I steadied myself and got ready for my next move. The men conjoined on my position, arrows, spears and swords pointed towards me. I hacked and slashed with my scimitars, knocking the projectiles out of the air and defending myself against the strikes from the ground. My legs crouched and jumped as I switched between defense and offense every split second.
The strikes against me increased in speed and number with every passing moment. Every consecutive swing of metal inched closer towards my vitals as I struggled to keep up with the overwhelming numbers against me.
My hands swept the air as my blade countered every attack that came against me, my mind intensely focused on the situation.
I need to even this battle out, I thought. An image formed in my mind, of an attack that seemed familiar and foreign at the same time. My blade strikes turned faster, and I pushed everyone back a few steps, giving myself a split second of time.
And that was all I needed.
I raised my Scimitars into the air and closed my eyes, focusing intensely on the presence of the weapons, on the rough touch of the handle, on the weight of the blades in my hand. I heard the shuffle of footsteps towards me and opened my eyes to see the men’s blades but inches from my chest.
I coiled my arms around my shoulders and released them, my movement too fast to be anything more than a blur. My Scimitars lashed out as I swirled at amazing pace, my arms slashing at anything I caught a glimpse of. I heard yelling shoot around me for a second.
And then it was gone.
I stopped myself, my feet bringing me to a sliding still. Ten men lay dead on the ground, blood soaking their clothes, gashes and cuts all over their body.
Wait, my eyes widened. The mage.
I looked up to notice the man a few yards away from me, a circular rune drawn in the air above him, the inscription glowing with a dark violet light. The beam of color shot forward before I could even react and embedded itself into me.
DING!
You have been poisoned! Health will reduce by 0.1% every second. Stamina will reduce by 0.2% every second. Resistance to poison reduced by -%50.
What, I blinked.
An intense pain immediately struck my chest and I collapsed to the ground, heaving for air. Footsteps shuffled towards me, and I heard the soft tones of a voice, whispering the sounds of words that I did not understand. I cranked my neck up for just a second and saw the mage standing a few yards in front of me, his hands outstretched in the air, another circular rune of deep violet glowing in the air before him.
Poison arts, I panicked.
A hum resonated from the rune as its brightness intensified. I blindly scrambled to my feet and dove to the side for all I was worth. A beam of violet light blast out of the circle a split second later, thudding into the ground I was just on. The grass and plants around the contact point wilted immediately, withering away into dust just from contact with the beam.
I pushed myself back onto my feet, bearing the pain bursting through my limbs, and brought my scimitars up in front of me, making a quick leap towards the mage and slashing at him with all my strength. He swept to the side, but I was ready for his next move. I rotated around, my other blade now bearing down on my target.
He put his hands forward, but instead of summoning a spell like I’d expected him to he stepped in and caught my forearm, his fingers holding onto me weakly, but in desperation.
“We’ll come after you, kid,” I heard his raspy voice say. “Our buyer will get what he wants.”
A flash of violet light burst from him, blinding me for a second. And when I could finally see again he was gone, along with all the other men I’d taken down.
“Dammit,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes to ease out the bright flash.
What did he mean their buyer? I asked myself, confusion and panic riling me. It seemed very clear that someone had hired these men to capture me and that was not at all comforting to my conscience. Questions arose within me, all of which I had no answers to. Who was after me? Did they know who I was? How had they even been able to find me in the first place?
DING!
A Ga’em prompt popped up, giving me a much-needed distraction from my thoughts.
Congratulations! You have defeated a bandit gang (Level 17)! Reward: 13000XP Reward: 25000 Sol. Reward: Antidote of the Poison Mage.
DING!
You have now reached level 10! You gain 4 points to distribute between your stats. You also get a 25% advancement to the skill of your choice. Use them wisely.
You have now reached level 11! You gain 4 points to distribute between your stats. You also get a 25% advancement to the skill of your choice. Use them wisely.
You have now reached level 12! You gain 4 points to distribute between your stats. You also get a 25% advancement to the skill of your choice. Use them wisely.
DING!
Congratulations! Your Swordsmanship skill has now advanced to Level 2! Agility will now be increased by +3% when wielding a sword.
DING!
Congratulations! You have learnt a new ‘Swordsmanship’ special move: Bladestorm! This attack is a combo-move that allows you to hit 5 times a second with each strike causing %50 of the weapon’s max attack damage. Uses a portion of your mana to hone the attack. Increases critical hit chance by +5%. Can only be used with lightweight swords or blades. Cost: 10 Mana. Duration: 5 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Oooh, that’s the move I used to take down those men, I realized, recalling the flurry of blade strikes I’d used against my oppressors when I was trapped in a circle. I was quite satisfied that I’d gotten a skill out of using something like that. The name ‘Bladestorm’ did feel a tad dramatic for what I’d actually done though, but I’d take it nonetheless.
