The Morning sun crept up slowly in the horizon as the light caused the trees to cast long, dark shadows on the Chosen in the forest. In one part of the forest, there were sounds of shaving and scraping being emitted, probably by the actions of someone hard at work.
*CrrCrrCrrCrr*
If one looked closer, they would be able to see a dread headed, milk coffee-coloured skin man on his knees holding something that seemed like a spear at an angle while scraping it on a rough stone laying on the floor. The man had a focused look in his eyes as if nothing could disrupt him, as if this spear he was sharpening was the only thing in existence. If one looked around the man, they would see other wooden and stone tools laying around. At this moment, the man was disturbed by the movements of the other man who was laying a few metres away next to a fireplace.
"Midas? What are you doing?" asked Julio, half yawning while rubbing his eyes. This was the best sleep he's had in a while. Where he had come from before coming here was a place filled with evil people and monsters, where one slip up could have dire consequences. For him to finally have some good sleep, he felt grateful to whatever put him here, whether that be human or otherwise.
"You're awake? Great. Aren't you thirsty?" asked Midas while continuing his sharpening. He would occasionally blow on the spear's tip, searching for a certain shape it was supposed to assume. Now after blowing again, he realised that the spear was finally complete.
"Thirsty? Oh yes, I want some water for sure. What are these things?" asked Julio while ogling the items suspended above the fire. They seemed like wooden cups or containers of some sort.
"Those are water bottles. I made them while you were asleep. Well they're kind of shoddy, especially since I coated them with the tree wax, but they will do the job for now." said Midas while approaching and taking the bottles off the wooden rod suspension. He then dusted them off and grabbed what seemed like bottle caps from the side and twisted them on the tops of the bottles.
"Not bad right?" said Midas with a smile on his face while waving the bottle around. He then tossed it to the dazed Julio, who caught it with a flustered expression. Midas laughed and pointed to the floor beside Julio where there sat a spear about the length of Julio's body and a rope-like binding that was made of branches. He said, "That's yours. Tie that rope thing on the bottle's ends and then sling it onto your body so it's easy to carry. Here, I'll show you."
And so he began tying his own bottle in a sling and then he slung the bottle over his shoulder so the bottle was on his back.
Julio was stunned. How long was he asleep? This guy made bottles and spears? When Julio continued looking around, he found that that was not all he had made. A bow drill lay on the floor by the side, and so did what looked to be the makings of some bowls, cups and a bag woven from tree bark. What the hell?
"Okay, I know what your gift is now… It's the Gift of Crafting, am I right?" said Julio half jokingly.
Midas merely shook his head and said, "Index!" after which he willed the idea of showing Julio his index while turning the floating panel towards Julio and then Julio's expression changed. He could see Midas' Index…
Wait, how was this possible?? Weren't Indexes only viewable by those they belong to?
"I know what you're thinking, but actually as long as you want to show other people, the Index can tell. It almost reads your mind. It's really cool right? Feel free to see for yourself, haha!" said Midas while sorting out the rest of the stuff on the floor, leaving Julio in another daze.
Julio shook his head and figured that Midas must have trusted him for him to show his Index. But he did not feel right inside, so before looking at the details, he made up his mind on his next actions. He materialised his own panel and pushed it flying towards Midas' direction before saying "Since you trust me so much, then it is only fair that I do the same."
Julio saw Midas stare at the Index in front of him before turning to Julio with a bright mesmerising smile and saying, "Thank you for trusting me back, Julio."
Julio nodded, with a smile on his face too. And then he looked through the information on the Index Pages.
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Index || Network | Statistics |
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Earth Name: Midas Mira
AC: 8,300
Gift: Gift of Knowledge (A Rank)
—————>
The Gift of Knowledge (A Rank) |
[The memory of the world is with you. This Gift enhances the ability to communicate with the Universe, receive knowledge from it, and give knowledge to it.]
