Peter awoke empty. Not remotely hungry, of course, the healing potion he’d been given before waking up had obviously satiated that particular emptiness of his, but instead he felt empty and void of his very humanity. For though no man, woman, or child could ever truly see their own soul, he just knew that he had at least 1 big black streak on his otherwise clean and perfect soul.
He, who had prided himself on being a moral person only a few weeks ago, had taken the lives of not just one person, but three. As if his vivid memories of his second’s victim’s body being blow apart by his magic wasn’t enough to remind him of his guilt, the system opted for this moment for him to receive some apparently delayed system prompts. Each one only made his heart wrench further.
You have killed [Copper] Human (Lvl:4)
You have killed [Copper] Human (Lvl:5)
You have killed [Copper] Human (Lvl:9)
Reward: 1x [4-hour Upgrade Time Reducer]
You have gained the [Active] [Class] skill: [Inferior] Mana Bolt (Lvl:1)!
Description: When activated, you form a bolt out of pure mana with your hands and can fire it at will in any direction.
Your assigned bot has completed its task!
Class: [Mage]’s level is now 2!
You have levelled up!
Reward:
* +10 HP
* +10 MP
* Your HP and MP have been restored!
* You have unlocked your first Class Skill!
* You have selected Class Skill: [Inferior] Freeze (U) (Lvl:1)
* Description: Slow down time tremendously in a circle around your body at the expense of mana per every objective second.
Congratulations!
Your [F+] trait: [Survivor], has upgraded to the [E] rank trait: [Advanced Survivor]
Updated Effects: +5% Max HP
Peter had been rewarded. He almost felt like laughing, but instead started crying profusely.
The system had rewarded him for killing 3 people as if they were nothing more than the monsters in any old dungeon.
The desolate part of him that still felt intellectual guessed he now understood the harsh reality of why many people chose to kill other people full time, the system down right encouraged it. Rewarding those who did it with sweet rewards, and with the gradual growth of Earth’s monster population’s strength, it was probably easier to kill humans than the monsters at this point.
A knock at his door brought Peter out of his guilt-ridden reflections, however, the person on the other end didn’t wait for him to voice his permission for them to enter, and simply entered his room a few seconds later.
It was the androgynous fellow, whose name he now knew was Frank – even though the name didn’t suit him at all.
“You know,” The older boy started, before stopping and sighing, before saying, “How did you do it?”
Peter was startled by the question. How did he do what?
It seemed his internal question was written on his face, and so the teen clarified.
“How did you deal with the near Peak-[Copper] guy? Even Leonard would have struggled against him – hence why we didn’t bash their skulls in when they turned up all suspicious-looking.” The teen said, as though killing people were something totally regular and casual to talk about.
Peter didn’t dignify the question with a response, which seemed to show a lot about him as something seemed to dawn on Frank, his rather feminine-looking face turned serious, and he asked in a low voice, “Your first kill, huh?”
Peter nodded.
Frank said in response, “Kid, I wouldn’t brood on it too much. As long as you don’t plan on massacring innocent people, it really isn’t a big deal that you killed those 3. It’s pretty normal among adventurers to have killed at least a handful of punks and savages along the way – such is the tragedy of life post the collapse of civilisation.”
The teen’s voice sounded soothing, but his words couldn’t have felt coarser to Peter’s ears if the boy had tried.
Murdering people, ok? No. Not even the evillest people deserved to be outright killed, especially not by some other random person.
Even if he had convinced himself at the moment that it had been necessary to risk killing Fred and his goons to save himself from a life of slavery and or worse, Peter couldn’t bring himself to be so cavalier about what he had been forced to do – what they had forced him to do.
His displeasure at having his feelings all but hand waved away must have been evident on his face, as Frank quickly blurted out, “Yeah, I’m probably not the best person for you to have this conversation with. I suck at talking about first times – mostly because I can’t remember most of mine. Ha ha ha.”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The teen chuckled at his own joke, but Peter didn’t find the joke so funny.
Awkwardness descended over the room like an oppressive weight, and a few seconds later, Frank disappeared out of the room – leaving Peter alone once again.
Peter was grateful to be alone. At the moment, all he wanted was to be alone – at least, until tomorrow came.
----------------------------------------
Katie, for not the first time since she had all but taken under her wing, stared at her young apprentice with rampant, though reasonably well-masked, curiosity.
He possessed an incredible intelligence for someone of his age, but other than that, seemed relatively talentless. Which made his growth extremely… perplexing to her, as she had never encountered someone whose growth was so remarkably linear and steady in some areas, yet remarkably normal or even sub-par in other areas.
For example, the boy was currently reading an old book she had just so happened to find in the city’s library, and although his magic seemed tinged with sorrow, his aura’s strength was near about the perfect level for his already existing skill level.
Usually, one’s skill level certainly was in the ballpark of one’s skills, but there were people who were closer to the next level than others, whereas the kid in front of her seemed to be almost the dictionary definition of his skill’s level.
She also saw that he’d gained a level since yesterday, which was odd, but she didn’t think too much of it – orphan children were typically desperate to level up upon first receiving the system, and so it wouldn’t be a surprise to her if the boy had been braving dungeons by himself, or alongside that suspicious man.
