Date: 13-06-2021
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except OCs and other changes from canon. Also, any resemblance to real people is not intended. This is fiction, after all.
For the first time in a long while, the training camp was universally excited. Well, except for me, of course, but nobody was paying any attention to me, so it went unnoticed.
Despite the excitement, though, many campers did not want Freed to stay here for long. Having a severe case of potty mouth does not go well with a group of highly religious people, after all.
When the people calmed down a little, Valper spoke to us again: "To find out who has the ability to wield holy swords, we are going to have a little test. You are all going to fight Freed here -", he lazily waved a hand in Freed's direction, "- one by one. Do well enough, and you will be considered eligible."
That was surprising. 'How is fighting prowess in any way related to being able to use a holy sword? Shouldn't you have a test like the one I had in the church a couple years ago?'
Someone actually asked that question out loud. It was one of the instructors. One of the ones that I was never assigned to, so I did not bother learning his name.
Valper replied by giving a smile, motioning for everyone to wait a moment, went back into the car, and came back out with something that looked like a bundle of cloth. He carefully unwrapped the cloth while saying: "That is a good question. Naturally, we can not determine the ability to wield holy swords with just spars. Therefore, we will use….this!" At that moment, he finished unwrapping the cloth to reveal a sword.
Quickly, Valper continued: "This….is a reforged fragment of Excalibur, the most powerful holy sword ever. This particular fragment is called 'Excalibur Rapidly'. It increases the speed of the wielder if they are compatible with it." He paused for a moment to let the 'ooh's and 'aah's run its course.
While everyone was admiring the sword, I was thinking of ways to flunk this test. 'Obviously, Valper wants us to try and use this sword in battle to see if we get a speed increase. How do I make it look like I am, at least, not affected by it? Maybe just go slower than normal? No, that has a chance to make me *too* slow and that would be suspicious. How about finding the speed difference in the beginning and *then* slowing down? No, that would risk getting exposed with the initial burst of speed. Then maybe…'
Of course, Valper had not noticed my musings, so he continued normally to explain what I already deduced. In a bit more detail: One of us gets the Excalibur to wield, while Freed uses his own blade. Then, we spar. Freed will determine whether or not we are actually getting the speed boost, as he knows what it is like from experience. Finally, Valper stops the fight at Freed's signal or when it goes too far. If you have enough of a speed increase, you are chosen. Clever.
During the explanation, I shuffled a bit further to the back of the group. That wasn't very hard to do, as many of the kids practically ran forward to be the first to try. I decided to observe them first to come up with a more concrete plan of action. 'I am *not* gonna go with them if I can help it!'
The first kid got a hold of the weapon and promptly went to his knees. Not due to the weight -he was still holding up the sword-, but probably due to incompatibility. 'Hmm, so Excalibur Rapidly can also *drain* vitality, mana, or speed when it is incompatible. I can use that.'
Despite this, the boy stood back up and confronted Freed. His opponent saw this happen and simply ran up and slashed the poor kid through the arm. Freed did not cut the kids arm off, he cut his arm length-wise, leaving 2 bloody strips where his arm used to be. The bastard was grinning while doing that too. 'Well, that puts a damper on *that* idea. I do not fancy getting myself a perforated arm…or having to answer questions why my arm is back to normal so quickly when 'Gamer's body' kicks in.'
The kid, meanwhile, had obviously dropped his weapon and was on the ground crying in pain. One of the instructors rushed over to get him treated. 'It does not look like he will ever use that arm again,' I mused pessimistically.
The next kid was up. This one had a better initial reaction. A slight increase in speed, I guessed.
Unfortunately, he was not used to the speed, so he moved clumsily. Something that Freed took advantage of gleefully.
While the second kid was being beaten up, he was not cut in debilitating ways. Freed clearly intended to push the kid's limits and then take him with them. 'Apparently Freed is not completely insane quite yet. Don't know why I expected that, honestly. People do not really go insane from birth or anything…..I think.'
The fights continued quickly. Most kids were incompatible and were subsequently cut down, but not killed. The handful that could move quicker were taken down and thrown into the car like ragdolls. It was brutal.
About three-quarters through, I was called in to fight and I still had no idea how to go about doing this.
I stepped forwards towards Rapidly and slowly grabbed it, hoping that I could nullify its effects to avoid both fates.
The ability 'Holy weapon compatibility' has been created.
