They could not set out right away. Asan and the other members of the camp still needed to recover from their injuries, both physically and mentally.
Many people had lost relatives or close ones at the fort and refused to leave without burying the dead. Geographer was forced to allow them to do this so as not to undermine the morale and loyalty of his people. Nelson officially became the Geographer's deputy. Asan was surprised that former enemies were working together so quickly, though, as they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Perhaps Geographer thought exactly this when he gave Nelson the opportunity to command the strike force. However, it made no sense for Asan to complain, as he had something like a well-deserved vacation. He did nothing, as there was little he could help with in his condition. All he did was eat and get acquainted with the new members of the camp, although it was unfortunate that no one wanted to maintain prolonged communication due to the overall mood, which was just too bad.
So the guy was left alone again with only himself, mainly staring at the bloody sky, trying to make out something in it.
This time also gave him the opportunity to think about his last dream before he woke up in front of Bridgite. It turned out that his mark was far from simple. Of course, one could attribute such dreams to high fever, when they are abstract and meaningless, but Asan didn't see it that way. This time everything felt too real; he seemed to be traveling to the afterlife, from which a girl managed to pull him back. He clearly remembered how darkness of unimaginable power seeped from his mark, which was both his and not his. He felt that it belonged to him, but he couldn't control it at all, as if it were a wild beast that Asan still had to tame.
In addition to sleeping, Asan still had something else to think about when he turned to the system, an infinite number of notifications about monster kills appeared before his face. He successfully ignored them all but stopped at the last two.
[Your level increased from 4 to 5.]
[Received unique reward – "Ability Token" (Owner: Star Eater)].
Asan looked at the two notifications for several seconds before nodding to himself. The level increase was expected, considering who he had fought against and how many monsters he had defeated. It had been almost a week since his last level-up, if not more. He could already imagine upgrading his gravity magic, but he needed to put that off because there was something more interesting on the horizon.
[Do you want to receive the ability token now?]
[Yes.] [No.]
Without thinking twice, Asan mentally pressed "Yes" and mechanically extended his hand in front of himself. At first, something on his palm lit up, slightly blinding him, but soon the light became weaker and began to take on a round shape. Soon, on his hand was a metallic token cast as if from steel, with a strange gemstone in the center that resembled some kind of precious stone. The token lay comfortably in his hand and was very light and pleasant to the touch. Its smooth metal surface seemed to tickle the boy's dirty palms, transmitting wonderful sensations. Around the very center stone, along the edges of the token, were numerous carved runes, similar to Japanese symbols but greatly different, as if they were completely from another world. Of course, what caught the eye the most was the gemstone embedded in the center of the round metallic object.
As soon as Asan touched the gem with his finger, its color changed to dark, and five tabs popped up before the boy's eyes.
1) [gaze in darkness].
[rank: Unique].
[Description: For hundreds of millions of years, they had roamed space using only the mana threads left by giant spiders, using them as personal navigation in their search for stars. But when they realized themselves, they understood that they no longer needed to do this. Just by looking into the essence of themselves, their vision changed, and they began to see better in complete darkness than in daylight.]
2) [Devil Parasite].
[rank: Rare].
[Description: Even back in the days when they were friends, his kin often used this technique to counter humans, but he renounced it to avoid harming their friendship. Who knew that one day he would use this tactic in a war against her people?]
3) [Hands of Darkness].
[rank: Common].
[Description: When many practiced dark magic, many criticized them for it. But to understand its essence, they applied poisonous flames to their own hands, unleashing their fury upon those who were their enemies.]
4) [Where am I? Who am I?]
[rank: Rare].
[Description: Fighting against a spatial mage, they tried not to get too close to him, for it didn't seem desirable to accidentally hit themselves, and even worse—hit an ally.]
5) [Enhanced Strike].
[rank: Common].
[Description: Many wondered how to strike harder? Blow after blow, you strain yourself, try your best, but do not tap into the very core of your strength… That which fuels you. What if the fuel was directed not towards sustaining life, but towards enhancement?]
Asan carefully analyzed each of the abilities offered by the token.
