TERAVOLL
what99
CHAPTER 1: The Encounter
* Luk: "Who still smokes nicotine these days? Everyone's on weed now."
* Edie: "Mind your own business. If I smoked that, my old man would kill me."
* Poly: "Edie scared? I thought you were so tough. You came home from a fight and challenged your old man, and now you're pretending to be scared."
* Edie: "I can take anything, but not this. My old man's been really difficult lately."
* Sury: "Why did you call us out here today?"
* Edie: "Do you guys remember that guy from our university, the one who cursed at me? Let's go beat him up today."
* Luk: "Are you crazy? He's the school's treasure! He's brought so many achievements to the school. Plus, he's got a name in the capital. Messing with him would be a huge problem."
* Edie: "What's there to be afraid of? We just need to cover our faces and wear gloves, then we're done. Just like when we beat that guy the other day."
* Luk: "This time it's different. Do you think it'll be easy to mess with him? If something happens to him, the school will call the police and track us down no matter what."
* Edie: "So what do you want now? You know my family has tons of money, right? Anyone here who wants anything, just say it, I'll help with everything, as long as you guys help me."
* Luk chuckled delightedly: "I was just waiting for you to say that. Alright, guys, get ready. If we don't help our own, who will?"
The four of them started gathering their gear. Each one put on a mask and grabbed a stick, preparing for an ambush.
Without a sound, they quietly followed Ivar, the one Edie wanted to beat.
When Ivar entered an alley, that's when the four of them began to approach.
A slight sound behind him made him reflexively turn around.
A stick came down directly on his leg, making him fall to the ground. At this point, the whole group rushed in and beat him severely. Ivar tried to shield himself with his hands but was completely overwhelmed. He could only raise his hands to his head.
Bones cracked, and blood flowed profusely all over him.
* Poly: "Good thing this guy only knows how to use his brain and not magic, otherwise we'd have a tough time."
* Edie: "Shut up and run!"
The group ran out of the alley, threw all their gear into a nearby trash can, and ran far away from that alley. After running a considerable distance, they finally stopped.
* Sury: "That was exhilarating! It's been a long time since anything was this dramatic. Guys, wanna go play cards at Ming's place? I lost so badly last time, I gotta win it back."
* Luk: "Let's go, but since we helped you today, Edie, can you give us a little something to play with?"
* Edie: "Small stuff. Since you guys helped me today, let's go all out. I'll pay for everything. We'll play all night long!"
That evening, while Edie was still out partying, someone arrived at his family's mansion.
* Dyla: "Hello, Mr. Roock Spiwell, I wonder if I could speak with you about your son..."
* Roock interrupted: "What has Edie done again, Officer?"
Roock was already too familiar with his second son causing trouble. He had sea-blue hair, a long beard, and wore a suit that enhanced his elegance. He always kept a sword by his side to guard against assassination.
* Dyla: "With all due respect, to you, one of the top 10 great families, I must inform you that your son has assaulted a rather well-known individual. He and his accomplices beat the victim almost to the point of paralysis and he is now at risk of being in a vegetative state, so I'm afraid..."
* Roock: "Can you help me contact the victim's family? Whatever compensation they want, I will pay. For now, can you just pretend nothing happened? I will 'sponsor' you and the investigators of this case to have it settled quickly, alright?"
* Dyla: "To be honest, this time it's a bit difficult, so I'll be charging a higher price than usual, okay?"
The next morning, the tall iron gate silently opened. Edie walked sluggishly through the vast garden. The air was unusually cold and silent.
He opened the living room door and saw his father sitting as if waiting for him, holding a cup of coffee, his eyes showing fatigue and anger as he looked at his son.
* Edie: "Dad, aren't you going to work today?"
* Roock: "What's the point of working when I'm dealing with your mess? Do you think you're smart? Wearing gloves so you wouldn't be exposed, did you forget you have mana? Every person has different mana. Do you think everyone's mana is the same? That's why people take their mana when they get their ID cards, you idiot!"
