That last blue screen hadn’t been lying. I did return to life. In fact, I plopped back at the exact location I had been the mont I had died. Right back on the lip of that volcano’s crater.
I blinked. Then coughed, my nose wrinkling at the acrid stench. Yep, I really was back on the volcano.
Most of was focused on simply centering myself just then. I was intensely aware of the hard ground at my back—no kindling, thank goodness—and the taste of the burnt air and the way I almost wished I had returned naked because my old clothes were filthy with soot, sweat, and blood. It was an incredible experience to not only be ritually sacrificed by having a magical gun blow a hole in my skull, but to then miraculously co back to life.
Speaking of… I raised my hand to my head and felt around all over. Huh. No giant holes leaking blood and the last of my probably-insane-by-now brain. That last notification hadn’t lied about this either. The Divine Blessing or whatever it had been really had healed my body perfectly.
That quickly brought reality crashing back on my mind. I couldn’t afford to waste ti coddling my shocked sensibilities when I was supposed to literally implode within a day.
If it hadn’t lied about returning to life, then it surely wouldn’t lie about that either.
And considering I had just co back to life, I really, really had no intention of dying again. Which ant figuring out everything that was going on and getting a proper grip on things.
I slowly sat up. At least there were no more of those sacrificing maniacs around.
Now, what had all those blue boxes said? I thought back through all the things I had read. Honestly, it was kind of annoying not to be able to pull up the last few screens to read them again. If there was an all-powerful system or sothing similar that was wrapped around the very fabric of existence in this universe, then why was there no such thing as a log for ssages?
I sighed. Maybe there was and I was just too under levelled or sothing to access it.
Whatever. I racked my brain. The main thing was that my Path had changed. I had gone from Summoned to sothing called Newborn Star. I absolutely didn’t feel like a star whatsoever. Where was my valet and my limousine, damn it?
There was also another key change, though it hadn’t been highlighted as much from what I rembered. I now had proper access to… I forgot what it was called. But I had access to it. I was sure of that.
“Alright,” I said. Maybe I was getting used to the air here because I wasn’t coughing as much, nor were my eyes trying to recreate a flood of biblical proportions. Which… should be concerning because I didn’t want this ghastly air to kill either. “Focus.”
Right, right. Now, what did people do in situations like this? Call out random words until hopefully one of them triggered sothing that revealed an entire window of information.
“Uh, status,” I said. “Profile. Window. Rank? Character…”
I was starting to feel a little dumb. Maybe I was relying on assumptions too much. Silly old stories didn’t have their protagonists get imdiately killed via a ritual sacrifice.
Back to the task at hand. I closed my eyes and tried to use my willpower. I’d been given full access to the… the Weave! That was it. And if it was true, then I could just concentrate on what I wanted to see and bring it forth.
Bright light tried to blind again. I laughed. “There we go.”
[ Ross Moreland
Profile
Race: Human
Weave Access: Full
Paths
Path of the Newborn Star: Iron I
Core
Mana Implosion: [Unawakened]
General Attributes
Vitality: Iron I
Power: Iron I
Agility: Iron I
Path Attributes
Spirit: Iron I
Aspects
Gravity: Iron I
Affix 1: […]
Ti until Mana Implosion: 23 hours ]
That was quite a lot of information, but it wasn’t a problem. Unlike all the other screens that went away over ti, this one stayed until I banished it myself, so I could take my sweet ti poring over the specifics.
This text was taken from . Help the author by reading the original version there.
Everything was at Iron I, which I was going to assu was a rank or level signifier for effectiveness or power or sothing. Not Power. Just regular power. Because Power itself was an Attribute. I wasn’t sure what that ant, but it sounded like stats, and I had a sneaking suspicion Iron I was the lowest of the low.
Figured. I had just arrived at this world and received my access to the Weave and to this new Path. If I wanted to raise the ranks, I’d have to find ways to advance and improve…
I shook my head. Thoughts I could entertain for later when I wasn’t in imminent danger of exploding due to too much mana consumption or whatever insanity my Core was apparently doing.
The prospect should have made hurry. It should have sent panicking, just as I had been doing when I was monts away from being burned alive by the ritualists. Cultists? I had no idea what they were. Point was, I wasn’t panicking. Not after already having died once. Not after struggling so much before and having it amount to practically nothing.
Struggling against the odds was all well and good, but I was back and I was free. I had access to the Weave. I had a proper Path.
Basically, I needed to remain calm and figure things out with the tools I had.
I idly wondered what the next tier was. Bronze? Wait, was bronze actually better than iron? I wanted to think so, but my knowledge on ancient tallurgy was minuscule at best.
Silver was a more likely candidate, going by tal style ranks I was used to from back ho. Gold afterwards. Was there a Platinum level after that?
Sovereign. The gangster-wizard had ntioned that. And limited though my knowledge about the periodic table was, I was pretty sure that wasn’t a tal. Unless, this world had a tal called that, which would be odd.
Curiously, there was no rank next to my Affix, whatever that was. Considering it was right under the Gravity Aspect, and with that empty space next to it, I figured I could pick sothing about the Aspect there. Although, when I focused on it, I didn’t get a handy list of options to select from.
Nothing at all happened, really. Just great.
Co to think of it, the Weave had just handed the Aspect. There hadn’t been any options to select from at the start either. That was a little annoying, and I hoped wouldn’t be the case going forward.
I was focusing on the Affix because if I could use Gravity sohow, I could use it to burn off excess mana and push back the countdown. Surely, that was how it worked? Aspects sounded like magical powers, and those were generally driven by mana.
