Chapter Three: First Blood
The creature sprayed bullets at Benign but the soldier brilliantly dodged as he could tell where they would hit.
The revolver intrigued him, though 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 squarely. But 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, held its arms and bent the wrist. The revolver easily fell off.
"Can I keep the weapon?"
[Yes.]
The grin returned to his face when he sighted a sickle on the creature's waist.
Morality whiffed past his mind as he's 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 at the creature's throat.
The creature let out a loud cry and Benign released it. It held its throat, staggering back. It lost it's footing and tumbled down the dune. When it stopped, it didn't move and green liquid seeped out of its neck.
Benign stared at the creature, closed his eyes to say a silent prayer, then picked up the gun. He admired it. "It looks like a revolver, but has a wider range."
He looked at the sickle. It had a 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 from Olien confirmed.]
Benign looked up at no one in particular. So the creature was actually from Olien? It must be the absurd births that was mentioned before.
They must have glitched with the Karnak army they killed. If they weren't mythical creatures, then they were biological engineered by Olien.
A sigh left him as he continued down the dune. Olien sounded like a realm of technological advancements and where that existed, folks who wanted to be God would abound.
Creating creatures that looked like already existing creatures when they were not would be normal. "And worse if they make them have human attributes—"
The ground beneath him began trembling. He held the sickle in an attack stance. Not only was the dune he stood on vibrating but the two dunes ahead.
"Something is coming. What?"
[Use your eyes.]
Benign peered ahead, while covering the sun over his eyes. All he saw were tongues flapping about and the creatures running to him were similar to the hostile.
They were the same size yet for reasons unknown, much heavy. He didn't remember the hostile even make a sound in the sand as he ran towards him, yet these one causes vibrations.
"Of course, their creators must've made them have giant." He turned to the one that he killed and his body had shrunken under the sun. "They're here for revenge."
And all he had was the one sickle and revolver, with his sides still slowly bleeding. "Those skills are online, right? Don't tell me they're not."
There was no reply from the system so Benign guessed the sad truth. He slid down the dune and made his way towards the sea of dead army, as they were weapons.
Something slammed on his body and he nearly lost balance. He swung the sickle behind him, and slashed it. A green tongue fell by his feet, shaking like a worm.
"What the hell? From that distance? These lizards..."
A dozen of them charged towards him with a sickle of this waist and clawed hands. He reached the sea of dead soldiers and clutched the first weapon he saw.
"Why!"
He reached for another weapon but like the first, it didn't come off the ground. They were all stuck within sinking sand? He fired at the sand but it didn't budge.
He stopped firing to save bullets as he had no idea how many it contained. He groaned in frustration and continued running through the sea of dead bodies.
"Damn it. I just got here and these things want to kill me?"
[You killed one of them. As per your principles, wouldn't you avenge any death against your unit?]
"But you said I could kill it..."
He turned to the creatures, they weren't chasing him any longer. They had stopped at the beginning of the sea of dead bodies and snarled at him. Were they scared?
"The animals are dead." He shook his head. The lizards were really scared of the dead bird-like creatures buried with the fallen warriors?
"Go back. They might revive." He mocked them.
The biggest of the dozen hissed at him, waving his arms in threatening motion. He shook his head. "No, I'm not coming over there. I don't even have a basic skill."
The biggest spoke, then turned back with the rest. Benign didn't understand it but they sounded like curses and that annoyed him. He watched them leave, not even taking the one they were trying to avenge.
"Imagine getting shot by a lizard and then getting cursed at by his older brother later. This is shit."
[Alert! Benign Cross has been registered as a Legacy Systemist.]
He rolled his eyes. "Finally."
[It'd take five minutes to integrate to you.]
"Still wasting time?" he looked at his bleeding elbow that got shot. He had experienced worse, but in this new place, he'd prefer having few injuries.
If his memory served right, one of his basic skills was Regeneration, which meant when he'd be injured he'd just heal without having to consciously trigger it.
He smirked to himself. "Most MCs don't get such perks in those books."
[You need more than three basic skills to survive Noria, and there are two more realms, and settling Ragnasenso. Don't forget balancing the realms, at last. Benign, you really have to grow quickly.]
[Recovering the Primordial Core is the first step to balancing the realms and stopping the glitches, but you'd have to stop the wars, and avoid another Ragnasenso 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 inevitable clash again.]
Benign nodded slowly, taking everything in. There were too much sweats, especially as he wasn't set to get any suitable attack skill, but he was confident.
He had to start with Noria and survive. Stop the wars between the realms, then start looking for some core before searching for the core's caretakers.
"Do I have a time limit?"
[As long as you are alive, and the core doesn't get permanently destroyed.]
In other words, as soon as possible. He nodded again, and looked for a place to seat. He found an empty box and sat on it. "So tell me, why did the gods stop sustaining the Primordial Core?"