After walking for a good 3 hours, I could see the sky turn black to blue. The sun would be out soon and I saw the vague outlines of a few houses at the distant. Relived at thought of meeting actual people after long hours of solitude, I made a mad dash towards the silhouettes.
As I entered the town, I met with an odd sight. I had initially thought to see people walking around, greeting each other in the early morning. But I could see no people. I knocked at a few building that looked like houses, only to find no responses. Some of the doors to the buildings were left wide open. I called out in the air but no one responded to my cries. I had entered a ghost town.
My hopes for meeting people who would help me understand where I was, was crushed by the old empty town. As the sky became brighter gradually, I could see motes flying in the air. Every building was covered by a blanket of dust. No one has entered this place for years.
I took out the map to see if I was in the right place. I scanned the whole map only to find the dot right between the clusters of houses I had selected to visit. I was in the right place, but it seemed everyone in the down had left for some unknown reasons.
The sound of heavy footsteps made me lookup. I put the map away before running towards the sound. Right around a tall building, a tall hooded man was standing with his head down. I was at first ecstatic, but my enthusiasm was quickly replaced with a sense of danger.
If the whole town was empty, why was he here?
“Hello?” I said, so softly that I was afraid he couldn’t hear.
“My, what do we have here? A little human?”
The way the man spoke made me anxious. Since he referred to me as a human, I knew he wasn’t one. The man looked up at me, and I saw a pair of bright yellow eyes shine even though it was dark. His pale skin, clear even in the darkness.
Vampyr: Creatures of the night that feed on the blood of other living beings. They are strong, fast and really hard to kill. Their body must first be purified with fire and holy water before they can be attacked with melee weapons. Liable to disintegration under sunlight.
I felt a load slowly weigh me down as I visualized myself to be this things dinner.
The vampyr spoke to me, his voice sounding like the hiss of a snake, “It has been over 50 years since I have found such a scrumptious meal. All the town’s folks had fled after I had killed most of them.”
So that was the reason the town was empty. The folks who were living here didn’t leave suddenly, they fled for their lives from this monster.
I looked around frantically to find a way out. In the distance, I saw a construct with a large dome and a cross with a star sign in the middle. Imaging to be this world’s version a church, I ran towards it, full speed, hoping to find holy water that may save my life. But when I was only just a few meters away from the entrance of the church, the vampyr appeared in front of me from a screen of black mist. With my blade in hand, I tried thrusting it into the vampyr’s neck. When my dagger touched his skin the blade made a clack and vibrated making the blade sing. It was as if I had attacked a wall.
I took a step back, trying to understand what had just happened. But the vampyr didn’t wait and hit me so hard in the stomach, sending me flying straight and breaking right through a wooden door. I rolled on the dusty floor inside the building before coming to a stop after hitting a brick wall. As I laid on the floor, my whole body aching, blood trickling down my skin from several bruises and cuts, I thought of my death back on earth. I told myself I wasn’t going to die here and tried standing only to fall back down. I most likely had a fracture in my leg as I felt as if someone had hit it with a sledgehammer and when I tried to move and had a few broken ribs as it hurt me even as I bleed. Even with [Rapid Healing] I knew it was going to take some time to heal, but I had none.
“Machina, can you put… 8 points… in [Rapid Healing]?”
Confirm.
I felt a burning sensation in my chest that slowly got bigger and spread throughout my body. Machina had thankfully done what I had asked her. I could feel my wounds closing and my broken bones reforming rapidly. After a few seconds, I tried standing again and succeed this time, though I still felt an ache in my leg. I wanted to wait until it was fully healed, but I didn’t have time. The vampyr had entered the house through the broken door. He smiled at me, revealing two large canines. As I struggled to breathe, I noticed a cloud of white smoke hindering my sight ever so slightly. But when I took in the scent of the powder, I realized it was flour. I looked around to see several piles and a few sacks of white flour around me. At the far corner of the room there was an old-looking brick oven and beside the oven, a table with a few baking instruments littering the top.
The vampyr had thrown me into the town’s bakery. I touched a heap of flour beside me. It was very finely ground. Instantly I had an idea. Picking up a metal poker that was lying beside me, I mentally told Machina to place 5 points in [Thermal Fluctuation] and 5 in [Pain Nullification]. I looked at the vampyr and returned his smile before striking the poker and my dagger together, creating a small spark.
Within the next second, a huge explosion was created by the finely ground flour. The boom of the explosion had ruptured my ears, and I could only hear a sharp sound within. The smoke created by the explosion had blocked my sight. I waited until the smoke cleared. When it did, I looked around me and saw the walls, ceiling and everything else in the room had been obliterated to splinters, rubbles and ash. There were several holes in the wall, allowing the morning sunlight to enter.
