《Chaos Ascension》 Prologue 6 months before the Descent. In a high-tech lab somewhere in India, the eyes of an old white-bearded man sparkled as he saw the decades of his research come to life. He concentrated and willed the light into existence. The glove on his hand sparked and cackled, and a slight blue glow was transferred from his body to his hand to the wire that connected it to a small bulb. And defying all logic, the bulb lit up. 5 months before the Descent The scientists were clamoring to understand what happened. The blue power Professor Sharma from India had discovered hinted at a completely unexplored domain of energy and unraveled the mysteries of Life and Soul into Quantifiable numbers. The law that stated that ¡°Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed¡± had been marked redundant. The blue energy seemed to come from the soul and was in effect an inexhaustible, renewable, and completely clean source of energy. If proven right, it would mean the end of the energy crisis, and the beginning of a new era of eras. 3 months before the Descent The world was abuzz as the old Professor made his Nobel Speech. It was a humble expression of gratitude to those who supported him and an appeal to the world to use the power he had discovered responsibly. Instead of copyrighting his discovery he published it online and delivered it to the whole world. He could have become rich, but instead, he chose to become great. ¡°Knowledge is Power, and I want all of humanity to be empowered.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. 1 month before the Descent The internet was flooded with ideas, and all scientists showed different ways of harnessing the ¡°Mana¡± energy. They had discovered an easy alternative of a ¡®mana suit¡¯ that could be made with steel and electronics. The governments tried to stop the rampant spread but it was like a genie out of the bottle. Mana had reached the Commons. There were reels of influencers showing cool effects with stupid background music floating about along with Utube tutorials for setting up your own Mana suit. It was officially called the ¡°Sharman Suit¡± in honor of the scientist, but due to its similarities in behavior and abilities to the fantasy element of magic, Mana caught on and stuck. 15 days before the Descent Amid the heated debates, about the changes due to mana, A rumor was gaining traction on the web. A year ago it would have been discarded without a second thought. But the events of the last few months had broadened the world¡¯s horizons. It was a simple but exciting one. Those who started using Mana the earliest could now use minuscule amounts of it without the arrays and suits. 3 days before the Descent A public demonstration by a group of Australian Scientists proved the theory of Adaptation, showing to millions on a live stream that the human body could utilize Mana on its own once trained to a certain extent by the Sharman Suits, although the Arrays and Runes still needed to be used for wider applications. D-Day As the world went about its day no different than any other a strange phenomenon occurred. Suddenly all the electronics stopped working and grandiose instrumental music started sounding. As the sound of drums and violins faded a mechanical but somehow cheerful voice sounded in the sky - Basic Mana Requirement met. Incubation Complete. Starting Baby Protocol. Denizens of the new world are advised to remain stationary and prepare for System Descent. ETA 0 hours 4 minutes 59 seconds. Chapter 1 : The Story Begins! Max stared at the yellow smiley face on the wall screen with a timer above its head showing 00:33:35. The doorless room was completely white with a simple cozy brown chair and table in the middle with a small potted plant in the corner. There was a pale blue-colored holographic screen right in front of me like a VRMMORPG. ¡°Your choice Mr. Callahan?¡± the emoji repeated again. And he thought to himself, ¡¯I still can¡¯t believe this is happening¡¯ 3 hours earlier ¡°Maximus Callahan, Come down this instant!¡± Full name. Damnn, It¡¯s not gonna be pretty. Full name always meant Trouble. What happened though? He didn¡¯t remember doing anything full-name-worthy in a while. Did Mom figure out that he snuck out? Nah, if that happened it would have been days ago, not today. He paused his game and stood up. ¡°Coming¡± Oh well, today is actually a good day for her to find out. He took out a paper from his bag before approaching the stairs. Mom was fuming with her hands on her waist while Octavia stood to the side, her eyes downcast and hands interlocked in front. As he descended Mom turned to him while Octavia started giving him ¡®the¡¯ look. So it wasn¡¯t them but Mom was in a bad mood, which is why something small was going up in flames. ¡°I gave the two of you one job, go to the grocery store, complete the list, and come back, ¡®before¡¯ I return, How hard is that? How far is the store, huh? On top of that, you guys haven¡¯t even cleaned up the dishes!¡± Not wanting to let the situation escalate he immediately started in a placating tone, ¡°Sorry Ma, I had plans to meet with friends later, so I thought I¡¯d kill two birds with one stone, Don¡¯t stress so much, it¡¯s not good for your health. Octavia will do the dishes now.¡± Seeing her expression falter a bit he immediately thrust out the paper. ¡° Besides today is a good day, look I got an A in a quiz.¡± She took it and started examining it instinctively. He wasn¡¯t a genius by any measure but he was pretty good in academics. ¡°This does not change what I said, you should listen to me,¡± she said, but her voice had lost the fire. Octavia slowly smiled behind her and mouthed ¡°Thank you¡¯ It had been her turn for the chores and he just used a valuable chip to prevent getting grounded for her. Sure enough, a few minutes later Mom was humming a tune in the kitchen saying she was gonna make something nice for the evening. Max put on a jacket to go out and picked up his bag. As he was leaving for the ¡®Study Group¡¯ he noticed his Mom keeping the sheet on the cupboard below his Dad¡¯s photo. It had become her ritual of sorts. Whenever he or Octavia did something nice she kept their achievements there. It had been 5 years since his death, but her love hadn¡¯t faded a bit. Max stood there watching for a while as she went back to her work. He then sighed and examined himself in the mirror before leaving one last time. An 18-year-old dark-haired and fair-skinned boy with the lithe figure of a reader stared back at him. An errant thought about how he looked struck him. He had an above-average look but was not anything to brag about. He had been planning on starting gym with his friend K for a while now. And this time he swore that he won¡¯t stop like all the last times. After all, nobody knew when an emergency would rear its head. And as if proving him right it struck soon enough. He had set out with a simple plan of returning home in 3 hours never guessing that the next time he came back to this house would be 3 years later. ----- An hours later Max found himself in a vacant under-construction building which would definitely look haunted at night. It had been this way for years with bricks strewn around and half-built pillars jutting out since the construction company owner had run off to Australia. And now this aspiring residential complex served another glorious purpose, It was a hangout spot for him and his friends. A sweet melodious laughter rang out as Lenora showed K some video of a cat in a mana suit hunting a mouse. ¡°Guys you gotta see this,¡± he exclaimed. ¡°Shut up I can¡¯t hear the dialogue!¡± Miles replied without taking his eyes off the anime he was watching on his phone. ¡°Reels are bad for the brain, you guys should stop that.¡± Thea slowly said while reading. She was going through a Digital Detox phase. She was a lean 5¡¯8 girl with black hair and eerily blue eyes. She had just above-average looks but was extremely smart.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°Max, you¡¯re here, give me your phone its volume is better!¡± Miles complained. He was a 5¡¯10 slightly handsome kid who was what you call the legendary ambivert, a mixture of Otaku and baseball player. As Max handed him the phone K shoved Lenora¡¯s phone into his face, ¡°You tell ¡®em, Max.¡± The reel wasn''t really good but K secretly liked Lenora so even if it had been a video of a man murdering and eating babies he would probably still have found it funny. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s cool.¡± he said with enough fake Enthusiasm to be acceptable to K while telling the rest ¡®Not Really¡¯ K was a 5¡¯8 Indian guy with a name so long and difficult to pronounce that it had been long since abandoned by anyone he knew. The best way to describe him was that he lived at the gym. Imagine the bulkiest Gym guy you¡¯ve seen and you¡¯ve got his physique right. ¡°Right! Miles just look at it once!¡± K continued, but Miles cut him off ¡°Shut the hell up It''s the premiere of the final season!¡± ¡°Just leave it K, let him drool over his waifu in peace.¡± Lenora took her phone back. She was a rich girl with a mysterious family. You couldn¡¯t tell what it was about her but despite her short petite stature of 5¡¯1, something screamed ¡®Danger! Don¡¯t Dig Deep!¡¯ All laughed as Max took out a chess set and Thea closed her book. The Sports day was approaching and they were both in the same house. Miles just glared at everyone but chose to prioritize anime over retaliation. Thea began setting up the pieces. They were a weird group but they had been together for a while now so somehow it worked. Thea set her side but held back a rook from his. ¡°C¡¯mon, if you keep doing this I¡¯ll forget how to play with a left rook when the matches start!¡± Max exclaimed while Thea just shrugged and changed the rook with a knight. ¡°You¡¯re better, it''s not fun otherwise.¡± He had simply followed Thea into chess club 3 years ago and had managed to beat everyone in a few months much to Thea¡¯s chagrin who was the previous top. Sadly her academic mastery did not extend to chess. They were in the middle of their second match when the music started. As the crescendo rose and drowned the world in its glory, they looked at each other with befuddled expressions when someone asked, ¡°Does anyone else hear that?¡± ------ Slowly the music started fading when suddenly there was a bright flash and a sharp pain in Max¡¯s head. When he opened his eyes a countdown was there on a floating blue screen. An announcement started in the sky. Basic Mana Requirement met. Incubation Complete. Starting Baby Protocol. Denizens of the new world are advised to remain stationary and prepare for Descent. ETA 0 hours 4 minutes 59 seconds. Everyone stopped and looked at each other with curious confused and surprised eyes. ¡°Do you guys see that?¡± K tried to touch the screen that must have appeared before him. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Thea whispered doubtfully. It was right in front of them but it was hard to reconcile its existence with sanity. Suddenly Lenora exclaimed ¡°Shit!¡± while everyone looked at her inquisitively a loud crash sounded from outside. ¡°What was that?¡± Miles asked and everyone started to look towards the window. ¡°Let¡¯s check it out.¡± Lenora started to move first. Max wasn¡¯t sure if anyone else noticed but he remembered Lenora¡¯s eyes to be one of realization instead of shock at finding a weird screen in front of you but the group had started moving. They looked out to see a few cars crashed into each other while distant sounds of panic and crashes were heard. A guy was calling for help while a few passersby were crowding around him. A few were helping while most looked around lost. However, it was a little hard to see without the streetlights on. Max observed a girl trying to switch on her phone, most probably to record but couldn¡¯t turn it on. A few seconds later he realized that a lot of people were doing the same. Odd, he thought, when he looked up to see the city draped in Darkness. ¡°Woah, what the hell?¡± Miles said as K exhaled a few seconds later ¡°Loopy!¡± They were just watching the people below freak out and panic when In the distance Max spotted a plane. ¡°Hey look!¡± All 5 of them followed his hand. In the distance, a plane¡¯s silhouette was growing in size. As the minutes passed it became apparent that it was falling toward them but they all stood frozen like statues not being able to match the reality they knew to the one they faced. ¡°Run!¡± Suddenly Lenora screamed ¡°Run you idiots run! Take cover!¡± As if just waking up they looked around and seeing her run towards the stairs started following. Unsure at first but then with certainty as they processed everything. Max had just cleared the building when he looked to his right at the plane. They were a little off and the plane was headed one building over, which did nothing to lessen their horror as it crashed into it spewing fire and rubble all around. They ran blindly while their luck held as the rocks falling around them didn¡¯t crush them but barely missed. As he passed the car crash he looked at the clock 00:00:59. He ran past the accident car with a few people standing around looking behind him at the crashing building. They all ran till they were winded and stopped around 50 meters farther near Lenora who had also stopped and was looking back. Max looked back to see Thea slowly catch up as he felt heartburn and gasped for air. The destruction happening was as mesmerizing as it was horrifying. An immovable giant of steel and concrete had been reduced to half a burning heap in seconds and was slowly tilting to fall over. His brain had just registered the screams when the clock hit 00:00:00. For a few seconds, nothing happened and he looked around to see if something had changed when another bright white light flashed and he found himself sitting on the chair inside the white room. Congratulations Seedling! Welcome to the system¡¯s baby protocol. Chapter 2 : Descent On the wall, there was a screen with a smiling yellow emoji that looked extremely excited The system knows that you are confused, shocked, and scared. Fear not! For it is here to answer all your questions. For the duration of the Tutorial at least. First, let¡¯s begin with a basic summary. Your world has generated enough mana to be considered a world aware of it. Thus it is hereby inducted into the Grand Procession(Multiverse) and will be thus terraformed and teleported out of the incubatory. While this happens you shall get acclimated and prepare for your new reality for the next 18 days. These will be followed by the 91-day trials before you return to your world. In The Grand Procession, the law of strength is paramount and all have to face a gauntlet of strength. (Children below the age of 11 at the time of Descent are exempted and will be returned to their parents on completion of Trials) So it is advised to choose a fighting path in the beginning and to keep other classes secondary although it''s not compulsory. During the 18-day tutorial, you shall try out various classes to reach the one that suits you best and to gain the level of INITIATE SEEKER before the trials begin. But first in order to begin the tutorial, choose a class. A screen appeared in front of him Listing hundreds of basic classes like Mage, Swordsman, Archer, Axeman, Summoner, Hero, Necromance, Beast Master, Shield man, etc. There were also non-combat ones like Runesmith, Blacksmith, Alchemist, and others but Max discarded them immediately in favor of the system¡¯s advice. There was even an option of ¡®Pick Random¡¯ He spent the first 10 minutes coming to terms and worrying about his close ones and only started when the System interrupted his thoughts for the 4th time Your choice Mr. Callahan? After concluding he couldn¡¯t do anything else anyway as there was no exit door in the room, he started questioning the system. Which annoyingly just described the myriad of basic classes and gave advice regarding his choice. As for the rest, Seedling will be informed in the Tutorial. ¡°Give me the best class you have.¡± The term best is undefined, Please define what is considered best. ¡°The one that has the potential to become the strongest or smartest or both in the end¡± All classes can become strongest and smartest depending on use. The system wishes to give complete freedom of choice to the seedlings. It seemed like a school teacher being asked about a career, absolutely neutral. ¡°Give me the class the topmost people of the Multiverse have.¡± Error, those classes do not exist in the basic repertoire. No matter what he asked it gave a non-answer. He had concluded that - well begun is half done, especially in what he knew from anime as well as from mundane logic. Someone with a headstart would definitely have an advantage. He felt like calling Miles as all this seemed to be his domain. Max had read a few light novels and mangas but he was a classics guy. Abruptly an idea popped into his head. ¡°Can I ask someone else for guidance?¡± Negative. You may only interact with system and system-related entities during the tutorial. At first, he was disappointed when noticed, ¡®system-related entities¡¯? That meant that there were other entities he could interact with. ¡°Then I would like to speak with the highest system-related entity I can speak with for guidance.¡± WARNING! Entities except the system may have their own agendas in guiding seedlings. Do you wish to proceed with the request? After thinking for a moment he thought if this is anything like the novels a lot of people are gonna die in the start due to a lack of knowledge. Having someone influential influence his path will likely allow him to survive longer as he will be under protection even if a pawn. He could find his own path once he survived. Max proceeded ¡°Yes¡± Who should the request be sent to? Note: Acceptance depends on the entity. The system does not guarantee guidance. Not knowing any entities Max just went with ¡°All of them. The stronger ones approached first.