— System admin 007.
***
The path of slaughtering stones was as myriad as the stars in the sky. For example, if you asked Zayn just a couple of minutes ago, he would’ve sworn there were only two methods to beat the damned stoneheads: either crush their head or tear a hole through their chest.
But desperation was the mother of innovation. Since then, he had discovered a third, more novel method—the path of choking stones.
Stone Golem - Lv 09
With Raka’s chains looped around the creature’s stony neck, Zayn pulled as hard as his muscles humanly allowed. The two of them scuffled like beasts on the ground, filling the quiet woods with thudding noises.
Stone and steel ground against each other. Zayn barely held onto the haywire golem thrashing its arm around. The resulting aftershock skittered up his bones, wave after wave.
He had no clue what he was doing. But if it worked, it worked. And if it didn’t, well…he would force it until it did.
Clenching his jaw, he sent a barrage of kicks at its face. Despite the crawling numbness in his legs. Even as his leather jacket ground deeper into the dirt.
He’d like to deny it, but something inside of him broke once he learned that his body wouldn’t fall apart at previously life-threatening injuries, and once he leveled up, even those injuries would start healing too.
Even so, a broken common sense never impeded the newest show in the jungle—Man vs. Rock—where only one would emerge alive!
The flying rock splinters confirmed that he was indeed the popular choice.
After playing around with more stone golems than he’d like, he had gotten the hang of them. They might have been slow to respond, but they still had their preference and style.
Their favourite, absolute go-to move was ‘The Stone Slasher’—he named it himself—a big stone slab shot with enough velocity to slash through wood. Higher-level golems might be able to penetrate through steel and break concrete. He wasn’t all that eager to find out.
Then, there was ‘Splatter’—an AOE burst of nail-sized shards flying in all directions. While it wouldn’t kill for certain, it could still skewer like the pincers of a porcupine.
As it did just now.
Warning! Health under 30%!
[Undying Cockroach] in effect!
The nail-sized clasts tore into his thigh and legs, leaving behind new streaks of blood on his already blood-soaked jeans. What nearly scared the soul out of him was a pebble shooting straight for his crotch!
It missed his sacred weapon by a hair’s breadth.
Almost getting nutshotted to death jolted something primal inside of him—either borne out of pure desperation or sent by his future generations wishing to survive. He kicked the golem with his entire weight, roaring, pulling on the chains.
The chain bit deeper into his palm. Fresh blood greased its steel, turning it slick. Still, he twisted it tighter, wrapping it around his wrist. When it came to stubbornness, he’d never lose.
Eventually, the thumping noises died out. The golem accepted its demise, saying its final words to the stone gods. Then its neck broke with a loud snap.
Level up!
Zayn huffed, feeling the energy surge through his body. His palms tingled as sensation returned to them. Quite a painful process. The torn filaments and fibers filled in rapidly, nerves and skin filling themselves right after. Even the bleeding stopped soon after. And yet, the pain of the earlier battles still lingered, replaying in his mind.
Feat unlocked!
Stoneheaded (Bronze): Did you just choke a rock to death?
Effect: +3 Strength
Zayn pursed his lips. The idea of strangling them definitely bounced in the back of his mind. This time, though, it was purely out of necessity.
Curling up in a tree, he felt the weird burning energy run amok inside his body. Different from the level-ups and healing, the energy flashed through his entire body, reaching his veins and capillaries. He felt his muscles change subtly.
Was the energy forcing hypertrophy? Forced stem cell division? He couldn’t tell. It might just be doing something entirely different. Something beyond the science of mankind, for all he knew.
Back up on his feet, he felt lightheaded, but once it passed, he was more solid than ever. Muscles tight and corded, he headed back.
Warm light slipped through the thick canopy overhead, lighting up the forest in an eerie, otherworldly hue. The caressing breeze should have settled down the nervous feeling in his stomach, but it only amplified.
To an unsuspecting glance, it looked picturesque. But like those unsettling paintings, the longer he looked at the jungle, the worse it got.
For all its vibrance, the forest was a corpse pretending to breathe. There was no living soul in this hellscape of trees. Not an insect, nor a bird, and certainly no other monsters, except for the stone golems.
And while the forest was an empty husk, the land was a hungry beast—open-jawed, waiting to devour. He kept replaying how Raka’s fork got swallowed, and the same question bounced at the back of his mind. What in the hell is this place?
When he returned to the grave again, he found the words he had etched just less than an hour ago, still fresh.