A special move was basically what its name implied, a specific kind of move that gave one certain benefits and buffs while actually using it. Each special move was part of a skill, like how Bladestorm was a special move under the Swordsmanship skill. The easiest way to think of special moves was that they were basically like spells, but for skills that weren’t magic-based.
Suddenly, a harsh stroke of pain shot through my chest, causing me to gasp out in pain. The poison was still making its way through my body, hurting me more with every second that passed.
Need the antidote, I thought as I panted, sliding my shivering finger through the air and opening my Ga’em menu. My pain intensified as I navigated to my item inventory, my body trembling by the time I selected the icon of a violet vial. An item info quickly screen popped up.
Name
Antidote of the Poison Mage
Rarity
Rare
Special effect
Heals a basic poison status effect caused by Poison Arts.
I noticed two options beneath the screen, ‘Use’ and ‘Trash’, and I selected the ‘Use’ option. Glowing dots of light flowed out of the screen and condensed onto my hand, forming an uncorked vial of purple liquid.
I put the container to my lips and drained it fast, sucking the liquid in. I felt a burning sensation at the back of my throat, not a painful one, but noticeable nonetheless. In a few seconds, the pain in my chest eased completely, returning me back to normal.
DING!
You have consumed the Antidote of the Poison Mage! Poison status effect has been healed.
Nice, I thought. I found it incredibly convenient that the Antidote was an item drop from the battle. I had no clue what I’d have done otherwise. The only thing that came to mind was using my Herb Lore skill to find plants that could be used to make an antidote, but I wasn’t too confident about that.
I glanced around me, re-orienting myself for a second and following the path towards the city. I opened my Ga’em menu as I walked, sliding towards the stats screen.
Unassigned Stat Point: 16
Good, I thought to myself. There was quite a bit of stat updating I needed to do, and I’d levelled up at the perfect time.
With my Bladestorm skill and its Mana requirement, one thing wa
s being apparent - that I shouldn’t depend on just my strength and agility attributes even for physical moves. I’d initially hoped I’d be able to go quite a ways before I needed to average out my stats, but that time had been closer than I’d expected.
It’s not like it was a big problem though. In fact, it was good that I was beginning to average my stats out more. There were many more skills and sub-skills that I could learn that’d depend all my stats rather than just a few, so it was imperative that I rounded myself out without any blaring weaknesses.
With this stat update, I decided to invest heavily into my Intelligence stat, and then split the rest between my Dexterity, Wisdom, and Endurance.
Name
Zoran
Level
12 (2% to next level)
Health
60
Mana
10→100
Stamina
50→60
Strength
11
Agility
11
Dexterity
2→6
Wisdom
3→5
Constitution
6
Intelligence
1→10
Endurance
5→6
Charisma
4
Luck
9
Well, I don’t really feel any smarter, I chuckled to myself and I tapped on my Mana stat.
Mana Regeneration
0.1% per minute
“That’s pretty slow,” I said. Per this it’d take me about seventeen hours to regenerate my entire Mana back, and that seemed a bit too long. I recalled that my Wisdom attribute determined how fast my mana regenerated and reminded myself to increase it a lot more the next time I had stat points laying around.
I knew I had skill advancement points left too, but I wasn’t too keen on using them. I wanted to save them up for now and use them later on a skill that was really important to me. Right now, Swordsmanship seemed to be the best skill that I had, but for the moment I was going to take it easy and wait to see what other skills I learnt.
It took me a few hours more before I finally left the ends of the forest. A vast flatland expanded in front of me, dust and sand covering its surface. It seemed fitting that after being in a lively forest and then a half-dead one, I’d finally entered what could only be described as desolate land.
I trudged on, feeling the powdery sand crunch beneath my shoes. My mind drifted back to all my questions, and even though I’d told myself I wouldn’t think about them until I reached Langsdale, I found myself indulging in my curiosity. It was a long journey to the city, and if my weird thoughts were the only thing that could keep me company, then so be it.
The first thing that flashed my mind was what the Nymph Mother had said, that she’d felt a mysterious aura around me. I immediately thought of the voice I’d heard before I’d first woken up. The word ‘Chaos’ resonated in my mind, lingering between my thoughts.
Are they connected to each other? I wondered. I couldn’t see how exactly but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were.
I recalled what the mage had said, that they would come after me, and that their buyer would get what he wanted. A part of me wondered who this buyer was, and if he knew anything about who I was. A part of me wanted to actually go meet them, ask them for answers, but I didn’t know exactly how feasible that would be. These men had tried to kill me, so it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to go seek them out, even if I’d been able to defeat them this time.
My journey through the flatland lasted many an hour, still going as the Sun set and the Moon rose into the night. It took more than half a day of silence and pointless thoughts before I finally found myself a few hundred yards from a tall enclosure, four massive walls arranged in a square.
