Reaching the 4th Level!
After the arrival of the bus Nicolas embarked and chose a seat in the back. He was not the type who liked to socialize with people after all he always thought it was good to remain neutral and quiet for wrong eyes not to see him in a world where any slip could cause his death.
This feeling of helplessness and being at the mercy of others has made Nicolas cautious since his childhood. That said, he would not draw unnecessary attention where it could easily be a disadvantage for him. Nicolas' hatred wouldn't make him stupid, he knew he needed to calm down and use the system with caution, as he didn't know if the system's screens could be seen by others he decided to do a quick test.
In the blink of an eye he opened and closed the status interface in his mind. It was a quick movement, but agile eyes would be able to identify that something was there, which fortunately did not happen, Nicolas decided to do a second test leaving the interface open for a second before closing it. Opening it again Nicolas looked around to see if anyone noticed the floating screen before his eyes, but no one even looked at him, everyone remained immersed in conversation or in their own affairs. With a sigh he finally relaxed and looked closely at his status.
[Name: Nicolas Lennox]
[Age: 17 years old]
[Human race]
[Hidden lineage: Golden King (blocked)]
[Level 1: 0/50]
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[Points: 0]
[Strength: 17]
[Speed: 20]
[Agility: 25]
[Intelligence: 50]
[Resistance: 15]
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[Skills]
[Lv1 boost: 0/30]
He was tempted to use his ability at that moment because he knew it could evolve, however soon after he decided to go against that thought. From the skill's description it wouldn't cause damage to its surroundings unless Nicolas started throwing blows like a madman, however he didn't know if the skill would make an aesthetic change in his body like some abilities of some beings of other races. He had a low chance, but Nicolas didn't want the other students on the bus to see lightning dancing around his body or anything.
The bus continued on the road for a few minutes before stopping gently beside the curb that was before a vast garden, at the end of this garden was a large, rectangular building carved in various details, some of them symbols of the Stone Men race. In the lower center of the wall were three rows of double gates through which a huge mass of students entered as more buses arrived.
Nicolas wasted no time and after getting off the bus he joined the huge mass of students entering the school. A few minutes later Nicolas already found himself in his classroom witnessing a boring monologue by his teacher, it was obvious that none of them were interested in the "great" deeds of the king of the race of stone men, however no one dared to say that in loudly.
Unbeknownst to anyone, Nicolas inspected the system while deciding his next steps. Initially he would look for a way to level and if it was correct the missions would be randomly generated, however if a trigger was needed so that he could receive missions Nicolas wanted to find out as soon as possible.
Soon a few days passed and Nicolas found himself walking along a stone sidewalk towards a sanctuary located in the center of the city. The 1st of each month was the day when humans were to deposit their mana in the sanctuary, whoever did not appear for any reason would be immediately killed.
After some time, Nicolas found himself approaching a majestic building with its walls painted a golden color as well as various details and ornaments that made up its surface. In the middle of the sanctuary wall there was a huge gate made of pure copper which, according to Nicolas's shallow analysis, must have been more than 40 cm thick.
Upon reaching the sanctuary Nicolas looked at that copper gate and remained expressionless, a few seconds later the gate opened slowly with a high-pitched sound as its interior was revealed. Unlike the outside, the interior of the sanctuary was not very detailed, the walls, ceiling and floor were decorated with only a bluish gray color while in its center there was a crystal the size of a person floating a few meters beyond the floor as it rotated smoothly. Nicolas walked without hesitation and put his hand under the crystal in order to deposit his energy.
[Power source detected. Absorbing ... 0% ... 20% ... 37%]
Nicolas' heart threatened to leave his throat before quickly pulling his hand away from the crystal that had now lost much of its luster. He did not know that the system would abruptly activate an energy-absorbing function, otherwise he would not have even approached the crystal. Despite the fact that he left the percentage did not stop rising as the crystal's brightness decreased more and more.
[89% ... 100% ...]
When the percentage reached the end, the once majestic crystal now looked lifeless. All the color in Nicolas' face disappeared completely when fear dominated his mind, despite all the caution he never would have foreseen such absurdity, what skill was it that wanted to kill its user?