¡± Understood. Sending Requests. Requests sent. Standing by for a response. Please Wait. The smiley changed to several dots moving in a circle. A few minutes later a weird guy suddenly appeared behind Max. ¡°Oh, the room changed. It is quite pleasant even if a bit sparse. But I guess furniture for billions is hard to find. There is a plant at least for aesthetics.¡± the man looked around and started interacting with the system ignoring Max completely asking it questions that made no sense to Max. A few minutes passed. ¡°Umm, Excuse me, can you please guide me in choosing a class.¡± the man paused and glanced at him, ¡°Oh, right it was a guidance request. Just pick whatever kid. True shit will be assigned after Tutorial¡± ¡°But I need to pick one now too, please help me.¡± The man sighed.¡±I just came here to see how the system is working kid, so stay quiet and let me explore.¡± ¡°What the hell, you could at least try a bit since you wasted my request!¡± ¡°Ugh Fine, pick some kind of mage. Your intelligence is high.¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡±How do you know?¡± The man sighed and looked over ¡°Kid I¡¯m really not interested, I just came out of seclusion and felt like looking over how the newbies are being set up so I accepted your request. Besides what do I get from guiding you?¡± Max just glared at him and then proceeded to address the system ¡°I want another guide!¡± Negative. No other entities accepted your request. Max was dumbfounded. Aren¡¯t there millions of worlds with billions of people in the Grand Procession?¡± ¡°Nobody high enough to be system admin actually gives a shit kid, that was the point of the system.¡± the man remarked. Max mulled that over. That means this guy should be a big shot. Although he did not seem very reliable but Max still preferred experience over random choice and luck. He thought this over and began again ¡°How about we cut some deal?¡± The man raised an eyebrow, but Max could tell, that intrigue had displaced disdain. ¡°I am a Chaos Lord kid, you are not even an initiate¡± ¡°I am sure someone like you has plans in motion and there¡¯s a new world forming. I¡¯m sure I could help you.¡± His interest started waning ¡°A baby world has nothing to offer me.¡± ¡°Don''t you have any schemes that may need an extra hand¡± ¡°Nah, you''re not even good for a prank for shits and giggles¡± While speaking he suddenly slowed and took on a contemplative expression. Slowly it turned into a crazed smile like that of an arsonist maniac about to set fire to a fireworks factory. ¡°What kind of path do you want?¡± ¡°One that is best for Earth¡¯s Humans!¡± ¡°You know what, sign a contract with me and I won¡¯t just help you but also invest in you a little.¡± Entering a contract with so little info about his new world seemed foolish but he was the one who had proposed it. ¡°I am not signing up to be a slave or sacrifice.¡± The Chaos Lord stared at him for a few seconds before bursting into a laugh. ¡°Fair Enough, I won¡¯t ask you to do that, but you will owe me a ¡®favor to participate in one event if my guidance turns out to be beneficial.¡¯ In return, I¡¯ll help you choose a class and invest in you something that will be best for Earth¡¯s Humans, Deal?¡± A Golden parchment appeared with sparks with these exact conditions in the air and the Chaos Lord thrust it forward to him. The contract was pretty straight forward and put down the agreement word for word. It was actually pretty expansive in regards to slavery and freedom clauses and covered a lot of ground protecting Max¡¯s freedom from problems like issuing of suicide missions as the favor that even he hadn¡¯t thought of. After thinking for a while, Max signed it. ¡°Alright then, first let¡¯s check if my bet is good or not.¡± The man walked over and placed a hand on Max¡¯s forehead. Max felt a small sliver of heat travel from the man¡¯s hand into his head. It felt extremely chaotic and dangerous but surprisingly nice. The warm feeling slowly spread out into his whole body as if searching for something. After a few seconds, he noticed it pooling around his heart when a terrible pain engulfed him as he felt his heart being burnt to ashes. He screamed and fell clutching his chest. Slowly the pain subsided, and he just lay there with his eyes closed savoring the burn¡¯s absence. His whole body felt like he had run a marathon and he didn¡¯t want to wake up. ¡°Well, at least you are compatible¡± was the last thing he heard before blacking out. ¡°Hey kid this is important, you¡¯re not much but I don¡¯t want my investment to sleep to death.¡± Max slowly opened his eyes and started to sit up when he noticed a change. Gone was the white room. He was sitting on top of a black mountain in a world of Lava. Instead of the smiley, there was an angry dark cloud in the skies shaped like a horned Demon¡¯s face. Although the timer was still there. He was just reeling from the view when the cloud demon''s mouth opened Negative. Prior versions have already been destroyed and absorbed into the new versions. Version 76¡¯s destructuring is also underway. Max noticed the timer, He had only been out for a few minutes before being jerked awake. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Max asked. ¡°I am taking out the version of the system for you that I think was best. But it appears those versions have been redacted and their resources allocated to the new system.¡± ¡°So this is the same intro room, just of a different version?¡± ¡°Yeah pretty much. Although, this 76th one was a particularly nasty one with the most abysmal survival ratio of all systems to date. Honestly, it was considered a loss and updated after one turn. But those who survived became really really strong. It had proportionately good rewards.¡± ¡°Why are you looking for a prior version though? What¡¯s wrong with the current?¡± ¡°There was a nice version where getting desired classes and Origins was a lot easier. I am planning to get you the origin of a Race Piece, those ones need a bit more conductive environment.¡± Max looked around to see a volcano erupting in the distance and looked at the man questioningly. nice? ¡°I am not sending you here.¡± ¡°Then why are we here?¡± ¡°Usually the systems give basic classes in the tutorial and assign origin at the end of trials. Around these 70s the fad was to allow seedlings to choose whatever Origin they wanted from the beginning and tailor trial difficulty according to them. Let me just look for a moment.¡± The man was looking at something in a list in front of him. Max was just going to ask what he meant by ¡®Origin¡¯ when a strange circle suddenly appeared beneath the Chaos Lord¡¯s feet. ¡°Umm, Excuse me is that supposed to happen?¡± Max was looking around for any other changes when he noticed that the timer had hit zero. ¡°Is what suppos¡­.¡± Before the man could complete the sentence he was teleported out. Time is up. Isolating Incubation world. The demon in the sky roared. You have not chosen, thus your choice shall be made for you. Beginning Random selection. Max panicked. ¡°Wait wait wait, I did choose one. I asked for the class that will be best for humans like me you just didn¡¯t tell me which it is.¡± The best for humans huh? So you are one of those honorable ones. The demon paused speaking for a moment as if thinking. Very well, I shall grant you the Origin that can benefit humans the most. I have judged that you shall be a Progenitor. Prepare yourself. The first trial of combat shall commence in 5 minutes. Inspect your weapon. May you draw the Wheel! Another timer appeared before Max¡¯s Dumbstruck eyes. His mind galloped like a racehorse. Hmm, so this version can recommend classes. But wait, does that mean that I have to play this guy''s version of the tutorial? Wait. didn¡¯t he say trial? Wasn¡¯t it supposed to be a tutorial first? A musket gun and a bag appeared in front of him and he caught them both as a reflex. Yes, the single-shot musket gun from the 1800s. Chapter 3 : First Kill Your missions shall appear in your status window. May you draw the world! Status window? Like the ones in the novels. But how can I see it? ¡°Status¡± he yelled. Nothing happened. ¡°Status¡± he yelled again while spreading his arm at the distance where the last window had appeared. The demon watched his antics and sighed. Put your hand over your heart and say status. Max obeyed the demon and put a fist over his heart. STATUS Name : Maximus Callahan Race : Human(X) Class : None Origin : The Progenitor(Unascended) Rank : Seedling(None) Grade : Seedling(None) Titles : - Chaos Seed : ¡ª------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nodes : 8,534,432,532(Effective - 10,000,000,000) Level : 1 EXP : 0/10,000,000,000 HP : 20/20 MP : 05/05 STR : 6 INT : 9 VIT : 5 Def : 6 Skills : None A window opened in front of him. He went over his stats to see if he could find any description about the Origin or the Progenitor. When he couldn¡¯t see anything he looked up to ask the Demon only to find that it had disappeared and only clouds remained. A red dot notification appeared at the corner of the window. That¡¯s when he realized there were some greyed-out tabs there, and only two were bright - Status and Missions. He promptly clicked on the missions tab. MISSIONS BABY protocol Seedling and universe out of sync. Error assigning missions. Reboot. Mission data overwritten by version 76 by the authority of admin. Adjusting difficulty according to the Origin chosen. Missions loaded. Trial 1/3: Combat Phase 1/7 Special Clause: You who have chosen the path of the progenitor, represented by #21 of the Major Arcana the World. You claim to know where you are and where you need to go. Thus, You shall march the Grand Procession alone and aidless. For all around us follow the light, Except the one who bears the Torch. (Squad size reduced from 10 to 1) Your creatures are forever seeking harmony with you. They spend their lives seeking purpose, knowledge, power and peace. Never seeing the whole, never knowing the truth. But The world knows all, sees all, understands all. (All aiding and information tools of the system except the Status window are switched off for the duration of the trials.) To claim the seat of the Progenitor is to claim the seat of the Apex. Rise to the Apex or fall to the void. (All trials need to be completed with an X rating or an extra penalty will be dealt) (Your path is one that influences the path of Humanity. Thus you may only use race-specific skills during the trials. All other skills are banned.) Time Left : 72 Hours 01 minutes 12 seconds E - Mission 000 : Survive the battle and kill 10 soldiers.(0/10) D - Mission 001 : Kill 4 captains. (0/4) C - Mission 002 : Kill 100 soldiers. (0/100) B - Mission 003 : Kill an Enemy Commander. (0/1) A - Mission 004 : Kill all 4 Enemy Commanders. (0/4) S - Mission 005 : Kill the Enemy General. (0/1) Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. X- Mission 006 : Lead and win the battle of Panawan Woods(0/1) Rewards: Promotion to Initiate Seeker. Penalty: Rewards withheld. No healing administered. Rating is F for the Origin Evaluation Extra Penalty: Death Note: To increase your rating, all previous missions should be completed. What the hell? What kind of missions were they? And he has to do all of them with those restrictions? And when did he claim anything? Also, if the Progenitor is supposed to be so great, then where were all his great skills? He was seriously regretting not working on the Mana gadgets back home. He had tried a bit to look cool but had found doing the whole setup quite cumbersome. In the middle of all these thoughts, a light flash covered his vision. ----- In a cave far away the Chaos Lord appeared. Huh, thrown out. It looks like they upgraded the anti-interference system. He thought back to the kid he met. ¡°Oh well, Some days you draw the wheel, some days it is the Tower!¡± ¡ª-- The light had just faded when a man roared ¡°Make ready!¡± Max found himself leaning against a tree facing a river. ¡°Fire¡± sounded somewhere far away and was followed by hundreds of gunshots ramming into trees and soldiers on Max¡¯s side of the bank. A shot exploded right above his head and he fell down in shock. Ears still ringing a man suddenly ran over to him and spoke something. At first, he couldn¡¯t understand him but slowly his hearing returned. ¡°Cosby, dammit are you hit?¡± ¡°Huh, n..no.¡± ¡°Then get up and load dammit!¡± he returned to his own tree and started loading his musket. Max shakily stood up and looked around. He was at the shores of a fast-flowing river in a sparsely populated forest. The trees were tall and thick but far apart. He was wearing simple khaki pants and a brownish shirt. The men around him were relentlessly firing from cover onto the opposite bank. There were soldiers on the other side with blue uniforms with two white stripes making an X. The whole thing looked like the rebel vs imperial scenario. The imperial soldiers were returning fire but were mostly focused on the boats where the rebels were climbing in and rowing across. There wasn¡¯t much cover on the boats so they made easier targets. There was a large group of rebels in a line facing away from the docking zone with muskets in hand. They were keeping the Imperials in the woods at bay as their comrades fled to the boats. But they were in the open and were losing too many soldiers. ¡°Bang¡± the soldier right beside Max fired somewhere. He looked over and shouted. ¡°Cosby! Get it together!¡± He was shouting when suddenly his head blew up and shook Max out of his reverie. Max started to load his Musket as The other guy had done as the guy to the further right shouted ¡°Man down!¡± Another rebel took the soldier¡¯s place. ¡°James!¡± a woman up in the tree screamed while looking at the fallen man. Max was no soldier, but in all living things, there is something called Survival Instinct. He instinctively started fumbling with the musket. It would have been a funny sight seeing him figure out how the musket worked but nobody was paying attention. The rebels were more or less working on fire at will. The air was filled with Screams and cries of ¡°Outta ammo!¡± or ¡°Man Down!¡± The enemy army was more organized. With cries of Make ready, aim, and fire, the enemies fired in squads reaping lives in spades. With the trees and chaos it was hard to tell who was winning, but seeing as they were running away it did not look good for the rebels. The boat docks on the opposite shore especially. Dozens of bodies lay there in pieces. Vomit came up but Max just swallowed it and steeled himself. He was sitting in the shade with a loaded musket but could not bring himself to look out and fire. After all, to look out and fire meant to expose himself to the enemy guns. Logically he knew, there was a mission going on, he was in the middle of a battlefield and there was no way not to fight. But still, he just sat there frozen. To him, the outside of the shade felt like death¡¯s domain. The warmth of the sun had become the cold of the death¡¯s embrace. ----- Max was just staring at the man to his left who would load, take a deep breath, look out , and fire. Only to repeat it all over again. Max imagined his head being blown up every time but somehow he was still here after 3 rounds. After the 3rd shot, he shouted ¡°Haah! Got One¡± The rebel to his further left looked at white bearded shooter like he was crazy ¡°Shut up! Old man, are you crazy? This is not a game!¡±. ¡°I¡¯ve seen more battles than you¡¯ve seen winters kid! This is like a coming back home celebration.¡± He inhaled loudly and smiled ¡°You smell that gunpowder! Top Stuff¡± Seeing this the other man looked at him increduously, he smiled a disbelieving smile and started loading. Seeing the old man shoot gave Max courage. The more the man shot the more Max unwinded. Finally, He took up the musket and made an O with his mouth. He steadily inhaled a deep breath and peeped out from behind the tree to see the chaos on the other side of the river. At first, he saw nothing but trees when he heard ¡°Aim!¡± from the other side.¡± Promptly half a dozen soldiers looked out from behind the trees. A bang sounded from his left and a soldier shuddered and fell back with a small explosion of red from his chest. Being on edge Max also fired his musket in their general direction in surprise. The bearded man yelled ¡°Got another¡± while another scream echoed ¡°Fire!¡± The soldiers let loose a volley and a burning sensation appeared on his cheek jerking him into action and taking cover. He touched his cheek to find it wet and his hand red. From his right, a man spoke. ¡°Don¡¯t stop after firing kid, you were lucky this time.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± the bearded man agreed while loading his musket. Max began loading again. While he loaded the men fired two more shots. Remembering gun basics from shows and general knowledge, he had overcompensated for the expected kickback on firing so that didn¡¯t hurt him and now he had a better hang of it. He looked out again and waited. As soon as he saw a soldier appear he fired, only to see a tree near the soldier get another bullet mark spewing splinters. This time he immediately fell back as the edge of the tree he was looking out of exploded inwaards. He looked around to see the others loading and the bearded guy grinning. ¡°You got it, kid.¡± Max fired a few more shots. None of them hit but his speed and aim was getting better. The enemy was more focused on other more lethal shooters so the number of shots being fired at him were very less. He finished loading and took a deep breath. They had just fired so that meant they were in cover loading. Max had been eyeing a soldier nearer to the bank but at an angle that was bad for other but good for Max. He had shot at him few times adjusting trajectory a bit each time. Now he felt confident of his relative aim in that direction relative to that man. Max took a deep breath, looked out and aimed. For a second the world disappeared. There was only him and that tree. ¡°Aim!¡± came the call and the man emerged from behind at a height lower than usual. He must be sitting now. He started aiming somewhere to Max¡¯s left but before he could. Max lined up the muzzle and Fired. BANG! The man¡¯s chest shuddered and a red haze sprang out. Due to muscle memory of the last few shots Max took cover. For a second he was still as he realized what he had done. Maybe it was all those action games or maybe he was just a maniac or maybe it was the adrenaline in his blood, but all he felt was thrill. He immediately grinned and yelled to the bearded man ¡°Got one!