"...I continued to look at the destruction of the Courage Continent. I knew the Demon King was coming for us too."
This was a record found by dwarf miner Kallen, during the Forest Wars of the Year 833 of the Yolk Calendar. It gives us more insight of the great destruction left behind by the 98th Demon King.
It was said his reign of terror was the most longest out all Demon Kings. Everyone had thought something special was going to occur on the 100th Demon King or even the 99th, but nobody expected the 98th Demon King to be the ruin of everything.
The Courage Continent depicted in this record is vastly more primitive than the current one now. It only had 2 Empires and no Divinities or Dragon Vein mentioned at all. The Demon King had dominated it with ease. The narrator of this record was afraid, it is unknown what happened to him next.
-Records of the Strongest Demon King: Demon King Balvos the 98th
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I was at first hesitant to kill my own caretakers, but recalling the memories of pain, it suddenly became easy to do it. Isaac was the name of the first being I saw. He was merely watching me guarding my house, or I guess prison cell now that I think of it.
Isaac never talked to me. Nothing I did moved him. In the end, he somehow survived that purple cataclysm and I got to be the one to end him. I watched him burn alive and I felt a sense of guilt. I was not cut out for the hunting teams.
I regulated myself to the "Safety Camp" and did some meager chores there. However, I felt that I was not cut out for these duties as well. Finally, I was met with a huge dilemma. Head to the Coast, or stick with the original expedition to the forest.
However, a person named Meru tried to convince me to go with him to the city. A city I believe was in the west? They were planning to kill more people. I wasn't a fan of that. There was a separate group that wanted to head to the south where they'll meet a small village and make friendships with the villagers.
So, I had four options, well, three since I'll rather not kill more people for fun. I knew whatever choice I made would impact my life. Or maybe not. Who knows. Anyways, I made my choice.
None of them.
I wasn't going to join any group. I'll venture into the world on my own. I read some of the books from the caretakers. It talked about stories of great adventurers who traveled the world discovered ancient artifacts and slaying incredible beasts. However, it was quite a dangerous job and many had fallen along the way.
Of course, I'm immortal. Who else would be better suited for such a dangerous job if not us?
There was something called an "Adventurer's Guild" where I could sign up to become an Adventurer. There were ranks and some Adventurers even worked for royalties of kingdoms and empires. Of course, I would need to find this Adventurer's Guild before I could even think about working for the royals.
The Adventurer's Guild was not in any of the nearby towns and cities. This mountain in which we came from was in a very secluded place of the world. The nearest Adventurer's Guild is far away in the city of Melkin.
I'll travel there no matter what it takes.
I waved goodbye to my friends in the hunting teams and waved goodbye to those in the Safety Camp. Now, all I had to do was head straight towards Melkin. The map had said it was down south.
I ended up walking with friendlies, also known as the people who wanted to interact with the other species, and I only parted ways with them after a few hours had passed. I knew others had also wanted to become adventurers. The only problem is we didn't coordinate with each other and we don't know where each one of us is.
Unless we can use [Immortal Telepathy] to coordinate with each other. However, it only works in a short radius of around 100m and no further.
So, I just continued my journey. I walked for a long time, and then I felt hungry and thirsty. I had gotten some apples and a bottle of water. However, the supply was already starting to run low after one day.
The trees became denser so I assumed I might be passing through a forest. A completely different one from Greywood of course. This was way down in the south.
I wondered how everyone else is doing?
I saw the sun go down and saw the shining moon. I slept under a tree and didn't mind my surroundings at all. I was tired after that long walk so there was no way I would let some spooky noises in the woods ruin my good night's sleep. After all, I'm immortal. What's the worst that could possibly happen? Not like some ancient soul lich is going to eat my soul and permanently kill me, right?
After shaking off my restless thoughts, I fell asleep in an instant.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip. Drip.
I woke up to the sound of rain. I immediately felt uncomfortable. Everything was soaked. I quickly looked for cover and hid in this small cave. I now needed light. I learned some special tricks at the Safety Camp. You can make a fireplace with a few sticks. However, I didn't need to do that.
[Inferior Fireball]: How did you even get this? It's the inferior form of the [Fireball] skill which is the most basic of spells.
It can send out a ball of impure fire. Casting can take up to 3-10 seconds depending on your luck. It doesn't even explode.
Your talent in the [Fireball] skill was so bad a completely different skill was made to accommodate your level of mastery.
