Too much has happened in a short period of time, so Wain forgot that the condition for unlocking the unusual skill was to get the Flame of the Dead. Wain won't reach the city until a few minutes later, so he set about learning the unlocked skill.
[Nameless King's Forms (Primary Chronicle Active Skill, Legendary Rating)
[First Form - Codex of Light and Darkness unlocked]
[Codex of Light and Darkness
This is the first form. It perfectly combines the balance of light and darkness. You received this form because it also incorporates the energies of life and death. During the activation of this form, all your stats will increase by 10%, after which they will be perfectly equalized. This effect affects all stats without any exceptions. Some of the abilities of this form will become clear when you use it]
'Hmm, I have yet to find out how strong this form is in combat, but the effect of increasing characteristics and equating them sounds very interesting. The average of my stats is just over ten, but if you don't count Energy. Since this characteristic is much higher than the others. Moreover, thanks to the high Energy, all my skills are much stronger.' Wain thought.
By that time, the boat had already come ashore. The guide took his oar out of the bottom and gestured for Wain to come ashore.
Wain sighed and muttered, "Well, it's time for a new adventure. Here by the sounds of battle, I've come for the fun part."
He stood up, patted the skeleton in the black robe on the shoulder, and stepped ashore. Simultaneously, the guide disappeared beneath the ground, and the boat turned into spirits and evaporated into thin air.
In appearance, it was the most ordinary, touristy shore. Wain saw lounge chairs, large umbrellas, and soda cans all around him. It was very similar to his previous world.
The beach was not very large in area. Wain had to walk about fifty yards forward, climb the stairs, and he would find himself in the city.
"Finally, normal sand that glistened pleasantly in the sun. The ashy sand that the Isle of the Damned was covered with made me feel estranged." Wain pronounced and headed toward the stairs.
Suddenly the sand began to part in his path. A large claw appeared out of the sand the next moment, and then a huge crab emerged. It was about two meters tall, and its claws were rigid enough to break an iron beam in two.
"What? What store did you escape from, big guy?" Smirking, Wain asked.
Unfortunately, the crab had no intention of talking. He quickly headed toward Wain, threateningly flicking his claws.
"Hmmm, you know it's a good thing you showed up here. I love crab meat. What's more, I haven't eaten anything in over ten hours. It's not good to stay hungry." Wain said calmly.
This crab could easily have killed a bear, but Wain was not afraid. He didn't flinch when he met the Guardian of this world, so the overgrown crab was nothing more than lunch in his eyes. All Wain had to do was use the cutlery and begin the tasting.
A black sword appeared in the air next to Wain and instantly stabbed into the crab's head, effortlessly slicing through its shell.
The Destruction Sword could not penetrate the wool of a giant wolf or the armor of the Last Knight, but this crab was much weaker. The Dark Sword went through the shell like a red-hot knife through butter.
Wain swung his arm, and the sword gave the crab several more precise cuts, incapacitating it. The huge crab fell right in front of Wain, and its claws still continued to twitch.
[You killed the Giant Crab Level 3]
The next moment, a white soul flew out of the crab's body and penetrated Wain's body.
[Soul of Giant Crab(Destroyed)
Chronicle: Primary
Rating: Common]
"Destroyed? What a pity. That crab would probably have given me some defensive skill or item. Whatever." Wain muttered and crushed a soul.
[You have acquired the Soul Essence of Giant Crab level 3]
"This crab wasn't strong, but here's what I wonder. Are crabs that size normal for this world? I highly doubt it. Otherwise, there would be no loungers on this beach, or it would be very well protected."
Wain wondered. He was trying to figure out what was going on here. When he was first approaching this town, he thought there had been some terrorist attack or a war in general. But, with the appearance of this crab, he dismissed that theory.
"Has... has the same thing happened to this world that happened to mine now?" Wain muttered.
Before the appearance of the dark mist that destroyed Wain's world, incredible changes had happened to his world.
