CHAPTER 17
Karthikeyan let out a huge breath. What happened right now was a big mess. He needed some time to sort it.
Why was it a big mess? his reasoning was that he was still a human and not some robot or a manic who had no feelings. Knowing that the penalty on failing the task was eternal hell ,any one would panic.
Knowing the penalty , the powers were not a boon but indeed a curse. Now he understood why they were placed in the cursed section.
He calmed down , then took a look at his blank points. He had 16. What he needed right now was stamina and speed, so without batting an eye , he invested 14 blank points in the following manner.
[STAMINA [3-->10]
[SPEED] [5--->10]
[ACCURACY] [2--->4]
Accuracy was a stat that would most probably be over looked. But it might be a crucial aspect especially for people who depended on attacks that had low accuracy but high power. Of course having more accuracy was never a bad thing. With it he could aim the more vital points of his enemies and deal damage effectively.
His life force which determined his soul quality remained unchanged. Well he would figure how it exactly worked later. The overall picture of it was clear anyways.
His currency now amounted in the 1000. He could buy something good but he just let it be. He then took out his sword and went to terrace of his apartment.
No one came here most of the time and add to the catastrophe , this was truly a great place for Karthikeyan to practice. He peered outside and saw still chaos in what was once a beautiful town . The air was not fresh but filled with the smell of war. He didn't care though.
This was the new norm anyways.
He began practicing his swordsmanship for 4 hours non- stop.
He was able to do as the energies allowed him to concentrate and train for longer.
----
The birds were again back. How could the birds adapt to the situation and not be affected by the change of atmosphere? He didn't know but probably the catastrophe had an answer.
His sword training just now proved better , because he now felt that his movements were smooth and that his bones and muscles were now little clumsy and were getting used to this warrior lifestyle rather than the sedentary lifestyle it was once used to.
He took out his phone and saw to whether his friends were still alive.
After probing he came to the conclusion that out of his 40 classmates including he probably around 8 to 10 survived including him.
He saw that Kyōsuke indeed survived and so his other 3 friends. It confirmed total 4 survivors.
They asked if he survived or not. He didn't reply for the moment.
"How could they survive?" , he didn't know.
Since the start of the catastrophe , each place had its own forum which provided information on what was happening in that area.
On browsing it he came to know that the known top level person was level 13 . There was no information on the gamer named Jerry but it seemed that he was still alive but in a worse condition as his stream was abruptly cut when he was attacked by a strong demon.
The information on the level 13 man was shared by a military dude who supposedly worked with this man to exterminate the demons at a faster rate.
After some time of scrolling , interestingly he came across a thread titled "The ice princess"
On browsing the contents he saw that a girl around his age was able to wield ice magic and was probably very strong . The thread was on the trend and many people added in that they too saw her and described how she was freaking strong. They estimated that she was level 12 and her talent was probably A tier.
According to current knowledge talents and skills were divided according to tiers and levels respectively .
The talents had F ,E , D, C , B, A and so on.
While skills had level 1 , level 2 and so on.
The highest known skill right now was level 7 which was an inherited skill meaning it was provided with a talent.
Of course given if it was true.
Skill had their own mastery.
Karthikeyan "talent" had question mark near it so he didn't probe it any further.
As he scrolled down the contents , he came to a shock when he saw a photo attached to the thread which allegedly showed the ice magic wielder .
And she was his grade topper , Cecila Yearwood, the prodigy of his school. The unrivalled beauty of his school.
He went blank for a moment and couldn't believe it. What was the odds of a student of his school along with him being this strong?
Another thing to note was that students of other school weren't overall that strong and due to the ignorance and helplessness of the youth more than 70 percent of young population was estimated to be dead.
The overall final death casualties stood at 4 billion , almost half of the population . The most affected group was of course the children youth in the age of 13 to 18 and the elderly.
People according to sources began to awake their powers at 13 , and of course Karthikeyan didn't rule out the possibilities of exceptions.
After catching up with the current affairs he stood up from his place and went out.
----
"Hey lady." a man of about the age of 40 was seen speaking in a threatening tone to a lady who was cornered to a wall in a narrow alley.
The man was seemingly of a well build . He was about 6 feet 4 inches and had broad shoulders. His beard was of a ginger colour while his hair was onyx black. His arms were very big and overall he had a masculine appearance.
"I won't ask you again" he began "your share of booty of today's raid we went together , I want it"
The lady who seemed to be quite young and who had sapphire eyes was quite fragile and it was no doubt who had the upper hand here. She had a bag tied to her back which signified that she was weak and that she was a porter.
Today was the first proper day humans began to raid the dungeons and fate already deemed her to be a porter.
The loot of today she got wasn't big but fair enough. She got 2 weapons of level 1 and a bell with magical effects which was also a level 1 item.
She could sell it to either the government , some private agencies or the world system.
The most viable option was the world system as the markets of the other two were in their developing stage given that this was the first day .
She had two children and she needed to feed them but what was this ? why was the world so cruel to her? Nevertheless she tried to reason out with the man who was threatening her.
"Kind sir , could you probably let me keep these stuffs..."
"Huh what did you say ?" the man didn't show kindness
"Sir I got two children at home..."
*slap*
the women fell to the ground. Her cheek was burnt red.
"So what? I don't care you got children or whatever , I want your loot , so give it up quick , I got other commitments to do, don't waste my time"
The world had no reasoning.
"Perhaps sir , you might find some other us..use in me?"
"Huh , like what ?"
"I can be your porter sir or do whatever you want m..me to do."
"Do whatever?"
"Ye..yes"
The man after hearing it supposedly showed to be deep in thought.
He then out of the blue began to laugh out loud.
"Well you can prove to be one time use to me , but you see I got higher quality women waiting for me and sadly you are not one of them."
"Ah.." the man began to sound annoyed "This is getting nowhere."
After looking around for a bit he began
"Well this is night time and supposedly there is no one around and also this world has long changed , so a murder wouldn't hurt right?"
The man had now blood lust in his face. His inner sadistic was now awaken. In this fallen world he could let his primal instincts run wild.
He began laughing maniacally and crouched to see the horror in the face of the women who almost passed out by recognising the fact that she no matter what couldn't get out of this messy situation . How cruel the world ever was and how crueler it was now than ever!
---
We see a man covered in a mask and dressed up in a cloak which represented the colour of the darkest of nights. He was Karthikeyan .
He was running and jumping across buildings. Ah this feeling , how much he wanted to be like this and do whatever he wanted to do . The humanly impossible things he couldn't do before and wanted to do were now possible too.
As he was park overing across the buildings which were half destroyed living his dream , he suddenly came across 2 figures standing in the alley with no one around them. And worst of all he could sense ominous vibes coming from there.
"HELP , HELP , SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME " he heard probably a women screaming at top of her voice when he closed in on the place.
Was he supposed to save her and become a hero or run or just observe what might unfold in this place?
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