Besides this weird description, the skill was quite useful. It's just a feeling, but I feel like the system is mocking me? Must be my imagination. Anyways, I just cast the spell and put it on some sticks and voila! Fire!
Or, it's supposed to be like that. How come the sticks aren't lighting up? Is it because it's wet?
Testing my theory I tried to make it as dry as possible. By putting fire against water. Eventually, the water disappeared like magic! The sticks were able to be lit upon and now I have a working genuine fire.
However, in the next minute, I got bored of sitting around the fire and decided to explore deeper into the cave. Like a responsible person.
Upon entering deeper there are a few crossroads you'll have to take. I kept going right in the entire time. Right is right, right? I'm sure nothing bad will happen-
"Hissss!"
I looked around for the source of the noise. I couldn't find it. Then I looked at the ceiling since a lot of adventurer's seemed to get ambushed from the ceiling
There it was! I was right! It was a huge snake that was somehow clinging onto the ceiling of the cave despite not having any limbs. Maybe those scales were sticky?
In the next moment the scales stood straight, like how your hairs stand straight, and it exposed it's slimy body from underneath those scales. Then it shot.
The scales pointed at me like it was alive and was shot out of it's body and towards me. Six of the scales hit my torso because it was so fast I didn't have time to react. I immediately started pulling the scales out of my body even if it hurt. If I die with these scales inside, it'll be forever before I can be revived again.
I started running to head outside the cave, but the snake was faster than me. Multiple scales continued to shoot out with incredible speed. Like arrows from an experienced archer. I looked up to see how many scales it had left, only to see the scales being regenerated at a speed visible to the eye.
"Fuck you!"
The snake seemed to understand that. It jumped down from the roof and bit into my arm.
The skill [Venomous] has poisoned you.
No! The poison will spread quickly! What do I do... Oh yeah!
"[Inferior Fireball]!"
Multiple runes appeared in the air seemingly putting themselves together. However, it was slow. Before I knew it, five seconds have passed and the spell wasn't done. I was still trying to get the snake off my arm. At this point the snake started slithering and tightening around my arm. It's scales cut deep into my flesh, it hurt like a bunch of spikes piercing it from all sides.
Finally, by the eighth second, the spell was done and a small ball of fire was condensed in my hand. With a simple smash I burnt the snake and my arm altogether.
Immortalian has leveled up to level 4!
Skill [Inferior Fireball] has leveled up!
I cursed lightly as my arm continued to burn rapidly. I wondered if the poison could continue to spread under this intense heat. After a few minutes of agony, the fires were all burnt out and it left my charred arm which was about to fall off. I needed to die but how? I looked at some sharp rocks. I don't know if I could get it in a few hits. Also, what if pieces of the rock fall into my body. Then I won't revive until that rock get's eroded.
That lead me to think what would happen after an immortalian's body was completely reduced to dust. How could one revive? And technically there can't be any objects inside the body if the body itself doesn't exist, right?
I quickly shook my wandering thoughts away and healed myself. Via death of course. It wasn't super painful, but I felt like some work could've been done to prevent at least two thirds of the pain. Should've gone for maybe a pierce in the heart instead of my skull.
I relaxed my heart and looked deeper into the cave. In the end, I couldn't reign in my curiosity. I casually walked through the cave and felt darkness engulf me.
9 seconds later...
Boom! I now have a torch! Using the [Inferior Fireball] I lit up my surroundings just a tad bit. At least I can see what's in front of me. Using my skill I pressed onwards to the cave. At one point I started to worry about whether there were more monsters like that snake. I'll need to be much more stronger in order to defeat multiple snakes. More attributes... Oh right!
[Attributes]
[Level]
Agility
13
Strength
19
Intelligence
13
Dexterity
18
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Vitality
21
Endurance
20
Luck [LOCKED]
6
Blank Attributes: 4
I forgot about the [Attribute List]. I haven't even assigned my blank attributes from my last level yet! I decided to put all 4 in Intelligence since my only skill is a magic-type skill. I wished I got some melee warrior skill instead. My base stats were very high on Endurance, Vitality, and Strength.
You gained an Achievement: [Intelligence Saver].
Achieved by putting 3+ Blank Attributes into the [Intelligence] Attribute. This shows you saved up points to invest into [Intelligence].
Buff: Add +10% Magic Power to a magic skill of your choice.
Skills available: [Inferior Fireball]
Oh! That is indeed a pleasant surprise. I got an achievement just by putting four Blank Attributes into Intelligence? If it was so easy, why haven't I gotten more achievements? Anyways, what are achievements? Is it to just commend the person on there great deed? Like if I were to fight a dragon would I get the achievement "Dragon Slayer" or something like that?
