Volume 01: Start Again
Chapter 13: A Plan
"I want to blow up the town's forge." As these words left my mouth, everyone, before me even the old woman became shocked and in turn, their jaws dropped.
"Blow up. The forge? How?" The old woman was the first one to shake her shock off as she asked me rather politely now.
"You all do not have to worry about that you just have to know once you hear the explosion that you should wait half a minute for the creatures to be drawn to me and once that happens you should be free to leave out the southern gate." Finishing my idea, I got up from the stairs patting my pants as they had gotten dusty from the stairs.
Not currently looking up as I cleaned my pants, I could hear the soft exclamations of the individuals in front of me. After a couple of seconds went by the woman standing behind the old woman and the man spoke out, "Are you sure you won't need anyone to go with you? I am an archer I could be useful in reconnaissance." Looking at my fresh clothes I knew she knew that I was a new player.
Seeing her gaze, I could not help but chuckle a bit. "No, I am fine going alone."
"Are you sure?" This time the old woman spoke up looking at me rather concerned.
"Yes, thank all of you for your concern." I waved off the comment from the old woman like it was no problem.
"Okay, then we will wait on you." The bloody-faced man spoke out as he clasped his hands together and bowed to me showing his respect.
Seeing this the woman and the man who had joined late both copied the actions of the man in front of them and bowed together.
Bowing back to the three of them they all rose and then returned to where they had come from next to their loved ones in the room.
"Here come with me boy I will find you somewhere to rest till you are ready to leave." Tapping me with her cane the old woman turned and began walking to an isolated corner where almost no one was as many wooden crates were stacked up preventing anyone from lying down in the area.
"I am sorry there is nowhere soft to rest but at least here you will have some room to spread out and not be bothered." The old woman tapped the bottom of a wooden crate with her cane as she looked on at me with warm eyes.
"Thank you, ma'am this should be fine, I just have to wait for my abilities then I will set off and head towards the center of the town," I responded to the old woman with a smile.
"You don't have to call me ma'am just call me Granny Rose." The older woman smiled at me as she walked up and placed her hand on my boney cheek.
Feeling this warmth made me very sad as the familial warmth I felt from the old woman reminded me that I had no one in either world as they were all gone. I was the only one in my own world. These complex feelings scrambled my mind making me take a step back out of the touch of the old woman.
"Thank you." That was all I said before I turned my back and made my way to the corner to sit on one of the boxes alone.
The old woman must have felt my emotions becoming confused because as I walked away, she did not call for me or hit me with her cane she just allowed me to leave towards the corner.
Knowing this I felt content in my heart as knew right now was not the time to face such emotions.
Hopping onto one of the wooden crates I laid back onto it and stared up at the stone ceiling that was intercrossed by wooden beams. Letting out a sigh I pulled up my player information to check how the system placed my stats for leveling up.
[Name: Mikael Walker | Race: Undead Timekeeper (Human)| Core Class: Chrono Wizard
Tier: Jade
Level: 2
Power Level: 75
Occupation: None
Title: None
Subclass: None
Stats|
Health: 16/75
Constitution: 15
Strength: 13 (12+1)
Agility: 12
Intelligence: 35
Mana: 81/140
Empty Stats: 76]
'Wow, I guess this is a really mana-dependent class.' Seeing as the system auto-placed ten whole stat points into intelligence meant I was supposed to be heavily reliant on mana and to think I am out here fighting creatures in close combat. Thinking about this brought my mind off of other things and allowed me to chuckle to myself as I stared at the holographic screen that only I could see.
'Time to place my extra 76 stats that way I can move above level 5 and get a new skill when I head back to a library.' Doing the math on my stats I started to place all the extra stats. Finishing up my stats I could feel my body grow stronger and the mana within my body grow larger.
[Name: Mikael Walker | Race: Undead Timekeeper (Human)| Core Class: Chrono Wizard
Tier: Jade
Level: 6
Power Level: 151
Occupation: None
Title: None
Subclass: None
Stats|
Health: 16/135
Constitution: 27
Strength: 25 (24+1)
Agility: 24
Intelligence: 75
Mana: 81/300]
After checking the stats one last time, I closed the window and then began fiddling with the brass knuckles on my fingers as I just stared up at the ceiling allowing the time to pass. As I did this, I felt a sense of fatigue slowly flowing in over my body.
*Tick*
*Tick*
The sudden sound of ticking began to lightly play in my ears before it began to slow to a halt. I suddenly felt my eyes becoming heavier and the ceiling above me becoming darker to the point I could no longer see it anymore.
It felt like an eternity until my eyes finally opened but the scene, I awoke to was not the stone ceiling that had been expecting nor the hard wooden crate that was beneath my back. The sky was dark as if nighttime but there were no stars or moon it was just darkness in the sky.
[Zone Entered | Timekeeper's Library | Level ??? Zone]
'How did I arrive inside a zone? There are only ever zones out in the wilderness wasn't I just laying down on a wooden crate?' Rather confused I tried to move my arms to pick myself up, but they did not want to move as I wanted them to.