Speaking of, she had been contemplating how she should best counter act whatever plan the man had in store for the boy. As, whether she liked it or not, she had grown to admire the boy, if not for his intellect, then for his determination, and so she would not dare risk losing him to some creepy muscle head on a power trip.
However, whatever she did, she’d need to be careful. Jeremy Foram was no regular [Slaver] scum, and his connections in the city were deep – despite only being in the [Bronze] class himself.
She remembered it being said of him by her old friends that the old slaver had always preferred grinding out his skills’ levels to their peak rather than boost his actual user level, or system rank, and because of this he exerted a greater influence over the slave market than his level would otherwise have permitted him due to the sheer quality of his “product”.
Katie recoiled as she even thought about the idea of other human beings being considered property – even though, back in her former timeline, the practice had become pretty much endemic post-apocalypse. Apparently, disaster striking all of humanity was a call for many to re-embrace practices of the past to solve their problems – an instinct and calling that Katie had just never understood.
Getting rather bored of watching the kid read, Katie decided to pull up her own status page and bask in her current weakness.
STATUS
Name: Katie Phillips
Titles:
* [ERROR] Ashen Majesty – [ERROR]
Age: 11
Class: Warrior
Rank: [Copper+]
Level: 10 – Progress: N/A [System Rank Promotion Trial Required]
HP: 281/281 – Max HP regen: 0.281
MP: 281/281 – Max MP regen: 0.075
AFFINITIES:
* [Common]: Air – Grade: [E], Earth – Grade: [E], Fire – Grade: [E], Water – Grade: [E]
* [Uncommon]: Lightning – Grade: [D], Metal – Grade: [D], Smoke – Grade: [D], Light – Grade: [D]
* [Epic]: Blood – Grade: [C]
* [Legendary]: Ash – Grade: [A]
TRAITS (5/5):
* [C] Survivor - +25% Max HP
* [C] Determined - +25% Max MP
* [C] Sage – +25% boost to Mana Regeneration
* [C] Sacred Blood - +25% boost to Health Regeneration
* [B] EXP-a-Holic - +50% boost to all EXP gained
STATS:
* Physical:
* Strength: [E+]
* Constitution: [E+]
* Endurance: [ERROR]
* Mental:
* Willpower: [E+]
* Wisdom: [E+]
* Intelligence: [E+]
* Social:
* Charisma: [E+]
* Empathy: [E+]
* Learning: [E+]
* System:
* Luck: [E+]
* Skill: [E+]
* System Compatibility: [E+]
PERKS:
* Unkillable | Type: Physical | Rank: [F+] | Progress to Next Rank: 0/2 | Description: You can manually command 5% of your body’s automatic healing energies at all times – allowing you to focus down a particular area for extra quick healing.
* Unshakable | Type: Mental | Rank: [N/A] | Progress to Next Rank: N/A | Description: Your mind is a fortress, impenetrable to those whose willpower stat is inferior to your own.
* Prodigy | Type: Social | Rank: [F] | Progress to Next Rank: 0/1 | Description: When in a social setting, you will always have a strenuous but workable idea of what is and what is not appropriate for you to do.
* Insight | Type: System | Rank: [F+] | Progress to Next Rank: 0/2 | Description: You can see more information than others with the same ranked Analysis skill.
SKILLS:
* General: [Abridged]
* Class: [Abridged]
‘This is just the beginning’ She reminded herself as she dreamed longingly of her former status page and its endless contents. She had once been an [Diamond] ranked user, and so being forced back to [Copper] rank was a real downgrade – literally.
In the grand scheme of things, [Copper] rank was basically the equivalent of being an ant – one among decillions of other lifeforms stuck at the bottom rung of the ladder of power.
Katie may have been given a chance to live again so as to serve a humble cause, but being this humble was a bit too depressing for her, and even just taking her first step into [Bronze] rank would suffice to appease her desire for more power.
However, she somehow doubted that would happen anytime soon – it had taken that event to occur before the damned entrenched hierarchy would budge and allow “lesser” humans like her to join the next rank up in her last life. Though, even then, they had intended on only letting her and her comrades become [Steel] rank at most – but the easy road to getting overthrown and cut down to size is placing unreasonable limitations on a class of newly powerful people.
However, though the bastards had deserved everything that she and her fellow rising stars had doled out to them, their actions had inadvertently weakened the entire planet’s fighting force, and so when they had come – earth had been too weak to defend itself or properly ingratiate itself with the surrounding multi-verse.
So, though it pained her greatly to admit it, her purging of the order of survivors that still ruled in this current timeline was one of her most steadfast regrets. She would need to manage things differently, perhaps bringing reform, rather than revolution, and then, maybe, the disaster that was to come could be averted with the full strength of Earth ready to defend it.
She grunted as she realised just who she sounded like from her former timeline. Then she jolted forward as she realised that the woman was probably in the exact city that she was – but did she really want to meet that soft speaking lunatic?
Maybe. Though that would have to wait, as it seemed the odd boy was up to something – something she suspected was perverted.