A group of individuals that looked emaciated and were on their last reserves of energy staggered across the dull white desert. It was remarkable they could last this long with their mere strength due to the iron rule in Tartarus, strength rules all. Strength is essential but along with it takes stamina to fend off constant raids from enemies varying demons to beasts.
The group went down to their knees and were riding on their last fuel. They lay down and searched around studying the vacant desert that envelops them.
“When will this ever end? Running away from them… The annihilation of one settlement after another.” a man with white rags said with a parched throat.
“It will never stop. We kill those demons for materials and cores. In return, they retaliate twofold on us regardless of the size of the settlement, a never-ending cycle. Even if we stopped attacking them, they will never cease. Those damn demons have been non-stop tracking down one settlement after another. They have despised sinners and will never stop to eliminate us.” a towering black-cloaked man in his 50s spoke with his voice sounding as if he was in agony.
“This realm is unsuited for humans and there seems to be no exit.”He continued.
The desert was bright despite the never changing black sky. The group was probing around where their next stop should be until one of them spotted a figure in the distance.
“Hey look! There’s another sinner out there.” a woman that looked to be in her youth said.
They observed a humanoid of pale white skin with black rags laying atop on a hill staring at the sky with his back faced towards them. He had long grey hair running down his back reaching his waist, a pair of shackles on his wrists with no chains binding them and wielded a shattered sword that had a brown hilt and a fragment of its blade. He had blade shaped bones attached to his forearm that could be a weapon. He turned his head to the sound behind him and peered at the tarnished group for a moment before closing his eyes.
The sinners moved and sat down in front of him letting their guard down as they realized he was a sinner. A term they used loosely due to the presence of the man.
“You seem to be alone. Did you get separated from a group or were they…” the white ragged man spoke with his voice fading near the end.
The pale humanoid opened one of his eyes and looked at him in question
“Group? Never was part of one.”
“There’s no way you could’ve survived on your own here. There are many class 2 demons that roam these deserts and even some class 3 are blended in their groups. It takes several class 1s to take down one class 2 demon here.” the white ragged said in disbelief.
“Class 2? Is that what people classify strength in this world? Do you people not use levels?” the humanoid asked curiously.
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“Looks like you really had no contact with other settlements. For quite some time due to the mass amount of levels, the system created a ranking system of classes 1-7 with Vagrant being the starting point. In this world, class 1 is achieved when you reach level 10 and the peak would be level 100. This is where most humans are at, well at least in this realm.” the white ragged man explained as he drew a diagram on the sand with the butt of his sword.
“Class 3 starts at 200 and ends at 400. We call them Saints or Demon Kings and can handle small groups of class 2s but even then they won’t manage to take the class 3 down.”
“As for class 4-7, we’ve never heard of them before and you could get a better idea in the mortal realm as knowledge here is scarce.” the white ragged man’s eyes dimmed a little at the end.
“Seems pretty impressive that you could explain at least that much” The humanoid said and wondered where he stood at in the power rankings and decided to bring up his status window which could not be shown to others unless he willed it.
Name: ???
Age: ???
Level: 3199Hp: 100,000,000/100,000,000
Mana: BLOCKED
STR: ??? (+???)
INT: 50 (+50)
DEX: 50 (+50)
-Broken Starforge: Increase all Stats by 200%, Increases Movement Speed by 15%, Can penetrate any newly formed formation. Status: 50% of the bonuses are applied.
-Instantaneous Regeneration: Ability to regenerate any limb or organ. Regeneration will reduce max HP
-Blood Pact: At the cost of the usage of mana, health will be sacrificed to use skills
-Absorb: Naturally regens health by converting energy from the atmosphere.
Chains of Hell: Applies a debuff and slows down enemies. Dwindles their strength in half every time they execute an attack/spell.
Locked Skill: Skill will be available when more memories have been recovered.
Locked Skill: Skill will be available when more memories have been recovered.
“Ah, we forgot to introduce ourselves, my name is Tigris and I’m at the peak of class 1, the old man is Izaro with class 2 ranking and the woman is Ivara who recently reached class 1.” the white ragged man introduced.
“And you are?”
“I do not remember my name but you can call me whatever you like. As for my class? I am not too sure but you can think of me at the peak of class 3” the humanoid answered and hid some info on his actual strength.
“Then we’ll call you Pallidus since you seem so pale.” the woman decided while the other two men looked at each other with astonishment.
“P-peak of class 3? No wonder you can survive alone. With your strength, you can hold a settlement for a long time.” Tigris was shocked and they couldn’t find out his level meaning he was way above them making it believable.
Just as he finished speaking, a small burst of sand came behind them from the ground revealing a red tiger. Instead of having a fur it was covered in scales making it look like it specialized more in defense than attack.
“Oh shit.. A class 3 beast..” Tigris fell back on his ass and shivered in fear. It raised its claw and was about to swipe it at the white ragged man until Pallidus took action.
His speed was far too fast and his movements could not be perceived by the group and struck with a palm attack at its exposed chest. A large bang could be heard and resulted in a gaping hole in the center of the tiger revealing an undamaged purple sphere.
Pallidus walked up to the corpse and tossed the core into his mouth which snapped the group out of their bewilderment.
“You just killed a class 3 beast in one strike! And not only that you just ate the core! Won’t you combust from the amount of energy absorbed?” Tigris was baffled to see him munching on a core and casually absorbing the core.
“Don’t worry about it my body can contain it.” Pallidus thought nothing of the group’s reactions. ‘It’s best that I don’t tell them that I eat these as snacks..’
The group has seen many warriors falling miserably to class 3 beasts as they were much stronger than their demon counterparts. Yet this one lone person casually kills one and thinks nothing of it.
They were unsure of the current circumstance whether they should consider themselves lucky to be in the vicinity of this warrior or face a quick death in the not so distant future.