Bathed in the sun’s brilliant rays, Adam’s conscious submerged from the land of dreams. The last thing he remembered was getting some notifications, before laying down to sleep. He quickly checked the status screen and found that he had acquired two new titles.
uncommon title: Rebel, He who goes against authority, +2 Strength
uncommon title: Annihilator, No one will be spared, everyone will return to dust, +2 Vitality
It seems like the rarity of the title determines the reward. What kind of stat I get is probably determined by what kind of title it is. Giving +2 strength to a rebel kind of makes sense, although giving +2 vitality to an annihilator makes less sense since the stat is like the opposite of the title. I guess vitality still has something to do with annihilation exactly because they are opposites.
His gaze swept over the sparse clouds in the sky, as he wondered what his next action should be.
The common procedure is that the pilot travels around while collecting as much information as possible. Of course, that would only be necessary for a pilot who would return after his mission. In my case, it’s the question if I return. This world already threw a lot of bullshit at me in the short time since my arrival, but I also must admit that I’m interested in this place. Creating magic was quite fun actually.
His thoughts were interrupted by the growling of his stomach. Fighting an entire army cost him a lot of energy, leaving him hungry. He started to look forward to eating something, until he remembered what was on the menu.
What I don’t want is to spend the rest of my life eating berries! That’s for sure!
With that last thought, Adam rose up to take a look around, searching for something edible. It did not take him long to find something edible, yet for some mysterious reason he was very unhappy about it.
Not those FUCKING berries again! I want something else!
His temper got the better of him as he found himself, trying to find a way to set fire to the bushes. Yet as he was unable to find a way to quickly produce fire he simply kicked at the bushes, achieving absolutely nothing.
Feeling aggrieved by a plant, he questioned his own state of mind for a moment, before returning to the bitter reality that berries seemed to be the only edible thing on the island. Unless, of course, goblins turned out to be edible, but Adam did not feel like testing that hypothesis.
He cursed at the berries for a bit, before putting them in his mouth. He grumbled as he chewed on the berries. As he did not want to see the bushes again, he quickly stripped it of all its berries. He put all of them inside the goblin commander’s robe as he still had it with him. The robe never was clean, and using it to carry berries full of natural dyes did not do much to change that. He mused a bit, before he decided to find a better bag as soon as possible.
After this meager meal, he returned to the –now devoid of life- goblin village. Although, in all honesty, calling it a village was an over-glorification. An encampment was the nice way of putting it. Although it looked more like the ruins of one.
Adam’s eye fell on the large obelisk in the middle of the village. He had slept at its foot after the battle, yet as his first thought when awakening was about food, he did not look at it before. But now that it had his attention, he discovered how strange a thing it actually was.
It was by far the most well-crafted thing in the whole village. It could have even belonged to a fairly advanced civilization, like the ancient Romans. The whole stone was covered in intricate symbols of some sort of cuneiform script. It was clear from their weapons and lack of armor that the goblins couldn’t possibly have crafted such a thing.
Utilizing one of the greatest advantages this world seemed to offer, Adam used [Identify] on the stone. Like always, information from who knows where showed up the instant he used the skill.
[Identify] might have been a great help in the past, it was completely useless in this case. He had no idea what a [Dawn Stone] was supposed to be, or how a stone could even have a gender. The skill just didn’t give him enough information. Unfortunately, the skill was already max level, and Adam assumed he wouldn’t be able to improve it beyond its maximum level.
But, that was just an assumption, wasn’t it? His increased [Intelligence] and [Wisdom] hadn’t been for the show, and after some thought, he began to hesitate. Was this really the limit? If [Identify] could convey information; why would it be limited by this particular amount?
He concluded that it wouldn’t hurt to try expanding the information a bit. But to do that, he needed to know where the information came from. Only one skill in his arsenal could answer that question, so without further ado, he activated the skill.
Purple rings glowed around his irises, as the world’s hidden forces revealed themselves to Adam; [The Eyes of the Demiurge] truly was an interesting skill. He waited a second before looking at the Dawn Stone. It shone brightly with mana, but that was not the information Adam was after. He activated [Identify] and a faint blue ripple spread in all directions. The ripple might have been faint, but it was incredibly fast. It was so fast that Adam wasn’t even sure it was real, and not just a figment of his imagination.