¡± Only to see the man clutching his stomach. Blood was coming out of his mouth and his eyes were unmoving. The grin faded from his lips as he realized what happened. He took in a deep breath and yelled ¡°Man Down!¡± Chapter 4 : The Mage The Death of the veteran had jolted Max awake to reality. This was a battlefield, and the Grim Reaper wasn¡¯t particularly picky with his meals. His shots became less frequent and his cover more careful. You have killed a seedling enemy soldier. +10 XP The soldier must have finally bled out. It wasn¡¯t much but it was something. What the hell was wrong with his XP requirement? 10 Billion? Was it another effect of being a Progenitor candidate or of the Chaos Seed that had its Description redacted? Filing it away for later thinking He refocused on the battle. His aim was still really bad but in the chaos of the battle he still picked off two more soldiers. He had just found a rhythm again of load-shoot and hide. A worry had slowly crept into his mind - At this rate how the hell was he gonna complete those damn missions? He needed to take risks. But how? And where? He was surveying the current situation when there was a loud crash and a large boat rushed downstream. The boat was full of imperial soldiers and they were all standing in a formation on its deck. ¡®Are they idiots? Why are they standing without cover?¡¯ As he finished loading his musket he spotted a translucent blue shield covering the whole boat. Every once in a while it would sharply spark here and there as a bullet made contact. An imperial soldier in a violet uniform emerged from the still-perfect ranks of soldiers with a ball of fire in his hands. ¡°MAGE! Get down!¡± someone screamed as the ball of fire raced from his hands and collided with a rebel boat. The rebels on it were jumping off it when the whole boat exploded throwing men and what was left of their comrades into the air. The mage started concentrating again while distant screams of ¡°Mage!¡± were being heard by the scouts to the rear. The method of communication seemed to be men screaming a message for a relay scout to hear it and scream again. Seeing the mage the imperials became confident and started taking bold actions while a few rebels broke ranks and fled. A few explosions were seen on the shield from rebel-thrown dynamites, but at most it would just crack a little after 3-4 explosions. Following this another mage emerged and waved his hands over the shield. A bluish-white mist emerged from his hands an rectified the cracks. Max focused his shots on the other side of the shore where in boldness soldiers were leaving themselves open. He knew they needed to take the mages out but he had no way to do so. For a while, the river had gained a tinge of red which was washed away with the flowing current, In a few minutes, most of the boats were sunk and the rebels on the opposite bank had scrambled to take cover as they lost a good chunk of their number. But the circumstances were still dire as the rebels on the other side were still sandwiched between the imperials on the boat and the shore. In the midst of all this, a few rebels were struggling to push two horse carts to the bank. Their cargo was covered with a greenish-brown cloth. It was proving difficult to maneuver them through the trees but the rebels were still fighting tooth and nail to move them along. Suddenly, one of the wheels of the second cart got stuck. Max knew there must be something important under the covers for the rebels hadn¡¯t sounded a retreat. Besides this was the risk he was thinking about a few minutes prior. He jumped up and an towards the carts. He put a hand on it and started pushing with the others. The man overseeing this looked up, his expression had faltered seeing Max run this way but as soon as he saw what Max was doing his grip on his musket relaxed. They reached the bank when the first cart removed its cover to show a huge black canon loaded on the cart. ¡°To the left!¡± ordered the overseer and they all started steering the cart. The horse was shot and its absence was making it more difficult to get the second cart into position. They had just reached the position when the overseer was shot down. A man near the first cannon shouted ¡°Fire!¡± and an explosion followed. A mass of fire and metal erupted out of it and exploded on the mage¡¯s shield. The cracks formed were the largest Max had seen so far. This also drew the attention of the mages and soldiers who were till now solely focused on annihilating the rebels on the other side. A bullet took off the head of the Torchbearer¡¯s head but everyone around him was just standing there. Seeing the lost expression on the faces of everyone around, Max realized the problem of commands. He screamed ¡°Aim!¡± the rebels burst into action and started adjusting the aim of the cannon. Max picked up the torch and put it on the wick jutting out, Sparks alighted, and BAM. The cart shuddered as the canon fired a bomb into the cracks and right into the face of the mage who had just released a bolt of lightning towards the canons. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Max ducked as the lightning hit somewhere just behind him. The lightning and the bomb exploded simultaneously. Max was hurled through the air and fell into the river. A swed ¡®Ding¡¯ sounded in his ears as an intense shock on his back was replaced by a cool wet chill as he struggled to breathe and was swept away by the currents. He didn¡¯t know how to swim so he was just thrashing around. It had only been a minute but he felt like he had been struggling for an eternity. The current hadn¡¯t looked so fast from above but it felt like a Tsunami in the middle. Suddenly he crashed into something and his arm ached. Instinctively he caught on to the fallen tree he had crashed into and used it to steady his bearing. His body felt numb and his wet hands struggled to find purchase as he used the trunk to reach the shore. Slowly he crawled to the bank and heaved himself on top of it. He just lay there as his whole body started aching. The warm sun rays provided relief to the cold he was feeling. A few minutes passed. Max pushed himself to stand up. He was relatively without cover. He was far from the boats but still, an enemy could be running around here. He had lost his musket in the struggle, the only weapon he had on him was a knife. He held it in his hand and made a few swings in the air when a metallic clink sounded. But instead of the following blast of a bullet being fired, nothing happened. Max looked up to see an imperial soldier holding a musket to his face less than 3 meters away. He froze and his heart skipped a beat ¡®Is this it?¡¯ He instinctively closed his eyes. Another clink sounded in the forest but still, the musket remained silent and the pain he braced for never came. He looked to see the perplexed soldier looking at the gun in confusion. A drop of water dripped down from the muzzle. One would think that a trained soldier won¡¯t make such a rookie mistake like not accounting for the powder being wet after getting thrown into a river. But such is the nature of battle. And today it seemed that lady luck had favored Max. He immediately charged before the dripping soldier could react. The soldier changed his hold on the musket using it to aim for Max¡¯s chin. Max just ducked and slammed into the soldier. The soldier stumbled and partially crashed his back into a tree and they both fell to the ground. Still reeling from the impact Max rose to his knees to see the soldier still reeling from the impact. He dove knife first towards him but the soldier raised his hands in defence. Due to bad technique, the knife just slashed his hand instead of doing lasting damage. Then a struggle began between them both. The soldier caught his knife hand and began twisting it. Max felt the knife slip from his fingers. Abruptly he left the knife and instead used his hands as support by placing them on the ground. The soldier had just gripped the knife that had fallen on his shoulder when Max rammed him knee into his Groin. Cowardly but effective. His hands immediately covered his family jewels while Max grabbed the knife. Wasting no time he haphazardly drew it into the soldier¡¯s throat. The soldier still struggled and gurgled, so for good measure, Max stabbed and scratched his throat until the man stopped moving and a notification sounded out. Max just panted and tried to catch his breath as he realized that his top half was messily covered in warm blood. He pushed himself off of the man and rolled over. He tried to stand but his hands gave out. His shoulder ached as the fatigue of shooting the musket caught up to him and his back ached from the bolt¡¯s shockwave. Between his tired broken breathes, he drifted off to sleep. ----- Unsteady steps sounded among the trees. A figure coated in dried blood was plodded slowly with a musket in his hand and a small bag on his back. He was chewing on the beef jerky he had found on the soldier. Max was going in the general direction of where he assumed his main camp was according to the rear guard camps he had noticed while fighting on the river bank. The soldier he had looted after killing did not have much except the basic water and food. No gold or anything. Well, it made sense not to bring valuables to the battlefield unless necessary Surprisingly, soldier on the bank had been a captain. Max had made a lot of progress in his gamble with the canons. He had even gotten a commander. Although the experience didn¡¯t make a lot of difference to the black hole that was his Experience requirement. But still it felt good see there was progress in his quests. You have killed a seedling enemy soldier. +10 XP You have killed a seedling enemy soldier. +10 XP You have killed a seedling enemy soldier. +10 XP You have killed a Noviciate Seeker Lightening Mage. (Commander) +100*2*10=2000 XP His canon blast must have taken out 3 other soldiers. He briefly wondered about what Noviciate Seeker means as his reward for this trial was to become an Initiate Seeker. As he walked he couldn¡¯t help but be happy to see the fulfillment of B Rating Criteria. He knew he had to do them all, but it was one less mission to worry about. MISSIONS BABY protocol Trial 1/3: Combat Phase 1/7 (Squad size reduced from 10 to 1) (All aiding and information tools of the system except the Status window are switched off for the duration of the trials.) (All trials need to be completed with an X rating or an extra penalty will be dealt) (Your path is one that influences the path of Humanity. Thus you may only use race-specific skills during the trials. All other skills are banned.) Time Left : 59 Hours 40 minutes 12 seconds E - Mission 000 : Survive the battle and kill 10 soldiers.(8/10) D - Mission 001 : Kill 4 captains. (1/4) C - Mission 002 : Kill 100 soldiers. (8/100) B - Mission 003 : Kill an Enemy Commander. (1/1) A - Mission 004 : Kill all 4 Enemy Commanders. (1/4) S - Mission 005 : Kill the Enemy General. (0/1) X- Mission 006 : Lead and win the battle of Panawan Woods(0/1) Rewards: Promotion to Initiate Seeker. Penalty: Rewards withheld. No healing administered. Rating is F for the Origin Evaluation Extra Penalty: Death A few hours later he heard a sound ¡°Halt¡± Max stopped immediately and started looking around. Slowly a few rebels emerged from behind the trees ¡°State your allegiance!¡±. ¡°Wait, don¡¯t shoot. He is one of mine!¡± Another voice rang out. A man emerged from behind the trees. He was a black-haired 5¡¯11 guy with the air of a grizzled veteran about him. ¡°Welcome back Private Cosby! I guess now I should say Captain Cosby. Good job on blowing up a commander! Chapter 5 : Night Raid Chapter- 5 Night Raid The country of Imantea was ot large by any means. In fact as far as countries go it could barely be called one. After all, The number of proper cities in it didn¡¯t even reach three figures and that was including the two conflicted ones. But still it was feared. Not because of its large army or advanced weaponry, but because of its mages. It was ruled by a council of wizards that ruled with an iron fist. Sometimes quite literally as some of their metal casters could turn their skin to metal. You rose up against them you died, you spoke against them you died, you disobeyed you died, and if you were a slave, if you thought more than necessary, you guessed it, you died. In a remote corner of a country like this where the magicless seedlings were nothing more than a number on some wizard¡¯s cashbook, a small town called Inkaros was facing something half the towns in the country faced almost every decade or so - A rebellion. You would think the Council would be worried by this frequency but on the contrary it was worried that the peasants weren¡¯t rebelling enough. How else will they train their young ones in combat without risking their life. After all, A non mage killing a mage was almost unheard of. But still this sorry group of Rebels had managed to take down one of the five wizards present in the town. Now this was cause of outrage. But the outrage wasn¡¯t that they had lost one of their own, it was that the shitty piss poor rebels had canons. Muskets and guns were alright, but canons, those were really hard to build by themselves. That means someone was supporting them. You see, people raising up arms against injustice looks extremely cool but seldom happens in reality. The common man simply has no grand worldviews. He wants to go to work in the morning, earn his living in the afternoon and come home to his loving family in the evening for a good night¡¯s rest. He has no time or organization to move as cohesively and radically as a rebellion needs to. Its not that he is not angry, He just doesn¡¯t want to be the one to rock the boat. For you see, rocking the boat means taking responsibility. It means walking into a risky future with no certainty. So instead he grumbles and goes back to sleep. The devil you know is better than the devil you don¡¯t, right? But all this changes when somebody else starts. After starting, each day he survives he becomes a symbol. Not a grand one like that of power or rebellion. At least not in the beginning. In the start, he is just a symbol of certainty. That yes, you can survive even after defying the will of the masters. Yes, something can change. Little by little he becomes everything else. So how do this ¡®start¡¯ usually occurs? You might think it occurs on a desolate street with a dead mother and missing sister but no, it usually begins in grander halls with glasses of champanes. Your usual run of the mill protagonist story, that happens everyday. But what doesn¡¯t happen is the fortunate encounter between the victim and the mysterious entity. And that encounter is usually built in those halls. For example, this rebellion. Its origin wasn¡¯t the usual one with the backer aiming to weaken or overtake the country, but a far more simpler one. The lord of the town and the general of the army from the last chapter Lord Arif Guntenberg went to a gathering of nearby mage lords. In this gathering while drunk on champane he had insulted the honarable Lord Kolam¡¯s wife. A duel followed which Kolam lost. So being a aristocrat he decided to hit Arif where it would hurt most. His reputation. Gold flowed and the angry little one who would have found themselves in a cell or a grave found themselves in a clearing in the middle of the woods cheering to the death of a mage. I¡¯m not saying people with these proper ideals do not exist. Just that they need a good platform to exist on. And as soon as they get it, they shine and sometime, just sometimes, Make it more than it was supposed to ever to be. ----- Max slurped at his soup while his newly appointed team practiced loading and unloading the four canons that the rebels had. He had been given a Hero¡¯s welcome on returning to camp. Apparently someone had seen him blow up the commander on the boat. And to the rebels, for whom a mage was the very symbol of oppression he had become a liberator. He was given a special gun and 10 recruits to do what he had done best. Canons. He had originally wanted to practice his shooting but it felt bad for morale if they realized that their hero couldn¡¯t even shoot. Especially after making such an impactful first impression by taking the commendation in a blood covered dress. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. When the rebels started they were 4 times the enforcers. (the ones Max had been calling imperials.) At the first clash the ratio became twice and after the river they were almost equal. Morale was sorely needed to keep all this from falling apart. He had spent the day getting to know the recruits and learning the basics of command. Which basically included him telling them to practice for a while. Then not knowing what to do himself he had opted to help in the food preparations. Not out of kindness or anything but because he felt stir crazy like most other soldiers. When he served the food he was greeted a lot by those who learnt what he did, but the mood didn¡¯t lift much. They had simply lost too many. What shall tomorrow bring? Was a question all of them were asking as more and more of their comrades stumbled into the large clearing with gaping wounds and news of dead comrades. But they had been wrong. They should have asked what will tonight bring? ----- The cry of ¡°Raid! Raid! Raid!