Darkness was soon to follow upon the land when both Golliath and bat returned to the physical world. The former had finished digesting the words the dark skinned Humans had spoken about, whereas the latter squeaked with concealed unhappiness as his attention drifted away from her. However, they needed to leave due to the ruination of the caravan before them. Though not from any creatures of a scavenger nature, but those who had more intelligence than desiring food and treasure.

“Let us leave this place, Little Mother,” his voice soothing and tired as he lifted his staff, “The only way home is to slay the Demon Lord of this world, and I would rather not spend another second in such a hostile land.” To which he sighed just as the little bat scurried under his hair with nary a squeak, whereas he took up the runner's pose and incanted, “.”

Once more, red energies wrapped themselves around his legs and feet, bolstering their ability to push his body forward, and would stay there until dismissed. After which he moved with the staff point in front of him, racing over the dunes which sprang up in front of his eyes, or moving around them if they posed the threat of him sliding downwards.

After the third large dune proved to be too much of a hassle, Karastak's body bent low as he spoke aloud, “,” and once more leapt into the air.

*

Several hours later, and half a dozen insects being digested by the little Devourer Demon, the pair noted something sticking out of the sand off into the distance. Coming to a halt atop a large dune, the giant scratched the side his head with some confusion. For this was the first structure they had found, and had a few lights blinking inside it.

This was not in his path to remove himself from the desert, but towards the northeast. Not only this, but he felt Little Mother tap his head and point of to it. It appeared to himself that such a place peaked her interest as well. Therefore, he shrugged and decided to move closer to it, putting his desire to remove himself from the desert on hold.

Within moments the pair saw that it was a single tower which was lying in the sand, its top section had broken off and held the appearance of a long dead beacon, but where were the lights? For such twinkling beacons had vanished once he was within a hundred metres of the structure. So perhaps someone was living within it and noted his stature dashing towards the fallen beacon in the sand. Or maybe they were never there in the first place; ghosts of a long dead era which signaled to the living that they were here first.

Regardless, Karastak moved carefully towards a pair of double doors which were on its side. There wasn't another way into it, that he could see, and did not wish to wait for the sun to climb to its throne and beat down upon the land as a tyrant was want to do with their subjects. This meant he would need to use his strength to open the doors, but how? He did not know how strong he actually was, despite the bulging muscles upon his body, and there was no way to access his status menu... or was there?

Frowning with contemplation, he failed to notice the dozens of pairs of little eyes staring down upon him. Nor did his own spy the glinting metal in hidden torchlight whilst their wielders grinned at the possible meal before them. However, a few squawked as the giant called upon his energies with, “

“!”

*****

“[WARNING! WARNING!]” howled Azazel's System within her white Void Space, awakening her from a stupor, “[ACCESS TO KARASTAK'S STATUS MENU HAS BEEN COMPROMISED! WARNING! WARNING!]”

“WHAT?!” her eyes grew wide as she heard this, and quickly summoned up a screen, only to watch as Karastak's status began to leak away, leaving only a grey imprint of where they were, “What the absolute FUCK is going on?

“Command! What is going on?!”

“[ERROR UNKNOWN!]” it howled back at her, shrieking as though something was tearing it apart, “[UNKNOWN ACCESS LOCATED! LOCATION: AZZARATH!]”

“What the fuck did you do, Karastak!?”

*****

Karastak

{Race: Goliath (Vampire; Energy)}

{Age: 25}

{Level: 19} {STR: 30; DEX: 30; CON: 32; INT:43; WIS: 46; CHA: 40}

{Health: 164/164} {Mana: 180/180}

{Class: Enchanter} {Subclass: Wordsmith}

{Skills: ;

Heal; Regeneration; Earthen Grasp; Fleet of Foot; Fireball; Lightning Bolt; Leap of Faith>;

; ; ; ;

}

{Passive Skills: ; ; ; ; }

{Titles: Immovable Object; One Who Seeks Knowledge; Vampire Lord; Soul Bound}

{Titles Equipped: Soul Bound}

“Woah,” he stared with widened eyes as a Status Menu appeared before his eyes, and couldn't form another thought for a time, “Is this... mine?” His body fell upon his rear end, eyes never straying from the menu which appeared before his very being.

“It's a bit long... am I even allowed to change it, I wonder? Maybe even shrink it down to a more pocket size so that I don't have to see everything all at once? Because I have a feeling I'll be gaining a lot more skills and spells soon enough. So maybe-”

“SQUEAK!” Little Mother's voice cut through his thoughts as she buzzed around his face. Once she had his attention, her bat-like body pointed off to the right, revealing dozens of black skinned Goblins wielding a broken assortment of weapons.

