Attempt 48#
Failure.
To escape from his cell was easy for Isaac, he only needed to dislocate some bones and he would be already free. The problem was that he didn’t have the capacity to run to escape because of his lack of attributes.
He was probably the only being in existence of the Demon World that tried to do a prison break while calmly walking.
“Yeah, I give up. In my current state is impossible, at least I met another Angus for the first time in ten years.” He gave up of escaping with his own power, there was already a hole in his cell that led to the outside. Isaac only didn’t use it for his pride and distrust.
On his attempts, he met an ‘Angus’ though, a Minotaur or colloquially called ‘Bullfolk’ that had skin and face of a bull but walked uprightly. Isaac learned that existed a county in the Outskirts full of Mollys and Angus.
I’m curious about them, maybe I will start my farm there? Though the Angus and Mollys can talk here in this world, would they care about being my animals?
“Let’s first understand about all these beeps are and my situation as [Support Hero], I can’t flee from it anymore.” Isaac had to accept the fact he was a Hero that depended on others to fight considering he can’t even use weapons.
He remembered the first time those black boxes appeared, they mentioned Notifications-
[You have entered the Demon World, the land of death where the biggest Faction lives after absorbing multiple worlds.]
[Congratulations! Abusing of your High-Ranked Skill you killed a being above your Tier. Essence earned doubled.]
[You’ve killed a 2nd Tier Fiend Warrior and progressed to the path of going to the next Tier.]
[Essence absorbed, you are now a 1st Tier Human Support Hero 10%]
[Congr-]
Just thinking of the word ‘Notification’ made an enormous amount of messages to appear to him from the time he was fighting and ignored them to focus on the ones that deleted his Skills and Attributes.
“I have now to scroll through all this?” Isaac ignored the repeated messages and instinctually used his hands on the messages boxes as if they were vertical books or the so-called scrolls.
[You have killed inconsequently Demons of different Tiers without caring about the emotional damage you would cause in their families waiting for them to come back.]
[As expected of the wicked Support Hero, even though he is supposed to become a slave, he still go out of his way to ruin other people’s lives.]
[You earned the Title Demon Slayer.]
[All damage to Demons will increase by 20%. Effect shared with any being in a Soul Contract.]
[Health recovered, Life Potion used.]
So there’s alchemy in this world just like in the Osman Empire. Isaac ignored the first part as he was used now to the System’s racism and bullying.
He thought about the word ‘Status’.
[Isaac]
[1st Tier Human Support Hero] (88%)
[Demon Slayer]
[Vitality: 48] [Magic: 1]
[Resistances: Mental Resistance 75%]
[Passive Skills: Fist Combat Arts Lvl 1, Flow of War Lvl 1]
[Active Skills: Support Arts (Compound) Lvl 1]
Isaac knew about the percentages, Ikad colloquially also called them of Levels and if he reached 100% or Lvl 100 he would go to the next Tier thanks to the accumulated Essence. But he didn’t know about all these other things in his Status that he accepted as a representation of his power.
I really only have now two attributes, Sara explained Vitality had to do with my health and endurance, meaning someone with high Vitality could endure blows from Dragons. And Magic was literally what it meant with the added effect it showed how much of Magic someone has in their bodies and how well they can control it.
The last thing Isaac could do now was to ask the System. “System? Can I talk to you?”
[What do you desire, Support Hero?]
“Let’s see, first… die, you piece of hist, mother-” Isaac continued to scream and curse everything he let inside of himself after being put into this situation thanks to the System who bullied him.
[Request denied. The System can’t die. Anything else?]
“Why you are so mean to me all the time?” Isaac calmed down a little and began to see things rationally.
[Answer: Each Hero has many Quirks to maintain cohesion and originality to all Heroes as the All-Mighty Creator wished. It just happens you always do something not allowed by your Quirks and the System was made to use ‘not-nice’ words with any Hero with the parameter ‘Party Slave’ on them.]
“So you are saying it is my fault?”
[Yes.]
“Can I hit you?” Isaac glared to the black box.
[No. And this is your main Quirk if you are curious, the others will only be explained at the correct time.]
[The Support Hero doesn’t need of several attributes to do his job, included in them are Strenght and Dexterity. So to compensate for it, he will receive more control of Essence than other Heroes, though that isn’t certain to be beneficial as having all these deleted Attributes since no matter what he won’t ever be capable of totally manipulating Essence, that is a privilege of the 7th Tier.]
Essence by what I understood is pretty important but I don’t know if it will be worthy to lose the Attributes considering I would be able to use it anyway at the 7th Tier.
