Chapter 55: The bridge [15]
After miserably failing to stab Ezio multiple times, I returned to the cave where we had slept and cleaned the ashes from the dead skeletons off myself.
It made me uncomfortable having my body covered with the ashes of a dead person.
Then I called my story system.
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✧ Name: Yves Noctis Laurent
✧ Age: 15
✧ Titles: [Unwanted Child]
✧ Rank: Ascendant
✧ Subrank: Early
✧ Soul Fragments: 87/200
✧ Story Fragments: 22/150, 0/1000
✧ Main Story: [He Who Yearned for Death], [■■■]
✧ Story Authorities: [Esoteric Darkness Manipulation], [■■■]
✧ Story Gifts: [Emotion Manipulator], [Calm Mind], [Eyes of The King]
✧ Story Relics: —
╚═════ ∘◦ ❈ ◦∘ ══════╝
I checked the soul fragments.
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✧ Soul Fragments: 87/200
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I had gained a total of 22 soul fragments, which was expected since the undead skeletons were of the same rank as me.
I could already imagine myself breaking through the next subrank by the end of this journey with how fast things were going.
Then I moved to my first Main Story entry.
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✧ Story Name: [He Who Yearned for Death]
✧ Story Description: [A boy who yearned for nothing but death. To him, death was warmth despite its cold embrace, but the world denied his wish. However, his intent towards death was so strong that it reached the tapestry of death itself, granting him a glimpse of it.]
✧ Grade: Mythic
✧ Rank: Awakened
✧ Story Fragments: 22/150
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Just like the soul fragments, I had also earned 22 story fragments, which was a very good number.
I had slain 20 low-class undead skeletons, which each gave me one fragment, while the giant undead skeleton, which was of the mid-class, gave 2 fragments, making 22 in total.
Adding it all up, I had earned 44 fragments in total.
Not bad.
I had slain twenty-two out of fifty undead skeletons. Meaning that 28 were left for me to slay.
That was almost half of the group, which was a lot. I had first thought that I would need until tomorrow night to kill all the skeletons, but it seemed now that I would be able to kill them all tonight.
I’d be harvesting 28 more fragments if I didn’t include the undead skeletons that were at Mid class — I had sensed earlier that there were at least two more of them.
I just hoped that the other group of skeletons hadn’t been notified by this commotion I had caused, because I didn’t want to get swarmed by an army of 100 undead skeletons.
Things were going just the way I had been planning.
A week was left until I could kill the monster that would help me rank up my story and perhaps even help me learn more about the scythe — that’s if it didn’t kill me first.
After checking the system, I closed it and turned to Ezio — we were both sitting on chairs we had both created.
Ezio was eating an apple, and I swear to God, this guy is always eating something.
I closed my eyes and started practicing on something I had been postponing, which was making armor.
I needed something to protect myself other than relics.
Relics were great, but what if my relics were broken and I needed something else to protect myself?
Having armor made with my own powers would be useful.
I summoned the power of darkness and started with the parts that were easier for me — the boots and the gloves.
Dark energy gathered at my hands first, and the gloves took shape, but this time I made some modifications and made them look like knight hand gloves, still with sharp nails.
Then I moved to the boots. Dark energy rose from the base of my boots, and black boots took shape on top of the boots I was already wearing. Until it reached my knees.
I started adding more things to reinforce it. I first added greaves — shaped plates that protected the shin and lower leg.
I tried to, but I failed miserably, making the boots crumble to darkness.
This was a pain; it was hard trying to imagine every single detail just to create something. The way [Darkness Shaping] worked was that anything imagined could be created as long as I knew the details of the thing I wanted to create very well, but not only that, I also needed to be concentrated.
So I tried again, this time with [Clear Mind] on.
I decided not to start with gloves yet, but to start from the feet to the head.
Dark energy gathered again on my legs, covering them from feet to knees.
