Chosen Emmanuel, are you okay? Your face is quite pale currently.

I groaned, putting a fist in front of my mouth to hold back a nauseous burp. I leaned back against the side of a building for support. “Uuugh, yeah, I think so. Everything is just a bit…much, right now.”

The moment I set foot outside my house, I’d been able to tell the difference. The sky was spectacularly blue. The fluffy white clouds, lazily drifting through the air, were in a higher definition then I’d ever imagined. I could see every rolling ridge, every stringy wisp. It was gorgeous.

Everything else was not. The tightly packed, ramshackle huts of the Low Fifth were uglier than they’d ever been, every rotten grain and broken board standing out clearly to me, along with every piece of garbage that littered the gravel streets. It was drab. Dreary. Honestly depressing. First few steps out of the door and my neighborhood looked like more of a dump than ever before.

Living here had one benefit though. It was trashy, yes. And yep, I hated how much of a dump it was. But there wasn’t anything important in the slums. It was boring. For the most part, people stayed far away.

No one wants to set up a shop in the Low Fifth. Shit, I wouldn’t. Besides, the gate in and out of Rapella, along with the transport hub needed to move between the different Rings, were both located in the north-most part of the Ring. So that was where everyone built anyway, eager to reap the wallets of everyone heading in and out of the city.

After about an hour of walking, I finally made it out of the slums and into the actual Fifth itself.

The buildings began to get a little nicer, upgrading from shacks to actual, honest to goodness houses. They weren’t fancy, but most of them were in just fine condition. Intact windows, fresh(ish) coats of paint. Stores had real signs and labels, instead of just a piece of wood with the name hammered to the wall.

I had to start pushing my way through the bustling streets, packed with people, animals, and their various cargo. Many were Mundane, their rough clothes and worn expressions clear. There were masses of low level Blessed adventurers on their way out of the city. Even a few beastkin (Any of the many various types of animal person) roaming around.

Street vendors hawked wares of all kinds, every single one of them at the top of their goddamn lungs. Char roasted rat on a stick. Grilled flank of…something. Concoctions promising enhanced sexual prowess. Herbs to make you poop. Herbs to stop you from pooping.

Beautiful.

Oh, and of course all of the fucking animals. Horses. Mules. Goats. Cows. Chickens. Hundreds of roaming dogs and cats. Droppings everywhere. How did this many animals begin living on the street anyway?

The smell is what really killed me. Especially the people. The throngs of people swarmed around me, the stench of sweat, filth, and shit mingling together, cooking under Novas’s high-noon might. It all combined into an absolutely noxious miasma that assaulted my nose. The sounds blended into a cacophonous racket that beat thunder on my ear drums.

It was too much, and after holding on for about thirty minutes, I’d pulled off the main street and into an alleyway.

And so here we were, me doing my best not to throw up.

“Uggh, does this happen to a lot of people after their Blessing?”

Syscile bobbed once. Sometimes to the stronger ones, yes. It is a side effect of having your perceptions increased so much. As an S rank the difference is more than significant. With all of the stimuli out here it does make sense. Rest a little while, and it should pass.

I nodded, sitting down against the side of the shop. It helped. The shade of the alleyway felt nice, and it soothed away some of the wooziness I was feeling. I closed my eyes, allowing the flood of smells and sounds to flow through me, setting my brain to separating all the parts of the miasmic soup into their base forms.

It took about five minutes to work through, but it worked a lot better than I thought it would, and my stomach settled completely. When I was finished, there two soft *ding!*s. Each was accompanied by a notice and Syscile’s cool voice.

[New Active Ability Acquired!: Meditation Lvl 1. Meditation uses the inherent power of your mind to balance your body and mana, bringing them more in line with each other. Cost: Nothing but time. Effect: A focused mind is a strong mind. A balanced body is a healthy body. For every five minutes of meditation, gain a +0.5% additive bonus to Health, Mana, and regeneration, a +5% additive bonus to buff length, and a +5% decrease in debuff length. Effect lasts for 2.0(x) where x is length of meditation.]

[New skill acquired! Minor Skill: Meditation Lvl 1 (Subsidiary of Inner Will Major Skill). The art of active concentration, focus, and inner calm. Lifelong practitioners swear by it. Provides a 1% additive bonus to the effects of meditating. Higher levels may unlock new methods of meditation.]

Holy hell, that’s awesome! I’d have never thought to go for ‘Meditation’ on my own (cause it was boring), but this actually sounded like it’d be super useful.

I opened my eyes, smiling widely and ready to go. Looking to the side, back to the main street, I watched the horde of bodies moving right on past me, oblivious that I was even here.

