Chapter 25: Strength

Deryn had no knowledge about the conversation which had just taken place. He was looking at the spear in his hand, ecstatic that his idea was feasible and the preliminary process had been completed. Looking at the spear, knowledge appeared in his mind.

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< EMBRYONIC LIFE WEAPON *UNNAMED* >

OWNER: Deryn Adams

DESCRIPTION: This is a weapon that grows with its owner through battle. It can also consume rare resources to speed up its growth. A weapon that was imbued slightly with Deryn's life force just the crystallisation phase of his mana; this makes the weapon akin to the limb for the user and no other individual may wield this weapon without backlash.

This weapon can consume other weapons, giving it the ability to take its form. Due to the current life stage, *UNNAMED*can only take the form of rare weapons and below.

FORMS: 1/3: Spear.

RARITY: Light Blue (Rare)

INSPECT: A sloppy success at making an embryonic life weapon. This weapon has vast growth capabilities yet also needs to consume a vast amount of resources.

SYSTEM NOTE: THANK THE CREATOR.

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To say Deryn was happy would be underselling it. This wasn't all he was happy about. His promotion to an apprentice mage had been perfectly completed and his stats had grown tremendously once more.

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< CHARACTER SHEET >

Name: Deryn Adams

Race: Human

Health: 750/750(540) (1.42 Regen per minute)

Mana points: 276/276(249) (1.52 Regen per minute)

Strength: 6.1(4.9)

Vitality: 7.1(5.4)

Agility: 7(4.1)

Intelligence: 7.6(6.1)

< CLASS >

Spearman (Warrior)

Mage (Novice)

< COMABAT SKILLS >

Mage skill: Ice arrow

Spearman skill: Phantom Lunge

Mage Skill: Mana Shield

< PASSIVE SKILLS >

Rapid Incanting Level 1

< OCCUPATIONAL SKILLS >

Inspect level 1

Meditation Level 2 (now gains 2 MP per session (4 with 2x reward)

< SYSTEM REMARK: HOST HAS GAINED: +2.5 INT, +1 STR, +1.5 VIT, +25 AGI and +25 MANA >

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Deryn's average stats with equipment was now 7 points, whilst without equipment, his average stats without equipment reached 5.1, it was a monstrous gain.

The only issue he faced now was getting used to his new body. With a breakthrough in both his classes, Deryn's stats had increased by around 70%. The most groundbreaking change he felt was his intelligence and vitality, making him think a mile a minute whilst imbuing him with a vigorous life force.

It was a dangerous combination. He felt like he could take on the whole world. Luckily for him, he had the system to bring him back down to earth with a snarky comment.

< YOU ARE BARELY A FATTER ANT COMPARED TO BEFORE HOST. ARROGANCE IN HUMANS IS ONE OF THE LEADING REASONS SO MANY HAVE DIED SINCE TELEPORTING INTO THE DOOMSDAY ADVENT WORLD >

"Thanks, system... you know how to brighten a guy's day..." he muttered back, a little more deflated than before.

< THE SYSTEM SUGGESTS YOU GET USED TO YOUR CURRENT BODY. THE SYSTEM ALSO SUGGESTS THAT THE HOST CHECK OUT WORLD FIRST REWARD TAB ONCE MORE >

This cheered Deryn up a bit more. Who was he to say no to free loot? Anyone who did that would be an idiot and Deryn was no idiot!

< CONGRATULATIONS HOST FOR BEING SMARTER THAN 0.000000001% OF ALL LIFE >

Deryn's face spasmed at this comment. Choosing to ignore both the compliment which was definitely meant as an insult but also the fact the system used the phrase "ALL LIFE". This was beyond Deryn's understanding and he didn't feel like wasting time trying to comprehend it.

He began to train his body in an attempt to get used to the increased functions once more. The feeling of everything moving faster, whilst his brain could keep up with it, now made regular movements feel slow in comparison. It was like the world had slowed down to him.

In reality, it was his perception increasing along with his agility and intelligence making it seem like the world around him was slow, whilst he kept a normal speed (to himself anyway). Deryn was just moving and processing information faster than ever before giving him this feeling.

Deryn opened up the world's first tab and looked at the two new achievements.