My body felt incredibly sluggish. You would think that that ability meant that I would be able to wield Rapidly, right? Wrong. It makes me slower until I reach level 50 with the ability. Only after that, will I get boosts from it. Right now, I am 98% slower than normal.
Luckily, because I grabbed it slowly, I did not lose my balance from the sudden loss of speed, so I stayed standing. Unluckily, however, I could only barely move.
"Well, are you gonna attack me yet, or what? Maybe I should just cut you down now and get it over with." Freed said, while moving towards me.
Fear. Calm. With every step my fear came back and I was forcibly calmed again. Freed got closer. He was within a meter of me now. Freed looked at me closer.
Then, he burst out laughing. "Hahahahaha, he can not even move! You are the worst holy sword wielder I have ever seen. Time to cut you down now."
He lifted his blade and I knew I could not win this, not with Rapidly, anyway. Before he could hit me, I dropped Rapidly and dodged, my speed returning to me.
A giggle. "You shitty swordbrat. You dropped it." A dark look. "Now you don't have anything to protect yourself with. For your sacrilege, I will cut you into pieces." He charged.
I would have responded to him, but I was too busy dodging his surprisingly fast blade to have the time for that. My mind was racing for a way to not get cut up, but I could not pull up enough concentration to do so, occupied as I was.
Suddenly, a sword blocked Freed's blade. It was Elizabeth. She had an angry look on her face. Angrier than I have ever seen her before. Most importantly, though, was that she was using Rapidly and seemed to have no trouble doing so at all.
Freed was shocked. Apparently, he did not see her coming.
I snapped out of my shock quicker -courtesy of 'Gamer's mind'- and stepped back to give her room. Seeing this, Liz –as I started calling after a while- immediately went on the offensive. She attacked Freed with enough power and speed to make him go completely on the defensive. He even got cut on his arms, legs, and sides with seemingly no resistance. The first time I have seen him bleed.
Freed was holding Liz off quite well, though. He was cut, true, but the cuts were shallow and he was getting less and less frantic as the fight progressed. Liz was getting tired, too.
During one particularly close dodge of Freed, where Liz overextended, he grinned and put his non-sword-wielding hand to his back. He pulled out a pistol. A pistol I recognized. It was one that shot bullets of light instead of normal ones.
Liz was resuming her attack, but it was parried by Freed while he moved his pistol towards her torso.
When I saw him put his hand behind his back, I knew what he was going to do. After all, in the DxD series, he fought with both a light sword and a light gun. I broke into a run, jumped when I got close and kicked the hand holding the pistol down with my foot…right before he pulled the trigger.
A scream. Liz was shot in the leg, the light projective burning straight through it. I punched Freed in the face with all my 'Reinforced' strength -which was quite substantial at this point for my age- and he went flying, straight into the fence next to the entrance.
I turned to Elizabeth. "Are you okay? No, wait, stupid question. Can you move your leg?" She tried, winced, and shook her head. Because we were so focused on each other, we did not notice Lawrence coming towards us with bandages until he pushed me aside to apply them.
I was angry for only a moment, before I realised he was actually helping out.
Leaving Lawrence to it -although I still did not trust him- I looked around to make sure Freed wasn't coming for us again. Valper was lifting Freed up and moving him to the car. From what I could make out, Freed was out cold, but breathing. 'Of course he is still alive. He is too stubborn to die from a tap like that.'
Lawrence was done in a just a couple minutes. I lifted Liz up by her side, like you would a wounded comrade, and began walking her back to the bunkhouse. This was not to be, though, as Valper called out, fake smile and all. "My lambs, where are you going? She is a valuable wielder of holy swords. She will need to come with us with all haste."
Lawrence interjected. "With all due respect, but she is wounded and…."
Valper interjected as well. "So are the others. She will get the best care we can provide. Surely you do not think that you can treat her better here than at our facility?"
Lawrence looked hesitant, I probably looked angry, and Liz looked tired. None of us were willing to let her go with these lunatics. Seeing that, Valper added, with a glint in his eye: "I must also inform you that I come with the authority of the Vatican and can easily consider non-compliance a form of blasphemy. The most obvious would be him." He pointed at me, shocking my sister. "After all, dropping a holy sword given to you to use and said sword showing such an awful reaction can only mean demonic possession, couldn't it? Blasphemy would only be -what do you call it?- the tip of the iceberg?"
