Of course when Lucas informed his brother that Caitlin would be staying over, Tyler was absolutely thrilled about the idea. It was mostly just him and Lucas around the house anyway, so even if it was just for one night, Caitlin was very much welcome.
Dinner was much more vibrant, with tasty food, lots of laughter and reminiscing about good old times. Although Caitlin had been really reluctant to stay at first, she was glad she did. That night, she slept the most comfortable she'd probably slept in a while.
Meanwhile in his room, Lucas lay on his bed with a happy smile on his face as he stared up at the ceiling.
'Today was fun' he thought to himself.
Lucas really wished that he could continue to spend his days just like this, laughing and spending time with Caitlin and Tyler. All without a single worry or care. But deep down, Lucas knew that as good as this peace was, it wasn't permanent.
He was well aware of the threats that lay in the near future. Things that could take everything away from him in seconds if he remained weak. To prevent that, Lucas knew exactly what he had to do-
"I need to get stronger...", Lucas muttered out loud, "Stronger than anything out there"
If he could only do that, then there was nothing that could threaten his peace. As if responding to his strong emotions, the Chaos system popped up in front of him.
DING!
[Chaos System: You have slain Red Skinned Imp ×4. Circling through possible energies for absorption…]
[Chaos System: Detected energies include;
-Soul essence ×4
-Killing intent ×1]
[Chaos System: Detected energies are all eligible for absorption. Would you like to refine and absorb the listed energies?
-Yes?
-No?]
"What the hell…?", said Lucas as he read the information in front of him, trying to understand what he was working with. He read the system's message again and noticed two important things.
'There are two different energies that I able to absorb here' thought Lucas as he rubbed his chin 'Assuming that it's in relation to the imps I killed just like it says, the four soul essences must be from all the ones I killed. As for the killing intent, that must have been from the imp that had tried to finish off Andre'
Even with that conclusion in mind, Lucas still had one pressing question. What exactly would happen if he did click yes and chose to absorb these energies?
Lucas spent a full ten minutes simply racking his brain over the various possibilities before he flung his arms up in exasperation.
'Screw it, might as well find out right now' thought Lucas, holding his breath as he clicked yes on the system screen. Immediately, he felt a warmth building up in the pits of his stomach.
'Hot!' Lucas wanted to scream out in agony as it felt like his very intestines were being roasted on a split. However not wanting to wake anybody up, Lucas bit into his own pillow and endured the pain for a little while longer.
Eventually, after a whole twenty minutes, the heat and pain slowly started to recede. Now covered in a layer of cold sweat, Lucas got off his bed and walked over to the mirror in his bathroom in order to properly examine himself.
"I don't seem to have changed much physically speaking", said Lucas as he looked at his reflection before he squinting his eyes, "Wait, actually…I seem a little taller somehow"
Lucas noticed that he was a few centimeters taller than before and he wasn't completely sure, but it also felt like his muscles were now sturdier and his shoulders broader. That was the moment that his system decided to inform him of a few new things.
DING!
[Chaos System: Refining and Absorption successful. You have successfully absorbed the foreign energies.
+1 Level
+1 Level
Congratulations, you are now level two.
Available stat points for distribution: 4]
[Chaos System: You have acquired the inherent skill,
"I leveled up?!" Lucas exclaimed in surprise, his heart beating wildly in his chest. He wondered how this was all happening as it was only possible for one to begin leveling up after the awakening had begun.
But somehow, his system seemed to ignore all of those rules of common logic. Hell, he'd even gotten a new skill! Lucas silently thanked his lucky stars before he decided to try something.
"Stat Menu", he called out.
[BASIC INFORMATION:
Name: Lucas Wilson
Age: 19
Race: Havoc Halfling
Class: None.
