Chapter 3: The First Battle
From what he started to remember, the first time Lee ever fought with someone was his cousin. His cousin who was two years older than he seemed to bully him because of Lee's age. At the time, he was three years old who refused to lose against his cousin. Even since then, he got into a lot of fights. He didn't know why, he had a really short temper. Every little thing ticked him off that the instant someone touched him accidentally, he would punch the individuals whether kids or adults.
As he aged more, before he even grasped the door handle to leave his house, his mother would always remind him not to get into a fight. Then she continued reminding him not to cause a problem for someone or not to be disrespectful to his teachers. Of course like any other kids, it went in one ear, and out the other. The more he fought, the greater he had that feeling. He didn't care whether he wasted or won. As long as he can trade a punch in the face with his opponent, he was thrilled. When he entered middle school, he became even crazier. He tried practicing Muay Thai after watching Tony Jaa (Ong Bak Movie). He tried climbing trees or walked on water like ninjas in anime, but of course, for the latter two, he wasn't able to accomplish.
Everything changed when he unexpectedly overheard his crush talk about the delinquent students, how she resented gang members. He also heard her brother was killed by one of the driveby gunfires. To Lee, it was like a knife pierced through his heart. When examined himself, personality-wise (not academically), he was exactly what she said, delinquent, especially with an earring on his left ear. Little by little, he restrained himself, not causing any problems in school or getting into a fight at school. By the time he became a 'normal' student, she moved away due to family business. Since he was not close to her, he never had the chance to tell her how he felt. That was one of his biggest regrets. As for his parents, they were satisfied with how much he changed over the past six months since he entered middle school.
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Back to the present.
The wolf dashed at him really quickly that it was a blurred shadow in his vision. Before Lee could able to perceive what going on, the wolf was in front of him opening its jaws really wide trying to bite him on the left side of his head. Suddenly, everything seemed to slow down, and be able to see everything clearly including saliva from the wolf's fangs and tongue dragging across its face, while he also discerned the two other wolves who were just standing there waiting. For some reason, in one of his visions, it seemed to focus on the wolf's neck, right below its jaw. It made Lee instinctively want to strike that area.
If we studied Lee from a third-person view now, we could see on his back, there was a crow with three legs tattooed and seemed to be moving. From the crow feathers, it spread out to cover Lee's whole body including his face. In his eyes, each had three pupils that seemed to focus in different directions. Two of the pupils were normal, while the third one glowed in sanguine color.
Lee shielded his head by lifting his left arm up to push the wolf jaw away from penetrating his head. Then he turned his right fist into a knife-hand and pierced the location on the neck where his eye was focused on.
"Pierced", a sound made in contact with the skin.
Lee thought he could only push it away, but to his completion, he saw his right hand that coated with *Darkness* penetrated through the neck all the way to the back of the wolf's head. If it wasn't for the cervical vertebrae, the wolf's head would have detached from its body.
The slow visions ended after Lee killed the wolf.
The blood-splattered escape from the wolf's neck, covering the whole area including Lee himself. His body became unrecognizable with all the blood. The wolf that had its neck penetrated resting there without moving. From the side, there were two wolves howling which seemed to be really angry. Lee didn't take his eyes out of them. He turned himself to the two remaining wolves, he beckoned them to attack him.
The wolves thought he was a small fry, but from what they saw he done to their companion, they didn't underestimate the human in front of them anymore.
"Wooooooo"2x, both of the wolves howled wildly.
They rushed toward Lee with their fastest speed. Even though Lee got the first one easily, there were still two of them attacking him together especially with the large wolf who seemed to be stronger than the one that came at him.
('Lee, dive back toward the stream!') Ai shouted at him.
Instead of questioning her, he unconsciously trusted her words and took a dive into the water. The moment he did, the wolves were right at the spot where he was. Since the larger wolf was faster, he instantly reacted upon landing, when he missed his target. Then he leaped toward Lee who was in the water now.
By recognizing that the larger wolf attacking alone instead of waiting for the second wolf to charge with him, Lee focussed really hard again. Everything seemed to slow down, it seemed like he was able to use the ability again. Since he was diving into the water which was about 2 feet high, he was half-submerged from the chest and above in water which was easy for the wolf to crush on him. The wolf also noticed Lee's condition, he took advantage of that by pounded down on Lee into the water, at the same time, trying to bite his head off.
Even though Lee was pushing down into the water, he didn't lose his focus. One of vision again now seemed to concentrate on the stomach of the wolf. Before the wolf bit him down, he used the same move as he did to the first wolf. He formed a knife shape with his hand and coasted with the *Darkness*.
"Shoocked", the sound was made.
He penetrated the wolf in the stomach all the way to its heart. It pierced through without any resistance. Blood started gushing out causing the water in the stream to turn red as it flowed down toward the sea.
Lee shoved the dead body that was on top of him over as he emerged from under the water. He was breathing rapidly and trying to catch his breath. At the same time, he was prepared for the last wolf to attack him.
When Lee looked up, he noticed that the wolf didn't attack him, instead, it slowly backed away to the distance before ran away. Luckily for Lee, even though he had higher stamina now, after the battle with the two wolves, he was really tired.
