His sword and shield clattered to the dusty arena ground below. His hands and knees hit the dirt. The stadium fell silent. The black knight strode forward stopping just a few feet away from the downed Vincent. Lifting the boy's chin with his sword the knight spoke. "So you're saying you.. give up?"
From his keeling position Vincent had one eye closed as he grunted out. "I'm not.. *huff* *huff* gonna beg. But.. *huff* I'm no fool. I can't win." He finished, lowering his head. The black knight nodded seemingly satisfied. "Your growth is truly impressive but you are correct. This fight was a hopeless endeavor from the beginning. I shall end this quickly."
He drove his blade forward.. Vincent waited for the pain…
*THUD*
But no pain came. He slowly gained the courage to open his eyes. When he did the black knight was offering him a hand up. He had run his blade into the ground beside the kneeling Vincent. The man looked up quizzically.
"You fought admirably, with courage and honor." The knight explained. He continued, "Anyone can have courage. It takes a true hero to realize that not every battle is winnable, and not everyone can be saved. While it may sometimes feel cowardly to run away, you're no good to anyone if you're dead. Above all else you must live, so that you may continue the fight with honor and courage!" He finished with fire in his knightly eyes. Or at least.. one would assume if they could actually see his eyes instead of the red orbs in his helmet. Vincent merely huffed trying to regain his breath. He had been pushed to his limit for nearly a day, drinking potions as needed but never resting more than a few moments at a time. While it had been undeniably fruitful, he was regretting every minute of it.
Without prompting the knight continued, once more using overly exaggerated arm movements. "Besides! It would be a shame to lose such a worthy rival! Most opponents stab me in the back and the few who don't rarely put up a fight such as the one you did. I think, even though you did not defeat me, you deserve the maximum reward obtainable without killing me."
Vincent slowly nodded. That was really all he needed to know. What sort of reward he would get. How his progress would be affected. It seemed that few actually fought the knight one on one and even fewer still somehow managed to win at such a lowly level. Even now with his sword and shield skill having risen ten levels through the duration of the trial he stood no chance.
Vincent slowly stood and rubbed his aching body, cracking a few bones as well. "If.. we ever meet again..?" Vincent began. The knight shook his head. "I would not have any recollection of our prior engagement, I am afraid. The system.. has a tendency to disregard its tools once the excitement of the thing being new, fades. I shall never know anything more than my inherent purpose. To guard the truth. Like all trials and dungeons.. my world and its people are merely relics from a long forgotten time and space that the system grew bored of." Vincent nodded sadly. He thought about asking the knight to elaborate further but.. he was tired. He extended his arm. "Then. Until we are both forgotten, my friend." Shaking his hand the knight responded, "until then." And the world faded away once more.
As his consciousness settled into the sanctuary of his cave once more Vincent rubbed his forehead. He was getting sick of getting his ass kicked just for a couple of skills and levels. He could tell that even without the doubled physical stats the knight had, his skill levels were probably well into the double digits. Each and every swing of his blade was angelic. His blade sang as it cleaved the air. Vinent was positive the being had gone knowingly easy on him the entire time and he still lost so decisively. The knight's sword and shield technique were truly on another level..
Vincent had tried to incorporate bits and pieces of what he saw but he knew he needed to develop his own, unique style to truly grow as a swordsman. He briefly wondered how his pre-system self would fair to his current self. He was willing to bet it would look pretty similar to how that battle had just gone, with his current self being the metaphorical black knight. Or maybe he hadn't really gotten much stronger than he was before and just couldn't tell because of this psycho-inducing death prison.. He felt like he was truly losing his mind for the first time since the system had come.
In the old days, his anxiety and depression had been his greatest weaknesses. His desire for solitude simply put him at a disadvantage in normal society. He couldn't stand the daily routine of going to work and being treated like shit just for a paycheck. He had been fortunate in life.. privileged. He had a good family and a good education. Still, knowledge was often a curse. The way humans lived was doomed from the start, long before the system came.
He hated people.. not necessarily people themselves just how humanity as a whole acted. He hated the way everything was. How easily everyone turned blind eyes to the ugliness around them. Corruption, crime, poverty.. such things shouldn't exist in a 'civilized' society. People should care more about one another. At least he thought so. What was the point and leaving mounting problems for our sons and daughters..
He supposed at the core of it all he hated himself the most. His own inability to change the world. To heal the pain. He felt so weak. So helpless.. What was the point in it all? In a hundred or even a thousand years what did it matter what he did or who he saved? He couldn't make the world a better place. He couldn't fix human nature.