Anger. Calm. Although I was calm now, Liz was clearly not. Her protective streak of me was a mile wide. She looked at me and seemed to make up her mind. "Get me to the car," she said. I knew there was no way out. She had made up her mind and we would both be screwed if we went against Valper now.
While limping her way to the car, she told me the last words I would hear from her before she would disappear forever. "Big brother, I know you are afraid. Afraid to show what you can really do. Afraid that people will discard you or will abuse you once they know." My face was probably showing a shocked expression.
Seeing my expression, she smiled. "I know how strong you can be. Don't be afraid. I'm sorry that I can no longer be your barrier, -" She was tearing up now. "- but promise me that you will not let that fear overtake you."
"I promise." I couldn't really say anything else, could I? She must have realised just as I did that this was farewell. She continued. "Promise me you will grow up to be a kind man."
"I promise." I felt my throat becoming sore, like something was stuck there. This must be sadness.
"Promise me" -she paused- "that you will find someone to care for you, and care for them in return."
At this point we were at the car and Valper was shooing me and telling me to get a move on. Apparently, he had given up on the other kids now that he had a good talent and Freed was no longer conscious.
"I promise." I croaked out. I felt a tear traveling down my face. My first one in this new life. Even as a baby I had not cried.
Valper closed the door. Right before it closed, I heard the words that would echo through head for the next hour and occasionally at other moments during my long life. "Know that I will always love you, big brother." Eidetic memory can be a bitch sometimes.
I cried. Not the full-on howling type that you see in the movies in the pouring rain. Rather, it was the type where you just stood there and let the tears flow silently. Whenever my mind would veer off into the images of what would happen to Yuuto Kiba and his friends in the Holy Sword Project facilities -that Liz was a part of-, 'Gamer's mind' snapped me back to reality. Nevertheless, the goodbye was sudden and harsh and, as such, painful.
After Valper left, the camp was left in a kind of organised chaos. Many kids had serious injuries and needed treatment. Schedules were changed and revised to allow for that treatment. The kids that weren't tested because of Liz and I, were cheering when the car was out of sight, glad that they would not have to fight the insane one.
That cheering turned into groaning once the adults here decided the unhurt kids could have more one-on-one training. I didn't mind. It meant I would get stronger. Strong enough to grab that damn holy sword and stab Freed and Valper with it. If I was fast enough, then 2% of my speed would be more than enough, right?
The thoughts of revenge didn't last long. I knew that I would not be in time to prevent the damage those 2 would do to dozens of children. I also knew that, if I involved myself into the events that would transpire according to the source material, that I would meet them again and would have the chance to beat them then.
So, I poured myself into training with renewed vigour.
Physical age: 8 years, 0 days
There was a problem. I could barely improve anymore. My sword abilities were so high-leveled that sparring with the people in camp barely increased them. The same for hand-to-hand abilities. Effectively the only thing that improved consistently is 'Cultivation', but that is limited to nighttime for fear of being found out.
As such, I was planning on getting out of this camp. Although I could technically walk out of the camp whenever I want, that would only get me hunted down as a traitor. If it got bad enough, it might even get me on a hitlist of the Vatican. Although I seriously doubt they would go that far for someone without a Sacred Gear.
Nonetheless, it would only be trouble if I ran off like that. Unfortunately, that leaves me not that many options. I tried to manipulate people minds to wipe their memory of me or to think that I died. That gave me the following skill:
Basic hypnotising: The ability to hypnotise people and make them do things they are not averse to doing. Requires concentration of the victim to work. Orders can only be given verbally or through writing, but only if the victim understands the order.
That will take a long time to get to a point where I can mind-wipe people, so that is out.
I could kill everyone, but that is needlessly cruel. Most of the people here have done nothing actually bad to me. Besides -and most importantly-, Liz had me promise to become a 'kind man'. A 'kind man' would not kill people just to get out of an area that they could walk out of. I keep my promises.
That leaves me with no further ideas though, except for just waiting to be released. A 'graduation'. Not what I would like, but it is my best option. For that purpose, I have been observing the oldest among us to find out what skill level is required. So far, that has been inconclusive, other than the fact that I will need to show more of my skill to make the cut.
So, however much I loathe it, waiting it is.
Physical age: 8 years, 171 days
It is evening. Just like always, I am awake and cultivating. This time, however, my magical senses are tingling. There is a build-up of mana under the camp and it is fluctuating wildly, but always increasing. I started using my other senses to see -or rather hear- whether or not that could tell me anything.
