It wasn’t difficult for Erickesh to sneak out of the castle; the peace of Aurelthain was his true partner in crime. The city itself was a great place to live, but the Carrington Castle? It was impregnable and had so much security no one unauthorized could go into the castle interior, though going out on the other hand was easy to do.
He walked with caution and disgust as he waded through people and smells, reaching the Four Hills Crossroads. He followed one of the exits to a small spices shop, the kind which most would ignore for being too expensive to shop from and too difficult to rob.
Erickesh walked in and ignored the shopkeeper, instead taking a backdoor to an underground cellar. He took out a glowing crystal from his pocket, letting it drop to the ground where it illuminated a ritual circle carved into the very wood.
Crushing the crystal under his foot, he started a chant.
He disappeared in a burst of light, appearing on top of a similar circle in a location even he was not aware of.
“Clown,” he said, nodding toward a figure in the dark sitting in front of him.
“Ah! Your royal highness, you’re here; let’s get started, shall we?”
“You’re sure this will make me more powerful than even Grenshaw and my father? You know what will happen to you if you have lied, right?” Erickesh summoned his sword as he threatened the Clown.
“HeHeHeHeHe,” the woman in the clown mask got up and did an animated bow in front of the young prince. “Of course, your highness, you will jump directly to the mythical Rank 6 and gain a multitude of spells to go with it.”
“Good, let’s begin then.”
The Clown bowed again and gestured for Erickesh to follow her. The whole place was an empty ground with hard earth everywhere, likely a large underground cave with faint luminescent plant life giving the whole cave a hazy light.
They reached another ritual circle carved on the ground, but this was no ordinary circle—it was as if the whole pattern was made of liquid gold which shone an eerie blue-gold from the hazy light.
Standing just before the ritual circle, the Clown continued to speak.
“As you must have no doubt noticed, this ritual circle bears a resemblance to the one Grenshaw used to summon that powerless idiot. But my organization has studied his research and has found out that it can also be used to channel the raw interdimensional chaos and turn it into magic to empower a person.”
“And in return, you want my formal backing, supporting you over the Magic Society once I am the King?”
“Yes, your highness. It is as you say. Just because we believe that some lines must be crossed for the betterment of the world, we are shunned by the churches and persecuted by the people. All we want is the right to help people freely.”
“Noble goals, Clown. I will be glad to give you my full backing, of course, given that you stay true to your word.”
“What could I ever get from fooling someone like you?” the woman called Clown bowed, hiding a grin behind her mask.
“Very well,” Erickesh replied.
“Please step onto the circle, your highness; we are ready.”
“Your basics are surprisingly solid. You said you haven’t held a sword before?” Ren questioned at Arthur, parrying all of his strikes in the latest flurry of attacks.
Arthur grunted at the man in front of him. He had trouble believing what was happening; as soon as he got the System, he wanted to try out the skills it gave him and had requested Grenshaw for a sparring partner to test out his Basic Swordsmanship [Rank 1].
Today, when what appeared to be a 12-year-old boy appeared at his door asking if he was ready to spar, Arthur thought it to be a joke. He knew Grenshaw was unknowingly arrogant and assumed he had thought Arthur to be incompetent and found a new trainee for him to spar with. The truth, as he would later find, was that Ren was not a little boy by any means; instead, he was a 35-year-old halfling and one of the best swordsmen in Carrington Castle. How Ren could use a sword more massive in size than his own body was not fully answered, other than a single reply: “Well, he’s had good training.”
He looked at his shaking hands after dropping the sword.
He thought of the System interface, and it popped open in front of him.
Name: Arthur Averell
Title: [The one from beyond]
Race: Human
Age: 28
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Level: 3
Class: [Time Keeper]
- HP (Health Points): 100/100
- MP (Mana Points): 50/50
- Stamina: 80/80
- Strength (STR): 10
- Agility (AGI): 17
- Dexterity (DEX): 12
- Constitution (CON): 10
- Intelligence (INT): 14
- Wisdom (WIS): 13
- Charisma (CHA): 11
- Fate (LCK): ???
- [Unassigned points: 3]
- [Locked] - System Integration Required (currently in progress 8%, Estimated time - 31 days)
- Basic Swordsmanship [Rank 1] - Slight increase in handling edged weapons.
- Observation [Rank 1] - Allows a basic understanding of objects and people upon focus.
- Mana Sensitivity [Rank 1] - Passively senses mana without stamina consumption.
- The Moment [Rank 1] – Expand a moment in time.
Just by fighting for a couple of hours, Arthur’s level had increased by 2; each level up had given him 3 points, and he had assigned all the points from his first level up to AGI, immediately noticing the difference in his speed and thought processing to keep up with the increased agility.
Happy with the results, Arthur got up and held his sword again.
“Let’s go again,” he said, getting into stance.
“Whoa! You’re very diligent for a runaway nobility,” Ren remarked.
