《The Destiny of a Mortal God (Hiatus)》 Prologue - 01 I remember once reading about a man, who got smitten thrice by lightning in life, and once in his own graveyard. At that time I thought that fate was a whimsical son of a b***. I know, I know¡­ Watch your language and all that, but what can I say, I¡¯ve never been one to be careful around others, I mean, people should be able to swallow things like this, as long as they¡¯re not said to be hurtful. Aaaaaanyway, I¡¯m losing the track of my mind, what I meant with all that is simple, I¡¯m being struck by lightning right now. You must be thinking: Right now? How is that you¡¯re able to think straight and how is that you have so much time? Well, it¡¯s not as if I¡¯m being struck, it¡¯s as if time stopped when the lightning was a few inches away from me. I can¡¯t move, I can¡¯t breathe, but I don¡¯t feel the necessity to do so, so it¡¯s not a problem, it¡¯s like I¡¯m trapped inside a minuscule time bubble, and I don¡¯t know what to do. We have time so I will introduce myself. My name is Lyon Ironblood, cool name right? I don¡¯t know who my father is; I just know this is the surname I have. I¡¯ve been living with my mom since I can remember, and we never talk about him, we travel a lot, so I¡¯ve got no real friends. It¡¯s sad, I know, but that¡¯s the life I have. When I was young, like 6 years, I was bullied at school. It was embarrassing but I told my mom, unexpected to me, instead of going to talk to the director, the teachers or even the parents, she signed me up for an aikido class and we went together. We had so much fun and we became closer, we practiced at home and she always beat me. You know, my mother was the funniest and more wonderful woman I¡¯ll ever meet, I¡¯m sure about that. Once when I was 11 someone tried to rob our home, bad choice, if you ask me; the burglar ended in the hospital after my mom kicked his ass, quite a few broken ribs and bones, but after she did, she just smiled sweetly at me and told me not to hurt anyone if I was able to. Since then I avoided every fight I happened to be close to. It¡¯s not that I dropped aikido, actually since the burglary, we even trained harder, but what we trained for was to be able not to hurt someone even when protecting ourselves, because, you know, my mom¡¯s the best and I didn¡¯t want to disappoint her. That mentality died 4 years ago. I was 15 that year, and I was excited to go partying with some classmates, it was nothing illegal, no drinking, no drugs, I didn¡¯t even smoke, but it was so fun that I couldn¡¯t miss it. I came home late, around 11 pm, and I heard screams. When I entered I found a guy with a knife full of blood, I recognized the guy; he was the same guy that broke into our house 4 years ago and whose ass my mom kicked, I looked past him and I saw someone on the floor, full of blood. I couldn¡¯t believe it at first but I realized that she was my mom; she was dead. The anger took control of me and I screamed as I hadn¡¯t screamed before. The guy laughed at me and said I was the next, I didn¡¯t seem dangerous, I guess; he approached me slowly and then I snapped.
Burglar POV: I smiled as I aproached the house of that bitch. I remembered as she broke my bones years ago, sending me to the hospital, only to be sent to prison right after. I survived prison, though, and I had kept dreaming about what I would do the moment I got out. [Aaah, so pleasurable, the screams of a whore getting slaughtered. To think years ago they thought I just wanted to rob them... Anyway I was lucky to be sent to prison just for burglary. Hahahaha, I can''t just help myself, blood feels so good.] As soon as she opened the door I stabbed her with a knife, puncturing her lungs and making her unable to defend herself. Then I took my time to cut piece by piece, bathing in the feeling of having her blood on my hands. After about half an hour of pleasure, someone entered the house, it was that kid, the son of that bitch. [This kid is so dead, hahaha, he¡¯ll pay too for what her mother did to me, hahaha.] The boy in front of me was quite tall at 5¡¯7¡¯¡¯, he was blonde, different from her mother that was redhead, and he had blue eyes. I started approaching him slowly and he was trembling. [Haha, I¡¯m sure he¡¯s scared as hell.] - I smiled as I imagined getting my hands onto his neck, and then cutting him apart. Then my vision blurred, and I lost consciousness.
Lyon POV:If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I kicked him so strong in the neck that he just died, but I didn¡¯t care. I ran to my mom and hugged her, and then I lost consciousness while crying on her arms. [It¡¯s been a while since I recalled that night] - I thought about what could have gone different. ¡°Yo, kiddo, u there?¡± ¡­I¡¯m sure I didn¡¯t hear that, it¡¯s impossible, after all, time¡¯s stopped, right? ¡°Hahaha! Quite the joker you are, ain¡¯t cha kiddo? I¡¯m Kronos, by the way.¡± [W-who are you?!] - I shivered thinking about what he said, Kronos¡­ He was the father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, right? And even more, is he reading my mind?! I sensed something in my spine, as if I was being looked by a bloodied creature full of hate, I¡¯d never felt something so scary in my life. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare pronounce those names in my presence, NEVER! Not even in your mind, or I¡¯ll make sure you won¡¯t see the light of day again!¡± [S-s-s-sorry!] - Now I was sure that he could read my mind, and I was even more sure that if time was not stopped right now I would¡¯ve pissed myself, how can someone be so scary?! I wonder what aspect does he have, I can¡¯t see him at all and his voice echoes all around me. ¡°Well, now that we¡¯ve left the things clear, I want to make a deal with you. You can decline, sure, thought the lightning will kill you half a second after you do, and so what do you say?¡± [C-could you please explain yourself? P-please?] - I got to mutter in my mind. It seemed weird to have a ¡®conversation¡¯ with someone who I couldn¡¯t see without talking at all. I hope I see him at some time. ¡°Ha! Sure, after all if I don¡¯t how could you be of any help to me? First of all, I¡¯m Kronos, and as you know I¡¯m dead, more or less. While it¡¯s true that I lost my real body, the one I was born with, I had a hobby back there, I created an alter ego of mine, which no one knew was connected to me, Chronus, the God - [It seemed he hated that word, but I guess it was normal considering what Z¡­ N-nothing! Nothing Kronos!] - ¡­ of Time. Don¡¯t interrupt me with stupid thoughts brat. As I was saying, Chronus was quite interesting, I studied time and discovered lots of things, but back then I could barely slow time while leaving my mind conscious, but not my body, so it would be like having a faster reaction time, but nothing too useful against my stupid and treacherous sons, so I decided I wouldn¡¯t reveal myself at that time. Ages later, I got to use my powers to slow time by half while leaving my body unaffected, so I worked harder, and seven years ago, I managed to do the same while stopping completely the time, thought it¡¯s not as useful as I had imagined. It¡¯s true that I can stop the time everywhere, but I can only do so while outside Olympus, and I can¡¯t enter the Olympus while the time¡¯s stopped, so as those bastards don¡¯t leave that mountain ever I won¡¯t be able to get my revenge, not for now at least¡­ And here¡¯s where you enter Lyon, you will help me.¡± ¡°H-how could I help you? I¡¯m just a mortal!¡± - I would¡¯ve never thought that Gods were real, and much less that the terri-AMAZING Kronos¡­ would be still alive. ¡°You see, here in this world you won¡¯t be able to help me, that¡¯s true, but I discovered something I didn¡¯t share with anyone, the portal from where Chaos, the father of us all, came. It goes without saying that I entered so I could see what was on the other side, the answer is simple, it¡¯s like the Mount Olympus but on a huge different level, there all people are minimum as strong as Zeus, and there are people stronger than Chaos, so even I was scared, but it seems like my powers over time are rather unique, and even there I could use some of them to make me invisible, so I explored unnoticed until I found something interesting, there were portals all over that place, but it¡¯s as if there was a biological lock, only people with a certain bloodline was able to cross them, I guess that¡¯s the reason that such a tiny place as this one survived so long. After a month of exploring, I found a rather special portal, a public one, different from the one Chaos or the other people owned, that portal could be accessed by anyone and on the other side there was lots of planets, full of strange creatures and intelligent races. The thing that I discovered there, was that, with the help of someone, I would be able to rebuild my body, a mortal¡¯s help, your help. You will come with me to one of those other worlds, it will be one of the lesser ones, at first, and you will build strength until you can participate in the Great Tournament of Eternity, a tournament which only happens once every millennium, where only people who started as mortals in that plane can participate and where the winner of the first place is able to wish for anything, and the being more powerful that has ever existed will give it to you.¡± ¡°A millennium?! But I will only live 80 years more max!¡± - How was I supposed to help him if I was dead? ¡°Hahaha, don¡¯t worries, I won¡¯t let you without anything, thought you will have to swear a lifeblood oath to wish a body for me when you win, I will provide you with something to start your travel and I¡¯ll also extend your life but only if you pass my test. By the way, the tournament is in a four hundred years so you will participate in quite little time. For now, let¡¯s get out of here, this son of mine detected that I was up to something, and thought he doesn¡¯t know I¡¯m Kronos, he¡¯s still wary of me, so when he noticed I was paying attention to you, he decided to kill you, just in case. You were lucky I stopped time just before the lightning hit you, don¡¯t you think? Come, I¡¯ll take you with me to another place; you will lose consciousness now and wake up in the test area. See ya¡¯ in a moment kiddo.¡± As he was saying those last words, I felt my world fall in to darkness, darkness so deep nothing could ever escape, and then I felt unconscious. Prologue - 02 It was late, I was 18 and I was enjoying a drink at a bar. Since my mom died I had gone down in my life, I dropped school and started working at an illegal factory. A year after I started there was a robbery while I was working and I beat the shit out of the robbers, so my boss hired me as a guard and raised my pay. Once every few months there would be some robbery attempt but nothing I couldn¡¯t handle. I loved Vikings and so I started cutting my hair like Ragnar, quite the character if I must say it. Four drunkards entered the bar laughing and almost falling on the floor, stupid bastards¡­ ¡°Hey pretty lady, come serve us, maybe you could ¡®serve¡¯ us more than just a few drinks, hahahaha.¡± ¨C The one in the front said while looking lecherously to the young waitress. ¡°I-I¡¯ll be right there with your drinks now, sirs.¡± ¨C For someone working in such a place, she¡¯s shy as hell. ¡°Hey, I told you to come here¡­ Don¡¯t ignore me you b***!¡± ¨C It seems he had a few too many drinks. *Clank!* ¨C I hit the table I was sit on with my cup. ¡°Guys, you should leave Nina alone, she doesn¡¯t want anything with any of you.¡± ¡°L-Lyon, it¡¯s ok, no need to w-worry.¡± ¨C She trembled, I couldn¡¯t help but remember how weak I thought was my mother for not killing that guy, I¡¯m sure she could¡¯ve done it. ¡°No! It¡¯s not OK! - I shouted with all my might. ¨C You don¡¯t deserve to be treated like a peace of meat, and they shouldn¡¯t do so, less in my presence.¡± ¡°Yo brat! What did ya say?! I¡¯m gonna break that nose of yours if you don¡¯t apologize right now, bastard!¡± ¨C He knocked the chair on the floor as he got up. ¡°Hmph. Come if you dare, bastard.¡± And then it started. He jumped at me with a jar in his hand and tried to hit me with it, but I just sidestepped to the left, went a little at front and put my feet in front of his, and like that, he fell to the floor. So sad of him. Two of his friends came over full of fury, but that¡¯s all they got, no technique. They tried to punch me but I just kept dodging and stepping back. After a few punches I took the hand of the leftmost and taking his force against him I launched him over me and onto the floor, and that¡¯s the second one unconscious. The third then did the unimaginable; he took a knife from his pocket and tried to stab me. The memories and the fury invaded me and I couldn¡¯t control myself. With the movements I had so many times practiced I snatched his hand, bended over his wrist so that he would feel pain and drop the knife. I took the knife and before I got time to analyze my actions, I stabbed him in the shoulder. The scream he made woke me up like a bucked of freezing water. The fourth one of them was trembling on the floor and the waitress was looking at me as if I was a monster. I took my coat and rapidly left the bar. Strangely enough, no cops were coming, but I still ran with all my might. When I arrived home I slammed the door, and blackness came. --- --- --- --- I woke up thinking about the dream and the weeks that came after the accident, but then I realized I wasn¡¯t home. The ceiling above my head was unfamiliar, it was full of carvings, gods, mythical creatures and humans, but also other things that weren¡¯t human, then I remembered, I remembered Kronos, or as he calls himself in his body, Chronos, and I remember his story about other worlds, it all sounded crazy, but maybe it was true? ¡°Of course it¡¯s true, who do you take me for, brat?¡± ¡°Ah!¡± ¨C I shouted surprised by such voice, it sounded different to what I remembered but it was the same, and I still couldn¡¯t see him, I guess it¡¯s that thing he said about being invisible, but still it¡¯s weird. ¨C ¡°Sorry Chronos¡­¡± ¡°Stop apologizing, you¡¯ll be my champion from now on, you can¡¯t be this weak willed. Well, let¡¯s explain this through; the test you are about to be put through is not a test I designed, in fact, the one who did was way more powerful than I was even in my Titan body. The test will put you through different trials, which you will have to pass to the best of your capability. This ancient cave is known as the Patronage of the Divines. It feeds on the power of a god, then fuses that energy with the power of the cave itself and gives the tested, if he or she was able to pass such test, a power that is the most suitable for him. Such power will be uncontrolled by me, I can¡¯t even help you more than give you some advises. First advice, don¡¯t die, second advice, don¡¯t you dare to die, or I will be angry as f*** and I will torture your soul over a hundred years.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Ok¡­¡± ¨C For someone who was trying to make me help him, he didn¡¯t seem to try so hard. ¡°I¡¯m not trying anything, you will help me, whether you like it or not, as we will swear a lifeblood oath.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that? It sounds awful¡­¡± ¡°Hahaha, you¡¯re funny kiddo. A lifeblood oath is something that can''t be broken. Once you''ve made it, there''s nothing you can do to escape the oath, you either complete it, or you die trying not to. Oaths sworn upon your life will kill you the moment that you try to avoid the deal, the universe itself will kill you. That oath will make sure that you participate in the tournament and, that in case you win, your wish will be my new body, and in my case, it will guaranty that even after you do such things, I won¡¯t kill you.¡± ¡°Mmm¡­ Power, long life and not killing me? Seems fair to me. So when do we start?¡± ¡°HAHAHAHA, such liveliness, ok let¡¯s start. Last word, I have no control over the trials at all, so even if you¡¯re in danger I won¡¯t be able to help you, so be careful. But before going in, you¡¯ll swear the oath.¡± As he was saying that, a stone entered my vision. The stone was white with carvings of symbols, those had a purplish hue which hypnotized me, until he said: ¡°Chaos father of all, be witness of this oath¡±. Then the purplish hue transformed into a blackish light, which opposes all I know about light but I don¡¯t know how else to describe it, and then some kind of ash grey papyri appeared out of thin air. ¡°Ok, now we¡¯ll write the contract.¡± ¨C He seemed anxious to do it, as if a second or two would matter when he would have to wait four hundred years to have his body back. The papyri started filling itself with words which were as he had said, he would not harm me and I would wish for his body was I to win the tournament. Then when the words, which definitely were a lot more than I have said, were in the papyri, two squares appeared in the papyri. ¡°Come Lyon, put your thumb in the right square.¡± ¨C He was almost kind, which put me on the edge, but it wasn¡¯t as if I had a choice, so I did it. Then my thumb was pierced by something, and though I sensed it, it didn¡¯t hurt, so I didn¡¯t take my thumb out until he said so; then he did the same thing on the other square. And when we both had done so, in the squares appeared symbols made with blood. On the right square where I had put my thumb there was a spiked drop of blood. On the left square where he had put his thumb there was a scythe connected with a chain to a clock. ¡°Well, oath done, we¡¯re now chained won¡¯t be able to break the oath, so that¡¯s it.¡± ¨C He said it with an impervious voice as the stone emitted a strong light and swallowed de papyri. ¨C ¡°Now let¡¯s go to the trials.¡± ¡­ ¡°Ok, that¡¯s the door, once you go through it the trials will start.¡± I encountered myself in front of a giant door full of strange symbols and carvings; it was at least 30 feet tall and was made of a strange wood. The wood was reddish and besides the carvings fully smooth, as if was metallic. The carvings were enormous and full of references to mythology from home, but also full of other things that didn¡¯t exist in Earth, or at least not that I remember. With so many carvings and symbols, not even in 6 hours would I finish seeing them all, let alone understand them, but there were a few symbols which drew my attention. The first one was a symbol similar to an X, but covered in flames, lightning and icicles, and emanated an aura of many, as if that symbol was composed by thousands. The second was a helmet, pierced by a sword. The helmet was bleeding, but the blood went up, as if such blood belonged to the heavens. There were other carvings and symbols which were beautiful or terrifying but none that called me as much as those two. ¡°Go, little Ironblood, the trials await you, and I¡¯m excited to know what kind of powers will you receive.¡± ¨C Kronos whispered me with bloodlust. I turned around surprised by the change in his voice and different from before, now that we were in front of the door I could faintly see his silhouette. He was tall. Hell he was, he was 9 feet tall and though all I saw was a shadowy silhouette, I could see the spikes all around his body, and those eyes¡­ they were injected in blood and full of hate, and I felt fear, a deep and unconscious fear towards such being. After a few seconds I turned around while trembling and stepped towards the door. When I was almost there, the door started to open itself, so as to let me through. On the other side of the door there was darkness, much more dark than even the soul of Kronos, as if to indicate that whoever built this trials was a being all-powerful. I walked forwards, and I could see the carvings in the door move around and look at me, and I felt as if they were looking into my soul, then as the door closed I felt my body disappear, and all my needs go away. After that there was blackness. After what could¡¯ve been a second, an hour, a day, a week, or even a year or a decade, light entered my field of vision. The light expanded until it covered everything, and then I found myself in a room. The room was big, probably 25 m each side, about 625 square meters. The room was empty except for a pitch black desk and an equally black chair. I felt impeded to sit down, so I did. Then a light shone on the desk and something appeared. On the desk was now some kind of paper, thought it looked different to every paper I had ever seen. Strangely enough I could read some words in it, though the strangeness came from the unknown language in which it was written. I had never heard or seen such language, yet I could understand perfectly it¡¯s meaning: ¡°Thou who wish to acquire power beyond imagination, will face the trials of Sha Mon, if thou succeed thou shall receive a great power. If not, however, thou shall perish and rest in the trials for all eternity. To start the trials think the following words: Kha Num Alur.¡± I flinched at the words perish and eternity, but I had come so far and I had signed an oath, so I had to do it. [Kha Num Alur] ¨C I whispered in my head as the paper indicated and then the paper burned with green fire which did nothing but erase the words. Then the fire appeared again, but on a much smaller scale, writing new letters on the paper. The Trials - 01 After the green fire disappeared from the paper, new words could be read: ¡°The first trial is the trial of the mind, the less dangerous and yet one of the most important of all the trials. Answer honestly the questions thou will be asked. To write thou have to think about the answer and the trials will write it for thou.¡± After I finished reading those words the paper started to write questions. They were complicated situations, choices and ways to solve problems, questions about daily life, questions about mathematics, and questions about every kind of theme I could begin to imagine; and strangely enough, the paper didn¡¯t ask anything I didn¡¯t know how to answer, whether such answer was correct or not it¡¯s another question, but the fact that I could answer to all made me suspicious, even in Earth there were thousands of things I didn¡¯t know, how was it possible that something from another world and another universe, didn¡¯t ask a single thing I didn¡¯t know? After I answered the last question after what seemed hours, and while the green fire was erasing the last question with its answer, I discovered something strange. I didn¡¯t feel tiredness, hunger or thirst; it was as if I didn¡¯t have a physical body. I felt powerful but powerless; I didn¡¯t feel anything at all. It was scary, but I related all that to the trials, I guess it was a way to make the tested be fully concentrated in the task in hand. ¡°You¡¯ve completed the first trial at the 45155th position out of 98129 participants. Your answers have been analyzed in consideration of your planet knowledge, but you still only had knowledge of a 19% of your world.¡± I guess I didn¡¯t fare as well as I thought I had. But what could I do about it, it was impossible to know everything in my world, too much knowledge. The desk started consuming itself in the same green fire I had seen until nothing was left of it, and as soon as I stood up the same happened to the chair. Then the room seemed to thin itself, transforming in a hallway which I couldn¡¯t see the end of, in either way. I wondered what would happen next and then I got the answer in my mind. ¡°Run, run until you can¡¯t run anymore.¡± The first thing I wondered was in which way should I run, but then I decided it wouldn¡¯t matter, or they would¡¯ve told me, right? As the words said, I started to run, and kept running. I realized that though I was running, I didn¡¯t seem to be going anywhere. Hours passed, but I didn¡¯t feel tired and I had yet to see the end, so I kept running. And like this I ran for days; every day I wondered if I was doing what I was supposed to do, but I kept running because I didn¡¯t have an option. After what seemed a month and it probably was, I thought about giving up but something clicked in my mind. [I can¡¯t give up now, I need the power, I need to survive, I won¡¯t give up my life for some stupid trial, I¡¯ll keep running.] I made up my mind and kept running, thought I didn¡¯t feel tiredness, I felt despair and I felt mental exhaustion, I needed to rest, or so my mind said, but I knew it wasn¡¯t true, the trials had made me unable to tire, so I would keep running until I passed the test. Months passed and I was getting desperate, even after so long I didn¡¯t come anywhere near the end, where the hell was I going?! I had decided to run even if I lost my mind I would, but I thought about something. I had been running as if I was in my world where I should run not too fast so as to not tire myself before arriving to my destination, but here, here I didn¡¯t tire, so why should I spare my energies? After that realization I started running with all my might, I ran faster that I had ever ran and I didn¡¯t feel any pain or exhaustion, I could run like this forever or so I thought. After what seemed years after beginning to run my mind collapsed. I couldn¡¯t do it, the destination was too far away, I couldn¡¯t achieve it, I would fail the test. And with such thoughts in mind, I stopped running, I didn¡¯t even walk or sit, I just stood there, regretting all. That was until the same voice came to my mind. ¡°Congratulations, you have been the mortal with the strongest will from all the mortals to have went through the trials, with a running time of what in your world would¡¯ve been 2 years 5 months and 11 days and a distance of 353,496 km, the previous contender having a record of 1 year 2 months and 8 days and a distance of 135,096 km. You have finished the will test at the 1st position out of 98129. Now you will participate in the speed test.¡± I didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry. Not only did I not fail, I even had the record, oh god, what despair did I feel when I thought I had failed, I was relieved I could survive and I didn¡¯t even feel joy from having beat the previous record, I just felt happiness for not having failed. The infinite hallway then started reverting to the room, and then extended again, just that this time I could see the end. Then I received the next order. ¡°Run through the wall and you will get to the goal, run at your maximum speed.¡± [Through? I guess the difference in languages had to be noticed somewhere, I suppose he means to the wall.] I prepared myself, deeply breathed, and then started running with all my might and when I was getting to the wall I realized something. There was no goal there! It couldn¡¯t be, right? It really meant through?! [I CAN¡¯T PASS THROUGH F***ING WALLS!!!]Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Though I screamed and was angry, I couldn¡¯t help but to trust the trials, because at the end of the day, the one who created it was more powerful than gods, so who was I to judge? Even though I made my mind, I unconsciously started to run slowly, though not much, it was enough, and I knew I wouldn¡¯t far too well in this test. When I was near the wall, I closed my eyes and even sped up a bit, to end with it fast, and I didn¡¯t feel anything. I stopped and looked around; I was in the room I was in the beginning. ¡°You have finished the speed test at the 26799th out of 94861 participants. You will participate in the agility test now.¡± [Wait what? Did the participants go down? How the f*** is that possible?! There was no danger in the previous trials!] ¡°To the tested, losing time as you are right now is the reason some participants were disqualified, they lost time in front of the wall and did not cross over, then tried to pass walking which it¡¯s directly against the orders given, as it was clearly said to run through it. When they didn¡¯t go through it for a certain period of time, they were pulverized. The reason you are explained this is because you qualified in the top thousand in a trial. Don¡¯t waste this warning and keep the good work.¡± Damn¡­ I was scared shitless, but I had to continue, less they determine I wasn¡¯t complying. I did what the trial asked of me, and kept doing with different tests. Agility, jump length, jump height, strength and more until I received the first combat trial, the unarmed combat test. I encountered myself in the initial room again. In the room had appeared 30 doors, out of which only one was opened and was glowing, I went towards it and as I passed it eveyrhing banished and I was in some kind of dojo. ¡°In the combats tests, every and all enemies will have the same physical capabilities than you, the only thing that will change will be their ability, defeat as many enemies as you can showing your best, and you will be awarded a position depending on what you show.¡± Ok, this seemed perfect to me, unarmed combat was what I was better at, and I hope I get some marks. As I was stretching a bit, though it wasn¡¯t necessary at all, a shadow appeared; it wasn¡¯t a person, but a shadow in the form of one. It was weird, but I readied myself. As it approached I noticed it didn¡¯t even walk correctly, so I was convinced it would fight far worse. It just punched forward as if that could beat me. I just tilted myself to the side a little, and then I punched him with sufficient strength at the face. When I was about to hit, it just banished. Then something appeared near the 7 meters ceiling. It was a sign, and as the words I had read before, I knew their meaning, it meant 1. I fought a hundred of enemies before I started to be a little serious, they each had a different technique, the first was a punch, then there was a chop, also kicks, knee hits, shoulder tackles, elbow punches, and more, and after 20 of them, they came again to the punches, but this time they punched faster and better, though not near enough, this loop repeated itself until the hundredth enemy, then the one hundred one came and I was surprised. It started with a punch as it should have, but then when I was going to hit him, he surprised me with a chop! I dodged backwards and looked at him astonished, it seems they started to fuse different types of attacks as I went further. Since that moment, I didn¡¯t underestimate them anymore, because I knew this could have gone badly. I fought for hours, and I was happier than ever. At first combats lasted seconds, but as I went further, fights started to last longer. It came to a moment when they were fighting all with the same style, instead of changing styles, they just improved. The last fight I had lasted 2 and a half hour before I beat my opponent. I was happy not because I lasted hours, which was good enough, but because I could try my hardest and learn from mistakes. Of course I couldn¡¯t make too big a mistake, or I would lose, but minor mistakes I could recover from them, and learn from them. I fought like this for days, not because I fought many people, but because the next ones were better, and as neither they nor me got tired, we could fight at maximum strength all the time. After I fought with an opponent for 4 weeks, I got to beat him, but I knew the next one would last long if it lasted at all. As I predicted it didn¡¯t last a lot. He came to me running and jumped at me to hit me. I dodged to the left not wasting any time, but then I noticed he wasn¡¯t where he was supposed to be, and I sensed something at my left and I turned with haste bringing my arms at my face to protect myself from the kick he had launched. I got knocked backwards 20 meters. [How the hell did he do that?! The voice said we had the same physical capabilities, so this must have been accomplished with technique!] I was astonished, but had no time to waste on idle thoughts, he launched himself at me again and seemed to be giving a strong palm strike, so I covered, but I was looking around in case he came from another side. Then I noticed myself fly backwards even thought I had been standing very stably, but not before I noticed the reason. I had been hit by that simple looking palm strike, but it had nothing about simple, it had hit me 9 times in the instant it touched me! Can you imagine if by every hit you gave, the enemy received the damage and force of 9 hits? As I hit the floor, I noticed I was in the initial room. [I guess that could have killed me if I hadn¡¯t blocked, and as such the trial ended there.] ¡°You have finished the unarmed combat test at the 2357th out of 89612 participants. You will participate in the sword combat test now.¡± [I guess the people either stayed in the room or died to some of the shadows. I wonder why they stay in this room.] The trials went on with different kinds of combats; mostly of them I didn¡¯t pass the 151th enemy, which was the level after basics. The only exception the sword combat and the staff combat. Thought I didn¡¯t fare near enough as well as in the unarmed combat, it was pretty good. I ended 13087th in the sword and 19172nd in the staff one, thought by the time I arrived to the staff one there were only 51839 participants left. In the others I didn¡¯t pass the forty thousandth mark, but I can¡¯t do well in everything, can I? ¡°You have finished the hammer combat test at the 41823rd out of 46137 participants. You will participate in the soul test now.¡± [Wait, soul? Does that even exist?] I was wondering what kind of test when I noticed I wasn¡¯t there anymore. Even though I could sense around me, my body had vanished, and with me all the room. I encountered myself in a black space, full of nothingness, and empty of everything. ¡°Embrace your soul, and be ready, because the trial now is the hardest of all, and the most painful. Pass it and you will be awarded, fail and you shall perish. Good luck Lyon Ironblood, I wish you the best.¡± [What?! He knows who I am? Isn¡¯t it some kind of IA? How can that be po¡­] When I was thinking that, I felt something I had never felt before. Utter pain. ¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!¡± - I couldn¡¯t help but scream as that feeling invaded what the voice said to be my soul. Then as the pain grew, I lost consciousness again. The Trials - 02 I woke up in my bed and looked to the ceiling, and then as something came to my mind, I smiled. I got dressed and I went down the stairs as every other day of the week, and as I was walking I smelled bacon. Oh god, how I loved my mom. "Mom! I''m coming down!" - I yelled enthusiastically as I accelerated. "Little Cub, come here and give me a hug." - As I arrived to the first floor I saw her bright smile and I gave a wry smile as I approached her. "Mom, I''m already twen-UGH!" - I felt my air escape my lungs as she hugged me with her amazingly incongruent strength. "Of course you are! Today''s your birthday isn''t it?" - She hugged me a while longer and then guided me to the table to eat my breakfast. sigh I really missed her... [Wait, why would I miss her? I see her every day.] - I blinked surprised at my own thoughts, but I sent them to the back of my mind with all the useless thoughts. As I finished my breakfast and was about to stand up and prepare to go to college I saw her smiling mischievously as she approached me. "Today we''ll be having a special day, so of course you''re not going anywhere." - When she was the one who said it, it almost seemed the natural thing to do. "Mom, I have to go, you know I can''t miss school." - I endured the somewhat sad face of my mom. - "We''ll go this Saturday, ok?" Her face brightened as I said those words, and that made my heart warm. - "I''ll take your word about it, so no going back." - The mischievous smile she held after those words made me think that maybe that was her plan all along. I can''t understand how she can manipulate me this well. After taking everything I needed I went to college. When I was taking the train, I felt a somewhat strange pain in my heart, and I didn''t know where it came from. Either way, I ignored as I went to class, today was exam day, so of course I couldn¡¯t miss it, else I would fail. After studying at the library for about an hour, I entered my classroom, took a seat and waited for the exam to start. I was really ready for the exam, so I was pretty sure it would go well, but it was a difficult exam, so I would have to take my time. The exam was about 2 hours and a half, but when it was about an hour into the exam someone entered the classroom asking for me. ¡°Lyon? Lyon Ironblood?¡± ¨C The guy had a somewhat plain face, with a slightly crooked nose and a face full of acne scars. ¡°It¡¯s me. What do you need?¡± ¨C I asked and looked worried; I didn¡¯t want to fail the exam, and unless extraordinary cases happened, I wouldn¡¯t get a redo. ¡°You need to come with me. Don¡¯t worry about the exam, you¡¯ll have another chance.¡± ¨C He looked at me with a somewhat pitting gaze, and I didn¡¯t like the feeling I was getting. The heart ache I got in the morning was coming back, and harder. I stood up and got my bag, then walked towards the guy. When I reached him he turned around and got out. I followed him until we got to the street, a police car was parked there, and two cops were standing outside it. The first one was a somewhat chubby but corpulent cop, with a chubby face, he seemed someone who wouldn''t hurt you, but that would beat you badly enough if he wanted to. The second cop was a tall woman, even more corpulent than the man, but with a pretty face, though she had a sad face and an even more pitying gaze than the guy who came to look for me. "Lyon, right? You have to follow us, something has happened to your mother." - The man said to me, and I felt that my heart stopped beating. "W-what has happened to her?!" ¨C I couldn¡¯t help myself; if something happened to her I wouldn¡¯t forgive myself. ¡°She¡¯s in the hospital, she¡¯s been beaten by some thief, I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¨C The woman seemed truly sad, but that didn¡¯t help me at all. [Whoever did it, I¡¯ll kill him with my own hands.] I didn¡¯t notice, but I was so angry that my face showed it, and the cops shivered. ¡°Let¡¯s go Lyon, we¡¯ll take you to her.¡± ¨C The man said to me and then opened the car door. I entered the car, but I was still thinking about the guy who hit my mother, and how he would suffer. As we approached the hospital, I got more nervous and nervous. When we finally reached I almost jumped out of the car, and then I urged the cops to walk faster. She was at the ICU, so we didn¡¯t need to walk too much, but still felt an eternity. When I saw her I felt my heart break, as if nothing could ever repair it. ¡°M-mom! Are you ok?!¡± ¨C I was scared, more than I¡¯d ever been, and I couldn¡¯t help but hate myself for what had happened to her. I was supposed to be with her, we should¡¯ve gone out to some kind of celebration, but I had to go to the stupid college to do a stupid exam of a stupid subject of a stupid degree I didn¡¯t even like. And after all that, my mom ended suffering.Stolen story; please report. ¡°I¡¯m o- *cough*, okay, Lyon¡± ¨C She smiled, even though she was full of bruises and her eyes were purple and her lips broken and bleeding. She smiled even though she could hardly breathe, I can¡¯t understand how can she be so strong. I felt pain all over my body, a pain I had never felt, something different from physical pain, something deeper. Then I heard a voice in my mind. [[WAKE UP YOU BLOCKHEAD!]] ¨C The voice sounded strangely familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time. I thought maybe I was hallucinating from the shock, but then I heard it again. ¨C [[WHAT HALLUCINATION WOULD SOUND LIKE YOUR OWN VOICE STUPID BLOCKHEAD?! WAKE UP AND STOP MOURNING! YOUR MOM DIED YEARS AGO! YOU ALREADY MOURNED HER, YOU CAN¡¯T MOURN HER ALL YOUR LIFE DAMN BASTARD!]] ¡°What the hell?¡± ¨C I unconsciously voiced out my question, and so the cops looked strangely at me, but I shook it off me and thought deeply. ¨C [Who are you?]. [[Well, at least you can hear me now, it¡¯s been a month of mourning already, and I was getting tired. To resume, you¡¯re not there, you¡¯re hallucinating, but not me, you¡¯re hallucinating all else in the room, you¡¯re standing there without moving, you¡¯ve been doing for two months already, and I, your soul, have been looking at the pathetic you mourn hours and hours, one day after the other.]] ¨C The voice seemed angry, very angry, but what he was saying made no sense. [[Ok, let¡¯s sort this out. I know you¡¯re in pain, but remember that time when you were 15, and you went out? You came back late and that son of a b*tch had killed our mom? You killed him, and I was so proud of you¡­ Whatever, you already mourned her, so now it¡¯s time to stand up and go ahead, your life is not over, you¡¯ll live to the fullest and do whatever you want, making sure no one close to you dies again.]] ¨C What he said struck me hard, too hard, actually, and I started remembering all, not only when my mother died, but also the two months I had spent here, looking my mom die and be beaten and raped, and all kind of painful stuff. I suffered so much. But not now, I knew she didn¡¯t feel that, that was all me, it was my mind, and I owned my mind, so it would not hurt me more. As I felt my thoughts going straight, the world lighted up, it all turned to white light, and then I woke up. --- --- --- --- When I came to myself, I was in the very same room where I started, but this time there was no desk. In front of me there was a giant person? I don¡¯t know how to describe it; he was 6 m tall, had 4 arms and had no eyes. His face was just a smile, the biggest and strangely comforting smile I¡¯d ever seen. ¡°Congratulations Lyon, you¡¯ve completed the last of the trials, and with a surprisingly good score. In the soul trial you¡¯ve achieved the 2nd position out of the 13712 participants who ended the trials. It¡¯s surprising, as humans are one of the weakest in terms of will and soul, yet you, a human, scored 1st in the will test and 2nd in the soul one, it¡¯s amazing!¡± ¨C The big man said this while laughing, which caused me to shudder. His laugh was like a thunder. ¡°Who are you, if you permit me to ask?¡± ¨C I asked him while trying my best not to show my fear for him. ¡°That is a good question, and it shall be answered. I am Khan Zha¡¯Kul, guardian of the trials. I¡¯ve guarded the trials since the moment of my birth ages ago. But since the trials are so dangerous not too many people tries their luck in here.¡± ¨C So he was the guardian. That explained quite a few things, I guess. If he had access to my soul, how would he not know my name? ¡°Then, what now? Have I passed the trials?¡± ¨C I hoped that was all, the pain I suffered while inside my soul was not something I could suffer again. ¡°Indeed, you have passed, and so you shall receive your powers. You have an astounding will, but a not so astounding skill. You, different from others to pass the trials, has not been prepared to do so, and so you had difficulties. But I see your strengths, which are not in your speed, or skill or strength itself, but in your will and soul. You have an unlimited potential, not because of your body, but because of your soul, where your will resides.¡± ¨C The guardian spoke solemnly, and I felt an impending need of staying silent. ¡°What you shall receive is a system, a type of magic that assists the user to develop into higher realms. The system you will receive is based on something from your world. A series named X-Men. You will be able to take upon their mutations, though they will start from scratch and grow upon your hard work.¡± ¨C As he said those words I felt my jaw almost hit the floor. Kronos said that I would receive the powers that were more apt to me, but to think I would get to be like the X-Men. That was awesome! Maybe I don¡¯t show it, with all my grim thoughts, but I love X-Men, it was one of the few things I liked of my life. ¡°Now, usually you would have to work on them from scratch, as any other, but due to your scores, as a 1st scorer and a 2nd scorer in two of the tests, you will be able to select two of the mutations from the system. Before selecting them I will explain the system to you. The system is based in tiers. There are basically 4 ranks, low rank, mid rank, high rank and top rank. Nothing higher should worry now. Each of these ranks is further divided alphabetically, from lower to higher would be G, F, E, D, C, B, A and S, after S you would upgrade a rank.¡± ¨C The guardian explained all of this with a smile on his mouth. Seeing a face without any kind of human parts except a mouth was disturbing, but I had to listen to him and make sure to remember all. ¡°All powers you will acquire will start from the low tier, though some will start at G and some at B or even S, as you can understand, as higher it starts, more it will cost you to ¡®buy¡¯ it. The points system will be explained in the future, for now just understand that the reward would be poor if I gave you a simple G power, so any two powers u choose, will start at G mid tier which is an amazing empower. Low tier represents undeveloped powers, for example, Rogue(1) didn¡¯t develop her powers until she was 13. Her powers, though, improved from G low tier, which is actually not awoken to G mid tier, which is awoken and in their standard. Higher than G mid, the mutant would have to work and develop its powers, making it the result of hard work other than just luck. You will be awarded two G mid tier powers, so any power u saw in the series or in the comics, you can count it as G to C mid tier, I will lower the power of any mutation higher than G mid tier to be of the correct power. Now, tell me the two you will choose.¡± ¨C He finally asked me! Oh god, I knew exactly which powers I wanted to start, it wasn¡¯t even a question to me. ¡°I want the powers of two of my favorites mutants, I want the powers of¡­¡± Chapter 1 - Awakening ¡°... I want the powers of Wolverine and Deadpool!¡± ¨C I exclaimed hastily and clearly excited. ¡°Hahahahahaha! What an interesting choice!¡± ¨C The guardian seemed exceedingly happy at my choice, which I didn¡¯t understand. I actually knew it may not be the best of choices, but I liked them both too much. Also, immortality didn¡¯t seem such a bad idea. ¡°You know, there are a lot of things I shouldn¡¯t be able to tell you, but as your choice of powers meets the criteria, I am able to explain more, and that makes me happy, more time for me to talk; too much time closed here alone gets boring, you know? Well, what I was saying, the powers, as in the movie, have certain restrictions, and some powers just can¡¯t coexist with each other.¡± ¨C I didn¡¯t like where he was going, were the two powers I chose incompatible?! ¨C ¡°But, the same way some powers can¡¯t coexist together, some powers are just meant to be together, and empower each other. Your choice is an example. Normally you would get both powers, but as they can meld together, you will only receive one power. One power which is much better than just having them both, but, when two powers meld, they lower their strength by a tier. So, instead of having Wolverine¡¯s and Deadpool¡¯s powers, you will have a new kind of power, the power of Fenrir, the immortal wolf. As I said, you won¡¯t have the power at the level it was supposed to be, it will be an S low tier, which is pretty amazing, because even at S low tier level, it¡¯s only half the power of the other two together, and once you upgrade it to G mid tier, the power will be 10 times that of the two powers together, so congratulations on your first power.¡± ¨C Here he was again smiling like a lunatic; it was getting less disturbing and more heartwarming. I smiled back at him, although I was excited about having my powers, I guess it wouldn¡¯t hurt to stay here a little more. ¡°I appreciate your guidance Guardian, once I leave, would you need anything from me?¡± ¨C I asked him in an attempt to start a conversation; he said he was bored, so I could at least try to entertain him some time. ¡°You really would? I actually would like to ask you a favor.¡± ¨C It seems I hit the nail; let¡¯s see what he¡¯ll ask for me. ¨C ¡°I would love to have some fun, but I can¡¯t actually leave here without my master permission, so I would like for you to search for him, and ask him for me to leave, you know, for thousands of years, no one has even tried the trials, so I think I could leave, and then if someone was to come, I would just come back.¡± ¨C He was completely excited about the idea, I could tell that. ¡°Okay, tell me his name, and I¡¯ll search for him during my travels, then talk to him and ask him for you to leave.¡± ¨C I gladly accepted. ¡°His name is Zamul Ladur, also known as the Fateweaving; I will leave you with an imprint of my soul, so that he knows I send you.¡± ¨C He smiled again then extended the hand, he touched my left arm, and a strange symbol appeared. It was like a big smile coiled around my arm, with sharp teeth like his. It was cool, and I could feel somehow connected to Khan. ¡°Okay, that¡¯s it, now close your eyes.¡± ¨C I did as he asked and I noticed his warm giant hand touching my eyelids and a heavenly feeling extended all around my body. I felt something tremble and then I opened my eyes. And in front of me was Kronos smiling quite sinisterly. Now I could see him fine, and he looked dark, but handsome, like a diabolic man who would conquer the world just by standing there without doing anything but smile, but also someone who would kill you at the first action which made him angry. I trembled thinking I had made a deal with such a monster. ¡°Hahaha, how daring ain¡¯t ya? Monster, you say?¡± ¨C He smiled darkly at me and winked, which only made me shudder more. ¨C ¡°So what kind of powers did you get?¡± [F*ck! What if he didn¡¯t like my choice of powers? I know it was supposed to be the best for me, but that was only the system, it was me who chose those two powers, what would he do to me?! ] ¡°Ooh, so apart from the powers the trials gave you you also got something else? It¡¯s the tattoo on your arm the proof?¡± ¨C [True¡­ he can read my mind¡­] ¡°No, the tattoo is just a promise to the guardian of the trials, what he let me chose is something from my powers.¡± ¨C I made my mind and explained what my powers were, including the two powers I chose and how they ended. ¡°So you actually are not strong right now, but can get much stronger? It works for me. Now let¡¯s get out of here, I will put you to train your powers.¡± ¨C He told me so and then started walking towards some kind of marks on one wall. As he approached them, they started to shine, and then he turned around. ¨C ¡°Are you coming?¡± ¨C I hurried to follow him. Once we were in front of the symbols, we both started shining, and then we disappeared. When I reappeared I saw K¡­ ¡°Hey Lyon!¡± ¨C I saw Khan¡­ Wait what? ¡°What are you doing here?! Weren¡¯t you supposed to be restricted to the trials?¡± ¨C I was flabbergasted. ¡°We still are on the trials zone; I stopped you from following that man. I think you can get stronger by training alone, so as a last favor I will get you far from him. I will teleport you to one of the worlds connected to me, in a forest pretty empty of beasts. Don¡¯t worry, now you don¡¯t even need to eat or drink, so you just need to train until you get more powerful than the beasts blocking the exit of the forest, which will take you to a city. I won¡¯t tell you how strong you need to be, that will be up to you, so that you learn to appreciate the strength of your enemies and your own. Good luck.¡± ¨C He smiled at me then waved his hand, as I was disappearing again I wondered about what he said. [Do I really no longer need to eat or drink? That¡¯s amazing! I guess it¡¯s one of the effects of the fusion of both powers.] Then I appeared in a clearing. And before I could do anything, a light enveloped me, and I felt pain. I felt my mind and body being remodeled. And when it all finished, I felt strong. I also instinctively knew how to ¡®open¡¯ the system. It was all on my mind, all I had to do was to sit down, close my eyes and think about it. Once I did I could see some kind of table.
