“Are you sure that you don't want me to come with you?" Makoto asked in concern after breakfast the next morning, as Langa prepared to leave for his quest.

"I'm sure," he said. "Besides, it's just past the yellow zone in the east. I'll be fine. You just worry about yourself, okay?"

He was still rattled by Liv's warning and wanted to make sure that Makoto was careful.

"Alright. Here, take this, it'll make me feel better," Makoto said handing his mana stone to Langa.

"I don't have any skills that use mana. Keep it for yourself."

"I insist," Makoto said shoving the stone into Langa's hands. "It only contains 50 mana, and you can convert it to stamina. If anything happens to you, I... Please be careful, this is your last life until we get to the 1st Floor."

There was no reason to say no after that, and Langa took the stone. He placed a hand on Makoto's shoulder, "Thanks, you're a good kid.” He really was, and it did not sit well with Langa to allow the boy to care about him while his reasons for helping him were less than noble

“Eish yah, you know that I’m using you, right?” Langa asked.

“What do you mean, brother?”

Langa leant against the wall, “Last time you asked me why I looked after you, I told you it was because of my niece. The truth is I don’t know if I care about you. I just….I’m taking care of you because you’re here and Khaya isn’t. It makes me feel better, gives me something to do in this boring godsforsaken world,” he told him honestly.

“Boring?” Makoto asked in surprise. “You died.”

Langa raised his eyebrows at the fact that he didn’t marvel about his feelings on the matter of taking care of him. He seemed more worried about the fact that Langa found nothing to do in this place except to take care of him.

“When I first got here I was scared of the level one foxes but now level 1 to 4 foxes and wolves are easy pickings for me. Fighting them is even a bit dull. Yeah, I died, but honestly, I don’t care. My curse made me accept the possibility of an early death years ago. The maestril might be worth fighting though,” he said quietly. “My point is, kid, look after yourself, don’t worry about me.”

Makoto was quiet for a moment, and then he said. “I’ll still be waiting for you. I understand.”

“Kid-“

“Brother, the night that the tutorial started, I ran away from home. I had a fight with my mother, over something petty and stupid… I screamed at her and I made her cry. Now it’s all I can think about.” There was a bitterness in his voice. “All I want is to climb the Tower and get back home…tell her I’m sorry. I want you to go there with me so that I can tell her that I wasn’t alone. It doesn’t matter what your reasons are, what matters is that you’re being kind to me and I appreciate that. So don’t die, Langa.”

This was giving Langa a headache, and as he tried to process all this, his hidden quest updated and he could only sigh in frustration. “Alright, just look after yourself. Liv said that that attribute of yours is dangerous. Stop worrying about me, get stronger so you can protect yourself because I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep protecting you. I’ll try to live, but I can’t promise not to die.”

Makoto frowned again, but Langa held up his hand and continued, “In case that happens, I want you to gather as much karma as you can. I don't care if you don't fight, just get 1000 karma and get out of this tutorial, okay? Tell you what, if there is any way, I swear on The Unrivalled, that if I die, I want you to have all my karma. That's all I pray for, right now."

"Don't say that, you-"

But Makoto did not get the chance to voice his worries, as they both received a notification at that moment.

 

[You have made a sincere pledge from the bottom of your heart. The Unrivalled Tower Master has heard your prayer.

You have formed a karma bond with player Sato Makoto. When you die, he will receive all of your available karma.

Available karma: 342]

 

"Wow, I just got a notification that says I get your karma if you die! You have a lot of karma!" Makoto said in surprise.

This was not what Langa had intended when he'd said that, but this was good. If Makoto got his karma, that would be for the best.

"Yeah, so don't kill me, okay," Langa laughed, squeezing the boy's shoulder.

Makoto steeled himself, clasped his hands together, and closed his eyes. He said., "Oh, Great Lady Unrivalled. I also want Brother Langa to have my karma when I die. Please grant my prayer."

 

[Player Sato Makoto's heartfelt prayer has reached The Unrivalled Tower Master!

