Before I had ti to catch my bearings, I felt sothing pull at , dragging off my feet and pulling towards the angry gailian man standing at the front of the boat. I started, not understanding what was happening until I was in midair again. A few monts later, the unnatural pull on my body disappeared, causing to crash back into the wooden deck of the ship. My left arm bent unnaturally, before it snapped on collision with the deck. Luckily, I didn’t feel a thing from my ruined arm.
I looked back up at the angry gailian man, before shivering.
He had thirteen runes. He had to be soone important. Maybe the commander. I had no clue what a thirteenth rune did, but I knew for sure it would be dangerous. Sallia, Felix and I were already injured and weak, and my father and Claus were the only others that landed on the boat. This wasn’t a battle we could win even at full strength, and in our current state escape would be nearly impossible.
The gailian commander glared at , and yelled sothing I didn’t understand because of his heavy accent. The other gailian troops nocked arrows, pointing so of them at , and so at Sallia, Claus, Felix, and my father. I winced. I didn’t want my father and Claus to die here, at least. I cared about them and wanted them to be safe.
But I doubted any of us were coming out of this alive.
The gailian commander yelled sothing at again, but his accent was too heavy for to understand. This ti, however, I did catch the world ‘island,’ despite his heavy accent.
I frowned, but I took too long to respond. An arrow zipped out of an archer’s bow and towards Claus. Claus, who was still shaking off the impact of being dragged out of the sky, seed to realize the arrow was coming towards him, and his hands scrabbled along the wooden boards for a fraction of a second, before he found his spear. He threw it towards the archer, the bone spear enlarging itself the mont it left its hands -
And so other bone-user took control of claus’s spear, before it slamd itself into the deck of the ship. Claus’s spear didn’t deflect the arrow, or kill the archer.
A mont later, the arrow sped up and turned green, before it ripped through Claus’s head. He died with his eyes wide open.
I sucked in a breath, before the gailian commander yelled at again. This ti, I could finally make out part of what he was saying.
“Where are the islands? Allius tha pligusu perissuteru tos filus sou!” He yelled. I had no clue what his second sentence ant, but the archer who had killed Claus gestured threateningly with his bow, pointing towards Sallia.
Sallia, who had broken a leg during the fall, was still moaning in pain as she tried to re-orient herself on the boat, but Felix and my father were glaring at the gailians as they reached towards their own weapons. They were bruised and injured from the fall, but they had just seen Claus die.
A mont later, out of the corner of my eyes, I spotted sothing small in the distance.
It was a flying boat. The village chiefs had seen the great ocean monster finish destroying the ships of the outsiders, and had co to attack the Outsiders before they reorganized. But they would be too late to save us.
I gave the galian commander a grim smile, doing my best to look weak and placate him, and reached for a little bit of water with my ability. In seconds, it turned into a giant map. Since the gailian commander wanted to know where the islands were…
I made a map from my vague mories of Earth, since that was completely irrelevant right now. The longer I could confuse them, the better.
The gailia turned towards the map I had created with my illusion, before snorting. He took a step closer to , and then slapped as hard as he could, the force nearly physically lifting up and throwing back towards the deck. My head slamd into the wood with an audible crack, and I saw stars for a mont.
My father finally lost his temper. A gust of wind propelled him forward, and he raised his spear towards the gailian commander. I imdiately added the Call of the Ocean to my illusion, hoping it would distract a few gailians and give my father a chance. The odds were terrible, but if we killed a thirteen rune commander here we could make the war much easier to win for the other islanders. This could be our final contribution to the battle.
Sallia and Felix, seeing the fight start, leapt to join us. Sallia picked up her sword, and ignoring her broken leg, did her best to charge forward. Felix battered down the first wooden planks that tried to assail us, beating them down with his own rune abilities.
However, there were too many gailians here. The mont Sallia tried to charge, a bundle of ropes coiled around her, before tripping her. An arrow in midiar flew towards Felix before it quadrupled, then each arrow hod in on Felix’s limbs. I teleported one arrow attacking Felix towards the gailiain commander, allowing myself to get hit by an arrow to my stomach, and the gailian commander’s eyes widened in surprise as an arrow suddenly appeared right in front of him.