“Why did I become a Hero anyway?”
[It was judged you were most adequate to become the Support Hero as you cared more than anything to ‘support’ your animals and you’re the only one the Glitch Sara wouldn’t kill considering how she views promises and her own education thanks to you being the Empire’s scapegoat.]
So Sara is the reason to me be a Hero, she is too powerful that not even the System can control her and they need more Heroes who won’t be killed by her.
“Now it’s definitive, I don’t care more about the Osman Empire.” Isaac stood up after confirming the exit on the ground. “And what are those two Skills I have?” He asked, he could guess what [Mental Resistance] is.
[They are the main Skills given to you as the Support Hero, other Heroes receive even better Skills.]
[Flow of War Lvl 1: You as the substitute of the Leader Hero can perfectly guide your allies to the victory while staying at the back without moving as you don’t have the Dexterity Attribute. Because of your lack of Wisdom you need of time to make the perfect plan, but as the Skill evolves this weakness will be eliminated.]
[Support Arts (Compound) Lvl 1: If an enemy is too tough to be defeated, then it’s your job to not make it so anymore. You have at your arsenal all kinds of Buffs, Debuffs, Curses, and Blessings, but will only unlock the special ones as you get better at your job. Right now you only have available the basic ones that will use your Magic and Essence to be used. They don’t have names, so you only need to think of an effect you want and it will surge, although you can use it on yourself, you only will receive a tenth of its effectiveness.]
“Then… Strength Up?” Isaac felt his energy draining and specks of light surrounding his body, he immediately perceived if he trained he could control it even though the words he just uttered costed half of his Magic Reserve.
[Strenght increased by 10%]
He moved his body and felt almost no difference as his Attributes were locked at the minimum and even if he multiplied it wouldn’t make a real difference, he still has a child’s strength in the end.
As soon he released the Buff another message appeared to him.
[Requirement for a quest met!]
[Quest: Tutorial Mission]
[You have now explored all of the System, you can finally be considered a Newbie Hero. Here is your Tutorial Mission to begin your journey to save the world. You have been imprisoned by ‘false’ charges of murdering. Do anything to escape your prison, even subject yourself to the wicked desires of Demons, there are many that will like your body.]
[Special Conditions: The Support Hero still doesn’t have his Main Weapon and Secondary Power, they will be given to him beforehand.]
[Rewards: Essence, Inventory, and experience for Flow of War.]
[By the way, Quests are objectives that if succeded will always give your rewards, so always do them.]
“I really can have a weapon?! You are lying to me-”
[Please select one of these two Weapons: Magical Orbs, Power Wheels. The other will be available later.]
“What’s the difference between them?” Isaac asked without energy as his hopes were destroyed once again.
[Magical Orb: Agglomerate of Magic in physical shape but that’s has been refined by pure Essence, granting to its user the capacity to control Magic. But as it isn’t resonating with another magical object like a staff, its control isn’t as perfect as it should be and also lack in power, making it no good for high destructive spells.]
[Power Wheel: One of the only objects made entirely of only the basis of all life, Essence. It can be used for any power so it’s considered multipurpose and an all-rounder weapon for any Hero. Its efficiency is top notch but will only reveal its true power when the user can control Essence, but until then it is still pretty useful.]
Again with Essence, “It’s better for me to specialize than become a jack of all trade without strength, I guess, I choose the Magical Orb.”
An azure ball fitting his right hand surged from thin air, it had many silver stars inside of it and was full of Magic.
[Original Orb]
[Like all others Heroes’ first weapons, it has an infinite growth potential after absorbing Essence and specific objects full of Magic to unlock new variations. A shame it takes too long, and all other Heroes end up always using other better weapons they find on the middle of the way.]
[1st Tier]
[Better Magic Control. Infinite Growth Potential. Reduction of Magic spent in Support Skills and Spells.]
[Spells are the organized or aggregation of Magic put into reality by the user’s desired effect, being a sub-category of Abilities like Skills.]
“Better than nothing, I can’t see myself beating someone to death with it... maybe if I throw it? Anyway, what about the secondary Power?”
[The Support Hero like other Heroes is allowed to pick a secondary type of power to save his homeworld.]
[Please chose what secondary Power you will receive, not chosen Powers will be deleted and impossible to be selected ever again.]
[Summoning, Transmogrification, Elemental Magic.]
Isaac didn’t even read much about the options and chose Summoning, it was clear to him that no matter how he wanted to be independent it would be impossible or at least inefficient, Summoning is the only Power that would make the most use of his Support Skills.
