Unlike the previous nights, where I dreamed normally and forgot most of what I dreamed about in the morning I knew that the dream that I was having now would stay with me for as long as I lived.

In the dream I was surrounded by a hellscape of burning houses in the middle of what seemed to be a forest. On the other side of the settlement there was a massive battle going on between people who seemed to be Yajashians like me and another humanoid species. I wasn’t sure what these creatures were, but they looked like a much larger and uglier version of Yajashians.

Judging by the way the Yajashians that were fighting were acting the larger humanoids were definitely the aggressors in this fight. This was backed up by the mutilated and burnt corpses of women and children that were scattered around me. It was a truly horrible sight and looking around I was filled with rage. Unfortunately, sine this was a dream I didn’t have a physical form so I couldn’t do anything to help out the Yajashians. Then again from what I could see of the fighting there was no way that I would be useful in a battle on this scale so maybe not physically being here was actually a good thing.

By now I was certain that the Admin was responsible for this vision or whatever it was. I had no proof of this, but I had been on this new world for a week now, so it sort of made sense to me that I was getting some sort of update right now.

It made a lot of sense, especially if these new humanoids were the reason that the Yajash were being forced to leave their home world. Deciding to take a closer look I willed myself over to the sight of the battle much like I would if I was in my internal world.

It was truly an impressive and horrible sight. There were corpses and body parts everywhere and the Yajashian fighters were definitely being pushed back by the greater numbers of the attacking party. However, that wasn’t to say that they weren’t giving almost as good as they got. In fact, there was one man that stood out to me who was felling foes left and right like he was harvesting wheat. Sadly, even his prowess wasn’t enough to hold back the veritable horde that was attacking him and his allies. He was an older Yajashian with short grey hair who fought with a strange weapon that looked like a quarterstaff with small twin bladed axe heads on each end. He also seemed to be quite a capable mage but instead of attacking with his magic directly he instead used it to control the battlefield. Using his Earth magic to create walls to cut off small groups of enemies which he would then cut down with impressive precision or using gusts of wind to deflect ranged attacks. From how quickly the minor wounds he occasionally received healed I was guessing that he was also using magic to heal. Then again, for all I knew his HP regen could also be so high that such small injuries healed that quickly even without him using magic.

The attackers seemed to fight with three different types of weapon. The first was a strange weapon that resembled a gun that fired projectiles that looked like Mana Bolts instead of bullets. Maybe these things couldn’t use magic like a Yajashian could or perhaps the weapon simply increased their power. The other two weapon types that they fought with were a massive blade that resembled a serrated machete and a strange weapon that looked like a bladed hook which was often matched with a large shield. However, the most interesting thing about these weapons to me was that they were all made of metal which allowed me to start piecing together why the Yajash didn’t like metal.

Surprisingly the older Yajashian didn’t wear any armour, but it was pretty easy to see why. He specialised in speed and wearing armour would’ve slowed him down. Besides with his magic he was able to defend himself from most attacks anyway.

Sadly, the other Yajashians were less lucky and every few seconds a new Yajashian corpse joined the others currently lying on the ground. They were certainly more skilled fighters than the attackers but even though they cut down three attackers for every Yajashian that fell that didn’t mean much against the overwhelming number of attackers.

If I was forced to guess I would say that this wasn’t a battle between two opposing armies but a small group of rebels fighting off a vastly superior force. The moment that I thought this I heard a large crashing sound in the distance and turned towards the forest just in time to see a massive monster smash through the trees surrounding the village.

However, instead of the flesh and blood monster that I had been expecting this particular monster was a mechanical one.

“Well shit,” I muttered as the things metal arms ripped some of the nearby trees out of the ground and shoved it into the mechanical jaws at the front of the machine. “That explains a lot.”

The mechanical monstrosity kind of looked like what I had always imagined one of the moving cities that had been in some of the books that I had read when I was younger but smaller. As I thought this, I saw several turrets turn towards the surviving Yajashians.

“Well shit,” I repeated as the inside of the massive gun barrels began to glow with blue light. These words were repeated again by the older man that I had been watching fight earlier which made me blink in surprise when I understood his words perfectly without even having to think about it. Even when I had learned Te Reo Maori in school I had to think about what I was listening to before I could work out what was going on but thanks to my Spoken Yajashian Skill I could understand him like he was speaking English.