Your karma bond has been strengthened! When player Sato Makoto dies, you will receive all of his available karma.

Player Sato Makoto's available karma: 237]

 

"I did not need you to do that, but thanks," Langa said in resignation. "I'll see you when I get back, okay?"

Somehow he realised how this karma bond could be dangerous, if someone could see the amount of karma you had, they could let it pile up, and then kill you to obtain it. He shuddered at the thought. The Tower was truly dangerous.

He left Makoto there, still wearing a worried frown on his face, and he started on the quest to find his Calling.

*

In the east of the safe zone, there was a thin, rocky forest. Beyond that, were small hills and mountains. According to Langa's map, that was where the FireFox Queen's shrine was located. It was just past a yellow zone. The yellow zone was full of level 1 and level 2 corrupted wolves. They did not give Langa much experience at all, and if not for the fact that he wanted to get to level 5 before reaching the shrine and that he wanted to practice his spear skills, Langa would have just run through the area without fighting.

All he could do was use the blunt wooden spears and finish the monsters off with daggers.

The wooden spears were practically useless until Langa found a sharp rock and bashed bits off it with another bit of rock as well as his daggers to make a point. He then used the laces from his trainers to bind the sharp rock to the shaft of the wooden spear. “I finally appreciate the hard work King Shaka must have gone through to get his soldiers outfitted with spears centuries ago,” he muttered.

Now, it was a good opportunity for him to test his spear skill against actual monsters, and he was finally able to grasp how to correctly sweep the legs of five level 1 wolves, destabilising them for a bit. He figured he could use it as a kind of AOE attack. While his proficiency in the skill steadily climbed up, Langa could not help but be bored as he tore through the low-level wolves. He needed 400 EXP to get to Level 5, and the level 1 wolves only gave him 10 EXP, and the level 2 wolves gave him 20 EXP since he was so much higher level than them. Worse still, he did not get any karma from these kills anymore. But he still persevered, running around the rocky forest, training both his spear skill and his Flash Step. After three hours of no rest where he killed over 30 corrupted wolves, he finally got the notification that he wanted.

 

[Congratulations! Level Up!

Level 5

+5 karma

+2STR, +2VIT, + 1AGI

You have 3 free attribute points to distribute.]

 

Langa distributed all his free attribute points into agility. He was ready now. He looked at this map, and saw that although he had already been travelling and fighting for three hours, he still had about 7 kilometres before he reached the shrine. To save time, Langa broke into a sprint. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, which with how high his agility was, was quite fast. Running up the hill, dodging corrupted wolves, the scent of the forest in his nose, and the wind blowing past his face was refreshing. When he was running like this, he could almost pretend that he was back home, training.

There was a time when running was everything to him, something close to his heart, until even that felt stale. But here, there was no one watching him, no country piling up their hopes of an Olympic medal on him, no one pressuring him. No curse haunting him. There was just the ground under his feet and the wind in the air. It was invigorating.

By the time he got near the shrine, he did not need the map, instead, he could feel something calling him in that direction. Sure enough, in a little time, he arrived at the edge of the cliff marking the end of the yellow zone. The cliff was a large mass of white rock, sparsely populated with grass and a few trees as he looked down. A large lake lay sprawled many metres below the cliff, reflecting the dark sky above. What caught Langa's attention, though, was the cave in the middle of the cliff.

The cave sat wide open facing the dim sun, and there were rocky stairs from the top of the cliff leading into the cave. The stairs were insanely steep, and Langa was unsure if he would be able to maintain his balance as he walked down them. If he fell, the drop was at least 300 metres, and despite there being water at the bottom, it was not a risk he was willing to take, not when he had only one life. After all, he could not swim. There was no other way about it, he had to find a way to tether himself to the top of the cliff, just in case.

