章 1: Strange Occurrence
"Just stab its eye and dig as deep as you can and you'll puncture the brain." A middle-aged man outfitted in a military uniform spoke to a 17-year-old next to him as he pointed at a mutated boar lying on the ground as its breath became quieter and quieter indicating its life fading.
The boy stood before the somewhat dead boar, he couldn't help but notice the way its fur glistened in the sunlight that filtered through the trees. The boar was a magnificent creature, with sharp tusks and a muscular build. But the boy felt no emotion as he looked upon it, his eyes conveying only indifference. His face remained calm and collected, with no hint of fear or excitement. Despite this, the boy's heart beat steadily in his chest, a testament to the inner turmoil he was experiencing, as he stood before the dying boar, he knew that he could no longer escape his fate. It wasn't just the fact that the boy didn't care about the boar's death, or that he took pleasure in killing none of it mattered to him.
Rather, it was for another reason entirely.
The boy held a katana in his right hand, its blade glinting menacingly, as he approached the battered boar. As he drew nearer, he steadily squatted down, his eyes never leaving the boar's slightly lackluster gaze, as if assessing its remaining strength.
Then, in one swift, fluid motion, he thrust the blade of his sword into the boar's eye, piercing its brain and killing it instantly.
[You have successfully killed an abomination. Your spiritual roots will be decided in two hours based on your life experiences.]
A message appeared on a floating screen in front of the boy that only he could see, and as soon as that message appeared, the boy's face remained calm as he unsheathed his sword from the boar's eyes and wiped off the blood using his thigh, and stood up.
"Anything?" the soldier asked.
"Yeah." the boy said as he looked at the soldier.
"Nice. How long until your spiritual roots will be decided?" the soldier asked, as his partner began to butcher the boar removing its profitable parts.
"Two hours."
"That's good. Neither long nor short, but there's no doubt you'll get something useful." the soldier said with a smile, before helping his partner with gathering the materials.
The boy watched from afar as his indifferent gaze watched their every movement to learn the butchering process to gather materials, due to the next time he was out here he would be alone.
The boy's name was Reacher; Jack Reacher, but everyone always called him Reacher.
Reacher lived in a world that was invaded by monsters better yet known as abominations two-hundred and fifty years ago, causing the world to fall into utter pandemonium as the earth began to expand in size.
To deal with these abominations, multiple governments began calling everyone including reserves and citizens to help deal with them, but while the fragile weak abominations would die to bullets or cold weapons; the more powerful terrifying abominations needed something way tougher to kill them.
As the years passed and humanity along with the economy of the world began to deteriorate until by the grace of fate; two years after the arrival of abominations soldiers and people who killed monsters began to awaken special abilities that came straight from a fantasy.
These abilities were able to evolve enough so they were able to kill and fight the more powerful abominations.
Hence the government of the world's major countries called these people [Cultivators] because they used Qi from Heaven and Earth to hunt and protect.
Even people who weren't military were able to use Qi and fight abominations.
To encourage people, the government began to harvest and buy valuable monster parts, thus giving birth to a new era that was extremely dangerous but very profitable specialization.
This new era also gave birth to a new association called the 'Cultivators Association.'
Those who didn't want to be a part of a military force were able to join the Cultivator's Association or they were allowed to create their own Sects.
The world itself stopped growing after two hundred years until it grew ten times bigger creating a super-earth.
As the world stopped growing, something magical happened, and it was named [Evolution Day]
The day was like no other day in history, and it is still remembered vividly by all who witnessed it. The sky was the first to change, and four moons appeared, creating a breathtaking scene that left everyone in awe.
These moons were not like any other moons they had ever seen before. They were large, and their colors were vibrant and mesmerizing. The four moons appeared to be dancing in unison, and their movements were in perfect harmony. As the day progressed, something even more incredible happened. The four moons collided together, creating a mega-moon that was larger than anyone had ever seen before.
The pressure created by the four moons was too much for the mega moon to handle, and it broke apart. But this was just the beginning of the magic. From the broken mega moon, two large moons emerged. One was a beautiful shade of blue, and the other was a deep, rich purple.
