Author's Note: To thank everybody for their patience, I decided to do a same-day post on Wattpad and Royal Road (normally I'd post on Wattpad, then after a few days I'd do Royal Road).

But since it's a same-day post, I wasn't able to do tables yet. So what do you guys think? Should I keep posting like this and just add tables later? Or should I go back to my old style and just post whenever I've decided where the tables should go?

EDIT: Just finished adding tables.

Vote up on the Poll to let me know!

ALSO: I want to give thanks to Balthazar! You let me know about an obvious plot hole early in the story that I somehow missed, so this is my way of saying thanks. I'll fix it up later.

IT'S FINALLY TIME TO FIND OUT WHO THE REAL MC IS!!!

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Previously……

‘This has to work. No, this WILL work!’

A split second later and the root was already a hair away from the top of my head.

BOOOOM!

Debris filled the air as yet another root slammed into the ground…..

NOW:

The giant root lay still on the ground. A hazy mist still hung in the air from when the root had slammed down onto the ground.

No one paid any attention to it. Why should they? After all, the root was just another of the many that were still slamming themselves down onto the ground, trying to squash the Boundary Guardians and Zhang’s party.

Suddenly, a part of the mist rushed back to the ground. It gathered together and condensed, re-forming a certain adventurer that had almost been flattened into a paste by the root that was now behind him.

Immediately he took off at a sprint, only giving a moment’s glance towards himself to check that everything was still in place.

Wahshi felt a surge of confidence, but quickly buried the feeling. He was still about to go up against monsters that were so far out of his league that it wasn’t even funny. If he felt anything other than calm, he knew he’d die.

Still, the new notifications that had appeared in the corner of his vision had made his whole body feel lighter from excitement, which he’d decided not to bury all the way, since a small amount would help him push his body closer to the limit of what it could do.

THROUGH PROFOUND REALIZATIONS ABOUT YOUR ORIGINS, YOU HAVE UNLOCKED A NEW BRANCH OF ABILITIES.

BORN OF THE MIST: A special branch of abilities which can be accessed only by those that have been birthed by the Mist of Souls, and have understood and accepted their origins.

NEW (BORN OF THE MIST) ABILITY DISCOVERED

MIST FORM LVL 1:FIRM CONVICTION IN WHAT YOU THOUGHT WAS TRUE ABOUT YOUR ORIGINS HAS ENABLED YOU TO TURN BACK INTO THE MIST THAT SPAWNED YOU

AT 1ST LEVEL, TURNS YOUR ENTIRE BODY INTO MIST. HIGHER LEVELS WILL ALLOW YOU TO CONTROL WHAT PART OF YOUR BODY YOU WISH TO TURN.

AT 1ST LEVEL, MIST FORM CAN STAY ACTIVE FOR A MAXIMUM OF 2 SECONDS. ABILITY MAY BE CANCELLED AT ANY TIME.

ACTIVATION REQUIREMENTS: NONE

ACTIVATION COST: 2% of Max Health

Ever since I’d ended up on the receiving end of Misa’s spell, I knew that I had to find a way to better protect myself. There was no way that I was going to end up like that a 2nd time. I knew I wasn’t like the typical new player though. There were too many things that made that obvious.

If I was a normal new player, I wouldn’t have been the first to make it out of the Mist of Souls.

If I was normal, I probably never would’ve met Gaia and become her first friend.

But the thing that gave me the idea in the first place, was the fact that if I were normal, I wouldn’t be “First-Born of the Mist”.

FIRST-BORN OF THE MISTA UNIQUE TITLE GIVEN ONLY TO THE FIRST PERSON TO ACCOMPLISH THE FEAT “I WAS BORN RUNNING”, AND EVEN THEN ONLY IF THEY MANAGE TO BEFRIEND GAIA.

GRANTS: +10 TO ALL STATS, ACCESS TO MISTBORN ABILITIES WHEN DISCOVERED, ACCESS TO UNIQUE ABILITIES GIVEN ONLY TO THE HOLDER OF THIS TITLE (IF DISCOVERED), PASSIVE SKILL “ELDEST”

In a forest clearing completely surrounded by trees, where tall blades of grass grew at the base of the trees….

