PREVIOUSLY:

Spoiler :

Zhang and his party were trying to escape from the she-trees and the tree-beasts. They used illusions to delay the monsters for awhile. Zhang ended up having to carry Misa, but tripped due to the appearance of a system notice that blocked his view. The stampede of tree-beasts is close by, and Wahshi comes crashing in from above in a cloud of mist that reforms into his body.

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“Alexa, get Misa out of here!”

I yelled out, and immediately she flashed in and grabbed Misa. She struggled a little bit against the Libra, but it didn’t look like she was able to do much. She must’ve still been hurt from the fall.

‘It’s my fault! If I’d just been able to keep my balance, everything would’ve been fine!’

The guilt raged in my chest. Misa must’ve seen something in my eyes, because she wouldn’t stop struggling against Alexa, who was trying to get her out of there.

Her eyes reddened as she Alexa finally managed to stop her from rushing out to help me. “Zhang! Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare do something stupid and get yourself killed!!”

That’s what I thought she said anyway. The thundering from the stomping of the footsteps of the tree-beasts as they stampeded this way was already too loud for me to hear anything. My lip-reading skills weren’t all that good, so it could’ve just been what I wanted to hear her say.

There was a kind of warmth that overcame my guilt as I looked at her, the person that worried about me even when she was the one in more danger than I was.

‘Don’t you know that it’s every man’s romance to do something cool in front of their loved ones?’

There wasn’t anything else I could do for her now but send her off with a smile, which stretched across my face for as long as it could.

I turned away as Alexa used her Libra class ability to flash Misa and herself out. It might’ve been my imagination, but I could’ve sworn there was something glistening around her eyes when she was being dragged away.

My vision blurred for a second when I turned back around to face the man that had just stood there waiting for us. Must’ve just been some kind of sweat that got in my eye.

I looked at him, the man with the robes I’d originally gave, who wasn’t even looking at me now. He was staring off somewhere else, occasionally shifting his gaze as if he was tracking something.

Then something ridiculous popped into my head. Something so impossible, that it was almost funny even thinking about it. But the way he kept moving his head, it was almost like he really was tracking something!

‘That’s impossible, right? He’s just a level 1 old man, right?’

Reality then gave me a slap in the face.

‘HOW THE H*LL IS HE STILL ALIVE?! THE DRAGON FREAKING KILLED HIM!!’

Just thinking about it made me recall the red notification that’d blocked my vision and caused this mess right here. It was only for a split-second, but I remembered everything that I saw on it. It definitely wasn’t meant for me, but since Misa and I were also using the Partner Charm bracelet, almost everything was shared between us.

CURSED!

You have enraged someone with ties to the spirits and evoked hatred so deep it permeates through every fiber of their being! Face their wrath and survive until sundown, and the grudge will be resolved!

Which means he’s here for…

‘LIKE HELL I’LL LET THAT HAPPEN!’

All of a sudden everything fell into place. Any guilt I had at deceiving this old man, any guilt I had for not being able to get Misa out of here safely, even the oncoming stampede that would be here in less than 20 seconds, it all faded away.

Funny enough, what came up in my mind that moment was the name of an old manga/anime, and it fit perfectly with what was about to happen.

‘ALL YOU NEED IS KILL!!!’

The rest of the world melted away, and there was only me and him standing across from each other. In the blink of an eye the distance between the two of us shrank to less than arm’s length away as I dashed towards him.

Before I’d even taken a step I’d already changed to my SPEEDSTER set, but this time around I had 2 daggers equipped in both hands, along with the normal leather gear. Having changed from heavy armor to light so quickly let me move faster than most people expected. The wind made my hair fly back as I appeared in front of the old man, with my center of gravity low to the ground.

Quick as a flash, my blades spun out as I targeted his legs.

When fighting against other people, there’s a general rule that separates people with fighting experience from those that don’t. Most people are head-hunters. Newbies will always target the head in-game just like newbies to fighting in real-life would do.

Even though it’ll do a lot of damage though, people will always have a reaction against something that their eyes can pick up. Which is why as soon as I “disappeared” from his vision, I automatically went for his legs. This is what separates the pros in CQC (Close Quarters Combat) from the noobs. Pros target the whole body, while noobs focus on the head.

