The Chase

Rowan had been sitting there for several moments as they both recovered some of their mana while at the same time Rowan let his combat mode retract and was sitting there in the casual form of the storm armament. Feng had pulled something from his inventory that they were both sipping on as they watched the sunrise from the middle of the rubble that was this section of the city now.

The only building for more than a mile that was still standing was Raid Tower. The people from the stadium now had a direct line between the two, with nothing blocking their vision thanks to the two monstrous battles that had taken place here. Rowan took a swig of another liquid that he truly couldn't identify but he did know that it tasted strangely of cotton candy and so he rather enjoyed it. "Tell me about soul afflictions Feng, if possible, I would like to understand more." Feng nodded his head as his twilight armament vanished and he was there in that peculiar uniform once more.

"Soul afflictions are rare conditions that some beings are naturally born with. One of the most common being the battle gene, but understand that I say that rather loosely, because soul afflictions themselves are not common at all." Rowan nodded his head in understanding, and Feng continued. "It is said that there was a time before the system, there are beings at the academy that are older than even the system and they say before the system began to categorize them most people thought that soul afflictions were some type of sickness but instead they are more like inborn traits that are so deeply carved into a person that it goes a long way in deciding what type of person they are going to be. A soul affliction is a guide, but also not, in its truest sense, a soul affliction is the core of a person from the moment they are born. People with the battle gene have no choice but to throw themselves into a fight after fight to feed the gene."

"To ignore the call of battle for someone of the battle gene would cause them to dull like an old blade. Your body degrades before long and some have even been known to die. It is why soul afflictions, while typically boons, can be a double-edged sword to some. What if instead of an assault class you were a healer born with the battle Gene, a healer can not possibly survive the fights required to satiate such an affliction?"

Rowan was about to agree with him, but shook his head instead. "Not to interrupt, but I don't actually think that's true. I don't think the class system is that strict but even if it is, i feel like there is still a route for beings like us even if born a healer." Feng looked at him quizzically. "What makes you say that?"

Rowan shuffled his feet and took a sip from his glass. "Did the system show you a man executing a technique? A man who can annihilate worlds with flicks of his wrist." There was an uncomfortable silence that hung in the air for more than a moment when Feng finally spoke up. "I should have known the system had shown someone else that man other than me. I once brought it up to my master, and he had no clue what I was even talking about. Since you trusted me, I can tell you about my vision first, if that's okay."

Rowan nodded his head. The conversation now having more than his full attention. He had been chasing that slash since the moment he saw it. "When the system first showed me that man, he was not executing some attack like you had seen, but he was creating spells as easily as he was able to breathe. He was able to use the very language of mana itself to modify not only his spells, but himself. The system told me that to escape the shackles of my class, I would need to find a similar path."

"It is why my master keeps taking us out of the academy, despite it being a great place to train even when I'm not fully enrolled. Every time we hear news of a unique cultivation method or anything of the sort, we hop into the spaceship and go to explore and see what is up with it. It has certainly allowed us to fall into more than one trap, but let me get back on topic. He was able to use his flesh to weave these runes as the system called them with ease. It was not until I hit level fifty, though, that the system gave me a quest to start finding my own path through the research of runes. I still have not made a lot of headway in that matter. The progress bar for my quest is at one percent, but I will say that the single percent has allowed my strength to grow exponentially. Most of my current spells are due to that 1 percent."

Rowan nodded his head, "You are right, that is nothing like my vision though it is good to know, and confirms another thing that I was thinking about. My vision showed him in the middle of a battlefield alone, at the time I did not think about it because the slash was all that mattered but I've replayed the scene in my head so often that it's hard to not catch something new each time I do. His body was flashing with something weird that I was not able to truly pay attention to, and may have been your runes. I can write them down for you."

