cooperation with you." "Okay, Lead us then." Bryan nodded. The interior of the building was truly a big place, there were numerous squads stationed there waiting orders. They walked through some corridors and arrived before a door that had the symbol of a lonely tree in a desert, the same symbol that the warriors of the revolutionaries faction used. Samantha walked to the door and knocked on it while saying. "I have brought them." "Come in." Answered a voice from inside. Opening the door, they could see a huge room, with a big table in the middle. over the table were many maps with details about the structure of the city and alleys surrounding the system facilities. A man was sitting on a chair over the other side of the table. He had a military haircut, big beard, and a bulk body. There was a great discrepancy between what was in the man''s eyes and his build. his eyes showed wisdom and intelligence, but if someone looked at him from the back, they would think that he was just another random brute. "So, you are the "powerful friends" of Samuel. It''s a pleasure to meet you, my name is Lionel." Said the man while getting up from the chair. "Have you been well served, Samuel?" Asked Lionel. "They are taking good care of me and my family." "Good, what about your friends, will they cooperate with us as well?" Lionel Samuel turned his head toward Bryan and Jessica and waited for their answer. "We are here to ensure that the faction that Samuel is in will prevail." Bryan said. "Oh, That''s good then¡­ let''s first test your might. come with me." Lionel leads them to a different room. they descended some stairs and arrived at a huge space that was built underground. "Here we can fight without being afraid of repercussions. Show me what you got." Lionel said while a red aura began to surround him. "Let me go first," Bryan told Jess. He readied his spear and lightning began to clack in the air. a moment of tension happened between Lionel and Bryan, they looked at each other and advanced at the same time. "BOOM" A huge shockwave was formed in the center of their collision, both Bryan and Lionel were thrown back at least 6 meters. Bryan stabbed his spear on the ground and quickly regained his footing. His hands were still feeling the impact that he had with Lionel, the man punched his spear with his fists, and it didn''t even scratch him. Bryan looked around and saw that Lionel was already concentrating the strange red aura around himself again, and began to dash toward him. Bryan quickly activated the cloud walker skill and a heavy mist surged around him. He evaded Lionel''s advance and began to use his agility is his favor. Although he had enough strength to contend directly with the man, he wanted to use his advantages, in this case, speed. Bryan evaded Lionel and attacked him from inside the mist with the spear, being almost unpredictable, he even threw some lightning bolts at the man. But Lionel looked like a force of nature, and almost any injures would heal instantly. "Okay, that''s enough to prove that you are powerful." After 40 minutes, Lionel finally gave up. "You are the next girl." He said while pointing at Jess. Bryan was amazed at the resistance and strength of the man, they had fought for long enough, and Lionel was not even breathing hard, even though he was bombarded constantly by Bryan''s lightning and spear attacks. Bryan didn''t give his all in this competition, and he doubted that Lionel gave his all as well, the man could not be underestimated. Jess readied her moonlight bow, pulled the mana string making an ice arrow appeared. Lionel quickly dashed forward before she could release her arrow, but it was already too late. He tried to evade the arrow, but it exploded next to him, almost freezing the man. He continued to go forward, albeit much slower. Jessica conjured some ice boots and began to create ice pathways so that she could sky on them quickly, she danced through the place, landing arrow after arrow on Lionel. "Okay, it''s enough. You are practically my perfect counter." Lionel was breathing hard this time. "He didn''t give Jessica enough credit, and thought that she was just another pretty face, that was his mistake." Bryan told Samuel. "They always do this." Samuel agreed. Samantha had a shocked visage. She thought that she was the most powerful woman in the city, but it seemed that she was wrong. Jessica approached them and said. "Easy prey." After getting rid of the ice clinging to him, Lionel approached them and said. "I think I had more than enough for today. Your strengths will be ideal for our plans. Let''s go to the war-room to discuss the details." He lead them back to the room where the maps were. "Before we can continue to do this, I want you guys to join our faction, so we can have a mutual goal." Lionel gestured to them, making a scream appear in front of his eyes.
Join the "Revolutionaries" Faction?
Yes No
Bryan looked at Jessica, she nodded at him and he clicked yes. The scream disappeared from his face and another one appeared.
You have joined the "Revolutionaries" Faction, see contribution panel for prizes and rights.
He dismissed the prompt and said. "We are already in, now you can say everything," Bryan said. Chapter 18 - Ambush Lionel looked at them and began to explain while pointing at the maps. "Our base is stationed here, and the nearest System facility is in here" Lionel showed the places. "We have to conquer the facilities that are nearest to each other so that we can offer support if there is a need." Then, he pointed to the suburbs of the city and said. "These marked areas are where we will farm for points from factions that attack the civilians." "How were you so prepared? It was as if all the factions knew what was arriving..." Asked Bryan. "Well boy, while you were doing your missions, we were farming city points by doing city missions. One of the bonuses is that you could buy information in one of the facilities with the city points. The city points required to buy those information were so high that an individual could not buy them, so the factions were formed with the initial purpose to buy information, but later, with the information on hand, they began to prepare for what was coming." Looking away from the map and into Bryan''s eyes, he completed. "We thought that there would be some factions that would attack the civilians for points, so we had a plan prepared for that as well." "Any more questions?" Asked Lionel. "Don''t think so." Bryan turned to Jess and asked. "Do you have any Jess?" "No." She said. "Okay. Now, let''s go to the part where you participate. Your function will be to protect the facilities that we have conquered. Do not underestimate this function, most of the facilities have already been taken, most of them were taken by us and by the Elder faction. We now have to protect it from anyone who tries to take them." "Both of you will be positioned here. This position makes possible a quick movement and support to the other facilities if there is a need. Samuel will be going with you as well, after all, I heard that you guys have a good synergy." Lionel said. "Okay. We are going now." Bryan said while turning to leave. "Wait." Lionel said. He extended his hand and on it were three pieces of metal with a few carvings. they were small. "Put these behind your ears and we will be able to communicate from a distance. If you want to talk to someone just put a finger at it and think about the person and the message you want to send." "Thank you." Said Jess. They left after this. "They are too powerful. I have the support of the whole faction to buy skills and equipment to get powerful, but they only have themselves, and have already advanced to this point." Said Lionel to Samantha while looking at the door from which the trio left. "They cannot be controlled, that''s true. But that doesn''t mean we can''t use them." Samantha said with a grin on her face. "There''s danger in everything, but we have to use every weapon at our disposal." Said a voice coming to a corner of the room. ________________________ Bryan, Jessica, and Samuel left the headquarters and went to the place where they were instructed to be. "Do you think this war will last until the end of the week?" Asked Samuel. "It''s hard to know. There are a lot of factors at play here. The factions have varied levels of powers, but we don''t know how much." Said Jess. "But at least we know the power of the top brass from the revolutionaries." Samuel "Well, we can''t know for sure. Maybe we only saw what they wanted. Remember, we are not being used to attack the facilities that were already conquered by other factions, that means that they have enough power to do that without us, and we are only the backup plan." Jessica said with a serious expression.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Upon hearing this, a realization dawned upon Bryan. Their group was very powerful, but even so, they were not using them to their full potential. maybe they wanted to use them as a hidden card, or maybe they were just not trusted enough. There could be a million different reasons for that to happen. "The reason doesn''t matter. The important thing is that we are alive, and I will make everything so that we still are by the end of this madness." Bryan said with a stern expression. They agreed with Bryan and began to wait for orders. They were stationed on top of a building and could see that many places in the city were on fire and buildings were being struck down by bombs. The facilities were indestructible until now, but the normal apartments were not. Bryan began to ponder the reason why the system distributed the buildings that could be bought to the outskirts of the city, and the ones that were too far from the range of price that the people that just arrived from the tutorial could afford were near the center of the city. Two reasons could be possible for him, the first one is that the system was trying to protect the civilians from the conflict, and because of that, the affordable houses were on the outskirts, far from the concentration of facilities. The second reason was that those houses were never meant to be controlled or taken by anyone, if not the faction that leads the city. By what the system had done until now, the second reason seemed most probable to him. The system wanted them to grow stronger, not to shelter them. The clashes continued the whole day. In Bryan''s vision, the lives were nothing to the system. Instead of giving away to someone to govern the city without a struggle, it chooses how there would be the most casualties. "We only have to survive despite what the system throws at us." Bryan thought to himself. *** The day passed uneventfully. There was no call for help from Lionel. "I think they have been successful, they didn''t even need our help." Said Jess. "Well, it doesn''t matter. Let''s keep waiting." Bryan pondered how the situation was going. Maybe they still hadn''t made their moves yet. The days passed quickly, and there was a stillness in the air. The morning of the last day of disputes had arrived, the sun was shining on the horizon and the clouds were peacefully floating on the sky as if there was no danger in this world. The trio was still waiting for some orders. The last day of the week had arrived, and there was still no movement. There were several combats through the city over the week, and many buildings were gone now. Samuel had contacted the headquarters to make sure his family was alright some times and confirmed that they were still safe. "Hey, get ready." The trio heard They looked at each other and nodded to confirm that they had heard the same thing. They got up and got their weapons ready. "There are some troops southwest to your position that intend to invade one of our facilities, stop them." The voice instructed. With a mission insight, they began to go toward the southwest. They jumped from building to building, moving quickly. After only 4 minutes, they arrived at their destination. They could see organized troops on the ground, well divided into squadrons and with shield bearers, lancers, swordsmen, and archers. They were marching through the street with an iron spirit. "I will jump directly in the center of their formation first, and after giving a strike, Samuel will jump to fight and protect me while I run wild. Jess, you will do the same as always." Bryan instructed them. They nodded and got ready. Bryan activated the cloud walker skill and concentrated the lightning inside of it. He suppressed the lightning so that the noise of thunder wouldn''t get out. In the moment that the center of the formation was in front of their building, Bryan jumped. He began to descend to the ground like a meteor. "GET READY." He heard from below. There were already some people that had cast shield and were attacking him as well. "Shit, we were discovered, they knew we were coming." Bryan thought. Numerous attacks were coming toward him, and he was midair, without an opportunity to defend himself. If he didn''t do anything, he would be torn to shreds. Instead of attacking, he released the lightning-like rain. "BOOM" A big screen of dust got up and the buildings shook. "NOOOOOO.¡± Screamed Jessica from the top of the building. Samuel readied his shield and jumped from the rooftop, disappearing in the dust. After a few seconds, the dust cleared and Jessica looked bellow to see what was happening. Bryan was Kneeing on the ground, with Samuel protecting him from some people that were already attacking them. Although Samuel¡¯s focus was his shield, he could use his sword with deadly efficiency as well. He was killing anyone that got near them, while some energy shields were hovering around them, protecting them from harm. Bryan¡¯s upper body had several cuts and wounds, and his right leg was also wounded. Bryan released lightning to defeat the enemies around them, making them retreat. Even with his leg wounded and without being able to attack in a melee range, he could pretty much kill anyone in here. He got up and began to retaliate in full while Samuel protected him. Jess got ready to Release her arrows when she realized something. If they were discovered, where was the person that spotted them? She turned her attention to her surrounds and began to prepare an arrow, she made it look like she would attack the battlefield below. Just when she was prepared to release the arrow, a silhouette appeared from the shadows that were being projected by the side of the building in front of her and tried to cut her throat with a dagger. Being prepared for this situation, Jessica jumped backward while making an ice platform, to make sure that she would have some footing in case of need, and released the arrow at the person. Seeing the arrow coming toward his direction, the person positioned his dagger in a position to deflect the arrow and prepared for impact. "Do you truly think that my arrows are so easily avoided?" Jessica smirked. She stirred her energy and the arrow exploded while making contact with the person''s dagger. The icy explosion shoots the person toward the building on the other side of the street. But instead of a collision, the person vanished in the building''s shadow. "Shit." Jess said after seeing the person disappearing. Chapter 19 - Struggle Bryan laid on the ground with his right leg broken, it was almost torn from him. His chest was caved in, and even breathing was hard for him. Even with all his wounds, he began to release lightning at his enemies from behind the protection of Samuel. He looked around and saw that the situation was becoming more complicated. It has already been thirty seconds since he arrived here and Samuel came to his rescue, but Jess still hadn''t shot any arrow. many enemies fell on the first wave of attack, but they quickly assumed a formation and began to hold on his attacks. Wave after wave of arrows and elemental attacks were coming in their direction. Samuel couldn''t use his full potential in combat because he was being stranded with the wounded Bryan. Bryan quickly bought a healing potion from the shop while Samuel was covering him and took it.
