Inside a vague dream, I barely remembered a conversation between somebody close to me, I remembered me and my acquaintance talking about what was about to happen when the wretched war was over.
“You know, Theo, once this war is over, whether we win or lose, you’re getting trialed.”
“Ahaha, I know that, I already accepted that fact, I killed countless people, of course it’s only right for me to pay up.”
“You shouldn’t be so happy, maybe even death will fear you…”
Vague voice, vague dreams, who was he again? I couldn't remember… I can only remember screams of despair and misery, the hatred and pain, the imposing army that slaughtered everything against its path.
I left nothing but corpses of the dead, the lives that had a future, the lives that wanted peace, I was nothing like them, I felt nothing as I did that, was it even… something a human can even do.
Remember, Grim Reaper of the Remnant army, the army that never eats, the Army that never rests, the Army with no guilt nor remorse, the army that doesn’t have a single ounce of mercy, an army of walking monsters that obeyed the Grim Reaper’s orders without opposition or retaliation, an army that was made by Death itself, led by a monster it created.
YOU ARE MY RIGHT HAND! THE GRIM REAPER!
***
I awoke immediately as I heard something that yelled, I felt soaked, like I just dived in a swimming pool, that was when I smelled my own sweat over my body, my entire body was showered with my own sweat.
Remembering that I was stabbed earlier, I pulled my shirt and looked at my body, only to see myself unscathed, there was no scars or wounds I was actually unscathed, I felt relieved and sighed, I then looked at my surroundings to notice that I was on top of something, it was hard and cold but it was also long and smooth, like a bed.
I looked down and indeed it was similar to that of a bed, I was sleeping on top of a cold hard rock-like bed, my mind was in confusion for the time being as I remembered not losing consciousness here but in another place, but still my entire mind was in confusion.
First was the dream, then I woke up only to feel that I was totally unscathed, and now I am in a different area, what actually happened to me? My body was still weak though, I was reassured that all of it wasn’t a dream and in fact I’m actually trapped and still inside a dungeon that housed a demon king and his powerful subordinates.
[Hero of Darkness has awoken, preparing Exp Transfer… calculating Exp]
[Total members for distribution 1 out of 5000 members left alive]
[Preparing Exp Transfer, total= 50,500 exp points]
“wait wh-“
Then suddenly, something entered my mind, it was like a spear that pierced deep into my head, my mind went crazy, my entire head ached, it was like I felt those 5 circles again, I can’t move, I can only yell the agony I was feeling.
But I held it back, I knew once I yell, this cavity’s entrance will be flooded with monsters that I can’t fight.
FUCK!
[Level up+]
[Level up+]
[Level up+]
[Level up+]
[Level up+]
***
[Hero of Death] [Level:28]
[Title: The Grim Reaper]
After enduring the pain that I received earlier, A Purple screen appeared in front of me, it showed my current level and a title, the contents of it was a level, name, and a title and a few more words.
Wait a minute, isn’t this that wretched system?
I looked closely and saw my status, Hero of Death with the title of The Grim Reaper, this wretched system, when I was on the brink of death it appeared in front of me like nothing.
“Dammit.”
Wait, doesn’t that mean I can summon the familiar?
If my understanding and memory was correct, it meant that I can now summon my familiar, that reaper, that fucker must’ve watched me get beaten multiple times, but it was only just a speculation, I didn’t get my hopes to high up.
“[Summon Familiar]!”
I said aloud, at first nothing happened and I soon lost hope immediately on summoning him, Afterall Death said it himself, the dead aren’t to keen with being ordered by the living. But didn’t I also die, shouldn’t that make me technically dead or at least died once?
I was about to take my rest until I felt a strong gust of wind from my back, at first, I was vigilant on what it could be and materialized my revolver, the gun that I wasn’t able to summon in the past months, finally materialized in my hands in a blink of an eye.
As soon as I felt the gust of wind weaken, I immediately turned around with my gun extended and my index finger at the gun’s trigger, ready to press the trigger.
But to my shock, it was a monster I had never seen before, its body was pitch black with a cloak as it floated above the ground holding a scythe, it’s face was not seeable but If you look directly at its face, it was nothing more than an abyss, a never-ending abyss.
Such a monster was obviously high-leveled, I couldn’t waste anymore time, I immediately pulled the trigger and tried emptying the cylinder, I pressed it continuously without stop, it was accompanied by loud bangs of the dry sound of gunfire that exited the barrel.
But it didn’t do anything other than go through its body, the cylinder was already emptied and out of ammo, I soon did what every soldier would do when their ammo ran out, I held the barrel of the revolver with the grip of it as the blunt weapon, like a club, I was about to swing it, until it talked to me.
“Would you please stop, Hero, this is ridiculous.”
His ominous and grim voice, with his voice came a strong imposing Aura, behind him I could tell dark shadows grew bigger and bigger, he was a monster, a monster that I had never seen before.
Is… that… my familiar?...
“Are you my familiar?”
I asked to which it responded immediately with a sarcastic tone.
“What do you think?”
The atmosphere on our surroundings soon changed, both of us became silent and didn’t dare start a conversation, neither of us didn’t even know who was their actual master, I may have summoned him but he is 10x no maybe even more times powerful than me, just his aura made me silent.
“So, Basically, you’re my Familiar? Yes?”
“Yes.”
“I guess that solves it, teach me the basics then.”
“…Really?”
He said with a sarcastic tone, but nonetheless he forced himself to talk, both of us soon engaged in a tutorial like conversation.
“Let's start then, You are mostly a necromancer and mage, you specialize in necromancy and dark magic, if you would please, what is your skill?”