¡± woke max up as a bell started ringing. It took him a moment to figure to properly wake up when he recalled the meaning of the words. They were under attack! He had slept in clean clothes but his weapons on. So he simply took up his bag and exited his tent. Not all rebels did but the hero had a tent. All around people were running towards the center of the clearing, where standing on a cart a large man called Ivan was standing stoicly with the fiery air that belonged to the rebellions leader speaking of glory and sacrifice and everything in between. From the west Max could hear the sounds of gunfight and screams. He suddenly started jogging towards the west - The canons were west. As he jogged he heard a loud cheer behind him. He entered a canon tent and found almost all his squad members there. Was I really that slow, he thought. As the explosions drew near their faces lost colour. Some from fear some from adrenaline. Max wanted to raise their morale but didn¡¯t know how. The tension was so thick that it somehow made movement slow. They were looking at him for commands but he was still debating what to do. Should I run and save the canons? Should I fight? Will I be even able to hit right in the dark. He was still thinking when a loud voice roared from right outside, ¡°Kills these bastards!, Leave no one alive! You! Set fire to these goddamn tents!¡± It was not a friendly. They were near the western edge of the encampment so it made sense that the enemy came her fast but this was too fast for them to react. As soon as the man said it a sizzling sound rose followed by a fireball ripping through the tent and exploding on one of the canons. The powder in it caused a subsequent blast hich caused the whole tent to collapse. The shockwave somehow flew the cloth out and they were all exposed to outside. Something had struck Max in his left bicep. A sharp pain suddenly rose up as a burning peace of cloth landed right in front of him on the canon. The bigger blast had thrown most rebels off their feet and drawn the attention of the men outside. Everything was in chaos and a lot of tents were in flames. It seemed more like a chaotic melee for the fighters. But the in front of Max was a mage in a Red Uniform behind who a lot of Enforcers were standing. For a split second they both just stared at each other. ¡°You!¡± The mage exclaimed as small sparks of mana enveloped his hands. The soldiers raised their musket. In that split second Max had a bout of clarity, He immediately caught and jammed the burning cloth right into the Canon¡¯s firing pin. Due to direct contact the Canon immediately shuddered while everybody realized a trick of fate. The mage was standing right in front of the firing line. ¡°Aw F*ck!¡± BAM. The Canon blew through the Mage¡¯s abdomen and exploded right behind him into the soldiers. A string of notifications went up in the Status window while Max screamed in pain. He held his bloody hand which had now lost a finger and bleeding profusely and just fell down in pain. ----- Symbols are a two edged blade. The mere presence of a dignified symbol can raise armies and give hope to the hopeless. There¡¯s a very good reason why kings tried to turn themselves into invincible symbols by associating themselves with Gods and mystical tales. Which made their presence on the battlefield a huge deterrent. After all, who can defeat a God? But there was a flip side too. The second edge. Once such a symbol falls, the exalted symbol of the army¡¯s might, The representation of its power and hope of its victory. The Morale falls in an abyss so deep, that darkness itself refuses to venture there. A bell started ringing in the clearing in a specific tune - A signal - Tang, Tang, Tang-Tang Tang. The more the rebels heard it the more their spirits grew. Some scout had witnessed Max and the mage and now he was sending out a message. Slowly amongst the cheers of the rebels the Enforcers realised how their enemies had found their second wind. - A Mage has Fallen A palpable wave spread thorough both ranks as the word spread. Some disbelieved, some fled some were too far gone into the bloodlust to care. But overall, the blueshirts broke. Chaos ensued because instead of using normal communication their usual method of contact was the Mage screaming in a Mana amplified voice. Extremely efficient, normally yes. But today, fatal. Orders were given and cancelled and the plan went out the burning window. The maddened rebels charging in the face of death broke what was left of their spirit. The Officers reeled. The expectation was a rout, they were chasing a tired army retreating to save its life. The were the ones attacking. They were the ones with the element of surprise as using magic they had crossed over the river extremely fast. To ensure a swift blow they had even moved when only one mage had arrived from the town. So how the hell didthey find themselves running through the woods as bullets whizzed past them and their fellow warriors fell. It was a rout indeed, just inflicted on the wrong side. Somehow they had drawn the Tower. ----- As the dust settled and the first ray of dawn spread its wings over the expanse of a lively green, spotty red and charred black that was the clearing. The results of the battle made themselves known. For every 2 rebels that died, 3 soldiers had fallen. The initial damage the surprise did was too large. But still the morale was sky high. Once could be said a fluke. But they had killed another mage last night. Chapter 6 : MMM Musket Magic and Mayhem STATUS Name : Maximus Callahan Race : Human(X) Class : None Origin : The Progenitor(Unascended) Rank : Seedling(None) Grade : Seedling(None) Titles : - MageSlayer of the Inkaros Rebels(Temporary leadership) Chaos Seed : ¡ª------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nodes : 8,534,430,002(Effective - 10,000,000,000) Level : 1 EXP : 5100/10,000,000,000 HP : 15/20 MP : 05/05 STR : 8 INT : 9 VIT : 5 Def : 7 Skills : None MISSIONS BABY protocol Trial 1/3: Combat Phase 1/7 (Squad size reduced from 10 to 1) (All aiding and information tools of the system except the Status window are switched off for the duration of the trials.) (All trials need to be completed with an X rating or an extra penalty will be dealt) (Your path is one that influences the path of Humanity. Thus you may only use race-specific skills during the trials. All other skills are banned.) Time Left : 5 Hours 40 minutes 12 seconds E - Mission 000 : Survive the battle and kill 10 soldiers.(10/10) D - Mission 001 : Kill 4 captains. (2/4) C - Mission 002 : Kill 100 soldiers. (14/100) B - Mission 003 : Kill an Enemy Commander. (1/1) A - Mission 004 : Kill all 4 Enemy Commanders. (2/4) S - Mission 005 : Kill the Enemy General. (0/1) X- Mission 006 : Lead and win the battle of Panawan Woods(0/1) Rewards: Promotion to Initiate Seeker. Penalty: Rewards withheld. No healing administered. Rating is F for the Origin Evaluation Extra Penalty: Death The title had suddenly appeared yesterday evening as he woke up. He had passed out from the pain after blowing up the mage and had woken up next day almost at night. Ivan and other bigshots had even included him in the leadership meeting. It had no benefits and its description simply read The rebels of Inkaros respect you and see you as one of their leaders. Although it was probably necessary to be considered a ¡®Leader¡¯ for the last quest to be completed. Max looked solemnly at the status and mission progress. 5200 XP 2000 each from two commanders, 500 each from captains, and 10 each from soldiers. It appeared that for captains and commanders, there was a multiplier of 10 for some reason. But still, it did not even make a dent in the total he required. There was one other thing that was bothering him. He had somehow managed to kill two commanders. He had never been particularly lucky in his life. So was it just beginner¡¯s luck or something more? For some reason, it felt like this had something to do with the Chaos Seed in his Status. The other things of note were the fact that his strength increased by two and defense by one, probably because of the last three days of hell that he had faced. To use his mana he had tried casting stuff when alone but he couldn¡¯t. And when I say couldn¡¯t I mean couldn¡¯t like he could not speak the incantations. Each time he tried the system would block his throat. It appears only what he can do as a ¡®human¡¯ was allowed. That is to say, all his power was his own two hands. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. He closed the window and looked up. It was the morning of his last day here and everyone around was preparing for a final fight. After the night raid as if in tacit agreement both armies were amassing at the opposite end of a massive lake. They were near enough to see the banners but too far too shoot a bullet. There had been almost no conflict between the two parties after that, which amazingly meant that Max was more worried about his C grade mission than he was about the rest. Of course, the other missions were tougher but 100 seemed like a very big number. Can he even load his musket 100 times in the next few hours. As the news of the dead mages spread the rebel ranks had grown to about twice the size of the enemy standing at around 1700, while the enemy only had 800. But the perfect ranks and presence of 3 mages tipped the scales in the favor of the Enforcers. After all, luck like the last two times was usually in very short supply. Slowly the rebel ranks started forming. Max gripped his injured hand. A dull throbbing still reared its head from time to time despite all those painkiller leaves he had shoved down his throat. He looked behind him as drums started from near the main camp. Max was standing with the first wave. He had volunteered to lead the charge. Not because of glory or anything. It was a simple fact he had come to terms with, If he wanted to finish this mission, if he wanted to survive, he needed to kill as many enforcers as possible, as soon as possible. The rebel army had 3 canons left and they had designated one to each wave, They were planning to fight in 3 waves. A big first one, a small middle one, and a finishing final one. Almost all leaders were in the last wave. Which is to say they planned to run to ¡®keep the resistance alive¡¯ if things didn¡¯t go their way. They had invited Max but he had refused. There was no point. The penalty was death. He could not live to fight another day. He destiny was enclosed in the next few hours. Slowly like a behemoth rising from sleep, the rebel army started its advance in lines. The ranks weren¡¯t perfect, the clothes weren¡¯t uniform, and discipline was just subpar enough to make the front resemble somewhat like a line. But the power that rears its head when hundreds join forces and march towards death was palpable in the air. The rebels resembled a wild beast with low discipline, crude looks, and primitive claws that were their makeshift muskets, But lethal nonetheless. The Enforcers marched in perfect formations in pristine uniforms that showed dust and tears if one looked closely enough. But from far, they looked like a trained hunter with measured steps and precise movements moving in for the kill. As the two beasts neared each other a solemn shroud of silence took over the lakeside. The marching feet and enormous drums were somehow muffled in that silence. The captains started sweating. After all, it was who shot first at the correct distance in the first volley. Too soon and your vanguard will miss most shots and the enemy will charge. Too late and the enemy¡¯s bullets would have destroyed your vanguard and you won¡¯t be able to properly return fire. Adrenaline raced and throats parched. Max could hear felt like he could hear his heartbeat somehow. It beat so hard that it hurt. Butt he still held. Not yet. The enemy army was only 100 meters from them. Not yet 80 not yet 60 not yet 50 not yet 40 not yet 30 ¡°Hold!¡± The beast stopped walking. ¡°Hold! Take Aim!¡± responded the enemy. ¡°Take aim, Fire at will!¡± The phrase ¡®fire at will¡¯ is very famous and I¡¯m sure you all have heard it many times over and you don¡¯t find it surprising. But in reality using it after the first volley was almost insane. Fire at will generally means that the chaos has reached a point where none of our plans can take effect. So fight as hard and fast as you can and hope for the best. Being freed from strict command allows explosive manoeuvrability and response at the cost of giving up any later plans as your soldiers will be in different conditions with different amounts of ammo and equipment. If both sides do it, it then boils down to average soldier quality and quantity. But it was the best move that Max could play. After all, he was not a general or any military man. He didn¡¯t know how to read and navigate a battlefield. So he went with the simplest strategy of all. Their enemy was small in number. Let¡¯s Explosively kill as many as we can so that strategies stop mattering at all. You have killed a seedling enemy soldier. +10 XP His gamble paid off. The rebels struck the first blow. The frontline of the enforcers was hit and more than half of them fell. ¡°Fire!¡± As soon as he heard Max Ducked. In front of him was a heavy iron sheet that they were using to protect the canon behind him. He hadn¡¯t fired it first as he wanted to save for the commanders. He started loading his musket. Sounds of metal hitting metal echoed as screams rose. He stood back up to fire. He didn¡¯t even have to aim much. The enemies were so many But he still tried to take out captains for his quest. The enemy was disciplined but waiting on commands, the rebels were firing at will. On net, damage dealt to both sides seemed equalish, as far as Max could tell at least. From a bird''s eye view, the soldiers were suffering. But two more volleys down the Rebels started losing the advantage. There was a good reason discipline was enforced. Firing rapidly and chaotically also tired you out. Max couldn¡¯t know this but other veterans started noticing. And one of them decided to use the one plan of attack that requires no planning at all. ¡°Charge!¡± At first, it was just the rebels around them but slowly the whole rebel line crashed into the enforcers and a melee ensued. Max had been using one of his subordinates to load muskets for him behind the sheet on the cart to fire at twice the speed. But now he couldn¡¯t do so as in a melee there was no visible wall of protection to the cart. He needed all hands on deck. But he had managed to fire 10 shots in the time it took for these 3 volleys. In a melee numbers matter too much. In the chaos the more you are the more backs will be exposed to you. So both armies sent out their second waves. The enforcer''s first line had been almost annihilated by the time the second wave reached. But instead of joining the melee, the running soldiers came to a stop. Annihilation meant no friend to accidentally hit when firing. So they chose to stop and fire. Meanwhile, a small number of them right behind the frontline set something to fire and hurled it over. Explosions carpeted the former melee site as blood, flesh, and intestines scattered all around. The rebels broke and started fleeing. Some had lost their muskets in the melee most had discharged them, and the enemy was too close. Max¡¯s squad on the cart could not move so fast and were at risk of being annihilated. So Max simply told the men to take off the sheet. He crawled back and set the wick on Fire. The enemy was still moving forward when the cart lurched and a blast blast blew up the closest enemy lines. The blast hit a bomb thrower who exploded in a bigger explosion and caused 3 explosions in his vicinity. The retreaters had joined the second wave and had started turning around. The rebels re-raised the iron sheet to block bullets as two men loaded the canon again. ¡°Ready¡± screamed the loader. ¡°Drop!¡± Ordered Max while lighting the wick on fire. But before he could a fireball erupted right underneath the shield hurling them and their canon into the sky. Chapter 7 : The First Battle The sharp ringing in his ears was muffled when he crashed into the water. For a moment there was silence. No screams or explosions, No bullets or bodies. Just a vast expanse of water that was untouched and tranquil below the surface. But then the silence shattered as someone else crashed in front of him from above and he remembered to swim back up. He quickly broke through the surface and started swimming back. As the ringing subsided the sounds of battle flooded back in. His body was aching all over and it felt like something was wrong with his left leg. He slowly crawled back ashore and laid his head against a large boulder. He examined his leg and noticed it had a large gash on his calf. Miraculously he had no major injuries due to the water breaking his fall. The brunt of the fire damage was borne by the shield and the base of the cart. He had not fallen far from his original position. The boulder was right outside the edge of the battlefield. The canon was lying a little away from him just beyond the reach of water with its mouth aiming right above his head. The body of a rebel was sprawled over it. His first thought was to get to the canon which looked relatively unscathed but then he remembered how heavy that darn thing was. It would almost be impossible without the steering mechanism that lay broken beneath it. He looked over the boulder and tried to get a sense about the battlefield. It had devolved into a chaotic sword melee with an occasional shot being fired here and there. In the dust and mayhem, it was hard to tell who was winning. Max aimed his musket that had somehow stayed with him hung by a strap on his neck and fired at a passing soldier. PHUCH. The hammer struck the wet powder and nothing happened. The soldier looked up and immediately abandoned the musket he was loading in favor of charging up the boulder. He and Max entangled into a tumble down to the shore. They fell with a splash into the ankle-deep water. Instinctively Max grabbed a few pebbles as the soldier took out a dagger. As the soldier stood up to one knee Max threw the mud and pebbles into his face. He was slow to react and a pebble struck his eye. Max tried standing up with a grunt, forcing himself to ignore the fiery pain in his leg. He drew out his own dagger as the soldier finished washing his eye and howling in pain. Max charged the unbalanced soldier taking them both into the water. The soldier struggled beneath him but Max held onto him and wantonly stabbed as near the man¡¯s throat as he could. He made contact with skin, but not knowing if he got him or not he continued stabbing wherever he could until the man stopped moving and a notification rang in his ear. Panting deeply - ¡®Haah, Haaah¡¯ he rolled himself so that he faced the sun instead of the water. He had just lifted himself up when he heard a voice ¡°Jenkins, Charge!