Points 165.634 ¡ú 115.634
Bryan spent a huge quantity of points to buy a powerful potion. He took it immediately and felt its effects. His wounds began to heal at a visible speed, and his torn muscles and broken bones began to mend themselves. He almost died while falling from the roof. If it was not for the attack that he released to counter the attacks from the enemies, he would be dead by now. It was a truly dangerous situation. If Samuel hadn''t reacted quickly as well, he would be dead without protection. Many factors could have lead to his death in this day. But luckily, he had a quick-thinking and his companions were there for him. Samuel held well against the attacks. He didn''t even flinch. After all, differently from Bryan and Jess, his specialty was defense. After a few moments, Bryan was fully healed. His body finally felt whole again. He got up from the ground and gave a good look around. The enemies had taken a formation around them and were slowly closing in. Bryan breathed deeply and activated his skills to his utmost. The clouds and lightning began to surge around him again. Instead of going straight to the enemy, he patted Samuel on the back and said. "Let''s go." Samuel flexed his leg and put his shield in front of him. Bryan got close to his back and mimicked his actions. "GO!" Bryan said. Samuel shot like a bullet at the barrage direction, the guys holding shield at the front didn''t even stand a chance. They were like dominos that were hit by a truck, instantly falling. Both Bryan and Samuel were now in the middle of the enemy''s formation, but instead of being nervous, Bryan was even more relaxed now, after all, his shield was there to protect him. Bryan slashed to the right side at a person that was trying to stab him with a spear and killed the man. After that, he rotated his spear and released the lightning on his surrounds. "BOOOM" The enemies were charred in black and began to fall on the ground. some activated some kind of protection and were spared of the damage. The enemies quickly fell back and someone shouted amidst them. "REORGANIZE!!"This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Bryan looked at the direction where the voice came from and saw that an archer was giving the orders. He quickly turned and ran in the direction of the man. The archer reacted quickly and shot an arrow at him. Differently from the previous situation, where he didn''t expect to be attacked and thus had almost no time to react, he was now prepared. Bryan calmly tilted his body sideways and evaded the arrow. Other attacks came at him, but he "flew" between the attacks as if they were nothing. He arrived before the archer and slashed at the man. The archer didn''t panic, instead, he leaned backward and jumped, earning himself some time, but being exposed to more attacks. Bryan was intercepted by a warrior using a shield and had to stop in his tracks. It seemed that the shield that the man was using or the man himself could negate his lightning to some extent. The warrior suffered some damage, but nothing that could stop him from continuing. Bryan looked around and saw that they were trying to surround him again. Acting strategically, instead of falling back and falling in a trap that was laid. He advanced toward the strongest link, the warrior. With the clouds around him concealing his actions, he rolled on the ground and appeared between the warrior''s feet. He attacked with a punch full of lightning, giving the man a deadly blow. The warrior was blown over and thrown at a building that was near there. "BOOM." the impact resounded through the whole battlefield. The archer was falling back behind other warriors, but none of these had the same power as the one that he just defeated. and he quickly arrived before the archer. Bryan stabbed at the man''s head. But showing incredible speed and bodily coordination, the archer twisted his body and instead of having his head stabbed, the spear passed by his shoulder. The attack at the enemy commander was an essential thing to do, but his enemies were not weaklings. More and more attacks came toward Bryan, and he had no choice but to fall back toward Samuel. While he was falling back, he took the opportunity and released his lightning toward some enemies that were still trying to regroup, defeating more enemies. Samuel had done his fair portion of damage in the enemies as well, of course, it was not on the same scale as Bryan, but he was no weakling. There was a sudden silence on the battlefield, now that the enemies had regrouped, and they saw the fighting style of both Samuel and Bryan, the game could change, they surrounded the duo from the four directions and were preparing to resume the battle. But there was a factor that they didn''t take into consideration¡­. Suddenly, ice arrows began to fall on the battlefield, taking them by surprise. The formations fell into chaos again, and Bryan took the opportunity to cause more damage when they focused on defending from the arrows. "RETREAT!! RETREAT!!" The commander gave his orders and the enemies began to fall back in order while Bryan and Samuel broke out of their formation. Although there were some surprises during the beginning of the battle, they turned things around in their favor and won the battle in the end. Bryan put strength on his legs and scaled the building toward Jessica, he had a bad feeling. Arriving at the rooftop, he saw where his concerns were coming from. Jessica was standing with an arrow knocked in her bow while looking toward the enemies. But there was a big wound on her sides. She was not only bleeding because she had frozen the wound to continue to fight. "JESS!" Bryan quickly approached her and brought the same potion that he took for her.
Points 115.634 ¡ú 65.634
He quickly gave her the potion and the wound began to close. He felt relieved seeing that she was fine. "What happened to you? Where is the person that did this?" He asked. "An assassin attacked me, I fought him for some time. Fortunately, that bastard in a much worse situation than I am. He will be lucky to survive." Jess said. "Good¡­ It''s better if he dies, because if he survives and fall into my hands..." There was a brutal glint in Bryan''s eyes while he said this. He didn''t know where his parents were, he had no other family apart from them. For him, his family now was Jessica and Samuel, and he would do anything to protect them. Samuel valued Bryan like he was family as well, it could be seen by the way he jumped from the rooftop to protect Bryan without hesitation. "Samuel, stay here with Jess for a while. I will make sure that they have retreated." "Okay." Samuel nodded. Bryan began to jump from rooftop to rooftop and saw that the enemies had truly retreated. Looking over the battlefield, he also saw that many enemies were rescued and were not left behind, even though they were maimed or wounded. Bryan picked Samuel and Jess up and went toward the place where they stayed for the last few days to rest and wait for new orders. *** Just some moments after the between Bryan''s group and the enemy squad ended. "Boss, although there were some complications in the beginning, they have successfully made the enemy fall back." Said a voice coming from an instrument. "hmm, just as I imagined. We now have officially won an advantage over the elder faction, tell the troops that were waiting to intercept those attack the location that I will signalize." Said the man. It was obvious for all to see that Bryan''s group was just sent as a probe and that there was a squad waiting for action. But now, they had an advantage because of them. The man grinned from ear to ear and said. "The war is now in our hands." Chapter 20 - The road that must be taken The day passed quickly. After defeating the enemies only once, the revolutionaries didn''t ask for any more help. I healed my body completely and saw that Jess was healed as well. At least, for now, we could put our minds at ease. Bryan looked around and saw that the fires were dying. The sounds of battle were stopping as well, it seemed like peace was finally returning to this city. After a bit, a message hovered in front of my face.
The Revolutionaries have won the competition, all other factions have been forcibly disbanded and are now prohibited to form another again for 3 months. The rights to control the city facilities were given to the winner.
. "It''s finally done..." Though Bryan to himself. "Let''s go back to the headquarters." Said Bryan. They got up and went back there. Getting near the building, they saw that many soldiers had a cheerful face. But even with the happiness of the victory, many soldiers were being carried on stretchers with countless wounds and amputated limbs. Bryan froze for a second after seeing this. "Maybe the price to victory was too high." he murmured. They entered the building and went to the war room. Arriving near there, he began to hear many voices inside the room. Ignoring it, They opened the door and went inside. Many people were surrounding the big table. He only recognized Lionel and Samantha. although he didn''t know who the others were, he saw that many of them had a powerful aura surrounding them. Lionel saw them entering the room and said. "The heroes that had turned the waves in our favor had arrived." with a smile on his face. "There is no need for flattering." Said Jess. "In that, you''re wrong my lady. The achievements need to be recognized." Said a man in the center of the table. Bryan noted that the others showed a subservient attitude in front of the man. The man in question was 1,7 meters tall, had a well-proportioned face and short black hair and beard. His eyes seemed to see through all the facades and lies that were set before him as if nothing could hide under his gaze. "Recognition is a thing that every human need, and you deserve yours." he completed. "Thank you for the recognition. But we are only here to part ways." Said Bryan. "Oh, what a sad thing to know. Our cooperation was quite productive." Said the man. "Lionel. Guide them please." After this, the man returned to the table and Lionel guided them to a room where the Samuel family was staying. The room had two beds for Samuel''s parents and was well maintained. It seemed that they were living comfortably while they were here. Samuel hugged his parents and lead them outside the building. "You must know that our organization will always welcome you with open arms." Lionel had a serious look on his face, there was no doubt that their powers would be welcome in here. "Thank you, we will remember your kindness in taking care of my parents." Answered Samuel.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "Well, the situation in the city has more or less calmed down, it''s time for us to go," Bryan said. After saying their goodbyes, they left the building and escorted Samuel and his family to his apartment. They said their goodbyes and went to their house. After taking a shower and sitting on the bed to relax, Bryan said. "This madness is finally over now. We can at least rest for a while." He said while embracing Jess.
