Elessar Lore
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13 — How Nightmares are Born
🕑 Added 2024-04-02 22:23:40 +0000 UTCHey yall, just in case you haven't seen my post before this, I had to make one or a few retcons to chapter 12 unfortunately that might add more context to this chapter, so I'd suggest checking that out first. Sry :c
Enjoy!
***
Alex grunted, pulled himself out of the river’s stream as the sun barely rose in the sky.
It was nary more than a creek really, where it ran shallow through the town’s southern outskirts, but it still reached up to his knees to wet his pants where he’d rolled them up to. He’d been bent over, his hands obscured beneath the water’s murky surface and as he straightened they came away with muddy wet clumps. He tossed them into a wooden bucket and then filled the rest with more water, topping it off.
Examine.
Clay Water - Impure.
Well, that’s a good sign.
If the System was classifying it as Clay water now, then Alex knew that this deposit was at least pure enough to be processed into workable clay, which was something he couldn’t take for granted with how the world’s deathly aura tainted it black.
The purity would rise with time, and soon Examine would even be able to tell him percentages.
That was the upside of real skills, unlike UI installations they could be trained. The more time he spent examining a similar category of items, the more it’d be able to tell him about them. Sure, Inspect could’ve told him he was dealing with wet clay all the same, but at Examine’s higher levels the two were incomparable. The only problem was… it took a while to get there. He’d been harvesting clay for at least a few hours now and at first it couldn’t tell him anything other than that it was hydrous phyllosilicate.
Alex gave a soft snort and—deciding the mixture had settled long enough—poured the top layer of scum back into the stream. He briefly glanced down at what was now his 22nd bucket of the stuff before vanishing the mixture into his inventory, leaving behind a lone well-bucket.
The capability to separate the two was one of the features of the Inventory upgrade that had come with his Nightmare Starter-pack. He’d thought the bonus laughable in his original run, but the utility it provided was not to be scoffed at. Processing clay was a tedious and time consuming process and he wasn’t always guaranteed to be near such a fine deposit when he needed more. If he’d had to process everything he needed in one batch with the normal Inventory, then he would’ve needed a much bigger bucket.
Sighing in satisfaction, he vanished the bucket too and sat down, wiping his wet and dirty hands on gray grass. Wind ruffled the stained and torn rags that were once his work shirt, but it was no longer as cold. With his Perception stat increase he’d also grown accustomed to intentionally dulling his senses. Moreso, it seemed that his strength had increased his body mass, at least so far that he looked more like a twig branch in spring rather than one in mid-winter.
Further into town, Alex could still see the barest glimmer from torches as they faded into dawn’s
light, but things had largely quieted down from earlier.
Jun must’ve done what I told him then.
The man had been wary of Alex and clearly still wasn’t his biggest fan, but to his credit he seemed to listen more intently when other people’s lives were on the line. A respectable trait in any other place, really. Even as Alex had given the man some instruction, a part of him still fully expected him to die this night.
He recalled the conversation he’d had with the man once he’d awoken.
“Gather anyone in fighting shape and kill all the undead with the ‘Captain’ rank,” he’d told him, “They’re the only ones that can rally the villagers.”
And they were also the only ones smart enough to know they should. Undead were weaker under the day’s light, but there’d still been enough Adventurers in those catacomb tunnels that whatever survivors of the mayhem that undoubtedly ensued after he’d defeated Lionheart were probably exhausted and easy pickings by now. But without a leader, the less intelligent undead would simply wait until nightfall when they were stronger instead of pressing their advantage now.
Cut the snake off at its head as they say.
And if Jun followed Alex’s other piece of advice, he wouldn’t stop there. Barely eking by for one scenario just means you’re setting yourself up to die the next.
It still won’t be enough, he had to remind himself.
Jun had promise, but promises were made to be broken. Alex of all people knew that fate could only be defied so many times. Whether his demise was from an outer threat or from his own compassion, if the man didn’t change Nightmare would claim him eventually.
