Tension filled the air, the increasingly heavy atmosphere threatening to suffocate Williams. What would he do if the resurrection event was a battle against something dangerous and monstrous? He would surely die, he was going to die, he was doomed. These thoughts dominated Williams' mind at that very moment. He couldn't think of anything else. Without hesitation, he exclaimed desperately, "Equip the bearer's dagger!" The dagger appeared instantly in his right hand, as if the system had adapted to him and his needs.
"Resurrection event has begun," said the female voice of the system. Its electronic and helpful tone gave Williams some calm. He felt calm, at peace, even important, but this time it did not convey that feeling, only fear of what the Resurrection event might be.
Several purple and red auras began to appear out of nowhere in mid-air a few metres away from Williams. He tightened his grip on his weapon, which was not very effective against higher-calibre anomalies, but doing so gave him a certain sense of security. The auras faded away and then reappeared all together on Williams, intensifying into a single, completely visible aura, but in a dull fuchsia colour.
[System]
You have acquired basic Necromancy. Acquired skills: Resurgence, Faulty Fire, and Ethereal Fire. You have unlocked the basic Necromancy stats.
The voice said, as a perplexed Williams looked up at the system window, startled by a beep, a system notification "Bearer's Dagger evolves into Bearer's Short Sword" changing the dagger in his hand before his eyes into a short sword no more than 1 metre long and 4 inches wide.
[Title acquired: Novice Necromancer]
The situation had him confused; nothing had improved, he had only completed a simple mission and unlocked an event, but even so, he would not reject this newly acquired advantage.
Happiness filled Williams' being, wanting to celebrate and shout it out, jumping for joy as he waved his newly upgraded or "evolved" weapon, as the system had notified him, barely restraining himself from doing so, smiling with pure joy, observing his weapon, which had changed to a bright green tone in the ornamental carved lines, whose brightness when equipped in the young man's hand was almost blinding.
His joy did not last long. Distortions in the landscape became visible a few metres away from him, accompanied by a strange, electric, clumsy sound, as if some cables had broken nearby and were constantly colliding. He looked up at the sky, where the distortions could be seen perfectly.
"Anomalies," Williams said quietly to himself. He had seen them in some reports and images, but never in person, or so he thought. As he recalled, he was captivated. For something dangerous, they were beautiful to look at... but lethal.
From the aura-like distortion he had seen, small reptilian legs appeared, as if simulating little hands, resembling through the distortion, out of nowhere, a kind of reptilian creature, barely 1 metre tall, fell from that distortion into the landscape, staring at him with two small eyes like black pearls, opening its mouth full of strangely and uncomfortably human teeth, wearing an unsettling smile and a voracious hunger. The frightened young man stood still, saying in a very low voice, fearing to hasten the inevitable, "analyse ethereal fire." Immediately, the system displayed statistics on ethereal fire and other information:
[System]
Offensive spell, flame that attacks the enemy ignoring defence but with low attack power.
Williams' body was tense as he read, watching the creature out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly, he whispered "status" again, and the system displayed Williams' current status while the creature remained motionless, merely watching him, hunting him.
System:
Acquired: Analyse, scan and Loby
The young man's gaze turned confusedly to the system window. He didn't understand more than half of what it said, but this was no time to waste. Swallowing hard, he refocused all his attention on the creature and, with courage fuelled by fear, said "scan" under his breath as he looked at the creature. Sure enough, the predator's statistics appeared in front of him:
Stalker
Vitality 100
Strength 20
Agility 80
Resistance 30
Stamina 150
His confusion grew; he didn't know if those numbers were good or bad, but he did know that he was faster than him and had better cardio, so running away was not an option. Looking at his potential killer if he didn't play his cards right, he opened his left hand and with a shout threw himself at the anomaly. "Ethereal fire!" he shouted loudly as he ran towards the reptile with the short sword in his other hand, preparing a frontal attack. The creature looked at him as if preparing to launch an attack at the slightest opening it detected.
A voracious bite abruptly pulled Williams out of his adrenaline rush. Not understanding what had happened, he was still a few metres away from that anomaly. It wasn't possible. He looked at the monster with pain in his arm, having been wounded right where it had grabbed his dagger, leaving a deep wound on his forearm. He dropped his only weapon and disappeared into thin air. But something gave him a glimmer of hope. The creature had lost an eye to the flames, which seemed to ignore its scale armour, which provided some defence. The wound had been sealed by charred flesh and a black liquid dripping from the wound, possibly the remains of the eyeball. They were evenly matched, wounded and eager to emerge victorious from this confrontation.