Except, they weren’t. A few- no, a lot of people were staring dead at me as they walked by.

Why?

It didn’t take long for an explanation to present itself, as I saw a man peel off from the main pack and beeline straight for me. He was tall, and lithe, slinking towards me like a stray alley cat. He wore a black leather coat with long rope tassels, a large deep-rimmed hat, tight leather pants that creaked with every step, and tall thigh high boots that jangled with metal.

His skin was scarred with numerous small, rough cuts, like they'd been made with a serrated dagger. Thin lips pulled into a perverse jester’s smile, the kind you just knew was hiding something. But his eyes were the worst. They sunk deep into his face, sparkling with hot greed. I knew that look.

The guy’s outfit screamed trouble. His face screamed fucking psychopath.

I immediately used Examine, pushing five mana (However much that actually was) through my eyes and scanning this scary son-of-a-bitch.

Examine Partially Successful.

———————————————————————————

Name: Slade Haggerd

Race: Human (Terralanian: Green Hill Zone)

Level: Eight (Tier One)

HP: 616/616

MP: 550/550

Shadow: 0/100

STR: 31

CON: 25

BDY: 56

INT: 26

WIS: 24

MND: 50

DEX: 33

PER: 35

SNK: 68

[Total Atk:?? Total Def:??]

Blessing Name: Soft Shadows

Grade: B-

Type: (Rogue; Stealth Offensive)

Description: Allows the user to wear a thin cloak of soft, malleable shadow. Shadow must first be gathered by using stealth abilities.

Active Abilities

-Active Stealth Lvl 3: Use mana to moderately suppress all sounds that the user makes, as well as slightly distort the image of the user that other individuals see. Cost: 3 MP/sec.

-Shadow Storage Lvl 3: While in the cool embrace of the shadows, siphon some away for personal use. Cost: 10 MP/sec. Shadow is siphoned and stored at a rate of 1.5 Shadow/sec.

-Shadow Blade Lvl 4: Use personal shadow to coat a small blade in the chilling touch of darkness. Cost: 25 MP. Effect: All attacks with weapon do an extra 17.5% Darkness damage. Attacks apply 8.5% progress towards ‘Dark Chill’ debuff.

-Ability Hidden due to level difference and low level of Examine skill.

-Ability Hidden due to level difference and low level of Examine skill.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

It all clicked together as I looked over Slade’s sheet, Syscile’s professional voice reading it in my head. Trying to keep Slade in my vision, I turned my head ever so slightly to look at Syscile out of my periphery. The royally golden book floated right there, just sitting next to my shoulder, looking to all the world like a million gold pay day. ‘Come and get me and you’ll be super crazy rich! And all you have to do is merc this shitty level one brat!’

Not to mention the fact it literally said “CHOSEN” on the cover.

Goddamn it. How the fuck did I not think about that!? King Sam explicitly said to avoid drawing too much attention.

I am terribly sorry, Chosen Emmanuel. That is one hundred percent my fault. As your Guide, it is my responsibility to catch mistakes like that before they can become a problem.

Wait a second……how the hell did everyone the big ‘Chosen’? It’s right there on the front.

As we are soul-bound, with no one able to read my pages except for you, so too are they incapable of reading the cover. The flying and being gold are still readily apparent, as evidenced.

‘Kay. Well. At least there’s that, I guess. I don’t blame you Syscile, we’re both responsible. Let’s just handle this guy, and then we can solve the appearance issue.

I pushed myself up off the ground and away from the alley wall, standing to face the man approaching me. I glared at him angrily. “That’s far enough Slade. I’d prefer if you kept your distance, please.”

To my surprise, he actually did stop, all the metal on his boots jangling. With a dark chuckle, he pushed up on the brim of his hat, fixing me with his full gaze. His jester smile peeled apart, revealing perfectly pristine white teeth, whiter than any fresh snow. Eerily white, like he fuckin painted them.

“Now, ain’t that somethin’.” Raspy, with a slight trill of excitement. “You managed to Examine me without even opening your big fancy book? Throws off my plan a little bit though, seein' as you have the upper hand on me. I was expecting to introduce myself, you introduce yourself, know how that works? I mean, I didn’t Examine you, after all, and I certainly could have before you noticed. You know its rude to do that without askin’, don’t you?”

I shook my head. “Nope, sorry. Brand new to this whole thing. Still just level one, as a matter of fact.”

Slade’s cheeks twitched upward for just a moment before he got it under control.

