LEVELLING UP

“Faster!!... Harder!!... Quicken your movements, sharpen your stance, apply pressure!!”

The old man yelled as he easily blocked every attack of the younger boy, causing him to stumble on his feet. The boy heaved slowly, his shiny black hair moving with the wind.

He rested his hands on his knees, panting and trying to calm his beating heart, which was getting louder by the minute. He had been at this since morning and still wasn’t able to land a single strike on him.

He tightened his grip on the wooden sword and looked up to see the old man frowning at him. It was obvious he wasn’t pleased.

He took a stance immediately, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, gripped his sword tighter, and jumped with his eyes wide open, ready to strike.

As fast as the wind, he raised his sword, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

‘Got you now, old man.’

He struck, but the old man’s figure quickly eluded him, and all he could feel was the breeze of his strike. He looked at the place he struck and saw nothing.

‘Where was he?’

He felt a light touch on his back, and before he could understand what was happening, he felt a soft impact. It was too little to do anything, but before he could react, he was flying forward, crashing into the pile of hay inside the shed.

“Tsk, tsk… still too slow and weak. That’s enough for today,” the old man said and turned around, signaling the end of the day’s training.

“Father, wait! I am not tired. I can still train,” the young boy said as he ran to him.

“I am tired, Roshan. I know you have a lot of potential in you, but I don’t know what’s wrong with you.” The man looked down at his son.

He put his hand on Roshan’s hair and ruffled it before speaking.

“You are sixteen years old, and the Arkon’s Tournament is to start in exactly four months. If you are still like this by then, I don’t know if you would even make it past the first round. I am scared for you, Roshan.

“Your brother played his part in the war and died respectfully. But what about you? Your mother and I are worried you may not make it that far. I need you to keep training to prove us wrong. I have strong hopes for you, boy, but when will you be able to do that? Time is not on your side.”

The old man paused. The moment he said those words, he felt a tingling sensation and turned his head toward the direction of the shed where his son had crashed into.

Roshan kept his head down. “I am not weak, Father,” he said bitterly.

But he knew the truth. He was weak—far weaker than everyone he had met. Kids made fun of him and bullied him because he was nothing compared to them. He was not as strong as they were.

The old man smiled. “I know, my son. You are a lot stronger than you think. Would you run to the forest and see if you can find meat for tonight’s dinner?”

Roshan immediately remembered that he should have gone hunting before now. He picked up his little dagger and put it in his back pocket, bowed, and went in the direction of the forest.

“I will be back soon!” he called to his father and waved.

The old man smiled and waved back.

The moment he saw the boy’s back disappear into the forest, his smile faded into a frown. He rushed into the house and replaced the wooden sword in his hand with his true weapon, his fire sword.

“Darling! We are under attack!” he shouted to his wife.

A few seconds later, the door to their house broke down.

---

Roshan walked deeper into the forest as he searched for the animal he would hunt and take home.

He would usually hide and wait for a group of beasts to come by, sneaking in to take one of the young ones among the herd, as they were easier to kill.

As he walked in search of any signs of a herd, his father’s words kept ringing in his head.

He had heard of the Arkon’s Tournament, where boys and girls of a particular age would battle and compete to be chosen into the Mage School, where they would be taught magic, or into the Military, where they would learn to develop and control abilities.

Things were not always this way. It all changed with the arrival of the monsters known as the Daegi.

No one knew where they came from. It happened like a dream, starting with a low rumble echoing through the earth. Humanity first ignored it as a minor earthquake, but soon enough, the rumbling increased, shaking buildings and homes.

Massive holes appeared everywhere in and above the earth’s atmosphere. The radar and space surveillance systems detected nothing. These holes appeared suddenly, and out of them came strange, enormous ships, their size blotting out the sun.

Strange creatures dropped from them. It was as if they were taken straight from a child’s nightmare and made real. They were huge and scaly, with sharp claws and teeth. They moved faster than the average human eye could follow, and soon enough, screams and cries filled the earth.

It was clear this was no ordinary war, but an invasion on a scale humanity had never experienced before.

But humanity was never one to back down. Humans fought with weapons, missiles, and even nuclear bombs, but not much was achieved. When it looked like all hope was lost, a certain group of people with strange magical powers and foreign abilities appeared mysteriously.

With their arrival, things turned around for the humans.

Still, they could not fully get rid of the Daegi. Both sides fought to a standstill until a peace treaty was proposed. The Daegi Leader came forward to sign it, but both sides knew it would not last long.

The time span of the peace treaty would be used by both sides to grow stronger without the other’s knowledge.

Years passed, and the first war turned into a bedtime story for the younger generation. Most civilians no longer paid attention to the Daegi’s threat, but those above knew the second war was near.

They created special centers to train the younger, stronger generation, teaching them how to use their abilities and powers. But they did not realize they were not the only ones preparing.

Roshan was not born with magic powers or abilities, despite his family’s great history of magic and strength. His mother was a warlock. His father was a level 38 fire user, a Master about to break into the Elite class before he stopped training. His elder brother was gifted with extraordinary talent. At the age of twenty, he had already mastered the fire ability up to level 35.

Roshan always looked up to his brother, wanting to be like him, proud of his strength and achievements.

Everything shattered when the news of his death arrived. He had been killed by a Super Tier beast of level 48.

Since then, Roshan had been training to serve in the Military, but the thought of his weakness still burned inside him.

His mind was clouded, and he did not realize he was heading into a ditch until he fell into it.

Thankfully, it wasn’t too deep, and he was able to climb out of it. He noticed that he had landed on something hard.

He began clawing at the ground with his hands until he uncovered a strange-looking object shaped like a book.

“What is this?”

Roshan picked the book and looked around it. He tried to open it but nothing was working. He even used his dagger to pry it open, but nothing worked. However, as he tried using his dagger, the knife slipped out of his hand and grazed his finger, causing a small drop of blood to fall on the book.

Immediately the blood fell, he heard a monotone voice.

[Bloodline recognised]

'Bloodline? What the hell was that?' Roshan thought. But before he could think of anything else, he heard another statement.

[Roshan Axton]

[Would you like to access the System]

'What kind of name was that? The person who made this thing must have been really boring.' Roshan thought to himself. He actually wanted to know what was in the book, but he felt like he needed to show his father before doing anything. This object was really strange.

His curiosity got the best of him.

“Yes, I would like to access the System.” It