When I focused on my hearing, I heard muffled yells and crashes, gradually coming closer. I sneakily crawled out of my bed. My 'Sneaking' ability was not that good yet, but the kids were too tired to wake up anytime soon, so I could leave the bunkhouse -that's what we kids call the 'trainee barracks'- pretty easily.
About a minute after leaving the bunkhouse, the tremors started. Not that strong that you could call it 'obvious', but certainly strong enough to notice if you are looking for changes in the environment. Small pebbles were rolling around and I could feel the vibrations if I focused.
I decided that being armed would be better than not, especially if whatever was causing it was hostile. 'I reeeeeeeaaaaally hope that that is not a dragon or something else that big.'
While sneaking to the gym, I noticed the lack of adults around. They were likely dealing with whatever was causing the tremors. Either that, or they were sleeping.
By the time I reached the gym, the tremors were noticeable. They were inconsistent, happening at random intervals. My hearing was picking up the sounds of grunting with almost every tremor. 'Most certainly something big and -probably- alive,' I mused.
Checking out the gym, I saw there was no one inside, so I grabbed a sword from the racks, turned around to run out, stopped, turned towards the racks, and threw a ton of weapons into my inventory. 'Can never have enough weapons to fight something that big.'
My looting was interrupted when another tremor hit, this one accompanied by a loud -for me- shrieking noise, like metal scratching on metal.
I ran out of the gym, weapon in hand and noticed 2 things in particular. First, some of the kids had woken up and were looking around to see what is going on. Second, the 'Holy house' was leaking some kind of mist.
Another tremor later, I realised a third thing. The tremor-causer was moving -underground, of course- towards the 'Holy house'.
I grabbed a couple swords out of my inventory and ran over to the kids that were awake. "Grab these and get ready to fight," I told them. They looked confused, but grabbed the swords anyway and took a stance. The training here hammered that behavior into them.
Another crash and tremor. It was now easily noticeable and was clearly coming from the 'Holy house' now, so I pointed my allies towards the house. The mist was rolling in, about 5 meters away from us.
Some more kids stumbled out of the bunkhouse just when the 'Holy house' blasted open and the mist suddenly rushed forwards to engulf us. It obscured my vision, but with my enhanced senses, I could make out a humanoid figure. It was about the height of an adult human, but with clearly defined, big muscles.
While I was studying the humanoid, I heard coughing from beside me. The kids were hunched over. One of them threw up and started wobbling on the spot. 'Poison,' I realised. I would have tried to help them, but the humanoid was closing in and most likely intending to kill us.
It charged ahead, straight into one of the kids I gave a sword. The poor kid got broken in 2 human pieces. Dead before the upper half even landed on the ground.
The humanoid ground to a halt and I decided to attack the clearly hostile creature in the back. It turned around just as I was about to strike with surprising dexterity, making me hit it in the arm. Instead of cutting through it, like I expected, the blade went in until it hit bone and then got stuck. The humanoid's muscles swelt a little and -while the thing was writhing in pain- I got a good look at it.
I recognized him. It was the wielder of what I had dubbed 'Power Reflector'. 'That explains the increase in muscle mass from hitting it.'
My inattention cost me, however, as it whacked me aside in anger. Flying through the air I 'balanced' myself and created a cloud of mana behind me to absorb the impact. I may have been hit pretty badly, but I was not going to increase the damage by failing the landing.
Max, as I remember the humanoid was called, ran over to the other kids and tore them apart too.
I noticed, though, that Max was significantly slower than he was when he barrelled through the first kid. In addition, I noticed that he was coughing and his muscles swelled again. When that happened, Max released a wail of what I could only describe as 'agony'. The poor kid must have been pushed over his limit several times over. The poison was now creating an infinite cycle of him suffering, increasing in power, going on a rampage, spreading the poison mist, and him suffering again.
Speaking of the mist, it now covered the entire camp. It was probably inside the buildings too. I realised I was unaffected by it due to 'Poison resistance'. Apparently, eating drug-laced food for years made you immune to poison, how about that? Well, only me, of course.
"Seems like I am the only one left, huh?" I pulled myself off of the fence I landed on. "Although one of my ideas was to kill everyone to leave, I did not intend to actually do it." I addressed Max. "Still, Max, as thanks for helping me, I will put you out of your misery."
