《Eventide》


 Just another boring day.

    Today was just another boring day for 115. He woke up when faint rays of sunlight made their way through the cracks in his makeshift tent, sitting up he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.


    While he did not need to sleep he still did it because he liked to and because it helped get him through the rest of the long days when he had nothing else to do.


    Standing up and stretching toward the sky while looking out at the seemingly endless ocean with the rays of the sun glittering on the water he yawns and proceeds with his daily routine.


    Walking towards the water he jumps in and swims around for a bit, a habit he had picked up was swimming and in all honesty he could put any human to shame with how good he was at it, after a few laps of back and forth he gets out the water and drys himself off with a makeshift towel made out of leaves and vines to hold it together.


    After drying off he does the next part of his routine, walking into the forest and towards one of the many mountains he starts to climb with his bare hands¡­ For a while now he had been trying to reach the top and every day he made it further but it had already been 40 years and the top was still nowhere in sight. Yesterday he made it to 50,000 feet within just about 22 hours and since a day lasted 80hrs on eventide he still had plenty of time to come back down and finish his routine.


    After climbing it for what seemed like ages 115 saw the marker he had made in the mountain to indicate he had reached his previous day''s record and with one swift motion he hurled himself towards it from below, about 15 feet above him, and grabbed onto a ledge and pulled the marker out and shoved it into his mouth so he could keep climbing.


    115 climbed for another few hours before he called it a day and started going back down, after another grueling 20+ hours his feet were back on the ground and without pause in his steps, he went on about his day onto his next task.


    Exploring the forest.


    While 115 was busy with his routine back on the beach something could be seen approaching the beach from out in the sea. Looking closer it seemed to be some type of construction floating across the water, on said construction a man walked up to the front of the ship pulled out what looked like a spyglass, and looked towards the landmass.


    After looking for a bit, the man spotted 115¡¯s tent on the beach, his eyebrows scrunched up. Looking back at his crew, he yells.


    ¡°Alright boys get ready to disembark once we hit land and be on the lookout I spotted some type of man-made structure on the beach the ¡°new land¡± may be populated.¡±


    To which the crew all looked at him and said in unison ¡°Aye aye cap¡±


    Back to 115 in the forest, he had been walking for quite some time now and figured it was time to head back to his tent for the day and get some rest. Turning around and walking for a few hours the beach was starting to come into view between the trees, 115 kept walking until he saw the construction from earlier parked right in front of the beach.


    115 instantly became curious as he had never seen anything like it walking forward he set foot on the beach and as he was about to approach the construction he heard a voice behind him.


    ¡°Stand still and put your hands in the air,¡± the captain said.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    115 hearing the voice speak tried to understand what he had just heard but with no knowledge of the language or the meaning of his words, simply turned around and looked at the captain. Now looking at the source of the voice 115 saw what appeared to be a man pointing something at him, the man himself was about 6 feet tall with blue eyes and black hair with a decently sized beard and was wearing something over his body 115 had never seen before as well since he did not wear clothes as he never had the need nor did he know the concept or how to make them.


    The captain repeated his words so 115 again but this time much more firmly. ¡°I said put your hands in the air do you not understand me!?¡±


    115 tilted his head to the side while looking at him in confusion.


    The captain seeing this realized that 115 might not understand his words at all and put his gun down while trying to figure out how to go about this¡­ calling his crew over they all started talking while one of them kept an eye on 115 just in case.


    ¡°Cap, what''s up with that guy? Why is he completely naked? Is he not cold? It''s the middle of winter,¡± one of the men said while shivering a bit.


    While there were no signs of winter that did not mean it was not freezing the temperature on the beach they were at was well below 30 degrees Fahrenheit.


    The Captain turned his head and looked at 115 hearing the mans question, finally getting a good look at the naked man he saw 115 had black hair and black eyes and stood about 6,3 feet tall but other than that the man had no notable features, turning back around to his crew he spoke.


    ¡°I honestly have no idea it''s my first time coming across anything like this in my 30+ years of sailing to different lands but it is also not completely surprising as this is by far one of our biggest discovers considering it took us 7 years of sailing to reach this landmass and based on its size its bigger than the mainland back home¡±


    ¡°What should we do about him then? And how long are we going to stay here before returning home and reporting this to the headquarters?¡±


    ¡°Well like I said since I believe this is bigger than our mainland there is no way for us to explore this place on our own so with that in mind, I think we will stay for a few weeks or maybe a few months before returning home that way we can stock up on supplies as we are getting low after sailing for so long.¡±


    While they were figuring out what to do about 115 and their plans to return home 115 was now back to looking at the boat that was parked alongside the beach in the water. Getting curious he decided to walk over and inspect it.


    But before he could move he heard someone walking towards him from behind, turning back around 115 saw the captain looking at him while seemingly in thought.


    One of the crew members walked over and looked at the captain and after some time the captain turned to him and said


    ¡°Would anyone be willing to try and teach him how to understand us? We need some way to communicate if we are going to figure out anything about this landmass¡± pausing for a few seconds he continued. ¡°He should know some stuff about this place like where food/water sources are.¡±


    While he was speaking to his crew once more 115 was just listening to everything being said and was slowly starting to understand the captain''s words or at least speak said words, while looking at the captain speaking 115 thought it was interesting and wanted to give it a try and with a broken voice said the word ¡°C a p t t I an¡± it was really broken and pronounced badly but the fact he could even do that much was astounding.


    Hearing the broken voice behind him all of a sudden the captain whipped around and stared at 115 with shock on his face.


    After a few minutes of staring in silence, he took a deep breath and got his bearings before speaking.


    ¡°You¡­ Do you understand us?¡±


    Once again silence reigned as 115 stared at him before trying to say another word he had heard the captain say


    ¡°Under sT and?¡± 115 said as he looked utterly confused about what he was saying.

 Learning way to fast

    ¡°Captain I don¡¯t think he understands us or even knows what he is doing¡­ he is probably just mimicking what he hears and sees out of curiosity


    ¡°You''re right he looks like he has no idea what the words he is saying mean at all.¡±


    With that in mind, the captain decided to spend a bit of time trying to teach him but before that, he had orders for his men.


    ¡°Alright boys I am going to try and teach him how to speak and understand us while I do that I need 10 of you to go see if you can find some food and water sources so we can restock, the rest of you maintain the ship and stand guard we have no idea what or who is on this landmass¡±


    ¡°Aye aye cap,¡± they all said before getting to work.


    3 weeks later¡­


    ¡°I think I''m starting to understand.¡±


    the captain could be seen sitting on a stump looking at 115 in disbelief and what was currently happening¡­ he had said he was going to try and teach him but in all honestly he had no hope for 115 to learn anything he said as he was no a teacher and 115 clearly had no idea about the concept of language before they arrived.


    ¡°Can you repeat that?¡± the captain asked with his mouth wide open


    ¡°I think I''m starting to understand.¡± the voice said again, the voice is 115 of course.


    ¡°You¡­ I am at a loss for words, I''ve been speaking to you for a few hours and you have said nothing since you tried to mimic us, now all of a sudden you can form a full sentence without any issues.


    ¡°What is wrong with that?¡± 115 asked in confusion.


    ¡°...Nevermind, now that you can speak and understand me I have a few questions if you don''t mind me asking.¡±


    115 nodded to the captain to continue. ¡°Do you know anything about this landmass? Like where food and water are? also, why are you the only person we have seen?


    ¡°I''m not sure I understand your first question, Captain.¡± 115 started calling him that as that was what everyone else called him which prompted the captain to look at him and say


    ¡°Call me Aaron that¡¯s my name and what do you mean you don¡¯t understand? Like you learned to word food from me since I''ve said it quite a bit right?¡±


    115 nodded and the captain continued ¡°Alright let me rephrase the question then, do you know where something to eat is like something you put in your mouth and swallow so you don''t starve?¡±


    115 still looked confused as he knew the words and what they meant but he had never needed to eat or drink himself so instead of answering he responded with a question of his own.


    ¡°Why do you guys need to eat or drink? Like I understand the meaning of it but not why it is needed, also since you told me your name just call me 115.¡±


    Aaron looked confused at 115 for a few seconds before responding. ¡°Do you not need to eat or drink water? Also, 115 is a weird thing to name yourself but alright..¡± he said while staring at 115 intently.


    ¡°...No, I have never had to eat or drink and what''s weird about the name?¡±


    He looked at 115 trying to find any hint of him joking or not but came to the conclusion he was dead serious and also decided to ignore the question about why the name ¡°115¡± was weird.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°How is that even possible assuming you are human like us which you appear to be you should feel the need to eat, drink, sleep, etc¡­¡±


    115 looked at him somewhat surprised and said. ¡°I''ve never needed to do any of those and while I do sleep that''s more so because I have nothing else to do during nighttime.¡±


    Aaron¡¯s eyebrows scrunched up as he thought about what 115 said, I mean to him it just made no sense 115 looked like a human in every way, shape, and form there was nothing different about him and Aaron other than 115¡¯s weird naming sense and the fact he does not need to fuckin eat anything.


    Looking at 115 not sure he wanted to believe what him, Aaron decided to save this conversation for another day and get back to the question he asked earlier as they were in desperate need of a food source.


    ¡°Anyway, back to what I asked before do you know of any food source like any animals or plants we could eat anywhere around here while you might not need to eat we sure as hell do so unless you want to see us start eating each other point towards something edible. Aaron said jokingly


    ¡°Would you really eat each other?...¡±


    Seeing as his joke flew right over 115¡¯s head Aaron just moved on and asked again to which 115 just said ¡°I can¡¯t say anything about plants as I have no clue since I have not tried to eat them but as for animals¡­ If that answers your question, I have not seen one in my entire time here.¡±


    Aaron hearing this just sighed and said. ¡°Alright forget I even asked¡­ there should be something around here I refuse to believe there is no food of any kind close by.¡±


    With that said he stood up and walked back towards his crew leaving 115 to his thoughts.


    ¡®Maybe I should try and look around for a food source there is still a lot of the forest I have not stepped foot in and a lot of plants I just left alone because I did not know what they were.¡¯


    Considering that 115 stood up and walked into the forest by himself towards a place with plants he remembered seeing a while ago.


    While 115 was in the forest the crew back on the beach was having a meeting to discuss what they were going to do about the food shortage and how they were going to make it back home.


    ¡°Captian what are we going to do? It¡¯s been three weeks and will still have yet to find any signs of life other than 115.¡± one of the men said having a look of worry and slight dread.


    Seeing the looks on the faces of his crew members Aaron knew had had to get their morale up somehow.


    ¡°Alright boys listen up,¡± he said while pausing to gather his thoughts. ¡°We are going to make it out of here and I know for a fact we are going to find some food, think about it this landmass is twice the size of the land our empire sits on not to mention all the plants around, its simply impossible for there to be nothing edible on a landmass this big.¡±


    Hearing this everyone relaxed a bit and decided to believe in their captain.


    Seeing everyone had calmed down and looked relaxed Aaron turned around before noticing that 115 was gone.


    115 could be seen walking threw the forest, he had already been walking for about 3 hours now and had finally reached the location he was looking for.


    Coming to a clearing in the forest a rock could be seen in the middle of said clearing or more like a boulder with how big it was. Next to the rock, a bunch of plants that looked somewhat like a flower could be seen it had a thick stalk that stuck into the ground, above the stalk a bunch of pink-like petals could be seen.


    115 Seeing the plants were still there walked over to it and crouched down, looking at one closely he thought to himself. ¡®This does not look like something someone would want to eat..¡¯


    Picking the flower from the ground he brought it closer to his face to look at it closer, while doing so the smell of the flower entered his nose causing his face to light up with a look of surprise.


    ¡®Wow¡­ this smells¡­ good¡­¡¯ he thought while taking sniffs in-between. ¡®Maybe I should try to eat it?¡¯ He thought.


    Picking one of the petals off so as to not eat the whole thing he stuck one in his mouth and a whole world of flavors he did not even know existed entered his mouth for the first time.


    But before he could really try and enjoy the flavor 115 bent over in the fetal position and grabbed his head, it felt like someone had taken a big rock and started pounding it to the back of his skull.


    ¡°F-fuck¡­ what was that?¡± he thought to himself before he got his answer after hearing a voice inside his head speaking.


    ¡°Subject 115 initiated the Protocol, starting the download sequence.¡±


    And then everything went black.

 Who am I… What am I…?

    ¡®What happened?¡¯ was the first thought 115 had after waking up before he once again grabbed his head as it started to hurt again.


    All of a sudden 115 heard a voice in his head.


    ¡®Would subject 115 like to initiate the rest of the protocol?¡¯ (if not, it will initiate by itself in 1 hour)


    ¡®Yes¡¯


    ¡®No¡¯


    Staring at the prompt now seemingly floating in his face he sat there for a few minutes in a daze before he decided to just go for it as he really had nothing to lose.


    Clicking yes 115 saw more prompts start to appear.


    ¡®Initiating¡­ success, welcome 115.¡¯


    After that, one final panel appeared in his vision this time with a bunch of information/stats.


    Status:


    ¡®Name: [redacted] (115)¡¯


    Level:1


    Race: [redacted]


    Title: [redacted] [redacted]¡¯


    ¡®Age: 200 years¡¯


    ¡®Bloodline: [redacted]¡¯


    Class: N/A (Reach level 10 to select a class)


    stats:


    Health:500


    Mana:1000


    Strength:250


    Agility:250


    Defense:200


    Intelligence:1000


    Perception:200


    Willpower:200


    After scanning over all the stats he focused on the ones with [redacted] in them. ¡®Why is some of the information hidden? Or ¡°[redacted]¡± do I have some special type of blood or something? Also, why do I have titles? Not to mention that my name itself is hidden¡­¡¯


    Before he could continue to try and make sense of everything the system started talking again


    ¡®Subject you have 1 month before the system will initiate with the rest of the world.¡¯


    Hearing this 115 decided to try and ask a question to the system to see if it would respond


    ¡°Can you respond to me?¡± he said aloud.


    ¡®The system can indeed hear you subject¡¯ it responded inside his head.


    Pausing for a few seconds with an intrigued look he asked his next question.


    ¡°Alright then, what happens when the system ¡°Initiates¡± with the rest of the world?¡±


    ¡®Well, the rest of the world will get the prompts you have been given today and the world itself will start change on different levels. For instance, animals will start to become a lot bigger and stronger and some can even develop intelligence and the ability to speak like a human.¡¯


    Taking a second to process this he asked the question he wanted an answer to.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Who am I¡­ Like where did I come from? Also, what am I, the other humans on the beach needed to eat and drink but I''ve never had the need why is that?¡±


    ¡®Unfortunately, I can''t answer questions about the subject that is something you have to figure out yourself.¡¯


    115 looked down at the ground with a look of disappointment on his face before sighing and asking his next question.


    ¡°Why did you appear now? Like what caused the system to ¡°initiate¡± in the first place?¡± 115 asked. After all, he had done was eat a petal of a flower.


    ¡®The reason the system did not initiate sooner was because the subject had not taken in any mana and the flower has mana in it causing the system to initiate the starting sequence.


    ¡°The flower has mana in it? Also, what is mana? What can it be used for and what are the benefits of taking it in?¡±


    ¡®Yes, the flower has mana in it, if the subject looks at the flower again now that the system has started you should be able to use the system to identify it.


    ¡®As for what mana is and how it benefits the subject, mana is everywhere and within almost everything, it is an energy source, and taking in mana can allow you to do things that without it are not humanly possible. Mana also can be used to reinforce and strengthen the body.


    Hearing this 115 decided to ask how to take Mana in to see if he could try what the system was talking about.


    ¡®There are many different ways for the subject to take in mana such as a technique that you learn or a certain way of breathing but the simplest way is to sit down and mediate and try to ¡®feel¡¯ the mana¡¯


    115 immediately sat down to give it a try.


    After about 30 minutes of sitting there, 115''s skin felt prickly, taking this as a sign that it''s mana and feeling a bit excited. Quickly, though, he calmed himself down and kept himself focused, and after about another hour, he got a prompt from the system.


    ¡®Congrats subject has created an ¡®inferior mana breathing¡¯ skill.


    Switching his attention to the skill he sees a description.


    ¡®inferior mana breathing¡¯ - Allow the user to take in mana while meditating and slowly increase his maximum mana capacity. (Note - this skill is of shallow quality and would not be advised for actually increasing said capacity)


    After reading the description, he felt a bit bummed out but it was to be expected that it was not going to be a suitable method he could not even use it to increase the durability or strength of his body or attacks.


    Deciding to finally move on and ask another question he switches his attention to what the system mentioned earlier.


    ¡°Can you tell me what I should be doing within the next month then?¡±


    ¡®Certainly, within this next month, the subject should try and level himself up as much as possible that way once the system fully integrates with the rest of the world you will be well ahead of the curve.¡¯


    ¡®As for how to do this, well there are many ways to level yourself up such as killing things for XP or even crafting things such as weapons. You can also discover locations that have never been found before, there should be quite a few on this landmass and that would be my suggestion.¡¯


    115 had a surprised look on his face as he had never seen any of the locations the system was referring to even in his 150+ years on the landmass


    ¡°Could you tell me the location of some of them?¡± 115 Asked


    ¡®While I can''t tell you the location I can point you in the general direction of one of them¡¯


    Before 115 could say anything in response he saw a compass-like arrow appear in his vision pointing him deeper into the forest.


    ¡®I should head back.¡¯ he thought before remembering what the system said about being able to identify things.


    Looking down at the flower a prompt window appeared.


    ¡®Rose of carnation - A flower with edible petals that restore a tiny amount of mana, the stem itself is also edible but does not restore mana like the petals¡¯


    A smile formed on 115¡¯s lips thinking how useful the system''s identify was.


    ¡®Interesting¡¯ he thought before finally standing back up and collecting a bunch of the flowers before heading back to the beach.


    Back on the beach, Aaron looked worried. They had been searching the forest for the entire week or so they had been here but had not found anything edible even after so long.


    Looking up he saw 115 walking over with a bunch of flowers in his hands and a faint look of hope appeared on his face.


    ¡°Here these should be edible I tried eating one myself and the petals are pretty good the stem is also good and should be edible as well.¡±


    The captain looked at him unsure about that as it looked just like a flower and well most if not all flowers were inedible but he decided to suck it up and give it a try as it was their only hope of survival for now.


    Reaching over, he took one of the flowers from 115¡¯s hand and plucked a petal off before hesitantly smelling it. The smell itself reminded him of a bit of a strawberry, which was a good sign.


    Popping it into his mouth, his face instantly lit up in surprise for a few moments before he scarfed down the rest of the flower''s petals.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take it; you also believe it''s edible,¡± 115 said, almost laughing a bit as the captain looked quite funny eating it so fast.


    After Aaron had eaten the flower petals he called over his crew to let them know that they had found a food source getting a bunch of cheers


    ¡°Finally some food, good find 115,¡± one of the sailors said while eating one of the petals.


    After a while of sitting around the fire while they ate the petals, the sun was starting to set, and everyone was getting tired, so they all returned to their quarters on the ship, and 115 laid down under his tent before falling asleep.

 Exploring ruins

    Exploring ruins.


    115 could be seen walking through the forest following the compass his system was interfacing to him after about ten hours heading north-west 115 spotted a giant pillar in the distance


    ¡®I have been out this way before, I''m pretty sure, and have no memory of that pillar being there¡­¡¯ 115 thought while walking up to the pillar.


    Looking at it closer, 115 reached his hand out and touched it. When his hand made contact with it, a prompt appeared in his vision.


    ¡®Does the subject wish to enter the ancient ruin?¡¯


    ¡®Yes¡¯


    ¡®No¡¯


    After reading the prompt, 115 looked intrigued and asked the system a question before going in.


    ¡°System, What can I expect going into this?¡±


    ¡®The subject can expect monsters to be inside that will allow you to gain xp as well as items and maybe even something rare as to what exactly is inside the subject will have to find out himself.¡¯


    Listening to what the system said, 115 decided to head in without hesitancy. He had always been someone who did not hesitate to do things, and he was not going to start now.


    ¡®Yes¡¯


    After saying yes, a portal appeared to the left of the pillar, and without waiting much longer, he stepped through.


    ¡®Welcome to the ruins of Katar¡¯ was the first thing 115 heard. After that, he felt heat blaring down on him.


    Looking around, he saw nothing but desert and some massive temples about 10 miles ahead.


    Taking a second to get his bearings, 115 took a deep breath and started walking toward the temple. While on alert, the system already said he should expect monsters.


    After walking for about 5 minutes, 115 felt the sand beneath him rumble before it exploded upwards.


    115 quickly leaped to the side with a roll before looking at what had just tried to attack him, and he could only make out the shape as a bunch of sand was in the air from where it burst out from the ground.


    From the looks of it, the thing that attacked him was big and long. He could make out two glowing yellow eyes through the sand and dust, but before he could make out anything else from his attacker, it lunged at him again.


    This time, though, 115 decided to counterattack, and after swiftly dodging, he threw a punch at the left side of the giant things Boddie.


    To 115¡¯s surprise, though, the thing flew back about 10 feet from him after the hit.


    ¡®Am I that strong, or is the thing just weak?¡¯ he thought, making his way over to it, still ready to move out of the way in case it was faking it.


    Looking down at the thing now, he could tell it was some kind of giant worm. It had two mandibles of sorts at the front of it, coming out of its mouth, but that was about its only notable feature other than its eyes.


    115 saw where he had punched it and could tell it was him being too strong, as the worm''s body caved inward where he had hit it. Surprisingly, though, it was still alive, glaring at him.


    ¡®I should probably try and understand my strengths and abilities better. Something tells me I should not be this strong.¡¯


    Opening up the stat menu, he retook a look to see if anything stood out or something that could explain his strength. One problem though he had a feeling it was his bloodline or titles causing it as he could see everything else just fine besides his name.


    ¡°System, what are the average stats for someone my level?¡± he asked to establish a baseline for comparison.


    ¡®Responding to the subject, the average stats of a human at level 1 can be expected to be around 50 or so in each stat while health and mana are at 100, respectively.¡¯


    Listening to the response of system 115, he now understood why he had beat the worm so easily. It only made sense, given that his strength was about five times the average.


    After a few moments of thought, 115 looked at the still-alive worm before deciding to kill it and move on.


    115 ruthlessly stomped on its head, causing blood to fly everywhere, not the best decision as now he had blood all over him.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± 115 thought will, laminating at his dumb decision.


    ¡®Subject killed ¡°Desert Sandworm¡± lvl 2 +100xp


    Moving on, 115 continued on his way to the temple, and not long after, he was already standing in front of it. On his way over, he had killed another 10 of those sandworms, getting him another 1000 xp making him level


    ¡®Name: [redacted] (115)¡¯


    Level: - 5


    Race: [redacted]


    Title: [redacted] [redacted]¡¯


    ¡®Age: 200 years¡¯


    ¡®Bloodline: [redacted]¡¯


    Class: N/A (Reach level 10 to select a class)


    stats:


    Health:500 ¡ª> 510


    Mana:1000 ¡ª> 1010


    Strength:250 ¡ª> 265


    Agility:250 ¡ª> 265


    Defense:200 ¡ª> 210


    Intelligence:1000 ¡ª> 1015


    Perception:200 ¡ª> 210


    Willpower:200 ¡ª> 210


    Skills: Mana breathing (Inferior)


    Free points:0


    After disturbing any stats he had gotten along with the boost from leveling, his stats went up a bit, with the ones increasing the most being his intelligence, strength, and agility.


    Turning his attention to the temple, 115 walked towards something that had grabbed his attention earlier: the writing on one of the temple''s walls. As he inspected the writing, a prompt popped up.


    ¡®Ancient writing of the Katar empire¡¯ - subjects'' proficiency in the language has increased. (find more writing to increase it further)


    After reading it, he looked back at the writing and noticed he could recognize the symbols somewhat, but not enough to make anything out.


    ¡®Alright, let''s head inside enough messing around,¡¯ 115 thought before promptly heading into the temple.


    Walking through the entrance 115 saw a prompt appear.


    ¡®Holy temple of Katar¡¯


    Side objective - defeat the 3 Katarin high priests. (rewards: katarin holy water, priests praying necklace)


    Main objective - defeat the Katarin king (rewards: kings amulet, kings staff of ancients, ??)


    After reviewing the objectives, 115 looked at his surroundings. Torches dimly lit the temple walls. Looking around, he could see two rooms and assumed one was for the king and the other for the priests.


    Looking at the room on the left, he walks over and looks in. Inside, he can see three men on their knees, seemingly praying.


    Inspecting them a prompt appears.


    Cruel Priest of Katar - level 5


    Demonized priest of Katar: - level 7


    Holy priest of Katar: - level 9


    115 loops around and tries to look for a way to catch them off guard. While he thinks winning a 3v1 would not be so bad, he¡¯d rather not make a dumb choice.


    After waiting for a bit, one of the priests stands up and makes their way over to an altar of sorts. They start to mess with it, giving 115 the chance to sneak up on him.


