A cold aura enveloped the cave. Light was consumed by the beast that stood, waiting for its prey to appear. It’s aura alone was powerful enough to cause cracks within the caves solid walls. The beast was covered in ebony. If it wasn’t aggressive, it could be described as quite beautiful.
Its name is Asunshei. It’s ranking is AA+, a legendary beast that could topple an entire country on its own. Asunshei is the last of his kind, and is the most powerful Estreapseonan ever to be born into [His] planet. Asunshei, unlike most monsters, has an affinity, which is called Kōrudo, an advanced version of the Cold Affinity. Kōrudo is an unequally balanced affinity, which concentrates on attacks rather than defence, however, it’s power is great enough that the extra defences are unneeded. This affinity also has the ability of extending its owners lifespan tremendously, which is how Asunshei is still alive at 40,000 years of age, 4 times an Estreapseonan’s lifespan. Due to Asunshei’s extremely long life, it’s Development on Kōrudo is (Master 8)(74.923362074% / 100.000000000%).
Asunshei radiated a sense of superiority over all other life forms that trek the [Lower Plains]. And one of the life forms that could feel it’s glory was currently hiding from it under a bed. Laurence Cole is currently hiding from Asunshei, who was creeping into the cave. Whenever Time Freeze came off it’s 5 minute cool down, Laurence invoked its power so he could move, even if it was the slightest bit.
Asunshei was gradually coming closer to Laurence. Laurence’s Time Freeze had 30 seconds before it was off cool down, and he must use the window of opportunity that his ability gives him. Asunshei’s ebony armour was a wonderful sight to Laurence, who had never even glanced upon something like it before. Finally, Laurence’s Time Freeze came off cool down. Asunshei was about to look under the bed that was currently disguising Laurence. At the critical moment, Laurence invoked his power and started to make a mad dash to the exit. The colour drained environment of stopped time granted him 0.6 seconds, as he had invoked Times power for the fourth time. He managed to make it out of the campsite by the time colour returned to the environment. Asunshei’s acute hearing allowed him to immediately dash after Laurence. Asunshei’s Kōrudo was invoked, blocking Laurence’s escape from the cave, and Asunshei’s speed skyrocketed, making him appear as if a blur was chasing Laurence. A deep cut from Asunshei’s three sharp claws developed on Laurence’s body, causing extreme pain to him. Dark red blood dripped from Laurence’s wounds, bones sliced in half were showing from within the wound, and three chunks of squishy flesh flopped onto the floor after Asunshei’s claws ripped them off. Laurence toppled over, unable to withstand the sheer pain caused by Asunshei, and he was ready to accept his own demise. Already Asunshei was preparing to attack again, this time ready to strike a vital spot.
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Within the [Lower Plains], a distinct scream rang out from the [Forbidden Cave]. Kailee Jackson, a young 17 year old girl, heard this. Her location was only around 20 seconds away from the [Forbidden Cave], so she immediately rushed towards the cave. Due to her unnatural speed, she managed to make it to the entrance of the cave 10 seconds before a normal person could have. However, Black ice was blocking the entrance. She immediately knew what was going on within the cave, and sliced through the ice wall with her Katana, found within the very same cave.
There was a bloody mess on the right side of the entrance, a nearly dead human with chucks of his body scattered around the cave. Asunshei, a beast Kailee knew well, was feeding on a small chunk next to the runic door. She immediately activated [Silence], a part of her Affinity known as Suterusu, an advanced version of Stealth. She quickly snuck into Asunshei’s cave and grabbed the human’s ragged body, and carried it to the nearest town.
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Calling upon any healers within the town, she received help from one of the more experienced healers in the town. He only had the basic Heal affinity, but he had reached Master 10 with it. This was an amazing feat, as he had to cast 1 trillion spells for 1% at Master 9. The humans body was carried straight to his infirmary, where he attempted to heal the body back into its normal state. Due to the extremely overpowered Master 10’s [Ultimate Restore], the human males body was back to normal within a matter of a few seconds. Of course, this ability had a massive cool down of 5 weeks before it could be used again, but the human was obviously an important figure or going to be an important figure if Asunshei was solely targeting him.
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Laurence woke up, with a young girl on the right of him and an adult male on the right. He immediately invoked Time Freeze and got off the bed that he was laid upon. As soon as Time returned to its natural course, the girl and male looked in shock at him. Of course, this was only natural. A figure who could freeze time within [His] world hadn’t appeared in over 10 million years. The man and girl didn’t know that he had frozen time just then, so obviously they thought his affinity was Supīdo saidai, the most powerful version of the speed affinity, which could cross the entirety of the [Lower Plains] in seconds.
The girl began to speak, “Hey, you, are you alright? You had a close encounter with Asunshei back there”. There was a slight nervousness in her voice, as she was still astounded at Laurence’s speed.
”Asunshei? What’s that? You mean the ebony beast I encountered back there?” Laurence spoke in a deep tone, showing no emotions.
The man on his right spoke, “Asunshei is the name of the AA+ ranked monster that Kailee got you away from. It’s rarley ever seen attacking a single target. Who are you, and are you of any importance to the kingdom? What’s your affinity...?” The man continued rambling on with questions that Laurence could not answer, however he decided to answer the first 3 out of sheer curiosity of how they would react to his affinity.
”My name is Laurence Cole, and as far as I know I am of no importance to this kingdom. My affinity is one that stops time, reverses and accelerates time”
The man was in utter shock. Time? That ridiculously powerful affinity hadn’t been seen since the 1st Civil War! He needed to find out whether he was really telling the truth or not. “Prove it. Extinguish the fire on that candle over there, and return to the same spot. If you affinity is really time you can easily do this, no?”
Instantaneously, the fire was extinguished. Nothing showed that Laurence had moved. The clocks hands did not move even by a second. Laurence spoke in a calm tone, “See? Proven.”
The man was in a state of shock. He was on the floor, trying to process everything that had just happened. The man spoke, “Y... you really shouldn't be so calm about t... that affinity you know?! Time hasn’t emerged for nearly 11 years! You’ll have to report to the adventurers guild, no the magicians guild, no, you have to go to the royal family! This is of extreme importance!”
”I’d really rather just sign up to the adventurers guild thanks!” Laurence’s calm tone deteriorated after hearing that he’d have to go to the royal family just because of his affinity. He assumed that there were more like his though, ones of extreme importance, something like Space or something that could freely manipulate reality.
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Laurence was led to the adventurers guild, where he had his abilities, stats and affinity checked by some kind of machine. All adventurers in the guild hall looked at Laurence with a face that seemed frozen in fear when his affinity was announced. His adventurer rank was G, much higher ranked that the usual starting rank of Z. All of this was because of his affinity. Adventurers asked for demonstrations of his affinity so often that he couldn’t appease all of them due to his cool down
The guild master of the current building eventually had to drag Laurence along to the Royal Capital. A long, 4 day journey was ahead of him, to find out the true importance of his affinity, Time.