Chapter 1 - Explanations
He stayed in his cage, a very comfortable place really. Nearly a kilometer wide with the most luxurious installations and a breathtaking garden, everything he could ever want was there.
It was still a cage.
And so he stayed there floating cross-legged in the air and looking at the 2 meters thick Satayev glass wall, stronger than most metals and actually resistant to his power, it was a new discovery from a Russian scientist and he found it quite annoying.
More annoying than the glass was the man standing on the other side of it.
"It has began" said the president, his voice being transferred by speakers inside the cage.
"Yeah I kind of noticed" he said, his eyes momentary shifting to the small blue window to his side
Congratulation, your telekinesis (string) has leveled up!
Lifting his hand to the side palm up he caught one of the metal exercise machines bolted to the floor, his power manifesting itself as countless invisible strings warping around each other in the form of a giant hand.
Lightly lifting his arm up the invisible hand ripped the machine out of the floor, a simple tug with his index finger pulled it to his side and he started to move his fingers as if crumpling a paper ball, the hand followed suit crushing the machine into an uneven round form, his eyes never left the president's.
"Could you stop that?"
"No"
President Adam sighed, half in sadness half in frustration "You have improved once again."
For the first time Aaron turned his eyes to where the invisible hand was, although he couldn't see it he could fell every string that made it up, it was his pride.
In truth he could only use a certain amount of power in his strings, only slightly above his own arm strength, it had taken him years to learn how to create the complex system of pulleys, levers and wheels from simple strings that would allow him to affect things with several times that strength.
He had spent even more years learning to manifest such system in less than half a day, even now he could only manifest it in any reasonable time in only one size and strength, it still made him extremely powerful and versatile.
"What do you want father?" president Adam turned to one of the guards which brought a chair, a giant TV screen rose from the ground
"We are executing project Ragnarok Aaron, the other 31 are already active"
"That bad huh"
"Worse, despite our ample preparations we are still short on personnel, we lost more than 250 cities that we could confirm while only 68 are fully in our control from which only 16 are big cities, there is a powerful elemental besieged in Texas and the creatures continue to spawn from the portals, only 68% of them are ones we have any prior knowledge about and, sometimes, even that knowledge is flawed".
Aaron had to whistle at the bitter face the president made
"We need you Aaron"
"Why? I am sure you will get all kinds of mages and shit soon enough"
"Yes but what we need are not soldiers, we have enough of those and they are handy alright but we want heroes, powers like yours will certainly have a geometric growth in the system".
Turning back to his father Aaron though about it, all he ever wanted was to leave this damned cage but, he just hated doing what they wanted him to.
"Is mom safe?" He finally asked unable to help himself
"I don't know"
closing his hand into a fist he threw the crumbled machine at the glass wall with all his strength, small cracks spread through a 2 meters wide area, a futile action but satisfying nonetheless
"She was supposed to be safe in England, you promised me even the queen wouldn't be safer!"
"Unfortunately that was before an ancient dragon spawned on England and ate said fucking queen"
Throwing another machine in rage the cracks spread some more but he managed to take a few deep breaths and calm down "And you can't find mom?"
"I'm working on it" they stopped talking then, staring at each other as Aaron recomposed himself.
"Fine"
"What?"
"I said fine I will be your little super soldier… if that dragon killed mom I am gonna have to get stronger to slaughter it"
Adam smiled, relieved at least one thing had worked out in this cursed day.
Adam Ross has invited you to the US army guild
YES / NO
Aaron made his choice.
Congratulations you are now a member of the US army guild
"Now just say 'status' and you will see details about yourself, focus on one and more information will appear"
"Status" Aaron said and showed it to the president with a smirk.
NAME: Aaron Ross
RACE: Human(variant)
TITLES: Calamity child, Codename: Loki
STATUS: Well rested (-10% stamina loss)
LEVEL: 1 HEALTH: 100%
STAMINA: 96% MANA: 638/912
END: 9 DEX: 12
WIS: 7 INT: 9
ABILITIES:
Telekinesis (string) – Beginner level 5
SKILLS: N/A
STR (Strength):
Level of muscle in the body, maximum human level = 10 current level = 8. Incredibly strong
SPD(speed):
level of reaction Speed and fast movement, maximum human level = 10 current level = 8. Incredibly fast
END(endurance)
How much physical trauma a body can take, how much pain one can withstand, how hard it is to hurt, how fast stamina drains, maximum human level=10 current level= 9 Unbelievable though.
