3 Chapter 3
My vision cleared and I found myself staring up at the leaves of a tree. I looked around fully expecting someone to be there ready to kill me. Instead, I found myself in the middle of a forest surrounded by towering trees on all sides.
I groaned as I got to my feet, my head pounding. I cautiously walked over to the nearest tree, ready to defend myself if something happened. I got over to the tree and a spike of pain went through my head. I sat down and tried to figure out what was going on.
I noticed that I was in tattered leather armour with a sword sheath at the side and a belt for holding throwing knives. I also had a leather bag beside me that was full of holes.
"Status"
------------------------------------------------
Jason the Unfaltering
Strength: 2
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 2
Intelligence: 0
Titles: Bane of Azrael, Scourge of The Underworld, Liberator of Elysium, Survivor of The Great Catastrophe
Effects: 10% damage to Archons, 20% damage to the undead, 20% chance for a person to obey your order, 5% chance to half all damage taken for 2 seconds
------------------------------------------------
"WHAT THE FUCK!?!?"
A bird flew out of the tree above me startled by my outburst. I took a glance up but quickly returned to what was happening in front of me. My attention was drawn back to my meagre stats. "What happened?" I whispered to myself in confusion.
As far as I knew it was possible to lose stats but that was only temporary and only some stats were decreased, not all of them. I had never heard of a person's stats decreasing so drastically.
I noticed I had gained a new title "Survivor of The Great Catastrophe" which gave me a 5% chance to half all the damage taken for 2 seconds.
I stared at it in confusion. Titles were really hard to acquire and you had to do something nobody has ever done before. I looked at the effect of the new title then grinned. "That could come in handy sometime."
Another spike of pain went through my head and my vision swam. I slumped to the ground and groaned. This was by far the worst pain I had ever experienced.
"Bing"
"Congratulations the host has unlocked the levelling system"
"Level up"
"Congratulations to the host for being the first person to level up"
"New title gained: Try Hard
"Effect: each level up yields four allocatable stats"
------------------------------------------------
Jason the Unfaltering
Level: 1
0/200 XP
Strength: 2
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 2
Intelligence: 0
Allocatable stats: 4
Titles: Bane of Azrael, Scourge of The Underworld, Liberator of Elysium, Survivor of The Great Catastrophe, Try Hard
Effects: 10% damage to Archons, 50% damage to the undead, 20% chance for a person to obey your order, 5% chance to half all damage taken for 2 seconds, 4 allocatable stats per level up
------------------------------------------------
I stared in confusion at my status. I had never heard of this level before and I think my status just talked to me. I pulled myself from the ground and leaned against the tree. I looked at my level in confusion. "Is this showing me what power level I am?" Before I was killed there was only five power levels: Peasants, Soldiers, Generals, Commanders and Mages with Peasants being the weakest and Mages being the strongest.
According to my status I needed 200 xp to level up and I got stat points for every level up. Before I was killed stat points could only be gained from training or absorbing monster cores that were the same level or a level above you in skill.
I noticed a red exclamation mark in the corner of my status and reached out to touch it, not expecting anything to happen. All the times I have tried before my hand went straight through it every time. However, this time was different. The moment my hand touched the screen a message popped up.
"Welcome, do you want to complete the tutorial?"
I looked at the message in confusion. My status never gave me messages like this before. I saw a button in the corner of the message that said "close". I pushed my hand up against the button at the edge of the box hoping it would make it disappear. That didn't work so I decided to just get rid of my status screen.
I wanted it to vanish but nothing happened. I got another pop up on my status
"You must choose whether you want to complete or skip the tutorial before continuing"
I leaned back against the tree and sighed. I had no clue what the tutorial was about, it could be about fighting or it could be about casting spells. I was a bit hesitant to do the tutorial because if I had to cast a spell to complete it I was fucked.
In the end I decided to skip, if it was about fighting I already knew a lot about that and if it was about magic…well, I had no hope.
"Skip"
"Congratulations to the user!" "It has been decided that you will participate in the tutorial!"
"..."
"What"
"Commencing tutorial"
"Difficulty: extreme"
I frantically reached out to the message in front of me hoping it would do something. But my hand went straight through it similar to all the times I've tried before.
I felt a tugging sensation in my stomach and started to panic. With the way my stats were, I had no chance to survive anything in the tutorial.
The tug in my stomach intensified and I felt something was about to happen when everything froze. There was no wind, no birds chirping and the feeling in my stomach was gone. I slowly got to my feet and looked around. Everything was the same apart from the fact it was currently frozen in time.
I stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do when a voice resounded inside my head.
"So, it seems you will be my successor"
"You are pitifully weak, that won't do"
"Bing"
Congratulations to the host for being gifted the Celestial Dragon Inheritance"
"Because the inheritance was gifted by someone stronger than the god of this world it has been boosted by an appropriate level"
------------------------------------------------
Jason the Unfaltering
Level: 1
0/200 XP
Strength: 2
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 2
Intelligence: 0
Allocatable stats: 4
Titles: Bane of Azrael, Scourge of The Underworld, Liberator of Elysium, Survivor of The Great Catastrophe, Try Hard
Effects: 10% damage to Archons, 50% damage to the undead, 20% chance for a person to obey your order, 5% chance to half all damage taken for 2 seconds, 4 allocatable stats per level up
Celestial Dragon Inheritance(75% purity)
Progress: 5%
Rewards: Celestial Dragons Claws
------------------------------------------------
My head was filled with images of a majestic white dragon ripping appart humans with his claws. I was mesmerised by the fluidity of his strikes. Each claw swipe ripped apart ten if not more humans every time.
He roared and the claws were wreathed in a gold flame. A second later I felt a massive pressure threaten to crush me. I groaned and tried to stay upright, blood flowing freely from my ears and eyes.
My bones started to crack and my skin started to tear under the pressure. Despite this i kept standing having felt worse pain in my life than this. More pressure was applied and the image started to dissolve. I kept watching the dragon, feeling that his moves were being imprinted into my brain.
All of a sudden the pressure vanished and the image dissolved leaving me standing in the void. I saw a movement in front of me and immediately got into a defensive stance, knowing that I wouldn't be able to do anything against a being that could exert that much pressure.
A massive eye opened in front of me. I stared in amazement at the size of it. It was so big that I felt like I was an ant compared to the biggest mountain in the world. It stared at me for a moment then glowed. I felt a series of moves being imprinted into my brain.
I gasped when I realised they were the movements I saw the dragon perform. They were so clear I felt I could do them perfectly the first time. I was jerked out of my thoughts as a voice echoed through the void.
"I hope i won't be disappointed"
Even from the voice, fleeting as it was, I could sense a great danger and the void seemed to echo my thoughts as it started shaking. The eye closed and the void calmed down. A second, light came flooding into my eyes.
I squinted realising I was back in the forest once more.
"Commencing tutorial"
"Difficulty: extreme"
I saw the messages pop up in front of me again and I tried to touch them but before I could move my arm everything went black.