* Edie loudly retorted: "So, you've handled it, what else do you want?"
* Roock: "Shut up, have I given you permission to speak? Do you think what you did was right? Every time you come home, you just bring trouble. I don't know if you're even my son."
* Edie: "It's because he insulted me in front of everyone. If you were me, you'd do the same."
Roock furiously yelled: "You think you're so innocent? If you didn't do anything, why would he insult you? Anyway, I don't care what happened, this is the only time I'll help you like this. From now on, get out of my house. Live however you want, I don't care anymore. Every time you come back, I suffer, it affects my work and my money greatly."
* Edie argued back: "This is over, so let it be over. What else do you want?"
* Roock angrily: "What do I want? I want you out of my house so I can see how you live. What can a good-for-nothing like you do? At 20 years old, what have you done for this family? You're just an idiot, lucky to live in a good environment, but what can you do out on the streets? Nothing at all!"
* Edie gritted his teeth, his eyes red with anger: "You think I'm useless, living off your money? Fine, I'm leaving then. Don't you dare beg me to come back."
* Roock scoffed: "I was waiting for you to say that. Go on, live well and see if any of your friends help you."
Edie pushed the door open and left. The first thing he did after leaving was to go play with his friends.
* Sury: "Aren't you going back to apologize to your old man?"
* Edie: "Why should I apologize? I'll show my old man that I'm not useless."
After he said that, the faces of Edie's friends changed slightly.
* Edie: "I still have money. Where should we go play now?"
* Luk: "The casino! You can win a lot of money there. Go play and win some, then you can hold your head high and curse at your old man."
The next morning, Edie, a man with no family, no friends, and no money, was sleeping on the sidewalk, enduring the biting cold.
His friends ignored his plight, some even turned their backs on him, showing no respect and chasing him away when he asked to stay.
Because he had a reputation for being a party animal and troublemaker, no one dared to hire him when he sought work.
When people heard he was kicked out of his house and had no money left, they even badmouthed him in front of his face. Those who he had humiliated before also beat him up countless times. After all, most people in this capital city hated him.
Unable to bear the humiliation, he decided to live in the forest north of the city for a while. But because he hadn't studied properly, he didn't know that place was full of dangerous creatures.
After walking for half a day in the forest, he found a rather large two-story wooden house. To the right was a storage shed.
* Edie shouted loudly: "Is anyone here?"
* Hakan: "Of course there is, otherwise how would this place be intact here?"
Hakan was a man nearly two meters tall, with a muscular, sculpted physique. His body was covered in scars, like a map of survival battles. His long hair was disheveled, his beard thick, and his eyes were cold as if he had seen too much death. He looked like a wild survivor from an ancient era, both frightening and strangely captivating.
* Edie hesitantly: "Can I stay here for a while?"
* Hakan smiled: "Sure, if you're not afraid to die, then stay."
Before he could reply, Edie's eyes swayed, his head spun. His body was exhausted because he had smelled a faint poisonous plant on the way here, causing him to collapse.
....
When Edie opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a simple wooden bed, covered with a thick, warm blanket. The room was dark, with only the flickering firelight from the fireplace dancing on the ceiling. His head was still spinning. He turned and saw Hakan sitting beside him.
* Hakan softly said: "So weak, and you want to survive in the forest?"
* Edie: "I pretended to faint just to make you a hero."
* Hakan: "That's a bit funny. Come on out and eat dinner."
* Edie wondered: "Why aren't we eating inside the house, but outside?"
* Hakan laughed: "I like eating outside, okay? If not, then don't eat."
Without waiting for Edie's answer, Hakan stepped outside. Edie rolled off the bed, his legs still trembling slightly, but curiosity pulled him to his feet, following the strange man's footsteps out of the wooden house.
Outside, dusk had fallen. A crude wooden table was placed under the canopy of an ancient tree. On the table were a hot pot of soup, smoked meat, and a rather large wolf being roasted.
The smell of cooking smoke still lingered in the air, mingling with the damp scent of the forest.
