Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (28 page)
Read Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 Online
Authors: D Wolfin
Tags: #Virtual Reality, #Romance, #Steampunk, #game, #futuristic, #litRPG, #Fantasy, #guns, #post apocalypse
“Ah, I’m sorry. You really
don’t want to kill me. I only want to leave this place. Without dying, I mean,”
Regal frantically spews forth a ramble of sentences to the monster, whose
terrifying jaws are only a few inches away from his head. Being eaten by a
monster is definitely one of the more terrifying ways to die that Regal does
not want to experience.
The monster glares at
Regal as its hot breath washes over his face. It was originally going to kill
this small thing in its hands, but has taken an interest in it. Being bored in
this place for so long, it doesn’t want the only new thing to vanish so
suddenly.
“If you’re hungry, I have
food. Here! Have some food.” Regal takes out a loaf of bread and some heavily
salted meat from his inventory and holds it out in front of the monster.
The Obsidian Wolf’s nose
picks up the scent of the meat and its eyes are immediately drawn to it. It
uses its free hand and stabs a claw through the meat, cutting Regal’s hand and
taking away a quarter of his health.
Regal’s expression pales
as he panics thinking the monster is about to eat him, but instead it eats the
meat off the tip of its claw like a skewer. The giant beast is clearly happy
with the food, as it points a claw at him in indication that it wants more. It
doesn’t understand Regal’s language, but Regal seems to think is has some
inclination of comprehension.
“Yes. Yes. Please, have
some more, just don’t eat me,” Regal quickly pulls out another chunk of meat.
The piece is the size of two of his hands, and of considerable value, but it is
a mere appetizer for the monster.
“Now that you’ve eaten,
can I go now? I really want to go home as soon as possible.”
With Regal’s words
leading, he also swings his arms around and makes basic movements to express
that he wants to go. The monster can’t understand his words, but it can gain some
understanding from his actions. It has a great amount of insight when Regal
points to himself, makes a motion of to walk, and points upward.
The Obsidian Wolf is
surprised and even looks up, which causes Regal to become hopeful and start
rambling on about countless things the monster can’t understand.
Not knowing what to do,
the monster stares at Regal intently, causing the subject to start sweating
profusely. It eventually comes to a conclusion, swinging Regal over its
shoulder and pinning him there while walking off. It takes Regal to a small
room, fifty feet wide and long, that the Obsidian Wolf can barely fit through
the doorway of.
When Regal is thrown onto
the hard floor, he grunts painfully before sitting up. The monster props itself
onto the ground in front of Regal and points a single claw at his chest,
indicating something. Thinking it wants food, Regal takes out another chunk of
meat for the monster, but it doesn’t accept it, shifting its claw until it
becomes scarily close to him.
“I’m sorry! I don’t know
what you want!”
Just as Regal starts
speaking, the wolf withdraws its claw, and as soon as he stops, places it back
at his throat menacingly.
“You, you want me to
talk?”
The monster repeats its
actions as before but doesn’t acknowledge anything so Regal is left to
helplessly speculate. He speaks for a longer period of time and the wolf seems
to be content.
Regal speaks for an entire
day, the wolf only letting him stop to eat and drink. It became increasingly
fond of the fresh cooked meat, immediately taking it all and leaving Regal with
anything else he prepared.
Early when it should be
morning in the outside world, Regal becomes increasingly tired from not
sleeping all night and starts to fall asleep while talking. The Obsidian Wolf
notices this and enters into a howling fury from not getting what it wants.
The monster is careful not to attack the small existence that holds its
interest, but the attacks it launches glow and leave a crimson trail that
threatens to slice Regal into a multitude of pieces.
The damage to the
surrounding area causes Regal to jump in fright and instantly become wide
awake. The monster sees this and stops its fury, placing itself back in front
of Regal again to listen to him talk. The walls are now covered in a new layer
of gashes that overlay those left years ago in a similar fashion.
Of course Regal starts to
lapse back into unconsciousness again, but this time the Obsidian Wolf sits
patiently and lets him sleep, eventually lying down to rest itself, now
understanding why the little Immortalis stopped making noise.
The Obsidian Wolf keeps
Regal within this room as a hostage for over a month, forcing him to continue
talking for its own interest. Being alive as long as it has, its attention span
for even the simplest subjects is exceedingly long, let alone a new and
intriguing language.
