The [system] will further “modify” the [host] according to appropriate [class] for better [merge] results
Warning: The [modification] procedure enforces physical strain on the [host's] body
[Host] is advised to maintain composure for optimal results
[Modification] Stage 1 will initiate in 3…2…1…
Lyam screamed as he felt a bolt of lightning coursing through his veins. Aveline gasped and recoiled at the sudden reaction. She saw the boy arching on the ground at a painful angle.
Lyam barely registered anything around him as he endured the agony he felt. The screen never left his vision as he writhed on the ground in pain.
[Merge] status: 30%
Warning: unstable endurance might hinder the [merge]
[Host] is advised to maintain composure for optimal results
Lyam grit his teeth. He felt like he was engulfed in flames. He wondered if this was what Emma felt when she consumed the flower.
The pain almost didn't matter to him as he thought of her, trapped in her sleeping form. He couldn't let that be her reality forever.
He dug his fingers into the ground and held his body stiff as the pain kept flooding each of his senses.
Stage 1 [modification]: positive
[Merge] status: 50%
The [system] will now initiate Stage 2 [modification]
[Host] is advised to maintain composure for optimal results
[Modification] stage 2 will initiate in 3…2…1…
Lyam screamed again.
###
He was barely alive by the end of it. He couldn't have been certain if it wasn't for the words shining in his face.
Stage 2 [modification]: positive
[Merge] status: 100%
The [system] deems the host “worthy”
As a sign of appreciation, the [system] bestows the [host] with abilities of a [wielder]
The [system] rewards the [wielder] with 500 dust points for carrying out a successful [merge]
The [wielder] is chosen as a vessel to bear the powers an unworthy [host's] body can't withstand
Note: The [wielder] can review their [class] and [skills] in the “Profile” window
Lyam made all the windows go away by thinking of the word “close”. He just knew how to do it, almost as if on instinct.
He wasn't interested in looking at his profile just yet. So he lay there, drenched in sweat and out of breath and staring up at the mossy roof of the cave.
“Lyam?” a familiar voice called out. “Are you…are you still alive?”
Lyam managed to shake his head. “I don't know.”
###
Despite his uncertainty, he was very much alive. It took him a few minutes to convince himself as he sat on a fallen tree with Aveline next to him. She offered him a waterskin from her satchel. He drank it slowly and let out a sigh of relief.
“The merge succeeded,” Lyam said after taking a long sip. “The system said that it did.”
“The prayer really worked, huh?”
Lyam scoffed. “Seems like Fahn really wanted me to survive that agony. I don't know if I feel blessed or unlucky.”
“I would certainly call it a blessing.” Aveline pulled out a leather bound tome from her satchel. “I'm not a scholar on how dust wielders function but from what I know about them, it is quite clear that the merge hardly ever entails this amount of pain.”
“I hope it doesn't.” Lyam looked down at a line of ants that was passing by his foot on the ground. “I don't want to imagine Emma feeling everything that I felt.” The boy turned to the woman. “What is she really experiencing right now in the limbo? Is it constant agony?”
Aveline shook her head, her eyes still in her book. “She would've died already if that was the case. Especially if it was the kind of pain that you felt,” she said. “But moving on, now that we know the merge was a success, I have a question. Do you feel anything different?”
“Truth be told…no.”
Aveline frowned. “Then what was all that screaming and thrashing around?”
“The system said it was changing something in me.” Lyam shrugged. “If it really changed something, I can't tell what it changed specifically.”
Aveline's forehead creased a little as she frowned. She turned another page. “Can you see the skills the system rewarded you with?”
“I'm seeing them now.” Lyam nodded as he looked at the blue screens in front of him.
Profile:
Name: Lyam Laurent
Race: Human
Age: 12 (human years)
Level: Chimera (tier 2)
Dust points: 500
Class: Marksman
Stats:
Prowess: 5
Focus: 3
Skills:
[Syphon burst] lv. 1
[Blesser's touch]
“Well?” Aveline raised an eyebrow. “What do you make of it?”