All of them were creeping close to the distracted giant, of whom quickly shook off his stupor, and swiped away the menu so that he may stand tall and not be impeded by its sight. “Oh goody,” he grinned, and grabbed his staff as he stood tall once more, “I was wondering if someone lived here. So, Little Mother,” his eyes drifted towards his pet and minion as she alighted herself upon his shoulder, “are you still hungry, or should I just blow them all away?”

Karastak grinned as she gave him her gaze of, “I can has food, please?” once more before the world around them erupted into crimson lights and the screams of the dying as he let loose a cry of, “!”

*

“Hmm,” he hummed softly, staring at his Status Menu as Little Mother chased around the remnants of the Goblins who dared to strike out against him, “Perhaps having a Health and Mana bar in my peripheral would be better than having it here where I can't see it.” Upon so saying, he tapped both {Health: 164/164} and {Mana: 180/180}, dragging it off the menu, much to his surprise, and willed it into the top-right corner of his right eye where he could keep an eye on it.

“Fascinating,” he breathed with a smile, “I wonder if others can do this, or if it's just me? Hmm,” a forefinger tapped against his chin, “Maybe they already have it? Regardless... huh...” the Goliath's gaze fell upon his pet's body, who was busy cleaning herself as she squeaked upon his knee.

Floating above her head, in the same colour and style as his own status were the words:

{Little Mother} {Level: 13}

{Health: 43/53} {Mana: 42/113}

Upon feeling the eyes of her master, she paused in her cleaning in order to turn and look up into his eyes. Whereupon she gave another one of her squeaks before resuming her cleaning.

Smiling softly down upon her, he reached out and gave her back a little scratch, causing her little hind end to wiggle for a moment. Once over, he turned his attention back towards his Status Menu, and began to condense everything so that it read as:

Karastak

{Race: Goliath (Vampire; Energy)}

{Age: 25}

{Level: 19} {STR: 30; DEX: 30; CON: 32; INT:43; WIS: 46; CHA: 40}

{Health: 164/164} {Mana: 180/180}

{Class: Enchanter} {Subclass: Wordsmith}

{Skills: ;

;

; ; ; ;

}

{Passive Skills: ; ; ; ; }

{Titles: Immovable Object; One Who Seeks Knowledge; Vampire Lord; Soul Bound}

{Titles Equipped: Soul Bound}

He did not need to be reminded of the words he already “learned”, and therefore shrank them down into the categories of Elemental, Healing, Creation, and Physical Augmentation. If there was ever a need for a refresher course, he would simply tap the skills and gain a list of what was available. “Though, thinking about it now, it was Azazel who said I needed to 'learn' the words and 'understand' what they could do. So what happens if I just speak them, as opposed to saying 'Spoke Word' all the time?”

Shrugging his shoulders, he reached over and stroked the little bat's back whilst whispering, “Sorry if it gets too loud, Little Mother,” of whom gave another of her squeaks as she turned her curious, red eyes towards himself, “I'm going to experiment on something. So give me a moment, alright?” Again, another squeak followed his statement, and she wiggled into the hair atop his head.

“Let's see now,” Karastak stood tall once more, pointing off towards one of the blackened bodies of a deceased Goblin. After which he felt a surge of energy flow from his mind and towards the tips of his outstretched fingers. Whereupon the name of a spell flowed into his brain and down towards his mouth, desiring to be spoken. Of which he complied, shouting, “!”

A bolt of pure darkness, bereft of sound, lashed out and struck near the body with such strength that it practically ate away everything that was there, as opposed to just exploding after the impact like his Spoken Word version. “Huh,” he blinked his eyes with amazement, not sure what to think or say about it.

What is more, something pinged inside his ears, as a transparent placard appeared before him stating:

Congratulations!

You have learned the spell !

Range: 15m Radius on impact: 1m Damage: 25

Cost: 10 Mana per bolt

Glancing off to the right corner of his vision, he noted that his mana bar dropped by nine points, saying that it was now at 171/180 and was ticking up a point every thirty seconds. “Huh,” he breathed slowly with a stunned look, which quickly became one of confusion, “Wait... I'm supposed to be outside of any System here... What?”

Upon the lower right corner of the placard which showed that he learned a new spell was a small box with a question mark within the centre. Frowning, he pressed it without knowing what might happened, and felt, as well as heard, a soft chime in his ear. This was followed up by what sounded much like a door breaking open, as a monotonous voice filled his mind with, “{Awaiting Command.}”

Not knowing what had happened, Karastak asked, “What are you?”