It was after I walked out of the house did my hearing returned and felt growing pain in my arm. I looked down and saw, I was missing my left forearm. It was completely pulverized in the explosion. Only chucks of flesh and the end of the bone can be seen. And the wound wasn’t even healing. I realized that [Rapid Healing] only healed cuts and wounds. It didn’t replace entire limps. But I wasn’t going to give up and live this new life I was given with 1 arm. So I invested two more points in the skill, filling up all the slots.
Skill:[Rapid Healing] evolved to [Regeneration]
Skill: [Regeneration] Heals wounds and completely replaces damaged organs and limbs and even grows new ones if lost. Removes fatigue and poison effects.
Slowly but surely, I saw my muscles and tissues growing back. They twisted, joined and separated, creating a disgusting dance of flesh. In about two minutes or so, my arm had fully regrown. I flexed my arm and moved my fingers to see if it had actually grown and not some illusion, and sure enough, it was real. I was so relieved and surprised at the same time. If I hadn’t invested the last 2 points, I might’ve never known that skills could evolve and have ended up living life with only one arm.
A dull sound made me look away from my arm. Within arm’s length, the vampyr was trying to crawl away. It’s once pale skin had turned reddish black. It looked hideous as if a moving mass of burnt flesh. With my dagger still in hand and the blade only slightly dulled, I bent down and thrust the blade deep into the vampyr’s back. My dagger met no resistance this time and it cut clean through. And unlike last time, I knew what I needed to do.
In a low voice, I said, “Reap.”
Like last time, I felt warmth throughout my body only for a second. The vampyr, exhaling one final time, died.
Skill: [Diamond Skin] acquired. Increases the density, durability and hardness of the user’s skin
Skill: [Herculean Strength] acquired. Greatly increases the user’s strength.
Skill: [Shadow Walk] acquired. Enables the user to travel a certain distance with great speed by tuning their body into a cloud of mist. During this form, the user is impervious to attacks. Beware: You can only travel in a straight line. Current Distance: 5 meters. [Active]
The skills I had gained, were very impressive, to say the least. [Shadow Walk] seemed to be the skill the vampyr used to close the gap between us. And the two other skill explained why he was invulnerable to my dagger and was able to send me crashing through a solid wooden door. I opened my screen to see if I had any accomplishments and sure enough, there were.
Congratulations! You have levelled up to 16. 18 skill points gained.
Accomplishment achieved.
Kill your first rare monster [5 skill points gained]
Kill a monster above 30 levels than you [15 skill points gained]
Reach level 10 [5 skill points gained]
Reach level 15 [5 skill points gained]
Gain a rare skill [4 skill points gained]
Evolve a skill for the first time [5 skill points gained]
Total skill points: 79
Excited by my new found skills, I wanted to try it out immediately. But since [Diamond Skin] and [Herculean Strength] seemed to be passive skills that I knew what they did, I decided to try [Shadow Walk] since it was something no one would be able to do in my previous world, after making sure the vampyr was dead and moving a few feet away from it just to be safe. I focused on the point where I wanted to travel which was within the 5 meters away I guess. For the first few tries I called out the skill’s name out loud but nothing happened. But after the fifth try, I felt the whole world closing on me as if someone was squeezing my surroundings. And then in only a second, I was standing where I wanted to.
I was overjoyed by my achievement and punched up in the air and jumped around a few times. After the effect of the adrenaline subsided, I got to more practical problems in hand. I looked back at the vampyr’s corpse. As the sun rose higher in the sky, smoke was rising from it and the body was slowly contorting into a mush. I understood the vampyr’s physiology better as I watched the mush blacken and shrivel into ash. The description was accurate. Even the corpse of the vampyr turned to ash in the sunlight. Looking one last time at the vampyr’s body that had now turned completely to dust and was being carried away by the morning breeze, I walked away to seek shelter in one of the abandoned houses.
I entered a small dusty brick house. The air was heavy as if it hadn’t moved for centuries. After finding the living room and opening the closed windows to let the morning light and air to enter, I pulled a chair to a table and once again opened the forest map. The dot still showed that I was currently in the small collection of houses, a little lower to the right than my previous position. I had travel for maybe 9 miles before reaching this town. The next town, Bellmoral was further southeast near the end of the forest. With some mental calculation, I estimated that it would take me at least a week, more if I take rest somewhere in between. With my new skill [Shadow Walk] the time should decrease if I levelled it up a few times. So with my next destination set, I moved on to something else. Resources. And that resource being anything useful or that could deal damage. Because, from what I have seen so far, everything in this world may be vicious and bloodthirsty.