Lyam grinned dumbly and said, “I don't understand a single thing.”
###
They were making their way down the path through the trees, going back the way they had come. Aveline was the one leading again. She looked at him over her shoulder and said, “So I'm asking again, tell me what you understood so far?”
Lyam recalled what she had told him a few minutes ago outside the cave. He started talking. “I understood that I am a half-dust Marksman bestowed with a skill called the ‘syphon burst’.”
Aveline rolled her eyes. “That's the most basic information, Lyam. What about dust points?”
“Oh, well, I can use it to perform attacks and currently, it's also the thing that’s keeping me alive. And you told me that we can't use dust points to keep Emma alive because my current reserve is too small to survive after doing that.”
“Fair enough. And what are we going to do now?”
“We are going to go hunt something to harvest life dust.” Lyam swallowed hard. “I'm not too sure if I'll be able to do it.”
“If I remember correctly you were quite zealous about saving Emma this morning. What happened now?”
“I still want to save her.” He nodded. “But I feel uncertain. We don't even know how my skill works.”
“That reminds me, what does your skill do again?”
Lyam rolled his eyes and repeated the explanation he'd given her outside the cave. “Syphon burst allows me to discharge life dust at will.”
“Then why are you acting like you don't know what you are capable of?”
“Because I don't know exactly how many dust points I'll use up in one attack! I don't know if I'll just pass out or die on the spot if I burn all of my dust reserve. We don't know if you'll be able to resurrect me if I die this time. Not to mention that I have knowledge of these things I never even knew before and it's so sudden! It's like someone opened my mind and filled it with all this information. And I don't like how that sounds.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“No one did it without your consent, Lyam,” Aveline said. “You chose to become a wielder. You have all this knowledge because you exposed yourself to the dust bloom. You endured all that pain of the merge by your own will. Stop acting like you aren't here of your own volition.”
Lyam pursed his lips and looked down at the ground. For a moment, the only sound they heard was of their own feet crunching the soil and twigs.
They arrived at another clearing. “Hm, I wonder where we might find some good game for your practice,” Aveline said quietly.
Lyam looked at her. “I think I know a place.”
###
Aveline had made him clutch the crimson amulet with his hand and put her other hand on his. Then the red mist had engulfed them both and before Lyam could blink, they were on top of a tree.
The initial surprise had wobbled his balance. He would have fallen off the branch if it wasn't for Aveline grabbing and holding him steady.
Through the gaps in the leaves, they could see the Shadow Castle a few metres away. When Aveline had rescued Lyam and Emma a night ago, she had just distracted the wolf and took the children away. So the beast still lived at the dilapidated castle. It was the first target that had come to Lyam's mind.
“You remember everything I told you about that wolf?” she asked him.
He nodded.
“And are you sure you can handle this?”
“I mean, I can do more than I could've a few days ago. And now I even have the system.” He shrugged.
Aveline's eyes remained narrowed. She dug into her satchel again and pulled out a ring with a red stone on it. The stone looked similar to the crimson ruby in her amulet. “Put this on,” she said.
“What is this?” He took the ring from her.
“It will let me know if you need help so I can interfere.”
Lyam took the ring and slipped it on. He gave her a nod. “I think I'll get going then.”
“Be careful.”
Lyam stopped and gave her an uncertain look.
“What happened?” Aveline asked.
“Um, can you get me off this tree first? It's rather high up.”
###
The afternoon sun couldn’t peek down at Lyam from behind the thick canopy of trees as he slowly made his way up the stone steps of the castle. The fallen rusty gates, the knee-high grass, the crumbling moss-eaten facade felt all too familiar to him as he slowly made his way through the doorway.
He was greeted by the thick silence of the foyer. The black widow was still hanging down from the keystone of the arched roof. He got that same feeling he'd got two days ago. The feeling of going underwater.