But it didn’t kill him.
The arrow suddenly halted in midair as the gailian commander’s runes glowed. So sort of pushing ability? Or the ability to harden the air?
I had no idea.
A mont later, the arrow dropped out of the air and clattered to the ground.
A pulse of blue ice stopped my father, chopping off one of his legs just below the knee. He fell over, his charge halted. At the sa ti, I saw Sallia drop to the ground, struggling with ropes that were coiling around her like a python.
The gailian commander snorted contemptuously, before taking another few steps towards us. He was no longer focused only on . Instead, he was eyeing Sallia. As the youngest of us, she probably looked the easiest to get information out of.
“Where are the islands?” He asked, again, even as Felix ignored the arrows in his body and tried to kill the commander with a splinter of airborne wood. A mont later, the splinter stopped in midair, before it turned around and sped into Felix’s chest. Blood started pouring out of his chest as he stopped moving, clutching his new injury.
Sallia shook her head, her mouth foaming as she struggled, but didn’t say a word.
The gailian commander took one step closer-
And Sallia suddenly sprang into action. With a level of dexterity and power her broken body shouldn’t have possessed, she managed to fight her way out of the moving ropes for a mont and grip her sword again. Groaning with effort, she tried to kill the commander in a single mont of surprise.
He snorted, and Sallia’s body suddenly snapped backwards, completely deflecting her attack. Her sneak attack failed to accomplish anything.
“Fine then,” said the commander. He gestured towards one of his soldiers, who tossed him a sword.
Then, with a single, casual movent, he caught the sword and beheaded Sallia.
My cooldown for teleportation finally ended, a mont too late to save Sallia’s life, and I stared at the gailian commander with hate. I scanned our surroundings, before looking at Felix, who wasn’t dead yet, and hoped he still had one more attack in him. Even if it probably wouldn’t work, I wanted to kill the commander for hurting Sallia.
Felix, who was wheezing and clutching his chest, saw and seed to realize my teleportation was ready.
He stopped worrying about his impending death, and shot another splinter of wood out, making it zip towards one of the archers.
Right as another plank tore itself off of the deck to block his attack, I teleported the wooden splinter right next to the gailian commander’s neck. My aim was a little off, but it was still close enough that it might kill him if I was lucky.
For a single mont, I thought we had succeeded. A spray of blood ripped out of the commander’s neck, and I felt a savage grin form on my lips.
Then, one of the soldiers pointed at the Commander, and his runes glowed. The commander’s injured neck quickly restored itself. I felt a growing sense of frustration as I realized we had failed. I saw an arrow kill my father, and took one last look at the distant boats of the islands.
I hoped their raid on the outsiders would be successful, and that they avenged us properly.
That was the last thing I thought before an arrow tore through my brain.
I died.
You have been detected to be (dead), and your soul is no longer housed inside of a physical vessel.
You will be returned to the Market shortly.
Warning: It has been detected that you are part of a large influence-based event, and have not yet collected your rewards. Once you exit a dinsion, you may no longer connect to the dinsional laws of that world, aning you will no longer be able to collect any Achievent from interacting with a certain world. Would you like to enter slumber mode for 20 Achievent? This will keep your soul safe from the corrosion of the ocean of souls for up to 1 year, and prevent you from exiting this dinsion. This is advised to finish collecting rewards which are still pending.
Warning: You have one or more friends still connected to your current dinsion, even though you are dead. It is highly recomnded that you enter slumber mode until all of you leave a dinsion at the sa ti. Otherwise, it may be difficult to ti your births and deaths in each world properly, which has been statistically proven to increase the chance of your group breaking up soti within the next five centuries!
Would you like to enter slumber mode for 20 Achievent? Each purchase lasts for up to one year.
Less than ten seconds later, before I even had ti to process my surroundings in more detail, I saw another notification
All mbers of your registered group of friends have been detected to be dead.
I paused, taking a mont to consider my surroundings. I was in a situation I rembered quite clearly; I saw myself, as well as a stream of other, silver-colored souls starting to drift upwards. Just above us, I could see cracks in reality. And just beyond it lay a massive, endless ocean of black water. I tried to see where Sallia and Felix were, but I couldn’t figure out which soul was which. I had no clue which souls belonged to my fellow transmigrators.
