Opening his eyes, Mandla was decidedly done with constantly passing out.

Kaveh was standing above him, blocking out the light.

How does he always recover before me?

Noticing his movement, Kaveh looked down at him, then started laughing.

Mandla frowned, looking down himself to see that he was half-naked.

“What the hell?”

He checked the notifications piling up in his peripheral vision for some kind of explanation.

Legend: Infantry

Class: [Light Spearman]

Accepted.

ERROR: Bloodline Resonance found.

Warning: Class [Light Spearman] has been lost. Subject is Classless.

ERROR: Classless Legend.

Scanning…

Entering name into Bloodline Ascent...

Generating Ascendant Class…

Welcome to the Bloodline Ascent! Ascend to the peak, and seize everything you have ever desired.

Mandla frowned, dismissing the screens. He held his hand out and Kaveh helped him up, still laughing.

“Is this traditional Zulu dress? The fuck?”

“Indeed it is, my friend. I never thought I’d see the day you finally wear the loinskin.”

Mandla was clad in the traditional Zulu warrior attire. Or at least the bare-bones version. He only had on the loinskin and the arm and shin bracelets. Nothing else. He hadn’t even been able to keep his boxers.

This is what’s meant by Bloodline?

Mandla was an ethnic Zulu and while he wasn’t ashamed of his culture, he was never one for the traditions and events surrounding it. He’d never worn the traditional attire and, gazing sadly at his skinny exposed chest, he was beginning to remember why.

“Bro, guess what Class I am!”

Kaveh had gotten over his fit of laughter and now was practically bouncing with excitement.

Mandla appraised him. He was dressed in a normal looking robe, with sandals on his feet and leather chest armour fastened tightly over the robe. Curiously, he had on a skullcap, like a Muslim. An araqchin? Mandla had forgotten the name. Kaveh was culturally Muslim but not religious in the slightest. Mandla didn’t even know if he’d ever been in a mosque. Most interestingly though, he had a scarf covering his nose and mouth, like a bandit.

“I don’t know, a warrior Imam?”

Kaveh just smiled brighter.

“A [Nizari Fida’i].”

Mandla gave him a blank look.

“I guess that’s supposed to mean something to me?”

Kaveh punched his shoulder in frustration.

“A fucking assassin, bro. Do you not remember Assassin’s Creed? ‘Nothing is true; everything is permitted.’ Those were the last words of the first Head of the Order. He was a Nizari. They all were.”

Mandla shrugged, while Kaveh grumbled.

“You fucking suck, bro, you ruined the reveal.”

“How do even you see your Class?”

“Just think the word ‘status’, you’ll see your own.”

Status.

Ascendant Status

Name: Mandla Nkosi

Title: Nascent Ascendant

Ascendant Class: Zulu iNduna

Position: 8,233,956

Level: 0

Bloodline Avatar: N/A

Quintessence: Ascendant

Potency: Less than a drop

Symbiosis: N/A

Faction: N/A

Skills (Bloodline):

N/A

Skills (Weapon):

Ixwa

N/A

N/A

N/A

Ultimate (Bloodline):

N/A

N/A

As Mandla watched, the Position ticker kept going up. If most people were Level 0, that was probably a live count of how many Ascendants there were.

And we’re supposed to beat them all?

“I’m a [Zulu iNduna]. Huh.”

“Yeah yeah that’s cool, but watch this.”

Kaveh held a hand out to the side.

“[Khanjar]!”

He shouted what was probably the name of his weapon skill, and in his hand a shower of sparks appeared, resolving into a sleek, ornate dagger. It was snug in a silver sheath with a curve to it, which Kaveh stuck by his waist. It stayed stuck to him, immobile despite not being secured in any way.

“These skills summon weapons?”

“Yeah, but not just that. I think there are skills inbuilt in these weapons. When I unsheathe my [Khanjar], my vision changes. I think it shows me weak points, because right now, your neck, liver and armpits are glowing.”

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Mandla subconsciously brought a protective hand up to his neck.

Jesus, this is fucking serious. We’ll have to kill things.

In fact, looking around impressed upon Mandla how unprepared they were. Nicola was guiding people through their choices, and as he watched, people would crumple to the floor, their body would flash golden, and they’d wake up dressed in old-timey armour with a weapon and a Class instead of the cultural cosplay Kaveh and Mandla were subject to. Those who couldn’t become Legends, were busying themselves with the forgotten party items. Someone had had the idea of packing away the non-perishables, the booze and the drugs for later, while going to town on the things they couldn’t store.

The new Legends on the other hand, were mostly just playing around. It looked like they were all level zero but instead of having weapon skills that summoned their specific weapons, they had to carry all their gear on their person. He didn’t know what Nicola had told them but they were treating this like a costumed excursion. Laughter and excited chatter rang out from the group of Legends. A few had even opened a bottle of gin.

Maybe they’re right.

All the anime he’d seen with this premise had given the main characters some special ability or cheat that allowed them to breeze through any challenges. This was a gathering of some of the wealthiest young adults in the country. Every single one of them thought they were a main character.

No, they don’t realise what’s truly happened.