Lyam stood in the silent foyer, still as a brick, as if trying to make out a distant sound of someone approaching. He couldn't hear anything. The silence was too loud.
He was ready to make his way upstairs when he heard a familiar clicking sound on the stone steps outside. He whirled around just in time to look at the creature as it lunged at him, claws out and jaws wide open.
Almost a foreign instinct kicked in and Lyam's right hand shot up in defence. Life dust zapped out of his palm like a bolt of lightning, almost blasting the wolf in its face.
The beast was quick to turn its head. The beam disappeared in its silvery dome. But the creature was unscathed.
Lyam quickly dove backwards, making distance between himself and the beast. The wolf stood with its haunches coiled but also incredibly still at the same time. As if hesitant to launch at Lyam again.
The boy took a very careful step back. His mind was busy considering what he was going to do next. The system flashed a quick warning in front of him, telling him that he was down to three hundred and fifty dust points. He dismissed the window and took a quiet breath as he kept facing the wolf.
He had used up too much dust in a single attack. He had to avoid himself from doing that again. Or else he'd be serving himself on a platter to the wolf.
The creature bared its teeth at him, salivating black tar. Lyam looked up at the stone archway under which the creature stood. Maybe I can use that.
Lyam was just preparing to fire off an attack but the wolf beat him to it. Charging at him head first. The boy was about to use [syphon burst] again but he felt a sharp blow at the side of his torso.
The shock that Lyam felt was greater than the pain that came from the wolf slamming its dome-head into his side. How did it get there when I'd seen him come at me from the front?! His back hit the stone wall. He managed to land on the balls of his feet. But this time the wolf didn't let him regain his balance. The beast just lunged at him again.
Lyam felt its strike in his back again. It had pulled the same trick again.
The boy toppled forward but didn't let the wolf get the jump on him this time. He used [syphon burst] right away as a warning shot to get the wolf back to being wary of him.
He backtracked, keeping his eyes on the creature. He remembered what Aveline had said.
“That silver-dome on its head is a mutation--the wolf is a dust mutant. Be careful, it is probably going to be capable of doing something that a natural beast can't.”
The damn mutt was using dust too. The system flashed another warning in front of Lyam. His dust points were down to two hundred.
This was pointless. He could keep dancing around with this animal all day until he used up all his dust or he could just–
He stopped himself. He knew what he had to do. This time, he was the one to charge first.
The wolf responded with same aggression. I can't let it get too close.
They were about to close the distance at the centre of the foyer when Lyam unleashed the [syphon burst] straight up at the archway overhead, blasting the keystone.
The roof came crumbling down. Lyam had less than a second to react. He used maximum dust from his reserve and unleashed [syphon burst] once again. At the wall behind him this time. The impact from the beam thrust him backwards, launching him straight out the tall main door.
The Shadow Castle collapsed behind him, raising a thick curtain of dirt, trapping the wolf under the heavy debris.
After the haze of the dirt cleared up, Lyam could see the beast's paw sticking out from under the pile of stones, blue blood pooling around it.
Another window popped in front of him.
Current dust points: 50
Lyam looked at the words, drained, exhausted. He let out a sigh and looked back at the beast he'd slain.
Aveline appeared next to him, grimacing. “You were supposed to kill the wolf, not destroy everything around you.”
Lyam shrugged tiredly. “Seemed like a good idea.” He stepped towards the dead creature.
A message popped up.
Tier 4 “Wraith wolf”: a [dust mutant] that absorbs [dust] into its pseudo-cranium to project life-like shadows to deceive the enemy
Would you like to [harvest] the life dust from the “wraith wolf”?
Yes/No?
He selected yes.
“How much did you harvest?” Aveline asked him.
“About three thousand dust points,” said Lyam, out of breath. “Would that…would that be enough to keep Emma alive?”
Aveline gave him a gentle smile. “For now, it’s more than enough.”