And Alex wasn’t going to stick around to force that change upon him.
He clenched some dead grass in his fist and released it, watching it flutter. He’d had a feeling it was the right call, but now it felt final, resolute.
It had been hard to calm the passion he’d felt at the man’s potential, but even the greatest of material can be soiled by impatience. The sort of growth he expected from Jun could not be facilitated. His instinct as a craftsman told him to wait and see.
As Alex sighed once more, he could tell that all traces of the battle-lust from earlier had finally faded. He hadn’t been collecting clay for nothing, afterall.
Smithing would’ve been more calming, but calling a bunch of skeletons to his door had sounded counter intuitive during night-time.
The matter was, If he wasn’t in the sort of danger that required urgent vigilance or every advantage he had, Alex much preferred to let the adrenaline wash away before looking at his rewards. The system was a ruthless slaver, yes, but the bones it tossed you could taste addictively sweet after a fight like that. And that addiction—more than anything else in this cruel world—was dangerous.
Therefore, it was with a carefully constructed sense of ease that Alex turned to his notifications.
And instantly, that ease shattered.
SCENARIO Two rewards are in! Congratulations on surviving your second night!
You have killed:
68 Undead Villagers
37 Undead Adventurers
5 Undead Captains
1 Scenario Boss
Total Points collected: 231
Your Performance has been graded at: A-
Bonus rewards:
Receive one Status-Recovery Potion of choice - Redeemed
Receive one Common-Grade Weapon from the shop up to 5,000 EC in value - Redeemed
Receive one High-Grade Potion Box-set - Redeemed
Receive one Skill from the Shop up to 20,000 EC in value - Available for redemption
Additional Bonus Reward: Nightmare Loot Box!
A Nightmare Loot Box?! What–
Rewards for SCENARIO 2 Completion:
+3,000 Essence Crystals
+1 Skill Trial Token
Items and Potions are now for purchase in the Shop!
[Intermediate Skills Catalog]
100 discounted moderate-difficulty skills of all shapes and sizes! Low costs and even lower slot-equips! Would you like to download into shop interface?
[Yes/No–
Yes.
Intermediate Skills Catalog has been downloaded!
[Traveler’s Map]
Offers 3 alternate paths to the nearby city of Eylinorthe. Would you like to download into your UI?
[Ye–
Yes!
Alex hurried the notification away and didn’t even bother setting the map to invisible as it attached itself in the corner of his vision. He’d gotten all these upgrades before in his past life, they were nothing noteworthy. Truthfully, just the loot box would’ve been enough to excite him, but he’d caught a glimpse of other stuff and—
You have killed Scenario Two’s Boss! Additional rewards have been granted!
[High-grade Refinement Elixir - Consumable]
A dense supply of high-grade Aspect-Pure Aura. Designed to guide and aid Refinement in preparation for forming a Spiritual Core.
[3 Skill-Instruction Slates]
Creates an instruction guide to aid in learning a skill. The user must meet all known skill requirements. The user must already own the skill. Skills can be downloaded from the Personal Library. Instruction Slates will break after one use.
Alex’s breath caught. ‘Nightmare is the gift that keeps giving’ was, evidently, a phrase that meant two different things to two very different people. Either one of these rewards would have been a valuable resource outside of Nightmare, hoarded by Mage Families for only their most promising talents. And even then… to get both of them… it was all a suddenly stark reminder of Nightmare’s purpose.
They were one-million lambs to the slaughter, and the only purpose of their sacrifices was to create a small handful of true monsters. Camilla had been one of those monsters. And now, it seemed Alex was one too.
Nothing made it so clear as reading the description on his final reward:
[Path-Forger’s Stone]
Apply to a skill to create a skill path.
That was it. No requirements, no frills. Just one word and a short explanation, and it had been like Alex had the wind knocked out of him.
He fell back on the sloped grass and gave a weak laugh as he summoned the item in his palm. It was just a small rock, smooth like a riverstone, with a couple runes he couldn’t read. And yet, it was everything.