¡± It was a mage¡¯s voice, Loud, strong and so daunting both armies stopped mid-battle and stared dazedly in its direction for a second. The forest on the other side of the battlefield erupted out and a force of 200 led by a mage flanked the rebel army and joined the melee. In the front of a two-sided assault, The rebels started crumbling. Fire at will was showing the other side of its consequences. It was impossible to create any sort of ordered defense anymore. The 3rd and final rebel wave started advancing. Sensing the advent of the final fight Max slowly made his way into the fray. He still needed a lot of kills. He looked over the mission tab. MISSIONS BABY protocol Trial 1/3: Combat Phase 1/7 (Squad size reduced from 10 to 1) (All aiding and information tools of the system except the Status window are switched off for the duration of the trials.) (All trials need to be completed with an X rating or an extra penalty will be dealt) (Your path is one that influences the path of Humanity. Thus you may only use race-specific skills during the trials. All other skills are banned.) If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Time Left : 5 Hours 40 minutes 12 seconds E - Mission 000 : Survive the battle and kill 10 soldiers.(10/10) D - Mission 001 : Kill 4 captains. (2/4) C - Mission 002 : Kill 100 soldiers. (26/100) B - Mission 003 : Kill an Enemy Commander. (1/1) A - Mission 004 : Kill all 4 Enemy Commanders. (2/4) S - Mission 005 : Kill the Enemy General. (0/1) X- Mission 006 : Lead and win the battle of Panawan Woods(0/1) Rewards: Promotion to Initiate Seeker. Penalty: Rewards withheld. No healing administered. Rating is F for the Origin Evaluation Extra Penalty: Death Deep down he knew it was impossible. He was in no condition to kill over 70 soldiers. It was a tall order even if he was in full health and armed. And now simply there was no time. Maybe it was desperation to live, maybe it was anger at the unfairness of it all, Or maybe it was the little hope of a miracle. But he picked up a fallen sword and he moved. He roared and charged causing a few rebels around him to startle and look. Seeing a bloodstained hero gave them a bit of courage and they followed smashing into a group of soldiers who were loading their muskets as two of them stood with cutlasses en guard. As the cutlass guys were taken by others Max plunged his sword into a man struggling to draw his own. Suddenly something struck the back of his head and he fell down. In the confusion, there was no way to tell what hit him. He groaned in pain and clutched his head. But the shearing pain turned out to be a blessing in disguise as a fireball went right over him and cut down the group of rebels he was with. On instinct, he just froze. He slowly looked up as two hooves came into his vision. Sure enough, a mage was creating another fireball in his hands. But he was facing away from Max looking towards another group of rebels. At this point, Max remembered the ¡®Special gun¡¯ he had gotten on killing the first commander. The gun was a single shot plain one which did not look special by any means. What was special was the one bullet it had. It wasn¡¯t iron or steel like the rest but it was Orinchalum. A metal used by Runesmiths to craft magical instruments. It had a few runes carved on it and had a simple function - To break through a Mage¡¯s shield and kill him. How did the rebel army get it, you ask? Well, in this land where only mage lives mattered, what better way for Lord Kolam to embarrass his opponent, than by getting a mage under him killed? The rebels had started retreating into the third wave and the dust was settling down. Lord Arif Gutenberg along with the rest of the army had started moving in. In all this, Max shakily stood up. The mage glanced at him as he readied a fireball to slam into the backs of the retreating rebels. This one looked larger and more complicated than the rest. An amused grin lit up his face as he saw Max raise up the pistol. The grin turned smug as a thin veil of blue materialized between them. BAM! The veil cracked as a hole appeared within it, and the mage was still smiling when a red hole appeared on his forehead spewing blood and gore. As he fell back the fireball burst. But instead of a usual blast, it erupted into shrapnel. Most of which was thrown up into the air and the rest burrowed into the Mage¡¯s own body, but one stuck Max right in the abdomen. He didn¡¯t even get to rejoice at the DING! as the shrapnel tore a hole clean through his stomach. He just fell down onto the grass clutching his stomach that was still burning without a fire present. For a few seconds, he tried to stem the blood flow when a horse on fire ran past him. It was dragging something with his broken rains that somehow latched onto Max¡¯s leg and dragged him towards the lake. Hoping for burn relief, eh? Max thought as his skin got scratched and burst into blood with the friction of the rough ground. Is this how I die? Dragged off by a horse? Would¡¯ve preferred a big bang though. Somehow he found his thoughts quite detached from his current predicament. Out of the blue, the horse jerked, shot most probably. And for the second time that day Max found himself crashing into the shallows. ----- His head felt woozy as he bled out and dark spots began dancing in his vision. He was dying, no doubt about it. But a strange peace came over him. There were no life-flashing moments, no last stroke of power, nothing. Just him and the sky above. Both unmoving. He felt the cold of the water touching him fade away. He had read about this, that slowly the dying body goes numb. He stupidly tried to cling to this cold, After all being cold meant being alive. This was when he noticed that there was a small sliver of cool on his cheek too. His oxygen-deprived brain slowly processed it to be a lone tear. He was crying. Suddenly the dam burst and he started crying inconsolably. He was tired and bleeding in an unknown land for a cause he had no loyalty to, all because some damn system decided to integrate his world into the goddamned Grand Procession. Answer his doubts? Give him a team? Give him power? NO, what did it give him, a stupid Origin, a gun, and a greeting ¡®May you draw the wheel¡¯ what the fuck does that even mean? He cursed his idea of asking for some help from that stupid Chaos Lord or whatever. Greatest Origin? Investment? What the hell? Where are all the benefits? All he has gotten so far are stupidly dangerous compulsory quests. Damn the system, Damn the Chaos lord, damn the rebels, and damn those godforsaken mages who are hell-bent on killing him. He had no idea how much time had passed as he seethed in rage when a Mage¡¯s voice broke the silence. He just noticed that there had been a disconcerting silence in the clearing. He moved his head to see that an old man in ornate robes was standing on the boulder giving a speech of some kind. The rebels had been caught in the two-sided attack. With the mage¡¯s intervention, the casualties had been heavy. They were only 300 or so left while the Enforcers were 500, and they still had a mage. When the lull in the fighting began and they discovered that another commander had fallen, the news was met with mixed feelings. They wanted to cheer but they knew, the day was lost. They would be the ones who fall today. Chapter 8 : CLEAR Chapter 8 - CLEAR The rebels watched, as an ornately robed man came into view from within the settling dust. They watched, as he climbed up a boulder near the edge of the field. They watched, as the scattered enforcers formed ranks again. They wanted to run, but somewhere in the last few minutes, the mages had set the forest behind them on fire. The message was clear, There is no escape. They were going to cut them down to the last man, and then they will find anyone who was even remotely related to the rebels in any way and put them to the sword out of spite. Where the hell did this fire come from you ask? Well if it was easily noticeable, it wouldn¡¯t be a tactic now, would it? ¡°I know someone helped you, Tell me the bastard¡¯s name and I¡¯ll give you a quick death. Or else¡± the man took a pause that seemed to get heavier by the second. ¡°You caused this much trouble, So I¡¯m sure you are all smart enough to understand.¡± The words were simple and clear, but their meaning gave them weight beyond compare. They were a promise of vengeance upon those who had risen up against him. And, they were also the declaration of the result. A declaration that they had lost, that all their struggle and faith was for naught. And these bastards will reign over them forever. The knowledge of their defeat along with the image of the mage in all his glory, with not a hair out of alignment sapped their strength. The lord was their goal, Their final enemy, Their reason to fight, The symbol of those who oppressed them. Yes, they had killed his acolytes. But seeing him completely unscathed and surrounded by enforcers, It felt as if the man was an unshakeable, immovable mountain on whom all their efforts were mere scratches on the surface. But contrary to popular belief, the man wasn¡¯t happy with his victory. Wrong, It had all gone wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. This was supposed to be a measure of population control and training for his Acolytes. But it had all gone wrong after his second Acolyte¡¯s death. One dying he could play off as incompetence of the acolyte or sheer dumb luck. But the second? That was a major loss. That was when he had realised that someone was helping these rebels behind the scenes. Canons? These stupid peasants couldn¡¯t manufacture military-grade canons for the life of them. This doubt was confirmed today when he saw Jenkins fall. The gun that struck him had a magic bullet. Now he had lost all 4 of his acolytes. It was a complete Disaster. And worse, he had no proof of who was behind this. Officially it will look as if a peasant gathering killed the acolytes under his tutelage! That¡¯s when he set the whole forest behind the rebels on fire. Casting undying magefire at that distance took a considerable amount of Mana that left him quite vulnerable. But it needed to be done. This news could not be leaked. That meant that all these rats needed to die here. Besides he had more soldiers now, he didn¡¯t need to put himself forward at all. He was planning on reporting that the acolytes had gone off on a dangerous expedition to hunt down a demon or something and got killed there. Not very plausible but way better than the current scenario. He was angry, more so than he had been in his whole life. He wanted to scream and shout and tear off his hair. So much loss. His acolytes, his town¡¯s production, his soldiers. All down the drain, and for what? He didn¡¯t even know. Someone had played a brilliant move with these bloody rats as pawns. Yes, these rats, If nothing else he will vent to his heart¡¯s content today. These worms shall know their place. ¡°Oh, What were you vermin even thinking? Challenging the Council¡¯s authority? Did you really think that you would be able to make a change? Don¡¯t f*cking kid yourselves. You all are just pawns. The canons and the bullet you used to kill Jenkins are all given to you by a mage, are they not? Do you think he cares for your freedom or some shit? He is just trying to get to me by slowing down my town¡¯s production. Yeah, I will need to train a few more acolytes but so what? They are a dime a dozen in the Council Tower. You have achieved nothing. You, mere humans, can never make a true dent on someone like me. You all die in vain!¡± He was still speaking when he saw a man rise from the water. He was covered in mud and blood and he had a gaping wound in his belly. He slowly lumbered forward and picked up a dry gun near him from a dead soldier. It was a terrifying sight. He looked more dead than alive. He would have honestly mistaken him for a corpse if he hadn¡¯t been moving. The sight was so strange that both sides just watched on. It was like seeing a train wreck, A horrifying sight that you cannot look away from. The rebels who had dropped their weapons in despair fell into even more darkness as the dreary rebel looked like a symbol of them, after all, he was the hero they had celebrated not long ago, The MageSlayer. A dying and defeated ember taking a futile shot at the shining sun. The silhouette plodded forward as blood flowed from his wound. It was a heartwrenching sight. As if to make an example out of him the lord sent a blue magic blade and cut off both his legs. The figure fell down and just lay there. The Lord began spouting something again but nobody heard him. They were too busy looking at their fallen Hero.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Bam the gun discharged, but the thin shield around the Lord didn¡¯t even spark. How would it, the muzzle was pointed away from him. But abruptly another huge blast followed that attracted the eyes of the whole battlefield. The Mage Lord¡¯s shield cracked as a canon ball fired from the fallen canon struck it. Right as his eyes widened in surprise at losing his shield the ball exploded. And just like that the invincible lord got himself blasted right down to hell. HUH? For a second, the field was shell-shocked. How? What? What the¡­ before they looked to their Hero. A canon was smoking near the fallen warrior. He had shot the musket into the canon¡¯s firing pin. Igniting the loaded canon and striking the demon down. A grim determination took over the rebels, silent nods and glances passed. They clutched their weapons and raised their heads. He had done it! He had killed the Lord. All of their suffering and their sacrifice were not in vain. Hope still lived. They roared and charged. ¡°For the MageSlayer¡± echoed in the clearing as the beast of the rebel army tore into the enforcers. With their lord killed the enforcers had no reason to fight. They weren¡¯t exactly loyal to him. Actually, they were terrified. The existences they had considered exalted were killed right in front of them one by one. Their master was lying burnt, face first in the mud. The rebels had graduated from a disorganized rabble to mage-killing monsters. So they did what any such man would do in this situation. They broke rank and ran. The rebels tore into their backs with the fury of those monsters the soldiers had compared them to mere moments ago. In their manic fury, Each time a rebel killed a soldier he would yell ¡°For the mage slayer!¡± Making the scene even more terrifying than it already was. ----- Max groaned. The stupid Chaos Seed had struck again. He had thought of going out in a blaze of glory in his vengeance but even he hadn¡¯t thought that it will go so well. After he lost his legs he found himself facing the canon he had started the day with, and he realized that the Lord was standing in the very sights of the Canon. Now if he could just ignite it, oh, he has a gun in his hand. So he had just aimed and fired, It was hard to aim with the dark spots but it had somehow struck true. Now he was just lying there. With no energy to move. He had won the battle but lost the war. He wanted to laugh bitterly but could not do so. His body had gone into shock and the blood loss had caught up to him. He decided to check his Status one last time. STATUS Name : Maximus Callahan Race : Human(X) Class : None Origin : The Progenitor(Unascended) Rank : Seedling(None) Grade : Seedling(None) Titles : - MageSlayer of the Inkaros Rebels(Temporary leadership) Chaos Seed : ¡ª------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nodes : 8,534,430,002(Effective - 10,000,000,000) Level : 1 EXP : 10290/10,000,000,000 HP : 1/20 MP : 05/05 STR : 8 INT : 9 VIT : 5 Def : 7 Skills : None MISSIONS BABY protocol Trial 1/3: Combat Phase 1/7 (Squad size reduced from 10 to 1) (All aiding and information tools of the system except the Status window are switched off for the duration of the trials.) (All trials need to be completed with an X rating or an extra penalty will be dealt) (Your path is one that influences the path of Humanity. Thus you may only use race-specific skills during the trials. All other skills are banned.) Time Left : 5 Hours 40 minutes 12 seconds E - Mission 000 : Survive the battle and kill 10 soldiers.