Then something weird happened. His image blurred slightly, and it felt harder to look at him, my eyes wanting to glaze over that spot even though I knew full well he was there. Ah, so that’s ‘Active Stealth?’ I don’t know what he’s about to do, but he’s obviously planning something.

“I figured as much. No offense kid, but you definitely look the part. Its why I came over here. I’d like to make you an offer. A trade. Could be very useful for a newbie like you.”

I nodded my head, tempering my glare to appear at least a little more negotionable. “I’m willing to do business if you make it worth my while.”

Under the facade, I was freaking out, and sent a thought to Syscile, counting on it to go through.

Hey Syscile, you can hear me, right?

Of course. It would be silly if you had to speak verbally to me. What an inconvenience.

Yeah yeah. So, seems like this guy is about to try and kill me to kidnap you. Any plans for that to not happen?

Slade, unbelievably, smiled even wider. I swear his blinding white teeth took up sixty percent of his face. His hands swept out in front of him, and he took a step forward. “Wonderful. I’m happy you’re reasonable. So many people aren’t. Now, I don’t like to make assumptions about people, but I’m going to go ahead and make one here. That is a mighty fancy looking Journal. Huge, golden, flies?”

His eyebrows rose incredulously at me, a slight shake of his head. “Talk about over the top. So, and please correct me if I’m wrong—I hate being wrong— I believe you’re the son of a noble family. You certainly talk like one. No respect.”

“Hah!” I barked out a laugh. Slade’s face darkened for a second, but I played it off, raising my hands in surrender. “Yep, you got it in one.” His smile came right back, and he clapped his hands together.

[Minor Skill Increase: Persuasion Level 1->2]

“Excellent! Now how about-”

Syscile’s voice came through my head, sounding completely unperturbed by the whole situation. Chosen Emmanuel, I believe there is no reason for you to be nervous about this situation. He may out-level you, but with a little bit of care and proper use of their abilities, a Chosen should be able to defeat any foe within the same Tier. In your case, His Majesty even set you up to be able to fight outside of your Tier.

I blinked, shocked, Syscile’s statement making me totally miss whatever crazy bullshit Slade was saying. Fight outside my Tier? No, that was crazy. That was the entire point of it even being a separate Tier! To signify the complete disparity of power!

You’ve got to be kidding me, right Syscile?

Syscile turned slightly towards me. I don’t know how a book radiates slight condescension, but she did. I do not kid. I believe that His Majesty would be disappointed in you for even having these nervous thoughts. He made you Chosen because of your willingness to get in there and fight. Now, get in there and fight!

Ouch! Now that hurt, Syscile’s barb lashing me right across my face. She was right though. So what if he outlevelled me? Oh no! Not like the odds hadn't been stacked against me my entire life anyway. And yeah, as the Chosen, I'm sure the odds weren't nearly as bad as my instincts wanted to jump to.

It felt like a huge weight I hadn’t even known about was just lifted off of my shoulders. I let out a deep laugh, cutting Slade off in the middle of a sentence.

His face screwed up in an angry grimace. “Did I say something funny? I would love to be in on the joke.” He took another step forward, fully entering the shade of the alleyway. Slow, flowing sheets of shadow began to stream into his feet.

I waved him off with my right hand, shaking my head. “No, I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you. I was just talking with my big fancy book about what I should do, and she said something pretty funny.”

Slade ground his creepy white teeth together, producing a grating sound that made me wince. “Oh really? So you just ignored all of what I said then?”

I shrugged, and gave him a shit eating grin. “Maybe. Would you mind repeating it?”

The rough, black clad man growled at me, pulling a knife from his back pocket. It was about seven inches long, with cruel serrations along the edge. Aha! Finally dropping the pretense. About time. “Give me the book, you cocky little prick, and I’ll kill you. Nice and quick.”

That made me scratch my chin. “Good rhyme, but isn’t that supposed to be ‘Give me the book, OR I’ll kill you nice and quick’?”

Like flipping a switch, Slade’s face immediately changed from rage back to manic happiness. “Oh no, no no. If you don’t give me the book, I’ll kill you slow. Slow and painful. Best give me the book so it’s quick and painless, see?”

“Ah. Okay. Yeah, you seem like the kinda guy who’d really enjoy that. Unfortunately,” I looked sad and shook my head at him, “If you’re gonna kill me anyway, I have to try and put up a fight. Sorry about that.”

Syscile chimed in. Much better. Would you like damage notifications and formulas to be turned on? Also, I will be adding a bar for HP, and MP in the top left of your vision.

Yes, no, and thank you.

Three bars popped up into my vision, one red, one blue. The red bar was for HP and read 350/350. The blue, of course, was for MP, and currently sitting at 750/750.