My blades glinted in the small amount of light that streamed down through the tree-tops as it rushed to cut through his legs.

***********************************************************

As soon as Zhang disappeared, I could hear myself thinking, ‘SH*T!’. The danger sense I’d built up in my 20 years in prison was already giving me a sense of doom. Before I knew it, I reflexively activated [Mist Form]. In less than a second I felt something pass through the misty silhouette of where my legs were.

Just as I looked down and saw Zhang there swiping his blades through my legs, the wind from his fast arrival finally arrived and scattered my body, pushing it even further back towards the oncoming stampede of tree-beasts.

‘CR*P!’ I thought to myself. The dark feeling in my chest surged alongside the humiliation that I felt just then. ‘I can’t believe I was that freaking stupid! I tried to take on a level 200+ player at level 1! This would’ve been like trying to challenge one of the prison gang’s boss on the first day in prison!!’

I didn’t have any more time for second thoughts though. Before I knew it, Zhang had already swapped out his daggers for a lance and thrust it straight through my chest!

Seeing it hadn’t had any effect on me whatsoever, he spiked the lance down straight through the place where my foot was, and brought a flying round-house kick straight to my face, and passing straight through it. The wind from his attacks kept blowing me everywhere, making me pass straight through trees and over the roots strewn all over the ground.

In all honesty, the only thing that saved me was the fact that his attacks were too fast! If I hadn’t reflexively activated [Mist Form], then in less than 2 seconds his attacks would’ve cut through my legs, speared through my chest, nailed my foot down to the ground and had my neck snapped by a kick to the face!

But what a CQC was measured in was milliseconds, and lucky enough for me my ability lasted 2 seconds. That was the only thing that had guaranteed my survival so far though. Even if he hadn’t attacked me, I was already in bad shape. [Reckoning from the Afterlife] had already taken half of my health to activate, and it’d keep taking an additional 10% of my total health every hour till I died. To catch up to Misa and the gang I’d had to use [Mist Form] repeatedly to basically slingshot through the sky, since traveling that way let me cover more ground than if I’d tried to do the same by going through the forest. The only problem was the fact that I’d had to use it 12 times in a row, causing me to lose 24% more of my total health.

In short, I was already down to 26% health as soon as I got here, and I was down to 24% now. I don’t know how lucky I could get in this kind of situation, but every scrap counts. It was a good thing that even though I was in [Mist Form], Zhang couldn’t tell the difference between before and after I’d used the ability. Apparently, if I kept the mist that was me all bunched up together, I’d look completely normal. I hadn’t even known about that effect until now, when he didn’t give me time to disperse.

‘It probably looks like he’s trying to hit a ghost from Zhang’s point of view.’

Just thinking about all of this made me want to smirk at the frustration he was probably feeling right now. With that being said, he finally realized that it was useless to keep attacking me, right when my ability’s effect wore off and I became fully corporeal again. They say good things come in spades, but since I’d already had my share of good luck I had a feeling that I was about to get a whole downpour of misfortune.

I watched as Zhang’s face contorted with rage.

“I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT I CAN’T KILL YOU!!” He yelled.

I used [Mist Form] again. It wasn’t a great solution, since it brought me closer and closer to death, but it bought some time as Zhang threw what looked like a javelin straight through my chest, with it landing a little bit behind me.

Even though it felt like my veins were boiling with anger, my head had already cleared up. I had to admit, he was using the perks of being an Unspecialized character pretty well. Normally people wouldn’t be able to use their [Inventory] in battle, but I’d already found out that it wasn’t something that people who hadn’t chosen their classes yet had to worry about. Zhang was making good use of it too, since it seemed like he had an endless supply of weapons stored in there.

What happened next though, made me realize that I was more than just under-equipped and unprepared to fight this guy head-on.

Zhang didn’t even blink when he saw that his javelin passed right through me. Immediately, he threw out another 2 javelins. This time though, he threw out one to his left and the other to his right.

There was still the spear stuck in the ground behind Zhang when he’d tried to nail my foot to the ground, this combined with the 3 javelins that he’d just thrown out gave me a bad feeling.