Now that the competition for the control of the cities is over, another round will begin. In the previous mission, the factions powers were shown, now, individual power will shine. The next mission given by the system will involve a competition over the thrones of power. In earth mythologies, many struggles were needed until a hero is born. Now, it''s time to show you want to take control of fate with your own hands.
Seeing this message suddenly appear, another headache began to form in Bryan''s head.
Hordes of monsters will begin to attack the cities that now have a united leadership in three days. Those who want to stop the attacks or want to simply earn more power may get a new mission from the mission hall. The mission is named realms exploration. Good luck and show the world your power!
Monster hordes? That is certainly not a good thing. many people would die again. Although the city was now under the control of a faction, They simply didn''t have enough time to establish their hegemony over the people. Things would certainly get troublesome from now on. "We have to take some action! The mission is targeted at powerful individuals, we must grab this opportunity with all our strengths." He said while looking into Jessica''s eyes and trying to get up. "We certainly have to." She put a hand on his chest and laid him back into the bed. "But now we are going to relax a bit and enjoy the moment." She began to passionately kiss him¡­ *** The sunlight entered through the window and illuminated their room. the birds were singing and flying through the sky announcing the dawn of a new day. The sheets were covering their naked bodies and giving them comfort. A soft bed and a beautiful sunrise, what a miracle this was! This new world was getting worse and worse. It was as if the system didn''t want them to get too comfortable with their situation. Bryan was awake. He looked through the window and saw the beauties that this world had to offer. A blue sky, full of white clouds, birds flying peacefully. Sometimes he wished he and Jess were birds flying through the sky, without anything to shackle them to the ground and making them fight against everything and everyone. "Good morning," Jess said while turning around and hugging him. "Is there something in your mind?" She asked him after seeing his contemplating looks. "Nothing to worry about¡­ Are we going to take the mission today?" He asked. "Is it already available?" "The system said that those that wanted to stop the attacks could get the mission there. It didn''t say they could get it in three days. So I suppose it''s already available." He completed. "Well, then we may as well get it already. A lot of people must have already gotten it. The mission was specifically issued by the system after all, the rewards must be crazy." "Let''s go then." They readied their stuff and went to fetch Samuel. After knocking on his door, they waited a bit and he showed up. Samuel looked like he was knocked by a bull, he had just woken up. "What are the two of you doing here so early?" He asked them gesturing with his hands for them to enter the house. The apartment was not very big, but at least it was comfortable enough so that Samuel and his parents could live in there. "Where are your parents?" Asked Bryan after looking around and not seeing them. "They went toward the fields. I insisted for them to stay home, but they are two stubborn oldies and ignored me." He said after sighting. "Well, at least we know they are safe for now." Bryan comforted his friend. "We are here to see if you are going to come to this mission. I know that these times are getting pretty hard, but we wanted you by our side." Samuel sat on the couch and looked at the ceiling. "Well. Now the city is protected by the revolutionaries, wanting it or not, we have at least a shield to protect us. What concerns me is this mission¡­. The attacks are not going to stop until it is completed. So, if no one stops it, we are going to be completely crushed right? We have the power and the responsibility to stop it." His eyes were shining by the end of his phrase. Although they were not directly responsible for any life, they had the power to contest against fate. The people that just wanted to live a normal life have given up the right to control their fates on the moment they didn''t strive for power. After all, if you have no power, them your life would be at the mercy of other people. "Do you want to talk to your parents?" Asked Jess. "It''s better not. This mission is going to be very dangerous, and they certainly would try to stop me. Let me write a letter to them." Samuel wrote the letter and they left toward the Mission hall. They were a bit apprehensive about some things. The facilities were now controlled by the revolutionaries. Would they put any restrictions on it? That would only be answered by going there. After arriving in front of the building, they saw that many people were coming back from there while having a dejected face. It was obvious to everyone that something was very wrong! After getting through the flux of people, they finally got up the stairs and arrived at the missions hall. There was no restriction in place by the revolutionaries. But after looking at the mission that appeared on the board, they knew why.
Tier Name Description Prize
Epic Realms exploration The realms have collided with earth''s dimension. You must find the space fracture and close it. Hidden.
"Shit!" Was all that could scape Bryan lips right now. The mission was rated Epic. Most teams were still struggling with Novice rated missions, and now this has appeared. He now knew why these people lost all hope. Chapter 21 - Investigation Everyone had a bad look on their faces, this mission was pretty much impossible in the actual circumstances. No one had an epic rated skill by what was known. An expert ranked mission was very hard for an individual, and an epic mission would be almost impossible. There was a symbol floating beside the mission. Looking at it with attention, a prompt appeared.
This mission can only be taken individually.
It looked like the city was lost. Not only the mission was rated as Epic, it could only be done individually. At this rate, it seemed that many cities would vanish from the world¡­. "This is madness¡­ The mission is too hard, and can only be taken individually¡­ We are all dead!" Said Samuel with a despairing look on his face. "This¡­. I don''t know what to say, but the only thing that matters now is that the city is going to crumble if no one takes it." I said. Even I thought that this was a suicide mission, but even so, it must be taken! "What do we do now?" Asked Jess. "Even if the mission is rated as epic, we must still take it. If we only wait here until the hordes arrive, we are all going to die. The city could resist for a while, but without a source of food and water, we could only last so long in here." There was light sinning inside of me, I had to take all my chances in this! "Let''s not go straight to the mission. we should expend all our points to train in a mindscape for as long as we can before we do it." Bryan looked at his points.
Points 65.634
He made some calculations and saw that he had enough points to train in the 3x1 time conversion training for 16 real-world hours or 48 training hours inside the mindscape. "I have enough points to train for 16 hours in the 4 thousand points chamber," Bryan said. "I have some spare points, I will give you enough to complete 20 hours." Said Jess while transferring some points to him through the system. "Thanks. Let''s go then!" Bryan proceeded to the training hall. arriving there, he saw that the place was empty, and a young man was wearing the revolutionaries clothes inside the hall. The man only nodded at them and didn''t impede their way. They quickly selected the training mode that they wanted and entered it. *** arriving at the white dojo, he saw that an old man was waiting for him there. The man had a white beard and was bald. "Welcome young one, in what do you wish to train in?" Asked the old man. "I want to get as powerful as possible in the shortest time, I have a city to save!" Said Bryan. "Hmm¡­ Let''s get to training then." The old man said with a grin on his face. *** The time passed quickly, after 48 hours of intense training, Bryan was finally out of the hall. He looked at his status and saw that he had at least a breakthrough.
Race:Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Human
Strength: 117 ¡ú 127
Agility: 141 ¡ú 167
Intelligence: 95 ¡ú 105
Wisdom: 91 ¡ú 101
Endurance: 113 ¡ú 133
Vitality: 111 ¡ú 121
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 98/Master ¡ú 99/Master
Lightning body 53/Expert ¡ú 70/Expert
Cloud walker 95/Novice ¡ú 05/Expert
The skill cloud walker evolved from a novice skill to expert, The lightning body had some advancements, but what was truly making him mad was that Spear mastery was on the verge of a breakthrough, but he was still lacking a bit. He looked around and saw that both Samuel and Jess had also gotten out of the mindscape. "Let''s rest for tonight. Tomorrow morning we do to the mission." Bryan said. *** The morning arrived and they had reunited in front of the missions hall. everyone in the city was tense. Many people were trying to vandalize the buildings, but the troops of the revolutionaries were keeping the order. The front of the building was now empty, the people that were crazy enough to get the mission had already done it, or they were waiting for the invasion. Getting in front of the board, the trio looked at the board and steeled their hearts. "Guys, if the mission is to difficult, you have to give it up. Remember, our lives first." Bryan said. "After getting the mission, let''s see if we can at least try it together." They focused on the mission and accepted it.
Beginning transmission in 3, 2, 1...
