Syrus had a lot of questions about his class, especially why a system based around being a hero gave him a class with the word “villain” on it. Hopefully, a part of that question would be answered after finally getting a chance to use his skill.
Every player was granted two free skills that didn’t need spirit points. One skill related to their base and the other was exclusive to their class.
Syrus had hesitated to use his skill at first since there was a risk of summoning a potentially dangerous creature on accident since his class was classified as a summoner. But now, it was saying that he had one free use of it, which he didn’t really know what it meant.
“Be ready,” Syrus warned Eliza, catching her by surprise.
“Is there an enemy?” she asked, looking around the field.
Syrus shook his head. “I’m going to use my skill and it might summon something,” Syrus explained.
Eliza nodded and kept her gun ready. Syrus activated the skill by simply mentally commanding it. When it activated, Syrus expected a panel to appear in front of him, instead, he found himself in an empty void in an instant. Looking around, Syrus saw nothing but endless darkness.
“State you desired creation.”
His own voice rang in his head. Obviously, questioning the situation would be pointless considering he was the one that activated the skill.
“What are my options?” Syrus asked, directing the question the nothingness of the void.
“That is entirely up to you. A living creature or an item,” the voice replied. “State what you wish to create and the system will set it to your level.”
Syrus repeated the words in his head. Despite saying he could make anything he wanted, there were clear restrictions. Mainly, his level that was still far too low. He could make a dragon and the system could turn it to a mere lizard.
Instead of making something powerful, he needed to make something that could grow to be powerful. Make it start weaker than him and cultivate its growth. Syrus also needed to consider what he needed right now.
For now, he could deal with weak monsters with modern weaponry and his mediocre combat skills he acquired in self-defense classes. But monsters like the tiger was way above his league, so he needed something to deal with it, preferably without getting directly involved.
“I want to make a summoned creature with the appearance of a human,” Syrus started. “You can have it start with low stats, but I want it to have the ability to grow like a player into a tanklike vanguard by consuming mana stones,” Syrus explained.
“Your desire has been acknowledged,” the voice responded. “Grant your creation a name. Note that what you name your creation effects the final result.”
Syrus nodded. With its ability to consume mana stones, Syrus decided to give it a name fitting its ability.
“Gluttony.”
After saying the name, the once empty void vanished. Syrus found himself back in the open field with Eliza still having her gun ready.
“How long was I gone?” he asked.
“Huh? You didn’t leave though,” Eliza replied with a raised eyebrow. “You just told me to get my gun ready, then you just stood there for a few seconds.”
“Oh...” Syrus realized that time had not passed while he was in the void. “Well, I used the skill.”
Syrus tried activating the skill once again.
Skill activation
* Create
* Summon
Choosing the summon category, Syrus called upon his creation. There was no fancy light show or magic portal opening. The summoned creature literally popped into existence in an instant.
Gluttony took the form of a featureless mannequin kneeling in front of Syrus. “I greet my lord,” Gluttony spoke despite having no mouth.
Syrus wondered if he could check the summoned creature’s stats, then the system answered by showing Syrus the panel.
Gluttony Class: Vanguard Stats: Strength: 10 Constitution: 10 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 5
As expected, the stats were even lower than his. But he willingly sacrificed high stats in order to secure a powerful skill. And after mentally focusing on it, the system revealed it.
Unknown Villain’s Gluttony – By consuming the mana stones from monsters, the user’s desired stats will increase and consuming higher ranked mana stones may result in obtaining a skill.
“That’s what I wanted to see,” Syrus smirked as he took out all the mana stones in his pocket and handed them all to Gluttony.
Currently, there was no market for mana stones since native players have yet to get their hands on a lot of them and the OD players have yet to reveal any use for them, other than the obvious machines they use, like the flying ships.
Stolen story; please report.
“Why are you giving it the stones?” Eliza asked.
All the stones sunk into Gluttony’s hand. “It makes him stronger,” Syrus answered.
“It’s a he?”
------
The three words that could best describe Elizabeth was adaptive, bewitching, and crafty. Adding her striking appearance into the mix, she would consider herself a dangerous woman.
When world changing events started happening left and right, chaos erupted in every corner of the world. It was normal for anyone to be afraid, and it some moments, even Eliza was afraid.
That’s why she latched onto the only person she knew would thrive in a chaotic world, Syrus Blake. She met him when he was introduced to her as the new manager of her modeling agency. Her first impression of him was that he looked like the standard handsome movie villains that always had grand and complicated plans to take over the world.
Oddly specific, but it hit the mark after she got to know him. In every situation, he always finds a way to turn it in his favor. He would turn the closest people into enemies, enjoying the chaos from the sidelines. He doesn’t just manipulate situations in his favor, he makes sure that only side that benefits was his.
He didn’t like getting directly involved, but it wasn’t because he was weak. In contrary, he was in amazing shape. She’d seen it first-hand. They weren’t in any romantic relationship though, simply a mutual understanding. They still had a lot of fun though.
