Damien thought about it for a while, and it seemed like a system like the ones in fantasy novels and games was the correct choice. It'll allow him to grow rapidly in a short amount of time, just what he needed to fight against the infected, which even had divine beings in their ranks. If a God could be infected, what's keeping the virus from infecting a giant dragon?
"A system...?" The God tilted his head in confusion, before staring blankly at Damien. "Ah... I understand." He said, after a few moments of contemplation.
Damien caught this behavior. There it was again, he noticed it happening here and there throughout their encounter. Could the God read his mind? If that was the case, then the deity would've already reacted to his thoughts. Then, what could it be? Was the God able to read his memories? That must be it. He never told the God his name after all, so he must've gotten that somewhere else.
"If I have a system, I can grow my own strength without having to rely too much on you. Not only helping me since I can be free from any strings attached, but it'll also help you in the long run, since you won't have to share your power with me." He explained, earning a curious look from the deity. "So, can you make it happen?"
The God went into contemplation once more, his hands clasped in front of him. Then, after a few moments passed by, he addressed Damien. "If I exert the last vestiges of my power, I can give you a system, Sir Damien. A fair bit of warning though, I do not know if it will be the exact system you expect it to be, nor will it have a limit or not. This will also cut off our contact with each other until I have sufficiently mustered up enough power to contact you once more, which might range from a few months, to a century."
Damien weighed the God's words. On one hand, it's like a bomb itching to go off. If the system that he'll receive is somehow flawed or a defect, he can just kiss his new life goodbye. On the other hand, if the system was exactly the thing he expected it to be...
"...If we do nothing, nothing will happen." He said, gazing into the God's eyes. "If you're unsure about something, then you should forget about it altogether."
"Do it. Your world is dying either way, so might as well give it a shot."
"...I see... so we're leaving it up to fate, aren't we?" The deity simply closed his eyes and nodded, submitting himself to an uncertain fate. "If this will be the end of my realm... then so be it. I leave everything in your hands now, Sir Damien."
With a humm of divine, primordial power, glowing symbols began to appear all over the void ranging in both size and shape. They whined and crackled with energy Damien could tell was otherworldly, as snippets from an unrecognizable language streamed out of the deity's mouth, creating an eerily serene look.
"Alright, here we go..." Damien muttered beneath his breath as he stared at a magic circle that formed beneath his feet, finally giving him a solid surface to stand on.
"Let us meet again, Damien." The God hummed, a soft smile gracing his lips. "For I won't be able to support you until then."
With a flash of light, the magic circle began to spin, then glow. A beam of yellow light coming from said circle soon engulfed Damien entirely, yet weirdly enough, it didn't feel hot in the slightest. It's power only intensified as time went on, as Damien felt the void itself beginning to shake.
That's when it hit Damien like a meteor speeding through the night sky. "Hey! What's your name?!" He yelled out over the rumble of the void.
Damien could only see a mere silhouette as the magic circle's glow blinded him. With the same polite smile he had given Damien when they first met, the God spoke calmly. "Azrael. My name is Azrael."
——————
Damien felt a headache creeping in as he woke up on the wet, cold floor of a dark cave. The air smelled of something sour, a chill sweeping through the empty space. There was a silence in the air. It was completely unnatural, almost forced, as if there was something in the cave with him.
"...What's with me and waking up in random places today?"
Slowly, with careful movements, Damien sat up, clenching his teeth as he felt a jolt of pain stabbing his mind, making him keel over.
But as he did so, he felt a weight on his body and the clinking of metal rubbing against metal. Glancing down at his body, he saw he's wearing thick, dark-coloured plate armor with golden accents complete with a similarly designed helmet within arm's reach.
On the other side of him, laying on the damp, muddy dirt, was a massive zweihander easily a few inches taller than himself. It was the same shade of black as his armor with similar golden accents, with leather wrapping on the handle and the ricasso. The guard and pommel were ornate, although not overly huge and cumbersome. A beautiful weapon along with armor fit for a king, but with practicality in mind.
"A gift from God, huh? If it were me a couple of years ago, I would be freaking out in nerdy excitement." Leaning over to the weapon, Damien was surprised when he lifted it with only a single hand, as if he was grabbing a plastic toy. "What the...? I know these swords are supposed to be lighter than they look... Did Azrael change the material or something?"
Tapping his gauntlet against the blade, Damien heard a clanking sound, so it really was made out of metal. "Must be some kind of fantasy metal..."
'It must be mithril or something along those lines.' Damien reckoned, as he knew he wasn't strong enough to lift an entire sword like it was a broomstick. Slashing the air, he could feel the blade slice effortlessly. Even when he only used a single hand, he could still swing the blade at great speed. "I wonder if..."
Noticing a nearby boulder that reached up to his chest, Damien stood up and held the zweihander with both hands. Raising the blade high above his head, he swung down on the rock with all of the force he could muster.