Status X-System
Status
Name: Lyon Ironblood Soul Points: 0
Mutations: 2 Powers: 1
Mutations Acquired:
Wolverine Locked Deadpool Locked
Powers: Power origin:
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf S low tier Wolverine + Deadpool
The table indicated quite a few things. I suppose that the locked part of the two mutations I had was from the merge of them. [I wonder if I can see in detail what Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf does]. As I was thinking so, another table opened.
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf S low tier Progress: ??? (Knowledge insuficient)
Unlocks a power of regeneration beyond it''s original powers. Sharp claws made of bone can surge from between the knuckles, also an upgrade on bone strength and heightened senses, including smell, hearing and eyesight. Upon upgrade to mid tier bones strengthen and regeneration fasten.
Cool, this means I actually have Wolverine¡¯s claws? Before trying it, though, I thought about the X-System and then the table switched to this one.
Status X-System
Mutations Training Upgrades
Power Mutant Initial Grade Cost
Regeneration + Claws Wolverine D low tier ( )
Great regeneration Deadpool C low tier ( )
Angel Wings Angel G low tier 2.800 SP
Life and power stealing Rogue E low tier 95.000 SP
...
Those SP meant Soul Points. I had gotten some info on it when I learned how to open my mind, it seemed that to obtain it I needed to or train through the Training lable on my system or to kill beasts or sentient beings, then my power would refine their soul, get the power they would be leaving after dying and transforming into Soul Points. It seemed that I would need a lot of points to get anything useful, even Angel''s powers, which I pretty much disliked, were pretty expensive, so you can imagine cooler powers like Apocalypse''s or Magneto''s. After looking over the table I thought about the training label, and it switched again, and I was amazed about how little I knew about Aikido, I thought I knew it almost all, but there it said that I didn¡¯t even knew a quarter of what it was.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Status X-System
Mutations Training Upgrades
Name FightingStyleTier Percentage
Aikido B low tier 16.4 %
Kendo D low tier 11.7 %
Jiujutsu D low tier 6.2 %
...
I tried switching to the upgrades table, but I couldn¡¯t, I guess I needed more power to do so. After seeing I couldn¡¯t swap to upgrades I tried to choose Aikido in the training table, and then this is what I saw.
Atention, user. Once you''ve selected a training you won''t be able to stop or select another until you achieve 50 % in it. For each 5 % learned u will recieve 10*X*Y SP, being X the percentage achieved and Y being the number asociated with the rank of the fighting technique. A technique of G rank will score 1*1 being low, 1*10 being mid, 1*100 being high and 1*1000 being top. A technique of rank F will score 2*1 being low and will follow the same pattern as a G rank technique. If you start training a fighting style which you have already unlocked, you will automatically receive the SP accordingly as if you had started from scratch. Are you ready to start training in Aikido?
Yes No
Of course, I clicked on yes, that was 1.800 Soul Points right now and 16.500 Soul Points when I got to 50 %. When I clicked an enormous amount of info poured into my mind, it was a training guide; a guide to know how to train into Aikido, and it was much more advanced than anything I¡¯d ever seen. First I decided to stop looking at the system for a minute and try to understand my new powers. When I opened my eyes and looked towards the sky I saw a blue light on the sky, it seemed the sun here was burning with a different fire than the one on Earth. I put it away and concentrated on figuring out my new powers. When I tried to draw my claws it felt weird, and I couldn¡¯t get it done at the first try, but after a few minutes trying, I got to draw them, quite slowly and quite painfully, but I did. Then I retracted them and watched in awe as the wounds healed in front of me. Awe-inspiring as nothing I¡¯d lived. I draw and retracted my claws until I was comfortable with them. Then I breathed in and went to train. First I would need to train my body, it seemed that I could get 15 % just with physical training, and I only had about a 7 % of my physical training done, so I could work on it a bit. To start I searched a big rock and picked it up. It weighed about a hundred and fifty kilograms; if it was my old me I probably wouldn¡¯t be able to lift it, but even now I was barely able to lift it up more than a few seconds without starting to tremble. After grabbing it well I concentrated on my arms as the guide said, and started to breathe steadily in the pattern it described. I could feel my arms trembling less and less every second it passed, and eventually they stopped trembling. I almost didn¡¯t believe it worked, but I guess it wasn¡¯t the most surprising thing, thinking that I had claws, hahaha. [Now let¡¯s do some pushups with this rock on my back.] I stopped after five minutes without trembling, as the guide said I should, and then I lied down on the floor and put the rock on my back. I could barely have my arms extended, and I was sure I couldn¡¯t do pushups, but I ignored my believes and started breathing in a new pattern. These patterns were used to tire faster my arms but at the same time made them ignore that tiredness until I stopped breathing in any of the breathing patterns. I kept doing these exercises for about half an hour before I stopped a minute, but then I realized my mistake. The tiredness that invaded me was too suffocating. I fell flat on my back and I couldn¡¯t move a muscle. After about an hour I had enough strength to stand up, so I did and went back to train. The reason was easy to understand, I was neither hungry nor thirsty, and the tiredness had gone away pretty fast, and as I had an objective and nothing else to do, why should I stand idly? I repeated the same process of lift, pushup, then crunches, running as fast as I could around the clearing, then squats and finally lifting the stone with my legs. I repeated this cycle twice in half an hour, but I didn¡¯t stop. If the first half hour had put me to rest for an hour and I pretended to sleep in a cave tonight, I needed to get it done fast but not too much. Although not too much I could tell the difference in strength from the first time I did it to this time, so if instead of half an hour I practiced for an hour, I would be sturdier and harder next time. After I repeated the cycle two more times I stopped and sat on the floor, instead of stopping I substituted the breathing pattern I was doing for a resting one on the guide. It seemed that it disconnected the body from the mind letting it rest faster and without me feeling it, but if I interrupted the breathing pattern before I had rested enough, I would be more tired than I would have and it could cause me to directly lose consciousness, so I made sure to finish it. One hour and half later I stopped the breathing pattern and stood up. I felt great, strong, fast and more resilient than before. I decided to look for a cave to sleep, because I didn¡¯t want to sleep on the outside, so I started running towards what seemed a rocky zone. It wasn¡¯t long until I got to see the rock walls through the forest. I could hear some birds and insects, but I hadn¡¯t seen anything big, nothing bigger than the size of the arm of a man. As I approached the walls I got nervous, what if there was something on the caves? But I couldn¡¯t sleep on the outside, which was too dangerous. I found a little cave that looked too small for anything dangerous to live in. I entered carefully but I found no one or anything on the inside so I deduced it was not inhabited. I sat against a wall and breathed in. After about a minute of resting I got up and started another round of exercise. This time the only rock there was around was about 180 kilograms and was totally uncomfortable to hold, but it was the only thing there, and I needed to get strong enough to get some powers. After some cycles of exercise, I got to the worse part and something I¡¯d tried to avoid for around two hours. They were some exercises designed to strengthen the skin. I had to hit the walls time after time until I was bleeding and I felt so much pain I couldn¡¯t stand, but I had to make sure that I could get to see the bone¡­ [What the f*ck is with this hell training?! I¡¯M IMMORTAL AND I REGENERATE, I WON¡¯T SEE THE BONES NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY! AM I SUPPOSED TO JUST HIT THE WALLS UNTIL I LITERALLY FALL DOWN?!] Well, I actually did that. I did it for 2 hours before the pain made me lose consciousness. After I woke up totally refreshed but with the pain in my mind, I grunted and stood up, ready for my second day of training. After half a month of training I was getting bored when something put me on alert. ¡°Roaaaaaaaaaaaar!¡± [That sounded scarily near!] ¨C Something inside me, I don¡¯t know what, told me that whatever that was I couldn¡¯t beat it or expect to survive right now, so my only way was for it not to detect me. I went towards the end of the cave and sat down behind a giant rock trying not to do any noise. I was thinking that it had left already when I heard a shriek less than a hundred meters from the cave. Then the growling sounded again, before it started getting away, probably dragging its prey. I wonder what kind of beast was that. I stood up and started walking slowly towards the entrance when I heard something on my back. I turned and I saw the giant rock I hid behind move, except it was not a rock; it was a giant rock bear with six paws, 4 in the front and 2 on the back. It stood up on its hind legs and it roared as it looked at me! It probably was spring right now, I had thought that it may not exist the seasons thinking that we were on a different planet and all, besides having that strange sun, this planet seemed to have 3 moons, but it seems that at least winter existed in this planet, because this was the cave of an hibernating bear, and I had invaded its home. Chapter 2 - A first defeat, and a first improvement I tried to think fast, but the only solution I found to my situation was to run, and that¡¯s what I did. I turned around and ran as fast as I could, but before I even made 4 steps I felt the floor tremble and a loud noise coming from behind. The bear had put its paws down and it was probably coming for me. I ran with all my might but before I even got to the entrance I felt something approaching me from the left. I turned slightly my face only to see a giant rocky paw on its way for my ribs with a huge speed. Once it stroke, I felt all my rib cage fracture and break at the same time I went flying against the wall. I hit my head and almost fell unconscious because of the damage taken. The bear then came near and literally crushed my head¡­ ¡­then I came back to myself¡­ [Aaaargh!] ¨C The f*cking bear was eating me! How the hell I was alive I didn¡¯t know, but I felt as he bit my stomach and ripped my arms off as he ate them. Then he looked at my face and saw that I was alive¡­ [Don¡¯t kill me again!] *Crunch!* The bear soon realized I was regenerating, and noticed he could keep eating me, so he did. He was hungry from an entire winter without eating, and so I was the perfect prey. Weak but full of meat, as I regenerated one time after the other. The cycle repeated, although he decided to keep eating me, he tried to kill me every time he saw I was conscious; I guess that¡¯s what mercy is for him. I kept dying and waking up, feeling the pain of my insides being eaten while I was alive. It kept doing that for hours, and I kept regenerating, I was starting to get tired. Khan said I didn¡¯t need to eat, but I guess if I die so many times, not even my soul can keep up with the energy. My body started saving energy, and although I was alive, I started losing consciousness. After a day, I lost my consciousness completely.
I fell in the most absolute darkness, and I couldn¡¯t feel anything except my life. I noticed my life, fluctuating between death and life, yet not being in any of those. Then I felt something else, like a memory invading my mind, but within the darkness I could only hear their voices. ¡°Honey, he¡¯s your son, you have to take care of him!¡± ¨C That sounded like my mother! I wonder who is she talking to, she told me that she didn¡¯t have any boyfriend, that someone had impregnated her after a one night stand, and she decided to keep it. ¡°Darling, you know how my family is! I can¡¯t do it; if I stay they¡¯ll put you two in danger! We can¡¯t be together now that you delivered him, I have to go, and you know how sad I am to leave you, but it¡¯s for your and our son¡¯s sake.¡± ¨C The voice sounded deep, deeper than my own voice, which I was told it was very deep, but I could feel the love from his words, and somehow I knew he truly loved us both, and that meant that my mom had me with someone he loved, which in turn meant that, even though she lied to me, she probably loved me a lot more than I thought. *Sobs* ¨C I heard my mom cry, and I felt a pain deep in my soul. ¡°I¡¯ll never forget you and I¡¯ll remember your name until the day I die, I love you A¡­¡± ¨C As I was wondering the name of my father, I woke up.
I opened my eyes only to see that I was still on the cavern, and the next thing I noticed was that it all smelled to blood. I looked around and I understood why. The entire floor was full of splatters of my own blood and pieces of meat. I shuddered remembering the pain I felt while that beast was eating me¡­ I stood up and tried to stay still, but I failed and fell to the ground. I cut my arm with a rock and looked astonished as my arm regenerated amazingly faster than before the accident. I hastily sat down and closed my eyes, summoning the System.
Status X-System
Status
Name: Lyon Ironblood Soul Points: 3000
Mutations: 2 Powers: 2
Mutations Acquired:
Wolverine Locked Deadpool Locked
Powers: Power origin:
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf G mid tier Wolverine + Deadpool
[Ha! It seemed than this ordeal was not without reward, now my regeneration power was G mid tier.] ¨C I saw the new power, and I immediately opened the table of the power to see what had changed.
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf G mid tier Progress: ??? (Knowledge insuficient)
Regeneration beyond comparision. It regenerates so fast that is at practical efects, immortal. As long as some part of him is there, be it a hand, a finger, a drop of blood or a mere cell, the user can regenerate. Sharp claws made of bone can surge from between the knuckles. Bones as strong as marble, and better senses than wolves, be it in smell, hearing or eyesight. The holder of this power becomes a born predator. Upon upgrade: Sharpen claws while strengthening bones. Develop instincts which help the holder to be more effective on the hunt.
Okay, knowing this made things easier, but I had realized something important. Even though I was immortal, that didn¡¯t make me invincible. I could be defeated once, and once defeated they could trap me or keep killing me, I had to develop more powers, something to defend myself, and I had an idea about which power I should develop next. To do so, I would need quite a few SP, so I had to finish my Aikido training. I immediately explored the cave, and discovered that the rock bear had left the cave, but it seemed that he marked the cave in some way I was not able to see, because all the beasts which were slowly waking up from their slumber avoided the cave. Some of those beasts noticed me but still left without a second look. I could use this as an advantage and train in here, knowing that no one would disturb me. I was about to start the training as the guide said, but I halted¡­ This training was too slow, after looking at the progress, it seemed that half a month, even with the increases thanks to both the breathing patterns and my high regeneration, had only made my body training go from 7 % to 8 %, this way I would have to work for 3 and a half month before finishing the physical training. Knowing that now I could regenerate faster, I decided to increase the intensity of the training by some levels. First, instead of a hundred and fifty kilograms rock I searched for a bigger one. I found a one that weighed around three hundred kilograms, and so I started the cycle but this time with this rock. Once it was time to run, I took the hundred and fifty kilograms rock and carried while running, I kept this rhythm in all the cycles, so that I could improve faster. I kept increasing the intensity during two weeks before I got my physical training done. Even though I regenerated insanely fast I was tremendously exhausted, both physical and mentally. After I got my physical training done, which got me another SP reward, as I increased my percentage of completion more than 5 %, I started the ability training. This would be the hardest, but also the most rewarding. My physical constitution right now would probably be that of an Olympic athlete that competed on all categories available, but this was not near enough. Though I had a strong physique, this wouldn¡¯t allow me to fight if my enemies were as strong as that bastard of a bear. I spent two months and a half more to get to the 50 %. After that, and before purchasing my first mutation other than the gifts that Khan gave me, I was decided to try my strength against some beast outside this cave. I waited until morning to get out, as it would be when the less dangerous creatures woke. Between the aikido training I had tried to introduce my claws to my fighting style, and though it was hard at the beginning, I accomplished to introduce it, though it took me quite long. The last half month was mostly spent into introducing my claws onto my fighting style.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. When the sun started shining on the sky, I got out of the cave. After the bear had eaten me, I had no more clothes on me, so the only thing I had was some torn pants and some ripped boots. I decided to discard the boots today, as they would disturb me more than they would help, and walking barefoot would help me be more silent. I spent about half an hour without finding anything until I found out my problem¡­ [I smell too much!] ¨C I needed to hide my odor or the only thing that would approach me would be something that could kill me. I smelled like dried blood and sweat, so it wasn¡¯t strange than less powerful beast avoided me. I had the smell of a predator. After realizing my problem I searched for some water pond or river, and I found one. It was occupied, some kind of ape was there, and hell it was big. It was 2 meters and a half tall even though he was not standing straight. He had some weird arms, they had 2 elbows. [Hell, those arms sure give him some leisure at the time to fight; more mobility and range are always welcomed.] ¨C While I was thinking this the wind changed, revealing my position to that let¡¯s call him Double-Elbow Ape, which turned almost instantly. I got ready to battle as I drew my claws slowly. The ape turned completely around and stood high, showing its teeth to me, and then roaring. ¡°ROAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!¡± ¨C Hell he was loud¡­ It then put its arms on the ground and started running to me. As it was getting close I started running towards him which in turn surprised him, making him hesitate for a second, which was enough to deliver the first hit. I slipped underneath him and sliced with my claws across his chest, making him screech in pain, then getting distanced from him the moment I got past him. It was a pity that by the time I turned around I already had the arm of that ape upon myself, I barely got time to protect my chest and face with my arms, still getting knocked back around 7 meters. ¨C [F*ck, that hurt!] I got not to lose balance even though I had been sent flying, sliding across the floor and bending forward to avoid falling. After coming to a halt I observed the beast, which was wincing. I had a gloomy smile on my face, because even though I was fine, I knew that the hit from the beast had broken quite a few of my bones and pierced my lungs, it was just that I was already healed, quite useful, this regeneration. I got ready to strike again but then something I didn¡¯t expect happened. A shadow appeared over me and faster than my eye could follow something dropped upon the ape then took off with him. The weight of the ape slowed that thing enough so that I could discern something terrifying; it was a Gryphon, a monster half lion half eagle! It was 6 meter long and around 3 meter tall. It was so big that it had grabbed the ape and broke its neck to kill him without effort, and all that without stopping flying. I was scared shitless, what the hell, I couldn¡¯t fight a flying beast! I looked around, and seeing nothing around, I hurried back to the cave. The hell, that thing would¡¯ve killed me in seconds, true, I would¡¯ve regenerated, but so what? I needed to have a chance to fight it for that to make a difference. When I got to the cave I immediately opened the system. That¡¯s it, I already knew which two powers I needed next, even though I couldn¡¯t buy the second one yet, it wouldn¡¯t be long, and then I¡¯d have the ability to fight that Gryphon, and all creatures that are on the same level as those beasts. After taking the decision, I bought it. The powers of Gambit, kinetic conversion and acceleration, this way he would have enough explosive strength, enough speed and even a ranged way to attack. This would make him strong enough that the ape he had hurt would¡¯ve died by that. Khan said that the beast in this forest were quite weak, but that doesn¡¯t mean they are weak at all, it¡¯s just that outside this forest, things are stronger. I need to get a lot stronger. After acquiring Gambit¡¯s powers, I felt an amazing amount of energy pour onto me, and I fell down, but this time I got to stay conscious. I felt my muscles stretch and contract, my cells absorbing energy as if they were hungry wolves and the energy appetizing food. It lasted around an hour, and then I felt full. Before testing my powers, I accessed to the X-System, to see what it was like.
Kinetic conversion and acceleration D low tier Progress: 0 %
Able to transform potential energy inside objects into kinetic energy. Also able to charge objects with kinetic energy from other sources, as himself. Also able to charge himself with kinetic energy at low quantities, improving speed, strength, agility and even endurance. The better the material of the object to charge, and the size of it, the more energy the user is able to charge into it. The more energy it has to charge into an object, the longer it takes him. Upon upgrade: Improve speed at charge, quantity to charge, and efficiency at it.
Okay, seems like as I know how the powers are supposed to develop, I¡¯m able to see its progress, this way I¡¯ll know if I¡¯m training them right. It explained that the material and size of the object I charged influenced in the quantity and speed of the energy I could charge it with, respectively. I tried to pick a pebble and charge it, it was quite slow, but I guess it¡¯s not weird, knowing where I start. After about ten seconds it got fully charged and I could feel the energy on the pebble vibrate, roaring to be released. I launched with all my strength, which was quite a lot, against a tree near the entrance of the cave. I saw the pebble fly in a straight lane, caused most probably by the kinetic energy more than by my skill, which I didn¡¯t have in launching pebbles. It looked like a piece of a star was launched, leaving a trail of light across the air; the moment it impacted against the tree, though, I noticed it was more than just looking like a piece of star. The pebble seemed to enter the trunk, as if permeating in the wood, as it cracked around it, but as the pebble got 5 centimeters inside the trunk, a loud noise rumbled. *Boooooom!* At the same time I saw the tree exploding at the point where the pebble had impacted the trunk, and leave a hole with a radius of around a 15 cm. I smiled seeing this, it was slow and not strong enough yet, but if I could train it, even though the beasts were stronger than this trunk, it could become a deadly weapon. I decided to charge some stones and leave them aside. As I was charging the 7th, I hit lightly one of the already charged stones. *Boom!* [Damn! That scared me!] ¨C The stone had released its energy; luckily for me it hadn¡¯t hit any of the other stones. ¨C [I have to be more careful.] I charged 10 more stones before I decided they were enough, and then I set them apart. I looked at myself and realized I hadn¡¯t bathed due that Gryphon. I took some dirt from the ground and rubbed it on my body, to get myself somewhat clean. It was not too much, but it was an improvement. I took me some time to wonder if I could charge my claws the same way as the pebbles¡­ I could, but it wasn¡¯t nice. When I got to do it I felt enthusiastic, I could fill them much faster than the pebbles, and it seemed they contained more energy, but when I tried to hit a tree near the entrance, I felt pain. I felt such an acute pain that it surprised me. I smiled, because despite the pain I felt, the tree had pretty much exploded in two halves, but then I looked towards my hand and I knew why I felt such an acute pain¡­ [I¡¯ve blown my arm!!!] ¨C It wasn¡¯t long until it regenerated, but that ¡®not long¡¯ was around 10 seconds, I could pretty much be dead in 10 seconds if I didn¡¯t have my arm to defend myself, so this would be left as a last resort, because even though it was powerful, it was dangerous to me. I returned to the cave wondering what I should do next. I needed to train this power, but I also needed to train in something else so that I could earn some SP. I had thought that the ape would give me some, but the Gryphon stole it from me, so it was discarded. I decided to look for some training, some that would last me for a while. I found one that would be perfect for me right now.
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 0.7 %
A furious way of fighting developed by werewolves. They fight with their lives on the way, because only in such way the tribe survives. A berserker style of fighting which ignores halfly the safety of the fighter so that he may inflict deadly damage to the enemies. Even when hunting it ignores safety, because this way, after devouring the prey, and while healing from their wounds, they adapt to the preys they eat.
This was probably the most similar fighting style to what I required amongst the lower half of the mid tiers, anything higher would be too hard for me to handle right now. And anything lower wouldn¡¯t be as useful. I felt the rush of information going into my head, or maybe my soul, who knows. During three months I kept training into this new fighting style while at the same time I trained in Aikido and I strengthened Gambit¡¯s power. I got to level up its power to the B low tier, which was pretty impressive, but still lower than in the series. On the other side, I barely accomplished the F mid power from the Werewolf Fury, which got me 500 SP but that was not even near enough to get my second power. I had realized the problem with Werewolf Fury; it needed not only actual combat to improve, but also to consume beasts. It would allow my body to strengthen different from the physical training from Aikido or other Earthly techniques, Werewolf Fury was based in a true predator, a dangerous hunter which evolved depending on what it hunted and so ate. [I bet that eating that rock bear would get my strength and endurance, together with my durability, to a whole new level, it¡¯s a pity that I can¡¯t beat it yet.] ¨C I decided that I needed to go out, it was time for me to hunt, and start growing up. Chapter 3 - The Hunt Near the shore of a shallow but big pond, where all kind of beasts gathered to drink its fresh water in the safety of the light, a predator was hiding, crouching behind some bushes, with its claws ready to strike against a clueless prey. The predator was a patient one and it had hid there for a long time, waiting for the perfect prey to pass in front of him; after a few more minutes, its patience was rewarded. As some beasts similar to what a fusion between a rhino and a giant turtle were leaving the pond, something approached the water. It was like an Elk, but it was clearly bigger. Not only it was 3 meters long, but also its antlers were enormous, and definitely didn¡¯t seem natural, they grew in a weapon form, as if they were there just to kill. The elk seemed like it would be imposing, but not this one, though. The elk was hurt and bleeding, probably by a fellow elk, as the wounds seemed like something pierced its side. The predator, not one to throw away a gift, readied to jump against its victim. As the elk approached the pond, it looked around to look for any danger, but unlucky him, the predator was well hidden, and as the elk discarded its wariness and bended over the pond, a shadow jumped out of the bush. From the shadow, a dim light bolted towards the elk, taking high speed in the way. As the shadow had jumped, the elk turned around ready to run, but before it could even attempt to do it, the light impacted against its right front leg, exploding right away and blowing apart the leg, making the elk trip over and fall down. The shadow, who obviously was Lyon, darted towards the elk, claws outwards and ready to kill him in an instant, hoping not to give him the chance to fight back. It arrived in front of the elk in less than 2 seconds, pretty amazing, as they were 16 meters apart, getting at almost 30 km/h in an instant; before the elk could even stand up, Lyon pierced its neck with its right claws, rendering the elk dead. I confirmed the death of the elk and looked around, wary of any danger, then took the body of the elk and dragged it towards the cave. I needed to get there fast, as it was getting late, and at night all the worse predators went out to hunt. I was almost at the cave when I heard some rustling behind me. [Damn!] I couldn¡¯t help but curse my own luck for not being faster and stronger and not being able to drag the corpse back to the cave in time. I immediately dropped the body of my prey and jumped to the side, getting as far from the rustling as possible in such short time, and drawing my claws, ready to fight against whatever it was. A big shadow jumped out of the bushes, appearing where I had been standing less than a second ago. It was a panther, but not exactly, it was as if it was half scorpion, because instead of a feline tail, it had some kind of flexible scorpion tail and instead of a normal mouth, it had something scary, it opened in four jaws, placed in pairs opposed to each other, as a worm, letting some green and viscous liquid drop from its mouth. As soon as it touched the ground I heard the hiss it caused. [It was f*cking acid!] ¨C I crouched onto the ground as if getting ready to jump, and inconspicuously I grabbed a stone. The beast looked at me crouching and roared with hunger. As it started to get near me I had to plan faster how to kill it. When it got to 3 meters away from me, it jumped at me, claws ready to rip me apart. I dodged to the side as I shot the pebble I had already charged only to be met with a scorpion tail piercing my chest. My stone got deviated by the impact on my body, so instead of the neck where I had pointed it just hit front leg. As soon as it got to pierce me, it used its tail to impulse itself away from me, hissing with pain. I was about to follow him when I felt all my body going limp. [Argh, damn poison¡­] I resisted the poison as hard as I could, and I got to stay still without falling. Although I was regenerating every part of my poisoned body, I wasn¡¯t eliminating the poison, if things followed like this, I would have to wait for it all to be used, that was a bad choice being in front of the beast that poisoned me. I gathered all my strength and immediately pierced my chest with one of my claws, just in where I had been pierced, the beast was trying to heal its paw a little, which gave me a few seconds. I immediately started bleeding, a huge amount of blood. Before I got to extract all the poison, I saw the beast ready to jump, so I removed my claw from my chest and took a stance. Even though I had some poison inside, it was not enough to make me unable to move, just to make me cumbersome. Just as the wound was almost healed, the beast jumped at me. I tried to slide sideways, dodging the beast, but because of the poison still on my blood, it was difficult, and I couldn¡¯t help but receive a cut from its claws on my left arm. [Damn! The claws also have poison?! Stupid Scorpion!] ¨C I felt the poison trying to extend, so before it did I clawed at my arm, after what I retracted my claws. After a large quantity of flesh was cut, all the blood of my arm started falling from the wound; I got backwards, getting ready to fight back. I didn¡¯t want to use that, but it was the only solution if I wanted to get out of here, if not, the beast could keep me poisoned as it wanted, and I would get useless. As soon as my arm was in one piece again, I prepared to use that, feeling the tremor in my body. That beast did not suspect a thing, as it jumped again at me, but this time I didn¡¯t try to dodge to the side, but instead pushed forwards, extending my claws, which now were glowing, and making a motion well practiced from the Werewolf Fury against its chest. As soon as my claws impacted on the beast, I felt my entire arm literally explode as the beast¡¯s chest exploded too, in an even more violent way than my arm did. It was painful, but it was a necessity, so I bared my teeth and waited for my arm to re-grow as I saw the panther going limp, with a giant whole in its chest. [I hope I¡¯m strong enough to drag the panther along with the elk, it would be a good source of strength.] ¨C It was hard, but after half an hour more, I got to drag both my preys into the cave. I immediately laid down exhausted on the floor, happy to be safe again. This can¡¯t happen too many times, I can¡¯t depend on a blowing up arm to kill enemies, it¡¯s too dangerous. If my arm impacts against something else than my enemy, I would lose my arm for nothing, and then be unprotected for too long. After some rest, I got up, ready to devour the elk, which was obviously easier to digest, as it wasn¡¯t poisonous. I knew that once I devoured the Scorpion-Panther I would have to rest until all the poison was digested which would in turn grant me some kind of poison resistance, but would leave me limp for hours or even days. I devoured the elk while repeating the mantra of the WF (Werewolf Fury), devour and evolve, or you will be the one devoured. As I repeated the mantra, I kept the breathing patterns instructed by the guide, which in turn made my blood boil, and I increased my voracious way of devouring the elk. It took me around two hours to completely devour the elk, making a few exceptions, as its antlers, its teeth, its skin, its hooves and bones. I devoured all other things, which made no sense; I didn¡¯t have that much space on my stomach, where was it all going? The guide said something about the breathing patterns making use of all my energy to digest whatever came into my stomach, making easier to absorb. Then, should I try to eat a bone? I first took some small bones, crushing them to become even smaller pieces, and eat a few. Seeing I didn¡¯t feel bad or weird, I munched a bigger bone; it was harder to swallow, but as it arrived onto my stomach, I almost felt it dissolve. I kept munching the bones for half an hour more, so only the hooves, the teeth and antlers were there. I didn¡¯t want to munch teeth, too weird, and I couldn¡¯t munch through any of the other two, while the antlers could make an improvised weapon once treated a little bit so I put them aside and neared the Scorpion Panther. Some of the floor was corroded, but I didn¡¯t care, I directly approached the body and bit through flesh, munching on its bloody meat. This time it took me less because I already knew my body was digesting it almost immediately, but it was hundreds of times more painful, its blood was acid, and more than once I felt my stomach be punctured by the corroding blood. Once I finished eating, I looked at what I decided to put aside. First it was its head, with its acid glands and its sharp teeth, though I had eaten its eyes, quite tasty, if you ask me. Second it was its pelt, which I left to do some clothes. Third it was its claws, which I had let apart for later, not sure if to eat it or to improvise some kind of dagger, we would see. Fourth and last was its tail; well, more than its tail it was only the ending of it, the stinger with the poison gland. I was wondering what to do, but I noticed my body was getting cumbersome, and I could feel less and less. ¨C [Stupid poison¡­] ¨C I decided to put it apart and think about it after I woke up. I leant against the wall, and closed my eyes, letting the poison invade me.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I ran through the trees, chasing my prey and ready to strike to death. I was following a Draconian Wolf, or at least that was as I called them, they were powerful wolves, with six legs instead of four, and strong and hard scales all over its body instead of fur. It was fast, almost as fast as me, which was why I was having trouble catching him, but I was more agile, making my run through the forest easier than for him. Of course, given that he had six legs, the wolf was far more agile than a normal wolf, so it took my more than an hour to near my distance to what is now. The wolf had first realized my presence when I was about fifty meters, but now it was less than 3 meters apart, and I could see that he was getting tired, which only came in handy, as I didn¡¯t tire. I prepared to jump at the minimum opportunity, and it presented itself pretty fast. The wolf ran through some kind of enclosure, making it so that he would have to make a close turn, which in turn would slow him. I got ready and when he was about to turn, I jumped. I took a dagger from a belt made with beasts¡¯ pelt and charged its tip with energy, then stroke with it. The charged dagger got to pierce the strong scales and stab him, but he kept running and by the time I got up, he was 10 meters apart. I immediately started running again, but this time I had a smirk on my face, he wouldn¡¯t be getting far. It wasn¡¯t more than a minute until the wolf slowed down, only to look at me with fury, anger, and fear. The dagger I had stabbed him with was one of the claws from the Scorpion Panther, which had a conduit inside so that it could carry its poison. Since two months ago when I had killed the panther I had kept both the poison gland and the stinger, along with the claws, and realized the gland kept generating poison. It was at an enormously slow pace, but still it did, it got the energy from the sun, which I only discovered when I took the stinger out for an experiment and realized it generated the poison faster. I had since then used poison to hunt, but I still relied mostly on my skills, as most of the beasts, even when poisoned, fought with all their might and were still dangerous. This wolf for example, the poison would bother him, but not make him unable to fight; the reason it stopped was because if it kept running, the poison would eventually stop him completely, and he would be left unprotected, but right now he could still fight. It¡¯s only way out was to kill me and then find a place to hide until the poison disappeared from its system. It emitted a low growl and charged at me. The beast would normally not do this, fighting so straightforward, but poisoned as it was, it had no other choice. I waited until it was almost on top of me, when I sidestepped to the left, which was where my dagger was stabbed, and after the wolf went pass me I grabbed the dagger and pushed it down while making myself stable. The momentum the wolf had dragged me forwards, but he ended with a long wound on its side, and I retrieved my dagger. The dagger was a little bit chipped, but it didn¡¯t matter, I had enough daggers to replace it, so I fully charged the dagger in around a second, which it was pretty slow right now, but it seemed these bones could hold quite some charge, and then I rapidly charged at the wolf, intending to finish him fast. When I was nearly about to stab him, he dodged, sending dust and earth upwards and intercepting the strike, but nothing happened, and then with my left hand I made a stabbing motion towards its heart. When the dagger made contact it exploded forwards, which was something I had developed lately, and pierced straight into its heart, rendering him dead in an instant. I retrieved the dagger, but it was broken, which didn¡¯t surprise me after going through the hard scales of that wolf. Normally I would eat most of my preys on the outside, but this time I needed the scales, and it was easier to drag a whole body than to drag hundreds of scales, so I caught the wolf, put him over my shoulders, and started running. In these two months of hunting, I had improved so much in my physical training that it surprised me, and thanks to not only the training but also the kills, I had quite a few soul points, and was nearer to my objective. Once I got the second power and leveled it to mid tier, I would get out of this forest. I thought about it as I ran through the forest, about where I would go and what would I do. Khan had said that there was a city near, but near to him could be very far to me. - [I hope he meant near to me.] - After two hours of running I got to the cave. I entered and dropped my prey. In front of me were some rests of the beasts I had hunted for two months and they were quite a few. There were some large spikes on the floor from a Lion I had hunted. When I first found the beast I found it hard to believe that it was a Lion, because instead of a mane, it had boned spikes sprouting from its head and neck. I didn¡¯t fight with them yet because my fighting style which had yet to reach 50 % was not optimal to fight with lances or big rapiers. Also I had a collection of antlers from the elks I had killed, I had 7 pairs, and the one from the first hunt were the smaller one. I had also a pelt collection either from the elks, the lions or the Scorpion Panthers, although these last ones I didn¡¯t dare yet to use as clothes, they still had a corroding effect on touch. I had acquired a total of 7 stingers from Scorpion Panthers, which led to a good supply of poison, together with 7 heads full of acid. I knew it probably was the same as the stingers, so I put them far inside the cave, I still remembered the pain of the first time I tried to eat it. As I had drunk the blood of the beast, which was acid, and my body had adapted accordingly, I thought I could drink the acid from its head. I tried getting a few drops, which I collected in some kind of stone bowl. I was about to drink it when I felt my hands burn. - [That damn acid pierced through f*cking stone in seconds¡­] ¨C It took me an hour to get that acid out of my body, and they were just around 7 drops of it, the heads where full of it. It was at that moment I realized how lucky I had been at avoiding its first assault, which was where it tried to bite me and inject the acid inside me, if it had, I would probably have succumbed there. I also had a collection of claws that I had yet to decide what to do with, plus some clothes I had managed to hardly do. It was poorly done, but it did its job, cover me without bothering me or slowing me down. I approached to the thing I was manufacturing right now, the scales armor. I had found a solitary Draconic Wolf about a week ago, and even though I used a lot of force to kill him, resulting in most of its body and scales turning useless, I had salvaged quite a few. I was trying to improve the clothes I made with the scales and the resin of an amazing tree. I had stumbled upon the tree two weeks ago, though I didn¡¯t find a use for it until the discovery of the Draconic Wolves. When I stumbled upon the tree I got my left arm trapped onto its resin, and even though I tried my best to release it, I couldn¡¯t, I had to cut my arm to get away! I dismembered the recently hunted wolf and as I ate it I accessed to my system. After that I went to rest, I had realized that if I rested as I tried to adapt myself, it was more effective, so now I always slept after devouring my prey.
