[System Message – Quest – Destroy Cultists – Unique
Bonus objective: Prevent Greater Demon Summoning – Failed]
[System Message – Updating Quest – Defeat all Enemies – Unique
Difficulty: S
Objective: Prevent demon from escaping the crypt. Destroy the Cultists.
Bonus Objective: Exterminate the Demon.
Reward: 400 Experience points.]
Jason glanced at his interface to see that his quest had updated and for the worse. 'The cultists must've rushed the ceremony to complete it.'
Frowning he knew that his job had just turned from an extremely difficult one into a nearly impossible task.
Should he turn back now? Should he press forward and risk it all? There were other quests he could go and complete that gave generous rewards and paths to powerful classes. He wasn't at a point of no return and could still turn back at this moment.
He had originally chosen this quest for the class that made the previous user unbeatable. Humanity might've truly won the war in his past life if this man hadn't turned his back on them and betrayed them in the end.
This man had been the top ranked User, and in all the pvp tournaments he had participated in, he had defeated every single opponent. This man had plenty of skills to be sure, but everyone attributed his wins to his unique class that only he possessed.
Jason paused his steps, was he truly willing to risk the effort and achievements he had already obtained for a class that would now be nearly impossible to obtain? A greater demon had been summoned, an event that, to his knowledge, had not occurred when the previous User in his past life had completed this quest.
Obtaining this class was going to be the beginning of Jason's path to make sure his family would survive the coming apocalypse. If he couldn't obtain it, at the very least with his blacksmithing title he could still do his best to prepare and protect those around him. Dedicating himself to forging and outfitting everyone in tremendously powerful gear to protect themselves didn't seem like too bad of an option at this point.
Was he really going to choose to run away now?
At this moment images of his family's corpses arose in his head burning their images further into his memory. A ravaged Earth with countless demons surging upon it coursed through his head. Memories of a red-eyed friend, whom he had trusted beyond anyone else, slashed his throat while laughing; gloating over his defeat.
Jason fell to a knee as these images began to overwhelm him.
He couldn't let that happen again. He couldn't let what fate had demanded to occur happen once more. Why did he fail last time? He was weak. Pitifully and undeniably weak; even now he was pitifully and undeniably weak.
He may have stood at the peak of power before, but even then, he was unable to stop Driblark and his horde.
Frail, feeble, puny; all words that could describe humanity and himself in his past life. Opening his eyes, he saw himself on both knees, realizing that his own despair had driven himself to his knees.
Why was he afraid? He realized that these past twenty-four hours with his family had brought back the joy he had thought was forever lost. Seeing Beth's smile, hearing the laughter of his children, these were the only things that mattered. He was terrified of losing that again, of losing his family to the demons once more.
He held up his sword and looked at himself in the reflection cast on the hard cold steel. He was too weak to protect his family in his past life, and too weak to save himself in the end. Even now, he was still too weak; there was no way he could take on a greater demon and come out alive.
As he stared at his sorry reflection, a deep rage began to envelope him. So what if he was weak in his past life? He had the opportunity to change everything in this new life that The System had given him. He may be weak now, but he knew exactly what was needed to be done to accomplish the impossible task of defeating Driblark and his horde.
The rage began to envelop him, he would do everything in this life to protect his loved ones. He hated this feeling of being weak; of not having control over his own fate due to his ineptitude. Once he was strong enough, he could command his own fate and prevent the horrible destiny that fate had commanded occur to his family and his world. Hell, he could even prevent the demise of the world Socrathia that he was currently in.
Jason stood up, rage enveloping him and agitating the surrounding mana; causing small sparks of flame to ignite in the air around him. He allowed the memories of the past to wash over him. He will never forget the deaths of his family, nor the murders that the demons had wrecked upon his people, or even the betrayals of his own kind. As the images of the past washed over him, he accepted them as a part of him and vowed to become strong enough to prevent it from happening again.
At this time, the faces, and names of all those that he knew that had betrayed humanity flashed through his memory. Remembering that there were individuals out there who, without hesitation, betrayed and tortured their own kind, his anger seemed to have reached a peak that it could not go past.
Roaring with rage Jason felt his mana ignite as he vowed to never let the fear of losing his loved ones overcome him again; to punish those who would turn traitor and avenge those who had already fallen to the horde. Feeling his inner rage begin to dissipate into the ambient air, he realized that a small cyclone of flames had enveloped him, seeming to feed off his emanating rage.
[System Message – Fire Manipulation Learned – 0/10 (Beginner)
Rage fuels your inner fire: fire attacks +10% damage, passive resistance +10%.]
'Huh?'
Jason was bewildered to see that he had learned a new skill, how could he learn fire manipulation though? That was a mage or sorcerers' skill, and he hadn't even accepted a class yet.
Jason took a deep breathe, feeling the flames he had just created ebbing and flowing with his breathing. He wondered at this strange phenomenon, nothing like this had ever been posted in the forums in his past life. His mana seemed to be interacting with his state of mind, his emotions becoming one with the mana.
Staring at the new fireball he had just created in his hand, he chuckled. He may not understand how this happened, but he wouldn't complain. He would have to talk to a Magic Instructor to see why he was able to obtain this new skill without a class, and why it was responding to his emotions.
Seeing that his mana was draining quickly, he released the connection he had just forged with the flames. He quickly tried igniting a fireball in his hand again and succeeded but this time it was a smaller and more controlled flame. He tested to see what would happen if he channeled the anger he had just felt into the flame, and felt it quickly increase in temperature and size.
Cutting the connection with the flame, it sizzled into nothingness. He then looked forward and continued running down the hall, he wasn't going to give up this quest, no matter what. The quest may have just become nearly impossible to complete, but he would complete it nevertheless. If he was to obtain the strength needed to resist Driblark and his horde, he would need every advantage that he could get.