To his disappointment, the sword only sliced halfway through the boulder. It must've been because of his inadequate strength, as the blade itself cleanly cut through the rock with little effort. Pulling the zweihander out and inspecting it, Damien wiped off the dirt that clung to it's surface and tested it's edge, still finding it perfectly sharp. "Light, yet tough... Enough to kill some zombies, but I would've preferred a gun. I don't like seeing those freaks up close."
He released a sigh. Even though he already killed one of them, Damien was still uncomfortable about killing the undead. He admits that it was a mentality that he should get rid of, but he just wasn't comfortable with the way he saw the flesh being ripped, the sight of blood running down skin.
It was less of a morality thing, he mused, as he has already somewhat accepted that he will have to kill as many of these freaks as it takes. Yet, he still felt bad about killing something that was once a living being. His parents didn't raise a monster after all, they raised a reasonable person.
"...I wonder if I could send a pair of these to my parents?"
Looking around him, seeing as he was completely alone with not even an insect in sight, Damien called out. "System!"
...
Yet only the cave's silence answered him.
Confused, Damien looked around to see if the blue screen he expected to pop up— just materialized in a different direction, but seeing as there was none, only made his bewilderment more apparent.
"That's odd..." Damien knew he used the right word, so why isn't the typical blue screen showing itself? Did something go wrong during the process?
"System! Window! Level!" But despite whatever Damien said, only his voice echoing from the cave's walls answered him, seemingly mocking him. "...Damn it."
——————
As Damien's voice echoed through the dark, in a deeper part of the cave, the sounds of something being ripped apart momentarily stopped.
Two goblins, their skin a pale green, slowly turned to the direction where Damien's echoes rang out from. Their blood-shot eyes hollow and gaunt, yet still holding a feral hunger that would never be satiated.
Crack
One of the humanoids bit through something. An arm, vaguely similar to it's own, with fresh blood still dripping from the ripped joint.
Laying motionless between the two zombified goblins, was a third one. Their most recent victim, it's skin covered in bites and scratches.
Grrrghh...
A low growl exited from their torn lips, ichor dripping down in thin strands, diluted with a bloody red hue. Shambling forward, the infected left a trail of bodily fluids in their wake, a mix of blood, drool, and puss from the blisters adorning their skin.
"I knew this shit would happen, what am I gonna do now?!" The same voice they heard earlier rang out, this time far closer than before.
Spurred on by a bottomless hunger, the infected stumbled across the uneven floor of the cave with more intensity, animalistic snarls exiting their maws.
Back with Damien, his ramblings ceased when he smelled a faint stench in the air, a familiar acrid smell. Like that of a rotting carcass.
Instinctually feeling something was amiss, Damien quickly put on his helmet and brought his blade to bear. Although it was almost pitch black, the faint glow from a few patches of mysterious glowing moss gave off enough light for Damien to see a pair of figures shambling towards him.
Their movements were erratic and their steps uneven. At times, he could even see their arms and legs twitching violently, before returning to it's previous state. A fear-inducing scene that slightly unnerved Damien.
"You can do this, you can do this." Damien said to himself like a mantra, his grip tightening around the hilt of the blade. "You've killed one of these guys before, what's so bad about killing two more?"
Kraagrhh!
Stomping ahead, one of the infected charged at Damien. It was here that he noticed that these ones weren't human like the one he has killed. They were barely even half the height of Damien, with thin, gangly limbs along with protruding noses and ears that gave the creature an otherworldly feeling.
Gazing at it's blister-covered pale green skin, Damien observed the creature closely. "A goblin... even uglier up close."
As the infected Goblin came within arm's reach of Damien, he shifted his focus to it's neck and swung horizontally, aiming to cut off it's head. But since he was completely untrained with the sword, with the largest blade he ever used being a kitchen knife, the zweihander clipped the infected's shoulder.
Losing some of it's momentum, the blade only dug halfway into it's neck, leaving the creature still alive and flailing.
Spotting the second one approaching right behind the first, Damien knew he had to think fast. With his main weapon stuck, and with nothing else in reach, he'll get bitten at this rate. Even with his seemingly tough armor, Damien would still not take the risk.
With a burst of strength, he grabbed the ricasso of the massive sword and pushed the first infected into the second, sending all three of them crashing to the floor. By some miracle, both of the creatures impaled themselves on the zweihander by the neck, effectively stopping both of their advances.
But to Damien's dismay, he found himself being pinned down beneath their combined weight, combined with their relentlessly beastly movements, the one on the bottom began to slide down inch by inch. Their short arms slowly moving closer.
Damien could feel the infected's hands start to reach him, scratching at his arms. A bead of foul-smelling drool landing on the cheek of his helmet.
"These... fuckin' pieces of...!" Letting go with one hand, Damien scrambled to grab a hold of something. Anything, to change his current position. Curling his fingers around a sizeable rock, Damien released a grunt of frustration and began bashing the heads of the two infected. Blood and bits of skin flew in all directions, with Damien moving his head around to avoid the disgusting liquids from entering the eye slit of his helmet. As the goblins became increasingly dazed with each hit, Damien used his chance to kick up his legs and push the creatures off to the side and away from him.