So I took my time and searched the whole town, from the houses to the larges structure that most likely served as the town hall. It took me till late afternoon before I finished. I had found about 250 gold coins curtsey of the town’s bank, some band-aids, preserved herbs and red liquid in glass containers that Machina said were portions that healed grave wounds instantly from what seemed like a pharmacy, some books on Igdis and its history along with a book with the basic and advanced uses of Magicite from the town’s library and a pair of old and slightly rusty long swords and metal stakes. No food though, which I had expected since no one was in town for 50 years. I hadn’t had breakfast or lunch. So I greedily ate two of the rations. While searching the town, I had found a broken and dusty mirror which I had used to see my reflection. Honestly, I was surprised by my new looks. I was tall, lean, well-toned and a moderately handsome face. I was relieved to find out that I wasn’t ugly or anything.
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As I ate, I spoke to Machina, this time out loud, with my full of dried beef jerky, “Machina, you talked about something called ‘Magicite’. What is that?”
Magicite is the naturally occurring particles that can be used to perform and assist in array spells and rituals.
“And the crystal I found in Garth’s bag?”
A condensed and rare form of the Magicite. The crystal can be used to create various Magicite imbued swords or used in advanced and complicated rituals.
Though I didn’t quite understand, or the use of ‘spells’ and whatnot, I did get the overall meaning. This Magicite was a type of medium that allowed these unexplainable things I saw in the past days like the wolves and that vampyr. I hoped to get a further understanding of all these in the future after reading the books.
After the meal, I focused on other matters, which was the investment of the skill points. I had got my first attack and defensive skill. They were vital if I got attacked by some other stronger creature. I may not even have time to invest as I could very well be dead.
So I invested 5 in [Herculean Strength] and 5 in [Diamond Skin] for combat and defence, 5 in [Shadow Walk] in case I needed to evade an attack, 8 in [Regeneration] if my limbs get torn in battle and to regrow it quickly, 5 in [Stealth] and 3 in [Enhanced Senses] as I wanted to avoid fighting as much as possible, thus fully levelling it up. But to my demise, it didn’t evolve.
I guess not all skills can evolve.
I was left with 46 skill points. I wanted to invest them in my other skills, but I decided to do it later, as some of the skills may not be as useful as I imagined. The sun was still up but would probably set in a few more hours. So, I decided to seek shelter here. Better to stay in a safe area than in a place with unknown monsters lurking inside. Since there was light, I took the opportunity to read books. With the help of [Sage’s Wisdom], I quickly finished the history books.
The world I was in was Igdis, as I was told by Machina. It’s quite similar to 18th century Europe. Magicite is said to have existed as long as time itself. After men had claimed the topmost position of stature in the world, monsters started attacking them, threating to overthrow man from its chair. They were almost successful as well, about a century ago during ‘The Great War’ which was a full-on scale of man vs. monsters. Half the world’s population of man had died. But mankind held its own with the help of other ‘races’ and are still recovering from its major loss.
The history of this world was pretty dark grim. I wouldn’t have been able to live back on earth if things were like this. No man wants to live their life knowing only battle and death.
With a heavy sigh, I closed the book and sat still for a minute, trying to ward away the sad and pitiful thoughts. But even after, I still couldn’t get what I had read out of my head. Like in my world, people here have seen the gruesome side of war. But they didn’t fight for land. They fought for life itself. And that can be even scarier.
Wanting to stop thinking all of this, I opened the book on Magicite. I read the introduction swiftly. It said talked about the things that Machina already told me. It said that Magicite was a gift granted by the Supreme God. It holds the power to shift reality according to the bender’s will. Magicite was mainly used as a mean of weapon against the monster terrorizing the nation. But when I got to actual spells, I couldn’t understand a thing. It took me a minute of raking my head did I understand why. My skill [Sage’s Wisdom] allowed me to read simpler things faster and complicated things more clearly. That was the reason I completed the history book in just 2 hours. With that in mind, I placed 3 points into the skill and read the book again. The texts began to make some sense to me. Pleased with the results, I invested 5 more into the point. The text became clearer and easier to read.
The book talked about honing the Magicite and making them do what I wanted. It was like performing telekinesis on something to make it do other things. In about an hour, I finished the book thanks to [Sage’s Wisdom].