But here such things didn't matter.. all that mattered was surviving. In fact being highly emotional could prove extremely beneficial if you could focus those feelings towards fuling growth and getting things done. Every waking second of every day was spent getting stronger and fighting to survive. He didn't have time for failure or any room to think about how he might have let down the people he cared about...
Truly maybe he just didn't want to. He didn't belong there.. but here he could see the difference he made in the world. He craved progress. A visible sign of his accomplishments. Currently it was primarily in the growth of his stats but someday he would change this world with his power.. Maybe he could make everything better. No more pain.. no more killing. No more hate..
For once he felt like there were no wrong or right answers, just pure freedom to do whatever he wanted and strive for his ambition. Follow any impulse or drive.. but the key to that freedom was power. He needed more.. so that he would never feel so helpless again.
He brought up his system window, appreciating how much his stats had already grown.
Level: 1
XP 0/1000 (0%)
Class: N/A
Health: 3200/3200
Mana: 3000/3000
Attk: 50
Defense: 75
Stats:
Strength: 25
Endurance: 32
Vitality: 21 (+1%)
Intelligence: 30
Perception: 35
Agility: 20
Skills:
Sixth sense (rare) lvl 33
Ecology (epic) lvl 15
Complete tranquility (epic) lvl 14
Smithing (common) lvl 35
Farming (common) lvl 35
Sneak (uncommon) lvl 30
Improved dash (epic) lvl 12
Cooking (common) lvl 35
Alchemy (uncommon) lvl 32
Acid resistance (uncommon) lvl 10
Fire resistance (uncommon);lvl 24
Sword and shield (common) lvl 40
Planta/Plante (rare) lvl 12
Unyielding strike (epic) lvl 10
Unwavering guard (epic) lvl 10
Courage (rare) lvl 1
Perks:
Will to survive +1% vitality
Lifebringer +10 vitality
Smithing +3 strength and agility
Limit breaker + 20 endurance +5 strength
Camouflage. Harder to detect +5 Agility.
Connoisseur. Cooking, crafting, alchemy knowledge. +5 Intelligence and Perception.
Ecologist. Ecology. +25 perception.
Fortitude. Grants the user a permanent + 5 in strength and agility
marquis of science. Grants +10 intelligence
Transmutation grants knowledge of the atomic structure of all things +5 intelligence
Gourmet chef. Permanent boost from food +10Vitality
Honor: bonuses in 1v1. +10 strength +5 agility
Vincent whistled at his growing list of stats and skills. It was a lot to keep track of. He decided to check out his two new skills and his new perk, beginning first with the second skill he had unlocked while battling against the black knight and then moving on to the skill and perk he received for completing the trial.
Unyielding strike (epic) User focuses all of his physical capabilities into a single mighty blow. Works best when using a sword. Consumes stamina and mana based on charge up time. Due to the 'epic' rarity gain a small reduction in stamina and mana consumed per level. Gains a moderate boost from strength, endurance, and agility.
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Seemed pretty powerful in practice especially since it scaled on three different attributes. He was honestly just happy to finally have an offensive ability. He didn't spend too much time thinking about it, and quickly moved on. He focused on the new perk next as something caught his eye.
Honor: to live by the way of the sword and shield is to live by one's honor. Whenever facing an enemy one on one, gain a 25% increase (multiplicative) in attack and defense. Receive greatly reduced damage from sneak attacks. grants a plus 10 in strength and a plus 5 in Agility.
Now that.. was an interesting perk. A plus 25% boost to his attack and defense in one on one fights? Sounded a bit broken actually. The attributes were nice too.
Courage (rare) your bravery inspires all allies within your vicinity as well as specific targets. Effect is divided amongst affected parties. All parties gain a boost to attack, defense and speed. Due to the 'rare' rarity gains a small bonus to attack, defense, and speed per level. Allies gain a small amount of health per level dependent on the user's health. Gain a small boost from intelligence and a minor bonus from strength. (Active skill) (consumes 1000 mana)
Vincent's eyebrows twitched as he tried to remain calm upon reading the last skill he had received. A growing tick mark appeared on his head as he spun around and located the reason for his current disposition. His companion. "Well imagine if I had anyone other than your useless ass to use this on." He growled, then sighed. "I guess at least you'll be a step up in training huh?"
And just as he'd had the thought he felt it. His own skill working in reverse. He looked at his companion astonished. He hadn't considered.. His companion shared all of his abilities including this new one. And since Vincent was technically the Plant's ally.. he was the target of the boost. He couldn't be sure but he felt like it gave him roughly a 5% boost to all stats. Visually the numbers in his stat window were unaffected so apparently percent buffs weren't calculated in stat totals. Still though he knew it worked because he literally felt the difference. It wasn't bad considering it was level 1.
