I woke up god knows when with a sharp pain in my head. I sat up on the bed I was laying in and looked around the room. I was in the cabin that I was offered to stay in. After drinking a cup of water, I headed outside the place to see everyone cleaning up after the festivities of last night.
"Lord Aryan, you are awake?" Sven cried out and suddenly I was surrounded by the children asking me all sorts of questions about my new powers.
"Calm down, calm down. Even I don't know what kind of powers I have." I chuckled. It seemed like meeting up with the elders was the best decision for now. And so, I made my way to the town hall to meet up with them.
...
"What kind of powers did I get? How can I use them?" I asked Viggo. He stood up and walked over to one of the cabinets where wooden slates were kept and pulled out one and read through it.
"You see, we don't see her majesty often. We told you she only appears once every 156 years. So it was even our first time seeing the lady of the red moon too." He said as he read through the slate. "So... you can check your abilities through 'status log' and it should show you a few abilities. Maybe five at least and seven at most. All related to your Prana and Agama."
"Status...?" I spoke and instantly a holographic screen appeared in front of me. "I see..." I checked through the screen and I did have five abilites.
"What is your Prana?" Viggo asked.
I looked through the screen.
"Is it the element I will have? It says ether."
My answer was met with a cacophony of whispers.
"I see... an eclipsed ether. That is quite the predicament. Calling ether exceedingly rare would be an understatement. I don't think currently anyone exists in Sansar with such prana." Rurik spoke as he straightened his long white beard in confusion.
"What does eclipsed mean?" I asked.
"Well in our tribe, an eclipsed person is someone decided upon by the blood moon when some major prophecy is about to unveil itself. So we may have to wait for the prophecy. Eclipsed are usually the ones who propel the prophecy but they are not necessarily the main character." Rurik said.
"Enough of that. What abilities do you have?" Viggo asked.
"O-oh! Okay so my skill is... Crimson moon's scale. Basically... it says I can enter a stance where every time I attack anyone, I lose my hit points and that my hit points can not be healed but status inflicts can be healed by outside sources. My ultimate is Eclipse of vitality and it increases all stats. I have three sub-abilities. First is invocation of blood moon's desire that applies... a DoT? Ahem... anyways, it applies a status effect to whoever is hit when I'm in Crimson moon's scale state and constantly drains their hit points irrespective of defensive spells but it will be removed if they land a hit on me. My second ability,Trade of blood, increases my attack by 700% if my hit points fall below 60% and... my last ability is solitude of the fallen night. Basically all my abilities will deactivate if I form a pact or party with anyone or anything." I read out loud. It seemed the abilities given to me by Serene was to kill as fast as possible.
"And what are your stats?" Viggo asked as I raised his eyebrow.
"1,200 attack, 300 defense, 90% crit rate and 250% crit damage." I said and I was met with a bunch of sighs.
"It seems like lady serene has done something wrong. First, your attack is ridiculously high. Usually an average person starts off with 100 or so attack but they also have over 700 defense. It seems like you will be penalized for not dodging every single attack. Some city level monsters can kill you in one hit. But reverse is same too. It is a high risk high reward type of abilities." Rurik said. "But since you can enter a stance, it shouldn't be much of a problem if you train."
"What's better about stance?" I asked.
"In our world, people either have stance or they use grimoire to fight. Stance is rare and can be achieved through hardwork. As we don't know much of outside world, our information is second hand and so you may have to venture out of the forest." Rurik said.
"Which kingdom you suggest?" I asked.
"We are close to Eryndopia. It is a kingdom that is currently ruled by a rather... alright king so you won't be met with hostility but I would suggest keeping your identity low. Humans and even other beastfolks don't have high opinion of lady Serene." Viggo warned me.
"Why?" I asked.
"Well... it is rather confusing but they believe that lady Serene brings disaster to lands. Basically, whenever she appears monsters run far away from her and cause stampede. Outsiders have assumed for thousands of years that lady Serene is the one who commands these monsters to attack. It is a misunderstanding but for some reasons, humans and other beastfolks refuse to listen to us on this matter." Yngvar said.
"So right now people must be fighting for their lives?" I asked. Since Serene did appear, humans must be dealing with a stampede.
"Likely. You can take this spear and use this." Yngvar got up from his chair and walked up to a bookshelf. He pulled out an ordinary looking book only for the bookshelf to move aside revealing a small hole in the wall. It was a spear painted in red and decorated with golden markings that ran along its length resembling blood streaks. He handed me the spear. "This is something bestowed upon us but as none of the tribesman is a warrior, us elders think you are the rightful heir to this weapon."
I looked down at the weapon and no lie, it looked cool but still, I was completely inexperienced in fighting. And on top of that I got abilities and stats that penalized me for getting hit.
...
I took the spear and dashed out of the village. The stats and the blessing of blood moon made my actions much more precise and stronger. I could make massive leaps that'd be almost impossible for a normal human.
After about ten minutes, I reached a cliff. This is where the forest of delusion and wonder ended. Upon looking down, I saw yet another forest but a kingdom further away. I could see a small thing moving around but because I could see it from so many kilometers away, it had to be a monster that was massive in size.
I could jump down from here but it was scary. I just took a deep breath and closed my eyes before dashing forward, but instead of falling down, I was levitating. I turned my head to see two pair of blood red wings on the back that resembled flames. They weren't flapping or moving. They were still but allowed me to move in any direction at the speed of my preference. I charged up and dashed towards the monster and whatever the kingdom was.
Once I made it to the battle, I saw one of my classmates fighting. Since I was associated with blood moon now, I didn't know if it was best to talk to them yet so I used the same blood moon's flames to cover my face too. Thankfully it formed a proper mask. I saw Katlyn holding a sword parrying each of its hits. She knew how to fight somehow. It was strange.
Despite dodging every single one the dragon's hit, she landed none either so the situation had reached a stalemate. Can I even interfere? My defense stat is so low and on top of that I can't be healed. A single hit would essentially kill me. I handed a little further away and sat on the grass thinking how to proceed forward. After pondering for a few minutes reading through my skills and abilities, I came across a separate page titled 'Luminara'. These were special skills that I could unlock but I didn't know how to. Well for now, I think I will use trade of blood skill. I need to get my hit points down to 60% but given I lose them during my stance, it shouldn't be difficult. I looked around and saw a horn rabbit. That should do it.
After lowering my health down to 60%, a blackish-red aura started oozing from me. Probably this meant my damage would be increased by 700%. I checked my stats page and it was reflected there. My attack stat was over nine thousand. I flew closer to the dragon and landed right in front of it.
"This is where you fall!" I held tightly onto the spear as I cried out and plunged down at the dragon piercing through its head. As I landed on the ground, the dragon fell and the remaining monsters dispersed in a chaotic manner.
That was easy. Now I should at least great Katlyn and explain things to her so I turned around to look at my classmates.
"Time to meet up with her but... wait a minute- who is Katlyn?" I wondered as if this was a person I was supposed to know.