Warzone

This period of my life I affectionately refer to as a training montage due to two facts. The first is that the only thing I seemed to do was train, the second being the fact my memories from that period is best described as patchy.

One of the few things I remember solidly was the rotating door the training camp seemed to have as it felt like each week a face that displayed someone who had broken under the pressure disappeared while a bright eyed new child would enter.

Two years passed while I was there, two years that made the hell that was the regular academy seem like a paradise. After the first year my level was 52, while at the end of the second I had managed to reach level 78, yet despite my insane achievement it still felt like whenever I walked past one of the trainers their eyes would beat down at me, saying I hadn't done enough, that I was disappointing everyone.

Whenever I looked into the mirror I recognised myself less and less, well groomed hair changed into a mess of shoulder length black curls, visibly tangled, my eyes that where once filled with hope and trust had been hollowed out and seemed like those of a dead man, my skin no longer had a healthy glow, and instead was almost as white as paper. Yet those where merely the physical changes, my soul and mind changed even more drastically, as despite the weekly propaganda we where all given, my faith in humanity dropped away as the happy memories faded, at times I contemplated death.

After those years I was immediately dropped into the front of an active war zone as if the people in charge were saying 'happy birthday, as a gift we gave you almost certain death.'

The T'chalk were terrifying, almost all being between the levels of 200 to 450, with non dropping below level 150. No description truly does them justice but I will attempt to, to start with they moved around on four limbs with a small set of arms placed between the front and back legs on each side. They stood at 5 foot tall yet when they stood on their back legs they rea jes heights of 8 or 9 feet, they were covered head to toe in muscle that seemed to ripple out of their colour changing skin. Their faces resembled humans in no ways, instead of hair they had a mass of tentacles coating the top and back of their skull, they had 3 sets of eyes, each a different size and their mouth was filled with a mass flat teeth. Yet despite all this, when ever I saw them dead I always felt pity, as despite what the propaganda claimed, it stating that they invaded purely to satisfy the innate blood lust they possessed, I knew they merely invaded so that they had space to grow more food and house more people. The way I knew was due to an encounter that had happened less than a month after I had been sent to Aurialis 9.

At this point I was level 97, and only had a single kill under my belt, yet my stats looked like this.

[Level 97]

[Xp: 31,245/59,000

[Strength: 20]

[Dexterity: 39]

[Constitution: 20]

[Intelligence: 40]

[Wisdom: 40]

[Charisma: 20]

[Stability: 39]

[Ingenuity: 40]

I had raised my strength, constitution and charisma to the highest they can possibly reach without the assistance of a system, with my current stability I could draw a basic glyph in under ten seconds, and with my current ingenuity I could make minute changes to the basic glyphs to optimise them slightly.

As I was nearing level 100 I had decided to go out hunting during the cover of darkness, hoping for a T'chalk that had been gravely wounded so I could slay it and again the 140,000 Xp I required. And I did manage to, I stumbled across one that was simply laying there and if it wasnt for its breathing I never would have noticed and it would have succumbed to its wounds by day break.

Yet as I readed my knife to sink it into a specific part of the large creatures body so it would have a quick and painless death I heard a slight mutter within my mind 'wait'.

Looking around I whispered 'who's there.' only to be met by something that sounded like snakes slithering through the mud as the T'chalk vibrated its tentacles.

'Hello?' I cautioned

'Greetings.' It responded after a movement.

As I was debating what to say I was shocked by its next words (would it classify as words if it was communicating psychicly?)

'Why?' it asked

'Why what?' I asked in turn

'Why are you fighting us? We merely want food and shelter.' It answered, only to be met by silence, as I comprehended what it said.

'I-I don't know.' I finally managed to get out.

'I see,' It muttered and remained silent for a minute or so, 'I'm dying.' it said suddenly

'I know.' I responded

'Please. Kill me' It then asked nonchalantly, as if it was asking how I was doing.

'Why'

'I would rather go painlessly.'

'I see.'

Raising my knife I held it above the spot, only to pause as I heard her final message

'Remember my name. Ch'ande.' (I could tell she was female due to the presence of the Ch' prefix)

I then calmly dropped my blade, and her tentacles stopped moving as I heard the familiar ding