Their environment, taken in context, hadn’t changed very much. They had fallen asleep in a forest and woken up in an altered but still recognisable forest. Kaveh’s car was still there, the strobe lights, buffet tables, tents and the bar were all still there. Even the tracks from the various party buses that had shipped everyone to the location were still visible.

He thought back to the screens that had assaulted his vision the first time he’d woken up.

I guess you don’t need to terraform a forest much to make it competitive.

This was both a blessing and a curse as no one had run off screaming into the trees in a panic but they saw the situation as a curious novelty rather than an imminent crisis.

What the fuck did Nicola say to them?

Whatever they thought, Mandla growing sense of foreboding pushed him to walk down into the group with his game face on and join in the camaraderie. Nicola was still trying to talk everyone into making the choices she’d mapped out but based on the composition of the non-Support Legends, it seemed a few had gone ahead without her.

He worked the crowd, enduring all the jokes about his bare-chestedness in good nature, slowly making his way through to the soldier Legends. If his hunch was correct, they’d be the right kind of people to know when things got hairy.

A glance back told him Nicola was still busy, so when he approached the heavily armoured bunch. Andrew, the [Heavy Swordsman], had seemingly inspired his friends, a group of rugby players. Talking to them, Mandla found out they’d seen the first [Light Swordsman], and he’d barely had any armour on compared to Andrew. So they’d come together and decided to err on the side of caution. There were three [Heavy Swordsmen] including Andrew, three [Heavy Spearmen], the aforementioned [Light Swordsman] and, to Mandla’s amusement, another Ascendant. One of Andrew and Mandla’s mutual friends, an influencer named Karl, had chosen to ignore Nicola’s warning and join the Ascent.

A tall Swedish expat, he was spitting mad that his Ascendant Class had turned out to be [Danish Viking]. The five remaining soldier Legends were somehow all horse fanatics and, as one, had chosen the [Heavy Charger] Class. He couldn’t see them through the crowd, but it was nearly enough to make Mandla snort with laughter. She’d had plenty of success with corralling the Support Legends but almost all of the non-Supports had done their own thing.

I wonder if the reason we weren’t locked into Support is because of this rebelliousness.

Regardless, this was virgin clay he’d been handed. They’d already disregarded Nicola once. He just had to shape them in a way that would make them more likely to do so again. He engaged Andrew.

“Yo, I noticed we don’t have any range here. You guys didn’t follow Nicola’s plan?”

The armour clad man chuckled.

“No bro, no offense to your friend but she doesn’t know shit. Shield walls don’t work unless everyone has roughly the same gear. Her idea was to spread our resources thin. I say we double down on one tactic that we know works.”

Do you know that it works, Andrew? Do you really?

“Whoa that’s pretty smart actually. Make your strengths more potent instead of trying to cover every weakness. Maybe you should be planning all this haha.”

Andrew laughed with the half-naked boy.

“Maybe I should, but nah, I’m a team player. I know the tactics, but I still work best under a coach.”

Mandla jumped on the opening.

“A coach who knows what he’s doing of course.”

“Fuck yes, I’m not about to listen to a girl who couldn’t even throw a scrumhalf.”

I don’t even know what that is.

“I thought the same honestly. She’s great at organising things but I don’t think she can handle the pressure of having to make game-winning decisions.”

“Exactly! What if she leads us wrong again? I appreciate her for telling us about the tutorial period, I was about ready to dash, but she hasn’t earned my loyalty.”

Tutorial period?

“Don’t even worry about her, bro. If she tells you to do something blonde, just come to me.”

Andrew and his friends roared with mirth at that. Mandla felt a little bad for the joke. As an attractive blonde, he’d always felt like Nicola overcompensated in order to distance herself from the dumb bimbo stereotype. Oh well.

The game is cruel.

With a slap on the back and a burgeoning alliance, Mandla left to talk to others within the clearing. He successfully charmed most of the Classless, while it seemed Nicola had seen what he was doing and had gone to go talk to the five Cavalry Legends. Can’t get them all.

As he walked back to Kaveh’s car, the impromptu command station, Mandla couldn’t help but smile.

I’ve missed this. I can’t believe I actually missed this.

The game, as he called it, was something he’d been drilled in since he was a child. As his father was a powerful supreme court justice and his mother was a c-level executive at one of the biggest corporations in Africa, Mandla was adept at the art of politicking. He’d seen a revolving door of both sycophants and legitimate rivals in his house to speak to his parents or attend one of their events. He remembered it all. He’d chosen not to play the game soon after his high society debut, as he found it pointless within their bubble of wealth. At the end of the day, they’d all be chauffeured home to sleep with full bellies on silk sheets, so what did it matter who had the highest “score” in their peers’ eyes?

But now…

Now the game means something. Something real.

Coming back to Kaveh, who was still summoning and unsummoning his [Khanjar] with glee, Mandla chuckled at his friend.

He’s such a child.

“You’re such a child.”

“You just wish you had a dagger this cool, bitch. I’m like a real assassin. What even is your weapon skill?”

Nicola arrived at the car as Mandla put his hand out to the side.

“[Ixwa].”