Bryan saw the screen before him and looked sideways to his companions only having the time to say. "Good luck." He felt his body twisting and distorting. Everything around him was in shambles. After a moment, everything stopped. A sense of dizziness overwhelmed his senses, but Bryan forced himself to concentrate and look around. He was on some hill, and everything around him was dead and barren. Some sparse trees were burnt by the sun and the earth was red. "Shit¡­ where am I?" He was truly lost. The only clue that he had was that he should find some kind of space fracture and close it. He looked around but didn''t find any clue to guide him, everything until the horizon was barren earth. "I have to find a clue¡­ There is a space fracture¡­ maybe the creatures are attracted to it." "Let''s walk to a direction first." He looked to the skies and saw that a red sun was shining up there. He used the red sun as a reference and walked in a random direction. He walked all day but didn''t find any creature or a different environment. "I am going to rest now¡­ I have walked enough for today." Bryan sat down and began to meditate. Although he didn''t have anything to eat or drink, he was an energy cultivator and could survive long periods only relying on energy. He began to absorb the energy around him, but felt that it was strange¡­ something was making it hard for him to do it. There was some kind of suction force that was pulling the energy away from him. "That''s it. The space fracture must be sucking the energy around it." He began to concentrate and felt the direction where the energy was pulled. "That''s it." He looked at the horizon and saw that the suction was coming from the opposite side to where he was going. "It took only a day for me to realize where the direction of the space fracture is. The others that also took the mission must have realized this as well, at least they will when they try to cultivate." He meditated for the rest of the night to replenish his strengths and began to head toward the place where the energy was going. He looked for clues during his journey to find some other people. "The others should be around here as well, after all, we all took the same mission." While walking through the desert, he tried to augment his comprehension of lightning. He looked at his surrounds, perceiving the other aspects of nature. Everything was connected, all things in nature led to one another. It seemed that to understand the true nature of life he would have to understand nature itself to some extent. After walking for half a day, he saw in the distance a black point. It seemed that he had finally found something different. After getting closer, he saw that it was a wall, a huge wall. looking ahead, he could see that the place was still on the horizon, but he could already see the wall. Bryan walked for 3 hours and he could finally see the wall. There were some humanoid creatures above the wall, and there was a huge open gate. He looked around to try and find a place to hide while getting closer to the wall, but unfortunately, the land was too barren to offer any kind of cover. "It seems that there is no other solution, I will wait until it''s night to investigate the place." He thought to himself. Getting some cover from a dry tree, he waited until it was night and began to get closer to the wall. under the cover of the night, he got closer and closer to the wall, and could finally see the race that was living in the place. Orcs!! They had a red coloration on their skin, just like the color of the dirt beneath his feet. They were tall and muscular. They had some sentinels that were on the city walls that had some kind of flashlight to illuminate the city surroundings, and there was even various guard manning the gate. It seemed that to infiltrate the city and close the space fracture, he would have to find a way to infiltrate the city. He began to looks on the walls and saw that they were truly impregnable. The wall was black like it was scorched from the sun. the only way that he saw to infiltrate the city was climbing the wall itself. But the problem was that the wall was too big!! it was over fifty meters tall. Even if he could find a way to climb it, he would be exposed for too long, without a place to hide. If one of the sentinels turned the light to his direction, he would be dead. The security of the place was too high. It seemed that there were many threats to the city, for it to be in a state of war. "Shit, there must be another way to get into the city!" He began to walk around the city while looking for some way to get in. After walking over a distance, he finally found away. "Hell no!" Looking over at the giant pit of shit, and a pipe that was throwing the city''s waste on it, he was happy to find a way in, but sad because he had to swim at shit Chapter 22 - Planning Bryan began to investigate the surrounds of the sewer. It seemed that the patrols were lackluster in there. Only two orc''s were guarding the place, and it was clear that they didn''t have the stomach to stay near the place, as they were 200 meters away from there. Even though the security there was subpar, he would still have to pay attention to the guards. Being exposed in here was not an option. He now knew why this mission was graded as epic. Because it was meat to individuals, and the person in question would have to go against a whole city. He waited and decided to wait for one more day. If the people that took the mission came to the same place as him, they would surely see that the sewer was the best way to get into the city, or at least he thought that they would realize that. After deciding to find other humans, instead of focusing on the sewer, he began to search for a clue in the surrounds. He expanded his electrical sense and felt the energies around himself. As he has evolved the electrical body skill into the lightning body he could now feel the energy of the living being on the 1 km surrounding him when he stayed still and focused. Bryan began to change locations and inspect the surrounds. He was very tired by now, he passed the whole night searching for someone, but unfortunately, he didn''t find anyone. Morning was approaching, and the first light of the day began to appear on the horizon. He was almost giving up the search, but he decided to try one last time. Expanding his senses again, he looked around and saw nothing. But just when he was about to retract it. "!!!!" Someone appeared on the border of his senses. The person was a human and was sneaking around. The person was concealing the mana on its body and using some kind f technique to visually mask himself, but he couldn''t hide the natural electricity flowing on his body as long as he was alive. Bryan began to get close to the person. The person hid himself and waited for Bryan to close in. Looking at a shadow behind a rock, Bryan saw a man cloaked in shadows appear and the man greeted him. "Hello, Bryan." Said the man. "You know me? From where?" "I am an old opponent. But that does not matter right now. The elder factions are collaborating with the revolutionaries and have already begun to reunite everyone that entered the realm. We have a hidden camp some distance from here, let''s go." The man said. I was a bit skeptical, but I knew the importance of being in a group in a situation like this, and there was no motive for the man to harm him, after all, the situation was so bad that doing this would only backfire. After following the man to 1 hour, they arrived at a cave. The entrance was a hole in the ground with a big rock being used as a door. After getting down, he could see some lights in the distance and also hear some chattering. Getting closer, he could see some people talking all over the place. He quickly looked around in hopes of finding his companions. He began to go over everyone and could finally see who he was searching for. Samuel and Jess were sitting in a corner while meditating. The breath that he unconsciously holding was released at this moment. He felt relieved in his soul. Jess was currently the most important person to him, a strong companion that he could thrust his back to, and also his heart. Samuel was also the only friend that he had, and he would do anything to see him well. He crouched between them and shook their shoulders. Both of them opened their eyes and looked at him with surprise and relief. Jess jumped from her place and hugged him, almost throwing him on the ground. Samuel also got up and hugged him.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "It''s good to see both of you," Bryan said. "Do not worry dude, even if we were not here, nothing bad would happen to us." Samuel had a confident grin on his face. "But even so, being here with you is a relief." Bryan saw that the man that was guiding him left upon seeing him meeting his companions. "How did you guys get here?" "There is a guy in here that has the ability to search for auras in a long-range. Although his ability cannot differentiate individual on the level he is in, it can differentiate races, so he gathered all the humans in his vicinity and began to search for other ones. He began to send other people as well to accelerate the process after giving their general location. the last ones that were sent to get people are coming back, you arrived with the last batch." Jess explained. "the guy that brought me here knew who I was, did you tell him?" Bryan asked while pointing at the person with a gesture. "I don''t know who that man is." Samuel answered. "And I didn''t give any information about you, as they were already searching when we arrived here." Bryan looked at Jess and saw that she had a venomous look in her face while looking at the man. "What''s up Jess?" She looked away from the man and said. "He was the one that I fought on the roof when we tried to ambush the Elder''s force." Bryan felt a rage rising inside of him after remembering the wound that Jess had around her waist. Lightning began to unconsciously crack around him. The others that were in the room realized that something was happening and looked at his direction. Remembering the situation that he was in, he suppressed his anger and stopped his lightning from running wild. Samuel saw how Bryan was and put a hand on his friend''s shoulder. "Bro, remember the situation we are in. Now is not the time to begin a fight. I want to give him what he deserves, but not now." Bryan saw the reason in what his friend said. "You''re right. Now is not the time for infight." He seated with them and began to talk about what happened and explained the situation that he saw. When they heard that the only way he saw of getting in the city was, their faces turned ugly. "Shit! Literally!" Said Samuel without knowing if he had to laugh or cry. Jess breathed deeply and said. "After gathering the last people, we will have a meeting on how to complete the mission, you can tell everyone your plan then." "Fine." *** They waited in the cave while cultivating, and sometimes chatting. They knew that danger was coming and they had to be at their top state, both physically and mentally. After waiting for a few hours, the last person that John, the aura user detected, arrived. The cave was packed with people right now. But someone used a skill to expand the cave and reinforce the walls. Bryan saw the easiness that the man had in doing this and realized that no one in this place was a pushover. To be here was a challenge in itself. Most of the people were scared away when they saw the Epic ranked mission. Only the elites were reunited here. A man came forward and required everyone''s attention in the middle of the room. He was using black clothes and boots. The man was tall, standing at 195 cm and had a thin body. He looked like a sharp blade standing, and he passed the impression that he knew what he was doing. "As most of you know, my name is Adam. I am the one responsible to find and reunite everyone here. I do not think that I am better than anyone for doing this, but I was lucky enough to have this skill." "Now, let''s do a brainstorm and think about any viable solutions to complete the mission." Without waiting for anyone to speak, Bryan said. "Hello folks, my name is Bryan. I was scouting around the city, and in my view, there is only one viable solution, and it is named sewers." He looked around and someone quickly asked something. "Did you go around all the city?" Asked a short man. "Yes, I did. The walls are watched through day and night, they even have some kind of strange flashlight to see if anyone is trying to scale the walls. I also think that they have other enemies around here that tried to invade the city previously because the guards were to attentive and were looking around all the time." "Well, I have another idea as well, we could just dig a hole beneath the wall and invade the city." Said another person. "Any other ideas?" Asked Adam. "Well, both plans have their merit, but we don''t know if they have any troops watching the sewers, what they probably have, and also, there could be counter-measures against someone trying to invade by digging." Said the man that found Bryan. "Even knowing it or not, we must make a decision. I know that both paths have their difficulties, but we must make a decision. Let''s vote and decide in which way we should proceed. "Everyone that wants to go through the sewers raise your hands." He looked around and saw that most people were still and didn''t raise their hands. "Okay¡­. Who wants to dig under the wall¡­. raise your hand..." Without him even completing the phrase, most people raised their hands. It looked like no one wanted to swim in shit. "It''s decided then. Today, by midnight we will head toward the city." Everyone understood and went to rest their bodies and minds. Seating in his place, Bryan didn''t complain or said anything, after all, everyone had voted and decided that the best course of action was to dig a tunnel. He knew that this option was pretty good as well, they would only have to take care of their surrounds. *** They rested during the