    Getting as close as he can without being detected, 115 punches forward and slams the guy in the back of the head, sending the priest flying forward and killing him instantly.


    The other priests immediately looked up and saw their dead companion on the floor, and looks of anger adorned their faces.


    Jumping into action, the demon priest pounces on 115 and tries to slash him with some type of claw skill while the holy priest stands back and starts shooting beams of light at him.


    Narrowingly dodging one of the light blasts 115 and a claw 115 counters the demon and attacks, punching the demon priest in the stomach before throwing another at his head.


    Somehow, though, the demon manages to dodge the second punch and retreats to the other priest, now seemingly more cautious than before.


    The holy priest continued to cast light beams at 115. Seeing this, he figured it was best to get rid of him first. Lunging in his direction, he was cut off by the demon priest, who jumped in front after seeing 115 change targets.


    Unbothered, 115 continued on his path while dodging the beams. Once he was upon the demon priest, he threw a punch, causing the demon priest to throw his arms up to guard.


    Right before the punch landed, 115 sidestepped with insane speed and flew past the demon priest, and attacked the holy one, instantly killing him.


    Looking back, he saw that the demon priest looked shocked and angry. 115 smirked and continued his assault.


    *PING* Subject has defeated the three priests of Katar +3000xp


    Earned: 3x katarin holy water, 3x priests praying necklace


    Subject has reached level 9.


    Seeing the notifications finally end, he decided to take a look at the rewards he had gotten.


    Katarin holy water - (Can be used to cure illnesses and can also mend light wounds)


    Priests praying beads- (Can be worn around the neck and cause the user to have increased mana regeneration)


    Putting the bead around his neck, 115 instantly felt a refreshing rush through his body, and after sitting there for a few moments, he realized something.


    ¡®Where am I going to put the holy water?¡¯ 115 had nothing to store the water in, and carrying it on him while fighting was not a good idea.


    Before he could think further, the system pinged him.


    ¡®Subject can put up to 30 items in the system storage that is not living.¡¯


    Convenient 115 thought before storing the water.


    ¡®Alright, time to fight the king, hopefully, the rewards are better this time,¡¯ he thought before promptly heading in that direction.

 Error...

    Tremors could be felt throughout the temple as a battle was ongoing inside. 115 had made his way over to the king''s room and wanted to sneak attack it like he had the priests, but the second he set foot inside, the king had already locked onto him and attacked.


    Looking at the King 115, one could see its level and, well¡­


    Katarin king - level 16. Needless to say, 115 knew this fight would not be as easy.


    The king himself was wearing a gold-plated suit of armor and holding a black staff with lines of gold running along its body.


    Narrowingly dodging a sweep of the king''s staff, 115 threw a jab at the king''s exposed head but was quickly blocked by the king, who responded with another sweep of his staff.


    Jumping back, 115 was trying to think of some way to get past the king''s tight defense. Everything he had thrown at the king so far had been swiftly blocked, so 115 knew he needed to switch the strategy up.


    Watching the king attack him again while dodging to the left, 115 had an idea. As the king''s staff was still extended, he stopped down, pushing the king''s staff to the floor while quickly throwing another punch.


    Hitting the king finally, 115 did not let up but continued his assault while the king was trying to regain his bearings. As he was about to throw his fourth attack, he felt a sense of danger from his left, causing him to swiftly duck before feeling air brush over his head.


    A loud boom could be heard after the attack thrown at 115 hit the wall and seeing the destruction, 115 knew if he got hit by that attack, he would have been dead.


    Waiting for the king''s next move, 115 finally saw what had been thrown at him from before, it was some type of magic blade made from what he assumed was wind.


    Watching the king conjure three more similar blades 115 jumped into action and sprinted at the king.


    Seeing 115 run at him, the king swiftly attacked with the blades of wind before also launching himself forward with his staff in hand.


    115 swiftly dodging the blades met the king in a fierce clash and after pummeling eachother for a few minutes 115 decided it was time to end this.


    Launching himself forward 115 threw a kick at the king''s right side making the king block with his staff, but 115 was prepared for this, and before his kick made contact with the staff jumped with his other foot and threw a spinning backfoot kick with his other foot hitting the king in the head sending him crashing to the ground.


    When the king hit the ground, 115 got a ping from the system.


    *PING* The subject has defeated Katarin king lvl 16 3000 xp earned.


    Earned:  1x Kings, amulet, 1x staff of the ancients and ?? fragment.


    Looking at his rewards 115 noticed the last one was still displaying question marks and decided to look at its description first


    ?? fragment¡ªThis fragment is not meant to be seen by subjects of the?? Using it will cause the subject to experience unknown effects and maybe even death. (To use the fragment, the user needs to press it against their forehead.)


    Reading it 115 was now extremely curious and also weirded out a bit.


    ¡®What does it mean by ¡°not meant to be seen by subjects?¡±¡¯


    ¡°System, can you tell me why you have been calling me a subject?¡± 115 wondered why he had not asked himself this question sooner.


    ¡®The system calls you a subject because you are a subject.¡¯


    Hearing this, 115 had a bad feeling in the depths of his soul, almost like something was trying to free itself from inside him.


    115 thought to himself that things had always been weird for him. He woke up randomly on a beach with seemingly no other living beings in sight, not even animals, but then humans showed up out of nowhere.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    In addition, the humans taught him how to talk, seemingly to ask for information about food, and everything just seemed normal to 115 at first, as there really was nothing weird about the situation.


    That is until he got this fragment and read its description. Seeing the word ¡°subject¡± awakened something in him and made him want to start questioning things he otherwise did not think about.


    Thinking back on how Aaron had taught him to speak and understand language 115 thought it was almost eerily fast for someone who had forgotten EVERYTHING to learn so quickly.


    He had initially brushed this off after seeing his stats as his intelligence was displayed at 1000, but now that he thought about it, what if his stat was so high to try and help his mind justify it to himself? But that was not even what puzzled him the most now that he was thinking about all this.


    What puzzled was how Aaron and his crew seemingly disappeared, and he did not even question it.


    When 115 awoke the day after, he brought back food for the crew to eat. The ship they had arrived on was gone, and once again, 115 just did not even bother to question it and just went about his day.


    It was almost like something was pointing him in a direction, nudging him to do things they wanted while removing 115¡¯s ability to see it happen.


    The more 115 thought about everything, the more stuff appeared weirder to him, and his heart began to pound as he steeled himself to ask another question.


    ¡°Alright, well, can you tell me what exactly I am a ¡°subject¡± to?¡± 115 said with a tense look.


    But this time, 115 did not get an answer; instead, the system said something that made his heart drop.


    ¡®Subject showing signs of awakening, deploying emergency measures.¡¯


    115 instantly felt himself become dizzy and unable to think straight.


    ¡®Subject resiting emergency measures deploying another wave.¡¯


    115 could barely make sense of what the system had said and felt a feeling of dread from inside him again, but this time, he decided he needed to do something to stop the system otherwise¡­. He did want to know the consequences.


    Taking out the fragment he had gotten, he did what the description had said and barely managed to press it against his forehead.


    When the fragment made contact, he heard the system speak again.


    ¡°Emergency measures failed; the subject will soon awaken, commencing lockdown protocol.¡±


    Before 115 could question anything, his vision turned black.


    While this was happening to 115, blaring sirens could be heard in the halls of a building, and a robotic voice could be heard.


    ¡°Alert, alert, the subject is showing abnormality and will soon awaken.¡±


    In one of these halls, two men and women could be seen rushing forward each with weapons of different variety on them


    The two men carried axes strapped to their sides while the first woman had a sword on her back and the second carried a dagger at her hip.


    The woman with a sword spoke up and said, ¡°Someone better have an explanation.¡±


    The other woman with a dagger appeared extraordinarily nervous and responded, ¡°Ma¡­ madam, we have no idea what happened. The simulation was progressing decently after the subject initiated the system, but for some reason, he became aware, causing the system to take emergency measures.¡± She said while looking at the floor and fidgeting.


    ¡°So you''re telling me that SOMEHOW he just becomes aware, and there is NO reason for it? If you do not tell me an actual reason right now, you will die along with the others.¡± the first woman said coldly with a glare.


    With a look of horror, the other woman reluctantly told her the truth: ¡°No, please. I''m sorry, the... The subject was fighting one of the bosses, and after killing it and getting his rewards, one of the items he was giving was something we never placed within and, by all means, should not exist. So, we believe someone on the inside is trying to help the subject escape.


    ¡°What item was he given?¡± the madam asked.


    ¡°From what we could tell, it was a simulation fragment, but that was not what alerted the subject. It was the description. After reading it, the subject''s heart rate increased massively, and his face appeared extremely grave.¡±


    Hearing her explanation, the madam smiled while looking at the other woman and said, ¡°You''re free to go.¡±


    Hearing this, the woman felt relieved and turned around to walk away. Once her back was turned, the ¡°madam¡¯s¡± smile disappeared, and she swiftly pulled her sword from her back and sliced at the woman''s head, severing it.


    Blood rained from the woman¡¯s headless body before it slowly fell over with a thud.


    ¡°One of you, get this cleaned up; the other, come with me.¡±


    ¡°Yes, madam.¡± they both responded before one left to go dispose of the body.


    Turning to the last person with her, she looked at him sternly and said.


    ¡°We better get there in time if we do not well¡­ you know the consequences,¡± she said, glancing back at the dead woman.


    The man shivered and responded with a nod.


    ¡°Good boy.¡± the woman said with a smile.

 Awakening

    In a dimly lit room, 115 awoke with a start hearing the sound of a blaring alarm before opening his eyes.


    Looking up, 115 saw some sort of glass before him and immediately got a bad feeling before remembering what had just happened.


    115 could feel his heartbeat pick up as he thought back on the 150 years he had spent inside whatever that place was. Realizing that it might have all been fake, 115 felt pure rage.


    ¡°My whole life¡­ inside some fucked up experiment.¡± he thought while gritting his teeth.


    Looking back at the glass in front of him, 115 tried to reach out but felt something holding his arm in place. Glancing down, he saw metal around his wrist, keeping him from moving his arms.


    Staring at the metal, 115 began to get even angrier and felt his blood boil.


    Flexing his arms, 115 started to pull against the metal, and with a snap, the metal broke in half, causing 115¡¯s hand to shoot upwards, hitting the see-through material above him and shattering it.


    Seeing this, a smile began to form on 115¡¯s face. ¡°You thought this was enough to hold me?¡± he said while doing the same for his other arm and legs.


    Finally free from the pod-like thing he was in, 115 climbed out and took in his surroundings. All around him were devices of a similar nature, and looking back at his pod, he saw a screen with some information on it.


    Subject number: 115 - Number of simulations experienced: 3325.


    Subject danger level: Grade X (Must be restrained at all times and is required to be placed within his own room without any other subjects.)


    Name: Damien Atlas


    When he read the part where his name, ¡°Damien,¡± was displayed, he felt a sense of familiarity.


    ¡°Much better than 115, at least.¡± he thought before continuing to read.


    Bloodline name: Unknown (currently designated ¡°Immortals blood). Reading this, Damien felt a sense of repulsion at the name, almost like his blood detested the name it was given.


    Attempts to understand and extract bloodline - 250,325


    Reading that last line, Damien felt his blood boil again before mumbling.


    ¡°So the point of this place is to put subjects inside simulations so that whoever or whatever can better understand the person''s bloodline and attempt to extract it?¡± He mumbled to himself.


    After spending a few minutes in thought, Damien decided he should probably get the fuck out of here as whatever it was that put him there most definitely did not want him to leave.


    Turning around, Damien made his way to what appeared to be a doorway made from some type of metal.


    Once Damien was close enough, he pressed against the door, and seeing as it was not opening, he did the next best thing.


    ¡°BOOM!¡± The door was blasted off its hinges before hitting the wall opposite of it.


    Stepping through the doorway, Damien looked around. To his left was a long corridor, and to his right, a dead end.


    Walking to the left, Damien saw many different rooms with glass windows that allowed him to see inside. Inside the rooms were pods like the one he was inside, and just like his room, the pods had what he assumed to be other subjects inside.


    Seeing that it was not just him, Damien wanted to try and help them, but he had already wasted too much time looking at his information earlier and knew he would not have long until the people who had put him here showed up based on the alarm still blaring in his ears.


    Deciding to come back when he was strong enough to save them, Damien broke out into a jog down the hallway; he began to look for a place to exit,Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Seeing another doorway ahead of him, Damien continued forward and quickly reached it. Busting through the door once again, he looked around. This time, he noticed a stairway leading up to his left and another long hallway on his right.


    Damien quickly went to the stairs, deciding it was better to head up than risk getting lost in another part of the facility.


    While walking to the top of the stairs, Damien heard something that sounded like people running. Reaching the top, he once again spotted a door. Realizing that the sounds were coming from the other side, he pressed his ear against it.


    ¡°ALRIGHT, MEN, LISTEN UP, A SUBJECT OF THE HIGHEST GRADE OF DANGER HAS ESCAPED HIS ROOM!¡± A man with a strong voice could be heard yelling on the other side.


    ¡°When we go in here, we are to RECAPTURE the subject. We are not KILL him, and if one of you dumbasses does so, I won''t be able to save you from the madam when she hears about it.¡±


    ¡°UNDERSTOOD?!¡± he yelled


    ¡°UNDERSTOOD SIR¡±


    ¡°Alright, I want to set up a perimeter around the facility. Team one is on me, team two heads down the stairs behind us, and team 3 stays here in case he somehow makes it past.¡±


    ¡°LETS MOVE.¡±


    Hearing everything that was just said, Damien knew he had to do something as team two was headed this way. Thinking quickly and looking around, Damien decided to try something risky,


    The stairway he was in was pretty narrow, and because of this, Damien could put his arms on one wall and feet on the other, allowing him to hold himself against the ceiling.


    Just as he got into position, the door was nudged open, and a man in a fully blacked-out combat suit walked in holding a rifle. After clearing his left and right corners, he motioned for his team to follow.


    Watching them walk down the stairs, Damien felt relieved and dropped down quietly, he was not out of the woods yet, though.


    Cracking the door, he looked into the room and saw the 3rd team inside, watching different entries and exits.


    ¡°How do I want to go about this.¡± Damien thought to himself while tapping his chin with his finger.


    He could try just busting through the walls, but that would just alert them of his location, and he would rather get away quietly than have to fight his way out against an unknown number of people.


    Looking around again, Damien noticed a grate on the wall above him he had not seen before.


    Jumping up and grabbing onto the grates, Damien looked inside and saw it lead to somewhere.


    ¡°I should be able to fit in here.¡± he thought before grabbing the grate and pulling it off.


    Managing to get the grate off quietly, he softly placed it on the floor before jumping up and grabbing the grate''s ledge. Pulling himself up and crawling inside, he slowly moved forward.


    ¡®I hope this leads somewhere outside.¡± Damien thought.


    After about 10 minutes of crawling, another grate could be seen ahead.


    Approaching the grate and looking out of it, Damien felt slightly disappointed as it did not lead outside.


    Not all was bad, though, as he spotted no one inside the room.


    Pulling the grate off again, Damien jumped down and looked around. The room looked to be for meetings or something similar. A big table was in the middle, surrounded by a bunch of chairs.


    On the right side of the room, another door made of what looked like wood could be seen, and a window on the left.


    A smile formed on his face as he ran to the window, looking outside. Damien saw some mountains way out in the distance, but other than that, it was just forest for miles.


    ¡°Should I just bust out the window?¡± Damien thought.


    Again, though, it would just be needlessly loud, but he was considering it as he wanted to get the fuck out of this building.


    ¡°Fuck it,¡± he said aloud while pressing his palm against the glass, applying pressure slowly.


    After 10 seconds, the glass cracked, and Damien pushed it slightly, causing it to break apart. This was the best way he could think to break the glass without causing a lot of noise.


    Before Damien had the chance to think, he heard the sound of shuffling outside the door of the room he was in. Without hesitating, he jumped out the window.


    Landing on the ground, Damien carefully and quickly approached the forest.


    While he wanted to run, he knew they had previously mentioned a perimeter, so there should be more guards on the outside.


    Once he reached the forest line, he saw the guards, but surprisingly, they were all dead.


    Moving closer, Damien took a look at the wounds, ¡°it looks like some kind of sharp object slit their throats, causing them to bleed to death.¡± Damien mumbled, now more on guard as to what could have killed so many people.


    Deciding not to stay around to find out, Damien stopped being cautious and bolted into the forest.


    Not even a few moments after Damien had discovered the bodies, the room he was inside door busted open. Walking inside, the Captain noticed the broken window, which caused a look of anger to appear on his face.


    Taking out his walkie, he screamed into it, "THE SUBJECT HAS ESCAPED. I WANT ALL OF YOUR ASSES UP HERE NOW!" throwing the walkie to the floor. The captain sighed.


    "She''s gonna kill us."

 Ela

    Ela


    Back at the facility, a woman could be seen tapping her finger on the desk in the meeting room Damien was in before. She was looking at the broken window with an unreadable look.


    Behind her a man with his hands behind his back and a look of dread on his face.


    After what seemed like forever, the woman started to speak, causing the man to tense up.


    ¡°Derik,¡± she said.


    ¡°Yes, madam.¡± Derik blurted out in nervousness


    ¡°Can you tell me how a lone subject can escape by himself right under your noses while also allowing someone else to kill 15 of the men outside?¡±


    ¡°Madam, with all due respect, the subject is a grade X, and his helper is much stronger than my men.¡±


    ¡°Indeed he is, but you know¡­ the thing about this subject, though, is we caught him right before the system descended.¡±


    After pausing for a few moments, she continued. ¡°This means that he does not have combat knowledge or even know how to use his bloodline, and if he does manage to use it, it would be done through pure instincts.


    ¡°Now, with that in mind, tell me how three teams on the inside all fail to notice him get into this meeting room and BREAK FUCKING GLASS!?¡± she screamed while slapping her hand against the table, breaking it in half and glaring at the man.


    The man, at a loss for words, decides it''s best to just ask for forgiveness and hope she does kill him.


    ¡°I''m sorry for my incompetence,¡± he said while looking at the floor.


    Staring at the man with disdain, she stood up and walked over to the window with her hands behind her back.


    ¡°I¡¯ll give you and your men one more chance.¡±


    ¡°You will all come with me to track down the subject. Do you understand?¡± she asked firmly.


    ¡°Yes, madam,¡± he said, feeling thankful.


    ¡°Good; now call your men, and let''s move.¡±


    About 115 miles from the facility, Damien could be seen sitting under a tree, seemingly in thought.


    ¡®What am I going to do now? I have no idea where or even who I am.¡¯ Damien said with a sigh.


    While thinking to himself, Damien heard leaves rustle to his left. Jumping up and looking in the direction ready to fight, he sees a woman wearing entirely black.


    When Damien inspects her, the first thing that stands out is her hair, which is white as snow, and her eyes as dark as night. She has tanned skin and a curvy figure and is about 6 feet tall.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± Damien asks, seeing she is not getting into any fighting position.


    ¡°Ela, my name is Ela,¡± she responded with almost a yearning tone.


    ¡°What do you want, Ela? Were you the person who killed those guards earlier?¡± he says while looking at her curiously. If someone had killed those people, it had to have been her.


    ¡°Yes, I did kill those guards, as you call them. As for what I want, that will take some explaining,¡± Ela responded.


    ¡°Alright, so explain.¡±


    ¡°That will have to wait for later. The people you escaped from will not give up on tracking you down. Damien, you have something they would do anything for, and because of that, we need to get somewhere safe if you are okay with it.


    Listening to what she said, Damien thought to himself briefly before speaking.


    ¡°You know, I never told you my name,¡± Damien said, staring at Ela and raising his guard.


    Realizing her mistake, Ela stared at Damien intently before responding, ¡°I know you did not tell me your name, and I understand if that makes you not want to trust me, but the reason I already knew your name is that I¡¯ve been looking for you ever since you disappeared.


    Before Damien could say anything, she continued.


    ¡°180 years ago, when you just turned 20 years ago, you seemingly disappeared, and no one could find you, and within the time you have been gone, earth had changed massively.


    ¡°Okay, slow down first. You said I disappeared 180 years ago, meaning you were also around back then. That being the case, how exactly did we know each other?¡±


    Hearing his response, Ela noticed she had gotten a little ahead of herself because of her excitement about finding him.


    Taking a deep breath, she started speaking. ¡° 180 years ago, me and you were¡­¡± She hesitantly paused, thinking, ¡®Should I tell him?¡¯ before quickly deciding against it.


    ¡°Back then, we were friends and had known each other since childhood as our families were close.¡±


    Looking at her while she spoke, Damien noticed the look of hesitation, and after listening to her response, he believed she was genuine.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°How can I trust you? It¡¯s not that I don''t believe you are genuine, but I have no memories of you. Even if you say we knew each other, there is just no way for me to fully believe that.¡± he said with a look of caution.


    Nodding in understanding, Ela pulled something from around her neck and held it out, ¡°Here, take a look at this.¡±


    Looking down, Damien saw a necklace shaped like a heart with a photo in the middle. In the photo, a picture of him and Ela could be seen smiling.


    Staring at the photo, Damien felt a sense of familiarity begin to build, but no matter how much he tried, he could not remember where the familiar feeling was coming from.


    After staring at the photo for a few more moments with a dazed expression, Damien spoke.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go with you mainly because I have nowhere else to go, and I want to learn about my past.


    Speaking of which, do you have any way to help me regain my memory?¡±


    He wanted to remember his past. He wanted to remember Ela.


    ¡°Unfortunately, I do not have any way to help you, but we should be able to find one; as I said before, the earth has massively changed.


    ¡°What do you mean by change? What was it like before?¡± Damien asked, feeling curious.


    ¡°Well, for example, before the earth had changed, humans could at most live to 100 or so years old. Now, though, humans can live upwards of 300, and that''s for level 10¡¯s at level 20 you get another 100 years. As for why you are still alive, I can only assume it''s your bloodline, considering your level one.¡± she said in response.


    Continuing, Ela said, ¡°That is just the beginning, though. Now, animals are way more robust than they used to be, with some developing intelligence and maybe even human form, though that is insanely rare. There is a bunch of demi-humans, though.


    ¡°Wait¡­¡± Damien said aloud while dread appeared in his heart before continuing.


    ¡°Don''t tell me the syst-¡± A prompt appeared Before he could finish his sentence.


    Staring at the screen, Damien felt himself panic a bit before a hand touched his shoulder. Looking to his left, Ela looked at him softly and began to speak.


    ¡°Damien, I know your thoughts but don''t worry. This is not a simulation¡­ I am real, and this world is real,¡± she said before gently taking his hand.


    After holding her hand momentarily, Damien pulled away, making Ela feel slightly sad.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Damien said, looking at her gratefully and then letting out a sigh before looking at the system prompt.


    Since Damien was in a literal fucking simulation before, all his stats and information were massively different now.


    Damien first noticed the part where his bloodline used to be displayed but was now seemingly missing.


    Status:


    ¡®Name: Damien Atlas


    Level:1


    Race: High human/???


    Titles: The first to awaken, Storms child, ???


    ¡®Age: 200 years¡¯


    Class: N/A (Reach level 10 to select a class)


    Stats:


    Health:100


    Mana:100


    Strength:40


    Agility:30


    Defense:20


    Intelligence:30


    Perception:25


    Willpower:25


    Skills: Mana breathing (Divine), The original (Primordial), Storms blessing (legendary), Lightning fast (rare)


    Damien¡¯s attention was immediately drawn to his skills before anything else; reading the description, Damien couldn''t help but lament how fucking broken they were


    Mana breathing (Divine): Being the first to awaken comes with many benefits, such as a top-of-the-line mana breathing technique. This technique allows the user to control mana better than any other being in the universe, and the user feels proud for having something even the oldest of monsters desire.


    The original (Primordial): You were the first. You are the first. Allows the user to have the presence of a primordial; may your opponents tremble in your presence, and your allies bask in its glory. (The user needs to be at a higher level to see the rest of the skills description; presence also only works on beings within ten levels of the user.¡±


    Storm''s blessing (legendary): As a child loved by the storm, it bestowed its blessing upon you. This ability allows the user to unlock abilities related to the storm.


    Lightning fast (rare) - An ability of the storm. Allows the user to move at lightning-fast speed for short periods.


    Deciding to look closer at them once they were safe, he moved on to his stats.


    Scanning over them and seeing how much they had changed, Damien felt a bit bummed as he appeared to be way weaker, but on the bright side, he had some broken fucking skills which made up for it.


    Seeing Damien''s look, Ela spoke up. ¡°If your stats appear worse, it''s because the people who run the simulations change them to their liking. As for why they do this, it''s unknown.¡±


    He felt a bit better after hearing that Damien decided to ask Ela something that had been bothering him after looking at his status.


    ¡°Ela, why does it not display my bloodline here?¡± Damien asked while looking at her.


    ¡°To be honest, no one knows why that is, and attempts to ask the system for information are always met with silence.


    ¡°Also, try not to let others know you have a bloodline, as you might be put back in a simulation,¡± she said with a serious look.