So this is where fate started to branch for us, huh.
The stream bed was far enough out from the town that he had a far off view of the Guild Hall from where he lay. His eyes glazed over, remembering how he’d survived in his first life. He’d had his dangersense, sure, but it hadn’t helped him here. His whole life on earth he’d been taught that he was the crazy one for having those premonitions, and when his trait had suddenly strengthened from his awakening he’d thought he must’ve gone mad.
No, the reason he’d survived was due to simple luck.
He hadn’t slept that first night and he’d been so exhausted from work and sleep deprived that he’d just passed out at some point, hardly even drinking any of the sedated water. When he’d come to, he was already underground with the others.
From there, it had simply been one thing after another, betrayal after betrayal until eventually he’d stopped to look around and found he was the only one who hadn’t dropped dead. There’d been no breathing room for planning or plotting, he’d just followed the Basic Warrior Skill-Path tee for tee, buying each one as they were offered until he’d been just one step away from qualifying for the Warrior Class.
But he knew better now.
Information was the most hoarded resource in Nightmare, and the Basic Skill-Paths were just that—basic. Sixteen paths, eight combat and eight non-combat, and they were so limiting in every way but for their sheer convenience. If Alex had continued that path instead of screwing himself even more with a last minute switch to Blacksmith, he would’ve found his potential capped at some point.
Without aligning beneath a constellation, at least.
The thought didn’t give Alex the usual shudder. His mind felt far away from his body as he lined the stone on the ground next to the Slates, Elixir, and the Nightmare Loot Box.
The Path-Forger’s Stone did just what the name implied, it allowed one to forge their own skill path, but one without barriers that adapted to their will. Using one practically guaranteed a Chain-Quest that led well into the Class upgrades rather than just your usual Foundation Class-Quest. And in a world where Class requirements and conditions for specific Class-Quest triggers were so heavily guarded, that made it an invaluable resource. Something you wouldn’t expect to acquire only two days into the apocalypse.
But the strangest part in all this wasn’t that Alex had been given what he’d always wished for. It was the realization that he didn’t really need it anymore.
Because for all the mistakes he’d made, all the twists and thorns that lined his path, all the betrayals, he’d still almost gotten there in the end. It had been right there in his grasp before… well… before he’d been magically crippled and everyone he’d cared for had been killed and everything had been ruthlessly stolen from him.
But the point was, he knew the path now. He knew how to get [Blacksmith-Warrior] on his own, and just as his bloodline always told him, he knew that what he’d always really wanted lied beyond that.
And he still wanted it.
He wanted the rush Lys had given him before he died, the feeling of all his parts—his warrior side, his blacksmith side, his pain and suffering, his joy and hope—for all of it to be gathered behind one attack. To become a singular existence.
If that wasn’t the enlightenment Immortals so often spoke of, he didn’t know what was.
Yet in spite of his resolution his hand still lingered there on that stone a second longer, unmoving. The urge to crush it regardless was only interrupted when an undead fish splashed onto the ground in front of him. It flopped there stupidly for a moment. Alex gave a slight chuckle as he gently pushed its fleshless carcass back into the water.
He put the stone out of sight and into his pocket, then pulled everything he’d looted from Lionheart out for inspection besides the rest of his rewards.
[Forsaken Blade (Uncommon, D Grade)]
A once-noble longsword that had its nature twisted alongside its owner. It now brings slow death to all it touches.
Trait: Sepsis
[Enchanted Scabbard (Common, E Grade)]
Carved from aged oak and enchanted to fit any sword. Designed to contain and conceal aura.
[Steel Daggers (Common)]
Twin Daggers of fine steel.
[Undead Bone-Fragment (Material - C Grade)]
A bone infused with highly-condensed death aura so as to become nearly unbreakable.
[Skill Stone - Lionheart, Lvl 17 Scenario Boss]
Activate for a chance to obtain a randomized skill drop from an enemy.
Alex laid those five items out for purview and kept the others in his inventory.