WIS(Wisdom):
Capability of making correct decisions based on prior knowledge or infer information from possibilities, maximum human level = 10 current level = 7. Very wise
INT(intelligence):
Capability of remembering, learning or creating information, maximum human level = 10 current level=9. Unbelievable intelligent
DEX(dexterity):
Dictate coordination and the ability to make small, complicate movements , maximum human level = 10 current level=12. Are you even human?
"That's… yeah I think it's time I start working out again."
"Feeling a little inadequate father?" declining to answer the president waved his hand.
A loud buzz sounded and a whole 2 meters wide part of the glass wall started rising, Aaron released the strings forming his invisible chair and let his feet touch the ground once again finally walking out of his cage.
He felt… Free, for the first time in nearly a year he was out of that damned place and soon, hopefully, he would be out of the entire facility. Stretching his arms wide he took off his grey shirt then started taking his pants off as well, frustrated the president protested
"For fuck's sake don't you have any shame?"
"Shame? What's that? I guess I was too busy learning how to kill to be taught about it, damn I want a bath… and those damn grey cloths burned!"
Walking away from the president's side entirely naked he even scratched his but just to piss him off more while a stone faced grunt led him away.
Refreshed and just out of the bath Aaron looked at the tight spandex looking clothes handed to him with a disgust, "You're kidding right?"
The grunt handing him the clothes shook his head "No sir this is the new standart vest for the Einherjar sir"
"Great!" getting inside the whole body spandex he left the bathroom looking like a scuba diver, even his hands and feet were covered, a new grunt lead him into a wide armory it's wall filled with all kinds of guns, armors, swords, bows, etc.
"So you must be Aaron then?" said a woman in medical garb as she adjusted her glasses
"Nope, I am just a grunt looking for the exit"
"Very funny now sit down so we can get you into armor" resigned he sat down as another minion pushed in a cart with metal pieces
"What's that?"
"That is your new armor"
"Cool" Inspecting the loose pieces inside the kart he lifted the front half of the chest part concentrated
Congratulations you have learned the skill
The blue window faded away leaving him with an instinctual understanding of how to use the new skill which he immediately put it to use.
Black specter armor set CLASS: A
DEFENSE:
SLASH: 5 BLUNT: 5
PIERCE: 4 MAGIC: 3
ABILITIES:
Optical camouflage Thermal camouflage
Omni vision (helmet) Aim assist (helmet)
Radio communications
Interesting, lifting the leg pieces he put it on, it covered the whole leg in a mirrored black armor, he put both sides on and the medical woman used a special substance to seal the locks.
"How the hell do I get out of this thing?"
"With enough deformation it will automatically unlock or you can use another compound" the woman said and handed him a small can with a red label.
He quickly finished getting into the armor and looked into a mirror, it looked sleek and deadly, like a futuristic soldier.
In the chest piece there was a neck protector and all parts molded into his body perfectly, it didn't even weight that much
"The armor is made from a new metallic alloy, has a thin film of Satayev glass on the inside and is resistant to all forms of attacks, it's the best we currently have, now, time to get the rest of your gear"
Raven knive set CLASS: A-
ATACK:
SLASH: 5 BLUNT: 1
PIERCE: 6 MAGIC: 0
ABILITIES
+1 SPD
Modern Smith & Yessel Model 97 handgun CLASS: A-
ATACK:
SLASH: 0 BLUNT: 6
PIERCE: 7 MAGIC: 0
ABILITIES
+ 1 STR +1 END
Raven series sword CLASS: A-
ATACK
SLASH: 5 BLUNT: 2
PIERCE: 6 MAGIC: 0
ABILITIES:
+1 SPD +1 STR
UNA med pack CLASS: A-
EFFECT: Increase healing by 500%
HM29 Adapted Rifle CLASS: A-
ATACK:
SLASH: 0 BLUNT: 8
PIERCE: 10 MAGIC: 0
ABILITIES
+1 STR +1 END
After finishing his choice the woman helped him find the places for everything on the armor, the sword and knives were standard gear and had fixed sheaths on the armor, 2 on each arm for throwing knives, 1 in each leg for the longer dagger and one in the back for the sword.
