Chapter 285 284. The Real Beginning.
A handsome black-haired elf man gently kissed the forehead of a gorgeous black-haired woman with a bright smile on his face. "I\'ll see you \'there,\'" he said and disappeared, pixelating.
With my eyes closed, I let myself be teleported according to the system\'s wishes.
DING
[Special token detected]
With that notification, instead of teleporting into a certain place, I began to float in a blank space.
[Perks are activating...]
[First perk "synchronise" initializing...]
[Skills "pause", and "release" are synchronising...]
[Skill: "Pause-Play" created!]
[Skill: Pause-Play (Rank-Epic): User can stop and let a "motion" continue in its tracks. (Any "matter" can be paused and played.) (Proficiency: 0%) (Cool Down: None)]
[Titles "prince of destruction," "human hunter," and "inheritor" are synchronising...]
[Title: Indifferent Berserker of the Twilight created!]
[Title: IBOTT: An emotionless berserker who grows stronger the more indifferent he/she stays. (Stats increased by 2x at twilight.) (10% stat increase at all times) (Activated when equipped)] (currently equipped)
[Second perk "selection" initializing...]
[Common Classes are being displayed according to the perk!]
[Warrior, swordsman, spearman, archer, martial artist...]
The list continued to extend, giving a class to all weapons, individually, and I was quite satisfied by the classes because I didn\'t really want to choose a mage class, again, and with the title I gained from the first perk is quite good for me.
If I want to choose from these, then I need to decide between a warrior and a martial artist because only these two classes don\'t seem to have certain weapon requirement, hmmm...
"I\'ll choose this." I mumbled and clicked on the class I found most suitable for me.
[Class: Martial artist has been selected!]
I chose martial artist because the "warrior" class gave off these serviceman-type vibes, and I definitely wasn\'t that type.
[Class-exclusive skills initiating....]
DING!
[Skills [Martial Body], [Energy manipulation], and [Martial footwork] are engraved in user\'s body.]
"WTF?" I mumbled with a stoic expression on my face. The basic moments of a fist martial art technique were imprinted in my mind, and what shocked me was the fact that all of the basic techniques could be turned to my own convenience, according to the weapon I wield. Even though I had learned many martial arts techniques myself, they were nothing compared to the basic moments engraved in my mind; the moments were very simple and very lethal if connected.
The energy manipulation skill allowed me to manipulate aether in every inch of my body, and a lot more smoothly than how I was doing it till now. If my proficiency increased, then my body would involuntarily create an aether shield around my body, just like in those martial arts novels! While martial body skill changed my entire skeletal, muscle, and nerve systems entirely, footwork was simple stride techniques that I was familiar with, but it still felt slightly different, but overall, everything was....
Underwhelming.
I mean, they were lethal and better, and were definitely martial art-y like, but my own techniques were far better.
[User\'s body adaptation of the newly adjusted stats completed.]
[Lowering user\'s stats.]
[Placing restrictions!]
[Restrictions can be broken at MAX level, level 20!]
"!!!!" I suddenly felt all my strength leaving my body and felt like my own body was a burden that I had forgotten about; my dense muscles and intelligence didn\'t really feel like they changed all that much, making it a bit more harder for me to get used to it.
And these are the times that Nhifrogr comes to mind, rescuing me from my abrupt predicament. And his knowledge about a human body helped me a lot in understanding the martial art techniques and manipulating aether according to the energy manipulation skill far more efficiently than the skill itself, and much more, albeit a bit slowly, I found myself getting adjusted to my current state.
[Third perk "Growth" initializing...]
\'There\'s more?\'
[Class, skills, and user are being engraved with "Growth" status permanently!]
[With the user\'s previous body constitution, Martial Body will go under new changes according to the growth status!]
"ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs—goddamn, did it hurt like hell!
\'Why????? Why, why, why, why, whyy, why, why!!!\' I yelled inwardly since I wasn\'t able to yell outwardly. I abruptly lost all the pain endurance I had earned while in pain, so how could I just let it go when I abruptly lost all my pain endurance? How much pain I had been under to earn that! And they dare take away what\'s mine?
Inwardly, with a loud boom, the cue of my death reverberated throughout my head, as my body shuddered in pain. I scoffed at the cue of my death. Though it had been a long time, it wasn\'t as if I feared death; that\'s just bullsh*t. Why would I fear death...
