Status | Quests | Inventory
Name: Lukas King
Tier: Mortal
Mana: 168
Rate: 10% per hour
Strength: 10 > 22
Agility: 10 > 16
Constitution: 14 > 21
Arcana: 2 > 16
Stat Points: 0
Bloodline: Locked. Conditions not met. (1/10,000)
Charges: 7/10
Luke inspected his status, satisfied with his progress over the past two weeks. An exhausting two weeks. With merits to spare, he had spent every moment exercising or sparring, on average, gaining three points a day. All his free stat points, with the exception of one, which had gone to his Bloodline to see what happened (nothing), had gone to the Arcana stat.
Something he was considering to be a bit of a waste the more he invested in it. It was the only stat that hadn't grown naturally, and he still couldn't feel his mana, nor did he have a way to use it. Something he hoped would change after the attribute crossed into triple digits.
Dismissing it, he got ready for the day. Breathing in the fresh air, he made his way to the Mission Hall for the first time since his unexpected windfall. He scanned the missions on the board for something that might catch his eye.
"How can I help you today?" asked the clerk as soon as Luke made it to the front of the line.
"I would like to go on a hunt. An easier one, if that's okay."
"Very well. Can I see your wristband, please?" He extended his hand.
Luke slid it over and watched with amusement as the man's polite smile slipped from his face. He looked between Luke and the paper, and then at Luke again.
"Is there a problem?"
The clerk's mouth opened and closed, not unlike that of a fish. "There is no problem. It's just that … a hunt is dangerous."
"I'm aware." Luke crossed his arms.
"There are other considerations."
Luke lifted an eyebrow, wondering what the man was getting at.
"You see, a standard monster-extermination mission groups five people together. Most that participate in them are seasoned members of the society. While I can add you to a team, not many will be happy with the addition of a fresh recruit."
Luke nodded as he mulled over the words. "I see."
"Might I suggest a guard posting instead?" he offered with a strained smile.
"Hmm. No, I'll stick with a monster hunt."
Pursing his lips, the other man nodded. "Very well." He pulled out a binder and began flipping through it. "All right, I've added you to a team. You'll be exterminating a flock of harpies down south. They've been harassing a town, stealing food, and abducting men. Your team is scheduled to depart at noon, from the south gate. Please ensure you have enough supplies to last you for the three days it will take you to get there and the three it will take you to return. The pay is twenty merits, and the society purchases the harpies' wings at ten merits a pair. If you fail at the mission, and it is determined upon investigation that it was due to lack of professionalism and or poor conduct on your behalf, you will be docked five merits."
"Thank you," said Luke, nodding politely while collecting his wristband, amused by the situation. Just two weeks ago, a clerk had been commending him for taking it easy and gathering herbs, and now one was looking down on him for hunting monsters.
Not that it could be helped. Luke would have liked to keep gathering herbs, and he likely could—except he had a sword. One that he very much wanted to use. If siphoning mana actually translated into stat points, then sitting around the society was a massive waste of his time. At least until he learned how much mana, in terms of stat points, the sword actually siphoned from the things he killed. If it eclipsed what he earned in safety by a substantial margin, then it was worth the risk.
Ideally, he'd want to make it to the Warrior tier, and fast, before hightailing it off the island. He'd also need to work something out with Nefkha. The fact that he knew that Luke was the one Arke was looking for felt uncomfortably like a sword dangling over his head.
A single hint from Arke about what it was that he possessed could change their relationship in a heartbeat, and Luke couldn't take the risk that Nefkha wouldn't kill him for the Seed.
What are charges? Luke directed his thoughts to the Seed. A question he had asked it days before, and it was one of the few it had answered, ignoring the rest.
A charge is a unit of primordial energy. The God Seed generates ten instances of this energy every time it transfers to a new host. A charge can be consumed to perform a wide array of tasks, depending on the user's needs. Past users have often used the charges to escape death.
Warning: use of a charge is detectable by beings sensitive to primordial energies within a certain radius.
The first part was great, and Luke was happy to know he had seven aces up his sleeve. The last part, however, had bothered him since he'd learned of it. It hadn't come as a surprise that Arke had a way to track him. She had known he was on the archipelago, after all. It was the knowledge that using his aces would tell her exactly where he was that was unnerving.
Using a charge, then, was tantamount to a death sentence so long as she was around. Even then, there was no telling who or what could detect primordial energy. The last thing Luke wanted was another monstrous being hunting him.
Suddenly, it made a lot of sense why the God Seed was still in circulation. Whoever had it ended up dead before they got strong enough to protect it from people who wanted it more. Luke could already envision them using a charge to escape from a monster, only to end up face-to-face with someone of Arke's caliber, or maybe even stronger.
Shaking the thoughts free from his head, Luke went from shop to shop and grabbed a host of supplies. Enough food and water to last him a couple of weeks. A seemly number of the society's black robes. A decent shield to go with his sword. A handful of talismans, and even some potions. The society's more arcane goods were of great interest to Luke.
