《[Trance Revival]》 PROLOGUE- I thought it was just a dream PROLOGUE ********************************************************************* [Reporter] ¡°..News of disappearance of countless adolescents all around the world is a mystery yet unresolved. The Police are conducting investigations on a global scale as family members, especially parents, are beginning to form inquisitions and are likely to cause trouble if the issue remains unsettled. Former preside-¡± *Next Channel* [Reporter] ¡°-are believed to been kidnapped by unknown assailants. Modern royalty all around the world expressed grave concerns as investigations are currently being held by almost all government agencies. The CIA, Interpol, NSA, MI6, Royal guards, and Secret services all around the world attempts full cooperation in regards to the disappearances of Royal successors believed to be an act of terrorism as the Queen of England threatens to engage in an all-out war. The Islamic State of-¡± *Next Channel* [Reporter] ¡°-can you say about this abnormality that is happening?¡± (Junkie answers) ¡°It¡¯s the Aliens!, It is the end of the world! It has Begun, ARMAGEDDON! We must repent for all our-¡° [Reporter] ¡°Most people being abducted are in the age of fourteen to twenty, do you think-¡° (Junkie answers) ¡°Does it matter?! We are all going to die, they are taking us one by one, we must-¡± *Next Channel* [Reporter] ¡°-of schools in the district with the entire classrooms devoid of students. Concerned parents are pulling out their children left and right and are hoping for the best. The faculty and staff-¡° *Shuts down the TV* So it has begun huh... June is being taken, so to speak, all humans are. One by one, every day, all around the world. No one knows who or even what they are.Be they angels? Demons? Aliens?! He is starting to get scared. And when the time comes, June doesn¡¯t even know where they''re being sent to. It is only safe to assume he doesn''t have the answers and he is vexed that he can''t have them. Heck, he''snot even sure if he issane still.Every day hestaresoutside his window as the signs foretell the coming of days. June knew his time has eventually come. He cannot explain how or why but he can feel it in his bones. He can smell it in the air and sense it in the crevices and shadows of things. One might argue that he''s being an overly-sensitive little bitch, high on acid. For he is not. It is just crazy to imagine fantasy and reality warping and not in a good kind of way, mind you. It''s just is. He knows he''s right. And right he is. It is coming. It is creeping near. Nearer and nearer he dreads his rest as the feeling only comes when he sleeps. But when those ''beings'' came all his emotions shifted.hedoesn''t feel angry anymore, nor does hefeel scared. On the contrary he feltflaccidly interested, for this world has long been dead to him. Hispain and suffering had been endless even death doesn¡¯t feel like an enemy no more. The time is nigh and June istired of waiting. So tired hiseyes began to feel heavy, hebegan to dream. And just like that, someone came for him. Then hewas gone. Out of nowhere hedisappeared. ************************************************************************ {June jones Jr., Kunyu Mountains, Shandong China} It all started approximately six years ago, in the middle of the night as I closed my eyes. It was a dream. ONLY a dream, as I told myself countless of times. But as I repeatedly dreamt it, it became the weirdest, most memorable moments I¡¯ve have ever dreamt of. A dream I¡¯m having every other night that a part of me wished to believe was true. Unfortunately for me as I found out later, it was. I was a shut-in. I¡¯m just an average kid. Everything about me is normal. Well, I believe I am okay? Geez. Regardless, the world decided I wasn¡¯t supposed to be. First there was darkness, gloom stillness encompassing all there is nearby. Birds and insects ceased their racket. The silence was absurdly deafening as I stared up the ceilings of my small room where I was, alone in my bed. My weariness compelled me to sleep. I was starting to feel comfortable, my body felt heavy and as my consciousness began to fade, time took flight. Then, everything turned grey. My mind as well as my body felt light, like strings affix my entire being, held me suspended in the air. It was like I was floating in the middle of a black and white monochromatic space like a suspended animation and such. I cannot move. My limbs barely heed my commands. Grey distorted spatial tears formed from my periphery, blurring my entire surrounding. My mind, a little hazy and lost, was beginning to clear up. Problem is, I don¡¯t know where I was. I only know I was alone Or so I thought. All of a sudden, two beings slowly materialized in thin air. I felt their existence even before I saw them approach. Like a thousand needles pricking my skin all over, the feeling was gone after they saw me, I was intently looking,dumbstruck. One of them was cloaked in bleached silk of bright radiance. The face covered by the shadows formed from the hood, an existence with bright tendril like wings of pure white fluttering ever slowly like country flags on a windy day. Inside the gleaming cloak was silver ornamented armor, glowing with white aura. Maybe made from precious metals of legend like Adamantium or Orichalcum, either way I can¡¯t tell. The being reminded me of the angel from the game ¡®Diablo II¡¯. The other one alongside him however was cloaked in eternal shadows which emanate melancholic dark illuminance. Vaguely covered with tattered black cloth was his shiny, fragmented steel gauntlet seen as he extends an arm. Moving ever closer to me. A being with clear resemblance to a Nazgul (LOTR reference) except for the dark tendril like wings which exerts dread and pressure. A Ripper, a collector of souls. Covered by the cloak were metallic bones and distorted faces ornamenting his hell-forgedarmor. Only a scythe was needed to complete the image and I¡¯ll come running to the opposite ends of the world like a deranged flimsy hobbit. It really was a being shrouded in anguish and horror. I forgot to breath. The sight was too much for a mere mortalto bear. They exert divine pressure with their existence alone which almost made me bow down in utter reverie. I felt like an ant being crushed by a large boulder. Their presence was akin to that of a God. I even thought they were! Are they here or me? Is this a calling? Am I to become a priest someday? a Pope? a Saint? I internally laugh as my imaginations run wild inside of my head. I was in a situation I can¡¯t even comprehend. It took a moment before the pressure lessened as I gasp to breath. In a modern world where believing in myths are a form of idiocracy, I found myself unusually calm and composed. I am not afraid of dying. I resigned myself of the notion of being killed ages ago. Depression, Anger, Boredom and melancholy made me numb and nothing in this world is holding me back to the ropes of life. You might as well cut that annoying rope. Mom and Dad were dead and I am always being beaten up and berated by my adoptive parents as well as the local gang in our area. Eventually my foster peeps became annoyed because the money that they covet for so longsupposedly for my future, was out of their reach so they left me in the streets to die. So long story short, I don¡¯t wanna talk about my past. It is as my foster grandma says: let bygones be bygones, forgive and forget, and most importantly, love your enemies -while whipping me with a bullwhip. Die Grandma you old hag Now where was I? Ah, the two beings surprising me by appearing out of nowhere, yes.Some people will have shocked reactions with fear visible in their eyes. Some might even scream and piss themselves off. Some might even cry. Not me. Not me though. Weird as I may come, the trauma of always expecting to be hurt broke me as I imagine myself in a hilarious situation every time I was abused, like the world is deliberately mocking me. I really hate this defense mechanism of mine, they ruin the most serious moments of my life. As I was just having a weird intimate staring competition with two godlike beings,who I assume, will bend me over backwards and ravage my delicious sexy body in an intense devil¡¯s three way,Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. I laugh. An unexpected mirth came out of my mouth. It grew louder and louder. I cannot stop laughing at the fantasy i created with my imagination. The Nazgul that was reaching for me stopped moving after reaching a few steps. I can imagine his surprise even though I cannot see his face. The Other one tilt its head,maybe wondering what just happened. We were in an impasse. then, ever slowly they moved yet again, like looming darkness and radiant sunrise both, forming a most fascinating eerie apparition. Now we are face to face. Well not quite, they were standing in front of me but I still cannot see their faces. They stopped and looked at each other. Both have yet to voice their business with me. Decent amount of time passed but the situation was getting weirder and weirder by the minute. I stopped laughing moments ago and began staring at them with complete observable interest. I couldn¡¯t take it anymore as I broke the ice. ¡°So, where is the cosplay convention being held at?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± Oh my god,what the fuck have I done? What the hell¡¯s wrong with me damn it. Of all of what¡¯s good in this world I¡¯ve decided to start a conversation with this ridiculous line. It¡¯s like I¡¯m begging them to tear my throat and guts out. Weird old me was about to say my apologies and pleasantries and pray to the high heavens that they don¡¯t eat me when the glowing white dude spoke in a girly sing song voice, followed by the gloomy croak of the being shrouded by shadows. ¡°Thou hast spokenth nonsensical verses, may thou reprise such words of thee?¡± (Udazuriel) ¡°He speaks the common tongue of the modern hearth, Udazuriel. Hohoho, most mortals prostrate themselves in homage in front of beings like us, but this one¡­Hohoho, The old geezer is right huh. Meeting themwould be a surprise for both of us. ¡± ¡°Hmm, enough! Thine alone is enough to speaketh!¡± ¡°Hohoho¡± (Ostheroth) ¡°Thine mortal, Ostheroth and thee truly, Udazuriel!, Archangel of the divine sovereign herself, hast cometh for thee to bringeth a glorious choice.¡± ¡°Oh for Gaia¡¯s sakes Udazuriel. Can¡¯t you for once speak normally?! The irritation I get from your voice makes me want to destroy a thousand planes.¡± Grumbled Ostheroth ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Ugh, as you wish dear old friend. Fine, let me start anew. I will state this clearly for you mortal so listen well, Ehem..Human, we have come from a distant plane of existence to present you a choice, whether it shall be a blessing or a curse is definitely up to you. The choice is this. You may stay here in this world or leave for another where magic, monsters, demons and Dragons run rampant. You will be strengthened for every experience you encounter. To be clear, this is a game designed by the Gods. Are you willing to accept such fate mortal one?¡± ¡°Uhh...what? Wait, WHAT?!¡± This moron spoke too fast I barely understood half of what he said, even then I have a problem believing the words he had spoken. Like hell all that can be true. As the two of them stared at me for a long time I realized I haven¡¯t really answered their question. Not bearing the following silence, Udazuriel began to speak again. ¡°Pardon me for being rude human, I may have forgotten to ask for your name¡± No shit Sherlock, you think? Well as much as I like to say that out loud, common sense held me back. It is too early to mess with this kind of people. I might bite the dust just by being rude. I wanted to run. to be far away as possible from these freaks. that''s what a sane person should do. but instead, ¡°My name is June¡± ************************************************************************* The two high beings explained that young mature humans are to be given a choice to be brought to another world. The rules are just like in a virtual reality game, RPG style. When we kill, we grow stronger, but when we die, there is no going back. Honestly, June was very interested. He won''t bealone, they said. They will give him enough time to think things through. Six years in fact. Then they will hear his decision. June was just anormal boy, barely the age of eleven. Ofcourse no one in their right mind would believe what they proposed. But unlike normal boys hisage, Junebelieved them. So hedecided to train, seeking temples and dojos andbegged for placesto sleep in. Monks and Masters after sensing his potential took care of him even if hewas a stranger. The inheritance from his diseased parents covered for hisother necessities. Sooner or later, June was educated in the ways of the martial arts. But hedidn¡¯t stop there. Heresearched the ways to survive in any environment, Reading mountains of books that may help with his adventure. He scanned survival methods and other things in the internet and learned fishing, farming, sailing, carpentry, forging, animal husbandry, medicine etc. June, in his youth, relished in strategic games and oftenask the two dudes who often annoy himin his sleep about what to expect in the new world. Their explanation was of a tolkienesque like settings where man lives in the middle ages and technology is almost to none existent. There are six continents dividing the kingdoms of man, elves, demi humans, dragons and devil-kins. Yes, a fantasy world. Hewas to choose what race, gender, and country to begin with. In the hundreds of choices hechose half elf half man, a Halfling. Male with dark brown hair and pink eyes and even suggested making the ears less pointy. Weird, but cool nonetheless. He strengthenedhimself for 6 damn years of constant sparring and training (usually being beaten down by an old master) and gathering knowledge, mastering the arts of knife throwing, sword fighting, archery, parkour and many more just for this day. And this day came at last. ********************************************************************* It has been six years, the sixth of the month, the sixth of the day. And now I float back to the place I¡¯ve met those two weirdos, and there standing in front of me is one of them. Ostheroth of the thousand tongues, a High duke of the sixth plane of the infernal depths, leader of the hundred legions. In the constant time they appear before my dreams every night for the past years, I have learned much about these two and there are only a few things I can say about them. They are idiots. I am not wasting your time telling their story, for that is but a tale for another time. We have talk too much we eventually became friends. Long story short, they are powerful beings that made poor choices and they were punished and striped off most of their powers. They are my conversation buddies every other night. That¡¯s what got me thinking that what they are saying is true that someday I will have to make a choice. They taught me many things about the place they¡¯ll be bringing me and that someday, I would be able to ascend to godhood, only if I survived though. They told me I wasn¡¯t going to be alone for they will bring others alongside me and tonight is finally the night. ¡°Dude, what happened to Lady voice white bro?¡± ¡°Hohoho, how unwise you are child, you are not the only one who was cordially invited. There are multitudes more and Udazuriel is needed elsewhere.¡± ¡°Huh, so he¡¯s busy. I bet he bedazzled his assigned youth with his vocabular grandeur. Can¡¯t he at least say goodbye?¡± ¡°HUAHAHAHA! Good one. You will see him sooner than you think. Just remember child, stay alive as long as possible.¡± ¡°Easy for you to say, you are very powerful already. You said it yourself, aside from the 666 princes and the seven Dark Lords, no one is your match in the infernal realm. You are the most powerful of all the dukes of purgatory¡± As I spit ass licking pleasantries for him to delight with, A coarse sound of laughter, like the sound produced by an old car engine came out of his mouth as he straightened his back, raised his left foot and placed it in a large rock that came out of nowhere, his black cloak glided in the wind, showing his dark eccentric armor as seawaves splashed near his back from god knows where. His hands placed in his hips like a hero of a shounen manga. He stood like that for a minute and laugh loudly and irritatingly so. I can now imagine how terribly bad this idiot¡¯s superiors wanted to demote this shithead. Nonetheless, I cherished our little chats. I find him quite entertaining to say the least. ¡°HUAHAHA, I like you kiddo. You really get my awesome side. You have my respect.¡± I sigh as he continued blabbing. No wonder they called him thousand tongues. ¡°-En, but you will not be going to my infernal realm you dimwit. Even a lesser demon from ours will obliterate kingdoms from yours. And I am not what I once was. I am weakened as my material body was sealed in the world you will be going. I will guide you there eventually. The time is nearing imprudent boy. Brace yourself.¡± ¡°How stupid of a demon can you be to be sealed there then? Hehe Oi Ostheroth! When I¡¯m strong enough, do you want me to release your seal and return you to full power?¡± ¡°Ho~ a mere human helping me? Hohohoho, if you can do that then I will make you a deal. I will serve you for a hundred years then I will eat your soul and kill you, sound fair?¡± ¡°Deal!¡± ¡°Heh! I thought so. Nobody in their right mind would-WHAT?!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a deal, idiot¡± ¡°WOHOHO, with no hesitation what so ever, this kid, you really are a fool. You need to be very powerful to even try to release my seal! Hohoho. Tell you what, I will tell you a secret! Listen well. In some of the ruins buried beneath that world, lies an ancient archive with tomes so old the current civilization, nay, even the God themselves, hadalready forgotten the languages they¡¯re encrypted with.¡± ¡°You mean like a library?¡± ¡°Yes child, powerful runes of knowledge that even Gods crave, even dreamt of possessing. Sadly for them, I alone aside from the old geezer who created the multiverse know the meanings of the runes and where to find the tomes! They don¡¯t call me thousand tongues for nothing, hohoho. Those other old bitches decided they can¡¯t kill me or else ancient powers will be lost forever so they sealed the glorious me to be their slave when I stole those old tomes.¡± ¡°..¡± ¡°Here¡¯s the deal kiddo, I will bequeath to you the gift of comprehension, my personal skill which can read and understand ancient languages and also a compass that points to the ruins I secretly place those books. This you see here is just an astral projection made up of divine energy, even I don¡¯t know where they sealed my original body. I only know that it is sealed in the southern continent. You have to find it yourself and I will reward you greatly-¡± ¡°You can give gifts?!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not supposed to. Hehehe, you are to choose from pre-assigned blessings but since we are great friends¡­just promise me you¡¯ll keep this a secret¡± ¡°hehe, are you not afraid I¡¯ll rat you out to the Gods?¡± ¡°Will you rat me out to the Gods?¡± ¡°Nah¡± ¡°Hohoho, then I¡¯ll take your word for it. I don¡¯t really care if you can¡¯t unseal the magnificent me, I can find a way myself ahehehe only it will take a millennia. Oh, the portal is arranged and complete, kid are you ready to go?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get this done with¡± ¡°Oh and one more thing lass, once you wake up to that world, you need to move fast. Since you told me you want to be reborn as a human so I will transfer you near a human settlement. Gods already informed all the kingdoms of man that you along with others, so called high humans or descended, are descending all at the same time. You will be provided with basic equipment near your spawn point. Dress up quickly before the Demon lords send their best regards. hohoho¡± ¡°Hey I said half man half elf! Wait, huh? I don¡¯t understand the last part, what-¡± Darkness once again filled my vision as I felt my consciousness fading. I had a feeling I was manhandled head first to a portal to god knows where. Damn. I blacked out. ************************************************************** um hi guys! this is my first ever fiction! i hope you like it and help me make it better by commenting below! Btw, please help me, i don''t know how to make tables T-T Chapter 1: The Compass of Yearning Chapter 1 ***************************************************************** In a spatial dimension with outer space-like scenery, a group of divine beings converse in heated discussion. A minuscule globe-like earth was situated in the very center of a spherical, doughnut shaped table made up of bluish nethermist, which held all kinds of delicacy, scattered scroll parchments, and large flasks of wine. A being adorned in stylish black tuxedo sits alone in the far corner of the table, away from the main banquet. He is slumped in the table with his food untouched, absentmindedly stirring with his forefinger his wine chalice, spilling the diminutive contents within. Yet not once ever parting his gaze upon the small enchanted globe, probing the creatures it held. The globe was the New Aetheria, a world created with the assistance of all the Gods, Goddesses, and the Divine Creator himself. His glare was fierce, brows furrowed. His eyes contained a glint of madness and hidden rage from the smug faces the Gods and Goddesses were directing at him. Nonetheless, he kept his calm. Even if they have had conspired to convict and conceal his dearly cherished friend, Ostheroth, away from him, their schemes shall fail still. For not preventing him from casting his dice is a mistake they cannot undo. For he knows, not one of the Gods nor the Goddesses may drought the seeds he sow. Do they really think they can outsmart Floki, the God of Mischief and Trickery? One of his treasured possessions, the Compass of Yearning, had already reached the hands of one of the high mortals, a term used to described the descended players. He once gave it to Ostheroth for safe keeping, eons ago. His connection to the compass was lost after his friend¡¯s capture. Somehow, now he can feel his soul imprint on it growing stronger as his gaze was guided towards the Desolate Lands, the Continent of the South. After a thousand years, his bestfriend finally managed to give him a sign. In due time, he would know where his friend is confined. In due time¡­In due course Even Lady Fate can¡¯t help feeling nervous as he flashed a smile to those conspirators who managed to one-up on him. Those arrogant ambitious bitches, one day they¡¯ll know how terribly mistaken they are for electing to the old geezer a rule of non-interference. The Old Man just smiled as he inquired to them if they were sure about the choice they¡¯re about to make, for it is final and cannot be undone. His twinkling eyes were focused on the man alone in the corner, as the Gods and Goddesses confidently stood by their word. ¡°Then it shall be¡± (Morgan Freeman¡¯s voice) Bad move. A very, very bad move indeed. Now they celebrate, they feast merrily still. For they think their plans, their interests are safe and secured while the lone man lament for the loss of one of his limbs. They think his influence took a heavy blow since now he can¡¯t interfere with Aetheria, the game which they play, toying with lives. With strength in numbers and the advantage they have against him fuels their pride. Their arrogance soared as they know they succeeded in suppressing his powers. How terribly wrong they were. One of the Gods near him, a robust man with a figure only the strong should have, approached him and sat beside his stool. He wore a dark jade cloak, his facial expressions grim. ¡°Floki, I am sorry for your loss. I would never have guessed their ambitions exceed their wisdom. To conspire against you is as distasteful as bile.¡± ¡°Jormundgandr my good friend, you have no idea how consoling those words are for me. Now they jest that the God of Deceit was outplayed and undone. They were not wrong", floki chuckles "Besides, I think I deserved it. Time and time again I¡¯ve had made my pranks against them and now the tables have turned.¡± Floki answered, yawning and not even looking at him. Some of the Divine beings draw near him as well. Their contempt not even veiled. ¡°Ha! The God of Deceits was tricked, how delightful a day it is!¡± laugh one of the Goddess with stunning beauty as she made a beeline to where he was. She was dressed in golden intricate armor, her Amazonian physique was matched only with her battle aura, screaming of how idiotic it is to receive her in battle. Another beauty which emanates divine flames with her body has spoken as well ¡°Sister Galatea, how ironic even! Floki, I must ask, should you really hang onto that title? It doesn¡¯t even suit you no more!¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Shut your mouth, Hestia. Killing someone you have no enmity with for the sake of power is not-¡± Jormundgandr was cut off by Hestia as anger was evident in his aura, pressuring the other party to back off yet they continued to spew insults at the yawning unconcerned God. ¡°Oh suck my balls Jor! Stop lecturing me about neither decency nor ambition. Even you would bend over backwards when given the opportunity acquire such heavenly defying powers.¡± Countered Hestia while smirking and folding her limbs. Floki, have yet to face in their direction, as all his concentration was still in the sphere, looking at the battle between a party of twelve and an army of hellspawns. He laughs to himself once in a while as if he heard a joke from inside the sphere. The two Goddesses who were mocking him were burning with fury as they were adamantly ignored while most of the other entities draw nearer to their squabbles. ¡°Hey you fuck! Stop ignoring us!¡± mused one of the closer Goddess. Others were now crowding where they were and wondering what the defamed Floki is up to now. After a while Floki stood up and smiled at the gathered crowd. ¡°Mother, Old Man, I must apologize but I really should retire. I have grieved long enough and it is time I move on.¡± Floki bowed sincerely. ¡°Are you sure dear? Haven¡¯t you yet bestow a blessing to the players? Have you abstained like most of your children?¡± lovingly whispered Gaia, the mother of all Gods and of the earth. ¡°Already have mum. The Craftlore and the Synthesis Trait should suffice no? I am thankful for the opportunity to be allowed to bestow two instead of one. This gift you have given to console me of the death of my sworn brother is most heartfelt.¡± Guilt manifest in the demeanor of some of the beings as he turned his back to the traitors he called family. ¡°Hahaha surely you jest! Giving horse dung for a blessing. Are you sure you would want to leave them with such a weak trait not even used in combat?¡± A man in the further back scorned as another voice took his attention The Old Creator, indifferently left the spatial banquet in the opposite direction as soon as he saw Gaia being preoccupied again with heavenly beasts of the void she called ''cute pets'' in which she cutely followed away while gesturing meow meow. The attention was redirected again at Floki when his eternal nemesis started speaking. ¡°Are you sure little brother? Surely this is not enough to satiate your feelings. I admit I assumed that you would bestow your Spatial magics to your chosen champion but I guess I was wrong since you don¡¯t even want to participate in the game. I¡¯m sure the diseased Ostheroth would want you partake?¡± Frejiah, the Goddess of Passion and Desire sneered, mocking him greatly. Gaia departed as well and followed the direction where her old hunsband went, sadden by how vicious her children were to each other. The conversation was turning to the wrong direction and she knew the ploy her husband did. Apparently so did Floki. Floki stopped moving and face them with a smile plastered on his face. ¡°Thank you dear sister for your concern but now i understand. Ostheroth isn¡¯t dead huh. You wouldn¡¯t kill the only person besides father that understands those powerful tomes unless you want to lose those tomes forever now would you? And no, I have no desire to have a champion so early in the game. And what makes you so sure I haven¡¯t bestowed my spatial magic to Aetheria? And since you so desire to diminish my control to that world you even stupidly made a rule of me not interfering too much in that world that you failed to notice that you yourself, along with others cannot interfere either. Hahahaha¡± The man in tuxedo laugh as he left the angered crowd. ¡°Whatever do you mean you weakling?!¡± angrily shouted Galatea, the Goddess of War ¡°You should never have voted not to step foot and interfere with Aetheria." mused Floki as he grabbed his longcoat, turntail and dusted his black suede shoes. "Didn¡¯t you know? The tomes were stolen eons ago! Only a few knew of its location including the old man, whom transferred it to that world! Hahaha! Such a pity your ambitions lead to you this moment. Sister Hestia what were you saying again about my title? Anyway I should look for my friend somewhere. I know one of you are hiding him. Unfortunately for you people I have dirt in all of you. Once I found out who, well, let¡¯s just say regret would be the last thing he/she would experience. Ahahaha tata for now¡± Floki left the crowd bewildered and shocked. Some of them were laughing their arse off at the stupidity of the proprietors. They never truly understand how vicious Floki was when mad. It was true that he knows all their weaknesses. Now the man demands retribution and all of them are cowering to what that man is capable of doing. There is a saying that goes ¡®Beware a patient man¡¯s fury¡¯ For Floki is a very patient man, his ire much worse, and his wrath a calamity. (end) ********************************************************************************** Chapter 1: Bossy little bitch
WELCOME TO NEW AETHERIA! You are a high human blessed with incomplete immortality. You may never grow old. However, you may still die in this world. You only have one life so be careful of the choices you make human. You are not invincible...yet anyways. You are dropped near the kingdom of Thessaschus (spelled as tesakus), a human settlement near the coast of Ocean port, northwest of the southern continent known as the desolated land of the heavenly beasts. Only a tenth of this continent is explored and only a tenth of that are inhabitable. The beings that dwell here are ferocious and high leveled the farther you travel, with some entities already half-step to deity-hood. There are 5 continents scattered, filled with many races. The humans have 2 languages, the Ancient conscript, a dead language, and the common tongue. The Gods of this world are forbidden to meddle with the interests of the humans as well as other demi-humans. This world is like an advanced virtual reality game with rules pertaining to such. You are to survive and live in this world. The human kingdoms are already alerted by the Gods pertaining to the descent of you, high humans. They will treat you fairly and provide you with assistance so that you may become stronger until you ascend to Godhood. However be wary of the kingdoms as they may use you for their own schemes and interests. Regardless, you are expected to follow their rules and regulations while inside their territory unless you want to suffer severe consequences. Other information may be accessed from their archives. You can choose a class at level 20 and their advancement at level 60 and 100. You can choose an additional subclass immediately depending on the availability and requirements of the said subclass. Build sufficient accomplishments and there will come a time where the creator will grant you with one wish, with anything you desire. Survive until then. +10 fame +5 to all major stats +3 luck (you will need it!) To view your attributes, simply think loudly the word ¡°STATUS¡±
Congratulations! You are the first person to learn a skill. Due to this, you will be given +5 to all major stats.