As the blue glow intensified inside the gun barrels the older man slammed one end of the weapon into the ground conjuring a massive and sturdy looking rock wall in front of him and the other Yajash. Deciding that I couldn’t miss a second of this I took to the sky so that I could see everything clearly. Thankfully this was actually possible because this dream seemed worked much like it would when I was examining my internal world so all I had to do was will myself to move and it happened.

Realising what was going on the attackers started to run away from the rock wall that the Yajashian man had created. Unfortunately for them they weren’t fast enough to escape the explosion that was created when the cannons fired blowing the wall to smithereens.

Despite the wall protecting them being destroyed most of the Yajashian rebels had managed to escape with only minor injuries. However from the way that the older Yajashian’s face suddenly paled it seemed that conjuring the wall had used up a significant of the older man’s Mana and I quickly descended back down to ground level.

“General Tarko!’ one of the survivors shouted as the older man stumbled before catching himself with his weapon.

“I’m fine Kellan,” the older man chuckled even as he continued to prop himself up on his weapon. Despite his words it was obvious how exhausted he was, and I wondered just how long he had been fighting. I had arrived part way through the fight, so it was hard to say but from the piles of bodies strewn around the area it was a considerable length of time.

As the General turned back towards the mechanical monstrosity that had fired the blasts of energy at them however, the confident expression on his face changed to one of extreme weariness. There was still a defiant light burning in his eyes, but I could tell that he knew that his chances of surviving this battle were slim to none.

I was honestly impressed by this man. I mean, I didn’t have any context for how important this battle was, but I from the way that he was acting it was important. Or at least it was to him.

As I thought this, I heard a strange hissing sound coming from the direction of the mechanical monstrosity and turned around just in time to see a massive figure walk out of a door that had opened in the machine’s side.

Seeing this the General turned towards the other Yajashians and told them to run and most of them immediately followed his orders. Some of them had to be dragged kicking and screaming by their allies but they were cut off when the General conjured another, smaller wall of rock to make sure that they didn’t attempt to double back.

Whoever or whatever this new figure was I got the feeling that General Tarko didn’t think that he would win in the fight that was obviously about to occur. As the figure approached, I gasped in surprise. Not because it was an even larger specimen of the same species ass the other attackers or even because of the collection scars that covered every visible part of its body. No, the thing that caught my attention was what it was wearing.

“That freaking thing is wearing power armour!” I exclaimed. Actually, calling the metal frame that looked like it had been bolted onto its body with the occasional metal plate slapped on for a bit of added protection might be going a bit far, but it certainly looked intimidating.

“So, you’re the commander of these forces, are you?” General Tarko asked as the massive figure approached.

“Yes, I am,” the figure replied in very thickly accented Yajashian. “And you are the one that blocked my Devourer’s cannons. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper challenge; most of you monkeys are too weak for me to bother.”

He hadn’t actually used the word monkey but that was how the word had been translated in my mind. From the way that the General bristled it was obviously intended as an insult but the older Yajashian quickly controlled of his emotions and settled into a fighting stance.

“You Redians disgust me, you turned your backs on the forests that once protected both of our peoples and instead you lay waste to them so that you can fuel your machines while murdering and enslaving my people,” Tarko snarled angrily. “But to me what is worse than anything else is the way you treat it all like some sort of game.”

Upon hearing these words, the Redian commander started laughing like the madman that he seemed to be before drawing the pair of bladed hooks that he had strapped to his back. These weapons were several sizes larger than the ones that his subordinates had been wielding and were serrated on the inside edge.

“Who cares what you think?” the Redian commander growled. “I don’t listen to the words of the weak.”

As soon as he finished speaking the Redian commander attacked with a massive overhand strike that would’ve split Tarko in half it if had landed anywhere near him but the old man reacted with speed that would have astonished me if I had seen it back on Earth. Even now it was impressive as he completely disappeared while ten cuts appeared on the Redian commander’s body in the blink of an eye. When he reappeared behind his massive opponent the Redian just laughed as the surprisingly shallow cuts healed almost as quickly as they had appeared.

