Limited Power

The sound of thuds echoing through the trees shook leaves from the canopy. The vibrations traveling up and down the trunk as each impact was strong and powerful. Until the a massive strike caused the tree to crack and splinter away. Stepping back, The man in the tree shook his wrist. The chain dangling from the metal shackle rattling wildly.

Cyrus smiled as he had received the notifications of earning more rewards from completing his daily routine. He sat down and held out his hand to have one of the birds nearby drop off a Jenora's Kiss into his hand. These birds have been following him frequently over the last month that he was wondering what they wanted. But every time he would look their way they would fly back to a high branch or go off somewhere else. Only when he was tired, exhausted, or hungry did they deliver the fruit to him.

Pulling up his rewards he saw that he unlocked two skills and received some rune coins. Pulling up his status menu and selecting the skills tab, he swiped to the passive skills and active skills.

[Unarmed Strike level 1 (Bare Fists)]

[Your constant training of your body and CQC combat has yielded progress. Anything you strike with your fists deal 1.2x more damage based off your STR stat.]

[Impact Strike level 1]

[5 CEP/OEP each, a powerful attack mixing both Chaos and Order energy to deliver a incredibly strong punch. Strike with the force of 2 cannonballs as your attack does 3x the normal damage. Able to launch a creature one category larger than you back 10 feet.]

Deciding to test the new skill Cyrus stood up and focused his two energy pools into his fist. He could feel the energy swirling, however he ran into a problem. The energy wanted to oppose one another as they spiraled out of control. Causing an explosive reaction sending him flying backwards off the tree and down to the forest floor.

He quickly adjusted his descent to land then roll to recover from the sudden explosion. Looking at his hand, he saw that it was shaking a little, "That was more difficult than I expected." He usually thought that if he just knew the skill it would happen, but not for this case. For now he was mixing the energies together which oppose one another. With that he stood up and smiled, "A challenge to learn a new way to fight. Hmm," he placed a hand on his chin, "I wonder if there are other ways to mix these energies into something more powerful. But I first need to master this control over the two energies first."

Clenching his right hand he smiled, "Finally, something to work towards and not just gain automatically. It's been too long for me to learn something new rather than just get it." Looking up the tree he could still see leaves falling down from the impact of the explosion. He watched as the falling leaves were slowly disintegrating in purple and white light. Eating away at leaves before vanishing.

This power that mixes the two forces is strong indeed, but he doubted he would learn it easily and would probably have to be careful not to destroy his own body. Looking at the shackle on his wrist he felt like he now had some more understanding of the limits of its power. It could give him and his summons plenty of skills, abilities, or whatever bonus it could provide. But now with the skill of the Impact Strike, he could see that it couldn't give him instructions on how to master, improve, or possibly use the other source of energy instead.

It felt good, even though his guess was limited on its own. He at least had a basis of what to go off of. Cyrus then decided to pull up his skills list and look at them. Including the ones for his summons, for over the past month he and his summons got stronger. He had gotten upgrades across his own abilities along with maxing out his stats to the limited 20 stat. Meaning he was at the peak of his power with one shackle. Any extra points would be stored away including the bonus points accessed by Fenrir's Shackle increasing in level as well. Awaiting the next Shackle to give him 2 points in each stat.

It seemed to Cyrus that the shackles provided bonus points whenever they upgrade. Which in turn are tied to the main summoned tied to the shackle itself. Whenever Fenrir upgraded so too did the shackle. When Cyrus would gain Skill Points, he would spend them on unlock new abilities. While his summons got new abilities from experience or other sources.

Cyrus gained the ability of Chaos Enhancement, which allows for two aspects of Enhance (Focus) to be used, Weapon of Light level 2 for 2 weapons made of light, and Guardian Knights. The Knights are lesser summons, which he found out that they don't have much of a personality. To him, they feel like walking suits of armor with no voices. They think of how to defend him and defeat Cyrus' enemies, but nothing else. This includes for the Wolves he can summon and Thane's Undead. Though Thane's Undead he has no control over and even have voices of their own when speaking to Thane.