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Name: Worlds-first Apprentice Mage / Reward: Apprentice tier spell scroll x1, world leaderboard points x20

Name: Worlds-first life weapon / Reward: Soul stone x1, world leaderboard points x20

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Without hesitation Deryn claimed the rewards, gaining double the items from the 2x reward system.

With the bonus of 40 world leaderboard points, Deryn's top spot now seemed unshakable as the second place had only 75 points, whilst Deryn was 60 points ahead of 135 points. It would take someone a small miracle to pass Deryn before the next set of world leaderboard rewards came out, and he looked forward to the rewards he would get next Tuesday, 3 days from now.

His eyes turned towards his inventory where the two sets of items were held. The apprentice tier spell scroll would allow Deryn to instantly learn an apprentice level spell, something he lacked since levelling up his class only increased meditation by a single level yet gave him nothing else.

The two scrolls appeared in his hand and upon sending mana into them a mirage-like image flew out of the scroll. The first image was of an item whizzing around rapidly and upon focusing on it a line of knowledge appeared in his mind.

Telekineses spell; allows the user to send a tendril of mana into an object controlling their momentum and direction. Can only be used in a 20m radius from the user at level 1 and costs 1MP per second of activation. The cost increases with heavier objects and decreases with extremely light objects.

The scroll vanished and Deryn turned his eye to the second mirage. It depicted a man in a red robe, slamming the palm of his hand into the ground, launching a flame geyser 5 metres away. Deryn seemed to feel the heat through the mirage as small beads of sweat appeared on his body. Upon focusing on it another line of knowledge appeared inside his mind.

Raging inferno pillar; allows the user to control fire elements in an area to flow underground under the target location. Upon activation the fire elements will collide with each other, turning into a fiery inferno pillar. Must be used within a 50-metre radius of the user. The more mana that is consumed to fuel the spell the stronger it will be.

The scroll vanished and Deryn closed his eyes to consolidate the newfound knowledge. Opening up his eyes Deryn cast telekinesis on his life weapon. The spear wobbled on the ground before slowly rising as the mana connection was established between it and Deryn.

Due to the weight of the spear, he had to input 3MP/S into controlling the spear. A child a laugh left his lips as the spear rapidly flew through the air near him, stopping and turning at impossible angles. Like any child, he had wished to control things with his mind when he was young and now thanks to this spell had completed his childhood dream.

The spell went perfectly with the skill Deryn learned after promoting to warrior spearmen; warrior's throw. It was a passive skill that gave Deryn the knowledge of how to throw his spear like a javelin, impaling targets far away. The technique was risky as you would be weaponless, yet with telekinesis, as long as he didn't throw the spear too far away, then he could recall the weapon with ease.

He stopped the spell and brought the spear into his inventory. He wanted to try out the raging inferno pillar spell and couldn't do it indoors, for obvious reasons. Deciding to use it in the plains on a target, Deryn searched for something he could test the spell on.

Running around he couldn't find a target after a few minutes. Not wanting to waste any more time he inputted 50 mana points into the spell and decided to use it on a long felled log near the river he saw recently when driving to Chris and co's shelter.

The fire elements followed his will and rushed together underground. The target log was around 40 metres away and the fire elements rushed underneath it. With another mental prod, the 50 mana points used to guide the fire elements corraled them to bump into one another.

*BOOM*

Deryn was momentarily deaf from the explosion as his mouth dropped from the carnage the spell caused. A pillar of fire burst through the earth, a few metres in diameter, sending flaming debris almost 10s of metres in every direction, whilst the pillar of fire, launched itself into the air, reaching 20 metres high. The spell burned there dangerously for a few seconds before the fire elements calmed and drifted away.

With his hearing back, Deryn excitedly walked over the crater which was the ground before stopping abruptly. He hadn't attacked a log.

In the pit lay a giant crocodile, with its face half gone. It wasn't dead however and thrashed around from the pain it must be experiencing from its cooked body and destroyed face.

Upon hearing Deryn the creature lashed out with its tail, giving Deryn only enough time to summon a Mana shield, inputting 25 points of mana for a 250 durability shield. The shield lasted barely for a fraction of a second, instantly popping before the tail, barely losing any momentum, hitting Deryn.

His arms broke almost on impact, as he used them to block the blow before it could reach his chest. The crocodile wasn't much better of from the impact, however. The mana shield popping sent 75 points of damage back to the crocodile and opened up another hole on the writhing creature's face.