The air around Zhang shimmered, and suddenly he wasn’t wearing the leather armor from his SPEEDSTER set. Now, he was wearing a set of robes that looked somewhat like Misa’s had, but it was clearly not in the same grade as hers. While hers seemed to always ripple with power, Zhang’s robe had a fiery design that looked otherwise very ordinary. Still, that did absolutely nothing to stop the chill going down my spine.

Zhang smirked. “ARENA OF FIRE!”

Instantly, the 3 javelins and the spear started glowing. Fire spread out from each of them, forming a deadly, blazing red circle that trapped us inside. Zhang must’ve been pretty desperate. I could swear that there was probably around 10 seconds left until the stampede arrived, and he’d trapped himself in here with me.

My face twitched. To test things out, I’d secretly sent a part of the mist that myself out to touch the fiery wall.

It took just a split second for it to burn up and cause my health to drastically drop down to 8%.

Zhang didn’t miss the facial twitch and grinned. “So, this is your weakness huh? Ghost or not, Spirit or not, looks like all I needed was a little magic to make you really sweat!”

‘Cr*p, he isn’t wrong.’ I thought to myself. ‘I’m really in the hot seat now!’

Less than 10% of my health was left, a blazing inferno surrounded us and made sure that I couldn’t escape, and a stampede less than 10 seconds on its way. I felt myself become whole again as my ability timed out. The 2 seconds time limit on this thing was really annoying me.

There was no other way. I had to rely on my last resort.

I’d probably die, but at the very least I’d take Zhang down with me.

With a wordless yell, I rushed out towards Zhang like a crazy man.

‘Does what I’m about to do make me kind of like a suicide bomber?’

That last thought stayed with me as my [Mist Form] ability activated for the last time. There’d be no going back after this, it was do or die. As I ran, the mist that made up my body split apart. Every single fiber of my being rushed towards Zhang, the yell from earlier still somehow echoing out.

With a cocky grin, Zhang stood there and did nothing as I appeared in front of him. I think he just wanted to see what I could possibly due to him at this point.

I immediately surrounded his head from all sides and started going in through all of his orifices. His eyes, ears, mouth, nostrils, I took advantage of every single opening into his head and rushed in. One second had already passed, and there was only 1 more left until the end of my ability.

This was the moment of truth. I’d turn corporeal inside his head, making it pop like a balloon!!

I knew for a fact that I would definitely die from this, but there was no other way I could possibly win at this point. I was all set and ready kill this b*stard once and for all, when I realized that he was saying something.

“I wonder… what kind of a spirit or ghost are you, that you don’t even know about the dimensional energy that we absorb into ourselves to level up? After all, if you knew about it, then you’d realize that the inside of my head is the last place you’d want to be right now.”

As soon as he said it, I realized that I was completely surrounded in his head by some kind of glowing energy.

At that moment, the timer on my ability hit zero and I turned corporeal.

In the split-second before Zhang’s head would’ve popped, that mysterious glowing energy attacked and I was snuffed out like a candle.

Everything went dark.

************************************************

When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar sight.

I stood there. Swirling, cold mist had surrounded me once again, and I knew I was back at the Mist of Souls.

This time around, I didn’t do anything immediately. I just sat down on the ground and thought about everything that happened.

I sighed, and rubbed my eyes tiredly.

The months I’d spent outside of prison had obviously thrown me off-balance. I would never have let my emotions get the better of me when I’d still been in there, stuck with all kinds of dangerous gangs, lunatics and murderers.

Somehow though, I’d forgotten all about controlling my emotions and ended up making a mess of everything in a forest full of deadly monsters that could kill the dangerous people I’d been locked up with in a heartbeat if they’d been real.

An icy calmness spread throughout my body as I reviewed the events that had just transpired.

I’d gotten a new ability that let me track people down in exchange for half of my life, and lived on essentially borrowed time to kill the person I was tracking. I’d found out new uses for another one of my abilities, but found out that it couldn’t do as much as I thought it could. I also realized that no matter how good I was back on Earth, I couldn’t do nearly as much here in the game.

