Dark, comforting silence. There is nothing else I would want except to keep on experiencing this rest, just enjoying the peace and quiet for as long as I can at least before another w- "WAKE UP YGG, A WAVE IS COMING".
Speak of the devil, never should have revealed my [Plant Affinity]. "SHUT UP MARK, I'M COMING", Mark was the babysitter the government gave me to make sure I was fighting the beasts and not running away, also the same person who turned me into a slave with his Talent 2 days ago, less than a day after the sky shattered. I was already running to the FrontLine where I could see plenty of military personnel running in the same direction as me, all armed with top-of-the-line guns and riot shields as we all ran the very short distance to the destination.
I could already hear the thunderous noise of the "Wave" as the military called it, so I mentally prepared myself for the coming fight and said out loud "Status".
Name: Yggdrasil
Race: Human(0/???)
Class: (Locked Until Level 10)
Age: 23 Years old
Level: 1 (77/100)
Conditions: Tired 1 (25% less recovery) Slave Mark (Physical) (Your body will follow the order of your master)
Health(HP): 63/70 (7 5.25/hour)
Astral Energy(AE): 102/160 (16 12/hour)
Strength: 6
Vitality: 7
Wisdom: 21
Intelligence: 16
Dexterity: 6
Agility: 12
Affinities: Plant (Common) T1 (77/100), Soul (Common) T1 (0/100)
Skills: Root Control [Plant] (Common) T4(17/40), Avatar[Soul] (Common) T1(0/10), Language[Akashic][Soul] T1(2/10)
Talents: Natures Heart [Plant] (Common) T1(0/100), Unbreaking Soul [Soul] (Common) T1(0/100), Reset [Akashic][Soul] (Common) T1(0/100)
I sadly didn't have enough time to rest to get back to full AE but this will have to do for now, I couldn't see the wave yet so I decided to go through all of my other tabs to double-check all the specifics of everything, I have probably opened these at least a hundred times but I still feel the need to make sure before anything big happens.
"Affinities"
Plant Affinity(Common) T1 (77/100) (Increases control, ease, and power of plant Skills by <10%>, lowers the cost of plant Skills by <10%>, increases control over plants by <10%>, and lets you have <1> plant Skill)
Soul Affinity(Common) T1 (0/100)(Increases control, ease, and power of soul Skills and Talents by <10%>, lowers the cost of soul Skills and Talents by <10%>, increases control over souls by <10%>, and lets you have <1> soul Skill)
As I said it I could hear envious grunts and comments from those around me, as starting with an Affinity was incredibly rare, the only other person in the camp with an Affinity was Mark, who had the [Domination Affinity]. I heard some guy had a Skill that increased the ease of getting and leveling up Affinities, which showed that natural Affinities weren't the only way to get them. But right now there has not been nearly enough time for anyone to unlock them when no one even knows how to unlock them, which is the whole reason that people with natural Affinities are valued so much at the moment, the same reason they sent Mark to enslave me the moment I stupidly talked about my plant Affinity. At the very least no one knows about my [Soul Affinity], I haven't even used my soul Skill or Talents either to make absolutely sure no one knows. Speaking of Skills, "Skills".
Root Control [Plant] [Active] (Common) T4 (18/40) (You can rapidly move the roots of any nearby plant, moving upwards of <220> kilograms of roots at upwards of <22> meters, per second, over <4> seconds at up to a range of <440> Meters and the roots gain a temporary combined <220> HP. Costs <9> AE)
Avatar [Soul] [Active] (Common) T1 (0/10) (You can move your soul outside of your body with an AE-fueled shell for <11> seconds that costs <9> AE, capable of taking <110> damage and casting Skills through your avatar. If you stay outside of a body for longer than <11> seconds or the Astral shell loses all durability you will get 1 higher form of soul damage every <11> seconds. Every <110> damage your soul directly takes you will get 1 higher form of soul damage. Your soul can move at up to <110> meters per second You can spend <9> AE to reset the shell and the time you can spend outside of a body. You will only die in Avatar form if the soul damage will dissipate your soul. You may have up to <1> form for your shell. {0} free forms. Current forms {Basic Humanoid})
Language [Akashic] [Soul] [Passive] (Common) T1(2/10) (You can speak, read, write, and comprehend any language <10%> quicker)
Even though it seems like a really interesting Skill I haven't had any chance to use [Avatar], it seems like it could have a lot of uses. Still, I'm not willing to see what soul damage will do to me or have Mark take notice and get someone to enslave my soul as well, because I am pretty sure this Skill totally ignores the slave mark on me, part of my plan to escape before I have no way out. I have been using [Root Control] a lot though by command of "my master" Mark, [Root Control] can easily smash any of the wolf or boar variants that have charged at us that are under level 3. I don't quite understand what the deal is with [language] though, it levels super slowly and its benefits are nearly useless, why does it have anything to do with [Soul Affinity]? I guess I really shouldn't complain though, as it was completely free, I got it, and my Talent after receiving a notification around a minute after the sky shattered, right before the screaming started, that was saying
Congratulations: You are the first to have a Soul Affinity.
