Successful Ritual

Emily have been using the rage skill a lot to do plenty of other things. It was also a pleasant surprise, that aside from Energy, all her other stats weren't negatively affected in any way due to this.

Entering her classroom, there was a brief encounter when Emily and Chloe locked eyes with each other. The girl had actually been ready to approach Emily as she had developed a slight interest in her. Alas, unlike yesterday, She didn't pay her any special attention, completely ignoring her greeting. Leaving her to just give an awkward wave.

Her gaze distant and preoccupied. Willy, always attuned to Emily's moods, greeted her with a mischievous grin.

"Hey, Em, what's got you lost in the stars today?" he teased, nudging her playfully.

Startled out of her thoughts, Emily smiled but quickly recovered, mustering a cheerful response. "Oh, just pondering the mysteries of the universe, Willy. You know me."

Willy arched an eyebrow, sensing something amiss. "Come on, spill it, Em. You're not usually this out of it. Is something bothering you?"

Emily hesitated for a moment, her eyes locking onto Willy's concerned face. She debated whether to confide in him or maintain the facade. But the bond between them was strong, and she knew she could trust him.

"Well," she sighed, her voice dropping to a whisper, "it's just... I've been having these Intuitions lately. Strange, vivid and it feel so real. They leave me feeling disoriented and distracted during the day.. I feel like something is wrong... have gone wrong... Or may go wrong."

Willy leaned closer, his voice filled with genuine concern. "What kind?, Em? Are they troubling or confusing?"

Emily nodded, her eyes downcast. "They're both, Willy. They seem to hide obscured snippets that hasn't happened yet. And I can't shake the feeling that they hold some important significance."

Willy reached out, placing a comforting hand on Emily's arm. "That does sound intense, Em. Maybe it's worth exploring further.

As the lecturer entered the classroom, interrupting their conversation,Emily's lack of concentration became apparent. The lecture passes by, but Emily's mind remained elsewhere. Once the lectures conclude, both Emily and Willy headed toward the Aerion football practice field.

***********

The regulars were split into two groups as they had a practice match against one another. Daniel and Emily were in the same team.

[Strength 5 (+2)]

[Dexterity 5 (+2)]

[Endurance 8 (+2)]

The boost from the unity suit was still present, but what Emily wanted to test was how much these small increments of numbers affected her. The whistle blew and as soon as it did she activated Rage.

[ Dexterity 10 (+6)]

 The ball was in a player's hands, but activating Skirmisher and moving past the others on the line, it looked like Emily had come out of nowhere, as she tackled the player with the Aerion orb, going straight for the legs she changed to bulwark.

[ Strength 10 (+6)]

The large high school student went down almost instantly, and spinning straight away, Emily was also able to pick up the Aerion orb mid flight. Soon two others went to stop her, and she was able to dodge two of them with her doubled dexterity while still playing as a bulwark and slip through their predictable tackle patterns, until she eventually had been hit from the side by a bulwark and piled on by the rest of the team.

'Has she gotten faster? Heck, even her tackling has gotten better.' Daniel noticed.

"What are you doing, Snow white?!" Mrs. Ava shouted. "I got you so you could mainly play defence. Did you think you could go for a point all on your own. If you manage to get possession of the orb, I want you to lure them and then pass it!"

Emily admitted that she got a bit carried away, but her body felt great. It felt so light when using 'Rage', it was almost addictive. It was a strange feeling suddenly becoming twice the person you once were.

As the rest of the game went on, Emily showed off her skills and it was noticeable to many of them on the field. Emily was soon becoming a prime tackler, and a reliable player. 

With Aerion football not really being interesting to Willy, especially knowing that given his physique he would never amount to anything in that sport, he had decided to play on his phone and keep up to date with whatever he could. That was when he received a notification from the local news channel.

[Breaking news; Murderer on the loose!]

[In the small sub of New Tylon; Slough underside dumping area a community worker was found dead in the Compression vehicle this morning. Police have yet to reveal any information on what exactly had occurred but at the moment they are looking for any tips on people in possession of mutated pets ]

'Whoa, I know the police haven't said it outright, but if they are looking for those in possession of a mutated pet, doesn't that just mean the muted pet killed the worker or was it Emily ? I thought she only feed on processed raw meat ?' Willy wondered.

It wasn't long after that, Emily received a disturbing message from her system, one that she didn't quite understand.

********

After club activities had ended, the members of the Aerion football team were praising Emily for her skills on the field. The majority of them had been worried about Mrs. Ava choosing her. After all, Emily had been a member of the club ever since last year but she had never shown any real talent.

Somebody getting better overnight should only be possible in mangas, novels or on TV, but in reality it would take a lot of effort… and yet somehow Emily seemed to have gone through some sort of growth spurt since the start of the week. She hadn't grown in height, yet she had still vastly improved in terms of speed and strength.

Receiving so much praise was a new experience for Emily. She hadn't really been unpopular in class, in fact there was nobody in her class who really don't know her . If one were to ask her classmates to describe her, most would have probably used 'Snow white' or ' Frail lady'.

'This feels amazing.' Emily thought with a slightly smug smile on her face. Before the powers she had never been particularly good at anything except perharps nothing, so getting some recognition from her fellow peers, the high schooler discovered that she quite enjoyed the feeling.

Walking away from her teammates who had patted her, some playfully, others more seriously, Emily checked over her stats.The only change was her Energy that was now at 63 points since she had used Rage a couple of times during their practice.

'Huh, what's this?' Emily wondered as she noticed that she had a new notification. 'When did I get it?

Clicking on it, it opened up before her. The notification time indicated that it had appeared at 4 AM in the morning, Unfortunately, even after reading the message, Emily didn't understand exactly what it was trying to tell her.

[Deathstake(Ritual) Successful]

[An Undead has been created]

[ Cursed Omega Werewolf ]

"What the hell is a Cursed Werewolf?" Mumbling this question, Emily had been hoping for Armodeus to shed some light on that topic. Alas, today wasn't that type of day. So far Armodeus had only provided her with insight whenever he chose to. She quickly checked the Quest tab and indeed it had the red dot to show that something had been added to it.

[Optional quest received]

[Start your own Undead Estuary]

[Subdue the Cursed Werewolf and welcome it into your Estuary]

[Quest reward: Unlocking of the 'Estuary' tab]