Truthfully, he’d actually already gotten a glimpse of everything when he’d taken them from the boss’s ashes and the only other noteworthy drops were a ring that gave him a [+5] boost to his strength stat, and ones to match for Perception and Lucidity, a stat he didn’t even have.
But there was a reason the world wasn’t ruled by rich kids with a thousand rings on their pinky fingers, so he simply equipped the strength ring and stored the rest away for later.
Then there was the Core his sword had eaten. That matter was entirely confusing, but he opted not to linger on it for the time being.
So let’s see… what to do…
Alex tapped his chin in thought, trying to figure out his next steps. But all his rewards went right past the part of his brain capable of critical thinking and straight to the part that just wanted to bask in it all. He blinked tiredly, leaning back on the grass, mind blank.
Time passed like that. He knew because clouds had already formed in the morning sky and he’d just counted his second elephant. The scent of over-charred chestnut graced his nose on a fine breeze, which was essentially nature’s version of lavender or lemongrass on this dying world. A peaceful sigh escaped his lips, reminding him of days long past.
He gave a long yawn and fell asleep.
***
“I’m sorry, Alex,” a dwarven voice said.
There was a thud as the forge-master sat down on the veranda beside him. His voice was a deep and gravely thing.
“Aye, I’ve nothing to teach you. But I shouldn’t thrown you out on yer’ass like that neither. I dishonored yer’ passion, and I don’t take pride in it.”
He spoke, but Alex was hardly listening. His mind was busy enjoying the peace of nature. From over the rolling hills the village-children’s laughter filled what might’ve otherwise been awkward silence and he simply lay on his back, head nestled in his palms, not bothering to turn from the sky to face the dwarf.
Cloud-gazing never got boring on this planet.
Hm? What… an apology?
His lazy mind slowly caught up with the happenings around him.
It’s been three weeks since I’ve come here, why now?
And why does it matter, really.
“It’s fine,” Alex eventually said, “Apology accepted. What you said wasn’t false anyways. It's true, I don’t have much passion for the craft.”
Alex waited for him to take that as the dismissal it was. They’d return to their basis of the occasional half-hearted insult or grouchy comment with a healthy serving of mutual avoidance. The Dwarf would snark something about him being a lazy freeloader, stand up, leave, and that would be that.
Just a grouchy forge-master and his unwanted apprentice who couldn’t weasel his way out of an opportunity he didn’t want. This would be just one amongst the innumerable odd encounters in the universe, to be forgotten in time like all the others.
Instead, the dwarf had to speak.
“I know,” he said.
Alex winced at the wistful tone, the amount of meaning behind the word.
“So you know, huh.”
“…aye, I can tell when a man is not whole.”
That was enough to grab Alex’s attention, so with a tired groan he sat up.
The clouds were nice, but the gardens were beautiful as well—something he attributed rather begrudgingly to their caretaker. The dwarf measured his stock with ancient eyes and Alex wisely dropped any obfuscation to what already must have been obvious to him by this point.
“I see,” he said. “My hunch was right then, things just hadn’t added up. Some passionless schmuck walks in, pawning what could only be a dwarvish antique off as their own and I saw red. Forgive me for getting all riled up—no, nevermind forgiveness. My anger was undue and that’s all. That Wyvern’s blade could be crafted by none other than yourself.”
Dwarvish antique…?
The thought drifted languidly and Alex had half a mind to ask the obvious question, to grab at the bait dangling on the hook. But the urge just as quickly vanished amongst the clouds as he looked back up again and he responded with the same taciturn sarcasm that he usually did.
“Thanks for the compliment.”
His forge-master snorted, “Immortal Blacksmith or not, there’s ‘course nothing I can do for your ailment, but stupid customs’n honor require I right this wrong one way or ‘nother.”
“Sounds rough.”
“—If you wish, and if you vow to secrecy, Alex, I will reveal to you the secrets of my kind, the history of the dwarven ancestors, and the truth behind your bloodline’s abilities–”
“No.”
