The Return

Challengers!

The Grand Challenge is over!

The victor of the continental competition is: Terra.

Reward: 10% increase in all Investment gains until the end of acclimation period for the entire continent of Terra.

Top ten challengers:

Marianna Rojas (The Star That Dances In Blood Beneath the Light of the Broken Moon)

Akatsuki Jin

Khashul Ukh

Jean Dubois

Ervauk Hshak

Loshul Ku

Kim Jiyun

Aurora Everheart

Lester Black

Khalil Abd al-Nur

Rewards: Private

The Challenge concludes.

I read through the plaque in front of me as I stood in the gray void. Earth won the overall challenge, and I won the personal one. It seemed that the top ten all got some kind of reward.

“What do you think we got?” I asked.

“Feedback: It is impossible for me to speculate, rewards vary.”

I rolled my eyes. A chest stood before me, and I moved to see what it held. I slid it open and looked inside.

The usual pouches filled with gemstones and coins, I perused them and found three gemstones that were larger and differently shaped than the others, meaning that they were probably higher grade. I looked at them, wondering if they were B grade. I stashed the pouches in my backpack for later, then looked at the rest of the rewards.

There was a stack of six scrolls, three pairs. One of them was familiar to me, the markings and the color was same as the one in my backpack—a Fireball Scroll.

“Any idea what these two do?” I asked Saia, offering her one of each remaining pair.

She looked them over, placing one paw on top of the first, her eyes flashing blue. Then she moved to the next one.

“Feedback: The first one is an enhancement, I believe that it would increase a person’s speed for a time. Like the Fireball one, it will target whatever is in front of it when it is unfurled. The second one launches a piece of Ice formed Source.”

“So a Speed Scroll and an Icebolt Scroll?”

“Feedback: Affirmative.”

I put them in my backpack. They were interesting items, but kinda not that useful as single use items, to me at least. Based on what Saia had said, the Source levels within the scrolls were minimal. If I was hit with that Fireball, it would barely singe me. Though, I guessed they were Investment level appropriate as a reward, it was my fault for being a monster.

I was probably going to give them away to others, they might help people who wanted to study them, or perhaps it might help steer their Masks in a more magical direction.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The next reward was a circlet. I picked it up, then offered it to Saia.

“Feedback: This item appears to amplify any sound coming from the source wearing it.”

I tilted my head. “Huh, I guess that might be useful if you’re speaking to a lot of people. Especially since we don’t have microphones and sound systems anymore.”

I put it on my head and spoke, then frowned. I didn’t sense any change in my voice. Then, I realized that there was a strange sensation coming from the circlet, almost like a skill, though somewhat distant. I focused on it, and immediately knew that I had activated the circlet.

I spoke again, and could hear a visible change in the loudness of my voice. Though it was perhaps a twenty percent increase at most.

I took it of, and was about to put it away when something occurred to me.

“Hey,” I turned to the dragon. “What are the chances that this thing works with other skills. Like let’s say [Screech]?”

“Feedback: Highly likely.”

That might actually be good. I didn’t have any skills like that at the moment, I’ve burned them out, but I could always get another. I stashed the circlet, and moved to the next item. So far, the rewards felt more in line with the trials that I’ve already finished, not really something worthy of an entire challenge. The last two items though, were different, I could tell.

It had taken all of my resolve not to immediately pick up the item in front of me. The scent of blood clung tightly to it.

I picked up the golden ring with a blood red gemstone set in it. I could feel the Source woven through it, the item had a weight on the Way, like a skill, only it was constant.

I offered it to Saia and she touched it.

“Report: This is an Invested item.”

I blinked. So far, all the items we got were enchanted at best. Things that Masked could and did make. Shadow had told me that there were three types of items on Kirios. The Enchanted ones, made by enchanters or inscribers and related Masked. Then there were Artifacts, which were relics and remnants of items created by the Vim that had survived to this day. They were usually powerful, but their effects didn’t always work properly as the nature of the Source was changed with the coming of the Grand Spell. They were still powerful, usually far more than anything else around, even when they didn’t work as intended. The last were Invested items. Items that had grown and changed over time, by getting Investment, the same way a Mask did.

“How do you know?”

“Feedback: Because when I use [Inspect] it gives me a lot more information.”

Suddenly, a window opened up in front of my eyes, projected by Saia.

Ring of Bloodcast

Store a skill and use it by sacrificing your own blood. The power of the skill will depend on the amount and quality of lifeforce used.

“Huh,” that was interesting. “It’s basically my [Overburn Skill] but without the burn part. I think.”

“Statement: Your blood is of a greater quality than most, so yes, a skill used by through this means will be empowered.”

Plus, I regenerated, and could easily recover any lifeforce spent.

“Any chance it says how to put a skill in it?”

“Feedback: No.”

I had an idea, but that was for later. I turned to the last item, a cube with a notecard attached, just like the one that created a cabin.

I picked it up and read the notecard.

Simple Town

Press the lever on top and place to build a town around you with simple wooden cabins and palisade surrounding it, along with simple additions. Location determines benefits.

I stared at the card. “A town, my reward is a town.”

I was pretty sure that this would’ve been the reward for anyone who took the first place. It was unbelievable, but I already got one that could build a cabin so… And it was a good reward, especially since it would provide what most didn’t have right now—shelter.

“I guess this might make things easier,” I said, thinking out loud. I had already planned on moving to the coast with any survivors willing to come with me. My initial thought was to find a coastal town and retake it from the monster and the wilderness, now I wouldn’t have to.

This was good. A great reward actually.

I put it in my backpack, then turned to Saia, ready to go.

The Grand Spell didn’t let me wait for long.

I was consumed by light and transported out.

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I arrived back in the same place I had left from, in the desert, away from camp. Two moons shone above me through a crimson sky. Immediately, I was assaulted with distant noise.

No, it was a roar, the trembling of the earth, the scent of smoke and waste. I turned my head the orange night sky, I knew that meant fire. It was in the direction of the camp.

“Follow Saia,” I said as I quickly dropped my backpack where I was and had tapped the suit she made for me twice, indicating that I wanted it off.

The part of her flowed from my body and rejoined the drone, that was now large enough that she was the size of a horse. I focused and sent my intent and feelings toward the thirst.

There was food ahead, blood waiting to be spilled. It didn’t take any convincing. My body shifted, wings sprung from my back and my skin and hair changed color.

I took to the air and flew, heading toward the military camp. It didn’t take me long to reach it. Smoke filled the air above, but it didn’t bother me, I didn’t need to take a breath. Through smoke, I saw fighting, I saw beasts, an entire horde of them. I heard gunfire and screams. The gate was broken, and beasts were spilling in, but not in the amount that I would expect.

Someone had set the field around the camp on fire, they had to have done it on purpose. I took a small breath, just enough to smell. Scent of burnt flesh and hair filled my nostrils, they had set the horde of beasts on fire, but there was too many of them. More were coming from the forest ahead, thousands. Packs of wild, mutated dogs, I saw a massive bear tearing down a tent near the entrance. And rats, they were everywhere, entire swarms of them. People were firing rifles at the beasts, others shooting arrows, or stabbing with spears and anything else they managed to get a hold of. There was chaos everywhere in all forms. People dying, running, fighting for their lives.

My pause took barely a second. I took the situation in, and then I descended, falling through the smoke.