The Return
Faea, the Freshlife Continent, Oaktree Village...
A flash of blinding light shone for just a fraction of a second. And then there he was, Khael, standing cautiously, half crouching, in his chosen combat stance. Left foot in front, the right one stayed behind facing right; left hand was raised closed to his chin, the right one stayed close to his waist. His bulging bag was dropped right away near his feet once he was back to this place as he didn't want it to disturb his movement. He was completely ready for anything.
Seven months had passed in the Sacred Sanctuary. He was now teleported back to the same place he came from, the ruined village. And he had now realized already why the starting pace of his second chance to live was this terrible place.
The main reason of that was very likely related to the <
Despite the long complicated details of the character note, his current identity could simply be summarized as: Khael Seven, sixteen years old, the only survivor of the monstrous beast tides that destroyed his birthplace, the Oaktree Village.
That was an important note for him to remember. He was no longer the adult otherworlder, Alkhael Pitu. He was now a teenage survivor, Khael Seven. Luckily, the name was not too different. The lazy creator of the <
As he observed his surrounding, Khael quickly noticed a few interesting things. The ruin was still terrible in his view, but it was not as bad as what he remembered. Instead of mangled rotten corpses and blood, there were now skeletons and black stain everywhere. The smell was also not as bad as he remembered. Well, it had already been seven months after all.
There were some crows and rats there giving the place a really creepy vibe, but they were normal animals, not monsters. Nothing dangerous seemed to be here, at least for now.
Khael looked at the heavily damaged dirt path not far from him. He knew that following that path for about four days walk, he could reach Sixstones, a relatively safe town protected by strong and tall walls. It was all in the thick details of his background note. But should he do that now?
Looking at the scattered bones and skeletons around him, he let out an uncomfortable sigh. He was now supposed to be Khael Seven. He should start acting like him. Would Khael leave these remains of the people close to him like this? No way.
Khael slowly walked to the closest ruin of a house, trying to find a shovel, or any other kind of tools to help him dig the ground. He had decided to bury the remains of the villagers in one big grave. He might need to stay here, in this creepy place, for a few days.
Khael felt uncomfortable, but he had made up his mind. Staying here might be dangerous, but so was going to Sixstones. The chance of encounter against monsters on the way to that town would not be any less than staying here. That was how he tried to convince himself.
Besides, Khael was quite confident of his strength and combat abilities now. He was still in the [Construction] stage now, but he was already more than halfway to the next stage, the [Fortification] one.
However, unlike the previous breakthrough, breaking through to the [Fortification] stage could not be accomplished by simply training. No. This stage breakthrough required one to be pressurized seriously enough through real dangerous situations.
Every "Survivor", the informal nickname of [Fortification] stage paragon, was one who survived dangerous situation. That was why there were much fewer paragons of this stage compared to the those of the earlier stages. That was also why most paragons, including those who took non-combat-oriented classes, were willing to go to dangerous adventures. They had to face danger if they wanted to enter the [Fortification] stage.
Khael was quite shocked in realization when he read about the impact of this concept in the <
Since the requirement of breakthrough got harsher and harsher the higher they went, very few paragons reached the [Dominion] stage. No one for the last five hundred years was known to be in [Illumination] stage. Not to mention the [Exaltation] stage. It was even considered simply as a myth.
As Khael was digging a hole in one of the abandoned vegetable field, using a rusty shovel he discovered, his memory flashed back to the last two months of his time in the Sanctuary.
After he had entered the [Construction] stage, Khael could go to the second floor of the three training pagodas. The menu for training there were much harder, and more frustrating.
The Body Tempering Pagoda still used changing landscapes and combat puppet, but this time, the randomly transforming landscapes changed much more rapidly and he had to deal with seven self-regenerating combat puppets simultaneously, rather than just one.
The extreme shift of difficulty brought him a lot of suffering. Often his unconscious body was thrown out of the second floor of the pagoda with broken bones and bleeding wounds. Fortunately, his stage increase as well as his upgraded passive skills:
The difficulty of the training in the second floor of the Mind Enhancing Pagoda was also extremely upgraded. There, Khael was forced to face multiple mind games simultaneously, whereas each game would now suck his primal energy whenever he ignored them to focus on the others. He was forced to split his concentration here or he would soon be out of primal energy, get fainted from dizzying headache, and then be sent outside.