Thinking about the infinite power and possibilities from achievements, my body started shaking. An adventurer always had legendary tales recorded about them. If achievements could increase strength, then adventurer is the best way to go get achievements.
[Inferior Fireball] has been selected.
Thinking about a 10% boost, I wondered how powerful my [Inferior Fireball] will become. I knew that 10% would become much much stronger as my skill got stronger. That 10% could be the deciding factor between me and a corpse with a dagger embedded into it.
I once again casted [Inferior Fireball] which luckily only took 4 seconds this time. It gave a brighter glow and my surroundings seemed to be warmer. I didn't know what to test it now so I just shot it at a wall. The impact felt slightly louder and I felt more pressure upon throwing it. It still didn't explode like a normal fireball though.
I sighed and continued my journey. Maybe if I kill a 100 snakes I'll get an achievement. What good idea!
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I started thinking maybe if I should go back at this point. I felt myself being drained of my mana from casting [Inferior Fireball] for so long. However, as I got deeper, I heard strange noises. It was someone groaning over and over again. Like a battle cry. However, the voice sounded tired and deep. This piqued my curiosity and I knew I had to go check it out.
As I got closer to the source of the sound, I noticed torches stuck to the wall. There was some metal keeping it place. The pathway of the cave had become cleaner, and shinier. Someone was living down here.
I was about to extinguish my fire, when I had come to realize what if the person living down here wasn't friendly. That would be bad. I must be ready...
I continued down the nicely paved hallway until I found a giant door. I heard grunts like someone was going under intense pain. I crept closer to the door. It was made out of wood with a stone frame. And yet, it was decorated with jewels. A name was carved on the door.
"Toko Company"
What's a company?
I slowly opened the door a crack. I noticed an old man repeatedly swinging a metal sword. Strange. He's most likely not an Immortalian. Most of us are young with only a few exceptions of people being extremely old or extremely young like a child.
Knowing this, I relaxed my defenses. I extinguished my fire since I'm immortal. This person isn't.
That was my first mistake.
As soon as I opened a door a smidge more, a sword immediately propelled towards me. I narrowly missed the strike and retreated back into the corridor. However, that wasn't the end. Within seconds five more sword strikes were aimed at me. It was all certain points in my body. I wasn't sure if it was like a vital part he was aiming for or if it was at random.
I then started to cast [Inferior Fireball], however, with one hand being busy casting and half of my attention spent on the spell, it didn't leave a lot left for me to defend against. I hurriedly dodged the old man's strikes but it was simply too hard to continue dodging and I got hit more than I would like to admit.
I started bleeding profusely and finally condensed [Inferior Fireball] and lunged at the old man with the fireball. I saw some of his skin melting before contact. I knew I had won.
This was my second mistake. Thinking I had won before it had even ended.
I put all my eggs into one basket, hoping that this fireball would end the old man. However, he simply dodged and struck my heart with his sword. I had died.
Then I revived. By the time I made sense of my location, the old man had turned his back. Fool. I quickly casted another [Inferior Fireball] and snuck behind him preparing to smash it into his skull. When I put the plan into motion, I noticed hundreds of hairs on the man's body stood straight. I knew it would going to fail.
The old man swung his sword and somehow cut my fireball in half. However, it was not a clean cut and only changed the trajectory of only one half of the fireball. The other hit the man in the torso. It burnt his body into a crisp. I saw the flesh melt into a puddle revealing his bones.
And yet, the old man still lunged at me with his sword aimed between my eyes.
However, because my skill leveled up, it only took me at minimum 2 seconds to cast an [Inferior Fireball]. I just so happened to be lucky that it only took 2 seconds to cast and with the few seconds that the man had spent burning before lunging at me again, I had already positioned the fireball straight into his face.
BAM!
The old man's skull cracked into a bajillion pieces and his corpse was completely burnt. I sat down, tired, wih sweat running down my face. My clothes which were soaked from the rain and had just finally managed to dry off, became soaked again from all the sweat I was releasing. I looked at the old man's corpse and realized something.
This is was my third mistake.
"Urgh, sorry for attacking you suddenly. I was in a hyper-tense state and mistaken you for an enemy. I didn't realize your were one of us."