You will receive a free Talent and Skill of both [Akashic] and [Soul] Affinities.
You have received Language [Akashic] [Soul] (Common) T1(0/10)
You have received Reset [Akashic] [Soul] (Common) T1(0/100)
I shook my head to ignore those unhelpful memories, as I just wanted to quickly look through my Talents and then focus back on the situation, I could see Mark approaching me, slightly annoyed that I was going through all my stats right before the wave, but I find it almost therapeutic to look through all of my stats before a fight, I also wanted to make fully sure everything was right, because if I understood this correctly then I could escape my captivity in this upcoming wave.
"Talents"
Nature's Heart [Plant] [Active] (common) T1 (0/100) (You can have up to <1> Link to a plant which can be thought of as an extension of your body and you can cast Skills and Talents through. You can store a Linked plant inside of a subspace as long as it is less than <10%> of your body volume and weight. Links are permanent and if a Link is destroyed the Talent level will go down by 1. {0} free Links, current Links are {????? Seed})
Unbreaking Soul [Soul] [Passive] (Common) T1 (0/100) (Your soul is <110%> more durable, <110%> more resistant to negative effects on the soul, heals from negative soul effects <110%> quicker, and can use either HP or AE to heal or to temper your soul)
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Reset [Akashic] [Soul] [Active] (Common) T1 (0/100) (You can reset your status and soul into your body to remove physical and Soul based effects. You will lose all memories except <1> of up to <10> seconds, your level, all other Skills, Affinities, and Talents above
Right as I finished rereading the fine text of my Talents, something that [language] actually helped with, beasts started to appear in the distance and the people around me began to thoroughly check their guns and make sure they were working, most guns hardly worked nowadays though because when you shot something with a gun you would get a notification that says
Complicated weaponry made without a class, Talent, Skill, or Affinity of appropriate level
Weapon Damage is <90>% weaker
So it would generally take well over 10 shots of a rifle to kill one of the wolves, it is made up for by the sheer amount of weaponry and soldiers we have but it still makes them way weaker, and the value of offensive class Skills way more valued at the moment. However, I believe when more people get Skills that is going to change. As I was thinking about this the beasts entered my range and I heard Mark bark at me "Use [Root Control] on the Wave" and against my will or control my body started up the Skill.
Used Root Control, -9 AE
It Pissed me off a whole bunch that I was being told what to do like a CardMon but not much I can do to stop it, as the activation of Skills is controlled through the body. Even though I couldn't control the activation of the Skill through my body I could control the effect after I cast the Skill, presumably through my soul, so I connected to the various roots from the ground beneath us and started clearing out beasts as Mark demanded, Which was hit everything once over with the roots and let the soldiers finish them so they can get more XP and attempt to get higher Skills, levels, and stats. Honesty it was dumb to be forcing me to cast Skills this early, but that dullness he has is what I am going to be counting on, all I have to do is do what he wants until the boss monster comes, and then I "accidentally" make a mistake. Boss monsters were actually how I have the seed in [Nature's Heart] it was a drop from the first boss monster that came, a weird humanoid monster with a bag on its back that was able to kill people by looking into their eyes, but relatively low physical strength, I was able to bind it in roots then stab roots through its eyes, as thankfully roots don't have eyes and it had no idea who was controlling the roots, which immediately killed it and it gave me a notification that helped spark up my plan
Treasure Goblin Killed
Unique personalized Item dropped for the slayer of the Treasure Goblin: {????? Seed}
I quickly brought it to me with some small roots, hiding it beneath the corpses of the monsters as I slowly snaked its way to me, almost bottoming out on AE when I finally got it, I realized that I had no safe place to put it. Hence, I used [Nature's Heart] and linked it to me, instantly feeling as though I had gained another limb, one I should have always had, and one that I could do almost nothing with as it was still very much a seed the size of a grape, not quite able to do anything except cast spells through it, but maybe that was all I needed. But back to the present and enough with the flashbacks I ended up being made to cast root control 2 more times before he realized I didn't even need to cast the Skill for the wave so far which left me with 76 AE, as I gained one from natural regen during this time. The length of a wave can vary greatly but so far we are 10 minutes in with only some of the weakest monsters and relatively sparsely spread out. another 30 minutes passed and the wave simply did not stop, it didn't get harder either but the longest wave we have had before out of the 4 waves we had was 20 minutes, which was beginning to worry the troops, but was making me feel much more optimistic about my plan. My plan was to rely on some of the fine print in [Reset], and [Nature's Heart] to hopefully give myself a new chance in life away from this slave-driving society. [Reset] said it would reset your soul and your body together while [Nature's Heart] said that your link was a part of your body, so if everything worked out properly I would wait until a boss comes and everyone's attention is on it, then try to send out my [Avatar] and the weird mystery seed, find as best a spot as possible and start a new life, at least that's if nothing goes wrong, which something always does.
