Episode 8
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"What are you doing here?"
"You already know, but now that's changed."
"....."
Freddy had nothing he cared about now. He wanted to see his rewards and receive them at once. The abyss was about to disappear in less than a few minutes.
There was little time.
However, he wondered why his sister changed her mind just now.
She came for the sword, but saw more than just a relic that, in theory, had no good use and was only a legacy of the previous patriarch.
Elizabeth's opinion changed because of her brother and his abilities.
Freddy opened his eyes.
He had no way to explain his strange awakening.
It was said that awakenings were classified into ranks, depending on the abilities and description they brought to each individual.
However, there were many different things about his awakening.
In the past, he did not awaken, but now he had returned from death and into the past, with a sudden awakening and knowledge granted by the gods.
The god of sacrifice had something on his mind, as he offered him regression in exchange for his soul.
Is his soul, now absent, the cause of his awakening?
Lord of Calamity.
As his name suggests, is he really a class or a being whose existence is still somewhere, in or out of the abyss?
It was strange.
He was confused about his awakening and related skills.
A single skill completely changed the common knowledge of levels.
He killed a level 30 being at level 1.
Did that make sense?
"What's your class?"
Elizabeth asked soon after.
She didn't have the words to answer.
It wasn't that she didn't want to, it was just that she didn't know how to.
Elizabeth was a high level awakened.
You could say she was level 80 or even higher, approaching 90.
She was a monster she couldn't deal with right now.
In the past, she was one of the strongest, reaching level 99. However, Elizabeth was always cruel to the weak, belittling them whenever she saw them.
"....."
Elizabeth looked deeply at him.
Her piercing eyes made Freddy's body tremble.
One of Elizabeth's abilities was "Abysmal Fear," an ability related to seeing death itself and experiencing the greatest fears one could imagine.
Even though Freddy had been in front of Arhat, a three-dimensional being, the fear was still there, and Elizabeth's ability was kicking in.
"It's strange... Even though you're an awakened one, just now you're too strong? That's more exciting, little brother."
Her voice sounded like that of one mad to find out what he was hiding.
Even if she knew, she wouldn't tell him, but either way, she would beat him.
It was a problem she had to deal with.
It was annoying to him, but there was nothing he could do about it.
She was too strong.
"Why don't you answer?"
Elizabeth asked, but Freddy was still silent.
He didn't know what to say at that moment.
"Magic swordsman class."
An idea popped into his head, and it was the first thing he said.
Elizabeth looked at him in confusion.
This was because of the peculiar class Freddy mentioned.
The magic swordsman was a low-ranking class, though it was said that one in a thousand could obtain a really good skill, related to sword and magic at the same time.
It was so good that it could be compared to a high-ranking skill.
However, the idea of the magic swordsman class was still absurd.
"....."
Elizabeth watched him silently and frowned.
"That's a bad joke, brother."
"It isn't."
"Why are you denying it? You showed a skill too powerful for a low rank class like magic swordsman. Your level is surely 1, yet you killed a level 30 with equipment included!"
It was absurd.
Killing someone level 30, even with equipment, was equivalent to facing a level 35, but the result was the death of the death knight at the hands of a level 1 human.
This would draw the attention of the Monarchs.
It was impossible to be that strong being a level 1; no one had ever demonstrated anything like this before, and it was simply unattainable.
It was like transforming the impossible into the possible, an achievement that surpassed any expectation and defied understanding.
Elizabeth asked:
"Tell me then... what is your class?"
"Magic Swordsman."
There was nothing more to say.
One lie was enough, and now she had to stick with it to the end.
Not, at least, until he was stronger than his own sister.
That woman was insane.
She killed for fun.
In the past, she had murdered hundreds of people, but no one dared to say anything, for she was the daughter of the "strongest" man in the world.
Everyone feared her, and they knew why.
They had witnessed firsthand the power of Gustang and even Arhat.
Freddy was confident that he could get out of this situation, even if he was half dead.
Still, he couldn't die now.
He had extra life thanks to the title of the god of death, which granted him an extra 'life'.
