Ding!
A pale green colored window popped up in front of David.
[New Mission: Form a Mana Core
Requirements: Successfully form your red mana core.
Reward: New Ability
]
'And this new ability will make me strong enough to fight these demons?'
[User. To my knowledge, the gap between you and these enemies is far greater than you can imagine.]
[I can assure you, once your mana reserves have increased, I can grant you far greater abilities.]
[Naturally, as I grow, you will also grow.]
'Hmmm.'
David was lost in thought for a moment, but he was convinced that the system was the best thing for him to gain the power he needed.
'Okay. Let's see where I'm at right now.'
'Status!'
[
Status
Name: David Marigold
Health: 8/8
Mana: 60/60
Abilities: d*,kNruu's Successor, Consume
]
[According to my understanding, you will need around 100 mana points in order to successfully form a core.]
'No need to tell me that, everyone knows you need to be a coreless nine star to form a core.'
[Of course, my apologies user.]
The system's cold voice faded away, and David sat there, on the cold wooden floor, lost in thought.
David didn't move from where he was, until the first rays of sunshine came in through the bars the covered the narrow window.
He pulled on his boots, and strapped his sword to his back. Looking around the room one last time.
One hand on the door handle, David paused. There was a strange feeling in the air.
It felt as though when he left this room, he would start on a path that he would never be able to turn back from.
Click
The door closed behind him.
David found himself in a short corridor, there were only a few other doors. And though the walls seemed worn and tired, they were clean.
It seemed as though the place was well looked after.
After coming down from the stairs at one end of the corridor, David walked into an explosion of warmth and light.
Sunlight flooded in from windows all around, illuminating a comfy tavern. There were only two long tables, with only a few people scattered around.
Laughter and joking filled the air, and somewhere, tucked away in a corner, someone was playing a strange, angelic instrument.
"You're up!" A jolly voice sang out from behind the bar coming from a large muscular woman. In her arms were multiple plates, piled high with food.
David's mouth watered, there were fried eggs, sausages, pancakes, potatoes and cut fruit.
"Get a plate for the boy, Nina." A gravelly, rough voice said. It came from a man wearing a set of roughly woven brown clothing.
His face was completely hidden by a long shaggy hair that fell down his back, and a bushy beard.
From within the mass of hair, a pair of intelligent, bright blue eyes peered out at David.
"No, no. I'm okay. I need to be going." David protested, as Nina bustled back behind the bar to fetch him more food.
"Boy, I can hear your stomach growling from here. Besides, nobody your age has anything important to worry about." The whole room seemed to vibrate as the hair covered man laughed.
"You don't know anything, I need to go." There was a hint of anger in David's voice, he needed to get out of here. He had to do everything he could to get stronger, as soon as he could, and find Cherie.
"Shut up. Sit down. And eat." The man shot David a glance that chilled him to the bone.
Immediately, David sat down across from the man. As he sat down, Nina plunked down a plate in front of David.
"Haaah. To be young again, huh." The man shook his head.
"I can see you're stressed. I've heard a little about your story from Nina." The man paused to stuff a pile of eggs into his mouth, yolk running down in his chin into his beard.
"You can call me Mathan." While he spoke, he sent bits of food flying left and right.
"I can assure of one thing, your little lady friend will not be in any danger. I can assure, my own personal disgust for her and her kind aside, the Lady will not harm her." Mathan had stopped stuffing food in his face while he reassured David, but as soon as he stopped talking, he returned to shoveling the food into his mouth.
"So, what'll it be, kid? You going to run out of here, and die a stupid death. Or, you going to sit here, eat some food, and learn a thing or two?" David swallowed nervously, Mathan's eyes seemed to see right through you.
"Good." Seeing David start to eat, he smiled.
"First thing, hide that piece of crap on your wrist. It only sets you out as a target. If you can't train your senses enough to not need one, you're better off dead." Mathan pointed at the CoreScanner on David's wrist.
Internally, David sighed, he had quickly learned how useless the CoreScanner was over the past couple of days. Just like the others, the man in front of him was showing a blank.
"Oi! Stop with that Mathan!" Nina yelled out from behind the bar.
"Most humans do use them David, but it is true, no one strong enough to matter in this world uses those things." Nina's words shattered David's view of the world. Did that mean that nobody back home mattered, that all of Coppervein didn't matter?
"Boy. Equality and Justice left this world when the Convergence happened. Power is the only justice that remains." Seeing David's shock, Mathan's voice was gentle, but stll firm.
Then, Mathan paused, and raised one hand, a thin barrier forming a dome around the two of them.
The surroundings now appeared blurred, and the sounds from the rest of the room were muffled.
"Look boy, I can tell you have some potential." Mathan's tone was now totally serious.
"I can sense a hint of divinity from you."
[User! You must deny this, it would be extremely dangerous for you to divulge any information to this stranger.]
[Tell him you came across a strange artif-]
'Yeah, I know the drill now.' David brushed off the system, all he needed to do was to tell the same lie he had told Cherie.
"Actually, it comes from an arti-" Mathan cut David off before he could finish his sentence.
"I don't care which deities' bastard you are, or if you got it some other way." A low growl came from Mathan's chest, sending shivers down David's back.
"Now, this probably one of the most important things you'll ever hear in your life." Mathan paused for a moment, letting the words sink in.
"Even if you spent the rest of eternity gathering mana, you wouldn't be able to touch a demon noble." A set of white teeth shone out from the depths of Mathan's beard, as he grinned at David's broken expression.
"But, there's still a chance. It's the reason why this planet is so important. The reason why the Heroes were able to save humanity." Mathan seemed to love the yoyo of emotions that David was going through.