Day 88: The addiction is worsening. I awoke this morning to my hand spitting flames, my sheets reduced to ash. Bare naked, covered in soot. I don't even remember when I recovered enough energy through the night to release more flames. Even as I write this now, I find myself unable to sit still, craving that taste of power over the origin. Craving to look at the beauty of that purplish-red heat again and again. Yet I mustn't, I must save my energy for combat or a rainy day in these troubled times. Yet still, the cravings continue. I yearn for it so much. The sense of power flooding my very being to the depths of my soul... I don't know how much longer I can last, but the windows are getting shorter still.
Day 92: I did it! I met others, the same as me! I wondered if they could teach me control or did they suffer the same as me? Unfortunately, I never got the answer to that question, the person was a father escorting his family through a horde of those evil dogs. They caught up to him, and he perished with his family into their bloody maws. Another day, my food is running low, tomorrow I must leave the apartment to look for food again.
Day 97: I saw a monster today, it was horrifying. It had four reddish black wings, a humanoid figure covered in black scales and looked twice my size. I felt something familiar from the creature. The power of fire, but unlike the warmth and comfort that flame now usually brings me, that thing's fire was cold and dark, very scary. I only saw it from a distance but I could tell it was strong. I must not go southeast! I must not go southeast! I don't want to ever come face to face with that thing. Though It seems to be looking for something, I wonder what it is?
Day 101: I thought it would take longer but I met others again, another with superpowers. Sadly, they weren't very nice and wanted to kill me for no reason. We have no grudges so I can't understand why. Fortunately, I had to trek through the city today so I slept in a cramped room with hot coals and a lit fire last night. It was hard to breathe but it worked well enough, the warmth was comforting enough to stave off the urges. Although tired, I had enough energy to put up a fight and I severely injured the brutish fellow, if he hadn't shamelessly pulled a gun, I would have won no questions asked. But I had to run away. Bullets are still too much. One day I'll melt even bullets flying at me!
Day 105: I heard something amazing! Not only are there a lot more people like me than I had initially expected but there is even a method to create more! I followed the brutish fellow to get some revenge but I decided it wasn't worth it, it's not that everyone in his team has machine guns and rifles, no I'm simply the bigger man. When I was leaving though, one of his underlings mentioned a meet. With someone he calls the ghost-faced prick. That person will help them and others obtain more superpowers! How is that possible? More so, how does he know how to do that? Does he know more things? Can he help me? I'm going to follow them and find out!
Lucas was a bachelor who moved to the city for a good job and education, his family was in the countryside. When the apocalypse began, he was in the work bathroom stall sitting down. Then a flying ball of purple-red flames came from nowhere and disappeared inside him, ever since then he had the power to produce those flames.
He was overjoyed in gaining superpowers, maybe he could become a superhero. Excitedly, he tested his power on many things and found his flames were quite hot and could even melt concrete and metal but these same flames did nothing to his own body, it was amazing!
But when he started he couldn't stop, every day he tested his power for hours until he ran dry and had to wait to recover. Once, if it wasn't for his hunger he would wait in place for this to happen, not moving at all like a stone. Fortunately, the need for food meant he had to conserve energy and go out.
Because of them, the monsters that roamed the streets.
There were soft gooey blue slimes as big ottomans that could dissolve you with acid that wandered everywhere like mindless zombies. But the real dangerous ones were mixed among them, semi-physical dog like creatures made of a water like substance with great senses of smell.
He had seen them rip people limb from limb in seconds. Their blue bodies turning red from the blood as they swallowed the pieces. Without his flames, he wasn't confident in searching for food with them around. So he had to hold it in.
His workplace didn't provide lunch so there were no facilities with stockpiled food, so he had to go out pretty early. It worked out well for him that usually once he scorched a few dogs the rest would get scared and avoid him. After a while, they all knew his face in the region and treated him like the plague. He slipped back into his uncontrollable urges.
The days passed by and he encountered various groups but they were all wary of him, until the most recent conflict he never had many problems with anyone. Perhaps it was a good thing he was provoked, otherwise he would have never followed them and overheard such a curious bit of information.
Lucas stealthily followed his begrudged enemy until he met with a crowd. It didn't seem to be what he was waiting for, in fact, it seemed they were all waiting for the same person.
‘There’s so many people here! Are they all going to get superpowers?!’