A shower of sparks sputtered out of his palm, coalescing into a short, one-handed spear with an abnormally long spearhead, nearly the length of a long dagger or a short sword. Nearly every child in South Africa recognised these. With the ixwa, Shaka Zulu had carved out the Zulu Empire.

Gripping its rough haft, Mandla stared into its gleaming blade. It almost hummed with… thirst? Yes, focusing on the spear, he could sense a thirst within the weapon. For what, he didn’t know yet. But he knew it was his way to the top. Seeing his face reflected in the metal, Mandla saw a promise.

You keep me safe. I keep you sated.

The weapon pulsed within his hand. Was that assent? Did the weapon even understand him? Either way, when Mandla glanced up, both Kaveh and Nicola were giving him weird looks.

“What?”

Nicola glared at him.

“I hate to interrupt whatever weird sexual thing you have with that spear, but we have a problem. We have no ranged Classes. We also, for whatever reason, have five Cavalry Legends with nothing for them to ride. We won’t make it out here. The first thing tough enough to get past the heavies will ruin us. Ugh, people just don’t fucking listen.”

Intellectually, Mandla knew she was right. They were a very lopsided group, with plenty of support options but barely any soldier Classes. And they had to protect a group of around a hundred teens and young adults.

But in his political mind, Mandla knew this was his chance.

“Yeah, it sucks, but it is what it is. Now, we need to be proactive about our situation. We don’t even know how the surrounding area has changed. Kaveh and I will gather a few soldier Classes and go scout out the road, maybe see if we can reach the ranger station.”

Nicola narrowed her eyes.

And there’s the realisation. No, I’m not just going to roll over and let you take control.

She harrumphed.

“Fine. I’ll stay back with Karl and we’ll try fortify this place. The support Legends have skills that seem like they’re meant to be used from a base.”

Kaveh took the opportunity to ask.

“So why haven’t you chosen your Legend, yet.”

Because she was using her beauty to get people to listen to her. Can’t show off an awesome body in armour.

“I was waiting for everyone else to make the choice, so I could fill any gaps. We’re missing ranged Classes so-”

She crumpled as she accepted her Class right there. Her body flashed with a bright golden light before Kaveh was helping her up.

She was now clad in a red and blue gambeson, with grey breeches and simple leather shoes. Mandla realised at this moment, he was completely barefoot. There were a few spare pairs of shoes in Kaveh’s car, but they were mostly from women who’d changed into heels once they arrived at the party.

Fuck it.

He grabbed a pair of pink air forces. Depressingly, they fit perfectly.

In the backgrorund, Kaveh was worrying over Nicola.

“You should’ve at least sat down, you could’ve hit your head on a rock and died.”

Mandla only had one question.

“Are you on the Ascent?”

She looked back up at him with an annoyed face, ignoring the question, instead responding to Kaveh.

She was always going to choose what she did. Pure luck that her Resonance was an archer.

Her Ascendant Class, [English Longbowman], was admittedly sorely needed, so he didn’t press her on it. He still meant to confront her about the supposed “tutorial”.

Man, how does Kaveh fall for this shit. Whatever, there’s more important stuff to worry about.

“Let’s head out quickly. All this excitement in the air is beginning to smell like hubris.”

----------------------------------------

After a quick organisation period, the trio got to work. Mandla and Kaveh headed out with all the swordsmen, intending to follow the road up to the ranger station and maybe get some communication out into the world. Nicola remained with the spearmen and mountless riders, directing the Support Legends and the Classless to search for wood in the surrounding forest and build barricades.

Ever since Kaveh had first shown him his weapon skill, Mandla had had a slowly rising feeling of anxiety. There hadn’t been much wildlife in the forest before the world got reset, but he’d expected to at least see something. A mutated squirrel. A particularly large insect. Something.

But they hadn’t. In fact, aside from the ubiquitous bird calls, they may as well have been alone in there. He’d been hoping for a small creature to emerge, something ugly and easy to kill. He’d never killed anything larger than a bug before and the one time he’d seen a cow get slaughtered had made him dry heave. However, he also realised that he wouldn’t gain levels by photosynthesis. The Position ticker in his status kept creeping upwards.

As the squad travelled up the dirt road towards where they hoped they’d find a ranger, Mandla was properly able to take in just how much their environment had changed. There had barely been any canopy when they’d arrived, now the sunlight was filtered green through the spreading branches of the titanic trees. They couldn’t even see how any terrain further off had changed as the massive forest dominated their views. Their entire perspective was the small hallway of trees created by the road, which had remained blessedly unchanged by the terraform.

Or was it? Maybe it doesn’t lead to the same place anymore.

Mandla banished the unhelpful thought with a shake of the head. It may be true, but this far down the road, they couldn’t turn back without confirming.

“I see it!”

Andrew shouted, breaking into a sprint that everyone followed. The cabin resolved in the distance, looking unmolested as well. Mandla remembered that neither the car nor the tables and bar were changed either.

Did this ignore man-made things? Aside from the frying of all our toys.

Lost in thought, Mandla bumped into Kaveh in front of him when the man abruptly came to a halt.

“Yo what the fu-”

The curse died in his throat as he saw what had caused them to stop running.

The ranger's half-eaten corpse.