At first he could only last for less than a minute there, but he quickly improved because he entered this Mind Enhancing Pagoda much more compared to the other pagodas. He practiced there at least twice as much as the time he used to practice in the Body Tempering Pagoda after all. In the last session before he left the Sanctuary, he could even last for almost two hours.
The main reason he focused so much on the mind training was simply because he felt that the effect he gained was very obvious and very beneficial. Gaining and then enhancing the ability to split his concentration, multi-tasking on many different actions, were definitely a great thing for his future development.
Extremely different from the other two pagodas, there was almost no change to the soul training in the second level of the Soul Purifying Pagoda. Khael still needed to stand like a frozen statue, being exposed to many different visions, temptations, and wild ride of emotions. The only different thing was probably time perception. He always felt that he spent so long in this pagoda, much longer than the time he spent in the Mind Enhancing Pagoda. But no, when he was out, he just somehow realized that he didn't spent that much time inside.
Khael still could not understand how all of those he was exposed to in the Soul Purifying Pagoda could purify his soul, but he felt that they did. At least, he felt that the quality of his primal energy seemed to really improve significantly every time he exited that pagoda.
Other than training hard within the pagodas and doing the necessary things humans needed to do, Khael spent his time exploring the valley and reading his books. He had finished reading the <
Whenever it was possible, Khael also practice his
Right now, the only times he was incapable of simultaneously practicing the
--- Time Skip: three days later...---
In Faea, Freshlife Continent, the road from Oaktree Village to Sixstones Town...
It was still a few hours before the sun reached its peak. The sky was completely cloudless, thus the sunlight warmed the land, completely unhindered. Under that warm sunlight, Khael walked in a comfortable pace along the dirt road to the direction of the Sixstones Town. His alert eyes constantly watched his surrounding. His muddy body, the torn and dirty clothes that he wore, and the similarly dirty bag he carried on his back, did not seem to bother him at all. Well, of course it would not bother him, it was done on purpose by Khael himself.
The background setting of his character was originally the survivor of a destroyed village. But, he spent seven months in the Sanctuary, and from what he could deduct, looking at the traces he found in the Oaktree Village, more than a few groups of people seemed to come to the village within the last seven months, very likely the scouts and adventurers sent by the nearby settlements to check the situation of the village. That was why he needed to adjust his background story a little bit to lessen the suspicion he would probably face later.
Now, he was a survivor of the destroyed village who spent seven months living and training in the wilderness because of the desire for a revenge. He was a man driven by sorrow and revenge, a man who, despite his relaxed attitude, was willing to suffer pain and danger to be able to hunt and destroy as many monstrous beasts as possible. As he finished his self training in the wilderness, he set out to go to Sixstones Town to join the Paragon League, the official paragon organization, where he could take missions to take down monsters as many times as he like.
That was his revised background story. Now he just needed to act it out.
Khael kept walking steadily while observing at his surrounding, It was quite a narrow dirt path. It could probably be wide enough to let one car, the off-road type, pass. Well, as the technology for transportation in this world was pretty imbalanced, Khael doubted that many people in Sixstones Town owned off-road cars. And it was very unlikely for those who did have one to drive it on this kind of road. It was not just because of the bumpy road, but also because of the surrounding.
Khael glanced to the left side of the road. It was a steep and tall cliff of a hill, not the rocky kind of cliff, but one which was filled with bushes and small trees. While on the right side, it was simply a forest filled with dense trees and bushes, which seemed really suitable to hide an ambush. It was definitely not a place to be used for relaxing strolls or jolly drive.
People who passed through this road needed to constantly be vigilant. Although most roads, including this one, did have some kind of deterrence toward normal monsters due to the common Chilimint Grass that was often grown on the side purposefully, it was not a hundred percent efficient. Most monsters in normal situation did avoid the fresh smell of the grass which would calm their ferocity down. But that would definitely not stop them if they were hungry enough or angry enough.
As he kept walking, Khael took out a military style water canteen and drank a sip of water from it. He got this item from one of the house ruins in the Oaktree Village. That was the only thing he took from that place. Well, it was not that he didn't want to take anything else, but it was because there was nothing else worthy to be taken there. Some of the people coming there in the last seven months seemed to have already robbed that place clean.
