Edited by @CLChik
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The day was a moderately hot one, it was the middle of the summer holidays, so people were relatively relaxed, this included Will Chamberlain. Will was a 16 year old boy, currently staying in the city of Cardiff in Britain, with his Uncle and Aunt. He was visiting them during the holidays, in an attempt to escape the misery of his own home in New York. From Will’s point of view, being the third child in a family of five was a curse.
He didn’t have the authority of his older siblings, nor did he receive the attention his younger siblings got. He was stuck right in the middle, practically invisible. The greatest family joke being that Will had a lack of talent, in anything.
Normally, being in a family, one doesn’t necessarily need to be talented in something, but unfortunately that did not apply to Will’s unusual family. His father was a relatively successful businessman, who ran a few medium sized companies. His stepmother was the personification of the perfect trophy wife; young, attractive, smart, diligent in her duties etc, the list goes on. Any man would consider himself lucky to have her, to Will however, she was the epitome of evil.
She married Will’s father a few years ago and brought along with her, Will’s two younger siblings. Before she came into the picture, Will’s lack of talent didn’t really matter and he didn’t mind.
Will’s older brother Michael is very skilled business wise, and helps their father manage their companies. The second born Jane was a very skilled Martial artist, from a young age she had always dominated karate in her age group, and it was believed that she could one day compete at an International level. Will spent his entire life being compared to the two, but never complained, because he looked up to them. He was content, just living his life the way he always did.
After she arrived however, everything changed when she brought along her little monsters. His stepmother had two children before she met his father, they were twins, and there was nothing they couldn’t do. Be it sport, science or art, those little devils excelled at anything they put their minds to. They both had ridiculously high I.Q.s, and whilst they had many talents and skills, they each had a specialty none the less.
The girl, Lisa, was a fantastic pianist and was famous in the classical music world at the tender age of twelve. The boy, Dillon, was a science geek. When he was thirteen, he was already having scholarships from famous universities being shoved in his face. These little freaks made their mother incredibly proud. She came from a rich family that lived in Hollywood, so she loved the limelight her children brought her.
The moment those three entered the Chamberlain family, they created a fierce competition for achievements. It was rather strange, normally you would expect the new children to compete with their older siblings, however, it didn’t work out that way.
The boys in the family were competing against the girls. Michael and Dillon were more of the intellectual type and hit it off well, they had even started their own company.
Jane and Lisa were more of the sporty, artistic type, they had many things in common and were both planning to become world famous in their respective arts.
Will on the other hand, hit it off with no one, since he had no talent, he was almost invisible, both parents focused on their favourites. The father focused on the boys, whilst the mother focused on the girls.
This made Will somewhat depressed but it had its advantages; he had the freedom to do whatever he wished and he had a lot of free time. This resulted in him obsessing over his hobbies, things like; online gaming, anime, comics etc. His biggest hobby however, was to read web novels, especially Chinese and Japanese novels. He was so obsessed over these that he taught himself how to read, write and speak Chinese and Japanese, this had taken him a full three years to achieve.
Due to the immensity of the oriental alphabets, he could only read or write a bit more than what an average Chinese or Japanese person can. The reason he knew more than what was deemed average, was his obsession with history/ mythology/ martial arts. As long as it had anything to do with samurais or Taoism, odds are he has read it, played it or watched it.
His greatest passion was reading xuanhuan or xianxia novels, especially those that involved the concepts of immortality or power levels and so on.
In the gaming world Will was not really famous or particularly skilled, he was slightly above average at best. He did however have an obsession, in fact, you could even go as far as to call it an addiction. Grinding, his favourite thing to do online, besides the occasional fap, was grinding his skills and stats. He didn’t really care about levels or weapons or armour etc, all he cared about was grinding his skills, as far as he was concerned, this was as close to martial arts as he could get.
He only played online games that had a samurai class or something similar, as long as he used a katana he was happy. His dream was to become a world class swordsman, but he was far too lazy for that! Plus he knew real martial arts were nothing like the novels he read, there was no Dao, no martial way, no earth shaking techniques or abilities, only broken bones and sweat. Reality was cruel.