After a month of listening
to Regal’s words and watching his body language, the monster begins to form an
understanding of the language and what each word means. It can even speak a few
words itself, but its voice is coarse and not meant for Regal’s language.
Regal’s food has long
since been expended due to the Obsidian Wolf eating so much, but it has taken
to leaving Regal’s captive room to hunt for and bring back Mutant Rat Kings
that Regal chops apart and cooks to feed them both.
Only a week into his
captivity Regal started to call the monster Ophius, a simple male name that he
can refer to it with. Explaining Ophius’s name to it, the wolf was completely
indifferent, unlike when Regal explained his own name.
Regal’s nervousness has
also since faded, no longer fearing that that Ophius will instantly kill him.
He still does nothing to provoke him though, and doesn’t leave the room which
would be pointless as Ophius can track him by smell.
A month and a half after
becoming a captive for the strange Ophius, the Obsidian Wolf leaves the room
once again to bring back some rat kings. Regal has taken these opportunities to
inspect the room he is in and find out why it is so different from the rest of
the dungeon.
As far as Regal can tell
the Obsidian Wolf also started sleeping here because it’s unique.
Inspecting the rear wall
for what seems to be the tenth time already, Regal finds something different
compared to normal. While running his hands along one of the pipes forming the
wall, a simple bronze one at that, he feels a depression in it. If it was an
attack from the Obsidian Wolves rage that did it, it would look like everything
else in the room that had been carved up. Instead, it is only a small
depression that could be easily missed.
He bends down to stick his
head beneath the pipe to have a look around it. When he does, he sees a
surprising sight that makes his eyes go wide. There is a small gap behind the
pipe where there are no other pipes, but instead a tiny entrance into a small
room.
Glancing around to make
sure Ophius hasn’t come back yet, he squeezes through the hole and into the new
room. It only takes him a minute or two to reach it, and he finds that it is
half the size as the room he was held captive in. In the center of the room,
there is a short altar with three items on it: A piece of paper and two books.
Excitement and joy burst
from his chest as he rushes up to the altar and picks up the three items,
inspecting them one at a time. The first is the yellow piece of paper that has
fantastical calligraphy on it.
Blank
Title Deed
Can be used once to activate any inactive Rebirth Pond and
claim ownership of the location it is used free of any price. Cannot be used on
an active Rebirth Pond.
The item in Regal’s hands
is of incomprehensible value. Locations which have naturally occurring Rebirth
Ponds usually cost millions, if not tens of millions of gold coins for the
larger ones, to activate. To be able to ignore that price and claim ownership
means that this piece of paper is worth the same amount of gold coins as the
cost to activate a Rebirth Pond!
Regal places the title
deed into his inventory and inspects the second item, which happens to be a
unique skill book.
Soul
Authority
A skill granting the ability to use the power of the soul.
Soul force is an intangible energy that cannot be blocked by any barrier and
cannot be detected.
Minimum requirements to learn this skill:
~ None
Would you like to learn
‘Soul
Authority'
?
Yes
/ No
Regal immediately selects
yes, knowing that it must be a good skill. A blinding flash of light fills the
room and the skill book vanishes from his hand. The skill appears in his list
of miscellaneous skills and he is immediately prompted to select one of two
Tier 1 Divine Arts.
Soul
Authority:
(Tier
1) Soul Inspection
–
Gaze at a target’s soul to discern their level and stats.
Skills are not shown. Target cannot be more than 10 levels above the user for
this technique to succeed.
Soul
Inspection
Cost: 30 mana
(Tier
1) Soul Shackle –
Can cast a binding on the target’s soul and make them loyal
to the caster until released. Targets bound must be subdued by the caster or
willing to be bound else this technique will fail. There is no limit to amount
of creatures that can be bound.
Soul
Shackle
Cost: 20 mana X level of target
The skill book is even
more valuable than the deed in Regal’s opinion. His only dilemma is that he
doesn’t know which Divine Art to choose. The first can be used to determine the
level and stats of an enemy which can be crucial when engaging an unknown
player or creature, but then again the immortalis’ danger sense is extremely
acute and most mutated beasts and monsters have been researched.
The latter choice is
excellent in allowing him to build up an army, but the constraints are that he
must defeat them himself, and Regals talents lie in miscellaneous skills and
crafting rather than in combat skills.