day and left after the night arrived. They had a meeting before departing and decided that of the 14 people that were there would move in squads of 4-4-6. The squad with six people would have the earth mage and would have the duty to defend him. The other squads would act on demand if anything came up. Bryan was leading a squad of four people with Samuel, Jess, himself and another man that likes to fight in the style of a mage. They departed from the cave and slowly closed in on the city. The patrols were already alert and looking for invaders. Everyone looked at Adam and he gave the signal. "Go!" Chapter 23 - Retreat They proceeded quietly through the night, paying attention to their surrounds so that they wouldn''t be ambushed or discovered. They could see the wall in the distance by now, the orcs were watching with attention to their surroundings. After getting closer, the teams separated. Bryan''s team went through the right side, Adam''s team through the middle and the other team through the left. They approached the city in a triangular formation so that if one of the teams was caught, the others could help them or escape. They watched the patterns in which the scouts and the guards on the walls looked around the city and progressed smoothly. The process was not complicated nor difficult, all of them were seasoned adventurers and knew how to proceed, no nervousness came to them. The process of approaching the wall was smooth, there were almost no impediments once they knew how to go through the guards. The earth mage quickly used his powers to create a hideout underground and the three teams hid in there. "Everything went alright. Now, the next phase. My friend, could you begin?" Said Adam while gesturing to the mage. The man nodded and began to create a tunnel so that the missions could continue. Unfortunately, after a few meters, they encountered a rock wall. The mage tried to mend it, but it was to no avail. Some other people tried to destroy it as well, but the wall was unfazed. They gave up trying to destroy it and began to dig down instead. After digging for 50 meters, they finally found a weaker rock and destroyed it to open away. They struggled for a bit and finally found a way inside the wall through it. The mage began to dig to the direction of the middle of the city, where the space fluctuations could be felt. Bryan felt relieved that their plan worked so well, the process was risky, but they have done what they proposed. The mage made a huge effort and carved the earth to reach the center of the city. The closer they got to the surface of the center of the city, they realized that the ground was becoming harder and harder. The mage could barely penetrate it anymore. After seeing that it was pointless to go to the center of the city, they settled for a more distant place that they could penetrate. The mage somehow sensed the ground and evaded the sewers as well. After 6 hours of waiting, they were finally beneath the surface. Using his ability to sense the ground above them the mage choose a secluded alley where they could leave and alert no one. The sun was already up in the sky, and there was plenty of movement above ground, everyone could feel it. They waited for the day to pass and the night to come again so that they could surface and began their operations. Everyone was calmly seated and waiting underground, while there was a tension in the air, it was obvious that the confidence was high as well. They believed that the mission would surely succeed. Bryan was a bit skeptical about the situation, deep down, he didn''t believe that the situation would be solved so easily. It was an Epic ranked mission after all. The most he could do for now was to protect his teammates. After resting long enough, night arrived. He instructed Jess, Samuel and the mage to pay attention to any movements that happened around them so that they could protect themselves or flee. Adam got up and said. "We are going to the surface in a moment. I will scan the city with my ability to confirm the enemy''s position so that we can react accordingly." Everyone got up and looked at the ceiling of the cave. The earth mage gestured and the cover undid itself. The sky full of strange constellations could be seen. They slowly left the cave and went toward the center of the city. Going to the center was rather easy. The walls were big enough so that you could use them as a point of reference to locate yourself. Bryan memorized the way to the cave, in case anything happened he could quickly retreat. Bryan scanned his surrounds in search of any life signs, and he could only see some of them inside the houses. nothing looked abnormal to him. Getting closer to the center of the city, he could feel the suction force of the portal becoming stronger. It was fortunate that only mana seemed to be sucked by it. Bryan began to have goosebumps. His whole body was trembling and his gut was telling him to retreat. Nothing could contend with the creature that was ahead, protecting the portal. He quickly approached Adam and said. "I feel that the creature protecting the portal is leagues above what we can handle. We should retreat and thing of another way to do this.''¡¯Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "Unfortunately, we are already too close to it boy, it''s too late to retreat now." Hearing the answer coming from Adam, he shook his head and backed away. Getting closer to the tem he said. "Folks, I feel that if we proceed, we will die in here. I think we should back down." Both Samuel and Jess agreed with me, but the mage was a bit skeptical. "Are you sure of what you are saying? We could be giving up our only opportunity to complete the mission." "Truthfully speaking, no. I am not sure. But I feel that death is the only thing that we are going to find in there. And more, don''t you think it''s too strange that there are almost no guards around here? the walls and the city surrounds are full of them, while the interior is unprotected, this is smelling fishy for me." After hearing what Bryan said, the mage had a surprised face. He realized that what Bryan was speaking was the truth. Nothing impedes them from getting to here, things looked almost too easy. "Ok, I am going with you." The mage decided to follow them back. Bryan walked to Adam and said. "My team is going to leave. Things are too easy, there must be a trap waiting for us." A cold look appeared in Adam''s face. "We need everyone in here to succeed. No one can go back now!" "Thank you for everything, but we are not your pawns." Bryan left the place and gestured to the others to follow him. They left through the shadows and went toward the cave to leave the city. The way back was smooth and nothing stopped them. "BOOOOOOM" Suddenly a huge explosion happened. The ground trembled and they could see the flames in the distance. "Shit!! Things went south." Said, Samuel. They gave a brief introduction of their powers, and no one said anything about explosions. There were only two options for this to be happening. One, they lied and someone had an explosion type power, or second, they were discovered and ambushed. Battler sounds continued to happen in the distance while they retreated. The flames danced in the sky and numerous magical lights could be seen in the distance. Bryan and his team fastened their pace and arrived in the cave quickly. They went through the tunnels as if there was no tomorrow and left the city. *** After getting out of the city, they could see that there was no battle movements inside of it. The scouts and guards were still doing their duty and guarding the city walls. It seemed that this was not the first attempt to invade the city in this way. "Let''s go back to the hideout if anyone survived that, they will surely be going there." Bryan said. They avoided the guards and left the place. After another long walk, they arrived there. The mage had left the place intact and hidden by the rock. They moved the rock and entered the hole. After getting in there, Bryan looked around and saw that every one''s face was hopeless. The failure in accomplishing the city was obvious. The orcs were too well organized and had a bigger army. He hadn''t even fought with one of them to see how powerful they were. Bryan seated on the ground and began to meditate to calm down his nerves. The other followed his examples and did the same thing. After 2 hours of meditating, he felt that his mind was cleared and his body less stressed. He went to a corner of the place and began to practice his spear moves while thinking. Moving the energy around his body now felt natural and easy. In the beginning, he struggled to properly augment his body with it. Now, it felt like breathing. The only difficulty that he still had was to control the energy outside his body to augment and serve as a power source to his lightning, but he was already making a huge improvement on this as well. Training further, he entered a frenzy and began to combine his lightning with his clouds. They combined almost perfectly, the synergy between these two skills was huge. Everyone else stopped cultivating and paid attention to Bryan. They saw that his skills were going through an evolution on this moment, not a quantitative evolution, but qualitative. His skills were augmenting each other and making the power even stronger. Bryan stopped attacking with his spear and seated on the ground while controlling the clouds and lightning around him. His Cloud walker skill began to further condense around him, looking like an armor, and not some mists floating around him. The armor was covered in cloud and lightning. It looked imposing, almost as if the world should bow down in front of this power. Bryan was flabbergasted by this transformation. The two skills had combined in a way that he never imagined could be possible. Since he began his training with instructors on the mindscapes, they constantly told him about the importance of having a deep understanding of the concepts that surrounded his elements. He had meditated for a long time to better combine his lightning and cloud skills. The pressure from the moment and the will to calm his mind, made him gather all the enlightenment that he had until now and combine them into one. He now truly understood how they were connected in nature. He embraced these enlightenments around him and made them into a protections that would constantly surround and protect him, and the result was this armor. The armor had a grayish and dull color to it. looking closely, it could be seen that the armor was not entirely physical, as it was slowly moving and reforming around him. there was an azure glow going from the insides of the armor, almost as if the lightning was waiting in there to strike anyone that dares to come closer to the bearer of this armor. He looked at his status page and saw the new skill.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 127 ¡ú 172
Agility: 167 ¡ú 217
Intelligence: 105 ¡ú 119
Wisdom: 101 ¡ú 115
Endurance: 133 ¡ú 183
Vitality: 121 ¡ú 171
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 99/Master
Lightning body 94/Expert
Cloud walker 58/Expert
Storm armor 01/Expert
Perks
Name Description
Bright mind You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.
Points 1.634
City Points 0
He had gained a total of 45 points in strength, 50 in agility, 14 in both intelligence and wisdom and finally 50 in both endurance and vitality. The attributes have come from his lightning body and cloud walker skills. Both of them gave him a huge burst in strength. although he didn''t gain any attributes from the Storm armor skill, only the protection that it would give him would have to suffice. What shocked him the most was that the Storm armor skill was already an Expert tiered skill, giving him a huge advantage in terms of skill levels. Now, he wouldn''t have to grind the skill like crazy. Bryan felt that the armor was not only limited to protecting him¡­ but for now, it would fill its role. "Amazing!" He said while a smile appeared on his face. Chapter 24 - Clues After calming down his emotions, Bryan began to scrutinize the uses of the armor. He discovered that it was only a defensive skill by now, but maybe things would change in the future. The acclimatized to his new attributes and powers by meditating. everytime he got a power-up, he would have to reign in his own body, after all, he could now bend steel and crush rocks to powder with his own hands. 