"Should I kill you now or let you live?" asked Elizabeth, staring at him.
Her gaze conveyed such deep anger that it seemed she would kill him.
But she didn't.
It wasn't that she couldn't, but that she had something on her mind.
He looked down at his sister, who lay on the floor.
He gave her a "regenerative potion" to get answers, but Freddy did not reveal his secrets to her.
Now she was even more curious, and so she decided to let him live a while longer.
"Useless."
Elizabeth stepped out of the abyss.
Freddy stared into the void with nothing to say.
However...
Bang!
The ground shook as he hit it so hard that it cracked.
The force increased more than tenfold after using the aura of death, as small traces remained on his body even after taking Elizabeth's potion.
The crack extended more than two meters from the impact of the force exerted.
Useless.
The word stuck in his mind for several seconds.
It was a word that filled him with anger because of his past.
He simply wanted to kill her outright, but he could not. If he wished to see her dead, he must first become stronger than her.
Still, he could do nothing, not even defend himself with words.
Her ability suppressed both his mind and his thoughts, making it impossible to say anything.
Freddy closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them.
"Damn it..."
Time was still ticking.
Freddy stood up and picked up the sword.
It was surprising that he hadn't taken it with him, considering his goal was this sword.
He had come for this weapon, and yet Elizabeth did not take it with her.
For a moment, Freddy's eyes rested on the sword of death, and he thought:
"Aura of death..."
He reflected on the previous combat and meditated deeply on the aura of death.
It was an overwhelming power and difficult to control; his resistance was not high enough.
In the past, others had awakened with such extreme resistance that it was impossible to penetrate.
His current resistance was 1, a product of a strange state of "no stats" after his sudden awakening, but that didn't matter to him.
"I should use the aura of death more carefully now."
At any moment he could collapse due to the magic power of death. This was a particularly complicated type of magic to understand, with extremely powerful characteristics that brought the body to a deplorable state.
If the side effects of obtaining more power than due resulted in the "disintegration" of the body... this was extremely dangerous.
The sword of eternity was a skill that increased the aura of death generated by the sword of death.
This was unexpected and caused an overwhelming power imbalance that his body could not withstand.
He was nearly killed by this aura, whose 200% increase was devastating.
Still, Freddy killed the death knight.
Without the increased aura, he would not have been able to defeat him, let alone survive in this abyss.
He had an advantage before, but this one was monotonous.
"The side effects still linger in my body.... I need something similar to a potion, but more effective."
He had to recover his body's condition before facing the next abyss.
The next abyss would be immense, a place where he would possibly not survive, no matter how many lives he had.
At the same time, Freddy said:
"Receive rewards."
Messages appeared in his vision as he uttered those words, unfolding in front of his eyes.
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⟨⟨==Choose one of the two rewards: (1) 20 coins, (2) All stats at +20==⟩⟩
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Coins were incredibly hard to come by, and even harder for a human on their own. Anyone would choose the first option, but....
"20 stats in each area."
The reward was too good.
Getting even three stat points in a single area was already extremely difficult.
One way to achieve this was to level up, but leveling up was such a complicated process that the chances of gaining stat points were usually slim.
Because of this, the best option was to choose stats.
If he chose coins now, they would be of no use to him, but....
"Knowing the future, coins will be important. It is best to get as many as possible before the events ahead."
He knew that coins would be an essential key in the near future.
However, there was still a long way to go. Getting coins was not easy, and for now, they were useless.
Finally, he chose the second option.
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⟨⟨==You chose option (2): All stats go up by +20==⟩⟩
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Freddy's body felt lighter, and his strength increased even more.
The feeling was amazing, but all amazingness vanishes as quickly as it comes.
Freddy continued to look at the next rewards.
They caught his attention so much that he couldn't stop thinking about them.
The extra rewards were hard to get, as they required creating a large stage in the abyss, and these came only at the end.
Because of this, a word came out of his mouth.
It was a real question:
"Easter egg that brings good luck."
When he read the description, his body shook violently as he realized how valuable it was.