You have learned the cloaked skill ¡°Thousand Tongues¡± Skill type: Passive {forbidden skill} {concealed} Skill Class: S You will be able to understand the common language of the Humans in this world as well as Demihumans, animals and monsters. Ancient languages from tome scripts and scrolls will now be easily comprehended. This skill is masked and cannot be seen by Deities and Gods. Be careful when using this skill in front of other people. Sub skills: ¡°Communicate¡± ¡°Identify¡± ¡°Instantaneous Reading¡± ¡°Runic comprehension¡± ???? ???? ???? +50 wisdom and intelligence, +10 luck
Congratulations, you are the first person to learn multiple skills, and a legendary one at that!. Due to this, you will be given additional +5 to all major stats
You have been blessed by the Gods!
You have acquired an interspatial storage ring, a map of the kingdom of Thessaschus, the mark of half immortality, Class blessings, upper and lower garments, boots and a weapon of your choice.
You may choose your weapon. Choose from 6 knives, 2 daggers, a sword, a halberd, a shield, a spear, a bow with 2 quivers of arrows, a long staff, a mace or an axe.
You may choose 4 blessed trait from the following: (be mindful to correlate your selected traits with the profession you want to select when you reach the 20th level)
Arcane blessing (int. corrector +1 int per lvl) Lesser herculean strength (str. corrector +0.5 str per lvl) Lesser blessing of Deft (agi corrector +0.5 agi per lvl) Gaia¡¯s lesser blessing (vit. corrector +0.5 vit per lvl) Lesser blessing of lightning (increased affinity and resistance to lightning magic and skills) Lesser blessing of hearth (increased affinity and resistance to earth magic and skills) Lesser blessing of wind (increased affinity and resistance to wind magic and skills) Lesser blessing of fire (increased affinity and resistance to fire magic and skills) Lesser blessing of water (increased affinity and resistance to water magic and skills) Lesser blessing of light (increased affinity and resistance to light magic and skills) Lesser blessing of darkness (increased affinity and resistance to darkness magic and skills) Craftlore (increase in skill rate, efficiency, growth, production and mastery of skills especially for non-combative professions) Lesser Stealth (Grants misdirection, lesser presence and ability to meld to surroundings) Low light vision (improved eyesight in dark places) Atlantis¡¯ blessing (Grants ability to breath underwater) Ouroboros¡¯ lesser blessing (increased affinity and resistance to poison) Increased sense control (slight increase of control and coordination of your body senses) Lesser Telepathy (ability to communicate using only the mind within a few meters of the user) Lesser Limit Break (grant slight increase in power when the user is close to his breaking point) Enchanted voice (grant user breath taking voice when singing, increase affinity and resistance to charm magic) The Ambidextrous (equal control of both hands) Blessing of Synthesis and Fragmentation (Amalgamation and fragmentation of properties. may be useful for alterations in non-combative production classes especially in skill alchemy.) Ambition (increase in leadership skills, persuasion, efficiency, loyalty of followers and power) Goddess of war¡¯s blessing (slight increase of skill growth, efficiency/ damage of selected weapon mastery and bladed weapon skills) Death God¡¯s Revival (have one more extra life. When you die, you will be given a second chance to live but you will lose half of your accumulated power. Cooldown: 1 year) Danger perception Curse of the Lycan (become a beast at night with power depending on lunar positioning, with the full moon gaining 100% increase in power) Tome of ten tame tongues (ability to understand up to 10 languages of different races of demi humans) Angelic wings (gained the ability to fly for a few minutes) Bestial tongue (gain ability to communicate with small animals) Sacrifice (you will have a chance to give life to others in exchange for your own) Hand of Divinity (heal a third of the target¡¯s HP using a tenth of your mana can target anyone as long as you can see them no cooldown.)
Interspatial storage ring Item: uncommon, Durability 500/500 Binds to user, can only be dropped in death 50 storage slots
You have acquired an unidentified mysterious compass
??? compass [Quest item] ??? Indestructible, untradeable, cannot be dropped. A compass that leads¡­well, nowhere. It seems to be broken and unusable.
You are suffering from ¡®skill burnout¡¯ due to increased influx of knowledge from the skill ¡°Thousand tongues¡±. Pain will lessen after a few seconds of rest. Endurance +10
You received a quest!
You received a quest!
You received a quest!
DEMONIC FREEDOM! [Rank: A] Duration: indefinite Help the Grand Duke, Ostheroth, the thousand tongues to be freed from his mortal imprisonment! Reward: ???
AH AH AH AH STAYING ALIVE STAYING ALIVE! [Rank: E] Survive the onslaught! Someone is attempting to destroy the descended high humans by opening small portals and unleashing the Hellspawns. Quickly regroup to your designated capital to survive the fallen one¡¯s purging. Goodluck! Reward: 1 Gold
WISH FOR THE STARS [Rank S] Help your fellow humans defend their lands from the conquests of the Demon lords. Grow strong by any means necessary and survive the coming of Great Evil. Reward: 1 wish granted by the creator Requirements: Survive Destroy at least 1 Demon lord Become a Deity Reach at least half of the max level. Protect the humans, at least let a few human country survive Attain rank of Grand Master in at least 3 skills
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! I woke up oblivious to my surroundings as endless excruciating pain assaulted my every being. Clinical signs of hypovolemic shock or something similar along with a nauseating feeling were evident in my miniscule electrified movements. The feeling of a void in the center of my head was felt, forming and vacuuming my organs like a blackhole making an impression of indescribable agony. My brain felt like a Rubik¡¯s cube being played, with the parts being randomized as they twist and turn, creating nauseous discomfort. Matched with a loud continuous ringing you hear when someone explodes a fire cracker near your ear making me almost deaf. Eventually the pain lessened as I muster all my might to find my bearings, opening my eyes, unfurrowing my brows and blinking away the remnant ache and the goddamn motion sickness that refuses to stop spinning. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Am I blind? Dozens of luminescent blue boxes with words covered my vision as I try to swipe them away realizing that I also cannot breath. I find myself covered in white fiber cocoon with gel-like liquid with the same appearance and consistency of egg whites. Panicking, I thrashed, wailed, and flailed my limbs destroying the catacomb like prison I found myself in. I was greeted by the bright waning light of the moon, enough to illuminate the grand darkness of this new world, brightening the forest full of trees with green luster like aura, beautiful beyond compa- ¡°BLEEERGH!¡± Lookie, there goes my dinner¡­along with that awful nauseating feeling. Wiping away the debris wrapping my face and my body, I started observing where that idiot of a guide discarded me. I perceived myself to be near the clearing of a wide forest with gigantic trees of green neon blacklight but without leaves and with thousands of white cocoons like the ones covering me, littered in the ground all over the forest floor. The forest trees were sparse, not dense at all that goes for miles. Logic dictates that when you see countless stars in the sky outlining the darkness all over the place led me to the conclusion that it is night time in this world. Thank the heavens for the presence of the big ass moon and the trees lighting everything up. I quickly maneuvered from my sitting position confirming the soundness of my naked body. I noticed I have very long dark brown hair-wait, Yep, speaking of noticing, I am currently naked. Darn it Ostheroth! Did you strip me before throwing me headfirst to god knows where?! Sighing, I looked around and noticed that silence permeates these woods and based on the number of cocoon that I assume were infested with people sent in this world with me, it is still safe as I notice movements from the cocoons. They are starting to wake up. Well there is no point of continuing my sightseeing escapades. Based on my knowledge on virtual reality games the boxes I shoved to the side of my periphery are prompts. Hmmm, best to check them fast before anything else. For the devil knows those are more important than my uncovered butt that right now is suffering from the freezing bitch slap the wind oh so generously provides. Checking and swiping the notification prompts one by one, I found out that the pain I felt was not really from a fall but a backlash from skill accumulation, a skill granted to me by my favorite buddy. DAMN SON! My smile grew more evident as the time passes by as I interestingly read through the boxes. I was ahead of everyone else by 10 stat points by being the first one to learn a skill. My fury for that cloaked reaper vanished in an instant. ¡°Status!¡±
Name?
¡°June¡­June Heistman¡±
Please allocate stat points to your liking. Arrange them to reflect your play style. Choose your blessed traits as well as your favored weapon. Equip your Clothes from your storage ring.to view the items, think out loud the word ¡°INVENTORY¡±
June Heistman Level 1 Str. 5 Agi. 5 Dex. 5 Lck. 0 STM: 40 Int. 5 Vit. 5 Def: 1 HP: 50 Wis. 5 End. 0 Atk: 3 MP: 50 Unallocated points: 30, +15 to Mj. Stats + 50 to Int and Wis +13 Lck + 10 End
¡°Fiddle~ fiddle~ fiddleeee~ swipe swipe swiiiipe~¡± I hummed inaudibly as I swiped the air. I saw others doing the same thing but I don¡¯t see their box prompts. Hmm so only I can see my own huh.
June Heistman Level 1 Str. 20 Agi. 50 Dex. 20 Lck. 13 STM: 220 Int. 70 Vit. 20 Def: 54 HP: 200 Wis. 70 End. 10 Atk: 12 MP: 200 Unallocated points: 0 Revival Blessing of Synthesis and Fragmentation Increased sense control Craftlore
I see, things are simple enough when you have experience in playing rpg games. I glimpsed at the awakened peeps from my peripheral side making the same gestures as I do. They barely made any noise as they mimic us, the early birds. It was kinda hard at first to focus on doing mah thing and making sure my little private doesn¡¯t salute to the major boobies of naked girls while I peep on them. Too bad they all dressed far too hastily to leisurely enjoy the view. *sigh* The freezing wind of the evening eventually dried me up as I equipped the simple brown garments and boots from my ring. Oh look at that, the daggers I equipped came with sheaths attached to a belt. Hmph, only a few points added to the attack and my clothes don¡¯t give no shit for protection either. I need to find a town sooner and craft me some quality gears. Nonetheless, Not only do my stats outrank the others, they are way too overpowered for a level one! I chose some crafting skill and revival for my trait blessing. I have my special reasons for picking my traits. Don¡¯t judge yet people, hehehe you¡¯re about to witness a legend being born later. Soon, everyone start having conversations with each other. I on the other hand was busy studying the map while thinking that something is wrong. I feel that I am forgetting something. Something really important Ostheroth¡¯s face resurfaced in my mind as I measure the distance from where I¡¯m sitting to where I¡¯m supposed to go. The capital was approximately a few hours from here. Marking the trail to the ocean port, I felt my trait of increased senses kicking to gear as miniscule vibrations on the ground are felt by some of us who picked the same skill. Then it clicked. Shit. ¡°EVERYONE RUN! QUICKLY HEAD SOUTH FROM HERE! THE QUEST WILL BE FUCKING US IN A MOMENTS NOTICE! GROUP YOURSELVES AND RUN TO THE CAPITAL! THE HELLSPAWNS ARE CHARGING FROM THE WEST AND THEY WILL BE HERE IN A FEW MINUTES!¡± I screamed my lungs out as I pointed to the direction of the capital. Commotion evidently provoked the silence that once held the peace of the night as chaotic tumult ensued, gripping everyone in fear and anxiety. Due west, torch fires can be seen and all understood what¡¯s happening. Based on the Quest box, we are being hunted. Only a handful remained calmed, literally can be counted by hand. The old geezer monk that took me and fed me from the previous world used to say that I was an excellent judge of character. I just wish he knows what he¡¯s talking about. I really don¡¯t want to trust my life with some coward undependable amateurs. That would be a foolish way to die. I barked once again and pointed at those people I deemed useful. . I am also quite sure they were looking intrigued, staring at each other (and me) as they size everyone up. They are the ones I saw without fear in their eyes, calmly smiling or looking indifferent while everyone thrashes about while scream-running with great abandonment of pride as a high human. I don¡¯t want to die without a fight, so I took control. ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°AND YOU! THE ELEVEN OF YOU COME WITH ME! I HAVE A PLAN! LISTEN FIRST! LEAVE IF YOU¡¯RE NOT INTERESTED!¡± Not stopping to catch my breath, I continued. ¡°WE¡¯LL START RUNNING BACKWARDS, FACING THE HORDE! THE FOUR OF YOU, I HOPE YOU KNOW HOW TO USE THOSE BOWS ASSUMING IT¡¯S THE WEAPONS YOU PICKED. RUN SLIGHTLY AHEAD OF US! WE WILL INTECEPT THOSE THAT WILL ATTACK YOU WHILE YOU COVER FIRE FOR US DEFENDERS. CONSERVE YOUR ARROWS AND ONLY FIRE TO THE ENEMIES IN THE PROXIMITY OR ONES ATTACKING THE VANGUARDS! PICK TWO MELEE FIGHTERS TO PRIORITIZE IN PROVIDING COVERFIRE! PICK NOW!! NO USE RALLYING UP THE OTHERS THEY¡¯RE TOO SCARED TO DO SHIT!¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one who started shouting, causing panic here and ther-¡± One of them, a pretty little redhead female rebuked me but stopped when I didn¡¯t bother slowing the pace of my voice. She then deftly organized the three ranged units and assigned them with whomever to cover. The other people started copying us and formed their own forces as well. ¡°YOU TWO BIG HANDSOME GUYS WITH THE HALBERDS! BOTH OF YOU LOOK REALLY STRONG! WE¡¯LL DO A SPADE FORMATION WHILE MOVING BACKWARDS AND YOU GUYS ARE THE SPADE¡¯S TIP! FIGHT IN THE FRONT WITH BACKS AGAINST EACH OTHER WHILE HOLDING YOUR FORMATION!! MOVE BACKWARDS WHILE FIGHTING AND DECIMATE EVERYTHING IN YOUR WAY!¡± ¡°Aye. You look like you know what you¡¯re doing. Count me in.¡± ¡°That¡¯s more I like it! I love to fight unhindered, so the frontline is mine!¡± ¡°THE FOUR OF YOU WITH SHIELDS AND SWORDS WILL FLANK THE MUSCLE BROTHERS FORMING THE WALLS OF THE SPADE! PREVENT THE MONSTERS FROM PASSING YOU BY AND HURTING THE RANGED UNITS! ME AND THIS GLOOMY DUDE WITH KNIVES ARE THE VERSATILE FORCES! WE WILL SWOOP IN AND OUT OF THE FORMATION TO EASE THE PRESSURE OF THE SHIELD UNITS AND KILL THE ONES THAT INFILTRATES INSIDE THE SPADE! THOSE WHO DISAGREE SPEAK NOW AND STOP WASTING TIME! I HAVEN¡¯T HAD SEX YET WITH THE LADIES FROM THIS WORLD SO I DON¡¯T WANT TO DIE TODAY!¡±
You have unlocked the leadership stat! Leadership +3
All of them laughed in regards to my last comment but no one voiced their dissatisfaction. Everywhere people formed parties while running towards the capital. I immediately invited the eleven people in my party. I sigh in relief as I cut my long flowing hair and looked into the horizon where an army is swiftly approaching. People followed my example and cut theirs as well with reasons that long hair would hinder them while fighting. For those of you who were asking, the cocoons that held us earlier were mixed with impurities from our bodies. It cured the others from their nearsightedness and diseases from the past life, destroyed our fats, added extra height and muscle for others, and made our body and faces more slim, beautiful and chiseled. After the metamorphosis we emerged like perfect reflections of ourselves. All of us emerged with overflowing and irritatingly long hair twice as tall as us. Now where was I? Ah yes. I can already see from a distance the monstrosities bolting towards us while holding all kinds of weapons and sporting leather armors. They looked like goblins, only red. 4 feet tall with two short horns protruding in their bald heads, they were armed with sharp teeth and fur covered tails with their lower half covered with thick fur as well, resembling the lover half of goats if goats walk bipedal. These little demonlings must be the hellspawns that numbered in the thousands. The ground vibrations increased as the sound of their little warhorns were heard in all corners of the forest followed by the resonant beat of the drums a few hundred 10 feet tall, troll like creatures were carrying. ¡°FOOOOORM RANKS! SPADE FORMATION NOW! WE¡¯LL RETREAT WHILE HOLDING THE FORMATION! DON¡¯T MAKE FOR THE FOREST CLEARING! WE GO EAST BOUND! NOOOOW!¡± ¡°Wait what?! What the hell are you doing?! The capital is south you moron! All the others are heading south!¡± (said gloomy dude) ¡°EXACTLY! THAT¡¯S WHY WE GO EAST! THE BEASTS ARE HUNTING THE WHOLE HERD NOT SOME STRAY SHEEP! WE¡¯LL GET MASSACRED IF WE GO WITH THEM! I FEEL THAT WE WONT HAVE ENOUGH STAMINA TO OUTRUN THOSE BASTARDS FOR TOO LONG!¡± All of them looked at me like I¡¯m some messiah about to save them from their doom. I never noticed it before but the monks really influenced the way I say things. Maybe high amount of wisdom in my stats helped me say those cheesy lines of mine. Anyway my logic was foolproof so they went along with it. ¡°LOOK! SEE THE GLOWING LINES OF THE EASTERN HORIZON? SAME WITH EARTH, THE SUN RISES IN THE EAST! DAWN IS SOON APPROACHING AND I THINK THESE CRITTERS DON¡¯T LIKE SUNLIGHT VERY MUCH! IT WILL GIVE US THE EDGE WE NEED LATER.¡± ¡°Stop shouting, we get it! Move your ass before they overrun us with numbers¡± ¡°Sorry Red.¡± ¡°WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST CALLED ME?!¡± ¡°SHHHH!¡± ¡°Ugh¡± Laughing, we sprinted with the cover of the trees as aid, hopefully reducing our visibility. I was right, that red-haired girl really has a short fuse. My prediction was right on point as well. The majority of the hellspawns focused on the large group of fleeing humans. A few hundred went for us. My blood is being pumped harder as adrenaline surged within my body, sharpening my senses further. The fight we were expecting is about to come. I wonder if my past trainings bore fruit. Let¡¯s find out, shall we? J *end of first chapter* [/td][/tr][/table]
Chapter 2: A box full of crazy Hi my name is Dianne, and six years ago I ALSO had a dream. Well, based on where this story is progressing so far I assume you¡¯ll know where I¡¯m going with this? No? Bored Manhattanite princess, Dad¡¯s filthy rich owns a conglomerate upstate and I¡¯m a fabulously spoiled pain in the ass brat bitch a commonly known term addressed to me by my loving step mother. Unfortunately for me, dad was murdered. Step mommy took control of everything, and that¡¯s not even the icing of the cake the climax of the story, the tip of the iceberg, the cherry on top! The police blamed me. But it wasn¡¯t me. Dear mommy framed me. Daddy and I had a fight a few nights before, so that lead to the motif that I was the one who stab my papi. I was in the scene, with blood in my hands. As I saw my dying father, I may have touched and hugged him. They made a not so solid evidence with my fingerprints on the knife which was seemingly embedded in my dad¡¯s back. How funny of a clich¨¦ for my dad to marry a conniving gold digger and in due course, be literally stabbed in the back! Long story short, I was sent to an asylum after the confirmed diagnosis of me being not of legal age and deemed cracked as fuck. Well I can¡¯t really blame them, with my only living relative whom deep down inside I loved, taken away from me. After all¡¯s that happened anyone sane will go crazy. How crazy you ask? I even have had a delusion. Occasional visits from a transvestite angel without a face who calls himself ¡®you-the-Zuriel¡¯. It must be the crazy in me talking but he explained some shit to me about a world where I can start anew and stuff. Man, it was kind of hard not to believe and listen and to his speech. He has the voicebox of a diva soprano and a knack of making me smile even in my depressing state of affairs. He really does sound funny that no one can help but laugh while he speaks. And before I forget, mom got what she deserved. She had the same ending my dad got. Who did her I wonder? ¡°You did¡± said the frowning (I assumed) angel as he observed me talking to the mirror of a motel after I escaped my imprisonment. ¡°Oh common!, she deserved it! Besides, I won¡¯t be in this world for so long. I planned on committing suicide after I¡¯m done with that bitch but since you proposed a better plan¡­well let¡¯s go with that. Ooooh! Let¡¯s bomb my mom¡¯s company before we go! Causing chaos is so much fun!¡± I looked again in the mirror and told myself ¡°guuurl you gots sum issues deeeym it woman, calm yo tits ayt?!¡± Then I punched the mirror glass, timed with the booming sound of a bomb blowing of the far distance and the swat team breaking my door a moment later, carrying AK47¡¯s and holding me down head first on the bathroom floor. I so love going out with a bang. Then I like, totally passed out ******************************************************* I woke up in the woods in another world without a hint of clothes covering me. Shivering after breaking out of the slimy ewww cocoon, I quickly did the same things the ones before me are doing. Checking the notifications, equipping my items and equating my stats Being unclothed never bothered me that much but by the gods look at my beautiful long red hair! OMG so fab I could die happy now. Well not yet, I should enjoy first what this life here has to offer. ¡°Status¡±
What name would you like to be called?