Lucas focused his hearing, ever since he got superpowers he found that his other senses were enhanced as well. He noticed that most of the persons were from the other fragmented city that was nearby and not his own, there were many unfamiliar faces.
**
“Hah. That fucker is not here yet? Who does he think he is?”
“Cork it, we're the ones buying what he's selling. Besides, say that to his face, I dare you.”
“Like hell he dares, someone acted out and called him names and the crazy bastard killed him on the spot. The pretty redhead begged a few times but he didn't even listen to her.”
Lucas saw several groups huddled together, clearly divided into several factions. His enemy was among them leading one of the bigger groups.
“Please. Bullying some weaklings, even I can do that. Haven't you heard, the Named Monsters. He’s picking them off one by one, he did in Batrick the Fiend a few days ago and those chicks of his are doing a number on the local monster population. The death beetles are are getting stomped like insects again.”
They were likely discussing the person who could give superpowers. Lucas too knew of named monsters, they were like the flying scaled figure he saw before, unique. Unlike the slimes and wild water dogs, there was only one of each named monster. And they were all very strong. Lucas had faced one that was like an octopus on land and it was a difficult battle, he barely managed to defeat it but it ran away before he could finish it off. It was a pity, sometimes cards dropped when he killed monsters.
Was that person so strong?
“Can't complain if he's making the streets safer.”
“Yea. Keep thinking that.”
“Get a load of the babes that he brings with him though eh, the redhead temptress is one thing but the blonde goddess ouuuwee!”
“Shh, Here he comes.”
The crowd quieted down as a large RV approached, its huge tires easily rolling over the rocky landscape covered with tall tufts of grass and pebbles, the glowing four-foot tall mushrooms that poisoned a lot of hungry men were also crushed by the weight of the vehicle but popped right back up after it passed over.
They watched with envious gazes as the luxurious motorhome came to a stop, its beautiful exterior, cozy roof lounge, and exotic features were well presented. They didn't recognize the model of the vehicle but they could tell it was definitely great inside, a mobile mansion. Nevertheless, they didn't dare have any fanciful thoughts as O’Brien had already taught them several lessons of blood so they simply waited in silence.
But the person they were waiting for didn't immediately come out.
O’Brien sat cross-legged in deep meditation in his king-sized bed.
His inner vision focused on his aperture. The fantastical organ was largely the same with a huge transparent grey dragon head hoisted up in one corner, the body of the dragon encasing the aperture forming a sturdy outer wall.
He could hear the faint slosh of the waters against the inner aperture walls, like waves colliding with the shore but it was quite gentle. A yellow cloud floated mischievously in the aperture sky, making various different shapes and shrinking and enlarging to different sizes. Still unable to figure it out, O’Brien simply ignored it.
The light ash grey waters contained within indicated he hadn't made much progress in his cultivation and was still an initial stage Card Apprentice. A distance away from the deeper medium ash grey of the next stage or the dark ashy grey that Rose possessed.
The dragon’s nostrils flared as it breathed in and out at a unique tempo, the surface seawater evaporated into moist vapor and rushed towards the dragon's nostrils. As it breathed out countless droplets condensed above the aperture and like rain, fell back into the ash-grey waters sinking to the bottom.
If you looked closely you could find the depth of color of these droplets deepening in comparison to the original card essence.
‘It really is slow, even my shitty technique was faster than this at the start.’
Though that speed had come at a heavy price.
Although the breathing method enabled exceptional all-around improvement, he couldn't help but be discouraged by the unbelievably slow pace. At the current pace, it might take several weeks to just go up a single stage. Crossing realms will take even longer.
Little did he know that his progress was already incredibly fast. O’Brien had a lot more card essence than anyone in the Card Apprentice stage his aperture was six times the normal size. Moreover, his essence reserves penetrated an astonishing thirteen layers, even Celes had only nine. So it would normally take a longer time than usual to transform his sea of ashes to the next stage yet he was actually a lot faster than Rose and the others who were using a White Silver Grade breathing method. But naturally, he had no way of knowing this since he couldn't yet compare with them such subtle changes.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
O’Brien ended his meditation finding the girls waiting on him looking quite bored. He nodded to them and exited the vehicle to the eagerly awaiting crowd.
O’Brien looked over the crowd with a smile, as expected, of the original persons he gave tickets to obtain superpowers, only 40% remained, the current holders of the same tickets were entirely different people.
Still, this didn't interest him very much.