He had left that village the day before, after he finished burying the remains of the villagers and took enough rest. It meant that he had already spent a night outdoor, camping without any proper equipment. That was definitely not a fun experience. The road was not like the Sanctuary where he could sleep anywhere without worry. He had to constantly be vigilant and could not rest properly because of that.
And the next problem was food. He could get water easily enough. There were plenty of small rivers and springs along the road. It was somewhere on the Freshlife Continent after all, the continent where fresh water was always abundant. He could fill his canteen whenever he encountered one.
But, the stock of fruits he brought from the Sanctuary had all been used. And again, unlike the Sanctuary where fruits were abundant, this place was different. He had not seen any fruit yet so far. It seemed that he needed to leave the dirt road and move deeper to the forest to look for food soon.
Suddenly, Khael stopped and tilted his head. His trained sense of hearing perceived some suspicious sound.
'A battle,' thought Khael. 'Oh shit! This was a typical encounter faced by a protagonist of a fantasy story when the writer was too lazy to think of a plot, wasn't it? Should I check it? Or would it be safer to just avoid it?'
Khael stood still for a while, quickly considering his possible choices. He still thought that avoiding the battle was probably the safer choice. But then, he would never break through to the [Fortification] stage of his paragon classes if he kept avoiding trouble.
'Why the heck did we even choose to design that stupid way of breakthrough?' complained Khael unceasingly as he moved quickly to the direction of the sound of combat.
Not very long afterward, Khael could already see the battle. It was on a wide river bank, not that far away from the dirt road. The combatants are four people against two monsters.
They seemed to be in a weird state of equilibrium. The two monsters, gigantic green tortoises, each with ferocious-looking head, long spiky tail, sharp fangs, strong-looking claws, scaly skin, and jagged metal-like shell; were too slow to hit their enemies. The group of four people, however, was also unable to penetrate the defense of the monsters.
Khael observed the four people more seriously. They were three men and a woman. All seemed to be people in their late thirties and worn private mercenary's style of clothing. Also, all were class users that could use power sources other than stamina, so at least they were all Builders.
One of the men wore partial armors protecting his chest, arms, and legs. From the sword and shield that he used, the way he treated those two pieces of equipment while fighting, and the faint hue of light blue mist coming out of his body, Khael could quickly conclude that the man was very likely a [Martial Wielder], the most common class of paragons in Faea.
Unlike [Ascenders] who focused on the physical tempering to improve body quality, [Wielders] specialized in the mastery of the usage of equipment or weapons. They were the ones who most likely gain wondrous combat states like: using weapon as if it was body's extension, melding seamlessly with one's armor, being one with weapon, and deciphering weapon intent.
[Martial] energy was simply the type of refined energy flowing within a trained body. The people who chose this type of energy used their physique to refine the energy absorbed through food, drink, medicine, meditation, and materials like energy stones. Seen from the utilization which waste almost no energy, this was probably the most effective type of energy to be used. But seen from the time required to gather the energy, it was definitely not.
Two other combatants of the battle also seemed to choose the same type of energy as their preferred energy source. One of them was also a [Martial Wielder], but he used a large two-handed blade instead of sword and shield. The other one was surprisingly a [Martial Shooter] who used an enchanted rifle, a very weird choice of combination in Khael's view.
[Shooter] was another class from physical path. This class was for a mid-ranged or long-ranged combatant who utilized focus and concentration the most as their tools of trade. They normally used long ranged weapons like bows, crossbows, blowgun, handgun, rifle, or hand cannons. Using their superior accuracy and instinctive distance calculation, the users of this class could prefer to be a sniper who dealt a single massive damage, or a rapid-hitter who dealt a lot of hits with smaller fire-power. The one involved in the battle seemed to select the second type of combat style,
The last combatant was a middle-aged woman. Looking at the the dark purple wisps that flew out of her body every time she launched energy blast from the fancy gloves covering her hands, she was definitely an [Arcane Demolitionist].
[Demolitionist] was the most destructive class in the mental path. Most wielders of this class would often focus their mental capability for the single highest damage in the most direct offensive clash. A few, like the woman, would choose another combat style which, although still specialized in damage, preferred continuous smaller bombardment of attacks rather than one big destructive move.