Status X-System
Status
Name: Lyon Ironblood Soul Points: 17.440
Mutations: 3 Powers: 2
Mutations Acquired:
Wolverine Locked Deadpool Locked
Gambit Unlocked ( ----- )
Powers: Power origin:
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf G mid tier Wolverine + Deadpool
Kinetic conversion and acceleration S low tier Gambit
Kinetic conversion and acceleration S low tier Progress: 1.3 %
Able to transform potential energy inside objects into kinetic energy. Also able to charge objects with kinetic energy from other sources, as himself. Also able to charge himself with kinetic energy at low quantities, improving speed, strength, agility and even endurance. The better the material of the object to charge, and the size of it, the more energy the user is able to charge into it. The more energy it has to charge into an object, the longer it takes him. Upon upgrade: Improve speed at charge, quantity to charge, and efficiency at it.
Aikido B low tier Progress: 59.8 %
A human way of fighting, originated in the ancient asian continent of Earth, it bases its strength in dominate the others with their own strength, avoiding hits and countering, and fluid combinations of hits which lead to an astounding barrage of hits. Upon improving on it, the eficiency on using an enemy''s strength improves, making it easier to defend which is what aikido is most optimal for.
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 34.1 %
A furious way of fighting developed by werewolves. They fight with their lives on the way, because only in such way the tribe survives. A berserker style of fighting which ignores halfly the safety of the fighter so that he may inflict deadly damage to the enemies. Even when hunting it ignores safety, because this way, after devouring the prey, and while healing from their wounds, they adapt to the preys they eat. Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge): - Iron Elk ( x7 ) : Improves agility and bone durability. - Scorpion Panther ( x7 ) : Improves poison resistance, stealth and agility. - Spiked Lion ( x2 ) : Improves strength and bone durability. - Draconic Wolf ( x3 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability.
Chapter 4 - My first steps I woke up fresh and ready to train, I sat up without opening my eyes, getting fired up as I felt my muscles stretching. I breathed in a mouthful of air and then slowly opened my eyes as I breathed out the air. I hoped to stand up and then made my stretching exercises. It was nothing extraordinary, just some less simple stretching exercises than on Earth. I then practiced the aikido stances, while remembering my second hunt two days after I hunted down the Elk and the Scorpion Panther. *** It was a misty morning, though I don¡¯t know where the mist came from, as I hadn¡¯t seen any lake with enough water to produce such mist, I didn¡¯t care, it was another cover to hunt. After the painful experience with the Scorpion Panther¡¯s acid, I knew I had to be more careful from now on; beasts here had powerful weapons to defend themselves. I picked some rocks and hit them with each other until I had one that seemed slightly a knife, which although crudely made, could be quite helpful. I ran through the forest for only 20 minutes before I found a beast, luckily for me it wasn¡¯t a Scorpion Panther; I wasn¡¯t sure I could kill it as cleanly as I did last time, and I didn¡¯t want to risk a painful experience as the one with the Rock Bear. The beast before me was an Elk, which I decided I would call Iron Elk because of its antlers. This one, different from the one days before, wasn¡¯t hurt, and its antlers were even more fearsome and sharper than the other one. I would try to hide and ambush it, but it had seen me, and it was looking me as if I was a prey and not the other way, which unnerved me pretty much, so I got onto a battle stance, left foot at front, right foot at the back, and both arms in front of his chest fists formed and claws extended. As I got ready to fight the Elk did too. It bowed his head, pointing its antlers towards me, and then charged straight. I dragged the right feet in a clockwise circle, spinning to the left and therefore dodging its dash¡­ or so I thought, because when I finished the spin, I encountered myself face to face with the Elk, which had sidestepped with a little and fast jump to its right, making it so that he didn¡¯t miss or lose speed. I found myself impaled by its antlers and pushed 20 meters away! That damn beast was strong! I crashed onto a tree which almost broke and then fell down, but luckily I had already recovered from the antlers by the time I stood up. I looked towards the Elk with a serious and worried gaze, would I be able to kill it? I guessed I would, even if it was at the cost of my arm, but I decided against it. ¨C [I can¡¯t learn to fight if I always resort on wasteful and easy methods.] ¨C And so I got into position once again. The Elk, seeing me in perfect condition even after impaling and propelling me 20 meters away, got angry, and charged again at me. I frowned as I thought fast how to counter him, and then I realized what I could do. I prepared to do the same sidestep I did before. Once he was near me, yet somewhat farther than the last time, I repeated the dodge but this time observing how the Elk reacted, and as expected he did the same as the last time, but not me. This time, dodging with more of a time lapse, as I was finishing the circular swipe with my right foot, I kicked the floor, dodging right by a meter or so instead of the short sidestep I did before, and leaving the Elk just in front of the tree I had been launched to. The Elk, who didn¡¯t expect my second dodge, couldn¡¯t react on time, and dashed right onto the tree, impaling it with its antlers and almost making it burst. I took the chance while he was struggling to remove its antlers from the tree to strike with my claws onto its heart, killing him almost instantly, making it so that he wouldn¡¯t suffer and I wouldn¡¯t be put in peril. I was so satisfied the first time I hunted him without ambushing I was smiling all the way back to the cave, even when I was dragging 300 kilos behind me. *** I finished my aikido stances and readied for the Werewolf Fury¡¯s ones, which were much more aggressive and ferocious. And as I did it I remembered my second encounter with a Scorpion Panther. *** It had already passed a week since my second hunt, and I had gotten more proficient in combat, even though some preys got away, coz I wasn¡¯t fast enough. I had discovered just a day ago that the poison stingers still produced poison, and so I was equipped with poisoned daggers for the first time, but instead of encountering an Elk or a Draconic Wolf, which I had seen the day before yesterday and hadn¡¯t been able to hunt yet, I found a Scorpion Panther, rendering my poisoned dagger useless. I cursed my luck in my mind, but still got ready to fight; I couldn¡¯t avoid them forever, so better learn how to fight them. This time I crouched and used my most aggressive stance, one where I discarded all defense for offensive and agility. Against the Elks or Wolves I could just bare my teeth and endure the pain of being impaled or bitten, but against the Scorpion Panther, if I was bitten or scratched, I would suffer tremendously, so I had to opt for a different kind of fighting. Before the Panther even jumped at me, I charged straight at him, which took him by surprise, as no one had fought him face to face, frightful of its acid. So I approached and he made a weird facial expression that I guessed was a smile, and then tried to bite me, only to find out I wasn¡¯t in front of him anymore. Using my claws I could make sharp turns and dodge effectively, as described on the guide, and so I positioned myself on its side then elbowed its ribs, only to send him flying against a tree. ¨C [Ha! It seems Kinetic conversion in little quantities is quite effective in making me faster and stronger.] ¨C I immediately and unhesitatingly ran towards him and when I was a few meters of him I launched him a charged dagger. I threw it at his back, so that he would dodge towards my left... And he did it, only to find both my fists with claws extended going through its ribs, trying to puncture its heart. Unluckily to me, its heart wasn¡¯t exactly where I supposed, so even thought I hit it, I didn¡¯t went totally through it, leaving the Panther with the chance to spit its acid at my face! ¡°Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but scream as the acid got into my eyes and I felt my face melt. It was the second most painful experience I had had, and I didn¡¯t want to feel it. I took the dagger on my belt, which I had improvised with some pelts, and stabbed myself on my head, effectively losing consciousness. I woke up thrice only to feel the acid corrode me from inside, and so I stabbed myself again, falling into darkness again. By the fourth time I woke up, I didn¡¯t feel any more pain. It was already dark, and so I stood up and looked around, seeing that no one was around, I grabbed carefully the Panther and dragged it fast towards the cave. Luckily I didn¡¯t encounter any beast before I got to safety. *** I finished the first stances set, Equilibrium, that was the one I used against the Elk, centered on balance over defense, speed and offense, and then passed onto the stances of the more ferocious way I used to hunt the Panther, Feast.Stolen novel; please report. *** As I had been hunting on the forest lately, I found some little beasts on the forest. Ones such beasts were big round rabbits, which would usually be waddling but that at the minimum sign of danger would contract, becoming a little furry compressed ball which then started rolling away from the danger. I also discovered some birds which would hunt little snakes or even rabbits, but nothing dangerous to me, and as such, nothing worthy of being hunted to be devoured. It wasn¡¯t until after the first month when I discovered the fourth worthy prey in the forest (not counting the gryphon, which I had yet no chance to defeat, or the apes, of which I hadn¡¯t seen any since that day.). It was a beautiful beast, five meter long, two meter high and a meter wide; it had a spiked mane which emanated a dangerous aura that was almost palpable. Yes, the Spiked Lion. When I encountered it, I was already dressed in leather clothes made from the Elks, and had a belt made with the same leather, where I carried some daggers made with claws. The Lion smelled the Elk, and identified me as a prey, making him look at me with voracious eyes and a hungry gaze. I decided to try fighting it, and choose the only fight stance I hadn¡¯t tried, the Legion fighting style, being an entire herd me alone; that meant avoid the enemy, don¡¯t be hurt, and you¡¯ll be able to hurt the enemy hundreds of times. I crouched on the floor, similar to when I fought the Scorpion Panther, but instead of leaning forward to gain speed to dash straight to the enemy as with the Feast, I leaned towards a side, prepared to dodge at a moment notice. And different from the direct way I attacked the Panther, this time I waited, ready to counteract. The Lion, seeing I wasn¡¯t attacking, ran towards me, neither too fast nor too slow, and definitely with a big strength behind its strides. When he was over me, he moved his paw with a speed unbelievable for such a big beast, yet thanks to my already leant body, I dodged immediately and clawed at its side before getting away and regaining my stance. ¡­ After an hour of dodging and clawing, the floor was full of blood and the Lion was furious but tired. I was also getting tired, because even if I could not get physically tired, it was mentally exhausting to keep my concentration at top during an hour straight. I decided I would try to finish it already, as he was getting more sluggish, so I prepared a dagger and started charging, only to see the lion lean forward, as if bowing, and I wondered if it was surrendering, until the spikes on its back stopped being relaxed and got straight looking towards me. [Oh f*ck!] ¨C I ran towards my right as he started shooting its spikes, and had to jump to avoid quite a few, but I got far enough to put a tree between myself and the Lion, so I breathed out and leaned my back on the tree¡­ *Thud!* *Crunch!* ¡­I looked downwards only to see one of the spikes protruding from my chest, that f*cking beast had impaled me onto the tree! I gritted my teeth and walked forwards, only to notice that it was not a smooth spike; it had backwards spikes! I was ripping apart my own flesh only to get from the tree, and like hell it was painful. Before I could walk completely out of the spike, I saw the Lion staring me with hate and pleasure. I tried to get out and the Lion jumped towards me, so I did the only thing I could think at the time, I walked backwards, impaling myself again, but successfully getting away from the attack. The Lion, after failing, stared at my eyes as it stood in front of me. I prepared something I had thought at the moment while I waited for the Lion to attack me. It wasn¡¯t even a few seconds until he tried to bite my head, and when he was upon me, I jumped upwards, displacing the spike so it pointed towards the Lion, as the Lion saw it, it wouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem, he knew its spikes, so he could avoid most of the damage. That was his last mistake, as I had charged the whole spike with energy and the moment the Lion entered in contact, it exploded furiously. I saw myself getting launched backwards, or at least half me. The damn explosion had ripped me in two halves. I coughed blood as I landed, and tried to look for the Lion. I saw him and damn he was resistant, he was still alive! Obviously he was hurt, but the fact that he could survive that proved he was powerful beyond belief. Luckily he was too distressed to realize I was regenerating, and in a minute I had re-grown my legs, I ignored the fact that I was naked and looked around, I took one of the spikes the Lion had shot before and charged its tip to improve its penetrative force. When it was charged, the Lion finally realized I was alive, and seeing I had grabbed one of his spikes, one of the same spikes which had hurt him so badly, he showed fear for the first time, and tried to run, but I didn¡¯t let him, launching the improvised javelin with all my strength, which was quite a bit, and I looked the javelin fly through the 10 meters separating me from the Lion, and impaling him onto the floor. I took a second spike and approached, ready to finish it, only to see that I had hit its heart without even realizing it. That was the first time I felt sorry for a beast, as it was a magnificent beast, but still I was more important to myself than a beast, so I swallowed my thoughts and dragged the Lion together with all the spikes I could carry, and went to the cave. *** Now that I reflected upon it, I had quite the lucky first time hunts, if I must say, but I wasn¡¯t one to ignore the gifts the world gave me, and so I took advantage of anything I could. As I finished the stances I went towards the entrance, and worked on separating the scales of the Draconic Wolf on different piles depending on its shape, to know which I could use to craft my robes, and which not. I spent around an hour between separating and sticking the new usable ones to the clothes, and then I got ready to go explore the forest. I carried some strange leaves that I used to make some kind of canteen to carry the glue I used to craft. I also carried a sharpened fang I had worked on quite a bit to use as a knife. It was the better crafted weapon I had, but still I preferred to use my claws, they felt more like me. I wandered for half an hour until I found one of the glue trees, and tried my best to collect it. I had discovered that it solidified when heated, and that¡¯s why when I got in contact it solidified, the body heat had solidified the glue instantly, but the leaves I used to collect the glue where strangely cold, and this way I could carry the glue to my cave. After collecting two canteens I got ready to leave when I saw some little monkeys jump between the trees not too far from where I was through the help of some vines. ¨C [Those vines seem quite useful; I could really use them¡­ Ah! I can use them!] While thinking about the monkeys and the vines I realized just how useful could those vines become if I used them to do what I had thought. I excitedly ran towards the tree and climbed it to cut quite a few vines, then coiled them around my body and ran towards the cave; I had so many things to prepare! *** After a few days of collecting vines, glue and doing preparations, I was ready. I had to prepare everything perfectly, or it would be dangerous, but I was sure it would work, so I prepared everything and ran with all the equipment towards a particular pond where I had been months ago, and started preparing everything. I took a big rock, pierced with antlers parts and a vine attached to it and buried it, leaving the vine outside, attached to something I let on the floor. I repeated this all around the pond, burying around 20 rocks, and by the time I finished I saw a shadow jump down from a tree. I jumped backwards and prepared my knife; as the shadow hit the floor, I jumped forwards even faster and slashed the legs of the ape which had dropped on the floor with a edge charged knife, which cut through flesh and bones as if cutting through butter, leaving the ape without legs, only to slash again at its right arm, followed by its left one. Once I ended, an amputee ape was on the floor. I made haste towards one of the buried stones and hid there. After about half an hour, a shadow even bigger than the ape dropped from the sky. ¨C [What I had been waiting for!] When the shadow had almost grabbed the ape, I took the spike javelin which I had tied to the rock with the vine, and charging its tip, I launched it towards the shadow! It arrived almost instantly, and I heard a beautiful pain scream. *Craaaaaaaaaaaaah!* [Yes! I¡¯ve got you, damn gryphon!] ¨C Exactly, I had made a plan to fight the gryphon thanks to the vines, which would tie him to the ground. I grew excited as it dropped onto the floor, only for it to look towards the source of the spike, but I wasn¡¯t there. I had ran all the way around the pond, getting on the other side of it, grabbing the spike on that side I charged it, and aimed at my new prey. It was time to hunt the big shots! Chapter 5 - Run away! I swung my right arm with all my strength, shooting the spike towards the Gryphon. As it was trying to look where the first spike had come from, he didn''t realize the second one being shot, and so I took him by surprise, impaling him again. *Kreeeeeeeeee!* [Next one!] - I barely waited half a second between the second shot and me starting to run towards the third spike, I had to make sure he couldn''t move! By the time I shot the last one, he couldn''t move at all. Quite a few spikes hadn¡¯t been able to pierce his skin, but at the end it didn¡¯t matter. He had been able to cut the vines attached to two of the spikes that did pierce him, but as the vines were soaked on glue, the moment he moved to cut those, the other vines entangled all around him, making him not only unable to cut them, but also to move. ¨C [Hahahaha! It''s working!] ¨C I was so excited I could barely stop shaking! What would I get from adapting to the Gryphon?! I took the one of the two spikes I had carried here without installing them on harpoons, and charged a fine line on its inside, along with the tip and a pretty big part on its back. This way it would first stab, and then slide until the backside, at which time it would completely explode, hopefully killing it. I charged my arm more than I would like to gain strength even if it strained my muscles, and then shot the spike with all my strength. I saw it flew towards the Gryphon, but then it turned its beak around and hit the spike so fast and with such strength that the spike just changed directions 90 degrees, going straight towards the floor and piercing deep on it, before exploding and making dust jump all around. It didn¡¯t take me long to realize it hadn¡¯t just hit the spike in a random direction; it had launched through 5 vines, and so cut them in half. It shocked me, but I could not let him escape, or I would be in danger, so I took another spike and charged it again, but instead of launching it I ran towards the Gryphon. When I was about to reach him, suddenly he looked at my eyes, and I felt fear. Not his, no, he wasn¡¯t afraid at all, I felt my own fear, sipping all over my body and even in my soul, permeating deeper and deeper every second I kept looking at those eyes. I felt as if I was about to lose my mother again, and feared that it would happen again and again¡­ I dropped on my knees and while keeping my eyes on him, I started crying, I felt the same pain that I felt when I lost my mom, and it was agonizing. Why didn¡¯t I save her? I could have done it, if I just hadn¡¯t went out that night, if only had I stayed home, I would¡¯ve saved her¡­ [I should die¡­ I don¡¯t know why am I still alive¡­ I shouldn¡¯t be living like this when my mom is dead because of me¡­] ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but think that as I grabbed a dagger in my belt. Soon I took the dagger and pierced my heart, sighing of relief, knowing I would die¡­ [Wait, I can¡¯t die, and I know I can¡¯t!] ¨C I suddenly realized what was happening and turned my look away from the gryphon. ¨C [That f*cker can enter my mind!] ¨C I was angered beyond belief about that; I knew I didn¡¯t play fair with the vines and the glue, but it still was a battle of wits, he could have not come down, but manipulating my mind was too low. ¨C [Who does he think he is?!] I was angry, angrier than I believed I could be, and so I decided that the Gryphon wouldn¡¯t leave alive this pond. I took the spike and fully charged, a thing that I hadn¡¯t done in a lot of time, I also charged my arm beyond its capabilities, which would make it break after exerting strength, but would give the javelin a speed beyond every other. Once everything was ready I looked up towards the Gryphon, and he was looking at me with disdain, which only angered more. ¨C [He thinks he can manipulate my mind and then look down at me?!] ¨C I grabbed the spike and shot it at him with all my strength, crushing the bone on my arm on the motion. I looked the javelin travel towards its head and saw him trying to stop the spike as he did before, only to provoke the explosion of it, killing him on the spot. ¡°Ha! That¡¯s what happens to you for taking me as a fool!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t believe he made me remember my mother death again¡­ [Well now¡­ How the hell am I supposed to carry that back to the cave?] ¨C After I killed the beast I realized I hadn¡¯t planned for after killing it, taking me to the situation I was now, with 2 bodies and no way to carry them¡­ *** After half an hour, I had built an improvised stretcher which helped me carry both their bodies, I had lost my hands twice, but I had finally got to build the stretcher with some trunks and the glued vines. It took me two more hours to carry the bodies back to the cave, although it had only taken me three quarters of an hour to get to the pond¡­ Damn heavy Gryphon and damn the trees which made me maneuver. When I got to the cave I sighed of relief, I was glad nothing had attacked me while carrying both the bodies; I didn¡¯t want to fight right now and risk losing my preys. As soon as I dropped the bodies I got to work. From the birdie I ate almost everything except its feathers, its claws and its beak. From the ape, though, I ate it all. ¨C [There¡¯s no need to waste the food, is it?] ¨C And so after a fulfilling meal, I got to sleep. *** ¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! F***********CK! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS F*CKING PAIN?!¡± ¨C I woke up from the pain I was feeling all around my body, and I almost threw out from the strain it was causing me. I looked down to see my muscles wriggling like worms under my skin; they were twirling and stretching, then compressing again, and repeating the process again and again. I fell down incapable of enduring the pain, clawing with my blooding fingers onto the floor, trying to distract myself from the pain, all unsuccessfully. I was thrashing on the floor for hours, feeling my bones grow, and my muscles compress, my skin gaining density, and hearing my back crack, as if all the bones on my back were against me and were trying to kill me with pain. By the time the pain went away, I was drenched in sweat and incapable of moving, although that didn¡¯t last long, because even though I could steel feel a phantom pain from all the muscles and bones, I had already regenerated and was not physically tired anymore. [Damn regeneration, I can¡¯t even take a nap¡­] ¨C I stood up and looked around, and as soon as I did I realized something. Everything around seemed smaller. ¨C [Ooh, so I¡¯ve grown¡­ that explains the pain on my bones. And so I opened my system to see what had changed.
Status X-System
Status
Name: Lyon Ironblood Soul Points: 17.440
Mutations: 3 Powers: 2
Mutations Acquired:
Wolverine Locked Deadpool Locked
Gambit Unlocked Angel 2 % If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Powers: Power origin:
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf G mid tier Wolverine + Deadpool
Kinetic conversion and acceleration S low tier Gambit
Angel wings ( In Process to Unlock ) Progress: 2 %
The user has started a mutation towards a winged being. Developing further can result in unlocking Angel''s powers. Upon unlock: The user grows feathered wings which help him to fly and are of help in balance.
¡­ ¡°Wait what?!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but exclaim when I saw what I saw. ¨C [I can get mutations even without points?] ¨C It was an enormous discovery! Of course it wasn¡¯t finished, and I would have to devour quite a few winged beings, but if I could completely unlock Angel¡¯s wings without wasting points, why wouldn¡¯t I do it? It had been around 7 months since the Rock Bear had been here, so it wouldn¡¯t be too long before it came back. ¨C [I need to get ready before that beast comes back.] ¨C I went towards the entrance, collected the poison, and then came back inside, towards the clothes I had almost finished. ¨C [They¡¯re going to be so cool once finished that I almost can¡¯t wait.] ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but grin at the idea of me wearing full scale armor, and thrashing around the forest, but then I remembered the beasts the forest hid, and I decided that thrashing was simply stupid. After working some time on the clothes, I stood up and started training again in my fighting stances. Equilibrium had some stance which resisted me, in which I had to spin along the dash of the enemy, clawing at him with the arm opposite to my position, so as to say, that if I dashed sidestepping towards the left, and so let him dash by my right, I had to spin clock-wise and claw him with my left hand, then keep spinning, so that my claws would rip where I was thanks to the strength of the dash. The problem laid in my quite inability to make use of my left hand correctly. I had been practicing since I was little, but I almost always hit with my right hand, so here I was now, having problems with my left hand coordination, which had already caused me two incidents; and these two incidents were against beasts, so imagine if I were to fight a sapient specie. I would find myself too predictable. I couldn¡¯t allow that! I had been practicing with both my hands to do exactly the same, trying not to feel uncomfortable, which was quite hard. Anyway, I kept training for I needed a left hand as good as my right one. *** My left arm clawed clock-wise in a spinning motion, ready to pierce an Elk¡¯s skull. The Elk, having been dodged, tried to brake, but that only condemned him. I felt my claws pierce from its neck to its skull, and drag him on my spinning motion, ripping apart part of its head, killing him in the place. *Sigh* It had been twenty days since I assimilated the Gryphon, and between adjusting myself to the new body, and practicing to make my left hand as useful as my right one, I had been quite busy, but now I could fight equally well with both of my hands. It was all thanks to the ape, though.
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 38.6 %
Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge): - Iron Elk ( x11 ) : Improves agility and bone durability. - Scorpion Panther ( x8 ) : Improves poison resistance, stealth and agility. - Spiked Lion ( x3 ) : Improves strength and bone durability. - Draconic Wolf ( x6 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability. - Fiery Ape (x5) : Improves balance and coordination, small improvement in strength. - Gryphon (x1) : Improves eyesight, hearing, balance, speed and strength. (+2% at Angel''s powers)
It was quite useful, so I had caught a few more, but they were hard to catch, because if they felt you were dangerous they ran, and since I acquired part of Angel¡¯s mutation through absorbing the Gryphon, the Apes took me as a familiar of the Gryphon, and as such avoided me to the best of their capabilities, which were pretty enormous in the art of avoiding. That or I was more terrible at hiding than I thought. *** It was a dark and cold night, and the normally quiet forest was rumbling, tremors and sounds of trees falling. Inside the forest a shadow could be seen running as fast as it could, dodging trees and jumping over bushes. The shadow was being persecuted by a much bigger shadow, which was thrashing through the forest breaking the trees that came in its way instead of dodging, but without losing any speed from it. The first shadow was agile and fast, which allowed it to keep the distance even thought it had to avoid the obstacles, but the bigger shadow was getting close, and it wouldn¡¯t be too long before it reached it. The smaller shadow, obviously Lyon, was totally annoyed at his situation. It had been late, and he was about to go back to the cave when he located a beautiful prey. It was an enormous Elk, bigger than any other Elk he had seen, and instead of a sole pair of antlers, it had two. Lyon had decided it was worth the risk of getting to the cave later if he could catch that prey and that had ended up quite badly. *** [Damn Elk! Why did it have to bait me there?!] ¨C I cursed on my mind as I kept trying to run away. ¨C [If it was that fast he should¡¯ve fled right away, and not make me lose my time and endanger me!] After spotting the Elk I charged straight at it, ready to finish him in an instant, but he dodged me at the last second, almost tripping, and then started running away. I mumbled a curse between my teeth and then ran after it; I couldn¡¯t let such a prey run away, after all. I almost caught him quite a few times, but he always ended up dodging at the last instant which brought me to think he was just lucky and that I could eventually kill him. That thought disappeared when we approached a swamp and he suddenly screeched, followed by his full speed run away. I could barely see a blur in my field of vision, and he wasn¡¯t there, he was astoundingly fast. Then I heard bubbles and some kind of low growl. And I turned my eyes to the swamp. And there I found the most dangerous beast I had seen. It was 7 meters long and at least 2 meters tall. It seemed a crocodile, but not quite so. It was more like a wingless dragon, and I can assure it was terrifying. Its mouth, measuring a meter long, was full with disordered grey teeth, which were as sharp as daggers and I was sure he could snap me in half with a simple bite. He had four red eyes, looking straight at me, and I could see its scales standing up, and some kind of red bright substance dripping. As soon as the substance touched the floor, I could see it almost burned, I guess that¡¯s why he lives in the swamp, its humidity makes it impossible for him to burn the forest and with the boiling water it creates a covering for him. I then saw as the scales slowly went plain, to impede the pass of the bright substance, and as soon as they did, the wingless dragon¡¯s eyes started to shine brighter and I could see his muscles stretch. I immediately turned around and with a simple charge at each of my legs, I ran! *** And this takes us here to me running away from him. I was getting near the cave, but I doubted this dragon would care at all; it probably would thrash around the cave and end destroying everything, so I couldn¡¯t guide him towards it. I decided I needed a distraction, so I started charging my right shoulder. When it was charged enough, I punched forwards while holding my right arm with my left one; it snapped completely, sending blood flying around. I separated my arm so that it wouldn¡¯t regenerate towards my body and waited for my new arm to grow, all that while running away from the dragon. When I was full again, I charged the bones in the arm I had ripped off my shoulder, and launched it backwards, and while the arm was flying, I charged my legs¡¯ muscles in order to run faster than until now, even at the price of a leg. As I assumed, the dragon didn¡¯t even slow down but opened its mouth to catch the arm, and as soon as it entered its mouth, it snapped its jaws to crunch it. What the dragon didn¡¯t expect was my arm to explode, and it finally slowed down to cough and spit the rest of my arm. In the moments it slowed and stopped observing me, I used all my strength and the energy on my legs to run away, and finally I got out of its range and could run towards the cave. This was something I wouldn¡¯t forget, even my fully charged bones, while inside its mouth, had merely made him cough, what the hell was that monster?! At that moment I made two promises. The first one to get strong enough to hunt that dragon, and collect its body to make myself a good armor; the second one, to kill the Elk bastard that guided me there! Chapter 6 - The first insights I woke up tired and cold, but most of all, angry. Angry at the Elk, angry at the Dragon, but mostly, angry at myself. I had been training for too long with almost no improvement, and I had almost ended up digested by a Dragon, which would¡¯ve been quite worse than dying. I stood up as I made up ??my mind; I needed a power that would let me run away more easily. I had realized something while running from the Dragon, I didn¡¯t need to win every combat, just be able to survive them; that way, I could always get stronger and make a comeback, but that would only work while I was alive and free, so I needed the upgrade. I opened the powers list and scrolled down in search of something useful. It didn¡¯t take me long until I saw something that caught my eye. ¡°Yes¡­ if it¡¯s this I¡¯ll be able to not only run away, but fight more effectively.¡± ¨C I immediately purchased the mutation, and I felt myself fall into a stupor. I felt as if even standing where I was standing, I was not there. I looked down, and felt my flesh turn into some kind of dust, and then disappear, before appearing again as dust and reforming into flesh. When my flesh disappeared, I could still feel it, and it felt strange, as if something was crawling over my arm, yet this something wasn¡¯t alive, or not an alive I could understand, and when the flesh returned, it had acquired an ashen bluish tone, not quite visible, almost as if it wasn¡¯t there. That¡¯s right; I had picked Nightcrawler, and the ¡°living being¡± I felt was nothing but the other side, the dimension of shadows, which allowed Nightcrawler to teleport. And although my skin was not yet the color of Nightcrawler¡¯s skin, it would soon, as long as I kept entering such dimension. Luckily, though, I didn¡¯t have a tail. At least for now, I was safe from that.
Shadow Dimension D low tier Progress: 0 %
Able to access the mysterious shadow dimension, entering it on one point and getting out at another, effectively teleporting. Right now, the range is 1 meter, and the maximum amount of time the user is able to stay on the Shadow Dimension is of half a second. This time is your dimension time. Time in your dimension and the Shadow Dimension flow diferently. Upon efectively teleporting, some of the Shadow Dimension sip onto your dimension, leaving traces in your body and a brimstone smell on the air. Upon upgrade: Improve range, maximum time of disappearence and speed at entering the Shadow Dimension.
I understood the fact that I couldn¡¯t teleport too far yet, but 1 meter? Really? I get that the reason was because I could only stay about half a second on the other side, but still. Well, at least I could teleport, and once I developed it further, I was sure I could do better. The first thing I did, of course, was trying it. I breathed in and relaxed, then imagined the shadows crawling over me and I felt myself fade¡­ except I didn¡¯t exactly teleport. I just stood there, but I couldn¡¯t even see my arms anymore. *DING*
System Notification
The user has discovered the secrets of one of the powers he unlocked by himself, upgrading them efectively and fast. Such improvements will be rewarded by a percentage progression or by a full rank up, depending on the importance of the discovery. Upon new discoverys, the system will inform the user with the sound it heard before, but will no longer open system alerts without permision.
Shadow Dimension C low tier Progress: 11.3 %
Shadow Step: Able to access the mysterious shadow dimension, entering it on one point and getting out at another, effectively teleporting. Right now, the range is 1 meter, and the maximum amount of time the user is able to stay on the Shadow Dimension is of half a second. This time is your dimension time. Time in your dimension and the Shadow Dimension flow diferently. Upon efectively teleporting, some of the Shadow Dimension sip onto your dimension, leaving traces in your body and a brimstone smell on the air. Shadow Cover: The user is now also capable of covering himself with part of the Shadow Dimension while he''s on shadows, rendering him invisible to the eyes. Also, as a side efect from the open portal, his scent will be contained on himself, rendering him odorless to others. Maximum time: 30 seconds. Upon upgrade: Improve range, maximum time of disappearence and speed at entering the Shadow Dimension. Improved time of Shadow Cover, improved speed at covering himself in shadows.
Waw, I didn¡¯t know the tables could do that, but at least it told me that from now on the table wouldn¡¯t open automatically, so that¡¯s good. And about the new ability I just unlocked¡­ ¡°I didn¡¯t know Nightcrawler could do that!¡± I could now turn invisible as long as I was in the shadows! Ok, it was only during half a minute, but it was good enough, and even though that the smell of brimstone would be left on the air every time I teleported, it said that it didn¡¯t have the same result upon covering myself on shadows, so if I trained on this I could be totally invisible, and my smell would be covered by the shadows, making myself almost fully invisible. As soon as I calmed down, I tried to teleport again, but instead of imagining the shadows crawling over me, I imagined myself submerging onto the shadows, and this time it worked, I faded away and reappeared, and once I opened my eyes, not only I could see myself, meaning I hadn¡¯t made a mistake again, I could see that I was away from the position I was before! It felt so strange being on the other side. Almost like a dream, some kind of fuzzy memory I knew I should have but I couldn¡¯t remember. It felt wrong, but at the same time right. As if the fact that I couldn¡¯t remember it was the right thing to happen, but also that if I got to remember it, my powers would be complete. And ooh, was I right. I didn¡¯t know right there, but that train of thought would lead me to develop those powers incredibly fast. As I didn¡¯t know I was right then, I just decided to practice with my dreams, and once I felt I could remember and ¡°control¡± my dreams, as to say, have lucid dreams, I would try to do the same on the shadow dimension. As I didn¡¯t know any other way to train it, other than just jumping once and again, which would lead me to nothing because other than disappearing and reappearing I didn¡¯t feel a thing, I decided that I should keep training on Gambit powers, and maybe try to upgrade them to mid tier. I tried remembering all I could about Gambit, and I realized it was more than just charging. On the films and on the comics, he could control at some degree the small objects he charged as long as they were within a small radius. Maybe that¡¯s what I was missing. I mean, I was already at 90% of S low tier, so a little bit more and I would get an upgrade!Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I took a pebble, which remembered me of the first time I trained Gambit¡¯s powers, and charged it a bit, far from my max, but the point was not to blow something up, but to feel the energy even when it wasn¡¯t on me anymore. I closed my eyes and tried to feel the pebble. I tried to infuse small quantities of energy and follow it with my mind while my eyes were closed. And even though I felt it somewhat as it was leaving my hand and entering the pebble, once I stopped infusing it, I stopped feeling it. As I kept doing it, I didn¡¯t realize the stone reached its maximum capacity, and it exploded, burning a little bit my hand and leaving some small holes which regenerated in an instant. ¡°Damn! What the hell am I doing wrong?!¡± ¨C I was annoyed at my failures, but I was sure Gambit could do what I was trying to do, so I needed to keep practicing. I tried it again putting my two hands onto another pebble and infusing very little amounts of energy from both hands, trying to feel the energy inside. While I kept infusing with my left hand, I took my right hand apart, but I forgot to interrupt the energy flow, so I felt the energy escape rapidly my hand, yet I still felt that some of it was going into the pebble and not the air, and then, at the same time I stopped the flow, I realized. ¡°It¡¯s not that he controls the cards that are charged, it¡¯s that he controls that which he is charging!¡± I immediately tried to do the same thing, sitting down on the floor, taking a little stone and putting it over my right hand. I knew I wouldn¡¯t be able to do the same as Gambit, not at the start, so while I was charging it really slowly I took the pebble with my left hand and held it on the air while keeping the flow with my right one. I immediately felt the same kind of flow as before going into the stone, yet being lost over the air. It felt as if I was holding upside-down a bucket full of water and trying that all the water would fall inside a glass. It was obvious most of the water would fall on the grown, or in this case, most of the energy was being lost onto the air. I stopped the flow and waited a minute, as all the energy wasted was coming from me. Actually, after less than ten seconds I was recovered, which I should get used to and stop calculating wrongly my rest times. I held the pebble in my hand but this time, I took it on the left hand and put a single finger from my right hand onto the pebble. I imagined that instead of charging it slowly or fast as I did before, I used less energy. As if before I was using the bucket, and now I was just using a bottle. It was really easy to imagine thanks to the fact that I was using only a finger, and it felt as if it was a bottle in comparison with my hand. After feeling it for a time, I took the finger apart, and though I still felt some of the flow lost in the air, most of it was now going onto the pebble! Now that I almost didn¡¯t lose energy, I could try the next step. I placed again my finger onto the stone, without changing anything about the amount or the speed of the energy I was infusing it with. But I changed the way I did it. Instead of injecting the energy as I had done until now, I tried to make it cover the pebble from all sides, as if soaking it on energy. I felt the energy flow bend to my will, and surround the pebble, and with the next thought, the energy started entering the stone. I suddenly felt that the stone was taking much more energy than it was before. Not as if I was using more energy, on the contrary I was using about a fifth, yet the pebble was absorbing it all, which until now I didn¡¯t realize it didn¡¯t, making it so that the stone was charging twice as fast as before! That meant that it actually was charging 10 times as fast, because I was charging it five times less energy, so it should charge slower. I then realized I had been doing it wrong all the time. I also felt that the pebble was under a lot less of stress, and it could absorb more energy, almost 4 times as energy as it did before! I forgot about the point of doing it so when I had to stop because it was full, I couldn¡¯t help but laugh. I took another one, and repeated the same thing, yet this time, while charging it, I used some of the energy surrounding it not to enter, just stay there, and then I took my finger apart. Some of the energy was still lost, but most of the ¡°lost¡± energy was going onto the stone, covering as I had willed it to do, and I felt connected to it. I willed it to go up, and fucking hell it went up. *Swish!* *Boooooom!* *DING* ¡°Hahahahaha¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but laugh as the debris fell around me. I did it! I controlled the stone! Ok, yes, it hadn¡¯t done what I wanted, but I had controlled, so it was an improvement. And I also had heard the ring from the system, so it seemed I had unlocked something.
Kinetic conversion and acceleration G mid tier Progress: 2.1 %
Kinetic Energy Control: Able to transform potential energy inside objects into kinetic energy. Also able to charge objects with kinetic energy from other sources, as himself. Also able to charge himself with kinetic energy at low quantities, improving speed, strength, agility and even endurance. The better the material of the object to charge, and the size of it, the more energy the user is able to charge into it. The more energy it has to charge into an object, the longer it takes him. Energy Strings: The user is now able to cover the objects in energy while infusing them, and control them up to a certain point. The farther the object is, the user will have to use more energy and concentration to control it. Maximum range: 10 cm. A poor control or too much energy can result in explosive escape of control, endangering the user and anything around him. Upon upgrade: Improve speed at charge, quantity to charge, and efficiency at it. Improvement on control.
