As we rushed towards the portal that spew out orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins, I watched other students shoot out elemental attacks as a literal war happened between two factions of humans and monsters.
And as I looked around, I saw Sora swinging his fist forward that bend the air around his fist and saw a tide of air shooting towards the rift that killed tons of monsters without hurting any students and gasped at his ridiculous strength, he literally one-shotted a horde of C Rank Orcs like they were nothing.
And while I was swinging my spear towards a goblin in front of me with my D-rank strength, I saw Zoran in the distance rushing to a horde of hobgoblins with two blades that has different effects, the one on his right shot out crescent sword beams while the other creates a barrier that protects him from the attacks of the monsters.
But I also took this opportunity to enact some plans of mine and looked at the students that are dying and sighed at how they unfortunately died but these corpses mean something much more to me.
As my unknown power started to work, I felt my soul dividing and those pieces shot towards the dead corpses of my fellow students and saw their dead bodies regaining back the vigor of life and saw that their systems also work and chuckled at how ridiculous this power is, and as they were regaining their life, I felt it on the back of my head and knew that I could make their Gift stronger and it seems like I could do more but I don't have time to think with the monsters around us so I just increased their Gift's power.
With my horde of undead now secretly fighting for me, we efficiently took down the horde of monsters as they exerted a masterful control over their strengthened Gifts.
As I stabbed the monsters with my spear, I finally gained enough exp to level up my Body and felt the familiar strength of C coursing through my body.
As we slew the hordes of monsters around us, the rift finally seemed to run out of monsters and we saw that it has started to close after a long grueling hour of fighting the monsters that has appeared.
"Let's go help the others, there are still other rifts around us!" shouted Sora as he kicked off from the ground and flew towards the other rifts in the distance while I secretly looked around the chaotic area full of students coated in blood with gashes and wounds all around their body.
"Anybody needs healing!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as many flocked towards me and one by one, nearly everyone in my class got healed but I didn't strengthen their Gifts because I don't want to incur any suspicion towards me.
But as I was healing the students, we suddenly heard a loud shout high above the sky that brought unprecedented emotions to my body.
"Are you okay students!" shouted a deep voice full of encouragement as we saw a person landing beside us, with a gigantic muscular body wearing an outfit with the symbols of stars and light, with golden blond hair that went on to form long-standing strands of hair that act as a beacon of hope, with a wide fearless smile that brings other a sense of peace, the greatest hero of all has appeared.
"Hope" I muttered under bated breath as I saw him look towards a rift in the far distance with no one taking care of it while B-rank Giants spew out of the rift.
"Wait for me here," said Hope as we watched him walking towards the horde of Giants in front of us holding gigantic clubs that could flatten us into a meat paste in one hit.
And as the giants roared at Hope slowly walking towards them, we watched his fist arch back and with one single blow, I felt my eyes lit up from the scene of sheer power that has appeared in front of me.
With one single blow, with one single fist, I watched the giants explode into flesh and gore with a rain of blood appearing all around us but the emotion of excitement has fueled my soul that now longs for power from the display of strength that I saw.
"Power" I muttered under my breath as I saw Hope look back at us with a smile and jumped off to the other rifts and help others.
"Let's go!" I shouted while I healed my other classmates, rushed back into the fray, and continued the long war.
And as we fought for hours on end, I slowly gathered my strength from this war and saw that my Gifts were already piling up to a ridiculous degree and wondered if I could take on Hope with my new status.
[Akihiko Tanaka] [Title: ]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Hunter]
[Gift: Hardening(Epic) Teleportation(Epic) Shape Shift(Epic) Bug Manipulation(Epic) Air Cannon(Rare) Flight(Rare) Fist Enlargement(Rare) Knife Hand(Uncommon) Flame Body(Common)]
[Body: C]
[Mind: B]
[Energy: S]
[Skills: ]
"Probably not" I muttered as I looked at Hope in the distance decimating hordes of monsters with each blow and gulp in fear.
But what surprised me more was Sora in the distance just obliterating monsters left and right, he was far from the level of Hope but his strengthening Gift is just ridiculous and I even wondered if I should take it.
I shook my head in response to that as I felt like something was still off about him and continued my onslaught on the monsters while my undead pawns are rapidly rising in strength as some even got skill books but they are far away from me and its more beneficial that they gain skills to use so they could hunt more for me.
