If John had to point out a part that’s often skipped in his world’s version of fantasy culture, it was the preparation for adventures.
While preparation for consumables and equipment is a necessity too, a skill check and optimized training were now a necessity due to the introduction of Skills.
You’re going to a volcano to collect herbs?
I hope you’ve leveled enough your [Heat Resistance] or even your [Fire Resistance] otherwise get ready to spend a few hours pelted by fire mages with little to no regard for your safety or get locked into a max temperature sauna.
This situation luckily happened less to John than to his comrades.
It seems one of the effects of [Absolute Soul] increased his acquisition of skills and experiences. Not as much as a specialized Blessing, of course, but enough to be at the forefront easily.
If I remember correctly, the last time I saw Carter was before he attempted to race-change into a rare race. He had gotten rather famous due to being the first to max a skill with his Blessing [40x Experience]. No one knew how many skills he managed to evolve beyond that, however, as he diminished his public appearances.
Anyway, this advantage didn’t save John from a few days in an icy bath with barely any clothing to grind his [Cold Resistance] variant of the skill. His adventuring days shined through in cases like these considering he managed to improve it to [Temperature Adaptation] currently level 54. It helped him in most harsh climates but, as such, needed to experience a variety of extreme conditions to level up. Extreme conditions such as the tundra he found himself in.
To be honest, John always tried to avoid cold climates. It was an aversion of his which he explained as a feeling of ‘Fuck this, I’m not going there. I’m making a bonfire’.
Now that he thought about it, maybe it was a feeling of dread that premeditated what happened today. [Future Sense] and [Intuition] were skills after all, even if he didn’t have them.
Most fights against the Awakened Races, as the Council liked to call it, were mere skirmishes.
Since no one knew the System’s reaction to genocide, no one dared to escalate conflicts to annihilation.
Another reason to try to prevent this, as this expedition discovered, was that a race with magical powers granted by the System would throw everything they had to make another of their own survive another day. The Werebears, as their [Analysis] skills found out, was a race that specialized in Ki and Natural Energy. As such, most of their race were shape-shifting Druids and incredible Warriors… with the advantage of terrain and climate on top of all of this.
Around 5% of the expedition with dozens of highly competent teams survived to see the last stand of the race. While they tried their best to kill as little as possible to swiftly strike the turtle and end it all, the resistance and recklessness they encountered were ever increasing as they approached the top of the Island Turtle. These 5% represented around 15 people while the last stand was against 40 warriors and 10 various kinds of Druids and Mages.
The battle was nothing more than a pyrrhic victory. Most were dead or dying on this last battlefield. Adventurer luck always puts them in such terrible situations, they knew that this quest would be difficult and perhaps mortal but it seems nobody would make it out without problems.
Luck, however, seemed to be on John’s side today, considering he suffered less than the others and could still stand. He kept and improved upon his Pistol Prototype, or the Mark 1, as he called it, allowing his [Marksmanship] to evolve into his unique skill [First Marksman] currently at level 15.
While a level 15 would barely be considered a neophyte’s level for a normal skill, evolved ones were significantly more difficult to level. They represented a person’s own path in this skill and were near impossible to copy or transmit. Due to these factors, even those who specialized in calculating the System’s hidden mechanisms and advanced through what they called ‘Gaming the system’ couldn’t determine how long it would be until someone maxed their evolved skill. They did, however, determine that it would be near impossible to do for at least a century, probably more unless a miracle occurs or a ‘Change in the meta’.
[First Marksman] allowed him to use his improved perception from [Absolute Soul] to create a pseudo-Domain where he would be able to see and react to attacks at a certain range. He was sure [Increased Aim] played a role in his skill’s creation which warmed his heart whenever he used it.
This resulted in the present scene.
A shot put down a Mage on the WereBear’s side. A single man, small firearms in each of his hands, shot with absolute precision from the back at the start.
As the first ambush from the Bears took out a few of the backlines, he quickly jumped, rotating to both dodge an ax thrown at him and put himself at an angle that allowed him to shoot enemies standing in opposite directions.