Hmmm a name. A term that should describe me, a pretty little box full of crazy when you open it, it would explode in you unawares¡­ah! Got it. ¡°Pandora¡±
Please allocate stat points to your liking. Arrange them to reflect your play style. Choose your blessed traits as well as your favored weapon. Equip your Clothes from your storage ring.to view the items, think out loud the word ¡°INVENTORY¡±
Pandora Level 1 Str. 5 Agi. 5 Dex. 5 Lck. 0 STM: 40 Int. 5 Vit. 5 Def: 1 HP: 50 Wis. 5 End. 0 Atk: 3 MP: 50 Unallocated points: 30, +5 to all major stats +3 luck
Wow, impressive that the system makes us choose what type of killing machines we ought to be. Okay! I want something that deals a lot of damage to a lot of people, ehem, I meant a lot of enemies all at the same time. A Sorceress perhaps!
Pandora Level 1 Str. 5 Agi. 5 Dex. 10 Lck. 3 STM: 90 Int. 26 Vit. 10 Def: 4 HP: 100 Wis. 11 End. 0 Atk: 4 MP: 275 Unallocated points: 0 Revival Blessing of Synthesis and Fragmentation Increased sense control Arcane blessing
Alright! Explanation time! Look here folks, step right up, step right up the show¡¯s about to start! Okay so I chose the path to magical ass kicking so I expect it requires a certain amount of wisdom and intelligence to access correctly, nay, efficiently the magic skills and the required mana to power shit up, thus the addition to Wis and Int. Mana comes 100% from intelligence but wisdom gives additional points to boost mana as well but only a teensy bitsy. Defense is a mix of a pinch of vitality, a touch of endurance, a hint of strength and the salted armor you equip. Tasty. Now, I don¡¯t really want to be too squishy that a graze with enough numerical points can kill me so I added teensy weensy of vitality. Oh! You must be wondering why I chose to add to dexterity. Well look at it this way. Since I wasn¡¯t given yet a magic skill for mages on the welcoming prompt, since the welcome message dared said that we will be given assistance by the kingdom I am already presuming magical skills are one of them freebies. But here we are in the forest, barely equipped to fight so I chose the bow and arrow which explained the add. in dex stat. anyway I am an excellent shot as told by Udazuriel as I used a sniper to finish off my evil mom¡¯s minions. The trick is, even with the minimum dexterity, you don¡¯t aim exactly at the body of whom you are sniping, calm calculation of where your target is going, wind direction, and proper breathing suffice most of the time. Well you don¡¯t expect your enemies to be standing still now would you? Now for the trait blessings! Dear avid readers, (¡°reader¡± since less than a few appreciates me yet T-T) Would you darlings be so kind as to comment on what 4 traits in the selection you would want when someday you come to this world as well? Well as for me first things first, EXTRA LIVES. Here, you are only given one life and a choice to have more if you pick it. I picked the Death God¡¯s revival as priority. I am truly sorry to say this, but you are a mentally disabled stupid moronic idiot fuccboi who likes it in the ass if you don¡¯t choose the revival trait. It¡¯s like your trying to fuck up your life here even before you barely started. Hell, it¡¯s like picking the setting of the game from less challenging to nightmare difficulty. Next in line for the throne is Arcane blessing. Don¡¯t look down on this baby. By the time you get to, hmmm say level 200, your int and wisdom stat will have additional 200 points. That¡¯s like +2500 more mana give or take. Starting to feel me? This is a great boost to those who wants to be mage type wannabes The third in my bucket list is the increased sense control. When the description said those words I already knew I should pick this one. It didn¡¯t say specifics but believed me when I say/chose this blessing. My sense of sight, smell, and hearing all increased a bit and that¡¯s not all, given time if I manage to master and control ever specific sense in my sexy body, I would be invincible. Later stages may also unlock other senses like balance, temperature, reaction time, taste etc. even time! See? Interminable potential friend Last but not the least is the Blessing of Synthesis and Fragmentation. (Amalgamation and fragmentation of properties. may be useful for alterations in non-combative production classes especially in skill alchemy.) You remember those times when you were a teenager in school and this scumbag teacher says to read the instructions first before doing your shit? And when you didn¡¯t follow or read carefully the instructions the heartless teacher will automatically zeroed you for not following simple instructions. And remember the warning your angel told you that in this world, your choice will lead you to your fate, good or bad, it¡¯s up to what choice you make? This was one of those. To those others who didn¡¯t pick this because they have decided for better traits more than a crafting trait or just quickly browse, only to see the terms ¡°maybe useful to non-combative professions¡± and ¡°alchemy¡± and decided it¡¯s not worthy of time to commit to non-combat class stuff. Well folks this is not a ¡°CRAFTING¡± trait. The description only said MAYBE USEFUL. Ladies and gentlemen, people of the jury, your honor¡­ This is a trait that mixes skills. To be precise, Skill Alchemy, not alchemy skills! BOOM! MINDBLOWN. Endless possibilities. Imagine, for a sorceress, will elemental skills of different lineage. Let¡¯s say higher version of water bullet and wind needles. Enlarge those skills and mix it using skill alchemy. Won¡¯t you acquire the coveted ice lance spell?! Woah don¡¯t even get me started with mixing all those basic spells to create an elemental chaos spell, those nasty sons of bitches are dreaded in all mmmorpgs that I used to play when I was younger. They cause massive amount of damage with random side effects which may even bypass armor! ¡°huh huh huh..aha ha ha HUA HA HA HA!¡± (impersonating evil laugh) ¡®FOOLS! YOU MORON COMMONERS! DIRTY SLAVES! MAKE WAY FOR THE QUEEN PANDORA¡¯ Never-ending excitement filled my body. I was in the moment. i was going nuts..and probably showing mg "O" face i''m so turned on right now Suddenly someone scared me shitless by screaming out loud. A long haired 5¡¯8 squirt with kinda okay looks. He was holding what appears to be an old parchment. ¡°EVERYONE RUN!-¡± ¡°And who are you supposed to be?¡± I irritatingly said to him as he was quite close to where I was standing. He was the one everybody was mimicking earlier, one of the early risers. ¡°-QUICKLY HEAD SOUTH FROM HERE! THE QUEST WILL BE FUCKING US IN A MOMENTS NOTICE! GROUP YOURSELVES AND RUN TO THE CAPITAL! THE HELLSPAWNS ARE CHARGING FROM THE WEST AND THEY WILL BE HERE IN A FEW MINUTES!¡± (squirt) He didn¡¯t stop to catch his breath and didn¡¯t even look at me or answered my question. This damn plebian¡­ I laugh on how accurate he describes our situation. A slight earthquake on the ground with the epicenter pointing to the west was sensed as torches emerged at the horizon. I almost forgot about the quest prompt we received, it really was gonna fuck us in about a few minutes but I didn¡¯t know how bad it¡¯ll gonna fuck us until I saw the army of thousands of devils marching. Everybody started panicking as I started formulating on what to do. I was a genius back in my world with the record of the four hundredth rank of highest IQ ever recorded in history. Mine was 170ish, Einstein¡¯s was only 160-ish. And I¡¯m proud of that. If any of you little piece of shits dare argue that it wasn¡¯t worth bragging, I will blow a fireball directly up your ass cracks. Ugh. Sorry, I have anger issues. Atleast not daddy issues cause that will probably led me to the porn industry already. Yet somehow this three inched dick seems two steps ahead of others. One of the things he¡¯s doing is ordering around people on what to do and believe me that I also want to suckerpunch his cute face for you guys but damn He is good. Not only good looking but, you know, efficient. He¡¯s got this erected dick formation plan going on with two ready participants who happens to be like the guys in porn videos who¡¯s all steroids with surgically enhanced cocks whom he apparently placed in the center front. I guess it¡¯s to totally penetrate the small red monster¡¯s pussy in a forward trajectory or whatever. He¡¯s like a veteran director of a porn movi-wait. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I¡¯m not planning on eternally blabbing about describing him using mature language. To summarize he¡¯s good and he thinks fast. He looks like a natural born leader...and he¡¯s funny...maybe even a little bit dreamy Really?! Not now horny delusional split personality!, gaaahd. Okay back to the moment. He¡¯s not so bad, he actually apologized about being bossy because, and I quote, ¡°it¡¯s a life and death situation¡± We were already running without breaking formation. Not to judge but it¡¯s really not like a spade, it¡¯s more like a triangle while the archers are the outliers. Still the way he does things are precise. With every move having a purpose. Calculated even, down to the seconds We got away from the majority of the attackers. If it was my plan, nay, if it was anybody¡¯s plan, we would¡¯ve gone along with the others to go to the capital in a straight line. By then we would be swarmed outnumbered and surrounded ten to one. Believe me that you won¡¯t be thinking straight when you see them devils. They were the stuff of nightmares. You would even think of planning a formation, it would be all ¡°every man to himself¡± kinda situation. ¡°Brace for impact in twenty seconds! Gym brothers in my signal swing those halberds horizontally 180 degrees! you don¡¯t have to aim but be mindful not to hit allies! hit them hard! Shield bearers 1! 2! 3! 4! Await my signal! use the pointed edge of the shield to bash followed by a sword strike combo! ¡± ¡°Hurry! Disable your blue boxes first, they might hinder your fight, get ready they are here!¡± ¡°Ten seconds! Archers at the ready! Fire on my command!¡± ¡°yes captain¡± ¡°hooooold¡± ¡°oh captain my captain¡± we all replied giggling ¡°FIRE!¡± four archers aimed, five arrows whistled as they passed by, flying true with one arrow missing its mark. I knocked two arrows that flew toward the left flank of one of the muscle brothers piercing the swordarm of a deviling and another lodged in the patella of a deviling a few meters parallel to the second shieldbearer. One archer missed and stabbed a root bark, tsk, damn noob. Another arrow fired by one of us in the eye of a pursuer and another fired in the bare chest of a farther deviling. I was already in my second volley, stretching tree arrows at once at the troll upfront. Bullseye! Two arrows hit each eye, one hit the forehead. ¡°HOTDAMN RED! GOOD AIM! Three seconds!¡± ¡°don¡¯t fucking call me red!¡± ¡°¡­On three, two, one, halberds now! ¡°LEROOOY JENKIIIINS!¡± (steroid 1) ¡°HAHAHAHA¡± (steroid 2) Three, two, one, shieldbash now!¡± ¡°Stop running, move as you please now but don¡¯t break formation!¡± (squirt) Two halberds cleaved through nine devilings as their body parts hovered, sliced in half. One escaped the initial attack but was thwarted by an overhead swing of one of the steroids. The shields bashed the second wave of attack, stunning the midgets followed by a swing of their swords which decapitated the heads. The second volley shot by the other archers were directed to the third wave, all head shots with only five deviling that broke through the shields guys, unscathed flashing their manic grin, yet eventually dealt by the squirt and the gloomy guy. Little prompt numbers where hovering near the damaged monsters as we defended the formation ¡°shield 3 move two step to the right, halberd 1 step back! Archers another voley in three two one fire! Gloomy behind your back! Red there¡¯s a ranged devil! Kill it now! Hyaa! Left shields they will be flanking us in 10 secs! swordswoman protect bow 4! Shield 1 bash to the leftin 2 sec, two, one, now! ! Dodge that, halberd 2! one got inside! gloomy kill it! Fuck there are three ranged now we must move! Next location now! Don¡¯t break ranks! Halberd1 you¡¯re going too far! Gloomy! Five will be inside in 3 secs, three two one! Kill one I¡¯ll kill four!¡± The gloomy guy swung his daggers a few times to kill his opponent. It died after seven strikes but he suffered superficial injuries. The squirt tactician however swayed his left dagger once, spin like dance in 360 degrees, cleanly decapitating three heads. The fourth midget swung his long sabre in a diagonal angle aimed at the head but the squirt maneuvered and made a beautiful dodge without even looking and without breaking his spin. The sabre missed him by inches as he launched the right dagger on the second spin which flashed and amputated the fourth midget in his right leg. It all happened in a second. ¡°PICK UP THE LOOT LATER! MOVE! Archers coverfire please!¡± Those who were watching him were in a daze but quickly refocused after he shouted for the nth time. He was skilled, I¡¯ll give you that. And a great strategist When he shout, you¡¯ll know whom exactly he¡¯s shouting to and our responses where not a second late. Well, some of us. Those that weren¡¯t able to keep up were losing ground and eventually died. This repeated for a while, we continually moved west. An hour had passed and the light of the sun covered the skies. Emerging light blinded the devillings which relieved the pressure on the shields. One of the buff brother must have picked the hand of divinity blessing because he can be seen healing the wounded, one of the archers did so as well. I on the other hand got a spell scroll drop! a fire ball spell which I used without discretion on them critters. Mana potion were passed to either me o the buff healing dude. Our number eventually withered but the devilkins don¡¯t seem to decrease in numbers at all. We now numbered nine. We are almost spent ¡°DO NOT FALTER! THE DEVILINGS ARE BEING DAMAGED AS I SPEAK! THE SUN IS POISONOUS TO THEM! ARISE! MOVE YOUR TIGHT ARSE! ESPECIALLY YOURS RED!¡± This fucking pervert, oh I will list you on the top of my kill list alright. Soon bodies littered the hard earth. Allies and enemies alike along with monster drops and items displayed, up for grabs. The problem is all of us are splayed in the ground panting hard, with only one left standing and looking beyond the distance. The devilings scattered as the sun rises even higher in the skies. They were nocturnal beings hated by the sun god. They can¡¯t stand the day. So they fled. We emerged victorious. But no one is seen celebrating. We lost comrades. we were hungry, thirsty and tired all at the same time. Gulping a stamina potion loot, I asked a question all of us surviving people want to know. ¡°Captain dickface, tell us your name¡± With a crude, raspy nostalgic voice, he replied ¡°I¡¯m Batman¡± *pak* *slish* *tink* -17 CRITICAL! -15 CRITICAL! -9 Gloomy threw a knife which attached to his downballs, I sniped an arrow up his ass and a girl with a shield threw her sword at his thigh. He cursed as he wiggled in pain from our deliberate attacks. He might be good at fighting and handling a group but he suck dick with his lame ass jokes. ¡°OUCH FUCK DAMNIT I HAVE YOU KILLED FOR THIS! TREASON! WAIT TILL MY FATHER HEARS ABOUT THIS! ARGH! BETRAYAL! KNAVES I¡¯LL HAVE YOU ALL HANGED IN THE GALLOWS!¡± ¡°second round, ready, aim..fir-¡± ¡°WAIT! Alright alright. FINE! Better late than never... My name is June, It¡¯s an honor fighting with you friends" ¡°Pandora¡± ¡°Sunny¡± ¡°Pale¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Ragnar¡± ¡°Kira¡± (and the others are extras) ¡°after we¡¯ve rested we¡¯ll divide the loot equally. What say all of you?¡± ¡°Aye¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll only be bossy while fighting, I won¡¯t nag that much outside battle. We should all be friends and party sometime ayt?¡± ¡°¡­aight¡± we sarcastically replied ¡°hahahaha¡± ¡°ahaha¡± ¡°HAHAHAHAHA¡± We laugh. We just survive the welcoming committee. This is a brand new world, where anything and everything can happen. I guess it is now foolish to finish this game along. With armies waging war in this realm, we¡¯re bound to find strong allies. Everything¡¯s not over yet. It has just begun... Ah the battle log and loot!
You have gained +2 endurance
You have gained +2 stregth
You have gained +1Agility
You have gained +2 levels
You have acquired a mysterious staff
You have acquired a skill
You have acquired a skill
You have acquired a skill
You have acquired a skill
You have acquired a potion
You have acquired a potion
You have acquired a potion
You have acquired a potion
You have acquired a potion
You have acquired +3 gold 90 silver 61 copper
You have acquired a bracer
You have acquired a ring
**********************************************************8 i''ll be posting again soon! hope you like my work, new author here so please be gentle critics hha :)) Chapter 3: They call me the gloomy dude HiiiiJ I am Cha0s, the amateur author of this novel! I would like to thank Cody and Spartanking118 for appreciating my work. I¡¯m new and I am very open to criticism, suggestions or violent reactions. Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with my image uploader so there¡¯s no novel image yet. Please try to help me by making (donating) original ones and if I like what I see, it will be the official image for my novel J Thank you all for entertaining my selfishness. I wish you all to enjoy my latest release. ************************************************************** Chapter 3 They call me the gloomy moody dude Unlike most of the characters in this story, I will not be cozying up to you and foretell you all of my past. I will only and briefly explain a few things about me and about my party as well. Child 10-15-5-12 Me. I was given no name. I can only say to you, that in the old world, I was part of a secret project known as the Advanced Human Initiative, funded by many major countries all around the globe. They genetically modified me to be without defective genes with history of disease and make me process things faster than most humans, they increased my senses and made me faster, stronger and sharper than most. I was trained to be an agent, amassing knowledge related to my work. Assassination, espionage, warfare, and mind games. You name it. But my real specialty is Intelligence. To read people and gather information. Let¡¯s just say that I gathered quite the buck load of information that my superiors decided to get rid of me. I was deemed dangerous not because of my talents, but because I was too young. The more I became involve the more they feared me of what I¡¯m about to become. They don¡¯t recognize me as an asset anymore I was a liability. A human information treasure. I was included sooner or later in the top ten hit list of my agency. So I became rogue. Tired of running and hiding, I came to this world. I named myself Kira. A perfect definition of what I was in the past. I am a calculating type of person myself and I know when or who to trust the most. The party I was forcedly invited had all kinds of freaks with clashing personalities. All of us are lone wolves. All alphas. All are geniuses of their respective fields. With that in mind we really won¡¯t connect nor bond with each other as our egos clashed. Only thing that is stopping us from gutting each other is this guy, June. He is our glue. He knows what to do in every situation. He always has a plan. I don¡¯t like saying this but he is atleast a step ahead of us (of me), planning every move in advance. He is not even displeased when he makes a wrong move or a bad decision for I know, as cunning as he is, he has a backup plan. And a backup backup incase the first backup didn¡¯t work. They call me gloomy L If it was only me out there fighting I would¡¯ve used my Revival trait sooner than you think. It was a mess, many dead bodies littered in the forest floor. I counted myself luck to be allies with this temporary team. We were picking up the loot scattered everywhere. There¡¯s this guy Ragnar Bloodseeker. He is wild, barbaric even, and loves the thrill of a fight. A 7 feet tall giant fighting maniac. He¡¯s got this huge bulging muscles evident as he swings that long halberd to make a clearing of the forest, still swinging as he goes. Hahaha, I recall Sunny calling him Arnold, Pandora calls him Steroids, June calls him along with Pale the muscle gym brothers. I call him Conan. What I don¡¯t understand is that he actually likes those nicknames. Names associated with strength. He wasn¡¯t wearing upper garments and his reasoning is that we won¡¯t enjoy the view of his magnificent physique. It made Pandora annoyed as she fake barfed at his face. I¡¯ve sized him up, the longer we had contact the more information I acquire from him. He is emotional, taunted easily, fights with his feelings and using only his animalistic instincts. He favored the right arm. His stats are probably loop sided with him putting all most to points to strength and some in vitality. He¡¯s traits are probably Revival, lesser herculean strength, lesser limit break and Goddess of war¡¯s blessing. He¡¯s a muscle head so I¡¯m sure. How sure? Imagine him flexing every other minute, even a dense half decent shrink would know it the first glance. He is limping from his right leg, not from the fight but probably from the earlier shot Dora made when she can¡¯t stand him flexing again and again in her line of sight. A fight broke up but easily subdued by Pale. June and another archer was scouting ahead. The red haired demoness is named Pandora, Dora for short. She¡¯s¡­well¡­she¡¯s batshit crazy. A beautiful lunatic who talks to herself loudly and most often than not. She never shuts up. A few hours ago while we were fighting, she was singing Taylor Swift songs which annoyed most of us as we were awaiting instructions from June. She¡¯s half the reason why there are quite a few casualties in our side as she interferes with June¡¯s voice. ¡°Nice to meet you, were you¡¯ve been~¡± *shlick!* two arrows lodged themselves deep within separate devilings a few meters away. ¡±-wanna read a porn magazine~¡± she makes her own version of the song as she evades a deviling that escaped the barricade which lunged at her only to be killed by me. I was annoyed most of the time I was near her. She gently picks up a decapitated devil head, kneeling, feeling the moment as she closes her eyes and made her singsong voice which was catchy and irritating at the same time¡±-Oh my god, look at this face~your parents made a huge mistake~ this world¡¯s a game, I wanna plaaaaaa-¡± ¡°RED SHUT THE FUCK UP AND START SHOOTING!¡± June¡¯s voice was overheard as she instantaneously knocked three arrows which downed a giant troll like creature who came from nowhere, almost flanking our right side defenses. ¡°HOT DAMN RED!¡± (June) Damn, she gots the skills. Eventually she picks up a scroll that burst into flames as she smiles evilly. She then threw her bow, gave the others her quiver, and started hurling balls of flames to the enemies. I was so glad after the fight was over and we barely had any energy left including her. That¡¯ll shut her up. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Right now she¡¯s talking to herself again loudly about how Ragnar¡¯s huge muscles were too much overcompensating a bit because Ragnar¡¯s got a small penis due to taking too much steroids (direct quote). She¡¯s now singing airsupply. This girl is a bit harder to read. She¡¯s insane and very unpredictable and the only plan of action I have with her is to avoid her at all cost. She¡¯s highly destructive to all things that she fancy. She breaks them up and moves on to the next interesting thing she sees. I predicted that in the future, we will always be in trouble because of her. How I wished myself to be wrong. Then, there¡¯s Sunny Brightcloud. He¡¯s a baby faced kid holding a large kite shields in his left and a sword in his right. Sunny¡¯s a little short, shorter than Dora, with curly blonde hair blue eyes, cute dimples, and smiles all the time. He a positive thinker and came to this world to have many friends and have much fun. He¡¯s the only normal group member we have. He has an aura that brightens up your day and the mood of the group. He is good with the shield and takes down orders quite well. He barely has any injuries as he follows June¡¯s commands obediently down to the last detail. He has a simple personality and as much as he hides it, he¡¯s a leftie, a south paw. I deduced that much as he was better at using his shield to pierce rather than to block and his movements with his right hand was sloppier than his left. Sunny is righteous and wants to be a knight in this game. He is addicted to mmorpgs and virtual reality stimulators in the old world and likes level up role playing games of tolkienesque nature. Don¡¯t be fooled by his happy innocent harmless aura. In battle his demeanor can instantly change. He appears sharper, and bloodlust is discernible in his eyes. He takes fights seriously and exerts 100% effort all the time. He doesn¡¯t underestimate his opponents but outside of fighting, he is as docile as a cute little bunny. Funny fact, he is the oldest of us but if you don¡¯t know this then you¡¯ll assume he is like our youngest baby brother. He also enjoys fighting and even started singing with Dora. I never knew he liked Taylor Swift that much¡­ The one of the muscle brothers is Pale Pilsen He is really not that buff. He is only tall and lanky. He is the peacemaker of the group. When a fight starts, curtesy of Dora as usual, he will be the first one to stop it. He is friendly and cooperative. But he is a huge pervert. I saw him at the very beginning ogling at naked women with drool on his face and his little private at attention. He even hits on girls and didn¡¯t give a damn about June¡¯s warning as the devilings starts their attack. He still continued hitting on women. With the great exception of Pandora and our swordswoman, Mordred, oh man I¡¯m sure he has the fair share of crazy woman in his past life. He can detect if a girl is crazy and Pandora just oozes pandemonium and Mordred exerts a dangerous aura which feels like if you step close within her circle perimeter range, your penis would be cut faster than you can say ouch. He is handsome as he was a host in the old world. Aside from his perverted manners he seemed dependent and trust worthy. He values friends and coworkers and shares brotherhood easily with everyone. He is our temporary leader when we are anot battling as June is useless and lenient with us when we¡¯re not in danger. Pale seemed to pick the Hand of divinity blessing that was a deciding factor of the battle and without it we would¡¯ve been massacred earlier. He appears to be going to the tanky healer type of class. Next is Mordred Bloodsword. She doesn¡¯t talk much but she takes orders from June. She doesn¡¯t at first but eventually did because she was suffering from enemy pressure more than anybody else as she stubbornly do things the way she wants. That lead her to nearly die, fortunately June saved her at the last minute and Pale Heals her back in the game. She is very skilled in the sword. She is also the prettiest woman I have ever seen in my life. She is meek and doesn¡¯t make a sound. She seems close to Dora as she likes to pull her cheeks and hugs her close We were on our way to the capital when we see a camp full of soldiers and the king himself talking to some nobles. The surviving high humans were being treated and taken care of by the medics in another camp. Other players rode the horse drawn carriages that leads further inside the city further down the dirt road. So that¡¯s Heinguard! The capital city of Thessascus! Man, what a large municipality. With high and thick walls and dozens of towers which made the fortress seemingly unbreacheable. It is small as seen from our position but I imagined it to be colossal up close. The King walked in our direction as squabble of nobles escorted with knights briskly followed. ¡°Welcome welcome! My dear children, my name is King Christoff the Valiant, the ruler of the kingdom of Thessascus! I bid you good tidings and I volunteered here to help you high humans for your endeavors¡± The King majestically waved his hands as they welcome us near their camp. The quest prompt from before notified us that the quest was cleared.
