Six days has passed since the incident. Alex spent those few days recuperating from his wounds and meditating.
Classes continued, but Alex honestly wanted to quit.
Half the time it felt like he was being fed I formation he wouldn't use, but in other lessons, he got information that was vital for survival.
It was for that reason he persisted and continued attempting classes.
He was slowly getting acquainted to Max given that they were both targets. Alice also tagged along, making a small group Alex didn't feel repulsed by.
Currently, he was sitting on the ground by himself in the training center.
'Pioneers... It's been bugging me for a while now. The gap is insane. If I meet a pioneer I'm likely to lose. I need to close that gap.'
It took a bit, but he finally noticed what the Circulation manual was trying to teach him.
Speed.
There was barely any difference, but his spells came out a bit faster than before. About half a second faster.
His mana recovery rate had also increased, albeit slightly.
'Max seems to be a pioneer, he's too strong already'
"System"
[Name: Alexander Cyrus]
[Race: Human]
[Age: 16]
[Class: None]
[Rank: G-]
[Core Rank: Awakened]
[Title: Survivor]
[Bloodline: Cyrus]
[Talent: Stealth-Dormant]
[Potential: B+]
[Profile-Image of Alex]
[HP-54/54] [MP-18/18] [STAM-5/54] [ATK-40DMG/HIT]
[CRIT-100]
[AWAKENED: +3]
STR-20[17+3] SPD-20[17+3] DEF-18[15+3] INT-6[5+1]
VIT-18[15+3] CHAR-10[7+1+3] SOUL-5[2+3] LUK-0 TOTAL-96
STAT POINTS-0
MANA REGEN-3.5/5 MIN
HEALTH REGEN-9/5 MIN
'The only thing that increased was my mana regen..'
"..Max. What rank are you?"
Alex couldn't hold himself back any longer. He needed to see for himself just how strong pioneers were compared to him.
"Hmm? One sec"
Max gulped down his bottle of water and let out a relaxed sigh.
"I'm G- rank. Why?"
"..Wait, what?"
'Max's crit damage was two hundred and sixty. Mine is a hundred, with that gap shouldn't he be G rank at least? Or is the gap between G- and G rank that big'
After noticing Max staring at him with a questioning look he pushed his thoughts to the side.
"Its nothing. Let's wash up and meet at the entrance"
"Sure"
Alex returned to his dorm, which had been strangely quieter than usual. Mainly because only Levi, the girl, was present.
He didn't know what happened but the others generally ignored him when he came by. Not like he was complaining though.
He took a bath and donned on his old clothes. They were much more comfortable than the safe zone's uniforms.
Thirty minutes later, Alex walked out of the zone, but he still wasnt able to shake of the feeling of wanting to vomit.
Max was already waiting for him.
For the past few days, the two had decided training wasn't enough. They needed actual combat experience.
They hunted unblessed whilst using the chance to grow stronger themselves.
Alex also used that time to figure out the rules behind that peculiar ability of his.
His runic chains.
"Theres group of seven over there. I think that's a good warmup to start with, right?"
Max stretched his legs out.
Alex nodded and added.
"They feel weak now, but we still can't attack the higher unblessed, not to mention actual monsters."
As far as they knew. The unblessed were relatively weak. But there were two other types of unblessed that seemed unnecessarily strong.
"Oh. There's one right there"
[Race: Evolved Unblessed
Rank: G-
Health: 150/150]
The problem with them wasn't that they had a lot of health or that they were fast.
One. They were strong.
And two...
"...Hey Alex.. I think it saw us"
Alex snapped back to reality and noticed the unblessed staring at them.
"...Fuck, let's move before it starts"
They acted as a hive mind in an area, meaning they could control the other unblessed.
After moving a distance away, the two found another spot that seemed pretty safe.
"..Nine.. shouldn't be a problem"
[Runic Chains]
A short chain appeared before Alex, waiting for a command.
He didn't seem to have spent any energy.