Right, that was my cover story here, Arthur recalled. Fitting, he thought, considering his name is Arthur.
“Even if you’re diligent, breaks are just as necessary,” Ren continued, “Perhaps you should take a break, old man.”
“Aren’t you older than me?”
Arthur only felt the flat of Ren’s blade hit his head and a childish “Oops.” “You’re not actually a child,” were Arthur’s last thoughts before passing out.
When he woke up and checked the time, which was conveniently displayed on the corner of his System interface, he was surprised to find it was already the next day, albeit before sunrise.
“Just how hard did that idiot hit me?”
- HP (Health Points): 78/100
- MP (Mana Points): 50/50
He had actually lost 22% of his HP with a blunt attack. Five of those and he’d be dead. Arthur laughed at the absurdity.
Since it was still early in the morning, he decided to go for a walk to the roof; he hadn’t yet seen the sunrise of this world. On the way, he also decided to test some of his other abilities.
With Mana Sensitivity [Rank 1], his senses were all heightened; he could sense things as if everything had an additional sensory response—like he had two sets of eyes and ears instead of just one. He could faintly sense the flow of air, which should have been imperceptible at this speed. He used the flow of air to find his way to the stairs.
He also used his Observation [Rank 1] skill to look at the things in the hallways, which were sparsely decorated. He didn’t think Grenshaw was the type of person who cared much for menial decoration. Instead, he found some actual armor on display and a few spell scroll relics. He stopped to check each of them with his skill.
[Ironwood Sentinel Helm] [Rank 1]
Type: Armor (Head)
Description: A helmet carved from magically treated ironwood, offering lightweight protection.
Effect: +1 [STR], minor resistance to wind-based attacks (in addition to the defense of the covered area)
Durability: 20/100
[Scroll of Lesser Flamebind] [Rank 2]
Type: Spell Instruction Scroll
Description: A relic of a scroll containing a basic flame-binding incantation (needs to be restored before it is usable).
Effect: Binds target’s limbs with fire for ? seconds.
Requirement: Mana ≥ 10
[Scroll of Great Demon Summoning] [Rank 3]
Type: Spell Instruction Scroll
Description: A relic of a scroll containing a great demon summoning ritual (can be learned).
Effect: Summons a Great Demon to do your bidding for a mana cost.
Requirement: Mana ≥ 100
[Knight of Vale's Gauntlet] [Rank 2]
Type: Relic Armor Piece (Hands)
Description: Once worn by a knight sworn to protect the Vale Kingdom. Slightly dented, but still potent.
Effect: +1 Strength, unlocks passive skill Grip of Duty (prevents weapon disarm once per combat).
Durability: 60/100
[Sigil of Arcanum Sight] [Rank 4]
Type: Magical Trinket
Description: A silver badge inscribed with an ancient eye rune.
Effect: Temporarily boosts any perception-based skill by +1 rank when held (only applicable to skills below Rank 5).
Cooldown: 12 hours
He was examining everything one by one when [Scroll of Great Demon Summoning] caught his eye.
(Can be learned)
“What?”
He checked the scroll again.
[Scroll of Great Demon Summoning] [Rank 3]
Type: Spell Instruction Scroll
Description: A relic of a scroll containing a great demon summoning skill (can be learned).
Effect: Summons a Great Demon to do your bidding for a mana cost.
Requirement: Mana ≥ 100
Would you like to learn?
Yes???No
He thought for a second and clicked Yes. “A skill is a skill,” he thought, considering the ominous name.
Immediately, he could feel the knowledge and incantation required to summon the Great Demon entering his mind. He struggled to stand up straight for a few seconds with an intense headache; the feeling soon passed, and he felt normal again.
Arthur opened the System to check his new skill.
[ Great Demon Summoning] [Rank 3]
Summon a great demon of hell from the underworld to do your bidding.
Cost: 80 MP per minute, 107 gold crystals to create a vessel on the first summoning
Requirement: Mana ≥ 100
It sounded like a good skill to Arthur, but he couldn’t use it quite yet. He continued on his way for now toward the roof.
It was a bare stone roof. There were a couple of guards at the adjoining watchtowers, but no one else. Arthur climbed up the edge and sat down to look at the rising sun. He didn’t have many thoughts in his mind, but he did think of one thing.
-
[Main Quest: The Path Ahead]
-
[Locked] - System Integration Required (currently in progress 10%, Estimated time - 30 days)
-
Objective: [Locked] - System Integration Required (currently in progress 10%, Estimated time - 30 days)
-
Reward: System Functions Unlocked, ???
-
The main quest starts in 30 days. I don’t know what it is, but it has to mean something significant is going to happen, and I need to be ready. I hope I can trust the future me to not screw me over. He renewed his passion for freedom with the rising of the sun, a beautiful blaze like the sky was on fire with a hundred different colors. He wondered idly if it was the atmosphere that was different or the star itself that produced these myriad colors.