I look at the people and release a sigh. I let them sleep. After the water and food I give them, their bodies give up and immediately sleep. They are huddled in the corner of the room, using each other's body heat to stay warm.
I don't have a blanket to keep them warm; Canto says there is no blanket in this sector. She searched for them but found nothing. Even the data in the system says nothing about any blanket.
The longer I stay in this world, the more I hate it. I release a sigh and see a blinking light in the corner of my vision. I open the system and see three notifications.
|Congratulations on rescuing non-infected humans from being sacrificed! You receive 2 Platinum Tickets!|
|Congratulations on killing Scab Shooter! You receive 1 Silver Ticket!|
|Congratulations on killing Scab Gunner! You receive 1 Gold Ticket!|
|Congratulations on killing your first Elite Unit! You receive 1 Gold Ticket!|
What a good haul. Without hesitation, I open my system and use my tickets. I start with the Silver Ticket. After a few seconds, it stops and shows me the new power.
[Silent Steps]
|Uncommon Trait|
You naturally walk silently and softly like an assassin or a cat.
This is good. Even though it is an Uncommon tier, it is very good. I do not love to fight head-on and prefer fighting from the shadows. That is why I decided to put my [Infinite Magazine] into my Long-Las. This trait will complement my fighting style.
I press the roll button once again and use my Golden Ticket.
[Cloak of Invisibility]
|Rare Item|
A cloak that bends light around it to obscure its wearer
A beige colored cloak appears around me and covers my body. With a command, it makes me invisible, and with another mental command, it returns to its default form.
"Nice"
I press the roll button once again and watch it go.
[Blessing of Hestia]
|Rare Trait|
You are a child blessed by Hestia, the goddess of Hearth. You have resistance to all mental effects and negative ailments. Your body is way healthier, and people feel more comfortable around you due to the natural aura you have around you.
I smile a little at this power. I hope this power can make others trust me a bit more. The resistance against mental effects and negative ailments is a great bonus. I will take anything to ensure Nurgle cannot get hold of me.
Now, it is time for me to use the Platinum Ticket.
[Curse Devouring Physique]
|Elite Trait|
Your physique is unique; it devours curses like a hungry animal. If you get cursed, your body starts fighting against it and slowly eats the curse; the strength of your physique scales with your maximum energy. Completely devouring a curse increases your maximum energy slightly; devouring more of the same curse has diminished returns. You also recover energy faster in places with more negativity.
It comes all of a sudden. I can feel something change within my soul. It is as if your eyes open up for the first time in a long while. I can see and feel that this world is filthy and very cursed. What makes matters worse? I am cursed.
The good news? The Nurgle's Curse is inert because of Rob's boon. It is a Rotting Curse, a curse that will turn me into one of his so-called family as long as I 'accept' his blessing. That is in quotation marks because the curse does not want your consent. It will take hold and corrupt you as long as you think of it.
My body eagerly devours the curse, and the longer it eats the curse, the faster it eats them. I can feel my stamina and energy inside of me grow bigger. When it is done, I can feel my energy reserve grow bigger.
I smile a little, but frown when my body feels curses coming from the new people. Without hesitation, I let my energy expand and devour the curse on their bodies. I need to thank Rob for creating the protection bubble because I can feel there is no curse in the air in this area.
The outside of it? It is full of curses, a warp-based curse. I hold back a gag as I feel the foul curse twisting, eating, and releasing a very foul smell while masking its true nature with an illusion of blessing.
I press the roll button while letting my body eat the curse on Rita and her group. After a few seconds, a hologram appears in front of me. I widen my eyes as I feel power coursing through my body.
[Primordial Earth]
|Epic Ability|
It allows you to control earth, dust, and sand in your sensory range, unleash giant blasts of sand, launch jagged boulders, and make stalagmites erupt.
I can feel the earth around me. I know I can cause devastation with a sweep of my hands. However, that is not what I want to do. With this power, I can finally secure my base.
"Canto, you already read my power, yes?"
Canto is an AI that is tied to my soul, and while she cannot use them, she can see what kind of power I get from the system. She can see the hologram and read the description of the power, while I get the knowledge of how to use them.
{Yes, Kael.}
"Good. I need a second opinion. Should I block that massive vault door and all the doors to this place?"
{Absolutely. You need to secure a base, especially when you take the others under your wing. To gather more tickets, you need to rescue more people and take them under your wing. It will not be a permanent solution, but create a temporary solution to our problem. Blocking the camera is also good because the infected start to use the system to watch over the area. They usually ignore this place, but we don't know if they will start to use the system to watch this area.}
"You are right."
When I am done eating all the curse from Rita and the others, I leave the base. Under the cover of the night, I walk toward the vault door. Canto watched me through the camera and made sure no one was in the area. Sadly, there are a lot of blind spots, and I need to be careful.
As I get close to the vault door, I take a deep breath and move my hand. A large chunk of my energy vanishes, but in return, a massive and thick wall appears from the ground. It blocks the massive vault door and ensures nothing can leave through it.
They need to go around the area and use the hangar area to reach my base. However, I will cover them as well, and they need to either blast through the wall or go around. If they choose the first option, at least I have time to prepare to ambush them.
Now, it is time to cover all the doors to the outside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|3rd POV|
Kael does not notice it, but he has been followed by Rita, who cannot sleep. She still does not trust Kael to let her guard down, and she is the only person who notices what he has done to her and her people.
She can feel something foul coming out of her body and cleanse her. Without him doing it, she would never have known about the curse on her body, and she is very grateful to him.
Combine it with his new power, and she starts to trust him enough to sleep without care.
However, what makes her trust him and see him as more than a human and her savior is his act of controlling the ground itself.
She watches in shock and awe as he creates a massive wall to block the door where she is coming from. She quickly hides in the shadows as he watches Kael walk to the hangar. She sneaks away and enters the base once again.
She doesn't know Canto saw her through the camera near the vault door before it got covered. Lucky for her, Canto decided not to inform Kael and let the misunderstanding that was brewing in her heart grow.
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For you guys who don't know, I took a loan to pay for all the funeral expenses, and I need to pay quite a bit for the first installment. I don't have enough money to pay for rent, the electric bill, and food, alongside that monthly payment. I need your help to pay for the first few payments so I have enough savings to pay the rest without risking my family and me going starving or not paying rent.
For anyone who wants to help me, you can go to my Ko-fi: Ko-fi.com/fangrove
I post the Warhammer: Darktide fanfic there as well.
Or if you want to read more of my work, you can visit my P@treon at: [email protected]/fangrove