4 Hidden Ability of Curse
"Hello Host. I am your Game System. Within my archives are knowledge gained from absorbing the foreign data. The virus was not removed but merged within the system itself. This virus carried sentience and initiated this game system to awaken as a sentient program."
"A sentient program in my game system?" Drake was astounded. However, he swiftly came into his composure. "Anyway, what was that gene system?"
"Replying to Host with definite information from the archives... Gene System was the system stemmed from the creation of the combined knowledge of higher beings. It spanned to every living creature in this world, monitoring every improvement, and give accurate information for one's impending evolution." The system's robotic voice echoed in his mind.
"So there were higher beings? And they were monitoring us? Then is this like their playground or something?" Drake was extremely shocked. He couldn't believe some higher beings made such a system, perhaps created this world. He thought in disbelief. 'Is that like a God?'
"Yes, stated in the archives, higher beings exist. They were not monitoring the living beings in this world but the gene system itself. If the system found an anomaly or found an organism that satisfied the requirement, the higher beings will be alerted."
"As for your third inquiry, the lacking information was unable to define this world as their playground. If I analyzed the information, I can give a precise answer. For your fourth inquiry, Yes, for mortals like you, they are similar to Gods."
The system said.
Drake's mind became muddy. The system threw copious info and dumped it to his mind. However, after hearing the third question, he remembered his father and felt his goal coming back.
After the system finished, he immediately commanded somberly, "In the third question, analyze the information before you answer!"
"Analyzing... By scale in the statistics in scanning the archives, it is at 58.06 percent which proved that this world was deemed as higher beings' playground to satisfy their emotional ego. It is at 38.73 percent which proved they were raising a weapon. While the remaining 3.21 percent specified for indefinite proof." The system replied.
"Dad!" Drake gritted his teeth. His eyes gleamed ferociously. "I've found the perpetrator. I'll kill them all. I'll avenge all the souls that died by their hands!"
"Even if I have to slay gods, I'll slay them!" He blared.
As his goal was imprinted steadily in his mind, steady as a towering mountain, his thoughts seemed to transform as he can easily conceive anything without distracting thoughts.
He no longer needed to ponder the systems' words earlier as he already realized almost everything.
"Did the higher beings discover me as an anomaly after you absorbed a part of their system?" Drake asked.
"No, the game system was the first system imprint of your soul. Any other systems that forcefully imprint to you will be silently absorbed and will not trigger a disturbance. The main gene system base is unable to discover the anomaly." The system said.
"Okay." Drake replied seriously. "Are there any faults with my skills or attributes?"
"If faults likely specified for degrading, nothing is deemed as faulty. However, there were changes as every skill and attributes were upgraded." The system replied.
"Show me character and skill menu." Drake said.
Suddenly, two tabs appeared from his vision. It was different from the past as the transparent tabs gave a feeling of great modernity. It was even able to make "tabs" with immaculate writings than the singular plain image and simple style of texts from the last time.
The character tab presented:
[Level: 2]
[Strength: 16]
[Agility: 16]
[Intelligence: 19]
[Endurance: 13]
[Attribute points: 5]
On the other hand at the skill tab, the skills didn't have change except for the eye-catching skill points which were at 5.
"Elaborate the changes." Drake ordered.
"Every level up naturally increased overall stats each by 4 instead of 2. Both skill and attribute points are also increased by 5, totaling for 10 per level. Through the gene system protocol, by devouring Bronze Level Creature, if converted to stat points, each specific stat will gain 2 more increment." The system answered.
"I see." Drake nodded. Deducting what he had inputted to his stats and skills, everything made sense. Anyway, starting from now, he would gain 4 increment to each of his stats every level up, along with 10 for both attribute and skill points. If he devoured beasts, he would also gain stats.
He allocated the points.
[Level: 2]
[Strength: 16]
[Agility: 16]
[Intelligence: 24]
[Endurance: 13]
[Attribute points: 0]
A full 5 points for Intelligence. Whereas to the skills, he acquired the "Fire Ball" from Fire Shaman, "Shadow Curse" from Shadow Hunter, and "Magic Amplify" (Passive Skill) from Elementalist. For the remaining two points, improved the Magic Amplify and Shadow Cloak.