The ripple seemed to be a simple flicker in reality, and just as fast as it disappeared, another ripple appeared. It was just as faint as the first one, yet this ripple came from the direction of the [Dawn Stone].
Again, he invoked the skill, and watched attentively. As soon as the skill was used, a ripple flickered through reality, closely followed by another ripple, going in the opposite direction. He repeated it a few times, yet the ripples always appeared. He repeated the process until he was sure the ripple wasn’t just some mirage, but was, in fact, a real tangible phenomenon.
As a professional otherworlder it did not take him long to notice the resemblance to a technology from earth. To communicate over long distances without any medium except the air, the people on earth would use waves to send their information. Like with radio and Wi-Fi.
He didn’t know if air would be necessary for mana waves, but the way of conveying information was most likely similar. With this realization, came another, very disturbing realization. The waves went both ways, so not only did he gain information from who knows what, the thing, or being, sending him information also received information from him.
He had no idea what information the skill sent exactly, but considering its use, it would at the very least have to send information about the object he was currently using the skill on. Which meant information about what he was currently seeing.
Orwellian doom scenarios flew through his mind, before he realized that matters of greater importance, like staying alive in this wilderness and finding a civilization to cater to his primary needs, where more pressing right now.
Adam once again focused on the ripples, eager to play with them for a bit to see what would happen. As he invoked [Identify] once again, he forcefully put as much mana as he could into the ripple; it appeared again, much more visible than the previous time, yet just as fleeting as the previous time was its existence. Its counterpart arrived just as fast and disappeared with the same speed, yet it too was much brighter and more powerful.
It arrived at Adam in a flash, carrying with it the results of his invocation. Yet those very results were the source of his disappointment.
Nothing changed. The ripple’s power seemed to have no influence on the information contained. He tried again, and again, yet the results were the same; absolutely nothing changed. Even when he put in varying amounts of power, everything stayed exactly the same.
Yet in some way, it was to be expected. After all, a radio signal’s content wouldn’t change just because you made the signal stronger. But Adam didn’t give up yet; if one powerful wave wouldn’t work, then maybe two waves, quickly following after each other would work! He speedily brought this hypothesis to the test.
He repeated the test dozens of times, yet all of them resulted in a complete and total failure. But he was still not done. A new hypothesis quickly followed the old one, and after that one was rejected the next one would be subjected to his tests. Hours went by as Adam became absorbed in his research, and when he finally took a break it was already evening.
His work bore no fruit, yet he wasn’t unhappy in the slightest. He felt strangely content. It was unexpectedly fun! Results became secondary as research became his main objective. The path became the goal, as the goal simply became a by-product. He finally understood what possessed those scientists at the bridge whenever they, completely absorbed in their research, neglected to leave their research alone for days or weeks. Often even forgetting to eat.
The break allowed his senses to return to his body. A feeling of hunger assaulted him, yet this time the thought of having to eat berries was not enough to dampen his mood. He almost happily grabbed at the small pile of berries to his left. Before popping them in his mouth. Quite a few berries disappeared this way, until he finally had had enough.
With his hunger gone a new need became more prevalent. His enthusiastic research had left him weary. His mind was telling him to rest. Since there was no reason not to listen to his mind Adam went to the closest hut to sleep.
The hut was shabby, but all the huts were. It also stank, yet again so did all the others. After he pushed aside the fur hanging before the entrance, a small and dirty room revealed itself before him. In the corner of the room laid some furs he guessed were supposed to be beds, or at least something similar. In the other corner, some wild animal was rotting and producing a stench.
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As expected of goblins, he murmured, before entering his new temporary home. He threw the berries into an empty corner, before throwing the dead animal out. Now that everything was settled he threw himself upon the furs. The urge to sleep was strong, yet as his mind was still very active from the research, it took him some time before he could put his mind to rest and enter the world of dreams.
The next morning he left his hut after breakfast, only to be met with an unwelcome visitor. Before him stood a wolf! It growled angrily at him, before it pounced at him. Adam quickly drew his [Mana Chakrams] and with a simple movement, the wolf’s head separated from its body. It never stood a chance in a head-on confrontation.