I decided to stick around in this dinsion until the end of this battle. It would be a sha to lose the rest of my rewards for helping this battle co to its final conclusion, whatever it would be.
Slumber mode activated. 20 Achievent deducted. Thank you for your purchase!
Darkness overtook .
An unknown amount of ti later, I was jostled out of my slumber by two notifications.
Influence: Contributed to the battle of the ocean by a [Major] amount.
Achievent 3,600
My Achievent increased from 11,926.06 to 15,526.06. More interesting was the second notification.
After your action of stealing a greater fragnt of the Ocean’s heart and using it to inflict major damage on the Outsiders invading your holand, as well as your contributions to the battle, you have ford the Keyword Ability ‘Endless Hunger of the Ocean.’
It may be purchased after your death for 5,000 Achievent.
This is currently a [Basic] Grade Ability, but like all keyword abilities, after being purchased it may be evolved depending on your actions in the future.
This Ability has the following effects:
Keywords: Ocean, Madness (2 Keywords.)
While you are subrged in water, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dinsional laws support the existence of absorption essence. Furthermore, contact with water will naturally remodel your body and brain to support absorption-essence spellcasting.
Absorption essence may be spent to form ‘runes,’ a unique magical structure created partially within the brain and partially within the body.
These runes have varied effects, mostly relating to strengthening the body and mind and allowing limited control over specific abilities. (This rune system is copied directly from the world you were just living in.) You will also recreate the relevant dinsional laws within your body.
Whenever you use water-related abilities to drive sothing insane, you will collect Achievent as if you had killed it. Madness-related keyword Abilities will be slightly easier to form and upgrade in the future, up to [Master] grade.
Killing an enemy with a water-related ability or with water for the first ti in each body will allow you to form a skill related to that creature. You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself.
Note: Only Achievent-granting creatures can form abilities. Only three abilities from this effect may be ‘held’ at once. You may delete a copied Skill from this ability at any ti to replace it with a new one.
Glut Penalty: 20
Note: In order to use a magic system from another dinsion, one must have three things:
First, they must have access to the essence in question. It’s impossible to use manifestation essence for spellcasting without manifestation essence, or use absorption essence type spellcasting without absorption essence.
Second, one must have the biological ability to process said essence. Attempting to use unique magic systems without the right brain structure and body structure may result in injury or death to your current body.
Third, one must have an ability that mimics the proper dinsional laws one wishes to use in order to cast spells. Trying to use a fire-related spell normally wouldn’t work in a dinsion where fire physically cannot exist, for example, and using binding essence to cast spells would normally fail if a dinsion doesn’t have any binding essence inside of it. With an Ability, one can make spells that cannot naturally exist in a given dinsion.
So abilities do not grant all three of these things. Please read your ability descriptions carefully!
I read over the ability description, before I turned my attention back to the world below .
Did we win?
I couldn’t see anything anymore. I was wrapped in a cocoon of golden light, and I could see two other cocoons nearby. However, I couldn’t see the islands or the ocean anymore. I couldn’t even see the ocean of souls - it looked like we were stuck in between the ocean of souls and the dinsion we had lived in for a decade and a half. I looked down, trying to spot our ho, before realizing it was a lost cause.
I had done my best to help the islands, but I would never know whether they survived the fight with the outsiders or not. I had no idea whether they fended off the invasion.
And I would probably never know. I had gotten a bunch of Achievent for a [major] contribution to the battle, which hopefully ant we had won. But I would never know.
I felt a small amount of sadness well up inside of , before I accepted that I would never know the final outco of the battle. I was dead. I just had to hope that my actions, and my wishes for a better future for the village and people I cared about, would co to pass. But now that I was dead I couldn’t do anything anymore.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the other two golden cocoons unraveling, releasing two other silvery souls. Those should be Felix and Sallia.
While there were still things left I wanted to do, and things I wanted to know the answer to, it was the end. It was ti to leave. I turned back towards my System notifications and exited slumber mode.
You have accepted exiting slumber mode. You will return to the Market shortly.
