2 Years Later

Hmmph! I grunted as My blade was easily repelled, but using the push-back momentum I spun the other way and slashed again… only for my sword to be slapped away once more. “Honey~ do take it easy on her; she’s only just learned physical enhancement you know~” my mother called from a nearby lawn chair where she was watching. “Yes m,lady~” my father said as he smoothly grabbed my sword and simply plucked it from my hand.

 At first I was hesitant to fight my father with a sword while he was empty-handed, but that turned out to be a stupid mistake on my side. My father was clearly capable of bare-handing whatever he wanted, including swords, spears, and freaking fire! I had tried fire yes, turns out that he’s virtually immune to physical damage and my magic was simply too weak to mean a thing to him.

 I was officially 14 now. 2 years ago when my parents had come home, they had explained that when I turned 18 they wanted me to attend a place called Avalon Academy. Until I was of age, they would teach me the basics. So when school came around, if I did well on the entrance exam, I could automatically enroll in advanced classes. At first I didn’t trust them. I was even afraid of them, they gave off so much latent power by simply standing there, that I had passed out from the sense of danger when I had first seen them. 

Over time however I had learned that they could be trusted, and that they wanted only the best for me. While I could tell they still held some secrets, It didn’t bother me. After all; Who doesn’t have some secrets? In the years that followed, my father would train me in physical arts, while my mother trained me in Celestial arts. Both of these things used a source called Ether. They had explained that while most people would run out of ether and have to take a break and let it recover, as a hybrid being, most natural laws didn’t apply to me the same way.

 They explained that my body naturally took in ether at a much faster speed than most people, allowing the ether I used to recover almost instantly. To use physical arts, one only needed to direct the ether in their body through the bloodstream. This would slowly strengthen all aspects of the body from pure strength, to flexibility, to even how hard the skin is. Meanwhile, celestial arts required one to channel the ether in the body through the mind. Not just the brain, but one's thoughts. 

At first the idea of channeling something into a thought or concept made little sense to me, but as time went on It began to make sense. Under the intense training from the two, I developed quickly. Once my body strength reached a certain degree, my father moved on to teaching me martial arts, whereas my mother moved on to spells. The martial art my father taught me he called, blade dance. It focused on momentum and redirection. 

Using an opponent's strength to your advantage, one could throw a person many times their size sky-high. It was all about technique and required very little actual strength. My mother started off with a simple lesson. “Ether is not all powerful” It relies entirely on a person's mental image, to have any effect whatsoever. Without a conceptual framework to give it direction, ether was no different from air. And they both taught about something called the system. Everybody had one. While no-one knew exactly what the system was, it had been of great benefit to many people. Some even worshiped it as a god. It seemed to dictate ether itself, as well as hold information of people, objects, weapons, even the monsters that roamed the world. One needed only to think, to open the system.

Stats and level

LEVEL:1

VIT:C

STR:D

DEF:D

AGI:C

INT:C

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Race and Class

Race: Fenrir/Fafnir hybrid (adolescent)

Class: Dianthus dwarf white (Harbinger)

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Titles and Skills

Titles:Harbinger of Nature, Beloved of Ether, Beloved of the Natural World

Skills:Harbingers breath (lesser), Nature’s healing touch, Ether absorption (passive)

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Evo-Path

LOCKED

Increase level to unlock your Evolution Path

The system was separated into four interfaces, stats and level, race and class, titles and skills, and Evo-path. Stats and level showed my (you guessed it) stats and level. The stats went from F to E to D to C to B to A to S to SS and finally triple S. There was also the EX, but it was unknown whether stats could actually go that high. The EX stat only existed in theory. 

 The Race and class interface was interesting in my case. My race was shown as Fenrir/Fafnir hybrid, which wasn’t really a surprise. Rather it was my class that struck me as odd. My class was… a flower? And what was a harbinger? A sharp chop to the head broke me out of my reverie, as my mom called out, “Go ahead and freshen up, you’ll be learning the celestial art of summoning today.” 

I directed a pout toward my father and made my way toward the river nearby. The walk was short, and I could hear the bubbling of the stream before I reached it. The water reflected my eyes for a mere second before I threw off my outfit and jumped in.

 I held myself and shivered for a moment before diving under to acclimate to the temperature a bit more. A few more splashes and a bar of soap later, and I was done. I stood to grab my clothes from where they had landed when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted an odd, but beautiful creature. 

Its golden fur swayed in the wind like fire, its feathered wings glowed like flame. Its burning red eyes calmly watched me from afar, as a hunter watches its prey. The mocking gaze of one who knows its prey is powerless, combined with the knowing glare of one who sees past the weakness to realize its opponent's true strength.

 A fox with wings? Indeed, it seemed to be just that. For a moment I stood captivated, but the creature turned and walked away, its blazing coat of fur disappearing into the shadows of the trees. Perhaps it was the backward glance it threw my way as it retreated into the shadows, or maybe it was the intelligent smile it seemed to wear, but whatever it was, it left the silent words “let us meet again” imprinted on my mind. As if waking from a dream I shook my head and made my way back home. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last time I saw this fox anyway, and I had no idea how right I was.