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The Thousands Sons - First Cycle -
Arc 1 chapter one : A f*cking volcano

Arc 1 chapter one : A f*cking volcano

After the oppressing sensation covered my body the light color changed, from lab white to a mix of black and red.

"I say, it doesn't seem good."

I'm talking alone now. Great.

Just as I finished my train of thought,  the force and the light both disappeared.

"Ah. You're gotta kidinn' me there !?"

Why do I exclaim, and going on a rant. Well,  turn around with me.

Lava plain, lava plain, and lava plain.

Ah, no. There is a massive volcano North from here.

Welcome, subject ! Choose your know name and the system will make you know your player name !

Well, this will go smooth and fast.

Known name : Kael StormBlood

Player name : Eternal Challenger

Congratulations on being chosen for this battle! Do you want to read the Rules ?

Y/N

Ah. Let’s find exploitable loopholes!

***

After browsing through 20 pages, I now know why most people ignore the rulebook.

The entire rule manual is 1000 pages thick and full of specific terms.

Aaah. No matter. There's obviously at least one loophole in the 1000 pages, right ?

***

72 hours later

***

Okay. I admit. The rules don’t have a single loophole.

But I learned some interesting things !

First: There is an achievement system, as well as an inventory and level. Basically they mixed rpg and strategic aspects together.

Second: As I grow stronger so will be the next generation of my brethren.

Third: To classify the civilisation we are going to erect,  they designed an era to era system, defined by the knowledge and the world rank of the civilisation.

From prehistoric era to the bronze age, and so on everything is delimited.

Fun fact,  we get a map and a HUD like the fps back on Terra.

Oh, yeah, after humanity united they renamed Earth to Terra,  changing thoroughly the page of history that was written.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

As I pleased myself in browsing the display, a notification popped up to my right.

Time remaining before the game begin : 00:05:00

Damn. Only now did my brain register that my legs are locked in place.

Will have to wait until the final countdown, then.

Five minutes later, the window updated itself, as a loud bell rung all around the world.

The battle has begun !

Quest ! Reach and reunite with your people !

I let out a sigh as the second window appeared, right in front of my face.

Along with a ranking table, the HUD gives us a crude looking map.

And glancing to it,  I feel depressed as I am currently in the middle of nowhere.

And I have not even a hint to find the dim-witted mes’ !

Letting another sigh out, I started running north,  towards the distant volcano.

***

It is quite the desolate place,  actually.

An uneven greish plain, made of cooled lava, covered of white grey ashes, scarred by long and sinuous river of yellow red lava. I’m pretty sure that looked from up in the sky it will seem like the veins of mother earth.

This unsightful scenery was showing some dead trees there and here, like dark brown charred skeleton placed there as a testament of the black mountain’s fury.

After running for a while at a sprinting pace,  the volcano that I settled as a goal wasn’t anyway nearer that it was at my appearing place.

Looking at my map, and using a mental ruler,  my mood goes drastically down as I estimated the distance to be well in the 400 kms.

It seems like I have to test my body limits that what I had planned. It’s already increased my stamina and muscle power by at least tenfold. At least it’s no cheat when you compare with the humans, where in the status there's no stat higher than ten.

Asserting my points over the sixties both in strength and agility,  I dashed forward and ran toward the volcano at full speed, planning to continue until exhausted, and to fully use the two days immunity given to us by the System.

Due to continuous physical activity, straining your body.

You have gained +1 Endurance.

You have unlocked a stat !

Endurance (str /2)

After one hour of running or so, I felt like my legs were going to shatter in pieces. Not willing to give up the goal that I had set up, I forced me to continue moving forward.

My muscles screamed and tore apart, and I finally lose all feeling in my legs.

Then my consciousness was drifting away bit by bit, and my vision gone darker and darker.

At least,  only the rhythm of my feet hitting the ground and the movement of my body kept me aware while everything started to spin.

And, when I was supposed to fall, everything faded, clarity abruptly coming back and feeling as a bucket of cold water was dropped on me, and I darted forward once more. Only briefly glancing to the notification windows.

Due to pushing your body beyond your body,  you gained several bonuses !

Explosive sprint unlocked

Heat immunity -25%

Title : Madman.

People now known that you don’t give a shit about them. What's matter,  is your people and yourself.

Achievement! Title bearer !

You're the first of this realm to gain a title. All attributes +1

In almost two hour of non stop running,  I made half the distance to the volcano, but I feel like my body is broken all over.

Stopping to catch my breath on a higher point and glanced at the ‘map’.

Truly this body strength is a cheat compared to the human one.

Even with all the heat, the polluted atmosphere by the ashes from the the fumes emitted by the lava pits, my body is still at full capacity, only suffering mental strain, but my mind is still adapting to this new body.

It’s satisfying to test first hand that my creation is so well adapted to survival.

Physically,  we possess a shard-scaled, pure white skin for the newborn or newspawn like me. O noticed that mine is possessing a coal red hue to it.

Crushing my current train of thought it pieces,  I launched myself downward and started running again.