"Die!" With a surge of adrenaline coursing through his veins, Damien began trying to bust the infected's skull in. With every hit of the rock, the goblin's grew increasingly limp, the blade running through their necks making them stuck together.
Only once their faces went beyond recognizable, did Damien stop. His breath winded and his arm aching, yet a wave of relief washed through his body.
Dropping the rock from his hand, Damien stared at the lifeless corpses in contempt, watching as their hazy eyes lost all of their color. "Not as clean as I preferred, but it is what it is."
Moving his gaze down to his armor, which was covered in splotches of dark red, Damien recoiled in disgust when he sniffed it. "Damn, it reeks..."
Sighing to himself, Damien kneeled down and yanked the zweihander free from the corpses. Strings of body matter clung to the blade, making Damien feel knots in his stomach. While he didn't feel guilty at all killing these two, he did felt nauseous about the smell. Yet he didn't feel any empathy for killing the two goblins. Was it because they weren't human? Or was it because Damien had already acclimated to the thought of dehumanizing these things?
"...Good riddance nonetheless." With a tone of spite in his voice, Damien swung his blade through the air, getting rid of most of the blood on it, before his eyes grew wide in surprise as a flash of blue light appeared in front of him.
It was the system he had expected earlier.
[You have killed your first monster!]
[Congratulations, you have unlocked your personal system!]
[Compiling data from user's memories...]
[Suitable data found!]
[Assessing user's emotional and mental aptitudes...]
[Narrowing data collected.]
[Assessing user's needs and objectives... adjustment confirmed.]
[Personalization complete! You now have access to the 'King' System!]
[-----]
Name: Damien King
Age: 18 years old
Level: 1/10
Occupation: King
Appointed Knights: 0/1
Army Size: 0/25 + Knights = 0
EXP Points needed to level up: 10/100
Title: None
[-----]
Damien's lips formed into a smirk as he read through the screen-like system. This was it. While it wasn't the exact thing he expected, the look and the otherworldly nature of it was the exact picture he envisioned.
"System!" Damien called out confidently, already having faith in the new system. "Show me my skills."
...
Yet once again, silence answered him.
"...Not one of those intelligent ones, huh?" Damien mused. While it was disappointing that the system wasn't like the ones he read in novels, he wasn't complaining. After all, what he currently has would make most of his friends jealous.
"My friends..."
Damien realized he hadn't even thought about them all this time. He was so focused on his parents and planning out his next move, that he forgot to worry about his friends that he grew up with.
"Most of those lazy bums are always late for school and live near my house. So dad must've already gathered them up with their families before they left. That must be the reason why Azrael said my family escaped with some comrades."
Reassuring himself that his friends would be alright in his old world along with his family, Damien released a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
"Still... it would be nice to see them again."
Noticing a small button at the bottom of the screen, Damien raised a finger to press it. But it seemed the system automatically read his intentions and pressed the button for him. "Sweet, saves a bit of hassle. Liking this system so far."
Reading through the new information on the screen, Damien slightly tilted his head in confusion. "Never saw this format before..."
[-----]
Active Skills:
None
Passive Skills:
None
-----
Coins: 20
[-----]
"Coins? Why do I have those?" Damien tapped his sword on the ground in thought, racking through his mind for ideas. The system said all of this was personalized from his memories, so he must've came across something like this in the past. "...Ah, now I remember. I read a few novels with similar ideas, though they used points... there should be a market option if I recall correctly..."
As soon as Damien thought of that, a new page formed in front of his eyes.
[Welcome to the Market!]
[Through your occupation as 'King', you can now summon troops and equipment with coins you receive from kills and missions!]
[Individuals summoned from the market will have absolute and unending loyalty towards you. They will retain no memories of their existence up to the moment they are summoned, but will retain the knowledge about their professions, skills, and a slight variation in their personalities and talents.]
[-----]
Welcome to the Summoning Market!
[Infantry] - 1 New Category Unlocked!
[Ranged] - 1 New Category Unlocked!
[LOCKED] Level required - 5
[LOCKED] Level required - 10
[LOCKED] Level required - 25
[LOCKED] Level required - 50
-----
Welcome to the Supply Market!
[Melee Weapons]
[Ranged Weapons]
[Shields]
[Armor]
[Miscellaneous]
[Food and Beverages]
[Pack Animals]
[-----]
Damien's smirk grew into a wide, beaming smile as he read through the list. The power to summon skilled, devoted soldiers, along with a seemingly endless supply of resources. It was akin to a divine miracle in a devastated world, where danger and starvation lurked everywhere. The possibilities were quite literally endless, with this system, he could help out thousands and even tens of thousands of survivors simultaneously so long as he continued to grow his forces and influence.
While it might not be the overpowered system that would've given him the power to rival divine beings, to raise an army from seemingly nothing? To be gifted the chance to bring peace and prosperity, to a wasteland hostile to all life?
Looks like he'll really become—
The King of the Apocalypse.