Hakan poured soup into two wooden bowls, pushing one towards Edie:
"Just eat. It's not poisoned."
* Edie: "Thanks."
Hakan didn't reply, just nodded and continued eating. Both fell silent for a while, with only the sound of the wind and a few lost birds flying by.
Edie looked up at the man opposite him, with his large frame, hair disheveled as if wind-tossed all day, and eyes unreadable behind the hazy smoke. Although there was something wild about him, he wasn't necessarily evil.
* Edie: "Have you lived here long?"
* Hakan: "Quite a long time. I live here for peace of mind."
* Edie: "Why did you let me stay? To have someone for company?"
* Hakan: "I just simply wanted to help."
Edie laughed: "You look like a murderer, yet you're a good person."
* Hakan: "I was once on the battlefield, so it's natural for me to have many scars and a face like this that looks scary. But why are you wandering in this forest?"
Upon hearing that question, he immediately became unhappy and recounted to him about an uncaring father, deceitful friends, and those who badmouthed him.
Through his words, he greatly embellished the story, telling it as if his actions were not wrong and what others did was wrong.
* Hakan scoffed: "I don't think you're that famous young master people have been talking about lately. No wonder you ran out here."
* Edie frowned: "What do you mean?"
* Hakan: "I don't mean anything. I just think that with your background, you should be well-behaved and very capable. Not an idiot and a good-for-nothing. Maybe you're not even his biological son?"
* Edie angrily: "What do you know? How can you know what suffering I've had to go through?"
* Hakan: "Calm down, you're still staying and eating at my place."
* Edie: "You think I need you that much? I don't, okay? I can live by myself."
Finishing his sentence, he turned and ran straight into the forest, leaving Hakan's calm gaze behind.
* Hakan sighed: "Still far from it. This kid will need a lot of training later."
It was completely dark. The trees were pitch black like ghosts, and the wind whistled through the leaves like whispers of death. Edie went deeper into the forest, filled with resentment and bruised pride. The further he went, the more tired he felt, perhaps because he hadn't fully recovered, or because the abandoned dinner was punishing his empty stomach.
Then, rustle! A strange sound came from the bushes.
Edie froze, his hand clutching the small knife in his pocket. But before he could pull it out, whoosh! A black, oily object lunged forward, coiling around his leg, dragging him a few meters.
It was a giant snake, about 16-17 meters long, with glowing yellow eyes that seemed to want to swallow his soul whole. It tightened around Edie's body, making his bones crack. He struggled, thrashed, desperately.
It pressed close to Edie. The distance was less than a meter. The fishy and cold smell emanating from its mouth made him dizzy.
In that instant, he pulled out his dagger, let out a scream, and plunged it straight into the snake's eye!
A terrifying hiss echoed. The snake thrashed violently, throwing him away like a toy. Edie's body slammed hard against a tree, excruciatingly painful. His ears rang, his vision blurred.
But he had no time to lie there and ran back towards Hakan. At this point, he dared not delay, not caring if the snake was still chasing him.
Just to live.
Just... to get back to that wooden house.
A long, ragged wound on his hip, blood soaking his shirt. Each step felt like a knife cut, but a flickering light appeared in the darkness.
Edie almost collapsed on the steps of the wooden house. Blood still flowed from his wound, his face pale, breathing in ragged gasps as if about to expire. He weakly knocked on the door, and then behind him... a chilling hiss echoed again.
The snake had caught up.
Its gigantic shadow writhed among the trees, its tongue sweeping the ground, its eyes burning with anger and bloodlust. It slithered towards Edie, as if it had already locked onto its prey.
The door burst open. Hakan stood there, watching, without a word, without weapons or roars. Simply a cold gaze looking at the snake, asserting his territory.
The snake froze. Its bloodshot eyes met that gaze for a brief second, but it seemed to be suppressed by centuries of killing intent.
It retreated. Its huge body gradually contracted, then it turned and left, slithering deep into the forest as if it had never appeared.
