Slimy gurgling and groans echoed the clearing bellow the tower. It was midnight, with clear skies the moon shone over the roof the forest. Yet here between the battlements of the tower Arakvili was lying down terrified. Just barely peeking over the ledge looking down into the field.
There was a wild fight occurring. Not only was he originally woken up the banging of some kind of creature on the door bellow, he later found out for it to be a zombie. An actual undead.
Though it didn't shock him to see one. It was still certainly terrifying. The way it crawled around and slammed its body against things while blindly roaming.
And while there were originally perhaps six or seven of them in the field he could see. Some of them were broken down like the corpse he found up here on the roof, yet others still had some more flesh on them, while also carrying armor or weapons.
One that was eye catching before was one with an intact upper body, as in, intact enough to watch its lungs flex up and down as it moved.
However now the sight was even worse, a boar had appeared not long ago, though way bigger than any expected on earth. It was maybe the size of a van, hair black with tusks thick yet broad too. And now the creature was running from one undead to another, flipping them over and stomping on them, before bringing its jaws over and inhaling the walking corpses like noodles.
The crunching of the dead rebound in the ears of Arakvili, still watching. He really didn't know what to make of it, during day there was a giant thing that moves fast as wind yet was fully silent. And now at night there were undead roaming with a boar more monstrous that anything seen before this.
During that time the beast bellow had finished gulping down the last undead, not even having sustained a single hit.
Dumbfounded, Arakvili stayed up there for a little longer. Though soon he drew back from the ledge of the tower and sat down looking up.
Ravens and Crows were circling above, some cried out but most just stayed silent. Yet a few had already settled onto the sides of the tower watching Arakvili. He hadn't noticed them while watching the boar ravage the zombies, yet here they were. It Was eerie, to the point that without even properly getting up Arakvili snuck downstairs again to the second floor.
Up until now he was reading the book though a lot of it was hard to understand, but it was interesting. Looking into the book it covered dark arts. More precisely theurgy and witchcraft. The first few pages were an introduction and a warning of the dangers of tampering with the powers that would follow in the tome, which Arakvili chose to heed well. Despite that he didn't have that much of a choice and proceeded on.
Though he learned a little more on this world, it wouldn't be enough. The only few items listed of the many things in the very first few pages about warding charms and minor spells were cauldrons, chalk and bone dust. Only one of which he knew was there on the first floor.
But among all of what he read, he picked up on 2 things. Firstly he would need a staff in order to invoke the spells he could obtain later, however for those too he would need a lantern to store soul, as the book called it.
‘ Yet now, I don't even have food for myself… ’
Arakvili could only lament now on that, as he went over to the bed to get what little rest was left in this night. Though as he laid down on the bed his hand was cut.
Jumping up and pulling off the dubious leather and string bedsheet. Underneath was a brown cleaver. It was long like a sword, though with a single edge and quite broad. It curved slightly towards the tip.
‘ Damn it… I hope this doesn't get infected ’
Looking at his hand the cut was quite small, however who knows where that cleaver has been, after all hidden underneath a bedsheet on the most crooked bed like thing in history…
He stopped worrying about it and simply pulled the hand closer, whipping the blood out the window hoping that nothing will happen, since he has Nothing.
Arakvili put the cleaver beside the table and set the bedsheet back in place, climbing under the fur blanket, he soon fell asleep…
.
.
.
[ Ding ]
[ Congratulations, You Are The Last Surviving ‘Human’ of Day … ]
[ 1 ! ]
‘ Wha- What the Hell is This? ’
Arakvili who was struck awake from this had a pulsing headache. Early mornings were never something he bonded with, little less this hell where the cold stone numbed his body, while the menial rays of sunlight pierced through the holes in the tower wall.
‘ Fuck… I'm still here… Of Course… ’
[ Confirming… ]
[ You haven't opened the system window 12 Hours, a Reward will be Assigned ]
[ Confirming… ]
[ You Have Established a Settlement, the Final Reward for Human’s will be Assigned ]
“ What! What, ”
Getting up Arakvili looked to see what was going on, what he hearing, but in the end the only thing he found to his shock was a set of gold and black screens flickering. Text of what he heard on them, however another appeared which was not narrated in the constantly changing voice…
[ Accept Rewards? ]
[ Y/N ]
‘ This… ’
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
Swiping at the side of the top few screens, they moved as he willed but not any further than the backmost one, revealing the original full message.
‘ Last surviving human of day 1? This- what do I make of this… There were others but they all died? I'm Alone? h- Will there be more? Damnit… ’
Arakvili racked his head thinking of how this could be justified, but was unable to come to any good conclusion, the only thing he could do now was accept whatever reward this.
Taping ‘Y’ on the Gold and Black screen, they all suddenly disappeared, followed only by a pain like the strike of lightning!
“ Ghahgahr ”
Arakvili yelped, falling to his knees beside the bed. His mind feeling fuzzy and dense, the headache of being suddenly being woken randomly only getting worse.