    ¡°Noted.¡±


    Suddenly, Damien had a thought and turned to Ela before speaking, ¡°Wait, if the system is a thing, then why did those humans back there not use anything to detain me? I mean, the system exists in everything, right?¡±


    ¡°To be honest, Damien, you got rather fortunate as the facility you were at in the first place was able to operate by itself, so no one was present when you awoke and broke out, and on top of that, the people they sent to capture had severely underestimated you, and lastly they did not want to kill you so using skills would have been detrimental.


    ¡°Not to mention I was there to get you out anyways; you just made my job easier.¡±


    Listening to her explanation, Damien nodded before saying,


    ¡°Alright, so where are we going? Probably should not keep hanging around here, right?¡± Damien said, looking at Ela.


    Ela, hearing this, had a look of surprise appear before speaking.


    ¡°Shit, I got too caught up in talking with you since it''s been so long; we need to leave. Now.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll explain where we are headed once we get farther away from here. For now, follow me.¡±


    An hour later, after Damien and Ela left, a woman surrounded by men walked out of the forest.


    ¡°The subject came through here,¡± said the woman while inspecting the area; mana formed in her eyes as she looked around.


    ¡°Let¡¯s pick up the pace. If we keep moving this slow, we will never capture him,¡± she said before sprinting in the direction Damien and Ela went, her eyes still gleaming with mana.

 Lighting fast.

    Ela and Damien could be seen running through the forest. It had been quite a few hours since their earlier chat, and they had been on the move ever since.


    After running for so long, they were finally approaching one of the mountains Damien had seen when he looked out the window.


    By now, the sun was setting behind the mountain, giving it a shadowed feeling.


    After hours of silence, Damien glanced at Ela before speaking, ¡°How much longer are we going to run for?¡±


    ¡°We should try and make it over the mountain before tomorrow; even though you are level one, you should be just fine, considering you have your bloodline, which makes you much stronger than the average level one,¡± she responded while moving forward.


    Damien was prepared to ask something else, but Ela spotted the look on his face and could guess what he wanted to ask.


    ¡°I think you''re greatly underestimating how much they value you or your bloodline. When I say they will do anything to recapture you, I mean ANYTHING,¡± she said before continuing.


    ¡°The reason for this is the effects they have understood your bloodline has on its user.¡±


    ¡°What affects?¡± Damien asked.


    ¡°Damien, I¡¯ll be honest, that was a kind of dumb question even if you were in a simulation. Let''s not talk about the raw stat boost you get from bloodlines but the fact you''re still alive.


    ¡°I am because I''m much higher level than you, and reaching certain levels causes you to have increased longevity; you, however, are alive solely because of your bloodline.¡±


    ¡°Alright, so you''re saying I''m pretty much a walking miracle, nice,¡± he responded in a joking tone.


    ¡°Yep, and before you ask, I have no idea as to why your bloodline can do so, although just a heads up you can be killed quite easily so dont go thinking your immortal.


    Damien responded sarcastically, ¡°Sorry, I''m so weak; it''s not like I was kidnapped before even having the chance to become stronger.¡±


    Laughing at Damien¡¯s antics, Ela¡¯s lips curved into a slight smile before speaking.


    ¡°You have not changed, you know? Even if they wiped your memoirs, you are still the Damien I knew 180 years ago.


    ¡°Same looks, same personality, same humor¡­.¡± she said while looking at Damien with nostalgia.


    Hearing her speak, Damien smiled and said. ¡°Well, I wish I could say the same about you, but you know, no memoirs and all,¡± Damien said jokingly before continuing.


    ¡°But just the fact that you were looking for me all this time, well, I think that speaks volumes about you as a person.¡±


    Ela¡¯s face lit up a bit, and a slight blush crossed her cheeks. Looking opposite of Damien and taking a small breath to calm herself, she turned back before saying anything.


    ¡°Damien, I¡ª¡± Ela paused as her face turned severe before saying, ¡°We need to move, Damien. They are catching up to us.¡±


    Hearing this, a look of surprise crossed his face before nodding.


    Now, running up the mountain, Damien looks to his side and asks. ¡°So, how did you know they were getting close?¡±


    ¡°I have a skill that allows me to detect things within a certain radius of me. Also, the perception stat gives you increased instincts regarding your surroundings.¡±


    ¡°Even without the skill, just that stat alone would have given me plenty of time to get us out of here,¡± Ela said while weaving between two trees.


    Now curious, Damien asked, ¡°So how high are your stats anyway.¡±


    ¡°Well, let me go ahead and tell you some basic information. Assuming you already don''t know, when the system descended, the average stat of a human was ten, aside from mana and health being 100. Once you leveled up, you would get five in each stat and five to distribute however you liked.¡±


    Pausing for a moment, she continued, ¡°So my average stat sits around 110 - 120, with my highest being agility at 150 since I put most of my distributable points in there,¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    After listening to what she said, Damien got an idea.


    ¡°Wait, if your agility is so high, then would it not be faster if you just carried me to wherever we are going? Also, why are your stats so low? It¡¯s been 180+ years, right? So, should your stats not be well within the 1000+ range? He asked.


    ¡°Yes, it would be faster, but I don''t want you to rely on my strength. While I won''t let you be recaptured, I also won''t interfere in a fight I believe you can win, and this situation is one of them. As for why my stats are so low, for some reason, no one has been able to get past level 20 since the system disappeared.¡±


    Thinking about what she said, Damien found it really weird. Why would the system cap people at level 20? Before he could think further, Ela spoke.


    ¡°Anyways, the people pursuing us only have three people that are level 20; the other four are all level 10 weaklings, with their most vital stat probably being 60 to 70. You should be able to handle all four if you are careful.¡±


    Hearing what she said, Damien had to admit it made sense. He also agreed with her not helping him in fights, as he wanted to get stronger by himself, and relying on others to win fights he could himself would just make him weak.


    ¡°I understand, but did you always plan to have me fight the people behind us?¡± Damien asked curiously.


    ¡°That was indeed the plan. I want to see what you can do while also allowing you to get combat experience,¡± she said with a slight smirk before continuing.


    ¡°Once we get over the mountain, we will wait for them and attack once they are close enough. Oh, and what kind of weapon do you want?¡±


    While Ela and Damien were making their way over the mountain, their pursuers were not far behind.


    ¡°Madam, will we continue to chase if they make it over the mountain? We won''t be able to receive reinforcements in time if needed.¡± one of the men said with a complicated look.


    The woman turned to the man who spoke, looking at him as if he was stupid before responding in a huff, ¡°Listen here, you dumbass, that subject is of TOP priority now and quite frankly is worth more than all of your lives combined with that being said yes we are going to keep chasing him because if he gets away, we are all in for a world of trouble and ill be the last thing you have to worry about.¡±


    ¡°Are we clear?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Crystal, madam,¡± he responded, looking dreary.


    ¡°Good, now no more speaking unless we have captured him. Let''s move,¡± she said before resuming the chase.


    Ela and Damien were now on the other side of the mountain. It did not take long for them to scale it even with their stats, even if Damien himself was massively weaker than Ela


    Quickly finding a spot to set up their ambush and getting into position now, they just had to wait, and it would not take long as their perusers were much closer than Damien expected Ela however, was not surprised when they entered the range of her ability and quickly warned Damien.


    ¡°Get ready; they will be here any minute now. I¡¯ll take the woman and the two men in front of her; you take the two at her side and back. Got it?¡± she asked seriously.


    ¡°Got it,¡± Damien replied while waiting for them to appear. Not even two minutes later, six men and one woman appeared in his line of sight.


    The men were not anything special; they looked average, except for the two men in front that Ela would be fighting. The aura they gave off was insane. ¡®Yeah, definitely not fighting those two,¡¯ Damien thought before focusing on the woman.


    Looking at her, Damien felt nothing special coming from her, and everything seemed average. She had no crazy aura like the two men, and her looks were leagues below Ela if he was honest.


    A few seconds after Damien had looked at her, the woman¡¯s head snapped in the direction he was hiding, surprising him.


    Before the woman could say anything, though, she pulled her sword out and blocked a dagger that Ela had thrown at her.


    Seeing Damien take action, he stopped sitting around as well and dashed toward the other four men while taking out the katana Ela had given him.


    If Damien was being honest, he had picked the katana because it looked cool; the sword was primarily black, with only the handle having splashes of red under the wrap.


    Now, right in front of one of his opponents, Damien slashed downward with the sword, making his opponent block the attack with his axe before countering with an attack of his own


    Swinging the axe, the man saw Damien go to block. A mocking look appeared on his face. After all, Damien was just a level one. How was he going to block his axe? Especially with that flimsy-looking sword of his.


    Surprisingly for the man, though, Damien blocked the attack quickly before rolling to the side as one of the other men tried to sneak attack him from behind.


    Once Damien was on his feet, the four men sprang into action and quickly surrounded him. At first, they had all assumed this would be an easy fight when they saw Damien coming their way, but after seeing him block that attack from earlier, they decided not to play around anymore.


    Seeing the men surround him, Damien¡¯s face turned severe while he quickly thought of his next move.


    ¡®Maybe it''s time to use my first skill,¡¯ he thought, causing a smile to form on his face at the thought of seeing what his skills could do.


    Seeing Damien smile, one of the men got irritated, ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky, brat!¡± he yelled before attacking with his axe


    Watching the attack descend, Damien activated Lighting fast and felt the world begin to slow down around him, almost to the point of a crawl.


    ¡°Woah,¡± he said aloud while moving out of the trajectory of the axe. Seeing the world move so slowly was almost exhilarating to Damien.


    Deciding not to waste more time, Damien quickly went behind the man and slit his throat before backing away from the other three right as the skill ended.


    *DING* User killed level 10 Warrior (human).

 Spirit Walker

    While Damien was fighting the four other men, Ela could be seen in an almost ghostly form circling around the two men and the ¡°Madam.¡±


    Ela¡¯s current form was from her class, ¡°Spirit Walker.¡± It allowed her to enter the spirit realm with her body. In this form, Ela can not be seen nor hit by any attacks, but she also cannot attack while in the form. After seeing Ela seemingly vanish into thin air, the Madam and the two men turned their backs to each other and faced a different direction, waiting for Ela to make her move.


    Coming out of her spirit form, Ela pulled out a short sword and sliced at one of the men, causing him to put his guard up. Right as Ela¡¯s blade was about to make contact with his, she vanished with a poof before reappearing in front of the other man in the group.


    Caught off guard, a look of surprise flashed across the man''s face, causing him to not react in time, resulting in Ela stabbing him in the shoulder, leaving a deep gash and blood spewing out of the wound.


    The man¡¯s face grimaced, and he fell on one knee, holding his wound as Ela once again disappeared. The other man, now with a severe look, spoke. ¡°Madam, do you have any skills to help us keep track of her?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, no. My skills are more suited to tracking long distances. All we can do is hope the others can capture the subject and make her back off. For now, though, just keep your guard up and don''t fall for any of her tricks.


    While Ela was fighting her group Damien could be seen facing off against three other men who now looked completely serious. When they had surrounded Damien earlier, they had thought it was over for him.


    To their surprise, though, in what seemed like an instant, one of them was dead on the floor before they could even react.


    Looking at the three men in front of him, Damien wanted to use his lighting-fast skill again, but it took quite a bit of mana out of him, around 30 mana per use. Meaning he could only use it another two times at most before running out.


    Jumping into action, Damien sliced forward with his katana at one of the men, making him cross his arms above his head to block the attack with his arm guards.


    Seeing the man trying to block Damien swiftly changed the trajectory of his attack mid-swing, and this time, it was aimed at the man''s midsection.


    Not expecting Damien to do a feint, the man activated one of his skills in desperation. Right as the sword was about to cut the man in half, a rocky layer appeared on the man as the sword hit.


    The layer of rock managed to block most of the attack force but could not stop the sword completely, resulting in the man''s right side being slashed open.


    With blood flowing out of the wound, the man gritted his teeth before again taking an offensive stance.


    ¡°I''m surprised you managed to react in time to that I thought I had timed it perfectly,¡± Damien said aloud.


    ¡°You''re just lucky we are not allowed to use lethal force if we could, a lab rat like you would not stand a chance,¡± rescinded the man angrily.


    ¡°Lab rat, huh?¡± Damien said, staring at the man with a blank expression.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Did I resurface some bad mem-¡± Before the man could finish his sentence blood came gushing out of his mouth.


    Looking down the last thing the man saw was a sword lodged into his throat before his body fell over to the ground.


    *DING* The user has killed level 10 stone guardian (human)


    ¡°Anyone else want to call me a lab rat, hmm? Damien asked while staring at the two remaining men with a smile while flaring his primordial presence skill.


    Feeling the aura coming off of Damien¡¯s body, the two men shivered uncontrollably and turned around before sprinting away with looks of horror.


    Watching the men run, Damien scoffed and looked in Ela¡¯s direction.


    Coming out of her spirit form Ela activated another skill called spirits descent, summoning a spirit containing 80 percent of her strength.


    Dashing forward, Ela and the spirit each took on an opponent each, Ela taking the madam and the spirit taking the other, as for the last one, he had long died after Ela targeted him over and over making him accumulate too many wounds and dying from blood loss.


    Watching Ela fight, Damien¡¯s face flashed with interest seeing the spirit Ela had summoned and how she seemed to be flashing in and out of existence.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    ¡®That¡¯s definitely not an average class; it''s too unique.¡¯ Damien thought before realizing something. He could just ask the system, right?


    ¡°System,¡± Damien said aloud, seeing if it would respond like it did in the simulation.


    ¡°Yes, user?¡± the system responded tonelessly.


    Hearing it respond to him, a smile formed on his face before speaking. ¡°Can you tell me what Ela¡¯s class is supposed to be and how rare it is?¡± Damien asked curiously.


    ¡°The system can not tell you the classes of other users nor how rare their class is either.¡±


    If Damien had been honest, he should have expected this answer. Nodding, Damien decided to ask what the rarities were. ¡°How many rarities are then? And what are they called?


    ¡°There are eight rarities: Inferior, common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, mythical, divine, and primordial,¡± the system responded.


    Looking over each rarity, Damien was pleasantly surprised to see he had two divine skills and one primordial. Getting curious, Damien decided to ask another question.


    ¡°What is a primordial skill?¡±


    ¡°Primordial skills are skills even many gods will never touch upon. They are the pinnacle; many primordial skills can allow the user to do otherwise impossible things.¡±


    Satisfying his curiosity, Damien focused back on Ela¡¯s fight.


    The first thing he noticed was that the man the spirit was fighting had already died, his body laying limply on the floor and the spirit gone.


    Looking at the woman Ela was fighting, she had a complex expression on her face; jumping back after she clashed with Ela the woman looked at Damien and started speaking.


    ¡°You better hope I never catch you, " the woman said cryptically before pulling out some type of amulet and crushing it, making her vanish into the wind.


    Watching her disappear, Ela felt rather disappointed at not managing to kill her and allowing her to escape. Looking back at Damien, she saw him smile and walk in her direction.


    ¡°So what now?¡± he asked.


    ¡°There is a town not far from here where we can stay, and allow me to get you up to speed on things that have happened in the last 2 centuries or so,¡± she responded.


    ¡°Sounds good; also, what was that she used to escape?¡± He responded curiously.


    ¡°Most likely some type of one-time use item that allows you to teleport to a set location. Most people use them in case they are in life-threatening danger.


    Nodding, Damien decided to save his other questions for later and started looking at his improvements while they walked, getting a notification when he opened the system.


    *DING* The user has earned a new skill


    After distributing his free stat points, this is what his status looked like.


    Status:


    Name: Damien Atlas


    Level:5


    Race: High human/???


    Titles: The first to awaken, Storms child,???


    ¡®Age: 200 years¡¯


    Class: N/A (Reach level 10 to select a class)


    Stats:


    Health:100  ¡ª> 105


    Mana:100  ¡ª>105


    Strength:40  ¡ª> 55


    Agility:30  ¡ª> 40


    Defense:25  ¡ª> 30


    Intelligence:30  ¡ª> 40


    Perception:25  ¡ª> 35


    Willpower:25  ¡ª> 30


    Points to distribute:0


    Skills: Mana breathing (Divine), The original (Primordial), Storms blessing (legendary), Lightning fast (rare), Samurai (common, NEW)


    Seeing the new skill, Damien looked at its description, ¡°Samurai.¡± - As someone who has taken up the katana, you have proven yourself to be learning the ways of the Samurai; may your blade be swift and your attacks true. (Slightly increases the user''s ability to use a katana)


    After reading the description, he felt a bit underwhelmed, as it did not do anything for him besides slightly increasing his proficiency with a katana. However, he was not too disappointed, as it was a common skill.


    After spending a few more minutes scanning over his stats, Damien looked at Ela.


    ¡°What ability did you use back there?¡± he asked with a questioning look.


    Hearing his question, Ela¡¯s face lit up as she looked back at him. ¡°Those abilities are part of my class called ¡°spirit walker.¡± The first one you probably saw me use allows me to enter the spirit realm where I can not be seen or attacked.¡± She responded.


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ kinda broken, no?¡± Damien asked.


    ¡°Not really. Even though I can¡¯t be seen or attacked, I also can not attack either without exiting the realm first.¡±


    Nodding, Damien thought that made sense. If she could also attack people while in there, she would be virtually invincible.


    ¡°What about the other skill? The one that summoned the spirit?¡± he asked.


    ¡°That one allows me to summon a spirit from the realm that has 80% of my total strength; it''s one of the only offensive type skills I have.¡± She said with enthusiasm


    ¡°Do you have other abilities?¡± Damien asked curiously.


    ¡°Quite a few, yeah; most of them, though, are not offensive as I rely on my skills with my short sword more so than offensive skills,¡± Ela responded before continuing.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s save any other questions you have for later I want to get into town so I can take a shower. All this running around has gotten me sweaty,¡± Ela said while wiping the sweat off her face.


    Seeing Damien nod, Ela turned and sprinted towards the town while Damien followed

 The past

    Damien stood gazing toward a town in the distance. They had been walking for about an hour when it finally came into view.


    A giant wall encircled the entire town, complete with a massive metal gate at the front to allow entry. Ela had informed him that the town was built a few years after he had disappeared, during what people referred to as the "apocalypse."


    After another 15 minutes of walking, they reached the front gate. A line of people waited to enter, while two guards collected mana crystals from each person before granting them access.


    According to Ela, mana crystals had become the new currency. The old world''s money was worthless now; strength was all that mattered. The crystals were mined from the earth by larger organizations that had formed under the new world order. Eventually, these crystals gained value because they also allowed individuals to absorb mana more quickly when held in their hands.


    As they waited in line, Damien and Ela engaged in small talk, and soon it was their turn to enter.


    ¡°Ten mana crystals to enter,¡± said the guard on the right.


    Ela summoned the crystals and handed them over before she and Damien stepped inside. Looking around the town, Damien noticed various shops bustling with hundreds of people going in and out.


    ¡°Follow me. Let''s find an inn and get a room,¡± she said as she walked toward a nearby building.


    The building stood three stories tall. Near the top, a sign reading ¡°Grave¡¯s Inn¡± was displayed, and the structure appeared to be made of a sturdy type of wood. Ela mentioned that the inn was owned by someone named Grave, hence the name.


    As they walked through the front door, Damien was greeted by the enticing aroma of food, which made his stomach rumble.


    Although Damien didn''t need to eat, he certainly enjoyed it.


    Ela glanced back at him with a smile. ¡°Feeling hungry?¡± she asked teasingly.


    Damien nodded seriously, and Ela headed over to a table, motioning for him to join her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you want to get a room first?¡± Damien asked, trying to suppress his excitement.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I haven¡¯t had anything good to eat in a long time. Besides, I want to share a meal with you after so many years apart,¡± she said thoughtfully.


    Since the system had descended and Damien had disappeared, Ela hadn''t eaten anything. Her only focus had been finding him.


    Smiling, Damien took a seat across from Ela. Not long after he settled in, a woman approached their table.


    ¡°Hi, my name is Katty. What can I get you two?¡± she asked, beaming with a smile.


    Damien was taken aback by what he saw.


    ¡®Are those¡­ cat ears?¡¯ he thought to himself.


    While Damien was lost in thought, Ela quickly placed an order for both of them.


    After ordering, Ela noticed Damien staring at Katty''s ears as she walked away. ¡°Damien, stop staring; it¡¯s rude,¡± she scolded, glaring at him.


    Hearing her, Damien shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry; it¡¯s just my first time seeing someone with cat ears,¡± he replied.


    ¡°It¡¯s pretty standard, to be honest, but I understand the sentiment. I had the same reaction the first time I saw a demi-human,¡± Ela said matter-of-factly.


    ¡°Anyway, what did you order?¡± Damien asked, curious.


    ¡°Well, let''s just say I ordered something I''m pretty sure you''re going to like,¡± Ela responded with a sly smile.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    After a few minutes, Katty returned, carrying a bowl of food in each hand. She set the bowls down and asked, ¡°Is there anything else I can get you guys?¡±


    ¡°No, thank you. We¡¯re good for now,¡± Ela replied, glancing at Damien. The look on his face filled her with happiness, more than she had felt in a long, long time.


    As Damien inhaled the aroma of the food before him, he experienced a sense of nostalgia and familiarity that he had felt before when he looked at Ela¡¯s necklace.


    He picked up a fork and took a piece of beef from the bowl, savoring the flavors as the juice from the meat and the broth exploded in his mouth. In that moment, a vision of a woman smiling at him flickered briefly in his mind.


    As he ate the stew, a tear slowly rolled down Damien¡¯s cheek.


    Noticing the tear, Ela smiled gently. ¡°Is it good?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s wonderful,¡± Damien replied, his voice cracking with emotion.


    After finishing the bowl of stew, Damien looked up at Ela. ¡°Thank you,¡± he said, his gaze filled with gratitude.


    Ela nodded and then waved Katty over to settle the bill. After paying, they rented a room and headed up the stairs.


    Entering the room, Damien thought it looked cozy; there was a couch with a coffee table in front of it and a kitchen to the right. There were also two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom.


    Heading towards the couch, Ela took a seat and patted the space next to her, indicating for Damien to sit beside her.


    Once Damien settled down, Ela began speaking earnestly, ¡°Alright, what do you want to know about first?¡±


    After spending a few moments in thought, he asked his first question, ¡°What happened after I disappeared? What became of my parents and the world in general?¡± Damien inquired, his hopeful expression revealing his desire for his parents to be alive, even if that hope felt unrealistic.


    Ela¡¯s face saddened slightly as she responded. ¡°The day you vanished, the world descended into chaos. Not only was I devastated by your absence, but the world itself fell apart. After the system descended and monsters began to appear, people became selfish, greedy, and some even insane.¡±


    She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts before continuing with a heavy expression. ¡°Once we got our bearings, my parents and yours stayed close together, fighting every day to survive. We grew stronger over time, and eventually, we were able to start searching for you.¡±


    Before she could elaborate further, Damien interjected, ¡°How long did it take for you guys to get strong enough to look for me?¡±


    ¡°It took about a year,¡± Ela replied, her tone almost disappointed. ¡°We wanted to ensure absolute safety for everyone and didn¡¯t want to take any unnecessary risks. If we had pushed ourselves, we probably could have been strong enough within two months.¡±


    After a brief silence, she continued, ¡°When we were finally ready, we attempted to figure out where you might have gone. Unfortunately, nothing turned up. It took almost 70 years before we discovered the organization that was holding you,¡± she said solemnly.


    ¡°The organization operates under many different names, which is why we simply refer to it as ¡®the organization.¡¯ At the time, we had no concrete evidence that they were the ones who kidnapped you; we just relied on guesswork, as they had been active even before the system appeared.¡±


    Pausing again to gather her thoughts, Ela went on. ¡°We believed they might have taken you because we had learned they were kidnapping people with special ¡®blood¡¯¡ªthat was their cover before the system. Now, we know it¡¯s not just the blood itself but the ¡®bloodline¡¯ that matters. This is important because people with rare blood types are more likely to be bloodline carriers.¡±


    ¡°With that information, we concluded that you were likely kidnapped by them because you were born with a very rare blood type known as rh-null.¡±


    ¡°Wow, that was quite a lot of information!¡± Damien remarked jokingly. ¡°Are you trying to make my ears fall off?¡±


    Seeing her face light up a bit, he smiled. ¡°Before I ask what¡¯s special about that blood type, you never told me what happened to my parents, Ela.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to hide it from me; if they are dead, just tell me, alright?¡± he said, offering her a comforting smile.


    Her expression dropped as she bit her lip. ¡°Alright, so after we discovered the organization, your parents became convinced they were the ones who had taken you. They, along with my parents, stormed one of their base locations while making me stay behind.¡±


    As Ela spoke, Damien noticed her starting to tense up, her hands clenching and her nails digging into her palm, drawing blood.


    Reaching forward, he held her hand gently, prompting her to continue.


    Feeling a bit better, she spoke hesitantly, ¡°After a few days of waiting with no sign of them, I was preparing to go myself, but then the soul fire for my parents and your mom went out.¡± Ela¡¯s voice strained as she neared tears.