He walked up the steam a little and washed with clean water to get the blood out of him from the wolves. After that, he came back to the bonfire where he rotated the fishes. Unfortunately, the first fish that he roasted was overcooked, half of it was burnt and not edible anymore.
Lee secured the other fishes that were roasted and began eating the fish while trying to dry himself with fire.
('Lee, you need to move away from this location. Because of the smell of blood, it might attract more beasts.') Ai informed him.
Lee began walking up the stream while eating his fish. He was really hungry, tired at the same time, so he wasn't able to think clearly.
Observing Lee just strolled up the stream to a different location, Ai can't help but continued.
('Lee I think it's best that you to move away from the stream. Not only humans need water but beasts too, so there is a higher chance of you encounter more beasts since you don't have much strength to fight against them.')
Instead of responding, Lee followed Ai's instruction and moved in the opposite direction of the stream.
After a while, he proceeded to able to find a small cave that only sheltered a small animal from the rain which obstructed by the bushes. Instead of searching for much further, he decided to rest there for the night. He thought the original owner probably died by other beasts.
As he was eating horn melons that he plucked during the day, he decided to check his status to see any change after his fight with the wolves.
"Status Open" Lee said.
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Name: Lee Li
Age: 14
Titles: N/A
Lvl: 5->6 (25/200)
STR: 10->11
STA: 14
AGI:13->14
DEX: 14->16
INT: 21
(AP:2)
Innate Skills:
The Dark Monarch:
*Darkness (Mastery: novice): Lvl 2 (19/20) -Active
*Time (Mastery: novice): Lvl 1->2 (1/30) -Active
*Space (Mastery: novice): Lvl 3 (2/60) -Active
Bloodline Abilities:
*Unlimited Potential: Lvl 2 (19/20) -Passive
Abilities/Skills:
*Teleportation (low): Lvl 4 (34/1,000) -Active
*Large Teleportation- (cooldown 11,520 hours)
-----(@: the cooldown time decrease more as he levels up)
*Pain resistance (high): Lvl 19 (2,001,293/10,000,000) -Passive
*Muay Thai (median): Lvl 8 (10,140/110,000) -Active
*Flame (Mastery: novice): Lvl 0 (3/10)
*Dark Emperor's vision (low): Lvl 1 (30/100)
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Lee noticed some change to his ability, but he was too tired to look through the whole thing. The moment he closed his eyes, he heard Ai voiced, then he sank into a long slumber.
('Have a goodnight, Lee.')
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The next day he woke up, it was really bright, he noticed that he didn't see the same old white ceiling, but rock, with a hard bed on his back. He sat up feeling refreshed even though he went through a fight with the wolves. There was not even a scratch left on his body.
('Morning'), Lee heard Ai voiced in his head.
"Morning", Lee replied without realizing that the person who talked to him was in his head.
Yesterday he wasn't able to look at this status clearly, so he opened his status again. On his status, he noticed some change but not much.
"So killing two wolves didn't give much," Lee murmured.
Ai replied, ('The wolves that you had killed were regular beasts. There are much stronger beasts including sea kings, so even with *Unlimited Potential*, the wolves didn't give you much experience. Furthermore, the higher your level, the lower the experience you will receive from the beasts that are weaker than you.')
"What is AP with 2 and the *Dark Emperor's vision*?"
('It was one of the innate skills of the Dark Emperor Yi, branches of the *Darkness*. As you noticed, it gives you the ability to see things normal people can't see. For example, you able to view multiple perspectives at the same time or slow down your target movement.') Ai patiently explained as she supposed to. As for AP, it's your Attribute Points and now you have two pints which you can relocate to any of your attributes.
Instead of continuing to ask more questions about his skills, Lee got out of his cave. It was almost noon, even though he can't check his phone anymore due to the battery ran out. He needed to look for something to eat and get out of the location where he was at. It was probably an Island.
As Lee was walking toward the stream which he had a fight with the wolves yesterday, he asked Ai about how to activate his ability. In yesterday's fight, he didn't use his teleportation because, in front of the wolves, he only thought about how to survive while fighting them. Imagine facing wolves for the first time, it still causes a chill down his spine when Lee thought about how the fight he had yesterday. Another reason Ai didn't tell him to teleport was that he couldn't use it continuously as his level was low. Moreover, she wanted him to fight the wolves to get stronger and used it as the last option. Ai probably thought Lee needed a place where he can starts out and the wolves were a perfect chance for him to get stronger.
('For you, it's the same as the other abilities. It's all about imagination and feeling. The more you practice, the better you get as you level up. but always remember, an ability such as teleportation has a cooldown. As for things such as *Darkness*, it used your energy as consumption, so after you use, you will feel really tired.') Ai explained in his head as Lee made his way through the forest and tried to reach the stream.
(KheAaaaaah!!!)
As Lee was near the stream, he heard a female screaming, who seemed to be running. Even though he was not a fan of saving someone in distress, he still rushed toward the source of the scream.
When he arrived, he saw a girl around his age with short orange hair. She was still petite and seemed to be running for her life with the pirates chasing behind her. The moment she saw Lee who was half-naked on the opposite of the stream, with only a pant, instead of running toward him asking for help, she escaped in a different direction.
Lee knew that girl well, she was the one and only Nami in One Piece world.