Chapter Three: First Blood
The creature sprayed bullets at Benign but the soldier brilliantly stepped past them as he could tell where they were going to.
The revolver intrigued him, it probably wasn't called that in this realm.
Each hit didn't seem lethal, and he questioned what would happen if it did hit him. He didn't plan to do anything with the curiosity till he had handled the problem.
He got closer and swiped an uppercut to the creature, holding his arms and bending his wrist. The revolver easily fell off.
"I can keep the weapon?"
[Yes.]
The grin returned to his face when he sighted a sickle on the creature's waist. A whiff of morality passed through his mind as he was about to kill a weak and defenceless creature.
But his fast adaptability, honed with merciless acts on the battlefield steeled his resolve. "If you're the unfortunate one, then I'd pay for my sins by balancing the realms." He grabbed the sickle and stabbed it on the creature's throat.
The creature let out a loud cry and Benign released it. It held its throat, staggering back. It lost its footing and tumbled down the sand hill. When it stopped, it didn't move and green liquid seeped out of its neck.
Benign picked up the gun. "It looks like a revolver, but has a wider range." He looked at the sickle. It had a more triangular shape than the normally curvy sickles in his world.
"Well, weapons acquired. Start the activation of the skills."
[Activation commencing...]
[Death of Creature Icarus confirmed.]
[Benign Cross has been registered as a Legacy Systemist.]
[It'd take five minutes to be integrated to you.]
Benign looked at his bleeding elbow that was shot earlier. If his memory served him right, Regeneration, had been one of the basic skills. Meaning when he'd be injured, he'd just heal without having to consciously trigger it.
"Most MCs don't get such perks in those books." He smirked to himself.
[You need more than three basic skills to survive Noria, and there are still two more realms. You have to grow quickly, Benign.]
[Recovering the Primordial Core is the first step to balancing the realms and stopping the glitches, but you'd have to stop the wars before thinking of balance.]
[Afterwards, you'd have to convince the gods to resume their duty of sustaining the Primordial Core or else, the realms would clash again.]
Benign nodded slowly, taking everything in. So he was to start with Noria. Stop the wars between the realms, then start looking for some core. "Do I have a time limit?"
[As long as you are alive, and the Core isn't permanently destroyed.]
In other words, as soon as possible. Benign nodded again? "Why did the gods stop sustaining the Primordial Core?"
[That part isn't your battle, so you do not need to know.]
The system was sounding more and more like his superiors back in the military. Always withholding information and giving them what they deemed 'necessary'.
Still Benign wanted to take everything in good faith. He had been given a second chance to save some war-loving realms and restore a core.
It was like living a fantasy and while he knew things would soon get serious, he wanted to enjoy the ride and take it as his retirement.
[You underestimate what you have to do.]
"Maybe, but I'd piece a unit soon, taking the best soldiers from each realms and have them find this core, while I find the gods. Not to brag, but I've survived three wars and have six years experience at only twenty-two. I can handle this."
He reached the sea of dead bodies and walked through them. Seeing the men laying side by side and some holding the other made him reminisce his first war and how he had felt when his comrades had been killed.
Now, he was used to it and it made me learn how to direct his unit to a safer victory or avenge every single death. "I don't have the time, but I'd really like to bury all these bodies."
[Burying isn't a common funeral practice at these realms. You can use Hell Rain to burn the corpses.]
Benign checked if he felt different, but there was nothing to show if the skills integrated with him. Was he just to pull a Kamehameha and see if something would come out?
[Hell Rain had successfully integrated with you.]
He nodded, spreading his hand to his sides. The skill has to do with raining down hell, possibly balls of fire, and to make sure his first use of his fantasy skills was memorable, he had to use it for something other than for himself.
"I've to mentally measure the area that'd be hit with the impact." It'd be like bombing a field of dead bodies, and while it's be absurd in his world, it seemed to work for this one.
Mentally activating the skills, he demonstrated the parting of the cloud.
Their intensity increased and the rays formed scorching balls of heat that slowly descending to the ground.
[Hell Rain... Commencing... Level One.]
They were the size of fists falling down to the battlefields consuming the bodies and the upper surface of the earth they touched. The intensity of the balls made some flesh peel without making in contact, showing how hot they were.
Benign dropped his tired hands when the required area had been engulfed. He felt exhausted, but not to death. The balls cooled and looked like rocks of lava. He watched the skies close.
"This is not a skill I can use in one-on-one combat at all." He folded his arms and walked out. "It's not even a skill I can use in a place filled with people. How can I get more skills with different ranges."
[Complete missions. Missions pop up when there's a threat to your life, or the core.]
[They also pop up when there's an ally you need to acquire, or to move your goals forward. I'd arrange a window for you when you've accumulated two more skills.]
"Do I select the skills I want?"
[You are gifted the skills available.]
Available? Who else used the skills if not him?
Benign sighed, "Also, this had been bothering me, but if you don't mind, could you sound more human? Maybe change your voice settings to something more familiar."
[Like your comrade Kendrick's?]
Benign frowned. Why would it be that annoying young man? Did he seem like he had any attachment to him, or because he mentioned his name that one time?
[Voice settings changed.]
The soldier shrugged. "You can speak informally too. You are the first member of my unit. What is your name?"
[It is LEG 101.]
"Right. But I can call you...?"
[Legal.]
"Well then, nice to meet you, Legal."
Benign cracked his knuckles. All he needed to do now was find a village or someone sane in this desert to rest and gather more information.
"To the land of the notorious elves it is."