2 hours passed in this faction. He could control his body perfectly again. Opening his eyes, he saw that everybody else had already stopped cultivating and were waiting for him. He got up, stretched his body and seated beside Jess. "So, what are we going to do now?" Bryan asked while looking around. "I think the best solution would be to train for a while and find another way to close the space rift." Samuel said. "That''s right, Samuel! The system said that we should find a way to close the rift, not to defeat an army of orcs. There should be other solutions to this." Jess said. "Maybe¡­ maybe I know a way out of this situation¡­ we left one thing out of consideration, the orcs were too attentive toward enemies. Maybe there are other races in this world who we can ask for help." I said after considering everything. Even my plan to enter the city through the sewers would not work, as there was a powerful entity guarding the space rift. "Even if there are other races from which we can ask for help, how will we find them? For miles, there is only desert! And even if we find them, how can we be sure that they will help us? There are too many factors to take in consideration in this situation, we should proceed with caution." Said the mage, Rick. "You are right! But even if it''s dangerous, we should at least try. Many lives are depending on this. Samuel''s family is still in the city, we can''t too long either!" Jess said after considering everything. "We rest for today then. tomorrow we depart from this cave to find some help." After deciding what to do, they talked for a while about their experiences in the tutorial and rested during the rest of the day. Just before night fell, they heard a noise of the rock on the entrance of the cave being moved. Everyone readied their weapons and looked at the rock. A shadowy figure appeared. it was wearing black clothes from top to bottom, only his eyes could be seen, and they were black as well. "Oh, so I was not the only one who escaped that mess." It was the man that had some kind of shadow ability. Bryan briefly looked at him and saw that he was not wounded. "It looks like he ran from the battle as well..." There was a hint of excitement in Bryan''s eyes. If the man saw the battle, they would finally know what they were fighting against. "Close the door after you enter." Bryan said with a cold countenance, not letting the eagerness to know what happened show in his eyes. In his opinion, the man didn''t deserve to be alive, not after the wound that he made in Jess. The man smirked and entered the place. After a few moments, everyone was gathered around him and wanted to ask what happened in the city. The man ignored everyone and seated in a corner of the cave. The mage got up and wanted to question the man. I put my hand on his shoulder and stopped him. "Let him rest, for now, we can delay our departure for a bit." The man rested for a bit and came closer to his own volition. "I will tell you everything you want to know, but first, tell me why you want to left this place." The man asked in a neutral tone. I looked into his eyes and said. "We concluded that other races threaten the orcs, that is why they had their alertness so high around the city. We want to seek help from them." "Hm¡­ Good idea, at least that is the only way I see to complete the mission that is." He seated in the ground and continued. "We fought an orc in the middle of the city. He was protecting the portal. The portal had a kind of shield surrounding it as well, we tried to damage it, but it didn''t even budge. The orc easily massacred us, we were like ants in his way." He said with a frightened look. The creature must have been powerful. thought Bryan.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "Long-range attacks didn''t affect him. It was like the mana surrounding him formed an aura, and only if the attack was stronger then his aura, it would damage him. And even when attacks connected, he regenerated quickly." He looked at the ground and said. "I only escaped because of my abilities to hide. If it were not for them, I would be a body by now." "Now that they know that someone is aiming to destroy the portal, the security will get even higher. The importance of finding allies is even higher now." Jess said with a cold tone in her voice. She transformed into a truly seasoned warrior during these last months, after all, if you don''t change, you die. "You are right. We have to find allies, but first, we have to survive as well. Energy can sustain us for long, but we will begin to feel the hunger and thirsty at some point. We need to find allies, food, and water." Everyone nodded and agreed with Bryan. "Will we leave now then?" Asked Rick. "Yes, let''s go." I got up and walked toward the exit. Everyone followed my example and exited the cave. After opening the entrance, we saw the strange sky, every direction that you looked at was black. with everyone out, I asked. "So, does anyone have an idea to which direction we go to?" I asked with my face blushing. Thankfully, it was night and nobody could see my face. "I suppose we could head in the opposite direction of the city." Said the man in black. I couldn''t hold myself anymore and asked. "What is your name?" "You can call me Shadow." After saying this, he turned away and began to head in the opposite direction of the city. *** The road was thought, and the sand was entering everyone in their clothes. It had already been three days since they began to travel in the desert. Unfortunately, they still haven''t found any clues, only endless sand. Not even an animal or living tree could be seen, it was truly a landscape of hell. They were beginning to feel hunger and thirst. although they had strong bodies, depending on energy indefinitely was still out of their reach. Despair was beginning to take over them, seeing only endless sand without anything more in view was a terrific thing to happen. And there was more, Rick was beginning to have a mental breakdown, he was the verge of madness, and everyone could see it. "Look, there is something on the horizon!" They could finally a green stop on the horizon, rick the one that first saw it, began to run in the desert-like crazy after the place, as if it would run from him. Everyone picked their pace up and began to run after him. After 30 minutes, they could finally see the forest. It had some small trees, but at least it meant that there was a river or animals nearby. Getting closer to it, they realized that the forest was not so big. Although there was still living in it, the forest was struggling to survive in this hazardous environment. The desert was slowly taking the forest all over the horizon. They felt a refreshing feeling on their skins. the humidity from the trees and the shadow that covered their heads was truly relaxing. *** The five of them were seated around a bonfire. A strange animal was being prepared, and a river could be heard on the distance. They were eagerly looking at the meat being slowly roasted. They gulped after smelling the meat. Bryan looked at everyone around him and said. "We have finally found some peace. At least we can survive here." Jess nodded her head and said. "We can surely survive, but we have to find allies as soon as possible. It has already been two days since the attacks began in the city." "The city can hold on for a while. However, you''re right, we must hasten our pace." "They will fight with all they have, after all, the system is disrupting the communication between the cities until now. We know that there are other places out there where survivors are living, but, the system does not let us communicate with them." Shadow said while preparing the meat. "The system is simply unpredictable. In the beginning, it said that it was going to help us survive, but I have only seen the misery that is imposed upon us. It is almost as if it wants us to struggle in the precipice of death." Rick looked better now. He was not so insane like he was earlier. Taking a bath in the river and food being prepared in front of him stabilized his mind. "I agree with you. It wants us to struggle in every step of survival. Many people died in the fight for the city, and now, the recently established leadership has to fight against an invasion. " Bryan said in agreement with Rick. "But what I worry the most about, what is the system preparing us for?" There was a sudden silence around the bonfire. Only the sound of the popping wood could be heard. Shadow cut the meat and served everyone. They ate in silence. After having their bellies filled with food, and their minds rested, they continued their search. The region near the desert was devoid of animal life, only trees could be found. The more they entered the forest, the more animals and birds they found. "HEY GUYS! COME HERE." Bryan looked in the direction where Samuel''s voice was calling and went there. They decided to search in a perimeter for clues, after all, if everyone walked together, the chances to find civilization was harder. After getting close, he saw that everyone had left their positions and arrived where Samuel was. Bryan looked at the direction where Samuel was pointing at and saw an arrow embedded in a tree. The feather in the arrow tail was really beautiful and vibrant. It looked different from any kind of bird he had ever seen. Bryan approached the arrow and took it out of the tree. After putting his hands on it, he could feel a lingering energy surrounding the arrow. After taking his conclusions, he said. "The person that used this weapon had a high level of control of energy. Even now there are traces of energy in it." Jess picked the arrow from Bryan''s hand and investigated it. "You''re right, the person that did this is surely well versed in bow mastery. it''s a pity that the hole made by the arrow looks a few days old." "There''s no problem with that." Said Shadow. "I can track the person that released this arrow by the aura surrounding the arrow." Everyone looked at him with surprise in their eyes, after all, nobody expected that. "That''s great, we finally have a solid lead on this, let''s go on." Bryan gestured and Jess gave the arrow to Shadow. The man concentrated for a bit and said. "Got it." Chapter 25 - Elves Shadow guided them through the woods. The deeper they went, the more dangerous creatures showed up. Bryan looked around and black lines formed in his face. The deeper they went to the woods, the more uneasy he felt. In the beginning, he thought that the creatures were the source of the feeling, but the more time passed, the more he realized that monsters were not the source of this feeling. He looked around, trying to find the source of this feeling, but couldn''t find it. Time passed, and soon, another hour went by. The person who was searching, Shadow, also had a very ugly face. Shadow turned to the group and said. "I want to stop here." He said whispering to the group. "I can feel that something has been following us for a while now, but it''s not attacking, nor going away." After hearing Shadow''s words, it dawned upon Bryan! This was the source of the uneasiness, a hidden observant! When someone started having high enough attributes, a sixth sense would be naturally formed. This sixth sense was something that could only be naturally born, not trained or used on whin. It came to the person according to the circumstance. Knowing that danger could be close, he went to Jess''s side to protect her. He looked around and released his electric domain, to find the creature that was hiding. After searching his surrounds, he found nothing. The creature certainly had a huge ability in hiding. They decided to form a perimeter, keeping Rick and Jess in the middle, while looking around for any threat. After taking the formation, Bryan nodded to the team and said. "I know that you''re following us. It''s no use to hide anymore." After saying this, I looked around at the forest and only heard the sound of the wind blowing and the leaves slowly rustling. Nothing different happened. I stepped back and said to my teammates in a low voice. "It seems that he will not come out. Know that he knows that we know that he is here, we have to be more patient than him" After saying this, I relaxed the grip on my spear and relaxed my state of mind. It was going to be a war of attrition, so we would have to last longer. The wait was excruciating, nothing happened in the forest around us, but now, after getting used to it, I could feel a gaze upon me. It irritated me that I couldn''t discover where this supposed enemy was. The time passed, and the sun was setting on the horizon. The trees now had an orange glow to them, making it look like the forest was on fire. A drop of sweat ran through my forehead and entered my right eye, I blinked it in a failed attempt to avoid the sweat, but in the end, it fell on my eye. I used my right hand to rub my eye, and that was a fatal mistake. In the only moment that I had left my guard down, a silhouette appeared in front of me, while pointing a saber to my throat. I gulped in fear and saw that the person was not attacking. He was wearing a full camouflage cloth, that hid his features from head to toe, and could hide him perfectly in a forest. I looked at the person and could only recognize two features that were too striking to be hidden. Long and pointed ears, and an orange eye, in the color of the sunset. Everyone instantly turned their attention to the person in front of me and pointed their weapons at him. "What do you want in our domain?" asked the man with a deep voice. I glanced at my teammates, signalizing to them that I would speak. I looked directly into those orange eyes and said. "We are here to find allies, we are not your enemies." "Allies against who?" "Against the orcs," I said. The light in the man''s eyes wavered for a second. I took this opportunity to use the spear in my hand and deflect the weapon while taking a step backward.