¡°Nice! I got it to mid tier!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but exclaim, and I immediately picked a new stone to keep practicing. I was decided to improve on the control of projectiles, because if I could control them like this, I would be upgrading my power, and as such, improving all the other perks on the power. Even though most of the upgrades were done by me and my insights on the power, the boost I got whenever I leveled a grade, was amazing, so I wanted to improve it as much as I could. As soon as I started infusing the energy I felt this time I was not infusing energy, but controlling it to enter. This can sound as if there was no difference, but there was. Before, I just was taking the energy from inside me and then infusing it on the pebble. But now I was soaking it on energy, and I felt all the energy outside me as long as it was connected, and I felt I could absorb it inside me again, meaning that all the ¡°lost¡± energy from before would not be lost anymore, and that the energy I used to hold the pebbles would be recovered as soon as I threw the pebble. I kept training for hours, discovering a lot of things I could do, and only stopped at noon to train on the Werewolf Fury, where I couldn¡¯t slack on. I trained on that one for two hours and then I came back to the Energy Strings practice. At first I only used pebbles, but now I was using claw-knives, which were a lot harder to control. To start, the energy in each part of the knife had to be different depending on the form of the knife, as not every point could support the same amount of energy. The tip of quite bit knives, for example, exploded quite a lot of times, even with my improved control, because it had a smaller mass, and so a lower total capability than other parts of the knife. On the pebble the difference was too small to even realize, but here I had to be much too careful, increasing the amount of concentration and effort I had to use in order to charge them and successfully maintain them on the air, but by the time I went to sleep, I could maintain the knife on the air without it exploding. I discovered quite a lot of things, like the fact that I could cycle the energy going inside to go out and the one outside maintaining it on the air to go inside, accomplishing a perpetual sustain, which even if right now was useless, could develop to something interesting. Also, I had difficulty doing anything else than maintaining the knives on the air, but I could move around the pebbles a little bit, even if it was only a few centimeters and only so slowly. I felt that this would develop to an interesting ability on the future, and with such thoughts I went to sleep. I laid down on the floor, head resting on a pillow made of lion skin, and felt my consciousness fade away, as I entered the world of dreams. Chapter 7 - The Shadow Dimension I woke up feeling refreshed, the accomplishments of the day before still fresh on my mind, and then I recalled what I had to do. I immediately closed my eyes and focused, I focused on remembering what I had dreamt, and I got to keep a vague feeling of memories. As if I had seen my mother, and spent the day with her. No wonder I was feeling so well after waking up. Either way, I couldn¡¯t remember perfectly the dream, but it was better than the fuzzy memory of having dreamt but with zero clues as to what I had dreamt. I knew I wouldn¡¯t be able to improve in Nightcrawler¡¯s powers as fast as in Kinetic Control until I had control over my dreams, but I also knew that any improvement was good, so what I did after getting up, was try again the Shadow Step. I submerged in shadows, entering the SD (Shadow Dimension) and getting out a meter farther. I focused, trying to recall everything I could, but all I could remember was darkness and fuzziness. ¡°Tsk. I guess it would be too lucky to improve with the first try.¡± ¨C I resigned, as it was obvious this wouldn¡¯t be easy, and tried again. This time, though, I sat down, and focused more on my mind than on the Shadow Step, trying to prepare myself for the jump. When I felt I was ready to do the jump, I invoked the shadows and entered the SD while having my mind ready. As I was getting out of the SD, I could remember something. It was extremely vague, but I felt as if I was¡­ drowning? Yes, it felt exactly like that, though not a literal drown, it felt as if I was submerged in something, deep, very deep, and such something was trying to kick me out. I tried again with the same result, and decided this was enough, even though I hadn¡¯t done much practice, it was actually the best I could do with the little practice I had on remembering my dreams, so I got up and readied myself for some Werewolf Fury training. I had realized something, in the two powers I had unlocked, I had to actually think by myself more than just try to imitate the info on the ¡°guidebook¡± to really improve, so what if it was the same on the martial arts? I readied my stance, but when I thought it was perfect, I drew my claws and closed my eyes. Even though this stance of Equilibrium felt, well, equilibrated, I felt as if it was not perfect. I hadn¡¯t realized until now because I assumed that the stances were perfect, but I had realized that perfection comes from oneself; if I thought something was improvable, then it was, I had just not realized how yet. I tried thinking what the problem was, and focused on different parts of my body. The feet felt stable, as if pillars burrowed unto the ground. I tried to look towards the legs, and I felt some discomfort on my right leg, which was leaned backwards. I tried to figure what it was, and to do so I moved, changing stances. It was then that I felt it, there was some resistance in the change of stances; it was not much, a minor discomfort which probably only slowed me by a tenth of a second, but still a delay. I went back towards the first stance, and bended a little more the knee and I felt it, some click when I forced the bending. That¡¯s the reason, isn¡¯t it? The two bones from the lower leg that connected with my knee had locked onto the knee and even though when I tried to unbend the leg on the stance change I was unlocking them, it still felt a resistance. It felt exactly as when you somehow lock the arm onto your elbow bone, and if you try to keep bending the arm, it just feels unnatural and you have to unbend the arm completely and hear the click for it to feel right. As now I regenerated so fast, when I extended my leg and did not bend it, the discomfort disappeared fast, but such discomfort had already slowed me. I readied for the third time my first stance and when I was almost there with the leg, I stopped. It felt almost exactly the same, maybe I would need some adjustments, but when I made the stance change, I didn¡¯t feel the discomfort, and so, I won a tenth of a second. It was not much, true, but this was a minor discomfort. Werewolves and humans are different, so it was stupid to believe their fighting combat would be perfect for me. It probably had points in which the difference between human and werewolf were more notable, and the loss on time was more acute. The Equilibrium style had more than 120 different stances, if even at the minimum, they all had only one mistake, and such mistake was only slowing me a tenth of a second, it would still be 12 seconds lost. If in a combat I could be 12 seconds faster, I could win more easily and be safe, so it was a great difference. As I realized this, I decided to focus my morning in trying to correct the Equilibrium style, and see where it took me. *** ¡°Ha¡­ Ha¡­ ha¡­¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but breath heavily as I dropped on the ground. I had been training for 18 hours straight. It was not a heavy training at the start of it, but I decided to transform the training into an accumulative training, meaning every time I corrected a stance, and before I got to the next one, I repeated all the previous ones correcting the mistakes. If I did even one mistake on those, once I was finished and was about to go to the next stance, I went to the start and tried again. This way I accomplished to correct 78 stances, and remember them perfectly, but it also slowed me down so I couldn¡¯t finish. Still, it was a good result, and I couldn¡¯t help but smile as I looked at the screen.
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 61.7 %
Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge): - Iron Elk ( x11 ) : Improves agility and bone durability. - Scorpion Panther ( x8 ) : Improves poison resistance, stealth and agility. - Spiked Lion ( x3 ) : Improves strength and bone durability. - Draconic Wolf ( x6 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability. - Fiery Ape (x5) : Improves balance and coordination, small improvement in strength. - Gryphon (x1) : Improves eyesight, hearing, balance, speed and strength. (+2% at Angel''s powers)
I was right; the system mostly rewards my own discoveries, my personal training, and not blindly following the guidebook. This was a huge discovery, this way I would be able to improve faster, because I had realized the better way was not always the one on the guide. Sometimes you need to explore by yourself and try to figure out how all works. I still had a lot to discover, there were three styles, consisting on 120 stances each, and then there was the last style, which was a fusion of the three of them. I had tried to practice it, but it seemed impossible, and now I knew why. The fourth style needed perfection control on the previous three. I had perfect control on the guidebook styles, but that¡¯s not a real perfect control. Until I corrected my mistakes I wouldn¡¯t be able to practice the fourth style, which consisted in 480 stances, the 120 from each of the previous styles and 120 combining stances.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I decided it was enough martial arts training for today. I needed to keep practicing my Kinetic Strings and Kinetic Control and I only had four hours before sleep. That¡¯s right, I only slept two hours, but I woke up more refreshed than after any of the 10 hours sleep sprees I took when I was on Earth. I sat down with a few pebbles on my hand and soaked them on the invisible mist that was my energy. I then while soaking all of them, started the cycle, getting the energy inside to go out and the energy outside to go in. After I had accomplished this for 3 pebbles, I felt I couldn¡¯t get a fourth to do it, so I collected the energy of the rest of the pebbles and focused on the 3 I had left. First I made one of them levitate on the air, and when it was at around 10 cm above my hand, I did the same for the second pebble. As I was making it float, I noticed a strong strain on my mind, as if it was ripping, but I bared my teeth and held on. I got it to the 10 cm mark and stopped, the fact that simply sustaining it there was making me use all my focus was disappointing, but I had just started the day before, so I had to keep trying. I tried to make the third one levitate, but it cracked once it was at the 4 cm mark. ¡°Damn!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but curse, but I focused back fast enough so that the pebbles I still held didn¡¯t fall. I then focused on the two surviving pebbles and willed them to spin. Not around itself, as a planet, but like two planets orbiting around an invisible sun. This image made it easier to do, but also wasted too much energy, and I realized fast enough, so I stopped. I then focused on what I knew of Gambit. Whenever he held the cards on the air, he separated them from the deck of cards directly, and held them in the same position they were¡­ ¡°Ah!¡± I immediately tried what I had thought, and focused on the pebbles. From the energy mist surrounding each of the pebbles, I willed a strand of energy to appear and directed them towards each other. Once they got in touch, I felt the strain diminish. ¡°Hahahah! I did it! That¡¯s how he did it!¡± ¨C I realized that Gambit didn¡¯t just take one card and then another, he held them all together, and I thought this could mean he didn¡¯t hold 10 cards, but he held a group of 10 cards. It may sound the same, but imagine it like this. What is more comfortable, hold 10 cards separated on your hands, or taking those cards, putting them together and holding them as 1 card? That¡¯s right, the later allowed me to put my mind under less strain, allowing me on time to focus on control rather than just holding them on the air. After realizing this, I then tried to think of more useful ways to do what I was doing, and thought of some options to try, and maybe some of them would be more efficient. *** I lay on the ground with my arms extended on my sides, and a smile crept onto my face. I had tried 7 new ways to visualize my energy, and even though 6 of them were less efficient than the mist energy, the 7th resulted in a more efficient way to do it. What I did to control the energy was imagining it like threads of energy, interlaced between each other, forming some kind of tube, and inside the tube, I could imagine the energy to be liquid, making it more fast, and easier to soak the pebbles on it. Once the energy reached the stone, I willed the threads into forming a layer of interlaced threads, barely having any space between it and the pebble and filled the inside with the liquid energy. Then, to connect both pebbles I just had to will a tube of interlaced threads to form between them, and the liquid energy flowed almost instinctively, easing my mind and allowing me to focus on other things. ¡°Ok! Onto the next step!¡± ¨C I exclaimed as I got up, and picked three pebbles. This time however, I didn¡¯t cover them as the first time, I applied the new method, but I a strange way. Normally I would have a thread of energy from my hand going into each and every pebble, but I thought that with this method I would be able to reduce the amount of threads, so I started connecting my hand to two of the pebbles, forming the threads layer and then I willed two strands of threads to appear, one from each of the pebbles, and both going towards the third pebble. Once there, I willed both strands to form a new layer around the pebble, and then fused them. Now I had the three connected, and only needed to will the liquid energy to fill the inside of the connections. As the energy flowed I felt connected to the three pebbles, and I willed them on the air, surprised that not only adding the third pebble hadn¡¯t increased the strain on my mind, but on the contrary, it had eased it! It seems that by dividing the energy between more pebbles, I reduced the strain on the threads layer, and as such reduced the strain on my mind. ¡°Nice! This is the way, this way I¡¯ll be able to improve!¡± *DING* ¡°Ha! I knew it; I¡¯ve improved on the Kinetic Strings, and got a reward. This is the real way towards perfection!¡± ¨C As soon as the system sound appeared, I took all the energy from the pebbles and dropped them on the floor. ¡°Haaaah¡­ now to sleep¡± ¨C I dropped on the ground and didn¡¯t even bother to pick the pillow as I drifted onto the land of dreams¡­ *** ¡°Lyon! What are you doing there?! Stop smoking and go back to work!¡± ¨C A small but corpulent man was shouting loudly at me. I looked with disgust at him and dropped what was left of my cigarette on the floor. [Damn bossy boss¡­ What the hell has happened to him, someone shoved a broom stick up his ass?!] ¨C I cursed silently as I stepped on my cigarette and made way towards the gateway, it was my turn around 10 minutes ago, but I was talking by the phone, so it delayed my smoking, and I can¡¯t start my watch without smoking, so I was late. I actually hated this job, I had to be on watch for 8 hours straight, and I wasn¡¯t allowed to smoke at all¡­ Who the hell did such stupid norms?! I looked towards the sky and saw some really black clouds, with thunders resounding all around. [Today¡¯s gonna be a shitty day, that¡¯s for sure¡­] I ignored my thoughts as I walked towards the guard¡¯s room. I was barely 10 meters away when a light brighter than anything I had seen appeared, and I felt the time slow down, and a lightning came from the sky, rupturing the air as it dropped towards me. I felt my heart beat loudly and then, time resumed, and the lightning stroke¡­ *** ¡°Aargh!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but exclaim as I sat up with sweat on my face. [I thought I had no troubles with that lightning, but it seems I was wrong¡­] ¨C ¡°Hey! How is it that I can remember it?!¡± I knew it was more than a dream, it was a memory, but even so, it felt so vivid, so present, and not fuzzy at all. I stood up and closed my eyes, trying to remember every detail I could, and when I felt I did, I submerged into the Shadow Dimension. I opened my eyes and couldn¡¯t see, but strangely I knew where I was. I was in the SD, and whatever was crawling over me, where shadows, in whatever form they appeared here. I then felt it, the same feeling I felt yesterday, the drowning feeling and the pressure. It was not that I couldn¡¯t breathe, that I couldn¡¯t; strangely enough, I didn¡¯t feel the need to, but that I was somewhere surrounded by something that was too dense for my lungs, and my body knew it. I looked around, even thought I couldn¡¯t see anything, and then I realized what it felt like. It was as if I was on the bottom of a pool, a pool so deep I was pressured to go even deeper instead of returning towards the surface, and as I looked down, I realized that down was my dimension. I had finally dominated the feeling, and I could react towards what was pulling me down. I took all my strength, and willed the shadows to push me upwards, and upwards they pushed me. I felt as if I was propelled, and I realized. The amount of will I needed to control these shadows from my dimension was thousands of times stronger than what I needed to control them from their own dimension, so here I was much stronger, much faster. That explained why Nightcrawler could teleport so fast, it wasn¡¯t that he literally teleported, the shadows carried him fast, very fast. That and the time difference between this dimension and my own was what made it seem as if he teleported. I felt ecstatic as I flew upwards, until I suddenly felt I didn¡¯t control the shadows anymore, and they pulled me down at a speed I couldn¡¯t even try to go and much less resist. As soon as I touched the floor, I felt myself pass through the membranes of the dimension, and appear again on my dimension, only that instead of the cave¡­ ¡°WHY THE FUCK AM I FALLING FROM THE SKY?!¡± Chapter 8 - Falling from the sky and rising from the ground I heard a whistle on my ears, and I felt heavy on my heart, lungs and stomach, and I felt how the floor was getting DAMN CLOSER! ¡°AAAARGH! STUPID POWER!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help myself but to scream, as I realized how bad I had fucked up. I didn¡¯t realize what I had been doing on the other side until I teleported back here. I had been moving, why couldn¡¯t I expect the same to happen here? Well, not the time, now, I needed to recompose myself, and enter the SD again. I closed my eyes and tried to feel myself submerged in shadows, entering the other side¡­ but the damn whistle of the wind against my ears was getting in the way! I knew I wouldn¡¯t die, I was immortal, but heck, it would hurt a lot to fall down from such height, and I didn¡¯t want to experience it. So I kept trying, closing my eyes, ignoring everything, and imagining myself swimming on shadows again. I felt as the shadows were starting to creep over me, even thought very slowly, when I heard a scream, and I lost my focus. I snapped my eyes open only to see a Gryphon flying extremely fast towards me, claws first. I tried to look for my knives, but I realized, I didn¡¯t have them, I was not supposed to leave the cave yet, so I hadn¡¯t taken them with me. I resigned myself to feeling pain, but I made my mind, I would decide which kind of pain. When the Gryphon was getting dangerously close, I brought my arms close to my body, I brought my legs together, and I leaned forwards, making myself a human arrow. I felt the speed increase fast and I dodged the Gryphon, who didn¡¯t seem happy at all. As I kept falling the gryphon made a close turn and flew towards me again, but this time with its wings close to its body and feet backwards. That damn bird pretended to skewer me with his beak! Like hell I would let him. When he was almost on me, I extended my arms and legs, trying to oppose resistance to the wind, and it worked, I suddenly decelerated, a deceleration which could¡¯ve been dangerous to me was it not for my resistance increase and my high regeneration. Again the Gryphon went past me, but before it was too late I brought my legs close to each other and my arms in front of me, as if I was diving into a pool head first. I accelerated towards the Gryphon, which had yet to start decelerating, and when I was about to reach him, at around 20 meters, I extended my claws and pointed my arms towards its head. I hastily charged my claws, using my new method of threads layer and covering and soaking my claws in energy, which was highly abundant as I was falling at such a speed. I took advantage of the energy produced by the resistance of the air, decreasing it in the process and so increasing my speed, that in turn increased the resistance of the air which I again absorbed, and in such a cycle, I accelerated. I arrived at him in less than a second from the moment I extended my claws, but even thought I had barely had time to charge my claws, they were fully soaked in energy. I made my mind as I punctured its head; this was going to hurt a lot. I felt my bones screaming, my veins rupturing and my muscles tearing apart. I felt my skin rip and the blood in my arms evaporate by the sudden explosion. It felt more painful than when the bear devoured me, and that had been much too painful, so here I was, without arms, with a dead Gryphon under me and we both falling at more than 20 meters per second towards a dangerously near floor. I knew this would hurt, I had known it when I decided to kill the Gryphon, but I didn¡¯t want to resign. ¡°LIKE HELL I¡¯M HITTING THE FLOOR!!!¡± ¨C I screamed very loudly, a scream that came from the depths of my soul, and I felt my arms regenerate, regenerate at a speed which they had never done. I was surprised, but I took advantage of it. I used my not yet fully grown arms, which were bones and tendons, and just a little muscle, and grabbed the now headless Gryphon¡¯s wings. I used all my strength to extend the wings, and even when the air resistance was making my arms break again, I kept them there, I used all my will to stay awake and keep my arms in place, and as if responding to my will, my arms accelerated their regeneration again. I couldn¡¯t help but feel this was something important, yet I couldn¡¯t focus on it. I leaned backwards while holding the wings in place, and thanks to that the gryphon decelerated. I embraced myself because even if we had decelerated, this would still hurt. I bared my teeth and held strongly to the Gryphon. And then¡­ *Crash!* *Krack* *Kreee* Trees broken, a cloud of dust in the air, and me flying forwards. I impacted onto three trees before I stopped moving. The first two trees were blown apart; the last one only had a mark on it. But they all felt the same, painful. ¡°Ghargh¡± *cough* *cough* ¨C I couldn¡¯t help myself and threw up blood, then coughed to clean my lungs of even more blood. I stood up and helped my bones getting in place, then walked towards my prey. Once in front of it I breathed in deeply, and then¡­ I kicked it strongly. ¡°You damn overgrown bird, you almost kill me!¡± ¨C Yeh, yeh¡­ I can¡¯t die, but whatever, I was angry, so bear with me. I sat down on the floor and breathed out as I tried to calm my heart. I decided now was as good time as any other to open the system, so I did.
By your will you have unlocked part of the hidden power of one of your powers. Now you will be able to affect the reality of your body just by sheer strength of will. Even thought the user has upgraded the power, he has yet to discover its origin, resulting in an unknow amount of developement. For the user to see the progress of its power, he has to discover its origin.
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf E mid tier Progress: ??? (Knowledge insuficient)
Immortality: Regeneration beyond comparision. It regenerates so fast that is at practical efects, immortal. As long as some part of him is there, be it a hand, a finger, a drop of blood or a mere cell, the user can regenerate. Sharp claws made of bone can surge from between the knuckles. Bones as strong as marble, and better senses than wolves, be it in smell, hearing or eyesight. The holder of this power becomes a born predator. Hunter Claws: User has retractable claws made of bones. They are sharp and stronger than other bones in the user''s body, and are a weapon to be careful of. Undying Will: The will of the user is more powerful than others. This doesn''t mean it has a stronger will, which isn''t true. The point is that the will of the user afects his powers, making him stronger the more he wills it. Upon upgrade: Sharpen claws while strengthening bones. Develop instincts which help the holder to be more effective on the hunt. Accelerated regeneration. Will eficiency upgraded.
The fuck? I upgraded my power yet my knowledge is still not enough? How the hell you buy that?! And then there¡¯s the other notification.
By experiencing the feelings a winged being feels when flying, you have developed towards unlocking such powers. Experience different feelings related to flying and keep devouring winged beings to unlock Angel''s powers.
Angel 12 %
So not only eating winged beings was what increased my unlocking, but also experiencing what they felt? I dare assure that it was the fact that I felt the air resistance when I tried to slow us down, that felt damn painful and hard. Wait¡­ with my Shadow Step I should be able to fall down again from the sky, which in turn would allow me to experience more things aerial-wise, and in due time, unlock Angel¡¯s wings! But¡­ first thing, I didn¡¯t want to experience crashing on the ground again, and second, I didn¡¯t control the Shadow Step yet, so I couldn¡¯t exactly teleport up there¡­ Well, whatever, I would find a way. As I decided it wasn¡¯t the time to think about this, I started ripping the Gryphon apart, and then eating each and every part of it I could. Mmm¡­ maybe I should also try to feel if I can change the breathing technique? I digested what I had eaten and then ate another piece of meat while closing the eyes and experiencing what my body was doing. And then I felt something.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. It was some kind of viscous energy that originated on my heart, traveled to the stomach, dissolved the meat and then went towards the heart again, where it fused with the blood and with the help of it, went towards all of my body. I could feel that everywhere the blood was going, the cells around were like leeches in need of blood, only that instead of blood they were sucking the energy on it. As soon as the blood was devoid of energy, the cells quieted down, and fell into some kind of stupor. They felt like throbbing eggs, as if they were incubating life inside of them. I took another piece of meat and ate it, focusing on the energy on my blood, except this time I directed some kinetic energy inside the energy. It¡¯s weird, I know, but that¡¯s what I did, like feeding the energy with more energy. As soon as the charged energy touched the meat, the meat disintegrated. It wasn¡¯t like the fast dissolution it had happened before; it felt more like turning the meat entirely into energy, leaving nothing for the stomach to use. The vicious energy then sucked all the energy and I felt it throb. It was much richer in energy than before, but I still felt something was off. I slowed down the energy the most I could, as I knew once it reached the heart, I wouldn¡¯t know what it was. I focused myself on it, listened to it, look at it, touched it with my mind, and then I felt it. It felt similar as to when I charged the pebbles. It was losing energy, it was not a closed conduit, and as such it couldn¡¯t carry well enough the energy. The sudden revelation made the energy escape my grasp, and it reached the heart. This time however, the veins almost ruptured as the blood charged at a much greater speed than it had ever done, and had it not been for my regeneration, they would¡¯ve been ripped. The blood had absorbed the energy rich in kinetic energy, and so had accelerated; I needed to be able to control it. After the blood was devoid of energy again, I took a new piece of meat. This time however, before I ate it, I closed my eyes. I willed energy into my veins. This time, however, I didn¡¯t let it just charge the veins. Once on the veins, I molded the energy into threads, similar to the layers I used when charging objects, but this time inside the object itself. I noticed they brimmed with energy, and seemed tougher than before. [Ha! Seems I made a new discovery about Gambit¡¯s power, I felt it was weird that when hitting so hard he didn¡¯t end on a hospital, but I guess he didn¡¯t just blindly charged himself, he armored himself with energy.] ¨C I smiled at the thought of being able to have an explosive damage without blowing myself up. After all my principal veins and arteries were reinforced, I ate the meat. This time I immediately surrounded the viscous energy before it got to the stomach. I made a layer of energy threads and then soaked the energy in my own energy. Once I thought it was enough, I willed my energy to guide the viscous one towards the stomach. This time it happened the same thing as the last time; it instantly devoured all the energy in the meat, disintegrating it completely, and once it was done, it tried to go towards my heart. I knew it was the way he thought more efficient, but I wanted to guide it differently. First I took it outside me, carefully avoiding letting it sip any of the energy to any part of me. As it was contained it wouldn¡¯t be lost, but once it was out I had to contain it with the help of my hand, or it would¡¯ve been released. I guided towards my mouth, and then I breathed in. I had not only reinforced my veins, I had also reinforced my lungs, and as soon as the energy arrived at the lungs, I connected little energy veins towards every bronchi in my lungs. I waited until each and every bronchus had an energy vein in front of it, and then connected them all at once. I felt such a rush that I wouldn¡¯t be able to explain it. As I had predicted, the bronchus redirected all this energy towards the oxygen in my blood, which in turn charged the blood which in turn was released into the cells of my body. It may seem the same as before, but this process meant that the energy was refined down into more ¡°digestible¡± energy. The cells, as opposite to the first time, instead of just taking the energy and storing it, they were able to digest it immediately, and reinforced themselves, allowing a bigger influx of energy into them because one: they were stronger, and two: they were not full. I repeated this process with the rest of the Gryphon, and when I finished I laid down on the floor as I opened the system.
Status X-System
Status
Name: Lyon Ironblood Soul Points: 26.770
Mutations: 4 Powers: 3
Mutations Acquired:
Wolverine Locked Deadpool Locked
Gambit Unlocked Angel 20 %
Nightcrawler Unlocked ----- -----
Powers: Power origin:
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf E mid tier Wolverine + Deadpool
Kinetic conversion and acceleration G mid tier Gambit
Shadow Dimension B low tier Nightcrawler
¡°Haa¡­ I knew it, when I do the things on my own I am rewarded more heavily. It seems from now on, even if it takes me longer, I will analyze everything I do, feel it in the core and improve it if possible.¡± I stood up and decided it was time to go home. ¡°¡­Home? It seems I¡¯ve grown attached to a simple cave, hahaha.¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the thought. I had spent all my life since the death of my mother feeling as if I didn¡¯t belong to anywhere, and now, after not even 7 months, I felt that I had a home, and it wasn¡¯t even mine! I decided to try again using the Shadow Step, this time with the objective of going home. I closed my eyes and willed the Shadow Dimension to embrace me, to carry me to the other side, and it did. Once there, I opened my eyes, but I didn¡¯t move on my own. I willed my thoughts into the shadows, trying to convey the feeling of going home, asking to return to the cave, and suddenly the shadows which normally just crept over me and pushed me around unless I commanded them to do otherwise, relaxed. It¡¯s weird, I know, but it¡¯s the only way I could describe it. It felt as if before they were the mass you see when you walk by some great city, cold, indifferent, trying to do what they want unless asked otherwise, and now, they felt warm, familiar, as a small town of barely a hundred people where everyone knew each other and everyone helped each other without asking. I had a feeling that they had resonated more deeply with me, and they liked it. They embraced me differently than when I had ordered last time to push me. The later was as if a mass of people literally pushed me in a single direction, while the first one felt as if a family was walking besides me and carrying me as I was unable to move by myself. I was so lost in this feeling that I forgot that I couldn¡¯t stay here forever, and suddenly the shadows stopped carrying me. It wasn¡¯t as if the feeling disappeared, I felt they still cared about me, but couldn¡¯t help but return me to my dimension. This time, however, they didn¡¯t push me out, they accompanied me out. It felt almost as warm as when I was with my mother, they were like brothers helping the little one of the pack, protecting me from the Shadow Dimension itself. I embraced such feeling and conveyed my thanks and warmness towards them as I willed myself towards the exit, and even thought I couldn¡¯t move myself, the shadows seemed more at ease, as if I had been resisting to leave, and now I had accepted it, so they didn¡¯t need to protect me from the Dimension to help me out. I exited the Dimension with warmness in my heart, and willed part of the shadows over me without any orders in particular. I just asked them to stay with me, and I kept conveying my warmness. This all ended with a sudden roar. *GROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!* I immediately recognized such roar, and ran towards the nearest tree with panic in my heart. Once I was under the tree I asked the shadows which still were over me to hide me, and this time they did it on their own, covering me much faster than before. Once invisible, I silently climbed the tree and crouched down, ready to run at the first notice of unavoidable danger. I instinctively knew this time the shadows wouldn¡¯t just leave after half a minute. It was a different thing. While inside, they weren¡¯t in control, they couldn¡¯t disobey the Dimension, they had to obey. But here? Here they were free. Of course they couldn¡¯t stay forever, but that was referring to a single shadow. I didn¡¯t even need to observe to see that after half a minute the shadows over my body returned to the Shadow Dimension, but before doing so, other shadows crept out of it and covered me. After making sure I wouldn¡¯t be visible for some time and thanking the shadows in turn, I looked towards the place where the roar had come from. And I saw it appearing, some kind of reptile big enough to make an elephant look small, and fierce enough to make a dinosaur seem a pet. Yes, it was the Dragon. Chapter 9 - The penalty I kept looking the Dragon while staying quiet and still as a rock. I couldn¡¯t risk being discovered as I was sure the Dragon would pursue me to kill me. The first time it had chased me it was without a reason, and it had already pursued me for kilometers, so imagine now after I had, even if only slightly, damaged him. I embraced the kind shadows which were protecting me from being seen, and asked them to allow me entrance to the Shadow Dimension, but it was refused. It seems that even if now I could teleport farther than before, it didn¡¯t come without a cost. I had yet to upgrade my power, so if I teleported farther than I could, it seemed I would have to wait some time before teleporting again. I damned my luck for encountering the Dragon right now, but there was nothing I could do to run. While I was invisible and odorless, that didn¡¯t make me soundless, and I was sure that it wouldn¡¯t take long for the Dragon to find me, even if only by the slight depressions on the ground and the tree. If only I could charge the Dragon itself full of kinetic energy, this would be easy, but I couldn¡¯t charge any living being except myself, so it wasn¡¯t an option. [Come on, Lyon, think!] ¨C I forced myself into thinking trying to find a solution towards this huge problem. I could just run, but it wouldn¡¯t allow me to actually flee, so I discarded that option. I was so focused on fleeing that I didn¡¯t even think about the reason the Dragon was here, so far away from the swamp, from its home, and in a different situation, it could have been my demise, but this time I was lucky. I looked at the Dragon, taking the time to observe it now that I was not in an immediate danger, in an effort to try and find something to take advantage of and run, but what I found was something flabbergasting. The Dragon had a huge scar running through its entire back; the scar was like a serpentine rip through its skin probably 20 cm wide, which was in its own amazing but the fact that it was the Dragon the owner of such scar was even more amazing. The Dragon was higher than me, and the last time I had been running away from him, so I hadn¡¯t had the chance to see it, but now that I saw such a mark it amazed me. During my runaway, I had been throwing all kind of projectiles towards him, each and every one of them charged to the brim with kinetic energy, and as such, having an explosive amount of force, yet it hadn¡¯t left a single trace in its hard scales, but something had accomplished to leave such a scar on such a beast. *Krckrckrkckckkcrkckrrrck* *Thum* *Krck* *Thum* [The heck is that noise?!] ¨C Suddenly it resounded around the forest a deep crunching of rocks followed by something that felt as if momentary quakes were happening. I grabbed the nearest branch of the tree and held strongly. After the tremors stopped I looked towards the origin of the sound and I discovered something almost as astounding as the huge scar of the Dragon. In the direction of the sound, a giant, 15 meters high monster was sat on its buttocks and relaxed as could be. It was the Rock Bear that had devoured me until its satiety! Was that the reason it didn¡¯t return to the cave? It was too big to enter it? *ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!* I turned my head again at the Dragon, and saw his maddened face, it was clear the hatred he held towards the bear, and it was also clear that he would do anything to try and kill him. I saw the Dragon reek hate, and felt myself tremble. The next thought I had, though, was even more disturbing. What if the reason the Dragon had pursued me for so long was because of the bear? The Bear was probably guilty about the scar on its back, and it was more than probable that I had traces of smell from the Bear from when he ate me, so it would be comprehensible that the Dragon took me as part of its pack; why else would I be alive, if not? The Dragon shook, and its scales trembled, seeming as little torturous spikes, and then the Dragon charged. *Fuuush* ¡°What?!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t contain and exclaimed out loud, luckily for me, the Dragon was too distracted, so it didn¡¯t hear me. What the hell was that speed?! The Dragon had in less than a second advanced at least 300 meters! It was faster than me by many, many times! Why the hell hadn¡¯t it eaten me last time?! But in the depths of my soul, I knew the reason; the Dragon hadn¡¯t been chasing me to eat me. It had done so I would lead him home, so it could face the bear! Damn, this meant that my revenge against him was farther away than I thought; the Dragon was on a whole different level, I didn¡¯t have the strength to face him, and I wouldn¡¯t have it any time soon. The Rock Bear, though, didn¡¯t seem worried at all. On the contrary, it sat peacefully, ignoring the coming Dragon. It stayed like that until the Dragon arrived, and then it casually swung its right paw at the Dragon, which was still running. The casually looking strike was actually a full speed swing which didn¡¯t even leave afterimages. The Dragon tried to avoid the swing by jumping sideways, but the strike accelerated even more and sent him flying through the air. I was completely astounded. The Bear had been fast enough to counter the Dragon?! It seemed impossible considering its big frame, but this was not Earth, so it shouldn¡¯t surprise me more than the fact that it had 4 front paws. I followed the Dragon as it flew through the air, until it passed near a tree, and suddenly, the Dragon vanished. It wasn¡¯t until I heard a rumble from where the Bear was that I turned around just in time to see the Dragon fly again. [The heck?! It has appeared there in a matter of milliseconds? That¡¯s impossible!] But as impossible as I thought it, it repeated time and time again, and yet the Dragon didn¡¯t look to have a single scratch, so maybe it wasn¡¯t the Bear the reason of the scar? That thought, though, was a short one. The Dragon launched itself towards the Bear another time, but this time the Bear didn¡¯t swung its paw laterally to the Dragon sending him fly, but swung it from up to down, burrowing the Dragon deep into the ground with such strength that I felt the whole forest tremble. I fell somewhere where there was sun, and the shadows, even if reluctantly, retreated back into their dimension, leaving me uncovered.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The Bear, while waiting for the Dragon to climb out of the hole it had ended in, looked directly into my eyes. I felt a fear I hadn¡¯t felt ever, yet I didn¡¯t feel as if I was in danger. It just felt as if the single look from the Bear could kill me, if he willed it. That kind of look didn¡¯t last too long, though, it suddenly transformed into one of thanks and appreciation¡­ [Wait, what?] ¨C I was confused as to why it would feel grateful towards me, but the single thing I realized was that this was my only chance to run away, and so I did it. I ran through the forest and towards what I thought was the direction of the cave while feeling the tremors intensify even as I was farther from the battle. Suddenly the tremors stopped and I turned around, wondering if the Dragon was dead. I was having mixed thoughts of relief for its death, as the Bear didn¡¯t seem to want me dead, and regret, for not being me myself the cause of its death, when something felt from the sky and impacted the ground a few meters from me. I looked at it, and as the dust dispersed I met with the scariest thing I could think at the moment. *Grrrr¡­* The now bruised Dragon was growling in front of me, and now that it had seen me it was close to impossible to run away, even less possible knowing its true speed. I hadn¡¯t even started turning around when the Dragon vanished from where it stood and bit me with strength. *AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGH!!!!* ¨C As I felt its teeth pierce my skin, muscles and even my bones, I couldn¡¯t help but scream in pain. [Motherf****! I¡¯m going to kill him as soon as I¡¯m powerful enough! Damn him and damn all his ancestors, and hell, even damn all his descendants was he ever to have them!] The world around me blurred for a moment, and suddenly we were in front of the Bear again, a dizzy feeling wandering around my head. *Grrrrrr!* The Dragon seemed to be threatening the Bear in some manner, but they were beasts, it was impossible to communicate, right? That¡¯s what I thought until the Bear, which until now had been as ¡°peaceful¡± as a rabbit, made an expression that made even the Dragon flinch, which in turn made me feel more pain again. Surprisingly, though, the Bear seemed to accept to whatever terms the Dragon had communicated him, because he suddenly lifted its left paws and approached them towards its superior right paw, grabbing its rocky skin with both paws, and then¡­ *Crack* I was flabbergasted, the Bear had ripped its own paw, and it seemed it did for me? Why? But the amazement increased even more when he ripped its second right paw, throwing it away. I then looked towards the now empty shoulders, and was surprised to find they weren¡¯t bleeding, hell, they didn¡¯t seem any different from its torso. The Dragon suddenly dropped me and dashed straight at the Bear, only for him to swing its left paw at him again. Unfortunately, this time its strike was slower than the Dragon, and it took advantage of it and bit on the now almost defenseless torso. The Bear roared painfully, and I felt angry, the Bear had defended me. Why? I didn¡¯t know the reason, but either way I couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful, so I wanted to help. Unfortunately, I wasn¡¯t faster than the Dragon, or stronger, or sturdier, I was all but able to fight him, so I started thinking, trying to find a way for me to help the Bear. The Dragon was still biting the Bear, and it was trying to rip part of its torso, when something unbelievable happened. While its left paws were away from the Dragon, the Bear managed to push him away from itself and sent him flying. I looked towards the Bear and I saw a thing that didn¡¯t make any sense. The Bear¡¯s paws which it had ripped a few moments ago, where there again. I say it didn¡¯t make sense because if the Dragon knew it could do that it wouldn¡¯t have asked it to rip its paws, so that meant he was confident in killing him after he lost both paws. This could only mean a thing; this was not a skill the Bear should have. The fact that he grew back both paws together with its look of thankfulness, made me realize this was on me. The Bear, after eating me repeatedly until it was full, had somehow acquired my ability to grow back anything, or at the least limbs. The Dragon was getting up, but I decided this was it; I wouldn¡¯t disturb anymore the Bear. I called the shadows, even when I knew they shouldn¡¯t let me enter yet, and asked them to carry me one more time, even if then I would have to wait for a long time to do so again. The shadows stopped impeding my pass towards the Shadow Dimension, and just as the Dragon was closing its maws on me, I vanished into shadows. ----- Suddenly, I woke up and stood up as fast as I could, only to find myself at the cave I had started calling home. I tried to connect to the shadows and felt something hard to describe. I felt more connected, in more control of the shadows, yet at the same time I felt completely disconnected; I couldn¡¯t access the shadow worlds or even call upon the shadows. I hastily opened the system only to find myself with a bittersweet surprise.
The user has synchronized with the Shadow Dimension and has been attuned to it. The Shadow Dimension level increases greatly. Shadow Dimension: B low tier --> G mid tier
By forcing the power beyond its possible capabilities, the user has damaged the portal that allows him entry to the Shadow Dimension. Until the damage is healed, Shadow Dimension is unusable.