The experience and perception needed to perceive a battlefield everchanging in every direction shouldn’t be underestimated.
An icy shot spell? [Anti-Magic Bullet] loaded and shot, striking the [Iceball] out of the sky, destabilizing it, and hitting the Mage behind at the same time.
A sudden melee attack from a shapeshifting Druid? Parry with the barrel, a [Pollution Bullet] canceling the transformation by opposing the Natural Energy of the skill before using a [Recoil Bullet] pushing them into the frontline.
Even the occasional WereBear Assassin was pinpointed and shot down, there was a reason Domains shouldn’t exist yet considering the current power of the pieces on Origin’s board. Even Pseudo-Domain that didn’t have any other effect than information collection and processing was already decimating an enemy with both numbers, knowledge of the terrain, and the terrain itself moving to their aid.
The occasional flash of light coming from someone using both magic and a sword nearby in the fog maintained the morale of our Protagonist.
‘He’s holding his ground well enough in this fucked up situation’ thought John as he maintained the rhythm of his dance of lead and ice.
This continued for quite a few minutes until everything slowly quietened down, leaving only the winds howling and a staggering man slowly approaching a tent. John was quite hurt but he still stood, moving forward towards their goal.
Inside laid nobody but a small altar surrounding the reverse scale. Quickly destroying the stone and ice creation, he revealed the goal of this expedition, raising his pistols before he could be interrupted by whatever Fate was preparing.
As a second passed in silence, pain first ignored quickly making itself noticeable, John shot.
He shot again and again as an earthquake was occurring all around him, the turtle death’s throes.
He nonetheless continued with his mission knowing this kill would probably stay on his mind for a long time considering the admiration for the myth in front of him.
Some [Armor Piercing Bullet], [Shredding Bullet], and even a few [Anti Reptile Bullets] mixed in as the earthquake intensified.
In the end, John closed his eyes as the trembling intensified once more and he emptied his magazine.
He quickly received a notification from the System indicating the death of the Island Turtle, a Rare Tundra Variant.
The trembling didn’t stop, however, and John’s strength was leaving him. He had to find a Mage or someone still alive with some kind of [Teleport] to get out of here.
He couldn’t even leave the tent in the end.
As he started to turn around to leave he noticed the hole that was the reverse scale was shining.
A fraction of a second later, an unimaginable amount of Ice Mana flooded the outside, taking into it John as well as a good portion of the turtle’s surface.
Just like that, John, owner of the highest grade Blessing, our protagonist, perished frozen into eternity.
The explosion could be felt from Blue Reef itself as snow ended up falling for 5 days and nights in the normally mild region. The iceberg that formed was visible from the coast and slowly drifted wherever the current led it. Luckily, it seems the now forbidden zone formed by Ice Mana was drifting away from the coast.
From this expedition of dozens of teams, ranging from 3 members to a 10 member team at the largest, only 20 survived and teleported in time.
Those who were left for dead were immortalized in a stone monument in Blue Reef.
While grandiose enough, the reason it attracted a lot of attention for centuries to come was due to the 10 names that were engraved at the top of the list.
Those 10 names even brought legends of their time to make the trip to pay their respects.
This monument is dedicated to those who thwarted the attack of Blue Reed and sacrificed their lives for it. May they be remembered for their bravery.
Maxwell, [Magic Eye User], Pioneer
Iro Stone, [System Blessed], Pioneer
Mordecai, [Necromancer], Pioneer
Namemei, [Siren Buckler], Pioneer
Laurales, [Divine Water], Pioneer
Jeswin, [Arbiter], [Cultivator], Pioneer
Ember Dawn, [Dusk Priestess], Pioneer
Iksana Vinaya, [Divination Mage], Pioneer
Lossë, [Myriad Fighter], Pioneer
John, [First Marksman], Pioneer
…
Many names followed the first 10, but while respected, the title of Pioneer was one of a legend, of someone blessed by the Origin, it overshadowed the others.
Maybe the titles connected to these Origins would reappear at some point and place.
For now, their souls returned to the circle of Reincarnation of Origin.
…
For Most.