Alex didn’t have to think long on it. There was no point to it anymore, such knowledge would only bring him pain. A moment passed in silence and the gravity of the situation finally soaked in, “...thanks for the offer though, that’s… that’s a lot.”
His master chuffed, “‘Course it is, you ingrate. Armies have perished for the kinda information I’d’ve given you.”
Damn, maybe I could’ve sold this informa—no, definitely would’ve been a fool-proof vow, huh.
Alex clicked his tongue and his master had an incredulous look on his face.
“Aye, regardless then, recompense has been offered and turned down. My honor debt has been repaid, or so the tradition goes. Now why don’tcha make yourself useful or something, ya damn freeloader.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Alex waved him off with an eye roll and his dwarven master mumbled grumpily about the three meals a week their arrangement required him to provide.
Alex just found himself lost in thought again. It’d been almost a year since Earth’s defeat, and ever since that last assault it’d felt like there was a core, integral part of him missing from his soul.
The truth was actually a lot worse than that, curse his sorry fate.
Perhaps there was another version of his life, one where things had ended differently, where he had not been so broken.
He would’ve studied hard under his Dwarven master, soaked the Immortal for all the knowledge he was worth. Maybe then he’d have accepted the offer. He would’ve followed him down to the caverns he doubtless had beneath his house, read whatever pictographs were etched into its walls, learned the truth of the universe, and if he was lucky—inherited the craft of those ancient dwarven ancestors of his.
Maybe, but that was not his fate. His life would end with him dead in some dungeon somewhere, betrayed probably, and that would be that.
The thought brought a tinge of sadness with it and he was more than happy to let this one float with the clouds and disappear.
“It’s a shame,” his master said, “About the sword that is. Such a strong voice and yet her master is incapable of listening.”
Right, ‘Listen’.
Alex almost scoffed as the forge-master stalked off, and yet there was an inflection of sadness to his tone that gave him pause. That, and a memory the clouds refused to take from him.
He lifted his wyvern-blade above his head, unsheathing a glimmering inch of it from its scabbard. And for a second, he could almost imagine a vibration there to her steel. As fanciful as it was.
‘She’ huh….
He put her aside and an amused smile crossed his face. Well it’s a nice thought at least.
To think that his battles weren’t fought alone.
***
Before Alex knew it he’d been holding his Undeath’s bane up to the clouds, the skies light almost leaking through the cracks along her surface. Her aura had gone strangely silent since their boss fight, almost as if she’d entered a hibernation of some sort, but he could still feel her there, damaged but not lost.
‘She’ huh.
He closed his eyes, reflecting on the moment he’d used [sever] on the boss. Something about the skill resonated with his blade, enough to touch Lylith’s Bond. He remembered the shrill pitch to her metal as it ate into the core, he imagined sadness there now. Longing, a somber desire. Maybe it was just imagination, but there was value even in that.
He found himself in a meditative trance before he even knew it.
Awareness and Command. One enables the other, and yet awareness itself is something that must be commanded. An endless spiral, one before the other before the one—and at the center… the origin of my will.
2,600 Essence Crystals have been consumed.
Essence swirled in Alex’s spirit. He circulated it there, unbound power integrating with his soul, binding to his being, intertwining it with his Vital Essence. And once he’d refined it all, he looked towards his Vital Essence itself, towards the sun that was his soul.
In the same way that every other exertion of power had a unique essence pattern to it, humans were no different. Every living creature had a unique ‘Essence Signature’ as it was called. An Essence pattern at the core of their being that made up the fabric of their soul. And as they wove more essence into that pattern, as they twisted that new essence into patterns for skills, spells, and all other powers, those new patterns change their Essence signature, shifting the fabric of their being ever so slightly.
Alex focused on the pattern for [Sever]. He read the weave of his soul, tracing it back to the skill, grasping with his senses and reaching out for it until understanding---some semblance of it, came.
Cleanse and Sever, they both cut from the soul.
You have leveled up!