New continents appeared on the planet, and countless monsters and various creatures. Then every human was given a soul and a way to become much stronger.
But, half a year after that, a dark mist appeared. Humans had not yet had time to become strong enough to resist it if that was even possible.
'It's pretty interesting. I thought it was a normal world, or there was already a system of souls in this world, but it happened less than a day ago, from the looks of it. About the time I came to this world, maybe because a portal connected the two worlds and something like this happened? Okay, it's even better. I would have been too bored in a simple world. Moreover, judging by the technological progress, this world is about the same level as mine.' Wain thought and swung his arm.
The dark sword severed the crab's phalanges and cut them neatly open, revealing beautiful crab meat. Wain would have cooked this ingredient in any other case, but he had no time for it now.
He took a few large chunks and enjoyed the freshest possible taste of the crab meat.
"This meat tastes so much better than regular crab. Great, I haven't eaten anything this delicious and refreshing in a long time."
When Wain had had enough and ate a few phalanges, he headed further toward the stairs. Wain snapped his fingers and the dark sword floating in the air disappeared. His control over this skill got better each time. The process was natural, like some training.
Booom.
Suddenly there was a deafening explosion and one of the twenty-story buildings tilted. It slowly began to fall toward Wain. He didn't stop moving forward and continued up the stairs.
Bam.
When Wain was halfway up, the building fell with a rumble a few feet away from him. He knew that's where it would fall, so he didn't even stop. The frame of the building was solid, so even with the fall, the building was not destroyed.
Wain didn't even pay attention to it, but suddenly something caught his eye. A man's body was falling out of the window. He was dead. The man was dressed in a formal style. He looked like the most ordinary office worker.
But that wasn't what interested Wain. It was the pack of cigarettes that had fallen out of the man's pocket.
Wain picked it up, opened it, put the cigarette to his mouth, and used his lighter.
The Crimson flame lit the cigarette, and a few seconds later, Wain exhaled a puff of smoke.
"Nice..." Wain muttered and took another puff.
"A lot of people say they can't quit smoking. Does that mean they have no willpower? Maybe, but many of them are probably just kidding themselves and don't really want to quit. They artificially create the forbidden fruit out of it in order to have more fun..." Wain muttered.
"Help..." Suddenly Wain heard a hoarse voice.
He looked into one of the rooms in the fallen building and saw the injured girl. As the building collapsed, glass shattered, and one of the large shards embedded itself in her leg. But, she wasn't asking for medical attention. She was shaking with fear.
Wain looked at her and said, "Baby, the world has changed. If you want to survive, pull out the shard of glass and, through the pain, go forward and get stronger. Be strong or die."
He wasn't going to help whoever he didn't know. Whether this girl lived or not was of no concern to him at all.
After a couple of seconds, Wain continued up the stairs and reached the very end. There he saw a strange scene.
The roads were ruined, and there were no people in sight. But in the distance, he saw huge insects and zombie-like creatures. Something similar had happened in his past world, but it was new to him. After all, on the day of the apocalypse in his world, he was on an island.
"Okay, I don't feel like fighting insects. Are there people in this world at all who decided to fight instead of hiding? Some of them must have gotten a mighty soul." Wain thought.
Wain looked around but did not find anything interesting. He decided to walk down the main street and find his way there.
But as soon as Wain took a step, the ground shook as if an earthquake was about to happen. The next moment Wain saw a huge worm crawling out of the ground in the northern part of the city. It didn't look like an ordinary earthworm.
Its body was covered with thick chitin and numerous protective plates. Its mouth was like a wormhole of hundreds of teeth. Moreover, it was huge, for even now, when only half of its body showed out, it was taller than some buildings.
The worm moved its head sideways as if looking for its target, and it found it.
The worm headed to the east of the city. Wain smiled and tossed the unfinished cigarette aside.
'If the worm is headed that way, that's where all the interesting stuff is happening.' Thought Wain and followed the worm.