LEVEL UP

WHAT IS THIS?

*CHAPTER ONE*

_*WHAT IS THIS*_

“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 slowly in 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 he wasn’t able to lay 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 that he wasn’t pleased.

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

As fast as the wind, he raised his sword, and a faint smile could be seen 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 he saw nothing

‘Where was he?'.

Immediately he was able to think of the disturbing question, he realized something or rather someone behind him, however he couldn't understand what was happening or was about to happen until he felt a soft touch, too little to do anything and before he could do anything, he was flying forward, crashing into the pile of hay inside the shed.

“Tskk, tssk …. Still too slow and weak. That’s enough for today."

The old man said and turned around, signalling the end of the day’s training.

“Father…wait, I am not tired, I can still train.” The young boy ran to the man.

“I an 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 his hair, and ruffled it before speaking.

“ You are 16 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 he died respectfully but what about you? Your mother and I are worried you may not make it that far but I need you to keep training to prove us wrong as 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 said, immediately he uttered that statement, he felt a tingling sensation and turned his head to face 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 himself.

He was weak, weaker than everybody that he has met.

Kids made fun of him, bullied him because he was nothing compared to them, he was not as strong as them.

The old man smiled, “I know my son that you are a lot stronger than you know. 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 to hunt before now so he picked his little dagger, and put it in his back pocket, he 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.

Immediately he saw the back of the boy disappearing into the forest.

His smile turned into a frown and he rushed into the house to replace in his hand with his true weapon—His fire sword.

“Darling, We are under attack!!” He called to his wife, and few seconds later, the door to their house broke down.

________

Roshan walked deeper into 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 in and would sneak in to take away the young ones among the herd who were a lot more 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 in order to be chosen into the Mage School where they would be taught on magic or the Military where they would try to own or develop abilities.

Things were not this way before but it all changed with the arrival of the monsters known as The Daegi.

Noone knew where they came from as it happened like a dream, starting with a low rumble echoing through the earth, humanity had first ignored it as a minor earthquake but soon enough, the rumbling increased, affecting buildings, and houses.

Massive holes had appeared everywhere in the sky, and over the earth’s atmosphere, the radar or space surveillance systems had noticed nothing, these holes appeared everywhere and out of them, strange and huge ships appeared, their build and size blotting out the sun.

Strange creatures dropped out from them, it was as if they were taken out of a depressed child’s nightmare and made real.

They were huge, scaly, and they had sharp claws, and teeth. They moved faster than the average human eyes could follow, and soon enough, screams, and cries filled the earth.

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

But of course, humanity was never the one to back down.

Humans fought, with weapon, missles, and even nuclear bombs at their disposal but not much was done. and when it looked like all hope was lost.

A certain group of people with strange magic powers and foreign abilities showed up mysteriously, and with their arrival, things turned around for the humans.

But they still couldn’t get rid of the Daegi.

Both sides fought to a standstill until a peace treaty was proposed and the Daegi Leader came forward to sign it but they both knew it wouldn’t last for a long time.

The time span of the peace treaty was of course going to be used by both sides to get stronger without the knowledge of the other.

Years passed and the first war turned into a bed time story for the younger generation as most of the civilians no longer paid much attention to the Daegi’s attack but the Ones above knew the second war would soon be close.

They created atmospheres and centres to develop the young and stronger generation teaching them how to use their abilities and powers but little did they know that they weren’t the only ones trying to get stronger.

Roshan wasn’t born with magic powers or abilities despite his family’s great history of abilities and magic as his parents had told him.

His mother was a warlock, his dad was just a level 38 fire user; a Master, about to break into the Elite class but he stopped his training, and his elder brother was gifted with extraordinary talent, at a age of twenty he was able to master the fire ability up to level 35.

Roshan always looked up to his brother wanting to be like him and he was proud of him.

Everything shattered when the news of his death was brought as he was killed by a Super Tier beast of level 48.

Since then, Roshan began his training to serve in the Military but he was still angry at the thought of him being too weak.

His mind was clouded that he didn’t realise he was headed into a ditch, and he fell into it.

Thankfully, the ditch wasn’t too deep, and he would be able to climb out of it.

He noticed that he landed on a hard object so he began to claw into the ground with his hands, and he uncovered a strange looking object in the shape of a book.

Intricate designs and strange runes were drawn all around it and it had a dark blue gem in the middle of it.

Roshan had never seen anything like it before.

“What is this?"

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