“Let’s head back,” Syrus said as he handed the mana stone that was dropped by the tiger to his summoned creature. “We might encounter more people,” he held up the bag of the person he shot in the head.
Eliza raised an eyebrow at the bag. “Why are handing me that?”
“You don’t want the mana stones? He got a bunch of it,” Syrus said.
Eliza rolled her eyes. He obviously knew that Eliza didn’t have any need for those stones and only offered it to make it seem like he was being fair. “Just give it to your summoned creature. The stronger that thing is, the better.”
He smirked and tossed the bag to living mannequin. “Eat up.”
As they began heading towards the exit of the rift, Eliza activated her skill, intuition. It gave her an understanding of her target. Most of the times she used this on a person, it would reflect their emotion towards her. Attraction and envy were some of the most common readings she got. Then recently, the tiger reflected her as prey to kill.
Similarly, using it on Syrus reflected her as prey, but without the desire to kill.
The sensation it gave her felt oddly good.
------
Eliza had given him all the mana stones she got, in exchange, he needed to buy her a designer bag. Which he didn’t mind doing since he had a lot of money saved up and with the world changing, standard forms of currency might lose their value soon.
With the world changing, Syrus needed to make plans on how to adapt. In one of the articles he read, they mentioned something about the second phase of the world’s integration. That would result a lot more rifts and an abundant amount of mana being injected in their world, causing a mass transformation of the planet.
They advised everyone to stay together since when the transformation happens, several areas might change drastically. A sudden forest, mountain, dessert, and many more biomes might appear out of nowhere.
As Syrus was deep in thought, his phone began ringing. He saw that the caller was his older sister, Sylvia.
“Hello?” Syrus wasn’t particularly close with his siblings, so he wasn’t sure why they would call him. He was sure they won’t be asking for help, considering how prideful they were too.
“Where are you? We’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday,” the angry voice of his sister rang out from the phone.
“There was a signal problem yesterday,” Syrus replied, omitting the fact that he went inside a rift. “Did you need something?”
“No. We wanted to know if you’re fucking alive! Mom was worried to death!”
That was understandable. His mom had a tendency to always worry about them ever since their father left them. “I’m fine.”
“Did you awaken as a player too?” Sylvia asked.
“Yes.”
“Don’t get any funny ideas and go into a rift alone.”
Technically, he didn’t go into a rift alone, nor would he ever go alone since he’s a summoner. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“And give mom a call!” his sister yelled before hanging up.
Syrus sighed and dialed his mom’s number and called, but she didn’t answer. Figuring that she might be busy, Syrus decided to get started on his plans first. When he drove to the supermarket, it came as no surprise to him that all the food supply had been sold out. But that wasn’t what Syrus was after.
“You want to buy a generator and seven car batteries?” the market worker scratched his head. “Are you sure?”
Syrus nodded. “Is there going to be a problem?"
“There won’t, but I don’t think we have enough people available to help load the generator in your car.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Syrus replied as the generator was loaded into a cart.
He had to pay for it at a separate counter since the cart won’t fit in main entrance, so they had to go around the back. As they went around, Syrus saw the large crowd demanding for any more supplies that were still in the back.
When they reached his car, Syrus opened the back of his car and summoned Gluttony to load the generator into his car. Gluttony got a few looks, but he could pass as a guy wearing a white costume. It was weird, but nothing was weirder than the whole world changing.
During his drive back to his apartment, Syrus passed several groups of protestors. Some were protesting about the OD players, while some were protesting about the whole situation.
Syrus sighed. It wasn’t hard to figure out who’ll be dying soon.
When he arrived at his apartment, he had Gluttony carry everything he bought up to his apartment. Once he was inside, Syrus found someone sitting on his couch. But instead of being intimidated, Syrus found it rather amusing considering that the person sitting on his couch was a small woman.
She looked no different to a human except for her green skin, pointed ears, and tusks. She looked like the female goblins depicted in Japanese animations.
“Are you...”
“Yes, I’m a goblin,” she spoke. “My name is Tia.”
Syrus nodded. “Not what I expected a goblin to look like,” Syrus commented.
“I’m not a full goblin. There aren’t any more savage goblins, wiped out centuries ago,” Tia stated as she stood up from the couch.
She probably thought she looked intimidating with that serious glare on her face, but it hardly mattered when she only stood around three feet tall. “What do I owe the pleasure of your visit then?”
Syrus tried using Analysis, but the skill didn’t work on the goblin. He figured either a skill on an item was in play, preventing him from seeing anything.
“I came with a deal,” Tia revealed.
Syrus raised an eyebrow. “A deal?”
“Yes,” Tia nodded. “How much do you know about the coming events?”
Syrus shrugged. “Not much.”
“Soon, this world would undergo a change, and the world that you used to know will be gone forever,” Tia said ominously. “A significant number of you humans will perish.”
“Yes, I recall something like that being mentioned in some articles,” Syrus replied. “What does this have to do with your deal?”
“We will aid your growth, in exchange, you will care for my people,” Tia offered.
“Care for your people? Aren’t you guys stronger than us?” Syrus asked.
Tia shook her head. “Not for long.”