In the next hour, as Langa busied himself trying to make a makeshift rope/harness from vines, he cursed the fact that he had never been an outdoorsy person, this would be a lot easier. He had no idea why people did it at all, in fact. What was so fun about hiking up a mountain or climbing rocks? He could not think of something he’d hate doing for fun more than that. In his defence, though, as a child, he’d lived in the rural areas, spending days in the forests, climbing up mountains, farming… he’d managed to get himself and his family away from that life, and there was no way in hell he would do it for fun. He shuddered thinking of the time he’d been bitten by a scorpion and his sister had to carry him everywhere because it was so fucking painful.

Anyway, despite all this, he managed to make himself a vine rope, tying one side of it carefully around a tree and the other around his waist. He made sure it was secure before he started walking down those steep stairs, carefully, step by step. He made sure not to look down, and held on tightly to the vine as he went down. After what felt like hours, he was finally at the entrance of the cave.

Since it faced the sun, there were dim streaks of light shining into the cave, and as Langa untied himself from the vine and walked in, he marvelled at the sight in front of him. The cave was very warm, especially when compared to the cold air on the cliff outside. Multiple drawings graced the walls of the cave, of stars, birds, foxes and wolves.

The centrepiece though, was something else. There was a massive statue of a foxkin woman sitting on a throne of fire in the middle of the cave. In front of the statue was a locked wooden box, with a black diamond-looking crystal the size of a human hand on it. It was pulsing, and there were strands of black smoke moving towards the crystal. This was what was draining the karma from the shrine. Langa knew that he should destroy this crystal to complete his quest, but something else caught his attention. The thing that was calling him.

Behind the statue of the foxkin, was a drawing of that same foxkin fighting against what looked like a giant bird. In the drawing, Langa could see fire coming from the foxkin’s hands, while the bird was surrounded by large lightning bolts. There was something about that bird, Langa thought looking at the battle, it was less that it controlled the lightning and more that the lightning seemed to follow the bird naturally. Langa was drawn to the black eyes of the bird and he moved closer to the drawing.

His heart started to beat uncontrollably fast as he neared the drawing, still focused on the bird’s eyes. When he finally stood in front of it, he realised that one of the bird’s eyes was not a drawing at all. It looked like some kind of button. This was what called to him. Tentatively, he reached out with his hand and pressed the button. To his surprise, the wall of the cave split open a centre partition between the foxkin and the bird. Inside this secret compartment, there was a silver chest. Langa stepped forward.

 

[Congratulations! You have found a Legacy challenge!

Legacy Conditions:

1. Player Only

2. Any race besides foxkin

3. Level 5 and above

4. Lightning Resistance of 25% and above

5. Lightning Affinity of 10% and above]

 

Langa stared in awe as the chest glowed brightly in front of him. A Legacy? His Calling was a Legacy! He had heard Sigurd telling Makoto about them. Apparently, after the tutorial, abandoned worlds would be destroyed and become Void worlds. The purpose of the tutorial was to allow players to train, and if they completed the tutorial before the world turned into a Void world, all the world's legends and mythical items as well as Legacies would be preserved and sent to the Tower in the form of treasure dungeons.

Checking the requirements, Langa frowned as he realised that he did not qualify for the Legacy. What the hell kind of Calling was this?

 

[You fulfil 4/5 of the requirements. You are eligible to obtain the Legacy.

!!WARNING!! You are only 80% compliant with the Legacy requirements! You may experience a backlash from using it.

Continue: Y/N?]

 

Langa hesitated for a moment before saying yes. He could not just leave like this, he had to obtain his Calling, no matter what it took. He was already here, and it took him hours to reach this place. He was too lazy to return empty-handed. So, he walked into the little compartment, placing his hand on the chest, and opening it. The moment that he opened the chest, the whole cave came alight, and there was a suspicious sound that sounded like thunder, but before he could process it, a sharp pain struck him from behind.