'Rule one. The chains I create are permanent. I can't dispell them, but I can store them. Resummoning them doesn't take nearly as much mana as creating new ones.'
Alex stayed on the building, targeting his chains at some of the unblessed.
Max lept over the ledge and pointed his finger down.
[Rail Shot]
Lightning shot out from his finger, hitting one of the unblessed right in the head.
He kicked his foot down right before landing, stomping on the head of the unblessed below him.
Alex willed the chains to move, and it shot forward, stabbing right through two more unblessed.
"Alright, four down, five more to go"
Max stepped to the side, evading the attacks of one of the unblessed.
'..I don't even need to come down.'
His chains swept past the unblessed, tearing them apart.
"..Should we try going against the evolved unblessed?"
Alex offered after they were done distributing the cores.
Max frowned.
"It's, pretty risky still."
Alex frowned.
"This is too mundane to even be training anymore. We need something stronger, but you've seen the monsters. We can't fight them."
"Reasonably speaking, one hit from you should at least leave it on the verge of death. We just have to kill it and scatter before a horde forms"
Alex added, finishing his thought.
Max rubbed the back of his neck, weighing the risk.
"...Fine. But the second it screams, we run, alright?"
"Deal."
The circled back to where they had started from, keeping to the rooftops until they spotted the evolved unblessed again.
And, it was alone.
[Race: Evolved Unblessed
Rank: G-
Health: 150/150]
"I'll hold it down, you kill it before it can scream."
Max cracked his knuckles, sparks already dancing faintly along his fingers.
"Aight."
Alex snapped his fingers. The chains shot down, faster than when they fought the previous unblessed. The circulation manual made it easier to control the chains. A speed difference of half a second wasn't negligible in a life and death fight after all.
The chain wrapped itself tightly around the unblessed's foot, hooking it onto the floor...
But something was wrong.
'It doesn't feel like the chains hit it. It feels like I'm just holding some rough metal'
"Wait, metal!"
"It hardened itself!"
He tried to warn Max but the boy in question was already gone.
His body flickered into a bright, jagged afterimage of blue sparks, and merely a moment later, he was already before the creature, with his fingers already pointed at it's forehead.
[Rail Shot]
The beam hit it's target dead in the center, and after a moment, it stopped moving.
"...Whew. That was easier than I-"
Max turned around to dmsignal Alex to come omdown, but he frowned noticing Alex yelling something
"Block!"
An attack hit him from the side out of nowhere, throwing him towards a wall.
Max managed to keep his focus and grounded his feets to prevent himself from skidding any further.
"...Shit, it hurts"
He managed to barely block the attack because of Alex's warning, but they still did damage to him. It seemed whoever hit him used something along the lines of a spiked club.
The holes the spikes had created were bleeding, but he didn't seem to worried. He would just heal later.
A shadow fell over him
"I knew it wouldn't be that easy"
[Race: Evolved Unblessed
Rank: G-
Health: 0/150]
"How is it still alive?! It doesn't have a head!"
Alex appeared out of nowhere, ramming into the creature.
"I don't know!!"
Max jumped to his feet and rushed to help Alex.
"Huff. It's body is tough, like metal, you're the only one who can damage it."
"Can you hold it one more time?"
Alex didn't respond, instead, he used the chains to trip the creature, making it fall back onto the floor.
[Rail Shot]
Boom!
The attack went went through it's chest, but Max held his stance in case it moved again.
...
..
"I think... I think it's de-"
Max slowly lowered his hand.
Skr- Skreee!!!!
The noise came from it's neck.
"You jinxed it"
"Shit. SHIT—"
Max raised his head. It calling all the unblessed nearby. All of them.
"Let's go! We dont have the time to figure out how it's still alive"
Max didn't hesitate after hearing that, the two planned on escaping through the rooftops, but looking, up.. it wasn't a great idea. Shapes had taken over all their possible escape routes.
