FMH ~ 38!

One of my personal favorites :D  

“Whatever it is, I believe that it is coming from... him.” Luke slowly opened his eyes when he heard the voice that had plagued his nightmares for over thirty years. it had been so long that he thought he had imagined the voice of the Archmage, simply ascribing his hatred to a figment of his imagination. However, here it was, and he was too weak from opening the dimension to kill the man where he stood. “Throw a bucket of water on it and see what comes out the other side.”

Water! No! Luke had spent so much time making sure that his hair and beard were extra fluffy! He had never felt so weak, the air here was so thin… Still, he struggled to his feet and prepared to fight these new constructs. The people around him took a step back, apparently him weakly struggling to his feet was still faster than they typically saw anything reacting. His took a sip from his canteen and felt his mana skyrocket to its maximum.

There he was! Don! Luke’s hands glowed bright blue, and the ground shattered under his feet as he launched himself at the man that had trapped him in another world. There was surprise in the face of the other man, Luke remembered enough about human interactions oh, and he had seen the expression often enough on the things that he killed, to understand that much. His battering ram weapons slammed against a barrier of some kind, again and again. eight attacks in one second, and the energy field around the Mage collapsed. 

“What in the-” the Archmage did not stand idly, a spell detonated in Luke's face the next instant.

Health: 180/250.

Luke felt the skin of his face start to flake off, that detonation had some form of corrosion behind it. A sense of danger flooded through him, and he instantly deposited all of his mana into his ‘metal gauntlets’. Once more, the sheer amount of power devoted to a single aspect made the air around it warp and shudder. his hands came into position, and only his experience fighting allowed him to catch the bright green Fireball that was coming after him.

‘Catch’ was a bit of a misnomer, as what he was doing in reality was absorbing the damage that it would output, then doing everything he could to deflect it into the air above him.

*Boom*.

Luke was knocked to a prone position, his face bouncing off the dirt and stone below him. “What? Brown? Dirt is brown here? How strange!”

Health: 132/250. (Concussion, massive.)

Armor: 2/250

He looked upward to see bright green Flames spiraling down toward him. There was nothing that he could do, Luke was fully spent. His brain felt scrambled, he was out of Mana, his armor had been destroyed. He watched his death approach, then was slapped out of the way by a tree that he had landed near. 

A voice that he somewhat recognized from his childhood shouted out in a heroic tone, “Archmage, he is clearly an Initiate! Perhaps he has simply gone through something traumatic, and needs a few moments to collect himself. Why not put him through processing, and question him after?”

“Andre, he was able to attack me though the Sigil is clearly on his forehead.” The Archmage retorted coldly. “He needs to be put down for the safety of the Kingdom.”

“Doesn’t processing adjust the Sigil and fine-tune it?” A cold, feminine voice reached Luke. There was silence for a long moment, then the Archmage appeared next to Luke and slapped him toward a building.

Feeling his body spinning through the air was an uncomfortable sensation for Luke. He hadn’t found anything in the last seven years that had been able to challenge him, and he had tried. Perhaps he shouldn’t have taken that time to kill absolutely everything in every Zone, but that was the only way to ensure that nothing would come along and stab him in the back. Things had tried, had succeeded even, but still he was alive. 

The Zones after the tutorial were… different. They were full ecosystems Full of creatures, bugs, plants, and a myriad of things that he had no phylum for. There were creatures made of the elements, creatures made of pure thought that had to be experienced in order to defeat… overall it was a nice change from the single enemy type of each Zone previously. 

however, it seemed that some kind of restriction had been lifted. no longer were things respawning or growing at incredible speeds, but the caveat to that was that each Zone seemed to have some form of boss. Like him, everything there was trying to survive and become the most powerful. Oftentimes, they did not appreciate his attempts to move forward, in one instance he even had to kill a boss in order to pass through to the next Zone. 

Still, it took seven years to get through three more Zones. He had known that the only reason he had been trapped in Zone five of the tutorial was because they were hiding from him! “Ha, ha, haaa!”

Luke was interrupted from his reverie by a strange man that he found himself sitting across from. Luke didn’t remember sitting down? Before he could say anything, the strange man spoke first. “What is going on here?”

Not having had a human interaction in almost 40 years, Luke simply sat and stared at the strange, chubby little man. There was a small staring contest for a few long seconds, then the man spoke. “I can only assume that you are here for processing? Give me your name, surname if you were a noble before becoming an Initiate, and class.”

Luke said nothing, so the man rolled his eyes and tried it again. “On my authority in the Kingdom, I order you to answer my questions. What is your name?”

“Luke.” Luke blinked as his mouth answered without him intending to speak.