He plopped down on a nearby rock,
“There are some extra faces without tickets. You planning on buying new spaces?”
By now word had spread about O’Brien's existence as he had hoped, increasing his customer base although not many people could afford what he was selling.
Several people raised their hands and a few didn't.
“Mr Grey Scales.” One man who looked like a burn victim with vicious eyes spoke out softly. O’Brien’s eyebrows twitched at the strange nickname.
“I would like to request treatment.” His head turned to the blonde beauty who was now wearing tight black and brown leather clothing changing from her doctor's attire to casual clothes.
O'Brien passed over several other persons with severe and fresh injuries who seemed to be there for the same reason.
He wasn't the only one that was famous.
“You know the price.” He talked to the eager man.
“Yes Grey Ash cards, I got them.”
“Me too.”
“I have information.”
Several others spoke up as well.
O’Brien waved impatiently and collected from them one by one. He paused upon collecting a particular Grey Ash card before continuing. As he finished, he looked at a few persons, while no one dared pull any tricks on him now for cards, information was another matter since it could sometimes be hard to verify.
He had to sift through their words well to see how much was bullshit.
“Rejected.”
“Rejected.”
“Rejected.”
“Hm? Say again?” After turning away several people, he stopped at a nervous looking highschool girl who stammered continuously but finally spoke clearly when he was beginning to get impatient.
“Ah yes, I saw a place underground filled with rhombus-shaped purple stones at the edge and pure white cylindrical crystals at the center. It was weird, they must be naturally occurring but the shapes are uniform and not rough at all.”
No way…
“Were those purple crystals filled with red veins and the white crystals about this size with some spots of light inside?” O’Brien gestured and sincerely hoped they were what he was thinking of.
Seeing the girl nod furiously he held his chin as he pondered the distance between locations and the viability of her words. He asked her for more details.
“You did well, that's enough to heal and to awaken. Go over there with the others. You don't need a ticket.” O’Brien could barely contain his excitement realizing what she said was likely true. She couldn't describe the crystals so well if she hadn't seen them. His stingy nature even dissipated as he generously included her in the awakening pool.
Lea came over to the dazed girl who was clearly uninjured and brought her away followed by Roya as her guardian.
The New World bred certain resources from time to time, in certain special areas or random areas. Like cards, at times the resources disappeared after one harvest, on other occasions, they were like a deep mine able to be continuously harvested. Many of these were card activation materials.
“Is it something valuable?” Rose looked over curiously, it was rare to see O’Brien so excited.
He nodded in response.
‘It's valuable. Very valuable.’
The purple stones were called deep sun crystallizations and they could substitute all or most activation requirements for some fire-attributed cards. They were special grade resources that were effective for Tiers 0 to 3.
The white crystals were even more amazing, they could advance one's cultivation by speeding up the nourishment of one's card essence allowing the sea of ashes to nurture the aperture walls to their limit at a rapid pace. These were also special grade resources but they were exclusively a Tier 2 resource although their rarity was Tier 3.
He had seen both resources for sale in an auction, they each fetched sky-high prices enough to arm a team of Card Experts to the teeth.
The energy in a single crystal was immense and for Card Apprentices like them, it was godsend.
O’Brien was worried about his cultivation and now someone brought him a pillow when he was sleepy. He couldn't be more happy. Eager to get things over with, he waited for the women to shout out orders for him. This was already their 4th batch of persons so his excitement faded, no longer conducting things himself, this was also the last batch of persons.
He was unwilling to lower his price and the region couldn't afford to support any more card masters.
‘It might be a good thing though, I don't want to interfere with the timeline too much, if things don't happen as I expect then I'll be giving up a lot of my advantages. I already have what I wanted the most but still, far from a benefits standpoint, I don't want to provoke any trouble. I would hate to see the Krul Race make their move early, even worse, provoking any demons. Unlike most other transcendent races, demons have weaklings among them too but even those weaklings are a hell of a pain to kill. Those evil bastards are also a conniving lot.’
The descent of certain alien races on Earth was noteworthy to humans for several reasons, but the most important one was that they bordered off territory and killed all those within said territory. A few relatively early calamities were the Krul Race of fire elemental lifeforms who terraformed their environments inducing volcanic eruptions and demons who kept human farms.