It took a while for Nicolas to catch his breath. He looked at the gray crystal floating in the center of the room and approached him placing his palm on the surface of the crystal, praying for greater forces Nicolas shouted in his mind.
'System transfer energy back'
Nothing happened.
'System..!'
Nicolas felt helpless in the face of his situation, his legs became weak when he leaned his back against the wall of the sanctuary and cursed his luck. Before he could make another failed attempt to return the energy to the crystal, several notifications rang in his mind.
[The host evolved to level 2]
[1 point increase in all attributes, +5 points]
[The host has evolved to level 3]
[1 point increase in all attributes, +5 points]
[The host has evolved to level 4]
[1 point increase in all attributes, +5 points, "Concealment" skill]
The energy collected had given him so many points, but he was not happy. Nicolas knew that it was only a matter of time before a soldier from the "Stone Men" found out about the crystal and reached it. Before leaving sanctuary, Nicolas he must find some way to cover his tracks so that the doors of death would not open for him.
[New Mission! ]
[Escape from the sanctuary without leaving a trace using a skill. ]
[Rewards: 100 exp, 5 points]
Nicolas was initially surprised before realizing that the system was actually giving him a hint on how to get out of this mess. Quickly opening the status section, he began to read the description of his new skill.
[Concealment: The host can hide its presence and energy to avoid being detected by others and hide its level (This ability is passive so after activation the host will no longer need to activate it unless you disable it)]
Reading this, Nicolas's skin immediately prickled with an ominous thought. From what he read, since he woke up a fusion nucleus he walked around with visible energy for those who also had a fusion nucleus, that is, he didn't even need to have arrived at the sanctuary, only to be spotted by a Stone Man his secret would already have been exposed.
If in a second Nicolas felt like punching the system this time he wanted to kiss him madly. If it weren't for the system notification, he wouldn't even know he had this problem on his back and could end up dying without even realizing it.
Although he was still shaken Nicolas calmed himself with the idea that if he left the sanctuary quickly with his hidden energy it would be difficult for the beings of the other races to be suspicious of him since supposedly humans did not have the capacity to actively absorb mana, but passively it was for this reason that everyone had to wait a month to deposit the energy. The idea that a human could absorb all that energy was illogical, before suspecting Nicolas they might even suspect another Stone Man.
When activating the ability "Concealment" Nicolas felt a sense of restriction in his body. As if something is stuck in it and is crazily trying to get out. Since this was a passive skill, he didn't worry about anything else and left the sanctuary still keeping his caution to an extreme. Even though it was useless, Nicolas still took a few walks through the streets and traced a confused path to his home to outwit possible pursuers. In the comfort of his room, a notification sounded in his mind.
[Mission accomplished!]
[Reward: 100 exp, +5 points]
Despite the huge scare Nicolas was happy to have gone up several levels at once even though it almost cost him his life. Opening the status section, he began to inspect his information.
[Name: Nicolas Lennox]
[Age: 17 years old]
[Human race]
[Hidden lineage: Golden King (blocked)]
[Level 4 (3rd Level Body Refinement): 100/200]
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[Points: 15]
[Strength: 20]
[Speed: 23]
[Agility: 28]
[Intelligence: 53]
[Resistance: 18]
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[Skills]
[Lv1 Boost: 0/30]
[Lv1 Concealment: 5/100]
The first thing that got into your eyes was the observation next to your level. What the hell was body refinement? despite that Nicolas was in for a very pleasant surprise with this increase. In addition he had 15 points to allocate to each attribute shown which was really useful, it was a much easier process than just exercising your body. Another thing that left him suppressed was the fact that his hiding ability was slowly advancing to level 2 which he meant that in the future its effects could be amplified. Since "Concealment" was a passive skill, technically Nicolas was always using it, which meant that his skill would always be evolving.
After closing the Status section Nicolas closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep to forget the shock he had had just a few minutes, slowly time passed and so Nicolas woke up in another day.
He felt relatively well. Upon getting up he opened the system interface once more before deciding in his mind that he would start using the system seriously from now on. All this time he has been analyzing the functions of the system and discovering more, however he finally decided it was time to make his way to become stronger.