XIV

A figure clad in black leather armor, carrying a huge black sword, sauntered it's way towards the front gate of the stronghold.

This was an important location deep into the border of the Kingdom of Seacrest.

It had been attacked dozens of times, in the hundred years since it's establishment. It housed many valuable recourses and often held prisoners of war.

Such as, its current abducted inhabitant, Baron Volheart.

A facility of this size, would usually only house twenty to thirty soldiers, but this one had nearly fifty!

The guards were currently on high-alert, and noticed the figure immediately. An alarm was sounded and all the soldiers sprung action, trying to get to their positions.

Amidst the chaos, no one noticed the figure vanish and reappear on the other side of the gate.

He was just standing there. 

A nearby soldier readied a fire ball and sent it flying towards the figure.

The fire ball simply dispersed a meter away, leaving no trace of the enemy.

With the field of view being obscured by the fluctuations of fire mana, the figure snaked between ten of the soldiers guarding the walls.

Before they could react, each one of them were split in two.

Leaving behind a red mist atop the rampart.

This figure was Dylan.

After slaughtering each soldier on the wall in a matter of seconds, he used the recoil of a focus burst, to send himself flying straight into the center of the stronghold. 

Smashing through a closed window, he found himself in a large room with four armed men.

They immediately attacked him on sight.

The first man swung a katana in a horizontal arc. Dylan easily side-stepped the attack, while bringing his own blade down, splitting the man in half. 

The second man was already mid swing with his mighty hammer, missing completely due to his opponents erratic movements.

Dylan simply answered with a focus burst directed at one of the men, who had yet to make a move.

The man exploded into small pieces of flesh, covering his comrades in his own makings.

Before the man with the hammer could react, he felt a sharp pain in his lower back.

He looked down to find the black blade of Harbinger, sticking out his lower abdomen.

The blade retracted and the man fell to his knees, but not before seeing the assailant walk towards his last remaining comrade, twirling his sword playfully.

The last man was held in place by Dylan's Will.

He was so much more powerful than the man that the poor soul couldn't resist the effects of Dylan's condensed desires.

It was almost as if the area around him was turned into a pressure chamber.

Dylan decapitated the last man, before searching the corpses for anything important.

'This guy is either the leader or his right-hand man,' Dylan thought finding a set of keys on the hammer wielders body. 'The cells are probably on the lower floor. I wonder if any of the soldiers outside have realized I'm in here. This could realistically be a walk in the park.'

Dylan quickly, but discretely made his way towards the basement level of the stronghold. He knew from his experience in the academy, that most of these large structures housed prisons under them.

He never made any contact with an enemy soldier, probably due to them still being in an uproar.

He reached what appeared to be a dungeon with cells along either side.

"Baron Volheart," Dylan called.

"Y..y..yes?," A weak voice responded from the further most cell.

Dylan walked to the cell holding the man who responded, along his way he noticed none of the other cells had occupants. 

After reaching and unlocking the cell, Dylan gave the Baron a healing potion and ration.

He then had the Baron grab on to his shoulders, and secure himself on his back.

Wasting no time he retraced his steps to the top floor of the stronghold.

His plan was to use a Braver fueled Focus Burst, to fly from the roof to outside of the rampart walls.

Upon reaching the roof however, he was met by a lone man.

This was no regular soldier.

His armor was very high quality and a crimson red.

He carried two scimitars, and had an air of confidence around him, like he knew this was how things would play out.

"You are from Crane yeas?" The man asked with a tone of arrogance.

Dylan didn't respond. 

He sat the Baron down and gave him a few of the elemental bombs and the ration ring. His plan was to worse case, send the Baron flying with food and some defense. 

He had no intention of being killed, or losing actually.

The plan was, if the man got the advantage, he would use the Baron as a distraction and flee south.

Most likely, his opponent would choose securing the prisoner over killing Dylan.

Well, at least he hoped.

If he fled south, he could maybe find shelter with one of the other kingdoms. or just keep going.

He knew the demon continent was to the south, past the great lakes. Either way, Dylan would make it out of this alive.

As Dylan turned from giving the Baron the supplies, the man was already five meters away.

"You think the man running this shit-hole was in the adventurer realm?" The man asked with a laugh. "You'd be an idiot to think that. I knew the roof was the best way to escape, I just waited."

"Eventually my men would kill you, or you'd show up. And would you look at that, here you are!"

With his proclamation finished, the leader of the stronghold unleashed a viscous strike, powered by dense fire mana.

The heat and pressure emitted from the attack, kept Dylan from activating any skills. He was forced to take the attack head on!

That was until, a huge wave of pressure overcame the leader. This was Dylan's Will! However, dude to his stats not being overwhelmingly higher than his opponents, it would only slow his opponent down.

This gave him enough time to activate a Focus Burst and dodge the attack.

In the split second after the evasion Dylan activated a skill.

"Inspect."

-SYSTEM DATA-

Name: ???

Age: approximately 35 years (post-Gate)

Race: Human

Level: 18

Skills: ???

