Chapter 23- Death Paths (Part 2)
The fall was huge, way bigger than Akio anticipated. His face paled as he realized that at this speed he was going down at, when he hits the ground, he was as good as dead. However, since he jumped and there was no way he could stop now, he could only accept what could happen.
All he can do was hope that there would be something that could catch him down there. A few seconds passed and the seconds quickly turned to tens of seconds, Akio's sheer bewilderment from the depth of the hole increased along with it. The wind coming from deep inside the hole made Akio's face contort and his hair flatter everywhere messily.
'How deep does this go?!' He almost blurted out if it was not for his lips being tightly shut from the airwaves.
However, eventually, Akio's body reached the bottom and hit something. Luckily, the thing he fell on was not the rough, hard ground but instead something soft akin to a mattress made out of fur. Then, his body started gliding down until his feet touched the actual ground.
"Fuuuh." Exhaling a long breath that he held in since the moment he jumped.
"What did I fall on?" He murmured.
Looking back with the torch in his hand, his eyes widened as he realized what was this soft mattress he landed on.
"A leaf?"
Right behind him was the biggest tree leaf he had ever seen in his life. Its size was at least 15 times his and even though it was a leaf, its thickness was at least three times Akio's, and the veins running through it were akin to giant tubes. Looking carefully at it, Akio couldn't really discern its color because of the blinding darkness he was in. But, he could easily see that the leaf was old, weathered, and has probably fallen from its tree a very long time ago.
Instinctively, his torch moved up to see whether there was a huge tree that could be the origin of this leaf anywhere nearby. However, the torch's flames were simply not strong enough to illuminate more than 5 meters around Akio.
'I really can't see anything. I can't discern where I am now, either.' He thought.
*Click*
Suddenly, he heard a clicking sound as his arms which were stuck to each other because of the shackles were freed out of nowhere.
Although the restraints were still around his wrist, he could at least move freely now. Another thing noticed was that the feeling of energy suction that the restraints were applying on him also vanished. The sensation was akin to something sticky and disgusting leaving his body and making him instantly feel a lot better.
"Good…" He murmured with a satisfied nod.
"So you are the first one to land after me?"
A voice spoke from the darkness that made Akio turn quickly and step back. From the dimness, ahead emerged the scarred man. His grin was still there, looking as intimidating, if not more intimidating, than before.
"I never thought one of those morons would have the balls to do this. Hahaha! Good, brat! Really good!"
Then, he turned serious as he turned around.
"I don't know what you went through in the other world. But, here, nothing matters, only power rules. If you want to find a chance in Holem, you have to gain strength. May the best one stay alive." He said before he started walking away somewhere as if he knew the place all too well.
It would be a lie if Akio said that he didn't feel surprised by his words as he was aware of how he looked. In a place like Holem, malnourished, weak-looking kids can't simply survive. They are basically moving corpses. People wouldn't want to associate themselves with the dead and that's why Akio was most likely the most unapproachable person out of the group of prisoners and could even be considered a good target of disdain and pity.
Yet, the scarred man didn't seem to hold any such feelings toward him. In his eyes was only an ignited desire to win and get stronger. He only saw Akio as a rival and nothing else.
'What a weird man.' Shaking his head, Akio also chose to not idle around anymore and waste time. He can't stay here since prisoners will start coming and he couldn't guarantee that one of them wouldn't try to kill him.
However, before that, he decided to do a thing that he couldn't do before. Working his brain, he imagined those weird notifications that appeared in his retina again.
The previous time, he got something completely different that told him he gained 2 strength points. Fortunately, this time it worked. A huge notification appeared in front of him. The same one that he saw in the previous world.
[Akio -
Level: 1
Race: Human
Class: None
Stigmas: Death Paths (Ex), Evolver (Level 1)
Strength: 6 (+2) ; Agility: 5 ; Stamina: 6 ; Health: 6 ; Holem Spirit: 12]
Many things appeared in front of him, confusing him for a second. However, he quickly regained his calmness and read the words carefully.
The first thing was the name which was written in black. There was no last name since Akio didn't have such a thing so it was pretty accurate. The next thing was level. The concept of 'levels' was still foreign to him but he could guess that it had a strong link to powering up. The more he leveled up, the more strength he gains.
Since he was still level 1, he couldn't discern what effects leveling up could have on him yet. After that, there was the race which was obviously human. However, for this fact to be specified meant that there are other races of creatures in this world. However, whether these races were merely savage monsters and nightmare creatures that he saw before or actual rational, conscious beings like humans is something he still didn't know.
Then, Akio's eyes fell on one of the two most eye-catching things in this holographic, floating square.
'Stigmas? Hmm, what does that even…' Before he could even end his train of thought, another notification appeared under the one he had in front of him.
[Death Paths (Maximum Level): Every existence is bound to death. It's the true ruler of everything. Death is your ally and your enemy. Using this stigma, you can create possible paths to kill your target. The more Holem Spirit you use, the more possible routes that could appear.
Mark: The more you know about a certain creature, the more fragments of their true death moment would appear in your mind randomly.]
Reading that, Akio's eyes widened to the extreme. From everything he expected to see, nothing came close to this.
His mind needed a few seconds to understand what those words meant.
'I can create possible death routes?' He thought.
The concept was simple enough for Akio to quickly understand it. Using Holem Spirit which seemed to be the form of energy that this stigma required to function, he can view how a creature could die. However, since fate can have endless possibilities, this meant that death could also have endless possibilities.
So, if he used his power, he can reveal numerous possible ways a target can die and can act upon them. However, as easy as it was to understand, the information was still by no means not shocking.
'Wait, at that moment before I was transported here. Did I see one of the routes of death?' He recalled that image that flashed in his mind for a split second and ultimately saved his life. At that moment, he dodged one of the Faint Shriekers' claws which ended up hitting another Faint Shrieker. He could vividly remember the enlightenment he got when he was about to die and how his body moved instinctively to follow that path to survival.
If that was the case, then this power was extremely useful and quite frankly beyond amazing. Well, that would've been the case was it not for what was written after that.
Ignoring the word 'mark' as it didn't really matter at this moment, his sole focus was on the words after that.
'The more I know about someone or something, the more fragments of the moment of their true death could I see?'
(A//N: Thank you everyone for supporting the book with power stones and comments. I'm deeply grateful. Let's all keep it up :) )