Rowan began drawing images in the dirt for Feng with the tip of his spear while he spoke. "I keep calling it a slash, but the best way to call it would be a quick draw done with a sword. His wrist snapped out, and it was like his blade commanded the world to be silent, so it did. The light from the blade flowed through the air as thin as a piece of paper but as it passed his enemies turned just as silent as the rest of the world and before I knew it, it was like the world suddenly disjointed and their heads fell from their bodies in spurts of blood."

"It did not end there though as he sat there with not a single drop of mana even being exuded from his body; it was like the technique had a mind of its own as the sword light mixed with his enemies' blood and became this beautiful butterfly that went on to devour the rest of the battlefield." It was the single most lethal thing I have ever seen. Nothing that I am capable of can hold a candle to that slash, but I keep chasing it in the hopes that I can. I think the system has given me the tools to create my own skills, and it wants me to do that from now on. I've noticed that skill books are not a reward for me as much."

Rowan was still drawing and Feng was listening, but he also could not peel his eyes away from the images that Rowan was drawing because much to his surprise the progress bar on his quest had been slowly moving upward from the moment that Rowan started to draw. "Now, onto my other hypothesis about the man from these visions and what I have deduced. I think his attunement is special, just like ours, but during the slash I felt like he was just bored. A battle of that level was not even capable of entertaining him, but more so I don't think that he was of the assault class at all. At this point, though, I have only seen three types of classes. I have seen seers, assault, and support."

Feng nodded his head at this, still enthralled by the drawing, as each one fed him a tiny tidbit of knowledge that he did not have before. Feng waved a hand and light mana began to fill his drawing, preserving it for him to look at. It was like a white pen was tracing everything Rowan was doing. Rowan noticed it but kept going. He had been able to recall a lot of these things on the man's body and his mind as well as write them all out for Feng, who had already at this point done so much for him, but Feng picked up where he left off.

"Besides those three classes, there is also range, mage and tank." It's almost like a game if you want to categorize them as simply as possible. Range and tank speak for itself where mage is typically a cross of more than two of the other classes." Rowan didn't know why, but it was like his soul was trying to tell him something important. "I think if he wanted he would be capable of being any of the classes but, I think in an effort to be more focused he had evolved into a mix of all of them while simply being one of them, and if I'm not wrong…"

Feng and Rowan managed to look at each other and say the last part in unison "He's becoming a tank." It was a tiny revelation, but the moment they made it, the system prompted them both at the same time. [Unique Quest: The Chase] [Comment: Those who wish to chase the apex must always have a direction, you have been given a vision of a man who walked on the same path as you now and directly into godhood with his own ability. Walk the path of godhood and chase towards the vision presented towards you.]

[Task; Use the vision to extrapolate a technique or techniques of equal ability as seen in the vision.] Rowan smiled and looked at Feng, who smiled back at him. "Before this moment the quest was just called rune, now it's changed Hahahahahahaha. let us allow us to let this be our second battle then."

Feng got up and dusted himself off before he pulled a badge from his pants. "This is your token to the trial world, hold on to it, you have a year and a half to reach level fifty while at the same time you need to make it to wherever on this planet is connected to the outer world and me and master will pick you up from there, after we leave here we are going to go find it and make sure that not only it's still manned but fully operational before we explore more of this world. Thanks to you, drawing these runes, my quest has gone up to ten percent and all the info is still pouring into my brain, it's like each rune is a vast secret and you drawing it has poured the knowledge right into me. I will need time to digest it, but since you won this first battle, allow me to cheat a little. You probably have a progress bar on your chase quest. When we see each other again, we will decide the victor by whoever is farther. Rowan smiled and stood up and held out his fist to Feng.

"Sounds like a battle worth having, friend." They bumped fists and Rowan was about to walk towards the tower to rest when he remembered they had never finished their initial conversation about soul affliction. Before he could say anything, though, he could hear Feng's fading voice in his ear. 'Don't worry about it. We can learn about it together and more in depth after we both get into the Interstellar Academy." He waved his hand and slowly began to vanish as Rowan stepped into the elevator, finally ready to sleep before he woke up and took a gander at just how much his stats had changed in the past 24 hours.