###
The flower in the black orb was nearly withered by the time they returned to the cottage. “We arrived just in time,” Aveline said as she crafted another spirit barrier. She placed it on another branch of the hollow sapling. “Use your blesser's touch skill on it. The orb will gather the life dust you’ll discharge.”
“It's that simple?” Lyam asked.
Aveline nodded. “It's made for trapping things. It's not strong enough to trap something like an animal but it can preserve things like light, water and life dust. It can also hold any other inanimate object that’s lighter than me. I can even control its permeability. So it will hold the life dust well.”
Lyam stepped forward and placed his hands on the orb. He used [blesser's touch]. Life dust gathered at Lyam's fingertips before it sank into the orb. He could see it swirl within the barrier in a bright blue haze. It was a basic healing skill that allowed him to use life dust in a way to heal others and themselves. Aveline said it was a skill that every wielder was provided by the system.
“How much dust did you give her?” she asked.
“A thousand points worth.”
“That will easily last her the next couple of days,” Aveline said but she didn't sound too pleased.
Lyam cocked his head at her. “What happened?”
“You destroyed the Shadow Castle today.”
“Um, well, the wolf was a mutant and it was using its own skills. It would've killed me if I hadn't done something to trap him.”
“You did what you had to survive. That's not what worries me.” She sighed. “The forest has been getting quite a few visitors these past months. And the last of them was that dust wielder. If the wielder returns for investigation…I don't know if we'll get lucky like last time. He'll also be a lot more curious if the castle that had been standing all these years suddenly crumbled.”
“That castle has been crumbling for years, Aveline.”
Aveline sighed again. “Maybe I'm just being overcautious. However, don't forget that whenever you use magic, you leave behind a trail of some kind or another. And some magic users are very good at following such trails.”
###
Dinner was more rye bread and leftover barley porridge from that morning. Lyam didn't eat much because he didn't feel too hungry. Aveline told him that it was because of the changes the system had made in his body.
“You'll find that you can go longer than other people without food, water or proper rest.”
“That sounds…really good.”
“Just because starvation won’t kill you quickly doesn't mean that it won't hurt your body in some other way.”
“Oh?”
“If you don't keep yourself in shape by eating and sleeping well, your body will start to sustain itself on your dust points.”
“So, I'll be exhausting my dust reserve even when I'm not using my skills?”
“Only if you act like an idiot and don't take care of yourself.”
“Oh, well…I won't act like an idiot then.” Lyam went back to his porridge.
They ate in silence for a while before Aveline said, “So, is your sister your only family?”
“I don't want to believe that,” Lyam said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“Emma and I lived with our mamie. Without her, I wouldn't have escaped the fire.”
“Was your mamie too old?”
“Not old enough to accept she was actually old.” Lyam chuckled.
Aveline raised an eyebrow, having completely missed the joke.
Lyam cleared his throat and looked down at his food again. “I mean, she is old but she is sturdy and has a mean temper. I don't think a lousy fire would be enough to kill her.”
“Lousy fire?” Aveline's eyebrow remained raised. “Didn't it burn your village?”
“My mamie is…she isn't some dead eyed commoner,” Lyam said. “She was a cook at the count's royal kitchen and she has cooked for many nobles and such. Then she retired and became a butcher. She has seen quite a bit of this world and I don't think she likes what she saw.” He shrugged. “Also, she hates all things magic.”
Aveline was amused. “She will hate it even after finding out that you are a wielder?”
“I wouldn't be surprised if she did.”
“I'm surprised you didn't hesitate to choose magic despite being raised by someone who hates it so fervently.”
Lyam swallowed a mouthful of porridge. He remained quiet.
“Do you mind if I asked why you trust magic so much?”
Lyam took a sip of water and sighed. For a long moment, his face was still as a mask. And then he said, “My…my father was a wielder too.”
Aveline leaned her elbows on the table. “Was?”
“He passed away in the Great Cleansing.”