Langa only managed a scream as he looked up and saw the white bird from the painting flying above him. It looked like he was not in the cave anymore, and this filled him with confusion. He appeared to be outside, standing in some kind of wasteland, white sand at his feet. Storm clouds gathered in the sky as the thunderbird flew up into the sky. Suddenly, the thunderbird flying above him transformed into a person, with two legs and pure white wings. He had the same pure white hair on his head, red skin, as well as talons on his hands, and his feet had only four toes and were shaped like chicken feet.

"Are you worthy of my Legacy?" he asked, voice booming in the wilderness. His eyes seemed glazed over, unseeing.

"Uh, yes, I am," Langa said. This must be part of the process to get his Calling. He wondered if Makoto also went through something like this.

"Then show me your resolve. Those who follow the path of lightning must be able to endure the pain," the thunderbird said, his eyes turning white. From the storm clouds above, thunder roared, and then the lightning fell, striking Langa in the back.

"What the-" Langa started, but when he looked up, a multitude of lightning bolts erupted from the sky, over a hundred of them, striking him. The burning pain was suffocating and he felt as though his nerves were on fire. It went on and on and he fell to the ground screaming on that white sand, writhing in pain until his body only felt numb and he lay down there for a while before he noticed that there was no more lightning.

"Well done," The thunderbird's eyes became focused as he looked at the despairing Langa on the ground. And then the thunderbird suddenly held a long spear in his hands, and he turned his back to Langa. A horde of gnarly black metallic creatures, each with five long tentacle-like limbs snarled at both him and the thunderbird.

"Watch closely," the thunderbird said, twirling the spear in his hands, an energy inside it crackling. He dashed forward in a blur, and even after the harrowing experience of being struck by lightning, Langa watched him go. His feet moved effortlessly, evading the black creatures' long limbs with quick movements.

It was hard to follow the way he moved, especially when he started swinging his spear elegantly and slicing through the metallic creatures as if it was easy. Not a single one of them managed to land a hit on his nimble body. Then his arms glowed with lightning and the spear in his hands absorbed the lightning so that when he thrust it into the head of the largest black creature, it sliced through it like a knife through butter.

A sweeping movement later, and all the metallic black creatures were dead.

Langa gulped as the thunderbird turned back to him, still sitting on the white sand in fear, pain and awe.

When he thought the thunderbird was done fighting, another metallic monster came barrelling towards them from the distance.

 

"Your turn," the thunderbird said, holding out its spear to him.

"What?" Langa asked, dumbfounded.

"Those who follow the path of lightning must be quick on their feet. They must be able to charge their bodies from zero to their maximum speed and back again in an instant, just like lightning. I'll be watching," he said and when Langa took the spear from him, he vanished into thin air.

Something, a strange energy enveloped his body like a warm electric blanket. Langa felt different, more alert.

The monster was coming straight at him, dragging itself on its metallic limbs as it approached him. He had no time to think as black metallic bullets shot out from its arms therefore Langa Flash Stepped away.

The spear was heavy in his hand, and when the mobster’s arm shot out at him like a blade, Langa tried to duck, however, his body moved differently, taking on a strange stance with his feet planted firmly on the ground, holding the spear with his right hand forward and he blocked the blade. The force from the clash pushed him back a little, but he was too stunned by the effortless way he had just blocked that.

A wave of panic rose inside him, feat that he was trapped in his own body, even as the monster roared, continuing to shoot more bullets at him. Even though he knew he was freaking out over the loss of control, his body seemed to be lighter than ever. This time he went low, lower than the bullets, still with the spear gripped tightly in his hands as he slashed the monster’s arm off with the powerful thrust. This spearmanship he was using now was different from what the Elder taught him. His body moved faster, yet more freely and the weapon in his hand felt like an old friend.

It was as if someone was guiding his body, as if the spear was showing him how to move. Something inside him felt connected to this force that was surrounding him. When he stabbed the spear into the monster’s chest, killing it, he felt as though the spear was steering every movement of his body. As if it was telling him how to use it.

Once the creature was defeated, the spear fell from Langa’s hands, and he felt the connection between the two of them shake violently.