Thus, his only option was to immerse himself in his fantasies of having epic powers, like being able to destroy mountains with a punch or being able to slice space into another dimension.
At school people attempted to bully him or call him names like ‘nerd’ or ‘geek’ but he didn’t care, as far as he was concerned, if you spend life living according to the standards of others, then you’re wasting your time.
Despite the nerd he was, he had relatively high self esteem, he was quite confident and didn’t have a single qualm with his lifestyle. He was outspoken and honest but was not abrasive, he always said what was on his mind and didn’t hide his quirks, he wasn’t nervous regardless of whom he was talking to.
In fact, he was willing to talk to anyone who wanted to talk to him, and was open minded, thus, whilst he wasn’t popular with everyone, he still had quite a few people at school who liked his personality. He wasn’t jealous of those popular guys at school who went to parties and had lots of girls, like his older brother.
On the contrary, he disliked crowds of people who he believed were under the illusion that they were ‘normal’. As far as he was concerned ‘normal’ was a concept subject to relativity, humans are all unique in some way, just like their fingerprints, therefore attempting to adhere to a standard when everyone is unique, is in some way a waste of time.
Therefore after school, every day, he would spend the majority of his time in his room, the remainder spent on his daily walks around the city, to him, this was a time to listen to music and imagine himself as the main character in some epic adventure. He couldn’t do this in his room, because he could not listen to music and sit still. He could walk up to 15 miles a day on average, resulting in him having a decent body. Whilst he wasn’t fat, he was at least fit.
These walks, to him were refreshing, a chance to relax his mind and relieve his stress, and it is during one of these walks that something odd occurred. As mentioned earlier, Will was visiting his Uncle and Aunt, in Cardiff.
They were related to him from his biological mother’s side and he got along with them very well. Will’s mother disappeared when he was very young, so he barely had any memories of her. His father still kept in touch with her family for the sake of the children and visited from time to time.
Whilst in Cardiff he also carried out his daily walks, as a matter of fact, he enjoyed them more, because his Uncle’s house was located within a suburb called Pontprennau, it was a beautiful middle class suburb, with lots of greenery and very quiet, much unlike the noisy and smelly Manhattan he was used to.
Now, during one of his walks on the 30th of October 2015, something strange occurred.
Boom!
A loud noise suddenly rang out within Will’s mind, it was deafening. It made Will almost trip over his own feet. Then, a mechanical voice rang out in his mind.
System initiating. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…
The moment the countdown began Will started freaking out, he started thinking rapidly, trying to comprehend what was going on. He removed his earphones, but the countdown continued, he looked around but still couldn’t find a source.
This voice is in my mind.
With this thought Will calmed down, he realized that there was nothing he could do until the countdown finished.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
…two, one, zero. System is up. Please select a username.
This…this is?!
Wills neurons started firing off as he started processing what was occurring. He had read countless novels were something similar occurred. He calmed down and immediately thought up a plan of action, the first thing he started to think, was how to communicate with the voice in his mind.
Is it voice activated or do I just have to think?
Will had always used one username throughout his online escapades, be it for gaming or emails. He immediately thought of this name as his username, nothing happened. Then he decided to voice it out, “ Peerless Dao Master.” The voice immediately responded.
Peerless Dao Master. Please confirm choice of username, Yes or No?
Will immediately replied “Yes.”
Peerless Dao Master has been recorded as your user name. Welcome to the Conquest system Peerless Dao Master, as a new user in the system you have been given one hundred points. These points are for use in the system . Please choose use them wisely, for you can only gain more points when you level up on special occasions. Each stat represents an aspect of your body.
After the voice spoke some words appeared in front of Will, as if they were holograms floating in mid air. Since it was around sunset during a weekend, the area was practically void of other humans. Will looked around, trying to see if anyone else was experiencing this, but unfortunately he was alone in the middle of the road. He decided to look up and read the words.
Username: Peerless Dao Master
Level: 0
Class: None
Energy type:
Bonus Points: 100
Species: Human
Titles: None
Skills: None
Stats-
Endurance: 5
Agility: 4
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 9
Intelligence: 7
As soon as he had finished reading, almost as if the voice knew he was done, it sounded out again.