+3 Arcane
+3 Skill Slots
You have reached Level 15. Further leveling is impossible until you have chosen your Foundation Class.
Please visit the Class page on your interface for eligible Classes and Class quests you meet the requirements for.
Alex opened his eyes. As he tried to sit up he found that all his new rewards had been messily strewn across his body instead of in the neat orderly piles he’d left them in, as if he were an only child reliving their favorite Christmas memory.
Right… as for what to do.
First, Alex shuffled the Refinement Elixir, Skill-Instruction Slates, and Nightmare Loot Box into one pile, categorizing them as For Later as he vanished them into his inventory. They were all immensely valuable but he hoped to leave this town within the day and he still had stuff to do.
And unlike rewarded and scavenged loot, there was a theory that Nightmare Loot Boxes were more individualized and not entirely random. He had some ideas to test that out.
Next, he held Lionheart’s Skill Stone in his palm. It was jugular around the edges but was seemingly just a normal rock except for the trace amount of essence he could sense there, but if he crushed it there would be a chance to gain one of the boss’s skills.
Hmm…
These could be a tad tricky to evaluate at times. They weren’t particularly rare where bosses were concerned, but the fact that it had come from a Scenario Boss generally meant it had a higher chance of giving a good skill rather than just crumbling into dust in your hand.
But the odds of getting a skill you met requirements for or the one you wanted were still stacked against you, just by the laws of RNG. And it was even worse for Alex who already had a lot of the skills he needed already stashed in his Personal Library. Which was why most people sold them.
The tricky part was that the stone’s market value tended to change dramatically once it was activated. It either went way up or way down, whereas it tended to linger in the middle before its activation.
The Necromancer boss from Scenario One had dropped one too, but Alex didn’t think it would have anything of value so he’d just left it for Jun. This, though… he could catch a pretty penny with this once he left Nightmare.
Alright, unactivated it is then.
He vanished it to his inventory alongside the other items. Then he put the weapons and scabbard the boss had dropped and put them in their own separate category.
That just left two items: Lionheart’s Bone Fragment, and the Path-Forger’s Stone.
After some deliberation Alex vanished the bone fragment. Then he had the stone in his hand again, feeling its cold weight in his palm, brushing its smooth river-stone edges with his finger tips.
Oh, the fortune you’ll make me…
Yet, for all he intended to sell it, despite the fact that he didn’t even need it anymore, there was still an allure there to the power it held.
In the same vein as how the skills you chose altered your individual Essence Signature, the System’s Class-selection itself worked on the basis of pattern-recognition. It read the pattern of your soul, and provided Class options that matched it.
But what made the Path-Forger so strong is that rather than aiding you in matching a known Class, it did the reverse, adapting revolving all known Class options around your Essence Signature. Theoretically, it was possible to get any affixable class with it, if you knew what you were doing---even ones that the System hasn’t even seen.
But if I don’t need it, then that’s that.
Alex sighed, vanishing it to his inventory as well.
Deciding he’d indulged himself enough today, he skipped looking at his achievements and other notifications. He hadn’t gotten a pop up for a new Attribute or Title so there probably wouldn’t be anything important there.
“Come on,” he muttered, “We’re not having a lazy Sunday here, get your ass moving…”
He looked at his sword one more time, wondering why the hell he’d brought it out in the first place. Risky, that.
He put it in his inventory as well, but with the imagery of gently placing it down rather than throwing it into storage. He liked to think it made a difference even if he knew it didn’t.
Then, deciding to stop by the forge, Alex stood and strode through the town boldly under the daylight.
Well, ‘strode’ may have been a bit of an exaggeration. He half-ambled, half-walked, reminded very suddenly that even if the gauze he’d been “gifted” stopped Sepsis’s effects, it didn’t do shit for the rest of his pain. He was still covered head to toe in cuts and gashes.
And as he walked further into town could feel plenty of eyes on him from inside their homes or behind alley corners. It wasn’t as if these undead were completely fearful under the daylight. They were weaker but there was no reason they wouldn’t still pick off a stray lamb.