Congratulations on solving the quest! Reward: 1 gold Please go to the medics to tend to your injuries, go to the cooks to have a satisfying meal and then proceed to the readymade carriages that will transport you to the city!
It was now the time to prepare for my class¡­I¡¯m really getting excited now. *************************************************** *Mordred¡¯s POV* Oh look at that girl, she¡¯s so cute like my little sister¡­I will hug and play with her later. (nothing follows) **************************************************** Chapter 4: How not to be stupid 101 for dummies ****************************************************
You have acquired the skill book Basic Stream bullets
You have acquired the passive skill Dagger mastery
You have acquired the passive skill Blade throwing mastery
You have acquired the passive skill Acrobatics mastery
You have acquired the passive skill Battle Sense
You have acquired the passive skill Dodging
You have received minor health potion x4
You have received minor poison antidote x2
You have received lesser ogrebark¡¯s essence x2
You have received old throwing knives x41
You have received 1 gold 10 silvers 96 copper
+1 Leadership
+2 Agility
+3 Dexterity
+1 Endurance
Quest Complete! AH AH AH AH STAYING ALIVE STAYING ALIVE! [Rank: E] Reward: 1 Gold Look for the King to receive reward!
*Sigh* I have now come to admire these little prompt boxes which have the audacity to notify someone of how easily they progress in this world. Back in the old one, nobody had the capability to measure accurately, and with great proficiency the process of becoming a force to be reckoned with. No machinery would immediately tell you of your physical improvement and compile all of them to be visible only to you with but a single command¡­well except maybe virtual reality games. But those never went beyond the trial stages anyway. Here though, things transpire differently. Here, everything seems measured by the numbers. I sigh again as I lack the motivation not to overthink. *Sigh* ¡°June, you okay pal?¡± noticing that I looked perplexed and troubled, Pale put his arm around my neck, grinning at the slight discomfort I¡¯m going through while perving one of our archers. I smiled, trying to hide my bewildered mind while gathering my thoughts to what best explanation I could afford to provide. Straightening up my tattered clothing while checking the notifications blocking my view, I whispered quietly, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand, Pale. You¡¯re not taking things as seriously as I do¡± ¡°Then enlighten me¡± ¡°Fine then, I am trying to find how things work here in this world but there are too many variables. Too much danger and too much things we don¡¯t know. Even if I explain why I feel confused, you wouldn¡¯t understand. Even I myself don¡¯t understand! I feel hopeless, not knowing where to begin.¡± The others nearby started listening to our conversations while Pale made a puzzled look as I¡¯m quite assured he did not quite comprehend the words I¡¯ve said. Maybe he¡¯s just offended that I judge him rather early of being a happy go lucky kind of guy in this world full of slaughter and deceit. Either way, I do not have the time to ponder less concerning matters. I am now beginning to feel infuriated. Not by him, but by myself. Instead of finding out the answers to most of my internal questions, I find myself burdened with more. I was not even idle. Every moment since I came to this world, even when I¡¯m fighting, I was at all times trying to comprehend the mechanics used here by the system. I immediately made plans to adapt to the rules of this unknown and mysterious world through observation and experimentation. Here in Aetheria, levels don¡¯t mean that much unless a gap too big to fathom separates you entirely from your foe, with the strict condition of how well you can aim and connect your strike. A Person with weak stats can land a vicious blow to a stronger adversary¡¯s vital spot and make a mortal damage which basically could have the potential to end said person¡¯s life. Well unless ofcourse the adversary has the numerical superiority in his defense or in the endurance stat which intensifies the toughness of the skin and the ability of the body to withstand enormous environmental stress. Oh how I wish for you to know the plans I¡¯ve concocted to which includes pain and endurance training of hell, sense training, and mana manipulation among others. God I come up with a lot of good stuff! Subjecting one to severe trainings and pushing ourselves to the utmost limit upsurges this endurance stat. I am however mindful of how this implies not only the physical but also the endurance of the mind as I found out while experimenting their statistical effects to us, the so called high-humans. I came to this assumption after receiving a few endurance stats while experiencing immense pain, and after 3 hours of strenuous combat, some of my major stats increased by a few points as well. Fighting here in this world depends on how we efficiently bring the highest amount of damage possible to bypass the natural armor of our opponents. Fortunately for us, the Devilings have shit for defense. This was one of the hypotheses I formulated while I was in combat with them. I can identify things and beings with a closer level to mine but not beings with a few levels higher. The Devil-kin were level 6 with greater than a hundred health points. Our attacks against them were in the range of 7-18 yet somehow, they perish rather easily when we amputate their heads from their reedy necks, which dealt them a deathly blow. Contrary to popular beliefs, the Devilings after perishing slowly turns to ashes. The sunlight was really not that friendly to their skin, burning the survivors alive with their most exposed parts being the first ones to go. If only they do not have conditions such as this, I would¡¯ve captured a few, weaken and gag them first, and interrogate them later. Who knows what valuable information these little critters are hiding which can be useful in the future. Dora and Gloomy seem to be in the same mold as I am as they want to dissect them and learn their anatomy to better torment them in the future, unfortunately the red horned experience bags disappear rather too quickly. The others however, hold little to no interest whatsoever. Pale flirts unhindered with the elusive healer/archer named Faye. Ragnar¡¯s in photoshoot flexing mode, Sunny is having a one way directed conversation with the swordswoman about striking techniques while she barely speaks at all, only replying with the occasional nod. I on the other hand was occupied by thoughts about how mana works, how it is projected, are there more sources of power?, How skills level up and other queries Questions such as these ferments my mind and more are piling up, unanswered. ¡°I see. I kinda get what you¡¯re saying dude. It is not bad to think things through, but you are tackling problems all at once. Start with things that you know, one at a time. That might help you out a lot.¡± (Pale) ¡°Thanks man¡± ¡°Yeah, I am thinking in the same lines as well. My daggers took too long to finish those fuckers right? and only after seeing them decapitated that things clicked. Dora here made great volleys and one shot kills even if she didn¡¯t invest neither in agility nor strength. And by the looks of it, you have received a new stat in the lines of Leadership or something right? Saw you flinching like you were looking at a prompt box after forming and commanding this party. I myself have acquired the perception stat. To be honest, I have many more unanswered questions, the same as you but you don¡¯t see me worrying about it now do you? Anyways, you won¡¯t find the answers by deducing them yourself.¡± (Gloomy) ¡°I don¡¯t under-¡± I was about to respond when Pandora cut me off halfway. ¡°He means, you idiotic fucktard, that those questions can be answered by talking to the people here and there and visiting their libraries and stuff. I know you want to adapt as fast as possible but- HEY! Howd you know bout my stats? I didn¡¯t tell you nothing!¡± (Pandora) ¡°First of all, basic mathematical computations and basic psychoanalysis, Second of all, you were singing it. It is not my fault if you can¡¯t get your mouth to shut up.¡± We laughed as Dora tackled Gloomy all of a sudden. Pale then decided to end their wrestling match as we continued to move along. I guess I have been too shortsighted and the thought of people and archives eluded me. Hey! Speaking of archives, dear old Ostheroth may have mentioned one but never told me where to find it. *Sigh* Arghh! The frustration of being bestowed with incomplete information is killing me. Ohh! There are still box prompts further in my left periphery, might have forgotten those.
Level Up!
Level Up!
Hurrah for the additional stats! As I was the one leading the resistance, I obtained lesser experience points as I only fought with wild abandonment when we were in a dangerous situation. The other party members advanced to the fourth and the fifth level as they were the ones who fought in the frontlines or the ones who dealt the last killing blow. I however was too much busy making sure not to fuck up the formation and to make sure we only take few loses, hence, lesser levels for me. But I am not doing this for them, no sir. I¡¯m no Samaritan, and I ain¡¯t Gandhi either. I am making an investment. This is one of my evil schemes.
You have received minor stamina potion x15
¡®huehuehue¡¯ *internal villain laugh* I am not a hero, and I don¡¯t aspire to be one. I only wanted to be like one of the James Bond villains that explain their evil plans for everyone to see, only to be thwarted in the end. Except for me, that¡¯s where all the fun is at, the part where I make contingency plans. It¡¯s the moment I can turn the tables in favor of my interests. I don¡¯t like the spot light either. Too bright, too much exposure makes it hard to make your move. It¡¯s like playing the role of the queen in a chessboard match. You may have the versatility, the power and the danger you¡¯re associated with but it makes you the focus of the enemy. It makes you predictable. It makes you lose the element of surprise. Trust me when I say you must stash hidden trump cards up your sleeve, a few maneuvers to trick them, and several escape plans. I like to play in the shadows like a puppeteer. The hidden one that fastens the strings. The one controlling the movements of the limbs. In short, the one who unfolds and directs the chain of events to transpire. A true villainous schemer. ************************************************************* Juuust kidding~ I¡¯m not that dark you know. I don¡¯t really harbor ill thoughts. My only and true scheme is to build me a team. Companions for life, the perfect crew that the world will come to know as The Power Rangers! I kid.
You have acquired the title Scheming Tactician
Scheming Tactician You¡¯re as sly as a snake and cunning as a fox. You prepare and handle situations with a calm mind and calculate plans with greater than 40% success rate. When equipped, this title bequeaths you internal vision of a bird¡¯s eye view of your surrounding with you at the center. Extends only a few meters +1 Leadership +2 Wisdom Your party will have +1 level increase on their attack skill mastery as long as they are within the meter range
Do you want to equip this title? Yes/No
¡°Yes¡± I admit I am not perfect. I have several than few flaws and I can¡¯t do all things by myself. That¡¯s why I need other people¡¯s expertise. The way I see it, we are a potential team. We are quite balanced with roles unique only to ourselves. Gloomy was in. he was the first to notice my plans. He¡¯s keen and very observant. I sometimes wonder if he¡¯s a shrink, a Psychiatrist in the old life. He has this amazing ability to read people and I am confident he knows if a person is lying or not. The second to know was Red. Don¡¯t be fooled by her insanity, behind those devilish pranks and crazy eyes are the split-personality minds of evil geniuses. She¡¯s in too. I asked Gloomy¡¯s opinion on the matter as we walked side by side, reminiscing the earlier fight. He told me what judgment he has to what the others may choose for a class. ¡°By their outlook, I guess Ragnar¡¯s going for the sturdy berserker class, Pale might choose the Paladin class, Sunny a knight, Crazy bitch wants to dabble in magic, Swordswoman a swordswoman, Faye and the other archer are rangers and I want to be a rogue thief or an assassin¡± (Gloomy) ¡°Hmm, makes sense!¡± I snorted as I picked a scroll from the ground
You have acquired the skill book Basic Flame ball
¡°And I suppose you would want to be a rogue as well, seeing that you despise direct confrontation, a plotter and along with that dark personality of yours I assume you¡¯d be good at it.¡± Gloomy followed up with a smirk while picking up spoils as well. A lesser antidote potion disappeared into his storage ring in a blink of an eye. ¡°And I thought you¡¯re that good of a shrink. I am disappointed, how much have you really read through my ploy?¡± ¡°¡­No, don¡¯t tell me you-¡± (gloomy)
You have received minor mana potion x7
¡°Every one of us are choosing different classes so why would you think I¡¯d go for the same primary class as you? In my plan, that would be detrimental in the long run you know¡± I whispered as I picked up another deviling sabre. Gloomy kept staring dumbfounded at me with his mouth gaping open. He understood. Damn, this kid is really good. I can maybe make use of his abilities if I can persuade him to make his secondary a merchant subclass ¡°YOUR¡¯E GOING PRIMER ON A SUPPORT CLASS?! Oh shit, sorry.¡± He screamed, scaring the already traumatized survivors of the earlier purge. The party members focused their looks at me like I¡¯m some dumb person, wasting my combat ability to just assist some strangers. Some were relieved that one of their stronger rivals in the future are reduced by one. ¡°Well, someone¡¯s gotta do it. Even Navi, EG, and Secret don¡¯t win the Dota 2 international without a support hero¡± ¡°And I thought I was crazy! Do you know how much effort it takes to increase the skill levels of non-combative classes?! It may take years!¡± said Dora This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Rome wasn¡¯t built in a day you know, ahahaha¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear what I said? Support class skills are harder and slower to level!¡± ¡°Then it must be my lucky day that I was the only one who chose Crafting as one of my trait blessings¡± I laugh at their priceless expressions as I imagine their shock as they realize that I planned this to begin with. It took time for them to see that I was arranging to form a permanent squad. Amongst our internal squabble, a human campsite far up ahead with a small army was now on sight. Apparently the king is with them. We hasten the pace to finally claim the reward of the quest. By now, no one is complaining that I took the initiative to make commands earlier in the fight as they now know of my aspirations and the benefits they have are more than what I acquired. In that situation where anyone can die at any given moment, not one of us became selfish enough to stock dropped health potions for ourselves while fighting. Health, mana and stamina potions, a few hours ago, were flying left and right as everyone took care of each other, not letting the formation crumble. We walked ever slowly, scrapping loitered corpses for more loot. We scavenged for the storage rings of those people stupid enough not to add the revival trait to their repertoire and split the plunders, seven rings each. The unbound rings melded with our originals, each adding additional 50 slots. I now have an interspatial ring with 400 slots. Still not enough though as the slots were quickly occupied by junk I must admit that after wasting almost three hours of our lives, the spoils we gathered and the experience we received were not worth that much. It took at least more than half the potion loot, ten level six critters to get to level two and thirty more to advance to the next level. All in all it took us 40 each to get to the third level. The frontliners were really lucky, they get to kill steal most devilings. All of them are level 5 or a few points short of that level. I can imagine the displeasure of the high humans all over this new world of what they¡¯re about to find out that they have to fight strong level three minions only to find out that they give only an additional half a decimal to their experience bars. I can also imagine that besides our group, only a selected few made it past the second level. If these people are at all thinking, they really should¡¯ve chosen the revival trait. After calculating the casualties, I assumed that out of the ten thousand high-humans lodged here in the south, only a quarter of that made it to safety. The others either perished or as of now starting to revive. Those daredevils, those unfortunate souls should wait a year for their cooldown to be restored before doing some life threatening activities again. The boss Deviling, a Winged Ogre, as I found out later, was thwarted by the personal knights of King Christoff of Heinguard. Oh how I pleaded to duel with that boss class monster and procure some decent items but we were a tad few minutes late. Enduring the glaring stares my burnt out team is giving me gave me an obvious clue that I may have well been the first to fall by mutiny if ever I made them continue battling off steam. What scary teammates. They have neither love nor respect for me.
You have received a small cracked Ruby gemstone
You have received an unidentified ring
You have received Rusted Sabres x5
Dispiritedly dragging my tired limbs, we made way for the southern clearings along with a few survivors and the recently revived. Amidst the vegetative overgrowth and the long walks, we stop once in a while to pick up dropped items on the ground and in the long run, literally reach the camp site. The King ambled in our direction as squabble of nobles briskly followed, escorted by the knights and the royal guards. I sensed a great amount of pressure from the guards as I made a quick identify directed at them only to be met with their birth names and a lot of question marks. ¡°Heh~ they must be high leveled¡± Gloomy muttered while making a nervous sweeping glance towards the people pacing towards us. I confirmed that in our team, only Faye and Pale (and the other extras) doesn¡¯t have the skill to confirm identities. ¡°Yep, Our identify skills are not high enough¡± added Dora as she prostrate herself and knelt. Bewildered and shocked at the same time, and not knowing what to do, we followed suit. That cracked bitch actually knelt! Like, bowing down in kneeling position, she knelt, no, WE knelt. Like what the fuck?! I was half expecting her to do something dangerous like throwing a fireball up his majesty¡¯s nose or punching his balls or slapping his bum but not this. I never would have expected this. Not by a long shot. King Christoff held a surprised expression for a moment then looked pleased as his majesty proclaimed himself with a booming voice ¡°Hahaha! welcome welcome! My dear children, my name is King Christoff Heinguard the fourth, the Valiant, and the ruler of the kingdom of Thessascus! I bid you great tidings as I undertook it upon myself to help you in your endeavors!¡±
Congratulations on unravelling the quest! Reward: 1 gold Please go to the medics to tend to your injuries, go to the cooks to have a satisfying meal and then proceed to the readymade carriages that will transport you into the city!
