When a cosmic wave descended upon the Earth, destroying the human race, the world descended into chaos.
Danger lurks around every corner.
Animals mutated into feral beasts, strange creatures roamed our lands, and the human race that survived became prey in the ecosystem.
Hope was lost until survivors began to manifest superpowers.
Humans began to fight back against the waves of foreign creatures that had taken over the majority of the planet.
People who awakened their superpowers were dubbed Slayers.
And as more people awakened their superpowers, they began to form their own groups, which were now known as guilds.
They secured and protected a safe haven for the humanity and opened academies so that those who awaken in the future can use their predecessors' knowledge to help humanity survive the Apocalypse.
However, even after doing all of this, the threat remained, as the population of beasts and monsters increased at an alarming rate.
The humans were not the only ones who were getting stronger, the monsters and beasts were getting stronger with time too.
In middle of all this, here i was Alvin Tate, a 18 year old boy who awakened a trash body talent with trash superpowers, lying down with a knife stabbed in my stomach and hiding from a madman who came after me for no Reason.
.******
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It has been 12 years since the start of Apocalypse.
My father died after working as a Slayer for 6 years; my mother became ill suddenly after his death and went into a coma; every day after that was a living hell for me.
Although my father left money for me and my mother, but it was insufficient for me as I couldn't even survive on bread and butter for a year on it, let alone care for my mother, who requires proper medication and care.
I had to go out on my own and work multiple jobs from early morning until late at night.
But as time passed and our expenses grew, even my salary from multiple jobs wasn't enough to keep up with everything.Mother's condition did not improve either, so I was forced to join the monster subjugation squads as a porter and miner.
Slayers with high rankings earn a lot of money, and four of the world's top ten richest people were slayers.They earned money not only from the government, guilds, and companies that pay them to hunt monsters, but also from the loot they find on the bodies of the monsters they kill.
Monster corpses contain a core that was a rich source of energy, and their body parts were used in Alchemy, weaponry, medicine, and other fields, Making the Moster corpses extremely valuable.Working as a porter without being awakened was a difficult job where my life was on the line every second. The Slayers always treated us like slaves and didn't even care about our safety.
I worked as a porter for years, barely surviving on the worst food, and clothes that were sewed so many times that even the base cloth was no longer visible.
Then came the day when I finally awakened.
It was during a subjugation mission, when my life was on the line.In a fight with some monsters, the main party was nearly wiped out, leaving only two swordsmen alive with broken legs and arms.
There was only one injured monster left, which I managed to kill after being awakened before it devoured me.
I also killed the two swordsmen and took all of the party's loot for myself, as well as all of their storage rings containing all of their wealth, leaving the monster corpses behind because they wouldn't fit in the storage rings and I wasn't in any condition to carry them.
Normally, doing this would land me in jail and eventually result in my execution because only a porter returning after the entire party had been wiped out had never been heard of before, but I had the perfect reason of my awakening to get me out of this situation.
They were all low-level slayers anyway, so no one would look into their deaths in depth, as accidents during Subjugations were fairly common.
But what I Awakened with was a truly awful superpower called [ Miracle Thief ].
//_______________________[ Miracle Thief ]
( Description ) - The user can steal anything, but he must exchange it for something of equal or greater value than the item stolen.
- The user can only steal inanimate objects that can be physically touched.
- The item to be exchanged must be in the user's possession.
- There is a very small chance, almost like a miracle, that all restrictions on the ability will be removed and the user will be able to steal almost anything within a 10 metre radius of him without having to exchange anything for it.
_________________________//
It was like an upgraded version of the superpower [Good thief], where the user could only exchange things of equal value and no miracles could occur.To say I was 'enraged' when I discovered my superpower would be an understatement; I was furious but then I eventually calmed down as I remembered that there were times when superpowers aren't extremely important; perhaps I awakened a super talented body, or even a decent one would suffice, but I'll have to check with a device to find out.
I searched the storage devices and discovered that everything was loaded with monster cores, money, and weapons that could keep me going for nearly a year without doing anything.
I looked around some more and discovered an identification device in one of the party members' storage rings.
This device was most likely used by the scout, who was also acting as a treasure hunter and identifying things.
This device identifies and analyses the grade of a monster core, the value of a monster corpse, the quality of a natural Artifacts, and so on.
However, There was one more thing it could do, and that was to determine a slayer's body talent level.
I quickly pulled it out of the ring.
It was a small rectangular box with a display on top, a small hole for dropping blood, and another on the left from which a light ray was launched to aid in object identification.
I dropped a few drops of my blood on it while holding the box tightly in my hands and began supplying my mana inside it.
It took a few seconds, but the results eventually showed up on the screen.