Thinking of this, O’Brien resolved to make this the very final batch of his card master awakening package. No matter how much anyone paid he wouldn't continue here or elsewhere. He wanted to keep a low profile until he was at least Tier 3 and had enough self-protective ability to not worry about most alien races, his natal card would also begin to truly show its edge at Tier 3.
As a Tier 0 Card Apprentice, he was barely able to scratch the surface of the true power of his natal card.
There were too many alien races that were practically unbeatable unless you could overwhelmingly crush them or knew of their very specific weaknesses.
The Gaewul or Dimensional Goblins for instance were so frustrating that no one dared be near them, humans and aliens alike. They could conceal themselves in space itself making it impossible to harm them, ambushing their prey while in hiding. They were just one of many nuisances he hoped to avoid.
Unbeknownst to O’Brien, Celes was doing things quite flamboyantly and had no such concerns. But the timeline was indeed deviating, on O’Brien’s end far away in the depths of the underground, corpses piled high, atop of them was an ominous black cocoon, the original sickle beetle who materialized from her card in the Genesis Cardfall, and the Queen Mother of all the rampant sickle beetles. She was already breaking her first racial limit and about to achieve the second tier of transcendence.
O’Brien never had time to search for the Queen after the Prime Terraforming Event and her location was still unknown to him. He ignored her and let it be someone else's problem but little did he know that she would soon become his problem.
On Celes’s end, a certain existence opened its eyes that was hiding high up in the sky completely invisible with the backdrop of clouds. Her troubles would erupt far quicker than O’Brien’s.
**
The noonday sun was high up in the cloudless sky, the yellow rays glittered against the surface of the RV, like yellow diamonds embedded on the blue-white exterior of the vehicle.
When Lea and Roya came back after going to heal the young schoolgirl's relatives, they returned with all of them in tow. It must have been quite the distance as apart from the two women everyone was soaked in sweat.
The subtle wind was the only blanket of comfort for them as they stood in the wide open land at the meeting spot as selected by O’Brien. He wasn't one to underestimate anyone, underestimating Blessed Ones, especially those in groups would not be a wise move.
He chose this location to avoid being ambushed on all sides.
The two women quickly found a place for the young girl and her family. The men's hawk-like gazes were filled with both admiration and naked desire looking at Lea but Roya’s intimidating presence forced them to look away. While O’Brien was the greatest factor against open mutiny, individual transgressions like rude glances and statements towards them were handled by Roya.
The two then proceeded to manage the crowd in a practiced manner.
“Those who aren't awakening stay here as usual. We'll be back soon. The rest of you line up one by one and enter the RV, there's too many of you so don't move around and knock against anyone, otherwise if you fall over on each other you'll stay that way until we get to our destination.” Roya crossed her arms and showed off her large silver bow attached to her back, coldly glancing at everyone, daring them to try anything funny.
Rose stood at the door directing them inside, while Lea and Jules tightly blindfolded them wrapping the top half of them like mummies ensuring they could see nothing.
Soon afterwards they departed.
But not long after, a few hours later mid-journey O’Brien's voice sounded out, “Stop the RV.”
The brakes grinded to a halt.
“Huh, what gives?”
The strawberry blonde driver who called dibs on the wheel was peeved although she had listened.
“Is there trouble?” Roya quickly grabbed her bow.
Rose also looked alert.
O’Brien didn't answer but instead left the RV, he looked over to a toppled building.
“Well? You going to follow us for any longer?”
“...”
Lucas slowly poked his head out looking quite surprised.
But I was stealthy.
He thought in confusion. He did trip a few times but that was far away when he wasn't as close as now. This huge RV was fast despite its heavy frame.
Still, he didn't want to provoke the white-haired fellow with sickly skin. Even his scummy foe who fought dirty was like an obedient puppy in front of him, that must mean he was very dangerous.
As he drew closer with his hands up, O’Brien’s eyes widened seeing Lucas's true appearance.
This was a face he recognized.
‘Stovetop Lucas? Lucas the Pyromaniac? Why's this crazy bastard here?’
Lucas was a feared God's Favoured who went around picking fights and setting people on fire for no apparent reason. Fire was his joy and Arson his hobby. Still, despite his unsound mind he survived even 15 years later along with O’Brien. Many stronger than him couldn't say the same.
It took O’Brien a little while to realize that this wasn't the Lucas he knew, or to be more accurate, this Lucas hadn't gone completely mental just yet, his face was in one piece and he didn't have his signature ugly burn scars.