Organizing himself, Roan stood up and looked around. He did not see the Apex Beast he had killed, only the large black dragon remained. Looking at the dragon, Roan noticed something strange.
It has a soul?
The aforementioned black dragon stared back at him in what seemed like complete shock and fear. Confused by the sudden happenings, Roan thought, What was with that message about being chosen, transported, and inheriting the system? And what's with this dragon? Usually monsters would attack on sight if you entered there domain and not to mention it had a soul.
Speaking of souls, Roan looked at his to find out it had doubled in size, almost dwarfing the black dragons'. Is this the effect of absorbing that Apex Beast's soul? Hmm... Well, I hope I'm at least out of that exhausting loop now. But, what is this?
First, Roan examined his own status.
Name Roan Race Human Class Apex Level ????? State Well Traits Immortal Body, System Control
It seems like my status has gone through some changes. How about that dragon?
Name Lilith Yden Race Black Dragon Class Dragon Mage Level 300 State Terrified, Relieved Traits Transform, Space Storage, Last to Fall
Well, that's different.
After a couple more moments of thinking, Roan spoke up, "You." His voice was rougher and deeper than he remembered. Nonetheless, the dragon answered in a shaky yet soothing higher pitched voice, "Yes?"
"Where am I?"
Slightly taken aback by the question, the dragon answered him to the best of her abilities.
"You are inside a hidden cave located on an island off of the Southeastern coast of the Mainland."
Hmm... The geography so far sounds the same as Apex, I came here from the Mainland as well. Also, this dragon can talk now? Did a new update come out while I was out? That never happened before. Either way, my mind is exhausted and I need to relax a bit, so I think I'll log out for now... Hm... I can't seem... to find it, or the settings menu for that matter. A glitch? I need more information.
"How did I get here?"
The dragon answered immediately, as if expecting the question, "I'm not too sure myself. I was being chased by a red eyed beast and was backed into a corner until it screamed out, disappeared, and was replaced by you, Master."
If I'm to believe the dragon's words, that would mean that somehow that Apex Beast's death was linked to an update in the system or something else entirely. I'll think more after I rest. But first, a test.
Roan walked up to the cave wall... and punched. *BOOM* The cave suddenly had much more room. Glancing at his fist, he felt little pain and saw no damage. Looks like my body's power improved a bit.
Roan looked at the stunned dragon and said, "I will rest. Do not disturb me." Without looking for an answer, Roan went into the wall indentation, sat against the wall, and closed his eyes.
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A couple of hours later, Roan opened his eyes to find a small young woman with slightly tanned skin and short white hair that went slightly over her blue eyes, bowing on her knees in front of him.
Interested by this new visitor, he checked her status and asked "Who are you?"
"Pardon my late introduction Master, my name is Lilith Yden. I am the black dragon who had answered your questions from before."
I guess that's that transform trait, do all dragons have that?
"What do you want?"
Lilith, still bowing, "I will speak bluntly Master. Please let me become your servant."
Roan, not showing an inckling of surprise, responded "Why?" In Apex, with his semi-immortal body and immense strength, he had always been the target of both admiration and scorn. So, with all things, he had also grown a bit numb to it.
"I do not wish to trick Master, so I will tell him the truth. With your sudden arrival and display of strength from before, I concluded that you were responsible for the beast's disappearance. It had spotted my clan and went on an unexpected rampage in our camp. The only reason why I made it this far was because I escaped during the confusion. It had eventually tracked me down and I thought it was all over until you came, Master." Looking up, smiling through tears, she continued, "You have saved my life Master. That is why, my life belongs to you."
Roan, still stone-faced, contemplated the matter in his head.
I suppose I could use a guide to quicken my intel gathering. Hmm... Her story would also explain why she has the Last to Fall trait as well. Locals could get the trait by being the last member alive of a group. Besides, if she's a threat in the future I'll just kill her.
Roan then turned his attention back to Lilith, "Very well."
Lilith bowed once again with emotion in her voice, "Thank you Master."
Getting up, Roan walked past Lilith and asked, "What are the levels of the monsters on this island?" He wanted to see if they were the same as before. Lilith's level was the same, but that didn't necessarily mean every other monsters' would be.
"Levels Master?"
Right, I suppose monsters wouldn't know. They must go on instinct. Thinking back to his status, Roan remembered he had a another trait called System Control. He brought it up.