Once again, my attempt at intensely focusing on it didn’t help. I was groping in the dark, blindly attempting sothing I didn’t have the faintest clue about. No doubt, there was so mystical crap about using mana in such a way that it activated the Aspect to channel its power or elent or sothing along those lines.
Wait, was I making assumptions again?
I needed information. Which—I decided, as I looked around—was probably lacking on the top of a volcano likely only ever used for ritual sacrifices. Co to think of it, why even bother with such a dramatic setting if they weren’t even going to use the lava and the sheer terror the drop would inspire and all that? Terrible event organization.
Getting to my slightly shaky feet, I began pacing, as much to help think as to get my limbs working properly again. Being dead had probably not been good for them, even if I had been healed.
Twenty-three hours. Admittedly, it was annoying because it could be twenty-three hours and fifty-nine minutes or twenty-three hours and one minute, and I would be none of the wiser.
Well… I waited what felt like a minute and saw it didn’t change, so I supposed it wasn’t exactly one minute.
Regardless, I was sure I’d find sothing before the tir was up. Long before that, if I was lucky. I paused. Was I lucky? On the one hand, getting plucked randomly to be sacrificed in a different world felt like the height of bad luck.
On the other hand, I had been sent back after said Sacrifice was rejected. With new powers to boot. Albeit, powers I wasn’t sure how to access yet.
My pacing had taken closer to the edge of the volcano, near enough that to look into the depths filled with bubbling lava. My nose itched at the strength of the fus there. That was a long fall…
Footsteps made halt. I turned to see that one of the robed jerks was still around. He was the youngest of the trio. Actually, now that I looked at him, I was pretty sure he was still a teenager. The peach fuzz on his face definitely heightened the youthful impression.
He halted too, gawking at . “***** **** alive?”
“Yeah, I’m alive,” I said. I understood only one word, but even if I hadn’t, I had a good idea about what was going through his head. “Despite your best efforts.”
He looked unsure for a while, and I was starting to fear that he’d turn tail and run away to call in the rest of his little sacrificing squadron. But then he began marching straight for . I did not like the look in his eyes.
For a few thumping heartbeats, I considered standing my ground and fighting him off. He was younger than . Slightly shorter and a lot ganglier as well. I could take him. Physically.
But that was my dumb assumptions and desperate judgnt talking. If I had just received access to the Weave, wasn’t it likely that the native people here had similar capabilities from as soon as they were born? Or at least, when they passed so threshold in age and experience as they grew up?
Even if I thought I could take him in fisticuffs, this guy could have mana-based powers that would leave flat on my back in seconds. Not to ntion I had zero clue what sort of physical martial training he might have had.
I raised my hands to forestall any unnecessary violence. “How about we discuss things civilly like normal, rational human beings?”
A riot of emotions passed across his face. I thought I caught it a bit of regret, a bit of almost hopeful wonder, before it settled on determination.
“****** *** right,” he said, most of his words just not registering in my brain as sothing decipherable. It was extrely weird to understand one sudden word here and there in amongst the unintelligible gibberish. “* **** *** be ****** ** you!”
Hmm, I didn’t get much out of that, but I was pretty certain negotiation was off the table.
“You know,” I said. “You can literally see that trying to sacrifice didn’t work last ti. I’m standing right in front of you. What do you think is going to happen when you kill again?”
I was going to die. That was what would happen. And this ti, it wouldn’t be so sort of ritual sacrifice—or rather, Sacrifice—that the System would recognize and then reward. My soul would leave my body permanently. Sothing I naturally wanted to avoid at all costs.
But this guy didn’t know all that. As far as I knew, his fra of reference was causing a Sacrifice and seeing co back alive, perfectly fine, not even tied up any longer.
Sothing I could use.
“I was blessed,” I said. “Your Sacrifice resulted in a Divine Blessing. You’re wasting your own efforts!”
The gangly youth just shook his head belligerently. Threads of light worked up his arms. Unlike with the vampire, these lines of magic were bright, burning orange. Ah, I was right. No negotiations. “** sorry,” he said. “But **** **** ** ****. *** *** good ** *** ****.”
He approached. Fast. Hard. Leaving no room to run or dodge even if I had been aning to do either.
Panic clutched my chest again like a giant vice squeezing my ribcage. I didn’t want to die again. I wasn’t going to die again. Not after I had co back, not now that I could fight back.
Gravity. That was all I had with . That was all I needed. I just had to make it work. In the brief instant before we collided, I imagined what I could do by using my new powers, how I could use it in this instance to stop my adversary charging at like an implacable bull.
Sothing burst inside my chest. The harsh breath I had been about to drag in stuttered on the way to my lungs. A sizzling sensation burned through my body like livewires worming along every nerve, every blood vessel, every muscle and tendon I possessed. I felt like falling yet was rooted to my spot in my upright position at the sa ti.
Gleaming purple threads burst to life all over my body. They caged , hemd in, wrapped in a cocoon of power that turned solider and heavier every second.
The gangly youth’s eyes widened at seeing the threads. It didn’t stop his rush. What did stop him, though, was the contact.
Just before he hit , the purple threads deepened in colour until they turned nearly black. A sensation of incredible mass weighed on every single organic matter my body possessed and the clothes I was wearing to boot. The youth collided against and ca to a smacking halt like he had struck a solid, unshakeable wall.
For my part, I hadn’t moved an inch.
[ Affix Unlocked!
You have acquired a new Affix for your Gravity Aspect.
Affix: Infusion ]
I grinned at the blue screen as the youth staggered back with wide eyes, muttering incomprehensibly. My grin turned to a pleased laugh as I finished reading the bright words. There. I had done it.
I had unlocked how to use my Aspect.
Reviews
All reviews (0)