You have received 1 gold
The King majestically waved his hands as they welcome us near their camp. The quest prompt from before notified us that the quest was cleared. He is a stout middle aged man beautified in attractive middle age renaissance trend of royalty garments and adorned with expensive jewelries. His crown emanates divinity and gave the man the aura of a noble being. We now, the kneeling idiots, are hereby proclaimed by her majesty, the Queen of England, as the queer spectacle of most people present in the vicinity. Some Descended even laugh on how stupid we all looked while in genuflection. I wanted to lift my body but decided against it as it was too late now and decided to just play along. ¡°Hoho~ this is a first time high-humans decided to kneel before me¡­Most of you lot seem to have the notion that you are much superior than I! as you have the blessings of the Gods themselves, but you people...¡±
+2 Fame
Familiarity with King Christoff Heinguard the fourth, the Valiant, and the ruler of the kingdom of Thessascus has increased to 20%
¡°Permission to speak your highness!¡± squeaked Dora ¡°Aha¡­so the lady talks, speak! Any of you, and by all means!¡± The king magnanimously announced. I guess we owe Pandora one. The bonus familiarity and the fame ain¡¯t that bad. ¡°The Goddess of the earth, her magnificence, Goddess Gaia herself sends her regards and told me to counsel a king named Christoff to keep serving the people with pride, honor, and benevolence and applauds your efforts to help us High-humans in the path of seeking knowledge. My name is Pandora, a servant of the Goddess herself and in my old world I was but a royal princess of the Moonlight Seal Heavenly Cloud Palace, but not anymore after stepping in this world. I know the value of giving face to the reigning ruler of Thessascus and I was pleased that the king is really what my Goddess has described.¡± (Dora) (WAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH ASDFGHJKL! WAHAHAHAHA HUHUHU HUWAAAAA) Eternal screams of deep agony from laughing too hard, crying with a confused expression and shouting from the cringe of the Dora¡¯s clich¨¦ antics all at the same time nearly betrayed my passive outer face as we, especially I, barfed to the outrageous slandering being committed, with me as a face up witness. Calming myself, which believe me was a bit impossible right now, and thinking fast, I accessed the parts of my memory into where the section of my knowledge of this world resides. Aetheria-Trait-Blessings-lists-Gods and Goddesses-ATLANTIS!-fuck! male or female?-gamble-male it is! No-wait! ¡°Aye! Her Excellency, The Goddess of the Seas, the Great, the Eternal, Her Royal Majesty the Goddess Atlantis as well, gives you her affection. I, June, her loyal servant was tasked to convey these words. ¡®The Ocean port to where the trade is high and the bountiful sea harvest aplenty shall never wither for many years to come¡­dear Christoff?¡¯¡± I bluffed as if my life depended on it. Stares of utmost astonishment reverberate as no one made a sliver of a noise. Mouths were opened ajar and don¡¯t seem to be shutting anytime soon. The silence is in fact deafening as the bulging eyeballs of my party and the cringes they direct to the two of us were loud and clear with the actual words in the lines of ¡®WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON?!¡¯ and/or ¡®WHAT IN FUCKS NAME ARE YOU DOING¡¯ Thousands of people lined up behind the horse drawn carriages all stopped and gawked at the site of a few oddballs spatting nonsensical words. Others are in the verge of laughing when the aids of the king shouted an alarm. ¡°Your Majesty!¡± ¡°King Christoff!¡± ¡°My Liege!¡± The king nearly fainted with a blank expression visible on his face while tears continually flowing unstopped, besmirching his makeup and alerting his subjects. ¡°When...The Goddesses¡­they did...How, why¡­Is it true?...¡± ¡°I swear it on my life your Grace¡± Dora alleged using a deadpan, expressionless, poker face which could deceive even the detectives and the FBI. I bet even Gloomy, if she didn¡¯t know Dora beforehand would probably tell you she¡¯s telling the truth. I was fortunate enough to bluff a goddess myself. We were at an impasse. After a while the king stood up and announced ¡°Lord Marshall, please serve these fine young gentlemen and ladies the best the Kingdom of Thessascus has to offer. Clothe and feed them and have them aboard the flying ships-no, not the carriages. Ah yes, I would like to have more t¨ºte-¨¤-t¨ºte with princess Pandora and would like it if we are not disturbed. June, is it? I would love to speak with you some other time as to give face to your Goddess. I bid all of you adieu.¡± The king held Dora¡¯s hand as they escaped the crowd, followed by the guards and the nobles. We were already standing but our mouths are still agape. The crazy bitch glanced at us, smirking in her full on princess mode, one of her alter egos which is surprisingly believable. The noble in charge graced us with respect, even more so than the other Descended.
Familiarity with King Christoff Heinguard the fourth, the Valiant, and the ruler of the kingdom of Thessascus has increased to 30%
+3 Fame
We were happily led by Count Marshall De Lacroix to the shower rooms to bathe our stench away. Awaiting at the side of the pedestal-like benches were our prepared fancy attires. Too noble for my taste but they¡¯ll do until I acquire the tailoring profession. The shower tent for men was in the opposite side of the women¡¯s, a few feet from the stable of the garrisoned warhorses. There¡¯s a sign warning us that all men must be naked inside said establishment. Large buckets of bars that I assume were soap were displayed a few inches near every nuzzle of a shower stall embedded with small curtains. We washed ourselves in daze as no one talked too loudly. The muscle brothers¡¯ mouths were still opened. Gloomy¡¯s mumbling about why he didn¡¯t mention the name of Ouroboros, the God of Poison and snakes. Sunny¡¯s relieved that nothing bad happened, humming sweetly as good fortune had befallen us. And there I was, looking lifelessly at the ceiling like a skeleton without a soul. ¡°June, I literally can¡¯t remember anything that happened 20 minutes ago¡± ¡°As did we¡± (Gym bros) ¡°So did I¡± Sunny whimpered ¡°¡­Me too¡± We all sigh as we wipe dry the bubbling water from our bodies and equipped the garments in the benches. I can¡¯t remember the time when I sighed too much in one day. A few more days such as this and I¡¯m sure my endurance stat would be filled up till the brim. It was almost noon and they are starting to pack the things in a colossal Galleon floating in midair. It was extensively decorated with carvings of celestial angels everywhere with the mast covered in alloyed metal. Dozens of what appears to be magic cannons lined the boundaries of the ship, stacked in four rows and a few dozen columns. The star board was starting to be filled with machineries, tent materials and utilities, along with horses and our portable shower planks. A large Crystallite rock is imbedded at the posterior rear. Must be the power source The sails golden, irritating to the eyes and the vertical flag of the Nation of Thessascus, a blue downward bastard sword with wings in white background with blue lines in the sides, was intricate and quite regal. We were surprised as we entered the airship as it was almost the exact composition of the old world¡¯s ships of the past like the ones I¡¯ve seen at the pirates of the Caribbean movie, only a few times larger. The army as well as most of the High-humans already left for the capital while we sit in a round table near the end of the mess hall of the ship, chatting with the palace servants and the cooks. Pandora and Mordred are yet to be seen, probably dining with the king somewhere. Pale even jest about how Dora is spewing and feeding the King with not only the food, but her body as well. Ragnar kid on how the king is being manipulated by that crazy wench someplace. We were addressed as ¡®master¡¯ of the servants of the king. They were nice people. I¡¯ve learnt a lot about the kingdom as we chattered. One bloke named Gaspar even promised to teach me the ways of the food. He is the head cook of the palace and every dish he makes is more divine than exquisite. Bonuses to stats in the double digits prompt me as I ravage the food in my front. Gloomy was talking in the corner with the bard about the history, the people and the places of adventure. That sly boy was raking in more information than an intelligence agent! The bard was too drunk to realize he¡¯s being extorted of secrets, down to the names of the hoes of each of the head of the noble families of this country. There really is profit in being friendly. After stuffing ourselves until we bloat, we converged to the upper deck, where every corner of the place was lined and littered with soldiers of Heinguard. After being satisfied, me, with the knowledge of the cooking, tailoring, farming, fishing and smithing professions, Ragnar and Sunny with knowledge of the battle classes, and Moody with the knowledge of, well, assorted information we held a meeting. Pale was late, too busy ¡®playing¡¯ with a few of the maids and the girls are still nowhere to be seen. ¡°Guys, since we¡¯re doing this, I want to know your thoughts about subclasses. They are non-combat support classes available to everyone and since the other archers aren¡¯t participating, the eight of us should collaborate and diversify. All approving say aye¡± ¡°Aye¡± (all) ¡°Ragnar want his to be mining!¡± ¡°Thief/treasure hunter for me¡± (Faye) ¡°Pale said that he¡¯ll do cooking, Dora¡¯s Alchemy and I¡¯ll want to be a merchant¡± (Gloomy) ¡°Mordred told me she wants to do tailoring, as for me, wood working would be nice¡± (Sunny) ¡°Then I¡¯ll do the smithing and, history, cartography and archeology. I¡¯ll act as the tactician of this group. All in favor of the respected classes say aye¡± ¡°Aye¡± (All) ¡°Hey, are you sure you want to have a non-combative class as a primary? No offense but to be honest I don¡¯t want the leader of this team to be a weakling¡±(Gloomy) ¡°Who said that I want to be a leader? I said tactician. There will be no leader, so all decisions must be consensual and approved by most member to inhibit fighting amongst ourselves. ¡± ¡°Huh?! Unless I am blind I¡¯m quite sure you were the most skillful-¡± (Ragnar) ¡°My skills are better spent elsewhere, you guys are all powerful in your own right. You are geniuses of your respective soon to be classes, but I can¡¯t plan adlib strategies if I am busy fighting in the frontlines. And believe me, you all will be more thankful if I¡¯m watching your back. It will increase our survivability¡± ¡°Correct me if I¡¯m wrong but you know what will increase our survivability? Stop Dora from distracting us while fighting¡± (Faye) The guards near us can¡¯t help but glare at our robust laughter. The chilly wind is being replaced by a warm gust of wind, enveloping us in a comfortable embrace as we embark in a journey towards the capital. We internalize the magnificent view of a midsummer¡¯s day, thankful for the Gods that we survived. We were approaching the capital as the land became plains of green, gone are the mountains and forests foreseen. A sailor ruined the moment of nature¡¯s bliss as he yelled ¡°STEADFAST MEN! WE BE NEARIN¡¯ MOTHERLAN¡¯ N¡¯ HALF EH JIFFY!¡± Memories of how I got here played in my mind as I awoken in the trance like daydream. I still have 2 lives left. Better start looking for trouble soon¡­ Chapter 4 end. ******************************************************** Hi! sorry for the long post. You don''t really think i wuz gonna leave you with a weak trashy MC would you? hahaha stay tuned for fmore chapters in the future. *Spoiler alert* he gunna be a jack of all trades in the future :)) hehe.. i ruined the plot Chapter 5: A skillwhores greed ************************************************************************ Chapter 5 A skill whore¡¯s greed ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (note* june¡¯s stats in chapter one were a bit wrong, my bad. hihihi)
June Heistman Title: The Scheming Tactician Age: 16 Fame: 15 Level 3 Class: N/A SubClass: N/A Str. 20 Agi. 52 Dex. 33 Lck. 13 Int. 70 Vit. 20 Def: 1-54 HP: 200 Wis. 72 End. 11 Atk: 1-24 MP: 806 Unallocated points: 0 System assist: Inactivated {Blessed Traits---------------------------------------------Skill bestowal} Death God¡¯s Revival ---------------------------------------------(+1 life) Blessing of Synthesis and Fragmentation Polymerization -------------(Ingredient, Item, Skill, Beginner 0) Properties Fragmentation -(Ingredient, Item, Skill, Beginner 0) Increased sense control Unlocked: Vision---------------(Increased sensitivity, Lowlight, Beginner 5) Sound--------------------------(Increased sensitivity, Beginner 3) Nerve Reaction-------------(Hand-Eye Coordination inc., Novice) Danger Perception-------------(Presence Detection, Beginner 2) Craftlore---(Skill craft x2 ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? 2x ???, 6x ??? Beginner 1) {Skills} Thousand Tongues {S Class skill} Communicate---------------------(All Sentients, Master Level) Identify------------------------------------------(Novice Level 9) Instantaneous Reading ----------------( Intermediate Level 1) Runic comprehension----------------------------(Master Level) ??? ??? Elemental Magic: Basic Flameball (Beginner 0) Basic Stream bullets (Beginner 0) Masteries: Dagger Mastery (Beginner 4: Gouge, Backstab x4, Pierce x2) Blade Throwing (Beginner 2) Hand to Hand Combat (Beginner 6) Kicking Mastery (Beginner 1) Passives: Battle Sense (Beginner 2)------(Formless Martial Arts) Acrobatics (Beginner 6)-----------(Parkour, Dodging) Perception (Beginner 2)-(Prediction {2 moves in adv.}) Leadership (Beginner 2) Title Skill: Bird¡¯s Eye View (4.7 meters, Beginner 2)
¡°Ahehehe...hehe...ahehehe¡± laughing to himself while verifying his Status Box, June noticed his stats were a tad bit similar to those soldiers whose average level range are in the fifteenth to twentieth. Thanks to Ostheroth¡¯s overpowered skill plus the additional stat buffs, he can probably go toe to toe with a Thessascean soldier in a duel. Well maybe if we consider his skills that are in the lower end, he¡¯ll probably lose. His blessed traits nevertheless, have a lot of potential although his stats are only advantageous should he choose the Magic oriented classes. It was too early to fiddle with his blessing though, yet he perceived them useful the more skills he acquire the better. God knows what will happen if his skills mix and evolve. Over powered wouldn¡¯t even begin to describe it. He only just need to survive until then. He walked alongside Kira as they continued their ¡°Spongebob Operation¡±. ¡°Kind sirs, why would they call this ship the Screeching Empress?¡± ¡°Trust me child, you wouldn¡¯t want to know¡± Spat a rowdy looking sailor, one of few who work the ropes of the sails to the fourth mast. June was aboard the Screeching Empress II, the Heinguard Empire¡¯s flying Galleon battle ship. Much to his curiosity that pertains as to why name a beautiful vessel such strange title was elucidated, owing to the Magical cannons that produce shrieking noises when fired in battle. It was unbelievable that such a large ship could soar without making much turbulence as she goes as well. Fine architecture, woodsmanship only possible through the kingdom¡¯s best artisans, and magical machineries powered by multifarious amount of magical runes coded through the crystallite powercore made all this possible. Millions of golden currency was spent to produce this beauty, of that, he was sure. He held a mental note to build himself one in the distant future. June was inquiring questions nonstop like a curious 5 year old child, pestering most people he meets in the flying ship. Second to none was Kira. Like a sponge leeching the water from the dishes, he effortlessly extorts people to sing him the song of their people nonstop and unhindered. Both managed to collect information of utter importance while paying attention to the stories of the servants, cooks and the militias all throughout the deck. Today is the Six thousand six hundred and sixtieth cycle (year), the sixth of the moon (month), the sixth of daylight (day). The sky was clear, devoid of billowing clouds and the sun was near its very peak. It was a few minutes till noon and they were nearing the outer capital walls of Heinguard, the City of white stones. The Capital of Thessascus! The Great Capital of the Thessascus kingdom has six resilient circular concentric stone walls spanning thousands of territorial miles with each wall, ten meters thick. Sentinels conscripted to the army numbering in the thousands guard each walls. The furthest and longest of the walls are check points/ border patrols, four stories high. Protected inside are the lands used for farms, crops, and fields spanning up till the fifth wall circle. Farmers and herdsmen work these acres which amount to a third of the entire kingdom¡¯s estate. These walls connect to the Ocean port, the name of the kingdom¡¯s shoreline Keep, and the sea port, the harbor located north of the kingdom which houses her fleet. Fishermen and coastguards are dispersed here. The fifth wall is six stories high with few erected towers scattered evenly. This wall surrounds the lands used for military camps, war supplies, mercenary guilds and training grounds. Soldiers are conscripted and sourced here. They are designated throughout the kingdom to patrol, prevent crime and banditry in times of peace. In war however, they were used as the kingdom¡¯s major force. The eight stories tall-fourth wall surrounds the lands of commoners, the natives of this kingdom. They are free men and women, as slavery is a punishable crime in Thessascus. Criminals, traitors and war prisoners however are exceptions. They are forced to work and obey for the reason that if they don¡¯t, they won¡¯t be fed. This is the second widest estate of Heinguard where most of the families of the soldiers are housed. The inner third circular wall is ten stories high and 10 meters thick. The land here supports the economy of the kingdom. The natives call this ward the ¡®bazaar¡¯ where most, nay, all stores and establishments are located. The Fair, black market, Institute of magic, the Mage¡¯s Guild, the amphitheater and the arena are positioned and scattered at this juncture. The inner secondth wall and its domain are called the Noble¡¯s Ward. The twelve story wall protects the home and estate of the nobles and their families. Entry here is forbidden to the common populace with the exception of the civil guards, Servants of the Nobility, individuals with high status and the ones with permits. Here lies the Heinguard Academia for the fortunate/ skilled youths of their trade. The Lesser archives of Thessascus are found here as well. The innermost wall, which is also the highest and most heavily guarded area in Heinguard, is where the Royal Palace and the Great Thessascean Tower is located. The Great Thessascean Tower is a monster dungeon owned by the Royal family. Only a few are allowed to comb the place, and fewer survive still. Protective mechanisms are enchanted and wired to prevent accidents, robbery, invasion, intrusions, and monster outbreaks from inside the dungeon. Wide directional stone roads unite all the wards together with four gigantic and dense brass gates per wall, protecting each entrance. The North stone road leads from the Royal palace to the Ocean port Keep and the Sea docks. The west and east stone roads lead from the central tower to the opposite ends of the lands protected by the sixth wall. The southern stone road however leads from the central tower to the outskirts of the furthest wall and bifurcates after a few miles towards the city of Idliss and further to the municipality of Crendoor, both belonging to the Kingdom. The innermost ward is restricted to all except the royal family, the Royal servants, permitted individuals and the elite guards. Becoming an elite guard is a long arduous process only a few hundred managed to complete. Its most minimum requirement is an outrageous level of 60, which believe me, will take greater than 45-70 years of constant training and life endangerment which only the cream of the crop are privileged to achieve in their lifetime. It is also rumored that all royal guards are made disciples of the Saint Knight of Thessascus herself who guards the entrance to the Great Tower. Since High-humans are slightly different than the common people, their potential and ability to level up is higher than the natural residents of this world! However, raising one¡¯s level here in New Aetheria is time consuming, painstaking, and life threateningly challenging, a contrast from leveling up in mmorpgs and games. June¡¯s party barely raised theirs even after obliterating masses of Devilkin scouts (Lv. 6-10) and Maulorgres (Lv. 8-11), five to nine times their level. Imagine killing rabbits, foxes, wolves and bears and goblins ranging from level one to eight. It will take at most a few months to atleast achieve level 5 and atmost a year to reach level 20 and acquire a class! This is only a speculation with the condition of fighting enemies of lesser or of equal level, as fighting an opponent with greater than a gap of 2 levels is like the difference between heaven and earth. In shorter terms, it is just too hard! June¡¯s party was just lucky with the Devilspawns. They leveled up faster than the others because of three reasons. Reason 1 The army of devilings is a blessing in disguise. They are already clustered, meaning you won¡¯t have to hunt for them in a large area as they are already served in a silver platter. Unlike Game animals (rabbit fox wolf bears etc.) that you must hunt for days in a large area, only finding four or five which won¡¯t even put a dent, even a slight increase in the experience bar. More importantly, most animals have the instinct to flee when their health is low, unlike the unyielding Devilings. They themselves will fight towards your location till they die. You wouldn¡¯t want experience points that flee, right? Reason 2 The devilings are really strong but they have an obvious weakness. Slicing, Stabbing, and using blunt attacks against them won¡¯t work wonders. They are extremely durable as they have high health points. They can kill level 1 Descended humans in three strikes if they¡¯re not invested in vitality or defense. Yet June¡¯s party discovered that they can be one-shot-killed by beheading them, taking advantage of this flaw to turn the tides of the battle. Reason 3 Excellent strategy, precise execution, advantageous locations, and avoidance of impairment and damage helped them to whittle out the enemy numbers and eventually survive the onslaught. They were the few who openly fought with the midgets while others run away in panic. No wonder less than a hundred made it to the second level. The highest known level that humans can achieve is the 99th level where only 56 known beings are triumphant in reaching. They are given titles and are celebrated all throughout New Aetheria. Six are from the species of humans and are titled ¡°Hero Saints¡±. Nine are from the woodland realm of Elves titled ¡°Elementors¡±. Four from the Dwarven kin titled ¡°Heralds¡±. Twelve from the monstrous Demon-kin titled ¡°Marshals¡±. One from the Faerie bloodline titled ¡°Fae Lord¡±. Three from the successors of the ancient dragons, the reptilian race, titled ¡°Dragon Ascendants¡±. Eight from the Goblin kind titled ¡°Goblin Gods¡±. Ten are from the Demihumans and beastman tribes and are titled ¡°Warlords¡± and the rest are from other species scattered across the six continents. The kingdom of Thessascus is quite proud on producing one of the Hero Saints. The Great grandmother of King Christoff, the past Queen of Thessascus, is the Saint Hero, Lady Thessa Le Geraldine. A Grand knight of the High Order of Goddess Gaia, one of the six treasures of the Human species June thought of it as odd as the welcoming message stated that the third advancement is on level 100. Could it be that the Descended can actually go beyond the actual level cap? No wonder most, if not all, human kingdoms decided to help nurture the descended. They probably figured out that they can breed obedient Human Hero Saints by the thousands, hereby the gain they can secure is greater than the deficit, and thus their investment will be worth it. ¡°I see, I haven¡¯t predicted that far. Good to know you¡¯re on my team man¡± Gloomy whispered lightly to June as they began to walk deeper to the lower cabins. ¡°Oh, I forgot to tell you about the continents of this world. You¡¯ll be shocked to know that there are also descended in the ranks of others species!¡± continued by Gloomy as we go deeper. There are six continents The Northern Continent is called the Frozen Peak, home to some of the Ancient Dragons of the north and the Fae species (Fairies). There are no human settlements that survived there due to the very harsh climate. There are two central continents separated by the Altrean Sea. They form like a yin yang circle with the western half (Chlorofell) belonging to the alliance of humans, dwarves and Elves. The Eastern half (Malaketh) belongs to the Devil-kin people, the lesser successors of the Demons from the Infernal realms. The main Ancestral Horde of the Goblin Gods also made their bearings there many cycles ago. Both continents are always at war with each other. Gloomy thank the heavens that he did not descended there as constant strife was never ending and survival is as thin and as feeble as a leaf. The West is known as the Dazarak Continent, Home of the Beastmen. Colonized by the Demi-humans and the Beastlords, Human settlement are also scattered there as well as elves and dwarven mountain settlements. The East are home to the settlements of devilkind, few humans, Lizardkind, Beastmen, demi humans, and a few Goblin hordes. Blade techniques originated from there are known to be dangerous and lethal. The South is unexplored with small settlements of major species. Beast Deities, Divine Beasts, Dragons, and even fallen Demi Gods resides deeper south with levels exceeding the normal level caps of the major species. None who venture deeper there ever returned, even saints. Level of Creatures of the Desolate Land of the heavenly beasts: 100-390 Damn :0 June and Kira eventually split up to cover more ground, they realized that there are more to be done. Factoring unknown Descended from other creatures might be more powerful than the high humans. Descended of different species have their own special traits after all. The Humans are innovators; their modern machineries are what lead to our golden age of expansion, allowing us to keep up with other species in this world. Unlike in the old world, the humans here are not the dominant species and we¡¯re still in the middle ages, technology-wise. We are only aided with powered down laughable arcane magic. We actually need to chant and procure magical formations to use elemental enchantments and conjurations. Direct manipulation of mana is extremely difficult for us. Gloomy suggested that maybe our bloodlines are too impure. But since we are high humans these may change stuff. Don¡¯t get me started with the humans¡¯ most dreaded characteristics. Ambition and Politics. We would certainly be extinct if we don¡¯t cooperate with each other and if the Descended of the others far outstrips us with a gap in levels, affinities and skills. Anyway Gloomy mentioned something that calmed my mind. We were given more Trait blessings than the other species. I really thanked the Gods for favoring our sorry assses. The Elves here are not the squishy types of characters we are used to know. They are smart, agile and can manipulate mana directly. They are also fast chanters that an Elementor can conjure three high leveled elemental spells before a human Saint Mage can even cast one. Gloomy heard that it takes two level 99 Saints to even match one Elementor. Talk about disadvantage! High-Elvens will mock the future Mages of the human forces in this realm. Fortunately Elves as well as the Faes can only specialize in one Element. There are deviants to these ofcourse but they are few in number. The Dwarven kin Descended would be the best blacksmiths in the future. I dread that even I, aided with the Blessing of Craftlore won¡¯t be able to keep up with them. They have natural earth element affinities and strong bodies. Their stamina is a force to be reckoned with as well. Gloomy didn¡¯t finish his lecture as we separated early. It was okay since we can continue this discussion when all our party members are gathered. He went to fetch our crazy princess and the swordswoman. June moved to the rear side of the ship, closer to the core. It was odd that no one is around the powercore chamber. The mana in the room was so dense it was getting harder to breath by the minute. The core had layers and layers of runes giving off faint emissions of light. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. A very stupid idea was conceived by him. Copying decadently the intermittent arrangements of the symbols, June was profoundly sweating as it was capital punishment to those unfortunate enough to be caught stealing the Empires¡¯ secrets. The skill Thousand Tongues imparted to him through Ostheroth was such a lucky find. The runes of magic made up of symbols actually formed comprehensible words when the skill was activated, and converted back to runic nonsense when not in use. Parchment after parchment stolen from the charting chamber upstairs was hesitantly consumed as he copied more than a few hundreds of runes in ink. Fortunately no one was around as the ship was about to arrive. Everyone was tired enough to check for her maintenance as the king decreed the magic mechanics a bit early in the second hour of the morning. After half an hour spent inside the powercore cabin, June felt the flying galleon stopped moving. They have arrived at the docks, probably in the first or second ward as this was a royal ship for the use of the crown. He was at the last section of the rune column. Knowing that he wouldn¡¯t be given another chance to aboard her again, he immediately finished what he¡¯s doing and packed up the dozens of parchments to his inventory. Feeling slightly disoriented, he heard loud noises from the walls followed by a strong, musty smell of wood and varnish which attacked his sense of smell. His eyes magnified his vision as he lost his sense of balance and tripped on the oaken floorboard and yet he felt no pain. He then felt a presence looming closer to where he was splayed on the ground. *******************************************************
You have been exposed to high mana concentrations. Immediately expel the excess mana as it may destroy your meridians and explode your body.