But at the same time, they knew who had killed their boss.
Huh, is it just me or is there a lot less of them? Did Jun and the people he saved really get that many?
Regardless, Alex was thankful when he reached the forge with no incident. He wasn’t completely unequipped to deal with them if they got any funny ideas, but it was inideal with his HP still being unable to recover. Smithing at under 40% HP could be a very uncomfortable experience, he knew.
Something else I’ll have to amend, Alex mused. He stepped over the piles of ash right outside the doorway and absentmindedly picked out the Core he’d been unable to grab from the Captain Rank undead he’d killed the night before. All his joints hurt as he bent over.
I can’t wait to finally Class-up and heal all these wounds…
He hadn’t even needed to check his Class tab to know that Black-Smith Warrior would be listed there. Just like he hadn’t needed to open it to know what that Class’s final requirement would be.
He grimaced.
It’d seemed like such an easy decision to make only a night before, but--
“Oh, hey there. What a coincidence.”
Alex flinched, reaching for his knife.
He suddenly noticed the man sitting on a lone stool in the middle of the cluttered, battle-torn forge. The forge’s door was virtually non-existent now, and yet it’d taken Alex multiple seconds after entering to notice the man’s presence. Even with the shimmering golden armor beneath his cloak, and the obnoxious bored smile on his face. He was the very same guide who had brought them to this place only a day prior.
“Xii-Velrick,” Alex scowled.
The man narrowed his eyes for a second before regaining his casual demeanor, “Strange, I thought I introduced myself as just Velrick.”
Shit.
“Ah, no matter though. It’s good that you’re here, I was just about to come fetch you.”
“For?”
Alex tried his best to look nonplussed. Velrick hadn’t just shown up out of the blue like this in his last life. He hadn't expected to see him until way later and his presence had thrown him off for a second. But then, he hadn’t beaten the second Scenario in his last life either, it was no wonder things might be different this time.
He yawned, “What do you mean ‘for?’. Don’t you read your notifications?” A black portal opened behind him, “Let’s go, we’re already running late. If you straggle behind I won’t leave you this time, I’ll damn-well drag you through with me.”
What--
Alex searched through his notifications until he figured out exactly what the man was on about. Then he found what he was looking for.
Jesus Christ…
***
Achievement Unlocked! [Confident Bastard] You took on more than ten enemies alone!
+130 Essence Crystals
Achievement Unlocked! [They grow up so quick] You have upgraded a skill to the Apprentice rank!
+200 Essence Crystals
Achievement Unlocked! [Min-Max God] You have tied all your available Essence Slots up in skills!
+ 210 Essence Crystals
Achievement Unlocked! [I Don’t Need a Pit Crew] You faced down the Scenario Boss all on your own and (assumably) survived!
+1 Essence Crystal
Achievement Unlocked! [Ahead of the Curve] You have Defeated a Scenario 2 Boss! You are 1 of 4,196 to have unlocked this achievement!
+ 800 Essence Crystals
***
Achievement Unlocked! You have Defeated the Scenario Boss alone. You are 1 of 24 to have unlocked this Achievement.
[Nightmare VIP Pass] has been added to your inventory.
[Nightmare Token] x3 has been added to your inventory.
[Invitation to The Gathering] has been added to your inventory.
Note: Attendance to The Gathering is Mandatory. A System Guide will arrive to pick you up shortly.
***
I have a good floof for yall today! This one is called "Mafiosophi"!
Comments
Moon Winchester
Hmmm, My guess the class titles are more conceptual then literal. Like Warrior containing everything in existence to do with warriors. You just have to step the fuck up to unlock the shit. But, if he has already gained a class in the past, and advanced it. He probably knows a little how it's done instinctively. Can he gain a class without the systems help? or even create his own. His bloodline is definitely leading him to something but I hope he uses the path forger since it would recognize the divine time core superimposed into his being across reality. Might make something cool, or even show him the true name of his trait and not just keep calling it dangersense.
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