Endurance is responsible for health and stamina. Agility is responsible for speed and reflexes, including how you respond to danger. Strength is responsible for your physical strength and vitality, in other words, how quickly you heal from physical attacks. Wisdom is how efficiently you use mana or qi. It also affects how efficiently you heal from mana or qi attacks; it also affects your cognitive reasoning. Intelligence affects your mana or qi capacity, it also affects your defense from mana or qi attacks, and your memory. Both agility and strength can affect your physical attack power, one stat can become the primary effecter and one the secondary effecter. It depends on which class you use.
This is very interesting. I better pay close attention.
Will put on a very serious expression, as he started to seriously concentrate on the voice.
There are in general two types of classes, mana reliant classes and qi reliant classes. Each class usually relies on one type of energy at the early stages of your leveling. Each type has an advantage in the early levels. Mana reliant classes are usually better at long range attacks and deal more damage overall but their physical damage is weak.
They also have low strength, endurance and agility, their advantage being increased wisdom and intelligence.
Ki reliant classes are usually better at short to medium ranged attacks and usually do less damage overall.
They have relatively low wisdom and intelligence but however possess greater endurance, agility and strength.
It is highly advised to pick a class type suited to one’s skills. If a user chooses a class type that does not suit his or her body, then your stats will be weaker than they should be. It is now time to choose a class type. To choose, please mention the parameters of the type of class you desire. Please choose within 45 seconds or the system will select for you.
What the? Flip! Are you kidding me?!
Will started freaking out again, another countdown immediately showed up in front of him, starting at forty five. Things had happened so fast, Will did not have time to comprehend everything. It wasn’t until there were only thirty seconds left that Will’s eyes shined.
I’m not a sports guy, I don’t want to lose stats by picking a class type that doesn’t suit my body, so I’m going to have to pick a mana type, ah, but I so want to use ki even more! Arghh!
Will had a dilemma, he had always wanted to be a martial artist, like in his fantasy novels. Most of those characters used qi to fight. His dream was right in front of him, yet his logic was screaming against his desires.
He completely ignored common sense, things like whether or not he had gone insane didn’t matter, he had to think fast and he had to make a huge decision, one that would possibly affect his future. At that moment, 30 seconds were left, Will’s brain suddenly remembered the voice saying [in general there are two types, each class usually relies on one type of energy at the early stages of your leveling ]. Although Will didn’t have a fantastic memory, he remembered it word for word, because he had been extremely focused while listening.
Didn’t this mean that there are other types that don’t necessarily use one energy type? Will believed that this was a hidden clue. He also remembered the primary effecter clause of agility and strength. Whichever class you use, determines what the primary effecter is. So couldn’t the same apply to energies?
As a gamer Will knew that there would probably be class changes, like in online games, which is why the voice said “at the early stages”, this meant that in later levels there would be a class change that uses both energies, right?
Will immediately grew excited at the prospect. Since he was giving parameters, that meant he had leeway in saying which type of class he wanted. This made him more confident. He decided to gamble on his conjecture, when the countdown was at 25 seconds, Will used 10 seconds to get his wording right, then he spoke out.
“I want a class that uses both mana and qi, with mana as a primary effecter and qi as a secondary effecter. One that focuses on freedom to control my range and class ability using my mind. No voice casting should be required, and this class should increase my aptitude regarding a Dao.”
The countdown reached zero the moment he finished talking. Will blew out a sigh in relief and anxiously awaited his results.
The system will choose a class for you based on the Parameters you have chosen. Do you accept?
“Yes!”
Will shouted at the top of his lungs, the look in his eyes fervent with expectation
Ding! Congratulations. You have been awarded with the class Water Meister. As the first user on Earth to receive a dual energy class, you receive 300 bonus points. You have also been awarded with the skill, dual mind. This ability allows your mind to complete two separate activities at the same time. You have also received the title Dual Pioneer.
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Author's Note: If you enjoyed the chapter please vote! :)