Complete and utter pandemonium reigned. Huge tree roots as wide as a person and as thick as 3 people smashed down, flattening anything that happened to be unfortunate enough to be in its path.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Clouds of dirt went flying into the air, leaving dents in the ground where formerly living things had become flat as pancakes as the roots rose back up again to slam down on another target.

I couldn’t be sure, but of the original 100 enemies (50 Druids, 50 Dryads) which had surrounded us, I would’ve guessed that there were maybe around 30 left. Since many had been stopped in their tracks with Alexa’s poison needles, and they’d all been blinded by Misa’s spell, they weren’t able to dodge the falling tree roots very successfully. If the roots had been aiming for them on purpose, they all would have died without a doubt. But since the tree roots had come alive only because of the backlash of the Druid’s failed spell, the roots had smashed down randomly on whatever was closest to them.

Zhang, Misa, Alexa and I were immensely better off in comparison. At least we could dodge the roots if we saw them coming at us in time.

The Druids were still writhing on the ground, their proud cloaks dirtied by the dust and debris. Magical backlash was not something anyone would want to experience. The one who failed at casting would be writhing in sharp pain, like someone had taken a nail and hammered it into their brains. That was before the other side effects happened, such as the tree roots. The Dryads were doing better than their male counterparts. Some of them had already recovered and were using their physical prowess to dodge any incoming danger from above, while heading towards us. They might have been living trees, but they no one would say that they were slow.

I had a feeling that the tree roots wouldn’t keep smashing down forever, and if we hadn’t killed them off by then, we would be the ones that died.

BOOM!!

Another tree root smashed down to my right. I somehow managed to stay up and keep running, even though the ground was shaking.

It was a good thing too, because I was already face-to-face with a Dryad.

If this had been the real world, she might have been a supermodel. She was gorgeous! If you ignored the fact that where there were supposed to be eyes, there was only an intense glow coming from the eye sockets! Her dark skin was flawless, and it was only if you looked closely that you could see that her dark skin was actually made of bark.

AND HER FIST WAS HEADING TO MY FACE!!

Even though I wasn’t sure what level they were at, since I was level 1 anything could’ve killed me. I couldn’t play around here.

Lucky for me, I had 20 years of experience dealing with people that could’ve killed me at any moment. I had more than a few tricks up my sleeve.

I recalled what it felt like to be in the Mist. The sharp, biting cold, how it was sometimes dense and other times it wasn’t. What I remembered most though, was the feeling of crushing hopelessness, which slammed down on you as soon as your guard was down.

With a painful jolt, I’d activated [Mist Form].

It was a weird sensation. I was there, but I was spread out. I didn’t have eyes, but I could sense where everything was.

Her fist went straight through where my head had been, and I could feel how powerful that punch was. If I’d been hit by it, knocking my head clean off would’ve been the least of what could’ve happened.

Not missing a beat, I quickly flowed past her and reformed facing her back. Noticing a shadow growing larger, I moved my left foot in front of her right and shoved her forward. She’d thrown all her weight into that first punch, so most of her body weight had still been heading forward. She flew forward a few feet, landing right in the path of a giant root crashing down.

SPLAAAT

She didn’t even have time to scream. I didn’t hear anything, but I could feel the corners of my lips curl up in a small smile as I imagined what it would’ve sounded like.

Hey, if you try to kill me, I’m fine with you dying. I learned my lesson about showing kindness to those kinds of people a long time ago.

Under my breath, I said words that no one else could hear. “Prison Rule Number 73: LEAVE NO ENEMY BEHIND.”

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Author's Note: SO.... it turns out Wahshi didn't die after all, so he is the actual MC for the story. Sorry for anybody hoping that it was actually somebody from Zhang's party.

ALSO: Does anyone know how to change the color of table rows and/or tables? Not the color of the words, but the actual table itself. Instead of the usual blue, maybe change it to red.