The faint light of dawn pierced through the thick curtains, casting into the small wooden room. Edie stirred slightly. A sharp pain shot from his shoulder down his back, making him grit his teeth, a soft groan escaping his lips.
His whole body ached as if he had been run over by a car. Every slight movement brought with it a tingling and burning sensation. He tried to sit up but had to prop himself up with his hands several times to get his upper body partially upright.
* Hakan: "Don't move. I'm enhancing your physical body."
* Edie: "Enhancing how? It hurts like hell! And why are you enhancing me? All I see are some bandages wrapped around me."
* Hakan: "You have too many impurities inside you, so while you were sleeping, I forced them out. That's why you're aching so much now."
Hakan pulled a small bottle of gray pills from his pocket.
* Hakan: "Drink this for the pain."
* Edie: "Will I die if I drink this?"
* Hakan: "Who knows."
Edie swallowed the pill, its bitterness made him shiver, his face scrunching up as if he had eaten rotten fruit.
A few minutes later, the aching throughout his body gradually subsided. It was like something warm spread through his bloodstream, making his body feel lighter, easier to breathe.
* Hakan: "How are you feeling?"
* Edie: "Less pain, but why is the medicine so bitter?"
Sitting in the morning sun, the forest held a peace utterly different from the night. Tall trees rustled, birds chirped clearly, and the air was so fresh that Edie almost forgot he had been thrown into a tree by a giant snake last night.
* Edie awkwardly: "Why did you help me, after I had such a bad attitude towards you?"
* Hakan: "Because I'm trying to be a good person. No matter who passes through this place, I'm always willing to help."
* Edie: "My head feels weird when I'm outside."
* Hakan: "Relax, your body is adapting to the environment."
After that, he began to explain why Edie had been so severely injured the previous day that he almost lost his life.
He had been poisoned by the spines on the scales of the Medas snake, an extremely dangerous species.
Its venom spreads very quickly, gradually causing the human body to lose vital functions if not treated promptly.
With such a level of intoxication, Hakan was forced to destroy his mana core.
Because if the poison seeped into the core, even if cured, the consequences would still be very serious: at best, a vegetative state, at worst, death.
Destroying the mana core meant one thing: he would no longer be able to use mana.
Zen Blood is an evil liquid forbidden in the kingdom of Kermlor (humanity). It can restore and enhance physical strength for a short time, but at the same time, it will overwhelm reason, causing the user to be controlled by the dark side of their mind. For mages who use mana, Zen Blood can also disrupt the body's balance, leading to serious consequences.
* Edie: "You put Zen Blood in me? Will the police find out if they test me, and will I go crazy?"
* Hakan: "Don't worry, your blood absorbed it normally, as if nothing happened."
Normally, anyone who comes into contact with Zen Blood would experience excruciating pain that could deform their body. However, Edie strangely absorbed it with almost no negative reactions.
Witnessing this, Hakan couldn't help but suspect.
"Does this body truly possess the prestigious Spiwell bloodline?"
However, he immediately dismissed that speculation. Because even though his eyes could see through bloodlines and energy within people, Edie bore no trace of Drack's power – the supreme dark magic.
This abnormality made Hakan even more wary. For if Edie did not belong to the Spiwell family, then who was he, after all... and what did he carry within him?
* Edie: "But you destroyed my core, so how is that an upgrade?"
* Hakan: "You just don't know. Someone like you can still use Nifow."
* Edie: "What's that?"
The Kalu race (humans) once dominated the world with Nifow, a power likened to the mana of warriors.
They conquered every land they passed through, forcing the entire world to form an alliance to eradicate them.
They were almost extinct, but Nifow was not. Today, major families around the world still quietly pass down Nifow. They don't want it to be widely known, so they erased it from history.
To them, Nifow is a secret weapon used in silent wars, in unexpected conspiracies.
* Edie excitedly: "So, will you teach me?"
* Hakan: "Perhaps, but first, your character needs to be reformed."
—End of Chapter—