Now after a minute it all left him, leaving him alone, yet feeling more awake than ever, energized and in peak condition.
[ Your Brondelion Soul has been Promoted to an Auric Soul ]
[ The Divine Throne - Monarch of Humanity ‘ has been generated for You ]
[ Additional Rewards Follow ]
[ Manifested your Aura - Current standing: Rank 1 ]
[ Unlocked Innate Ability ‘Greater Power Storage’ ]
‘ Even more to digest huh… Well atleast with this, ’
Looking down at his hand that was cut, there was no wound. Though it did still feel strange, the energy he feels felt deeply foreign as if it didn't belong here. Most of all now there truly was an energy that wasn't there!
Feeling it was too strange to describe. Like a muscle that covers himself and the world around but faintly. Arakvili flexed it across his arm from where then a golden glow came, fully surrounding his arm as it shone. Though it began to hurt as nothing else changed as far as he could tell, and before he could find out it turned tiring as the glow faded away, the ethereal muscle turning numb...
‘ I’ll have to experiment with these later, but the system nagged at me to use it… Felt like this? ’
Referencing what he felt the system wanted from him as he was woken up from a mundane dream, Arakvili stretched out his arm and called upon it,
“ Atmjn ! ”
Repeating the summoning call that had echoed in his mind, once but never yet? Again, a gold and black screen appeared before Arakvili, however this one contained more information than those before.
----------------------------------------
Current Status:
Name: Arakvili / Age: 21
Divine Throne: Monarch of Humanity
Auric Soul: Endless
Ability: Greater Power Storage
Aura: Rank 1 - 250
Bestiary / Biomes / Compendium / Skills / Crafting
----------------------------------------
‘ I see. So it gives information on me but only that… Apparently I have greater power storage, yet my Aura too is at Rank 1 as this system stated before but, whats the numbers beside it? And Auric Soul. What does endless mean? ’
Taking his time to take in what could be, he didn't rush into pressing the buttons at the bottom line, though came to a single conclusion of many needed.
‘ Assuming the reason I received the title Monarch of Humanity must be because I’m technically the first to establish a place of residence. And the world doesn’t care if that's because everyone else died… ’
He stood there for a while in silence, pondering the state of the fact. Though there was little evidence for this, there wasn't anything to disprove it. Yet now Arakvili shook his head, clicking on the first button on the bottom line, the bestiary.
As he did another gold and black screen opened beside the one active. Yet this one was a menu with unquantifiable amounts of blacked out images neatly placed with all kinds of filters on the side of the window. Yet none could be seen further.
In the same way, the process was repeated for the next 2 screens of biomes and compendium. Being the same type of menu with blacked out visuals, little to nothing else to go off of.
Having diminished hopes, Arakvili closed those screens and opened Skills and Crafting at the same time, yet unlike before these were different.
The Skills menu listed various different abilities like combat, mining, foraging, metallurgy and theurgy. While the crafting menu listed dozens upon dozens of items as well as the things required to create them. However, he had nothing, but despite this he did notice an item that may prove to be essential sooner or later. A woven basket.
Though the basket had various different ways of being created, the simplest was woven with thatch, another material that could be crafted in many ways, yet the easiest was using the tall grass from the clearing outside the tower!
Closing the windows Arakvili began rushing downstairs, yet before he could a blue blur coated his eyes for a second as a disembodied voice in pain was herd once,
{ R-R-R-RELEASE M-M-M-M-ME! }
yet then the black and gold screen appeared again,
[ In order to unlock entries in the Bestiary, Biomes and Compendium categories’ think of ‘Inspect’ when looking at a foreign creature, thing or place. This will unlock the specific entry tied to the inspected element. ]
It sounded joyous, and this time the screen disappeared by itself, confused by the event but unwilling to waste more time on the machinations of the system Arakvili simply rushed downstairs and rummaged through the items. Recalling that there was a Sickle down there he found it where it was last seen. Thankfully.
Picking up the tool he did as the system asked, inspecting the sickle, yet got little back from it except the simple reference, [Rusty Sickle]. However based off experience with games, he expected more information to be stored in the compendium.
Moving outside, it took Arakvili a second to unblock the door as it had gotten stuck from the banging of the undead during the night. Yet pulling it open the clearing was shockingly brimming with life, little rats nearby the edges of the tower wall. With ravens in some visible spaces chewing on leftover shreds of meat the boar didn't gulp down…
[‘Hilled Forest’ added to Biomes]
Although it seemed, peaceful somewhat. Arakvili was still rather terrified of the previous day, the giant lizard and boar. Either of them could be around anywhere, with both having expressed forms of voracity. Every minute spent out here felt like a crime.
Rapidly he ran over to a large shrub of tall grass and swung the sickle hoping to collect the grass. Yet he fumbled detrimentally. The sickle simply slid off as the grass was brushed over no matter how low he went with the sickle.
Embarrassed, he gripped as much of the grass as he could and struck again, this time relying on tension to taut the grass. He failed as the strike of the sickle recoiled from the grass…