"They already got closer because of the noise from the fight, so it didn't take them long to appear when it actually called for them"
From every path around them, shapes were already waiting for them to move.
They weren't in measly numbers of fives or tens. There were at least a hundred near them, and that number was increasing by the second.
"...It called the whole block," Alex breathed.
"Yeah, I noticed. Let's talk later and focus on getting out of here right now"
Alex pulled his chains back, coiling them around his arm.
The two turned east,towards a skyscraper, noticing the unblessed there weren't as populated.
Without any exchange of words, they rushed
and they bolted down the street, weaving between abandoned cars, and the unblessed closing in from all around.
"Max, hold on!"
Alex stretched his hand out. Max didn't know why, but now wasn't a great time to doubt Alex. He grabbed Alex's hand, gripping it tightly.
'Please let this work!'
The two suddenly got lifted and thrown by an unknown force, flying them right over the unblessed to the fire escape.
"I can't keep this up any longer, grab it!"
Moments before their fall Max puffed his cheeks and threw Alex.
Alex grabbed the metal structure with one hand, steadying his grip with the chains.
"Now!"
Max launched back up as a trail of lightning, closing the gap between them. His transformation faded as he was about to fall once again, but Alex grabbed him with one hand.
"Come on!"
Alex vaulted over the first railing, pulling Max up with the chains to help. Below them, the unblessed slammed into the metal structure hard enough to rattle bolts loose, but by then the two were up the building.
[Rail Shot]
Max killed off the few that were on the fmroof and landed on his butt.
"What are you doing?"
Alex looked around for another route to pass.
"What? This is a safe spot isn't it? I don't think the unblessed can climb the fire escape"
Alex flinched.
"Wait, they can?"
"Stop jinxing us!"
He kicked the first one that managed to climb up.
[Fireball]
He launched it at the joints of the fire escape, bringing the entire structure down.
The area suddenly became quiet again.
...
...
"See? I knew we shouldn't have attacked that one"
Alex shrugged.
"We needed something stronger to test ourselves with. Besides, I think it was worth it"
"We didn't even get any-"
Max paused. He noticed Alex looking at something that didn't seem to be there.
'...Did it die?'
"System. Status"
Max's system appeared, but it was different from the others. It's reddish glow was a stark contrast with the standard blue glow.
Of course, Max wasn't aware of it.
[Name: Max Wreathe]
[Race: Human]
[Class: None] [Rank: G-]
[Core Rank: Awakened]
[Talent: ???]
[HP-72/72] [MP-6/60] [STAM-19/108] [ATK-110DMG/HIT]
[CRIT-260]
[AWAKENED: +3]
STR-55[52+3] SPD-35[32+3] DEF-24[21+3] INT-20
VIT-36[33+3] CHAR-12[9+3] SOUL-8[5+3] LUK-8 TOTAL-213
STAT POINTS-10
MANA REGEN-10/5 MIN
HEALTH REGEN-12/5 MIN]
"Ten stat points?"
It was small at the same time big. They got this from just killing the creature, imagine if they managed to get it's core.
The two suddenly heated a strange sound nearby, but they couldn't pinpoint the location of the sound, as though it were all around them.
"That wasn't you right?"
Max asked Alex with a sigh that said he was tired and wanted to quit.
"No"
Another sound came, and this time they could pinpoint it.
They turned their heads turned toward the sound at the same time.
"...Max."
"I see it. I SEE it."
It was a monster. A real one. The things they had been trying to avoid the most.
[Race: Silver Crane
Rank: G]
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CURRENT PLAYERS: 6,654,486,417
NO OF DEATHS: 3,405,853
TOTAL NO OF DEATHS: 8,140,191,604
CURRENT GAME: TUTORIAL
CLEAR TIME: ONGOING
Note of the day
GRIMOIRE
Contain a collection of similar spells that can be learnt by circulating mana through the book. Grimores are bound to a person once that happens and can no longer be used by others. Grimores also increased the strength of some spells depending on the type.