Chapter 26: Special Ability

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Five massive explosions rocked the entire wasteland close to the Mulkan settlement, and dust rose high, covering everything within a reasonable distance.

Rayleigh had to cover his eyes to keep from being blinded by the thick orange cloud rolling toward him. The beast was dead; he didn’t need to see a body to know that, because the system interface glitched into existence to confirm it.

► [ Mission Objective Complete: Defeat the Intermediate-Ranked Beast and stop the settlement from getting destroyed ]

Rayleigh shook his head and tried to peer through the floating orange dust. He could see the destruction he’d caused sprawled across the land, but on the bright side, he had taken out a beast that wouldn’t have thought twice about leveling the entire settlement to nothing.

He had used up his Meteor Summon ability entirely, calling down all five meteors just to bring down a single Intermediate-Ranked beast. He hadn’t been sure what it would take to kill the thing, so he’d burned through his stellar cosmic affinity to make certain.

It worked. Perfectly.

The Mulkans living in the settlement all emerged from their hiding places – not that hiding would have saved them from the beast in the first place.

The dust eventually settled, drifting back to the ground like feathers, and the impact of the meteor strike became more vivid the clearer the air got. It was morbid.

Pieces of the eight-legged beast lay scattered across the field, followed by the god-awful stench of burning flesh and decayed carcass, as though the meteorite had sped up whatever biological deterioration process governed the creature’s body.

Or perhaps life on Mulka simply decayed differently than life on earth.

The body wasn’t the only thing adding to the gore; a massive crater now sat in the middle of the battlefield, scorched black, almost similar to the same ones Rayleigh had stumbled across on his way to the settlement.

That made him realize something. "So it was an explosion that made those craters after all. Guess technology isn’t such a foreign concept here after all."

Suddenly, strange chanting rose from the shelters, something that sounded like a prayer, or maybe a eulogy, though no one had died. Rayleigh turned around, wondering what the phenomenon was about.

"The gods have saved us again!" A female Mulkan settlers cried out dramatically and the others joined her, all pouring their hearts out in prayer to some invisible god.

"He saved us once again! He saved us! He cares about us!"

The more Mulkans cried out, showing their gratitude to their god, the more Rayleigh grimaced at the scene unfolding in front of him.

"What a weird species! I literally saved your lives, and the credit goes to some made-up deity." Rayleigh sounded offended, even though he never wanted to use a Meteor Summoning ability in the first place.

"We need to harvest that crystal!" someone suggested, voice hopeful. "That crystal belongs to an Intermediate Creature. It is a gift from the gods, we can use it to get inside!"

Rayleigh scoffed. "There is no way in hell I’m letting anyone touch that crystal. I killed the beast, so it belongs to me."

One of the settlers rushed forward onto the battlefield anyway, eyes gleaming.

He stumbled past Rayleigh, completely ignoring his existence, and headed straight for the glowing orb half-buried in the sand.

"Touch that crystal and lose your arm, you moron," Rayleigh threatened, his voice cold. "I didn’t see you or anyone else attempt to kill it. All of a sudden you want to claim it?"

"B-but the gods—"

"Tell your god I said he should shove his head down his ass."

The Mulkan looked like he wanted to argue with Rayleigh, but he knew better than that.

Maybe they truly believed their god had taken out the beast in their stead, but they had all seen Rayleigh fight the creature head-on.

They must have also watched him take a hit from the beast’s leg, a hit that should have broken every bone in his body, and yet he walked away unscathed.

Every Mulkan in the settlement knew better than to cross him now.

Rayleigh crossed the field to where the crystal lay.

Picking it up, he blew the dust off the glowing orb, revealing its true nature; it looked magnificent as ever.

► [ Intermediate-Ranked Beast Crystal identified ]

► [ Would you like to absorb this orb? ]

Rayleigh was about to respond to the system’s message when he thought back to what the Mulkan had said.

’He called it a gift from the gods, said he could use it to get inside. This crystal must be extremely valuable if it can get someone inside somewhere. But inside where? What could possibly be important enough that it takes an Intermediate crystal just to gain access?’

The more Rayleigh pondered it, the less sense he found himself making of it. He decided to store the crystal inside his inventory for now, until he figured out what best to do with it.

► [ Intermediate Crystal stored successfully inside inventory ]

► [ Inventory: 2 items ]

"Two items?" Rayleigh thought briefly on what the second item could be, before it hit him: the classified file. Cassandra’s bait.

Rayleigh closed the Inventory tab and navigated through the system until he reached the Missions tab.

Sure enough, the reward for defeating the Intermediate-ranked beast was waiting for him.

►[ Mission Reward: 100 Level-Up SP ]

Rayleigh knew he already had 110 SP sitting in his profile so that meant...

►[ 210/200 Level-Up SP]

►[ Level-Up SP has reached the required amount ]

►[ Would you like to Level up? ]

Rayleigh didn’t hesitate. "Yes."

►[ Level up sequence initiated ]

The upgrade was completed in less than thirty seconds.

Rayleigh stood still as he felt several strange changes taking place inside his body.

It wasn’t painful. It simply felt... strange.

"I hope I’m not turning into a robot or something."

►[ Level Up Complete. ]

►[ All available tabs, defence and weaponry systems has been upgraded to the next level ]

►[ No substantial increase in Attribute Skills ]

Rayleigh frowned. "So I get a system upgrade without enjoying the physical benefits? What was the point?"

►[ New Tab Unlocked: Special Abilities ]

Rayleigh’s expression changed. "Oh that’s the point... got it"

He looked at the new tab with interest but then another thought crossed his mind.

"How is this different from Cosmic Abilities?"

►[ Special Abilities are different drom Cosmic Affinities. They are are Rune-based abilities generated from the Host’s Rune Gene ]

►[ Host currently possesses one Special Ability ]

►[ Special Ability: Drain ]

►[ Level: 1 ]

►[ Description: Upon activation, Drain siphons the life force of a targeted opponent and transfers it to the Host ]

►[ Effect: Every successful attack against the target drains a portion of their health and restores the Host’s health by the same amount. Drain also adds to the physical attribute of the Host temporarily ]

►[ Duration: 60 Seconds ]

►[ Cooldown: 5 Minutes ]

"So I finally have a Rune ability." Eyes gleaming at the description, Rayleigh murmured. "And it lets me weaken my opponent while healing myself?"

Rayleigh couldn’t help but smile. "I couldn’t think of something better, to be honest."

For the first time since arriving on Mulka, Rayleigh felt genuinely excited about something.

He immediately closed the system and his excitement slowly faded just as fast as it came when he remembered the problem that had brought him to this planet in the first place.

Fuel.

"Now, where can I get fuel?" Rayleigh asked aloud.

He suddenly sensed a non-threatening presence behind him. Turning around, a Mulkan stood there.

The man cleared his throat, almost as though he was trying to gather enough courage to speak to Rayleigh.

"Did you say you were looking for fuel? I know where you can get some."