Isaiah - One Year Ago
Isaiah stabbed his spear for the 1,728th time, and then he returned to a neutral position, standing straight and leaning the spear up against his left shoulder.
He was in one of the training halls of his clan, but not one of the nice ones. There were no automated training robots, no holographic projectors for showing lessons from the clan’s ancestors, no dao enhancement field allowing for easier comprehension of Laws. Instead, there was just a large empty room, a couple straw practice dummies anyone stronger than G rank would destroy in an instant, and Isaiah with the spear his teacher had bought with his life’s savings.
Tall, with salmon-colored hair and fuchsia eyes, his skin was a shade lighter than anyone else in the clan and he was built like a bear. As usual since his teacher’d passed away, he was alone in the room, and, as usual, 1,728 thrusts was nowhere close to the end of his exercise routine.
He was about to start his movement exercises, but, unlike almost every other day, he was interrupted by someone entering the room.
“Pink Ursa, the clan master wants to see you.”
Ava was the clan master’s daughter. With long greenish blond hair, yellow eyes, and medium dark skin, she was a better looking version of the typical clan member and, as usual, the nineteen-year-old girl was dressed in an elaborate dress, this time colored red and black.
Even though he was a decade her senior, she didn’t wait for a response, and, when she turned to leave, he wordlessly followed.
They then traveled without speaking for fifteen minutes, entered the clan master’s palace, and made their way into the throne room.
“Now that everyone is here, I’ll begin.” The clan master sat on his intricately carved lifewood throne and looked down at the four of them, Isaiah and Ava joined by Ava’s twin brother Aleron and the second daughter of the clan master’s younger sister.
Also present at the clan master’s side was his eldest son, Raven, already an E rank master at the young age of forty-three, and two of his advisors.
The room was showy, with expensive tapestries on the walls and quite a bit of precious metals built into the ceiling to create an astrological design, but Isaiah noticed a few of the tapestries had been changed since he’d been in the room last and, though as a G rank his senses weren’t very good, the Law intent emanating from the new tapestries seemed weaker than the old ones.
“The natives of Hira, the new world we were promised by the king, have brought about their own doom, starting the process of an apocalypse style integration which will begin in a year. So, instead of those of us from the older generation helping to guide them, you of the younger generation will conquer their world.
“The four of you are the strongest G ranks in the clan, so you will be the leaders of our force, with Aleron as general. But you won’t just be up against the natives. Eleven other forces will be competing for the world as well. So, we’ll have to make you stronger.” The clan lord waved his hand and four skill orbs appeared out of thin air, one flying to each of them.
Power Attack (G-Epic) Martial, Offensive, Weapon
Hit hard, hit fast
Effects: Learn the skill Power Attack (G-Epic)
Requirements: Free skill slot, able to learn martial offensive weapon skills, Strength and Agility effectiveness both higher than 106.25%
Isaiah caught the skill orb and couldn’t help his excitement. This was the first skill orb he’d ever been given, and it was even Epic grade. As far as he was aware, in the entire clan, only Raven had ever learned an Epic grade skill as a G rank. But then he saw Raven raise a hand from next to the clan master, indicating him to wait, so he instead put the orb in his pocket.
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“The four of you will have unlimited access to my personal training room for the next year, as well as training from the elders of the clan, so do us proud and improve to the point you’ll be unstoppable at F rank.
“Dismissed.”
Ava and Aleron walked up to talk with their father more, while their cousin went to talk to one of the advisors, her grandfather. Only Isaiah, who had a much, much lower standing in the clan, took the clan master’s words as an order and started to leave the room.
“Brother, wait,” Raven called out and both Aleron and Isaiah stopped and turned to look at him.
Aleron and his sister then turned to Isaiah, a hint of irritation in their eyes, but Isaiah didn’t move. The clan prince had given him an order that did not fully contradict the order of the clan master, so he did as told and waited.
“Walk with me for a bit.” Raven took a step and appeared next to Isaiah. Then he began walking out of the room, ignoring the slightly annoyed look in his father’s eyes as well as the less controlled expressions of his younger half-siblings, and Isaiah followed.
Raven was a bit taller than most of the clan members, though still quite a bit shorter than Isaiah, and he had a few black streaks in his greenish blond hair which made him stand out even more.
“This is your chance, little brother. My father won’t say it, but there is more to this new world than most know, and the clan cannot afford to have another force take it over.”
He reached into a bag of holding on his belt and brought out three skill orbs, handing them to Isaiah.
Quick Steps (G-Uncommon) Martial, Movement
Run, run, run
Effects: Learn the skill Quick Steps (G-Uncommon)
Requirements: Free skill slot, able to learn martial movement skills
Wind Walk (G-Rare) Magic, Movement, Wind
Float like a leaf on the wind
Effects: Learn the skill Wind Walk (G-Rare)
Requirements: Free skill slot, able to learn wind magic movement skills
Bolt Steps (G-Rare) Magic, Movement, Lightning
Move like lightning
Effects: Learn the skill Bolt Steps (G-Rare)
Requirements: Free skill slot, able to learn lightning magic movement skills
Raven then took an orb of misty energy out of his bag of holding and thrust it into Isaiah’s chest. “That’s a rare grade orb of skill combination. Learn those three skills, master them, and then merge them into a better movement skill. Only then should you learn the skill my father gave you.”
Raven then reached into his bag of holding again, bringing out a book radiating a small amount of Law intent, and handed it to Isaiah. “Finally, knowing what you are good at, I got this for you as well. It’s not as useful as a skill orb, but, after you merge those skills, you should be able to form the skill described in here on your own with a little work.”
Raven reached up and patted Isaiah, who was now completely teary eyed, on the back. “Let’s show them the most talented members of the clan are Mom’s children, not my father’s.”
* * *
Morin Daal - Current Time
Prince Morin Daal started laughing. His eldest brother had invaded a newly integrated E rank world when he was G rank, transforming the entire planet into a haven for the undead, but he’d run into problems with his Soul stat not being high enough and had been stuck at D rank for nearly a century. His second eldest brother had also invaded a newly integrated E rank world, but he’d been forced to run by another of the invasion forces. And his third eldest brother had fully conquered an F rank world, but hadn’t received much benefit, still E rank over 30 years later.
He had much better luck. The world he was invading, Hira, was an F++ rank world, an F rank world with two natural wonders.
And he’d just found one of them.
A member of the Nightwalker race, one of the six races of undead to have the ability to naturally reproduce, Morin Daal looked like a human but with all the color taken away and then black and white inverted. He had nearly black gray skin, black eyes with white pupils, and shoulder length gray hair.
As with most Nightwalkers, the path he planned on following was one heavily dependent on the Soul stat, and not being able to increase that stat enough was one of the major sources of cultivation bottlenecks.
For him, however, with the soul cave his subordinates had found, that was no longer going to be an issue. With the right arrays set up, he could just sit in there and his Soul stat would automatically grow to his max possible value over about a year.
To that end, he spent the high cost and sent a subordinate still at G rank back home through the teleportation platform and the response was almost immediate. The subordinate came back with the requisite arrays and some extra arrays to help hide the location from other invaders as well.
His father even sent him a letter of commendation along with a young mutant Soul Collector, asking him to allow the one meter abyssal squid-like beast to cultivate in the cave with him as well, with promises of high rewards from the clan’s stores when he returned as long as the beast grew well.
Whoever said the System favored those with high Luck when granting starting locations during apocalypse style integrations had been wrong. Morin Daal’s Luck was only 6, yet he’d received the best possible starting location for himself.