I frowned at the procession as it made its way through the canyon below. With reverence, the body of the wise man was carried to an ancestral resting place to be one with the past. Men and women alike were wailing and singing in harmony, their mournful warbling echoing beautifully against the high rock walls surrounding them. It was beautiful.

It just also felt so pointless.

Raffa had refused all of my attempts to extend his lifespan. “I have seen the world change every day I have lived. I have grown like a mighty baobab, swollen with the weight of memories and history. This new world is for those like you. Those who burn with anger at the change.”

Those were his last words to me as he rejected my final, most thought-out offer. With a city’s worth of people to lean on, finding valuable Aspects or natural treasures had been more than simple. Each legendary item shoved towards him had been kindly refused or returned to the original owner, even if I had paid for it fair and square. So the last gambit was my most sincere.

“Please?” I had asked. Whether I actually begged the elderly man or not is between me and the corpse, but he had just smiled and shook his head. The next day, he was found without the breath of life within, a peaceful look on what could have been a sleeping face. I had all but abandoned the city since. Now, as I watched the people below respecting the elder, my anger only grew.

I left, not watching the funeral any longer. The sound was compacted and blasted away with each powerful footfall. The desert parted like water being pushed away when a speedboat cut through it. I’m probably as fast as a speedboat, now. I tore through the silent plain, salty tears left far behind by the time they fell.

I ran. I ran until my lungs felt ragged, my legs were on fire and even the scales on my feet had started to fall away. Day to night, and no idea on the distance. I fell onto my back, the now cold sand soothing my flaming muscles. I gasped from the surprising pain but didn’t hide from it. I dove into the uncomfortable feeling, experiencing the recovery from the most microscopic standpoint I could.

I focused on the pain, learning with each aching moment how my body rejuvenated itself and then trying to influence the process myself. I could feel the damage in my muscles and feet, destroyed cells being broken down quickly and replaced by healthy ones. The creation of these healthy cells was not purely biological anymore, as I was not a wholly mortal creature. Mana changes everything.

I hadn’t taken much damage as a whole since arriving on Earth, so this was my first time actively trying to heal a wound. It was surprisingly simple to increase the amount of mana entering my cells. Once the energy was there, the automatic processes took over and my job was done. The effect was fairly pronounced, with the fatigue disappearing in seconds and the pain a minute later.

Another four minutes of consciously guiding the mana and my body was as serene as a resting newborn. I ignored a System ping and put my hands over my eyes. I had to be careful not to scratch myself with my claws, the temptation to gouge myself not easily ignored.

So why is Raffa dead?

The cost of healing myself was nothing more than a slowing of my mana regeneration. A deeper injury might have taken more, but it was proof of concept. If it was so easy to guide magic into the body and make it stronger, why had my friend faded from old age, even as his levels grew? Looking at the blinking System message only made me more angry.

Skill Unlocked - Restorative Meditation

I didn’t even read the description before slashing at the air and dispersing the words. A small influx of knowledge flowing into my mind, smoothing out the rough edges of my technique and streamlining it for later use. The System’s little helping hand. If I could learn such a skill in a few minutes of effort, there was no way that the calmest, most spiritual person I had ever met didn’t have it. He likely had a much more impressive version.

And he still died.

A growl built in my chest. My jaw locked and my teeth gnashed as I rebelled against the entire world around me. The rumble in my chest burned hotter than my muscles had, as furious and roiling at the molten core of the planet. Unable to hold it in any long, I roared out into the silent darkness. It was a roar of loss, a scream to the world that I would reject its desire to take the things I care about away.

A nearby sand dune exploded as a creature launched itself at me, drawn by my shouting. I almost laughed, but instead I caught the huge insect's charge with a ferocious blow. Into the punch, I placed all my anger, confusion and hatred for the System, crushing part of the giant cockroach’s carapace and making it squeal. I jumped high into the air, following the quickly retreating monster’s path of escape. The next bellow which came from me was a challenge to the System as I fell.

A roar of greatness.

—————————————————————————————

It took a few days before I forgave Raffa for dying, but I eventually had to concede that I understood why he chose to do so. I had come to believe that he had seen what life would be like on the path of power and decided not to pursue it. More quickly, clearly and correctly than anyone else had understood, Raffa knew the world had only just begun to change.

I thought he was wrong, but that didn’t mean I didn’t get it, either.

Stolen novel; please report.

He was an old man. The losses I used as fuel for anger and rage could not compare to the decades of life Raffa had lived. How cruel that he could see the chance at immortality yet think himself better off without. I thanked the man in a small prayer, feeling both foolish and fulfilled at the same time. That’s probably why everyone else does it, too.

I had returned to my city. Not before going on a few rampages to clear my head and reaching a bottleneck in my cultivation, but I had been fairly close before. While I couldn’t loot monsters personally, anyone who was vaguely involved in the fighting could. A small team of stealthy scavengers were paid well to follow me around and loot the items for me. They had joined me for a few dungeons and reached their own thresholds, too, faster than anyone else in the city.

I found it pretty funny that I had accidentally created a party, but as I didn’t know their names, they were little more than workers. I found one of them in a club which had opened recently. The music was infused by something the DJ was doing which, in tandem with a mage casting a lightshow, turned the room into a vibrant and intoxicating place, even without the alcohol.

“Ah, Lord Izaark!” The burly man threw his arms wide, tossing the remnants of his drink in the face of a nearby reveller. They turned with anger but met my eye and quickly shrank away. I may not make my presence known much, but it was felt when I did. “How can I help the benefactor tonight? Did Farah catch your golden eye?”