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The man was now surrounded by everyone from my team. however, we were here to find allies and not enemies. "Everyone, please, lower your weapons." They had a surprised reaction and looked at me. I nodded to them, and fortunately, they trusted me enough to do it. "See, we are only here to find help, not to fight." I said while also lowering my spear. "Hmm. It seems that at least you are speaking the truth. Now, tell the motive why you want to find allies." The man said after looking around. He was finding ways to escape this encirclement, and now that everyone had lowered their weapons, getting away would be a simple thing to him in a forest. "We came from another world to complete a mission in here. And that mission is to close the space rupture." I looked at the man''s reaction and was glad that when I talked about the space fissure, he had a disgusted look on his face. "We don''t have enough manpower to defeat the guardians of the gate itself, so we had the ideas of seeking allies." He looked directly into my eyes and nodded after a moment. When he looked at me, I felt some kind of probe coming through me, but I didn''t resist it in a gesture of sincerity. The man turned his face to the sky and said with an exhausted voice. "Finally." *** After the little encounter with the man in the forest, he told us to follow him to his village. After 2 hours of running, we finally arrived there. There was nothing majestic at the tree houses. they looked plain and recently made. I thought that this man was an elf, so I expected more from his village. There were many old people and women around, and very few men. Looking at the situation of the village, I realized that they were probably the losing side of a war with the orcs. They looked ravaged and tired. There was so little men because most of the warriors should have died in the war. He lead us to a house located in the biggest three in the village, we ascended the spiral stair an arrived at a humble room. Although nothing here was beautiful, they kept the place clean and organized. We seated on the wooden floor after the guide and waited there in silence. After a minute, an older man appeared from one of the rooms and greeted us with a warm smile. I knew that I have never met him, but he somehow passed a peaceful feeling to me. "Welcome to my humble abode youngsters. My name is Cirdan. For what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" The old man seated on the floor in front of us. I looked at him and answered. "My name is Bryan, and those are Jess, Samuel, Rick, and Shadow." I said while pointing to them. "We have come here to complete a mission, a mission to destroy the space rupture that is held by the orcs." Immediately after I finished speaking about the mission. The elder stood up and there was a happy look on his face. He began to pace from side to side and said. "Sylvan, gather the council of warriors! We have something very important to discuss." The man, sylvan, bowed to the elder and left the place. "Please, come with me." He said, gesturing us to follow him. We got up from the ground and followed after the elder Cirdan. After leaving the house and descend the stairs, we arrived at the back of the village, there was an open field in there with an amphitheater by the side of the field. The elder led us to the amphitheater and took us to the stage. After a few minutes, the villagers began to gather in there. Many people were nervous about what was going to be discussed there. When it looked like everyone had arrived, elder Cirdan stepped forward and said. "The system took pity on us. We have a group of otherworlders that have arrived with the mission of destroying the portal!" By the end of the phrase, he was enthusiastically speaking and raising his tone. "We were ravaged and humiliated by the orcs. They destroyed our lands, and corrupted our soil, turning it into a desert. Now, we have the opportunity to turn the tables! Their defenses had gone lax after our defeat! But the time to pay them back has come to us! The villagers got up from their sits and began to cheer by the end of the elder speech. I could see the hate in their eyes. It was obvious that they were only waiting for an opportunity to attack the orcs, but I asked myself, why were we necessary. Jess turned to me and said. "Was it this easy?" She furrowed her brows while saying. "I have my doubts as well, let''s ask Cirdan what this is about later." She nodded to me and we waited. The elder began to give commands to some villagers, and organize the militia. I took an opportunity when he was alone and questioned him. "Why are you so eager to help us? You just met us today¡­." I know that asking this when they were willing to help us was foolish, but I had to ask for the safety of my team. "Oh, that''s right, you don''t know about it. Let''s go to a quieter place so that I can explain it to you." Cirdan leads us back to his house and we seated on the floor again. After seeing that everyone was seated, he said. "Ok. I will tell you everything you want to know, so, shoot." "First, I want you to answer my previous question, why are you so eager to help us?" "That''s pretty easy because we need." He said simply. I made a confused face and continued. "We are only four in number, and you have an entire tribe to your beck and call, why would you need us?" He looked at and answered. "Because we can''t destroy the portal." I made a surprised look and said. "The portal can''t be destroyed?" "It can, but not by the hands of my race¡­ Many years ago, the orcs invaded us, and we warred with them. At that time, all the land was green and life was abundant everywhere. In the beginning, we had the upper hand, but greed took the best of us. The mission that our race received was to destroy the orcs and stop the invasion, but instead of doing that, we, the elves, began to use the orcs as a way to earn system points. The idea was successful to a point, but we underestimated the reproduction rate of the orcs. while the elves can take many years to give birth to a child, the orcs are like rats and birth in great quantities. With the passage of time, more elves died, and more orcs were born. In just five years, they turned the table to us, and almost destroyed the entire elven race. We are what is left of the elves." He took a deep breath and continued. "After losing our world to them, the system took our right to destroy the Portal, making it impossible to stop the desertification of our world. And nature is the last chance that we have to survive, after all, elves are connected to it, and if the earth is revitalized, our race will grow in number again." I looked at him and finally understood why they were so eager to help us. The helplessness and distress in their eyes was obvious at the moment that I arrived. So few were left of an entire race. I knew that if the humans didn''t get stronger, their fate will become ours. "Ok, what can we do to help."I said with sincerity in my voice. The elder smiled after seeing me replying this way and said. "First, tell me what happened to you after you arrived here." I nodded to him and began to explain. Chapter 26 - Destroying the portal Elder Cirdan heard everything that happened to us and nodded after a few moments passed. He called some other elves and they began to plan how to conduct the invasion. The orc was probably alerted now that there was a weakness in their city. After all, a random group of people had entered it, and they were not even elves. Cirdan hope was that, as the orcs were a bunch of brutal people, that they dismissed the attackers as a bunch of suicidal elves and didn''t fortify the city. There were two plans prepared for both cases. The first plan was, If the orcs had recognized the threat that the system was sending otherworlders to destroy the portal and reinforced the security around it, they would attack the west side of the city, while the rest of the group entered the city through the hole that was left behind and would destroy the portal while the elves were buying them time. The second plan was made around the fact that the orcs thought that the invaders were suicidal elves, and didn''t reinforce the security. If the situation was like this, they would enter the city and destroy the portal quietly. In both cases, a team of elite elves would be responsible to hold the orcs that were protecting the portal while they destroyed it. However, Bryan hoped that the second plan would be put to practice instead of the first one. Attacking the city wall was at least a suicidal act, the elves that participated in these missions would undoubtedly die. They packed their provisions and left the village. The scorching sun and the freezing night was their companion through the journey. The silence was so deafening that even Bryan and his team choose to stay quiet. Talking in a situation like this was of no use to them. Every time they stopped, the elves would pray to their gods and ask for success in this mission. Despair could be seen in their eyes. It was apparent that this was the last fight that they would have in their lives. Most of them knew that this was a mission of no return, but were ready to die, if it meant saving their people, their families. The travel period was full of tension to Bryan, he never felt this kind of sentiment from anyone. It seemed that a cause had made them whole, and gave them a motive to live. Their determination was so strong, that even Bryan was being motivated by them. The mage, rick, that previously had an unstable mental state, had now recovered, and Bryan assumed that the elves will have helped him in it. They could now see the wall on the distant horizon. It was afternoon now, and the sun was close to laying on its bed. Cirdan waved his hand, and send one of his men to scout the situation. We saw the man vanishing before us. I was surprised by this. "One of them can even become invisible?" I muttered to myself. We waited for almost an hour, and the man finally returned. By now, the sky was already dark. He arrived close to Cirdan and said. "The security is higher in both the inside and the outside of the city. There is no way for them to get to the portal unnoticed like this." I looked at him and understood what that meant¡­. they would have to sacrifice their race for the portal to be destroyed. I felt sorrow for their kind for some time, but deep down, the only thing that I cared about were the people near me, everything else didn''t matter. I nodded to Cirdan and we went to the hole to invade the town while they took the rest of the troops to serve as a distraction. Shadow guided the group to the hole, and we soon entered it. Together with our group was also 10 elves. They were warriors that would take care of the orcs while we destroyed the crystal. We proceeded through the hole just like planned and arrived at the exit. We could already hear the frenetic sound of battle coming from the distance. There was a fire spreading on one of the directions of the wall. We ignored the battle and proceeded to the portal. The plan was truly successful. the orcs had left the city and went toward the wall. There was almost no patrols in the city. However, almost didn''t mean that were none. I was amazed at the combat abilities of the natives, the elves were a truly powerful race! They quickly subdued the orcs and we went on our way. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The way to the portal was not difficult, but it looked like the battle in the wall was. There was a constant sound of battle and destruction coming from there, and I could feel the powerful auras clashing in there. One of the elves that were accompanying them said. ¡°You must pay attention from now on. Although we will take on the forces, they may try to attack you while you are destroying the portal. Be careful.¡± Everyone nodded to him and cautiously progressed. They could finally feel the portal, sucking the mana from the air, and transforming everything in their surroundings. The mana in the center of the city was much stronger, which made using their powers easier. Bryan looked around and saw that everyone was ready. The elves were already in position, and his team was ready to destroy the portal while the combat occurred. He took a deep breath and signalized for the plan to begin. The elves unsheathed their blades and ran in the orc¡¯s direction. A drop of sweat fell from his neck into his eyes. He was beginning to have a bad feeling about this. Samuel looked at him and asked. ¡°Is everything alright budy?¡± Bryan looked back and nodded his head. ¡°Just a little nervous.¡± Samuel took a deep breath and said. ¡°There is nothing to worry, the elves will cover for us.¡± Just after saying this, the elves met the orcs. Rumbling sounds could be heard when the orcs weapons collided with the ground and the elves evaded them. It was a truly amazing fight! Although they looked weak, the elves were like ferocious lions, evading and striking back with fury. It seemed that they had plenty of frustration to vent upon the orcs. ¡°Let¡äs go.¡± Bryan said and the team moved. Shadow and the mage walked in the back, together with Jess, and Samuel moved in front with Bryan. Shadow used his powers to cover them with a mantle of darkness, making it harder for the orcs to find them. They passed through some alleys and finally arrived at the square. There was nothing to cover for them in there, and they could be easily spotted. Even so, that was something that they must do. Bryan erased the hesitation on his heart and stepped forward with Samuel in tow. He charged his spear with lightning and used his spear mastery to make the spear sharper while striking at the portal. ¡°BOOOOOM¡± The ground trembled with his strike, and the shield shook a bit. Only a few faint cracks appeared on it. He saw the damage and kept striking at the shield. Everyone began to frenziedly attack the shield. Jess showered arrows upon the shield, Samuel stroke with his sword like there was no tomorrow, Shadow compressed the shadows and launched attacks upon it, and the mage invoked attacks with the intention of destroy the shield. The ground around the gate was charred and cracked. Unfortunately, they could hear the sound of battle approaching them. They knew that the shield could hold for long, but they didn¡¯t expect that it was for this much. They were striking the shield for almost 1 minute now, and only some cracks were formed on it, the shield could still take many hits. ¡°Ignore the sounds of battle, the elves got us covered. ATTACK!¡± Bryan shouted on top of his lungs, and everyone attacked with more enthusiasm. The cracks became bigger, and it was on the verge of being destroyed, however, some things doesn¡¯t happen as expected. ¡°INCOMING ATTACK!¡± Shadow shouted from the back after seeing two might orcs running toward them. A million thoughts passed through Bryan¡¯s minds¡­ How could he deal with this situation? After a moment, he came to a decision. ¡°Samuel, go stop them for a bit. You¡¯re the only one that can hold them for some time. DON¡¯T DIE!¡± Bryan said with sadness in his heart. He knew that this was the best solution. the only person that could stop them and had the best chance to survive was Samuel, and he was trusting him with this mission. ¡°Count on me!