I reached my hands behind my back, slipping them into my gauntlets. With a sharp tug I pulled them out of the clip and brought them back in front of me, securing the wrist buckles as I did.

Slade stared openly at me in amusement. His smile turned into a smug, condescending grin. “You gonna try and punch me? Come on, haven’t you ever heard about bringing your fists to a knife fight?” He gave me a cruel laugh as he lifted his knife, holding it straight out in front of him.

Liquid shadow appeared, crawling over Slade’s shoulder. It flowed down his arm and onto the knife, gathering onto the blade like dripping ink. The darkness was extra concentrated at the end of the dagger, the shadows solidifying into an extension of the weapon, adding another three inches onto the blade’s length.

He waved the newly enhanced weapon in front of his face. “See? Mighty fine knife too, if I do say so myself. You know, I’m gonna feel a little bad about filleting a kid with no weapon. That’s just unfair to you, and I apologize.” He gave me a mock bow.

I just laughed at him, hitting my fists together to make sure my gauntlets were fitted properly. “Don’t worry Slade, I’ve got one right here.”

I raised my left hand to shoulder height, palm down. With just a bit of focus, and a flex of will, I activated [Create Chain]. Mana flowed down my arm, the lightning scars coming to life once more, and into my hand. A crackling orb of electric mana appeared under my gauntleted palm.

Just like the description said, a dark grey iron chain began to spool out of the crackling orb, one link at a time. The process was surprisingly easy, and all I had to do was push more mana down into my hand to continue creating more chain. Ten seconds later I reached the maximum length of five feet and I turned my hand to clutch the end of the new chain as gravity took hold of it.

Oh. Hell. Yes. It didn’t even take any MP! Create Chain only cost 5MP/sec, and my mana regeneration was triple that.

I beamed at Slade as I coiled the chain around my left hand, adding another layer of metal on top of the rough gauntlet. I squared up after that, settling into my usual boxing stance. “See? Ready to go.”

He raised his eyebrows and nodded, actually looking a little impressed. “Huh. Well, you’ve got me there. Thanks for that.” Slade brandished his shadow blade menacingly, stepping forward again, then crouching into a ready pose. “Now when I gut you I won’t feel so bad about it.”

I looked at him seriously, dropping the smile off my face. The time for banter was over. We both knew it. I tensed my body, concentrating on the chain link in my heart. This was going to be the first time I use [Lightning In a Bottle], and I had to be ready for however that would effect me.

Something I’d learned a long time ago was that the very first move was the most important one. If you control the pace of the first step, you control the pace of the whole dance, you feel?

So I had a tried and trued method for always setting the pace. A good taunt, delivered in the form of an if-then statement.

“Yeah, uh-huh. Let me warn you Slade. If you take another step forward, then I’m gonna knock your fucking block off, you dirty-lookin, clown-smilin, big hat wearin’ piece of shit!”

You see? If, then. I give him the option, but of course we both know its not really an option. If he wants to get to me, he has to step forward. So either he gets mad and steps forward, intent on ending my life. Or, he steps forward as a show of machismo that he isn’t taking me seriously.

Slade pig-snorted a laugh. Gross. “Hah! Is that so? Well alright then, let’s see it.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me and took an exaggerated, over-extended step forward.

Hook, line, sinker. God, its so easy.

The moment his foot hit the ground, I pushed with everything I had inside me, instantly burning one hundred mana (Again, not sure how much that is, seems like a lot) and activating [Lightning In a Bottle].

MP: 650/750

STR: 18->36

AGI: 21->42(1.1)=46.2

RCT: 21->42(1.1)=46.2

SPD: 92.4(1.1)= 102

The chain link burst with lightning, my heart pumping at double time, pushing the lightning through my veins. Power coursed through my entire body like a raging river, inundating my muscles with electricity, immense strength welling up inside me. My brain fired at lightning speed as energy surged through it like a network of live wires.

Every single lightning scar on my body lit up with a bright yellow light, glowing against the shade of the dark alleyway. Time itself seemed to slow as I watched Slade’s face morph into a look of genuine shock. Yeah, bet you weren’t expecting that, asshole.

Damage over Time (DoT)=5HP/sec

As amazing as this kind of power was (And let me tell you, it was awwwwesome), it had its downside. With only three hundred fifty max hit points, five a second wasn’t something to sneeze at. Even though it had only been one full second, I could already feel the damage that this ability inflicted on me. My entire body burned with the power of lightning, literally. My blood was raging hot, almost boiling. Muscles were breaking down, bit by bit, from the overload of power.