(10/10) D - Mission 001 : Kill 4 captains. (4/4) C - Mission 002 : Kill 100 soldiers. (29/100) B - Mission 003 : Kill an Enemy Commander. (1/1) A - Mission 004 : Kill all 4 Enemy Commanders. (4/4) S - Mission 005 : Kill the Enemy General. (1/1) X- Mission 006 : Lead and win the battle of Panawan Woods(0/1) Rewards: Promotion to Initiate Seeker. Penalty: Rewards withheld. No healing administered. Rating is F for the Origin Evaluation Extra Penalty: Death You have killed a seedling enemy captain. +50 *10=500 XP Huh, so the man he killed just before shooting the fire mage was a captain. Didn¡¯t look much different though. You have killed a Noviciate Seeker Lightening Mage. (Commander) +100*2*10=2000 XP The grinning idiot. You have killed an Adeptus Seeker Fire Mage. (Commander) +100*4*10=4000 XP The Lord huh? Adeptus? Something changed. Well, who cares now? No point. He knew the rebels will take it home from here most probably. Who knew that the one that caused his bane wasn¡¯t the X-grade mission, But the C-grade one? He still badly wanted to laugh bitterly. As his consciousness faded he remembered his Mom, Octavia, and his friends, and he heard another ding. Progenitor is drawing from the title MageSlayer of the Inkaros Rebels(Temporary leadership). Conditions Fulfilled. Morphing Complete. You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP Huh! What is this? ----- Chapter 9 : Trial - 1 Phase - 2 Begins ! Chapter 9 - Phase - 2 Begins ! Max woke up to a warm bath like feeling. Like the one you get at hotsprings in deep winters. Or more commonly, In your bathroom after pouring a hot mug over your head after a long day. But strangely, he wasn¡¯t wet at all. Which was odd considering he was supposed to be bleeding out in a wet ditch. ¡­..draw the World! A booming voice resounded in his ears as he opened up his eyes and started to move. The pain in his muscles was slowly receding. He was covered with a warm golden light that was also fading now that he was almost recovered. The first thing that he noticed on looking around was that bloody timer that now read 00:02:43. At first he cursed thinking back to his quest when he noticed where he was. The forest, the lake, the rebels all of it was gone replaced by the volcanic scenery of the System¡¯s Starting Room. As he got his bearings he caught the cloud demon dissolving back into the sky. There was a sword and a bow in front of him positioned just like the musket before phase one. He quickly opened up his Status to see a plethora of notifications. In the interest of time he quickly just scanned over looking for something like a clear message and soon enough he found it. Congratulations on clearing the First Phase! Ignoring the how and why he tried to go logically like the MCs he read about should. Firstly, He had survived and somehow cleared the Phase due to some weird notifications he was seeing. But he filed the checking of the rest for later. Obviously he had missed the part where the demonic system was supposed to talk to him about results and other things and the second phase was going to begin. His first priority instantly became to examine and equip these new weapons to prepare for the next shitstorm he was gonna land in. The weapons in front of him looked like the props of a medieval themed hollywood movie. One was a black pommeled sword in a brown scabbard that looked like leather while the other was a wooden bow of some kind. But strangely he could feel that these weapons weren¡¯t simple steel. As he gripped them he felt a slight energy flow. Were these some kind of enchanted weapons? But despite what you might think, instead of being happy, curious or excited, he was afraid. The elation of discovery had lasted for just a moment when a thought crossed his mind. What was he going to face in there if even this heartless demon of a system deemed it necessary to provide him with these kind of weapons. His hearbeat was getting faster as the timer reached its end. He tried to calm himself by taking a few deep breaths but before he could really settle a familiar white light flashed. He had braced for a battlefield but he found himself staring at a rocky wall. The first thing he noticed was the cool breeze that struck his whole body. The second was the crushing weight he was carrying on his back. ¡°Is something wrong brother?¡± A gruff voice asked him from his right. The nerves startled him and his he gave a little shriek. 3 days of dancing with death had drastically improved his bearing but he was still an inexperienced wreck. It took him a moment to register that the almost naked man holding a spear was moving in for the kill, and another to realise that he was drawing attention and the warriors around him were giving him funny looks. ¡°Well, if you¡¯re done staring then move on!¡± The man huffed out with an irritated look. Max looked around to see that they were all moving forward on the narrow path. Not wanting to cause a hassle with the scary looking soldier he started moving. He slowly glanced around trying to get a read on the situation. It seemed he wasn¡¯t in immediate danger but walking towards it. He had replaced another soldier, but this time the weapons he had were the sword and the bow. He was part on an army of spartan like warriors. They had their loins covered but nothing else. The only pieces of clothing they had on seemed to be the red cloaks they were wearing. They carried spears in one hand and a circular shield on their backs. While not all of them weren¡¯t as stacked as the movies they all seemed to be in extremely good condition. The army was marching through some valley in order to face ¡®the damned shorties¡¯ Max was sure that whoever they were facing must have some other name but asking what it was seemed like a bad idea. He was surrounded by soldiers halfway through a march! How would they react if a fellow soldier randomly asked them what are they going to fight? He half expected them to be dwarves with the nickname ¡®Shorties¡¯ Was this the generic fantasy world this time with elves and all? He decided to listen in for the time being to gather intel. But the conversations were short and grim. Probably due to the impending battle.Which was fine with him for now as he had another important thing to do. Yes, he wanted to check out his stats!The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. STATUS Name : Maximus Callahan Race : Human(X) Class : None Origin : The Progenitor(Unascended) Rank : Seedling(None) Grade : Seedling(None) Titles : - Defiant Chaos Seed : ¡ª------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nodes : 8,534,432,532(Effective - 10,000,000,000) Level : 2(Effective 1) EXP : 0/20,000,000,000 HP : 20/20 MP : 05/05 STR : 8 INT : 9 VIT : 6 Def : 7 Note - Stats suppressed due to ongoing special Origin Trial Limitations. Skills : None The first thing he noticed was that his level was bumped up to 2. He could not for the life of him imagine what the hell managed to give him almost 10,000,000,000 points of experience. The second thing he noticed was that his oh so mighty origin had struck again and his stats had been suppressed. This led him to go through the notifications that had piled up. Progenitor is drawing from the title MageSlayer of the Inkaros Rebels(Temporary leadership). Conditions Fulfilled. Morphing Complete. You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP . . . You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP There were hundreds of these notifications. He had no idea how he had been ¡®offered¡¯ these kills but from the notifications it looked like it was somehow related to his chosen Origin and Title. It appears that even though the XP was quite small they were still somehow counted as his kills. He wanted to see if he could experiment somehow but the temporary title had vanished with the phase. Congratulations on clearing the First Phase! Your trial progress has been updated. Please choose a reward! Reward? Did he miss a reward? Time out. No choice made. Assigning default reward of 1 level up. Required experience points allotted. Damn, looks like he missed the choice. But he was still satisfied. Although he had missed making a choice but he was pretty sure that the ridiculous requirement of XP his Origin needed was worth it. Seeing a 0 on experience counter did seem a tad bit sad. ALERT! Aid disabled, Unable to consolidate level. Level Supressed. Stats not alloted The damn system, so it won¡¯t even allow him to benefit from his hard won level up! He cursed for a bit as he was honestly looking forward to some kind of superhuman powerups. Maybe somekind of skill or equipment would have been better. After all, a dead man won¡¯t have much use for levels. But still he filed away the fact that the system had refused aid. But could he do this consolidation on his own and breakthrough? Will that be possible? Will he get those points then? Congratulations! You have fulfilled the requirements to a rare title. Defiant - Death breaks many fools, but rare is a man that knows its horror yet still laughs in its face. You upheld your role to the bitter end and proved yourself worthy of the title that was bestowed upon you. The title is gone but your record is not! (Given to seedlings who face certain death and survive.) He was not sure about what this was supposed to be as its description was very cool but didn¡¯t offer much more than that. He just sighed deeply and proceeded forward. Examine your weapons and prepare for the second phase of the combat trial! Well that about summed that up. Now moving on he checked out what he was supposed to do here among his new ¡®brothers¡¯ here. MISSIONS BABY protocol Trial 1/3: Combat Phase 2/7 Special Clause: You who have chosen the path of the progenitor, represented by #21 of the Major Arcana the World. You claim to know where you are and where you need to go. Thus, You shall march the Grand Procession alone and aidless. For all around us follow the light, Except the one who bears the Torch. (Squad size reduced from 10 to 1) Your creatures are forever seeking harmony with you. They spend their lives seeking purpose, knowledge, power and peace. Never seeing the whole, never knowing the truth. But The world knows all, sees all, understands all. (All aiding and information tools of the system except the Status window are switched off for the duration of the trials.) To claim the seat of the Progenitor is to claim the seat of the Apex. Rise to the Apex or fall to the void. (All trials need to be completed with an X rating or an extra penalty will be dealt) (Your path is one that influences the path of Humanity. Thus you may only use race-specific skills during the trials. All other skills are banned.) Time Left : 71 Hours 35 minutes 17 seconds E - Mission 000 : Survive the battle and kill 10 soldiers personally.(0/10) D - Mission 001 : Kill 5 variants personally. (0/5) C - Mission 002 : Kill 200 beasts personally. (0/200) B - Mission 003 : Kill the forward Enemy Commander. (0/1) A - Mission 004 : Identify and kill the traitor before he destroys the wall. (0/1) S - Mission 005 : Hold the defence line for more than 48 hours . (0/1) X- Mission 006 : Kill Imhotep(0/1) Rewards: Promotion to Initiate Seeker. Penalty: Rewards withheld. No healing administered. Rating is F for the Origin Evaluation Extra Penalty: Death Note: To increase your rating, all previous missions should be completed. Special Phase Clause Although historically the battle was lost on the second day, you are a Progenitor. Merely defying history does not suit you. Turn this loss into victory. Any of the major arcana can do so. You must prove that a mere human is mere no more. (The defense line must hold for the whole of 72 hours until the reinforcements arrive) For a few seconds he just stared at the pale blue window. ¡°I am so dead.¡± Chapter 10 : The Omelet Chapter 10 - The Omelet Thea was eating an omelet. She didn¡¯t like omelets very much but the Vending Machine did not have many options. She sighed and stared at the small wand on the table. Although she had experienced it all herself, it was still surreal. 3 days ago she had been suddenly brought here and was asked to choose a ¡®Class¡¯ Not knowing much she had chosen the intriguing class of Fire Mage. Then she had been brought here. This place had all its floors and walls white like the first room but also had more plants and run-of-the-mill structures like cupboards. It came with a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen in the residential side. Although the kitchen had a fridge and cooking stuff she had chosen to use the vending machine which dispensed warm cooked food like this omelet. She wanted to become stronger before the squad meetings and did not want to waste time on cooking. The other half had two things. The first was a training range where a 3D hologram showed her how to use her class skills and practice. The other was a fighting range where she could set a difficulty and monsters would be produced to fight and gain XP. But that was more like an immersive VR experience than a fight. Her body was covered by a golden glow whenever her HP went critical and she was teleported out. She had tried to get a lot of levels at first but the system required her to succeed in the corresponding training first. The setup resembled a school in a lot of ways, or a tutorial as the name implied. Teaching theory then giving practicals. The system existed in this place like a smart voice assistant. Like Jarvis was for Iron man. Over the last three days, she had asked the system a lot of questions about this place. And this was the gist of what it had answered Their planet Earth had been a baby world and was thus isolated from the rest of the Grand Procession, which was the supposed Multiverse. It had confirmed the existence of countless other worlds and races except their own. When they started experimenting with mana a few months ago, The system started preparing for Descent. When they finally reached a quantity of mana that they could be considered ¡®Aware¡¯ of it. They had been transferred out of the incubatory. Apparently it had teleported the solar system to the incubatory when we began mana use to prepare for descent but had cast an illusion in outer space to look the same to us. The Incubatory was a smaller universe where it kept the baby worlds to help along the planet¡¯s mana core. The planet''s core was still developing and undergoing changes in its new location in the Grand Procession while its sentient denizens were stuck here. The job of this place was to give classes and experience to the denizens to allow them to survive the trials. The trials were supposed to be a 91-day gauntlet where death was actually possible. They needed to perform quests in there and earn points so that they can get a good Origin. The system was pretty cagey about the details regarding that but it did say this- The Origin is a Creature¡¯s most prized characteristic. On completion of the trials, you will unlock your Origin according to your potential, performance, and characteristics. It is nigh impossible to change it even for exalted existences. It is closely related to your soul and is highly influenced by internal factors. Although you can change your fate by performing highly, but still the system can only aid you to a certain extent in this context. It was quite perplexing It was told to her that although the Origins came in various forms and sizes they were divided into 78 categories which oddly enough, were represented by cards of a Tarot Deck. 22 of these which came under the Major Arcana like the fool, the chariot, etc were unique. It was not just that one race could have only 1 instance of a specific major card within its ranks. But also, these origins had only one or at max two classes availaible. At the same time, other origins had a large number of types under them and could even have multiple of them depending on the Origin strength, characteristics, base class and various other factors. For example, a fire mage, a necromancer, and a runesmith could all belong to 6 of wands, but the Tower will only have one class, which was called Berserker. Although that could be a false fact, as quite simply, the number of a particular kind of Major Arcana known were too less to make a definite statement. Those that did have it were a race¡¯s most prized possessions so their skills and abilities were always a rat¡¯s nest of rumours. Only one thing was agreed upon by everyone. They were Mighty. So, Thea had soon abandoned that line of questioning and focused on the Minor Arcana. It is not that she wasn¡¯t interested. It was just that the probability of her ever meeting one was less than negligible. After all these races had hundreds of worlds yet less than 20 of them. These race pieces that had special properties and insane powers had proven to be highly elusive even by the Grand Procession standards. Even the most powerful races did not have complete sets of 22. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Now on to the Minor Arcana. It consists of an Ace, cards 2 to 10 and 4 court cards. The King, the Queen, the Knight, and the Page in four suits. Swords, Wands, Cups and Pentacles. True to their name, Wands implied magicians and Swords implied warriors. The pentacles were almost all civilian professions you know while cups were a rarer and weird bunch with mystic classes like Oracles, prophets, chosens and also the religious classes like paladins etc. But that didn¡¯t mean that a Wands couldn¡¯t fight or a Swords couldn¡¯t use magic. Those were open to all. It was just the way the person was that defined the Origin. You could have been forced into fighting for survival and become a great warrior. But if you had the heart of a blacksmith, You will have an Origin of Pentacles. Although its not that the Origin won¡¯t affect your path. If you have an Origin of Cups but were a Magic swordsman you could get skills like the seen blade that allowed you to predict the strike of an enemy a split second in advance. The kings have a complex power system which we will come to later so as to not bore you. The Queens have the power to create followers, The knights were unusually powerful warriors that could utilize their classes in combat, The pages were like elders who had gained a lot of experience and respect in the field. Aces were creatively new existences that were either pioneers of something new or were simply geniuses. They were considered at the level of Pages. Now here was one point, the cards from 2-10 and the Page were progressable more commonly. That means the path to 3 of Wands from 2 of Wands, although rare and almost impossible to travel, was known to have been traveled. Even a king or queen could rise by Origin change once in a few million years. But so far, the number of instances of a card rising to any of the Major Arcana was Zero in all history. Also, a change never occurred across suits. What is so special about them? Well when fully established a Tower could destroy a world in under 30 minutes, an Empress could summon legions equivalent to a world¡¯s combined forces. The hanged man had a broken class called the Balancer. It was basically an equivalent interchange, which if done timely was one of the only four known sources of resurrection. But it''s also not as if these were completely broken. They all had a fatal flaw as a balance. Like the Judgement could defeat almost anyone as long as the laws of judgment were followed, but conversely was almost powerless to act against a righteous one. The Tower was destructive but was prone to temper and frenzies. The Moon could get glimpses of the far future better than any oracle or prophet but was deaf and blind during daylight. The Empress¡¯ warriors fell with her death and so on. But still used with prudence, these were a species¡¯s trump cards. - - - - - STATUS Name : Thea Macmillan Race : Human(F) Class : Fire Mage Origin : 6 of Wands(Unascended) Rank : Seedling(None) Grade : Seedling(None) Titles : - Level : 4 EXP : 15/400 HP : 20/20 MP : 05/05 STR : 8 INT : 13 VIT : 10 Def : 8 Skills : Initiate Fireball(L2) Initiate Fire heal(L2) Fire Resistance(L1) Passive Thea sighed. Due to her extremely weak body that