Max saw me and took a stance to run me over. I took a stance to dodge and counter. "and as punishment for killing everyone, I will kill you." No more needed to be said.
Max rushed at me. I dodged while planting my sword into the ground in front of its feet.
Max tripped, his momentum carrying him in -and through- the fence behind me. The trick to 'Power Reflector', is that it increases the strength and speed of the holder when he gets hurt -by any means, apparently- and that exerting said power removes part of it. Pretty much like a battery charge. Hurting him charges the battery and him hitting things uses up the energy inside the battery.
While Max was stumbling to untangle himself from the piece of fence he took with him in his charge, I ran out of the camp as far from the mist as I could while still being within his sights. I felt the adrenaline pumping through my veins. It felt….good.
My plan was pretty simple: Get Max away from the mist to cancel his continuous power-ups, get him to mostly exert his power uselessly by tripping and throwing him, and then, when he is slow enough, cut him precisely across one of his femoral arteries. Cutting him there is one of the hardest lethal spots to hit someone, but it deals the least damage while still being lethal. 'Now, let's hope that my System does not require me to hit him until he dies -like most games would- and I can just cut him lethally somewhere. I suppose we'll see.'
He untangled himself, looked around, saw me, and prepared to charge again. 'Judging by the fact that he keeps using the same trick, he is probably not even sane anymore. Perhaps not even conscious either.'
He charged, I dodged and let him ram into the trees behind me. He grew slightly smaller. I sighed. "This is gonna take a while."
About an hour later, he was still running at me, but now his neck was visible again. Before, it was covered by his thick shoulder-muscles, but now those were 'small' enough to show his neck again.
Normally, my SP would run out pretty quickly during such a long fight, but that was not the case here, as I was only dodging, repositioning, and then waiting. In this battle of attrition, I had an incredible advantage.
Max was still pretty fast, although not as fast as me at my top speed. 'Only a couple more times, I think.'
He ran at me again, I walked sideways and tripped him with my foot. He smacked face-first into a tree. He no longer snapped them when barrelling into them.
He was struggling to stand up now. I let him charge me one more time, simply tripped him without even bothering to position myself in front of a tree, and had him smack onto the ground. Of course, that hurt him, but the power he exerted with that was more than he gained, so it worked out.
While he was lying face-down on the ground, I moved my sword to the side of his neck, said "Goodbye, Max.", and carefully cut his femoral artery. I sat on his back to stop him from moving again and waited for him to bleed out.
When I could no longer hear or feel his heartbeat, I looked up at the night sky and said: "So that's what it feels like to kill someone, huh? Emptyness, a slight tinge of sadness, and a slight feeling of elation. I can't decide whether it feels good or bad."
That is how my first kill happened when I was 8-and-a-half.
I was back in camp. Not to train, but to satisfy my curiosity. I wanted to know if there were still people alive. I wanted to know the secrets of the instructors. I wanted to know what was down in the depths of the 'Holy house'.
Since the camp was done for, I decided to also loot everything of use. Weapons, spare clothes, tools, and rations. The last one for if I needed to provide food for someone. I did not need to eat myself, after all.
A quick check with my sensing abilities and a look in the houses made it clear I was the only survivor. I felt a bit sad. I might not have been close to these people, but they were around me for years. Knowing I will never see them move again and talk, is pretty sad.
I proceeded to check the rooms of the instructors. Despite my years here, I was never 'invited' in. My antisocial behavior and average apparent abilities worked wonders. After seeing the rooms, I was glad I was never 'invited' in here.
Lawrence was actually the most normal, surprisingly. From what I could tell, he only lusted after the kids, but did not actually act on it. Well, when compared to the rooms of the others, that is.
Amelia's room was that of a predator's, and not the consumption kind. There were 'toys' of the 'extreme' variety everywhere. Leather straps, whips, weights, etcetera. The most telling, however, was the -now dead- kid chained to the wall….naked.
Most other rooms were not much better. Every room -other than Lawrence's- had at least something in it that would scream "do not let this person close to children!" One room in particular, whom I did not know it belonged to, had multiple bottles of experimental ovulation pills. Normally, that would not be such an issue -after all, some women are infertile and still want children-, if not for the fact that the remaining items -and smell- strongly suggest this room belonged to a male.