Using what I know, I wanted to try and manipulate Magicite. The first and simplest of the things written in the book was using the Magicite to create fire. Unable to just sit and waste the day while I could enlarge my arsenal and prepare myself for any unforeseen danger, I went outside the house I was in, afraid that I may burn the house down and in turn, the whole town. I stood in the empty road outside the house and took a few deep breathes to calm my nerve. It was early evening. In two to three hours, the sun would set. So I needed to do whatever I wanted quickly.
I opened my palm and focused. I tried feeling the Magicite around my hand. After much concentration and time, I felt it. Smaller and finer than sand, specks of what felt like raw power dancing ideally in the air, never stopping.
Skill: [Magicite Sense] acquired.
Enables a person to sense Magicite in their surroundings more clearly.
I stopped my training and smiled as a drop of sweat rolled down my nose before dripping off the bridge of my nose. I placed 5 points into my new skill and tried again. This time, I sensed the Magicite better. It appeared as a speck of light to me. It helped me focus better. I forced the Magicite surrounding my hand to gather at a single point. It felt as if I was trying to push a wall rather then pushing a speck. But I kept trying. And slowly, my effort gave fruit. The specks started moving slowly and created a single large speck right in the middle of my palm.
Skill: [Magicite Manipulation] acquired.
Let’s a person move the mythical Magicite and do as the bender wishes. [Active]
Unable to hold the speck any longer, I released it and the speck quickly disintegrated to smaller specks and scurried away in every direction. I stood there panting as if I had run a marathon. My chest burned and my body shook. I sat down and steadied my breathing. I invested a whole 9 points into [Magicite Manipulation]. Even though it might seem rash, I needed to learn to use Magicite as soon as possible. After the ache in my chest subsided, I tried again. This time, making the speck became way too easy. I tried making a ball of Magicite and slowly the speck grew in size until it was as big as a tennis ball. Even then, I felt nothing. No ache or pain. Manipulating it felt like second nature now. After making the ball dissipate, I focused again. Instead of a ball, I tried making the Magicite make the oxygen in the air vibrate until it combusted. After a few tries, I felt the air near my hand get a bit warm but not too noticeable. In a few seconds, there was a spark in my hand that grew into a dancing flame.
Skill: [Fire Manipulation] acquired.
Let a person create and control fire. [Active]
I tried making the flame into an orb with the help of the Magicite around. The flame’s crown decreased slowly until it and the flame took a spherical shape. When it was finally over and the flame had become a swirling orb of orange and yellow with occasional solar flare exploding on the surface I got a weird notification
Spell: [Fireball] acquired.
I wanted to stop the flame, but it seemed like a waste. So instead of letting the fireball die out, I tossed it upwards with all my strength. The ball travelled with such speed that I was dumbfounded by my strength. The ball moved upwards until it disappeared in the clouds.
I kept staring at the sky, thinking that the fireball will come back again like a falling star. But when it didn’t, I focused on other things, like the weird notification. Instead of skill, Machina said I had gained a spell. I opened my screen and found a few accomplishments.
Accomplishment achieved.
Gain an elemental manipulation skill [2 skill points gained]
Gain your first spell [5 skill points gained]
Total skill points: 28
I asked Machina, “Machina, are skills different from spells?”
Yes. While spells require Magicite to function, skills do not. Spells depend on skills. Without a manipulation skill, one cannot use a spell.
I nodded at Machina’s explanation. I tried once again to form the fire. Within a few seconds, the fire formed. Instead of making it into a ball, I tried making the flame thin and long. When the fire was as thin as rope and looked as if a jet of fire was burning from a hole in my hand, I tried grabbing it. Not actually, grabbing it per se, just as if I was holding an actual rope. Then with a flick of my wrist, I tried to move the fire. I had to focus, but not as much as I needed when initially creating my flame. I just need to will it to move and act like a rope, correcting its movement from time to time. As the flame moved, it created a wave similar to when someone moves a long rope from one end. When the wave reached the end, it created a sharp crack, as if I had whipped a whip.
Making it longer, I tried again, this time faster. The whip-like fire, did it again, creating a louder and sharper crack in the air. I looked around for few minutes to see if I could use anything as a target and saw a few rotting logs piled up in a corner under an open shed. I carried the logs and lining them up with sufficient spacing in between so that all the logs don’t set on fire at once, with the help of my [Herculean Strength].