After some deliberation,
Regal chooses the second option, ‘Soul Shackle’, as it suits him better than
the first and it will allow him to find creatures to protect him. He may be
weaker than the other outstanding talents his age, but he and a hundred mutant
beasts and monsters together would be taken seriously.
He even thinks about
having Ophius become one of his subjects, taking the second option of the skill
and having the target be willing. These thoughts are quickly crushed by the
cost of the skill. Casting the soul binding will cost twenty mana times the
level of the mutant beast or monster, meaning at most he can currently only
bind an enemy of level 15 at the most. Ophius in infinitely stronger than Regal
and clearly at a much higher level.
Still excited over the
first two treasures, he quickly moves on and inspects the third item. It is a
strange book that rather than being a skill book, contains several passages of
notes from the author. Wondering about the author and reading the book, Regal’s
grin begins to fade and his eyes lose their joy. His expression becomes more
serious the further he reads. It is a will left by a human, Shen Wan Xing.
I pass on these words to whoever can reach this point. If
you have, you must be someone with great luck. I can no longer remain in this
world or any other, so I must leave my legacy behind for someone else in hopes
they are able to continue to prepare this world for the coming times.
I was once called human, the race of sentient beings that
lived on the planet Earth. We lived in a golden age of prosperity and growth.
This all changed when we exceeded the capacity of our planet and triggered The
Collapse. You should have learned of this in your academy, along with many
other things. The real truth is a little different from what you were told
though.
Our missions into space weren’t a complete failure. There
was a fifteen percent chance of successful migration. However, the United
States of America, one of our world’s great countries, found an offworld ruin
with alien technology. The ruin contained the construction plans for a Gabriel
System, a system that could hold an entire world.
Our greatest minds couldn’t unravel all the mysteries of
the Gabriel System, but some truths were revealed. It utilizes an advanced
state of quantum theory and cross-platform particle equilibrium that is beyond
our race by eons. What you live in isn’t just what we used to consider as a
world within a world, but it is also a world outside of the world at the same
time.
There was a single problem, in that the Gabriel System was
meant for living people to connect to it, which was impossible in our
situation. All the world leaders, myself included, had to weigh the options of
finding a solution to save our race within this system, or venturing on a blind
space exploration in hopes of finding new land.
It was at this point we cast aside our humanity and became
something less than human to ensure the minds of our race continued to exist.
We lied to our people, telling them that the space exploration was a failure,
and that there was no option for us to leave the planet.
All our attention was focused on building the system. We
turned a blind eye as hundreds of millions died every day from the Collapse.
Rioting, raping and starvation filled our streets as a result of the panic.
Anarchy spread to every section of the planet, just like those religions had
foretold the end of the world to be.
As we no longer had the right to call ourselves humans, we
called you, our children, the Immortalis. We didn’t want you, our successors,
to follow in our footsteps, so we had this knowledge passed onto only a select
few of the Immortalis of the first generation. Those who know were charged with
the duty of guiding your race, and preventing them from repeating our mistakes.
There is a second duty of the Immortalis that I pass onto
only you, my successor, along with the two treasures I left alongside this
legacy. This system is not the only system that was built. There are others out
there, many of which that have probably existed long before the human race was
even born. All these system communicate with each other, and are joined through
a transdimensional channel.
Many of the humans left believe that the sentient races who
occupy those systems will not be hostile and you may form connections we as a
race only dreamed of. I am a student of philosophy that has studied history
however, and I believe otherwise. If the immortalis are weak when they meet a
new sentient race, and if this race finds something they want among the
Immortalis, they will likely take it by force. It is only the strong who have
survived, while the weak have only left small stains in the annals of history.
We have hope that the Immortalis can be strong if given
time. We managed to put a block on this connection, thus giving you time to
build up strength. We suspect the block will last for 300 years before the
connection between systems is automatically re-established. I can only hope
that everything works out in the end.
The final duty that I pass onto you is to preserve life. We
detected a strange anomaly every time someone dies within the system. When a
person dies, a small part of them is “taken”, almost as if it is the price to
be paid for death. The value of life is much higher than many believe.
Please believe me when I say that many of the truths within
this will were not shared because we wished for you to see us as role models
and follow the right path. I can only plead you to not pass on this
information, for my dignity and that of the human race. Only pass on this book
on the day you have found a legitimate heir, who you are willing to pass along
these responsibilities to.
- Shen Wan Xing