After my 'excursion' through that building, I went to the kitchen, lit the fire in the grill we had there, took a piece of wood, created a torch with it, and threw that torch onto the building. 'Good riddance.'
That taken care of, I was debating with myself whether or not to actually go down into the hole where the 'Holy house' used to be. Curiosity won over potential disgust. I went down the hole.
Climbing down the hole was not that hard with my 'Balancing' ability. I just needed to make sure to find good footholds to jump onto.
Once reaching the bottom, I could see it was like your typical underground bunker/lab. Thick, grey walls. Strong-looking steel blast doors….that were blown off their hinges. Flickering lights, probably due to circuit damage. Yes, pretty much what you would expect.
The exploration of this place did not surprise me very much, most rooms were operation rooms of one sort or another. With syringes, a variety of tools, and cleaning supplies being present all over the place. Most likely, they experimented with a variety of drugs on people with Sacred Gears.
A couple logs found down here verified my suspicions. They were trying to force the achievement of 'Balance Breaker' on the Sacred Gears. I know what that is. It is the ultimate form of a Sacred Gear. Other than strengthening the ability already given by the Sacred Gear, it usually also gives an additional ability to the wielder. Balance Breaker is usually very hard to achieve and it depends on the person how it is achieved and what changes it will bring. Forcing it out has extremely random and dangerous consequences. Hence, the happenings of last night.
Although I can't verify it, I guess that Max achieved Balance Breaker and managed to escape by using it, at the cost of his sanity. While breaking out, he released the poison gas that was stored in this facility somewhere, killing everyone.
I took the logs and pretty much everything useful or dangerous and went back out.
The climb was a lot harder than the descend. I did not have an ability for climbing, yet. Well, until I actually started climbing the wall, that is.
It took me a while, but I managed to climb out of the hole. I went to the kitchen, got some burnable materials -mostly wood-, put it in a pile, set it on fire, and then dumped in any and all dangerous materials and logs that I managed to scavenge from the lab.
That done with, I proceeded to go around to gather the corpses -with my inventory- and threw them on the fire as well. "Sorry, but this is the quickest way to give you guys at least something. Besides, I don't know if the poison would affect your bodies or the ground you would lay in if I were to bury you."
With that, everything I could do at the now desolate camp was done. It was time for me to go my own way. And with that, I mean train in the way I had wanted to for the longest time now.
Despite the dreary situation, I was excited. There were so many cool abilities I wanted to try to get. I was going to abuse the system for all it was worth.
Physical age: 9 years, 0 days
It was about half a year after the event that I called the 'Camp culling'. What can I say? I like alliteration. Anyway, in that half a year, I tried out a lot of things.
First I tried a staple of the 'Gamer' stories: dungeon creation. It worked, but not in the way I expected. Instead of creating a dungeon with monsters in it and things like that, it created a copy of the area I was in, but devoid of all animal life -except me, of course-. Some experimentation revealed that any damage done inside this dimension did not affect what I dubbed the 'real' world. In addition, any damage done would be 'fixed' once I went out and back in.
The most interesting part, though, was the last part of the description:
Create CD: The ability to create, enter, and exit a personal 'Copy Dimension'. This dimension can only be entered by you or by creatures you touch at the time of creation. Re-entering the dimension will reset it. The dimension has time dilation up to or down to (level) as compared to the time in the world it is created in, chosen at the time of creation.
That last part means I can, most likely, make the time up to 100 times faster or slower than the time in this world at max level. You know what this means? 100 times faster training! Downside is, that I will have to max it out first to get that boost and training it is boring. Pretty much the only way to train it is to go in and out repeatedly…..which is what I have done for about a month. What? It is too good not to train.
However, after a month of almost non-stop in-and-out, my motivation was at its limit. So, I decided to take 2 hours working on other abilities -inside the CD, so that I don't leave traces- and then spend 2 hours in-and-out again.
Now, if you had a choice of creating abilities, what would you try? Flight? Telekinesis? Superspeed? Interesting ones, for sure. Ones that I tried, but did not get to work. Instead, I tried less 'conventional' abilities. Naruto-style tree-climbing, for instance. That should be possible, right? It was, and it's amazing, if very disorienting to get used to. Keep in mind that gravity still pulls you down, even when sticking to a wall, so your balance is being thrown off extremely badly. Still, mastering it would be an incredible asset.
It also drains mana, but that is to be expected, honestly. The mana cost will go down as the level goes up, so that makes it even less of an issue.