Because of this I was able to determine that the Redian commander had dumped a lot of points into his Toughness, Vitality and possibly Constitution Stats but seemed to have much lower Coordination and Agility Stats. It was hard to say what his other Stats were like at this point because I had yet to see him using magic yet. In fact, other than the strange guns that seemed to fire Mana Bolts I hadn’t seen any of the Redians using magic at all.

Whereas while Tarko definitely outmatched him in speed his other physical Stats seemed to be lower than the Redian commanders were. Which meant that if his magical abilities weren’t enough to give him an advantage, I couldn’t see how he could defeat this opponent. Then again, I could be wrong, it wasn’t like I really knew what these guys were actually capable of.

As soon as the Redian commander stopped laughing he attacked once more much faster than he had the first time and soon they were both moving faster than I could properly follow which didn’t really surprise me too much. I was only Level 2 and I had no idea what Level these two were, but they must be literally hundreds of times more powerful than I was if not more.

Occasionally walls of earth rose up only to be smashed a split second later, blue bolts of energy spiralled through the air or an arc of blood sprayed the ground but other than that everything was a blur.

The next time that they were moving slowly enough that I could see them clearly was when one of Tarko’s arms flew through the air having been cut off by one of the commander’s hooks. With a cruel laugh the monstrous Redian then raised the weapon to his face and licked it as he smiled evilly at Tarko who clutched the stump of his left arm with a pained expression on his face. Despite the arrogant way that the commander was acting he was actually almost as badly injured as Tarko was, but his injuries were closing much faster than Tarko’s were.

“You’re a better fighter than most of the monkeys that I’ve fought,” the massive warrior chuckled. “But you’re just not strong enough to deal any lasting damage to me. I honestly thought you’d be stronger than this though. I heard that you were one of the strongest of the monkeys that were still alive.”

“Quit talking you barbarian,” Tarko snarled as water gathered around the stump of his arm before slowly forming into a new limb to replace the one that he had lost. “Let’s finish this.”

“Very well,” the commander replied with a shrug. As he said this several crystals that were attached to his power armour started to glow ominously while wind started whirling around the heads of Tarko’s weapon.

Meanwhile I was wondering what the surrounding area was going to look like if that last exchange of blows hadn’t been ‘serious’ by their standards. My thoughts were cut short when Tarko and the commander completely disappeared from my sight and loud sonic booms started echoing through the area as the two overpowered fighters started going at it once more. It was almost like watching a shounen anime where the characters seemed to teleport from place to place pausing very briefly to exchange a slightly more powerful blow before disappearing again.

Once again, I found myself thankful that I didn’t have a physical form right now because if I did, I would’ve been completely destroyed in the first few seconds of this second bout. It surprised me at first quite a lot that the Redian was able to move this fast considering that he hadn’t shown anywhere near this level of speed. Because of this I came to the conclusion that this sudden burst of speed was being given to him by his power armour. My current working hypothesis was that the ‘power armour’ that he was wearing wasn’t actually power armour but more like a form of prosthetic that allowed him to use magic to enhance his body.

I was now pretty sure that Redians couldn’t use magic at all without something to help them out, it would explain why none of them had used actual magic without using one of the gun-like weapons that some of them had been equipped with. Or at least most of them couldn’t, I didn’t know enough about them to say that there weren’t Redians that were capable of using magic. But even if some of them could use magic without the aid of some sort of device then it didn’t seem to be a very common ability.

Several minutes later the two fighters stood facing each other once more. Both of them looked even more beaten up than they had earlier and to my surprise their wounds weren’t healing like they had been up until now. It looked like even with the powers given to us by the system our body’s ability to heal quickly from damage had an upper limit. Or at the very least theirs did, my new Cellular Regeneration Skill might raise that limit in my case. Not that I intended to go looking for that limit any time soon because that just seemed like a bad idea. Still it was good to know.

Blood pooled around the feet of both of the fighters as they clutched their wounds. To my surprise the Redian commander was now the one clutching the stump of a severed arm. Not that Tarko was looking much better off than his opponent.

But as wind gathered around one of the heads of Tarko’s weapon the look on the commander’s face told me that he knew that this fight was over.