The old man's body had completely built itself back up together. I shouldn't have assumed the old man wasn't an immortal just because of his appearance. Sigh. This makes things a lot easier. I should've known too because of my [Immortal Telepathy] skill lighting up when I approached the door.
I quickly cursed myself for being stupid before and introduced myself.
"My name is Isaac. Sorry about before, old-looking immortalians aren't very common."
"Hahaha! It's fine. It's really all my fault. I'm the one who initiated the fight. My name is Ritz."
I quickly enquired why Ritz was doing down here. After all, he was making some tortuous noises down there.
"Oh? I was simply training with my sword."
I felt flabbergasted at that response. I mean, sure I saw him swinging the sword, but all of that noise was just from swinging his sword?
"I mean, I was also doing mana training down here too."
"Mana training? What's that?"
"It's the art of learning how to control mana and sense it. During that fight I had sent mana to my sword to cut through your fireball. Similarly, I could enhance my physique with mana."
"I've never heard of this. How did you find out?"
"It was through my skill."
Ah, of course. Skills solved problems after all. Everything could just be attributed to skills. I wonder what skill Ritz had? Curious, I simply asked him, "Ritz, what is your skill?" And he looked at me dumbfounded. He looked as if he was struggling to explain it in words.
"How about I show you."
"Show? Like demonstrate the skill?"
"No, like share my [Skill List] with you."
"Huh?!"
Skill List (Ritz):
[Immortality] Lvl. 1
[The Solution] Lvl. 1 (LOCKED)
[Immortal Telepathy] Lvl. 1
[Gaia's Talent] Lvl. 2 (LOCKED)
[Sword Talent] Lvl. 2
[Strong Slash] Lvl. 4
[Mana Sense] Lvl. 3
I was instantly shocked. Many surprises came at once, I wasn't sure how to handle them all. Firstly, you can share your status screens with other people? I didn't know that! Secondly, 7 SKILLS!?
How does one gain so many skills? How! It seemed to me that gaining skills must've been very hard since I've only had the same four skills since the beginning. How did Ritz gain so many skills?
"Yeah, you must be thinking how I got so many skills. Well, in actuality [Gaia's Talent] is the skill I gained from [The Solution]. The rest of the other skills are technically a byproduct of [Gaia's Talent]. Here, let me show you.
[Gaia's Talent]: Upon using this skill, you will gain another skill. This skill is a talent skill which is always passive,
The talent skill will allow you to progress in that area very quickly. For example, you gained the skill [Spellcasting Talent] which allowed you to spell cast quickly and pick up spells with just a look.
However, [Gaia's Talent] will be locked after usage. It will unlock again if the talent skill is maxed out. Most talent skills max out at level 30.
Upon unlocking the skill again, you can use [Gaia's Talent] to gain more talent skills and keep your previous one.
NOTE: Every time you use [Gaia's Talent], the max level for all of your talent skills will be raised by 10. You won't need to go back and raise your previous back to max, only the one you obtained during that usage will count.
It was a lengthy explanation, but understanding this made me realize how OP this skill is! How was this a "beginner skill" when my own skill is treated like utter garbage!
[Sword Talent]: Gain top-tier sword talent. The talent of a genius which appears only once in 10,000 years!
You can pick up sword arts with just a glance, and the requirement for leveling them up is reduced greatly! You will be the Sword King of your generation. You are almost unrivalled across the world!
Almost. I wonder if there a way to gain even better talent?
Seeing this skill made me realize that Ritz was indeed just practicing with the sword. He had such a great skill which can be leveled up! And that ominous message at that the end hinted of a greater version of this skill.
"Wait, Ritz, how did you obtain [Strong Slash] and [Mana Sensing]?"
"Aha, the [Strong Slash] was obtained simply by slashing very hard." Ritz replied. This frank response somewhat shocked me. Must be the [Sword Talent] skill helping him from the dark.
I pressed onward. "What about [Mana Sensing]?"
"I got [Mana Sensing] by following this instruction manual. I had wandered into this cave a few days ago and found this training room filled with books of techniques from all over." Ritz answered with a cherry voice. He seemed very proud to have found this place. I mean, it was indeed very well-suited for him.
"What does [Mana Sensing] even do?"
"Well, it senses mana. It can manipulate mana as well to an extent. Like I said before, transferring mana to my sword and to parts of my body to enhance them. Also, this skill can allow you to sense how much mana you have left and the expenditure of mana from your skills."
This was brilliant! Why haven't I discovered this sooner? I had a slight fear of casting [Inferior Fireball] and then failing to cast it due to insufficient mana. The skill never mentioned a cost or anything. And in our status it doesn't show an HP Bar or a MP bar or anything like that.