The man nudged a woman sitting nearby with a gesture towards me and a lecherous wink. The woman, who looked uncomfortable, looked even more upset once I said no. Huh. Not interested in helping her figure out that fetish. “Not quite, though I’m sure you’re lovely, Farah. No, I wanted to see if you wanted to fight me.” From the massive grin which threatened to split his head in two, I knew I had chosen right.

There were two types of dungeon which had been discovered so far. We were calling them static and dynamic dungeons for now, and the naming worked. For a static dungeon, the levels of the monsters were set no matter who entered. Dynamic, therefore, were dungeons which scaled to the initial occupant. There were also reusable dungeons and single-use ones, but predicting which they were beforehand was a crapshoot.

While I had learned my lesson, and wasn’t going to get attached to anyone disinterested in keeping up with me, the massive warrior had piqued my interest on our last dungeon dive. On a whim, I had told - “Hey, what’s your name again?”

“Serge.”

I had told Serge to enter the dungeon first. He was level 30, the first to reach the bottleneck for System-bound cultivators. More than the others, he pushed himself during the dungeons, fighting creatures which could have been left to me. I didn’t mind at all, especially as he still gave me the loot. That would have been where the conversation got awkward. He wielded an Aspect of Revolution which was bound to his Fortitude.

By moving in circular or spiral patterns, his attacks and movements became increasingly fast and powerful. It was interesting enough, if a little limited at the moment. “Have you thought about what kind of Aspect you’re thinking of binding next?” While most had used the first Aspect they had come across, the permanence of the decision stayed the hands of many from absorbing more. At least the sensible ones.

“They’re rare as a penguin’s arsehole but some kind of water Aspect, maybe? My issue isn’t what wouldn’t work, it’s more to do with how many would. Many things are improved by revolution.” The man chuckled darkly as the double meaning of his own words, and I joined him. We had been chatting casually while walking, and I was pleasantly surprised the man hadn’t asked any personal questions about my being a kobold. He was more interested in describing the ways his power helped him in the bedroom.

There was no starting pistol, yet when the man’s mana flared to life, it was in tandem with my own. A single moment where our eyes met and flickered away in sync and the battle began. Serge threw a wide punch, taking full advantage of the increased momentum from his Aspect. I dodged with ease, until the second blow came in unexpectedly. Serge normally used a flail to fight, so his prowess in unarmed combat was its own surprise.

A spinning backfist caught my guard and blew it away completely. Despite my general existence outside the System and the increased power it granted me, I didn’t have any actual skills to improve my attributes. Hell, I didn’t even have attributes in the normal sense any more. Serge on the other hand had all of his 100 plus points into Fortitude and Speed. Coupled with his magic abilities, he was a fierce opponent.

Exactly the reason he had been chosen.

“I wonder if you can take a hit.” Careful not to aim for anything too sensitive, I poked the much larger man with my tail as I split my focus. Most of my attention was on dodging, and a tiny portion on stabbing out. When I felt my Divergent Strike skill begin to activate, I threw out a warning. “Better block that.”

Of course, Serge had no time to brace himself. The attack was released nearly instantly, and even if it wasn’t, Serge had no way to defend. It was unlikely he even realised he needed to. As the tiny tap with my tail sent to man flying, I took a deep breath through my nose and smiled. “You dead?” I called into the nearby sand which had half-buried the man.

“Maybe?” The muffled joke alleviated the slight worry I held and I released a sigh of relief. Grabbing him by his ankle, Serge started to thank me. Using more force than needed, I threw the man high into the air.

“Fight’s not over until one of us is unconscious!” I shouted up. A second later, I shouted again. “Can you hear me?” Did I really throw him that hard? It felt like he was in the air for far too long and it was only as his momentum completely changed that I realised my own mistake. Should have thrown him like a javelin and not a discus.

With the true force of a meteor, Serge landed, two fists smashing the ground. A huge dust cloud was created immediately, definitely visible from the city. I managed to dodge the actual blow, but the shockwave hit me like a truck and then it was I who soared through the air like a discarded toy. Unlike Serge, I had no way to capitalise on this and was just forced to eat sand.

My cultivation speed had put me far ahead of the curve, but with us both at the bottleneck, the fight was closer than even I had expected. “You dead?” A voice mocked from inside the local sandstorm. I used the position he gave away to dash a rock at his position, rolling my eyes. It was his advantage until he spoke. I shook my head. Combat training for the party was going on the docket.

“Wait…” Serge spoke from somewhere in the cloud. I had missed him and considered throwing another rock but decided to do as he asked. There was a strange feeling in the air and it only grew in intensity by the second. My kobold eyes were dealing with the sandstorm fine, a thin but durable second eyelid allowing me to see clearly despite the particles in the air.

Which meant I could watch with no small sense of wonder as the sand all began to move in the same direction. Instead of falling randomly, the massive cloud began to swirl around a central point. Faster and faster, the air currents changed from a gust, to a gale, to a cyclone. I leapt through the fast moving barrier, grunting as the force of the sand sheared away some skin.

Within the eye of the storm stood Serge, a big and goofy smile on his face. “Told you, brother. Many things are improved with revolution.” Each word he spoke had weight behind it, like it was being spoken by a much wiser man. An almighty blast of power erupted from Serge and he fell to the ground, head snapping back like he was shot. The sand lost control, falling randomly again while I made sure he was alright.

“Better than alright,” I groaned, both jealous and a little unsure whether this would be a bad thing. “Bastard went and broke through the bottleneck.” Grumbling to myself about how he was probably even stronger now and how it was ridiculous that I have to carry him, I started the long and awkward walk back to the city with the unconscious Tier One in my hands.