The gun also had a proper place in the hip and there was a small opening to keep items besides the sword sheath where he kept the med pack, as for the rifle, he hang it by a strap around his shoulders.
Picking up the helmet he put it on, it looked like a motorcycle helmet but much slimmer "Great, now that I look like a proper little soldier for you guys, where do I go?"
Another forgettable grunt, or maybe it was the same one he already forgot, lead him away trough the corridors and locked rooms of area 0 until he could finally see the light of the day.
True sunlight spilled from the windows, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the feel of it on his Face for a while until they reached an open hangar with 3 military transport helicopters.
A few of the many man and woman dressed like him looked his way but soon lost interest, looking around he found some people he knew
"Good you're here, it means we can start"With a nod the oldest man there introduced himself "I am John, codename: Balder, this is Yui, codename: Frigg, and Eric, codename Siegfried, I believe you already know Jessica and Garth."
Most just nodded their heads but Eric extended his hand excitedly "Nice to meet you man!"
"Sure whatever" said Aaron as he squeezed the hand half-heartedly and inspected the group.
Jessica was a 28 years old extremely average brunet with a crooked nose, attractive enough but no top model. She could turn her body into steel.
Garth was 32 and an army vet, he was a black, bald man capable of using sonic strikes.
John appeared to be around 50 something, his hair was already white and his face was full of scars, according to him he could hypnotize people.
Yui looked Japanese and could be anything from 30 to 60 years old, she could manipulate fire.
Finally, Eric was what most would consider a hero, tall blonde and with a football player build he could strengthen his body. Aaron immediately disliked him.
"Alright people pay attention!" boomed John and the hundreds of soldiers present became quiet, standing at attention, hands by their sides.
Aaron ignored them and stayed in place relaxed "Very well I believe you are all aware of what happened yesterday afternoon, I will be explaining what we know about it"
"Now all of you Einherjar are not trained to stand in ceremony so I won't, the experts still don't know what caused it but 92 years ago our dimension started to merge with an alien one, hallucinations, visions, dreams and other subconscious messages started becoming more and more common and frequent, 37 years later the first supernatural power was registered and our government invested heavily in finding out what was happening
We discovered several facts, the conjunction of our world with this strange one was deemed unavoidable, unfortunately we also discovered that the more people who knew about it the faster and harder it would come, experts call it the power of faith.
Simply speaking. in this other world belief can and will affect reality and, as it started to merge with our own, belief also started to affect us.
While keeping the event a secret to avoid spreading it our government tried to prepare as best they could, one of those preparations was the 500 of you Einherjar"
A giant projection appeared before them all with a map of the US, it was divided into blue, red and black areas with the red being the dominant color, there were also a few blue and black dots of different sizes blinking the biggest one right in the middle of Texas, six of the small blue ones were blinking in their location, turning to the projection John started pointing.
"As you can see the blue areas are places the US retains complete control at this moment, the black areas are places we have lost completely and the red areas are still being contested, as for as for the blue and black dots, the first are VIP personnel and the latter are dangerous targets, don't mess with the black dots"
John turned back to the soldiers and continued "Now each one of you has received a message with a team number or letter, numbers from 4 to 25 will form 20 man teams to aid the US army while teams Alfa, Beta and Gama will be formed by 22 men, 20 Einherjar and 2 of our very own VIP personnel, those VIP personnel are not your average soldier, they are members of Ragnarok project and those who make it into their 3 teams will find out just what that means.
About this system… utilizing an ability such as shooting or sword fighting for long enough and the system will recognize it, use that ability in a specific way enough times and it becomes a skill, skills can also be learned from books acquired by slaying monsters, we still don't know why they do that by the way.
Last but not least, if you kill enough monsters your level will increase and you will gain a single attribute point which you can freely distribute to increase your attributes without effort"
Finishing his presentation John waited a while until all received their team numbers "Very well people move to your designated exits, your mission briefings will be done on the way we have no time to lose, move, move, MOVE!"
Closing the visor of his helmet Aaron read the blinking notification at the corner of his vision
Team Beta – Helicopter 2
Darting towards the huge military transport helicopter he noticed Eric running by his side a big smile on his face "Oh… great."