Angar hunched over the Annals’ glowing screen, his good hand clenching into a fist, knuckles whitening as annoyance and anger flared in his chest.
He had two mighty Abilities – magic, real magic – but they were shackled. Tempest could only be used once, draining his lone Charge and most of his Energy Points, leaving Ground Current with just two shots.
He barely understood this System, all of it new and alien, but when he read through the Attributes and Stats, each sounded good, desirable, and necessary. The Abilities seemed to be the true power of this System. The true magic of all this.
Most of the resources he gained from leveling up went into empowering two Abilities. Two mighty Abilities.
Even he knew the Spirit Attribute and the three Stats listed under it were extremely important. Those three Stats provided fuel to use the Abilities and made them more powerful.
His Power Level was 1. While math was left to the witches, his mother had taught him plenty enough of it, and the calculations made it clear he needed more than 1.
Spirit’s choices made little sense. He squinted at the screen, swiping it with a muddy finger, his brow furrowing as he reread the numbers.
Some Feats seemed decent. He hoped the regeneration effect one of them provided saved his battered body and fixed his shattered eardrums, but it obviously wasn’t fast acting.
Why would she place all Attribute points in Body, and all Stat points in Physique? It makes no sense, he thought.
He wanted to be taller and stronger, of course, as tall and strong as a giant, but he’d rather have magic that hit harder and could be used more often.
And he didn’t have the level 33 Capstone. Not that he could see, and he looked carefully for it. It just said ‘NA (Tier 1 available).’ And he was 10 years of age, not 14.
He sighed, a sharp exhale through gritted teeth, and shoved this all aside. There was no sense moping about any of it. What was done was done. He’d keep his word, his new oath, and make the best of it. And the charged air and the look of the Ulimuns worried him more.
He grew up not far from a small volcano that constantly spewed a little lava in a stream down its side. Volcanoes like that were everywhere.
But volcanoes never erupted. That volcanoes could erupt was only known due to the wise witches and their secret knowledge.
Angar was certain more eruptions loomed. Perhaps the entire Ulimuns range would rupture in a cataclysm of fire and stone. He had to move westward, and fast, toward the uninhabited badlands, a savage expanse teeming with mighty beasts. It was a place too perilous for settlement, where only the boldest warrior bands ventured to hunt.
He rubbed his temples, grimacing, his head throbbing. The air crackled, charged and heavy, prickling his skin. He straightened, wincing as his ribs grated, and scanned the horizon.
The sky was night-dark, ash choking out the sun that could be seen during the day, and his vision was already a murky haze due to the acidic crud.
He staggered forward as fast as his body would carry him, naked and weaponless, skirting the acidic pool’s edge, his bare feet sinking into the quaking earth.
Halfway around, the pool bubbled violently, sending ripples surging.
He froze as grawloks burst from the water. Dozens of them, unlike any he’d encountered before. Their claws were larger, like jagged pincers, yet they moved more sluggishly, their smaller bodies scuttling through the shallows.
Most seemed panicked as they ran west, away from all the destruction, but a few noticed him. This many would rip him to shreds in his battered state.
He looked at the creatures as they stared at him, agitatedly blinking their strange eyelids and silently clacking their antennae together.
His pulse quickened, his good hand flexing as he squared his stance, preparing.
One charged, lumbering but deliberate. With how slow this type of grawlok moved, Angar easily sidestepped, his feet sliding in the muck, and snatched its pincer as it passed, ripping it free with a wet crunch.
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He’d never be able to rip an arm off any the grawloks he knew of. His fingers sank into its shell like clay. Either these creatures were brittle, or the Body Attribute and Physique Stat were a lot more powerful than he assumed.
Another sluggishly rushed him. He propped the pincer on the ground, gripping its thin end, and swung it like a club as he sidestepped again. The impact shattered both weapon and beast, sending shell and scales spraying as it crumpled.
The first grawlok wheeled back, it’s single claw snapping. Angar tore a pincher from the corpse in front of him, grinning faintly despite the pain, and smashed it down as the creature charged.
Once again, makeshift club and creature exploded in a spray of shards.
A third grawlok twitched, eyeing him. He remembered the magic, just needing to figure out how to use it.
And figuring it out wasn’t so hard. He thought about using Ground Current and his body dissolved into sizzling particles, streaking through the earth to pop up four paces away, right where he’d aimed.
