The Calling of Wrath - Chapter 5 - Old Man

I finally got a good cover image for the story, so here is the cover for The Calling of Wrath!

Also, the first 6 chapters of The Calling of Wrath on my Patreon (here) will be free for anyone to read, since I'm planning on doing a new Tier for this story to read 20 chapters ahead.

It would basically give you the 8 chapters ahead for all of the other stories, but also 20 chapters ahead for this one.

Eventually I'll do Tiers like this for the other stories too, but probably not for a long time. And I'll do a 25$ tier for 20 chapters ahead on all stories once I actually get 20 chapters ahead on all stories in the far future.

Anyways, if you have any feedback about this story so far, I'm open to hearing it!

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                                                            Cassandra
                                           Year ???? | Month ?? | Day ??

I regain consciousness to the sound of chewing.

As if on instinct, I immediately jerk upwards before reaching for the knife at my-

Shit. Don’t have that anymore.

Instead, I spread my claws slightly while looking around the cave, only to find some old man in the cave with me.

I blink once in confusion before opening my mouth to speak, only to remember something and look down at my clothes.

Clothes that should be in tatters but are instead as whole as they were when they were first given to me. And clean as well.

“I activated the auto-repair and self-cleaning functions of your under armor while you were napping,” an elderly voice says, drawing my attention back towards the old man.

The old man who is currently wearing a very similar outfit to the old man that saved me.

Except while that old man’s outfit was a fancy gold and silver, with some sort of what I’m assuming is metal coated in cloth making up the armor, this guy’s armor is an equally fancy black and gray. It has a strange collar that would fit more along the lines of formal clothes, but also has what I’m once again assuming is armor in all of the necessary places over his vital parts, but none anywhere else.

Also, the old man – who’s obviously an invader – is eating something right now.

Auto-repair? Self-cleaning?

Wait!

My eyes begin to widen slightly, but I stop them while glancing at my hands, which I just remembered aren’t gloved.

Shit! Why did I have to take the gloves off earlier?!

I quickly move to put them on over my hands to cover my claws before looking back at the old man, who seems to only have eyes for his food and doesn’t look like he cares about what I’m doing in the slightest.

Wait a second…

Wasn’t I injured?

I look down at my body again, only to not find even a single scratch.

Huh.

“I also gave you a healing elixir,” the old man says again as if reading my mind, drawing my eyes back towards him to see him finish off whatever meat he was eating before rubbing his hands together. He then turns to look at me and says, “So why did someone as young as yourself sign up for the draft?”

Draft?

I glance down at my clothes before realizing that he probably thinks I’m one of the invaders. Which would probably be a normal assumption if someone from Midgard saw me in these clothes.

And if that’s the case…

If I act as if I’m one of them, then I could probably get some more information about whatever the hell this System is, and who these invaders are.

I look back up to him while opening my mouth, only to be cut off as a System note appears in front of me before I can start my acting.

My eyes race back and forth across the words before eventually lingering on the words ‘World Tree’.

I guess that means the other planes don’t have their own World Tree?

“Hmm, it looks like it’s beginning,” the old man suddenly says, drawing my attention back towards him. “The war over the World Tree is only just beginning.”

My eyes widen slightly at his words before returning to normal again.

So the World Tree is why they’re here?

At first I would’ve doubted whether they’d be able to get past the sacred beasts or not, but seeing their ability to simply travel between planes… they actually might be able to. Although I still doubt they’ll be able to beat the sacred beasts’ alpha.

A loud dinging noise suddenly echoes in my head, making me wince slightly before a warning note appears in front of me.

I blankly stare at the words until they disappear a few seconds later and are replaced with new ones.

Uh…

That doesn’t sound good.

As if on cue, a burning pain suddenly radiates from my back, causing me to let out a sharp yelp before I grit my teeth to endure the pain.

The sound of a faint sigh enters my ear while I’m enduring the pain before I hear the old man mutter, “Whoever your parents are, they should be court-martialed for getting such a clueless child onto the invasion list…”

Despite the pain, I still feel my eye twitch at being called clueless, but the pain suddenly begins to grow worse as I begin to notice a red light reflecting off of the cavern wall behind me.

After that, a strange feeling courses through my back as if something were writing or drawing something on it, causing the pain to quickly turn into a strange burning itch instead.

Damn, this is uncomfortable!

Fortunately, it doesn’t last for long, and I find myself collapsed on the ground covered in sweat after only a dozen or so seconds.

Before I can even try to lift myself up, another System note appears in front of my vision, followed immediately by the same wonderful feeling that came from leveling up.

Another life steal power? Except with the enemies’ emotions this time instead of their own life.

After a few seconds, the note vanishes and the old man begins to speak again, “Hmm, those are some interesting markings…”

I turn my head to look behind me, only to find the old man crouching near me while staring at my back, which seems to be releasing some sort of faint red glow despite it being covered by my clothes. But I can only turn my head around enough to see the faint glow and nothing else, so whatever markings the old man is talking about is lost on me for now.

Actually, putting all of that aside for now… I should’ve done this earlier.

I focus on the old mans eyes like I did with the other old man and the direwolf.

My brows furrow as I see his level.

What are those question marks in parentheses for? And again with not showing his species?

Wait… the global announcement earlier mentioned that the planar invaders will be restricted in their power. So does that mean the question marks are the old man’s actual level, while the 8 is what he is restricted to?

The old man in question stands up straight again while saying, “I can’t very well leave you to yourself without at least giving you a basic introduction to everything, so I’ll be staying for a couple of days.”

I blink twice as his words register in my mind.

He… what?

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Table of Contents

For those of you who can't read the images:

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Global Announcement

All locals of the origin plane Midgard will now be assigned their classes!

These classes will be assigned based off of your true soul and will be what is most suited for you.

Classes determine the skills an individual obtains at every fifth level, the stat points they gain at each level-up, and the Tier Breach Mission that they must complete at every ten levels in order to break into the next Tier.

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From now until the end of the initialization phase in two years’ time, all planar invaders will have various restrictions placed upon them.

These restrictions include a decrease in their usable power corresponding to the time remaining of the initialization phase, a strict ban against the use of weaponry that is at a higher level of technology than the origin plane Midgard, and a limit on the number of planar invaders that may pass through corresponding to the time remaining of the initialization phase.

Good luck to the locals of the origin plane Midgard and may only the strongest individuals reign over the World Tree.

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Warning: Heart of Wrath is interfering with the System’s class assignment.

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Warning: The original class being assigned to you by the System, Yggdrasil’s Royal Guardian, is now being replaced by the class: Bringer of Wrath.

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You have been given the class: Bringer of Wrath!

Description: Locked.

Tier 1 Stat Increases on Level-Up: +0.5 STR, +0.25 DEX, +0.25 RES, +0.1 INT, +0.2 WIS, +2 MP

LVL 5 Skill: Siphon – This skill allows the user to draw out the Wrath of their opponent and use it to heal themself.

LVL 10 Skill: Locked until you reach level 10

…

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Name: ??

Level: 8(??)

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