Skills: [Eye of Judgment (Lv. 1)], [Information Database (Lv. 1)], [Memory of the World (Lv. 1)]
<—————
Conditions and States:
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Nature: Neutral Evil
Trait: Hyper Intuitive
Mental: Narcissistic Personality, Paranoia, Anxiety
Physical: -
<—————
Stats:
—————>
Dexterity (Agility, Flexibility) → 1.6
Strength (Speed, Power) → 1.4
Constitution (Endurance, Health) → 1.3
Intelligence (Memory, Reasoning) → 5.7
Charisma (Charm, Persuasion) → 4.0
Wisdom (Intuition, Adaptability) → 4.5
Spirit (Mental State, Character) → 1.9
<—————
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"Sheesh… An A Rank Gift…" said Julio with envy in his voice to which Midas said "Pfft, your stats are much better than mine. I wish I had your constitution stat. Fuck. You're super strong you know…"
"Eh, no way, you also have interesting skills Midas. It's very strong in a mental way you know. You are very smart."
"Haha thanks." said Midas while scratching his head with a shy expression on his face.
Julio now knew how capable Midas was. And according to his skill descriptions, he was not one to be looked down upon. He was glad his first friend was someone so capable. He wasn't an idiot and he knew that it meant his chances of surviving and making it through would increase as long as he was surrounded by capable people.
Julio focused on the Skills and a description panel popped up on top of the main Index panel showing further details.
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Eye of Judgement (Lv. 1) |
[View the Information of all existences in Creation]
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Information Database (Lv. 1) |
[A database holding some of your memories and knowledge, with methods that allow access and utilisation of memories in high level ways]
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Memory of the World (Lv. 1) |
[Access the memory of of any Existence based on some conditions]
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"This [Memory of the World] skill, was it how you were able to see this Stone Tablet yesterday?" asked Julio after mulling it over. Midas' skills were cool. He was almost a super genius, no?
"Yeah. Although… Well, as you can see it makes me weak so it's not worth it. But I realised that it's actually a bit more powerful than that. I'll show you in the future."
"Eh? As expected of an A Rank Actualisation. This is a superpower right here."
"Pfft, a superpower is this broken skill you have here. [Unbreakable]? What are you Superman?"
"No, I am not Superman, I am the Incredible Hulk." said Julio with his nose up in the air. Midas merely laughed and they continued their conversation like that for a while while cleaning up.
Midas grabbed some flaming embers and placed them inside a specialised container with the embers being wrapped by wet grass and somewhat bad firewood. This was to ensure that the embers would not burn the container while being aerated enough to stay hot and ready to produce fire for the whole day. Midas slung that container around his shoulder and let it hang to his side.
Midas had also used those tree rope like objects to weave together a bag, in which he put some miscellaneous items like the bow drill and some of his other prototypes. Julio watched as Midas slung that over everything on his back naturally.
Julio now knew, according to Midas' explanations, that with Midas' new skills, he had somehow remembered all these survival skills from his childhood days of watching survival YouTube videos and Television shows. Julio found Midas' ability to "store" fire for later to be especially handy.
"Are you ready?" asked Midas after carrying every useful thing he needed. He was now carrying a spear in his right hand, which doubled as a walking stick and a container slung by his left side and another rope could be seen running diagonally across his body which was attached to the water bottle at his back and a bag over that too..
"Ready. Let's go, Midas. On an adventure!!"
Julio laughed while striding forward proudly. He was incredibly excited. Midas laughed at his antics and they began their trek northwards.
As they got going, Julio couldn't help but reminisce at how difficult their task was right now. Survival. He knew a lot about it. His life so far had been relatively rough, but where he came from, this was nothing.
His mother? A sex worker who never came home. His father? Unknown. Thus, he was forced into a life of crime at a young age, having to steal from tourists to feed himself and his younger sibling.
Soon enough, he was scouted into a thieving ring managed by some low level cartel thugs, who forced him to steal for them, all for some chump change. Like that he suffered through his teenage years, while making sure that his younger brother would be able to go to school. If his younger brother could have a better life then all the thieving would be worth it.
As Julio grew, so did his fame among the thieves. Julio had always been nimble and agile, with him being the first out of a situation when it goes bad, keeping himself out of major trouble.