    Though Damien wasn¡¯t familiar with what a soul fire was, he could guess its significance. Choosing not to ask about it at that moment, he pulled Ela into a comforting hug. As he sat there in silence, a fire of rage ignited within him. He realized that Ela never mentioned his father.


    If his father were still alive, Damien vowed he would do everything in his power to find him, no matter the cost.

 Level 10

    ¡°Ela, what¡¯s the fastest way for me to level up? Is there anything important I should know? Like as to what gives levels or does not?¡± Damien asked


    ¡°Well, for starters, you can get levels through almost anything as far as I''m aware, but most people stick to the obvious ones like crafting and killing monsters. As for the fastest way to level up, it would be the latter,¡± she responded before taking a sip of water.


    Damien nodded. That would make the most sense, as with crafting, you have to spend time thinking about what you want to create, getting the ingredients to create it, and then finally crafting it.


    While killing monsters all you needed to do was find one and then kill it, simple.


    ¡°Also, I was curious about something. What do you mean by monsters? Are they not just animals that evolved?¡± he asked curiously.


    ¡°They are indeed, but the name is because these animals did not develop intelligence, making them rely solely on instinct,¡± Ela responded.


    ¡°Alright, can you show me somewhere I can fight monsters to level up?¡± Damien asked, smiling.


    While Damien focused on getting level 10 and getting a class in an undisclosed location, a woman could be seen bowing her head towards a man sitting in a chair.


    ¡°How did the grade x escape your purist, Emma? Not only did you somehow let him escape when you were provided three teams of men, but also when you failed to apprehend him as well¡­ Give me a reason why I should not have you disposed of.


    ¡°Sir, the grade x had someone helping him who is a level 20 like myself and had abilities that completely countered mine and the men who were with me; we stood no chance against her. As for why you should keep me around,¡± she raised her hand before waving it in front of her face. ¡°This is why,¡± she said in one breath.


    The man looked at her, ¡°And why would how you look matter?¡± he asked cryptically.


    ¡°Because if the subject gets his memories back, he will know who I am as I was ¡°close¡± to him before the system I am also the reason he ended up as a subject,¡± Emma said while smiling.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ and how exactly will he regain his memories? Are the memory wipes we do not permanent?¡± the man asked.


    ¡°For normal bloodlines, yes, they are, but the thing about this grade X is that he always managed to regain his memories somehow, and we never could figure out why.¡±


    ¡°It probably won''t be long before he remembers who he is,¡± Emma said before turning around and walking out.


    Ela and Damien could be seen making their way out of the town gate. They were headed to the forest near the town, where monsters tended to reside.


    As they approached the forest line, Ela stopped and said, ¡°Once we get into the forest just like before, I will not help you with any fight that I believe you can win and will mostly stay out of sight.¡±


    Nodding his head, Damien swiftly entered the forest to find a monster to fight so he could hit level 10. It did not take long, either, as not even five minutes after walking into the forest, an animal jumped out at Damien, swiping at him with its claws.


    Jumping back, he inspected it.


    ¡°Level: 10 shadow cat¡± was the only information Damien could get for it before it attacked again, causing Damien to sidestep the attack.


    Deciding not to waste any more time, Damien quickly activated ¡°lightning fast,¡± getting behind the cat and wrapping his arm around its neck before snapping it.


    *DING* user has killed level 10 shadow cat.


    *DING* user has leveled up.


    After killing the cat, Damien continued to go through the forest, killing a few more monsters along the way, getting himself to level 8. Coming to a clearing, Damien spots something big lying in the grass, sunbathing.


    Inspecting a prompt appears, ¡°Level 15 Ancient lion¡±


    Reading the name and level Damien figures, this should be enough to get him to level 10. Activating his skill, he appears behind the lion and slices forward with his katana, trying to slice its head off in one swing.


    Surprisingly, though, the lion reacts in time and dodges out of the way before roaring at Damien, causing his body to stiffen up.


    Seeing Damien freeze, the lion jumps in his direction and attempts to bite him in the neck. But before the lion could get any closer, Damien activates his ¡°Primordals presence,¡± causing the lion to start trembling.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Taking this opportunity, he quickly activates his lighting skill again and, this time, lops the lion''s head off as it was still frozen in fear.


    *DING* User has killed level 15 Ancient lion.


    *DING* User has leveled up


    *DING* User has leveled up


    *DING* User has reached the required level to select his first class.


    *NOTE - choosing a class is permanent and can not be undone. The user will not get another chance to change or upgrade their class till level 100*


    *Multiple high-level classes are available Based on the user''s titles and skills.*


    *Class choices available - 4*


    Storms awakener - Allows the user to full control the power of storms at will and even become one with the storm. (Choose the class to see more details)


    In Damien''s opinion, this was definitely a contender. While the description was pretty cryptic and did not tell you much, wielding the power of storms sounded strong.


    Moving on to the next class available, Damien was tempted to pick it right now without looking at anything else.


    Primordals return - wield the power of the primordials, allowing the user to have insane perception and instincts as well as the ability to wield any element flawlessly.


    ¡®I mean, it sounds badass, and on top of sounding cool, it gives me insane instincts and the ability to wield all the elements without issue. I don''t see how anything beats this.¡¯ Damien thought to himself before looking at the next option.


    Beginning samurai - As someone who has picked up a katana, your journey will be long before becoming a master. Allows the user to massively increase their understanding in the ways of the samurai and a their sword.


    Yeah¡­ this one sounded shit in comparison. If he was being honest, on to the last one. Damien thought before a look of surprise and confusion appeared, seeing the name of the class or the lack of one.


    ??? - Holder of the ??? Bloodline allows the user to tap into the latent potential of his bloodline and partially awaken it. (Choose the class to see more details)


    So yeah, he was probably going to choose this option. A bloodline is a massive advantage; learning anything about it would help him in the long run.


    Not to mention that this is a class dedicated to said bloodline, and Damien had a feeling that if he did not choose this option, he would regret it for the rest of his life at some point.


    Deciding not to dwell on it any longer he selected the last option.


    *DING* - user has selected the class ¡°Origanls descent.¡±


    Before Damien could think about the name, he could now see he felt his body, or more like his very essence, start to change.


    ¡°AGHHNGH!¡± he yelled out as he fell to one knee before gritting his teeth.


    A few seconds later, as Damien was still in pain, trying to not scream, Ela appeared, looking at him in concern.


    She wanted to ask what was wrong, but seeing as he was fine just a few seconds ago and that nothing could have attacked him without her being aware, she decided just to watch and see what happened.


    About 10 minutes of agonizing pain later, it finally stopped, causing Damien to fall onto the ground on his back, breathing heavily.


    Seeing that he was alright, Ela finally said, ¡°What happened just now?¡± she asked, still somewhat concerned.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, for now, all you need to know is that its something good and that I got my class,¡± Damien responded with a smile while looking up at her.


    Opening his status, Damien could see some notifications.


    *DING* The user has earned two new skills


    Status:


    Name: Damien Atlas


    Level:10


    Race: High human/???


    Titles: The first to awaken, Storms child,???


    ¡®Age: 200 years¡¯


    Class: Origanls descent


    Stats:


    Health:100  ¡ª> 200


    Mana:100  ¡ª>200


    Strength:55  ¡ª> 110


    Agility:40  ¡ª> 80


    Defense:30  ¡ª> 60


    Intelligence:40  ¡ª> 80


    Perception:35  ¡ª> 70


    Willpower:30  ¡ª> 60


    Points to distribute:25


    Skills: Mana breathing (Divine), The original (Primordial), Storms blessing (legendary), Lightning fast (rare), Samurai (common), Flicker of the original (epic), Originals knowledge (legendary)


    Looking at everything Damien had to say¡­ boy, was he fucking op; not only had his stats doubled in almost everything, but he had also gotten two new skills which, without even reading them, sounded strong, and on top of all of that, he still had points to distribute.


    Before looking at the description of his skills, Damien decided to look at his class description first, as it had been updated since he chose it.


    Originals descent - taps into the latent potential of the user''s bloodline and awakens it doubling the user¡¯s stats and allowing the user to tap into chaos. (reach a higher level to see more)


    The class seemed pretty simple and almost like it paled in comparison to the primordial one he saw but seeing the word chaos Damien had a feeling that he had made the right choice.


    But before he could think further about what chaos could be or even inspect his new skills he heard a voice that boomed across the world.


    *COMMENCING MULTIVERSAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT*

 Multiversal announcement

    *COMMENCING MULTIVERSAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT*


    *With the return of $%#%!%@ the system will now fully ingrate with this universe.¡±


    ¡°This will remove the max level cap of 20 and allow users to level up to potentially the level of gods, the system will also undergo a massive change and the way your status is displayed may have a big difference once the integration is finished.¡±


    ¡°STARTING INTEGRATION,¡± the system announced with one final message before shaking could be felt throughout the world.


    Around them, the air was filled with a palpable tension, and the ground trembled as if echoing the magnitude of the announcement. The sky was an unsettling swirl of colors, reflecting the uncertainty and excitement of this coming change.


    Damien couldn''t help but wonder what new opportunities and challenges the system changes would bring. The prospect of limitless growth excited him, yet he also felt a twinge of apprehension about the unknown. Looking towards Ela, Damien quickly spoke. ¡°Is this what happened the first time?¡± he asked a bit curious.


    ¡°No, last time, the system spoke to us, but this shaking did not happen. The main reason for the chaos last time was humans and monsters themselves causing it,¡± Ela replied with a serious expression.


    Once the shaking of the world had settled down the system spoke once more.


    ¡°Integration complete, the status has been updated for all users and should now display different information then what was available before.¡±


    ¡°The system will also be able to answer more questions then previously able, this universe will have one year before people from other universes can make their way into yours. The system will also start to give events to help the people of this universe level up faster to prepare you for the coming year.¡±


    ¡°The purpose of these events along with helping users of his universe get stronger is to also let users meet other species from different worlds in your universe and allow users to get experience in dealing with different types of beings you will encounter once beings from other universes are allowed into yours.


    ¡°Lastly with the system now fully integrated users will be able to gain skills based on the rank of their existence and level, these ranks are based on letters and ordered like so -


    F rank - lvl 1 - lvl 50


    E rank - lvl 50 - lvl 130


    D rank - lvl 130 - lvl 220


    C rank - lvl 220 - lvl 340


    A rank - lvl 340 - lvl 460


    S rank - lvl 460 - lvl ???


    SS rank ???


    X rank ???


    anything above x rank is for the users to find out themselves, ranks will be displayed in users'' status besides their race.


    ¡°Every 10 levels after level 20 users will gain a skill selection based on many factors pertaining to the user for example the user''s race, class, hobbies, etc¡­ The first event will be announced in twenty four hours.¡±


    After that, everything went dead silent with only the sound of wind blowing threw the forest being heard.


    Turning his head back at Ela once more he saw she seemed to be staring off into space likely inspecting her status, prompting Damien to do the same.


    Name: Damien Atlas


    ¡®Age: 200 years¡¯


    Level:10


    Race: High human/Shade (F rank)


    Bloodline - High shade - 25% awakened


    Titles: The first to awaken, Storms Child, Shades primordial.


    Class: Origanls descent


    Stats:


    Health:100 ¡ª> 200Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Mana:100 ¡ª>200


    Strength:55 ¡ª> 110


    Agility:40 ¡ª> 80


    Defense:30 ¡ª> 60


    Intelligence:40 ¡ª> 80


    Perception:35 ¡ª> 70


    Willpower:30 ¡ª> 60


    Points to distribute:25


    Skills: Mana breathing (Divine), The original (Primordial), Storms blessing (legendary), Lightning fast (rare), Samurai (common), Flicker of the original (epic), Originals knowledge (legendary)


    The first thing Damien noticed was how the things that were just question marks before were now visible like half his race and his 3rd title.


    ¡®Now that I''m thinking about it I¡¯ve never even looked at the description for my race or titles.¡¯ Damien thought to himself before taking at them starting with his races.


    ¡°High human¡± - A human being that has transcended his race limits and awakened (Most humans that are awakened via the system are high humans.) Gives a 10% increase in mana absorption speed.


    Reading the first race Damien was a bit bummed but not overly much as he still had the other part of his race which sounded a lot more interesting if he were honest.


    ¡°Shade¡± - A race once lost to time now reborn in Damien Atlas, the race is similar to that of vampires being they both feed on blood and have insane regeneration along with immortality, the difference between the races lies in the shade''s ability to become one with the shadows making them undetectable even to beings 50 levels above them unless the being in question has a abilty that helps with detection. (Shades also have perfect memory and can never truly forget something)


    ¡®Now we''re talking¡¯ he thought to himself after reading it, quite frankly it was pretty fucking strong and it was not even a skill it was just something he could do as it was a part of his race not to mention he was ¡°immortal¡± in the sense he can¡¯t die from old age.


    Reading the last part of the description a look of surprise and happiness formed on his face along with a big smile.


    ¡®Now I don''t need to worry about my memory coming back if what this is saying is true then it should not be long until my memory recovers.¡¯


    After spending a few more moments in thought he moved on to his bloodline which was now displayed, reading the name made his blood pump powerfully.


    ¡°High shade¡± - Gives the user Increased strength, agility, defense, and perception also gives the user the ability to transform into a ¡°High shade¡± making the user''s stats double while turning the user into a living shadow during transformation. (WARNING, using the transformation ability will make the user weak after ending for double the amount of time spent transformed.)


    Yeah¡­ it was fucking busted Damien thought while shaking his head despite smiling from ear to ear.


    After reading everything over once more he moved on to the titles that he had ignored until this point.


    ¡°The first to awaken¡± - as the first person in your universe to awaken and absorb mana you triggered the systems descent. Gives the user a 10% increase in the intelligence stat.


    This one was not surprising and also explained why his intelligence stat was one of his higher stats.


    ¡°Storms child¡± - gives the user a 30% increased affinity to the storm element.


    ¡®Seems like titles are just percentage increases for the most part¡¯ Damien thought to himself while stroking his chin something he did whenever he was in thought.


    ¡°Shades primordial¡± While not technically being the first shade to exist you are the first to appear within your universe¡­ Gives the user a 30% increased affinity for the blood element.


    So yeah they were nice little increases that Damien was sure would help him somewhere down the line in the future especially the blood one as he did not have skills related to his just yet.


    Looking back over at Ela, Damien saw her staring at him with a smile.


    ¡°So how does your status look now? Ela asked being the first to speak.


    ¡°Im pretty fucking op, what about you?¡± Damien responded with a smug look.


    ¡°I had a few differences but nothing game-changing,¡± she said curtly.


    ¡°Alright then, time for a game plan, the level cap has been lifted so I think we should start looking for ways to level up quickly. We only have a year to beings from other universes make their way into ours, with that in mind we should get as strong as possible before then.¡±


    Listening to Damien, Ela nodded in agreement if they did not get strong enough to resist the beings from other universes who knows what would happen to them, especially someone like Damien considering his bloodline.


    Before long they both went deeper into the forest looking for more monsters to kill and while doing so Damien was asking the system questions.


    The first question was related to the shade race or more specifically the blood-drinking, quite frankly Damien felt repulsed at the idea and wanted to ask the system if he would need to do so.


    Fortunately, the system said it was not needed as he was a new type of shade and that drinking blood for him was just something he could do to increase his regeneration further.


    The next couple of questions were about why the system did not display some information before.


    The answer was that the system was not fully integrated, and there was no special reason making Damien feel a bit stupid for asking. Time continued to fly by as he asked the system questions, killed monsters, and also made small talk with Ela.


    By now 7 hours or so had gone by and Damien had leveled up a decent amount around level 15 seeing how quickly he had leveled up he asked Ela again how it had taken them so long to reach level 20 even if they were being safe. In response, all he got was the middle finger along with a smile that sent chills up his spine, decided it was wise to not push the subject further and switched subjects.


    ¡°Should we head back to the town now? We have been out here for a while¡± he asked. Nodding her head in response Ela made her way over to his side before they both started walking back.


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 Elas admirer

    Walking through the town gates the first thing Ela and Damien noticed was the destruction brought by the shaking of the world, buildings had collapsed and people could be seen helping others stuck out of the rubble.


    Looking farther down the street, Damien saw a huge group of people all looking at one man in front of them who seemed to be talking, but he was too far away to hear what was being said.


    Tossing a brief look at Ela she had a look of intrigue on her face.


    ¡°Wanna head over?¡± Damien asked.


    Nodding her head a trace of disgust crossed Ela¡¯s face after she spotted the man speaking but Damien did not seem to notice.


    ¡°Who is the guy at the front by the way.¡±


    ¡°His name is Zack he was the person who created this town after the collapse of society and was also one of the first people in the world to hit level 20 as far as I''m aware.¡±


    ¡°Do you know how strong he is?¡± Damien asked curiously.


    ¡°Well, I would think so being one of the first to reach the ¡°max¡± level back then usually meant you were pretty strong but then again there were quite a few people who just got lucky as to which one Zack is I have no idea you would have to figure that out yourself,¡± Ela responded.


    Damien and Ela walked into the back of the crowd after her response, now that he was close enough he could hear what was being said by the man addressing the crowd.


    ¡°With the system now being fully integrated into our world or should I say universe a lot more opportunities are going to start popping up and with that also comes people who start leveling past twenty¡­¡±


    Pausing for a moment Zack looked into the crowd with a piercing gaze before continuing.


    ¡°With this in mind, I already know people are going to start trying to cause trouble in the town or doing things that have been banned since they believe I and my men can no longer keep things under control.¡±


    ¡°So I am going to go ahead and let everyone here in the town know now any thoughts you have of getting out of line after believing yourself to be strong quell them because if you do not and you act on those thoughts you will be killed without mercy.¡± Hearing the last part of Zack¡¯s sentence the crowd was outraged and a bunch of people started leaving the town while others stayed behind and yelled at Zack and his men and unsurprisingly there were a few stupid ones who decided to outright attack.


    Seeing the random people from the crowd throw spells at the man Damien watched with interest as this gave him a chance to see Zack¡¯s strength.


    As the attacks approached Zack stood with his hands behind his back while tracking the spells with his eyes never losing site of them despite the speed of the attacks and without even having to react one of the men at his side stepped in front of him with a big shield and blocked the spells.


    After the attacks had been blocked the crowd went dead silent and as everyone looked at Zack some showed surprise on their face while others were amazed at his lack of reaction.


    He was just sitting there in the space position hands behind his back with an unbothered look on his face.


    Before long though Zack let out a scoff and pointed at the men who attacked him from the crowd.


    ¡°Dispose of them,¡± he spoke while still having that same look causing the crowd to collectively shiver.


    Seeing the guard from before jump into action everyone in the crowd separated themselves from the people who attacked Zack, the people who attacked seeing this adopted looks of horror, some tried to get others help while most turned and tried to run.


    Unfortunately for them, they did not get far, and one after one they were killed by Zack¡¯s men.


    Watching all of this unfold Damien was a bit disappointed, to say the least, and if he was being honest he was also rather disappointed at the way Zack handled the situation thinking that Zack should have been the one to take care of it instead of relying on others. Not to mention that instead of telling the people of his town that he would have their best interests in mind and continue to keep them safe while they stayed in his town he instead threated them.


    Looking over at Ela she had a bored look on her face and was not even looking at what was going on but instead staring into the sky at the clouds.


    ¡°Wanna go see if the inn is intact?¡± he asked Ela.


    ¡°Sure I was feeling like taking a nap anyway,¡± she said with a smile.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Promptly turning around they both started to walk away from the crowd but unfortunately, they did not make it far as they heard someone call out to them.


    ¡°You two turn around please.¡±


    Before Damien could turn around Ela let out a sigh surprising Damien and looking at her he could see a look of annoyance on her face.


    Understanding that Ela was clearly annoyed at the idea that whatever conversation was going to unfold should they turn around Damien spoke in a hushed voice to her.


    ¡°Wanna just not turn around? I can use one of my skills to get us out of here quickly.¡±


    After the system had fully integrated Damien and Ela hunted monsters for quite a while and during that time he tried out some of the other skills he had like ¡°Flicker of the original¡± or as he called it ¡°later bitch.¡±


    The skill allowed Damien to flicker or teleport forward 50 meters and he could also use that skill to get him and Ela out of here or at least he hoped it worked that way.


    Hearing his question Ela wanted to say fuck yes as the man who had just called out was of course Zack, during the time she spent in the town she had crossed paths with him on multiple occasions and each one was unpleasant, to say the least in her opinion.


    Ela¡¯s first time encountering the man he instantly had a look of infatuation and would not stop bothering her, even more annoying was that everyone around the guy or who knew him on a personal level would always talk to her about ¡°how good they would look together¡± making Ela even more annoyed and disgusted by the man.


    Unfortunately, though Ela did not want the man to get annoyed and try to cause trouble so with much difficulty she turned around after telling Damien no.


    And of course, the moment she turned around Ela saw that look of infatuation she hated so much and instantly regretted her decision.


    ¡°What do you want Zack?¡± she asked in an annoyed tone.


    Hearing Ela speak Damien smiled and thought to himself, ¡®This is going to be funny¡¯


    In response to Ela¡¯s question, Zack smiled brightly before speaking, ¡°You know what I want El, just give me a chance I have everything you could ever need whether it¡¯s money, power, or influence you name it why must you reject me at every turn?¡±


    Listening to what Zack said Ela¡¯s lips curled up in disdain. ¡°Zack, are you an idiot? No, seriously I have told you time and time again I am spoken for, not to mention I could care less about your money and influence as it means nothing in the face of absolute strength. Now please stop deluding yourself and find someone WILLING to be with you and leave me be.


    Zack hearing her response adopted a frown, ¡°Spoken for? Yes, you have told me this but tell me Ela why is it that every time I have seen you, you are never with any man or even woman? In fact this is the first time I¡¯ve ever seen you walking beside someone and I refuse to believe the man beside you is your significant other because if he was I am sure he would not have stayed quiet as I pursued his women¡­ That is unless he is a coward. He finished with a mocking look at Damien.


    Seeing the look he was giving Damien, Ela immediately became enraged and was about to attack the man but before she could move Damien put his hand in front of her.


    Looking over she saw Damien staring at Zack with an unwavering gaze.


    After a few minutes Damien looked back at Ela, ¡°You never told me you were spoken for, you should tell me about it later. How about it?¡±


    Hearing his question Ela blushed and looked away.


    Laughing at Ela¡¯s reaction he spoke, ¡°Alright we will save that conversation for later let me deal with this first.¡±


    Turning his head back to Zack the man was still looking at him with that mocking smile, ¡°You two done having your lovers discussion? If so Ela please answer my question since your man seems to lack a backbone.¡±


    Before anyone could react Damien used flicker and appeared in Zack''s face.


    ¡°BOO¡±


    ¡°AH¡± Zack yelled startled as he was not expecting the man to appear inches away from his face yelling.


    ¡°HAHAHAHA¡± Damien burst out laughing at the man''s reaction, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? A bit jumpy are we?¡± he said mocking Zack while laughing in between his words. Even some of the people in the crowd were trying their best to not laugh, and Zack seeing the reactions of Damien and others immediately became enraged tossing a look at one of his guards. Getting the signal the guard with a big shield from earlier took a step forward and yelled out.


    ¡°STEP BACK FROM THE TOWN LORD.¡±


    Damien looked over his shoulder at the man and spoke, ¡°No need to be such a hard ass, and you so-called ¡°town lord¡± How about you stop hiding behind your guards and do something yourself?¡± Or are you the one lacking a backbone?¡± Damien taunted


    Hearing Damien throw his own taunt back at him Zack became even angrier and instead of saying anything directly attacked, and surprisingly the attack was quite fast not fast enough to hit Damien but still fast enough to hit even strong level twenties.


    Zack had thrown just a simple punch relying on raw strength and speed with nothing special so he was never going to be able to even touch Damien unless Damien let him do so, leaning his head to the side of the punch Damien raised his hand and flicked the man in the forehead.


    Stumbling back after the flick Zack looked up with a shocked expression, while he was a bit slow the man was not stupid if Damien was able to do that with a simple finger flick then killing him would be no issue.


    ¡®FUCK, I don¡¯t stand a chance if we were to fight¡­ for now, I should just apologize I can always kill him in the future for embarrassing me.¡¯ Zack thought to himself. Reluctantly Zack looked up and just as he was about to apologize to make himself look better, Damien spoke.


    ¡°Anyways stay away from Ela and me alright? Later bitch.¡± promptly flickering back to Ela who was looking at Damien with a big smile. ¡°Good job I had wanted to knock him down a peg for a while now but you did it much better than I would have.¡±


    ¡°No problem ¡°El¡± Now shall we go check on the inn?¡± Damien asked smugly.


    ¡°Don¡¯t call me that please it makes me feel disgusted,¡± she said while glaring at him.


    ¡°Noted,¡± he responded with a smile before heading in the direction of the inn.