But as time passes on, I got no new Gifts as the students got accustomed, and by the time it was already late at night, we defeated all the rifts, I didn't gain any new Gift as those who were powerful didn't die and those who were weak got protected by the powerful and sighed at how few Gifts I actually gained.
As I looked around the surprisingly still intact campus with no buildings destroyed as the land was only coated in monster corpses and blood, I found Zoran and Sora waving at me in the distance and I rushed towards them with a smile.
"You guys good?" I asked while we got into a hug.
"Yeah, I didn't get hurt at all," said Sora.
"I only got a few wounds," said Zoran as I smiled inside my head.
"You mind if I healed you?" I asked Zoran with an amicable smile.
"Go ahead," said Zoran as I was about to heal him but annoyingly enough, Hope suddenly appeared beside us, spooking us a bit from his sudden appearance.
"Hello, there students," said Hope with his wide smile as we gulp in fear.
"H- hello mister Hope," I said.
"H- hello," said Zoran.
"H- hello sir Hope," said Sora with a wry smile.
"Mmm, good work students, I notice that you three have helped your fellow students defeat the monsters and even save them, especially you Akihiko, you healed tons of your fellow students. And also, good job Zoran, you provided weapons for your fellow students to use. And Sora, I'm proud of you for rushing into the fray like that" said Hope with a proud smile as we cheekily rubbed our heads in embarrassment.
"Well I'll be away now, the outside seems to have fewer problems because of the rifts being more spread out, take care," said Hope as he jumped off into the distance like last time as we saw him flying towards the walls of the campus and going outside the campus with a single jump.
"Well, let me heal you now," I said towards Zoran with a smile and prepared to heal him but surprisingly enough, he looked at me with shocked eyes, and before I could respond to what was happening, he pushed me away while I saw that Sora looked at us in dilated eyes and as I looked behind me in slow motion, I saw the maw of a giant crocodile biting towards Zoran's body that pushed me away and in the split second, we saw something that would scar Sora forever.
*CHOMP!* as the maw of the giant reptile went on to produce a loud chomp, and as I watched Zoran's head getting bitten off, I suddenly saw my whole vision turning blank and also gained it at the same time as my eyes were greeted by the sight off…
"My room?" the moment I regained my vision, I was greeted by the sight of my body just getting out of my IVR pod.
"W- what?" I said in shock and hurriedly looked outside to see the moon hanging high above the sky.
"Huh!?" I said in shock as I hurriedly felt my body all around and saw that it was perfectly the same but my previous strength has gone away and felt that it reverted back to D.
"The system!" I said and hurriedly tried to open my status and it somehow work and I looked at it in shock.
[Akihiko Tanaka] [Title: ]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Hunter]
[Gift: Hardening(Epic) Teleportation(Epic) Shape Shift(Epic) Bug Manipulation(Epic) Air Cannon(Rare) Flight(Rare) Fist Enlargement(Rare) Knife Hand(Uncommon) Flame Body(Common)]
[Body: D]
[Mind: B]
[Energy: S]
[Skills: ]
"What about my undead? It seems like my soul is back to full again but I didn't gain their Gifts, tsk. What the fuck is happening?" I said while scratching my head in confusion while looking at my phone to see that it was the same time that Zoran died… Zoran!
"Time loop!?" I said in shock and confusion as thoughts rapidly entered my mind like how long was he in the loop, did I also gain the loop, how did I gain the loop. As more thoughts filled my mind in worry, I heard my mother shout downstairs.
"Aki! Shiro! It's time to eat!" shouted my mother as I calmed down myself and rapidly remembered what I did the last time this happened and with my mind now calmed down, my demeanor became happy and outgoing again.
"Coming!" I shouted at the same time as Shiro as my first loop was now going to start.
AN: This is 1745 words, you're welcome.
The fuck!? System!? Time Loop!? Ability to bestow Gifts!? And he also retained all the Gifts he got from the future/past!? How does Zoran or perhaps Aki have a time loop!? The fuck!?
Follow me on Twatter, all the Transcended readers are over there having a blast and getting some insider info unlike you guys who are stuck in this world of words.
I already did a voice reveal so if you are curious, just look at my profile @NoNameDeityWN.
The Sword of Damocles hangs above each and everyone one of you with its ever present threat of despair, so send me some power stones with your power of friendship and save the thousands perhaps even millions to come who will read this masterpiece immortalized in the tunnels of time.
(March 28, 2022 – 124th of writing)