How was I supposed to do that?! June noticed his mana getting a bit disordered as a prompt popped up from nowhere. June thought to adjust the settings of notifications later when he has the time. The bluish white mana was seeping out of his body like an open faucet, unhindered, enclosing him in bluish white aura. The feeling of exhaustion weakened him as his sweat turned to steam. June tried to stand up amidst his shaking physique. His mana bar, rather than being depleted empty, was increasing as the tumult in his body grows stronger. The feeling of his body bursting, any second now, scared him badly. Shit! He sprinted as fast as his wobbly feet could carry and made way for the window of the upper cabin. June gritted his teeth as a squealed from the pain escaped his lips. He brushed aside other passengers blocking his way as he searched his way out of this predicament. Spotting an open window, June Jumped, landing five stories to the hard ground, head first. -40 ¡°Ughh¡± June moaned in pain as he tried to lift his heavy form. Mustering the little strength he had left, he threw fireballs and stream bullets on the gravel till his mana run empty however his mana regenerated faster than Taylor Swift transitioning between boyfriends. He repeated the cycle for a quarter of the hour until he realized his health points are now decreasing steadily as if poisoned. -2 -2 -3 -1 -2 -2 Darnit! What the hell is happening now?! Not knowing what to do June closed his eyes and prayed to the high heavens that he can find his mana source and shut it down from the inside. He began tracing his mana while constantly spewing out basic elemental spells. Fortunately he turned off his system assist on spell conjuration. At first it was hard to emit the spell, carving a large chunk of his mana away. Lucky for him, he needed a large chunk of mana to expel. This continued on for minutes.
You have uncovered the concentration stat.
+1 concentration
¡°June! What the hell bro, werv you been we were looking all over for you!¡± He heard Pale¡¯s loud banter as he slowly opened his eyes. He was extremely elated that hope has granted him redemption. He quickly replied without breaking his concentration. ¡°Pale! Thank God you¡¯re here. Heal me quick! Ask questions later please!¡± June didn¡¯t reply after that. He was now oblivious to the world. He kept receiving prompts about his increase in the concentration stat. After a moment June felt a warm sensation enveloping him as his health bar was removed from the critical zone. He stayed seated while calmness emanate inside him. The noises all around him suddenly became silenced as he sinks deeper to his consciousness. He did not know how, he just went with the flow of mana. He only knew he was pleased that a healer was at his side and he was safe. His confidence reassured him of his worries. Everything else was not important. All his problems left forgotten. This increased his concentration as he wades in the darkness, trailing for the threads of light bluish strands of energy which at some point, congregate at a fat circular point then diverge deeper to his lower half. Time was forgotten as he orbited repeatedly in his mana veins. He counted the points where his mana is detained for a bit, then reflowed again. So that¡¯s what the old monk meant! Those are acupuncture points! More than fifty of them blinking in like golden stars on a cloudless night. Huh? June felt that something¡¯s not right. He cannot control this energy as it wasn¡¯t even tangible yet. Another message prompt enlightened him as he was about to give up on making the golden lights move.
You have uncovered another power source! Congratulations, you are the fourth Descended to discover Ki As your Ki is still prematurely opened, you will not be able to practice nor use this power source. You still lack the physique needed to activate its profound power. Your level is too low. +1 to all stats. +1 luck +5 Fame +1 concentration
So that¡¯s why! I must¡¯ve ventured off course. This is not mana, this is Ki! I¡¯m too low leveled and untrained huh. I should focus on fixing my mana first, I can worry about Ki later. The mana veins are the bright moons with strands of glowing hair attached to each other, colored light blue. Those must be the unclogged mana pores, no wonder their so swollen. This energy source, I can control a bit! I¡¯m almost getting there! June lost track of time. Not knowing that he was carried, princess style, accompanied by the Acolytes of Goddess Altemaria, the bringer of light, a day had already passed. The King was convinced (hoodwinked, honestly!) that Pandora was really a princess so he bequeathed her his own private manor in the inner echelons of the Noble¡¯s ward (land protected by the 2nd great wall). The party kept their mouths shut, internally laughing from their good fortune. It was later on that June have known that the king was impressed by the knowledge and insight of ¡°Princess Pandora¡± that he decreed her to be one of his most trusted counselor. She probably talked about the potential of the high humans to surpass the level cap of even her own Great grandma. It was noon already when June opened his eyes. He actually has no plan on waking up yet as he was enamored by the powers hidden inside his body. But the Glorious smell of deliciously cooked food took his earthly body by surprise and the desire for food eventually overpowered his desire for knowledge. He woke up feeling refreshed, overflowing with power, albeit a little bit thirsty. He climbed out of bed and proceeded where the enchanting smell is situated. He was in a fancy establishment, the one afforded by royalty as busy maids swooped from room to room, bowing slightly to June then left to finish their tasks for the day. June inactivated his notification prompts as they were numerous and annoying to him. Right now he only cared of stuffing his stomach with meat. He felt his mana was functioning normal as he checked himself if there is a problem in his body, which apparently none was observed so far. Truth to be told, he finished restoring his mana pores yesterday. It took him six hours to somewhat make hold of his mana. His control by then started getting better during his mana pore restoration which took him another six hours to finish. By then Pale and Faye stopped healing him as he wasn¡¯t losing health points any longer. The Healers assured the party that June will be fine and just need the rest. Mana poisoning was a common problem of the mages of Heinguard so they were familiar with its effects. Patients only need rest and with a constant heal to lessen the health point damage. June heard the party¡¯s conversations so he had an idea of what happened even when he was unconscious. Instead of waking up he focused his entire being on staying in the feeling, the zone. He was sure that he was doing the right thing when from time to time there would be an internal prompt telling him his mana control increased a bit or his concentration increased by 1 or his mana pool increased. He also sometimes visits his Ki points yet he was unsuccessful on controlling it. He went back to his mana control and circulation till the light of the sun emerges until noon. He was still far off from perfecting this type of training. He was still elated that even though it was only the second day, he already managed to achieve much. He walked to a room which looked like a dining hall, only a bit more grand and fancy. June was noticed by his crew as they welcomed him to dine with them. ****************************************************************** ¡°June!¡± (all) ¡°Where the fuck you¡¯ve been?! We were waiting for years, my dick started to fall off!¡± Dora yelled at me from the end of the rectangular table, filled with roasted beef, wine, long salted wheat bread, some cheese among other stuff. I guess it¡¯s just appropriate for her to be seated there as she was our fake royalty. ¡°Good morning to you too Princess!, I heard you¡¯re a genuine princess now Dora. I guess it is appropriate I gift you with something that would surely please¡± I intensified her curiosity as I made myself comfortable in a large stool beside Ragnar. ¡°What is it Plebian, speak! Explain as well what, in the name of the great vaginal smear, happened to you yesterday? You looked like a little bitch in pain that swallowed a large dildo hahaha~¡± It never cease to amaze me of how irritating Dora is. I was so famished anyway that I forgot half the things she said. I grabbed a piece of every edible thing I could find and started ravaging my meal. After downing a large mug of water, I explained the stuff. ¡°So yesterday I was chillin¡¯ in the powersource room of the Screeching Empress II. I kinda copied the rune codes of the ship ya know--I have a skill which understands rune, don¡¯t ask how I got it¡ªthen! I didn¡¯t know that it was forbidden to enter that room as mana radiation was condensed there. Long story short, I got Mana poisoned. Oooooh! Guys you¡¯re gunna love me~ ahaha. After being poisoned, I got---hmm wait a bit¡± I reactivated the notifications boxes as the seven of them hanged to every word I said. I fiddled a bit and got the show others notif. box function and showed them the skills I got.
+12 to concentration
You have unlocked the Meditation skill! This skill increases the regeneration of your mana and Ki. The higher the level of this skill the better the benefits given to the user.
You have unlocked the Mana Manipulation skill!
Your Mana Manipulation skill is at Novice level 3
+5 Wisdom
+2 Intelligence
Congratulations your mana pool increased by 309
You have unlocked the Arcane Mastery!
You have unlocked the Composite Magic Mastery!
You have unlocked the Rune lore Mastery!
Utmost disbelief was plastered in the face of my party mates. Well, even I was shocked myself. I never knew a little setback would benefit me this much. A minute of silence passed as if someone had died and we were asked a moment of silenc-like situation. Then out of nowhere I was grabbed and shoved in the surface of the table. All of them were shouting all at the same time. Chaos was ensued as the Gods rolled the dice. Stiff as a statue, Pandora was still holding her fork and spoon in her hands, staring at nothing at particular. I believed I just managed to defeat her to be the first one to master multiple magic masteries in one sitting. (Well, sleeping) I glanced outside the window to see a high extablishment which has profound alphabets in the signboard. I activated {Comprehension} and deciphered the words ¡®Lesser Archives of Thessascus¡¯. I laugh to myself as countless hands started shaking me. No doubt everybody¡¯s gonna sleep early today J ¡­and as for me, reading scrolls doesn¡¯t sound so bad. Chapter End. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hi guys! New update hereeee! Sorry for the long post. This chapter would be the longest and most boring chapter I¡¯ve written. (Mostly involving Legends, History, Lore and Character start-ups) Other info¡¯s for those who can¡¯t follow up: Pandora is the crazy girl of their party, she is now decreed princess. An authentic one. Kira (is called Gloomy by his peers) King Christoff is King of Thessascus, and the great grandson of one of the six human Hero Saints, the Grand Knight of the Order of the Goddess Gaia, Lady Thessa Le Geraldine. Level 99 There are six Continents and all major species are awarded by the Gods with numerous Descended. Chapter 5.5: The Three Months Investment Chapter 5.5 Three Month Investment ¡°First you need to get the Concentration stat, only after gettin¡¯ it then you¡¯ll need to acquire the Meditation skill. Sink in the dark as you meditate, you¡¯ll then notice some flickerin¡¯ blue lights. Those are the shit called mana. Fiddle a bit with your mana pores and the mana threads that connect them, trust me you¡¯ll know when you see it. Try to control the flow as well as the output. Find the core of your mana, the brightest ball-like thingy inside your body. Somehow I got the Mana manipulation and arcane mastery from that, took more than 14 hours I think. And that depends on your talent, okay? Get it?¡± For the hundredth time, June tiredly explained how he got at least 5 masteries in one go. He was starting to get displeased with the constant repetition. Next time he noted to himself not to blurt out his skillset to anyone anymore. ¡°Wait! I still have questions! So when-¡± (Dora) ¡°Ugh! I can¡¯t explain it! Ok?! Just do what I¡¯ve told ya. All you makin¡¯ me tired. I haven¡¯t recovered that much yet you know¡± June lied, gritting his teeth and touching his fake injury from his body to get away from the barrage of questions hurled at his direction. He grabbed one of the unbound status plates used to access the Noble¡¯s ward, bit his thumb and smeared his blood on the badge an inch from the table edge. It was required to bind with one of these to live here. He sighed as he heard more questions on how to get the masteries. ¡°You haven¡¯t explained how you got the Ki mastery Oi!¡± Ragnar¡¯s voice was heard though the entire racket. June stood up lazily while promising himself to answer one last time. ¡°It was by accident that I discovered those yellow acupuncture points. I was tracing the blue mana threads and coincidentally found those golden flickers you guys called Ki. All of you don¡¯t have to strain yourself by forcing to master it as soon as possible.¡± June continued ceaseless before anyone else can butt in ¡°The prompt specifically said that we won¡¯t be able to control Ki yet in our current level so forget about it at the moment and focus on acquiring the mana skills. I am still tired and weak so I will not be entertaining any more questions for today. Now, if y¡¯all excuse me, I¡¯m going to take a walk and probably go flirt with some noble ladies of our lovely neighborhood¡± ¡°I¡¯ll come with!¡± pale excitedly squealed as he stood up as well. June was only joking, never assuming they¡¯ll believe him as he planned to visit the lesser archives of Thessascus to read. As both of them was about to walk out the door, an ethereal voice made itself known to the whole room. It was enchantingly beautiful to the ears that even the Goddess Freiiah herself will vomit blood out of sheer jealousy just by hearing it. All of us were astonished as the voice came from Mordred, our swordswoman. We never knew one with such an amazing voice would be so shy to even speak. Heck, we even thought she was a mute. If I have a voice like that, I would never shut up at all. ¡°Wait! Mordred don¡¯t want to be indebted to anyone. Since you are helping Mordred master skills, Mordred would want to repay in kind. I have an ability called killing Intent¡± the girl mused lightly. She continued to speak which still baffled us unawares, while she converse in an angled perspective of herself. She must have chosen the blessed trait of enchanted voice, yet some part of June guessed it highly unlikely. ¡°-Mordred has to focus emotions of extreme intent fused with the release of her arcane aura. Requirements, Concentration stat and mana manipulation. Target a specific person lest you want to affect the area around you. Radius and pressure depends on power of intent and the mana released, maybe battle experience and level as well.¡± After that the swordswoman never spoke again. So she already got quite a few of the skills herself, impressive if i say so myself. ¡°An intimidation skill, how powerful would this be if instead of mana, we use Ki. In theory, this may strengthen melee attacks! The pressure may even immobilize the enemies while we gain advantage in a fight. This may even work with even a powerful foe.¡± Said Ragnar obsessively ¡°I see, so intent pressure can be applied in this world as well. Back in Earth, my old master can force the pressure of his intent that sometimes rendered me stunned, unable to neither move nor breathe. I know most you guys picked the Blessed Trait of increased sense control yeah? It might be useful in detecting this killing intent, makes ambushing us very difficult. Not many know of this but all sentient creatures possess this characteristic, some can¡¯t control it and most is unaware of its existence. Some who harbor hatred exudes this in miniscule amounts even if they themselves aren¡¯t aware. Very useful indeed¡± (June) June weigh the odds of staying to practice said skill, or leave for the archives. The feeling of leaving won yet as he was about to leave, the group began declaring some of the skills they learned. It would be such a wasted opportunity if he waltz away early and missed the exchange of information made out of goodwill and trust. ¡°I learnt the hand to hand combat mastery and I think training is another way of increasing our stats besides leveling. But acquiring stats using this method is hard and may require the biggest chunk of our time. I heard that stat training has a cap as well. You can train for a while but later it would not anymore procure stats unless you level up and trained some more which by then will repeat the cycle.¡± (Sunny) ¡°Hooo~ thanks Sunny. I¡¯ll go next.¡± I acquired the silent step skill. I think the requirements are to move without an ounce of noise for hmm how many hours was it? Ah yes. Maybe more than 23 hours. Your steps should not make a whisper of a sound. The notification box said that at higher level, it may evolve to the Stealth skill. Pity for those who acquired the Stealth blessed trait as it was quite easy to get this skill. They wasted a trait slot for nothing¡± (Gloomy) ¡°Cool! Teach me that one ''kay?, might be useful in stealing the treasures in the palace vaults hehe~ oh! I have a skill as well called Prediction. Though I do not know how I got it, probably from guessing different scenarios every time we get in a pickle. June! Teach me those elementary runic arts as well. The king may have mentioned in passing that it was necessary in my path to become a sexy magic caster.¡± (Dora) ¡°About that, one of my sources made it slipped that the Treasury Vaults of the royal palace as well as the hidden wealth chambers of the noble houses and important establishments are magically locked by rune magic encryptions like a computer code technology of encrypted data which uses passwords. In this world it is impossible to take the treasures with this type of security even for master thieves-¡± (Gloomy) ¡°Yeah I know of this as well! The ancient language that runic magic uses is already a dead language here. It was lost thousands of years ago. By now, no one knows how the vaults even work. They only know that the password can be opened and changed at will of the owner but not even they know of the mechanisms and the how-to¡¯s. Even then, there are traps hidden with the device which activates when the vault is fiddled with by thieves¡± (June) ¡°Don¡¯t you plebians worry, the traps are arcane in nature made by rune magic as well. Speaking of runes, I heard of such person who stole the ship¡¯s rune magic blue prints and can understand how they work. Pity i heard he''s a conniving bitch who got himself mana poisoned. I believed this man may know in time how the mechanisms of the vault operates¡± Pandora whispered while eyeing Kira Villainous laughter was made evident on the faces of the two conspirators as they eventually eyed June like a tasty treat. The man himself forgot how this conversation turned for the worse as they made plans to steal nobles¡¯ riches. It was true that he somehow had the means. June guessed it was his fault as he was the first to steal one of the Kingdom¡¯s secret in the first place. it was a secret that his skill can read runes. it may have other purposes as well but he cannot decrypt those properties for now. Talk about Bad influence! Dora and Gloomy made their own world, cooperating in finding out more so that they may procure the capital to satiate their interests and ambition. It was only appropriate for the two to conspire since the other descended are already in the move. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.The High-humans are building connections left and right. They planned on making guilds and recruitment are early in motion. Hordes of players are securing tools and food source while parties are leaving the capital in droves, hunting monsters along the way. The conversation adjusted to the problem of scheduling the raiding of our party as others are securing hunting spots for themselves everywhere. June however suggested the opposite idea. ¡°We will wait¡± Two faces of confusion and five looks of disapproval was declared by his teammates. June explained further as he once again sat down his chair. ¡°We don¡¯t have to do what the majority of the descended are doing at the moment. We still have time aplenty. I¡¯m sure you guys know how difficult it is to level up in this world. Listen up peeps, I have thought of a plan, and trust me it is a good one¡± June smiled as he got their utmost and undivided attention. Whenever he said he has a plan, they understood that it would be beneficial. If others besides this person declare such a thing they would immediately turn and leave. But this guy, for them, is not just another guy. ¡°The capital is very huge, and it will take us atleast half a day just to secure weapons, armors, potions, provisions, tents and tools for an adventure that may last for a week. Trust me when I say this. It will not be beneficial to explore and be back in the city day by day, imagine the time wasted travelling. I believe the other adventurers noticed this so they will be planning to hunt for maybe a week, or as long as their food lasts. Now, even if they do this, the probability of leveling up once per day is impossible. Calculate how many monsters are needed and how much time would be wasted fighting one. Add the number of hours resting, the travel time and distance, and the level diference-¡± ¡°Most of them are still level one with a few that is already in the second level so by calculating all that crap, approximately 3 months give or take would be needed to bridge the fifth level¡± (Dora) ¡°-Thanks Dora. Now since we are a bit higher in level than the rest, if we fight for hunting spots, we would be at a disadvantage because the nearer the land from a city, the weaker the creature so our levels won¡¯t increase one bit. We need to travel to distant lands just to find stronger opponents. It may take us a few months of travel time as well.¡± Faces of understanding surfaced from the party as June continued talking ¡°Now, what I¡¯m suggesting is that we level our skills first, train for stats, comb the library for information, secure gold and build connections. If it is okay with all of you I would like to assign tasks for you to follow.¡± ¡°Seems interesting, go on.¡± (Faye) ¡°All of us will enter physical, magical and skill training first than hunting outside. At night, we will read archive scrolls or meditate. No one would be left behind. All of us will grow stronger together if it¡¯s okay with all of you. Pandora, you will help the king as well as the nobles in any way you can while training your skills in magic. Increase your connections and reputation. You must acquire their secrets and other information regarding the kingdom. Advise the king on issues pertaining to better leadership and make him consult me in war strategies if you can. Gather info on the Grand knight and the elites of this kingdom as well as the location of their treasury, yes fine, we would steal some gold if the need arises. I will cooperate and lend you my skills in hacking runic codes when the time is ripe. Then, ask an elite which can be trusted to train our melee fighters, it would be better if the Grand Knight herself accepts to teach us. Ask the king for a master in Alchemy and Apothecary to teach us as well.¡± ¡°Cake¡± (Dora) ¡°Gloomy will roam the commoners ward and the Bazaar. Gather as much info as you can. Get the merchant class if you like and monitor the thieves¡¯ guild. If you are able to be accepted in their ranks, get all the skills even I they¡¯re not important. You must build a solid information network. Find the black market as well and try to control it in any way you can. It must be done in a year. In your spare time, train your battle skills.¡± ¡°That would be easy as well¡± (Kira) ¡°Mordred, Ragnar and sunny will enlist for the mercenary guild. In your spare time level up your second professions so that when we hunt, we would be ready. We would set out and be gone for a month. The location is yet unknown and it depends on what information Dora can provide us with.¡± ¡°Okay¡± ¡°Pale would enter the churches to be an intern for the priests. At your spare time visit the library. Faye will enter the Rangers Hunting Guild.¡± ¡°What would you be doing?¡± (Dora) ¡°For the first three months, I plan to waste on training my stats and skills as well as to read scrolls in the archives, maybe even visit the gladiators¡¯ pit in the Thessascean Arena. It would take an entire year for the others to reach the fifteenth level and another year to level till twenty and acquire the first profession. So the remaining seven months is just to apprentice for a master blacksmith and a master tailor. I would provide Gloomy with weapons and armors while Dora provides elixirs. You all may set out after three months with stats comparable to level 30 after training, that I¡¯m sure. I might even help you in finding hidden classes in the archive scrolls. I would set out with all of you after a year towards the deeper parts of the south. Sounds like a plan?¡± June finished with high hopes. ¡°I like it¡± (Pale) ¡°¡­¡± *nods* (Mordred) ¡°Fun!¡± (Sunny) ¡°There is an Arena here?!¡± (Ragnar) ¡°Fine with us¡± Faye and Gloomy ¡°That was my plan all along, hmph.¡± Dora gloated It was late in the afternoon and the Crimson Manor was devoid of its masters. The servants of the house were curious as to why their owners chose to lock themselves in their room to sleep. They were tasked not to disturbed their superiors and bade them not to make dinner for them unless told otherwise. Some of them ridiculed such outsiders without the blood of a noble as it was undermining to serve others of equal stature of a commoner. They only answer their calls because the king ordered them to and not on their free will with the exception of the red princess. She was considered an outsider but she still has the blood of royalty. It was starting to get darker while the sun sets in the horizon, filling the skies with an orange-violet hue. It was an enamoring sight as countless posts of glowing crystals brighten up the lively city of Heinguard. All of the people of this kingdom were embraced with happiness, safety and contentment. Except maybe the household of the Crimson Manor. The servant are discussing and editing petition forms regarding their masters to the king. Disdain seemingly apparent in their faces as they mock how derived of etiquette their masters were. They even forgot to do their duties to the household and chose to ransack the supply room for their own pleasures. However, their festivities were abruptly put on hold as Killing intent were felt in all corners of the place. It gave them a chill only a grave can bestow as their skin shivered and pierced with thousands of needles. All around their bodies were shrouded with an uncomfortable feeling like hundreds of spiders crawling from their skins. They labored a breath and some even fainted due to the pressure. The horror and anguish they felt provided them with dread and paramount fear. It was at that moment that the servants swore eternal allegiance to the High humans in their Manor. They treat them with respect that they will not even show towards their king. They executed all orders given to them without banter. The fear was engraved in their souls and will remain till they die. For they suffered for three days without even going to sleep for they were scared of nightmares awaiting them in their rest. Stories and whispers are spread throughout the ward that demons roam the Crimson Manor. Sometimes a crazy, maniacal laughter of a delirious woman can be heard at night as pained screams of men reverberates often inside. In time, the nobles learned to avoid Dora¡¯s property like the plague. *************************************************************************** Chapter 6: Dont judge a book by its tattered cover *************************************************************************** It was the second daylight from the time June was ¡®willingly¡¯ abducted to this world. Waking up late from a peaceful slumber, he had to endure repetitive monotonic questions from a fake princess, a moody looking guy, a big-boob blonde, a bodybuilder, a lecher, a candlestick maker- Sorry, wrong reference, -and an overly enthusiastic kid, I mean. He was treading across the regal looking neighborhood which he, by the way, barely noticed as he passed by servants scuttling to abide their masters¡¯ errands. His attention wandered to his memory of yesterday when he passed out from mana poisoning. June was unconsciously approaching the Library, a towering erection of circular marble stones. The entrance was decorated by fine celestial masterpieces, sculpted by ancient artists of great talent. Around the establishment were short thin bricks that barricade the entirety of the premises. He was in the zone and epiphany is but a step away. His dim witted understanding of mana was being altered as his previous memory flashed by. Barely reminiscing the events that transcended a day ago, his thoughts carried him to the crevice of breakthrough.