Yet the growls did not go away. He quickly scanned the surroundings and discovered that many local predators and scavengers were gobbling up the last bits of dead goblin. The rest of the goblin corpses had already disappeared, leaving only the bones.
Adam broke out in cold sweat as he realized that this was not a safe place to live. Yet he still had his desire to research the stone. This time he saw it coming, but the next time he might as well be sleeping. After all, no matter how amazing his weapon was, he would still be defenseless in his sleep. He needed a way to research the stone in safety. Since the stone itself was too heavy to be moved, his only option was to make sure that beast nor monster would be able to come close to the stone. But he was alone and needed to sleep every night. Having all that in mind, he chose the simplest of options, he would build a fence.
His two [mana-chakrams] were even more effective than the circle-saws from earth, making building a wooden fence much easier. With them, and an abundant source of wood nearby, he planned out his new defense.
As he looked around, he saw many predatory and scavenger animals scrambling for the last remnants of what was once a goblin army. Except for the wolf he just killed, most of them were fairly small animals that wouldn't be able to best a human, much less one with magical chakrams on both hands.
The threat had temporarily disappeared, thus he decided to let the rest of the wandering scavengers and predators off. There were more important things to do!
….......................................
Felling trees was easy, the hard part was to not get hit by the falling trees. Adam could have cautiously felled the tree in such a way that it would fall exactly where he intended it to fall, but that would take too much time, he surmised. Thus, he decided on a different approach. Adam walked towards a big, healthy looking, tree and mercilessly cut it halfway through. The spinning [Mana chakram] went through the wood with ease. He pulled back the [mana chakram], before putting a safe distance between him and the tree. Once he was safe, Adam threw the [Mana chakram] at the cut, hitting it flawlessly. The sharp, rotating, magical blade cut through the other half of the tree before disappearing into a shallow cut in the next tree. The huge tree slowly tilted to the side, before slamming into a neighboring tree. No tree felling skill was earned, but Adam supposed that his way of felling trees wasn’t exactly the orthodox method.
After felling the tree, came processing it into usable parts. He decided that he wanted to build a fence for keeping the beasts out, and a small cabin for sleeping. Since he did not manage to completely remove the stench from the goblin’s old huts.
After being done with the first tree, he started with the second. Felling it, and then processing it. It might have been a bit faster if he were to first fell all the trees, before systematically processing them all at once, yet felling them Adam-style was a quite mana-intensive activity, and by processing them immediately he saved some time otherwise spent meditating to recover his mana.
It took him the rest of the day, but just before nightfall, he finished the project. A sturdy, wall-like fence protected the space a few meters surrounding the [Dawn Stone]. To the side stood a small but sturdy cabin and most importantly: the cabin was clean! The only entrance of the small cabin was within the enclosed space. It also gave him the [Carpentry] skill.
Even with magical assistance, building all this was still a lot of work. Tired, Adam called it a day, and this time, he almost instantly fell asleep.
The next day was dedicated to research once again. And once again, it bore no fruit. He continued on the day after, and the day after that, and so a week went by.
------------------------------
It was lunchtime, and Adam stopped his research activities to have lunch. Although he took a break, his mind was still with his research and he carelessly grabbed at the small pile of berries that he had prepared that morning.
The senses in his hand transmitted the feeling of touching the mushy berries to his brain. His brain ignored it, as it was too busy contemplating.
A pain shot through his hand. He quickly withdrew his hand in reflex. He looked at his hand. Blood was dripping from his middle finger. A thorn was pinned into his flesh.
Slightly annoyed, he pulled it out and used [Identify] on it. After realizing that it was just a common thorn, he thoughtlessly threw it away. The unfortunate thorn flew for half a meter before it bounced off the [Dawn Stone].
Adam was just about to grab for a second handful of berries as a red light caught his attention. It came from the [Dawn Stone]! The mysterious symbols on the stone lit up in a dark red light.
DawnBlood ritual initiated
Searching for available classes
1524 available classes found
Listing available classes
Warrior Rarity: Common
Archer Rarity: Common
Mage Rarity: Common
Farmer Rarity: Common
---ERROR
Listing available classes:
Demiurge Rarity: Divine
Wait?! What happened to the first list?