//-----------------------
Maximum body Talent lvl - ( F )
current body talent lvl - ( G + )\\-----------------------
I couldn't believe the results for a second so I checked the results once again, but the outcome remained the same.
I couldn't believe what I saw. I got the lowest talent possible, I felt like the world had suddenly collapsed on me, crushing all of my hopes and dreams like they were all lies.
It was beyond cruel to give me so much joy and hope with my awakening only to crush it with the weakest abilities and superpowers.
I lost control of myself and tears started to flow from my eyes.
I only cried when my mother went into a coma and my father passed away, but now I cried once again when the harsh reality broke my hopes.
This was how I got awakened.
~Phew!
After taking a deep breath and waiting for a few moments to collect myself, I stood up and started packing everything away.
I concealed a few storage rings in my clothes so that no one can notice them.
The journey back was not difficult because we were only hunting around the borders, and my team had only recently cleared this route, so there were no monsters on my way back.
After returning to the border gates, and showing them my ID card, I was taken for questioning, where I demonstrated my use of mana and explained how my party was wiped out and I was awakened in a life-or-death situation.
My case was rare but not that much as many people awaken themselves when their life was on the line and did amazing feats.
They wanted to check my talent lvl but I rejected them and said that I would like to check it on the time of making a slayers license so that it can be kept confidential.
I know it sounded absurd but that was how it is, people can choose to keep their superpowers and rank of maximum body talent hidden but the current lvl had to be printed on the license.It was all a hoax for the normal people, the real strong can always know by accessing your files, like they say ' its no longer a secret if its known by a second person '.
But it still helped the common people have a relief as it also means that no normal person like your friend, family member or colleague could know about your talent lvl if you don't want to disclose it.After telling the officers about everything that transpired, I gave them some bribe from the loot I got.It was like a rule you have to follow if you get lucky like me, so that you can be allowed a clear pass without much hassle, the bribe was 10% of everything I earned.
I already hid some of the rings earlier so they only got the 10% of those that I showed, as I didn't commit a crime, so I wasn't thoroughly inspected and even then their comission was a good sum of money, so they also turn a blind eye to it.
After completing all the checks, I went to my home where I took a bath, went to my mother's room where she was still lying in coma with all the machines attached to her.
I went near her and knelt down besides her bed and held her right hand between both of my Palms.
I just sat there in silence as tears fell from my eyes. I didn't speak anything.
I always dreamed that after my awakening I would become a top class slayer and earn lots of money and finally find a way to heal my mother, but nothing goes as planned in this accursed world, it really woke me up to reality.
' Wake up to reality! Nothing ever goes as planned in this accursed world. The longer you live, the more you realize that the only things that truly exist in this world are merely pain, suffering, and futility.'Suddenly remembering these words said by one of my favourite anime character, and a legend that I used to watch as a kid, my eyes turned cold and my facial expressions went back to the usual apathetic one.I've never really liked this world.There were some things that must be done regardless of the circumstances.I must stop crying because it was sinful to become weak for me as I have a mother that I have to look after and goals that I have to fulfil.I would never admit defeat and will always strive to achieve victory, no matter the odds.However, for now I needed rest more than anything, I was tired after my awakening and all the things I went through today, it really did took quite a toll on me.Lying down to sleep, I decided to take a one month break from everything and
After killing some [chimera snakes] and walking for another 15 minutes, we arrived at the centre of the cave, where a massive monster guarded the large rock, behind which was the entrance to the cave's innermost area.The monster was a hideous green scaled snake with a white goat head that stood about 6 metres tall and towered over us all.It was most likely the final and most powerful creature in this nest, but I knew for a fact that our party could certainly defeat this monster, and only once the monster was killed would the real battle begin.The captain gave the order, and everyone took their positions to form the formation.I was in the back, behind the healer, with the magician buffing the other team members, the two swordsmen in front, and the scout hiding and trying to attack the monster in secret.The monster noticed the captain and swung his tail at him, but the captain gracefully jumped up and avoided it. The other swordsman used this opportunity to attack the monster, but
Miracle.What was a miracle ?A miracle was any lucky thing that happens to you, that you did not expect or think was possible.And it was exactly that. When you want a miracle the most, it never happens to you, but the time, the moment when you least expect it, that's when a miracle happens.Because its called a ' MIRACLE '...*****..The moment I lost all hope, the moment when death was was not even a second away from me.My eyes lost vision, my ears couldn't hear anything, and I felt like falling deep underwater with a paralytic body.At that moment!It happened to me.A miracle!My only super-power, the one that I used to call trash all the time [ Miracle Thief ] . It finally stood true to its name.It brought me a miracle, and made me probably the biggest thief in the history of mankind...******..When I used my superpower on the unknown intruder, I wasn't even in my right mind, I didn't even remembered the limitations and exceptions of my power and just wanted to mak
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