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[Summoning: The art of bringing beings and even objects from other Planes of existence and Multiverses to your own binding and Plane of existence. Only in small exceptions, the Summoned existence won’t obey the Summoner.]
[Current Limit of your Summoning: 1st Tier]
[As summoning became your Power, it will only depend on Essence to be activated instead of Magic.]
[How much of Essence do you want to spend in your first Summoning?]
“The maximum possible, I can gather more later to go to the next Tier.”
[Absorbing 85% of your max Essence…]
[Please select between these two options for your Summoned Being.]
[Kishin Vajra: A boy Asura, he has fire abilities and infinite growth potential, but is incredibly weak as he can’t feed of Wrathful Souls in his homeland.]
[Tomoban Vajra: A woman Asura, she has lightning abilities and growth potential null, but she is quite strong as she can feed of Joyful Souls in her homeland.]
“I choose the boy without any doubt, the woman will quickly lose her usefulness and she can’t be that strong considering both of them are 1st Tier,” Isaac said.
[Kishin Vajra Contracted.]
[Stats]
[1st Tier Fire Asura] 0%
[Shared: Demon Slayer]
[Strength: 20] [Dexterity: 23] [Magic: 12] [Wisdom: 10] [Vitality: 15] [Charisma: 75]
From a silver circular portal in the prison, a boy having between twelve and fifteen years surged. He wore a golden small vest without a shirt and small white shorts, he wasn’t tall or even muscular despite his high Strength.
He had golden hair to match his clothes and small yellow horns were within his hair, making him look like a Demon but not with his pale skin and depending on the position of his hair.
His inhuman scarlet piercing eyes with vertical slits also contributed to his high Charisma and Isaac was forced to accept one fact looking to this boy’s face…
He was handsome.
And that made him regret all his decisions, he was stuck now with Kishin and forced to remember every day of his grudges. “Can I get a refund?”
[No.]
“Wow, I’m here for less than one second and I’m already hated. Did I do something wrong, Master?” Kishin said, scratching his cheeks without understanding Isaac’s rage.
“Shut up, your entire existence is wrong.” Isaac retorted after bumping on the Asura’s head.
“So why are you petting me?” Kishin asked, Isaac’s attack was so weak that it was like he caressed him with affection, which he didn’t like much as he doesn’t need the love of another man.
“I really hate you, but tell me more about you. I need to know more about my allies.”
“So you call me of an ally instead of property? How naive of you, as expected of the Support Hero but that is fine by me,” Kishin laughed. “I’m a being summoned by you after you chose your secondary power, the others that were with me waiting in the line all died when you chose me, even my sister.”
“My condolences.”
“It’s just how life is, I’m not mad at you, I’m madder at me being so astounding that you chose me over her.” Kishin arrogantly said with a smug pose. “My Race is called of Asura, you can think of us as a type of Demon but from another universe where Demon isn’t necessarily the biblical one from Christianity, though I’m not sure you know what I’m talking about.
“Asuras are wrathful beings, and only be giving me souls of beings full of rage before dying will make me stronger. I even have a Skill that makes me stronger when I’m angry, and don’t feel weird if I one day grow some extra arms. I think that’s all of special my Race has.”
Isaac had a more good understanding of Kishin and thought of ways to use him better. “So why couldn’t I see your Skills?”
“Oh, that’s called of privacy. Never heard of it?”
“I don’t think we will get along well.” Isaac shrugged and pointed to the ground. “Anyway, let’s get out of here already, there’s a hidden passage here, use your Strenght to raise this slab of stone. And don’t even complain, I’m the Support Hero, I don’t have Strength if you don’t know.”
Kishin couldn’t argue with that and he expected already to be Isaac’s servant. “There’s really an exit here. Amazing, but why it exists?” Kishin retired the slab of stone to reveal a tunnel.
“Probably a senior of mine in this prison made it and escaped, and why it still exists or why I was put into this cell, there’s really one man capable of that.” Isaac entered the tunnel without any fear. “Remember of putting the slab back into place.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
What did he say? Some slang from his home language? What ‘aye’ means?
***
“There’s even fresh food here. This senior of the prison is really kind.” Kishin said after walking for hours behind Isaac as his master was slow and appearing within a tent full of food.
“That Ikad is dangerous, I can’t even fathom what he is thinking, unless he is wanting to overthrow someone,” Isaac said with an apple in his mouth and resting on a chair.
[Quest Tutorial Mission Complete!]
[You had escaped from the best border prison of the Otrus Kingdom and successfully entered the Outskirts without losing your ‘dignity’ or your allies. An exemplary demonstration of the power of Osman Empire’s Escape King. Not even the System can say anything bad at you now.]