Level: 2
__________
BASE STATS:
-Health: 40
-Mana: 110
ATTRIBUTES:
-Strength: 40 -Stamina: 55
-Agility: 45 -Defense: 50
-Intelligence: 35
Unassigned Stat points: 4
__________
SKILLS:
-Scan
RACIAL SKILLS:
-Chaos Leech
EXP required until next level up: 10/ 200]
In all honesty, Lucas was quite impressed with his current stats considering that the awakening hadn't started yet. However he frowned when he looked at a particular stat on his panel.
"35 intelligence is crazy though", he murmured in discontent, "I ain't that dumb"
What Lucas didn't know, was that his lowest stat was already higher than average as for everybody else, that would probably be one of their highest stats! However, he continued to scratch his head in frustration, oblivious to his own good fortune.
"I guess it's too soon to decide what to invest my stat points into", said Lucas before he closed his stat panel, "I'll save them for now"
Lucas then decided to finally call it a night as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
°°°
The next day at the dome, everybody was quite shocked by what they witnessed during practice.
Just as the Avatar had promised, they were faced with a new horde of monsters. This time, the monsters they faced were some type of hounds that had no eyes and had rotten flesh covering their bodies. Although their numbers were way less this time, only six in all, they more than made up for it with their sheer size. Each dog was the size of an average grown man!
"Grrrrrr!"
The hounds growled hungrily at Lucas' group as they smelt the fresh flesh in front of them. Once again, Lucas identified them as another low level mortal ranked beast, Rot Howlers. They were notoriously fast on their feet and a single bite from them could cause a rotting effect on bare flesh.
"Everyone get in a circle and be careful!" Warren yelled as everyone hurdled together in a tight circle. Even Andre who would usually ignore everything and charge straight in, obliged for once and listened to him.
"At least we know that they can't see us", said Caitlin as she pointed at one of the hound's empty eye sockets.
"That probably means that their other senses must be way sharper", said Andre with a serious expression on his face as the beasts began to slowly circle around their group, "Probably their senses of smell and hearing"
"Smell? Have they smelt themselves yet then?" asked one of the Becker's with her nose wrinkled in disgust.
"They smell absolutely horrid", her sister chimed in.
"Quiet!", Lucian hissed, "Here they come!"
Maybe because he had been the last one to say something, but one of the hounds charged at him first. Lucian crouched, ready to defend against the beast's attacks as best as he could. However at the last possible second, the howler veered away from him and instead, lunged at Caitlin with it's jaws wide open.
'Crap!' Caitlin's eyes widened in horror 'I let my guard down!'
She shut her eyes tight, raising her arms up as she braced herself for the pain of the howler's fangs biting into her, but it never came.
"You really shouldn't shut your eyes in the middle of a fight, Cait", a familiar voice scolded Caitlin and she opened her eyes, surprised to see Lucas suddenly in front of her.
What was even more surprising though, was the corpse of the dead howler that lay at Lucas' feet, with it's head twisted at an odd angle. Warren's mouth parted in astonishment, with several thoughts going through his head all at once.
'Fast!' Warren thought to himself 'Even faster than before too. But how?!'
Lucas ignored everybody's looks of surprise and asked Caitlin, "You good?"
Caitlin blinked several times before she answered slowly, "Y-Yeah, I'm alright thanks"
"Good", said Lucas with a reassuring smile before he turned to the rest of the rot howlers. The beasts now kept their distance from him after sensing how easily he had killed one of them.
"I hate it when you guys don't wanna play", Lucas muttered in annoyance, a strange yellow glint flashing in his eyes as he rushed at his prey, "At least give me a good hunt!"
----------------
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're all doing swell and everything. I just created a Discord server for all of us to just chat, interact, goof around and just talk about the book.
I'm naming it Chaos Community and I hope you'll all join in cause...idk, why not? I'll leave the link below for y'all.
Have a good one! ;)
https://discord.com/invite/FdxBzw9N
P.S: I just realized that you technically can't just click on the link on this app, so you literally have to write it down somewhere and enter it on discord manually lol.