 Teasing

    Standing in front of the inn or at least what was left of it Damien lamented, ¡°Well this sucks, I wanted to eat some more of their food..¡±


    ¡°We can always go kill something and cook it ourselves you know?¡± she responded.


    ¡°Do you know how to cook? Because let me remind you I have no memories so I most definitely do not.¡±


    ¡°I have not done so in a long, long time but once you learn something it never really goes away so I should be able to make us a decent meal if you want to eat.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ well honestly I can wait till the inn is rebuilt even though I am interested in you cooking for me, regardless I think its time you tell me who your ¡°Spoken for¡± is don''t you?¡± Damien said with a teasing smile.


    Hearing his question Ela¡¯s face turned beet red as she looked away from him, ¡°Oh I just remembered there is a few more places like this inn in the town we should head over to one.¡± She quickly responded while trying to change the subject.


    Seeing her reaction Damien¡¯s smile grew wider, ¡°How cute, trying to change the subject¡­ Ela you can just tell me the truth what''s there to be shy about? Unless your spoken for is¡­ no that can''t be right?¡±


    Ela¡¯s heartbeat shot up massively and she started to breathe a bit heavier, ¡°D-Damien please let¡¯s not talk about this right now alright? At least wait until your memoirs have returned before we continue this conversation¡­¡± Ela meekly responded.


    Getting an answer to his question Damien just nodded seeing no reason to push the subject even if it was funny to tease her and see the cute reactions she had he did not want her to feel uncomfortable.


    ¡°Alright, then I¡¯ll stop teasing you, so tell me what now?¡± he spoke


    ¡°Well you heard the system say it was going to do events to help us level up faster right?¡± seeing Damien nod she continued.


    ¡°So for now I think we just continue to level up and wait for the event to be announced, the higher our levels the better advantage we will have over others once the event starts.¡± Ela concluded.


    ¡°Solid reasoning, but I think we are going to need a better leveling spot than those woods outside the town¡­ the monsters there that have decent levels are few and far between.¡±


    ¡°With that being said, do you know any spots that people dare not go to?¡± Damien asked.


    ¡°There is one place¡­ but¡­ let me explain why no one approaches there and also something I forgot to tell you as it happened when the system first arrived.¡± Pausing to gather her thoughts she spoke.


    ¡°When the system first descended as I told you everything went to hell, people started discovering they had powers and were able to get way stronger than what was possible of a human before the system''s arrival and with this again like I told you came to stuff like greed, vanity, murderers, rape, pretty much anything bad about humans before the system people started doing out in the open with no one to stop them.¡±


    ¡°But that was not our only problem and here is what I had forgotten to tell you, after the system finished its descent the first thing we had to deal with was our fellow humans. That was until the monsters started appearing in massive droves, imagine all the bugs in the world now started to evolve and become massive man-eating monsters¡­ and along with this bigger animals became, well even bigger and some massive.¡±


    ¡°To say the least, once those monsters started to appear was when humanity was really in dire straights, the bugs alone were enough to wipe us out as they came in colonies numbering the hundreds of thousands. So with that in mind, the president of our country made a decision.¡±


    ¡°We nuked the insects.¡± Ela finally finished her long-winded explanation before looking at Damien to see his reaction.


    ¡°Ela, what the hell is a nuke?¡± he asked with a confused expression on his face.


    Staring at Damien dumbfounded Ela slapped her forehead, ¡°Are you being for real? Wait now that I think about it, where did you learn to speak if you had forgotten everything?¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°Oh that''s quite funny, while I was inside a simulation a guy in there taught me how to so I guess the organization did help with my escape,¡± Damien said with a laugh.


    ¡®Wow¡¯ Ela thought to herself as she found the whole thing stupid herself, I mean they wipe everything in Damien¡¯s mind even his ability to speak and form words, but then go and let someone teach him how?


    The organization had always been a weird group with insanely radical ideas and thoughts, nevertheless, Ela did not care she was just happy to have Damien back in her life.


    ¡°Alright moving on a nuke was something humans developed before the system arrived and was also something insanely dangerous and for the most part should never have existed in my opinion, that''s beside the point though, a nuke could destroy everything in the radius of 33 kilometers.¡±


    ¡°Holy shit,¡± Damien said aloud while being surprised ¡®You''re telling me humans had weapons like that before the system descent?¡¯ he thought to himself as it was simply wild that something from before the system was able to cause so much destruction.


    ¡°Wait, that does not explain why the area that was ¡°nuked¡± is so dangerous,¡± he said questioningly.


    ¡°You are right, the reason that areas like this are dangerous is because of something called ¡°radiation¡± and let¡¯s just say that it is highly toxic to anything and anyone when exposed to high volumes of it, and in areas of nuclear blasts the sheer volume is enough to kill a human of the old world in hours.¡±


    Hearing her explanation Damien was again surprised, all of that just from a bomb? Ela was right this was something that most definitely should not have existed as it was simply too dangerous.


    ¡°What about now though? Like can we go into it? Surely the radiation is long gone after 200 years.¡±


    ¡°Well that¡¯s the thing, for some reason, the radiation still exists and has even increased¡­ most people believe the system is the cause of this as it makes no sense for radiation from a nuke to last so long let alone increase in volume. Now we can go into this zone and as long as we do not head to the center of the blast we should be fine, let me warn you though the monsters in the nuke blast area are for some reason much stronger than the ones anywhere outside.¡±


    Nodding his head Damien decided they would go as they needed stronger monsters to fight to grow stronger, fighting the ones in the forest was just simply not enough to push Damien to his limits and for the most part he just needed to use one of his abilities and the fight would end.


    So he was hoping that what Ela said was true that way he could get a feel for his strength while also improving his level and fighting experience.


    ¡°Alright let''s go if what you''re saying is true then fighting the monsters is a better use of our time than killing the weak ones out here,¡± Damien said to Ela who agreed with a nod in return before they both made their way out the town towards the blast zone.


    While Damien and Ela were heading that way Emma could be seen making her way though a hallway with a tiled floor.


    Walking past many rooms along the way each that were like Damien¡¯s old simulation room Emma stopped in front of one, stepping into the room she quickly got to work and removed the tubes keeping the person asleep before waiting for them to wake.


    After a few minutes, the person''s eyes snapped open, and looked around the room before speaking in a strained voice.


    ¡°Why did you wake me.¡± the voice spoke while glaring at Emma.


    In response to his question, Emma simply smiled and explained the happenings of the world and how the system fully integrated during the person''s sleep.


    ¡°Now that I have got you up to speed you should understand part of my reason for waking you up should you not Jake?¡± Emma asked the man.


    ¡°And what is the other part of your reason? You and I both know you would not wake me without needing my help in return.¡± the man stated.


    ¡°You right we indeed would not wake you without proper reasoning even if you were the one who let us put you here, regardless though the other reason I awoke you was to help the organization catch an escaped subject.¡±


    Hearing her response the man just simply stared at Emma with a piercing gaze, scanning her curvy body the man got out of the pod he was sitting inside and walked over to her.


    ¡°...What makes you think I would help you weaklings? You let the ¡°Subject¡± escape I don''t see how returning them to you helps me in any way,¡± Jake responded while looking down at Emma who was seated in front of him.


    Unflustered by the man''s actions Emma spoke, ¡°Your right doing so does not help you in any way, but what if I told you that the person who escaped is someone who could help save your wif-¡±


    Before Emma could finish her sentence the man had already turned around and grabbed her by the neck lifting her into the air.


    ¡°You better not be lying to me woman, otherwise I will destroy you and this entire organization,¡± Jake said while slowly tightening his grip on Emma''s neck.


    Right as she was about to pass out the man dropped her making Emma violently cough, ¡°Now speak tell me how this man can help my wife.¡±


    ¡°Very well.¡±

 Irritated monsters

    Damien and Ela were walking along a paved road. The road itself was from before the system arrived, but now it was littered with cracks and holes from various battles, as well as the mere passage of time. The landscape around them was a mix of overgrown vegetation and the remnants of what once was a bustling city. Abandoned buildings stood in silence, their windows shattered and walls covered in creeping vines. In the distance, the sound of rustling leaves hinted at the presence of wildlife reclaiming the area.


    The road was filled with old rusted vehicles that no longer worked and were now just old relics... Looking at these cars and buildings Damien felt looked familiar and this wasn''t the first time he had felt this way. The first time he felt it was when he saw Ela''s necklace with their picture on it, but since then even seeing small details has caused it to return, such as the road they were walking on or cars along the side.


    ¡°What are those things on the sides of the road Ela? I feel like I should know what they are but no matter how much I try nothing is popping up.¡±


    Ela paused for a moment, studying Damien''s face with a mixture of empathy and curiosity. "Those are cars," she replied softly, her voice tinged with a hint of sadness. "They used to take people from one place to another.¡±


    Hearing her explanation and the word ¡°car¡± Damien once again had that feeling of remembering something before it once again slipped away like it never existed which in turn made him a bit frustrated, to say the least.


    Continuing to walk along the road they eventually reached the outskirts of the blast radius, looking at the stark difference between the desolate land in front and the run-down abandoned city behind gave the scene a feeling of emptiness.


    ¡°This is it. Beyond this point, you will encounter monsters that are far more dangerous than those in the forest. Stay away from the center area and stick to the outskirts,¡± Ela warned Damien, her expression firm and resolute.


    ¡°What is so dangerous about the center?¡± Damien asked curiously.


    ¡°Well, for one, the monsters become stronger the further you go in, according to what people have said. As for the monsters near the center, that is unknown, as no one has been able to get far enough to find out. However, the main reason it is so dangerous is that the radiation levels in the center are high enough to kill you within seconds.¡± she responded


    ¡°Got it! Alright, let''s go! I really want to test out my abilities on some proper enemies; the ones in the forest were simply too weak to fight back,¡± Damien responded excitedly at the thought of finally facing real opponents.


    As Damien and Ela walked into the blast zone, they ventured deeper, searching for monsters to fight. Before long, they came across their first enemies: five massive, wolf-like creatures. Their bodies were dilapidated and rotten, almost resembling some type of zombie wolves.


    These wolves were enormous, standing over eight feet tall for the lower-level ones. The alpha was around twelve feet, while the queen was about ten feet tall.


    Inspecting the grotesque creatures, five prompts appeared before them:


    - ¡°Irradiated Alpha Wolf - Level 27¡±


    - ¡°Irradiated Queen Wolf - Level 25¡±


    - ¡°Irradiated Wolf - Level 22¡±


    - ¡°Irradiated Wolf - Level 20¡±


    - ¡°Irradiated Wolf - Level 21¡±


    Seeing their levels, a massive smile spread across Damien''s lips. ¡°Now we are talking! I¡¯ll take on the alpha, and you get the queen. How about it?¡± he asked, looking at Ela.


    With a playful smile, Ela shook her head. ¡°Sure, but if you get your ass kicked, I won¡¯t save you.¡±


    ¡°Deal.¡± After deciding on their plan, they sprang into action. Ela swiftly entered her spirit form, while Damien chose to activate one of his abilities that he hadn¡¯t used yet.


    This ability allowed him to merge with the shadows and move through them. Fortunately for Damien, the blast zone was heavily shadowed, providing plenty of shadows to sink into.


    Damien and Ela decided to sneak attack one of the lower-level wolves each so they could focus on their fight with the alpha and the queen without worrying about the weaker foes.


    Sneaking up behind their targets, Ela was the first to make her move. She exited her spirit form and stabbed her short sword into one of the wolves, killing it instantly. Simultaneously, Damien emerged from a shadow beneath another wolf, plunging his katana into its underside and piercing its heart.


    All of this happened in less than a second, surprising the alpha and queen. They snarled and jumped in front of the remaining low-level wolf to protect it.Stolen novel; please report.


    Without wasting any time, Damien activated his lightning-fast ability and launched himself toward the alpha, reappearing at its right side before thrusting his sword upwards at its stomach.


    Even at over six feet tall, Damien barely reached the alpha''s underside due to its massive size.


    Surprisingly, Damien¡¯s sword failed to pierce the wolf¡¯s hide. Before he could react, the enormous creature whipped around and swiped one of its giant paws at him with incredible speed.


    Managing to barely dodge the attack by activating lightning-fast again, Damien leaped into the air and struck down at the wolf, using his momentum to pierce its side.


    Unfortunately, the attack was shallow and didn¡¯t seem to hurt the wolf much. ¡®This isn¡¯t going to work¡­¡¯ he thought to himself before deciding it was time to try out another of his race¡¯s abilities.


    While Damien fought the alpha, Ela was seen dashing around the queen with an astonishing speed. Her summoned spirit was attacking the queen head-on, but the wolf was struggling against Ela. The mismatch in their abilities was evident; the queen relied on magic attacks that couldn¡¯t hit Ela, who was moving at incredible speeds, disappearing and reappearing at will.


    The queen''s only saving grace was her tough hide; being a wolf, it was incredibly hard for Ela to pierce. At this point, it had become a battle where if Ela ran out of stamina, she would lose, but if the queen accumulated enough wounds, she would eventually succumb.


    Noticing that the queen was managing to fend off the summoned spirit easily and that her own attacks weren¡¯t making much impact, Ela knew she had to change her approach. Fortunately, after the system had fully integrated, she had gained quite a useful skill.


    Status:


    Name: Ela Heart


    Age: 200


    Level: 25


    Race: High human (F rank)


    Bloodline: N/A


    Titles: Spirt summoner, spirits blessing


    Class: Spirit Walker


    Stats:


    Health:225


    Mana:225


    Strength:120


    Agility:210


    Defense:120


    Intelligence:140


    Perception:130


    Willpower:120


    Points to distribute:0


    Skills: Spirit summon (Epic), spirit walk (Legendary), spirits voice (Rare), sword goddess (Legendary), Spirits cleave (Epic-NEW)


    Spirits cleave - A ability of those who wield the power of spirits - Allows the user to summon a giant spirit that cleaves all who stand in the user''s path in half.


    Quickly activating spirits cleave Ela watched as a giant spirit materialized before her, swiftly swinging its massive hand down in a chopping motion at the queen wolf. The queen wolf, upon seeing the attack, tried her best to dodge, but she was a moment too late. The blow struck her, instantly splitting her in half and resulting in a fountain of blood that erupted from the wound, followed by a final, anguished cry before the wolf died.


    Upon hearing the queen''s dying cry, the alpha wolf looked over. When he saw his queen split in half and lifeless on the ground, he let out an enraged howl and charged at Ela with a fierce snarl that could only be described as rage.


    However, before the wolf could reach her, Damien suddenly appeared in front of it. It seemed to Ela that he had materialized from nowhere, taking the form of a shadowy figure with wings on his back.


    Glancing down at his hand, Damien felt intrigued but decided to hold off any exploration for later. He knew that using this skill too long would weaken him once he deactivated it. With this in mind, he attacked the wolf with his katana. Almost immediately, Damien noticed an increase in his strength, effortlessly slicing through the alpha''s hide.


    Feeling the blade slice through its hide with ease the alpha wolf reluctantly focused its attention back on Damien knowing it had to take him seriously after seeing that last attack.


    Leaping forward with its massive jaws, the wolf attempted to snap them shut around Damien, but quickly realized it had bitten into nothing; the attack passed right through him without causing any damage.


    In this form, Damien understood a few crucial things, which was why he had allowed the wolf to attack him in the first place. While in this form, he was immune to physical attacks; only magical attacks could harm him.


    Smiling to himself, Damien activated Lighting fast and rushed forward, appearing below the wolf''s neck. He sliced upward before reappearing next to Ela. Turning his head back to the wolf, he watched as the alpha''s head fell to the ground with a thud.


    *DING* user has killed -  ¡°Irradiated alpha wolf - Level 27¡±


    Ignoring the notification, Damien deactivated his form, and a wave of weakness washed over him, causing his face to instantly turn pale with fatigue. Noticing his condition, Ela quickly supported him. ¡°Are you alright?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Ela,¡± Damien replied, quickly explaining why he felt so tired and the skill he had just used.


    After about ten minutes of rest, Damien felt his strength return, a genuinely refreshing sensation. It seemed he had used the skill for five minutes, resulting in ten minutes of weakness. This weakness was no joke; if he deactivated that skill, he would be nearly useless for the duration of its effects. He realized he would need to be careful about how and when he activated it in the future.


    Standing up, Damien opened the system interface to check how much time was left until the event started. ¡°System event starting in - 10 hours,¡± it informed him. It had taken him and Ela about four hours to reach the blast zone from the town, and their recent fight had lasted around fifteen minutes.


    Looking over at Ela, Damien said, ¡°Alright, shall we go fight some more monsters?¡±

 Systems Event

    System¡¯s event


    At this point, Ela and Damien had been killing the monsters in the blast zone for a while now, Damien had reached level 23 and Ela was at level 30.


    ¡®Status¡¯ Damien thought to himself before a window appeared, quickly distributing his free points before looking at his new stats.


    Name: Damien Atlas


    ¡®Age: 200 years¡¯


    Level:23


    Race: High human/Shade (F rank)


    Bloodline - High shade


    Titles: The first to awaken, Storms Child, Shades primordial.


    Class: Origanls descent


    Stats:


    Health:200  ¡ª> 265


    Mana:200  ¡ª>265


    Strength:110  ¡ª>180


    Agility:80  ¡ª> 165


    Defense:60  ¡ª> 140


    Intelligence:80  ¡ª> 160


    Perception:70  ¡ª> 140


    Willpower:60  ¡ª> 130


    Points to distribute:0


    Skills: Mana breathing (Divine), The original (Primordial), Storms blessing (legendary), Lightning fast (rare), Samurai (common), Flicker of the original (epic), Originals knowledge (legendary)


    He was a bit surprised that his ¡°samurai¡± skill had not upgraded, but then again, he had just been killing monsters and hadn¡¯t learned anything more about how to use the sword. He quickly asked the system for the fastest way to upgrade his skills, and it simply responded, ¡°Practice,¡± which made Damien feel a bit disappointed.


    ¡°System, how much time until the event starts?¡± he asked.


    ¡°2 hours, user,¡± came the response.


    ¡°Not much time left¡­ I¡¯m really curious about the center, but I doubt Ela would be too keen on the idea. There simply isn¡¯t enough time before the event starts anyway.¡±


    While Damien was lost in his thoughts, Ela was preoccupied with her own worries. After they had killed the wolves earlier, they spent another eight hours hunting in the blast zone before deciding to rest until the system event began.


    At that moment, Ela was staring off into the distance with a forlorn expression. She had been hoping that Damien¡¯s memories would return soon, as he had shown signs of remembering things. Yet, every time it seemed he was on the verge of recalling something, it slipped away.


    The main reason for her sadness, however, was that today was somewhat special for her and Damien, which is why she wanted his memories to return. Biting her bottom lip, Ela decided to let it go and wait for the system event to start.


    Looking over in Damien¡¯s direction Ela spoke, ¡°What do you want to do while we wait for the event? Sitting here for the next two hours seems kinda boring,¡± she had brought this up as sitting here for two hours in her own thoughts was just going to make her mood worse.


    Looking over at Damien, Ela said, ¡°What do you want to do while we wait for the event? Sitting here for the next two hours seems kind of boring.¡± She mentioned this because she knew that being left alone with her thoughts for that long would only make her mood worse.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ how about exploring? We might find something interesting,¡± Damien replied.


    ¡°Damien, what are we going to find in this wasteland?¡± Ela asked, giving him a condescending look.


    ¡°I suppose that was a dumb question,¡± he admitted, ¡°but hey, you never know what could be around here. The system is clearly messing with the radiation in the area, as you said. So I highly doubt there isn¡¯t something valuable or interesting nearby. Think about it: higher-level monsters appear closer to the center, and increased radiation levels? Doesn¡¯t that seem strange to you?¡±Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°Okay, I understand your point, but that implies that if there¡¯s something valuable here, it would be at the center. We are NOT going over there, at least not now. If you want to explore, let¡¯s wait until we¡¯re both level 50 and have reached E grade.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Damien responded before trying to think of something else for them to do in the meantime.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you just tell me about what you have been up to while I was stuck in that place?¡± he asked with a curious look on his face.¡±


    ¡°Sure I can tell you about it but let me warn you ahead of time most of what I did was looking for clues about your whereabouts,¡± Ela stated. Seeing Damien nod in response she started to talk about the things she had done over the years and before long they heard the system speak.


    ¡°System event starting, initiating teleport.¡±


    After hearing the system''s last statement, Damien felt himself move but could not describe the sensation he had just experienced. In the next second, he found himself in a room that appeared to be made of stone. As he looked around, he saw Ela appear on his left, followed by more people gradually showing up.


    Damien was a bit surprised at the diversity of beings appearing, he had no idea what any of them were but so far he had seen quite a few unique ones such as the beings with long ears or the ones with a lizard-type head and wings on their back¡­ he even noticed a slime type person appear at one point.


    By sensing the auras of those around him, Damien quickly identified the strongest among the group. So far, there were three individuals that he sensed would be dangerous to confront, the first of which was one of the long ear people from earlier who was radiating an aura of arrogance, the second was a petite-looking woman carrying a giant hammer she was giving off a feeling of frostiness that made her seem unapproachable.


    As for the last one he appeared to be a human man and Damien was specifically focused on him as Damien could not detect anything from him at all the man was giving off no aura but this was not the main reason for his focus as for some reason as soon as the man had appeared he had locked onto Damien and had not stopped staring at him since.


    Damien quickly had the system show the mans level, ¡°Human - level 25.¡±


    Upon closer inspection, Damien could discern the man''s features. He seemed to be around the same height as Damien, approximately 6''2", with brown hair and green eyes. What stood out the most was the enormous sword strapped across the man''s back.


    "Ela, what kind of sword is that?" Damien asked, pointing at the mysterious figure.


    Glancing in the direction Damien was pointing, Ela noticed the man, who was still fixated on Damien. Recognizing the look on his face, she adopted a serious expression before examining the sword he was carrying.


    "That is a heavy sword type. As for the actual name of the sword, I''m not sure, as that type is quite rare," Ela replied. She continued, "Damien, you need to be cautious of that man. I¡¯m not sure why he is so focused on you, but it can''t be anything good."


    Hearing her warning and seeing her serious demeanor, Damien nodded in response. By now, the room had filled with around 100 people. As he scanned the crowd, he noticed that most individuals had formed groups.


    Soon, the system announced, "This event will be a maze. The rules of the maze are as follows:


    <ol>


    <li> Only three people are allowed per team. </li>


    </ol>


    <ol start="2">


    <li> If you encounter another team, you can either choose to ignore each other or engage in combat; exchanging information between teams is prohibited.</li>


    </ol>


    <ol start="3">


    <li> To win this event, a team must accumulate enough points before searching for the exit to the maze. Inside the maze, there will be a variety of monsters of differing difficulty levels; the harder the monster, the more points earned. Teams can also earn points by eliminating other teams and stealing their points."</li>


    </ol>


    ¡°The top three teams will be rewarded based on their points and the order in which they exit the maze. Teams will have two hours to collect as many points as possible. During the last thirty minutes, the exits to the maze will open, and teams can choose to either exit with the points they have or stay inside to continue defeating monsters for more points. Teams that exit the maze will receive a 1.2x point multiplier.¡±


    ¡°There are five different types of monsters inside the maze. The first is the common type, which is the easiest to defeat; the second is uncommon; the third is rare; the fourth is epic; and the last is legendary. Any team that kills a legendary monster will earn 10,000 points.¡±


    "When a user defeats a monster of any rarity, a glow will outline their body based on the number of monsters they have slain. The more intense the glow, the greater the number of monsters defeated. The glow color will also depend on the rarity of the monster killed; for example, killing a legendary monster will result in a yellowish glow.


    To encounter legendary monsters, users must first defeat an epic monster. Upon defeating the epic monster, it will drop a map that leads to a legendary monster.


    Users have five minutes to ask any questions before the event begins."After the last sentence, the system went quiet. A few seconds later, a woman with blue hair spoke up.


    ¡°Do we have to form teams of three?¡± she asked aloud.


    ¡°No, teams of three are not required. Users can have fewer members or attempt the maze on their own,¡± the system responded promptly.


    Hearing that, the woman seemed relieved, and a light smile spread across her lips. No one spoke after her; most people were walking around the room, looking for teammates or chatting with others.


    Before long, a man approached them. He looked at Ela and said, ¡°Would you like to join my team, miss?¡± He pointed towards another woman in the distance, indicating that she was his teammate.


    The man appeared to be your typical entitled rich kid. He wore an expensive-looking set of gold armor, had blonde hair and blue eyes, and wore a smug expression. It was clear he was trying to draw attention to himself.


    Damien, noticing that the man was blatantly ignoring him, smiled and remembered the man¡¯s appearance before glancing at Ela with a mischievous grin.


    ¡°I already have a teammate,¡± Ela replied, nodding toward Damien.


    The man finally glanced in Damien¡¯s direction and scoffed, but Damien maintained his smile. ¡°Your loss,¡± the man said before walking back to his teammate.


    After another few minutes of waiting with no one else asking questions, the system finally spoke again.