[Rewards: Essence, Inventory, and experience for Flow of War.]
[Flow of War is now Lvl 2! The range of your plans was increased.]
[New Quest!]
[Adaptation to the Demon World]
[The Demon World is full of dangers, but you need to get used it. And what better way to do it besides killing some Demons or other residents?
Objective: Kill a 2nd Tier Demon or clean a lair of Monsters from their foul existence.]
[Rewards: A Support Spell and a Power based on what you most need or your actions until the end of the quest.]
As if I can kill a 2nd Tier being without my High-Rank Skills and Kishin still being weak. “What’s an Inventory?”
[Answer. You can store any object that is at the size and volume your Inventory can hold, and then quickly retire it with just a thought. It’s the best use of Space Magic since Reality Slashes were discovered.]
“So it’s a space disengaged from reality, got it.” Isaac easily accepted the strange concept.
“Wait, how you ‘got it’? Shouldn’t you be more impressed or at least creeped out by it? Even in my World, that’s rare.” Kishin said while searching for weapons to him use in the tent.
“A Greek author already wrote about something like this, he only gave it a different name, interspatial rings. If Dragons from myths exist so why not something fictional from an amateur author?” Isaac searched but found no armor for him.
“If you say so.” Kishin put two blades made a black metal on his waist, they had no definitive characteristics besides being longer than daggers but smaller than bastard swords.
[Twin Blades of Otrus]
[Stardand weapons of some lower rank Demons in the army, only Imps receive weapons worse than this.]
[+2 to Strenght. +1 to Dexterity.]
“Are you trying to show off or you are indeed an agile type of fighter?” Isaac asked worried about his safety. “Dual wielding is just stupid and not effective as using a two-handed sword. And you also need to protect me, pick a shield. If I die, you also die, right? In the books I read summoning worked in this way normally.”
“You are right about the summoning, but you know you just pissed off all the people that exist who dual wield or at least like it?” Kishin’s glare was top notch. “I have a low-rank Skill to their use and,” a small ball of fire appeared above his hand, “I need of two Attack Catalysts to use proper Magic as I’m not good at it.”
[Catalysts: Objects like Magical Orbs that serve to improve the control of Magic and in rare cases permit the use of Magic if the user’s Magic Control is too lousy.]
I didn’t even ask.
Isaac went closer to the ball of fire and his eyes were full of specks of light dancing around, he felt like he was reaching some truth but Kishin suddenly extinguished the fire.
“So what we do now? I’ll follow you anywhere, but I just accepted to become your possession because I wanted to see other worlds and kill things to finally fill my desires.” Kishin said with the tone he was making a great favor for Isaac. “I don’t care about any world, so if you want to save one without killing, I’m out of here. I prefer to kill myself then to be subjected to others Joyful Souls once again.”
“My initial plan was just to retire and make a farm here, but with Ikad having some plan for me I doubt that will be possible. So the plan now is to go wherever we want, kill things, get stronger and kill Ikad/be enrolled in a subplot so big by him that we won’t have rest until the 7th Tier.” Isaac’ bored expression showed how much he was excited about what he said.
Kishin jumping and his tone was the contrary of Isaac though. “For real?! I was right into making you my master! You are the best!”
“Whatever.” Isaac picked a nearby map with a big red spot and for his surprise, he could understand its words. “I met an Angus in the prison, let’s go south to their county. On the middle of the way, there is something called ‘Nest of Ants’, and also ‘Slimey Lake’ where we can kill things for Essence.”
After getting ready for the journey, both of them left the tent to be met with an immense flat land of red soil without anything in the distance besides the tent.
This asshole really thought of everything. Isaac thought as he saw the terrain and tried to fit the entire tent with food and weapons at his inventory.
They got warped and disappeared from the Demon World.
[Inventory Full.]
It fit just enough as if Ikad knew beforehand Kishin would pick a weapon and that Isaac would have an inventory.
“Space Magic is so cool,” Kishin said in praise.
“Before we go, let me see that ball of fire again?” Isaac with his hands on Kishin’s arms said.
Kishin wasn’t thrilled at having Isaac so near him but obeyed.
Isaac observed how these specks of light moved after being separated from the silver air around him that he instinctually knew it was Essence, and learned their pattern as if he was born to only do it.
[You’ve learned Magic Manipulation Lvl 1. +5 to Magic.]
Suddenly, a ball of the speck of lights formed above him to show how he was talented to Magic, but…
[The Support Hero can’t learn Elemental Magic. Only Elementless.]