Here lies Raka,
The one and only ride of Sir Will Hunter, A.K.A. The Helldiver
And the old punk who carried me through hell.
He chuckled in a self-ridiculing manner because the grave was empty.
Raka was gone. And whatever entity took it didn’t leave a single screw behind. Except for the chain that was wrapped tightly around his right arm. Their coldness the only thing keeping his unravelling sanity in check.
With the newfound information about this place, his confidence in his earlier plans wavered.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Huff…huff.
Nova Rain stood alone in an endless white chamber, feeling the strain in her mana circuits. A metallic block hovered five meters away from her, gleaming in an obnoxious shade of gold—flawless, except for the tiny, perfectly circular hole at its center, less than a millimeter wide. Even that was writhing, slowly collapsing down on itself.
Screw it. All of these overseers were so goddamn incompetent. Why couldn't they just get something white? Why'd it have to be golden?
It must have been Aman—her brother—pulling strings; Nova was certain of it. The only thing that annoyed her more than him was whenever things were out of order. And he knew of that (of course), always using it against her.
Pierce a rare-grade or higher metal using ≤1mm3 of the Element [Water] (44/100)
Reward: Feat [Water Savant]
Nova breathed in, then out, ignoring the tingling veins in her forehead. Fuck. She really shouldn’t have been goaded into this. She was better than that. It wouldn’t even grant her a fragment worth anything—at her level. But now that she’d come this far, a compulsion whispered within her.
Just get it over with. It shouldn’t take that long…
[An interesting thought! Analysis ongoing!]
She sighed. Her newest skill, [Analyze], was another reason why she agreed to this. She had gotten it from the last incursion, right from the Duskwraith king’s corpse. Not willingly, though, it just rushed at her forehead—vanishing before she could react. Nobody else noticed it either, luckily enough.
Not even her seemingly all-knowing brother.
[Considering your current success rate, mana recovery rate, and other possible inferred incidents, you’ll be done in about 13 days, 14 hours, and 23 minutes! Best of luck!]
She gritted her teeth. One precious month of the nineteenth year of her life would be wasted…on a feat she didn’t even need. That manipulative bastard. If he hadn't humiliated her in front of all three clans…
Still, [Analyze] wasn’t all that terrible. It came with the good and bad. The good? It gave her insights into things she’d never even thought to ask. The bad? It gave her insights into things she’d never even thought to ask.
[You’re welcome!]
The fact that it had access to her thoughts made her skin crawl. And there was no way to get rid of it. She’d tried.
Sentient relics were one thing. Sentient skills were unheard of. She suspected she’d stumbled onto something so precious that if anyone learned of it, it wouldn’t be just her in danger, but the entire Rain clan.
Ignoring the sinking feeling in her stomach, she scoured the mana in her circuit. The last of them trickled through her veins, pooling together for one final attempt. After that, she’d have to let her mana reserves replenish naturally.
Another dumb rule she’d agreed to for some reason.
[Elemental condensation].
Mana rushed out of her pores, thickening the air with vapor. Droplets collided and collapsed into each other—merging into a single, shimmering drop of water.
[Scorched earth].
[Fortification].
Everything around the drop distorted—sound, air, even light. She gritted her teeth and pushed the drop forward like a cannon. Crackling, it tore into the hovering golden cube like a hot knife through butter.
But the deeper it went, the more it slowed. Nova clenched her teeth and pushed it forward. Her mana organ threatened to burst out. Eyes popping, she stared at the golden cube.
Watching the droplet collapse, vanish into the air.
Failure.
Again. She'd failed again.
She dropped to the cold, hard floor—sprawled on all fours. The golden cube loomed in her vision. The tiny, incomplete, squirming hole taunted her. She tried to look away. She couldn’t.
Why’d she have to fail again?
“That wasn’t a bad attempt,” a voice spoke in praise.
She knew that annoying voice… The seventh rank overseer. Someone of his straits shouldn’t have been in the Rain clan. Even the clan leader would need years just to get to see him for a moment.
And somehow, he’d attended her inauguration party for some untold reason, and happened to be the witness of this petty bet, making it so that she couldn’t even back out even if she wanted to. He was the whole cause of her misery. What did he want now? Was he pitying her?
She didn’t need pity.
“Are all the overseers as nosy as you, Mr. Sun?”
“Why, I do my job very diligently, thank you.” He chuckled. “And I have a very interesting piece of news for you.”