Keeping with Naruto theme, I also tried the other standard ninja skills. Kawarimi -or position-swapping, if you will- was a bust. The best I could was extend my mana, envelop an object with it, slowly pull that object towards me and then run over to the spot the object was at. As you can probably imagine, that was not exactly viable in a fight.
Henshin -or transformation- also did not work. Probably because I had no way to actually do it yet. After all, the system only gives me an ability once I actually manage to make at least a rudimentary version of it. The best I could do for that one was using my 'Individual muscle control' ability to slightly shift my appearance, but that did not work either. Although trying that got me the ability 'Muscle realignment', which allows me to shift muscles around in my body to strengthen -or weaken- certain areas. Sounds nasty, I know. Feels nasty too, but I am not gonna throw a gift ability away like that. Who knows? Maybe there will be a derivative of it that will allow me to shift my appearance?
The last one I was a bit hesitant about. The Bunshin -or clone technique- would make clones of me, but would those be autonomous? Would they have their own goals? Would they want to take me down to become the 'real' me? Although I highly doubt it would work like that, I was still not gonna try it until I knew for sure that I had a way to cancel them out forcefully. Call me paranoid, but I already made some careless mistakes and I was not gonna make more if I could help it.
Another thing I tried was shadow manipulation. Why? Because it is underestimated pretty badly by a lot of people. First off, everyone has shadows somewhere on their body. Under your clothes, under your feet, in your armpits, under your hair, you name it. If you can manipulate shadows into physical form, you effectively have an infinite amount of daggers on your enemy's body. Even if you can't make them physical, you can still blind or disorient people easily by covering their eyes with shadows, or you can clad yourself in them to hide. It is incredibly versatile at the very least.
With that in mind, I infused some mana into the shadow of a lone tree and tried to make it move. It twitched and I got a new -overpowered- ability: Shadow manipulation.
For similar reasons and for the fact it would be very effective against devils, I also learned 'Light manipulation'. Now I can always manipulate something in my vicinity.
One more thing that I tried, and succeeded in, was the ability to use senjutsu -effectively natural aura manipulation and sensing-. I mostly decided to get this because it was a way to get an 'in' with certain youkai -animal people- groups and nature spirits. That, and the fact that its derivatives are probably incredibly powerful.
I decided that those were enough for a while and to focus on them -and 'Create CD'- first.
AN: For those that are probably gonna cry "Incest!" during the goodbye scene with Elizabeth: You realise that family -and by extension siblings- can love each other without it being romantic, right?
Just wanted to make that clear.
For those curious, I will mainly be using the Light Novels of Highschool DxD and the book series of Percy Jackson as references. I have been thoroughly reading those ever since writing this fanfic. So, if something is different from the anime (for DxD) or the movies (for Percy), then that's is why. Well, that, and the fact that this is a fanfic, so of course changes are gonna happen. I mostly mean that backstory, important events, character traits, societal structures (like the Devil promotion system), and magical rules will be derived from those sources as much as possible, except for "The Gamer", of course.
In addition, I know that I said I would write faster last time. However, I realised that that can not honestly be said ahead of time, so I will hereby rescind that statement and I apologise for doing so. I will simply write at the speed that my motivation and time allows and will upload it whenever a chapter is done. That, and life can be a bitch sometimes, especially when you have to go find a new job.
You might have noticed the "Date" at the top of the chapter. It always bugged me that authors on this site would say things like "tomorrow, I will do X", or "last time, there was a week between chapters, but…..", when it is in a chapter in the middle. Fanfiction -the site- does not show when chapters are uploaded, only when the last change was made, so I took it upon myself to set up a system so that that won't happen with my story. The date above is the date that the chapter you are looking at was uploaded. Any edits will get an additional date like "Date edited: XX-XX-XXXX". Please keep in mind it goes "Day-Month-Year", not "Month-Day-Year" (never understood why that is a thing).
For those who asked for a stat sheet, I would like to point out that the 'Gamer' system is more a plot point and explanation for David's power than being the center of the story. That, and keeping track of all the details and changes is rather difficult, alright?
Lastly, this chapter also contained my first attempt at writing a more emotional scene and a (couple) fight scenes. I hope it works as intended. I am personally a bit emotionally stunted, so writing emotions is rather difficult for me. If it sucked, then please tell me why and/or how, so that I can write scenes like that better in the future.