Deryn inhaled sharply before slamming his broken arm into the floor, spending 100 points of mana this time on a raging inferno pillar spell. He was flung 5 metres away from the blow and scampered back another 20 metres before ordering his mana to excite the fire elements.

The crocodile seemingly feeling the danger of his position was a little too late to leave the blast radius of the raging inferno pillar spell, which had increased in both size and intensity by double the amount.

Deryn realised he underestimated the power of the spell and going deaf once more managed to summon another mana shield spell with 50 points of mana to block the debris.

After what seemed like an eternity Deryn opened his eyes. The surrounding area seemed to have been hit by an airstrike and Deryn's shield was flickering. It was a dangerous sign that the shield was about to break and he sighed in relief thanking himself for not skimming out on using mana for it.

With his hearing back once more Deryn walked forwards to the now 5m wide pit, spear in hand. The crocodile was there on its last breaths and Deryn couldn't help but feel respect for this unforeseen opponent. It was his fault thinking it was just a log, but Deryn couldn't let this threat live when it was just 10 minutes away from his shelter so had continued attacking to finish the beast off.

After using inspect he found the crocodile was a tier-three beast and upon hearing a suggestion from the system Deryn decided not to finish it off right now. Instead, he took out one of the two soul stones from his inventory before placing it next to his spear.

The spear absorbed the soul stone and Deryn began to sweat more and more from using his two broken arms. He would heal thanks to his monstrous vitality, yet it didn't help the fact the pain he was feeling was eating away at his willpower. The spear finally consumed the soul stone.

Deryn used telekinesis to thrust the spear into the crocodile's head where it sat. After a few moments, the soul stone and spear took effect. The spear ate the remaining scales and bones of the crocodile, whilst the soul stone inside of the spear consumed the spirit and brain of the creature.

After a few agonising minutes, the process was complete. The spear didn't seem to have undergone a change yet upon inspecting it Deryn was pleasantly surprised. He first wanted to get home before looking at the chance, so harvested the remaining meat on the ground and picked up a chest covered in scales before he began the journey home.

Deryn arrived home 7 minutes later and called for Mags before he passed out in front of the gates. He had lost too much blood and the broken arms had begun to heal, making him finally pass out from the combination.

Mags ran over with Kev in tow. She ordered Kev to pick up Deryn as she watched the process with a careful eye. Upon reaching his bedroom, Mags took the staff off of her back, holding it in her right hand whilst her left covered the slime's "eyes" which rested on her head.

A flash of the purest white light with tendrils of green appeared on the tip of her staff as she directed them towards Deryn's broken arms. The arms began to mend themselves at a rate so fast that you could see the bone pieces move to their proper place, fusing once more.

Colour returned to Deryn's face and Mags stopped the spell, swaying slightly as she sat down on Deryn's desk chair. The spell restoration, required the user's utmost mental concentration and a bucket load of mana, making Mags suffer from a huge headache and slight dizziness from the process.

After finding her strength she looked over to see Kev wiping the sweat from Deryn's forehead with a small smile, which seemed like a snarl on her dog-like face. She had sworn her loyalty to this man even after breaking free from the slave contract. He had helped her evolve and for that, he would have her undying loyalty.

She looked at Kev and realised the dumb kobold warrior wouldn't realise he wasn't under a slave contract anymore. "He probably wouldn't act any different," she thought before going to the kitchen.

She was starving and Deryn would be too when he woke up. The restoration took a lot out of the bodies of both the caster and the individual receiving the spell, so nutrients were vital after the spell was used.

An hour later and Deryn sat in the training hall. His arms were healed thanks to Mags and his monstrous vitality stat. He had a hearty meal, listening to the kobold and thanked her for both her help and loyalty. There was no slave effect on Kev and Mags any longer, merely a master-servant bond.

The servant could break the bond should they choose, but both the tier two kobolds had no want to do so. Deryn could apply the slave effect on them once again as the level 4 contract allowed him to but decided not to do so.

Not only would it free up two more slots but it would also be a good test to how loyal the two really are, without their life or death in Deryn's hands at any moment.

Deryn took his spear out of his inventory before looking at the change. With a mental prod, the spear floated onto the ground before him and changed shape rapidly. This was the second form of the spear that Deryn had unlocked and he couldn't wait to see it.

A giant crocodile appeared before him.