He scratched his head. Honestly his companion was kind of a genius.. He turned and looked at said creature. "Guess I owe you an apology.. blah. Thanks." He choked out, continuing to scratch the back of his neck. As if to say don't mention it, the thing bounded off happily to continue its never ending work.
'Seems you only have to pay the mana cost once and then the ability is active until you turn it off… didn't say anything about a distance limit either for the party just for allies in the vicinity. How interesting.'
He looked one more time at his skills.. there was one more that was almost at 25. Was he going to unlock another damn trial? He supposed he would have to torture himself first to find out. He decided to make things easy on himself and craft as much as he could with his bare hands to kill two birds with one stone. He gained experience in smithing and the heat from the forge slowly raised his fire resistance, the skill in question. It wasn't long before he'd managed to achieve his goal...
Congratulations! Your skill: fire resistance (uncommon) has grown to level 25!
Branching path! Due to danger of the environment around you ANZ unknown conditions being met, a unique reward has been achieved! Choose reward:
fireball
Firecloak
Flame sword.
At first he breathed a sigh of relief but then he quickly realized this was almost just as bad, as all of those seemed like good options. He really sucked at making decisions. Almost immediately the flamesword was eliminated. While it would be cool as hell to have a flaming sword he wondered what would happen if he ran into the Fang of flame with such a thing. He shivered at the thought of the thing eating his sword and then him.
Next he ruled out flamecloak. While it would no doubt be an invaluable defense skill he didn't like the thought of being surrounded by flames, catching everything he touched on fire.. With that in mind he also considered that he probably really needed some ranged attacks so fireball was his best bet.
Congratulations! Skill fireball (common) achieved!
Fireball (common) user consumes a bit of mana to launch a flaming projectile at his intended target. Due to the 'common' rarity gain a minor bonus to damage, speed and size of fireball. Intelligence gives a small boost to this skill. (Active skill) (consumes 100 mana)
He wasted no time rushing outside to test his new ability. To call it a fireball was.. generous. It was barely more than an overgrown spark. It didn't even burn the grass in the fields. "Well.. that wasn't fair.." He frowned. He was sure getting hit in the chest by the small ball of heat would probably sting his companion quite a bit.. but that was about all it would do.
It was dark out and the stars overhead were abnormally large it seemed. As if they were closer than usual. The only sources of light were from torches he had crafted and placed along the mountain side and a few more he'd created for his work area. He shook his head. Was this all he would ever know? Was this his new home? Looking up at the stars he couldn't help but ask himself, were any of his friends and family still alive?
Humans were social creatures at their core. Isolation can cause depression and in severe cases a dissociation from reality itself. Even the most introverted people craved the sound and touch of another. Maybe that's why it came as no surprise that Vincent had begun to talk to himself. Or when he started drawing shapes of people on the walls of the cave. Maybe that's why he didn't notice himself slowly losing touch with what it meant to be.. Human.
A little over a year after Vincent's arrival to the system...
Vincent walked in a slow calculated manner. His mind spun. Subconsciously he was aware his Sneak was on the verge of leveling again. He was willing to bet that for most it was probably no small feat to have the Sneak ability active without actually putting effort into moving silently but for this man it was like flexing a muscle.
He knew each of his abilities intimately, using most of them constantly on a daily basis. He had taken the time to understand the function and origin of each one. What part of the body they originated from, how his energy formed to create them, how that energy reacted to the environment around him after it left his body.. He doubted many alive studied the flow and purpose of energy as often as he did. On the other hand there were bound to be experts of the field who have dedicated their lives to the art. There was a lot he simply didn't know.
The jungle around him was unusually silent. The few creatures he had encountered scurriedly quickly by, as if they had somewhere much more important to be. The temperature was cool and refreshing. A light breeze blew eerily through the trees. It carried with it the crisp soothing smells of nature. His shoulder length black hair reached lazily towards the ground behind him.
The man barely seemed to possess any sort of presence at all. He wore black armor with various red designs. An obsidian Longsword was strapped to his back, a shield roughly 3 feet wide and 4 feet tall covered most of the blade from view. He sighed contentedly, producing a bottle of water from his spatial dimension.
He downed the savory blue substance in seconds. He discovered he could survive without much sustenance on a day by day basis, but he still enjoyed remaining in tip top shape. The taste was an obvious plus, and with certain meals he got excellent stat bonuses even if they were only temporary. Currently he has increased stats by 20% and three hours of triple regenerations.