Why this bullying never ends?
It didn’t become a ball of fire, it became a ball made of silver light that at least illuminated the same as Kishin’s ball of fire did.
[You’ve learned the Spell Light]
[Evolving the Spell to the Support Spell Clarity. +2 to Magic]
[Your inner talent and Innate Support Quirk made the Elementless Spell Light evolve to the Support version of it, it not only will illuminate the surroundings as being a lamp is the only thing the Support Hero serves. While in effect the Spell will lessen the effect of Mental Skills in your allies, and will even take status like Confused from them in half of the times you use it.]
“Who are you and what did you do to the System?! I refuse to believe it would be so nice to me.” This is a lie, I refuse to believe my enemy can be nice sometimes. “And how a Light Spell like this isn’t Elemental Magic?”
Kishin answered this time. “It isn’t like the System hate you, you just do all the times things the Support Hero wasn’t supposed to do, but it will always help a Hero get powerful even by cheating.” He prodded the Clarity Spell. “And this isn’t the Element Light, Elementless Magic is famous for mimicking the others without giving the actual effect.
“For example, it can ‘burn’ someone with Fire Resistance even though it should be impossible because the System doesn’t recognize it as ‘Fire’ or in your case now ‘Light’. So even if a Monster is weak to Light and you use Elementless Magic the Monster won’t feel anything beyond the pure force of the Magic.”
[Correct. The Elements going from Fire to Darkness are impossible to the Support Hero, but Elementless Magic and Primal Energies like Space and Time, Life and Death, Order and Chaos aren’t.]
Weird, in my world Space was considered an ‘Element’ and Fire was a Primal Energy, why not here?
“Okay, I got it. Kishin, burn my hand with your ball of fire.” Isaac ordered.
“What? Why?”
“Ikad mentioned too much the Fire Resistance, I should get it by burning myself, right?”
“You’re not wrong, but normally people learn the Element before getting the Resistance.”
“Just do it already.”
Isaac suffered from his hand on fire, it melted his skin and the burning was getting too serious when the System rewarded him for his recklessness.
[You’ve learned Fire Resistance 10%. +10 to Vitality.]
[Only the ones who don’t fear Fire can control it, a shame you can’t control it even if you wanted so this resistance is useless with exception of protecting your coward body.]
[Damage given by fire sources reduced by 10%, and if the fire isn’t at least from a Low-Rank Ability, it can’t hurt you or any of your belongings.]
Isaac’s hand slowly went back to normal, but the pain was still there.
He brought his burning hand to his hair and to his surprise it not burnt a thread of his hair. “Kishin, do you have some Low-Rank Fire?” Isaac swang his hand and with his new knowledge of Magic he discovered how to extinguish it.
“Yes…” Kishin didn’t know why he felt as if a disaster was coming to him.
“Can you control its intensity?”
“...Yes.”
“Good.” To Ikad mention it, this resistance must be important for something, I, no, we need to train it while we can.
Isaac thought of many ways and after a while, his [Flow of War] gave him his perfect answer.
In only one movement-
He got naked.
“What are you doing? You pervert, I can’t believe my master is an exhibitionist.” Kishin got away in disgust. “You can’t do anything you want just because society is far away.”
“Actually… I can.” Isaac laughed as if he had a higher moral position. “Anyway, just lower the intensity of your Low-Rank Fire and cover almost all my body in the fire. It’s time to train the Fire Resistance.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Shut up, and don’t call me of pervert. You are also practically naked with only in your vest and barefooted.”
“This is called of style!”
Kishin threw the scarlet fire Isaac wanted in anger and covered his master until the chest to still let him breathe.
“This definitely will work, I’m feeling it.” Even at the pain that made him fall to the ground, he was smiling while his skin partially melted. “Now you too do it, you probably have it already, so use more power in your case. Get naked now.”
“What? No. My Fire Resistance is good at is.” Kishin understood his bad feeling of earlier. “And if I have to train it, I can just use my hand.”
“This is an Order from me, your master.” Isaac’s eyes glowed and Kishin was forced to obey while throwing away his clothes and weapons.
“Fuck you!” Kishin’s body was engulfed in flames so hot that made Isaac get away from him.
Isaac looked to the ‘equipament’ Kishin had down there and his grudge was once again reaffirmed. “As I thought, I really hate you.”
“The feeling is mutual, you asshole!”
That day, two talking and moving ball of flames were first seen in the Demon World, legends of this were passed down in the family of the Demons flying above in the Outskirts and quickly fleeing after seeing such strange sight even to them.