These moons were so large that they could be seen during the daytime, and they lit up the sky with their radiant glow.
The blue moon was like a sapphire in the sky, and the purple moon was like an amethyst.
It was as if the universe had created these moons just for the people of this world to enjoy, and Evolution Day became a day that no one would ever forget.
------------
Children who once dreamed of being actors, singers, and lawyers, entrepreneurs now dreamed of one thing, becoming Cultivators.
Becoming powerful cultivators so they would become famous and gain enormous wealth.
Reacher was unfortunately also a part of this generation, when he was younger he also dreamed of becoming a powerful, famous, and rich cultivator; mainly due to his older sister who had become a powerful cultivator with an extremely high rank in the army.
Unfortunately, she had disappeared while entering a Cardinal Level Area [C.L.A]
Naturally, both Reacher and his family were devastated by this news, this made Reacher less happy and colder but it grew his conviction to become a cultivator in order to take care of his parents.
Unfortunately, due to the tragedy of what happened to their daughter Reacher's parents died a few years later due to depression. Leaving Reacher alone in this world, making him lose everything he once dreamed of.
He didn't care about becoming a cultivator anymore or more importantly didn't want to.
Being all alone in this world he grew cold and indifferent until he simply became indifferent to everything, and as he accepted everything that befell him, as he simply became an ocean of calmness and indifference.
Though as much as he wanted to remain normal and live a boring life; he was... a Reacher.
So Reacher took his first step towards becoming a cultivator, and in order to do that he needed to kill an abomination.
And since he already did that, he would have to wait two hours to know what his Spiritual Roots would be.
Reacher knew that since his sister had a very powerful Spiritual Root, then there would be a chance he would too, unfortunately.
While normal people had to venture out of cities alone to kill abominations or pay cultivators to protect them, army soldiers had a duty to help other soldiers' families 'awaken', so for Reacher, it was much easier especially since his sister's rank was high.
Usually, this is a task given to the family members themselves, but with what had happened to Reacher's sister, other soldiers were sent to help him in her place.
Especially since there ever was a chance of her returning no matter how slim, they didn't want to be on the receiving end of her wraith.
She was technically an unstoppable demon when she became enraged.
The soldiers' job was to disassemble the boar quickly, as this was just a Bronze 1 Star abomination, one of the weakest abominations out there, which made this type of abomination ideal for helping ordinary people awaken.
The only truly valuable thing on this boar was the tusks, which could be sold for around 200 Credits to anyone interested in making a weapon; the rest was practically useless.
The meat from abominations was not edible for humans, but other monsters could eat it and get stronger, so they just left the boar corpse there so as not to completely mess up the abomination ecosystem in that location.
After all, it was one of the best places to awaken people.
After dissecting the boar the group started walking back.
"Remember, even if your spiritual root isn't that powerful initially, don't give up and build your foundation little by little. One day you might be able to become an Earth Spirit Realm Cultivator or even a Heavenly Spirit Realm Cultivator." the Soldier said to Reacher with a smile on his face.
The soldier himself was an Intricate Elementary Spirit Realm, which meant he was at the 5th minor stage. After reaching the 5th minor stage in a Major Realm, a person would only need to make one more breakthrough before moving up to a Profound Spirit Realm Cultivator, which would give a significant improvement to that person's strength, as well as the ability to bring up their Status and many other bonuses afforded to humanity, then this would continue until they became Peak Profound Spirit Realm Cultivator but most people never managed to achieve this in their lifetime, obliged to remain an Intricate Elementary Spirit Realm Cultivator for the rest of their lives.
All minor stages went as follows:
[Initial]
[Early]
[Middle]
[High]
[Intricate]
[Peak]
"Un!" Reacher nodded and gave them a dazzling smile as he was not worried about it.
After walking a while they arrived back at the city.
"Good! If you ever need anything just reach out to me. When I was younger your sister saved my ass. Of course, with her insane strength and talent, I wasn't able to reciprocate the debt, but for you, I can be helpful even if it is for a short time." The man bowed and gave Reacher a smile before he and his partner walked away.