Lightning cracked down, twin bolts frying two of the three lingering grawloks, both ones in range, their shells bursting in electric ruin, even with his Power Level being 1.
He strode to the last grawlok, feet thudding, and drove his fist into its side. The shell gave way like it wasn’t there, his hand plunging deep.
He hoisted the beast overhead with a grunt, then slammed it into the ground. That did the trick. It twitched once and stilled.
Angar straightened, a grim smile tugging at his lips. He certainly liked being a Crusader. He could easily get used to this.
Killing these grawloks made him feel better. For whatever reason, it made all the pain that racked his body more bearable.
He hoped to cross paths with some d’klar, fierce creatures that never failed to attack anyone they spotted. If the beasts struck first, Theosis could hardly judge him for defending himself.
He turned, peering through the ash toward Mecia’s smoldering grave, urgency gripping him. He broke into a loping run, pain spiking with each step, his good arm pumping.
As soon as Ground Current could be used again, he used it. The Ability brought him about five paces. He hadn’t been sure what a meter was before. Now he knew four meters equaled a bit under five paces, or roughly so.
He’d like to know what a minute equaled. Mecians used short moments, moments, and short and long spans.
The 15 second cooldown of Ground Current was roughly about what he’d consider to be two moments, maybe a little shorter than that, so a second was a about a short moment.
The cooldown of Tempest was halved and went from a minute to 30 seconds, so he inferred a minute was 60 seconds. Ground Current’s cooldown, also halved, went from 30 to 15 seconds. So, a minute roughly equaled eight moments.
Angar wondered why Theosis hadn’t remarked on the grawloks he’d slain. Could he speak to it? Or him? Spirit always referred to Theosis as he.
As he began moving, he said, “Theosis, how do I get back the Energy Points I used? I know I can’t earn more XP until I ascend to Tier 2, but do I receive a reward for the killing I just did? And I’m assuming you count years differently than I do and 14 of your years equal 10 of ours?”
He waited for a message to show in his eyes as he traveled as fast as his body would take him, but none did.
The air buzzed, the charge sharper now. He glanced back, squinting as the lightning storm swelled, clawing wider across the ash-blackened sky, surprised he could see so well through this gloom.
He pressed westward, feet gouging the dirt, inspecting what injuries he could as he hobble-ran.
His lightning-struck arm couldn’t easily be moved. The bolt exited his body midway through a finger, bursting it open and charring flesh. It wasn’t bleeding. The open wounds were scorched by the acidic crud and packed with yellow fungus. He flexed it, wincing.
A tug, some instinct, sharp and sudden, yanked his gaze right. A rakar barreled toward him, scales glinting, claws outstretched. He had never seen one with his eyes, only hearing tales of its prowess.
It was still a decent distance away, giving him time to study it, and it was a massive beast, its body covered in very large and hard scales that shimmered with a metallic luster, with a broad and muscular frame, its limbs ending in formidable claws.
Its head was mostly a massive mouth lined with sharp teeth, and its eyes were tiny, black, and beady things on either side of the mouth. Even with those deadly claws, this beast was known for its bite.
A long and powerful tail swung behind it, delivering devastation to what it was swung at.
It was said this creature moved with a silent grace, but since Angar could hear nothing and the beast seemed enraged and agitated, he assumed this one was an exception.
And since he heard many tales about this beast’s great speed, he assumed his Adroitness was responsible for it seeming to move so sluggishly.
As the feared beast he’d heard so much about charged toward him, a mix of terror and awe surged through Angar. His good hand clenched into a fist, his legs bracing.
He considered unleashing Tempest against this formidable foe. He itched to test its power, to witness it in action, but he held back. The strange grawloks had too easily been killed, and using Tempest now would completely deplete his remaining resources.
He strode forward, feet kicking up dirt, and met the rakar’s pounce with a backhanded swing, smashing its snout. It crashed down, claws raking air, and shook its massive maw from side to side as it backed away.
It rubbed its snout on the ground, glared at this opponent it should easily massacre, then charged again.
Angar surged to meet it, his uninjured arm hauled back, and he blasted the beast with a devastating overhand punch to the top of its head as it prepared to pounce.
His fist cratered its skull. Scales split, bones snapped, and it crumpled, dead.
Angar grinned fiercely, savoring this power of a Crusader as he loomed over the corpse.
Then instinct flared again. He whipped around, spotting the obsidian form of a reaver through the haze right before its chilling laugh pierced his shattered eardrums, and dark whispers slithered into his mind.