Tarko coughed up blood as he raised his weapon over his head and the wind revolving around it picked up even more before he slammed it down unleashing a gale that tore the ground up sending various objects hurtling through the air including the Redian commander’s body which was quickly torn apart by the debris. The attack was even powerful enough to lift the Devourer up slightly before it came crashing back down as the wind ceased.

Swaying on his feet Tarko grinned up at the Devourer as the cannons started charging once more. He obviously knew that he couldn’t escape this attack but apparently that no longer mattered to him. The rest of his allies had managed to escape by now and were hopefully leading the people that had once lived in this village to safety. He had also managed to kill a large number of the opposing forces as well as an extremely powerful warrior. I found myself unable to look away as the turrets fired blasting everything a massive crater in the ground where the proud warrior had once stood.

The man had been defiant to the very end and for the first time I felt the full weight of what I was trying to do press down on my shoulders as I saluted the spot where he had once stood before glaring at the mechanical monstrosity that had destroyed him so completely. I didn’t know the full story of what was going on here but what had happened in this village was nothing short of an atrocity. As I looked around at the destruction that the Redians had wrought I felt rage begin to boil under my skin. I watched silently as the machine made its way closer to the wreckage and start tearing what remained of the houses to pieces before shoving them into its metal jaws before everything started to fade away as I finally woke up.

‘Are you alright?’ Tane’s voice asked inside my head. ‘You were moving around a lot in your sleep and seemed pretty distressed.’

“Yeah, I’ll be fine in a minute though. Thanks Tane,” I groaned as I sat up. My body was covered in sweat which didn’t surprise me considering what I had just witnessed. I wasn’t surprised when a new screen appeared in front of me from the Admin either.

Message from Admin-51340

Congratulations on making it through the first week. Things got a little bit dicey on your end, but you seem to have handled it fairly well.

“Was that vision real?” I asked.

Message from Admin-51340

Yes, it was. We decided that those who survived the first week needed to have a better understanding of what was going on.

“I see,” I sighed sadly. “Is there anything else that you need to tell me or was that it?”

Message from Admin-51340

Actually, yes. We have developed a new Skill for you so that you can contact us at any time if you need to ask a question.

“Oh, that sounds like it would be useful,” I replied as I stretched. “Questions about the System I assume?”

Message from Admin-51340

Indeed, we were a bit rushed when we selected you and were unable to complete the Skill in time. Sadly, a lot of your fellow former humans have lost their lives in the meantime. Some of that was simply their own fault but some might have been avoided if we had been able to complete the Skill.

“Don’t worry, I don’t blame you; this is a dangerous place,” I sighed shaking my head sadly at the reminder that a large number of people had already lost their lives on this savage world.

Message from Admin-51340

Anyway, if you have any questions right now, we can answer them. If you have anything you want to know about the Yajash we will answer those as well.

I nodded as I read this, it looked like this Skill was going to be quite useful, but I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to ask right now

‘What’s going on?” Tane asked suddenly. Why are you talking to yourself?’

“I’m talking to the being that brought me here,” I explained as I realised that I did have one question that I wanted to ask the Admin. “Admin, can Tane use the System?”

Message from Admin-51340

The tree? Yes, it’s a sapient being so it should have that capability. If it chooses to do so then it will be the first member of its species that uses the System.

“Well that’s good to know,” I nodded. “Well I can’t think of anything else to ask you right now but I’m sure that I will make use of the Skill that you made for us in the future.”

Message from Admin-51340

Very well. We wish you luck in the coming days.

And with this final message I was left staring at the description of my new Skill with a bemused expression on my face.

Contact Admin Unlocked! (???) Lvl Maxed

This Skill allows you to contact Admin 51340 so that you can ask them questions related to the System. Be aware that overuse of this Skill will cause it to be removed.

Growth Rate increased by 1 Unassigned Stat Point!

“Well that was weird,” I remarked. “Oh well, at least I have access to a help function now.”

‘So, what was that all about?’ Tane asked.

“Oh well the Admin was just checking in on me since its been aa week since I arrived here on this world,” I replied with a chuckle. “By the way I managed to get confirmation that you can use the System if you change your mind.”

‘Interesting,’ the tree replied. ‘I will certainly keep that in mind.’

“Okay, you do that then,’ I shrugged deciding not to pressureTane any further on this subject for now. “Well I guess I’d better get started on what I have planned for the day.”