Please choose one of the selected classes
A class? How about actually explaining what they do?
More importantly! Where did all the classes go? Why does the last screen only display one available class. Actually, what is a demiurge even? Is it related to the skill?
Please choose your class within 10 seconds
Wait! What?
10 seconds remaining
9 seconds remaining
What de fuck is happening?
8 seconds remaining
...
2 seconds remaining
1 second remaining
Congratulations for choosing the class [Demiurge]
Class gained: Demiurge
Skill gained: Enlighten
What the fuck just happened?
Adam was still staring at the [Dawn Stone] with glazed eyes, trying to process the events. It didn’t even give him a choice. It just rudely disturbed his meal and threw a class at him. It didn’t even explain what a class was exactly, or how to use it. Adam had no idea; so his only lead seemed to be the status screen and the literal meaning of the word ‘class’. Since the obvious course of action was to open the status screen and find out if anything changed, Adam opened the status screen.
Name Adam Xavier Witt Race Human(Evolution Requirements not met) Age 25 Status Hungry Titles Outsider, Survivor, Amphibious, Unconventional, Dedicated, Specialist, Predator, Indomitable Spirit, Genius, Legend, Magic Theorist, Perfect Mage, Rebel, annihilator Classes Demiurge Lv. 1 Equipment N/A Stats
Strength 11 Dexterity 7 Intelligence 10 Willpower 16 Vitality 12 Endurance 17 Wisdom 8
Mana 1/79 Mana Regeneration 0.000278/sec
Skills
Unique Skills The Eyes of the Demiurge 1/?, Mana Chakram 2/?, Mana Chakram Arts 1/? Skill Book Soul Enlighten Lv. 1/10 Skill book War Blunt Weapon Master Lv. 2/100, Fist Mastery Lv. 1/100, Kick Mastery Lv. 2/100, Throw Mastery Lv. 1/100, Bite Mastery Lv. 1/100, Block Lv. 1/100, Battle Trance Lv. 1/10 Skill book Body Sneak Lv. 2/10, Swimming Lv. 3/10, Running Lv. 2/10, Physical Fitness Lv. 2/100, Waterbreathing Lv. 5/5, Salt Water Drinking Lv. 1/1 Skill Book Assistance Identify Lv. 10/10, Fisheye Lv. 20/20 Skill Book Resistance Poison Resistance Lv. 21/100, Pressure Resistance Lv. 2/100, Cold Resistance Lv. 3/100, Pain Resistance Lv. 1/100, Absolute Mental Resistance Lv. 100/100 Skill Book Magic Inner Mana Manipulation Lv. 2/100, Outer Mana Manipulation Lv. 4/100, Meditation(Mana) Lv. 1/100, Mana Bolt Lv. 4/10, Mana Overload Lv. 1/10 Skill Book Crafting Carpentry Lv. 1/100
The ‘classes’ field was indeed filled, and all his stats also seemed to have had a boost. He even gained a new skill, but with such a name, Adam had no idea what it was supposed to do. Since he was still of his researching mind, curious as he was, he read the skill’s description.
[Divine Skill: Enlighten, Having both mind and soul is what separates the greater ones from the lesser ones; granting both mind and soul is what separates the greatest ones from the greater ones, primary stat: Intelligence, secondary stat: Wisdom, tertiary stat: Vitality]
The System’s description was as cryptic as ever. Whatever ‘granting both mind and soul’ meant, it seemed this skill did it. He supposed he ought to test it before long, as its ‘divine skill’-prefix indicated that it should be something extraordinary. From the skill’s description he supposed that it was a skill that should be used on something, rather than granting him a boost or being used as a means of attack. This target would then be granted ‘both mind and soul’, he supposed. The question was if he had to use it on an inanimate object or a live animal or even human. Did an animal have ‘both mind and soul’ and if it didn't, did it need it? Adam was clueless as to the answer, and he supposed that only experimenting with the skill would point out its exact use.
He still felt a bit conflicted about what happened, but at least he now knew what the stone did. He figured he would first find some test subjects for his new skill and then find out what it did.