RATE IT: So I know what you think it's worth

REVIEW IT: So other people know what you think it's worth

COMMENT: So I know if you see any mistakes, if you want to let me know how the story could be better, or just for being 1st

ONE LAST THING!! You'll find the MC's stats and abilities tables down below. Let me know if you like the new way I organized them.

You know....Spoiler : I might put in some chapters later on about how Misa and Zhang became the sick, twisted people that they are. For now though, even I feel that I've taken up too much time with them (even though it's been less than 3 chapters [the first Zhang party POV was in chapter 2]). I'll head back to their POV only briefly from now on, just to so you can see what they're thinking during Wahshi's stay with them. Otherwise, it's all about the MC now that I've got his personality better planned out!

For anyone that wants to see the MC's current full status: (I did some re-organizing)

Spoiler :

STATUS WINDOWNAME:WAHSHILEVEL:1RACE:HUMANGENDER:MALECLASS:NONEMONEY:0G 1S 0C, $0

TITLES:FIRST-BORN OF THE MISTFAME:100INFAMY:0HEALTH:105 (+5)MANA:120 (+100)

STRENGTH:18 (+10)INTELLIGENCE:10 (+10)DEXTERITY:10 (+10)WILLPOWER:2 (+10)VITALITY:10 (+10)CHARISMA:0 (+10)AGILITY:10 (+10)LUCK:7 (+10)

*Mana= 100+ (Willpower*10), Health=(LVL*100)+(Vitality/2)

And for anyone that wants to know the MC's skills and abilities:

Spoiler :

SKILL LISTPASSIVEFIRST-BORN OF THE MIST:

ELDEST: YOU ARE THE OLDEST CHILD OF YOUR CLAN, AND THEREFORE THE STRONGEST. +1 TO ALL STATS FOR EVERY MISTBORN IN THE WORLD, EXCLUDING YOURSELF (CURRENT NUMBER OF MISTBORN: 1 [YOURSELF])

PLAYER:

PERSEVERE: YOU HAVE GONE THROUGH INCREDIBLE PAINS TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL. WHEN HEALTH IS LESS THAN 50%, PAIN DECREASES 1% PER ADDITIONAL PERCENT OF HEALTH LOST

ACTIVEBORN OF THE MIST:

SOUL ORIGIN (BEGINNER RANK): YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED A FEAT FEW WOULD KNOW ABOUT, AND DISCOVERED THE BIRTHPLACE OF YOUR SOUL. TRAVEL TO THE MIST OF SOULS IS NOW POSSIBLE UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS, IF THE COST IS PAID.

ACTIVATION REQUIREMENTS: ??? ACTIVATION COSTS: ???

ABILITY LIST[tr]PLAYER:

MENU: Access to a game-like interface

RESURRECTION: May be re-born 10 hours after death (game-time)

INVENTORY: Access to a small, pocket-dimension which can hold belongings up to a certain limit

LOG OUT: Return to your original world

BORN OF THE MIST:

MIST FORM (LVL 1): FIRM CONVICTION IN WHAT YOU THOUGHT WAS TRUE ABOUT YOUR ORIGINS HAS ENABLED YOU TO TURN BACK INTO THE MIST THAT SPAWNED YOU

AT 1ST LEVEL, TURNS YOUR ENTIRE BODY INTO MIST. HIGHER LEVELS WILL ALLOW YOU TO CONTROL WHAT PART OF YOUR BODY YOU WISH TO TURN.

AT 1ST LEVEL, MIST FORM CAN STAY ACTIVE FOR A MAXIMUM OF 2 SECONDS. ABILITY MAY BE CANCELLED AT ANY TIME.

ACTIVATION REQUIREMENTS: NONE

ACTIVATION COST: 2% of Max Health

TITLE EFFECTS

FIRST-BORN OF THE MIST: +10 TO ALL STATS, ACCESS TO MISTBORN ABILITIES WHEN DISCOVERED, ACCESS TO UNIQUE ABILITIES GIVEN ONLY TO THE HOLDER OF THIS TITLE (IF DISCOVERED), PASSIVE SKILL “ELDEST”