Chapter 10 The New World
Everyone saw Wain mercilessly break the man's arm, but no one dared object. At this point, he and Anita were the only ones at this roadblock who could fight monsters.
Anita asked, "Wain, don't we need to help them when they entered the hospital compound. You're very strong, and I can kill monsters that aren't particularly powerful. We should help them, shouldn't we?"
Wain smirked and said, "Bring me to the computer and then you can go off and fight for humanity. But if you were sure you wanted to help them, you wouldn't be asking me."
Anita answered nothing and just kept walking forward. Wain saw hundreds of people sitting in fear when they entered the main hall. Some of them were originally in this hospital, but many came running here after the apocalypse began.
Since the apocalypse started less than a day ago, people had not yet had time to line up any units, rules, and so on. There was only chaos and terror all around. No one was paying attention to Anita and Wain passing by.
After a while, Wain was already sitting at his computer. For starters, he wanted to watch the latest news.
'The apocalypse has started, but not long ago, the monsters weren't supposed to destroy all the radio towers. I should still have access to the net, and journalists should be reporting from the scene.' Wain thought.
He was right and pretty quickly found dozens of news stories about strange monsters, people with superpowers, murdered celebrities, and so on. The situation was no different worldwide, so Wain decided to find out more interesting information.
He had to figure out what planet he was on in the first place, how advanced this world was and how big it was.
...
"This is... unexpected..." Wain muttered after ten minutes of searching.
'As I suspected, the development of this world slightly surpasses that of my own. The most powerful weapons mentioned in the media are laser blasters. In my world, scientists have only tried to create something like that. But, this world hasn't gone far. I think the progress here is 10-20 years ahead of my world. It's not critical, I'll have no trouble getting used to this world.' Wain thought.
Moreover, simpler technologies like computers were no different from those in his world. But that wasn't what Wain expected to find out at all. He was struck by the information he found about this planet.
'This planet is at least ten times larger than mine, but there aren't that many countries. If my planet were that big, it would have about two thousand countries. But here, there are only a hundred. However, that's not all...' Wain thought.
Besides the fact that this planet was huge, there was also one inexplicable phenomenon in this world. At the world's borders, there was a dark barrier that did not allow sunlight in. Moreover, even from the satellites, it was impossible to see anything, and strangely enough, the satellites would self-destruct just a couple of hours after taking off into orbit.
'I found a news story that said that after the apocalypse began, the dark barrier disappeared. Which means this planet is even bigger than it was. It's kind of crazy... The planet is called Restanta, ironically.'
Wain also remembered something he hadn't thought of at first.
'Anita said that the apocalypse began after seeing a pillar of darkness reach the heavens. That's what most news reports say, but it hasn't been established exactly where this surge of energy occurred...'
Wain realized that it was very likely that people had seen that dark pillar that emanated from his body when he fought the entity of the world. It was hard for Wain to realize that he was most likely the cause of the beginning of the apocalypse.
'I started the apocalypse? No, I started a new era, for life goes on, only the rules of this world have changed.' Thought Wain and left the room.
The city Wain was in was called Overion. It was a partly middle class tourist town. But according to Wain, in his world, such a city would be high class.
Wain didn't see Anita, he assumed she was headed to fight, but Wain was in no hurry to show off her abilities. He decided to go up to the roof and look at the city from above, for starters.
...
"Hmm, compared to the rest of the buildings in this town, this hospital is a really good place. I see a military base and some big stores a few kilometers away. There are a lot of weapons at the military base, but it's useless. Moreover, we're already surrounded..." Mumbled Wain looking at the crowds of monsters around the hospital.
Luckily these monsters were weak. Like humans, they needed time to get stronger. Compared to humans, monsters have several advantages and disadvantages.
They had souls just like humans, and they could even get other creatures' souls, but they had a much more complicated process than humans. But, unlike humans, monsters didn't need to kill to get stronger. However, without absorbing the Soul Essence of other creatures, their progress was very slow. 𝗳𝒓𝚎e𝚠𝒆𝐛𝐧𝐨v𝚎Ɩ.co𝓶
They mutated and gained new abilities, but they could not choose from several options like humans. That was one of the main differences.
"It's a shame that the Destruction Sword only has a range of 50 meters. I would have been able to kill these monsters from afar. Speaking of which, do I have enough Soul Essence to improve any skill or soul?" Wain muttered.
Not only did Soul Essence increase a person's level when they destroyed souls to become stronger. But, it could also be Used to improve skills and souls.
The system didn't say how much Soul Essence a person had or needed to improve a skill, but Wain knew the approximate values.
'Hmm, as far as I know, to improve a Common Rating skill, I need to kill ten to fifty Primary Rating creatures, but that's assuming their souls are Common Rating. As I walked to this hospital, I killed quite a few zombies, but I don't think I got much Soul Essence for their souls. However, the worm I recently killed definitely gave me a lot of Soul Essence. What's more, I killed Last Knight, and his soul was Rare Rating'. Wain thought and decided to check his guess.
Wain opened the system and looked at the list of available upgrades. To his surprise, he had enough Soul Essence to improve one skill.
[You can improve Lizard's Dash skill]
Wain didn't have enough Soul Essence to improve the rest of his skills.
'Hmm, Destruction Sword is also a Common Rating skill, but I can't improve it. But it is logical because, despite the same Rating, this skill is much stronger.' Wain thought.
He hadn't been able to improve a skill before and had no information about it. Now he would be doing it for the first time.
Wain decided to develop Lizard's Dash because he thought it was a pretty useful skill. He could drastically shorten or increase the distance with someone. It could be used both to escape and to attack.
Moreover, Wain was just curious to see how the skill improved.
[You used 90% of your Soul Essence. The Lizard's Dash skill is ready to develop. Choose one of two ways]
At the exact moment, two options appeared before Wain.
[Improve Chronicle skill]
[Improve Skill Rating]
Wain didn't know which to choose. He didn't expect to see so many subtleties when developing a skill.
But, Wain could find out from the system at any time. So he spent the next few minutes reading the skill development manual.
"Hmm, I see. It turned out to be easier than I thought." Wain muttered.
There was a significant difference between the two options. If Wain decided to improve the skill Chronicle, the skill would become much more powerful. The Primary Chronicle would change to the First Chronicle, but the Skill Rating would remain the same. Moreover, in this case, Wain could not decide exactly how to improve the skill since there was only one option when improving the Chronicle.
On the other hand, if Wain decided to increase his skill rating, his skill would become stronger but not as powerful as in the first option. But, he would have a choice of at least two options.
'If I choose the second option, I could decide how to improve the skill myself. At least I'd have a choice. Moreover, as I understand it, the higher the Rating of the skill, the stronger it will become after the increase Chronicle.' Wain thought.
Wain decided rather quickly to improve the Rating of Lizard's Dash. In his opinion, it was much better to act prospectively than to try to get a skill that would only be strong for the moment.
[You decided to improve the Rating of the skill]
[Choose one of the suggested options]
The next moment in front of Wain, three suggested options appeared.
[Strong Lizard's Dash]
[Speedy Lizard's Dash]
[Lightning Lizard's Dash]
'Three choices at once? Not bad.' Wain thought. He was about to choose one of the options, but suddenly he frowned.
[Strong Lizard's Dash (Primary Chronicle, Rare Rating)
This is an enhanced version of Lizard's Dash. You can ram other targets during the dash, thanks to your immense strength. The addition will create a shockwave at the end of the dash that will knock your target aside. After applying the skill: Strength +10 for 30 seconds]
[It is possible to develop the skill if the following conditions are met-
[Strength above 30 points, not including external factors: 16/30]