He'd found that talismans weren't limited to just the explodey kind. There were other, more expensive ones that acted as makeshift shields. According to the Inner Disciple who had sold them to him, they could block one good hit from basically any monster that he was likely to run into. The caveat was that they were hard to use. Just like the ones he'd used before, they had a perforated tab that needed to be ripped to activate them—a tab that was hard to rip when you had something trying to kill you.
Potions were also handy, although Luke wasn't convinced of their efficacy. Supposedly, spilling them on a wound would help it heal faster, but he hadn't had the opportunity to try it.
After he walked home with his hands full of food, pockets full of talismans, and a newly purchased shield on his back, he settled onto a chair before loading it all—with the exception of his shield and some food that he planned to carry, for the sake of appearances—into his inventory.
Status | Quests | Inventory
Capacity: 84.6 kg of 462 kg
He'd dropped a banana in it a week ago and was pleasantly surprised to see it hadn't spoiled at all during that time.
Since then, he had slowly been filling the inventory with food, about an extra meal or two every day. The society gave him three meals a day, delivered to his house at regular intervals, but those who wanted to eat more were free to buy as much food as they pleased.
Everything purchased in the society was bought by merits, and every merit was tracked. With that in mind, he had been careful and perhaps a bit paranoid about what he bought and when he bought it. Paranoia he felt was justified. It wouldn't end well if Nefkha was keeping an eye on his purchases and decided that he didn't like Luke buying more food than was reasonable for him to eat and called Arke down on him.
Sitting on a chair, at a loss for how to spend the last two hours before he left to meet his monster-hunting team, Luke had an idea. Fishing out a protective talisman, Luke ripped off the perforated edge and, a moment later, just as a bubble of blue energy surrounded him, he moved the talisman into his inventory.
Smiling, he brought it back out thirty seconds later. Twenty-five seconds after it should have fizzled out.
Now, this is nice, Luke thought, grinning at the protective bubble around him. With this, I won't have to fumble around with it midfight. Instant energy shield, a thought away.
With the initial success, he tore the perforated edge off three of his remaining five talismans and moved them to his inventory. He kept two on his person in case someone else needed to use them.
Watching a clock tick, he stripped out of his outer clothes and started doing push-ups.
Might as well get a workout in while I wait. What I wouldn't do for a phone right now, though. I never thought I would miss doomscrolling this much.
When he arrived at the city's gate, it didn't take him long to find his group. Four people, sitting on a large carriage tied to two bipedal, raptor-like lizards called raphta. Each was the size of a horse and covered in dark-blue and purple scales.
Once he got closer, Luke was surprised to see he actually recognized two of the people on it. One of them was Arya, except she had swapped out her black robes for blue ones. The other was Ethan, his hulking frame easily recognizable. He hadn't seen either since his first days in the society.
"Hi. You guys are hunting the harpies, right?" he asked, approaching the carriage from behind, not scared of the lizards but not wanting to get close to them, either.
"Luke?" said Arya, her face settling into a frown. Clearly, she was unhappy to see him.
"Hi, Arya. Congratulations on becoming an Inner Disciple," he answered, ignoring the look on her face—he could already guess why she wasn't happy to see him.
"What are you doing going on a hunt?" she asked. "I specifically told Xander to warn you against them."
"You know this kid, Arya?" asked the other Inner Disciple, leaning in curiously.
"I've met him before. He joined the society a little over two weeks ago."
"That's fine, right? If he was recruited off-season, he should be decently strong." He shrugged and looked between Luke and Arya, clearly not seeing the big deal.
"And he hadn't started cultivating until then, either."
"So let me get this straight. You've been cultivating for two weeks?"
"Basically."
"You're going to die." He leaned back and crossed his arms, a smile playing across his lips.
"Laxas!" Arya looked at the other Inner Disciple disapprovingly. She turned to Luke. "You're not going to die."
"Is it really that dangerous?"
"It's not as bad as Laxas is making it out to be," Ethan cut in. "Harpies are pretty stupid. If we play our cards right, we can get rid of them fairly easily. Normally, we just fill them with arrows from a distance." Ethan pointed to a large pile of wooden arrows with metal heads and an assortment of bows on the back of the carriage.
"What Ethan isn't telling you is that there are usually hundreds of harpies in a single nest, and if they spot you, they will rip you apart," the other Outer Disciple chimed in.
Ethan glared at him. "Don't worry too much about that. What Arn isn't telling you"—he jabbed his thumb in Arn's direction—"is that harpies are basically blind. They never see where the arrows are coming from. Just stick with Arya or Laxas and you'll be okay. Isn't that right, guys?"
"You think I haven't seen that happen before?" Arn got to his feet and glared at Ethan.
"That's enough. Luke, get on, we're wasting time. And you two"—Arya glanced between Ethan and Arn—"if we're careful, then the harpies won't even know we're there, because we hunt them while they sleep, and if they do see us—" She reached behind her and pulled out a wire net with gaps big enough that Luke was confident he could poke his neck through them. "We have these. We'll set them up before we attack and fire our arrows through them. If they crowd around us, we'll still be fine."
"Yeah, don't stress too much about it. Like Ethan said, just stick with me or Arya, and we'll be all right. I was joking about the dying thing. Mostly," said Laxas, climbing to the front of the carriage and taking the reins.