One life deducted. Four lives remain. Transportation has begun.
Please rember that any Abilities available for purchase will only remain available for 72 hours after your return to the Market. Make any purchases you wish to keep within that ti!
Death Statistics Report:
Power:
Successfully Condense your First Rune
100 Achievent
Successfully Condense your Second Rune
200 Achievent
Successfully Condense your Third Rune
300 Achievent
Successfully Condense your Fourth Rune
400 Achievent
Successfully Condense your Fifth Rune
500 Achievent
Absorb a Fragnt of the Ocean's Heart (and remain sane)
200 Achievent
Skill:
Achieve [Basic] Grade one-handed Swordsmanship
25 Achievent
Achieve [Interdiate] Grade one-handed Swordsmanship
150 Achievent
Achieve [Basic] Grade Spearmanship
25 Achievent
Achieve [Basic] Grade Archery
25 Achievent
Slaughter:
Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the first ti.
25 Achievent
Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the 10th ti.
120 Achievent
Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the 50th ti.
300 Achievent
Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the 125th ti
500 Achievent
Assist the Locals in killing the Glowing Fish
200 Achievent
Assist the Locals in killing a Wolf of Writhing Mists (Land Beast) for the first ti
100 Achievent
Kill a human with 4-6 Runes for the first ti.
75 Achievent
Assist the Locals in killing a Transparent Fish for the First ti
85 Achievent
Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 4-6 Runes for the first ti.
40 Achievent
Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 4-6 Runes for the 5th ti.
125 Achievent
Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 4-6 Runes for the 25th ti.
220 Achievent
Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 7-9 Runes for the first ti.
125 Achievent
Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 7-9 Runes for the 10th ti.
200 Achievent
Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 7-9 Runes for the 40th ti.
300 Achievent
Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 10-12 Runes for the first ti.
400 Achievent
Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 10-12 Runes for the 5th ti.
700 Achievent
Influence:
Pass your First Adulthood Ceremony
50 Achievent
Contributed to the defense of the Village by a [Negligible] amount.
3 Achievent
Save one boat from the Glowing Fish
250 Achievent
Contribute to the Battle of the Glowing Fish by a [Significant] amount.
1,000 Achievent
Contribute to the Power of the Islands by a [Moderate] Amount
800 Achievent
Contribute to the Power of the Islands by a [Minor] Amount
500 Achievent
Contribute to the Battle of the Oceans by a Major Amount
3,600 Achievent
Steal a Greater Fragnt of the Ocean's Heart from Al'thalus
500 Achievent
Wealth:
Possess 50 Fish Cores at once
50 Achievent
Possess a Fragnt of the Ocean's Heart
200 Achievent
Posess a Greater Fragnt of the Ocean's Heart
500 Achievent
Crafting:
Craft 1 [Basic] Grade tool
15 Achievent
Craft 25 Basic Grade tools
40 Achievent
Craft 100 Basic Grade tools
100 Achievent
Craft 250 Basic Grade tools
200 Achievent
Craft 1000 Basic Grade tools
300 Achievent
Craft 1 [Interdiate] Grade tool
40 Achievent
Exploration:
Explore the Ocean of the Althala Islands and Live
200 Achievent
Family and Disciples:
N/A
Misc:
First ti Achievents:
(Market-Produced Achievents cannot be repeated in subsequent lives. They are paid for by Eluxia and the Market, as a ans to encourage new Transmigrators, and not linked to the dinsional laws of any world besides the market).
Gain [Basic] Grade Mastery of a combat-related Skill for the first ti
200 Achievent
Gain [Interdiate] Grade Mastery of a combat-related Skill for the first ti
500 Achievent
Gain [Basic] Grade Mastery of a crafting-related Skill for the first ti
200 Achievent
Total at start of World: 135.06
New Total: 15,546.06
Taxes: N/A (Error - no tax skill detected. Please consult with your local city administrator for further details. Tax evasion is a capital offense, and trying to avoid paying may result in execution!)
Equipnt maintenance costs and other expenses:
Friendship bracelet: -1.3 Achievent (Double check this number later).
Purchased information on Abilities: -20 Achievent
Purchased Slumber mode (1 year): -20 Achievent
Final Total: 15,504.76
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