It was strange because originally as the man's stats grew he actually needed to consume more calories on a daily basis. However, at one point in time or another he had eclipsed a majority of his need for food without his noticing. He suspected it had something to do with his cooking skills and the quality of ingredients he used but there was no way to be sure. All he knew was he could probably get by just fine eating once a day, if not every other day.
The man walked for roughly an hour when he came upon a large clearing with a stream nearly at the other side of the clearing. The stream seemed to run into a large, decrepit tree. All of its leaves had long since withered and it's bark was gnarly and knotted. Beneath the tree was a freakish ogre of a man with his back turned.
He had green skin and a black Mohawk. He wore bulky black armor with gold trim. The shoulder guards had various spikes jutting out of them. The man had to have been at least 8 feet tall. He had a long shield on his back and what appeared to be a crude but effective spiked club in his right hand.
If one were not native to the system and thus intimately familiar with its many inhabitants one probably wouldn't know this was an Orc. Vincemt certainly hadn't at first. Though similar in shape to humans, Orcs were often much taller and wider overall in stature. While their intelligence is often lower than most, they more than make up for it with their unrivaled strength and generous endurance. Their facial features were often crude and pronounced like a Neanderthal's probably would have been.
As Vincent cautiously approached, the man turned. He grunted, instantly seeming annoyed with the new presence in the clearing. He smacked his club against his open left palm several times earning an audible thump with each impact. It was clear the Orc possessed great amounts of strength. The Orc fixed him with a stare before finally saying in a deep, gruff voice. "You're late."
Vincent flinched, still not used to hearing the voice of another person. Were Orcs considered people? He wondered. He didn't want to accidentally be racist in the Nexus by referring to a similarly advanced sentient creature as an animal. He scratched the back of his head in a half-hearted apology. "Sorry I.. didn't honestly think you'd show." Vincent couldn't help but frown as he spoke..
Clearly the system translated things spoken between two beings into whatever language the user was most comfortable with. Even though Vincent could communicate with the towering giant before him with no difficulty whatsoever, it's voice wasn't actually human at all and his mouth moved in a manner that didn't coincide with English.. It was as if the man spoke in a series of grunts and growls that Vincent automatically understood.
The Orc hefted it's weapon over his shoulder and smirked at the much smaller man. "Hmm. I can appreciate honesty. I too am a very honest man! But you thought wrong." 'Not the least bit humble neither are you?' Vincent thought deftly, but said nothing. The Orc continued.
"In case you've forgotten since our last encounter a week ago, I am the amazing, the all mighty, the most strongest Orc, GILDARTS!" He finished in a yell stomping his foot leaving a large divot in the process. The entirety of the jungle seemed to shake with the force of his stomp.
Vincent couldn't help but take his claim at face value, internally sweating a bit at the display of strength. Even if it did come from someone whose antics were entirely ridiculous. He honestly reminded Vincent of a certain white haired pervert from one of his favorite ninja animes from the old days. Man he'd kill to be able to watch anime again.
After regaining his balance he did his best to look the colossus in the eyes. The Orc spoke again, barely breaking stride. "Lucky for you, pathetic one, I have agreed to take you under my wing until you are ready to fly on your own and are strong enough to build your own nest."
Vincent's eyebrow twitched and he developed a tick mark. "That is not what was said and you know it! And stop calling me pathetic. This place is just outlandish." He said with a heavy frown. The orc merely laughed and when it was clear he had nothing further to contribute Vincint pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well.. we both know I can't take point.. lead the way."
The Orc nodded and began cutting a breakneck pace with his large lumbering strides. Vincent practically had to run to keep up. While struggling not to fall behind he just barely made out what the man/Orc was saying. "You know.. You speak in a funny manner." It was a statement more than any sort of question and his off-handed, dismissive tone made that obvious. Vincent frowned heavily. 'You think I'm the weird one…? You're like a big dumb brute. All brawn no brain.' He shook his head while musing internally. He couldn't help but wonder why out of all the people that certainly had to have existed in this fucking jungle, WHY had THIS guy been the one he had come across first?
He groaned as his thoughts drifted back to the day the two had met. After an.. interesting introduction, the pair had agreed to meet again a week from that day in order to audit one another and participate in explorations together. The Orc had apparently never seen a human being within the system before and Vincent had never seen another intelligent being period so the natural conclusion was for the two of them to break bread so to speak.
