Vice was curled up on the floor, clutching at his head. The amount of pain he had just experienced was horrendous. It was only after five minutes of this agony that he finally picked himself up and dusted himself off from the floor. Much to his surprise as he could see blue lines on the floor in front of him.
‘What the hell is this?’ Vice thought.
‘The system’s given you the coordinates in real-time you idiot. Go and follow them quickly, before you lose your target. You already took your sweet time to just fight against that tiny amount of pain,’ Favian replied. ‘Hurry the hell up already.’
Vice sprinted toward the blue lines, ignoring most of his surroundings. The blue lines curved around any obstacles, and so he didn’t need to focus on anything other than running.
‘System, is it always going to hurt this much when you do something like that?’ Vice asked as he jumped over a food cart.
[DING! Affirmative.]
Vice sighed and put his focus onto getting to his destination as soon as possible. There was a blue mini-map engraved into his mind by the system, which he could visualize whenever he closed his eyes. The red dot that had been moving away at a fast speed was frozen at what seemed to be a house.
‘Shit, it has found its target. I’m too far away right now to make it in time,’ he thought and pushed his muscles to his limits to attain a faster speed. His thighs felt like they were burning with every step he took.
After five minutes he finally arrived at the location. Vice was able to make out the large greenhouse that had lots of shrubbery around it. Roses, violets, and sunflowers along with a multitude of different flowers could be seen, and the moonlight made them all look mystical as if they were magical herbs.
“AHHH, HELP ME!” a female voice screamed out.
The red dot within the mini-map in Vice’s mind darted away from the building. Vice rushed after the dot. He gritted his teeth as the woman continued to scream, however, he knew that he needed to face the perpetrator first.
‘What is that? Is it a ghost?’ Vice thought as he stared at the widow maker only a dozen meters ahead of him. It looked like the figure was wearing a wedding dress, and the long white dress dragged against the ground as the figure ran away. The proportions of the figure’s upper and lower body didn’t fit what he expected, because its lower body was many times larger than its upper body. Vice also couldn’t clearly make out its legs, and the widow maker was unnaturally tall.
‘Oh? I didn’t envision this turn of events. You’ll laugh when you find out, I think,’ Favian said softly.
‘Favian, do you know who this widow maker is? Tell me if you do,’ Vice urged.
‘No, you’ll have to find out yourself, dumbass,’ Favian replied, after which he went mute despite Vice continuously asking him the same question.
“Fuck, guess I’m on my own then,” Vice shouted. He wasn’t able to close the distance between himself and the widow maker, much to his frustration. Whenever he tried to pick up the pace it would as well, almost as if it was toying with him. Vice had to weave through the small streets, many of which were filled with food stalls and other carts that impeded his movement. The widow maker was somehow able to move through them with ease.
‘Damn it. I didn’t want to use magic in the city since I might cause too much damage to the area,’ Vice thought. He clenched his fists and teeth before stopping his sprint. Purple wisps of arcana undulated around Vice’s hands, and a tiny aura crackled around it chaotically like lightning. A huge burst of mana was released from within Vice, thickening quickly until it solidified into a weapon. Two blackish-purple daggers sat in Vice’s hands. The daggers were warm to the touch and a green liquid dripped from the blade tips.
Vice looked at the weapons in his hands whilst clenching his jaws, and threw them at the widow maker. Immediately after throwing them he turned around and walked away. ‘I fucking hate this Chaotic Roulette sometimes. What if this was a battle to the death and I was given such a useless weapon?’ Vice thought.
‘You need to start embracing the chaos, Vice. You need to become an expert in all of these weapons or else my teaching will become useless. And hey… what the hell. There’s no need to call daggers useless, they’re a really overpowered weapon if you know how to use them,’ Favian said.
Vice trudged back to his villa with his head drooped and knuckles clenched. The moment he made it back, after checking up on his mother who was comfortably sleeping, Vice went into his room and began to cultivate. Tendrils of different colored particles swooped into Vice’s chest as he sat in a meditative position. His horns glowed brightly, pulling at the particles with a strong gravitational force.
Unlike regular humans who could only wait for the arcana particles to move toward them, Vice was able to instinctively pull those particles from his surroundings, aiding in his cultivation greatly, and putting him in a category above almost all of his peers. Of course, there were individuals from rich families or families with a strong background in cultivation that were able to afford the expensive concoctions which Vice wasn’t able to.
Vice sighed out in relief as he finished his meditation. His muscles felt a lot less tense than they had been for the previous days. ‘Cultivating always relaxes me so much, I’m glad,’ he thought as he slowly opened his eyes. He savored the refreshing feeling for as long as he could.
[DING! The host has progressed to the next level by 10%.]
‘Huh? What’s this?’ Vice was jolted to his feet by the notification.
‘You progressed really far in one day is what it means. You haven’t cultivated since gaining this bracelet, so the reward seems pretty darn good,’ Favian said.
Vice looked at the black bracelet on his left hand curiously. ‘So you can boost my cultivation speed? What else can you do for me? Do you have a name?’
[DING! To answer the host’s question, the system’s previous user named it Lee, however, feel free to rename the system at any point in time. And further functions will be organically given to the host it would be a shame if the new host were to die from all of the information transfer available.]
‘Lee? Oh, come on that’s such a stupid name. Hey Vice, name it something else. Something cool like Elon,’ Favian said.
Vice stared at the mirror in his room as he thought of a name. ‘I don’t want to make it something pointless or without meaning. How about Virtue? It has the opposite meaning to my name so that sounds cool,’ he thought.
[DING! The system has now been renamed to Virtue. Thank you, host, how would you prefer to be addressed?]
‘Oh just call me what you’ve been doing already, there’s no need for anything different,’ Vice replied.
‘And here you could have made it call you prince or even king. You’re really no fun most of the time, Vice.’ Favian let out a long sigh.
‘Oh, why don’t you go look for some other person to annoy Favian? Oh? Got nothing to say? That’s exactly what I thought,’ Vice thought with a smirk on his face.
“Ahh it’s still dark outside, what should I do?” Vice muttered under his breath as he stared out his window. He then decided to take a quick shower and freshen himself up. After once again checking up on his mother, who was still asleep, Vice left for the woods.
Restok as a city was surrounded by woodland and forest in all directions, and different roads were paved through to the different areas you could go to. The main road out of the city, which most carriages used, went to the main city of the human kingdom of Dia. This road was the most used, and therefore also the most highly protected road. It meant that a lot of merchants and travelers used it to get to their destination even if it was a detour.
Vice walked past multiple carriages as he took the main road out of the city to make his way to the nearby beast range, a location where many spiritual and magical animals resided. These animals weren’t the same as the cattle and livestock or regular wild animals. This was due to them being able to cultivate and use the arcana in the surroundings to bolster themselves, and sometimes even use magic. Vice wanted to fight something to test out his improved skills. Also, he was still furious about the incident previously against the widow maker and subconsciously wanted to relieve this stress against some creatures.
The dimly lit road that was difficult for regular humans to navigate was expertly handled by Vice with his dark vision. Only a couple kilometers from the start of the road, Vice jumped into the tightly knit pine trees, disappearing into the thick forest. Slowly the evergreen area transformed into a sickly brown, and the previous pine trees that stood tall in the area were instead replaced by weeping willows with brown leaves. Ravens cawed under the moonlight as Vice walked past the dreary area.