Wisdom +1
Mana can be used not only for the emission of elemental essence, but also to strengthen or destroy the body of the user. At first, he connected the association of mana to the physical skills used by some of his party members. He then concluded that mana can also alter the function of the sense organs. This hypothesis was further tested through his previous experience of getting mana poisoned. Before he was able to manipulate mana, his internal mana pores were still sedentary, hiding themselves inside his body. This may be true to all the Descended with insufficient skills in mana control. Early in one¡¯s life, every person¡¯s mana core can be directly accessed by only one or two mana pores usually located in the user¡¯s palm. This makes consumption of mana to be great due to its wasteful and inefficient flow which may affect the success, duration and power of using mana hungry skills. By opening the other pores, the mana flow is maintained and only fewer mana is wasted and dispersed to the surroundings. They act as ventilating shafts that regulates excess mana though recycling, hereby reducing the consumption. Not only they act as regulators but they also connect to many parts of the human body, especially in our sense organs. This may lead to better movements, sharper senses and tougher muscles and bones...even Penis Engorgement, every dude''s dream. I see. June predicted that attempting to manipulate one''s own mana may take a few weeks, even months under normal conditions. However, he was confident that talented High-humans, including his own party members, will be able to master the skill only in a few days. Unlike the others high-humans, his baptism was indeed different. The flying ship¡¯s crystal emitted mana radiation that forcefully opened all of June¡¯s pores the longer he stayed exposed. The said mana pores activated one at a time till all the pores are opened and swollen with mana. The mana core generated threads of mana that interconnects the pores with each other. This led to disorientation as every sense organ was filled by unrestraint mana which increased their functions for a few seconds. He was on the verge of blowing up and was only saved by his quick thinking and Pale¡¯s healing ability. Wasting mana by firing spells nonstop, June was able to ease the load. Nevertheless, this was only a temporary first aid. By vehemently attempting to control each and every swollen pore, he redirected the flow to cycle through his entire body. This process was excruciating to the point of madness and a single mistake may end June¡¯s life. Fortunately, he pushed through. At the moment, June was confirming his theory by attempting to activate branching mana pores forming a line from his Energy core to his left eye. He controlled the output to the bare minimum as he was afraid to become blind. His pink eye emitted a bluish hue as his eyesight became clearer, magnifying the scenery in front of him. He controlled the intensification and was delighted by what he sees. Ladies and Gentlemen, behold the human telescope! Still unsatisfied with his success, he continued the experiment as he traced the mana from his eye towards the part of the brain that controls vision. A miniscule mana pore which was inactivated was located near it. He slowly stimulated the pore by pouring the bare minimum mana, increasing the volume by the second. He finally stopped the inflow as too much mana may lead to unsatisfactory effects. His eyes are now blue in color. Nothing else happened as his concentration was suddenly- *thud!* June came back to reality when he tripped through the low hanging gate, mouthing curses from his lack of awareness of the surrounding. Some scholars who saw the spectacle laughed as he straightened up his garb and smiled meekly, embarrassed from the unwanted attention. He was about to climb the outer hall steps when notifications emerged in his peripheral vision.
Due to understanding one of the many uses of mana and its effects on the human body, your Mana Manipulation skill has leveled up to Novice Lv. 4!
Due to ¡®Craftlore¡¯ (a versatile blessed trait that has many uses and one of which is to increase chances of skill acquisition) and ¡®Blessing of Synthesis¡¯, the ¡®Increased sense control: subtype: Vision¡¯ and ¡®Mana Manipulation¡¯ skill blended. You¡¯ve gained an ability!
Arcane Visualization Skill type: Active (Beginner 1) Mana cost: 50 per second Everything in this world contains mana in different concentrations. Beings and items which hold power emanate strong aura made up of mana. By greatly understanding the effects of mana in your primary senses, you now perceive mana in its crudest form.
June smirked at his good fortune. Gaining a skill to detect mana even though his skill proficiencies are still mediocre reduced the regrets he felt when he didn¡¯t choose the other heavenly defying traits like Limit Break, Telepathy or Atlantis¡¯ blessing, to give a few. He noted to himself to practice with this skill as it had limitless potential. One of them would be confirmed inside the Lesser Archives of Thessascus. He approached the Receptionist¡¯s desk as he walked inside the building. He was greeted by an ancient looking grandma with loose violet cotton robes. Her silver hair was long, braided and reaching down her feet. Great wisdom and knowledge was apparent in her old drooping eyes. ¡°Heh~ A Descended in the Noble¡¯s ward, I¡¯m intrigued. Young one, may I know your purpose for coming here?¡± she asked curiously as June slapped his hand in his chest and bowed his head in respect. It still wasn¡¯t known to the natives that the descended has the ability to know the name of a person just by looking at him/her. Inspired by Pandora, June decided to test his luck once more. ¡°Greetings honorable elder. My name is June Heistman, I came here with the guidance of the Goddess Gaia. Her great excellency tasked this lowly servant of hers to search for someone named Griselda Geldrin in hopes that she may impart me with knowledge to help better serve her people.¡± A good moment has passed before the old lady¡¯s lips dare move. Her drooping eyes widened with shock as she stammered for words. ¡°O-oh m-my my, D-did she now? To think that it was true that the Gods have chosen your kind to lead us against the threat of other evil races. Dear dear, you have come to the right place child. For you to know of my old name, the Goddess may have told you huh...¡± June was overjoyed when she saw the old woman blabbing her heart out. After using {Identify} on the old lady, only her new name, old name and titles appeared. Her level must be incredibly high as two question marks blurred her other information. He waited for her to calm her heart as he looked around. ¡°I would like it if you call me Granny Gidda, as do everyone else. I do not use my old name no more you see. Please keep everything you¡¯ve heard about me a secret from everyone as I am not so awfully fond of attention.¡± ¡°Forgive my lack of respect Granny Gidda, I am as new as a budding sprout. I just came to this world just a day ago and my knowledge still lacking. I do hope that the elder did not take offense for my brash introduction.¡± ¡°Hoho~ It¡¯s quite alright young one. I assume you are here to do some light reading and to know the history of this world huh?¡± ¡°Yes Grandma Gidda.¡± ¡°Very well, leave your Status card here and go ahead and start reading on the second floor. It is where the basic history and basic knowledge of the Kingdom are recorded. Meanwhile, I would be in the back room procuring you a new Archive Identification card for free. Good gracious, did the Goddess talk often about me?¡± ¡°I heard that you are only a few steps away from attaining sainthood and you are one of the most powerful Arcane users ever recorded in the history of humans. I guess the Goddess mentioned you a few times. Is it really true that back in your prime, you were one of the prettiest mage as well?¡± June guessed as Gidda touched her blushing face. ¡°My my, what an eventful day it is. Even the Goddess knew of my name! When I die, I will passed away happy knowing the Goddess will be by my side. Such fortune!¡± I held my hand containing my badge as Griselda swiped it and walked away happily to the Administrators¡¯ room. The library has five floors covered with stacks of tomes, books, scrolls documents and manuscripts of old. June smiled as excitement empowered his determination. He realized that his {Arcane Visualization} has ended its duration and his mana bar was close to zero. Before the skill was finished though, he took note of the tomes which released bluish aura. He jogged to the stairs leading to the second floor with haste. His hands were sweaty as he reached for the first book he saw. It was hardbound, brown and tattered. He activated his {Thousand Tongues} as he read the title, ¡®The History of Aetheria¡¯. June has no desire to read cover to cover of the thick book. He activated {Instantaneous Reading} the moment his mana bar allowed it.
Summary The History of Aetheria The Creator of realms gave his only beloved wife, the Goddess Gaia, the world of Aetheria, the plane of paradise as a gift. It wasn¡¯t known how they came to existence as no record was ever made known. Gaia, pleased by her husband¡¯s heartfelt offering, gave birth to hundreds of sons and daughters which are now known as Gods and Goddesses by the beings of this world. They helped cultivate this world through their unearthly talents and abilities, passing their legacies to those who they deemed worthy. Like tales as old as time, no story can ever be less interesting with neither strife nor suffering in its contents. Gaia left her children unsupervised and unattended. Sooner along the path of creation, petty squabbles and misunderstandings amongst the children bred hate. Hate sired Envy. Envy raised chaos and turmoil ensued. Pride and prejudice surpassed the thickness of blood. Many of her children fell before Gaia or the Creator can intervene. It was then and there that it was decided that no celestial with power equivalent to the Gods can directly intervene with Aetheria ever again. The Princes and the Lords of the infernal realm left this world, leaving behind their lesser kin and kith, the Devilings. The ancient Dragons left as well after they splintered the land into six. After millenniums of civil war, two factions emerged. The first fled to the northern pole now known as the Frozen Peak. The second faction of the dragons headed south, deep within the Desolate lands of the beasts, hiding from the prying eyes of the Gods. They left their lesser kin of the reptilian race to fend for themselves. The Divine Beasts that survived the heavenly purge fled for the south as well, leaving behind thousands of races all over the world. Most of the civilization were destroyed, their cultures and heritage lost. Only a few languages existed as new civilizations emerged. This world was now renamed New Aetheria. Peace was at hand at last as the species tried to coexist with each other. However, it was short-lived. Fate and Floki played a prank before leaving this world as they left a meteoric stone in the very center of the midcontinent between Chlorofell and Malaketh. It was runed in the common tongue for all the patriarchs of their respective races to see. ¡°Are thou not the strongest of them all?¡± it says. War, detested by Gaia, swept the world once more. Two factions were formed between the Humans, Elves, Dwarves and other Demihumans against the Devilings, Gob-kin, Lizard men and beastmen. The Humans, even though plenty were sitting the bottom of the food chain for they are the weakest and most ambitious. The Elves, the magisters of arcane chose to hide and mind their own business. This was true as well with the Dwarves and the Demihumans. The Devilings are proud and conceited, more so than the humans. They honor the ancient tradition of invading all lands as the strongest race in this world like what their ancestor, the greater demons did eons ago. This was true as well for the Gob and the Lizards. This continued on until this time. The Surviving Gods and Goddesses that wanted to help are unable to interfere so they started to send their champions to do their bidding. It was prophesied that sooner or later that they will descend and help their respective races to prosper once more. Thus they were termed ¡®Descended¡¯ or commonly known as high-*species*. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.Summary end.
Intelligence +1
It took June a couple of minutes to finish reading the six inched thick book. He smiled as his Int. stat increased yet again. He was about to grab a few books again when he saw the old lady approached him from the side. ¡°Young man, your identification card for this establishment is ready. Like your Nobleward card, you must drench this in your blood as well to prove its authenticity. This Archive is open from eight in the morning and closes at 9 in the evening. You can come here as often as you like.¡± The old lady had a surly expression as she gave me my card and my badge. She continued speaking. ¡°Only few ever came here in thirst for knowledge. Because of the location, the common people don¡¯t have access here and the nobles are too lazy to allow them to nor do they come themselves. They themselves pay for scholars to teach! Ha! As if tutoring from incompetent fools can impart them enough insight. So child, what time would you be leaving so my old bones can clean up?¡± ¡°Hahaha, I would like to apologize for your old bones for I will be here longer. I¡¯m planning to burn daylight here and extend my stay till closing time. If it¡¯s alright with you, I would like to help cleaning up the place for I got nothing else to do Grandma.¡± ¡°Fine by me! Tell you what, I have no money on me at the moment so I cannot pay for you services. However, I am willing to offer you a good deal if you are interested.¡± ¡°I am interested, go on¡± ¡°If you work for me, I can leave you the key to this place! You will assist me with ordinary chores like sweeping and maintaining the place clean and sorting out the documents. Your reward is that you can stay here for as long as you like! I can even give you access to the fifth forbidden floor if you do a good job. What say you?¡± tempted the old lady. ¡°I will work three times a week till the ninth moon and if I can bring home 5 borrowed books of my own choosing then you have yourself a deal Grandma Gidda¡± ¡°Six times a week, one book¡± (Gidda) ¡°Three times a week, four books¡± ¡°Five times a week, two books¡± (Gidda) ¡°Three times a week, three books!¡± ¡°Four times a week, three books!¡± (Gidda) Four times a week, two books, and you teach me Alchemy, I can¡¯t compromise less than that.¡± ¡°Deal!¡±
You have learned a skill Bartering 5% lesser costs for buying products 5% increase in costs for products you wish to sell
You have received a Quest! Grandma¡¯s chores [Rank: E] You must work for the Great Archmage, the old Alchemist, Lady Griselda ¡°Genocide¡± Geldrin by maintaining her Archives and helping her sort parchments. Rewards: Key to the building, fulltime use of the library. Accept quest? Yes/ No
Accept. The Old lady was very intriguing. She was both an Archmage and an Alchemist at the same time. Even though June can¡¯t feel any {Killing Intent} or {Pressure} from the old lady, by using his {Arcane visualization} he was scared shitless by the amount of moss tinged mana surrounding the old one like a gigantic jade sphere. He swore to himself to never piss off the old lady. June wiped his sweat as Gidda gave him a copy of the key which he kept safe in his inventory. The old lady walked away from him after handing a piece of parchment with his assigned chores for the week. It was already quarter till five in the afternoon and June was adamant in starting the chores early. All those books are not going anywhere anyway as reading them can wait till he finished his all the tasks listed. It was already four in the morning when he finished sorting the mess of parchments in the hall room. June scrubbed clean the floors from the first to the fourth level. The drawers and shelves have encryptions of runelore magic which maintain the books away from dust and decay so it does not require further wiping. He finished dusting the sculptures as well. Giddy looked pleased as her chores that were supposedly to be finished in four days took only the entire night. She notice the kid collapsed in the fourth floor as she sat in a corner, drinking her tea. She levitated June towards the back room and started removing his clothes and started kissing him- Just kidding. (This novel doesn¡¯t have the mature content tag!) Gidda levitated June towards the back room. She then conjured a blanket out of nowhere and placed it on the body of the youth as she herself locked the front door and went towards her room in the fifth floor. It was nine in the morning when June woke up. Still sleepy from the activity from the night before (not what you think!), he hastily grabbed three books and drowsily made his farewell to the old lady. He then made his way back to the crimson manor for a late breakfast, noticing that everybody, from the servants to his friends were a bit sleep-deprived. He sipped his morning coffee while reading ¡®The very recent Compilation of Human Kingdoms that haven¡¯t fallen yet- by Tineus Wormshaft¡¯. Pandora and Kira grabbed a book each without asking permission and started reading as well.
The very recent Compilation of Human Kingdoms that haven¡¯t fallen yet - by Tineus Wormshaft Summary The northern continent known as Frozen Peak has had human civilizations thousands of years ago. Due to Dragon attacks, these civilizations ceased to exist along with our knowledge in the Old Conscript, which is now a dead language. Our Smithing techniques that once rivaled the skills of the Dwarven race were lost here as well. Today, the Faes, lizard-kind, and the Northern Dragons inhabit these blistering lands. By (year) cycle 5000 A.P., the death toll of Saints that have perished here is more than a hundred. Various level capped heroes of other races are buried here as well. The western continent of Darazak is home to the various races of demi-humans. Human kingdoms also occupy some territories here. It was known that the Saint Hero, the barbarian king Sigurd the Savage resides in one of the Free Cities of Thorkell. There are five kingdoms of men under the treaty of peace and more than fifty cities. Other kingdoms of different races are surrounding the human lands so it was advised that no war shall ever be waged with each other by the human kingdoms of the west and the midcontinents. List of Kingdoms: Thorkell, United States of Calvaria, Bizmuth, Isiris Federation, Xirchron. Cities: {to many to mention} The Eastern continent of Videkan is home to the Demonkin. Very few are known about these lands and Human settlements near the border of the Southeast housed three human kingdoms. Shi Feng Dynasty, Skycloud Palace and Xin Sect coexisting to prevent the spreading of Devilings throughout the world. The mid continents of Chlorofell and Malaketh housed the greatest number of human kingdoms in all of Aetheria. Here, war is waged regularly by all Species. At the very center, in-between the two continents is a large rock, the size of a small island known as the Divine Stone. No mortal weapon nor natural calamity can destroy the sacred rock. Many have tried, even Dragons themselves, but to no avail. List of Kingdoms: Cunticulis, Chrono, Vilaantis, Kamalest, Amaranth, Hardenia, Apulis, Yllegad, Mazur federation, Boone. The South is the Desolate lands of the Heavenly Beasts. No human settlements (not updated)
¡°Whatchu got there mate?¡± (Pale) ¡°Books¡± (Pale) ¡°Wherdja get it?¡± (Pale) ¡°Lesser Archives of Thessascus, the tallest building here in the Noble¡¯s ward. Look for Granny Gidda. Tell her, June sent you and you¡¯d be taken care of.¡± Reading was brief as June took a bite out of the eggs in his plate. He passed the book to Pale as he was done reading it. Kira and the others are planning to head to the Bazaar later on so he submerged Kira in useless equipment for him to sell. June grabbed the book Dora was reading while she screamed in irritation. ¡°Hey! I wasn¡¯t done reading that! Have you got any manners? Didn¡¯t your mommy ever teach you that it¡¯s bad to steal other¡¯s book whilst they¡¯re reading it?!¡± June sighed at the irony of Dora¡¯s argument. He squinted his eyes while everybody else laughed.