Really as weak as he was compared to the rest of the system inhabitants this was a golden opportunity for his survivability. Of course, It hadn't come without inherent risks.. Vincent shuddered whenever he remembered how he had nearly died that day…
Brief flashback
Vincent was sprinting as quickly as he could through the jungle. He wasn't running from anything; he was merely in a hurry. Of course since he wasn't sneaking, multiple critters took swipes at him but he deftly avoided the majority of them and parried the few that grazed him in passing. Of course he'd never be able to withstand a direct hit from a majority of the creatures in the jungle but with the reaction time of your average beast it wasn't a problem as long as he wasn't blind sid-
WHOOSH!
Sixth sense barely activated in time to save his life. He slid into a matrix style duck mid sprint, narrowly avoiding losing his head as a massive spiked club impacted the space it had occupied moments before.
Vincent was completely lost. He rolled to his feet and had just enough time to register a second strike that would have likely caved the entirety of his chest in had he not used Improved dash to quickly fling himself fifty feet backward. Unfortunately in his haste his trajectory was off, causing him to impact an intervening tree with bone crushing force. He gasped and slid to the floor coming to rest on one knee. He looked up with a grimace and had to do a double take. Was that the incredible Hulk? 'Impossible that shits copyrighted.' Vincent thought.
As his vision came back into focus and the being got closer he noticed it was some type of.. Green Goliath? Had to be an Ogre, he figured. It had green skin and bulging, wiggly muscles. The thing had black hair in the shape of a Mohawk and deep Forest green eyes that were too narrow to be a humans. Its face, jaw especially, was square and solid like a Neanderthal. He had two thick tusks protruding from his bottom mandible. It's eyebrows seemed unnaturally thick and they wriggled like caterpillars. His nose was square and squashed in.
"Well!" The thing bellowed. "You're rather fast for such a pathetic… what exactly are you? Why can't I see your level and stats?" It inquired, getting closer and lower its voice as it approached. If the creature was expecting Vincent to provide answers he was going to be sorely disappointed as the blue eyed human was equally as lost.
"I umm.. see what?" Vincent asked, dumbfounded by the question. He really didn't expect the thing to speak English, let alone to understand the concept of levels and stats. Well it was English but it wasn't. Somehow Vincent knew what the man was saying but it came out in gruff, gravely grunts. What was going on here? He was debating whether or not he should run but.. based on how the thing had caught up to him in an instant after he used his dash… and now it also seemed the beast of a man was intelligent to boot so he likely couldn't trick it. His only choice was negotiation.
"I asked you why I can't see your level and stats, like I can for everyone and everything else. What are you, some kind of warlock?" The barbarian man inquired with one narrowed eye. Vincent quickly shook his head. "No I umm.. I can't read yours either. Not even your name. It just shows a bunch of question marks.. is that what you see?" He stammered out. This only seemed to confuse the large man further.
"How strange…. Amd your level?" He asked, ignoring the much smaller man's question. Vincent barely reached the bottom of this behemoth's torso, though, so.. he let it slide. Scratching his chin Vincint frowned. "I haven't leveled up yet. I'm level 1." He finished, not exactly proud of his utter lack of level progression after an entire year within the system's deadly game.
The eyes of the giant green being widened before narrowing. "Hmm.. truly? Yet you move with such swiftness. How interesting.. but even still. That doesn't explain why I can't see your level or stats." He finished crossing his arms and scratching his nose. Vincint had to resist the urge to facepalm himself. "Well.. maybe it's possible I can help you. Like I said when I look at you all I see is question marks. What about you?"
The man studied him quizzically for a few moments before finally saying "That.. is simply because I am too high of a level for you to read. That happens with all things that are too powerful for you to comprehend. But for you.." He said, leaning in slightly as he spoke. The moment stretched on, dramatic tension filling the air. "When I look at you I see.. nothing. As if you don't really exist." The man grunted out. It was u settling and weird to hear so many words with such little mouth movement…
End flashback
After that the two of them had pretty much agreed to meet again so that they could try and solve the mystery of where Vincint had come from among other things. It was apparent to the man from Earth that most things were born into the system such as this Gildarts, which disclosed itself to Vincent as an Orc, had been.
The green man agreed to teach Vincent a bit about the system. He told Vincent that for convenience sake they would meet back in this spot one time but.. Then it would be wise for him to first take him to a safer, more beneficial area as apparently he was in a very high end danger zone of the jungle.
'Dirty son of a bitch. I fucking knew it.' He had thought to himself at the time. But while the Orc had agreed to teach him, there was an unfortunate problem with regards to his level. Not a single creature within the country that the Orc knew of was lower than level 25, and that was the Hellspawn. The strongest monsters were always level 100. There was no foreseeable way for Vincent to level up here…
Chapter 11 end.