The boots started taking shape from the feet, and when I reached my ankles, I made sure that the boots were not stiff and would not restrict my movements. Then I moved to my legs and tried to create the greaves again, starting from the inward detail and then to the outside.
At first, I made a mistake, and they were too heavy, and heaviness meant slowness, and being slow restricted my movements. So I let only the greaves crumble and started again, this time mindful of the weight — not too heavy.
The greaves on the legs started forming, but this time they weren’t heavy like before; they were light, but too light, so I restarted.
’Not too heavy, not too light. Just in the middle.’
The greaves formed again, and this time they were not too heavy nor too light but were balanced.
It was a success.
Moving to the next part were the knees, which needed protection. The armor part of the knee was called a poleyn, and it had to be made in a way that the joints could move properly.
This part was easier to do, so I was able to do it on my first try.
The next part was the thighs. The darkness energy lifted up and covered my thighs in a cloud of darkness.
I created contoured metal plates that guarded the thighs. I made sure that they were all of the same size and weight.
Once I was done with that, I opened my eyes and looked at my legs — they were covered completely by obsidian armored legs.
Sweat had formed on my forehead, after all, 40 minutes had already passed.
I moved my legs, feeling how they felt.
"Your Main Story is really impressive. You’re able to create anything you can imagine." Ezio said, as he was now eating an orange.
"I don’t think I can create anything I imagine, there have to be some limitations to it. Isn’t it the same for you, who wields shadow powers? My power and yours are very similar." I said.
He threw an orange piece in the air, which fell and landed inside his mouth.
"Shadow and Darkness aren’t really the same thing. In this case, we can both create constructs, mine made of shadows, and yours made of darkness. But just because we have one ability in common doesn’t mean that we’re similar. For us to come to that conclusion, we’ll have to wait until you reach higher ranks to see how your Main Story evolves."
"That’s true." I nodded and then stood up to test the lower part of the armor.
I jumped up and did a backflip, landing on my feet. Then I did some acrobatic moves, testing if my reflexes were still the same and not decreased.
Thankfully, the armor on my legs felt like I was wearing clothes, so it was okay.
I then sat down, and asked Ezio.
"How did you improve your skill with your constructs? The other day you were able to make a boat in seconds without struggling at all."
"It’s simple." Ezio reached into his spatial ring and tried to look at something but frowned afterwards. "Do you still have fruits?"
"Yeah."
"Then give me some." He stretched his hand.
"How did you already finish what I gave you?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I have the stomach of a God." He smirked.
"God will strike you down."
I took a bowl of fruits out of my spatial ring and gave it to him, which he received happily.
The bastard didn’t even say thank you. No manners.
Ezio grabbed grapes, flicked one of them with his finger which landed in his mouth.
"As I was saying, it’s not difficult to improve your skills for creating constructs. Having a great imagination plays a big part in it, but what makes you better at it is your understanding of things."
"I don’t understand, what do you mean by understanding?" I asked.
"Let’s take for example, ages ago, when people still used guns and rifles. Those who invented gunpowder guns had to first understand how something metallic would handle gunpowder without exploding in their faces. That’s why they had plenty of studies and tests to make a gun that was able to withstand the explosive power of the gunpowder.
"Only after understanding that were they able to create guns. It’s the same for constructs, you need to completely understand what you’re creating."
A cup made of shadow formed in his hand.
"This is a cup. The reason why I am able to create it is because I understand what a cup is and how it works. Same for how you’re able to create those tentacles on your back — God knows where you got that idea from — the spears, the bow, the spikes, and the walls that you create.
"So don’t just imagine but understand as well."
Listening to his words, I went into deep thought.
So what he was saying was that I had been trying to create armor just for the sake of creating, instead of understanding what it completely was.
I created a dagger in my hand.
I’m able to create a dagger because I know what it is, how it works and what makes a dagger.
The same should work for making armor.
I now had a better understanding.
"Thanks, Ezio. Now tell me, how does armor work?"
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