“Since you didn't meet all the requirements he set out, simple as they were, I wasn't sure if we'd be able to connect,” the thunderbird, now back in front of him again, said.

“Who are you?” Langa asked.

"This is just the beginning of this Legacy," he said. "My name is Tonare. Please find me."

An essence erupted from the thunderbird, hitting Langa squarely in the chest. He expected to feel more pain, but instead, he felt something stir in his heart, a profound connection. A resonance of two souls.

Just as suddenly, Langa found himself back in the cave.

"Yhoo! Shit!" he cursed, trying to sit up. He could barely lift his arm with how numb it was. His health had dropped to 30% of its maximum. Logically he knew that this much lightning should have killed him, and yet he only felt mild discomfort. There were blinking notifications in the corner of his vision, and he focused on them. It was mostly his HP going down, but there was also one that stated that his lightning resistance had gone up by 2%, and it now sat at 19%. It gave him pause, and he wondered how much more painful it would have been if his lightning resistance was lower.

A few minutes later, he managed to stand up, and he noted that the cave remained relatively unchanged despite all that lightning. The chest was wide open now, and Langa cautiously peered into it. Therein sat a beautiful blue sheath with lightning bolts decorating it, protruding from it was a short hilt, and carved onto it was the same drawing as the bird on the cave wall. Langa reached in, and picked it up, out of the chest, hand trembling as he pulled out the weapon. The blade was single-edged, and around 45 cm long, it was beautiful and looked very sharp, but Langa was disappointed.

He just got a spear skill for fuck's sake, and his Calling was a short sword? He gripped the hilt tightly and felt something give, and suddenly, the metal hilt extended in his hands, turning into a steel shaft reaching about 2 metres before it stopped growing. Langa grinned. It was a spear after all! Despite its length, it was quite light, although it was a bit too long for Langa's tastes, as it would limit his mobility. He pressed on the carving of the bird on the shaft, and the shaft started retracting, and when he stopped pressing, it stopped retracting. He kept the length at 1 metre.

 

[Thunderbird's Mutable Lightning Glaive

Name: Tonare

Rank: Unique

Durability: Infinite when charged with lightning discipline rare or above lucent stones.

Charges:13/∞

Base damage: Scales with LTTS skill level.

Usage Requirements: Lightning resistance >/= 25%, Lightning affinity >/= 10%

Skills: 1. Thunderbird's Stunning Strike

Skill Description: Imbues the glaive with the thunderbird's lightning, dealing (50 + (Mind/2))% lightning discipline damage. Stuns target on impact for 2 seconds when thrust or thrown. If the wielder's lightning resistance (n) is below 25%, the wielder receives ((25-n)/2)% backlash lightning damage depending on their MND stat.

cool-down: 30 minutes

Skills: 2. ???

Skills: 3. ???]

 

Langa marvelled at the description. This was an amazing weapon! Granted he would receive backlash damage, but his resistance was at 19% currently, so he would only get 3% lightning damage. And the weapon was unique grade, too. He previously had only common weapons and he wanted to know just how large the disparity between common and unique weapons was. He focused on the unique grade, to learn more about it. The system gave him a pop-up.

 

[Weapon and Armour Grades:

Please note, the strength of the modifiers is dependent on the level requirements of the weapon. A level 25 common weapon will likely be stronger than a level 5 rare weapon.

Common: Lowest-ranked weapons. 35% of all weapons found in the multiverse are common. They may provide a minor attribute increase. Do not contain skills.

Uncommon: A tier above common weapons. 25% of all weapons found in the multiverse are uncommon. They may provide a major attribute increase or a minor skill.

Rare: A tier above uncommon weapons. 15% of all weapons found in the multiverse are rare. They may provide a major attribute increase and a skill.

Unique: No tier. 10% of all weapons in the multiverse are unique. This refers to weapons which are the only one of its kind. They range from being as weak as common weapons or as strong as legendary weapons. Cannot be stronger than legendary weapons.

