Ascension Quest

Rowan expected to wait in a large amount of pain, but it would be several hours before he woke and Camille and the child were sleeping nearby, huddled together. Rowan stood up in perfect silence and realized that he felt even better than he did previously. He unwrapped the bandages on his hands to see them fine and the skin healthy and soft.

He twisted his upper body to stretch and a series of popping noises rang out from his bones. If he was able to use internal vision, then he would see the cyan mana that was running along his insides slowly strengthening his body and cleansing it of its impurities, which naturally kept a mana user's mana space blocked from growing.

He walked slowly, feeling the new strength in his body as he made his way to the collapsed bleachers. Rowan had realized that along with gaining the mana from foes defeated, they could also drop items like the stones that he could not identify yet. Rowan began clearing out the debris and finally found the body. Rowan had realized during the clearing process that the long benches were as light as normal planks to him at this point. He also ignored the glowing exclamation point that floated just out of his vision, which was the system begging him to turn in his quest.

He flipped the zombie over and looked into its still wide eyes as he recalled the battle that had taken place here and smiled over his victory. He had really faced such a creature and came out of the battle alive. If someone had told him that he would be doing this a week ago he would have assumed the person was crazy and walked away based solely on the principle that it could not be real.

Now it seemed that this was his new life, and truthfully there was something in him that felt excitement at what came nice, the exact excitement that he had been looking for. Rowan looked down and saw a small book that looked like a journal as well as a much larger stone than the one he had found before and a single dagger.

He picked up the stone and pocketed it, the information on it, still showing as the other one in his pocket [???]. Rowan picked up the dagger and was delighted that it actually showed him the information for it. [Simple Dagger]. The information panned downwards, and it got to a comment section [A trash weapon. Replace post haste to avoid being seen as a joke.] Rowan's jaw dropped for a moment as his excitement over the weapon dimmed with the system's barbed comment.

The small journal also had system information pop up when he looked at it. [Active skill: Earthen spike.] Rowan was about to get excited when it scrolled down and once again, he felt like the system had stomped on his excitement. [Not compatible with the user's attunement.] Rowan gritted his teeth and shoved it in his back pocket.

When one of the girls woke up, he would see if either of them could make use of it. Rowan sighed and finally moved his vision to the exclamation point at the corner of his vision, which dragged it to the front of his vision. Golden Letters burst across his vision [Congratulations! Distributing Rewards.] The death of the lvl ten zombie had pushed him from lvl three to lvl five while the reward added two more and pushed his own stats to a staggering new point.

Name:Rowan Raid

Title: Silent Surgeon

Level:7

Race: Human

Bloodline: Dormant

Exp:0/70

Class: None

Attunement: Storm

Strength:50

Agility:50

Mind:41

Luck:20

Skill Points: 28

Passive Skills:

Silent Surgeon Lvl 1 (+10% Hand speed and Mind when Not Speaking)

Early Bird (+50% drop rate until full system awakens for all humans in 12:00 +5 luck permanent)

Tier Zero Soul Lvl 1 (Heavenly Gifted +5 to all stats on a level up +5 skill points on level)

Update: New active skills unlocked!

Cut Lvl 1

Stab Lvl 1

Rowan was going to save the skill points once again until he ran into a situation that called for it just like the Cannibalistic Zombie he had just needed to defeat. Rowan was thinking of that when what looked like two wrapped gifts sprang into existence in front of him. One was white and wrapped with a red bow and the other was black while wrapped with a blue bow. He moved the stuff to a more clear area while he sat down on the floor and inspected the two boxes in front of him. He picked the white box first.

[Passive Skill Box] Rowan let it scroll to see what deemed this as a reward since he had just learned that he would not be able to use all skills that the system made available. The further information scrolled by in the next instant. [A passive skill that is useful for the user….Of course a quest reward would be useful as if you have not played a video game, shame on the host.]

Rowan froze for a second. Had the system just reprimanded him for thinking it was going to give him a dud for a reward. He froze for a moment and remembered the butler that appeared at the end of his dream. He shook the thought away that man seemed too poised to be the system. He moved on as he began to unwrap the other box. Rainbow light began to spill from the box and a booklet, much like the one in his back pocket, floated up. He took the book in his hands and the information floated up in spectacular fashion as the lettering on the system appeared golden.