Strength: 38

Agility: 42

Intelligence: 30

Dexterity: 40

Faith: ???

Description: Leader of the stronghold, holding Baron Volheart prisoner. Wields dual-scimitars and posses fire mana, potentially possessing's magic from both fire and wind elements.

Threat-level: A 

'This guys pretty strong,' Dylan thought. 'I'll just have to not hold back.'

"Braver!"

With the leader still being over extended and Dylan's Will working fully now with his stat boost from Braver, he had wrapped around the scimitar-wielder.

His opponent never seen it coming.

Dylan swung Harbinger down in a vertical arc, unleashing a huge wave of white mana, and connecting his blade with his opponent.

The explosion sent him flying.

He managed to regain his balance, and look towards the spot he unleashed the attack.

His laxed stance quickly changed to an alert one, as he noticed the leader still standing after the blast.

He sustained obvious physical injuries.

How life-threatening, Dylan did not know.

"That was a hell of an attack kid," The leader exclaimed. "I think we should get acquainted before one of us dies here."

"I'm Vlad the Storm, and i think you can't unleash that attack again."

"You know why?"

Dylan's eyes narrowed.

Not only had Vlad survived his attack, but now he was talking like it wasn't a big deal.

Sure he couldn't use Braver for another minute or so, but once he could this fight would be over.

"By the look on your face you aren't ready to find out," Vlad continued. "Well, I guess ill tell yea."

Vlad then snapped his fingers and the whole world changed.

Dylan was suddenly incased in a vortex of fire!

Vlad had manipulated fire and wind mana to trap him in a tornado of fire.

Dylan could feel his skin starting too peel off from the high temperature.

"Hahahahahahaha!" Vlad cackled. "There's no way you could survive that! You'll be turned to ash before my mana runs out."

Dylan had to come up with something fast.

He couldn't last longer than a minute in here.

Dozens of variables went through his mind, though no matter how many angles he looked, he couldn't find a way out.

If he had his elemental bombs, he could just douse the vortex in water and earth mana, that would cancel it out.

Sadly the back up plan he created, had turned around and became his downfall!

-

The vortex had finally started to dissipate, while Vlad waited eagerly to see his opponents remnants.

'This fool walked right into my trap.' Vlad thought to himself. 'Lets just hope that fancy sword of his manages to survive.'

Vlad began walking towards the spot where he would find the pile of ash, that was once Dylan.

His whole body froze as the remains of his opponent were put on display.

Or what he thought would be remnants.

Dylan stood in a lax position, letting his sword hang in one hand, touching the ground.

His head tilted up, as if he was in deep thought.

He had manage to survive thanks to his new found skill, Devour.

Devour was a skill rewarded to him from finally synchronizing with his weapon, Harbinger.

Harbinger was a soul weapon, this meant that it would bond with the soulflame of any Gear who used it.

Usually, it would only grant its wielder exclusivity to it's use.

However with the special properties of a Gear's soul, it could unlock its hidden power.

Allowing it to suck up mana, and distribute it to the host. This would not only refuel Dylan's mana, but also give his intelligence stat a boost similar to Berserk. 

Vlad was taken aback by his opponents survival. 

So much so he didn't notice Dylan activate two more skills.

"Berserk!"

"Braver!"

With the combined boost of Devour, Berserk, and Braver, Dylan's power reached unimaginable heights.

He could now unleash an attack combining his quadrupled strength, and intelligence stat.

Along with his over filled mana, Dylan was about to unleash an attack at the low-tier ancestor realm.

"Focus Burst!" He shouted.

A huge white light enveloped Vlad, as all his senses were taken.

His last thoughts were, 'This can't be real!'

-

As Vlad's body was turned into particles, Dylan landed gracefully from the recoil of his attack.

Baron Volheart had managed to survive solely due to the erected barrier, created by the earth elemental bombs.

He was unconscious however, making it easier for Dylan to carry him back towards the Kingdom of Crane.

They would arrive at the Dawn Guard HQ, and the Baron would be escorted back to his fief.

(Host received 1000 experience for defeating a low-tier ancestor-level human)

(Host received an extra 50 experience for first ancestor-level kill)

-SYSTEM DATA-

Name: Dylan/Grain Wolf Silver

Age: 15 years 4 months(post-Gate)

Race: Human/???

Level: 11

Skills: Focus Burst(lv.5) Darkness(lv.3) Lightning (lv.3) Berserk(lv.1) Devour(lv.1)

Strength: 35

Agility: 32

Intelligence: 38

Dexterity: 30

Faith: 10

EXP: 1050/5500

(Blessing)

Category: majestic

Name: Valor

Skill: Braver (lv.5)

Skill: Inspect (lv.3)

Skill: ??? (Faith>20)

Passive: Weapon-Intent

Passive: ??? (Faith>30)

Description: As an apostle of Valor, the host can channel their magic power into their physical attacks, along with multiplying their power. 

Faith is gained from use of these abilities and grows as the host's level increases. 

The host can also gather any information the system has on any target, as long as the host's intelligence stat is high enough.