First of all, he was surprised by the very concept of abilities, since until then he had considered manipulating darkness as a separate ability, because it was magic, but everything turned out to be somewhat more complicated. What surprised him the most was the description, along with this, he was also angry. Again, no normal explanations of what each ability does! Well, for example, "Hands of Darkness." He could understand what that meant.
He had previously thought about enveloping his fists in flames and mercilessly beating Ronnie in the face, but he didn't think it would be very effective due to the fire damage to himself, but as it turned out – this was a whole separate ability! What if he had tried this earlier, would it have given him an ability for free, or would it not have been considered a separate ability?
But this also led to a series of other questions, one of which was the most interesting. Whom does System refer to in each of the descriptions?
In the description of the first ability, Asan read about some creatures that flew through space and were apparently blind, using some mana threads as navigation for their travels, but what these creatures were and how they could move through space without air was unknown. Unless, of course, they had a rocket engine attached to their rear end, slowly dragging their bodies through endless emptiness.
Each of the abilities either described a single creature or many. But then another question arose. Could there be other forms of life on Earth besides theirs? Did people exist on other planets? No, what was even more interesting, were these beings actually human?
This means that System has existed for a long time and had already conducted similar experiments on other creatures… Wait! That's right!
Didn't System say something like "Now it's your turn to prove that you deserve to be called the rulers of Earth"? It's your turn...
"Does this mean... We're not the first to go through this hell?" Asan couldn't hold back his thoughts, saying them out loud. Fortunately, there was no one around to consider him an idiot or a madman.
The world before Asan's eyes seemed to open up, giving him the understanding that his planet, his life... Perhaps were just a small drop in the infinite ocean of other beings and lives. These thoughts excited his mind, and his childish desire to learn new things for himself, absorbing tons of endless information, burned with an unquenchable flame. But unfortunately, he had no idea where the other beings were or if all of this was even true. What if System simply made up grandiose descriptions of her abilities just to confuse his mind and mislead him? No one knew for sure.
At least for now.
In any case, this information gave Asan absolutely nothing, literally nothing. It didn't help him choose one of these abilities, but he had some hints in the form of the rarity and type description of each ability. Three of them were purely magical, one was semi-magical and semi-physical, and the last one was purely physical. Physical abilities did not interest him, although perhaps that was a mistake, since he fought physically more often than using his magic, but still... This was his damn magic! It was awesome anyway!
After rereading the description of each ability several more times, the guy started brainstorming, trying to figure out what each ability was responsible for.
gaze in darkness seemed interesting and possibly powerful to him.
He was the only one among all the descriptions that talked about some big and cosmic beings, which meant she was definitely not weak, possibly even very strong, capable of making him invincible, though, knowing the system, it was unlikely that it would give something extraordinary to the fourth level.
"Devil parasite" sounded ominous, but mostly because of the biblical reference. The devil's kin were demons, but why had the devil himself, who should have been at the head of evil, rejected this ability? Or was the Devil beyond their planet not evil, but something else? It was quite possible, but debatable.
The hands of darkness could be analyzed without much effort, the description literally screamed what exactly they did, and as Asan had already suspected, he would be able to replicate this technique himself, even if perhaps not as well as System demonstrated. Who knows, maybe he would.
"Where am I? Who am I?"—the funniest ability name, yet at the same time very understandable. Most likely, Asan would learn to manipulate spatial magic to redirect attacks from himself onto his enemy or ally, literally breaking their balance.
The enhanced strike was like a critical hit in games, at least that's what Asan predicted. Although the lines about some fuel were confusing, after thinking about it for around 20-30 seconds, he guessed it might refer to his closed type of abilities—the aura.
If this is so, then along with it came at least some explanation of what Aura actually is. Aura can be the fuel that gives life to your body, which you can manipulate and enhance yourself with. Although this was also a bit strange, it was quite understandable.
Now the question remained open: what exactly should he take?
He didn't think long about it; Asan wouldn't miss the opportunity to obtain a unique ability.
This was the first time he acquired an ability related to darkness.