“Surname if you were a noble?” No answer came to this one, so the Mage crossed something off and went to the next question, “What is your class?”

Still, there was no answer. There was a space for a class in Luke’s Sigil, but it had always stayed blank. As the silence stretched on and no answer was forthcoming, the Mage started to become peeved. “Are you intentionally resisting my orders?”

“No.” The answer was instant and again unintentional.

“Where are you from?”

“Here.” Luke responded honestly.

“What are you?” the Mage responded in an irritated voice.

“Powerful.”

The enchanter slapped his hand on the table, “What is your power?”

“Skill.”

“Alright, enough of this. You want to do things the hard way? Fine!” The enchanter pulled out a massive book and slapped it on the table. “What plane of existence did you go to?”

“Murder.”

“You went to murder? What does that even mean?” The Mage didn't even bother to look through the book. “Was that an action, or a place?”

“It was the world.”

“You went to Murderworld?” the Mage stared at Luke with narrowed eyes, “Was that the official name of the plane of existence you were sent to?”

“There is a space between the two words.” Luke calmly replied. “Murder. World. That is where I have been.”

“Forget this. I hope you can deal with pain.” The Mage pulled out a crystal and it instantly resonated with the Sigil on Luke's forehead. To the enchanter, the most concerning part of this process was that Luke did not utter a sound as he underwent a horrifyingly painful experience. His anger slowly started to transform into fear as the data on the crystal was updated.

Cal Scan

Level: 9

Current Etheric Xenograft Potentia: 3,333/8,900 to level 10!

Body: 30.1

Fitness: 40.2

Resistance: 20

Mind: 18.6

Talent: 16.3

Capacity: 20.9

Presence: 14.5

Willpower: 23

Charisma: 6

Senses: 22.4

Physical reaction: 27.5

Mental energy: 17.3

Maximum Health: 250

Maximum Mana: 324.2

Mana regen: 5.43 per second

“But…! You are an Initiate! You are under level ten! These numbers are literally not possible!” The Mage looked at the other information that had been pulled from the Sigil directly. “Murder World. Celestial, you weren't joking. Unknown plane of existence? That hasn't been seen in a thousand years! No class… both in the literal and,”

“... figurative.” The man paused and looked at Luke’s disgusting body with a sneer. He couldn't help but feel threatened by the man across the table from him, Luke was an anomaly, something that shouldn't exist. Beyond that, he was far stronger than the enchanter himself. “You are coated with rotting animal skins, I literally cannot tell how far under that dirt and dried blood your skin is. It looks like your eyes are peeking out through a mask!”

Silence was his only response. Luke had not been asked a question, he did not have to answer. The enchanter snorted, “typically when a new class is created, the Creator gets to name it. However, in this case I am going to just assign you a combination of your plane of existence as well as you as a person. Your class name is officially ‘Murderhobo’. I don't suppose you would like to offer a diagram design for your Sigil? Of course not-”

He was interrupted by a scrap of leather slamming onto the table in front of him. There was a symbol etched into it, but the leather itself was so filthy and soaked in blood that it was hard to make it out. Luke stabbed finger on to it, “This is all I remember of my family, this was our family crest. I want it. This can represent me.”

“I thought you said your family was not Noble?” The Mage looked at the triangular shape, it was a total of four shapes. From left to right: a diagonal line that spanned from the bottom left to the top, an arrow pointing to the left above a line that wrapped around to the center, finally ending with a line looking like a mountain peak on the right. “What is this supposed to be? A mountain range?”

“Four people in my family. Four mountains. Based on some kind of mythos about a place called Mountaindale.” Luke decided not to elaborate further, and the Mage simply rolled his eyes. 

“Alright, Your class symbol is set, your class is set, updating your Sigil now.” the enchanter specialized Mage rolled his eyes and let his Mana flow into the crystal. Unbeknownst to him, the only change in the Sigil was a cosmetic one. “As you become more powerful, and make more contributions to the Kingdom, your Sigil will gain intricacy. We hope that you have enjoyed your time here, get out. For the love of the celestials, take a shower.”

Luke stood up, then calmly turned around and kicked the table. It shattered, sending the enchanter flying through the back of the building with wooden shrapnel all around him. Only the fact that he was wearing Enchanted garb with passive protections on it kept him alive. “If you ever try to control me again, I'll crush your throat before you can get out a single syllable.”

He stepped out of the building, finding himself completely surrounded by majors and warriors with weapons and spells prepped and aimed at him. He heard the Archmage talk to a suspiciously familiar woman. 

“Well, that clearly didn’t work, any other bright ideas?”