Reacher's smile vanished as an indifferent look dawned on him.
"It's such a pain putting on a fake face," Reacher mumbled as he started walking.
After walking for a couple of minutes, his eyes fixed on the path ahead, he finally arrived at his destination. It was a single house that stood alone, surrounded by the most beautiful purple trees he had ever seen. The trees were so vibrant, so full of life, that they seemed to glow in the sunlight. The house itself was small, but luxurious, as his sister was never a very materialistic person but the house was paid off by the military because of his sister.
He was also given the rest of her paycheck as she even though missing still held her rank as they never found her body and considering how big the world is it was not unnatural for people to be gone for long periods, stuck somewhere.
So he was never tight on money, he was quite rich actually but he never used the money and never moved, as very deep in his heart in the very depth there was still hope... hope that she would return.
Reacher somewhat followed in her footsteps and never lived a very luxurious life even though he could if he wanted to.
He spent most of his time reading or surfing the internet and looking at research about evolving and becoming stronger.
When he was younger he begged his sister to teach him how to fight, at first she didn't want to as she wanted to spend all her free time playing with him, but after constant begging, she agreed. Hence even though Reacher didn't want to become a cultivator he never stopped his combat training always trying to improve in combat.
Reacher willed the screen to appear.
[You have successfully killed an abomination. Your spiritual roots will be decided in one hour and twelve minutes based on your life experiences.]
It only took the group 50 minutes to get back from where they were until they got home, so there was still a little time left. In that remaining time, Reacher decided to take a hot shower and watch some videos on the couch in the living room about Awakened to try and make time go by faster. Unfortunately, he got bored pretty fast as he just kept looking at the time as the child part of him that was still in him buried deep in his soul couldn't hold the anticipation and excitement it held.
After what seemed like an eternity, Reacher couldn't take it anymore as his mind started to become heavy as if weight was being slowly added onto his brain giving him a slight headache, which caused him to release a sigh as he looked at the coffee table in front of him revealing a pair of black headphones, looking at them a slight smile crept onto his face as he grabbed the pair of headphones.
The headphones always held significant importance to him, his sister got these on his birthday as a present.
He always loved music so he always wore them just listening to music, unfortunately, he couldn't take them earlier because of the dangerous environment around him.
Putting on the pure black headphones he felt his mind and body relax instantly as the music started to subtly play
Feeling the weight disappear made his mood lighten up considerably as he stood up slightly stretching he walked into his kitchen and found a dirty plate and glass.
Reacher always had slight OCD, so he started washing the pair of utensils calmly, after a few seconds he finished washing the plate and started putting it on the plate on the dish rack next to him.
Unfortunately, he was so engrossed in his music he accidentally forgot about the glass next to him causing him to slightly bump the glass knocking it over.
- Shatter!
The glass broke on the floor causing a few pieces of glass to break.
Reacher looked at the broken glass before putting the plate away and focused his attention on the broken glass once again.
He bent down and started picking up the pieces carefully, after picking up the pieces he walked towards the dining table a few feet away from him. He put the pieces of glass on the table before walking to a drawer in the kitchen and taking out super glue.
He walked back to the table and started gluing the glass together carefully piece by piece.
Thankfully the glass didn't shatter into very small pieces so he was able to fix the glass perfectly.
After fixing the glass Reacher looked at how much time he needed left.
[You have successfully killed an abomination. Your talent will be decided in three minutes based on your life experiences.]
There were only a few minutes left. Unfortunately, Reacher couldn't help but feel excited, but when he looked again, the message changed to something strange.
The letters would increase in speed or decrease in speed or at times certain letters would stop while the others kept going.
"What's happening?"
Reacher couldn't think of a reason why this was happening and he knew searching online would be useless.
As he was helpless, he could only wait.
[You have... SuCeSsFuLly..... dellik a.... monster. YOuR Sp...ri...ual... RoOtS wiLl Beeee deeecided innnn OooonnneeEe miNuteeEeee bAsED oooon yoUr liFe eXpErIEeeNceeeSsss.]
週次パワーステータス
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