As my thoughts neared the end, my body trembled when I abruptly felt scared of death as a certain face flashed in my mind. Who else would it be except for Isha\'s? As soon as her face appeared in my head, my thoughts changed. Even now I am not afraid of death, but I was afraid of what would happen to her if I did die. How would she take the news of my death? I don\'t want that! How would she react? Would she kill herself? But I don\'t want that! Would she try to harm herself? Would she blame me? I don\'t want that! Would she...
\'NO!!! I don\'t want that! I don\'t want that! I don\'t ...\' Those words reverberated in my mind like a chant, overwhelming all my other thoughts as if they weren\'t of any significance, and for the first time in all of my life, I wanted to fight against death.
I would have always welcomed the thought of death with my arms wide open, but not now. I couldn\'t even bear the thought of leaving her alone, leaving her behind again; no, that wasn\'t going to happen ever.
"Uuuurrrrggggggggh!!!" I clenched my teeth and endured the pain, so what if I lost my pain tolerance? I just have to endure it again until it\'s back to the way it was!
DING!
[Skill: Heaven Defying Martial Body (Rank-Legendary) created!]
BOOM!
And unfortunate for me, the pain I just felt was the icing on the cake; a lot more was coming my way as my bones broke, muscles tore, nerves snapped, and everything that was unwanted and somehow still remained in my body began to be expelled from the pores of my skin that expanded up to a millimetre!
And due to my class being a growth type, the other higher levels of the martial art class ranks appeared in my mind; it wasn\'t really that complicated. Taking the example of Rank-F, the first was Rank-F (-), the second was Rank-F, and finally it was Rank-F (+), which was the last rank before breaking through to the next rank, which would be Rank-E according to the example.
And with the other information, I also learned that skill utility will be limited according to the class, so I was slightly relieved, even amid the insane amount of pain, that I would be able to use mage-like skills under the name "projectiles" in the martial art techniques.
"Uuuurrrrggggggggh!!!" With one last loud scream of anguish, the changes happening in my body finally stopped, but the pain was still there, lowering as time passed as a sigh of pained relief escaped my mouth. With a few gasps of air, my face turned back to stoic again, as if nothing really happened.
\'Now, that hurt.\' I muttered in my mind as the pain completely subsided, and my face didn\'t even flinch anymore as blackish, sh*t-like goo fell down from my body, into nothingness.
DING
[Body rebuilding is completed under the influence of the Heaven Defying Martial Body skill.]
[All impurities inside the user\'s body have been expelled!]
[Energy Manipulation is taking effect.]
My body felt slightly lighter, and I was unable to take my sword from my sub-space due to my aether signature and the amount I was able to exert not being enough.
\'I should have just taken a weapon when I had a chance to.\' I muttered in my mind, but I wasn\'t really bothered by it because,
\'Link.\' I muttered in my mind, and with a few static electric sparks, my dual guns materialised in my hands, which I held in one hand before a silver pistol materialised in my free hand. I held my silver pistol in my right hand and a handgun in my left as another handgun dematerialised.
"Good." I muttered.
DING
[The user is being transported to the designated destination!]
ZA-P!
My body pixelated before I completely disappeared from the spot I floated, and before I even knew it, I was in front of a massive horde of weird-looking yet familiar monsters, glaring at me with drool-filled mouths,
"Should I have chosen an AR?"
****
(AN: Eshwar\'s current status window)
[Status window:]
===
[Name: Eshwar]
[Race: Cosmic human.]
[Title: Indifferent Berserker of the Twilight (IBOTT)]
[Perk: Growth]
[Class: Martial Artist (Proficiency: Rank-F) (Rank: common)]
[Age: 1721 years.]
[Level: 5]
[Rank-D]
===
[Stats:]
---
[Strength: 5 (+39)] (+)
[Agility: 6 (+39)] (+)
[Defence: 5 (+39)] (+)
[Perception: 7 (+39)] (+)
[Intelligence: 6 (+39)] (+)
(Stat limit 10 for all races)
===
[Class-exclusive skills:]
---
[Heaven Defying Martial Body], [Energy Manipulation], [Martial Footwork]
===
[Skills:]
---
[Pause-Play], [Wish], [Black Hole], [Break]
===
====
[Inventory:]
---
[Devil\'s Shotgun [BOUND ITEM] [Rank: ???] [Type: GUN]: Skills: Quick reload, Burst.]
[ITEM: SKILL LEVEL INCREASE SCROLL.] (15x)
[Rank-SSS monster core] (68x)
===
[Miscellaneous:]
---
[Free stat points: 19]
[Achievement points: 2,222,000]
====