My limbs felt as if they were stuck in some type of thick water that I just could not shake until I felt something in my body suddenly change and the golden lines that crossed all over my body began to glow illuminating the entire space around me.
'What is this?' Looking down at the glowing lines that illuminated in my body I could not help but feel that the thick water-like field that was once surrounding me in this space begin to seep into me. As I felt the coolness moving through me, I could feel it slowing down my mind causing me to fall into a state of panic as it became hard to even think. Soon the liquid-like field around me disappeared along with the illumination produced by the lines on my body but this was pushed to the side of my mind by a new larger problem.
I felt like I was being suspended in space as my mind slowed down to a mere crawl forcing my movements to slow down as well. This made time feel as if it was spreading out thinly around me as I tried to find a way to think of a way to get free, I realized my thoughts were already becoming nonexistent.
'What…do…I…do?' This was the only thing I could muster up as I tried my best to move my body, but it felt like I was making no progress. I stayed in this state for what felt like a couple of days as I tried my best to will myself to think of anything, but I couldn't as the more time that passed the slower my mind and body became.
Stuck in this endless cycle my body had become frozen within itself. My eyes lay closed and unmoving as my mind remained empty now, I felt like nothing more than a shell.
This was until something in my body began to move around and began ticking where my heart would have been.
*tick*
*tick*
The sound of moving hands began to tick away within my body as if the slow beating of an awakening clock came to life. Warmth began to flow through my bones as the previous cool world slipped away from me letting my thoughts bloom into full focus.
Letting out a heavy breath I could now feel the warmth in my body began to grow and this was quickly confirmed by the next thing to show up before my eyes.
[Hidden Quest Completed]
[Heart of Time achieved in the user.]
[Reward: Abilities Unlocked [Hands of Time], and [Frozen Mirror].]
Receiving these notifications, I could not help but think about my day and tried to figure out why something like this happened. 'Must have to do with my race and classes level 5 skills.' I could not get very far into this thought as within my body a large sound could be heard.
*Tock*
My vision went dark once again.
Opening my eyes, I shot upwards breathing heavily just to notice that I was once again staring out into a room of injured people while I felt the top of the wooden crate. Feeling around me to make sure what I saw was real I brought my hand to smack my cheek and feeling the pain I knew I was back in the underground room.
'Was it a dream? But why would I dream about such a bizarre thing I had never seen before?' Wiping the accumulated sweat that had built on my forehead I pulled up my skills window.
[Skills:
Time Lock [Obsidian] | Passive Ability: A single touch of time that hastens enemies toward death. Any attack dealt by the user to an enemy has a 3% chance to lock the enemy in a time freeze of 1 second. (Enemies' abilities and passives are deemed inactive during Time Lock.)
Backtrack [Diamond] | Activatable Ability: Time shall only be strung by the wielders of time and can only be restrung by the Keepers. On activation, all players and creatures within 10 meters of the user will have their abilities and locations reversed to 5 minutes before the spell's activation excluding the user. (All health and mana lost by players affected by Backtrack will stay lost and not be regained by Backtrack only cooldowns will be reset.)
Mana Cost: 50% of the current mana pool
Cooldown: 6 hours]
Hands of Time [Jade] | Activatable Ability: Hands as quick as the time the wielder shall strike only when the time is right. On activation, the user creates a small clock illusion around themselves (5 meters) and any enemy that enters will be struck by the hands of time slowing them. (Any player or creature will only be struck a single time by a magic attack when entering the illusion slowing them by 10% and will continue to be attacked every 5 seconds, they remain within the illusion's proximity. Hands of Time attacks can proc class ability [Time Lock].)
Damage: Intelligence stat x 50%
Effects: 10% Slow for 1 second per attack
Mana Cost: 10 mana per second
Cooldown: 1 hour]
Frozen Mirror [Jade] | Activatable Ability: A moment frozen in time is never too far away for those who can see it. On activation, the user can mark a location with a mirror suspended in time allowing them to jump to that marked location after activating [Frozen Mirror] a second time and stepping through. (Only the things caught within the first frozen mirror may pass through the second frozen mirror to the original location.)
Restriction: Less than 400 meters between both mirrors' locations
Mana Cost: 25 mana per mirror
Cooldown: 1 day (Time begins once the second mirror has been used.)]
Looking at these abilities my mouth could not help but drop a bit as getting skills was already a very tiring process as each player would usually have to do a class quest given by the libraries of this world to unlock new abilities. The only free abilities were the first ones you were given.
If anyone else knew how easily I gained my abilities just now they would most likely be extremely angry as most people even die trying to unlock their lower-level abilities. Shaking my head at the window I could only look on in disbelief.
'Wow.' Checking my abilities cooldowns, I closed the holographic window knowing all my skills were up now.
'It should be getting nighttime here pretty soon so I should get going.' Moving to get off the crate I landed on the stone floor and began walking back to the main part of the large room.