Legendary: A tier above rare weapons. 10% of all weapons found in the multiverse are legendary. These weapons are usually Legacies left behind by great heroes and constellations when they were mortal. They may provide a major attribute increase and a divine skill.

Divine: A tier above legendary weapons. 5% of all weapons found in the multiverse are divine. They are weapons forged by a deity. The modifiers of these weapons are unpredictable and unparalleled in power.]

 

Satisfied, Langa shrank the glaive, no, Tonare, it had a name after all. He shrank it and put it back into the sheath. There were a few more notifications regarding the Legacy.

 

[Congratulations! Your skill Zamone Way of the Spear (B), has been upgraded to Legacy of the Tonare Thunderbird Spearmanship (S).

Once you reach level 10, you will receive your Legacy quest.]

[ACHIEVEMENT! You are the 2nd person in your tutorial batch to find both a Legacy and your Calling.

The measure of your soul has increased.

+200 Karma

+1 level]

 

[Congratulations! Level Up!

Level 6

+6 karma

+2STR, +2VIT, + 1AGI

You have 3 free attribute points to distribute.]

 

Again, this was something new, something that he had not even thought was possible. Someone else had already found their calling and a Legacy in three days? If he had waited a little longer, he might have missed out on the reward. According to Sigurd, the first three players to achieve something rare always got an extra reward. He shook his head, it had taken him hours to just get to level 5, and it only took a little lightning to get him to level 6.

Now that he was done finding his Calling, he had to complete the other part of his side quest. It was quite easy to tell what was stealing karma from the shrine, as the only thing that looked out of place was the black crystal below the statue of the FireFox Queen. He took a deep breath, and extended Tonare, slashing down on the crystal with all his strength, but out of nowhere, a corrupted wolf ran into the cave at high speed, taking the hit that was meant for the crystal.

 

Corrupted Wolf

Level 5

HP: 265/300

 

Langa took a step back as the wolf stood guard between him and the crystal, its fangs bared. The last time he’d contended with a level 5 creature, he and Makoto had struggled until Liv and Sigurd came to save them. It was hard to believe that was only three days ago. Now, he was higher level than the monster, and he had an overpowered weapon to boot.

He took a deep breath, and Flash Stepped in front of the monster, dealing extra damage to its left leg from the skill, and stepped to the side when the howling monster tried to slash at him with its paws. Trying to adjust his movements to his upgraded spear technique he triggered Thunderbird's Stunning Strike and drove Tonare deep into the wolf’s side. Streaks of lightning coated the blade of the glaive as well as the shaft and struck the wolf the moment that Tonare cut into it. The streaks of lightning on the shaft struck Langa’s hands, and searing pain cut into him as he smelled burning flesh.

 

[Critical hit!!

(Corrupted fox) -530HP.

Instant kill achieved.

Backlash (Langa Zulu) -30HP]

 

Shit! His mind spiralled, the pain paralysing him. It hurt. It fucking hurt! He hated pain, more than anything else in the world. He dropped the glaive. The fucking lightning burned his hands! He had also lost 30HP. He was losing 5HP per second as well from the burned debuff. He could barely move his hands but managed to reach into his backpack and grab a health potion.

This damn Legacy would be the death of him.

Wait, he thought. If he lost this much health from only the backlash of 3% lightning damage, what about the wolf that received 53% lightning damage? He looked down at the creature, and from the point of impact, there was a large gash, and scorch marks all over its right side… all of the fur there was burned off.

Holy shit! Langa swallowed hard, his MND stat was very low right now. If he increased it, the damage he could do with Tonare would be catastrophic! He breathed, and immediately allocated his free points from levelling up into Mind. Once his hands healed, Langa finally destroyed the black crystal, completing his quest. Now he just needed to return to the Elder for his rewards.

Of course, destroying the crystal caused the cave to start collapsing. Langa was so done with this quest, and quickly ran out of the collapsing cave, tying his vine around himself again and running up the stairs before they had the bright idea to collapse too.