He asked me whilst lifting his arm, making his hand visible to my eyes, It took my attention, it was pitch black, no, it was air, maybe miasma, I noticed pitch black essences appearing and revolving on it, becoming large and small lines and bubbles that revolved on the hand, there was nothing physical about it, it wasn’t a physical entity, if it wasn’t that, I didn’t know what it was.
“Human, your skill?”
He said, disrespecting me as his master, originally if one’s familiar can speak he is supposed to call his owner or summoner, ‘Master’ but it was different for mine, he called me a ‘Human’ obviously belittling me, I mean I wanted to lecture him but at least he is logical and still somewhat respects me, kind of.
I looked at my status screen and saw nothing but a word that was colored in pitch black, it read:
[Soul Devour]- The Ability to devour the souls of your enemies, this shall result in the devourer obtaining neither 50% or 80-90% of the Devourer’s abilities, Skill, powers, etc, depending on the Devourer’s level and the level of the devoured shall the percentage rise, your emotions and mental state may be affected depending on the soul the User ate.
[Reaper’s Call]- A skill that shall make all undead lower than the caller his slave and will serve the caller till the time they shall perish, giving the caller their absolute loyalty, only usable to undead entities and beings.
Damn… it’s quite good.
To think that I had such skills that were actually hidden from me, if I guess what they mean, I could tell that the [Soul Devour] means that I can eat their souls and gain their abilities and exp, etc, it was a good skill especially if the monster is a higher level.
Then the [Reaper’s Call] just by the name I could tell that since I am the Grim reaper, the commander of all reapers, if I take into account what they do, the reapers summon undead and use necromancy and dark magic just like me, meaning as long as I can cast that, I can make all the undead my personal soldiers.
“What do you think, Human? Is it to your liking?”
“Very, are there anymore similar abilities?”
“Look at the upper right of the screen, there is your total amount of summons, how many?”
He said upper right of the screen, so I looked towards the upper right of the screen, there I saw a small purple box containing [0/18] stored summons, [0/30] Resurrected summons.
“Stored summons? Resurrected summons? I can tell their difference by their names but what confused me is what do they do?”
I questioned the system and what I saw directly to my Familiar.
“Good Question, it seems you’re not dumb, the difference is that the [Stored summons] is your personal storage of resurrected summons, while the [Resurrected summons] is the on the spot summons, if you can’t store them in the storage throw them in the abyss.”
It said in a casual tone, like the words he just said weren’t that serious than what I had heard and understood.
“So, basically, the [Resurrected summons] that are on the spot, I can store them in the [Stored Summons] meaning they are one?”
“Correct.”
“And if the [Resurrected summons] are too many than the current size of the [Storage] they’ll be sent to the abyss.”
“Correct.”
He said, both of us talked and answered like we were student and teacher.
“So, what happens is that the [Resurrected summons] that couldn’t fit in the [Storage] would be sent into what kind of abyss?”
“Death’s Abyss, a place to where the souls of those that were disposed be thrown out, they can’t escape, they can’t leave, nor reincarnate, they’ll be stuck there for eternity, whilst feeling endless suffering and pain... they were worthy but not Chosen.”
“I see.”
I said with a tone that understood him, I didn’t hesitate in responding, I replied like it was normal for me, was there something wrong with me? I will be the one choosing them but if they aren’t that valuable, they'll live in an endless cycle of suffering in an abyss that I might’ve controlled, no, it was my fault that they were place there in the first place, yet, I didn’t feel anything for those that would soon be chosen by me.
“We got the basics of the [System] and most of your [Skills] description, time for the training, I supposed you have your gun?”
“Yes, I have my gun.”
“Good, reload it.”
Ah, right, I wasted all of my bullets on him, I knew how to reload it, but it left me wondering: How, exactly?
“How? I don’t have an ammunition box near me or a crate filled with the precise size and millimeter of the cartridges of this weapon.”
I asked while holding my emptied revolver at my hand, I pushed out the cylinder and dropped the emptied and still smoking cartridges, making a loud ringing sound once it hit the ground, showing my point.
“… Magic, you can use it now, no?”
Technically, I can, but when I use it, my entire body would weaken, my bones would feel that they were about to be shattered, like something was crushing me from above, and something electrocuting or burning from within my body, I would experience another hellish experience more gruesome that death itself.
“I can… but something is disabling me from using it.”
“What is it? how can something possibly stop a hero’s magic from being used?”
He said, acting all like he knew everything without even knowing what it was, that was when I said it to him what it really was, I expected him to react a little more than what I had expected.
“The [Chains of Despair]”
As I said that, he didn’t reply to my answer and looked at me with a glare, I couldn’t see his eyes but I could feel it, its aura was tremendous like a knife that was piercing my puny body.
“I see, that’s a problem, they made tremendous preparations this time.”
He talked to himself before looking at me with a glare.
“The only way to break that curse is to kill the one that casted it upon you or find a counter-spell.”
I could understand the former, but a counter-spell, I didn’t even know if there was even one.
“Then I guess, for now, the only thing you have to do is endure the pain, but try to limit your magic usage, your necromancy skills are exempted to that, [Chains of Despair] are only powerful on the 5 elements: Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and Light or Holy magic.”
He stopped before adding.
“But it isn’t as powerful on one element, Dark or Black Magic, the one your accustomed with, their power discharge is still powerful but not as powerful than the earlier elements I said.”
His grim voice was explaining something like a teacher, he said it straightforwardly with no obstruction or other explanations, the answer I needed was immediately explained to me with ease.
“Then, based on this information I might think of a solution.”
Thinks for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter!!! I have been waiting for this!!!
Hell yeah! Finally a chapter on our main boi. Thanks for the chapter!