Fenrir managed to develop the skill of "Fiery Hide" which basically partially harms himself for an aura of damage to enemies near him. Visne accidentally discovered their ability to coat their body in the gel it generates. Hardening their body and giving them incredible physical damage resistance. Then Grimm and Cyrus managed to find a book in an old library overrun by plants and deadly flowers. When Cyrus claimed the book, both he and Grimm gained the knowledge of its contents.

That had been the course of his month in the Rift. Though he was surprised to find that the process of the summon being cleaned hadn't finished in the two weeks he had been there. Instead it showed the timer ticking down slowly. Like it was matching to a different time. Which he guessed it was for the time on Earth that had passed. He still had another week and 2 days before the purification was completed. He was surprised by the time difference for how long he had been in the Rift. But he honestly was happy he could enjoy the scenery and the world he was in.

Back in the Castle, he didn't have that luxury as he was in a rush to the top. But he met some valuable friends along the way, including gained a lot of power quickly. He smiled remembering Thomas, Godfrey, and Chase. Then he remembered the one person he had forgotten he met, Victoria.

Scrolling through his menus he found the "CONTACT" list and pulled it up. Inside he saw that Victoria had her status changed. Instead of it reading that she was a baroness of Roland's, she now belonged to him as his Servant. Scratching his head Cyrus was confused why it would list her as a servant. Not something he particularly like as being a servant felt she'd be struggling. But when he continued to read about her status he got some more information.

[Servants, followers who will follow your commands to the letter. Bound by their loyalty and devotion to their master. However, orders that cause harm, possible death, or even orders that contradict the servant's values and trust of you will fail.]

[Trust: 20/100]

A small sigh of relief as he saw that no orders he would give would hurt them. But he was still worried about the whole "servant" word to begin with. The system told him that servants can be given different jobs based on their Trust of him. The higher the trust, the better. When he looked at what she could be changed to, he found that Victoria could become something akin to bodyguard. But he didn't see her fight before and he didn't want to bother her at the moment.

Closing the menu he sighed, "Why would the system give me servants? I'm no lord or god..."

Fenrir piped up, "But you have my power, so you are technically one. Let go of your sensitivity to having a servant it's not that bad to have someone follow your commands. When you humans were around in my time, you did many terrible things. Having someone who served you was the least of those as even some servants were treated respectfully as they served a powerful king for they feared their eyes and ears if someone plotted something." Fenrir seemed to be more talkative as of late.

He had been active and speaking more openly over the course of the month. He wasn't sure as to why, but the grumpy old wolf spoke in his normal deep and guttural tone like he was passively condescending Cyrus. His mood hadn't changed, but it was for someone to talk to for he was the one that gave him his power. But even Fenrir didn't understand how his system worked as he never had one himself. He just ate everything in his path that decided to look him the wrong way. Cyrus guessed it was part of the power being processed and developed as if gaining the power was part of a video game.

He doubted that the power was directly related to a power of a video game character, but the system was there. He gained levels, stats, experience points, skills, everything that a video game character would. But the limitations that were on him was not something a game would have normally. So he guessed that it was because he could continue to gain more power if he interacted or devoured much more powerful foes.

That is when he remembered he had a key that was given to him by Fafnir. He looked into his inventory and pulled out the key. However, the key didn't look like an actual key to a door. Instead, it was shaped like a circular stone object with carvings of ancient Nordic runes. When he inspected it, it read that the stone was known as a Keystone. Objects that acted as mini portals to power a Rift. But they were part of a set destination.

Fenrir growled, "You are now at the strength you needed to be to see Fafnir. But I doubt he will willingly help you. Be on your guard," was the last thing he said, as the Keystone hummed in hand. Cyrus stood up and held out the object in front of him. Words appeared on a screen for him to read out loud.

"I command the essence of Chaos to open a gate to my destination!" As the Keystone shined bright, a Rift formed out of red energy and purple energy. It was different from the blue coloration of Earth's normal Rifts. Which surprised and worried Cyrus. Clenching the Keystone in his hand he stepped through the Rift and was transported to a different world.