She waited to hear the next line, but the overseer remained silent. She frowned and stared at his golden mask. Since he’d come himself, he wouldn’t leave without telling her, right?
“What?”
“Your brother Aman is spending a fortune in the newly integrated worlds,” the man spoke at last.
“Why?” She blurted out. “Why would he put money in the baby races?”
Everyone knew these races were hopeless. No one truly valuable ever came out of those places. The rare black horses were snatched by the coalition and greater organizations. The clans would be left with crumbs.
And this time, the new races were getting integrated mid-game, after that incident. No matter how she looked at it, this was a losing bet to make.
The overseer didn’t answer, vanishing as quietly as he had arrived. A thousand things vortexed in her mind. The recent integration of the Milky Way…
The whole thing reeked of weird…
“System, connect to Astral.”
Initializing…Connected to Astral…
Welcome, Northwalker!
You have 1300 unread notifications. 23 new messages.
She ignored the blue lines of text, quickly shuffling through the dashboard.
Monthly Benefactor leaderboard.
- Undisclosed
- Abaradadayana.
- Undisclosed…
…
76. Aman Rain
There he was. Aman Rain. Even that name annoyed her. But she knew him. When it came to money, every single step he took was intentional, part of a precise calculation. He was a businessman, after all.
At a minimum, a position like that meant he'd spent millions of Arax—more than her net worth. That rang weird—Aman had never once made a losing investment. Why was he pouring resources into the baby races that were likely to fail?
There must be some catch.
Whatever was happening, she wasn’t going to let him succeed so easily. Nova went through all the channels that broadcast the newly integrated region. But it was mind-numbingly boring to go through that, so she just hopped into a text channel. They were shorter and could reveal so much more of what was happening compared to the broadcasts.
Immediately, glowing system notifications flooded her vision.
Alex ***** gained an iron feat [Insightful]
Buratarara ************ gained a bronze feat [Armoured]
L’amor ***** gained an iron feat [Deathjaw]
She had invested her money, too. Once. Back when she was nine. It had been all of her allotted monthly resources. Needless to say, all of it was a bad investment. Most of these people were clueless, spending their Arax on trying to avoid any danger.
They would be dead within a month when the safe zone collapsed, and the true horror of Eldera becomes clear.
Zayn ***** achieved a bronze feat [Stoneheaded]
Stupid! You’d have to be an idiot to get that. She cursed under her breath. This one would die faster.
[Interesting thought! Analysis active!]
She ignored it, continuing her doomscrolling. This probably wasn’t the best way to figure out what her brother was up to. But it wasn’t like she had anything better to do while her mana replenished.
[Unsuccessful analysis…]
[Retrying…]
[Unsuccessful…]
She paused, frowning. She’d never seen it fail before. Watching it struggle was...faintly amusing.
[Gathering information…Essence hidden. Probability of the user having a skill, title, or feat that conceals their essence is 100%.]
[The probability of the user gaining a class and skills within 44 minutes of integration is 7%—Unlikely.]
[The probability of the user already possessing a title is under 0.00001%—Very unlikely.]
[The probability of having a feat that hides their essence is 92.9999%—Very likely.]
[Option 1. The user ‘Zayn’ has a Divine or higher grade Feat—Very unlikely]
She snorted. A pesky baby race would never bear someone with a divine grade feat. Especially not this early. Something like meant you stood on the same stage as the Gods. When someone even attempted one, the greater universe would be in turmoil.
[Option 2. The user ‘Zayn’ has a Legacy Feat Fragment—Likely]
[Analysis completed!]
A Legacy Feat? Her breath drew to a stop. Let alone her or Aman, no one in the Rain clan had gotten a legacy Feat in the last millennium. Only the founding leader had a legacy Feat, and it was passed generation to generation to the next Clan leader. It's why the Rain clan could remain one of the three clans of Amber dust.
They said Aman was one of the candidates being groomed for the Clan leader’s legacy Feat. He’d have to defeat the others to rise to the position, something that leaves him with one-tenth chance of survival.
And this guy from a baby race had a legacy Feat fragment? Just like that.
No way.
She scrolled back despite all the mental gymnastics to deny the assessment, and soon, she found herself staring at the notification again.
Zayn ***** gained a bronze Feat fragment [Stoneheaded]
What if? She couldn’t help but entertain the thought. Even if the skill was wrong in its assessment, all she would lose was some measly sum of Arax. Nothing significant to her.
But if it was true….maybe she…too could join in the fray.
{Become a Benefactor}
Her eyes flickered with all the possibilities.