HP:345/350

Slade began to reposition himself into a fighting pose, caught off-guard from his exaggerated step. It was like he was moving through water. Beautiful.

But I wasn’t done yet. [Lightning In a Bottle] could be stacked twice. So of course that’s what I did, burning another hundred mana without a second thought.

MP: 580/750

STR: 36->54

AGI: 42->63(1.1)=69

RCT: 42->63(1.1)=69

SPD: 138(1.1)=151

If using it once caused a ‘burst’ of lightning, it was safe to say that using it twice caused my heart to explode into lightning. A ludicrous amount of mana began pumping out of my heart, the raging river evolving into a torrential flood. Everything was on a whole other level. The scars on my body began to crackle and spark, thin strands of lightning running all over my skin. I twitched with potential energy, just waiting to unleash it in one decisive moment.

HP:335/350

Another second passed. The damage only intensified with the second stack. My blood was literally boiling now, churning and frothing like the great seas of Hydrontis. Muscle fibers frayed, snapped, then burned away. At the rate this power tore me apart, I could use it for a little over thirty seconds, and then it would kill me.

But was I worried? No. Hell no. This was amazing. Better than amazing. The rush of my stats rocketing up so quickly was absolute euphoria. I felt like I was made of adrenaline. Hell, the burning felt good. Like the middle of an hour deep workout, where your body practically screams at you to stop, but your brain feels way too good to listen.

“Are you ready Slade? Here I come.” My voice had a deep rumble to it, like the echoing thunder following lightning.

His eyes widened in slow motion as he began bringing his shadow coated knife up defensively.

I didn’t wait for a reply. I didn’t need one. I buried my head behind my hands, turtle style, then dashed forward, bounding off of the gritty alley floor and crossing the distance over to Slade in an eye-blink. He’d barely gotten the dark knife back up to arm level.

I twisted my hips and threw a vicious left hook, metal fist slamming into Slade’s exposed, stubbly chin. There was a soft *crick!*

[Direct Hit! Critical! You have struck Slade Haggerd in the jaw with -Punch-, dealing 47 points of damage. Critical jaw blow inflicts stun! Jagged Knuckles inflict 2 points of bleed. Remaining HP: 569/616 ]

HP: 325/350

Slade reeled backwards, planting his foot to steady himself. His hands crept to the sides of his head, where they held him while he was in his daze. His lip was cut from the jagged barbs on my fist, a droplet of blood beginning to ooze out.

My lips pulled back in a savage grin. That was a normal punch. Against an opponent who was almost on the other side of the Tier 1 spectrum. My intent hadn’t even been to really damage him, just open him up, which had worked beautifully.

Which meant this next hit was going to really, really hurt.

I dug in deep, pulling up as close to Slade as I could get. It was time to give him his medicine, with one of my personal favorite punches. The liver shot.

HP: 315/350

I drew my arm back, pulling it and my entire body into a deep, low arc. With a single thought, I activated both [Spark Jab] and [Maximum Overcharge], spending the maximum limit of 90 MP in order to triple the damage of [Spark Jab]. Without the insane MP Regen that King Sam just seemed to program into my Blessing, I would have never been able to keep up with the cost.

MP: 520/750

My left fist, gauntlet, and chain were set ablaze with a cloud of crackling lightning. I roared, bracing my body with all the force my legs were worth. I swooped up from my arc, blasting forward and driving a shovel punch up and into Slade’s liver with every ounce of my body weight behind it.

HP: 305/350

The lightning dove from my fist and deep into Slade’s body, zapping everything near the point of contact. The stench of burning hair filled my nose.

There was a lot of crunching. Some of his ribs. About half of my arm. The pain was there, but distant, suppressed under everything that Lightning in a Bottle made me feel. The force of my hit was enough to hurl Slade into the alley wall. He crashed with a hard thud.

[Critical! Vulnerable! You have struck Slade Haggerd in his squishy liver with -Spark Jab-, even though that was definitely not a jab, dealing 342 physical damage and 51 lightning damage for a total of 393 damage. Remaining HP: 172/616]

[Spark Jab inflicts 20 points of recoil damage on you. HP: 285/350]

Thick blood sprayed out of Slade’s mouth. I watched as he collapsed to the ground, twitching.

[Crushing Blow! By dealing more than 25% of a targets maximum health in a single blow to a vulnerable body part, you have destroyed that body part. You have destroyed; Liver. Slade Haggerd is now suffering from Bleed Out Lvl 1. Bleed Out Lvl 1: 5 damage a second until stabilized by recovering to at least 50% of maximum health or death. Time until death: 34 seconds.]

Ooooh no.