Status X-System
Status
Name: Lyon Ironblood Soul Points: 26.770
Mutations: 4 Powers: 3 ( 2 )
Mutations Acquired:
Wolverine Locked Deadpool Locked
Gambit Unlocked Angel 20 %
Nightcrawler Blocked ----- -----
Powers: Power origin:
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf E mid tier Wolverine + Deadpool
Kinetic conversion and acceleration G mid tier Gambit
Shadow Dimension G mid tier Nightcrawler
Chapter 10 - Further Perfection I couldn¡¯t help but cringe at the thought of not knowing when I would be able to use the shadows again. I stood up and walked towards the wall where I kept the Scorpion-Panther heads. Seeing the Dragon and the Bear woke me up. There was no way I would get strong enough to fight those two without taking any risks, so it was time to do exactly that. I approached the head of the first Panther I hunted, and glared at it. After thinking about it and almost back away from it, I stepped forwards and grabbed it. I had to figure out a way to drink its acid, so I could build a resistance to it, until I would be able to drink its acid directly. I was already immune to its poison, and that was good, but the most dangerous ability of the Panther was its acid, so I needed to take advantage of it. [Mmm¡­ The Panther itself is immune, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m sure I can improvise something.] Having made up my mind, I walked away from the heads, geared up with ¡®knives¡¯ and ¡®spears¡¯, meaning teeth and spikes, and walked out of the cave. It was about to get late, but I didn¡¯t give a damn. The time to play safe was over, it was time to risk it all. I felt the tension build up inside me. All my muscles trembled, my mind imagined possible preys. I felt excited. It scared me the fact that I wasn¡¯t scared. The instincts were taking over me and I was taking the reins of my life. Nothing would make me feel afraid or impede my way again. I stepped onto the forest without making a noise, letting the forest embrace me. After months of walking around the forest, I had learned where to step not to make any noise, what places to avoid if I didn¡¯t want to be seen and how fast I could be without being noticed by those who could see in a different spectrum. Today I put all my practice in play as I drifted into the woods. I knew some things were looking at me, but those were harmless, little birds and rodents dwelling around the forest. As I walked I listened to the forest: some chirping here, a squeak over there, but nothing to worry about. That was until I heard a distinctive sound. It was like an owl, but drier, as if it was an owl which hadn¡¯t had anything to drink for weeks. That sound came from a Raven Owl. One of the scariest scavengers I had ever met. I mean, it was a weakling here in this forest, but on Earth? It would have probably eaten a single forest in a single week. It had an acid that was strong enough to dissolve bones; it just didn¡¯t have any means to apply it to its preys. The Raven Owl devoured corpses as if it had an endless stomach, but the truth was that it had. Of course it wasn¡¯t exactly like that, it had an end, it just never filled enough to reach it. The reason was obvious. The acid in its stomach was half as strong as the Scorpion-Panther, so while he was eating, the food/corpses dissolved in its stomach and the energy from them went straight to the Raven, allowing him to keep producing acid and eating. Although it didn¡¯t have any means to apply the acid on its victims, its beak was strong enough to break trees, to say nothing of piercing skin, so it fed easily. The problem was that it wasn¡¯t big enough to kill the preys it needed to sustain its high energy-consuming acid, so it had to rely on other hunters to feed. And guess which hunter he chose to follow? Yes, the damn Panther. I mean, it¡¯s comprehensible; the Panther usually spread some unilateral acidic saliva over its preys once dead, meaning the acid wouldn¡¯t corrode the prey, but nothing could eat it without getting corroded. That¡¯s it, if the one doing it wasn¡¯t the Raven Owl, which had a strong resistance to acid, and could easily protect itself from the heavy burns the acidic saliva caused onto anything else, meaning that wherever there was a Raven Owl, there was also a Scorpion-Panther. [Time to hunt, baby!] ¨C I smiled and poured energy towards my body. It strengthened beyond what I had achieved previously, and I got ready. I took one of my javelins and charged lightly its tip, enough to pierce without breaking, not enough to split the body. The second the Panther appeared in my field of vision I swung my arm and threw the spike. I probably threw it five times as fast as an Olympic javelin thrower, so maybe you can picture the spike going through the neck of the Panther and into the floor. It was over in a split second, I hadn¡¯t realized that they were so easily killable, I mean, I had killed seven, but still they had put me in peril. I guess taking advantage of my intelligence wasn¡¯t such a bad idea. After dragging the corpse back to my cave, I dissected it, collected its blood, separated its head and its tail and taken everything I could take from its body. I took a bowl full of the Panther¡¯s blood and took it where I kept the Panther heads. I carefully opened its mouth and with the utmost care made a single acid drop to fall into the bowl. First it hissed, as if it was eating away the blood, but after two mere seconds it stopped and the blood, which until now was dark red, turned dark green. It started eating the bowl away, but it did so slowly. [Ha! It worked! Suck it up, Scorpion-Panthers, I¡¯m becoming immune!] *Gulp* [Okay¡­ Maybe gulping it down at once wasn¡¯t the best idea. Fuuuuuuck!] I hurriedly sat down and used the breathing technique to carry the energy around. I immediately felt as the corrosion slowed down, and I couldn¡¯t help but sigh with relief. Having slowed down, the corrosion couldn¡¯t beat my regeneration, so I kept doing the full process until every single cell was full of energy. I soon realized I needed more, so I stood up, and took all the blood I had left, carried it to the heads and prepared the solution so that I would be able to digest the acid.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. After gulping all the blood at once, all I felt was pain. *** ¡°Mmm¡­ Damn, such a headache.¡± I woke up with a sore feeling all over my body. I looked at my skin and noticed something. It was darkening. If Nighcrawler¡¯s skin was somehow blue, and my skin before this was pale, now it had more of an ashen color to it. I felt my skin was tougher than before and I deduced it wasn¡¯t just the color that had changed. I traced my skin with my skins, and felt its new texture. It felt rougher yet at the same time softer, as if the cells forming the skin were better structured, and the skin was now what it was supposed to be. I took a home-made knife and tried to slice my skin. I felt resistance! Until now I had been improving my strength and even my bone toughness, but never the skin. Although I was able to pierce my skin without even strengthening the knife or my muscles, I had just had one dose of strengthening. I went towards the newest Panther head and opened its mouth. I accomplished to make a drop surge from the maws of the head, and drop into my skin. It hissed, and corroded it, but barely. As soon as it got through, it had been consumed already. ¡°Ha! It worked!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but to be happy, after all, once I was immune to the acid I would be able to make use of it. I carefully approached the head towards my mouth, and made some drops fell. I gulped them fast and tossed the head aside. I immersed myself into meditation and circulated the generated energy around my body, but mostly towards my skin. I felt even sorer than after I woke up, but I kept at it, because it didn¡¯t hurt as much as it did before. This all felt so unrealistic, barely a year ago, I was working as a night guard, and now here I was, hunting monsters and improving myself, had anyone told me here is where I would be a year ago, I would¡¯ve probably punched him on the face. Don¡¯t judge me too hard, I was going through a low point in my life. Anyway, after refining its energy, I felt as my body improved in its acid resistance. I may or may not be immune, but at the least I wouldn¡¯t be as harmed as I would have otherwise, at least with acids on the same level as the Panther¡¯s, not to talk about the weaker ones. After that, I kept drinking acid for the whole night, until I felt no improvement anymore. Of course that didn¡¯t mean I was immune to acid, but maybe I was to the Panther¡¯s one. There was only one way to test it, though. I stood up and took the only head that still had acid reserves. I forced its maws open and poured acid over my skin. I felt nothing, and the acid just slipped off my arm onto the floor, where it started hissing and corroding the hard stone. I had made it, I was immune! Or at least I was immune enough that my healing finished the job, I had no way to know it, as I couldn¡¯t stop healing, but I was happy either way, I would be able to practice different styles against the Panther now that I didn¡¯t have to worry about getting so hurt I wouldn¡¯t be able to move. Well, I had to get down to business if ever wanted to be on par with the Dragon in terms of speed, so I decided I knew exactly what I was picking as my next power, the only problem? The amount of SP I had to use had multiplied by two on all the powers. It seems the more powers I got, the more expensive getting powers got. I understood it though, the SP was supposed to influence my soul, but the stronger my soul was, which it became by acquiring powers, the harder it became to improve, so I needed more Soul Points. Quicksilver¡¯s power was already expensive in the first place. A power that not only increased your physical speed but also increased accordingly your mind speed had to be, because increasing both meant that the time would actually slow down to me, or something similar. It cost 60.000 damned points even before all powers doubled its cost, so now I had to accumulate 120.000 SP to get that. *Sigh* ¡°I guess it¡¯s hunting time, but before I should correct all the stances on the Werewolf Fury, see if I can get it to the 100%, or at least high enough to reduce the hunting I will need to get all the SP.¡± And so, I started again, to work on all the stances of the first three styles, to correct all its stances and to remember them all perfectly.
I was tired of correcting stances, it had been 2 days, and I was barely half way through.190 stances in two days felt too slow, most of all because I had already corrected 78 prior to this, so they were actually only 112 stances. Maybe it was a bad call when I decided that each time I failed I would have to repeat not only from the begining of the style''s stances, but from the begining of all. Now when I failed I was repeating 190 stances before I got to try the next one, even when I didn''t fail on the Equilibrium style anymore. But like hell I was going back on my decision, I had made a choice, and it was actually helping me to engrave all the training into my head, so it was worth it, just slow. I took a break every 3 hours to practise Energy Control and Energy String, so I could perfect and improve on those too. I tried to summon the Shadows, but I couldn''t reach them, and I couldn''t control them anymore. *Sigh* [I guess all I can do is wait and hope for the best.] - I resigned myself not to be able to control Shadows yet, and let the scars on the portal heal. After my "break" which was less a break and more an exercice change, I kept training in the stances.
After 9 days of effort, sweat, literal blood and barely 3 hours sleep in total, I had gotten all 360 stances right. The three fighting styles were perfect.
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 87.0 %
Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge): - Iron Elk ( x11 ) : Improves agility and bone durability. - Scorpion Panther ( x10 ) : Improves poison and acid resistance, stealth and agility. - Spiked Lion ( x3 ) : Improves strength and bone durability. - Draconic Wolf ( x6 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability. - Fiery Ape (x5) : Improves balance and coordination, small improvement in strength. - Gryphon (x2) : Improves eyesight, hearing, balance, speed and strength. (+4% at Angel''s powers)
And "just like that", I had gotten 37.500 SP, and I hadn''t even started on the Merged style. Once I had it I hoped I would get to 95% at the least, getting myself 18.500 more SP. Of course, this wouldn''t get me enough points for Quicksilver''s powers, but it was a start, a good start. I readied myself, closed my eyes and recalled the guidelines of the Werewolf Fury, and for the first time, I understood the first stance of the Merged. Chapter 11 - The right oponent ¡°GOD DAMNS IT!¡± ¨C A furious scream resounded around the comfy cave as a fist punched the wall, a punch strong enough to crush the wall itself. It had been two weeks since I perfected the first three styles of the Werewolf Fury, and I finally perfected the 120 stances pertaining to the Merged style, yet I just reached 99% completion on the Werewolf Fury, meaning there was something I was not seeing. I had been over it a thousand times, yet I didn¡¯t find anything indicating a possible improvement; I even had went out to hunt and tested all 4 styles, and it proved I was faster, stronger and way more skilled than before, but I still didn¡¯t have a 100% mastery over the fighting style. I went over it a last time for the day. The Werewolf Fury was a fighting style developed by and for werewolves, beings which developed an instinctive mindset, a hunter soul and a predator hunger. What the hell was what I was missing? I had tried to predate bigger preys, on the ones I got to kill, it didn¡¯t work, and I even had to run from some of them. I had tried to hunt, instead of just killing beasts, immersing myself in the hunt, but nothing. Maybe it was something on the instincts? No, I had thought about it, but nothing about the technique had anything to do with instincts. I mean, instincts helped at the time of the hunt, but not on the techniques used. Bah, I had no idea, but I couldn¡¯t stand idle, and I needed the 100% of this technique. You may wonder why, the 100% would only be 1.000 SP more, not that big of a deal, but the fact was that when I achieved the 99% something happened. *** A day before: ¡°Ok, that¡¯s it, this is the last stance and I¡¯ll have full mastery of the Werewolf Fury!¡± ¨C I smiled excitedly, as I was about perfect the last of the stances on this style. I passed from a somewhat relaxed stance towards the next one, which was all but relaxed, it consisted on first tensing my legs, while I lifted my arms from a laid down position, bringing them as fast as possible to the front of my face. It may seem a simple boxing block, but it was something else. After lifting my arms, I had to relax my legs and drag the right one backwards while bending my left one, at the same time I had to lift my elbows and lean frontwards. When I was about to fall, I had to suddenly tense the left leg, lifting myself in a front flip. As I was spinning I had to take advantage of the strength of the spin to kick from up to down. Also, I decided to follow my instincts in knowing when to relax and when to tense my muscles, and it worked, I noticed no discomfort, and my leg stroke the floor with enough strength to leave a crater in it. *DING*
Congratulations on achieving 99% mastery in the Werewolf Fury fighting style. You''ve achieved a great millstone on the way of the fighting, were you to achieve a perfect mastery you will be awarded a new fighting style free of restrains, meaning you won''t need to achieve 50% mastery before starting taking another one. The fighting style awarded over the full mastery of the Werewolf Fury is the Silver Clan Style. A fighting style developed by a clan of silver furred werewolves that are smarter, faster and stronger than any normal werewolf out there.
Silver Clan Style C mid tier 0.9 %
[What? So mastering a fighting style will allow me to unlock a more powerful one which would be inaccessible otherwise? Damn, I¡¯ll have to perfect my Aikido techniques, too.] ¨C This was eye-opening, but also presented a question. It clearly stipulated all my stances were perfect, what then, was missing on my skills? *** And here is where I was, trying to figure out what was I missing. I couldn¡¯t find anything, so I called forth the System.
Aikido B low tier Progress: 59.2 %
A balanced way to fight, using the strength of your oponents in your favour. An art practiced in order to defend oneself more than to atack others, it''s a good choice for any non-lethal fight. An art developed more around technique than instinct, based on the studying of your oponents, to be able to make use of their speed and size or even their technique, in some tiers, to fight them and incapacitate them. Rarely used on lethal fights, or at least not without a second technique to suply the lack of deadlyness.
Ok, I had improved even without paying attention to it, and it was quite a few tiers below the Werewolf Fury, so maybe I would be able to achieve mastery, and on the process, find out what I was missing to do so in the Werewolf Fury. I started going over each and every stance I had ever known of the Aikido guidelines that were on my mind, correcting and adjusting however I thought better, and once I was done with the ones I knew, which was only around two hours later, proving it was much easier than the WF fighting style, I started going over the ones I hadn¡¯t learnt on Earth. (AN: I¡¯m abbreviating Werewolf Fury to WF, so it¡¯s easier to read for all of you, and easier to write it for me.) Barely over 6 hours later, I had all the stances in the mental guide memorized and perfected, but as in the WF, I only had 99% mastery, even if I got it faster. ¡°Ooh, come on! What the hell do I need to do to get 100% mastery?!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but feel exhausted as I read the notice I had triggered by getting to the 99% mastery.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Congratulations on achieving 99% mastery in the Aikido fighting style. You''ve achieved a great millstone on the way of the fighting, were you to achieve a perfect mastery you will be awarded a new fighting style free of restrains, meaning you won''t need to achieve 50% mastery before starting taking another one. The fighting style awarded over the full mastery of the Aikido is the Mirror Strength. A fighting style developed by a clan of fighters that despite being weaker than other clans in terms of strenght, supplying with their techniques fight on equal terms with those stronger than them.
Mirror Strength G mid tier 0.9 %
Well, time to work it out. *** A silhouette ran through the forest, as did a Four-Armed Ape, a 5 meters tall ape with the strength of a running car. And yet this silhouette, which measured barely 2 meters and few, was the one on the chase, and the gigantic ¡°Ape¡±, which constituted an over-praise on all apes on earth, was running away as if chased by the Devil. The silhouette of course was Lyon, and until a few minutes ago, that Ape was not scared at all, in fact, it had dared to challenge Lyon when he found him drinking from a pond, which the Ape considered his. A few minutes before: *GRAAAAH!* - I lifted my head from the pond I was drinking from and looked towards the origin of the loud scream and saw the Ape. It was bigger than the other apes I had faced, and it had a second pair of arms. A grin appeared in my face, it was time for some beast to appear, I had been waiting to test whether its new mastered skill in Aikido were somewhat useful in a real fight, and to try and achieve the 100% mastery, to find what I was missing. I hit my chest with my right arm twice, producing a thump sound that the Apes here interpreted as a challenge, winning thus, a fiery gaze and an angry opponent, who felt insulted I was the one that issued the challenge. The Apes in this forest had two types of challenges, the first one was the one coming from the weaker Ape, looking to steal the position of the dominant one, was to win any of the two, the other one would end dead. The second one, thought, came from the stronger one. This gesture was interpreted as a challenge to subdue, the dominating Ape issued the challenge, and if the second Ape accepted, and lost, the dominant one would subdue him, and the Ape would find himself ¡®working¡¯ for him, if the second Ape won, thought, the first one would die. As such, it probably felt insulted that I considered myself the dominant one in this challenge, which earned me an enraged opponent, nice. The giant Ape dashed towards me with all the intention to finish me in a single strike, but what he didn¡¯t expect was that after anchoring my feet to the floor, and dodging its first strike, I would use its own dash to launch him over myself. Ooh, it was nice to see a flying ape. *CRASH!* - Theeeere goes the tree. - *THUMP* I dashed towards the Ape before it got up, and as he tried to stand up, I pulled him up and threw him again to the other side. *THUMP* - [Hahahaha, this is fun!] I couldn¡¯t help but feel good; the thing about Aikido was that it used not only your strength but the opponent¡¯s, and it worked pretty well. As soon as the Ape got up a second time, I let him come at me. It jumped this time, not allowing me to use its dash against him, pretty smart. But I did something different, I jumped towards him. He seemed surprised, and so was I, Aikido was not based on jumps, so this was more akin to a different martial art like Karate or Taekwondo, but it felt right at the moment, and once on the air I just needed to pick his extended arm between mine, and put my right foot on his chest. Then it was just a matter of making him spin, and he hit the floor head first. I got up and stretched when I heard it. *Ding*
First step walked through, you have achieved a 99.1% mastery in Aikido.
Mirror Strength G mid tier 0.9 %
¡°YES! I AM DOING IT! Ok, Ape, get up, we need to fight more!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help myself, this fight could allow me not only to get the 100% mastery over Aikido, but to find whatever I was missing on the WF, so I couldn¡¯t let it escape. The Ape got up, somewhat dizzy but mostly angered, and threw a punch to me. I was about to throw him over, but then I saw him trying to throw a second one disguised. He used something I wouldn¡¯t have thought of; he hid the second punch beneath the first one, because it was its second right arm the one punching! I tried to dodge both but the second one got to punch me on the stomach, throwing me into the air and making me crash into a tree. I walked out of the tree and snapped my neck back into place, baring my teeth. I looked angry at the Ape, just as he did a few seconds before, and then dashed as fast as I could towards him. When I was about to reach him, I jumped into something similar to the last stance of the WF, the vertical kickdown, making a front flip towards its face. The Ape lifted its arms to block my leg but, on the last second I flexed my leg, which until now was hiding me and the Ape found himself looking at a fist going straight into its face. I heard its cheekbone crack, probably not broken, but definitely damaged, just as the Ape flew towards the floor and crashed there almost unconscious. *Ding*
Second step walked through, you have achieved a 99.2% mastery in Aikido.
Mirror Strength G mid tier 0.9 %
"Hahahahaha! You''re a miracle! I should name you, what do you think about the name Bob?" - I couldn''t help myself, so I named the responsible for me achieving a .2% increase in mastery. "KRAAAA" - The Ape seemed horrified, not about me naming, though, not at all, Bob was fitting. The only reason to seem horrified was by my strength. Yes, absolutely yes! "Ah, he ran away?!" - As I was distracting myself with stupid thoughts, Bob got up and started running. - "Don''t run Bob! I need you to keep fighting! Just 8 steps more and I''ll have a 100% mastery! DON''T RUUUUUUN! Present time: And here I was, running after Bob, who had decided to run away from me as if I was some kind of monster, how dare he. I decided it was time to catch him, and so I empowered the muscles on my legs with Kinetic energy, and dashed with all my speed towards Bob. "STAY STILL BOB! I WON THE DUEL AND YOU BELONG TO ME!" - I shouted as "furious" as I could being that I was all but furious, I was happy as a clam, but I had to seem angry, or else how would he understand to stop? Either way, it seemed to work, Bob suddenly stoped, and kneeled on the ground, his front touching the fresh soil just in front of my feet. [Waw, he understood me? Only one way to confirm it.] - I was surprised, but mostly hopeful. Even though I was a lonely man, that didn''t mean I didn''t like a conversation once in a while, so if he could understand me that would be magnificient, wouldn''t it? "Stand up, Bob, and look me at the eyes." - I talked with a neutral voice, trying not to convey intention besides the intention expressed by the order given. Surprisingly Bob stood up and looked at me straight to the eye. - "So you understand me?" [I dO, MaSTeR.] Chapter 12 - Berserker Pupil [I dO, MaSTeR.] ¨C Just as I was pondering on what to do, this thought entered my mind, it was weird, as if the one thinking it was not I, but the one in front of me, and he seemed like he wasn¡¯t used to do so, but also had a defeated tone in it. I looked straight at Bob only to see him tremble. ¡°Hahahaha! You can speak!¡± ¨C I really didn¡¯t expect that at all! And strangely I could understand him, but it made sense, it was a thought, so it could communicate meanings instead of words coming from a language, allowing him to talk to me even thought we may or may not speak the same language. ¨C ¡°This is amazing, want to come home?¡± [YoU ArE My MastER nOw, I haVE to FolLoW youR OrdERs.] ¨C He seemed depressed to be under someone. ¨C ¡°Don¡¯t be like that, Bob, I will be a great master, I¡¯ll even train you, so you don¡¯t feel like this anymore, okay?¡± ¨C His eyes brightened with the thought of me training him, I was glad. - ¡°Come, it has been a long day, and you must be hungry after our fight. If you are to be under me, I am to be held responsible for your care, am I not?¡± Bob looked surprised at me. ¨C [MasTEr dOesN¡¯t NEeD to FeEd mE.] ¨C It seemed he would need to practice before his thoughts seemed more natural, but either way, that didn¡¯t worry me right now. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Bob, I¡¯ll take care of you from now on, hunting a simple beast isn¡¯t too much of an effort.¡± ¨C I started walking towards the cave, knowing I would find at the least some beast in the way, but suddenly came to a stop, looked back at Bob, and tilted my head. ¨C ¡°Wait, what do you eat?¡± [We Berserk ApES eat almosT eVeryTHinG thaT is AlivE, we just mAke sUre to aVoiD VenOmOus PantHErS aNd Gryphons.] ¨C Oh, he seemed to be learning quite fast, but what were those Venomous Panthers he talked about? ¡­Ok, so they were Scorpion Panthers, just that they called them something else, I guess it makes sense, it would be too much of a chance that I named them the same as they did, mostly because I haven¡¯t seen a Scorpion in all the time I¡¯ve been here. ¡°Ok, there should be some Draconic Wolves from here to my cave, we¡¯ll hunt some and we¡¯ll eat them once we¡¯re home.¡± ¨C I smiled and started walking again, making way towards home, while thinking what a lucky guy I was. I was not lonely anymore and I could spar with someone! I would be able to increase by leaps and bounds thanks to Bob. I felt some hesitation from behind me, and I turned around again, only to find Bob looking me as if I was stupid. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Bob?¡± ¨C I had to ask, what the hell was wrong with Bob, now? [DraCOnIc WolvES? You mean Drake HouNds? I mean no insult, MaSter, but DrAke Hounds are qUitE moRe tougH ThaN I aM, and you didn¡¯t get to hurt me that muCh, ARe you sure you can hunt one?] ¨C It was offensive for him to think that way, but all the same understandable, I didn¡¯t reveal anything else but my natural capabilities and my technique. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Bob, I just used my body against you, not my full capabilities.¡± ¨C I smiled haughtily, thinking how he would see me once I killed the Draconic Wolves, or Drake Hounds. ¨C ¡°Follow me, and you¡¯ll see.¡± I started walking again, and I heard the thumping stomps of Bob¡¯s feet walking behind me. ¨C [Master, you mean you¡¯Re moRe PowErfulL than tHe HounDS?] ¨C ¡°Yes, Bob.¡± ¨C [And yOu coULd kill a PantHEr?] ¨C ¡°Yes, Bob.¡± ¨C [And what AbOuT a GryPHoN?] ¨C ¡°Harder than a Panther, but yes, Bob, I¡¯ve killed Gryphons before.¡± ¨C [You¡¯re amaZiNg, MasTer!] ¨C He seemed truly amazed, and I felt truly proud. We were already half way towards the cave when I detected some presences a few hundred meters ahead. It seemed as thought I had found my wolves, and it was a full pack, instead of a loner. I halted and looked at Bob. ¨C ¡°Stay quiet, I¡¯m going to show you what I am capable of.¡± ¨C His eyes brightened and he assented with his head. I smiled and took out a pebble, soaked it in energy and made it float over my hand. ¨C [Woaaaaaaah! That¡¯s amazing!] ¨C He was getting more and more used to ¡°talking¡±, it seemed. I simply smiled and threw the pebble to my right. Suddenly a wolf jumped from where I had thrown the pebble to, and it unsurprisingly to me was hit by the pebble, that bore a hole through its head rendering the scout dead. ¡°Kaah?¡± ¨C It seemed Bob didn¡¯t even realize about the scout was there, but it was nothing surprising, the Apes were dexterous enough that even without knowing it was there, it wouldn¡¯t have been hit. He could have reacted fast enough for it to hit the air, I just reacted before. [Woooah, you could do that? You could have KiLlEd me before, couldn¡¯t you?] ¨C Bob seemed somewhat depressed, and I felt bad about it. ¨C ¡°Don¡¯t say that, what we did was a technique fight, and you were on par with me, I just made a few breakthroughs back there, allowing me to beat you.¡± ¨C Of course it was not fully true, as I could¡¯ve used the WF fighting style and beat him quite faster, but ultimately it was true that I beat him thanks to my breakthrough in Aikido. ¡°Now, quiet, I¡¯m beating all those wolves for you.¡± ¨C I told him to be quiet one last time and readied my stance, of course, I still posed myself with Aikido, I had already advanced a .2% I had to try and advance the .8% missing. 7 wolves walked out of the bushes, looking at me with hatred, but I just stayed there, waiting for them to initiate their attack, as I was supposed to do. The wolf that seemed like the alpha growled, and suddenly one of the wolves dashed at me. I barely moved, dodging the biting and grabbing the wolf by its neck with my left hand and by its hind leg with my right hand, I didn¡¯t even need to use my strength to lift him and crash him onto the ground. I would have followed the attack, but I felt a rush behind me, and so I jumped onto the air, in time to see a wolf bite where my head had been seconds ago. Once in the air, I flexed my legs and before I knew what I was doing I charged my legs, but instead of doing so with only my energy, I used the energy around my legs, when I then ¡°jumped¡±, the air didn¡¯t even move, making a solid stepping plate for me to jump down.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. In the midst of the jump I soaked my arm in energy and once I got to the second wolf, I punched him in the head so strong that I blew its head to pieces. I landed as swift as I could, and I grabbed the first wolf, this time using my strength to lift him and launch him towards the pack. They were so distracted dodging their pack member that they didn¡¯t notice me dashing towards them, and once there I just punched downwards with both my fists onto the Alpha wolf, cracking his skull open and effectively dispersing the whole pack, which after realizing their Alpha was dead, intelligently decided I was too strong. The only one of them that didn¡¯t get to run was the first wolf to dash at me, who was too dizzy to run away before Bob appeared and with his four arms copied my up-down strike, crashing the wolf to the ground again. I approached slowly to the wolf and grabbed him by the neck, then I flexed my hand, followed by a cracking sound and the limping sound of a dying wolf. ¡°Good job, Bob, this one is all yours, and the first one too, the other two are mine.¡± ¨C I complimented him and grabbed my preys, dragging them with me, when suddenly I stopped feeling their weight, so I turned around. [MasTer fought them, I caN carry them, tHis way I¡¯ll be of usE.] ¨C I smiled and let go of the wolves, letting him carry them to the cave. Once we were in front of the cave, Bob started shaking, so I asked him again. ¨C ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Bob?¡± ¨C I stood there, waiting for an answer, but he kept shaking and looking at the cave with fear. ¨C ¡°Bob, there¡¯s nothing to be afraid of, tell me what¡¯s wrong.¡± ¨C I tried to reassure him, and I guess I did at some degree, because he finally answered me. [T-tHiS IS the CavE o-Of a MouNTaiN B-beAr!] ¨C Ooh, so that¡¯s his name? ¨C ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Bob, he no longer lives here, and he let me live here after what I did for him.¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the thought of the giant Bear which had acquired my regeneration. That was a hell of an opponent, a giant rocky Bear which was hard to hurt but that even when hurt would regenerate? Hell if I wanted to fight that. [YoU KnOW HiM?!] ¨C Bob now looked at me in awe and it felt too damn great. I walked towards the cave while smiling. ¨C [Aah, wait foR Me, Master!] *** A big four armed Berserk Ape flew straight towards a tree and crushed it while on the other side a loud scream was heard. ¡°YEEEEEES! FINALLY!!!!! ¡° I had been training with Bob for three weeks straight, I hunted mostly for him and then went back to the training spars with Bob, increasing my Aikido mastery in a steady way, until today, where I finally got my 100% mastery.
Tenth and last step walked through, you have achieved a 100% mastery in Aikido. Congratulations on your full mastery, you''ve unlocked Mirror Strength.
Mirror Strength G mid tier 1.0 %
Half way through my training, I had come to realize what was that increased the mastery percentage, it was not a better comprehending on Aikido, but instead was a better comprehension in what I would acquire, meaning each time I mastered something that was part of Mirror Strength I made a step onto the full mastery of Aikido. These weeks with Bob had helped me more than I could¡¯ve expected, and I don¡¯t mean just in terms of strength and technique; it was nice to have a companion, a friend, even one that called me Master. I had come to know so much about the Berserker Apes these weeks, and not only them, I also learned a lot about the creatures of the forest. And most importantly, I learnt a lot about Bob. It seems he was an orphan, and he hadn¡¯t had anyone to teach him anything until he was 12 years, which Berserker Apes considered adulthood. That was 2 years ago, and he had accomplished entering a community of Apes that had barely accepted him, but even so, they taught him what he needed to survive and thus protect the community. At first he had thought he had learned all, but soon he realized that most of the secrets about their strength kept being a secret to him. They refused to teach him that, appealing to his strength, saying that he was sure to have some secrets of a different community, and that if he was to acquire another he would surely be hurt, but that was naught but excuses. They just didn¡¯t want to teach their empowering secrets to a Berserker Ape which was almost as strong as they were without such secrets, because if he was to learn them, they feared he would take the Alpha position from the leader. I had come to the decision that I would help him obtain those secrets, but before going to their community, I had to make sure he would be able to take the Alpha position even without their secrets, so that he didn¡¯t need me to force them to teach it to him. I had thus, chosen a new fighting style, something I could teach him, but all the same it could be useful to me.
Berserk Rage A mid tier Progress: 7.3 %
A style vastly extended around the universe, practised by all kind of races, not only races resembling humans, but also by fierce beasts like Apes, Gorillas and other beasts that count with manipulable and dexterous front arms. Its focus is on its offensive, and though it decreases the user''s deffensive capabilities, it has an amazingly great increase in strength and speed.