System Control
Abilities - Grant, Alter
(Notice: Altering values does not change actual value)
I guess that solves one riddle. He played around with it and found out he was able to change anything in his status. He could give himself a different name, class, and level. He could even make up and take away traits. Although it didn't seem to give him any physical power, it could definitely come in handy. As for grant, he had just the test subject.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
System - Grant Lilith Yden
"Lilith, think of the word 'status' in your head."
Roan then heard a startled Lilith behind him, "Master, something just popped up in front of me. Can Master see it?"
"That's where you find your level Lilith. You can use it on yourself and others to estimate strength."
Lilith, in awe at the screen floating in front of her, asked, "Did Master give this to me?"
"Yes, now go and use it on the monsters of this island and report back."
"Yes Master." Lilith said with an excited bow and left.
I've already hidden my status, so I shouldn't have to worry about others peaking in.
While Lilith was out, Roan searched the cave for clues as to what happened to the world. Everything looked the same as before, nothing seemed out of place. Deciding to hold off on speculations,, he left and collapsed the cave with a couple well placed punches, covering up any tracks of his doings. He then turned around to see Lilith bowing before him ready to report.
Looking for the go ahead, Lilith started, "Reporting to Master, the monsters on this island are all in their high 100s. Nothing seems to be of any threat."
The same again, huh. I will still keep my gaurd up, I still don't know what else is in store.
Wanting to test some theories, Roan went around the island looking for monsters. The first thing he noticed was that every monster had a soul, the stronger ones seemed to have larger souls as well. None of them could even come close to his, but new information nonetheless. When he tried attacking the souls of some monsters, it felt like cutting through butter and the monsters died without making a sound. Then he tried covering monsters' souls with his own and made another discovery. They stopped dead in their tracks, still breathing, but motionless until he uncovered their soul. It would be a dangerous move against beings with souls like his, but to lower souls it would be a way to incapacitate them.
Monsters with souls... I can't log out... Hm. I'll see if I can find any other players first, before I make any assumptions. Also, I wonder why these souls dissapate, but mine kept coming back. Did I go back before my soul was destroyed?
Meanwhile, Lilith was suprised to say the least, that with what seemed like a simple look, Roan could drain the life of monsters. Thusly cementing the idea of him being the cause of the beast's disappearance in her mind.
After finishing up his experiments on the world and souls, Roan thought about the future and asked a very important question. "What year is it?"
On que, Lilith answered, "It is year 512 Master."
That was the start of the game. It had been two years since then. Either Lilith's sense of time was off or I went back only two years with all my stats. Even though the latter doesn't seem likely, I'll keep it in mind for now. But... what if neither of them were true? The only way I can move forward is to look for other players and see if they know anything.
Putting his hand on his chin, Roan continued.
If there are none... that would mean... I've done the stuff of novels and went to another world. All the answers I've gathered seem to be pointing to that as well. I can't log out, the message about transporting, monsters having souls... But the world is the same. To have a world exactly the same as the game, it would prove that there really are an infinite amount of planets out there. If that truly is the case and I've gone to another world, I suppose I wouldn't mind it. It would seem I have much more power in this world than I ever did on Earth. Plus, if the Apex and this world do coincide, I've got 10 years of future knowledge for half the world.
Everytime time was reset for Roan, he would spend around 10 years before challenging the beast again. He stopped at 10 because at the end of the 10 years he slowly lost control of his body until it led itself to the beast. He had thought it had to do something with him only making it 10 years in his first run.
Also, the reason why Roan had said half the world is because there were two super continents in Apex. One, the Mainland, was where all players spawned and explored. It was here where Roan spent his time. The only thing known about the other super continent was that it was on the other side of the world, devoid of civilization. Many players tried to sail to it, only to be caught in storms or eaten alive by sea monsters. It was unkown if anyone had made it there or if there is any life on it in the first place.
For the time being I have two plans. Plan A is to search for players and if that's a bust, then I will have to assume I've gone to a parrallel planet. The plan then would be to explore the world and look for more Apex Beasts. Hopefully, they will have answers for me too. I've killed one already, so I should have the power to challenge more if there are any. As for finding them, I've heard many strange rumors, but have never seen any of them for myself. May as well go ahead and see what I can come up with.