I stood about 20 to 25 feet away before creating a fireball, aiming at the centre of the middle log and hurling the blazing thing at it. The fire hit the log dead centre. The fireball created a small explosion on impact, leaving a huge charred area on the long. A few small flames were burning on the log. Focusing on it, I will it to burn hotter and brighter. After failing multiple times, I tried making it bigger and failed as well. I got closer to it and tried again. I could see the fire increase in size slowly, but I knew I wasn’t able to make it hotter. I got closer and kept trying. The closer I got, the more control I had on the fire, but the temperature of the fire increased due to the gain of extra fuel to burn, not because of my doing. After I was about 10 feet away from the log, my control ceased to increase and I understood that this was the radius at which my control was the best. I willed the fire and the fire engulfed the whole log. I realized why I wasn’t able to make the fire burn. My [Fire Manipulation] skill level was lower than needed. So I wasn’t able to make it burn brighter or make I bigger from such a large distance. With that in mind, I placed 2 points in the skill and tried again.
My control had improved somewhat and my range also increased. But I still couldn’t control the temperature. I placed 3 more points and did it again. This time, I felt it. The smallest of flame didn’t require growing bigger to burn brighter. I could control its intensity while maintaining its size. I created the whip-like fire again. Increasing its intensity to the best I can, causing parts of it to burn a shade of blue, I whipped it, sending the end of the whip to hit the centre of a log. The whip had made a diagonal charred line across the log. With a jerk of my arm, I made the whip surround the entire middle of the log before pulling towards me. But instead of the whole log flying towards me, the whip burnt right through the log, splitting it in half and lighting both parts on fire.
Spell: [Fire Whip] acquired.
I did the [Fire Whip] again to another log. Again like before, the log split into two like before. Next, while wrapping the whip around the third log, I tried forcing the fire not to burn, but to pull it towards like an actual whip. After much concentration I was able to hurl the log towards me, the log flying with considerable speed. I narrowly dodged the log as it flew past me and rolled on the ground a few times before hitting the wall of a house.
Shit.
I quickly recovered my bearings. On shaky legs, I got up and cursed myself for being so rash and stupid. After experimenting a few things I got a bunch of spells in my arsenal.
[Fire wall] which allowed me to make a wall around me and make it act like a shield. [Flamethrow] which made me into a walking flamethrower and [Fire Colum] which was exactly as it sounded like. Concentrating on the Magicite surrounding a target and making them burn which made the area around the target be set ablaze. After the last spell, I concentrated on something else. In the book, it was stated that all things in existence had Magicite in them. So I focused on the last log standing. I felt the Magicite idly circulating the log, mingling with each other in a never-ending dance. I concentrated on them and instead of the air, made the wood itself to be set ablaze. Instantly, as if possessed by a spirit like one of those horror movies I loved to watch late at night, the wood exploded before burning with bright hues of blue, orange and yellow flames.
Rare spell: [Combustion] acquired.
I stopped experimenting as the sun was about to set. The sky had turned orange with a bit of yellow, red and violet in the mix. Moring bird started returning to their nests while owls and other creatures of the night awake. Howls and hoots started sounding around me. Though I had increased my arsenal, I didn’t want to take my chance and engage in combat right away, risking my life in the process. Though, it would help if I had more combat experience.
I walked into the house I was before and walked up a flight of stairs before entering a very dusty bedroom. Throwing open the windows to let the fresh cool night breeze to enter, and beating the mattress and pillow to fluff them up and remove the blanket of dust covering while restraining my newfound strength, I laid on the bed and looked out the window. The two moons, the bigger one yellow while the smaller one had a reddish hue, surrounded by countless of bright twinkling stars as if someone had thrown diamonds on a black cloth. The stars in my old world couldn’t be seen so clearly as here because of decades of smog and pollution.
Even though countless monsters were roaming this world, ready to sink their teeth in me, I didn’t want to go back to my world. Where everything was… dull. I could be killed. But knew I was dying in my old world. Not in health, but of spirit. No one cared about what I did or didn’t. I remember when I went to an amusement park with my family once. I was holding my mother’s hand, while Yahiro held both my mother and father’s hand. Suddenly a passer-by bumped into me and my grip on my mother’s hand loosened. I called out to my mother and father but they just kept on walking, looking like the happy family that they were. I was later picked up by them from the announcement centre almost two hours later. I knew then and there that my parents didn’t love me. But… I still hoped. Like a child’s dream of meeting Santa.
A fool’s dream, I thought to myself.
“Machina?” I said, my voice soft.
If I didn’t have much self-control, my voice might have shaken.
Yes?
“Thank you. For everything,” I said sincerely, before closing my eyes.
After a brief moment, Machina spoke, her voice losing her normal mechanical tone and sounding somewhat sympathetic.
Your welcome, Hirai.