But I already told him that until I achieved a 100% in my current fighting style, I couldn¡¯t begin to teach him that fighting style, and so, Bob had taken an even more active attitude on the spars, helping me achieve full mastery this much faster. Now it was time for me to learn a new fighting style, and together teach him that, so he would achieve its maximum potential. I did so because we had come to become friends, and I was committed to express my thanks. I was glad about having a friend, but still, there was not much to do here besides training, hunting, eating and sleeping, so that¡¯s what we did. ¡°Bob! Come here!¡± ¨C I shouted him to come, and he did so in a record time. ¨C [Master! Have you achieved full mastery? Does that mean we¡¯ll begin my training?!] ¨C He could talk normally now, but still felt weird having someone else¡¯s thoughts in my mind, but it had so many advantages that I was envious. I had asked him how he understood me, but it seemed that once I defeated him, he surrendered part of his soul to me, something he didn¡¯t want to do, and that¡¯s why he ran when he realized I could defeat him. Unfortunately for him, the moment he accepted his loss and tried to run, was the moment he surrendered part of his soul to me. Now he could understand what I told him at all times, and technically I could speak with him without opening my mouth, but it fell good to talk after so much time alone, so I kept speaking out loud. ¡°Yes, Bob, we¡¯ll start your training, so you better get ready! Until you¡¯re able to defeat your entire community on your own, you¡¯ll keep training!¡± [Aye, Master!] Chapter 13 - Raging Fury ¡°Not like that! You have to inhale deeply and feel the burst of energy inside your heart.¡± - I frowned as I wondered what it could be that was so hard for him to understand. ¨C [Master! It¡¯s not as easy as you say! You make it seem as if you knew exactly what to do and didn¡¯t even need to practice, how am I supposed to do the same as you?!] Mmm¡­ Ok, it was true, I literally knew exactly what to do since the moment I unlocked the training, but still, I had described it perfectly, had I not? ¨C ¡°Let¡¯s see, what could you possibly be doing wrong? Mmm¡­¡± ¨C I pondered as I recalled the guide on the Berserker Rage, and analyzed the process. You had to force your heart to beat in a specific way, and then some kind of berserk energy would be generated on your heart¡­ ¡°AH! Bob!¡± ¨C I suddenly realized something, something I should have realized before, and called Bob. ¨C [What, Master?] ¨C ¡°How many heartbeats do you hear when you listen to your own heart?¡± ¨C I prayed to be right, because it would not only fix his problems, but also mean he was overly compatible with this method. ¨C [Of course I hear two heartbeats, what could that have anything to do with the technique?] ¨C He tilted his head, confused. ¡°Everything! You don¡¯t have one heart, you have two, so you have to change both heartbeats!¡± ¨C [Aaaah? You don¡¯t have two hearts?] ¨C He seemed lost. ¨C ¡°No, Bob, most creatures don¡¯t, most probably even other Berserker Apes don¡¯t have two hearts.¡± ¨C [Is that true?! Ooh, I thought I was normal¡­] ¨C He seemed somewhat depressed, so I hurriedly came to his rescue. ¨C ¡°No, Bob, you¡¯re absolutely not normal¡± ¨C He seemed even more depressed. ¨C ¡°You¡¯re better than normal! You¡¯re a wonderful Ape; you¡¯re the Alpha of all Berserker Apes! Imagine all Apes¡¯ communities under your watch, you could put together all of them!¡± His eyes brightened as he wondered how that would feel, and he smiled as he forgot his previous depressed thoughts. ¨C ¡°Come on, Bob, try the Berserker Rage on both your hearts.¡± ¨C I was hoping it would go well, but I also was afraid by what would happen. As he seated to start the beat synch, I remembered what had happened when I used Berserker Rage for the first time. A week before: ¡°Ok, Bob, it¡¯s just as easy as this, you use your heart to generate Berserker Rage energy, and then once the heart beats normally again, the energy expands around the body, increasing your strength, although it says something about control lose, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that much of a problem, and it says there¡¯s a way to control it, so go ahead, I¡¯ll try it with you.¡± ¨C [Ok, Master!] I sat down and as when I breathed with the Werewolf Fury, I ¡°looked inside myself¡±, only this time I was looking at my heart. I used all my strength and the method described to constrict my heart and make it beat following my instructions, suddenly I observed as together with a somewhat painful surge, energy started being generated inside my heart. I stopped constricting my heart, looking forwards to the effects of the energy, and then it started. I felt the raging energy escape my control as it travelled through my veins towards every part of my body. One good chunk of it, though, went towards my brain, and suddenly all I saw was red. I stood up and looked at Bob. ¨C ¡°GET OUT OF MY CAVE! THIS IS MY HOME, DON¡¯T YOU DARE STAND BEFORE ME LIKE YOU LIVE HERE!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t comprehend why I would let a beast in my home. ¨C ¡°AAAAARGH! GET OOOOUUUT!!!!!¡± ¨C I dashed at him as he realized something was wrong and his eyes reflected his fear. He dodged my first strike and started running towards the exit. ¡°DON¡¯T YOU DARE TO TURN YOUR BACK AT ME!¡± ¨C How dared this lowly beast ignore me?! I jumped forwards with all the intentions to kill that excuse of a beast in front of me, but Bob dodged my attack and punched back, hitting me straight to my face. I felt his punch crush my skull and part of my brain with it. I felt myself flying backwards while my consciousness both returned and left me. [What did I just try to do? Why would I try to kill him¡­ ] *** ¡°Mmm¡­ What happened to me?¡± ¨C I woke up dizzy and confused. Last thing I remembered was releasing my heart from the pressure and all the energy went wild around my body, and then¡­ into my head?! ¨C ¡°BOB! Are you ok?! Where are you?!¡± ¨C I stood up in distress, worried that I had done something I would regret, but as soon as I stood up I noticed I was tied up, and in front of me was Bob, looking at me with a frown and with all his muscles tensed, ready to defend himself. ¡°Oh god, Bob, what did I do?¡± ¨C I was scared; I didn¡¯t want to lose him, not after I finally got a friend. ¨C [It¡¯s ok, Master, you lost your mind and tried to kill me, but I was able to leave you unconscious. I was really worried after I crushed your head.] ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but sigh of relief. ¨C ¡°I¡¯m glad you were able to stop me. And you don¡¯t need to worry; a simple wound wouldn¡¯t be able to kill me, not even in the head.¡± ¨C I didn¡¯t tell him I was immortal, better to keep some things to myself. [What happened, Master? Why did you lose your mind?] ¨C Bob asked me worried, but I knew exactly why. He was worried that the fighting style was not usable, and he would have to wait even more. ¨C ¡°I think I know exactly what. The raging energy went mostly straight to my head, and I think that¡¯s where the problem resides. If I¡¯m able to deliver the energy around my body and still avoid my mind, it should be a good boost in strength¡­ Wait, how were you able to crush my head?¡± [I wondered too, but didn¡¯t you say Berserker Rage lessened your defenses? Maybe it was that] ¨C Ooh, that made sense, I attributed defense to my capability to block, not my toughness, but it makes sense, is like when I charged too much energy in a material, it would eventually blew up, so charging it with Berserker energy also decreases its integrity, it¡¯s nice to know. ¡°Ok, I think I¡¯ll be able to fix the control loss now, but just in case, take a rock and prepare yourself to knock me unconscious if I try to attack you.¡± ¨C I told so to Bob as I sat down and started controlling my heart again. It felt like grabbing my heart with my hands and stopping it from beating, while at the same time I massaged it so the blood wouldn¡¯t stagnate. As soon as I started, Raging red energy started generating, but instead of letting go, I kept ¡°massaging¡± my heart.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. After what felt like hours but were but a single minute, I managed a heart full of energy and I noticed I couldn¡¯t generate more, so I had to stop, but I didn¡¯t just stop suddenly, I slowed down and concentrated on guiding the raging energy just as I did with the breathing technique I used with WF. I let it flow towards all my bones, but made the energy soak my bones instead of just inject it to them as it would¡¯ve done if I wasn¡¯t controlling, allowing a lower degree of fragility on my bones. I followed by soaking my muscles and finally my skin. As I opened my eyes I found myself face to face with a worried and stressed Bob. ¨C ¡°Hey Bob, you can let that roEEY!¡± ¨C I suddenly jumped backwards to avoid a giant rock from crashing onto me. ¨C ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you, Bob?!¡± ¨C [I-I¡¯m sorry Master, I thought you would attack me again¡­] ¨C He seemed honestly worried and sorry, so I decided to accept his apologies. ¨C ¡°Ok, Bob, doesn¡¯t matter, and I¡¯m fine, nothing wrong with me. Now let¡¯s try the extent of this power.¡± I walked towards the rock Bob had almost crushed my skull with, and punched it with all my strength. *BOOOOOOM!* ¡°¡­¡± [¡­] ¡°¡­I¡¯m sorry?¡± [WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!] ¨C Bob screamed as he had to take quite a few rock pieces out of his skin. Luckily he was far from the rock and they didn¡¯t do any serious damage. ¡°I said I¡¯m sorry! I didn¡¯t think I would blow the entire rock up!¡± ¨C I apologized as I looked in wonder at what was left of the rock, that wasn¡¯t much. As soon as my fist had hit the rock, it had cracked entirely, and as my fist went through, it had started to jump around, only this happened in less than half a second, and the rock was 3 meters wide and tall, so blowing it up like this was amazing. [Well, at least we now know that the ¡°amazingly great increase in strength¡± was no exaggeration, and probably the speed one won¡¯t be something to joke about either.] ¨C Bob was right, this was amazing, I was now at least ten times as strong as when I was not in kinetic energy, and if I infused my body in kinetic energy while I was on Berserker energy then what kind of power would I have? I immediately tried to infuse kinetic energy in my arm, slowly and steady I felt my bones and muscles greedily absorb the kinetic energy, and as soon as they did, I felt the Berserker energy absorb the kinetic energy, becoming even more powerful, yet more stable. I then punched in the air, only to hear something rip apart, and then a thunderous sound. At first I thought the ripping part was my arm, until I heard the thunder. As soon as I heard that I recognized the sound. It was the sound of the sound speed being broken! ¡°HAHAHAHAHA! I BROKE THE SOUND SPEED!¡± ¨C Of course I realized that being able to attack at this speed and moving at this speed were worlds apart, but it still fell wonderful. That was until I felt the Berserker energy dissipate and I felt the pain. ¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but scream, I felt as the bones of my right arm were pulverized while the rest of my bones ¡°just¡± fractured. To resume it, I wasn¡¯t fond at all of having my bones broken. In less than a few minutes, I was entirely healed already, but still hurt like hell. [MASTER!] ¨C I suddenly realized Bob had been calling me all the time while I was healing. ¨C ¡°Sorry to worry you, Bob, I¡¯m fine now, but it was a hell of a painful experience. I think I¡¯ll have to find a way for you to be able to use this without having all your bones broken.¡± ¨C I made a sad smile while I sat down again. ¡°I now know I can control my mind, so I guess you can train on the stances we practiced already. I guess that even if you only get the stances, it will be a great improvement on your fighting strength, but either way, I¡¯ll be trying to find a balance, a way for you to be able to use this power, while I¡¯m at it, just practice, ok?¡± ¨C [Ok, Master, thank you for everything.] ¨C I didn¡¯t answer him, I just smiled and closed my eyes, then went again at the training. *** *Crack* ¡°Mmm¡­ just a clean fracture and just on the arm I used Kinetic energy in. Still, if I am able to stay entire, is because I heal incredibly fast. Can¡¯t risk Bob for my complacency.¡± ¨C I sighed and went into meditation again, trying to figure a way for Bob to practice the energy infusing technique from Berserker Rage without being torn to pieces. I had been practicing for five days straight, and I had almost full control over the energy, yet I still broke some of my bones, even if only when using both types of energy at the same time. I had tried almost everything, and although I had achieved not to break my bones and only put them under a mild stress, it was still too much. True, if I didn¡¯t hit anything they didn¡¯t break, but the moment I was hit or I hit something, they most of the time broke, so it wasn¡¯t viable yet. I generated the energy again, but instead of soaking my body in energy I did what I had thought to be the way to go. I had simply avoided because it was the most hard to try. I stood up and brought the energy in my heart towards my arm just as I was hitting the wall. *BOOM!* ¡°YES! FINALLY!¡± ¨C I screamed of joy and almost lost my concentration and ended badly, luckily, I was able to stop the Raging energy before it went into my head. What I did was infuse my bones only at the time to hit, and then take back what was left of energy into my heart. It worked fine; instead of breaking, my bones had resisted perfectly the energy excess and just went along without so much as snapping. This would require some work, but it was a good method. I exhaled as I released all the Raging energy through my breath and saw a red mist get out of my mouth. I had to think a way to automatically generate small amounts of Berserker energy and exhale it unless I decided not to. This way, I would have access to immediate strength without endangering either my bones or anyone else. If I didn¡¯t even have energy inside me, it couldn¡¯t go to my mind and make me lose control, no? ¡°BOB! COME HERE! YOU CAN START PRACTICING!¡± *** And here we were. Looking at an enraged Bob with red eyes and trembling muscles. He was struggling to get from under me, yet unable to even though he was more than twice my size. ¡°Bob, calm down! You don¡¯t want me to knock you unconscious; I know you can hear me. Drag the energy back into your heart and then exhale it!¡± ¨C I forced my will into him, as I had done when he had tried to run away when we first met, and he stopped struggling somehow. I saw as a red mist went out of his nostrils and I smiled. ¡°I knew you could do it, Bob, you¡¯re my pupil after all!¡± ¨C I stood up and let him space. ¨C [Thank you Master¡­] ¨C He seemed mad at himself, and I get why, it was already the seventh time he lost his mind, and he thought he had disappointed me. ¨C ¡°Bob, you know I trust you, and hey, you¡¯ve achieved the exhaling thing, now you can exhale the Berserker energy all the time, until you¡¯re able to control it well enough not to let it go into your head. Think about it, you generate twice as much energy as I do, it¡¯s amazing!¡± [Ok, Master, I¡¯ll try.] ¨C And so, we went back to training, to make him the Berserker Ape more powerful that this forest had seen! Chapter 14 - The Challenge *BOOM!!!* ¡°...¡± ¨C I was seated on the ground, meditating and circulating the Berserk energy around my body, making sure my bones got used to it without weakening. I had discovered this a few hours ago, if I circulated the energy often enough, my body got used to it, and not only it could absorb more energy, it was less affected by it. That¡¯s why I was trying to find the more effective way to circulate the energy. *BOOOOOM!!!* ¡°¡­¡± ¨C Anyway, I first started circulating the energy around my veins, making it so that it was the blood that did all the work, and somehow it worked, only I had some trouble, because I couldn¡¯t limit it down my neck, and so the charged blood arrived to my head, and messed with me. Later I tried a new method, to carry it myself with kinetic energy to all my body, except my head, but it didn¡¯t work as well, because even though it worked to power me up, it didn¡¯t help my body get used to that energy. *BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!* ¡°¡­¡± ¨C And so, here we are, trying my last method. I¡¯m trying to do something similar to when I circulated WF method, infuse the energy into the oxygen, and then let it flow. But I need to draw away the energy from it before it goes to the head, so it will be quite the pain in¡­ *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!* ¡°GOD DAMNIT BOB! I¡¯M TRYING SOMETHING HERE! DO YOU WANT TO SHUT UP AND STAY STILL FOR A DAMN MINUTE?!¡± ¨C I snapped at him, who looked at me while smoke was going out of his hands and the wall was full of holes. [¡­s-sorry Master, I¡¯m just excited with this new power you¡¯ve g-given me.] ¨C He looked down, apologizing and scared, as if I was some kind of monster, when all I was doing was for its own good, at least some of it. ¡°Sorry, Bob, I know you¡¯re excited, but I need concentration; how else if not am I going to find the way to strengthen you even more?¡± ¨C I gave him my most ¡°caring¡± smile, and then I approached him and placed my hand on its arm. I would¡¯ve liked to put my hand on his shoulder, but you know, 5 meters tall. ¨C ¡°Now make me a favor and relax, you can go hunting, take some prey and eat it. By the time you¡¯re back I¡¯ll make sure I¡¯ve discovered your next step, okay?¡± [Okay Master!] ¨C He immediately smiled as if nothing had happened, and dashed out of the cave. ¨C ¡°Be careful!¡± He was so infantile, I loved having him here, it made my staying here in the forest so much easier. Until now I hadn¡¯t realized how lonely I was, but living alone was taking a toll in me, even if before coming here I lived alone on Earth, every time I went out I saw thousands of people, so it was not the same. And to think I hated living surrounded of so many people. I thought it to be stressful and disgusting, having to live with zombie like persons who did nothing but going from home to work and from work to home, as if that was a life. I always went with music on me, not bothering to listen to the people from the street, even more, actively avoiding to. Now though, I missed the senseless sounds, the blabbering in the streets, the unconscious wandering and losing myself in the old parts of my town. There was this one time when I ended up in a forest near my town, and was lost there for almost a week! This feels similar, but worse, because I can¡¯t get out of the forest just yet. ¡°Aah¡­¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but sigh remembering those days. I shook my head and sat down on the floor, making myself comfortable as I dispersed the nostalgic thoughts out of my mind. As soon as I steadied my breathing, I immersed myself on meditation, looking inside my body. I controlled my heart in the pattern required to generate Berserk energy and I started practicing. I willed for the energy to go into my lungs and a red mist started invading them, but this time instead of exhaling it, I redirected it towards my alveoli so I could infuse the mist into my blood, getting this way blood charged both with oxygen and Berserk energy. I released my ¡°leash¡± on the blood and let it circulate through my veins, this time without controlling it, as I was pretty sure that even if it went to my brain, this amount wouldn¡¯t make me lose my mind. This was the true reason I told him to go on a hunt. If I had just asked he would¡¯ve stayed quiet and not make any noise, but even then I would¡¯ve known he was here, and if by some reason I ended up in an enrage, I didn¡¯t want to hurt him. And now that I could control more the Berserk energy, I was pretty sure I would¡¯ve hurt him. Anyway, the blood went into my brain, deoxygenating on the process and at the same time liberating the energy on it, just as it did on all my body at the same time. I noticed my mind go cloudy, somehow angry, and even bloodthirsty, but at least I felt control. As soon as the blood came back, I infused some more energy in it and let it go around again. When the blood went again through my brain I was surprised that it didn¡¯t increase my mind confusion, but more surprised that it recycled the energy already there, reabsorbing it as it released the recently charged energy in my brain. As soon as the blood went to take more energy, the energy that was somehow ¡°discharged¡± went into my lungs getting substituted by new and charged energy. The discharged energy in the form of mist merged with the mist on my lungs, and recharged with the help of the remaining energy. All this happened while the charged blood circulated, and the recycling process happened all around my body. It seemed that as long as I controlled the mist not to come out of my lungs, the circulation would be an automatic thing, which helped me a lot. As I had confirmed that I could circulate energy at these levels and not be controlled by it, I decided to keep doing it. I had a feeling I was missing something, but for the time being I just ignored, and kept circulating the energy while keeping the mist imprisoned on my lungs. Luckily for me this levels of energy weren¡¯t enough to cause any strain on my body, which although wouldn¡¯t have bothered me as I could regenerate, would¡¯ve been a pain in the ass for Bob.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I felt as my veins toughen and my heart strengthening, I figured that after some time my heart would be able to pump much more blood in much less time, increasing my ¡°cultivation¡± speed. All my bones were becoming even tougher and in some way porous, allowing them to absorb more energy. My muscles in the other side were becoming more resilient and stronger, allowing them to stretch and contract more and faster without suffering as much strain as they did before. Unfortunately all was improving so slowly that I knew I would have to do this for quite a while before it was able to really make a difference, so I immersed myself into it and forgot everything around. After around half an hour of circulating the energy around, I finally realized what was that I missed before. The confusion on my mind was fading and was almost gone, as if the energy didn¡¯t confuse me as much anymore, and that gave me the hint that I was missing. Circulating the energy didn¡¯t just make my body more physically apt to take in Berserk energy; it also strengthened my mind, allowing me to use the energy without losing control. I immediately increased the amount of energy a little bit, and the confusion increased, but only up to the same level of confusion that it did before, yet the rest of my body was strengthening faster than it did before, and probably my mind was too, it just was harder to perceive that than the changes around the rest of my body. After around an hour, I had increased the amount of energy in my veins twice; I was about to increase it a third time when a mental message from Bob came. [MAAAAAASTEEEEEEEEEEEEER! HEEEEEEEELP!] ¨C I stood up in an instant and looked around, only to realize Bob wasn¡¯t here. I closed my eyes and tried to feel our connection. I felt something, not sure what it was, but it was something I hadn¡¯t felt before, so I tried to touch it. As soon as my mind made contact with that thing, I realized what it was, it was like a worm hole, and I felt Bob on the other side. I wondered why I hadn¡¯t searched for our connection until now, but it didn¡¯t matter right now. [Bob! What¡¯s wrong?! Tell me where you are!] ¨C I asked him as I opened my eyes and started gearing up, taking some daggers and two javelins, not knowing what I would have to face, it was better to be ready. I poisoned the daggers and then approached the Panthers¡¯ heads. ¨C [Master, it¡¯s my community, I found them as I was coming home with a Drake Hound, and they tried to steal my prey from me, so I fought the Alpha, but in the middle of our fight a Gryphon flew down and grabbed him! I need help to save him Master!] I smiled at the thought of him fighting the Alpha, and I tried to ease his mind as I collected some acid in a specially made canteen made with Panther¡¯s leather. ¨C [Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m coming right now, how should I find you?] ¨C [Easy, just follow the link that ties us together. Hurry up please, I¡¯m following the Gryphon, but it goes as fast as I do even with the Ape on its legs!] *** An hour ago (Bob¡¯s POV): [Kakakaka, Master let me go out! I¡¯m so eager to hunt something, I wonder if I would be able to hunt a Panther. Better not to risk it, Master has told me they¡¯re some nasty creatures, even nastier than I thought!] ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the thought of hunting again. It had been more than a week since I went out. Master had prohibited me to go out until I mastered up to certain level in the Berserk Rage. ¨C [I still wonder where did he get such a wonderful technique, it more than doubled my strength and according to him I haven¡¯t mastered a 10% of it!] It¡¯s a pity that nothing goes near Master¡¯s cave; I have to walk so much just to have a chance to hunt something. Half an hour later: [Ooh, that¡¯s a Drake Hound!] ¨C In front of me a Drake Hound was laying down on the shade of a tree, dozing off. This was so exciting, I finally found a prey! I had had to travel far, and dodge a pack of Drake Hounds. Anyway, now that I found a prey I wouldn¡¯t let it run away. I dashed at him trying to take him by surprise, as even thought I felt confident in my strength, Master had taught me that being smarter than my prey was also a strength in itself, and being able to kill a prey without letting it fight back revealed that I was smarter, and thus, in some way, stronger than the prey. Unfortunately, having been taught to try and take advantage of my enemies¡¯ carelessness didn¡¯t mean I had been taught how to do so yet, so the Hound heard me before I was even at 10 meters of him, and stood up in an instant, dashing away from me. ¨C [EEH?! DAMN COWARD COME BACK!] ¨C ¡°ROAAAAAAAR!¡± ¨C I immediately dashed forwards, not risking myself to lose sight of him. Taking advantage of the trees I jumped from side to side even faster than I would run on a plain, and soon reached the Hound. As soon as he realized he couldn¡¯t run away from me he made a sudden stop and faced me, ready to fight me to death, yet that changed the moment my superior right arm bulged and emitted a somewhat red mist. He tried to run again, but my fist was already on its skull, and I crushed him to death just like that. ¡°KAKAKAKAKAA¡± ¨C I did it! I killed a Drake Hound, and I did it alone! I grabbed the Hound and carried over my shoulder, and then I made way towards my home. 20 minutes later: [Hmm? Aren¡¯t those? HA! What¡¯s my community doing here?] ¨C As I was going home I found my community wandering around. It was the whole community, and not just a scout patrol, did something happen? ¡°Guys! What are you doing here? Why did you leave the mountain?¡± ¨C I shouted to grab their attention, and they looked at me, some of them with a scornful gaze, but I didn¡¯t mind, I had gotten myself a real Master, and I would be obtaining the Alpha position soon, so they would be swallowing their looks in no time. ¡°RAHK¡¯TAR! WHERE WERE YOU?! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO COME BACK A MONTH AGO!¡± ¨C The Alpha seemed angry, but who cares. ¨C ¡°I was out, training! I¡¯m much stronger now. Look, I even hunted a Drake Hound alone!¡± ¨C I proudly showed off my prey, and suddenly the looks from my community changed; sadly they didn¡¯t turn into appreciation or awe, but greed and envy. ¡°You! That Hound was probably already dead, and you just took it from the forest! You know the rules; anything not hunted by you is to be shared by the community!¡± ¨C A stupid Ape I hated just had to open the mouth. He was a year older than me, and he made sure to remind me of such. ¨C ¡°Rahk¡¯Tar, is that true? Did you find it in the forest?¡± ¨C And of course the Alpha believed Kar¡¯Talbor, the Alpha himself was Kar¡¯Runat, his father. ¨C No I didn¡¯t! I hunted it myself! ¡°Ha! Like anyone¡¯s going to believe that, you¡¯re even weaker than we are, and we would need at least 5 of us to hunt a Hound!¡± ¨C He smirked, happy to drive me as he wanted. ¨C ¡°Rahk¡¯Tar, give us the Hound, don¡¯t make me take it from you.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¨C I dropped the hound on the floor, and Kar¡¯Talbor made a triumphing smile, only to be substituted by an astonished open mouth when I hit my chest and then hit both my superior fists together, the Alpha challenge symbol. ¨C ¡°KAR¡¯RUNAT! I CHALLENGE YOU FOR THE ALPHA POSITION!¡± Chapter 15 - Rescue Bob¡¯s POV: The fist was coming to my face, but as it was about to hit me I pushed forwards and punched Kar¡¯Runat in the guts, sending him flying against a tree. Unfortunately he was experienced enough to somehow make up the difference in strength, and so he stabilized himself and landed quite swiftly. I didn¡¯t stay still, though, I rampaged forwards even before he started landing, and by the time he was about to come at me, I punched his jaw from below, sending him flying again. This time he landed on a tree instead of the ground, allowing himself to prepare. ¡°I see you have improved, but that won¡¯t suffice against me!¡± ¨C Just as I was nearing the tree, he jumped on the site, making the branch to crack and fall down, Kar¡¯Runat in tail. As soon as he hit the ground, he grabbed the branch, which was as thick as my arm, and swung it at me. *BOOOM!* I impacted on a tree, quite a few meters away from him, and saw him dashing towards me. A smirk appeared on my face, as I embraced the tree and summoned the Berserk energy a bit more. I felt dizzy, but I knew I could handle this much without losing control. I lifted up the tree, uprooting it and leaving everyone astonished, followed by a swing that propelled Kar¡¯Runat a hundred meters away. He fell down quite steadily, and ran at me again, as if nothing had happened, so I swung again, yet this time I didn¡¯t feel an impact. Suddenly I felt how the air escaped my lungs as I was thrust backwards from his punch. That bastard had dodged the tree?! He was right, I wasn¡¯t experienced enough; he had so much more fighting experience than me that the difference in strength didn¡¯t make that much of a difference. It might not matter against unintelligent beasts, but against him? It let me at a disadvantage. Unfortunately for him, though, I had been fighting with master, and he was much more experienced than Runat, so I had gained some practice. I stood again and dashed towards him, this time though, when he dodged he found himself in front of my fist. *Crack* He was launched upwards, towards the trees, together with the sound of bones breaking. Thanks to master I had learned to feint, which was something I wouldn¡¯t have even thought of doing before. It had seemed to me like cheating, but it was not, it was a different type of fighting experience, I was using my strength, even if it was a different type of strength, against my foe. *GRAAA!* ¡°Hmpf, it seems I pissed him off.¡± ¨C I didn¡¯t have much of a window to prepare because as soon as he made contact with the ground he ran at me with his arms on the floor! I had never seen one of us running like this, but he seemed comfortable with it, and he was definitely faster than before. He arrived at me in seconds and punched me with his left fist. I managed to block it using two of my arms, and the force behind the punch was astounding. But what I didn¡¯t see was his right punch grabbing my leg, and by the time I noticed it, I was lifted off the ground and swung like the branch. I found myself on the ground, upside down, and with an angry ape running at me like a madman. I used my four arms and jumped while upside down, and then grabbed the tree branch I had closer, so I wouldn¡¯t fall to the ground again. I cleared my head and took a deep breath, preparing for the confusion that would soon invade me. The world turned red as I let the berserk energy loose around my body. I jumped down while showing my fangs, and as he hit me I did not attempt to dodge, but took it with my body and simply hit back. Kar¡¯Runat, that didn¡¯t expect me to not dodge, flew up in the sky by my punch. And then, something happened that none of us expected. Something grabbed him in the air, and just flew away. *** Lyon¡¯s POV: Following the connection in my mind, I ran as fast as I could; infusing my legs in energy and propelling myself forwards, I was running faster than most cars. The trees around me felt like bullets coming at me that I had to dodge. I was sure that if I was to collide, I wouldn¡¯t escape completely unscathed, not at the speed I was running. I ran and ran, not slowing down, and giving thanks to my regeneration, as I was feeling the pain on my legs, and I was sure I had overdone it with the energy infusion, and I had probably ripped some muscles and tendons. Since I had discovered the soft infusion I had been practicing, allowing me to infuse huge amounts of energy inside of my body, and still remain in one piece, but due to the stress and hurry I was on, I had probably lost control over it, and it had dispersed violently around my body, ripping it in the process. If only I hadn¡¯t overused the Shadow Dimension I wouldn¡¯t be having this problem right now, I would have to make sure not to repeat the same mistake again. I kept running for twenty minutes before I saw a glimpse of Bob, and up in the sky I could catch a shadow flying away. I immediately thought of a solution and told Bob what he had to do. He sped up using the berserk energy, even at the risk of losing control; he dashed forward, trying to catch the Gryphon. After barely 3 minutes, he had gotten pretty close, and I sent him the signal. He suddenly turned around and bended his knees, also putting his four arms in a stair position. I dashed even faster and stepped on his first pair of arms, then on the second, and at the same time I jumped from there, he lifted me as hard as he could. *Creak!* I was flying at an amazing speed, but I was sure I had heard Bob¡¯s bones crack under my strength; I would have to help him heal. I was getting close, but sadly I couldn¡¯t change my directions or anything, so I could only pray the Gryphon wouldn¡¯t turn to the side, or I would find myself flying to the ground. Once I was close enough, and before he decided it was better to fly sideways and let me fall, I took one my roped javelins, and infused some energy into it so it would have enough power to pierce the Gryphon, then I immediately threw. I was immediately destabilized, because sadly, life was different from anime, and launching something with such strength while in the air, caused the laws of physics to throw me back. Luckily I hit the Gryphon, so by grabbing the rope I was able to tag along. I climbed the rope and reached the Gryphon that was trying hard not to fall. Once I did I hit him as hard as I could on its neck, and the pain made him let go of the Alpha Ape, making him fall through the trees, luckily, after the trees slowed down his fall, the damage wouldn¡¯t be too much. Now the only thing missing was me getting down. Damn¡­ ¡°GET DOWN YOU STUPID PIGEON!¡± I tried to force Gryphon to go down, but it resisted, obviously, so I drew my claws and carefully pierced it below the neck. It screeched, and after a little struggle, it started to go down. I took the opportunity to feel the wind as I flew. It really was a wonderful feeling, flying, even if only mounted on a Gryphon. I was soaring through the sky, as so many humans had dreamt before, and it felt amazing. The wind on my hair, caressing my back¡­ nothing I knew could compare to this feeling. Well, maybe I could think of a few. The point being, I enjoyed it, and that meant I wanted it, so¡­ ¡°Fly, Gryf!¡± ¨C Why couldn¡¯t I enjoy the flying a little more? I had already helped Bob¡¯s old Alpha. ¡°Hahahaha¡± ¨C The Gryphon was seemingly getting annoyed, and it dove down, trying to scare me, but I pulled him back, making him stop midair¡­Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. *CRASH!* ¡­ Why didn¡¯t I consider the speed I was going at¡­? Whatever, I was down, and I heard the System alerting me, but before I could do something about it. The Gryphon took another dove and tried to grab me with his claws. Well, he asked for it, didn¡¯t he? I grabbed another one of my roped javelins, the last one I had carried, and shot the Gryphon. Without even looking if I had hit it, I ran with the rope towards a tree, and circled it. Making sure the rope was tensed. The Gryphon screeched, so I assumed I hit it, and then the rope tensed even more. And then¡­ *BOOM!* Well, it worked; one pigeon down. I ran towards it and stabbed its head, making sure it didn¡¯t survive, and then I untangled the rope and used it to carry the body. No reason at all to waste meat, no? After some walking, I found Bob, with two arms mangled and bent weirdly sitting down next to the Alpha Ape, which was looking at me in awe, well, at my package. ¡°Hey, Bob! Why don¡¯t you introduce me?¡± ¨C I really needed to talk with him about manners. ¡°Alpha, he¡¯s Lyon, my master.¡± ¨C Wow, so that¡¯s his voice, it sounds strange, as until now we were communicating in a non-verbal way I only understood the word Lyon, though. ¨C [Master, he¡¯s Kar¡¯Runat, the Alpha of my community.] ¨C He was smiling like a dummy, ha! I liked that moron. ¡°What do you mean, master?! You¡¯re a Berserker Ape! You should feel ashamed to be under someone else who¡¯s not your Alpha!¡± ¨C The Alpha just went ahead and said something rude. I know I don¡¯t understand a word of what he says, but I just feel it. ¡°Hmph, what do you know, he¡¯s clearly stronger than you, don¡¯t you see that Gryphon? He hunted it alone!¡± ¨C Bob was clearly angry at its words, and he rebuked him, but nothing more than that. Then it turned towards me. [Master, let¡¯s go, he clearly doesn¡¯t appreciate you saving its life.] ¨C He turned around and started walking towards the cave. Wow, that¡¯s some pretty good orientation. Just as I was about to start dragging the Gryphon and follow him, the Alpha stood up and raised its arm in a punching motion. It launched its fist, going straight for Bob¡¯s head, and a hit so sudden and without alert would be able to seriously hurt him. But, just as the fist was about to connect, it stopped. I had to drop the rope, but I arrived in front of Bob in an instant, and was holding the fist with my hand. Kar¡¯Runat was clearly pushing forwards as hard as he could, but he wasn¡¯t moving an inch. I breathed in and started generating Berserk Mist. Then after a cycle, when the Alpha was about to raise its other arm, I crushed his right fist. ¡°KRAAAAAAAAAA!¡± ¨C Wow, that hurt my ears. ¨C ¡°YOU DAMN LITTLE SHIT! I¡¯LL KILL YOU!¡± ¨C No idea what he¡¯s saying, but clearly not an apologize, so¡­ ¡°KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!¡± ¨C A little more strength to make the Ape sing, and now he¡¯s on his knees, trying to resist the pain. ¡°Bob, tell him that if he moves or shouts again, the next thing I¡¯ll crush will be his head.¡± ¨C I nonchalantly say that, and then I release him and go towards the Gryphon. ¡°Kakakaka! He¡¯s beat you to the ground, kakakaka! Runat, Master says you don¡¯t move or shout, or he¡¯ll crush your head, kakakaka! [Let¡¯s go Master] ¨C Bob says this, and turns around again, and this time the Alpha doesn¡¯t move. *** After I taught Bob the new way of handling the energy, its arms healed by themselves quite fast, saving me of a lot of trouble. And for the last few months, we¡¯ve been training in the cave. It¡¯s good that Bob didn¡¯t have the patience I have, and so couldn¡¯t stay still all day, which let me take advantage and make him hunt for the both of us. I¡¯ve been mostly training in the Berserk**** and kinetic energy, but I used the weekly hunts I did to practice the WF, which is a most apt fighting style for me. I¡¯ve also tried to merge both styles, unsuccessfully for the time being, and this is how the system looks right now.
Status X-System
Status
Name: Lyon Ironblood Soul Points: 632.781
Mutations: 4 Powers: 3
Mutations Acquired:
Wolverine Locked Deadpool Locked
Gambit Unlocked Angel 72 %
Nightcrawler Unlocked ----- -----
Powers: Power origin:
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf E mid tier Wolverine + Deadpool
Kinetic conversion and acceleration F mid tier Gambit
Shadow Dimension F mid tier Nightcrawler
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 99.7 %
Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge): - Iron Elk ( x46 ) : Improves agility and bone durability. - Scorpion Panther ( x34 ) : Improves poison and acid resistance, stealth and agility. - Spiked Lion ( x7 ) : Improves strength and bone durability. - Draconic Wolf ( x86 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability. - Fiery Ape (x5) : Improves balance and coordination, small improvement in strength. - Gryphon (x27) : Improves eyesight, hearing, balance, speed and strength. (+54% at Angel''s powers)
Berserk Rage A mid tier Progress: 48.7 %
A style vastly extended around the universe, practised by all kind of races, not only races resembling humans, but also by fierce beasts like Apes, Gorillas and other beasts that count with manipulable and dexterous front arms. Its focus is on its offensive, and though it decreases the user''s deffensive capabilities, it has an amazingly great increase in strength and speed.
Mirror Strength G mid tier Progress: 14.9 %
A style practiced by those less doted in physical aspects, Mirror Strength uses technique to go around the need for strength. It focuses on observing the oponent, analize it''s abilities and thus be able to counteract them without the need for overwhelming physical capabilities.
I guess it¡¯s time to test myself against that damned Elk, now that I have access to the shadow step again. I strapped my weapons to my belt, and took my¡­ let¡¯s call it sword? Well, whatever, it actually was a fang from a giant Anaconda. It probably had a different name, but I didn¡¯t know any other way to describe it. And even though I have its fang, I didn¡¯t get to kill it. That damned thing was tough as hell, but what saved it was its ability to dive inside the water, avoiding thus my wrath. During that fight, I had been trying to adapt to fight huge opponents, to prepare for the Dragon, in case I ever crossed paths with it, and I somehow had the chance to resist. And so, I didn¡¯t even use weapons during that fight. A weapon would do little damage against a creature so big the size of the weapon was like a needle to me. True, it may hurt, but I wouldn¡¯t do actual damage, so why bother. Instead, concussive damage derived from my now increased strength would do more serious damage. Sadly for me, snakes are quite tenacious, and quite flexible, so most of the damage, even though I hit the Anaconda way stronger than I had ever hit anything, dispersed and left me hanging without means to kill it. During a moment of rage, I drew my claws at it and gashed its flesh, accomplishing a painful hiss from it. Not knowing if I would have a better chance, I launched myself at its mouth, to try and crush it, only to be eaten. Okay, maybe not eaten, I wasn¡¯t swallowed, but the Anaconda was big enough to fit my whole body in its mouth, and it did so. Once inside, it tried to crush me, but I did the only thing I could think of, stab its tongue, and the hellish reaction it got was the whole reason I have a new sword. It tried to stab me with its fangs, and obviously, I hit it. But instead of breaking, the fang got dislocated. That meant it was tougher than stone! I couldn¡¯t reject such a gift, and so I grabbed with all my strength, and pulled it. It was tough, but I got it out, and the pain I caused the snake made it spit me and immediately swim away. So a year and a half after arriving this world here we are, ready to test myself to the first milestone. If I accomplished it, I had plans for my system. I needed a power up. Chapter 16 - Recapitulations and a Step Ahead Fired up as much as I was geared up, I went out the cave, leaving Bob behind to guard it. After so much time living on the cave, it had really changed, making it look like a real home; my home. *** After some time living there, I decided I needed something more than a bare cave, so I started polishing the walls, making rooms, and preparing furniture. I had even taken some time to make shelves to hold my different weapons and tools. It really was a sight to behold. In a spot right near the mouth of the cave I had now put the Panthers¡¯ heads; they were on four shelves carved directly onto the rock. I had carved them out with my bare hands, two at my height, and two more a meter below, and now I could look at the thirty-something heads placed there, ten on each of the top shelves as well as on the lower left shelf, and some on the last one. It was a strange world, this one. I had thought the heads would only last so much, but they actually didn¡¯t decay, so it was a plus. Just where the mouths were in each of the shelves, there was a small gutter, varnished with sticky resin, for the acid. I had discovered this trick after a few tries in finding a way to contain the acid. When the resin was mixed with blood, it lost some of its stickiness, even if only for a few minutes, so it made it possible for me to use it and let it then ¡°eat¡± the blood, leaving the resin. Also, if before it dried, it came in contact with the acid, it changed its properties, turning into the most insulating material I had seen, able to even contain itself in its sticky form without getting stuck at, and it even made impossible for acid to pass through. Thanks to that, now I stored the acid instead of just hiding the heads and doing nothing with them. I had built some barrels out of wood. And varnished its insides in resin, after which I started pouring resin through some kind of funnel varnished the same way. This way, I stored the acid for my later use. One of which was to ingest it. Yeah, yeah, I¡¯m crazy, but I needed to develop my resistance to such acid as soon as possible, and ingesting it helped. I had prepared lots of barrels, and made Bob help me with the excuse that doing so would help him in his dexterity. I mean, it wasn¡¯t untrue, but the amount it helped me was much greater. Right now I had two hundred and thirty-six barrels full, half of it with acid and the other half with venom. You¡¯re probably wondering how is it possible for it to be the same amount, if I use venom in my hunts. Well, the reason is simple, I had one more tail than a head, and that tail was the only one I used to fight. Bob had returned once with only the tail of a Panther and when I answered why, he whined to me that he had thought it was dead, and started dragging it, but it had escaped at the first chance, sadly for it, alert or not, Bob¡¯s strength was not a thing to be trifled with, so it had to leave its tail behind, poor Panther. A little bit deeper into the cave, I had the weaponry. I mean, it wasn¡¯t that big at first, but after so many preys hunted, I had been able to prepare more than enough weapons for Bob and me. On the first shelves of the weaponry, the daggers stood watch. There was a huge amount of it, some larger than others, as they came from different animals, sadly, only my sword would be of any use to Bob as a dagger, so the others stayed there for when I needed it. On the next shelves, I had the javelins rack. A few dozens of spikes pointed towards the ceiling, making sure not to lose its sharp tip, ready to be of use to either me or Bob, although he hardly used them, as he considered them as pointy daggers, which weren¡¯t the best kind of weapon, true. Then there was the Morningstar. Oh yes, a Morningstar, just for Bob. We used the biggest branch we had found as the handle, the Elk¡¯s horns as spikes, which admittedly was a pain in the ass, because it was hard as metal, and I wasn¡¯t trying to blow it up, I was trying to prepare spikes for a weapon, which was a much more delicate work. To put it all together we used a mortar made of earth, the metal powder I collected from filing the metal horns, with the sticky resin to hold it together. Once I put the spikes inside, the handle on the arbitrary bottom and I made sure it was a smooth dense and tough ball, all as quickly as I could, I submerged the whole thing in sticky resin, and then on acid. I grabbed it after about a minute later, and I had in my hands the most beautiful Morningstar I had ever seen. True, it may not be the more perfect, as the spikes were made out of naturally made horns, the handle was an untreated branch, and the main piece was made of mortar instead of metal and handmade instead of using a mold, yet even with all those little imperfections, it was truly balanced, and as I said, it was beautiful. And Bob agreed, as he hadn¡¯t left the cave once without it. He had even adapted the Berserk Rage to fight with the Morningstar. On the next ¡°shelf¡± were our armors. It had been quite a hustle to make Bob¡¯s armors, as they were enormous, enough to cover its entire body. Made with the scales of the of Draconic Wolves and all covered with the resin, it made the leather tougher and it insulated us from the inclement weather, and protected us from any spilled acid from any Panther. It gave us some room to adjust to them, and thus we could practice fighting against stealthy and agile enemies while keeping ourselves safe up to some point. The various armors ¨C yes, more than one for each of us ¨C were dressing mannequins, which had cost me sweat and effort to make¡­ ok, maybe not that much, it was pretty much a wide stick stuck to the ground, and a thinner stick piercing it perpendicularly at the shoulders height, although Bob¡¯s had two perpendicular sticks instead of one, you know, four arms. The armors were blackish with purple tones, which had appeared after we submerged it in acid. It had a purplish sheen to it, adding beauty to it, and the form itself made it seem as if it was covered in some venom, which helped avoid confrontations against some weaker beasts, like eagles trying to take a piece of meat, which had happened to Bob, it seems. The armor resembled scale armor from the medieval times of my world, covering the entire torso, and not much more. If I had some forge, I could try to make armguards and shoulder protectors, but I didn¡¯t count with anything to do so. Lastly was the storage of stones. It was, like the Panther heads shelves, carved into the wall, but instead of just going forwards, it later went downwards, creating an effective ¡°barrel¡± were I could put things. What I put there were charged stones. Yes, not stones to charge, but already charged stones, and I had quite a few. I had discovered this trick a month after I discovered the resin varnish. Once the stone was charged, I could varnish it and the stones became effectively inactive. It may seem much trouble to do something that turns one of my weapons on useless, but the kinetic energy inside the stones could still be released, it just had to be made manually.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Instead of letting it rest, once I wanted to use the stones, I just needed to will the energy to take a needle form and it easily pierced the resin layer, and once it did, it was able to explode again, and the resin did nothing to stop it. Strange, I know, I assume that the resin stops the energy from flowing, and that stops it from exploding, so the moment it¡¯s able to flow, it can go off again. And moreover, even though at the beginning I had to varnish them almost manually, I had developed a neat tool. Using a basin made of wood, and of course varnished, I kept sticky resin there, and I simply threw charged stones there, as it was still sticky, it didn¡¯t explode, so I could get a few in there at the same time. Then, after I had a few dozens, I made Bob stab a dagger through my heart, from my back until the dagger went through, and the handle ended in my heart while the tip of the dagger was poking outside from my left chest. Yeah, I know, painful as hell, but as the daggers where fangs made to carry poison and acid through a conduit on its structure, it carried blood quite easily, and that way I filled the basin faster than I could do any other way, much less with my regeneration hindering me. Sticky resin not sticky anymore, I used something that resembled a colander, from a kitchen, made of wood and as almost everything I did now, varnished with resin. I was really giving it a good use, if I say so myself. The colander took in the stones, and I carefully lifted, letting the excess on resin fall, and then moving the stones to the second basin, which was holding acid. This way I created an easy way to ¡°mass produce¡± charged stones. That¡¯s all for weapon holding, but the cave also had rooms for us, now, some simple bed carved into the stone, with a mattress made of leather filled with leaves, a pillow made the same way and a simple blanket, which Bob loved, for some kind of reason. Also, Bob finally put some trousers. I had been avoiding the theme, because well, even though he was in certain way civilized, they were still beasts, up to some point, and they didn¡¯t have the concept of modesty, so I didn¡¯t know how to bring up the theme. I won¡¯t explain how it went; you can imagine whatever you want. *** And so, here we stand, ready to go out, with a sword on my side and 6 daggers on my belt, my armor on and my boots ready to leave some dust behind, I started walking. I had made a backpack where I carried quite a few supplies, and a quiver specially made to carry javelins. As with my stones, these were covered in resin. I hadn¡¯t tried this yet, so I didn¡¯t know if it would be as effective as I wanted it to be, but different from before, now I charged the whole javelin, so if it went well, and hold until it hit the enemy, it should have a much higher power than when I only powered the tip. Today my blades were clean, no dangerous sheen on my blades. I was planning on hunting the Elk fair and square, a challenge of skill and wits. And obviously some measure of strength, u can¡¯t hunt a huge lightning fast Elk without strength. I took it seriously and prepared to be away from the cave for a month if it was what I needed, and so my search started. First I shadowstepped ¨C which is how I¡¯ve come to name it ¨C to the location where I previously spotted the Elk. I made sure to shadowstep a few meters in the air, to avoid getting stuck in a tree, because although I would survive, it had to be painful mix your body with a tree or a rock. As soon as I arrived, I shadowstepped again to the top of a tree, and covered myself in shadows. Invisibility would come handy when hunting the Elk, and the hunting senses I had developed, together with the stealth I had been developing, which was easier thanks to WF, I would find hard to believe he could detect me right now. As I couldn¡¯t risk the noise, instead of running, for now, I started my exploration shadowstepping from tree to tree. I was able to avoid detection most of the times, but a few branches where I stepped had trees on it, and they reacted quite screechy when something moved their branch, so good bye stealth. Luckily I¡¯m patient enough, and took this as an opportunity to learn how to shadowstep more precisely. I was stepping a feet above the branch to avoid getting stuck, but maybe it was better to practice to be able to step just on the branch. It took me half a day, and several feet trapped on a tree to achieve what I called ¡°perfection¡±, which was just not getting stuck for the last few shadowsteps. It was now late, and so, even though I would be stealthier, I didn¡¯t think it would be of much use knowing the Elk was diurnal, and probably hiding in some kind of lair, so I decided to ¡°camp¡±, which resumed in me sitting on a branch, tying myself to it, and meditate. I had improved quite a lot in these months, and even though I hadn¡¯t achieved that much on the Berserk Rage movements department, I had improved on the energy one. Not only that, I had discovered a secret only a week ago, and I was trying to learn more about it. It happened during a meal, which I couldn¡¯t call lunch because I don¡¯t eat in a structured way anymore. I was in the process of dissolving the food into energy, but because before of the lunch I had been practicing Berserk Fury, I had my lungs full of the red mist. Once the food dissolved, I channeled the energy resulting towards the outside, and then into my lungs, but in the process, the red mist mixed with the new energy, and suddenly it bloated. Yeah, I know, it¡¯s not a thing you would expect from mist, but that¡¯s what it did. The energy was mixing even as I thought that, and few seconds later, it was all fused. I was surprised, but it was something new, and nothing new had ever prejudiced, even if not benefited, so why not try. I let it go and immediately it was absorbed by the blood, and started circulating, and different from when I used the red mist on itself, the energy soaked more on my body, and left a larger impact on overall. And that¡¯s what I was doing now. I first generated the red mist, and then started eating some of my supplies, dissolving them and then carrying the energy to my lungs. This time, knowing that when I did it only with WF¡¯s energy and I infused it with kinetic energy worked better, I did the same, and pushed some of my energy into the now bloating mist. It strangely compressed, a different reaction than with the WF¡¯s energy, and it passed to occupy only a tenth of my lungs, so why not, I repeated the process. I was not stupid, now that I only had nine tenths of my lungs capacity available, instead of a tenth I would only be able to fill 9 hundreds of capacity more, but whatever. I repeated the process multiple times, each time filling less than the last, as I predicted. When I was almost done ¨C yes, call me stupid ¨C I tried to put the red mist outside my body, and contain it. It was hard, and I failed a few times, but at the end I was able to contain it, and then I went ahead and dissolved the last of my supplies. I guess tomorrow is hunting day, even if it¡¯s not the Elk. This time I could not only feel it, instead I saw the red mist bloat, so yeah, damn you who didn¡¯t believe me. Then I infused kinetic energy into it, and again it compressed so I guided it again to my lungs, and they were full again. You¡¯re wondering about the oxygen, but the red mist has oxygen already, so nothing to worry about. When all was ready, I got the energy loose on my lungs, and let my bronchus absorb it all. Well, the third I always did, at least. I entered some state of unconsciousness and could only feel every cell of my body drinking greedily the energy I was providing them. This process lasted for I don¡¯t know how long, but I knew my body was as if reborn, entirely new, and much more powerful than ever. The Elk would regret ever tricking me. Chapter 17 - Discoveries and Horns As I dashed through the forest I marveled at the improvements on my body. It had been months since he last noticed a change so big on his body. Although the WF was useful and improved his physical capabilities, it had diminishing benefits the more I ate of a single species, so after months with the same kind of food every day, I was almost stuck, so it was no wonder I was as marveled as I was. My supplies, which were Draconic Wolf meat, were one of the meats I had eaten the more, so the benefits I could gain from eating it was almost negligible; the fact that I noticed changes within me with the first meal demonstrate the big change on the reinforcement capabilities of the meat. And not only were the benefits from the Draconic Wolf meat multiplying like hell, the Berserker Fury subtle change to my body, making it more apt to carry its energy, and making it stronger were also not subtle anymore. The once dark bluish skin I had was now dark purple. The reddening from the Red Mist merging in my body had changed my skin tone, and even though it was weird as hell, I didn¡¯t dislike it that much. Now that I could increase my strength with WF at a high efficiency again I was not in a hurry to come back to the cave, so I notified Bob and told him my hunt season would extend a few months. Nothing to lose from being here and hunting, yet a lot to gain, I couldn¡¯t back down. I sensed something to my right, following me from the side, so I passed between two trees, making sure whichever beast was following me didn¡¯t see me, and I teleported towards his back, making myself invisible in the process, a smooth transition I had come to enjoy and master. I followed the beast for a while without attacking it. It was a beast I hadn¡¯t seen until now, so I didn¡¯t have any info on its style, strengths or weaknesses, I wouldn¡¯t risk myself without more data. I had discovered that not being overconfident was the way I would be safest. The beast was some kind fox. It had a dark fur, and its steps were lighter than a breeze. Seeing I wasn¡¯t there anymore, it accelerated, somehow scared, and I had troubles to keep up without losing it. I was following it just thanks to my smell and the shadows, because neither my eyesight nor my hearing could detect it. The power I obtained from Wolverine and Deadpool was incredibly effective once my body improved, or at least I thought it was its doing. I had improved senses far exceeding what Werewolf Fury should provide. What¡¯s more, none of the preys I had devoured said anything about improving smell, yet I suspected my smell was as good as a dog¡¯s or wolf¡¯s was. To the point, the fox was leaving no trail at all, so my eyesight did nothing to help, and its steps didn¡¯t produce a sound, so in that department I was screwed as well. Luckily, its smell was not as covered, and I could track it, for now. I was deciding whether I should hunt it when something bit me on the neck. I released a silent scream as I reached towards whatever was biting me, and found nothing. Whatever had bit me was already away from me. I turned around; looking for whatever attacked me while my injury healed in an instant and came out empty-handed. Nothing was around me, not that I could see, at least. After a few seconds looking for the attacker, I realized I couldn¡¯t smell the fox anymore, more than the traces left there; it was as if it vanished, and I deduced it was the fox that attacked me. I tried to look for it, but as I had known already, it was nigh invisible, it was silent, and now, it seems it could hide its smell as well. It was like he could do what I could with the Shadow Dimension and more, even if he couldn¡¯t teleport, which I couldn¡¯t discard yet. I knew that with such a fast opponent, drawing my sword would only be a bother, so I took two daggers out and waited. I was hoping it would make some kind of noise before it attacked, but as I thought I heard something from one direction and turned to there, I was clawed at my legs. *GRAA!* [Damn! It even avoids my armor, it seems like it¡¯s quite smart, but this makes things more difficult.] ¨C I recovered instantly, but that didn¡¯t mean it didn¡¯t¡­ ¡­hurt?. Since when such a shallow cut could hurt me? This didn¡¯t seem right. I looked around, and noticed something strange. I was almost sure it was around noon, but the forest was dark, and a deep mist occupied everything, it was the same mist from the Dragon¡¯s swamp. Another slash and another hurting wound. [It¡¯s impossible, the swamp was the other way around, and quite far. It¡¯s not the Dragon by itself that produces the mist, but the water, so why would the mist be here?] ¨C This made things even stranger. ¨C [What the hell is happening?] I was wondering what was happening when I heard a rustle, I turned around and threw the dagger which I had already charged at the bush. I heard it booming and something hitting the ground, yet I somehow ended having another hurting wound on my neck, which obviously healed in an instant. I went to see what I had hit and I immediately paled. ¡°BOB!¡± ¨C What was Bob doing here?! Bob was on the floor, with a huge hole where its heart should be. I had killed him! ¨C ¡°Nooo! Bob, you can¡¯t die! I¡¯m sorry, come back!¡± [¡­wait, heart?] ¨C The hell was I thinking? This doesn¡¯t make sense, I know Bob has two hearts. I realized something was wrong, so dissimulating a cry, I approached his chest, and put my good hearing to work. Nothing, nada, nichts, no heartbeat. ¡°Ha¡­ ha¡­ ha¡­¡± ¨C I started trembling ¨C ¡°HAHAHAHAHA!¡± ¡°YOU DARE TRICK ME WITH STUPID ILUSIONS?!¡± ¨C I shouted as loud as I could as all started making sense. It wasn¡¯t that the wounds hurt me; it was that somehow I was trapped in an illusion, and it tricked me into making me feel pain. Also the mist, it probably fiddled with my mind and detected some kind of fear towards it, but it didn¡¯t know why, which is why it appeared here although it didn¡¯t make any sense. And then there was Bob. Again it used my mind to deduce it was a friend, and identified him as a Fiery Ape, yet it didn¡¯t know that Bob was special and had two hearts. Once I analyzed it all made so much sense, and it seemed stupid that I had been tricked. Once again something cut me, but this time I didn¡¯t feel any pain. ¡°Hmpf, seems like this is your limit.¡± ¨C I smiled widely as I started walking, but my smile faded when suddenly the roots of all the trees around started sprouting from the ground and bound me. It did it so fast that I couldn¡¯t do anything, and when I tried to shadowstep away, I discovered I couldn¡¯t. ¡°NO YOU DON¡¯T!¡± ¨C I was maddened as I had never been. ¨C ¡°YOU WON¡¯T TRAP ME HERE! NOTHING WILL ROB ME OF MY FREEDOM!¡± And as suddenly as I had been trapped by the roots, all disappeared. *Ding* I was again on the forest, the sun shined at its algid point and some kind of mix between a lich and an octopus was trying to run away, not very effectively, though. I grabbed a javelin, and impaled it to the ground. It shrieked and soon the life left it. *Sigh¡­* I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how I was trapped without even realizing. ¡°Let¡¯s see what I did to get notified by the System.¡± ¨C Ignoring everything else, I opened the System, and as I read through it I was amazed.