[Fire Ball (1) - Damage enemy with electrical elemental property for additional 12 magic damage
- cooldown in 1 second]
[Shadow Curse (1) - Damage enemy with curse elemental property for additional 12 magic damage
- cooldown in 1 second]
[Magic Amplify (2) - increase magic damage by 2%]
[Shadow Cloak (5) - utilize the darkness and blend within to reduce presence
- last for 25 seconds
- cooldown in 1 minute and 40 seconds]
A Heal, a burst speed escape, and a mini invisibility. But what made Drake's eyes gleam were the four instant burst skill. If he interchanged it, he would be like a machine gun mage.
He had changed his mind. To rapidly level up, he didn't need silence and must explode his way out. Anyway, by quick succession of levels, he would acquire "Stealth" immediately, ensuring survivability.
Now he had decided what man would he become, albeit a gamer yet an avenger, he became nonchalant with an indifferent personality. He entered the forest's depths again.
"Let's grind mobs." He declared.
His gamer's perspective returned, the darkness was like early dawn. He passed again to the copious trees and stepped small grasses and spots of earth.
He met again the snake's carcass. Nothing happened while he was gone. But what was different was in Drake's vision, it had bronze name.
[Snake Mushroom]
'Mushroom?' Drake scrutinized the snake's large form and found mushroom-like scales.
"System, why can I see names?" Drake asked.
"Its because the information absorbed from the virus had been stored in the archives. All Gene's creatures will display their names including the humans who initialized the gene system." Gene replied.
"I see. Aside from the creatures, only the people who initialized the system into their soul will display their names. Hence, all of the Progressors." He softly said in quick contemplation.
He touched the snake's body and spoke in a murmur, "Receive". And it was sent to his "Inventory". Afterwards, he casted one long glance to the spot where the snake vanished before continuing his adventure.
For a long time, he never spotted a creature. Sometimes he would halt and shifted his head towards any direction if he could spot an HP bar. But, it was to no avail as he never did even once find a creature.
After 1 kilometer, he peered from a tree and finally saw giant red bugs with a unique form. It was the size of a human's head with blue wings. Its eyes was slanting diagonally, occupying most space of its face. In a hundred meter distance, they flocked around an enormous withered tree, rubbing their bodies on it.
The snake had a bronze name while these bugs had silver. They were Itchy Bugs.
"Silver Level Creatures?" He said.
He just crossed the entry path, already greeted powerful creatures at bronze and even silver level. At this area, most Progressors would see large amount of Iron Level Creatures. But to him, it was different. If other newbies had the same bad luck, they would likely die.
It was because silver level creatures were not only powerful, they had also acute senses. Just as Drake had glanced at them, the Itchy Bugs swiveled at him.
"Buzz" Their wings flapped extremely fast, swarming towards him with unbelievable speed. In just a moment, the more than hundred bugs were already 20 meters away from Drake.
'So thats why this forest was so quiet. Its because of these silver creatures.' That thought flitted inside Drake.
His expression turned serious, stretching his hand.
Four continuous skills:
Fire Ball, Shadow Curse, Ion Light, Lightning Bolt
He just needed to focus on the words and in a twinkling of an eye, the skills burst forth towards the bugs.
A ball of compressed light, a scorching ball of fire, a stream of black curse, and a bolt of lightning, assailed the pitiful bugs.
"Screech" The bugs let out an insect screech.
At this moment, red numbers popped out from the creatures body: (90) (45) (65) (88) (38) (...)
Sometimes, bloodred numbers also popped out: {180} {134} {121} {...}
'System, what is that?' Drake was unperturbed by his battle because he still had the nerve to ask a question.
"Connecting to Host Visual Acuity... Since the system reboot, damage readings had been automatically turned on. The red numbers are your normal damages while the bloodred numbers are your critical damages." The system replied.
"Oh" Drake was enlightened.
One second had already passed, all of the skills' cooldown had been reset. He thrusted again the skills.
"Screech" The insects screamed in sudden pain.
After one second, he threw all those four offensive skills.
"Screech."
He was not done. Four skills were activated anew.
"Screech"
He still didn't stop. Again, the magic assailed those creatures.
*You've killed a Silver Level Creature - Itchy Bug
*You've level up! Level 3
*You've level up! Level 4
*You've gained 355 experience points.
*You've killed a Silver Level Creature - Itchy Bug
*You've killed a Silver Level Creature - Itchy Bug
*You've gained 391 experience points.
*...
Finally, there was silence. Dust eclipsed the area, the trees were broken. Stones and leaves were scattered. Charred chunks of woods were in disarray settlement on the broken ground. Fire blazed around the area like an inferno.