"Can... Can you teach it to me?" I asked hesitantly, not knowing if it was possible to learn this skill.
Ritz just smiled and replied, "Of course! It's really easy. I'll show you."
He told me to sit in a crisscross position and relax my body. Next, breathe in and out for a few minutes. During that process, I must imagine that something is in the air. Like tiny little spheres floating around.
My eyes must be closed for the whole process. I continue to breathe in and out until I feel something touching me. And lo' and behold, it works!
As soon as I opened my eyes I saw this blueish liquid floating around the room. It covered every squared inch.
"Here comes the hard part, there is something called a [Mana Tree] inside your body. Imagine a tree inside your body and pull that blue liquid into your imaginary tree."
Huh?! How! The blue liquid can't be grabbed, however, I can force it with my will or something like that. I used the power of imagination to make the blue liquid enter inside of me.
Next, it felt like I had taken the perspective of the blue liquid and arrived at my [Mana Tree]
….
THIS IS JUST A SAPLING!
"Your [Mana Tree] should be very small. Just relax, make the blue liquid enter it's leaves. I believe this is the final step. Keep making the mana enter the leaves until you gain the skill [Mana Sensing]."
I trusted Ritz and guided the mana to the small leaves on this sapling. The sapling seemed to enjoy it and was in indescribable pleasure. Kind of weird. I continued channeling mana into the leaves only to find out I had no more mana left to channel. I quickly went out of my body and grabbed more mana from the outside. My body was like some suction machine which continuously sucked in mana from all directions. That mana was then guided to my leaves.
I did this for what was roughly around 30 minutes. Until...
New Skill Obtained!
[Mana Sense]
Finally! My hard work has come to fruition! Once I gained [Mana Sense], I no longer needed to concentrate to see the blue liquid floating about. I could easily sense mana like it was breathing to me.
After profusely thanking Ritz for helping me obtain [Mana Sense], I asked him a question. "What are you planning to do now?"
"How about I hang out with you." Ritz said with a big grin. "I'm actually quite lonely down here and I'm kind of bored. I'm in no rush to get stronger. It's not like I traded away my lifespan for [Sword Talent] and now only have 5 years left to live. I'm living life peacefully."
"You're right. Wanna join me on my journey to the Adventurer's Guild?"
"Sure. What's the Adventurer's Guild?"
"It's a place where you can sign up to become an adventurer and travel across the world!"
"That sounds nice! Let's go!"
Ritz packed up his stuff and got ready to leave. I prepared myself for departure, this time with a friend. However, I realized that we still had to explore the deeper part of the cave.
"Ritz, have you ever gone down there before?"
Ritz looked to where I was pointing. It was another door on the other side of the room. It was half open already and showed that it lead deeper into the cave. "No. I wasn't very interested in exploring the rest of the cave after I almost died. Those damn snakes were gunning for me. I thought of going multiple times but I felt kind of eh. But I guess since we're all the way down here it would be a waste if we didn't explore the rest of the cave."
I listened to Ritz explanation before responding. "I agree, and adventurers always discover ancient secrets. Who knows? There may be something at the bottom of this cave?" I said half-jokingly.
With our goal in mind, both me and Ritz headed downwards into the cave. The door on the other side wasn't locked and soon the paved hallways returned back into jagged rocks. We continued onwards and with my [Inferior Fireball] lighting the way we didn't have to worry about creepy crawlies. At least now we have each other so one of us can always pull out a weapon in case one of us died with something embedded inside of us.
Continuing downwards, I noticed markings on the wall. It was ineligible and I simply couldn't understand it whatsoever. Neither could Ritz. The cave eventually split up into 3 pathways. We chose the middle and moved on. However, we were met with a dead end quickly.
We were about to leave when I noticed mana stained the dead end wall. This wall was the only one without markings in this passageway. There seemed to be a message in the form of mana. It was like a pocket. I told Ritz and he helped me comprehend the packet and open it.
Eventually, we essentially found the "open" button and opened the message inside the mana. However, the message was more ground-breaking then I thought.
"If you are seeing this message... I am dead. Probably. My name is Lucious Hudson. I'm not sure if my name made it into the history books. I did make a lot of enemies with authority. They had such an intense amount of hate that I was even banned from becoming an Adventurer. However, it was justifiably so.
You see, I'm basically the one who caused the Demon Kings to appear."