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf D mid tier Progress: 0.1% (Knowledge insuficient)
Immortality: Regeneration beyond comparision. It regenerates so fast that is at practical efects, immortal. As long as some part of him is there, be it a hand, a finger, a drop of blood or a mere cell, the user can regenerate. Sharp claws made of bone can surge from between the knuckles. Bones as strong as marble, and better senses than wolves, be it in smell, hearing or eyesight. The holder of this power becomes a born predator.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Hunter Claws: User has retractable claws made of bones. They are sharp and stronger than other bones in the user''s body, and are a weapon to be careful of. Undying Will: The will of the user is more powerful than others. This doesn''t mean it has a stronger will, which may or not be true, but its will afects his powers, making him stronger the more he wills it. Unbound: As Fenrir, you yearn freedom from the depths of your soul. You won''t allow anyone to take away that freedom you yearn. High resistance to magic or mental bonds, almost impossible to imprison in physical bounds, which will suffer a strong strain from tying you, and so deteriorate faster and allow you to release yourself easier. Upon upgrade: Sharpen claws while strengthening bones. Develop instincts which help the holder to be more effective on the hunt. Accelerated regeneration. Will eficiency upgraded.
¡°Now it makes sense!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but smile deeply, I had always loved Norse mythology, that¡¯s why I ended loving Vikings, and with it, Ragnar. Now that I had a power that was set in the Norse myths, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if I really had something as simple as an X-Men System, or it was more profound than I could see right now. My powers included both Wolverine''s and Deadpool''s powers, but they were also about Fenrir. It probably would develop acording to Norse mythology, as other powers did acording to their own history. I knew most of Fenrir lore, so I would enjoy unraveling its powers mysteries. [Now, what to do with this little fella?] ¨C I wondered if I should eat it, and came to the conclusion that nothing wrong could come out from it. Half an hour later I was proved wrong. It was as if the WF energy was allergic to it, because as soon as it entered in contact, the energy went wild and almost ripped my stomach, making me puke. ¡°So¡­ no octopus for me, then¡­¡± ¨C I was sad, I liked its taste, but if I couldn¡¯t digest it, it was a loss of time to eat it. *** Two months later and with mountains of food having passed through my stomach, three of the beasts stopped giving me any kind of improvement. I had eaten two hundred of each of them: Draconic Wolf, Scorpion-Panther and Iron Elk. I had tried to eat more, but the energy seemed to avoid the food. It seems like it was the actual limit for these. Actually, I didn¡¯t dislike it that much, because it gave me a clearer objective. I was wondering what would happen if I ate two hundred Dragons when a shadow dashed forwards and took a piece of my food, only to run away. ¡°What?!¡± ¨C I wasn¡¯t bothered by the food, it was an Elk, and I didn¡¯t get anything else from eating it, but the shadow¡­ it was a fox! [Of course! That octopus didn¡¯t invent anything from scratch; it was all from its own experiences. Well, its victims¡¯ experiences, at the least.] ¨C I realized now that the fox was as true as the Fiery Apes, I just hadn¡¯t seen any yet. I stood up and ran after it, trying not to lose it. It was fast, light as a feather and nigh invisible, but not as exaggerated as during the illusion. It was traceable. I chased for twenty minutes before it stopped near a burrow, and a few foxes came out to greet it. It seemed as though they were probably a family, and any normal person would feel apprehension at attacking such cute animals, so it may not be surprising that half an hour later I was having fox barbecue. ¡­ What, I did say any normal person. You don¡¯t expect me to be normal, no? I¡¯ve lived for more than a year in a different world than earth, and everything I had found on the forest had either tried to eat me, or ran away because I was too dangerous for it to try it. If the foxes were strong enough, they would have eaten me without a doubt, so why should I feel pity for them? This would be the first animal I ate for the first time with the improved version of the energy consumption, I was anxious to know what it would result into.
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 99.7 %
Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge): - Shadow Fox ( x1 ): Highly improves speed and stealth.
Well, that was surprising. It did nothing special. Whatever, I probably will receive the same amount of improvement than with the Elks, Wolves and Panthers; I suppose it will just spread more than with them, as I started from scratch with the improved version. *** Another month has gone by, and I have yet to find the stupid double-horned Elk. It¡¯s possible something ate it, but for some reason I doubted it, so I decided to stay there for some extra time. Anyway, I had improved so much that it didn¡¯t matter at all. I had eaten already more than a hundred and sixty foxes. ¡­Don¡¯t judge me, they were delicious! Anyway, living here in the forest was a pleasure to me, I felt liberated from tensions I didn¡¯t know I had. Being away from the civilization was a gift to me. I wish it had happened earlier, but well, nothing to complain about, at least it happened. I was getting tired though, not physically, that was old stories, but I wanted to find the Elk already, so I needed something to find it. ¡°*Sigh*, I guess it¡¯s time for that power up, it¡¯s a pity, though, I expected to find it before I bought it, so I would make him pay with my actual strength, and not anything new bought with essence.¡± I was about to open the System to buy a new power when something caught my attention¡­ [You¡¯ve got to be kidding me! Three months looking for it and the moment I surrender it appears?!] ¨C Yes, it was the Double-Horned Elk. It was looking at me with what I assumed was a mix of mockery and surprise. The mockery part from the fact that it tricked me, and the surprise one from the fact that I survived. ¡°Ha! I¡¯ve found you, and now¡­¡± ¨C I shadowstepped to his side and stabbed him on its neck with one of my daggers which I had pulled during the travel in the Shadow Dimension. ¨C ¡°¡­you¡¯re dead!¡± I felt something was wrong, I didn¡¯t notice any kind of resistance. I widened my eyes in surprise. It had dodged it! The Elk was a few meters away from me, and looking me with anger and caution. [Damn, that was fast! How can he move like that?] ¨C I shadowstepped again and slashed at him, not trying to hit the neck this time, yet it dodged me again. I shadowstepped for a third time but this time I didn¡¯t pay attention to the slash I did; instead, I was trying to look at how it dodged. And what I saw astounded me. It was like he was the opposite of my powers. The light bended around him and he moved with almost no movement from his body! So that¡¯s how, he travels thanks to the light. He doesn¡¯t move at the speed of light, so it should still be possible to kill him. I took my javelins out of my quiver and started throwing them except I didn¡¯t remove the layer of resin, to avoid them from exploding. I started throwing and shadowstepping throughout, except every time I shadowstepped, I appeared near a javelin that was stabbed on the floor, and I lightly touched it. By the time I was done, we were ¡°fighting¡± in a minefield, the Elk just didn¡¯t know yet. Suddenly, as if he was already fed up with me, he pointed at me with its horns and dashed forward, which at his speed would have an amazing strength, but I shadowstepped away, leaving a javelin right behind me pointing towards him. *BOOM!* And a flying Elk it is. Now that he was flying, he wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge me at all! I shadowstepped towards him, and punched him hard towards the ground. *BOOM!* The Elk was lying on the ground, obviously hurt, and it didn¡¯t seem like he was going to move soon. It was lucky, but it wouldn¡¯t have mattered even if he could still move, I would have just driven him to another javelin and toyed with him again. ¡°Ha! You have nowhere to run, you bastard. You¡¯re dead!¡± ¨C I shadowstepped where he was and this time brought down my sword instead of my dagger, ready to decapitate him, but a light suddenly blinded me, and I missed him. A second later my eyes were fine already, and I looked around. The Elk was trying to run away! I ran and took a javelin from the ground, threw it at the Elk¡¯s right side and shadowstepped to his left. As I appeared, I saw the Elk lightly step to the left to dodge the javelin, only to come near me and fall to my sword. I had finally hunted him, so I guess it was time to go home after a long time. I grabbed the body and dragged it as I took back all the javelins. I drained its energy and carried them with me. One shadowstep later and I was here; home sweet home. [Master! How was the hunt?] ¨C Bob excitedly asked me as soon as I appeared. I looked at him and gasped. His skin was redder than before, and his physique was slimmer, yet it seemed heavier. I guess the Berserk Energy was effective even without cheating like I did. ¡°It was fine, Bob, I finally hunted the Elk, so come here and help me cook it.¡± ¨C I liked having him around, it made my life livelier, which was uncommon on my ¡°previous life¡±. I wondered if I wouldn¡¯t be able to eat it, knowing (or suspecting, at least) it was an Iron Elk, even if stronger and stranger. But as soon as the WF energy entered in contact with the meat it started eating it away. I was amazed! You wonder why? Until now, since I discovered that I could infuse the WF energy with kinetic energy, anything touched by it just vaporized immediately, no eating away, just poof, so the fact that the energy was having some trouble eating it, was amazing to me. Due to this, it took me three hours to eat every piece of meat from it. *Ding* I hurried to open the System, anxious to know if it was a different species, or the same as the Iron Elk.
Double-Horned Steel Elk devoured, induce sleep to evolve improvements recieved from lower species Iron Elk? Estimated time of completion is 72 hours.
Yes No
And as I didn''t have anything better to do now... "Bob, see ya'' in three days, protect me while I rest okay?" ¨C And as I clicked yes, my world faded. Chapter 18 - Sticks and stones wont break my bones
You''ve eaten a tier II Elk, unlocking a possible mutation for the benefits it gives you. Please select one amongst the mutations avaiable:
Elk Horns Grow horns made of steel, which can be used as conduit for the flow of several kinds of energy.
Swiftness Increase your speed modificator acquired from the Iron Elk for a factor of 6.
Light Manipulation Acquire the special characteristics from the Double-Horned Steel Elk to manipulate light to aid you.
Steel Skeleton Increase your bone durability modificator acquired from the Iron Elk for a factor of 6.
Iron Elk Tier[II]- An immediate power multiplyer by a factor of 2 related to all characteristics acquired from the Iron Elk.
Iron Elk Tier[II]+ Convert the strength acquired from the Iron Elks into potential strength, reducing the amount of Elks eaten to 0, but inproving its power multiplayer by a factor of 4.
I immediately discarded a few options, because I wasn¡¯t about to grow Elk horns. I mean, a horned man has to look cool, but not with Elk horns; they should be at least Bull ones, and if I could get something from any kind of mystical beast, that much better. Also, swiftness was tempting, I was getting a speed-related power, so being swifter could help me better control it, or better yet, improve even more my speed. At the same time, it could possibly mean that they would overlap, and only one would come in action, possibly the mutant power, so for now, discarded. Then there was that light thing that the Elk did to dodge me. I mean, it was pretty neat, and I would love to do it, but when I thought about it I felt a nudging from inside, as if something resisted that choice. I hadn¡¯t had these powers that long, so I would better be careful for now, if something inside me didn¡¯t want that, and since nothing inside me had hurt me, I would avoid that enhancement for now. Then there was that steel skeleton thing. Ooh, how I almost clicked that, my claws were made of bone, so if I changed my skeleton, that would change too, wouldn¡¯t it? But then I remembered, I had a tab on my system which was out of my reach for the time being, and it seemed plausible that it would contain things upgrading myself that weren¡¯t powers per se. An example of that could perfectly be Wolverine¡¯s adamantium skeleton, which was artificially implanted to him, instead of being part of him. So, hoping that that would be its function, as it was nothing but speculations, I also passed on the steel skeleton. That left me with only two choices, and this was eating my mind. What would be better to acquire, a multiplying factor of 4 when it came to improvements made by eating Elks, but erasing all the improvements made until now by eating them, or just a multiplying factor of 2 for an immediate gain? I mean, I already had been in this forest for a long time, so being here a few months, or even a year or two, wouldn¡¯t hurt me that much. And I wanted to stay here anyway until I ate 200 of each species available to me, improving myself to the maximum. [Mmm¡­ I guess I¡¯ve already made my mind, so let¡¯s go.]
Iron Elk Tier[II]+ mutation selected. Starting evolution.
*** Bob¡¯s POV: [Seeing him sleeping is weird.] ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but wonder why was he sleeping; I had never seen him sleep more than two hours straight, and he said it was only to rest his mind, and here he was, already 20 hours into his sleep, and no signs of waking up. Suddenly I was startled by a noise, coming straight from him, but not of his doing. His bones were creaking, and it seemed as if he was losing some muscle at visible speed. What was happening? I needed to be alert, if anything wanted to attack master, now would be de time, so I couldn¡¯t allow it. I stood watch over the cave, weapon in hand. Master said this is called a Morningstar, and I¡¯m in love with it. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I love a good fist fight like any other, but the weapon felt alive in my hands, as if it was destined to be mine from before it was ¡®born¡¯. When I crushed skulls with it, aah, pure bliss¡­ Anyway, ready for everything I will stand watch until he wakes! Even if I have to stay awake for a week! *** Lyon¡¯s POV: I woke up groggily, more tired than I had been for a year. This improvement was really tough with my body; I felt as if I had been running 24 hours with my ¡®Earth body¡¯. This was exhausting, and all I had done was sleep. I stood up and almost fell. It felt my legs were flailing, ever since I had started consuming beasts I hadn¡¯t felt this much weak. It was astounding what some muscle and bones could do. That was what I thought, but the moment I tried ¡®looking¡¯ inside of me, I knew the reason. It was not only that I had lost some muscle and skeleton toughness. I had lost every improvement on my skeleton from the red mist. Also, I probably had lost about half of it on my muscles. [Damn, this is harsher than I thought it would be. I guess I¡¯ll have to adapt fast and hunt some more, need all the improvement I can get from the Elks.] ¡°Bob! Get ready!¡± ¨C I shouted excitedly and headed towards the armory, but turned around when I felt that Bob was not following me, or even responding me. And I saw him there, almost at the entrance of the cave, looking outwards, with the Morningstar by his side, and sleeping soundly. I smiled meekly. [This silly boy has guarded me? I guess I¡¯ll have to reward him.] ¨C I took my sword, a couple daggers and a few javelins, and marched out of the cave with a clear path in mind. I shadowstepped towards the center of a 20 kilometer radius zone in the forest which I knew was full of Elks. I would have to hunt for a long time if I wanted to recover everything I lost, but at the end of the day, I would have the benefits from eating 800 Elks, with just a quarter of it, it was a great deal. And so it started my hunt for meat. I walked and ran for a while, getting used to my lowered strength the same way I had grown used to my increased strength. I practiced for half an hour before I thought I was ready to try and hunt an Elk. I grabbed a dagger in each hand, and started searching for my first prey. It wasn¡¯t even 10 minutes later that I found an Elk, and I got ready to ambush it. I charged the bones in my arms, and waited on top of a tree for it to come near, and when it did, I jumped. I was halfway the jump down when it turned its head to me, and did what I expected it to do, turn around and try to kick me, except I wasn¡¯t there anymore. The moment it turned around I shadowstepped a meter forwards and stabbed my dagger onto its neck, connecting and reaching its spine, severing the connection between its brain and its body. Unfortunately for me, though, my arms weren¡¯t as tough as they used to be, and they broke down under the pressure from the energy. [It has been a while since something hurt me like this¡­] ¨C I looked at my broken arm, which was repositioning itself in place, and healing, all in less than 3 seconds. ¨C [I guess I have to be more careful until I digest some Elks again.] After I was healed, I took the Elk and shadowstepped back to the cave to leave its body, then shadowstepped again to hunt for more, but in a different location, to avoid focusing on one sole herd. I only stopped hunting when I got over a dozen Elks home. A pretty big feast, if I¡¯m allowed to say so; I would share some with Bob, obviously, his watch wouldn¡¯t go unrewarded, and so he would have an entire Elk for himself! ¡­I need to eat a lot, ok? Don¡¯t judge me. I went towards one of the ¡®rooms¡¯ that were unused right now. It was almost empty, though it had a few holes through the walls, going directly outside, and a depression on the ground, prepared for a fire. Yep, it was the kitchen. It had been a pain in the ass to make the holes, but it was a necessity. Once we lit the fire, the air was rapidly consumed, so it was hard to breath, and so I did the holes. There was also a stock of wood on the side, so we wouldn¡¯t have to gather it every time we wanted to light a fire. I prepared myself for a long day of cooking, and started the fire. ***The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Bob¡¯s POV: ¡°Mmm¡­¡± ¨C I woke up to the smell of cooked meat, and immediately realized I had fallen asleep. ¨C ¡°Damn, Master has woken up and I wasn¡¯t awake, I wanted to be there for him¡­¡± I stood up and walked towards the place where the smell was coming from, wondering what kind of food would my master prepare. Once I was about to walk in, I saw something that made me widen my eyes. On one of the things Master called ¡®rooms¡¯ there was a full mountain of jumping meat! Master called them Iron Elks, but for me they¡¯ll always be jumping meat. Master had surpassed himself this time on the hunt, or so I thought. I entered the thing he called kitchen and saw him with a big Elk on the fire, being cooked ever so slowly, making the fire sizzle with its grease and making me salivate with hunger. [Master¡­] ¨C As soon as I stepped through the door he turned to me, and smiled warmly, and motioned for me to go closer. ¨C [I¡¯m glad to see you¡¯re okay, Master.] ¡°Hahaha, don¡¯t be silly, why wouldn¡¯t I be? I¡¯m super strong aren¡¯t I?¡± ¨C He¡¯s just that cool, I¡¯m glad I found him, my life has done nothing but improve ever since, and even though I technically I lost my freedom when I lost, he treats me as a student rather than a servant or slave. ¡°Come, sit, we¡¯ll be having a feast; and I¡¯ve kept you this juicy Elk just for you!¡± ¨C As he said that, he pointed towards the cooking meat on the fire, and I started salivating uncontrollably. ¨C [A FULL ELK FOR ME?!] ¨C I couldn¡¯t believe it; I almost never was fast enough to hunt those, so I could only eat them if Master let me, but normally he hunts barely enough to increase his strength, and as his strength is very important to him, I usually ended up barely scraping a leg or hunting for myself. ¡°Yes, only today, though, I will have to eat a ton of these now that I¡¯ve lost all improvements they gave me¡­¡± ¨C Wait what? He lost them? [What happened, Master? How did you lose something that was inside you?!] ¨C I really wondered, I knew he got stronger from eating, but I didn¡¯t, so it meant it wasn¡¯t from Berserk Fury. How did he end up losing strength? ¡°Aaah¡­ don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s actually a good thing, but it pains me anyway to have to do it all over again.¡± ¨C A good thing? How could losing strength be anything near good? ¨C ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking, but it¡¯s not what you think. I didn¡¯t exactly lose it; I just somehow compressed it into potential strength. Now if I eat my maximum again, I¡¯ll have four times the strength I got from eating Elks. ¨C FOUR? Damn, he was getting stronger again¡­ ¡°Well, let¡¯s eat, before it gets co¡­¡± ¨C As soon as he said eat I had a leg on my mouth. I turned at him without chewing and he was smiling with a wry smile. ¨C ¡°It¡¯s ok, keep eating, you glutton.¡± Glutton, he said, hahahaha; I had never seen anyone that could eat as much as he could, and my pack was full of huge apes that could eat double their sizes, but none of that compared to Master, it was as if he had a bottomless pit on his stomach. We stayed up late until he finally ate through all the Elks. He even gave me an extra leg! It was all delicious; I didn¡¯t know how I had survived without what he called ¡®cooking¡¯. *** Lyon¡¯s POV: Three weeks passed by in a flash, and I achieved my two hundred mark in my eaten Elks. It was getting monotonous to just eat Elks, so I added Foxes to the mix, and with that, I got to the two hundred mark in the Foxes too.
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 99.7 %
Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge): - Iron Elk [II] ( x200 ) : Hugely improves agility and bone durability. - Scorpion Panther ( x34 ) : Improves poison and acid resistance, stealth and agility. - Spiked Lion ( x7 ) : Improves strength and bone durability. - Draconic Wolf ( x200 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability. - Fiery Ape (x5) : Improves balance and coordination, small improvement in strength. - Gryphon (x27) : Improves eyesight, hearing, balance, speed and strength. (+54% at Angel''s powers) - Shadow Fox ( x200 ): Highly improves speed and stealth.
[Okay! I¡¯m thinking that maybe I should try upgrade my current powers. I mean, they have been pretty much stuck at the same level for a while now, and I want to leave this forest, eventually.] ¨C I stood up and went towards the darkest place on my cave. It was time for the most feared immersion; it had already been months since I fully tapped into the Shadow Dimension. After the strain I put it into, I feared a similar effect was I to repeat my mistake, but this time permanent, that¡¯s why I avoided entering consciously if I could avoid it, and even if I couldn¡¯t, I didn¡¯t stay long in it, making sure not to overexert the dimension, but this ended today. Now in the darkest place I could find, with nothing but specks of light passing through the entire cave to light me up, I sat down. I closed my eyes, and willed the shadows to swallow me and carry me into the Shadow Dimension. It made it much easier being in this dark place for me to focus on the shadows, and imagine being swallowed, so it worked quite fast. Once I felt I was inside, I opened my eyes, and looked around. Once again I found myself here, in the thing I felt was an ocean of shadows, except this time they felt¡­ brighter. I knew I only had so much time to use inside, so I asked for help to the shadows, which were getting close to me. I immediately was pushed upwards, towards what I thought would be the surface. I only could stay here for about ten minutes, so I really hoped I would be able to the surface, and see what was there. After around ten minutes, I began feeling like when I was on top of the Gryphon; it felt the same in the aspect of freedom, even if I couldn¡¯t feel the air. I imagined myself once I unlocked Angel¡¯s powers and I got to fly, and I could barely wait. It was then that I realized I was accelerating; I looked around me and noticed a denser layer of shadows in the form of wings, attached to my back, flapping to carry me higher, and higher, until 5 minutes later I reached the top, and we jumped out of the ¡°water¡±. Once I was out, I felt as if I was alive for the first time in my life. It felt as if every fiber of my being was being fed energy and it was drinking it avidly, not wasting a drop. The shadows that were forming the wings which had carried me here, took me to what seemed to be, a floating island. Everything was of different shades of red, some pieces of land blood-colored, others, a more pale shade, almost rose. Once I landed, the shadows dispersed, going back to the sea, but I didn¡¯t even notice, I was too entranced by what laid in front of me. It was, with lack of a better word, pieces of space. They were pieces that showed me the forest, the ponds, the dangerous swamp, and even the cave! I could see Bob, rummaging through the kitchen in hopes to find something to eat, yet¡­ everything seemed frozen. I had been told by the system that the time here passed that much faster, but this was as if time itself was frozen in here. I turned around and I almost fell down. Something was lying on the ground, it was purplish, elongated and with a spike on one end. The other end though, was even more surprising; it was attached to me! I had a tail! It was at least a meter long, and had the same shape as Nightcrawler¡¯s, even if its color differed. I tried moving it, and after a minute I felt it; it felt weird, very weird. To try to know how I felt, try to imagine you got a new pair of arms, or even wings; how would you move them? Can you imagine how it would feel to have new bones, new muscles and new tendons? You can¡¯t imagine, right? Me neither, that was mostly the problem; another problem was that it had appeared from nowhere, and I was having troubles imagining when had I grown a tail in the entire time I had been here. *Ding* I immediately opened the system, ready for any kind of explanation on my newly grown limb.
<> has synchronized. After reaching the [Brimstone Dimension], you have finally steped through the gates of hell and reached the lobby. On the Brimstone Dimension time flows at a rate of 10:1, meaning that 10 seconds on the Brimstone Dimension are just a second on the real dimension. From now on the time avaiable to you to stay on the Brimstone Dimension has increased to 1 hour. Each minute inside takes four times the amount in real time to recuperate. If you stay for the maximum amount of 1 hour, you will have to wait 24 minutes before being able to enter again for an hour. Waiting for 12 minutes will instead allow you to reenter for half an hour. Due to the synchronization with the Brimstone Dimension you have acquired another trait related to it. You have acquireed [Prehensile demon tail]. You can manipulate it like any of your other limbs. Due to a relation between [Prehensile demon tail] and [Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf], [Prehensile demon tail] has been upgraded to [Demonic bone-sword tail].
Due to this being your first time on the lobby, you will be able to stay for 4 hours and the time rate will be 200:1 on this lobby with a comprehension rate 4 times greater.