¡± Samuel said while turning around and running. Bryan didn¡¯t even look back, he concentrated all his power on his spear, and attacked with even more vigor! He couldn¡¯t let his friend die! The battle sounds became even louder, the elves were now combating the orcs in the square. The barrier cracked more and more. There were even some parts where the portal could be seen. Bryan¡¯s eyes shone and he gave the last push, concentrating everything he had in one last strike. ¡°AHHHHHHHHHH¡± Shouting madly, his spear descended upon the barrier like a reaper trying to take a life. Two loud sounds were heard by him, one from his front, where the barrier shattered, and one from his back. A relieved smile appeared on Bryan¡¯s face when he saw the barrier vanishing. He slowly turned around and saw a scene that would change his life. *** Samuel bravely turned around and looked toward the two orcs that were coming in their direction. He placed his shield in front of him and stepped forward. Jess, Shadow, and the mage, who were attacking from the back saw the approaching enemies and came closer to the portal. ¡°ROOOOOAR¡± The lion engraved on his shield opened its mouth and roared, making the two orcs flinch for a moment. That was just enough so that Samuel got into a position to stop them. Both orcs were bigger them him, standing at 2,5 meters tall. They were hulking creatures, full of muscles and explosive power. Samuel was fully geared and prepared to take on the enemies. One of the orcs advanced while the other one tried to circle him, to attack his companions. Seeing this, Samuel created an energy shield and stopped the orc in front of him, and stepped sideways, while bashing the other one with his shield, making the creature step back. The orcs were using huge glaves, and they attacked him after seeing that circling him wouldn¡¯t work. Although he was specialized in defending and couldn¡¯t demonstrate as much power while attacking, taking hits was his field. The enemies were stopped, and couldn¡¯t even take a step forward. And even though their attacks were powerful enough to overturn the ground and smash buildings, Samuel was holding very well, defending when needed and even evading attacks. However, not long after he stopped the two orcs, others began to arrive. The elves were facing them in combat and easily dominated the fight, however, their numbers were too big. Many tried to attack his friends, but Samuel couldn''t let that happen! He could stop attacking the shield, after all, his attacks were not so strong, but the others couldn''t stop. They were the only ones that could destroy the shield, and they were now surrounded and in the middle enemy territory, if they couldn¡¯t destroy the shield, they were fated to die. Samuel kept these things in mind and began to use his powers with the most efficiency as he could. Some enemies reached forward when the shield was about to be broken. Jess, shadow and the mage turned around to stop the orcs while Bryan was preparing the last strike. One of the orcs from the back grabbed a huge javelin and concentrated mana on it. The javelin traveled through the air slowly¡­. Samuel painfully looked at it. The javelin was sailing toward Bryan. Samuel got his hands full of enemies, and couldn¡¯t stop the projectile in time. Jess saw the attack coming toward Bryan and invoked ice walls while staying behind him. The javelin passed through the ice walls and lost its force, however, there was still enough strength to pierce Jess. *** Bryan looked back with a silly smile on his face, but he was too shocked to do anything more. Jess was standing behind him, with the tip of the javelin appearing on her back, after trespassing her belly. Her clothes were stained with blood, and the ground was painted in red. Jess slowly fell to her knees, while holding her broken bow, that she used to stop the javelin. Bryan was taken out of his daze and quickly ran to her. After falling to her knees, she couldn''t hold on and fell to the ground. Bryan arrived before her and began to take healing potions to feed her. He seated on the ground beside her and grabbed her slender and cold neck, to feed her the potion. ¡°Here honey, drink this.¡± He said while tears poured from his eyes. She opened her mouth and tried to say something, but only blood came out. Seeing that she couldn¡¯t say anything else, she put her bloodied hand on his face and gave him a bright smile. Time stopped for Bryan, seeing that smile, that even all the chaotic battlefield around him couldn¡¯t dimish, he was mesmerized. She slowly caressed his face, and her eyes closed, while her hand fell. Everything turned white. Chapter 27 - Back to Earth Bryan felt that Jess was about to have her last breath when the light involved them. They disappeared from that horrible battlefield and were teleported to somewhere else. Bryan opened his eyes and saw that he was in a room with an old man. The man was drinking a cup of tea and was looking at Bryan. He was too shocked to say something. The only thing that he did was look at his arms to see the blood that was in them. The old man waited patientily until Bryan took the courage and opened his mouth to speak. ¡°Where am I?¡± Bryan asked with emptiness on his eyes. ¡°You are in the reward hall of the epic mission, here is where you are going to receive your reward.¡± The man said with a neutral expression. ¡°What is my reward?¡± ¡°From master missions on, you can choose what you receive based on what kind of mission it is, and how much you contributed to the mission. You have greatly contributed to your mission, so you can receive many prizes from million points, items, rare skills or information.¡± ¡°Where are the other people that arrived with me? are they alright? what about a girl named Jessica?¡± He asked hurriedly. He was anxious to know what happened to her. ¡°Oh¡­ So you¡¯re worried about her¡­ The only thing I can tell you is that she is alive for now, but won¡¯t be for long.¡± Bryan¡¯s face lightened up when he heard that she was fine for now, but all of it went away when he heard that she wouldn¡¯t live for long. ¡°Can my prize make her survive?¡± Bryan looked at the old man with pleading eyes. ¡°It¡¯s not possible to save her now, but I can at least give you some information about how to save her.¡± The old man said. ¡°But this information is going to cost all of your contribution to the mission.¡± ¡°Tell me, I don¡¯t care for rewards if I can save her.¡± Light returned to Bryan¡¯s eyes, and he looked serious. ¡°Vey well. Pay attention to what I am going to tell you because there won¡¯t be a second time.¡± He looked into Bryan¡¯s eyes and the latter nodded. ¡°The system was created to combat a terrifying enemy. You don¡¯t need to know who the enemy is for now, but what you need to know is that they are powerful enough to destroy the life of entire galaxies if possible.¡± Bryan was shocked to hear this information. He knew that the system had a purpose, but he didn¡¯t know it was because of a great enemy. ¡°Your planet was selected by the system because the enemy would invade it soon, and they would destroy it. As a countermeasure, the system protected your planet and delayed the invasion.¡± ¡°Now, let¡¯s go to the main part, how to save your companion.¡± Bryan got closer to the man and began to listen to what he was about to say with more attention. ¡°The system wishes for the beings that live in the planets to get stronger to defend against the enemy, that is its ultimate goal. What you don¡¯t know is the limits of what you can achieve. Every being already has almost infinite potential, and the system guides them, and make this potential flourish even more. What you have to do is achieve the peak of your world, and become the king of your world. When you do so, you¡¯ll be able to save the one you love.¡± Bryan heard what he said and remembered these words in his heart. What intrigued him, even more, was that he said save, and not revive. It meant that she was not completely dead. Bryan nodded his head after understanding what he meant. He would have to become the king of the world, the most powerful person. Determination appeared in his eyes, and he swore to conquer everything in his way to achieve what was necessary. ¡°Now that you¡¯ve received your prize, it¡¯s time to go back.¡± The old man waved his hand and Bryan vanished from that room. ***Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. He appeared in the middle of the mission hall. He looked around in search of Jess and was surprised by what he saw. The others had already arrived in the room, and everybody was looking at an ice block that contained a woman on it. She had a peaceful countenance like she was happy about something. Bryan walked to the ice coffin and kneeled before it. ¡°I swear to one day save you, Jess¡­ I will not let you down.¡± He said in a low voice. Everybody looked solemnly at that scene and were impacted by his determination. The mange and shadow left the room, and Samuel placed his hand in Bryan¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry buddy. I¡¯ll help you in saving her.¡± Shadow looked at that scene and left the place, the mage said some words in consideration and left as well. ¡°We should take her to a safe place, but where is that?¡± Bryan asked Samuel. He was truly lost now, he couldn¡¯t just let her body there in the street. ¡°Let¡¯s take her to your apartment, for now, we will think of a better place soon.¡± Samuel answered. They gently picked her up and took her ice coffin to Bryan¡¯s house. After getting there, Bryan sat on the sofa while looking at her. ¡°Buddy, I wish I could stay here, but I have to check on my family.¡± Samuel said. Bryan shook his head and answered. ¡°It¡¯s fine. You go and see if they are fine, we will talk more later.¡± Samuel left his apartment, and as soon as he did, Bryan curled up on the sofa and cried. He only had a few people he truly cared in this world, he was ruthless to everyone else, but he would do anything to save his loved ones. He looked at Jess''s face for a few hours until he realized that saving her would require action and that he wouldn¡¯t earn anything staying there. He looked at the store for a few moments and began to browse for some specific things, a plan slowly began to form on his head. His thoughts were as quick as the lightning that he controlled. a table was soon laid in front of him, with many books and annotations. He learned many things from the store but ignored most of them until now in search of personal power. He browsed the books he bought from the store and read books about leadership, and how to form a faction. He was a genius in many things, but not in social interactions, he even needed books to learn how to do that. The foundation of any power is benefits, no one wants to belong to a weak power with a weak leader. Even if the leader is strong, it will mean nothing if the benefits offered to the members are bad¡­.. He read the books and began to think madly. the plan that was formed in his head, was to create his own faction, to amass power and resources, so that he could one day have enough power to save Jess. He was doing this because he knew the limitations of individual power, even if someone was powerfull, an individual could not win against larger numbers. A clear example of this was the elves and the orcs. The later had great numbers but were not as powerful as the elves, but they were underestimated and amassed enough power to destroy the elves. Although he didn¡¯t like the idea of creating a faction or cooperating with other people, he would do whatever was necessary to save Jess. Hour later, and he finished many books about leadership and how to form a faction. The first thing he would do was go to the elder faction! The faction that lost all their power in town, and get their resources. The system said something about don¡¯t let any faction being formed for some time, however, if the faction was not official, it could still work. After planning of how to form the faction, he went to the benefits that the members would receive. This part was harder them the other ones, what he could give that would attract more people? Bryan knew that if he was not the strongest, he was at least one of the strongest of the town. He opened the store and began to browse for specific books. He formed a rough idea of the benefits that he could offer the members. Some of the books he brought talked about runes and smithing. the weapons given by the system were truly powerful, but they were limited in quantity. The Zeus spear that he had bought was one of such examples, it was the top spear offered by the system, and it couldn¡¯t be updated. The only way forward was to make your weapons, to create things, and not only rely on the system. Bryan studied the books for the rest of the day and meditated at night, but just before doing so, he looked at the status screen.
Name: Bryan Fulgur
Race: Human
Strength: 172 ¡ú 182 (+10)
Agility: 217 ¡ú 272 (+55)
Intelligence: 119 ¡ú 124 (+5)
Wisdom: 115 ¡ú 120 (+5)
Endurance: 183 ¡ú 213 (+30)
Vitality: 171 ¡ú 181 (+10)
Skills
Name Level/Tier
Spear mastery 01/Grandmaster
Lightning body 03/Master
Cloud walker 95/Expert
Storm armor 43/Expert
He had advanced in the last struggle, and his status had changed. However, there were no more points earned from the spear mastery. was it because it was a mastery skill? would other skills also had no more points earned during further evolution? He dismissed these thoughts and focused on the books. He didn¡¯t care for what was happening outside the city, he would only focus on what could be done now. Bryan studied books about runes and smithing for one more month. only leaving his room to train his skills. Samuel came visiting some times to tell him about what was happening to the city. After they finished the mission, the invasion stopped. The city was being invaded by a strange race that was part insect but walked on both feet. After the unending hordes stopped coming through the portal, the situation was quickly stopped. He cultivated and honed his mind to begin his plans. Making this was not an easy thing, and he even talked with Samuel to get his help. Samuel talked with the remaining people of the elder faction and would talk with them in a week. It was time to leave his room and began to make changes. Bryan donned his armor and grabbed his spear. He walked toward the door and looked at the frozen figure that was on the building. He wanted to keep her in a safer place, but for now, she would have to stay here. ¡°I swear I will save you someday my love.¡±