Roan made a mental list of the numerous rumors he had heard and narrowed them down.
Southern Dragons Hidden Dungeon Eastern Elves World Tree Killer Northern Dwarves Snowy Lair Sleeper Western Beastmen Mountain Madness Central Humans Mischevious Shapeshifter
Through his travels, Roan had heard many stories from players or in bars about various supernatural events happening in each direction. Roan had killed an Apex Beast in the southern dragon area, so he figured there might be one in each direction. As for the others, the Elves' World Tree had said to have had been dying for a while, there was an eerie snoring coming from the northern grottos, travelers were known to gone mad in the eastern mountains, and there was talk of a shapeshifter who liked to stir up central.
With these plans in mind, I'm not going to be stepping back into the southern area for a while, so first let's see if Lilith needs anything here. It's annoying to dwell on the past.
Even though Roan was apathetic to many things, he still had the sense to let people mourn. If her story was true, she would probably want to say goodbye to her family and gather her things.
Turning to Lilith, he stated, "We will be moving out soon. Do what you need to do."
As if understanding his intention, she replied, "Thank you Master" and bowed. Struggling to leave, she looked back and respectfully asked, "If it's not too much trouble, could Master come with?" Her voice was shaking with anxiety. Whether it's due to seeing the wreckage of her clan or troubling her new Master, it was hard to guess.
With nothing else to do, Roan simply nodded and Lilith smiled gratefully.
Lilith transformed back into her dragon form, bent down, and said to Roan, "Master, please get on my back." He jumped up and softly landed on what seemed like the most stable spot for flying. They soon took off, flying for the southern area.
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Seeing the rate at which they were traveling, Roan's opinion of Lilith went up a bit.
I suppose her speed will help me travel the continent faster. Although a flying dragon will attract unwanted attention in the northern areas.
A couple of hours later Lilith had landed in the ruins of her clan. Massive bodies were strewn everywhere, black dragon blood and guts were thrown about. Roan hopped off, stood to the side, and let Lilith deal with her own problems. He had seen enough betrayal and death throughout his runs to last more than a couple lifetimes. Even though it was just a game, it felt real for him, as it did many others.
Meanwhile, Lilith looked around to see the carnage wrecked upon her clan...
Black Dragons were very high up in the dragon community and so was the standard that they needed to live up to. Unfortunately for many, those that did not meet those standards were abandoned or straight up killed. Even though Lilith's dragon form may be considered big to some, she was considered a runt by her own, and was thus abandoned. She lived by picking up the scraps of the clan and scurrying out of sight when the larger ones came close. Once she was big enough to survive on her own, Lilith ventured out to the various unexplored islands, slowly gaining strength. Once she felt like she had gained sufficient strength, she went back to her clan planning on passing as a wandering dragon to see how she fared against the other dragons. But instead, she witnessed the massacre of her clan. She flew until she couldn't fly anymore and hid herself in an island cave she had once found. That was when she met Roan.
Only when Lilith stumbled on the corpses of her parents, did she shed a single tear. Although they had abandoned her, her parents were reluctent to part with her until they threw her out to save her from the clan elder's wrath. Even if it was for a small time, she felt the warmth of a family and was saddened by their death. After burying her own parents and saying goodbye, she looked upon the rest of the clan, "Time to loot."
Roan watched as Lilith went around taking everything that had any sort of value. Jewels, gold, silver and ores were swept away swiftly by her soul storage. After a while, even Roan was a bit surprised, How big is her space storage? During his runs with unique magic, Roan was also able to create a space storage, but it was only as big as a small apartment. By the looks of Liliths', it would seem as if she could store the whole building.
Hmm.. flying and a huge space storage. Having a dragon serve under you has it's perks.
Storing the majority of wealth the Black Dragons had collected, Lilith then turned her eyes to the elder's corpse. She turned back to Roan and explained, "Master, the hardest part of the black dragon is their tail and is a great material for creating weapons and armor."
Understanding what she was getting at and wanting to test his strength some more, Roan walked over to the elder, who was as large as an office building, and punched the base of his tail. With extreme precision, the tail cleanly seperated from the body.
Amazed by Roan's power yet again, Lilith expressed her thanks and quickly stored the tail.
After doing one last sweep, Lilith bent down near Roan and said, "I'm ready, Master."
Hopping on, Roan commanded, "Then we leave for Central."