However, soon, the fire dissipated, because the forest had fire resistance. For there were many fire creatures in this world, the mother nature had adapted.
Despite what all happened, Drake was vigilant, because in that hazy dust, there was a green HP Bar which had astounding 13664/15800 HP. He looked above the bar and it had Golden name: Queen Itchy Bug
"A golden level creature?" Drake was astounded. He thought, 'Why the hell its HP so big?'
The HP bar goes as it is:
Green = atleast 75% of Maximum HP
Orange = atleast 50% of Maximum HP
Red = atleast 25% of Maximum HP
Bloodred = atleast 0.01% of Maximum HP
Empty Bar = Dead
However, this Queen Itchy Bug held green HP! A giant contrast to the Silver Level Bugs with a meager 800 maximum HP!
Drake looked at it with curiosity. 'Why it didn't rush to me and stand there like an idiot?'
'Maybe' He thought.
"Shadow Curse!" He exclaimed.
As if a stream of black water, it coursed towards the Golden Level Creature. The shadow curse had a speed lower than the other three magic skills. However, any defenses are useless in the brunt of its attack.
A red number pop out: (201)
Then its HP was reduced to [13463/15800 HP].
The queen bug uttered no scream, it only shook in slight pain. For his new damages, Drake knew it was because he had leveled up too much.
But what made Drake extremely intrigued, it didn't explode in rage and was still hovering at its spot.
"System, what's happening?" Drake asked baffled.
"I cannot provide accurate information within a knowledge not circulating within the system's archives." The system replied.
"Then put out your opinion." Drake ordered with deep interest.
"If opinion specified for providing information that lacked huge data, reply will be provided. The Shadow Curse skill had curse elemental property that gives 12 additional magic damage. With host's magic damage between 174 to 203 and the damage boost of the passive skill, Magic Amplify; the whole damage equals to 189.72 to 219.30 which will be estimated in a roundabout manner for visual preference. During critical damag--" The system said when it was interrupted.
"Stop stop. Shadow Curse!" Drake could only stop the system's irritating answer while he casted the skill to keep the Queen Itchy Bug from moving. He contemplated, 'It seemed this skill had cursed the creature. Then how the bug was cursed that it looked like it was frozen?'
He could only shake his head to cancel his thoughts and kill this creature once and for all! He had named a new technique-
"Continuous Burst" Drake created a concept composed by two words that enabled him to easily focus to the four magic skills and burst it.
Drake was basically free hitting. The Queen Itchy Bug's HP bar changed colors.
It became orange, then turn red, and lastly, bloodred.
"Don't tell me the creatures will have enraged mode?" He stared intensely at the creature. He thought, 'I can't escape from a bug which was extremely fast!'
Drake appeared apprehensive. As his skills exploded towards the Queen Itchy Bug, it suddenly shrieked.
Drake gasped a huge deal of breath. 'Is this the moment?'
"Boom""Boom""Boom""Boom"
The explosions continued. But, the creature only screamed. Nothing happened, the creature remained immobile.
Drake finally heaved a sigh of relief. 'It seemed there was no rage mode.'
He sweetly smiled when suddenly, the creature shrilled in more pain. 'Is it going to be enraged when its HP hit at 5 percent?"
He concentrated all of his gaze towards that bug. As Drake mentally estimated its HP to slowly and finally become 5 percent HP, nothing still happened. The bug seemed to be a sadist and wanted to be hurt more.
As his fear had vanished, Drake sighed in relief again. From the large amount of damages he gave out, he looked in wonder. He wondered that as the target's HP decreased, the damage he inflicted also increased.
Red numbers continuously popped out: (295) (353) (333) (324) (264) (380) (...)
Bloodred numbers occasionally popped out: {759} {763} {745} {697} {...}
"Even if it looked like a game, this is still reality. If one's physical body is weakened, one will be prone to more damage." Drake had an enlightenment. His eyes gleamed with a victory light, he shouted, "Convert all my attribute points to intelligence!"
He was oblivious of his stats current's heights or how powerful he became. But right now, his heightened brain from his level ups earlier, drastically improved even more. It was as if he became a butterfly and had left its cocoon, finishing metamorphosis. As also for his magic damage.
"Last Continuous Burst." He loudly shouted with glee. Four magic skills rushed toward the enfeebled bug.
Red numbers popped:
(890) (931)
Bloodred numbers: {1783} {2077}
Finally, the bug rang out its last scream before it finally died. And the forest was utterly destroyed.
