Having to Man up

Niklas called on his system interface to see if there were any changes.

[NAME: Agu Niklas Vox.

AGE: 20 years old.

HEIGHT: 6'2 feet.

WEIGHT: 58 KG.

****

CLASS: Lightning-mancer.

Class level: 0.

Class evolution: 2/100

Use and perfect your proficiency in handling lightning in order to evolve.

****

RACE: Human/Demigod.

Prominent race: Human.

Level of Prominence: 10.

Next level: Demigod, level 0.

Progress towards evolution: 1/100.

Affect the world around you and obtain evolution points.

Since you are aligned with good, you have to affect the world around you with your goodness in order to obtain evolution points.

****

PHYSICAL QUALITIES;

STRENGTH: 5+10

SPEED: 5+10

AGILITY: 5+10

STAMINA: 5+10

PERCEPTION: 1+10

VITALITY: 5+5

(Complete missions and stand a chance to be rewarded with stat points that can be assigned to any of the qualities.)

****

MANA AFFINITY: 1+10

MANA VOLUME: 0+1000 MP

Complete missions and stand a chance to be rewarded with stat points added directly to your mana affinity.

Mana affinity affects mana volume, negatively or positively.

]

"Wow!" Niklas was awed at the new details on his system interface, and he focused on the race details.

[RACE: Human/Demigod.

Prominent race: Human.

Level of Prominence: 10.

Next level: Demigod, level 0.

Progress towards evolution: 1/100.

Info—Affect the world around you and obtain evolution points.

Since you are aligned with good, you have to affect the world around you with your goodness in order to obtain evolution points.]

Niklas mused, 'Since you are aligned with good? What if I was aligned with evil? Could I have died?' He recalled when the human monster replied, 'Perhaps' after it read his thoughts, 'Am I going to die?'

'The test was to know if I am really good, and if I wasn't, I could have died and lost the system.' He heaved a heavy sigh of relief. 'This means that all legacies must have a foolproof plan for weeding out the wrong people to inherit them! Lucky me.'

Ding! An automated bell rang in Niklas' mind. He cursed his luck, thinking he had triggered another mission. The 'mission' bar displayed over the 'Race' bar.

[You have successfully completed a mission!

You completed a secret mission!]

"Wow, that's new."

[Mission: Discover the purpose of 'the test from heaven and hell'

Reward 1: 5 physical qualities' stat points! You can assign them at any time.

Reward 2: You gained 1 point in mana affinity.

Reward 3: You gained 80 race evolution points.]

Another bar displayed over the mission bar

[Mana affinity affected!

Mana affinity increased by 1 point!

MANA VOLUME: 1000 mp > 1300 mp.]

Niklas waited a few seconds for another notification, but nothing came up. He considered the grief déjà vu and other events up until now. He summed up, "Today is a good day.

"Let me see if I failed to notice any detail." Niklas pulled up his interface.

[NAME: Agu Niklas Vox.

AGE: 20 years old.

HEIGHT: 6'2 feet.

WEIGHT: 58 KG.

****

CLASS: Lightning-mancer.

Class level: 0.

Class evolution: 2/100

Use and perfect your proficiency in handling lightning in order to evolve.

****

RACE: Human/Demigod.

Prominent race: Human.

Level of Prominence: 10.

Next level: Demigod, level 0.

Progress towards evolution: 81/100.

Affect the world around you and obtain evolution points.

Since you are aligned with good, you have to affect the world around you with your goodness in order to obtain evolution points.

****

PHYSICAL QUALITIES;

STRENGTH: 5+10

SPEED: 5+10

AGILITY: 5+10

STAMINA: 5+10

PERCEPTION: 1+10

VITALITY: 5+5

Free stat points: 5.

(Complete missions and stand a chance to be rewarded with stat points that can be assigned to any of the qualities.)

****

MANA AFFINITY: 11>12

MANA VOLUME: 1000>1300 MP

Complete missions and stand a chance to be rewarded with stat points added directly to your mana affinity.

Mana affinity affects mana volume, negatively or positively.]

Niklas noticed the 'vitality' quality. 'What does this one do?' His thought triggered an info bar.

[Vitality is defined as the user's compactness and resistance to destruction by pressure from internal and external sources.]

This quality was what made Superman, Superman. His body was resistant to being destroyed by explosions and immense pressure from gravity fields that were as strong as the sun's gravity, and his skin couldn't be penetrated by bullets.

'I will have to find out how good my vitality is later,' Niklas mused.

He had a deep thought about how to distribute his stat points. He considered that there could be awakened people who were more powerful than him. He also remembered that there were legacy users who were years ahead of him. He decided to distribute 1 point each to his vitality, strength, and speed. 'I think it is best if I keep two points in case of dire situations.

'I better get going. Mom should be awake now. I don't want her to get worried.'

Niklas' return to his house was uneventful. He unlocked the padlock at the entrance door and put the key in his jeans' right pocket. He held the padlock in his left arm and entered the house. Nnedi and Zack fixed their gazes on him as he walked in. Zack probed his elder brother's hands, expecting he had brought food with him, but was let down to see only the pad lock.

Before Nnedi could speak, Zack spoke in disappointment: "You didn't bring back food?"

"Zack!" Nnedi reprimanded her younger son.

Zack defended himself: "I'm hungry, mom. We should be eating breakfast."

Nnedi said, "You still have your poop under your sheets."

"Mom!" Zack scoffed in embarrassment, and he went silent, sulking.

Niklas chuckled.

Nnedi asked, "Nna m [1], where did you go?"

Niklas replied, "I went to see my friends. I went to tell them, See you later."

Nnedi became worried about how the 'interaction' ended. She asked, "How did they respond?"

Niklas sighed, grief stinging his heart. He sighed again and said, "They said see you later, Niklas. It was cool knowing you."

It was clear that he was upset. Nnedi scanned him, looking for signs of a fight, but found none.

'I guess his friends really let him go. But it is for the best. I bet they know he is too frail to be hanging with them, but they can't tell him.' Nnedi mused. Suddenly, something behind Niklas caught her attention: a metallic sheen.

"Nik, what is that protruding from the back pack?" Nnedi asked.

'Darn! Why do I act dumb sometimes?' Niklas thought. He realised that he forgot to hide the sword before coming inside.

Niklas said, "Oh, this?" He pulled out the long sword and noticed its length: 1 meter. "My friend gave this to me as a parting gift along with the backpack. They moved out of town."

"Why would they give you a long sword?"

"It was given to me in memory of our hunt."

"Did anything bad happen for them to move out of town?"

The lies ached Niklas' heart, and he couldn't control himself anymore. As he struggled to get out his words amidst tears, he said, "They got the chance to move to a better place outside here, and they took the chance."

"Is that why you are crying?"

"I miss my friends, mom."

"Is that all?"

"And I really wish that we could move out of this village."

Nnedi said, "Nik, I know that you like your friends a lot because they accept you for who you are. The truth is that in life, things beyond our control happen, and we just have to accept them and forge ahead."

Niklas nodded.

"I know that your spirit is broken," Nnedi continued, "and you cry a lot from little things. If the world were sane, it would be okay to cry. Heck, if the world were sane, I doubt you would ever have a reason to cry. What I'm saying, Nik, is that I want you to be strong. The worst thing for a mother to see is her son crying or knowing that her son is somewhere else crying.

"I want you to man up. If life kicks you, you kick it back. But as you do that, don't go astray; you have a good heart, and I don't want you to lose that."

Niklas digested his mother's words. 'She is right. I'm now strong. I have to man up. No more tears.'