ELEMENTALIST’S PAST

Thinking back on my life, I always wondered why I was giving life. I always questioned who my parents were and what had happened to them. Yet, no matter how hard I tried to remember my earliest memory, it was always within the walls of the Fire Kingdom.

Being beaten, yelled at, drilled...

DELVE

You are a piece of shit...

The voices of old classmates echoed in my head.

SKY

Hey, skeleton face! You look like your dead girlfriend.

Their laughter followed their taunts. I despised every minute living within that kingdom, yet I continued living. I refused to take my own life because I knew my instructor Dean and my old classmates would laugh at my death—I knew it in my bones.

There was also Locness, my dead girlfriend. After she encouraged me to live, how could I be selfish enough to take my own life? Not that I could now anyway...

And so I strove on doing the bare minimum as a Scribe—writing into blank books hoping by some miracle I would write a Spell Book. It never happened, not once since I was in the Fire Kingdom.

DEAN

You are a fucking pain in my ass... Pain! Wake up!

I jolted awake and pulled myself up. My head was dizzy, but I quickly remembered how my life within the Fire Kingdom got turned upside down—for the better. Thanks to Fire King Solo's ego and pride, he held an expressive ceremony to celebrate becoming immortal.

Unfortunately for him, the gods of fate had a different outcome, and with the appearance of a dragon interrupting the ceremony, the God Item: Infinity came rolling my way...

I strained my eyes as I blinked into the pure darkness. I rubbed the back of my head—wet with blood.

After achieving immortality, my "loving" king imprisoned and tortured me for three years, hoping I would just accept death and forfeit my immortality. Stupid, self-centered king... luck was not on his side because I escaped the Fire Kingdom and tasted freedom within these wilds.

All my life, that was all I wanted—to live the lives of the adventurers, heroes, and legends I read about during the time I should have been slaving away. But after a small taste of reality, I have seen the true nature of kinans and learned how ruthless and uncaring we could be. At first, I wanted peace; if I sought peace, I needed power. But, after coming across Plight of Souls and reading about bringing the dead to life, I began to wonder if I could bring back Locness...

I stiffened at the thought of Locness and remembered the bone-chilling vision of her fiery silhouette. The memory came to me clearly; I was standing in a void of black and gray smoke—Limbo. The constantly warping ground beneath my feet bubbled with the faces of kinans, animals, and fiends alike. Floating before me was a black burning silhouette of Locness.

I took a deep breath, pushing the thought away, and brought back the lively image of her smile. She had red and black skin—the red ran along her bodily edges down to her fingers like my own white and black skin. The pattern upon her face reassembled an angry demon—with purple and red lips resembling stitching and red patterns on her face giving her a permanent scowl. Her pupils were a bright magenta upon a black iris swimming in a blood-red sclera.

I grabbed hold of myself, feeling good at the perfect memory of her, but Recall Memory decided to torture me and replayed the moment an arachnid's limb pierced through the back of her body. I grabbed my head and shook off the memory with a shout of annoyance.

As I patted down my tight leather pants and jerkin for any other source of injury, my thoughts reverted to Plight of Souls. The old Necromancer of that book took the lives of thousands to bring back the person he loved. And so now, the power I sought came from the death of others. So I murdered and will continue to murder and cut down anyone who got in my way.

I conjured a ball of flame within my hands, grabbed my nearby (Ice Aptitude) Oak Staff, Petty En Ice Casting, and stood near the stairs leading up the pyramid altar. The room was divided into four square sections split by raised cobble walkways. Within the sections were old chairs and desks filled with small child-like skeletons.

My mind continued to wander, and I grimaced at the thought of those who stood in my way. Unfortunately, they were none other than those from the Fire Kingdom. They were still after me, although I fled far west from the Fire Kingdom and ended up within a vast wilderness plot. I recently understood that this area had been abandoned due to an open spell book at the top of the altar. I rubbed the back of my head once more—I had stepped back and tripped, falling down the altar and smashing my head against the cobbled floor last night.

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PAIN

How many times am I going to die...

I whispered to myself. Maybe I should stop depending on my Immortality and pretend I did not have it... maybe.

I increased my flame's light and went for the exit. I stopped, noticing something within the divided section to my right. I hopped down the steps into it and grabbed a flag pole off the ground.

PAIN

I should have known.

It was a Fire Kingdom flag, an emblem of flaming crossed swords on a black flag ending in dark red threads at its edges. I turned back to look at the altar. An old spell-writing city that was turned upside down by an open book. But why was he writing—a skill? It was not a spell book but an open skill book—

PAIN

Such bad luck!

I blurted in realization.

Most skills, like Fire Control or even Scan, were utterly harmless. But then again, open books are meant to use their ability at the highest level and as wildly as possible. My hair raised on its end as such possibilities washed over me.

The open skill book, Soul Harvest, ravaged the lands, killing any living thing within range. Could I achieve such power and range with Soul Harvest? How many years or eons would I have to train to accomplish that?

Hmph, time will tell. I threw down the flag and decided to prod around. I approached the dead instructor. I unsealed the robes he had with ease, revealing (Class Aptitude) Robes, Lesser Spellwriting. Useless for those who did not have the Scribe profession class—like me. I still took the robes and wore them over my (Mana Affinity Robes) Dark Robes, Petty Mana Regeneration. A tingling sensation as if I was learning a skill or spell washed over me, but since I did not have the class, the feeling simply faded away.

Now that I have removed the source of death that rendered this place inhabitable, I should expect visitors in the future who may accidentally stumble across this city. Those with power, such as the Earth Kingdom or North Star, might seek to annex these southern plains to access the rising sea that lay immediately south of it.

Hmph, I was the one who found this place and removed the open book curse, so I should rightfully claim such a place. Besides, this fort would be a vastly better place to live than my current musty cave up north. And not to mention the glorious rising sea behind this city.

I began to see myself out, using Recall Memory to trace back my stumbling when I was blind and deaf. I pursed my lips at the memory. When I first came in here, I was attacked by a banshee, and the fight's aftermath left me blind and deaf for a moment. Ridiculous.

I made my way up the staircase and did my best to ignore the sites of the mansion as I allowed Recall Memory to guide me back to where I fought off the banshee in the main hall. Light was peaking through the windows lining the walls just below the ceiling. I grimaced—moonlight must have seeped through and given birth to that banshee.

I glanced around; the hall resembled a stone throne room with a tattered velvet carpet. The back ended with debris from my fight with the banshee, rich chairs, and tables. The entrance to the main hall was barricaded by the collapsed ceiling. I peeled my eyes away from the details and continued onward towards the corridor I entered from.

A soft breeze caressed my skin, and the daylight rays greeted me as I approached the barricade of the collapsed ceiling at the end of the corridor. Just to the right of it was a massive hole I had created to enter the night before. As I stepped out into the sunlight, my Petty Danger Sense flared briefly, and my body froze.

I flexed my claws and bared my fangs, ready to take on any foe that dared to take away my chance to witness the rising sea in its beauty. But there was nothing—Petty Scent Detection and Petty Sound Vision detected nothing out of the ordinary. But Petty Danger Sense was still humming at the back of my head—

VOICES

Please!

I Quickstepped backward, moving in a quick blur back through the gaping hole and into the safety of the hall at the sudden boom of a dozen voices that echoed in my head.

VOICES

I beg of you! Help me!