[Arcane] was indeed the favorite energy source type for many users in mental path. They often called it the smart people's choice of energy type. While others would mockingly say that it was the nerds' choice of energy. Well, it was all quite reasonable because [Arcane] energy was the only energy gained through, and affected by, the accumulation of knowledge, any kind of knowledge. The more knowledge one had, the greater the [Arcane] power one could utilize.
Khael turned his observation to the pair of monsters, the Greensteel Tortoises, of which each was almost as big as a tank. He had some knowledge of that species. He designed them after all. They looked dangerous, and they did for classless people. But for any paragon, they were actually not that dangerous. Any paragon, even the non-combat one from mental path, could easily avoid their obvious and slow attack; unless of course, that paragon was stupid enough to stay in place instead of evading.
Surviving a Greensteel Tortoise was indeed easy. Defeating it, however, was another matter. Their stupidly tough defense would cause most paragons under [Fortification] level frustrated as they were unable to do anything to hurt it.
And looking at the excessive size, the pair of Greensteel Tortoises here seemed to have left the [Normal] stage and entered the[Enhanced] stage, which was pretty much equal to a paragon's [Construction] stage. It didn't actually change their danger level too much. They were still ridiculously slow. The increase of their defense was another case though.
Khael contemplated for a while. Should he offer the paragons a helping hand? Probably he should. This would be a good, and quite safe, practice for him. And, having more connections would also be great.
Quickly making his decision, Khael shouted to the paragons, "Yo, friends! Do you need any help?"
Before any of them answered, he continued, "Just give me one of the beast's legs and I'll help you defeat them."
The middle-aged woman, who was the closest, knitted her eyebrows, quickly scanning the dirty, wild looking, youth. He looked quite strong, the woman estimated. "What do you need the leg for?" she asked curiously. Their group was hunting the tortoise monster for their cores and shells which were quite expensive, not the legs.
"For food, of course. I'm hungry," said Khael easily. For others, the monster's flesh might be too hard to be consumed through just normal cooking, but he was a body-tempering [Ascender]. His teeth and stomach were as strong as those of monstrous beasts.
"You want to eat the monster's meat? Right now?" The man with shield and sword exclaimed after he used his shield to deflect one of the monsters' attempts to bite him. "It takes days to process monster meat into edible food, you know?"
Khael shrugged his shoulders and lied easily, "Cooking it like a normal meat is fine for me. I'm an [Ascender] after all."
"Monster eating [Ascender]?" The [Wielder] with a big blade said with mirth in his voice, as he kept fighting. "I've heard about the insane ways of training your kinds, the crazy masochists, do. I'd like to see how you insane bastard ate monster meat normally. Come on and join the fight, Kid!"
"You can take as much meat as you want to if you could help us here," said the woman in agreement.
Grinning, Khael dropped his carrier bag and dashed straight to the closest monster.
The monster saw his charge and swung its head. The long neck stretched as the roaring head sped up to bite Khael's sprinting body. It was still too slow though.
"Take this!" As he easily evaded the slow bitting attack, Khael did an explosive uppercut punch. Bang! A loud explosive smash sound reverberated. His fist connected straight to the beast's chin, throwing its head up violently.
Continuing his interrupted charge, Khael agilely slid under the monster body and then pushed both of his hand to the ground as hard as he could and forcefully stood. "Hhaahh...!" Bang! Another loud voice exploded. Khael's back crashed furiously into the underside part of the tortoise monster, lifting and flipping the huge body upside down.
"Got one," said Khael happily. The flipped up tortoise monster moved its limbs, tail and head, struggling to return to his normal stance, but it didn't work.
As the others stopped fighting to look at the sight in awe, Khael quickly moved to the other monster while shouting. "What are you all waiting for? Get it!"
Doing the same trick, Khael turned the other monster into a helpless, upside down, big tortoise too.
Afterward, everything was much easier. The underside of the monsters were also covered by shells, but they were much weaker in durability. Besides, the scales on the throat part of the monsters was also quite weak. It didn't take a long time for the group to finish the two monsters.
"Great job there, Kid!" said the sword and shield [Martial Wielder] with hearty laugh. "And nice trick too. I'll use it next time we met this kind of beast."
"Like you have enough strength to pull it out," grunted the [Wielder] with the big blade.
Khael grinned widely. "Can I have the meat now? I haven't had anything to eat since morning."