He developed a skill of free running through the favelas of his town to get away from the authorities and ended up using these skills to get into some hard to reach places and steal some really good merchandise. This boosted his prestige and landed him a gig with a bigger cartel boss as a scout for robbers.
Like that he lived his life for years, and soon enough, he got scouted by an even higher level official who wanted a drug runner who was good on his feet. Julio did his best, sometimes getting caught up in trouble while most times managing to run away from it. Later on he found out that his mother had been murdered during a job by a client she was pleasing. And this client was the boss that he was currently working for.
Julio was beyond furious. Even though that mother of his was unavailable, she was still his mother. Julio also received a major wake up call. He realised that he and any people he cared about could die in this place. He could not depend on anyone else anymore. He had to get away.
Seeing this resentment and unwillingness, his boss did not kill Julio, but gave him an almost impossible job while threatening him with the life of his younger brother. Julio did the job, while almost getting incarcerated in the process.
The problem was that now the cops had dirt on him. Julio needed to get away. But when he returned to grab his brother and his remuneration for the job, his boss refused, laying some false charges onto Julio in the process. Julio had to use his wits and abilities to get away, but his brother was badly hurt and ended up dying in Julio's arms.
Julio, consumed by rage, did not want to get away anymore. He wanted revenge. This boss had not only killed his mother, but he had also killed his brother too. He had no family left, no possessions, no friends… Nothing. That fucker had to pay. No matter what.
And so he waited, and planned. He used his skills to get in good with a rival gang while amassing some resources and information about the boss's actions. The rival gang knew he wanted to damage the cartel, so they helped him as much as he wanted.
He knew he wouldn't have many chances to get his revenge so he wanted his revenge as soon as possible and with his understandings of the goings on of the cartel, he was sure he would figure out a way in. And then one day…
His boss was alone in his hotel room, smoking a cigar. Unknowingly, this was the perfect spot for Julio. He free-ran over the roofs of ten buildings, building up momentum for a jump. And then:
*Woosh**Crash**Clink-a-link*
Julio calculated his way over the roofs and into the third story window and crashed through it. He rolled on the floor and before the boss could react, he already swung the knife he held in his right hand, slicing the boss' neck right open, spilling blood all over the bedside tables and the frescoed walls.
"Juli Ju.. Argh… Argh Jul Please kgh kgh"
Julio could still remember that moment that son of a bitch died. He begged Julio to spare him while trying his best to keep the outflowing blood from leaving his body. Julio merely watched with a cold look in his eyes.
How dare he?!
As if Julio could spare him. Did the bastard spare his mother? Did he spare his younger brother? That bastard deserved death.
Julio then threw the knife as far away as possible through the broken window and then picked up a bat and walked out into the corridor. Some guys came over and Julio beat all of them up before running away from the scene.
However he was caught later on and the footage in the corridor confirmed that it was him who beat those thugs up. However, with the lack of the murder weapon, the police could not pin the murder on him so they had him placed in lockup pending trial.
He spent the last three months like that until he one day awoke in a field surrounded by random strangers.
Julio snapped out of his reverie and looked back only to see Midas surveying around at the forest around them. Julio had finally found a friend here. A friend who trusted and depended on him. And he would protect him. No matter what.
Meanwhile, Midas was thinking about a verse from his Bible.
Bible of the Self, Third Testament of Heaven, Gospel of Power, Chapter 3, Verse 12: "People in Power don't care whether the people beneath them are capable or not. They only care if they are Useful and Usable."
If one owned a dog, no matter how the dog looked or behaved, as long as it knew that it had to pay its respect to its owner then everything was still okay. No matter if the dog had the scariest face or the sharpest teeth, as long as it was still subservient to its owner, then all was fine.
In the same way, so what if Julio had killed people before?
So what if he had been to Jail?
So what if Julio was a criminal?
As long as Julio was loyal to Midas, then everything else was negotiable. Actually, as far as Midas was concerned, this was a signifier of Julio's potential more than anything else.
Midas had already determined that Julio was useful. Now he would make sure to make Julio usable by him and only him.
Even if he had to lie and cheat to do it. Whatever it takes.