No matter how I looked at it, killing level 200’s when I was only level 1 was seriously impossible.

Good thing I’d taken a 20 year crash course in learning how to take down people stronger than I was.

My knees creaked a little as I stood up, and a fire was burning in my eyes. This time around, I wasn’t going to go down like an idiot charging at a tank.

I had no doubts that Zhang and his crew had managed to survive being chased by those tree-beasts. They might’ve been heartless, but they were definitely survivors.

Cold air rushed in and out of my body as I breathed the mist that had “spawned” me. The icy feeling only complimented the icy calmness already in my body, and I knew I was ready for the final round.

It was time to use a borrowed knife to kill them all!

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Author's Note: Well, long story short the reason why I'd stopped posting for awhile was because I got a little depressed. A bunch of people were sending me messages and posting bad reviews over here about how bad my story was, so I took a little break to decide where I wanted to go with the story from that point on (because some of the things they brought up made sense).

P.S. From now on I'm only going to post the "Previously" part before the chapter.

Wahshi's Skill/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 METHOD 1:

REQUIREMENTS: DEATH

ACTIVATION COSTS: ANY AND ALL PENALTIES FOR THOSE THAT KILLED YOU WILL BE NULLIFIED; YOUR KILLERS WILL RECEIVE TRIPLE THE AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE THEY WOULD NORMALLY RECEIVE

*AUTOMATICALLY ACTIVATES UPON DEATH, REGARDLESS OF WILL OR INTENT

ACTIVATION METHOD 2:

REQUIREMENTS:??? ACTIVATION COST: ???

PART THE MISTS: CONSTANT, UNCEASING EFFORTS TO DIVINE THE TRUTH BEHIND THE WORLD AND EVERYTHING AROUND YOU, HAS RESULTED IN A STRANGE ABILITY TO DO SO.

GATHERS ALL INFORMATION FROM YOUR CONSCOUS AND SUBCONSCIOUS, BOTH KNOWN AND FORGOTTEN.

CAN BE SWITCHED BETWEEN PASSIVE AND ACTIVE

PASSIVE: DISPLAYS ALL RELEVANT KNOWN AND FORGOTTEN INFORMATION INTO YOUR VISION

COST: PERMANENT USAGE OF 10% OF TOTAL MANA

ACTIVE: [i]IN ADDITION TO DISPLAYING ALL RELEVANT KNOWN AND FORGOTTEN INFORMATION, IT REMOVES ANY AND ALL FALSEHOODS

COST: CONSUMES 20% OF TOTAL MANA (WHICH CANNOT BE RECOVERED OR USED UNTIL ABILITY IS SWITCHED TO PASSIVE), 5% of TOTAL HEALTH/SECOND (CANNOT BE RECOVERED UNTIL ABILITY IS SWITCHED TO PASSIVE)

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

RECKONING FROM THE AFTERLIFE (LVL 1):

Life is hard. Betrayal is worse. The RECKONING that comes after, will haunt you more than you can imagine.

BEWARE!! When one is cursed, 2 graves will follow!

While there is always an escape for one who is cursed, the one who curses will be damned regardless!

COST: 50% of Health

EFFECT 1: Curse a person you have met. If you have enough hatred, you will know where to go to find them! Lasts until Sunup or Sundown, depending on when it is activated.

EFFECT 2: -10% Health/Hour. If Sunup/Sundown is reached, -100% Health. If the RECKONING is fulfilled, -100% Health

RESTRICTIONS: Can only be used on targets with enough Hatred attached. Can only be used by those with Spiritual Energy, Spiritual Connections, or the Equivalent thereof.

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”

Spoiler :

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

TITLES:FIRST-BORN OF THE MISTFAME:100INFAMY:0HEALTH:105 (+5)MANA:160 (+170)

STRENGTH:22 (+10)INTELLIGENCE:10 (+10)(+3)DEXTERITY:10 (+10)(-2)WILLPOWER:6 (+10)(+7)VITALITY:10 (+10)CHARISMA:0 (+10)AGILITY:10 (+10)DEFENSE:10 (+10)(+1)LUCK:1 (+10)

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

*First number in parentheses is title boost, second is equipment boost (or demerit)