started with a STR of 3, the sheer amount of things to learn and the amount of physical training she needed to do was enormous. She was also starting to feel lonely now. But that would change in a few days. The system had told her that before the trials she would be assigned to a squad of 10 people to team up in the trials. They will be evaluated on both the squad performance and individual one. But before she met her squad, she was planning to increase all stats to at least 10 and intelligence to 15. - - - - - The first thought Max had after reading the quests was - ¡®I am so Dead¡¯ But this time it was not because of the ridiculously difficult quests. He was also not surprised that by modifying quests to ¡®personally¡¯ the Demon System had bypassed whatever saved him the last time. He was pissed about it but not as much as he was because of the special clause. If this quest had originally been supposed to end in 2 days, then to survive 72 would be almost impossible, especially considering that he had no abilities so far to speak of to introduce a significant variable to this new war. Even the S rank only asked for 48. But this also made him ask a question. Since surviving as long as possible was the quest, does that mean if he died in that world he would have simply failed and returned if he had chosen a normal Origin? He looked up to see if the system would answer, but as usual, the answer was silence. There were too many questions and too many doubts that he needed answered but all he had were his own theories mixed with Manga and Anime knowledge whose basis was not exactly credible. One thing was clear to him. He could not rely on luck, last time somehow worked out but if he had to win these insane and inhuman requirements every time he needed to figure out a way to become more than a mere human. He began to think of ways to ¡®consolidate¡¯ his level. Was it like cultivation and he needed to meditate? Then what role did XP play here? Was it energy or knowledge or both for the breakthroughs? His thoughts were interrupted by a lumbering sound that seemed to echo in the valley. He could see the soldiers farther down the line getting excited for some reason their shuffling turned to marching. The growing buzz affected him too as he tried to peek over the throng of broad-backed soldiers. At first it was nothing but the natural high walls and grey dreary rocks, but slowly a mammoth dam came into view. With a color that matched the mountains themselves, Its height and majesty challenged the zeniths of the ancient mounds of stone and sand. At first, one might mistake its smoothness for a strange natural structure like the Grand Canyon but the mighty Castles lining the top along with strange contraptions that looked like cranes from down here betrayed its artificial nature. They had arrived at the Defense line. Chapter-11 : Wall Defense Time Left : 68 Hours 03 minutes 22 seconds Max panted heavily as he reached the top of the flight of stairs. He was in the place of another soldier but like last time his body was his own, which was not trained to climb towering castles that took hours to scale. And this was after they had been hauled up the wall by a strange pulley-like contraption. Theirs was the last legion in, and they had been assigned to Little Vigour Castle, the rightmost castle on the wall. The name probably signified something better in the native language, like Last Hope or something, but in English, it was Little Vigour. Half an hour later, they were all standing in lines and holding their bows. Those who didn¡¯t have one were given one. Apparently, for the first phase, the archers will be the major damage dealers. There were wooden buckets of a pungent purple substance on the right of each soldier. They were supposed to dip the arrows into the vat of poison before hurling them over the wall. Here he began understanding the structure of the defense line. The length of the wall had 5 huge structures at even spacing which were platforms for war machines like ballistas and trebuchets. The wall had a plain top that had battlements on both sides. The soldiers were divided into two parts. Most of them were archers who would shoot down arrows while a smaller contingent maintained melee stances as they waited to repel the climbers. Max stood examining his bow and planning. He had a lot of things to do and too little time. One thing was certain. Even if he was a trained ordinary soldier, he could not complete all the missions while staying in formation. He needed to get out but could not figure out how. In this time he had asked around a bit and had finally figured out who Imhotep was. And to nobody¡¯s surprise, he was the leader of the army invading the human kingdom of Franka. You would expect a lot of movement and panic in the ranks of the army while it waited for its foe¡¯s approach. But contrary to popular belief, the wall was silent. These weren¡¯t amateurs scrambling to form a defense like the rebels were but a proper army with trained and disciplined soldiers. Except for Max¡¯s surroundings which were taking positions, the wall and the castles were by and large draped in an ominous silence. Max was standing in the far back of the ranks and away from the battlements. Maybe it was that relative safety, maybe it was the numbness to fighting he had gained by being in a fight for the last 3 days, but his thoughts could not help but wander. He was still thinking about the consolidation. What could be the first step to stepping into the world beyond humanity? Was there some kind of core forming in his heart? The System guy also did something to his heart, didn¡¯t he? He also remembered reading about soul formation realms in Chinese cultivation novels and beast crystals in Japanese ones. But even if that was true, that seemed pretty advanced stuff for a beginner. So then what? He had examined his body for any changes or hints about what it is he was supposed to consolidate but there were no noticeable changes in his capabilities. Which made sense considering he hadn¡¯t truly gained a level yet. But then, he found something weird. His body felt slightly heavier. He was sure it wasn¡¯t weight gain, as his activities in the last three days could have only caused it to fall not rise. When he tried focusing he noticed something. It felt as if his whole body had been pumped full of something. It''s like some kind of jelly. But this jelly-like substance innately felt like something that was not supposed to exist corporeally but rather transcedentally like mana. Then it suddenly clicked. It was mana. Or a kind of it anyway. It felt like a condensed form of it. It did not restrict his movements as by nature it was like a fluid - Shapeless. But it took a bit more work to move like wading in water. At first, he had thought that it was merely his exhaustion from the last phase, but turns out there was more to it. That was when something clicked, but suddenly, His thoughts were interrupted by distant drums of the invading forces. In response, horns blew on the walls and castles as if competing to see who could drown out the sound of the other. That was also when he noticed a slight ripple in the ranks. The men didn¡¯t move but a slight wave still traversed nonetheless. They had prepared for this. For years they had trained for something like this. Their blood, sweat, and tears had watered the tree whose fruits were these mighty legions standing in arms. They were the brave soldiers of the Grand Army of Franka. Their prowess spanned the length of the Kalabar plains and their heritage extended beyond thousands of years. But still, a tinge of anxiety and fear found its way into the grizzled faces and stoic minds. After all, when the reaper decides to rear his ugly bony head, legends crumble.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Slowly the drums gave way to a rumble more terrifying than the drums had ever been. Being way in the back, Max¡¯s view was blocked by a throng of broad-backed warriors. Although he was at a huge height, he was standing at the back of the line. But still the earthshaking war cry of a charging army sent chills down his spine. For the first time he realized the sheer scale of the battle that had tens of thousands on each side. ----- Time Left : 60 Hours 03 minutes 22 seconds ¡°Pull! Hold! Release!¡± The sergeant shouted for the umpteenth time, and the air exploded into a cacophony with thousands of whistling arrows rising into the sky like a blanket only to disappear from view at the battlements in front. On a journey below to the depths of what could be described as hell for the ¡®shorties¡¯. Max had long given up on keeping his face free of sweat long ago, and only wiped his brow now and then to keep his eyes clear. His aching muscles had gone numb to the pain and his mind had succumbed to the monotonous process of getting an arrow on ¡°Quiver!¡±, placing it on his bow on ¡°Aim!¡±, drawing the heavy string on ¡°Draw!¡± and releasing on ¡°Fire!¡± He had been worried if he would be able to perform alongside all other soldiers considering he had held a bow for the first time in his life, but it was turning out okay so far. Better Even. At this rate, he expected to complete his basic mission for C rank to be over in a few more hours. Just to be sure he looked over to the quest counter. E - Mission 000 : Kill 10 soldiers personally.(1/10) D - Mission 001 : Kill 5 variants personally. (0/5) C - Mission 002 : Kill 200 beasts personally. (180/200) B - Mission 003 : Kill the forward Enemy Commander. (0/1) A - Mission 004 : Identify and kill the traitor before he destroys the wall. (0/1) S - Mission 005 : Hold the defence line for more than 48 hours . (0/1) X- Mission 006 : Kill Imhotep(0/1) Apparently, the shorties had sent their beasts to lead the attack as meat shields, and some of their soldiers mixed in between were trying to establish the footholds on the wall. It was a pretty standard practice according to the broken sentences between huffs and puffs the archer beside him had spoken. You have killed a seedling enemy beast +10XP. ¡®That¡¯s 181 he breathed¡¯ It was an extremely strange form of battle. He had killed 181 beasts in the last few hours but had no idea what the enemy even looked like. You have killed a seedling enemy beast +10XP. All he had to do was shoot arrows from atop the wall after the mages cast their spells and his counter was rising. You have killed a seedling enemy beast +10XP. He was not skilled a archery at all but he didn¡¯t need to aim anywhere. Just make sure that the arrow went over the battlements. Surprisingly the target he considered most elusive was turning out to be the easiest one. You have killed a seedling enemy beast +10XP. The archers were fighting in 3 hour alternate shifted. But even discounting the 3 hour break they were given at the end of the first three hours. He was getting almost one kill per 2 minutes. Although it was not without its physical toll. They were throwing 3-4 arrows per minute which meant that in retrospect he had fired around 1000 arrows. You have killed a seedling enemy beast +10XP. Normally, firing 1000 arrows was not humanly possible but it appeared this time his side had prepared well. They were given some kind of juice which had felt like drinking half a dozen cups of coffees in one go. And he had discovered another interesting feature of the system. INSPECT Although he couldn¡¯t use it yet because it was part of the ¡°System aid¡± but he knew that this was something that could provide him with a lot more answers. You have killed a seedling enemy beast +10XP. Now if he could just figure out how to do the rest of the ridiculous things. He had a lot of questions about this world, his own world, his progress, the paths to progress. He had been absentmindedly contemplating where to begin when he decided to collect and summarize what he knew so far, that¡¯s when a sudden internal excitement greeted him. You have killed a seedling enemy beast +10XP. Collection! That¡¯s it! The key to consolidation must be Collection of Man. After all, to build anything you need raw material. To build a house you need bricks. To build a pond, you need water, to build a business you need money. To do anything you want or need you need to collect all the necessary resources first. On deeper thinking not just these big acts but even the smallest one including thinking all of this itself works on the same principle. After all getting food that we need to move, talk, think, and survive is also a form of resource collection isn¡¯t it. And all those books also started it like this didn¡¯t they ¡®Qi gathering¡¯ or something like that. ¡°Mana gathering¡± he muttered under his breath. You have killed a seedling enemy beast. +10XP He smiled, his heart raced. He felt as if he had taken a step in the right direction, he still couldn¡¯t level up but he was a little closer to his target than he was before. A small smile had just grazed his lips when he felt a slight tremor beneath his feet which was almost immediately followed by a thundering roar of an explosion. For a moment he paused to look around. Nothing felt out of the ordinary. Then as if laughing at his sense of achievement, the wall lurched beneath his feet and began sliding off. [Scientifically sound travels slower through the air than vibrations through solid objects.] Chapter 12 : Level 2 ¡°Cough! Cough! Cough!¡± he loudly groaned lying in the rubble as the dust started to slowly settle around him. He breathed deeply to catch his breath. His whole body was bloody and in pain. At least the parts he could feel were in pain. At first, he had thought that miraculously his legs survived without any damage, belatedly realizing that he couldn¡¯t feel his legs at all. It had been a surreal experience. At first, it had started slanting and everyone tried to maintain their balance as the sliding wall began gaining downward momentum. The siege engine had destroyed the Mid-section of the wall they had been standing on. The top half began falling forward like a tree with its trunk cut by an axe. One second they were trying to balance themselves on the tilted ground, the next they found themselves freefalling to their deaths. The wind rushing past their ears did little to muffle the screams of the men when suddenly its direction changed. Right before they fell the grand mage of the kingdom slowed the whole thing down using wind magic. It was only for a moment but they had been around 30 feet off the ground. Then the mage gave out and they fell. Despite looking grim, a lot of soldiers survived. Since most had been at the top of the wall as it fell forward the rubble did not fell on top of them directly. The other side wasn¡¯t all that well wither. The falling debris had crushed a lot of beasts and soldiers near the wall, one would guess that it was also their first time using this machine in real war considering they had neglected to pull their forces back. Yet instead of stopping, as soon as the dust settled the horde charged in to finish off the stumbling soldiers. It was in this chaos that Max found himself flung with a broken and bloody body, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. From his awkward position face down, Max saw a giant green man with a huge mace who had tusks growing as long as Max¡¯s blade. He was followed by a lot of weird greyish goblin-like creatures that were snarling like hunting dogs, which Max assumed were the beasts. This was also the point where Max realized that whoever named these guys ¡®shorties¡¯, was being sarcastic. The good thing was, that those guys were more focused on the men who could stand rather than the ones who couldn¡¯t. And so they just charged right past Max who looked more dead than alive. I mean I know it was not a blessing I guess, but, you know I¡¯m trying to find a silver lining here. Max groaned under his breath and tried to assess the damage. He didn¡¯t bother summoning up the Status window for he didn¡¯t wanna find out how near to death he was. As the retreat was sounded and he lay there trying to move he came to terms with a simple fact, He had probably broken his back or something. Because his legs looked fine but he couldn¡¯t feel them. When he saw the shorties and their hunting parties nearing he had braced for an impact that never came. He couldn¡¯t turn around to see but he had heard a man scrambling to get away. And on instinct, he had closed his eyes and played dead. That had been two hours ago. The Orcs were passing by now in a rhythmic march. They had cleared a few paths to go through. Thankfully none were near him. In the adrenaline-packed rollercoaster ride that had been his life in the past 3 days he realized, this was the first time he had to properly think without any distractions. There was always something or the other like being on the lookout with rebels, or marching with the soldiers, or shooting with the archers, but now, all he had was his shallow breaths and faraway grunts that he was more than happy to ignore. He knew he was finished. Logically, even if he wasn¡¯t found out or didn¡¯t die from his injuries he would still be dead in due time. He couldn¡¯t move. Each passing minute brought one minute closer to failing the quest and death. Even if the devil system didn¡¯t kill him he would parch and starve out here. He knew it was over. But still, as he looked up to the sky, he couldn¡¯t help but hope for a miracle. And when that didn¡¯t show up, he chose to be his own. He knew the only way to get out of this mess was to figure out how to level up. For God¡¯s sake, he was in a world of magic and mayhem now and so it has to count for something right. Maybe he¡¯ll have healing once he levels up like there is in a lot of games and stuff. He was getting lightheaded, and dark spots danced in his vision. He silently peaked at his HP to see the damage. He couldn¡¯t avoid it forever, right? In his blurry vision, he could only see it alone and a notification that covered half the screen. HP - 2/20 Critical hit! You are bleeding! Your HP will fall with time. He closed his eyes and breathed, Gathering right? I can do this! He breathed, I just have to figure out how? Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Accumulation right? So does that mean he needs to create some kind of store inside of himself? Then why¡¯s the body getting heavier? Has mana accumulated somehow? Then what is all that XP? Are these two interchangeable? The heaviness feels somewhat different than Mana though. He could feel his consciousness slipping away. He felt extremely drowsy. But if it is already inside what does consolidation mean? Isn¡¯t the first step gathering? Like we accumulate money to start a business. No, actually no, the first step isn¡¯t gathering, it is awakening. The transition of going from someone who has never even felt mana, to someone who can feel and utilize it. After all, only once you can handle it are you able to store it right. You first learn how to do business before jumping into starting one by accumulating capital. He could feel his heartbeat and breathing slowing. Pathways! He needs to create pathways. But how? He can¡¯t exactly feel it. Even if he did and molded a bit of mana to a pathway form won¡¯t it be like water flowing on ice? Is that sustainable in the long term? XP! Maybe XP is truly different. He started trying to feel for XP. Before he had been trying to feel the kind of energy he had felt in the brief moments with the mages, or the one he felt due to the healing magic. And surprisingly, Eureka! Now if he could just use it to form the pathways before sleep took him. He had seen enough movies and documentaries to know that if he slept now, he would never wake up. He could feel something, that felt a bit more intrinsic to the soul than mana. It was spread through his body. He shaped his will like a hand and tried to grab it with his mind. It passed right through his imaginary hand. He tried again and failed. It was as if it was there but not there. So he chose to add something of his that was also there and not there. He tried to connect to his very ethereal soul, he was winging it and didn¡¯t understand any real mysteries of life, but the primal forces within him that create and sustain life answered. He felt the hand becoming an amalgamation of his will and soulforce, and this time when he grabbed it, A warm jelly-like substance was grabbed by him. He was not sure if all of this happening was real or active imagination of his dying mind. But as he began handling this substance, which he called spirit now, a tiny warmth grew from his heart. He was still fumbling when the warmth mixed up with his incorporeal will and began guiding it all to form pathways in his body. Reaching from his heart to connect with his hands and feet and brain with very special attention to the path that connected to his lungs. He could feel strange tubules gathering that protruded into his lungs that picked up a spec of something that he had felt before- Mana. As if it instinctively knew where it needed to go, Mana followed the pathways and began pooling in areas with the most critical injuries. He lay there for hours as his body underwent changes. His legs were obstructed physically but spiritually they were still connected. As the basic net of paths covered snaked his way through his body a small hot feeling gathered in his lower back. It heated and ached and then there was a sound of a little snap followed by a spike of extreme pain. A mechanical ding sounded in his ears and then, he could feel his legs again. Or maybe it was all a dream, for he blacked out right after that ----- STATUS Name : Maximus Callahan Race : Human(X) Class : None Origin : The Progenitor(Unascended) Rank : Seedling(None) Grade : Seedling(None) Titles : - Defiant(Initiate) Chaos Seed : ¡ª------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nodes : 8,534,432,532(Effective - 10,000,000,000) Level : 2 EXP : 1980/20,000,000,000 HP : 6/30 MP : 2/10 STR : 9 INT : 10 VIT : 7 Def : 8 Note - Stats suppressed due to ongoing special Origin Trial Limitations. Skills : None So not full healing but his mana could heal him a little. Due to the level-up, All his basic stats had been increased by 1. His HP increased by 10 and MP by 5. He could now feel the mana in his body and in the air if he concentrated. But most importantly, he could walk again. He couldn¡¯t wait to level up again but the ridiculous XP demand that had doubled demoralized him again. Was there even a point in counting it when only an event like an instant level-up could actually help him? He decided to check the notifications. Congratulations on taking your first steps on the path of power! You are the first of your world to figure out the basic principles of spirit and the first step of ascension. You are hereby bestowed the title of Pioneer! Pioneer : God helps those who help themselves, and so does the system. You have proven yourself worthy of holding the lamp on the way of your world. All stats +10. System note: You have chosen the path of the progenitor. This is not an achievement but a requirement. Your origin has devoured the title ¡®Pioneer¡¯. Call Value increased. What the hell? His precious stats! What the hell is Call Value? He checked his status window again but there was nothing called ¡®Call Value¡¯ there. But he found that he wasn¡¯t highly disappointed. He half expected that damn demon to pull something like this. The face of a demon really suited the damn interface Congratulations! Your title Defiant has reached the realm of Initiates! Defiant : Teasing the reaper are we? Not sure if you have drawn the Tower to find Death so close or the wheel to find it yet so far. But your will is acknowledged. It felt good to see his efforts recognized but it would have been better if this Defiant thing had stats. Maybe it will turn out to be something good later on. At least, he hoped that to be the case. Moving on, Max decided to assess his situation in the quest. It was night now. Time Left : 54 Hours 07 minutes 26 seconds E - Mission 000 : Kill 10 soldiers personally.(1/10) D - Mission 001 : Kill 5 variants personally. (0/5) C - Mission 002 : Kill 200 beasts personally. (188/200) B - Mission 003 : Kill the Forward Enemy Commander. (0/1) A - Mission 004 : Identify and kill the traitor before he destroys the wall. (0/1) S - Mission 005 : Hold the defense line for more than 48 hours. (0/1) X- Mission 006 : Kill Imhotep(0/1) It felt confusing to see that he had not failed by losing the wall. Or maybe he had but it was just a matter of time that he wasn¡¯t killed on the spot. In any case, he knew what he had to do. He may or may not win, But he was sure as hell gonna try. Now it was time for action. Chapter 13 : Squads and Classes Chapter 13 : Squads and Classes ¡°Still here, huh?¡± Max thought to himself as he made his way over the debris. A gruesome sight greeted him. Blood and organs were strewn about in the dust and stone. He couldn¡¯t tell you which belonged to whom though, orcs, beasts, or men. It was hard to differentiate with so much overlap. ¡®Reality of war huh?¡¯ With the rebels, he mostly abandoned the allies where they fell or had been knocked unconscious and had not been there to see much of the aftermath. ¡®The reality of war? But he strangely found himself disconnected. He didn¡¯t barf or feel repulsed. It was as if he was in a movie or something. The fight did have a lot of Lord of the Rings vibes. A faint rumble could be heard far off in the distance. In their bloodlust, the orcs hadn¡¯t stopped to loot or even make sure that all of the creatures here were dead, which seemed incredibly stupid on their part. He could expect it from a random horde but not from something called an army. That was when he heard another groan. ----- K was happy, really happy. He was a people person, and he had absolutely hated the 3 days he had spent alone. Carl screamed, ¡°On your left K!¡± K broke out of his reverie and spun the shield around to face the goblin but it was too late, at least it looked like the anime goblins, the official name being Grokants. The little cretin had already jumped upon him and had stabbed him with a small knife in its hand. BRRR the barrier vibrated and sprang to life signifying the successful hit and teleported him out of the fighting range. ¡°C¡¯mon K! Fuck!¡± Carl cursed. ¡°Concentrate fire near me and Lenora!¡± He moved forward to take K¡¯s place beside her and the golem while the rest of the 7 party members rearranged a bit. But they weren¡¯t a coordinated squad yet so it took only around 2 minutes for the next person to fall which made a domino effect and their squad got annihilated. Carl wordlessly admonished K as he drank a healing potion but the big bodybuilder just smiled. After a few seconds of glaring Carl also just sighed and smiled like one smiles when a little kid does something stupid and smiles at you. ¡°Next time, also look around you.¡± Carl was actually 25 so K was still a kid to him in a sense. ¡°I¡¯ll try!¡± They had lost every time since they had challenged the first group combat but the squad was actually in high morale since a few hours ago when the system spaces of the chosen squad members were combined to form a single round hall. One half of the hall was a communal area with sofas and a dining table along with a kitchen. The circular walls on that side had 10 doors that led to separate bedrooms with adjoined bathrooms. The other half had 2 quadrants with one being individual training and other being the group combat. They could pick to challenge creatures in any team size or combination. The terrified people were just happy to not be alone anymore. But what had made them truly happy was the squad itself. It looked like instead of throwing people randomly, the system went with the nearest first. That meant that K was teamed up with Lenora, Thea, and Miles. Sure there were some strangers too but you usually are standing close to people you know. So, most people would probably be more comfortable with their squad. The four friends had spent the whole first half of the 4th day chatting up and getting to know the strangers. After sharing their worries about their families and futures and everything in between they had started on Origins and classes. K was a Vanguard(4 of Blades) with a huge shield and a Mace. Lenora was a Ranger(6 of Blades). Miles had chosen Alchemist(3 of Pentacles). They were joined by an old woman, Gia who was a summoner and had summoned(4 of Wands) the stone golem in the trial. It was a rough stone golem that looked like 6 stones placed together. Slow to move, but it was extremely durable at their levels. Carl had a buffing class of Captain(5 of Wands). He had strategic knowledge as well as speed and strength buffs. He was using a bow too. The rest were another group of college friends namely Jessica the medic(3 of Pentacles), Joe the healer(4 of Cups), Janine the lightening mage(3 of Wands), and Jackson the Gunslinger(4 of Pentacles) with his revolver. They called themselves the J-squad on account of their names and a movie reference from the Edge of Tomorrow. They had all been practicing to work together in preparations for the trials. After all, team evaluation was also a factor in whatever the hell was the system trying to do. The system had also added another feature now which was Class Change. Apparently, before they became Initiate Seekers, they were all seedlings, and their class and origin could be changed. Classes had a simple mechanism, on the 6th and 9th day of the tutorial, there would be a class reassignment like the first day. Following this on the 12th day they will elect their final class. They would qualify to become Initiate Seekers on reaching Seedling level 10 which will push them to Initiate Seeker level 1. Stolen story; please report. This was to optimize them for Origin ascension. The Origin was supposed to ascend and become activated on reaching Initiate Seeker according to their own potential. After which it is very hard to change but their performance in the trials could increase or decrease their Origins as well as classes majorly. For the fortunate few creatures who actually did manage to perform over and above expectations, it was almost the only time that their Origins changed significantly as they were still newly awakened. But after the trial¡¯s bestowals, the Origins will be almost set in stone. But the range of classes they could unlock in the tutorial was supposed to depend on their battle scores or Creative scores right before the Reassignments. So they all had an incentive to work to get better classes or to switch classes according to their need or preferences or the needs of the squad. As long as they were seedlings they could be molded into anything and all they would have to do was start their leveling from Half of whatever it was before, Which wasn¡¯t much for seedlings. With Linear progression with Level 1 wanting 100XP and Level 2 wanting 200 for Seedlings, A total of 5500 XP was enough for them. That could be collected from the battle area in the last 6 days very easily as it issued additional XP for clearing stages. One could say that the tutorial assigned the class, and trials gave the Origin. Joe began, ¡°Dude we need more muscle on the front lines. We are like a glass canon with almost all ranged.¡± This was a truly major problem for most squads. No matter how you cut it, we don¡¯t really like risks. So when given the ultimatum of fighting, we chose relatively safer or exciting avenues like mages, healers, gunslingers, and archers. Nobody wanted to face an enemy up close and personal. Except maybe people who knew martial arts. ¡°Well, why don¡¯t you change to a warrior or something when the reassignment happens?¡±, Lenora shrugged in annoyance. They knew the problem, but the point was nobody was really picking anything melee.¡± ¡°Man! I told you, we are from a medical college, who do you think will be better for Healing?¡± ¡°Yeah but your Origin is Cups, don¡¯t you think that in a world of magic, a wand healer would be better!¡± ¡°Calm Down! Let¡¯s not start fighting amongst ourselves. We still have almost 2 days to decide this. We¡¯ll figure something out.¡± Carl had taken up the leadership role inside and outside the battle simulations. Maybe it was his class but he was naturally good at leading and calming people down. Everyone had naturally accepted his leadership especially since without him issuing commands, the Grokant wave battles were a complete nightmare. ¡°I agree that we need another tank but I also see Joe¡¯s point.¡± They had going in circles for a while now in this discussion and were getting frustrated now. ¡°I think, at this point, one of us will have to bite the bullet and take one for the team.¡± Murmurs of assent came from the team. ¡°Well, boss who should it be then?¡± Jackson snarked. He had been butting heads with Carl a little on some things. It was nothing serious just a bit of Ego clashing. ¡°All of us had good reasons to pick the classes that we did¡± ¡°And I respect that. But that does not change the fact that we do need a frontline or we all will be out before we can actually do the job we¡¯re supposed to. And so, I propose that Miles or Janine take up the role.¡± ¡°What why m¡­¡± ¡°Before you object,¡± he interrupted Janine, ¡°Listen to my reasoning please, Miles, I know you are good at chemistry and theory but even the system said to pick combat classes first. I know you said that since you are a Pentacle the best thing for you is a similar job but we¡¯re out of options buddy.¡± Miles wanted to argue but Carl made valid points. ¡°And why me?¡± Carl turned to Janine. ¡°I saw a lot of classes of wands that can also serve as tanks, shifters, druids, and indirectly summoners. That will fulfill our needs without stunting your Origin. Ideally, it should have been a Swords guy, but the only other Swords is Lenora she is actually trained as a Ranger back home so the compatibility is too high. On the other hand, I am needed in a tactical role considering none of us have military training and we will need fighting expertise which the Captain class is providing. Now, I am not telling you to do it now, I am just asking you both to consider the options and the situations for the next 2 days and then make a decision.¡± The groups had serious expressions as they weighed his words. That was when K¡¯s stomach loudly growled like a small beast itself drawing everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°What? I¡¯m a big guy I need my carbs! It takes a lot of fuel to have 20 points in Strength.¡± Everyone laughed and the tension broke. ¡°Yeah, All that exercise must have made us all hungry. Let¡¯s have food first. It¡¯s important for the future but let¡¯s table this discussion for later, nobody¡¯s dying today at least.¡± ----- The man in front of Max coughed up and died. Max held a half-drunk potion in one hand. He sighed and got up. The man had been too far gone for the potion to work. ¡®What a waste.¡¯ For a moment Max found himself shocked at his thought. But then he realized that that half potion may have helped him survive down the line. Logically it had been a waste to put it in the dead man¡¯s mouth but for some reason, he still felt guilty for having that thought. ¡°Hey! Max! How is he?¡± A soldier yelled from a few meters away where a group of 20 was sitting around and nursing their wounds. Around 20 more were searching around the rubble for more survivors. That was the extent of the people who had escaped the massacre that had claimed thousands of lives. Max just looked up and shook his head. The soldier made a somber expression and made some kind of a gesture like the Christians making a cross and turned away. After Max investigated that first groan, he found a man heavily injured lying nearby. On seeing Max he pointed to his coat pocket which had a potion bottle. The higher officers all had one or two different potions. They did not magically heal all critical injuries but were good enough. After gulping it down and recovering Max and Kato began to look around. They found a few more survivors and officer dead bodies to loot for potions. Max still had one more to spare other than the one in his hand. His HP wasn¡¯t full but it was now half and gaining. They tried to heal if they thought someone could be saved and now they had gathered 40. It was not even half a century, but it was something. ¡°Okay! Men! Fall In! That¡¯s enough searching. Let¡¯s fall back to the main defense line!¡±