“Langsdale City,” I whispered to myself. I could see tall buildings peek out of the already high walls, the structures conjoining with my view of the sky. The enclosure itself seemed quite compact, giving me the feeling that the city was a cozy place.
I tried to recall if I knew anything of this place, but I was drawing a blank.
Maybe past me had never been to this city before, I thought. I neared the enclosure, now noticing a large door on the wall facing me.
A few guards stood outside it, dressed in white armor that covered them whole and holding spears in their arms. One of them noticed me and walked over. “What do you want, traveler?” he asked.
I hesitated for a moment before responding. “Passage into the city,” I said, my voice quiet.
“Certainly,” he said. “However, we’ll first need to scan you.”
“Uhhh what?” I mumbled, unsure of what that meant.
“Langsdale City scans all the people that enter and exit the walls,” the guard said, noticing my hesitation. “It’s just standard procedure, don’t worry.”
It took me a second to understand, or rather remember, that the word ‘scan’ referred to how one could scan a person and obtain their Ga’em record. Each person had something called a Ga’em record which was basically a compilation of all the information present in their Ga’em menu. The record was just an easy, secure form of information that people could access to obtain certain data about the person, like say birthdate, or weapon inventory. I seemed to vaguely remember that one could only access info that they were legally licensed to access, but I wasn’t very sure about how enforced that rule was.
“Come along,” the guard said and I followed him. We walked up to a small tablet that stood on a white pedestal outside the door. The tablet was made entirely out of a greenish-blue crystal and had the faint outline of a hand carved onto its surface.
A scanning crystal, I thought, recalling that they were the devices most commonly used to scan for a person’s Ga’em record.
“Here you go,” the guard pointed at the crystal.
I placed my hand on the slab, nervously aligning my fingers along the outline. A prompt screen opened up in front of the guard and he tapped through a few options. The scanning crystal glowed dimly and a gentle warmth soaked my palm lasting for a few seconds before cutting off abruptly.
I heard a loud beep and the guard’s screen turned light red. He took one look at it and immediately froze.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, unease in my voice.
“Your Ga’em record,” the guard looked at me, his eyes wide. “It doesn’t exist.”
***
CHAPTER SEVEN
“My Ga’em record is missing?” I blinked, utterly lost about what was going on. “What does that even mean?”
“I-I’m not sure,” the guard said, sounding just as lost as I was.
“Maybe it’s a problem with your scanning crystal?” I suggested.
“I highly doubt it. We used it just a few minutes ago when another traveler came by and we had no issues.”
“Ugh,” I mumbled.
“You’re going to have to come with me, sir.”
I stepped back on impulse. “Where?”
“The Langsdale security headquarters. It’s right there,” he pointed to a small protrusion in the wall, a tower about four stories tall and large enough to house maybe three rooms on each level. “It’s standard procedure to take outsiders there in case of any confusions or complications.”
“Do complications happen often?”
He paused for a second. “I’ve been at this post for a little less than a decade and you’re the first person I’ll have to take up there.”
“Ah,” I whispered.
“Come along,” the guard walked me to the tower, this time walking by my side instead of in front of me. I guess he felt like he had to keep a closer watch on me now that my Ga’em record had been reported missing. The other guards around us looked over but didn’t seem at unease about anything.
The guard leading me walked up to the sole door in the tower and opened it. It creaked as it rotated open, revealing a darkened staircase on the other side.
I gave him a nod and entered, tentatively stepping on the stone steps and hoisting myself up the tower. The walls were smooth with the scent of dust baked within them. We’d climbed about three flights of stairs when the guard tugged on my arm and stopped me.
“In here,” he said, pointing to the door on the side. I opened it and headed in, welcomed immediately by the sound of lively chatter.
Small tables and chairs stood all around the room I was in, with groups of people at each one. I saw small stone cubicles on the far side, about four of them lined up against the wall.
“What have we got here soldier?” a young lady in a blue cloak walked up to us, a grin on her face. Her long hair flowed down her back, its shade a tad darker than the oak-brown staff she held in her hand. She wore a smile on her fair skinned face, and her eyes radiated beautifully with its leaf-green colors.
“Captain Viola,” the guard bowed customarily. “Just found an odd case when I was on duty tonight.”
“Well then?” she asked. “Let’s hear it. What seems to be the problem?”
“It’s this young man’s Ga’em record,” he said. “It’s…uhhh…missing.”
Her eyes widened. “Say again?”
“His Ga’em record seems to be missing, Captain,” he said, his voice firmer.
Viola leaned closer. “And you used the scanning crystal to check, correct?”
“Yes,” he said. “The scanning crystal said this man’s Ga’em record doesn’t exist.”
The lady looked at me, an odd glint in her eyes, as if she was intensely excited. “You,” the lady whispered into my ear. “You have the Resurrection Ability, don’t you?”
The Eternal: Awakening - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 1) Page 6