June Heistman Title: The Scheming Tactician Age: 16 Fame: 15 Level 3 Class: N/A SubClass: N/A Str. 21 Agi. 53 Dex. 34 Lck. 14 Conc 15 Int. 73 Vit. 21 Def: 1-55 HP: 212 Ki {Locked} Wis. 77 End. 12 Atk: 1-25 MP: 816 (+309) Unallocated points: 0 System assist: Inactivated {Blessed Traits---------------------------------------------Skill bestowal} Death God¡¯s Revival ---------------------------------------------(+1 life) Blessing of Synthesis and Fragmentation Polymerization -------------(Ingredient, Item, Skill, Beginner 1) Properties Fragmentation -(Ingredient, Item, Skill, Beginner 0) Increased sense control Unlocked: Vision----(Increased sensitivity, Lowlight, Arcane visualization, Beginner 7) Sound--------------------------(Increased sensitivity, Beginner 3) Nerve Reaction-------------(Hand-Eye Coordination inc., Novice 1) Danger Perception-------------(Presence Detection, Beginner 2) Craftlore---(Skill craft x2 ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? 2x ???, 6x ??? Beginner 2) {Skills} Thousand Tongues {S Class skill} Communicate---------------------(All Sentients, Master Level) Identify------------------------------------------(Novice Level 9) Instantaneous Reading ----------------( Intermediate Level 1) Runic comprehension----------------------------(Master Level) ??? ??? Elemental Magic: Basic Flameball (Beginner 0) Basic Stream bullets (Beginner 0) Masteries: Dagger Mastery (Beginner 4: Gouge, Backstab x4, Pierce x2) Blade Throwing (Beginner 2) Hand to Hand Combat (Beginner 6) Kicking Mastery (Beginner 1) Runelore Mastery (Advanced 1) Composite Magic Mastery (B) Arcane Mastery (B) Others: Mana Manipulation (Novice 4) Meditation (Beginner 4) Bartering Killing Intent Passives: Battle Sense (Beginner 2)------(Formless Martial Arts) Acrobatics (Beginner 6)-----------(Parkour, Dodging) Perception (Beginner 2)-(Prediction {2 moves in adv.}) Leadership (Beginner 2) Title Skill: Bird¡¯s Eye View (4.7 meters, Beginner 2)
Chapter 7: Archive of Unseen Treasures 6660 A.P. (After Purge) 6th Moon, 8th Daylight Morning of the 9th hour Royal Court, Heinguard *************************************************************************************** ¡®Twas the morning, seven daylights before the Ascent Festival of the great kingdom of Thessascus, the Capital of Heinguard was still adjusting to the influx of the Descended who arrived a few daylights past. A messenger by the rank of Griffon fleet officer promptly flew to the first ward, much with haste. He was to bring forth a message of utmost importance. He passed to an elite guard by the gate who took it. The elite guard was surprised by the color of the sealwax as it was golden, the second to the highest rank of priority. It was only used for one purpose and one purpose only, War. The receiving elite guard made haste as well, arriving like the wind to the Royal Palace and further towards the sleeping chambers of the king. He was abruptly stopped by the stationed elites, guardians of the regal doors. ¡°Dendric, what business doth thou bringest at such early an hour?¡± greeted one of the stationed ¡°Mornin¡¯ Brax, Bron. Message was delivered by the border patrol, golden ranked seal.¡± Shock plastered the expressions of the two as they loosened their crossed halberds. Sweat trickled from their furrowed brows as Dendric cut their chatter off, implying them to quickly step aside. ¡°W-what?! I-i-it c-cannot be. Are you s-¡± ¡°-Sure? Positive. Means the kingdom of Partevia¡¯s on the move. Let me through at once.¡± And that they did. The intricately carved wooden door swung opened as the king himself was surprised by the early intrusion. The elite showed his hand, as too much banter does not bode well in such calamitous circumstances. The king immediately understood just by looking at the folded parchment. His face became pale as a pearl. He stormed out of his quarters and bade the three elites to summon his advisers at once as he will receive them in the court hall precisely in an hour. Tension was as frigid as the morning winds yet hotter than a summer¡¯s noon as endless arguments erupted from the advisors and his uninvited noble vassals, an hour later. The nobles dispute the insights of the advisers as if wanting to lay in bed with the raiding enemy. The king was still occupied with the contents of the golden epistle to make full notice of the squabbles of lesser men. Hmph, Politics. The Letter states that a Partevian army of ten thousand strong was heading towards Mudshire, their borderline city nearest to the other kingdom¡¯s territory, on foot. It may take those soldiers seven to eight daylights to arrive and slaughter the civilians since only a thousand soldiers were dispatched to defend it. Another Partevian army was seen hidden near the forest of Lormwood many leagues away from their first army. Fortunately, it was impossible for the two armies to provide each other with backup. They numbered seven thousand and positioned inside the outer territories of Thessascus in the southwest. Thessascus would be awaiting disaster as the kingdom cannot fight on two fronts at the moment. The Goblins are making their move as well from the southwest near the outskirts of Zolumn, positioning their armies to directly attack Heinguard without minding the other walled cities. The lizard-kin assembled an army as well from the southeast, marching through the swamps of Mosstrow near the capital of Partevia. Partevia¡¯s foolhardy positioning of her troops led to open hostility of the different kingdoms nearby. As a result, it was too late to turn back the sands of time. War is now inevitable. That foolish king! King Christoff cursed as he condemned the senile snake. Ambitions of self-interests may cloud the minds of the bests of us, and corrupt the worst. Did he really think that by owning one Saint Hero, he can attack other human settlements without costs? Did he really think that the Lady Geraldine can lose to a recently leveled Saint? He did not even consider that by removing his armies from his lands he attracted the attention of the other races?! His majesty¡¯s concentration was abruptly broken by the intensifying squabble of people in his court. Everyone was shouting to each other, cursing and threatening one another¡­Except for two people. Princess Pandora of the Moonlight Seal Heavenly Cloud Palace and a youngster, a servant of the Goddess Atlantis were looking at the three dimensional map of the discovered parts of southern continent. The Princess had her eyes closed as the boy-what was his name again? Ah yes, June was it -was muttering and pointing to the mountains and passes between the two warring Kingdoms. He was surprised as the princess suddenly shouted at all the people of the Royal Court. ¡°Sileeeence! How dare you imbeciles try to raise your voices in the presence of the great king of Thessascus! Have you no shame?! Have you no honor?! The Goddess Gaia didn¡¯t shove me to this world to listen to your petty cackles!¡± (Dora) ¡°And who might you be? For a mere girl to order us, your stature is but a speckle of dust in the sand!¡± (One of the vassals) ¡°I am Lady Pandora, Princess of the Moonlight Seal Heavenly Cloud Palace. I came to this world because my Goddess commanded me so. King Christoff the Valiant decreed me as one of his trusted advisors. Now, I don¡¯t care what stature you have Mr. Nobleman for you to behave like an arrogant prick but in my world, being rude in the presence of the King will be bestowed a punishment so painful you will wish you¡¯d be more humble!¡±(Dora) ¡°What did you just say to me?!¡± ¡°We pull your teeth, one by one, healing you so that death will be so slow and painful. We hang your family in front of your face for you to watch their untimely demise. We then whip your back till all we see is red meat. We dip your body in melted sugar and lay you down in the mound of red ants. We slice your crotch, inch by inch-¡± ¡°¡­¡± (Nobles) Fear and shock were plastered in the faces of the nobles as Dora continued the mental torture. Some even grope their own groins at the mere thought of slicing their privates part by part. All were silenced as Dora walked towards the man who attempted to be rude to her. Everyone can feel the pressure leaking out from the red princess, showering them with dread. Her beautiful face contorted with fury as she continually berated the unruly people. Even the king himself cannot believe what¡¯s happening right before his eyes. Those power hungry hyenas that even he has difficulty in controlling were now being submissive to the little girl. He was elated that some are still loyal to his rule as the princess defends the authority of the crown. He didn¡¯t dare to interrupt so that the momentum the princess built would tilt in their favor. ¡°-Now, I dare anyone to speak! Am I really just a speckle of dust on your unwashed butt cracks?! Am I Just a lowly person just because I am a girl who cannot voice her opinion in this court?! So are you saying that a girl like the Saint hero Thessa is but a speckle of dirt to you as well?! I AM A DESCENDED FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! I HAVE THE BACKINGS OF THE GODDESS AS WELL, DAMNIT! YOU¡¯LL DO VERY WELL TO GIVE ME YOUR UTMOST RESPECTS YOU FUCKING COCKROACHES!¡± ¡°YOU DARE, WENCH?!¡± (Nobles) Then suddenly as woman on her forties walked towards the assembly and scared the nobles out of their wits. She sported a golden cloak entrenched on a silver ornamented armor with a large golden bastard sword strapped right behind her back. The King brightened up and muttered ¡®Great granny Thessa¡¯. The silence that was already emanated deepens more. ¡°Did you just call me wench?¡± (Lady Thessa) ¡°N-no! m-m-my L-lady Thessa, I-¡± ¡°She is not wrong Count Brickswood. The Descended has the potential to reach the 99th level in but a few years and can even go beyond that level a few years more. You really do well to remember that forging grudges against them would be your downfall in the future. Especially with this one who has the Goddess behind her back.¡± ¡°B-but she-¡± ¡°Careful on what you say if you don¡¯t want your family to be cursed by the Celestials.¡± All bowed down when they realized they¡¯re in the presence of the Saint. Even June and Pandora bowed down as well. No one dared to speak their minds as the pressure from the Saint made them sweat buckets. Even if they do not hold the King with high regards, they still fear the might of this person. ¡°Now as I recall, your name is Princess Pandora, a newly appointed adviser to my incompetent great grandson? I have no time to introduce myself as the time is dire and I discern that you already know who I am. What say you we talk in the balcony? Bring your aid with you. He¡¯s the only one here that seems calm even after learning the grim situation.¡± ¡°It would be our honor, your grace.¡± Pandora knelt. The old knight strode towards the other direction, not even glancing nor giving face to the people present in the room. Dora then stood up and looked at the bewildered faces of the nobles as she commanded her final words to them. ¡°What the hell are all of you still doing here? I don¡¯t recall his majesty even inviting you for the war preparations in the first place! King Christoff might be lenient but don¡¯t expect me to be so! The next time I see you disrespecting him, I will personally gut all of you!¡± The Vassals as if molded to a single entity, made their exits with fear in their eyes. They now understood that their high and mighty days are coming to an end as they realize that the Descended are now the future power houses of the kingdom. They now made plans of nurturing High-humans as much as their gold could afford. It was the time when all nobles posted notices all throughout the city, looking for promising adventurers to serve their household. It was also the day that the legend of the Red princess was spread throughout Heinguard. They didn¡¯t even realize that it was {Killing Intent} from the Princess that made these nobles submit to her. So the people exaggerated the rumors regarding the demons of the crimson manor to be made true after all. *********************************************************************************** Pandora and June walked side by side with the King, the advisors and the Saint. The elite guard never bothered to stay close to them as they know that the safest place in the south was to be near a Saint. They approached the balcony of the second floor of the Royal Palace. The Beaming King made a few hand gestures and a table showing the known map of the Desolate Lands appeared out of thin air. He had already heeded a few advises from the red princess and he was not ashamed to be proud to have gained a valuable asset at his disposal. The other advisers were also astonished with the little girl¡¯s talent. In their hearts, they already accepted the princess as an indispensable treasure of the kingdom. ¡°I must thank you little princes for your assistance today. I never knew there are still people in this court that the King could trust.¡± (an advisor) ¡°Ha! Those ingrates disturb too much of my rule, I¡¯m starting to feel that they¡¯re spies from other kingdoms! Bet they were surprised by the girl¡¯s sermon¡± Mused the king happily ¡°Enough pleasantries dear Toffy, if this advisor of yours is as good as what you claimed, I want to know for sure myself. Tell me high-humans, how can we escape this predicament without resulting me, a saint, to partake in the war?¡± (Saint Thessa) ¡°At once, your majesty. My tactician and I already made up a plan to reduce the losses and win the wars before it can even begin-¡± ¡°-Wars?!¡± ¡°Before I start the explanation, I must urge my king Christoff to send his fastest message bird to the Kingdom of Partevia as soon as possible. Send a second word to every human kingdom known to us as well.¡± ¡°Hmph! And why must we do that?¡± (Saint Tessa) ¡°Because my dear lady, for this plan of ours is to succeed, the letter is of utmost importance. It may shift the balance of power in the south!¡± Dora was successful in making the royalties intrigued. ¡°Shall I continue?¡± they then motion her to do so. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°The content of the letter must accuse the kingdom of Partevia of blatant misuse of power. As you know, the Kingdoms of the other continents swore to honor their treaty of non-incursion as should we.Human to human invasion should never be done without the right reasons yet we were being attacked without a sliver of explanation at all. So the move the Partevians are making, if they¡¯ll be unsuccessful, would demote their own stature and will be eyed by most kingdoms as untrustworthy, deceitful and weak. The commerce due to maritime trade and secret transactions of the human kingdoms with each other would then exclude Partevia. In effect, their power would weaken even further. Since only two human kingdoms are here in the south, the support and authority will befall into us, the Thessasceans. Due to having more resources and powerful backings, we can pressure Partevia to beg and seek for our aid in the future. They are further down the south you see. We all know monsters there are powerful as they are many. They can only survive for long due to the assistance of the other human kingdoms. If we cut their resources, they would undoubtedly fall. This is where the messages would be of great importance. It will hold the royal decree of the king himself, I meant you, king Christoff and if by chance, the Lady Thessa as well, to strengthen the authenticity. We will write to them that we know of their plans as we have captured their spies in our noble¡¯s ranks. This is just a bluff to weed out the spies amongst the nobles. If by any chance a noble household decided to have a vacation for the next three weeks, raise your suspicions towards them. But I digress. Now, the letter must also include that since they appear to violate our good will and the relation between the two kingdoms, we will no longer bring aid to Partevia even if they beg. We will send another letter to other kingdoms of our dissociation towards Partevia as well.¡± (Dora) ¡°Your wisdom exceeds your reputation Princess, but I still cannot see how we can win. That plan of yours can only work if we don¡¯t lose.¡± (Lady Thessa) Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°This is where my war general will come into play. Tactician June, the floor is yours.¡± (Dora) ¡°Thank you my princess. Now as you all can see from this map, deploying an army to match their forces is impossible in such a limited span of time. By the time our soldiers reach the borders, the furthest cities would already be lost. I strongly suggest that we must send all men able to bear arms (here) from the municipality of Crendoor to (here) the outskirts of Mudshire and the men of Idliss (here) to (here) Crendoor. *pointing on the map* {N}Heinguard¡ªIdliss¡ªCrendoor¡ªMarakov, Zolumn, Findorn¡ªMudshire{S} We will send the equivalent men from the capital to Idliss. Note that this isn¡¯t the major force, only a contingency plan to further strengthen the defenses. By doing this, it would take less than five days of travel time as assumed from the accuracy of this map. It also will not make any of our cities and towns defenseless from monsters and bandits. My lady Geraldine, can you give me the estimate of soldiers in all of our cities?¡± June pointed out the cities as the old lady intently listened. She then cooperated by giving sensitive information regarding the armies of the kingdom. ¡°I see, that is not a bad idea, although it won¡¯t be enough to fend of the invaders. Idliss has two thousand. Crendoor two thousand five hundred. Marakov has three thousand. Findorn nine hundred. Tea town has a thousand as well as Zolumn. The others are too far away so they cannot give aid. There¡¯s a camp near Lornwood, three thousand strong elite soldiers. But they would be outnumbered three to one as the latest Intel is that the hidden forces of Partevia are being reinforced by a few thousand more, numbering nine thousand elite Partevian warriors in the other front. *sigh* our human territories were at peace for seven decades so the army is on hiatus and haven''t grown stronger since. To think that they have the audacity to do this¡­¡± (Lady Thessa) ¡°Heh, so we don¡¯t really have a problem after all...¡± ¡°What do you mean?! Can¡¯t you see we¡¯re in a pickle? We cannot fight in two fronts. Our numbers are not enough, preparations or war may take months. My Great nana Thessa can¡¯t split herself into two!¡± the king forcefully spat, worry was palpable in his face. June however was indifferent, not caring at all. As if there is no war to begin with. ¡°My king, if my calculation is right, then we won¡¯t be needing our Saint Knight after all. Well unless ofcourse, the opposition bring forth their Saint as well.¡± June explained as their confused faces were starting to wear him out. ¡°We would use a flow system in dispatching the troops. The inner cities would provide 80% of their men towards the Middle cities. The middle cities would provide 70% of their forces toward the outer cities, you understand? They must prepare for departure as soon as possible. Now, I understand that this kingdom has elite aerial soldiers right? They are the fastest maneuvering troops this kingdom-¡± ¡°-How¡¯d you know about the Griffon fleet?!¡± (Christoff) ¡°- has to offer. Lady Thessa, how many are they and how fast can they travel to our borders?¡± ¡°Three thousand. They can get to the borders by their maximum speed in three and a half daylight and dark¡± ¡°Good. Send five hundred to the camp at Lornwood, another five hundred towards Mudshire, another five hundred near the army of Goblins, five hundred more near the army of Lizard-kin. And a thousand at this spot, the most advantageous defense point of our territory, the Skirlig Plateau, a few miles south of Mudtown. All deployed footsoldiers are to make camp there as well. It may take two weeks to buld us a formidable army so they must be deployed immediately. The plan is horde kiting. We will lure the enemy forces in Lornwood not towards our prepared forces camping near, but to the nearer Goblin army going straight for our capital. We will use only a few hundred of the fastest men on Griffons, hit and run style. We will lure the Gobkins towards the Partevians in Lornwood as well. We will create a fake camp in the middle of both armies in the thick forest of Neihga with dummies, high flags and torches. The three thousand Thessascean forces of the the Lornwood camp would circle back, preventing the escape route of the hidden Partevian army. We will tire out the goblins and Partevians and flank the surviving ones through their rear and as well as their right flank through the reinforcements from the Skirlig camp forces. They would be then forced to flee southwest. But the territory of Severed Devilings is located there so they would be slaughtered if they do not yield to us. We can also lure the Devilings but we do not have enough men at the moment. Now, the enemy forces that will siege Mudshire would be lured towards the further south of Skirlig plateau, also known as the Death trenches. We must make ambush on high ground and bombard them with ranged projectiles there. Since you said that they would be attacking in the eight of daylight, the flying ships can travel to the borders by five. Mages and archers should be deployed using the flying ships. Even if they are able to pass through there, they would be delayed by a few more days, maybe even weeks as the trenches are far too tall and cramped. By then, we have already assembled an army at the Skirlig Plateau with the advantage of a higher ground and more men. These routes are the only way for a huge army to pass freely and safely against monsters packs so I am sure that they will not choose the other routes. We also must be weary of scouts. Reserve one flying ship with assassins, scouts and counter agents to masacre their scouts, his must ne a priority as well....hmmm, that¡¯s about it I guess.¡± The face of the King and the Saint cannot be painted as they were impressed by June and Pandora. For them to think this far was impressive, nay, terrifying even. All the moves are calculated and nothing was missed. ¡°¡­I am speechless. Toffy, you really did well this time. To think that you roped such talented individuals, your talent for discerning people are improving huh. I guess you¡¯re really are related to me after all.¡± The Saint bragged as she looked at us with great respect. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to say as well. To think that the Goddesses have favored our kingdom with such fine, brilliant subjects...I must know, what are the other five hundred griffon soldiers sent near the Lizarkin hordes for?¡± (Christoff) ¡°Oh, we thought it¡¯d be obvious. Lizarkins would be lured towards the capital of Partevia, a warning for their king not to mess with us¡± (Dora) ¡°Hoho~ well played. Thank you princess, and you too June, for the wisdom. The kingdom offers you our sincerest gratitude. We would contact you again if anything serious comes up. For your effort, you would be greatly rewarded!¡± (King) ¡°I heard that you require masters of your chosen professions, am I right? Please tell us of whom ever you would need, Christoff and I will do the rest. I myself am willing to bestow my fighting arts if you ever need it. Well, I guess this is goodbye for now, till then children.¡± (Lady Thessa) Lady Thessa and the king bowed and retreated to prepare the forces while we were escorted away from the premises. It was such a good opportunity to make connections with a few of the most influential humans in the southern continent. A carriage was waiting as the two traveled back to the Crimson manor. June Decided to depart for the Thessascean Archives as he was to return the books and to read more. Such a productive day it was for the crazy princess and the scheming tactician. *********************************************************************************** The meeting with the king was pretty eventful. Not only did they gain reputation in the Heinguard household, they also secured masters to teach them skills. As they say, two birds with one stone. June came back to the second floor of the Archives to read more scrolls. He greeted Granny Gidda as he returned the borrowed books: The History of Aetheria The very recent Compilation of Human Kingdoms Introduction to the concept of Mana He did not gain new stats from reading the book of mana as he had sufficient enough knowledge of its basics. He pondered if this was true though, maybe he just reached the cap of acquiring stats in wisdom and Intelligence aside from leveling normally. He decided to read more books associated with the history of the continents all afternoon and finished almost half the books on the second floor. It gave him decent addition to wisdom and a few for intelligence.
+12 Wisdom
+9 Intelligence
After reading a few more he noticed that he have really reached the cap as no stats popped up anymore. Nevertheless, June was satisfied with just acquiring such heavenly defying skills. It may take months just to read half the scrolls in the second floor, yet he did so only in a day. His {Instantaneous Reading} skill is quite the cheat. It was a part of his S class cheat skillset, {The Thousand Tongues} with uses too important to boast around. There are many things he still doesn¡¯t understand about the skill as there are question marks blurring the other uses of this utility skill. He didn¡¯t even understand how or why the skill was said to be ¡°Concealed¡±. Even using {Identification} didn¡¯t do much either. All he knew that it was very special as only a few know of this skill. Even the Gods covet it! Ostheroth said so himself. June then started to finish reading the entire second floor before going home. It was already one hour past midnight when he decided to call it quits, yawning his mouth off while locking the doors. He checked his notification boxes for a moment and he was wildly surprised. Heh~ so those tomes bestow skills after all.
You have learned the spell, Imprint Marking
You have learned the spell, Hearthen Drill
You have learned the spell, Lesser Confusion
You have learned the spell, Shadow vines
You have learned the spell, Light Body Skill
The {Imprint Marking} is a utility skill capable of tracking the position of a marked object/person using mana. The {Hearthen Drill} is an elementary magic spell of the second circle. It is capable of digging soil underground. The {Lesser Confusion} is a weak spell that renders a target disoriented for a few seconds depending on the target''s mental strength. {Shadow Vines} is a movement limiter spell of the dark element series, a rare skill that can also be used for crowd control. {Light Body Skill} is a skill that renders the user''s body as light as a feather. used in coordination with movement skills that makes the user seemed gliding in the air. There are more tomes which glow blue like the ones he just read. All throughout the confines of the Archive were scrolls that emit bluish aura when using the skill {Arcane Visualization}. Some are hidden between stacks of books while others are far above the make-shift shelves. Some are even below the loosen floorboards along with other normal books and tomes. This archive was a great treasure trove for people like June. His party mates are already near the novice level of {Mana Manipulation} and it will take a day or two to leave the beginner stage. June was a bit restless because he knows that sooner or later the Archives would be swarmed by High-humans employed by the nobles. The hidden skills and spells scattered here would be lost if he doesn¡¯t move soon. He went back to the building and gathered all parchments and tomes with aura in the second floor. He hid them near the crevice the size of a small and old t.v. and blocked it with a cabinet filled with the most boring articles and fictional stories made by incompetent authors to dissuade others to look though the mess. It was the perfect cover-up and the least suspicious part of the Archives. He went home quarter to two and meditated. One of his findings is that high-humans don¡¯t need much sleep when they have a higher level of meditation skill. It puts them in a trance like state similar to sleeping and the benefits are much more so. It only takes four hours of meditation equivalent to 8 hours of good night sleep to achieve similar effects. (End) Teaser: The following morning he woke up to the smell of freshly baked bread. He helped himself with some breakfast and showered in the washing room. News of the upcoming war was the topic of the day and due to the quick respond of the imperial family, preparations were already set and on schedule¡­ ***********************************************************************************