As tensions were rising and the wave seemed to be nowhere near the end, all of a sudden a giant wolf 12 meters tall with light blue and purple runic patterns engraved upon its marble white fur and covered in golden Lightning, apparently it was strong enough that I and the people around me got a notification
LEVEL 10 STORMBRINGER (SCION OF LIGHTNING) HAS APPEARED
Immediately soldiers started running away, Mark abandoned his post as well with an agility far higher than I ever thought he would have had. I decided to try and run on the inner edge of the FrontLine to get away from where the majority of the horde and the StormBringer was, apparently it wouldn't be that easy as the StormBringer Howled up towards the sky as loud as thunder, causing the ground to shake and me to lose my footing, what came next was a massacre. hundreds of lightning bolts fell from the sky, each one bringing soldiers to the brink of death and another would fall a second later to finish the job. After the first round of lightning, I got my bearings and ran as fast as I could possibly run, only getting around a grand total of a hundred meters before the StormBringer howled again, and once again I fell from the shaking, and then
You have taken 59 damage from Level 10 StormBringer (Scion of Lightning
You are at critically low HP
You are now Crippled 1
You have been Paralyzed for 8 seconds
It wasn't something that I could react to or prepare myself for, as pain flooded my body, all I could feel was the blinding white agony that filled me, yet in the back of my head where I was able to keep some vague semblance of conciosnous I used all my will to activate a Skill and abandon my body, as I barely muttered out the word "[Avatar]"
You have activated Avatar
You lost 9 AE
I felt alleviated from everything, The pain was simply gone, no longer feeling any bit of gravity, I just stood over my body laying on the ground for a second in awe at the liberation I felt, at least before the second bolt of lightning hit me, more than halfway cracking the Astral shield around my soul, so I took one last glance at my body and ran as far as I could towards the forest, the forest had been untouched the past few days due to extreme beast populations but I figured that the recent wave should have cleared things up a bit in there and just willed myself forward as fast as possible, the speed was unbelievably fast, going kilometers in mere seconds. I remembered that I had to funnel more Astral Energy into the Skill as I checked how much I had left
You have lost 9 AE
You have (70/160) AE
Shit.
I hurried on trying to be as focused as possible just going straight. The way I was moving was just thinking of going in a direction and then I went, unimpeded by the trees or animals as I simply phased through them, kept going straight as my mana slowly drained down to a mere 16 and I realized I would need a good spot for my new body, as even with root control I wasn't sure how well I would be able to move as whatever plant I would embody. I fairly quickly found a clearing at the end of my timer and was about to refresh it when I realized I needed to dig a hole and plant the seed, and the only way I could dig a hole is with [Root Control] even if I would have to suffer from the soul damage or whatever the Akashic records said it was, so as I was about to activate the Skill I felt pain even worse than that of the lightning from earlier, a pain in my soul
You have suffered Soul Damage 1 (Your soul has started fading)
Unlike with the StormBringer's pain, I couldn't wrench myself free from the pain, just writhing in my spectral agony as once again the timer had reached 0
You have suffered Soul Damage 2 (Your soul is fading more)
The pain doubled and I could hardly keep awake, though not sure if I could fall asleep as a soul, with 3 seconds left Before I suffered another round of soul damage I quickly conjured the seed from its subspace and made a small hole underground using [Root Control]
You have suffered Soul Damage 3 (Your soul is struggling to keep its shape)
I held strong through it even though it was getting hard even to have a sense of self at this point, I covered the seed just barely in time with my [Root Control] before it ran out and scrambled to move my avatar to the seed, and tried to squeeze myself in, then I quickly checked my Health
Hp(0/0)
Well, it's kind of grim to know the body I lived all my life with is dead, but there goes my slight bit of hesitation I had. I still had a Link to the seed, so now or never I guess, using the link I had with the Seed through [Nature's Heart] using its ability to activate my strangest Talent, [Reset].
The world seemed to slow down to a crawl as a notification appeared before me
Choose 1 memory to keep
and so I chose the memory I thought would help me the most out of all the miserable memories I had, the moment I was branded with the mark of a slave and had my freedom ripped from me.
That was the last thought I had before It all just stopped, all the pain gone, almost all my memories had left me, and I was given a nearly blank state, along with one last notification
Congratulations: You are now a tree!