    ¡°System event starting. Good luck, users!¡±

 The maze

    Inside the maze, a man could be seen running at full speed chasing two people in front of him a man and a woman, swiftly approaching his targets he propels himself forward with his left leg and grabs one of them by the back of the neck.


    ¡°ARGH,¡± the man screams out feeling the cold hand upon the back of his neck, ¡°Please man we don''t even have any points you get nothing from killing us.¡± the man pleaded wearing a dreadful expression.


    Unfortunately for him, though, the man did not respond. Instead, he increased his grip, causing a loud cracking sound to be heard. The woman who had not stopped running since her teammate was captured ran even faster upon hearing the noise. ¡°T-that man is not human,¡± she said aloud to herself while shivering.


    ¡°Weaklings,¡± the man said before tossing the lifeless body in his hand to the side with a thud before continuing his pursuit of the woman.


    While all of this was happening, Damien and Ela were navigating through the maze in search of monsters. They had been running for a while and had defeated three common monsters and one rare monster. The commons were worth 50 points each, while the rare was worth 150, giving them a total of 300 points so far.


    ¡°Can we find a legendary or epic monster already? This event has been way too boring,¡± Damien said, annoyance evident in his voice. The commons and rare they had encountered were far too easy to defeat, and with nothing more challenging showing up, he was starting to lose interest.


    ¡°Damien, the event just started,¡± Ela replied, rolling her eyes. ¡°The real challenge comes from the legendary monsters and other users in the maze.¡±


    ¡°True, but that doesn¡¯t mean this isn¡¯t boring at the moment,¡± he stated. Just as he was about to continue, Ela signaled for him to stop talking.


    She turned her head toward the path ahead and pointed, indicating that there were people up ahead. Understanding her gesture, Damien quickly sank into the shadows while Ela transformed into her spirit form.


    As they made their way down the pathway, it didn¡¯t take long for them to see the group Ela had sensed. It was a team of three¡ªtwo men and a woman. The first thing Damien noticed was the blue glow outlining each of them.


    The two men of the group had similar looks making Damien think they were related in some way, they both had some type of horns on their heads that curled upwards while also having the same color of hair and eyes being blood red. The two men were wearing pitch-black robes with some type of design on the back resembling a demon of sorts.


    As for the woman she also had the same horns but was not of the same status as the two men, instead of red hair and eyes hers were both a light purple while her robes were a lot more simple-looking white color with no design on them.


    ¡°Asda,¡± one of the men said aloud without turning his head. ¡°Yes, My lord?¡± the woman responded while lowering her head at the man''s back.


    ¡°Has your ability managed to locate anything nearby? Since you ended up in the event with us at least make yourself useful,¡± he stated with a slight sneer on his face.¡±


    Hearing his question Asda quickly used her ¡°ability¡± and a pulse came from within her body that shot out in every direction. ¡°There are several entities nearby of varying strengths, the strongest is towards our east about 30 feet.¡± she promptly answered without lifting her head.


    As the man was about to ask his next question the shadow behind him seemed almost alive as it wriggled before a man popped out from within shoving his sword at he man''s back.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Sensing imminent danger the man quickly dodged barely avoiding a fatal blow but still getting grazed on the side causing blood to leak down, before anyone could react another person appeared behind the other man attacking in the same way stabbing the man in the shoulder as he also managed to avoid a fatal blow.


    ¡°Tsk, you guys have good instincts.¡± the second attacker said.


    Seeing that their surprise attacks had mostly failed Damien flickered over to Ela¡¯s side before adopting a fighting stance.


    Finally getting their bearings the two men coldly looked at their attackers before one of them spoke, ¡°You are going to regret not killing us with those attacks of yours, Zain I¡¯ll take the man you can take the woman she appears to be your type anyhow.¡± he said with a mocking tone.


    "Noah, please stop portraying me as some sort of beast. I would never engage in such things with a lowly human," Noah responded his expression filled with disgust at the thought.


    Having heard enough of their conversation, Damien dashed toward Zain and activated "Lightning Fast." Arcs of lightning began to bounce around his body before he vanished. Alarmed by his opponent''s speed, Zain felt a surge of concern wash over him.


    Reappearing behind Zain, Damien prepared to attack but suddenly had a bad feeling. He quickly jumped backward just as red flames erupted from the spot where he had been standing moments before. ¡®That would have hurt,¡¯ he thought to himself, his expression serious.


    Noah dodged to the left, narrowly avoiding yet another blow from the woman in front of him. He had been struggling, as she kept vanishing from his senses and reappearing when he least expected it, giving him little time to react. To make matters worse, she had summoned an annoying spirit that kept attacking him simultaneously.


    ¡°ENOUGH!¡± he shouted, summoning a burst of black fire that shot out in every direction, melting everything in its path¡ªincluding the spirit, which disappeared as the flames engulfed it.


    Seeing the flames Ela made a mental note not to get hit by those, coming out of her spirit form beside Damien she spoke. ¡°We should either end this quickly or leave other wise this fight is not worth it and we will get behind in points.¡±


    Hearing what she said Damien nodded in understanding, while he would love to continue this fight at this point it was just a waste of time and the only way to end it quickly would be to go into his shade form and if he ended up taking to long to finish them he would be weakened causing a whole bunch of other issues.


    Looking over at Zain and Noah he spoke, ¡°Let''s finish this fight another time k?¡±


    ¡°You think we are just going to let you go after you sneak atta-¡± Before Noah could finish Damien and Ela both vanished from their sight.


    ¡°....MOTHERFUCKER!¡± Zain yelled while kicking the wall to his side.


    ¡°Asda can you sense them?¡± Noah asked not willing to give up. ¡°No, my ability is not picking up on anything My lord.¡±


    ¡°Useless!¡± he yelled.


    While Zain and Noah were still fuming in anger, Damien and Ela walked side by side. ¡°That was pretty fun! I just wish we could have fought longer,¡± Damien said, feeling a bit sad that the battle was so short.


    ¡°We¡¯ll get another chance. For now, we should focus on earning points, mainly by finding an epic monster to acquire a map. If we can defeat a legendary monster, it''s almost a guaranteed win, and besides, it should also prove to be a challenge.¡±


    Nodding in agreement, they continued to defeat every creature in their path. After about 20 minutes, they had accumulated 600 points. As they made their way through a new part of the maze, it didn¡¯t take long until they encountered something that made them smile.


    ¡°8-Legged Thornvine level 30¡± (EPIC) was displayed above the monster''s head in purple. ¡°Finally! At the rate we were going, I was beginning to doubt we¡¯d find anything above a rare,¡± Damien said, feeling relieved.


    The monster looked strange; it resembled a vine with eight legs and a flytrap-like mouth. Calling it a plant felt odd at this point. ¡°Alright, what¡¯s the plan? Should I test the waters to see if this thing is strong, or do you want the honors?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take this one if you don¡¯t mind,¡± Ela replied before swiftly entering her spirit form.

 Thornvine

    As Ela quickly approached the strange-looking creature, she formulated a plan. She intended to use her cleave ability to defeat it in one swift motion. Transforming into her spirit form, Ela took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself.


    ¡°Now!¡± she thought as she summoned her cleave ability. A giant spirit appeared before her, ready to swiftly strike the thornvine. In that moment, Ela exited her spirit form and activated her ¡°spirit summon.¡± With her short sword drawn, she and the spirits launched their attacks simultaneously, and her cleave ability made contact.


    The thorn vine, noticing the spirits and Ela appearing, lets out a weird, piercing sound, causing Ela to freeze for a split second. Biting her lip, she regains her senses and continues her assault. Her cleave ability hits the vine first on the backside of its body leaving a deep cut on the vine''s back with green liquid gushing out from within.


    ¡°SCREEE!¡± the vine screeched as thorns erupted across its body. Feeling a sense of danger, Ela quickly stopped her attack and transformed into her spirit form. She was relieved she did, as the moment she did, the thorns shot out in every direction.


    Even Damien had to retreat into his shadow to avoid being hit. Returning to her physical form, Ela summoned her spirit again. With caution written on her face, she launched herself forward, skillfully dodging the thrashing vines. Targeting the wound left by her cleave ability, she and her spirit both attacked. The spirit struck the wounded area with an elemental blade, while Ela drove her short sword into the injury.


    "This is not going to work. I need to use Cleave again; otherwise, I''ll never defeat this thing," she lamented to herself. The vine''s body was too large and thick, rendering her short sword nearly useless. The spirit could inflict more damage than she could, as its blade was made from spirit energy, but it still couldn''t compare to Cleave.


    "I guess it''s time to use that¡­"


    Since Ela had reached level thirty, she had the opportunity to choose from five different skills. The one she was about to use was her newest addition, and Ela hoped it would deal some decent damage.


    With a focused expression, she activated her new ability. A cloak wrapped around Ela''s body, giving her an almost ethereal appearance. The cloak had a ghostly, light green color that fully enveloped her. As it did, she raised her hand and summoned a swarm of blob-like entities that gathered around her. As Ela summoned Cleave once more, the thornvine redirected its attention towards the giant spirit, ignoring Ela entirely, which made her smirk.


    "Go!" She pointed her hand forward, and all the blob-like entities shot out at incredible speed. Within milliseconds, they struck the vine, piercing its body with small, round holes.


    ¡°SCREEE!¡± the vine screamed out once more before collapsing onto its stomach in pain at the same time Ela¡¯s cleave arrived above its head, unable to get its barrings after being hit with Ela¡¯s new ability the cleave hit its target cutting the head of the vine off in one motion making a prompt appear in Ela¡¯s eyes.


    *DING* user has killed level ¡°8-Legged Thornvine¡±


    *DING* The user has earned ¡°map¡±


    Listening to the notifications Ela looked down at her hand and arms that were still cloaked by her new ability with an awed expression she had read the description of the ability but was not expecting it to be so good.


    Status:


    Name: Ela Heart


    Age: 200


    Level: 32


    Race: High human (F rank)If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Bloodline: N/A


    Titles: Spirt summoner, spirits blessing


    Class: Spirit Walker


    Stats:


    Health:260


    Mana:260


    Strength:155


    Agility:245


    Defense:155


    Intelligence:175


    Perception:165


    Willpower:155


    Points to distribute:0


    Skills: Spirit summon (Epic), spirit walk (Legendary), spirits voice (Rare), sword goddess (Legendary), Spirits cleave (Epic), Cloak of the Spirit King (Mythical-NEW)


    Cloak of the Spirit King - The cloak of the spirit king was thought to be long lost and as its newest wielder you can either be the hope of the spirits or their demise. Allows the user to summon the spirit king''s cloak and use a fraction of the king''s power.


    Once Ela put on the cloak, it felt almost as if she intuitively understood how to harness the power of the ¡°king¡± and what actions to take. She sensed that there was even more she could do with this ability, realizing that it was her responsibility to fully learn how to wield this ¡°power.¡±


    However, she felt uncertain about the description of the skill, which seemed cryptic: ¡°Be the spirit''s hope or their demise.¡± Unsure of its implications, she decided that if she encountered any actual spirits, she would refrain from showcasing her ability until she understood it better.


    Before long, she heard footsteps approaching from her left. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Damien coming toward her with a smile. When he noticed her turn in his direction, he gave her a thumbs-up and said, ¡°Good job! Was that last cloak thing a new ability?¡± His curiosity was evident.


    ¡°Yeah, I got it for reaching level thirty. Remember the system said that every ten levels after level twenty, we get to choose a new skill? Once I reached level thirty, I had the option to pick from five different skills, each with varying rarities and abilities.¡±


    Pausing for a moment, she continued, ¡°I chose the highest rarity option, which is mythical. This ability allows me to summon that cloak and use powers from the ¡®spirit king.¡¯ I''m not entirely sure what that entails, but I know that the ability is really strong and has great potential for improvement,¡± Ela explained.


    ¡°That sounds cool! Did you get the map, by the way? I didn¡¯t see it drop, so I can only assume you have it,¡± Damien asked.


    ¡°Yeah, after the vine died, the system notified me that I had acquired the map,¡± Ela replied.


    ¡°Alright, then shall we look for the legendary? I want to get out of this damn maze event already,¡± Damien said, clearly tired of the labyrinthine setup.


    Nodding in agreement, Ela summoned the map from her system storage. As she gazed down at the map, she noticed a golden line appearing beneath her and Damien''s feet, indicating the direction they were supposed to head.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± she said, starting to run in that direction with Damien following closely behind.


    While Damien and Ela were heading toward the legendary monster a man with a giant sword on his back was engaged in a fierce battle, upon closer inspection the man had an almost mad smile on his face and he would occasionally laugh out loud.


    ¡°HAHA, yes this is what I wanted the system to be not that boring shit from before where only weaklings resided.¡± the man yelled out loud seemingly beaming with enjoyment at his current fight.


    Opposite the man stood his opponent, a woman wielding a giant hammer that Damien had noticed before the event began. Unlike the man, who wore an excited expression, the woman had a much more solemn look on her face.


    As the man swung his massive sword, the woman swiftly dodged and summoned blue ice spikes around her. Pointing in the man¡¯s direction, the spikes shot out toward him, but he effortlessly evaded each one while speaking with a mad-like grin.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name, woman?¡± he asked, still smiling.¡°Nova,¡± she responded before swinging her giant hammer down at the man who easily avoided it with a sidestep. ¡°Well Nova, my name is Jake make sure to remember it. Now how about we end this fight here while I would love to continue fighting someone as strong as yourself I have some stuff to take care of, what do you say?¡± Jake asked while adopting a serious expression.


    Nova regarded his question with an unreadable expression, ¡°That¡¯s fine with me.¡± Nova curtly responded. She had made this decision as fighting this man would not be worth her time not only would it take to long to defeat him she was not sure if she even could in the first place.


    ¡°Good, it was nice sparing with you Nova now if you will excuse me I have a hunt to continue,¡± Jake responded with an expression that creeped Nova out making a chill go up her spine.

 Unexpected circumstances

    As Ela and Damien navigated through the maze, they had been following the map for about ten minutes and were starting to approach the center. Rounding a corner, they came upon a large opening, and in the center lay a giant monster with a golden name displayed above its head.


    ¡°Chemira Level 40 - Legendary¡±


    The chimera had the head of a lion, a scale-like body resembling that of a reptile, and a tail similar to that of a scorpion. However, the two prominent horns protruding from its head stood out the most, with black lightning crackling between them.


    Damien looked at the beast on the ground and then glanced at Ela. "What is that thing? Why does it have so many different animal parts?" He felt a growing sense of unease; it was clear that the creature was much stronger than both of them.


    ¡°Chimeras are creatures that blend parts from various animals. They are a combination of different beings. Take the one in front of us as an example. It has the head of a lion, the body of a reptile, and the tail of a scorpion. Every chimera is unique, and it''s rare to find any that look the same,¡± Ela explained while inspecting the creature.


    ¡°Interesting. Alright, then. I suggest we fight it together. I don''t think it''s wise for us to take it on alone,¡± Damien said, his expression cautious. ¡°Agreed. Chimeras are dangerous opponents and should not be taken lightly. Considering that, how do you want to approach this? I suggest we try to land a heavy blow at the start. We don¡¯t have much time left in the event to defeat this thing, and if someone shows up while we¡¯re fighting, we could find ourselves in a tough spot,¡± Ela noted seriously.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s stick to our usual strategy. We¡¯ll both transform and get in close. You should strike first with your Cleave attack before using your King¡¯s Cape ability. After your Cleave connects, I¡¯ll attack while the chimera is distracted.¡±


    Nodding in agreement, they took their positions. However, as soon as Ela began to approach, the chimera suddenly whipped around and focused on her.


    A look of astonishment crossed her face as she realized she was uncertain about her next move. If she summoned Cleave now, the chimera would see the attack coming and evade it. ¡®Maybe we should pull back and rethink our strategy,¡¯ she thought, her doubts growing. She knew chimeras were formidable opponents, and attempting to fight one without a strong party was practically suicidal. Yet, if it was part of the event, it had to be possible to defeat it.


    As Ela was about to back off a man with a giant sword appeared at an entrance opposite the one they had entered, upon entering the room the man glanced around with a narrowed gaze and an unreadable look on his face.


    While scanning the room the man seemed to not care about the giant chimera whatsoever as his gaze did not stop on it at all finally the man stopped looking around once his gaze reached the back right corner of the room the corner Damien was in his shadow form at.


    Seeing the man staring in his direction Damien decided to test if the man could see him and quickly started moving through the shadows towards Ela and unsurprisingly the man¡¯s eyes never left Damien as he moved around.


    ¡®What is up with this guy? Earlier when the event started he was doing the same thing and just staring at me.¡¯ Damien thought to himself as the man had been acting strange ever since he saw Damien.


    While he was wondering what was up with the guy the man finally moved and reached behind his back and grabbed his giant sword before slowly walking in Damien¡¯s direction. While walking the man started to cross the platform the chimera was lying on and the second the chimera sensed someone entering the area of the platform it spun around and lunged at the man.


    As the chimera was about to rip his head off with its giant maw the man finally moved his gaze away from Damien and looked at the beast, the second his gaze made contact with the chimera''s it jumped back away from the man before looking at him cautiously.


    ¡°Disgusting,¡± he said aloud with a scoff before looking back at Damien whose face was full of shock. ¡®Does he have an ability like my primordial one?¡¯ he thought as otherwise it did not make sense for the chimera to be so cautious of him.


    Finally, Damien decided to use inspection on the guy as he had been distracted by his own thoughts. ¡°Human-level 25¡± Seeing that the man was around the same level as him he was even more shocked because if he did not have the ability like his then Damien was honestly not sure what to make of what just happened.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Who are you? Why are you so focused on me?¡± Damien finally asked while staying on guard.


    ¡°Jake, my name is Jake. As for why I''m focused on you its because you have something that can help me,¡± he stated never taking his eyes off Damien.


    Listening to what the man said Damien started to rack his brain on what he could have that would possibly help them, man, ¡®A ability? No, I don''t have anything like th- wait, my bloodline?¡±


    ¡°You are from the ¡°Organization¡± aren¡¯t you? Damien asked with a hint of rage in his voice. Upon hearing Damien¡¯s question the man adopted an amused look.


    ¡°Not exactly you could just say that I''m currently working for them, now how about we make a deal hm? If you beat me in a fight I will answer any of your questions and if you lose I will not tell you anything.¡± Jake asked while watching Damien¡¯s facial expressions.


    ¡°Look ma-¡± Before Damien could respond Jake launched himself forward and and swung his sword at Damien who hastily dodged to the side with a roll. Springing back up to his feet he yelled out, ¡°What the hell man!¡±


    Instead of responding, though, Jake continued to attack with no sign of slowing down, seeing that the man had no intentions of not fighting Damien focused.


    Entereing his lighting mode, he appeared next to Jake and swung at his neck. In response, Jake calmly parried the attack with his sword, a look of boredom on his face. "Is this all you''ve got? Your technique is horrible. It¡¯s clear you haven''t put much effort into improving that. And let¡¯s not even discuss the simplistic and foolish ways you use your abilities," Jake said mockingly.


    ¡°It was just one attack,¡± Damien replied, frustrated by Jake''s derision over a single strike. ¡°That¡¯s all I need to see: your form is terrible, and you haven¡¯t trained your abilities,¡± he asserted.


    ¡°If you had really worked to understand all your abilities and also the weapon you were using, I would have had a way harder time parrying your attacks, but instead, you did the most obvious thing and attacked my head from behind after reappearing,¡± Jake said calmly.


    ¡°What are you, my instructor? Besides, if you know anything about the organization, you should understand that I have no memories of my life before my escape, let alone the chance to practice my swordsmanship and abilities.¡± Damien said in frustration. If it weren''t for the fact that he had been trapped for so long, he would have spent time perfecting his skills and understanding them better.


    ¡°How long has it been since you escaped?¡± Jake asked with a smirk.


    Now that Jake had mentioned it Damien remembered after he and Ela had arrived in town they had gotten some food and talked in their room but after that, they spent around a week or so just relaxing and going around the town as Ela did not want to go and hunt monsters right after she reunited with Damien.


    ¡°About a week and 3 days,¡± he responded.


    ¡°So you have had a week or so to try and understand your abilities no I assume your abilities got updated after the system fully integrated so with that in mind you probably only had a few abilities. Regardless you still had a decent amount of time to practice those abilities and familiarize yourself with them and I¡¯m sure you can understand why that¡¯s important right?¡± Jake asked.


    ¡°Look, I understand what you¡¯re trying to say, but I¡¯m not you or anyone else¡ªI am myself. After spending most of my life locked in a simulation, I don''t see anything wrong with taking some time to relax. With Ela by my side and my own strength, I have nothing to fear from the organization recapturing me,¡± Damien stated calmly.


    ¡°Now tell me what you want. I don¡¯t see how helping me understand my abilities or how to use them benefits you.¡± Damien was genuinely confused about what the man wanted. So far, he had only been vague and had not clearly stated his reasons for his actions.


    ¡°I told you, beat me in a fight and I will answer all your questions.¡± after finishing his words Jake lunged forward once more.


    ¡°Really?¡± Damien asked, exchanging blows as the sound of swords clashing echoed off the walls of the maze. Off to the side of the battle, Ela could be seen watching the fight with a look of intrigue.


    Saying nothing in response Jake feints a swing of his sword making Damien block his right side, seeing Damien fall for his fake Jake attacks the opposite side of his previous attack.


    A chill went up Damien¡¯s back as he quickly used lighting fast to dodge the attack, staring at Jake Damien decided he¡¯d had enough. ¡°Fine,¡± Damien says grinding his teeth together, ¡°I just have to defeat you right?¡±


    Without saying anything else, Damien enters his high-shade form. Seeing Damien¡¯s transformation, Jake adopts a crazed smile. ¡°Now we are talking!¡± he yells while waiting for Damien to make his move.


    And move he did taking Jake''s advice he uses his primordial skill making Jake freeze in place while at the same time, he appears directly in front of him before slashing down with his katana.


    Sneering at the simple attack Damien was doing once again Jake prepared to calmly block but to his surprise right as their swords were about to clash the shadow-like Damien¡¯s sword disappeared causing his sword to go threw the shadow.


    With a smile, the shadow Damien walked threw the attack calmly before taking out his sword once more and holding it against Jake¡¯s neck.


    ¡°I win,¡±

 Jake

    ¡°That ability is bullshit,¡± Jake said as he stared at Damien with an annoyed look, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter all that matters is that I won and you lost. Now answer my question, Why are you so focused on me?¡±


    Jake sighed before speaking. ¡°I was inside the simulations at the organization, but not because they kidnapped me or anything. I willingly entered. The reason for this is that in exchange for allowing them to study my bloodline, they promised to keep my wife alive.¡±


    A surprised expression crossed Damien''s face as he listened to Jake''s explanation. ¡°Okay, but what does any of this have to do with me? Why did they send you?¡± Damien genuinely did not understand why they chose him and not someone else; it was clear that Jake had no loyalty to them whatsoever.


    ¡°They sent me because I am one of the most skilled people on Earth. After the system appeared, I was one of the first to reach level 20,¡± Jake replied, pausing as if deep in thought. ¡°Anyway, the organization found me when I was in desperate need of help. As you can probably imagine, my wife was close to death. Unfortunately, not everything was perfect; she is unable to recover fully, and if the organization stops helping she will die pretty quickly.


    As Damien listened to the man speak, he could hear the pain in his voice. The look on the man''s face suggested he was recalling the events as if they were happening all over again. ¡°So, if I had to guess, the organization wanted you to recapture me and, using my bloodline, somehow save her?¡± Damien was beginning to understand the situation, and to say he didn¡¯t like it would be an understatement. The organization was exploiting the man¡¯s emotions and his love for his wife to force him into action, all for their own benefit¡ªand there was no guarantee that his bloodline could actually save her.


    "Well, at least you''re not dumb," Jake said jokingly. He continued, "I figured you''d be in the event, so I waited to get a feel for you. But I can already tell that I don''t stand a chance against that broken ability of yours. Regardless, I want you to know that I''m going to do whatever it takes to save my wife." With that, Jake turned and started walking away.


    ¡°Jake,¡± Damien said aloud, prompting the man to glance over his shoulder. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t trust the organization so much. Those people only care about themselves and no one else, regardless of what they tell you.


    Look into whether they can actually save your wife. With the world being the way it is now, and with new worlds, universes, and whatever else may exist, I assure you there is a way to save your wife without relying on people who can''t and shouldn''t be trusted.¡± finishing his words Damien watched as the man nodded his head before he walked out of the area he and Ela were in.


    Once Jake was out of sight, Damien glanced over at Ela before walking in her direction. ¡°System, how much time is left in the event?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Twenty minutes remaining, user,¡± the system responded.


    Realizing how little time they had left, Damien quickly devised a plan with Ela. They needed to defeat the legendary contestant to secure a win, and since they currently had no idea who was in first place, it was better to play it safe.


    Once Damien and Ela were ready, they took their respective positions. In his high-shade form, Damien rushed forward, attracting the chimera¡¯s attention. With a loud roar, the beast lunged at him, attempting to bite down with its giant mouth.


