The darkness was the only solace to Horus' shock. He hung there wondering if this was real. Maybe all of this was just a bad dream he could close his eyes and wake up from it.
[Common Swordsman]
It was the lowest class with no special skills and most definitely none of the mystical abilities [Crescent Swordsman] had. If you told him this would be his class yesterday he would think you were insane.
He opened his eyes. Darkness still stretched endlessly around him, and he floated through it aimless. It felt cold and silky against his skin, like he was floating between two pitch black pieces of clothes.
All he had in this void were memories of days spent training, nights spent in horrific pain.
He had endured. He fought. Everyday he had dreamed of just letting go.
This wasn't a nightmare. It was his life now. He would be banished from his clan, ostracised if they didn't just kill him to wipe away their disgrace. It had all been pointless in the end.
But strangely he felt happy. Drifting through the boundless dark, a genuine smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
How loathsome he felt at that moment. You fool, what is there to be happy about?
Before he could investigate the feeling more, he felt a tug, and he was suddenly hurtling through the dark.
He gritted his teeth as the force pressed down on him. There was a distant light that was rapidly growing closer, cleaving through the darkness. He could hear voices.
He closed his eyes just as he hit the light.
"Wake up, dead man, the heretics won't burn themselves."
His eyes snapped open in a low, dirty tent. There was a man standing over him and by his stinging cheeks, Horus guessed he had just been slapped awake.
His first instinct was to draw his sword and slit the man's throat. Not out of spite, but just because he had never seen the man and did not know where he was.
"Heretic raiders are at the gate!" The man shouted into Horus' groggy face. He had a slim face with a patchy beard and small beady eyes. His black hair was a rat's nest; he had just got up. The man had strangely wide shoulders.
Something exploded and Horus decided he should get up too.
Once he shot to his feet, the man ran out of the tent and Horus followed hesitantly.
The first thing that struck him was the crimson moon. The sky was black and blood red. He was in some type of camp surrounded on all sides by thick black trees that looked like they were rotting but still healthy.
Men ran from the forest. Dark shapes clad in bone and leather armor, wielding axes and spears, screaming like they were being burnt alive.
Something about those screams made his vision spin, suddenly Horus was stumbling. The strange world, strange people. He needed a second.
But the second thing that hit him was a bomb. It didn't really hit him, but one of the heretics threw a black ball into the air, and it landed in front of him with bang. Horus shielded his face as he was flung back.
Suddenly the world slowed, the explosion expanded like red foam and men were consumed by it as they fell in slow motions.
[Welcome to the Narrative Dungeon: Silent Scream of the Forsaken!]
[Rarity: Master]
[Setting: The cursed lands of the Emora. Night falls on this land eternally and its peace is only shattered by the wail of the Heretics. These poor souls have offended the goddess of silence, and you have been sent to end their lives. You are a Penitent, a knight order led by the Legendary son of the goddess, Gelstill, in this narrative.]
[Quest: Hunt down the High Priest of the Hollow Horn and bring him to Gelstill.]
Trapped mid air, Horus had no choice but to take this in with a furious feeling coursing through his veins.
The system had not only given him a Common class, but decided to put him in a Narrative Dungeon with Master-tier difficulty. It skipped from Common, Adept and Elite and chose Master…
Someone had to be laughing at this somewhere.
[Welcome, Horus. Outlined below are your basic stats that can be improved with hard work and quests.]
[Once you reach the Common-tier limit in one skill (Level 20), you will gain access to the Trade feature and the Party feature.]
◇—Status—◇
Name: Horus
Title: None
Class: Common Swordsman
Skill:
[Endurance] > 11 (Common)
[Pain Resistance] > 10(Common)
[Physicality] > 12 (Common)
[Perception] > 13 (Common)
[Reflexes] > 11 (Common)
[Basic Swordsmanship] > 12 (Common)
[Bow Proficiency] > 5 (Common)
[Shelter building] > 7 (Common)
[Cooking] > 6 (Common)
[Striking proficiency]> 10 (Common)
[Trap disarming]> 2 (Common)
[Twilight's True Son] > 1
Skill Shards: 0
Weapons slot (4):
Quest(s): Silent Scream of the Lamb
His class made his jaw tighten, but his skills made it a bit better. Most of them were close to Level 20 already, if he evolved his skills to Adept-tier he would be far stronger.
But something caught his eyes.
[Twilight's True Son]
He had never heard of any skill like this. It stood out among his skills as the only thing that didn't even make sense.
He willed the system to expand it.
[Title: Twilight's True Son]
[Rarity: Mythical]
[Description: Your fate has been tampered with, compensation was given. This skill allows you to gain Skills and Skill levels from any enemy you slay]
[Skill hint: The system will present the proper skills for you to choose from. As you raise the tier of the skill, you will have more skills and more levels to choose.]
[Skill hint: All Mana types absorbed will be harmonised within you.]
If he wasn't frozen in time, Horus' eyes would widen. He could have any skill? Regardless of class or training?
Wait… Mythical? What tier was that? Above Legendary of course, but he hadn't known there was any tier above Legendary. [Twilight Swordsmanship], the skill that defined his family had a Legendary rarity.
This was the real deal
The skills of the [Sword Saint] class that had mesmerised him as a child. The ice magic of [Ardent Mage] that he always found graceful.
He could take them.
Any skill could be his as long as he killed someone with it. He could even forgo learning a variety of skills and focus on hyper-leveling all his skills in a short amount of time.
But the first line caught his attention.
Your fate has been tampered with, compensation was given.
Who was tampering with his fate and why him of all people? His name was known all through the remains of earth, but he didn't know anyone he offended enough to do this, and he shivered to imagine who had power to tamper with the system itself.
But he would put all that aside for now. First he needed to survive a Master-tier Narrative dungeon and get its rewards.
Then with this Mythical skill, he would make whoever tampered with his fate regret it.