[Mana Body Lvl 1] The further information then slowly scrolled up in the same gold lettering. [A technique created by the king's mother for beings to use mana to naturally increase their prowess and awaken their bloodlines. Lvl 1 grants the user an increase in agility and strength based on 20% of the mind stat. Upon first activation, it will attempt to awaken the host's bloodline, but the host may be required to find the other levels of the skill to fully awaken bloodline depending on bloodline strength.]

Rowan's jaw dropped by the time he saw all the information. What the hell was this broken skill but also who the hell was the king's mother that she could create such a broken skill? A message popped up, following his shock. [Would you like to learn the skill?] A panel opened with a yes or no, but Rowan simply put the book down next to him and the screen went away. He opened the second box and waited for the light to fade while another booklet floated up.

[Storm Steps] [An introductory movement technique to apply mana to the feet to better maneuver on the battlefield can be evolved through continuous use and the innovation of the user. Drains one mana point per second.] Rowan was about to get angry since he had not unlocked mana yet when he looked at his mind stat and the mana body technique. He looked at his mind stat and his remaining skill points and thought about his original plan to save the points. He thought of something his mother and father used to say to him and took a deep breath. "No risk and no reward, isn't that right?"

He put nine of the points into mind, making it equal with his other stats when cyan mist began to whirl around the room now visible to the eye. It began to flow towards his body in rapid fashion when a message from the system popped into his vision. [Active skill meditation unlocked. Host can enter a meditative state to gather mana towards him, can currently be used for basic mana applications after enough is gathered.

Mana gathered without a mana space is automatically used to cleanse the body of impurities until a mana space is opened. Rowan was about to sulk that he did not have enough points to achieve, opening his mana space when another urgent quest flashed across his eyes. [Urgent Quest! Ascension! The user has defeated the zombies and surpassed his peers, but he must go further! Reach 60 mind and achieve rank 2 and open a mana space before the level ten requirement due to stats surpassing the limit of a rank one existence thanks to the tier zero soul. Comment: See heavenly gifted. Reward: Simple dagger.]

Rowan was ready to complain in his mind again since this would cost him ten skill points when he realized the system was helping him develop with the quest and the reward was just for show. The quest had delivered the information he needed the moment he needed it, and he should be thankful. He nodded his head to no one in particular and put ten of his skill points into the mind stat.

His eyes began to glow cyan and pain wracked his body worse than being punched by the zombie earlier. Black ooze began to ooze from his pores en masse and before he knew it, he felt something inside of him growing. The pain continued as he clawed at the ground, but kept his mouth shut to not wake the two people still with him. He almost passed out from the pain when he steadied himself and the pain began to fade. He could now see inside of him an orb made of rainbow crystal had grown inside of his chest directly next to his heart.

If it were to be dug out of his body, it would be no bigger than an apple, but for some reason he could tell that it was capable of holding much greater quantities than even he imagined. All the cyan mist whirled through the room and got so thick that he could no longer even see the stage that the girls lay asleep on.

It swirled through the air and into the crystal in his chest. It was another ten minutes before the room was clear again and he stopped absorbing mana, but he had only filled his mana space by about ten percent. [Quest complete!] A simple dagger that matched the one he grabbed earlier fell into his lap. Rowan looked at the disgusting black goo that his body had released and knew that this auditorium was a repurposed gym. He was getting ready to go shower when the system flashed another message.

[Advising host to use the skill books first. Host should always do his best to be prepared in the apocalypse before thinking of pleasantries like a shower.] Rowan sulked and sat back down in his own filth as he muttered out loud, "Sorry if I wanted to get clean. This is absolutely disgusting."

Rowan kept himself from freaking out and picked up storm steps first and the message popped up once again. He selected yes, which caused a three second counter to count down before the booklet broke down into particles of light and flowed into his mind. He now instinctively knew how to use the skill in a matter of moments. He picked up the mana body book and repeated the process when he was immediately wracked with pain hundreds of times worse than the opening of his mana space. He dug his nails into his palms, which drew blood rather quickly.

He grabbed a piece of flooring that had been broken by his body and was not stained with the goo from earlier and bit down to stop himself from screaming. A cyan orb slowly began to wrap around his body as he slowly fell unconscious, while the orb slowly pulsed to the same steady rhythm of Rowan's heart. The last thing he thought before passing out was "You stupid system you tricked me into this death like pain." Rowan thought that would be the end of it but the system made sure it had the last laugh. [No risk. No reward =)] Rowan could only remember the feeling of rage that bubbled inside of him as he saw that last message and passed out.