    While he was distracting the creature, Ela summoned her cloak around her body. Once her attack was ready she waited for the perfect moment and right as Damien and the beast clashed she shot out her attack at the chimera¡¯s vitals. Sensing danger the chimera tried to turn around and defend but before it could do so Damien kept up his assault making the beast not have enough time to turn around.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Upon making contact with the chimera the attack caused miniature booms to sound within its body while blood splattered everywhere, taking the chance while the beast was stunned by the attack Damien sprinted forward with his lightning-fast ability. Jumping up he slammed down with his katana onto the chimera¡¯s head.


    Right as the attack was about to make contact the chimera let out a roar and the lighting on its horns started to spread across its body making the beast look extremely menacing as the black snake-like bolts bounced between its horns and along its body.


    Glaring at Damien, the beast attacked with its paws and stinger at the same time, as the attack was flying through the air, Damien could see that in front of the attack, the black lighting was also flying at him with insane speed. Putting his sword in front of him the lighting hit, sending him tumbling backward. The sheer force of the lighting made his hands shake but before he had a chance to recover, the chimera paws and stinger arrived in front of him.


    Since the beast¡¯s body was covered in lighting its attacks were able to hit Damien¡¯s living shadow form and as the attacks connected, he was once again sent flying backward and dropping his sword.


    As the beast was about to continue its attacks, Ela shot out another barrage of attacks making the beast turn to block her attacks. Coughing up blood, Damien wiped his mouth with his sleeve before weakly standing up seeing the beast distracted he hastily made his way over to his sword that he had dropped. Picking up the weapon, Damien activated lighting-fast once more launching himself at the beast.


    Sense Ela was still shooting her attacks relentlessly at the chimera it could not turn around in time to block Damien¡¯s assault, aiming for the beast''s vitals Damien managed to hit the chimera¡¯s right lung causing it to cry out in pain.


    ¡°ROARRRRR,¡± with its back still facing Damien the beast¡¯s stinger shot out at him causing Damien to be surprised not expecting the stinger to attack him while the beast was facing away from him.


    Blocking the attack Damien and Ela continued to assault the beast and eventually, it could no longer withstand the attacks prompting the chimera to fall over on its side, and after many attempts to stand it gave up before looking at Damien with indignance. Letting out its last whimper the beast finally died due to blood loss.


    Once the beast was dead Ela and Damien were both met with a prompt


    *DING* users have defeated  ¡°Chemira level 40¡± - Legendary


    *DING* users have earned 10,000 points.


    *DING* The user has leveled up.


    After reading the notifications, Damien deactivated his shadowless form and let out a tired sigh as he sat on the floor of the maze. Looking at the time remaining in the event, he realized they wouldn''t have enough time to search for a door. Their only hope was that defeating a legendary beast would be enough to secure first place.


    Glancing over at Ela, Damien could see she was just as exhausted as he was. The main reason for their fatigue was that she had been continuously bombarding the chimera with spirit attacks during the fight, draining her mana and stamina to nearly empty.


    ¡°Ela, how about we just relax until the event is over? I¡¯m completely drained right now. Besides, we don¡¯t have enough time to find a door, and if we encounter anyone while searching, I¡¯m not sure I can defeat them in my current state,¡± Damien suggested as he lay back on the ground and placed his hands behind his head.


    Ela walked over and sat beside him, nodding in agreement. She didn¡¯t feel the need to respond verbally and instead asked the system for the remaining time left in the event. When she saw only five minutes were remaining, she finally relaxed and closed her eyes.


    Not long after they settled down, the system''s voice boomed throughout the maze: ¡°Event has now concluded. Calculating results.¡±


    Immediately after those words, a prompt appeared in Damien¡¯s vision.


    ¡°Would you like the system to display your real name or an alias?¡± After thinking it over and discussing it with Ela, they both decided to go with an alias.


    ¡°What would you like your alias to be? Say it out loud, and the system will register it as the name displayed for this event.¡±


    After spending some time in thought, Damien realized he couldn''t come up with anything. Finally, he chose something he hadn¡¯t considered in a long time.


    ¡°115¡±

 Placements

    ¡°115¡±


    ¡°Alias confirmed, waiting for other users to select their respective options.¡±


    Looking over at Ela Damien asked her what she went with, ¡°It¡¯s a surprise you will see when the results are displayed.¡± she said with a mischievous smile on her lips.


    Rolling his eyes in response, it did not take long for the system to speak once again.


    ¡°With the conclusion of the event the system will now display everyone''s placements, as for the rewards the users will be given those once they teleport back to their respective worlds. Users will have 10 minutes to look at the rankings and chat with others if they so wish.¡±


    ¡°1st place - 115 and spirits heart¡±


    Seeing Ela¡¯s name he glanced in her direction seeing her rather smug smile, making Damien imagine she was saying ¡®I know good name right?¡¯ or something along those lines¡­ shaking his head at her antics he looked further down the list at second place.


    ¡°2nd place - Pavia and light¡± ¡®Who are these people?¡¯ Damien thought, looking around the room and using inspect to see if anyone''s names matched the ones displayed but unsurprisingly they had used an alias.


    ¡°3rd place - Noah, zain, and Asda.¡± seeing the names displayed here, Damien turned to look at them but as he did he sensed someone staring at the center of his back. Turning towards the gaze he saw Jake once again staring at him.


    Flashing him a quick smile, Damien continued to look at the list and besides the demon brothers, everyone else had used aliases even that contemptus guy who asked Ela to team up with him before the event appeared to have done so.


    While they were waiting for the ten minutes given to them to be up, Damien was seemingly lost in thought. He was not quite sure what he wanted to do after getting out of this event, and if he was being honest, the earth was seeming quite boring at the moment¡­ if he had objectives he wanted to complete as of right now, one would be exploring the center of the irritated zone and another would be finding his father.


    More than anything, though, he wanted to explore the universe just the thought of it had Damien excited at the prospect. Countless worlds and new things or beings to discover, and along with doing this, getting stronger through fighting stronger opponents. For some reason, he had a feeling deep inside of himself that even before he lost his memoirs, this is what he had always longed for.


    The ability to progress and not live some boring life like Ela had explained to him before the system working some boring job where he was barely able to get by, no this is what he truly wanted, just true freedom.


    Before he could get too absorbed in his own thoughts, Damien felt Ela tap his shoulder before nodding in a direction. Looking at where she nodded he saw some people walking over to them, it was the demon brothers along with the blue-haired girl who asked questions before the event started.


    Adopting a serious expression, Damien waited to see what they wanted. The first to speak was the woman with blue hair who was staring intently, and Ela with a contemplative look, ¡°Why do you have the spirit king''s aura on you?¡±


    Looking at the woman in front of him, Damien could not really make out her figure or anything as she was wearing thick clothes that made it hard for him to discern any of her features. The only notable thing he could make out was her blue hair and the ¡°clean?¡± aura exuding from her.


    Hearing her question, Ela instinctively tensed up, wondering how the woman had sensed it. Deciding it was best to act like she did not know what she was talking about Ela feigned ignorance.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    ¡°You know what I am talking about lady no need to be so guarded I don¡¯t wish you any harm, the reason for me asking is because of my origin and my relation to spirits. If you don¡¯t want to answer though that is fine. If you ever have any questions one day though take this.¡±


    The woman handed over a pendant inscribed with the name "Eldenwood." As Ela looked down at the object, she ran her fingers over its smooth surface. The pendant appeared to be made of some type of marble, and the name itself glowed with a light green hue.


    ¡°What is this?¡± Ela asked curiously, ¡°It''s my family¡¯s last name and this pendant can be used to get an audience with me if you ever come to our world¡­ just say that someone named ¡°Nova¡± gave it to you alright?¡±


    Before Ela could ask further questions, Nova winked at Damien before swiftly turning around and walking away towards some other group in the distance, and not even a second after she left the demon brothers made their move towards her and Damien.


    Hoping that Ela did not see the wink the blue-haired woman gave him Damien cleared his throat before speaking to the brothers, ¡°What do you want?¡±


    With a sneer, the brother on the left, Noah, spoke, ¡°Listen, human, you will do well to remember this while I don¡¯t like you because of your race and the fact you sneak attacked us, be careful of that woman from just now.¡±


    Damien just scoffed in response, prompting the other brother to speak, ¡°You can think the warning is stupid or a lie all you want, but I promise you she is not what she seems and you would do well not to blindly trust someone you just met don¡¯t you think?¡±


    ¡°So based on what you just said would that not also apply to you? Besides, why are you even telling me this? If anything it seems like you are just trying to cause trouble because you''re upset with us.¡±


    An almost cruel-looking smile spread across the brother''s faces before Noah responded, ¡°We are telling you this so you don¡¯t die to someone that is not us and trusting that her kind will surely lead you to an early grave.¡±


    ¡°Take our warning into serious consideration if you ever end up on her planet,¡± after finishing their words, the brothers turned and walked away while laughing out loud for whatever reason Damien was unaware of.


    Looking over at Ela Damien could see she had a thoughtful look, ¡°What do you think about what they said? That woman seemed nice but they are right that we should not trust someone we just met,¡± Damien said while looking at Ela.


    ¡°I agree that we should not trust someone we just met, as you said but I also think its wrong to judge an entire race of people like they were¡­ If we ever end up on that planet, we should try and gather information and if everything seems fine then we can contact that woman.¡±


    Nodding in agreement, Damien was about to speak but saw Jake walking over towards them.


    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Damien asked while looking at the man who seemed to be thinking deeply about something, ¡°Can you do me a favor? Once we are back in the outside world, can you look for information about how to wake my wife without her dying?¡±


    Hearing Jake''s question Damien was a bit surprised as he thought the man was going to continue to try and capture him but now from the sounds of it he was instead asking for help. ¡°What brought this on all of a sudden? Also, I don¡¯t mind but I have no idea what to look for since I don¡¯t know what is wrong with your wife or what caused her to end up like she did in the first place.¡±


    ¡°My wife used a ability that drained her lifespan, and right now, the organization is using a ability of one of their members to keep her alive. So what I need is something that could extend her lifespan that¡¯s why they told me to capture you because they say your blood or bloodline is the ¡°immortal blood¡± whatever that means.


    Cringing at the name he had not thought about since his escape, Damien nodded his head in understanding. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll keep a lookout, and if anything pops up, I¡¯ll try my best to get it, but with an item like that, I''m sure even 300¡¯s and over would lose their shit. I mean anything that extends someone''s lifespan has to be rare. Damien stated.


    ¡°Yeah, that''s the issue and the reason why the organization said your bloodline was the best option, unfortunately for the organization, though, I am not stupid enough to trust them to just give my wife your bloodline, nor am I strong enough to capture you anyways.¡±


    Pausing for a moment, Jake sighed before continuing, ¡°Anyways, if you find anything, let me know alright?¡±


    ¡°Sure¡± Damien responded with a smile.


    ¡°Thanks,¡± Jake said before promptly turning around to walk away.


    Watching the man walk away, Damien secretly hoped the man could save his wife otherwise, he was not sure what the man would do. Right as Damien was about to speak to Ela, he heard the system''s voice.


    ¡°The event has officially concluded. The system will now teleport everyone back to their respective worlds.¡±

 Rewards

    ¡°Teleport finished, giving users rewards.¡±


    Looking around, Damien saw that they had been put right back where they had been teleported from. As he was going to turn to look at Ela some prompts appeared in his vision.


    ¡°Rewards available - 5 (Since the user got first place, the user can pick three options)


    ¡°One question to the system about ANYTHING (meaning stuff the system will usually not answer).¡±


    ¡°Upgraded gear (will take into account the user''s current weapons and armor and provide better versions¡±


    ¡°One free upgrade of any ability the user chooses.¡±


    ¡°A token that will allow the user to teleport to a random world, the user can bring along 2 extra people using said token.¡±


    ¡°A map leading to ruins on the user''s current world. (Ruins can contain very rare and useful items - WARNING: ruins are extremely dangerous at users'' current level)¡±


    After he finished reading all his options, he had to say none of them were bad in fact, they were all amazing choices to choose from¡­ but that was the problem was that they were all good and could be extremely useful. ¡®I think I have to go with the free upgrade to an ability,¡¯ Damien thought as he already had a few thoughts in mind when it came to what he wanted to use it on.


    Before he could continue to brood over what he should choose, Ela called out to him, ¡°Damien, what rewards did it give you to choose from?¡± hearing her question he quickly explained his options before asking about hers.


    ¡°I got the same as you, how about this? We should coordinate our choices. Like one of us could choose the ruins map and the other could choose the question?¡± Ela said with a thoughtful look.


    ¡°That¡¯s not a bad idea, but are you sure the ruins are worth it? It sounds nice and all, and I''m sure there are plenty of benefits to be reaped from going to them, but would it not be wiser for us to both choose the question? That seems more worthwhile.¡± Damien stated seriously.


    Thinking along those lines, Damien got an idea, ¡°System, if we choose the question as our reward do we have to ask it immediately after choosing it or can we hold onto it until we decide to ask?¡±


    ¡°Responding to the user, the question can be asked whenever the user desires, whether it be today or 30 years from now.¡± hearing the answer to his question, Damien smiled before looking over at Ela and speaking, ¡°Now that makes it even more worth it, no? Considering we can hold onto the question if we ever are in a bind or need the answer to something having this question is a no-brainer.¡±


    Nodding her head, Ela had to agree that it made sense before looking back at her options to see what she wanted to choose. ¡°Alright then, well, I assume we are both going for the ability upgrade, no? So that leaves us both with one choice left,¡± Ela said while considering her options.


    Looking back at his own, Damien decided on what he wanted after spending a long time in thought. ¡°Alright, I''ve decided I am going to go with the question, the ability upgrade and teleport token.¡±


    Happy with his choices, Damien smiled before waiting for Ela to say hers, ¡°I was also going to choose the token, but since you went with it, I see no reason to with that in mind, I guess I will change my choice to the ruins map.¡±


    The reason for their choices was rather obvious in that Damien chose the teleport token so that they could go to a different world once they were strong enough. Considering that Earth was not a dangerous place before the system descended, there really were not many strong opponents around so a time would come when Damien and Ela¡¯s progress halted to a crawl because of the lack of stronger beings.


    As for Ela¡¯s choice, it was along the same lines as Damien¡¯s, being that ruins were dangerous places even though the system itself said so, meaning that there had to be strong foes inside them.


    ¡°Rewards selected, the next system event will be in 4 months from now.¡±


    With that, the system went quiet once more, leaving Damien and Ela to their devices, ¡°Alright, before we do anything else, what do you say to find another town to stay at? Damien asked.


    ¡°Sound¡¯s good I¡¯d like to take a rest for a bit anyway we have been running around and doing stuff for a bit now. Also, I think it is time you learn how to fight properly.¡±


    Seeing Ela¡¯s mysterious smile, Damien felt a chill go down his spine. ¡°Alright then, well, follow me, it¡¯s going to be a bit before we reach the next town, as the closest one to Zack¡¯s is 100 miles if we go at full speed, we should manage to reach there in 10 hours.¡±


    ¡°Ela¡­ you are forgetting your agility stat is your highest and that is the amount of time it would take for yourself to get there,¡± Damien said with a sigh.


    Hearing what he said, Ela laughed. Seeing the bright smile on her face and curvy body that moved almost seductively every time she giggled Damien gulped before looking away. ¡®Sky, air, birds¡¯ Damien started to think about random things to get that image out of his head.


    Finally managing to clear his thoughts, he turned back around, ¡°Alright, lead the way then, my navigator.¡± furrowing her brows, Ela swiftly turned around before breaking into a sprint. ¡°Do keep up Damien I would not want you to lose your way.¡±


    Seeing her sprint ahead at full speed, he immediately regretted his words before sprinting after Ela. While he was running Damien decided to take a look at his status as he had not checked it for quite a while now.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Name: Damien Atlas


    ¡®Age: 200 years¡¯


    Level:30


    Race: High human/Shade (F rank)


    Bloodline - High shade


    Titles: The first to awaken, Storms Child, Shades primordial.


    Class: Origanls descent


    Stats:


    Health:265  ¡ª> 300


    Mana:265  ¡ª> 300


    Strength:180  ¡ª> 215


    Agility:165  ¡ª> 200


    Defense:140  ¡ª> 175


    Intelligence:160  ¡ª> 195


    Perception:140  ¡ª> 175


    Willpower:130  ¡ª> 165


    Skills: Mana breathing (Divine), The original (Primordial), Storms blessing (legendary), Lightning fast (rare), Samurai (common), Flicker of the original (epic), Originals knowledge (legendary)


    Points to distribute:35


    Upon opening his status, he noticed that he had a notification from the system.


    *DING* The user has reached level 30, and it has 1 skill selection available.


    Reading the notification, he was surprised for a moment before he remembered what the system said back when it made the announcement. With a smile, he quickly looked at his available selections.


    ¡°Hatamoto - an upgrade to your samurai skill. This upgrade will allow the user to wield his blade as if he were a master, showing signs of extreme skill and honor for your blade.¡±


    A pretty straightforward upgrade, but Damien did not think it was a good pick as he could just train his sword skills himself and improve the skill rather than waste a chance to get a new skill or upgrade an old one on it. Shifting his eyes to the next option, this one looking much more appealing.


    ¡°Semi-blood control - Due to the user''s relation to vampires as a shade, the user has been offered this option. Allows the user to control blood up to a certain degree and can make attacks out of blood (NOTE- since this is only semi-blood control, the user can¡¯t create blood attacks without blood being in his surroundings.


    This one sounded nice but also sounded weak and not really worth it, but that did not mean it was a bad pick, as Damien had a feeling that if he chose it and then kept upgrading it the skill would become extremely powerful.


    ¡°Elemental lighting control - Allows the user to control lighting fully and use it too attack in many different ways it is up to the user to discover how to control this element and how strong it becomes.¡±


    This was the one. The skill gave him something very important: the ability to control an element, and with that, he would be able to come up with many different types of attacks, which he was sorely lacking before. Having decided, he went ahead and looked at the last option to see if it was decent or not.


    ¡°Semi space manipulation - due to the user''s flicker skill. Allows the user to control space to a certain extent, using it to perform attacks or even escape further than flicker previously allowed.¡±


    ¡®Fuck¡¯ Damien thought to himself, reading that skill. Looking forward at Ela¡¯s back, he lost himself in thought while following her. ¡®If I chose the space manipulation, I would lose out on a full elemental manipulation, but if I don''t choose space, I may never get the option again¡­¡¯


    ¡®System, is it possible to learn an elemental manipulation without your assistance?¡¯


    ¡°Responding to the user, it is possible to learn, but it depends on the element you are learning and your talents for the element. If the user has great talent, he will make fast progress in the element; if the user has bad talent, it could take years or even decades to learn a small percentage of elemental manipulation.¡±


    Nodding to himself, he thought it made sense, so with that in mind, he almost wanted to choose space because he knew or at least thought he had to have a talent for lighting, right? Otherwise, why would he be blessed with ¡°storms blessing¡±


    Sucking in a deep breath, he made his decision to bite the bullet and chose the semi-space manipulation.


    *DING* User has selected semi-space manipulation


    Letting out a long sigh, Damien just hoped he would not regret his choice later on, and that he had a decent talent for space itself otherwise, he might have messed up with this choice. Moving on, he looked at the rest of his status.


    Looking at his stats, Damien had to say they had gone up a decent amount, and so far, he had been putting his distributable points just about anywhere, but he was not sure if he should continue to do so or do as Ela did and just dump them into a single stat.


    Thinking about it, maybe he should dump it into whatever stat supported his bloodline the most¡­ but the problem was Damien had not a clue as to which stat did not. ¡®System, can you tell me what stat represents my bloodline?


    ¡°Due to the user not having fully awakened his bloodline, the system is unable to answer the user¡¯s question.¡± Damien sighed, hearing the system¡¯s answer. Thinking about it, he really could not pinpoint which stat his bloodline benefited the most from, and as the system said, since it was not fully awakened, he did not know its full capabilities and what it enhanced the most.


    After thinking about it for a while he decided to save the stat points for now, if he managed to awaken the bloodline further he would be able to figure out what he should put the points into, and saving them was also not bad. If he ever got into a bad situation and needed to escape he could dump the points into agility or something to help him get away.


    After running for quite some time and being lost in his own thoughts, Ela finally stopped moving in front of him, causing Damien to stop zoning out. Looking in front of him, Damien saw the town but could tell something was not quite right.


    First off, there were no lights that you would usually expect to see from a town like this, not to mention it was almost eerily quiet and from where he was standing, he could see no guards or really anyone around.


    Looking over at Ela, he could see her confused expression as well telling him that she also had no clue what was happening.


    ¡°So I take it this town is not usually like this?¡± Damien asked while looking at the walls, searching for any living being. Shaking her head, Ela responded, ¡°No, the town is usually bustling with people and well-light even during the night.¡±


    ¡°Should we go check it out? We should be fine, considering our strength.¡± Damien said.


    ¡°While I agree that we should be fine, that does not mean we are invincible even on our planet, Damien. There are plenty of things stronger than us, for example, the monsters near the center of the blast zone. That aside, I do think we should go take a look if we encounter something we can not handle. I''m leaving it up to you to get us out of there using your teleport ability.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, let''s go.¡±

 Ghost town

    Approaching the town walls, it was almost eerily quiet, walking through the gates, Damien took in his surroundings, looking for signs of the town''s residents. The buildings in the town were undamaged and looked completely fine, so with that in mind; he was not sure why no one was around and where they could have gone.


    Glancing over at Ela, Damien spoke in a hushed tone, ¡°Who owns this town?¡± Ela replied, ¡°A group founded this town, so there isn''t just one owner. However, the strongest and leader of the group is a woman named Ruby.¡± pausing for a few minutes and looking around, she continued, ¡°She has red hair hence the name and has a fiery personality so if you meet her keep your eyes off her body less you want her to chop your balls off or something¡­ Don¡¯t think I''m joking either as I watched her do it once.¡±


    Not sure how to respond to that, Damien just silently reminded himself not to have any thoughts about the woman should they come across her. Turning back to Ela, he asked if there was anywhere in the town they should search first for people.


    Nodding her head, Ela motioned with her hand for Damien to follow before swiftly walking towards a building in the center of the town labeled ¡°Adventures Guild¡± with the emblem of what looked to be a dragon. Reading the name, a look of curiosity flashed across Damien¡¯s face before he decided to ask Ela what the building was supposed to be.


    ¡°Before the system¡¯s descent into our world, getting stuff like food, water, etc., was pretty easy given you had the money to buy it, but now that the world is what it is, a lot of people did not have the skills required to get stuff for themselves or were to scared to adventure out so with that in mind Ruby¡¯s group created the guild.


    Walking through a doorway, Ela paused for a moment to make sure everything was clear before continuing. ¡°The way it works is that a person walks into the guild and registers to become a member upon registration, the person will be assigned a rank based on their level¡­ before the system fully integrated, there were only three ranks, being c - rank, a - rank and s - rank with c being level 5 a being level 10 and s being level 20.¡±


    Before she could continue, Damien interrupted her, ¡°So I am assuming that after the person gets assigned their rank, they can pick from tasks to do based on that rank, and the higher ranked the task, the harder it is.¡±


    Nodding her head, Ela spoke, ¡°Pretty much, yeah, the tasks were usually nothing special since the world was not fully integrated there were not many threats to us humans, and the most dangerous tasks were stuff like exploring areas not yet explored or killing monsters that were too close to the town.¡±


    Damien agreed that the system made sense, but now, with the system being fully integrated into their universe, the systems would probably have to be changed as Earth was only going to get more dangerous from now on.


    ¡°Alright, we are here,¡± Ela said aloud, making Damien snap out of his thoughts, looking in front of him Damien saw a big vault-like door made out of solid metal. ¡°How are we going to get in?¡± he asked.


    With a smile, Ela explained that she and Ruby had met a long time ago, back when the world was still getting used to the system and that she and she had been friends ever since. because of that, Ela knew how to open the door.


    ¡°Step back opening the door requires the use of ¡°free form¡± magic. Without explaining what free-form magic was supposed to be, Damien saw Ela put her hands in front of her before seeing the mana in the air begin to shift into the door¡¯s crevices. Watching Ela move the mana, it did not take long until the door rumbled and slowly started to open.


    ¡°That was interesting¡­ is free-form magic the ability to use mana without a skill or something?¡± Damien asked, intrigued by what he had just witnessed. ¡°Yeah, that is exactly what it is¡­. Ruby was the first one to discover that it was possible and, as far as I know, is also the most skilled at it.¡± Ela responded with an unreadable look.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Walking forward, Ela walked through the now-open doorway and made her way inside the interior of the room they were in. It had red carpet on the floor with chairs and tables off to the left side while on the right of the room, there was what appeared to be a bar.


    Heading to the back right corner of the room, Ela stopped in front of a wooden door with the emblem of the guild at its center. Opening the door, Ela was met with a fireball heading straight toward her. Swiftly entering spirit form to dodge the attack she jumped back before exiting the form and yelling.