I was amazed it could do that, even without mixing both powers; at that moment I saw, marveled, how my tail changed. It was growing longer, thicker and sharper, developing some sort of sharp exoskeleton around the tip, and I felt the full restructuration of the bones forming my tail. After a few minutes I knew it was already fully integrated with me, as I could feel it as I felt my arms. I tried moving it, but it felt worse than drawing with your left hand when you¡¯re done nothing to learn how to do so and you¡¯re right handed. Imagine a third arm that was thrice as hard to move as your non-dominant arm, and you¡¯ll be short on the feeling. Knowing I could stay here for quite some time now, I took advantage, why go to the normal dimension and train for hours, when I can spend those hours here and it will only pass a few seconds. It said clearly that next time I enter the time will flow slower, meaning this chance is unique, and I wouldn¡¯t throw it away. It took me an entire hour to move it properly, and another one to be comfortable with it. You may think this is fast, but the more I used it the more I noticed it was not entirely as having a second non-dominant arm, but rather it felt as if I lost my dominant one, and then I recovered it. Also, with the bonus in comprehension thanks to the (now with the right name) Brimstone Dimension, it was almost a walk in the park. After the third hour, I was able to take out my new ¡°claws¡± for the first time; they were more like dagger-spines on my tail. They extended to both sides of the tail, simulating a very sharp and elongated spine, and were as sharp as my makeshift daggers, but tougher, as they had the same durability as my own bones. After the fourth hour, I had a pretty good control over it, and I had already managed to charge it a little bit. I didn¡¯t risk too much, because I would need to infuse the red mist on the tail before it grew as strong as the rest of my body. Now that my four hours were ending, I took a look around, at the different windows to the normal dimension that were near me, and I saw something that surprised me more than the windows themselves. A human was walking on the forest, and it was about to be killed! Chapter 19 - First contact The first impression I got from looking through the spatial window was that the ¡®human¡¯ on it was more monster-like than the monster chasing at him. Instead of your flesh colors, his skin was stone-like, of a dark grey tone, as if he was kind of sick. His body, more than 2 meters tall stood bulky and strong even though he was running from a monster. He had a twisting horn on the right side of his head, and instead of normal legs and feet, he had two hairy and bulky legs ending on hoofs. Although the image appeared frozen to me, I had the feeling the floor was trembling beneath his weight, and the hoof prints he was leaving behind did nothing to take away this thoughts. He wore some kind of leather loincloth, yet his chest was bare. He had a horrible gash on his back, and by the depth of it, it seemed it had taken him by surprise, which was not strange, considering it was a Scorpion Panther that was chasing him. He carried a tremendously huge axe on his left hand. It was probably a meter and a half long, with an intricate design on the handle that seemed a runic pattern, probably following a written language I knew nothing about. The double-edge on its tip was made of some kind of metal never seen on earth, or at least not by the common folk. It seemed to remember me of a black adamantium, although it probably wasn¡¯t as tough, knowing how tough adamantium was. Anyway, although it seemed heavy as hell, he wasn¡¯t letting it go, so I deduced it was either some family heirloom, or just hellishly expensive. The Panther Scorpion chasing it seemed bigger than others I had seen, and had a skin that instead of black seemed to contain the absence of color, and it distorted light around it, probably ensuring a better stealth, quite possibility some kind of almost-invisibility during night hunts. Its tail seemed more agile than its peers¡¯ and quite more poisonous, by the shades of purple on the tip. Its claws were sharper and stronger and by the extending necrosis on the human¡¯s back, they were poisoned. Before I jumped into a rash decision to save someone I didn¡¯t know, I weighed the options. If I didn¡¯t save him, I would suffer not from it, and I would be able to safely return to my cave, keep hunting until I had my fill of hunting, I would hunt all the beasts until I got two-hundred preys of each, reaching new strengths. The other option was much more risky, as the first thing I would do would be exposing me. If I rescued the ¡®human¡¯, I would have the chance to hunt that Panther, which would probably render me similar benefits as when I hunted the Double-Horned Elk. Other than that, I would make contact with an intelligent species and maybe even become aware of a city near the forest, and how to reach it. That would leave me open to a serious of possible benefits, although nothing really clear. Before I made the decision, I tried to feel the distance between the cave and the ¡®human¡¯ and was gladly rewarded with the knowledge that both were so far apart that if I had to walk back to the cave from that place, I would probably last three weeks, more than a month if I didn¡¯t run. With this on my mind, I decided it was worth the risk. Worth case scenario, even though I didn¡¯t have any time to stay here anymore, I could still use the Brimstone Dimension to shadowstep away and possibly to my cave. In the case that wasn¡¯t possible, I was sure that at the least I wouldn¡¯t be killed, perks of immortality for you, so what the hell. With that last thought on my mind, I readied my tail and my claws, pained over the fact I didn¡¯t bring any weapon with me, charged my claws to the maximum I could endure at the moment and jumped through the window. *** Unknown POV: [Fuck my sister!] ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but swear inside my mind as I ran away from that damn sklarr. ¨C [Why did I have to listen to her and come to this damn forest to train?!] Three weeks ago I was happy to train with father in the safety of our manor, but my sister had to come and ask me if I wasn¡¯t ashamed of myself for not training for real, with actual danger. ¨C [I get it, ok? My sister is the strongest of our generation, and probably quite stronger than most of the previous on.] - Excluding our parents and our uncle, there were probably only five people who could barely compare to her. [Our clan was formed by the main family and several branches, and we formed part of one of the branches, my grandmother being the leader of the branch.] ¨C Don¡¯t get it wrong, it¡¯s not a matriarchal clan, it¡¯s just that she¡¯s the stronger from her generation, and that¡¯s why she inherited the leadership instead of his brothers. My sister had convinced me that the only way to even have a chance at getting stronger and with such inheriting something was to come to the Hell Forest. Even if all I could inherit was a zanther, which were some kind of inns with training facilities we used to offer training to those outside the family and were one of the main sources of income for our branch, it was worth the shot, or so I thought. The moment I step foot on this forest, I was pressured by the danger. I was able to fight lone wuulfs just fine, but when a whole pack came at me, even if my ax could pierce a wuulf scaly armor, it wasn¡¯t that good for group fighting, not without the proper training, and even thought I had trained quite fiercely, I had never had the chance to test my skills for real, and thus I was unprepared by the strength I needed to not only pierce its armor and kill the wuulf, but to extract the ax in a fluid movement to be able to defend against the others. After a week, though, I had grown used to the wuulfs, and I was able to defend easily enough, at least given the natural strength of our race and my own hard training, and so I moved deeper into the forest, only to find the stupidly sneaky sklarrs. Luckily they hunted alone, but even with that, I was pressured hard to even survive. Our family was known by three main characteristics: colossal strength and high endurance and toughness. We were never known by our scouting ability or our stealth, so when it came to face sklarrs, I was at a huge disadvantage. They never attacked me upfront, always sneaking on me, forcing me to react on tight timings, always on the losing end of their ambushes. It took me a week and a half to be able to respond without taking injuries, and I only survived because their poison was weak and the acid didn¡¯t even pierce my hide, so they only had the same weapons a wuulf had, but without the advantage of a tough armor. Their only advantage was taking me by surprise, hurting me before I had the chance to retaliate, and thus rendering me weaker than I should be. Three days ago I started moving out, after having trained my alertness to a new level, I was able to react before they had the chance to attack me, and thus, by fighting with my full strength, none were able to hurt me in single combat. That was until an hour ago. I was moving deeper into the forest, always making sure to stay away from the Hell mist and its origin, the Hell swamp, when I was suddenly attacked. The sklarr that attacked me was different than every other sklarr I had faced this past two weeks; it was bigger, it was faster, it was more dangerous, and worse of all, its poison was not as mild as the other sklarrs¡¯.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. It appeared out of nowhere and without making any kind of sound; it didn¡¯t even emit any kind of killing intent, which was mostly how I detected other sklarrs. I didn¡¯t have the chance to even defend and I was already heavily hurt, running for my life. The gash in my back was pulsing, and I felt the poison extend around my body. Given enough time, I would recover, sure, I was still resistant to any kind of poisons, but I would be weak for days, maybe even weeks and I would be dead long by. I kept running, cursing inside my mind for leaving the comfortable life I had at the family manor, when I suddenly tripped. In that instant flashes came to my mind, but they were not about my life, they were about my death. I saw all the different ways this could end, either eaten alive, weakened by the poison and unable to move, or corroded to death by what I was sure would be a harsher acid than an ordinary skarr¡¯s. I even imagined myself impaled to death by its tail, its poisonous spike piercing my heart. That instant passed, and I used my fall to roll and tried to keep running, except when I was mid-roll, I saw something unbelievable. A shadowy figure appeared out of thin air, and I mean it, I don¡¯t mean it appeared from behind a tree or that I didn¡¯t see where it appeared from. I saw it clearly, and he appeared literally out of thin air, right on top of the sklarr. I couldn¡¯t really make out its silhouette, but I was sure that it was smaller than me, and far smaller than the sklarr, but I didn¡¯t feel anything at all. I could barely see him, but I neither heard any kind of sound nor felt any kind of intent. I couldn¡¯t even smell him! I finished my roll and turned around in time to see the sklarr jump backwards to avoid being punched by the silhouette, and in time to see said silhouette punch the ground. A loud thunder accompanied the dust rising and the tremor that hit me and threw me back. That thing had to be as strong as my sister! I mean, it looked somehow humanoid but being as small as it was, it was unlikely that a humanoid would poses such strength. The huge sklarr dashed forwards, stopping in an instant and piercing forward with his tail. The dust impeded me from seeing clearly what happened, but the sklarr screamed and jumped back, and I opened my eyes wide in surprise at seeing that the beast had lost its tail. Blood was dripping from the piece remaining of his missing limb, and the floor was sizzling as if it was boiling. The dust cleared and my I felt even more shaken than before. The silhouette was more than just humanoid, it was human! Humans were one of the three main races around here, but they were not the strongest, and they definitely didn¡¯t have the strength to do what the one in front of me had done. The part that shook me more, though, was not his human-like features, but the ones that distinguished him from humans. He had purplish skin, had claws on his hands, and what impacted me more, he had a tail! It was not like the tails some of the horghs had. Horgh was a common denomination for the people with beastly ascendance like me or my family. His tail was thin, but long, and ended in a sharp spike. His tail was full of little sharp bone spikes, and the spike at the end was also made of bone. What¡¯s more, its tail was full of blood! You may not realize, but sklarrs were quite tough, even if not as tough as wuulfs, so to be able to cut it with his tail meant that he not only used for equilibrium, like many horghs, but also could control it, and he had quite a lot of strength in it, apart from amazingly sharp spikes. And even more, it wasn¡¯t reacting at all to the blood on its tail, meaning he either wasn¡¯t being corroded, or he didn¡¯t care about the pain. After a quick shake of his tail, the blood fell to the floor and he crouched, ready to attack, swinging his tail around in provocation. The sklarr jumped at the mocking, and dashed forwards in effort to kill him, but just as he had appeared out of thin air before, he vanished. I realized the moment he vanished that I could have ran away in the time he was there, but now my window was gone, and if he didn¡¯t appear again, I was dead meat, the venom had extended too much, and I was weak. Just as the sklarr was turning to me, the human appeared again right on top of the sklarr. This time, without the danger of its tail, the human sat on top of the sklarr and pierced his claws on its neck. The sklarr tried to trash around, but the human twisted its head, rendering him inert. I could feel myself letting out a breath I didn¡¯t know I was holding, only to be replaced by a new breath holding. What if it killed me too? I tried to stay awake, but the poison was too spread, and I didn¡¯t have more strength in me, so I vanished in the process of watching him approach me, uncertain if I would ever wake again. *** Lyon¡¯s POV: After he fell unconscious I took the decision to carry him with me to the cave. Even though I had achieved the main reward for helping him, the Scorpion Panther, I was still curious to know where the nearest human stronghold was, and he couldn¡¯t give me the info if he was dead, which he would be if I left him here. Back on the cave I ate through some leftover meat to try and induce Red Mist onto my tail, strengthening the new bones I had grown. Bob was as curious about the tail as he was about the ¡®human¡¯ I had brought with me, but after I told him the tail was just part of my power he turned all his attention to the unconscious ¡®human¡¯. [So the other humans are not like you?] ¨C Bob couldn¡¯t help himself anymore and asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, Bob, although I doubt it. Back on my home, none were like me, so it would be strange if they were like me at all.¡± ¨C I was as curious as he was about the aspect of the ¡®humans¡¯ living in this world. If people were not all like the humans on Earth, I would have an easier time going around without being discriminated or persecuted for my aspect. I saw that what I had identified as necrosis was not, and it was just the poison spreading violently. Luckily it seemed it was receding, and his wounds healing, even if at a lousy speed compared to my own regeneration, so I bandaged as I could his wounds and laid him on my bed. After taking care of him I went ahead and ate the Panther, at the end, I was hungry, and I wanted to see if I was right, if eating it would benefit me more than just eating a normal Scorpion Panther.
Shadow-Blessed Scorpion Panther devoured, conditions still unmet, soul energy will be stored until you meet the conditions.
[So I was right, but it isn''t useful right now. I wonder what the conditions are.] ¨C It didn''t have any effect right now, but it would. I suddenly thought of something and rushed to open the System.
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 99.7 %
Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge): - Iron Elk [II] ( x200 ) : Hugely improves agility and bone durability. - Scorpion Panther [---] ( x35 ) : Improves poison and acid resistance, stealth and agility. - Spiked Lion ( x7 ) : Improves strength and bone durability. - Draconic Wolf ( x200 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability. - Fiery Ape (x5) : Improves balance and coordination, small improvement in strength. - Gryphon (x27) : Improves eyesight, hearing, balance, speed and strength. (+54% at Angel''s powers) - Shadow Fox ( x200 ): Highly improves speed and stealth.
*Sigh* It¡¯s probable that I need to eat two hundred Panthers before I can evolve it¡­ Damn my luck, why couldn¡¯t it be a tier two Draconic Wolf or Shadow Fox? [Well, while the human rests, I guess I can hunt a few Panthers, can¡¯t I? I have Bob to watch over him, and I can teleport back the moment he wakes up.] ¨C I told Bob to take care of the ¡®human¡¯ and went out to hunt; it would be a long work to get to two hundred Panthers. *** A week had passed since I saved the human, and even though he had moved during these days, he had yet to wake up. I was eating through a few Panther¡¯s legs when Bob shouted in my mind. ¨C [Master, he¡¯s awake!] ¨C Gosh, when will he stop screaming inside my mind? I stood up and went towards my room, where the human was resting and carried a cooked, blood drained Panther leg with me. He was laid back on the bed, somehow worried but at the same time calm. I guess the fact he¡¯s still alive tells him we wish no harm, at least for now. ¡°Want some meat?¡± ¨C I put my warmest smile and offered the untouched meat to him, he was probably hungry, as he had been unconscious for a week. The words he spew made me lose my mind. ¡°Kih has kjoug?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¨C Of course he didn¡¯t speak my language! Chapter 20 - Learning something new [Ok, I don¡¯t know what I expected. I mean, we¡¯re in another world and even Bob¡¯s species speak a different language, why would humans speak English?] ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but sigh and resign; I would have to find a way to communicate with him. ¡°Mmm¡­ eat?¡± ¨C I know, quite clumsy, but I don¡¯t know what else to do, so eating my meat and saying that was the only thing I could come up with. ¡°Kresh.¡± ¨C So I¡¯ll assume that¡¯s a ¡°thanks¡± considering he took the meat. I chewed my own Panther¡¯s tight and crushed its bones with my teeth until nothing was left. Ok, I know I used to keep the bones, but teeth are bones, and my bones are strengthened so chewing bones is quite easy now; not only that, but the Panther¡¯s bones are not that tough, so they¡¯re quite useless to me. As I finished my portion, I looked at the ¡®human¡¯ and saw him watching me with his eyes wide open. While he finished his piece of meat I went to the kitchen to eat some more. I mean, I have to get to two hundred before the tier two meat works his magic, so I have a long path ahead. *** Unknown POV: So imagine you pass through a near-death experience and fall unconscious, and then the next thing you see when you wake up is a 5 meter tall Ape with double the limbs he should have and aspect of being able to kill you in his sleep. Yep, not a nice way to wake up, but the fact is he wasn¡¯t making any threatening moves; it seemed more like he was watching over me. The moment he realized I was awake, he jolted up and smiled, which startled me even more. I was under the impression that Koloss were all but nice. No one who had encountered one of them had any impression of them being able to be forced to submit. It¡¯s not strange, though, they respond only to pure strength, and people who could be benefited to make one submit didn¡¯t have the pure strength to make them. A pity they didn¡¯t respond to technique, or else there would be quite a few already submitted to humans or horghs. They would make quite an efficient work force, with their strength. I took a moment to look around and realized I was in a cave. The walls had been polished roughly, probably without any Earth user or else it would be as smooth as a weapon¡¯s edge. I was on a makeshift bed made with hide and fur. The hide was probably from a sklarr, but the fur was something I had never seen. It seemed to diffuse light as it¡­ [It can¡¯t be¡­ Who the hell would use Niigh¡¯s fur as a damn blanket?!] ¨C Niighs were little furry cans with fur as dark as night. They were fast and blended perfectly into shadows, they ate mostly meat, but were not predators, they were born thieves thanks to their special fur, and only few people could hunt one, so their hides and fur were very precious. People would make shaded cloaks to hide in the shadows, useful for rangers, or luxury clothes for spoiled brats, but a blanket? I looked around some more and saw some things; there was a makeshift table that was filled with huge leaves, with some sketches on them, probably designs from whoever made the table. There was also some kind of shelves with a few fangs that had been modified into knives. By the aspect of it, they seemed from either sklarrs or wuulfs, quite sharp and tough, and useful if you don¡¯t dispose of metal. I suddenly heard a light step and turned my look towards the only entrance I had seen to this room. Standing there was the same human that had saved me. He had a serene expression and firm but slim muscles, and he wasn¡¯t wearing a shirt, which I thought was strange, because most humans were quite modest, except a few barbarian tribes that coexisted with horghs. He was carrying two legs of meat, probably sklarr, for the aspect of it. He was eating one like it was nothing and I couldn¡¯t help but feel amazed; ignoring the fact that not a lot of people could eat sklarr meat without danger, he didn¡¯t even drain the damn meat of blood. The acidic blood was scurrying by his mouth without even sizzling. ¨C [What the hell is this human¡¯s skin made of?] He extended the untouched meat and said some words I had never heard before: ¡°Want some meat?¡± It sounded like a question, and I assumed it was about the meat, but what the hell? All people on this planet spoke the same language except a few intelligent beasts, so I was amazed a human didn¡¯t speak the common tongue. ¡°Kih has kjoug?¡± ¨C Who are you? A simple question, and easy to see if he speak the common tongue too or he just spoke that strange language. The face he made when he heard me told me that he didn¡¯t speak the common tongue and he was expecting me to speak whatever language he spoke. ¡°Mmm¡­ Eat?¡± ¨C He tried again, chewing on his piece of meat and offering me the other one. I looked at the leg he was offering me and realized it was drained, so it seemed he understood people normally couldn¡¯t drink that blood. I took the meat and thanked him. I bit a piece of it and realized it was fresh. Fresh meat from beasts was very useful for the body, so I wondered why he would offer it to me. I looked at him to see if I could decipher why would he offer fresh meat and saw something amazing. He was biting on the bones of his piece of meat, and crushing with his bare teeth, then swallowing it like it was nothing¡­ It was something to drink the blood, if he could resist it, but eating the bones?! The bones of a sklarr were tough enough that I would need a full strength chop with my ax to crush it, so the fact he was chewing on bone like it was a kid¡¯s candy astounded me. Not only his teeth were amazingly tough, he had to have a huge strength on his maw¡­ I mean jaw! I wondered if I had lost the ax forever¡­ It was my grandpa¡¯s gift when I reached adulthood, I hope I can recover it, or else I will get a beating once I return. Well, if I ever get to, I still don¡¯t know why he saved me or what¡¯s he planning to do with me, so I can¡¯t be sure I¡¯ll ever go back to home. He disappeared for a few minutes while I dealt with the piece of meat he had offered me, and when he came back¡­ he was carrying lots of meat, and I mean lots. He was carrying maybe 3 legs and quite a few ribs. The ribs were cooked, which meant it was probably from an old prey, I mean, the meat conserves itself well, but after a few days, most of the energy inside it¡¯s gone, and people can¡¯t ingest a lot of meat at once, not fresh meat, at the least, it¡¯s too rich in energy, so it¡¯s hard to digest.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. That¡¯s what I thought, but he offered one of the ribs to me and it was still full of energy! He had cooked fresh meat?! ¨C [The hell¡¯s wrong with him?! This way you lose half the energy inside! Why would he do that?] ¨C I swallowed my shock and refused, one piece was enough to me, I was full and didn¡¯t even notice the missing food for the past week. ¡°¡­¡± He ate it all. I don¡¯t mean I stayed with him for a few days and he ate it all, no, I mean he ate it all in front of me. Three legs of fresh meat and a full rib cage, and he ate it like it was an appetizer. This guy had to have a bottomless pit for a stomach, how the hell did he eat all that and where did it go? For the calmed looks on the Koloss it seemed he was used to him eating like that, and if so, how the hell was he still alive and why wasn¡¯t he fat like hell? It¡¯s true that fresh meat is rich in energy and thus very nutritive but it¡¯s also hard to digest, and so most people even if they can eat more than a piece each meal, contain themselves, or end up looking like meat balls. But not this human, no, he was eating more than 5 horghs and still looked slim. ¡°Speak, I will learn.¡± ¨C He suddenly talked and I came back to reality. *** Lyon¡¯s POV: After watching him be shocked three times, I decided it was time for me to be able to talk to him, and if we didn¡¯t speak the same language, I would learn. I wasn¡¯t bad in languages on my world, so maybe I could learn a new one on this one. I approached him and spoke: ¡°Speak, I will learn.¡± He tilted his head and raised his shoulders. Wow, so this is the same here? I mean, if the language is different, the body language should be too, up to some point. Well, at least I know he didn¡¯t understand what I said, so I just needed to make him understand. I pointed at my ears, and pointed at him, followed by pointing my mouth and then moving my hand as if to mean speak, and repeated again: ¡°Speak.¡± ¡°Kjoug ilkan ksho uon plar?¡± ¨C He pointed at me and then at himself, then at his own mouth and repeated my hand moves. I nodded, thinking he understood, and when his eyes lit up, I knew he understood me. I was glad, this would have been a pain in the ass had he not understood me. Now I just need to learn a new language, devour two hundred of each species and get out of this forest. I hope I get the chance to kill that Dragon, but sadly, I doubt it. I¡¯ve been training for a while and I¡¯m not close enough to have the strength to hurt him, so even if I was fast enough to keep up with it, I would be standing there not being able to do anything to it. Anyway, the date I would leave the forest was getting closer, and I was excited about seeing a new world, not only its beasts, and see how the people here had developed. I smiled, planted my right hand on my chest and said: ¡°Lyon¡±. He responded to my smile and planted his hand on his own chest, and said out loud: ¡°Shawn.¡± *** Two weeks later, Shawn¡¯s POV: This was not how I expected to pass my time in the forest, but it seemed it would be more profitable than spending the time on the forest just hunting beasts like I was supposed to do. Lyon was a great student as far as the language is concerned. It took him barely a week before he could start asking more specific doubts about the common tongue, and after another week, we were having clumsy conversations and I finally dared to ask him for help, for him to train me, and he accepted. I was on a clearing of the forest, holding my ax, which he apparently kept and decided to give it back after a few days, once we could understand each other up to some point. He was in front of me, with no weapons on him. His tail was swinging on his back, without any of the dangerous spikes I had seen the day he saved me, and he was smiling, making it quite obviously he enjoyed fighting. I dashed at him holding the ax near the edge while he stood there without moving at all. Once I was close enough I summoned all my strength and swung my ax while letting slide up to the point I was holding near the end, giving it much more momentum than if I hold it near the edge, but doing it in a fluid motion to surprise the opponent. This was something that only worked against conscious intelligent beings, because a beast didn¡¯t care how you carried your ax, it would try to dodge or it wouldn¡¯t, depending entirely on its nature. Lyon, though, didn¡¯t respond as I would have expected; even more, he didn¡¯t respond at all. As I was nearing him with my ax, he suddenly tilted to my left, the side the ax was coming from, and I felt myself lose control over the ax. I managed not to let it go, but had it been a real combat, I would¡¯ve been killed three times in the time it took me to recover. I looked at him and saw his tail swinging merrily and I realized. ¡°You not usedh to tail on opponent?¡± ¨C He said what I feared, and I couldn¡¯t help but smile; he was fast, even though it¡¯s true I wasn¡¯t used to fighting anything humanoid with a tail, and the beasts with usable tails I had found were nowhere near close to his level of control, the fact was that its speed was what took me more off guard. I had been paying attention to each movement of his, but didn¡¯t even see the tail move when he acted. ¡°I am not, but even if I was, you¡¯re too fast for me.¡± ¨C I gave him an honest answer, there was no need for me to lie, he knew he was stronger already, so why would I keep the false image of pride in trying to deny it? ¡°I was hoping you would contain a little more with me.¡± ¨C I hope he will, otherwise this will be hard for me. ¡°Hahaha, not too fast, Shawn, just smart moves.¡± ¨C What did he mean? ¨C ¡°I not move faster than you, I made you think I did by using smart my moves. Repeat same move but slowly.¡± I did as told and swung my ax at him, and observed at his tail, which was¡­ swinging? It seemed random, but it wasn¡¯t! He was positioning his tail where it had to go while hiding it behind the natural moves of his tail! That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t see his tail move. ¡°I saw you! You positioned your tail on my left, right on my blind spot when I¡¯m swinging the ax and only pushed my ax on the last moment.¡± ¨C I smiled and put my ax down, and I was rewarded by a nod and a bright smile. ¡°Yes, me tail on place before needed is smart. Then move not fast, but short so it seems fast and you can¡¯t respond.¡± ¨C He was amazing; I would¡¯ve never seen it had he not moved his tail slowly while I dashed at him at a slower pace than the first time. He made it apparent but without saying it to me, this was just like father. Father never answered questions directly; he provided the means for one to answer them. ¡°Let¡¯s do it again, Lyon!¡± ¨C I was excited, so I grabbed firmly my ax and dashed at him again. This time I took a more unfocused look at him. I observed him, but I didn¡¯t focus in anything in particular, letting me see the whole picture, and see where he was and how he was standing. This time I swung the ax before I was at his range and watched how he responded while I was approaching. He was tilting slightly and his tail was ready to intercept the axe, but I grabbed the ax with my right hand at that time, and swung faster, doing something akin to a loop. I swung sideways, raised the ax, and chopped downwards, all in a fluid motion, making a move he didn¡¯t expect. This time he reacted in a hurry, raised both arms and the claws I had seen when he saved me appeared between his knuckles, forming a cross, which he put in the way of my ax. This was a full strength chop, so I couldn¡¯t just stop mid-ways, and was really scared I would hurt him, but my fears were cleared and renewed when he didn¡¯t even budge, and instead my arms trembled while my ax bounced from his claws. What the hell were his bones made of? Training with him was going to be fun. I smiled and dashed forward again. Chapter 21 - An End and a Start Shawn¡¯s POV: I swung my ax and a tree fell down. Three months ago I would have never dared to think I could do this. The tree I just chopped in one single swing was at least two meters thick, and trees around here were tough as stone, so the strength needed to do so was amazing. When Lyon first accepted to train me, he only helped me with my fighting; while fighting, I could now take decisions in a split second, avoiding situations where I was at a disadvantage because of a mistake. My instincts had developed to the point I detected the minimum amount of intent of something trying to hit me. Normally it meant I could avoid the hit, but that changed when it was Lyon I detected. After the first month of training, seeing I was assimilating what he had taught me, and grateful for all the information I had given him about the city, he showed me the origin of his strength. It was a technique that enhanced his strength while weakening his bones and mental state. Lyon, though, seemed to have discovered a way to not only resist the weakening states, but to enhance the body even when not using the skill. It consisted in soaking the body constantly in the energy generated and letting the body absorb it. It took me one entire month to get the hang of it, during which I suffered countless injuries and fractures, which thanks to my great toughness I was able to recover fast, allowing me to shorten my training period by months. After chopping the tree, I picked it up and dragged it back to the cave Lyon knew as home. Thanks to my new strength, not only was I able to defend from any beasts that came at me, but also most of them avoided me. Different from Lyon, I wasn¡¯t able to disguise neither strength nor intent, making all beasts around to identify me for what I was, a threat. I arrived at the entrance of the cave, where Bob was dragging two more trees, each probably the same size that mine. I wasn¡¯t envious, though, I had heard from Lyon that he had picked this technique especially for Bob, and thus he was much more heavily rewarded than me. I smiled at Bob and dropped the tree right at the entrance, where Lyon had asked me to drop it. I entered the cave and went straight to the kitchen, where I found Lyon with his hands full of food. After three months living with him, I had come to the conclusion that instead of a stomach he had some kind of dimensional bag inside, because the amount of food he ate made no sense. All the food he ate was fresh for two reasons, the first being he was able to somehow teleport, an ability rarely seen and almost never on a human, and thus cover enough ground to hunt food for all of us. The second and most important, he ate all I would consider leftovers before they were such. ¡°Lyon, I¡¯m back, what do we have to eat?¡± ¨C I entered the kitchen and sat in a chair, waiting for the food. ¡°Today is the last day we stay here, so I¡¯m cooking a Kraal Lion for all of us to share.¡± ¨C Yes you didn¡¯t mishear, he hunts Kraal Lions. I discovered this one day when I asked him how had he made the javelins he used, and he described the beast to me, which rendered me speechless. Kraal Lions were rarely hunted, not because of their toughness, but because it was nigh impossible to hunt it without someone taking serious injuries. They were fast for their size, and had a great perception, and so avoided most of the distant attacks, meaning you had to get close to a huge beast full of spikes ready to kill you. He had explained to me that he used its own spikes to hunt them or directly teleported besides them, which was just as effective. The first way was what amazed me. It seemed they were perceptive about projectiles, but apparently they didn¡¯t perceive their own spikes. ¡°Cool, I love the taste of it.¡± ¨C I sat down and waited for the food. ¨C ¡°I¡¯m wondering why we need so much wood, Lyon?¡± ¡°Well, I have to carry everything with me, don¡¯t I? We¡¯ll need a carriage.¡± ¨C He absentmindedly answered, as if it was the most logic thing to build a carriage for yourself because you needed to carry things while inside of a forest. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m joking Shawn, we can¡¯t carry everything, but at least we¡¯ll fortify the cave so nothing can enter while we¡¯re gone, this way if I ever need safe refuge I will just teleport here.¡± ¨C He relieved me of my doubts and threw me a Lion¡¯s rib. ¨C ¡°Come on, Shawn, you have to stop taking me so seriously.¡± [As if¡­ you¡¯re a monster¡­] ¨C I munched on the rib without responding. ¡°I¡¯m not a monster.¡± ¨C I coughed the meat in my mouth and found him smirking at me. ¨C ¡°And no, I can¡¯t read your mind, but your face is easy enough to read.¡± ¡°Mmm¡± ¨C He yawned and stretched its limbs, revealing a pair of wings of dark red colored feathers. Oh yeah, he has wings... During more than a week we were eating Gryphon for each meal, and after the first three days, he sprouted wings. Out of nowhere, he sprouted damn wings. He hadn¡¯t explained much about his powers, and I didn¡¯t ask. It was seen as a very rude thing to ask a person so I didn¡¯t, but that didn¡¯t mean I wasn¡¯t curious. He was strong, fast, could teleport, had claws and now had wings. I didn¡¯t even start comprehending the extent of his powers, and that scared me. Most people had simpler powers, like most Willforce users, that simply exerted their wills on an element and controlled it. When two Willforce users of the same element fought, the one with the stronger will persevered. Other people had simple things like bursts of energy, either outside or inside, resulting on either energy blasts or power bursts. That didn¡¯t include the advantage of a race, meaning my power had nothing to do with how strong or tough I was. To be truthful, though, I hadn¡¯t awakened my power yet. Half of the population awakened at the age of twelve, a tenth before that age and a third after. There was a small portion of the population who never awakened any power, though I hoped I wouldn¡¯t be a part of those. My sister had awakened when she was six. By the time I was two years old and I was playing with sis on the yard when I fell down from a tree. Sis had awakened that instant and saved me, though according to her I never stopped laughing, even when I started floating in the air. Sis¡¯s powers, according to the Elders, were related to gravity, which is a force that ties us to the ground. It seems she¡¯s able to either lower or increase its effect in either an object/person or an area, while still remaining unfettered by it. This power gave her a strong advantage in any battle, because she could set an area around her with increased gravity that didn¡¯t affect her while it affected her opponents. She had developed a lot of uses for her powers, yet I remained unawakened. *Sigh* ¡°Lyon, will you really not accompany me this last hunt?¡± ¨C He had prepared some kind of last battle for me, something that would challenge me, so I could prove myself to him, and then he said he would consider teaching me more. ¨C ¡°A Kraal Lion is tough enough even when fought by groups of veteran hunters, and you want me to hunt it alone?¡± ¡°Shawn, we¡¯ve been through this; you¡¯re capable of hunting the Lion yourself, but you¡¯re tied up by your ¡®common sense¡¯. Stop thinking less of yourself, trust my judgment and go fight the beast.¡± *Sigh* ¡°See you later¡­¡± ¨C Once I finished my ribs I grabbed my ax and took off, straight towards where Lyon had brought me a week ago. *** After around an hour I arrived where the Lion¡¯s lair was, my back stiff as an iron board; my fears were understandable, of course, a Kraal Lion was much more than I expected to hunt on this trip, and certainly I felt overwhelmed. I exhaled and released the stress of my shoulders, shook the fear off of me, and stepped forwards. *ROAAAAAR!* ¡°¡­¡± [Oh come on!] ¨C I got ready and started producing the red mist. After barely a second, the red mist invaded my lungs, and I felt the power of the rage insufflate my every fibber. The Lion appeared just after I filled my body to the brim with the red mist, jumping off the nest on the tree. Kraal Lions nested anywhere, from forest to plains, from caves to near ponds, they used their spikes as simple barricades, which deterred most beasts by simply notifying them there was a Kraal Lion in there, and those not deterred by the idea were stopped by the simple spikes. That meant that as long as there were beasts a Lion could hunt, there was a possibility of a Lion to be there, no matter the zone. Of course, they preferred warm climates, so you probably wouldn¡¯t see one on the tundra, but if they wanted they could perfectly nest in them.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. As the Lion jumped out of his lair, I dashed forwards to meet him in the middle of the jump, not giving him the chance to dodge. I threw the ax besides him, so when I finished dashing I would have a chance to recover it. Once I was right below the Lion, I jumped and clashed with him, placing myself where his spikes couldn¡¯t reach. Thanks to the power I received from the red mist, instead of me being crashed under his weight, I lifted him even more, and he fell on his back while I stood on top of him. I didn¡¯t let him recover before I used my fists to hit him to submission. I punched him again and again, yet even with all the power my fists carried, I was not even near to kill him. I got to punch him for a minute while resisting his attempts to throw me off before he roared at my face in an attempt to distract me. Instead, I just roared back at him, stronger and louder than his roar. Something incredible happened right then, instead of what you would expect, which would be him continuing to thrash around, he stopped resisting. I don¡¯t mean it like he fell unconscious or dead, which he didn¡¯t, but more like he surrendered. I had never heard of a Kraal surrendering besides when they were a thread away from dying, and even then they seemed reluctant, yet this one, which was far from dying, surrendered. I stood up, more cautious than ever, wondering if it was a trick, and when I was a meter away from him, he rolled on his back and stood up. I took a defensive stance as a reflex, but instead of attacking the Lion laid on the ground. [The fuck¡¯s going on?] ¨C I approached it, and did what I had been taught to do with our Hell hounds at home, place my hand on its forehead, and wait. He tilted his head in a nod, and I felt it. It felt similar to the red mist, but different, it was warmer, and it didn¡¯t damage me at all. I stood there a few minutes, accepting whatever that was, and by the time it was over, I felt a connection to the Lion. ¡°Ha! I have awakened!¡± ¨C I shouted happily before realizing something. ¡°¡­Why the hell are my powers for fucking taming?!¡± ¡°They¡¯re not.¡± ¨C A familiar voice sounded behind me and I turned around. Lyon was standing there, a smirk on his face and fully armed. ¨C ¡°You should look at yourself before arriving to conclusions.¡± ¡°So you followed me¡­¡± ¨C I didn¡¯t know if I should feel happy he worried, or disappointed that he didn¡¯t trust me enough. ¡°I did, but you should know that I would have only intervened in the most severe of the cases.¡± ¡°What do you mean by ¡®look at yourself¡¯? I feel perfectly fine.¡± ¨C He suddenly disappeared into smoke only to return an instant later with my ax on his hand. ¡°Here, use the edge as a mirror.¡± ¨C I took the ax and did as he said, only to find mid-grab that my arms were bulkier than before, and I had some simile of claws instead of nails. I still grabbed the ax and looked at myself, and discovered that my hair had taken a change. Spikes stood where my hair did before and I could see that I had fangs far sharper than what they used to be. ¡°Your power is not ¡®only¡¯ about taming. You seem to absorb traits from your tamed beasts.¡± ¨C He smiled at me, and I could see a smile appear on my face. This was amazing, I didn¡¯t know the extent of the improvement, or if I could tame more than one beast, but even if I could only tame the spiked Lion, it was already an amazing beast, and if I could tame more, that would be incredible. ¡°Hahahaha! This is awesome! I need to tell my sis!¡± ¨C I had been worried that my awakening was taking too long, but now I had a power that was amazing. If I could tame something more powerful, like a Dragon, or even something that flied, like a Gryphon, maybe I would absorb their traits too. I needed to test this, but well, I would have time after going back to the city. ¡°How are you going to call it?¡± ¨C Suddenly Lyon reminded me of something important, it wasn¡¯t only absorbing its traits, I had tamed a Kraal Lion, and I got to keep it! ¡°Mmm¡­ Spikey?¡± ¡°GOD NO! I forbid you from mistreating the poor beast! ¡°What? I thought it was a good name¡­¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but sulk, what could I name it? ¨C ¡°Maybe Sheen? His fur is lustrous and the name resembles mine.¡± ¡°Mmm¡­ yes, it definitely fits it. By the way, it¡¯s acting funny.¡± ¨C I turned around to find that its spikes were taking a darker tone, together with his fur, and it took me little to realize it was taking on my skin color for its fur. ¡°Damn, so not only I absorb traits, they do too?¡± ¨C This was awesome. ¡°Hooh, interesting, I would love to know if taming a second beast would mean both of them would acquire traits from one another besides acquiring them from you.¡± ¨C What? That was a possibility? That could result in amazing things! Imagine a Kraal Lion that could fly? It would be the ultimate archer, because it already had a good perception that allowed it to dodge ranged attacks, if the attackers couldn¡¯t get close, it would be able to attack without putting himself in danger. ¨C ¡°Well, let¡¯s go home, Bob should have it all ready to leave, we¡¯ll get some sleep and leave first thing in the morning.¡± *** Lyon¡¯s POV: This was interesting to say the least, a power that let him bond with beasts and share traits can be powerful not only now but later on. The stronger he gets, the stronger his beasts will be, and the stronger the beasts he captures are, the stronger he will be. Well, I can¡¯t say my powers are any worse. I got to acquire ¡®traits¡¯ from the Gryphon just by eating a lot of them. Finally, I had bought a new power, although I hadn¡¯t showed it to any of them.
Status X-System
Status
Name: Lyon Ironblood Soul Points: 11.094
Mutations: 6 Powers: 5
Mutations Acquired:
Wolverine Locked Deadpool Locked
Gambit Unlocked Angel Unlocked
Nightcrawler Unlocked Quicksilver Unlocked
Powers: Power origin:
Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf D mid tier Wolverine + Deadpool
Kinetic Powers E mid tier Gambit
Shadow Dimension D mid tier Nightcrawler
Angel Wings S low tier Angel
High Speed Complexion F mid tier Quicksilver
I had realized I wasn¡¯t strong enough to defeat the Swamp Dragon, which I didn¡¯t know the name of yet, and so I didn¡¯t even try. I would further on, when I was stronger, but right now I just needed to keep going, and this forest couldn¡¯t help me anymore. The SP I got from killing any beast here was now negligible, as every time I bought a new power ¨C thankfully acquiring Angel¡¯s powers by other means didn¡¯t count ¨C the price for the others increased a lot, I still hadn¡¯t discovered the ratio of the increase, although I hoped I would soon, so I could plan ahead an order of buying. Right now, though, the only thing that mattered was that I was ready to leave this forest, and I planned to do so. We had had a week to discuss it, and Bob was staying. He had to take control over his old tribe, and then over all tribes. It was a mission he imposed himself, and he had the intent of achieving it. I had never expected him to come with me, not because I didn¡¯t want him with me, but because I knew he had to stay here and take care of his tribe. Maybe later on, once the tribes were united, and if he found a worthy successor, he would contact me again, and I would pick him up, just maybe. I woke up Shawn, took the little baggage I was planning on carrying (all weapons, of course), and took off, out of this forest, and onto new adventures.
Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 99.9 %
Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge): - Iron Elk [II] ( x200 ) : Hugely improves agility and bone durability. - Scorpion Panther [II] ( x200 ) : Improves poison and acid resistance, stealth and agility. o Poison tail: Your own tail acquires posion producing glands. - Spiked Lion ( x200 ) : Improves strength and bone durability. - Draconic Wolf ( x200 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability. - Fiery Ape (x200) : Improves balance and coordination, small improvement in strength. - Gryphon (x200) : Improves eyesight, hearing, balance, speed and strength. (+54% at Angel''s powers) - Shadow Fox ( x200 ): Highly improves speed and stealth.
Angel Wings S low tier Progress: 6 %
You have grown a pair of feathered wings on your back, placed where your shoulder blades were before, that allow you to fly. Flying requires practice.
High Speed Complexion F mid tier Progress: 13 %
H.Speed Body: Your body is built to suport high speeds, making it tough and friction resistant. Superspeed: You can move up to a hundred times faster than you normally could. H.Speed Reflexes: Your mind has to be as fast as your body to allow you to control its movement. Your mind thinks up to a hundred times faster than it normally did. (Time perception may change depending on your thought speed.)
Arc 1 - Epilogue A shadow flew over the trees, following a figure that walked solitary in the silent forest. The shadow lunged at the figure¡­ and landed besides it. ¡°Hey Shawn, I saw the city!¡± ¨C I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the thought of leaving the forest at last. ¨C ¡°It¡¯s as big as you said it was, or even bigger! I couldn¡¯t see much from this distance, but I¡¯m excited.¡± ¡°Hahaha, if I didn¡¯t know better I would consider you a country bumpkin. It¡¯s just a city, Lyon.¡± ¨C How dare he? I faked a horrified expression followed by a smile. ¡°I¡¯ve been in this forest for more than two years, Shawn, you can understand my predicament, can¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s ok, we¡¯ll be there in a day, after all, and I¡¯ll be able to introduce you to my family.¡± ¨C Now that sounded interesting. He had talked to me about his sister, and she sounded like lots of fun. *Groaar* ¡°Pffft¡­ Hahahaha! Even his roar has become so much cuter! Hahahaha! ¨C The sudden ¡®roar¡¯ the little cat made was hilarious. After a week walking, Sheen had started transforming, not only shrinking, but also softening its spiky mane, resembling more like a cat with a hedgehog on its head. It seemed that after a week bound to Shawn, Sheen had acquired the ability to shrink at will, allowing him to be carried this much easier. ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t laugh at Sheen, this ability is super useful, and you know it.¡± ¨C He puffed and picked Sheen on his arms, cuddling him. ¨C ¡°Don¡¯t listen to him, Sheen, you¡¯re the bravest of the Lions.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. And thus, the merry group kept walking through the solitary forest, unaware of the things that happened a few kilometers away. *** ¡°Lark, do you have it?¡± ¨C A whisper traveled through the night in a dark alley, where a dark figure covered in a darker cloak stood alone. ¨C ¡°Asss promissssed, your reward will be waiting you where we accorded, onccce you¡¯ve delivered the object we assssked of you.¡± Wisps of shadowy light, as controversial that might sound, appeared from the shadows of the alley, gathering right in front of the dark figure. The wisps dispersed barely a second after gathering, leaving behind a dark translucent pearl. The pearl was the size of a bowling ball and it was made of some blackish translucent material, allowing those who looked closer to see something akin to wisps of light wandering inside of it. ¡°Kha ka ka, the Ssssoul Cage! With thisss we¡¯ll be able to dessstroy thisss cccity, and so much more! Kha ka ka ka ka ka ka!¡± ¡°Hey! Who goes there?!¡± ¨C Suddenly, a uniformed man, about two meter tall but fully human looking, appeared at the alley from around the corner, lance in hand. ¨C ¡°The curfew starts at midnight, show me your curfew-excluding papers or surrender yourself to the guard.¡± *Hiss* ¡°I guesss now it¡¯ss asss good time asss any to tesst it.¡± ¨C The figure turned around and pointed the dark pearl at the man. *** The sun rose, and a passerby walked right besides an alley, in his way to God knows where, when she screamed as if she had seen a ghost, and feel on her butt from fear. Right in front of her, where the alley started, the corpse of a man was lying facing the sky, his corpse was dry and devoid of any meat, seeming like someone had drained him of everything that made him him, except for the skin. The reason she was as scared, though, were those eyes. His eyes were pitch black, but somehow reflected an enormous amount of pain, one the woman had felt on her body despite solely seeing the corpse.