    ¡°Ruby! It¡¯s me, Ela, stop trying to attack me you crazy bitch!¡± seeing Ela yell and speak like that Damien almost could not hold back his shock before lightly chuckling seeing Ela¡¯s angry expression.


    Not even a second after Ela had screamed, a woman''s voice could be heard from inside the room, ¡°Oops, sorry, little El, I thought you were someone else.¡± With a look of announce Ela sighed.


    ¡°First off, I told you to stop calling me that, and second, who could you possibly think I was that would make you instantly attack? Also, where is everyone? When we saw the town the whole thing looked deserted.¡±


    Instead of answering her question, Ruby asked one of her own, ¡°We? What do you mean we?¡± finally walking out of the room she was in, Ruby saw a man standing off to the side of Ela she had not seen him standing there before since Ela was blocking the doorway. Looking the man up and down a cheeky smile spread across her face.


    Walking up to the man, Ruby leaned against his chest and spoke, ¡°Who are you handsome?¡±


    Upon seeing the woman, he understood why Ela had advised him to keep his eyes away from her body. Damien found that he could hardly look away; her curvaceous figure was almost more striking than Ela''s own. Strangely, her eyes were a light yellow and had a slight glow, which gave Damien the unsettling feeling of being scrutinized by a predator. Quickly looking away before his¡­ got removed, he glanced at the ceiling and took a deep breath.


    ¡°....¡± Not sure what to do, Damien looked at Ela, and upon doing so, he immediately regretted his actions. Seeing the dead look on her face, he pushed the crazy redhead away from him. Damien cleared his throat nervously while avoiding the death stare Ela was giving him. ¡°My name is Damien,¡± he said.


    ¡°Oh, oh my, this is the long lost Damien?¡± Ruby said aloud, indicating that Ela had told her about him before. As Ruby was about to continue, Ela put her hand over her mouth and gave her an iratiated look.


    ¡°Ruby, we can catch up later. Now, would you please tell us what is going on with the town and where everyone is at? Why are you the only one here?¡± Ela asked while sighing.


    ¡°Oh¡­ right. To be honest with you, little El, I have no clue where everyone went. The system event finished, and I was teleported back to the place where I was hunting monsters. Using my magic, I communicated with Malia, and she said everything was good in the town, so with that in mind, I continued to hunt for a while and, after a few hours, made my way back, but by the time I got here, everyone was gone.¡± Ruby said, displaying visible worry and confusion on her face.


    Hearing her explanation, Ela also displayed visible confusion as to what could have possibly happened before she could question further Damien spoke. ¡°Has anything like this ever occurred in the past?¡± he said while looking at Ruby.


    Glancing over at him, Ruby shook her head. ¡°Not that I am aware of no, but that does not mean it has not happened somewhere on earth. With the world expanding after the system arrived, a lot of new land is still unexplored by the majority of people.


    ¡°Anyway, where did you find him?¡± Ruby asked while pointing in Damien¡¯s direction, ¡°He was at one of the facilities we uncovered by the time I had killed the outside guards, he had managed to escape the building himself, surprising me quite a bit, to be honest,¡± Ela responded taking a brief glance at Damien.


    ¡°Impressive¡­ alright, we have a lot to talk about and a lot to catch up on. What do you say we have a chat little El?¡± ruby asked while winking at Damien.


    Seeing Ruby¡¯s wink, Ela¡¯s eyebrow twitched. ¡°You''re right we do have a lot to catch up on R - U B - Y,¡± she responded while spelling out each letter of her name. ¡°E-Ela¡­ can we talk about this?¡±


    With a fake smile, Ela just let out a ¡°hmph¡± in response before glaring at Damien and asking him to leave the room to let her and Ruby have a ¡°chat,¡± deciding it was best not to stick around and see what was going to happen if he tried to stay Damien exited the room at breakneck speeds.


    ¡°Now, lets have a nice long talk.¡±

 Memories

    After what seemed like an absurd amount of time, Ela walked out of the room with a bright smile on her face before Ruby limped out, her hair a mess and all over the place. Gulping at the sight, Damien made his way over to Ela¡¯s side before speaking. Alright, so should we figure out what we should do now? The people who lived here could not have just vanished on their own¡­¡±


    He paused, waiting to see if anyone would speak after a few minutes of waiting, Damien continued. ¡°With that in mind, I think it''s the same to say that someone knew that you would not be here.¡± Damien pointed at Ruby, ¡°Since they knew you would not be here, then that means that they had some type of goal as to what that is I''m not sure.¡±


    Hearing his thoughts, Ruby let out a long sigh, ¡°I have no idea why anyone would plot against me and my group. As far as I am aware, we have never offended anyone or done anything that would make someone kidnap an entire town of people. Ruby explained despairingly.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ Well, maybe they are not after you or your people, Ruby. I am sure you are aware of ¡°the organization¡± and what they do, no? Being one of their  ¡°subjects,¡± they have shown that they are not willing to simply let me escape.¡±


    Damien had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but something was just not sitting right with him. Why let Ruby go free? She was a close friend of Ela¡¯s, and no doubt the organization had been keeping track of his movements, and if that were the case, they would have seen Ela with him at all times. So, if they did their research on Ela, I imagine they would be able to figure out that Ruby was a close friend of hers which would make sense why the town got targeted.


    Putting his hand on his face, Damien started to tap his cheek while in thought. ¡®Wait¡­¡¯ Damien quickly glanced at Ruby, who was looking at him, seemingly waiting for him to finish his words.


    ¡°Ruby.¡± Damien said aloud, ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± She asked in response.


    As he was about to continue speaking, he bent down and started to hold his head while grunting out loud. ¡°Ah- fuck, sorry, my head started to hurt all of a sudden.¡± jumping up, Ela ran over to his side and bent down next to him before speaking worriedly, ¡°Ruby can you go and get some water or something?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± she quickly responded before leaving the room in a rush.


    Once she was gone Damien stopped pretending surprising Ela, ¡°I thought something was wrong¡­ What is going on? She asked with a puzzled look.


    ¡°Sorry for making you worry, but I don''t think the person we are talking to is Ruby Ela¡­¡± Hearing his words, Ela frowned but prompted him to continue before saying anything, ¡°Think about it: we show up, and she is here by herself, and instead of looking worried or anything, she immediately attacked thinking you were ¡°Someone else¡± and on top of this do you think that if it is the organization that kidnapped everyone that they would let someone like Ruby go? No, I don¡¯t think so. No doubt they have had their eyes on us since my escape and with that in mind they should be able to figure out who you are and who your friends are.¡±


    Understanding what Damien was saying, Ela adopted a serious expression, ¡°Okay, I understand what you mean, but let me test it, alright? There are things that only I and the real Ruby would know. So I will just ask her a few questions, and if she is unable to answer or gets them wrong, then we will restrain her got it?¡±


    Nodding his head, Damien sat down again and put his head in his hands. A few minutes later, Ruby walked through the door with a cup of water and set it down. ¡°Here,¡± she said before speaking to Ela.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with him?¡±If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    ¡°Nothing, his head sometimes hurts because while the organization got rid of his memoirs for Damien they eventually came back and I think that is what is causing it,¡± Ela explained before looking at Ruby with an unreadable look.


    ¡°Hey, do you remember when we first met what you said to me when I told you about Damien?¡± hearing Ela¡¯s question, a surprised expression appeared on Ruby¡¯s face, ¡°Ela I don¡¯t think now''s the time to reminisce right? Should we not try and think of a plan to figure out where everyone went?¡±


    Ela softly laughed in response, ¡°Oh come on, we have to wait till Damien¡¯s head starts to feel better anyway, so in the meantime, I don''t think it hurts to talk about the past. Speaking of which, do you still have that bracelet I gave you?¡±


    Ruby¡¯s face shifted a bit, and a bead of sweat dripped down her face, ¡°No, the bracelet you gave me was lost in a fight with a monster, unfortunately¡­I was going to tell you but I did not want you to be upset little El¡­¡± Ruby explained appearing nervous.


    ¡°Hm.¡± Walking towards Ruby, Ela placed her hand on her shoulder and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine, but you know I never gave you a bracelet, Ruby.¡± Ela said, close to the woman''s ear before quickly throwing her to the ground.


    Before the woman could react, Damien also jumped up and grabbed the woman¡¯s hands and tied them behind her back before sitting her up.


    An almost dead expression was now on ¡°Ruby¡¯s¡± face, ¡°What gave me away?¡± she asked, staring at the two people looking at her. ¡°A lot of things did not make sense, like why were you here? Why did you immediately attack Ela and why did you appear unworried when we first spoke.¡±


    ¡°HAHAHA, that¡¯s what gave me away seriously? I can understand the part about me not appearing worried but me being here. How is that weird? The woman asked with a sneer. ¡°It¡¯s weird because the organization should surely know that me and Ela travel together and with that in mind, they would do research on Ela and figure out if she had any friends or any weak points to use to get to me through her,¡± Damien explained while scrutinizing the woman.


    ¡°Now, who are you, and where is everyone?¡± turning her head at Damien after hearing his question, the woman laughed out loud once more, ¡°A piece of advice boy, run while you can.¡±


    After saying those cryptic words, the woman stopped speaking and just stared at the ceiling, refusing to answer any of their questions. Deciding not to waste any more time, Damien knocked the woman out.


    As Damien was about to turn to Ela, they both recoiled in surprise as the woman, after being knocked out, changed her appearance to someone they both knew. ¡°Damien that- that¡¯s,¡± Before she could continue speaking, Damien fell on one knee and started holding his head.


    Crouching down next to him, Ela put her hand on his back, ¡°Damien, what¡¯s wrong?¡± but unfortunately, Damien could not hear her or hear anything in general as he was sucked into image after image appearing in his mind.


    ¡°Emma, what do you want to do with your life?¡± ¡°I love you too¡± ¡°Mom, Dad¡± One image was about Emma the next was about Ela or his parents everything just flooded in and after what seemed like a lifetime Damien¡¯s senses started to return slowly.


    The first thing Damien heard after his hearing returned was Ela crying worriedly next to him, turning his head he flashed a weak smile. ¡°Still a crybaby huh heart?¡± Damien said calling Ela by her last name.


    Hearing the way he addressed her Ela froze before speaking with a stutter, ¡°y-y-you¡­ your memoirs? Did-did they return? She asked almost in a whisper.


    Instead of answering her question, Damien leaned forward and gave her a light peck on the lips. ¡°Does that answer your question heart?¡± he asked with a bright smile staring at Ela who was now frozen in place with a massive blush creeping up her neck.


    After a while, Ela finally snapped out of her shock at what had just happened a massive smile spread across her lips. ¡°Welcome back,¡± she said with tears streaming down her eyes.


    ¡°Good to be back, now, how about we deal with the situation we are currently in?¡± Damien said before indicating at Emma, who was still unconscious.


    Blushing at Damien¡¯s words, Ela weakly nodded her head before turning to the woman prompting  Damien to wake her up.


    PAP! Damien slapped the unconscious Emma awake.


    ¡°OW¡±

 Why

    Holding her left cheek, Emma stared at the people in front of her once more, ¡°You did not have to hit me to wake me up, you know?¡± she said with a grumble. Ela let out a hmph in response while Damien just stared at her intently making Emma feel somewhat uncomfortable under his scrutinizing gaze.


    Finally unable to take him staring at her like that anymore, she spoke, ¡°What? Why are you staring at me like that it¡¯s freaking me out¡­¡± Instead of responding to her question, Damien asked one of his own. ¡°Why¡±


    Emma looked confused. ¡°Why? What do you mean, why?¡± she asked back, but after a few seconds of silence, it clicked as to what he had meant. Now that she understood, a smile started to spread across her face before she let out a light chuckle.


    ¡°Why, you ask?¡± she said with a sneer. ¡°Because you picked her, what other reason do I need Damien? You knew we both liked you. We were all childhood friends, but I met you years before she did. Unfortunately, you only had eyes for her and her alone. You would not even glance in my direction,¡± Emma stated while glaring at Ela.


    Disappointment was the only expression on Damien¡¯s face after hearing her explanation, ¡°So because you were jealous, you had me locked up in some fucked up experiment where they had me go through thousands of simulations and experience thousands of different lives while constantly wiping my memory. You had me go through all of that simply because I did not fall for you?¡±


    Damien honestly had no way to describe how he was feeling at the moment¡­ he and Emma had known each other since they were 2 years old, she was one of his closest friends, someone who he confided in and trusted on an extremely deep level. So, learning that she was why he ended up where he did, Damien did not know what to think or do.


    ¡°I can see the look you''re giving me, Damien it¡¯s the same way I felt after putting so much of my time, energy, and heart into wanting to be with you just for it to get smacked to the ground the second this bitch shows up. Betrayal, that is all I felt. Do you understand how that feels now? Do you? Emma asked with a wicked smile, happy to see the expression she always wanted to see him have on his face.


    After a while of silence, Damien adopted a light smile and looked up at Emma, ¡°You know, Em, regardless of what you have done and what you put me through, you really were a good friend.¡±


    Without saying anything else, he turned around and grabbed Ela¡¯s hand before walking towards the door, ¡°Really, Damien? REALLY?! After everything I just said, you still have the nerve to call me that!? You better kill me right here and now because if you don¡¯t, I will never stop chasing you.¡± Emma kept screaming as Damien walked away, but no matter how much she yelled for him to kill her he did not turn around and kept his head straight never turning back.


    Once they were out of the room, Ela looked over at him with a worried expression, ¡°Are you alright?¡± she knew what he had just done took a lot out of him, even if Emma was the reason he ended up where he did that could not simply erase the years of history and friendship that the two of them had. Damien was not a cold-blooded monster who could simply kill someone he was close to his whole life over something like this.


    ¡°I''m fine, Ela, let''s just focus on getting the hell out of here, shall we?¡± Nodding her head, they both made their way up the stairs and to the front door but before they could walk out Ela grabbed Damien by the shoulder to make him stop moving and put her finger to her lips indicating for him to be quiet.


    Outside the front door, a massive group of people could be seen on their knees in front of the group was something that made Ela gasp before adopting a grave expression and whispering to Damien, ¡°Those four at the front are Ruby¡¯s group.¡±


    Looking at the four in front, Damien could see one woman and three men the woman Damien assumed was ¡°Malia¡± she was a nerdy-looking type with big glasses on her face, even though he was pretty sure glasses were now useless as with the system everyone has perfect vision. Looking closer, the woman was pretty petite she was too far away for Damien to make out anything else.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    As for the three men, the one closest to Malia had a super lanky build with blonde hair while the other two were pretty average-looking dudes both having black hair and being what Damien imagined was average height.


    Right when Damien was about to ask what they should do, a voice spoke out, ¡°I know you are there; come out unless you want these people to suffer the consequences.¡± Looking for the source of the voice, Damien and Ela were unable to find where it had come from.


    Sucking in his breath, Damien was surprised they had been detected, but then again, they were not in their forms and were just standing inside the building, peeking out the windows. Looking around at the surroundings, Ela was also worried as, from what she could see, there were way too many opponents for them to face.


    ¡°If we try to fight them, we¡¯ll run out of mana long before we can defeat everyone out there.¡± She glanced at Damien, who wore an equally grim expression. ¡°We need to come up with a plan. We can¡¯t walk out there without one; otherwise, we have no chance of winning if a fight breaks out, and it surely will.¡± Ela hand-counted at least thirty guards out there from what she could detect but there was no telling if more was out there.


    Nodding his head in agreement, they both started listing off ideas in rapid succession, and after about 2 minutes the voice spoke again, ¡°Alright we can do this the hard way then.¡± After speaking one of the guards standing around the kneeling people walked up to Malia and went to grab her by the neck.


    The three men next to her struggled to break free, but three more guards stepped forward and put swords to their throats, making the men freeze before glaring at the man reaching for Malia. Right as the man was about to grab her, a loud sigh rang out before a figure of a woman could be seen walking out of the shadows.


    ¡°Alright, alright, don''t touch her.¡± Looking at the newcomer, Damien and Ela were once again surprised as the person who walked out was Ruby.


    Shortly after she walked out, the guards all drew their weapons before quickly forming a circle around her, ¡°Stand down for now. Let me have a chat with her, and maybe we can come to an agreement.¡± the voice once again spoke out.


    After hearing the voice¡¯s words, the men gave Ruby some space but kept their weapons drawn. ¡°What do you want? And if you want to have a chat, how about you show your face.¡± Ruby spoke aloud while looking around for the voice she had heard.


    ¡°Very well,¡± the voice responded calmly before a man stepped out of thin air 10 meters in front of her. Upon seeing the man, Ruby¡¯s eyes narrowed before a look of anger spread across her face.


    ¡°I should have known it was you and your dirty organization only you people would go so low as to kidnap an entire town to threaten someone,¡± Ruby said while sneering at the man, who seemed completely unbothered by her words. ¡°Now, Ruby, no need to be harsh all I want from you is one simple thing and I¡¯ll let the people I have here go free. What do you say?¡±


    Ruby adopted a look of disgust seeing the man¡¯s ¡°smile¡± before responding, ¡°Stop wasting my time and speak before I help you get rid of that disgusting thing you call a smile.


    The man laughed lightly in response before folding his hands behind his back, ¡°All I want is for you not to get in our way when Ela Heart and Damien Atlas make their way out of this building in front of us. You let me detain them without causing trouble, and I let your town go and we can pretend like this never happened.¡±


    Hearing the man¡¯s words, Ruby smiled brightly, ¡°Oh sure, sure, one issue though if you agree to it I have no issue letting the organization take them how about it?¡±


    ¡°Lovely, what do you need us to do?¡±


    Listening to the conversation between Ruby and the mysterious man, Damien looked over at Ela. ¡°She would not really let him take us, right?¡± to which Ela just smiled in response and said two words. ¡°Just watch.¡± confused, Damien turned his head back around and waited for Ruby to speak.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s pretty simple I need you and the organization to do one little thing for me¡­. I need you guys too¡­¡± Ruby''s expression turned into a crazed smile giving Damien a bad feeling.


    ¡°Go fuck yourselves.¡± Imeaditly after saying those words Ruby raised her hands and snapped her fingers


    ¡°BOOOOM!¡±

 Ruby

    Shaking could be felt all around the town, and a massive explosion cloud of dust rose into the air. Damien looked over at Ela with a shocked expression. ¡°Is she insane?¡± he asked, after seeing what had just happened. Damien had no other explanation.


    Giggling in response, Ela stood up and said, ¡°We can talk about her sanity later. How about we go help her rescue the town?¡±


    Outside the building where Damien and Ela were, Ruby could be seen locked in a fierce battle with the man she had just spoken to. She was not stupid, and upon seeing that her entire town was missing, she came up with a plan and made her way over to some close friends of hers to get help.


    After explaining everything, her friends agreed to help her out, and once she got back to the town, she saw the townspeople all on their knees, sitting in the middle of the road outside the guild building, and decided to use that her advantage Ruby set up an explosion to occur to draw everyone''s attention and distract them.


    After the explosion went off, her friends rushed forward and took out the guards one by one, and now the organization was down to the man Ruby was speaking to and about ten elite guards.


    Dashing at the man, Ruby engulfed her hand in flames, punching the man in front of her and causing him to cross his arms in front of his body to block the attack. With a grunt, the man was thrown backward by ten feet.


    Looking around, the man adopted a grim expression before glancing back at Ruby, ¡°We will play another time, Ruby. RETREAT!¡± the man yelled before him and the ten guards took off into the woods.


    ¡®Sorry, Emma,¡¯ the man thought while running away before a light smirk appeared on his face unfortunately though the man forgot about a crucial detail¡­ the reason they had been in the town and kidnapped everyone in the first place.


    Right as the man was about to jump from one tree branch to the next, a person appeared right in front of him, covered in blue lighting, bouncing around his body. Surprised, the man jumped back from the person and put his guard up while his ten elite guards surrounded the lighting-covered figure.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± the man asked as he could not make out Damien¡¯s features. Instead of responding, the figure disappeared from their line of sight, startling everyone and putting them on edge.


    Reappearing behind one of the elite guards, Damien snapped the guard¡¯s neck before disappearing one more. Seeing that things were not looking good, the man gritted his teeth, ¡°Keep moving I refuse to believe he will chase us forever.¡±


    One by one, the elite guards fell as they continued to run, and after about 20 minutes, only four people were left in their group every single person left had an expression of horror and dread. Forantuly for them, it seemed like the person finally gave up on chasing them.


    The man from earlier, the one who spoke to Ruby, was leading the group and only had one thought in his mind. ¡®I will remember this¡¯


    Watching the organization group get further and further away, Damien sighed he had wanted to finish them off. The only reason he had not is because he ran out of mana. Making his way back to the town, Damien saw Ela and Ruby chatting.


    Seeing him approach out of the corner of her eye, Ela cleared her throat before introducing him, ¡°Ruby, this is Damien I finally found him at one of the organization places not too long ago.¡± Glancing at the man a look of intrigue appeared on her face.


    Looking at the real Ruby, he had to admit that Emma had flawlessly copied the woman in front of him, at least in terms of appearance as for personality, he was not so sure, but considering that Ela had not noticed anything weird maybe she had perfected that as well.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°So this is the long-lost Damien, huh?¡± Ruby said while examining Damien¡¯s appearance, after a while of her staring at him and making Damien feel awkward under her gaze, the woman finally seemed satisfied and smiled before speaking. ¡°You better not hurt her,¡± Ruby said while nodding her head towards Ela.


    ¡°Otherwise¡­ Well, let''s just say you don¡¯t want to see what I will do.¡± Looking at the woman¡¯s ¡°kind¡± smile, Damien felt a chill go down his spine. ¡°Yes mam¡± he responded getting a nod in response he sighed in relief.


    Now that he had seen the real Ruby¡¯s reaction to him, the one Emma had made more sense, considering the woman''s past feelings. Glancing around, Damien noticed that all the town¡¯s people were chatting or reuniting with their loved ones, and after a while, they all turned their attention to Ruby¡¯s group who were standing in front of them.


    Walking over to Ela¡¯s side, Damien whispered, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± with a smile on her face, Ela just told him that Ruby was going to let the people know what was going on considering they got kidnapped they had the right to know what had happened.


    Ruby took a couple of steps forward ahead of her group of friends and started to speak, ¡°I know many of you are confused about what happened here today, so I will go ahead and address the situation and let you know what¡¯s going on.


    Clearing her throat, she continued, ¡°The event that happened today was conducted by people known as the ¡°Organization.¡± This group, as far as we are aware, has been around since before the system arrived¡­ as for the reason this group exists and what their exact goals are is unknown but what is known about the group is that they target people with bloodlines or as some from before the system it would be people who were born with rare types of blood.¡±


    Pausing to see if anyone had any questions, Ruby glanced around the crowd with an unreadable expression, ¡°I am telling you all this because I feel that it¡¯s about time the world knew about the people behind many loved ones'' disappearances. This group has singlehandedly kidnapped 10 of thousands of people.¡±


    ¡°Do not worry, though; we are aware of this group, and with this recent stunt, we plan on finding them and removing them from our planet before they become too big a problem. Now does anyone have any questions?¡±


    One by one, hands raised to ask their concerns about the situation, and after a while, the questions finally started to slow down, and right when Damien thought he would finally be able to have a break and spend some time with Ela one more person raised their hand.


    Looking at the person, Damien saw it was a broad-looking man wearing a hood covering his face. ¡°Yes,¡± Ruby said aloud, pointing to the person. ¡°My question is if this group only targets people with bloodlines then why kidnap all of us to target you? Do you or one of your members have a bloodline?¡±


    Hearing the man¡¯s question, Ruby smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t see how that matters, but yes someone I know has a bloodline and they were using me to get to that person. Does that answer your question?¡±


    The man did not respond but instead lowered his head before slipping out of the crowd and disappearing, watching the whole thing, Damien got a weird vibe from the dude but decided to leave it alone, for now, he just wanted to find somewhere to relax with Ela for a bit.


    With a sigh, Ruby walked back over to Damien and Ela. ¡°So why did you guys come here anyway? She asked while looking at Ela. ¡°The last town we were in was Zacks, and since that man is a cheapskate and a creep who only worries about women, all of his buildings were cheaply made, causing them to collapse when the earth shook after the system announcement,¡± Ela explained, a look of disdain on her face mentioning Zack.


    Nodding her head in understanding, Ruby spoke, ¡°Sounds about what I¡¯d expected from Zack he better just be glad I have not cut his balls off yet.¡±


    Listening to the conversation, Damien remembered something he had forgotten, ¡°Shit.¡± he said aloud, causing everyone to glance at him. ¡°Emma is still in the basement,¡± Damien stated, causing a serious expression to appear on Ela¡¯s face. ¡°We need to go down there now if we can keep her here for questioning, maybe we can get something out of her.¡±


    Rushing down to the basement they all prepared themselves to restrain her in case she put up a fight but once they walked through the door Emma was nowhere to be seen only a note was sitting upon the chair she was tied to.


    Picking up the note, Damien read the words on its surface.


    ¡°You will regret not killing me, Damien.¡±