SYSTEM ASCENSION

FLASHBACK

The window was particularly too high for a four year old, but no one seem to care. Maidens were stationed in the room, only to watch from the rare moments where the boy would need their help.

He stood by the tall window, eyes watching some point ahead. The door behind opened, and a woman in a veil came in.

"Elias."

The maidens bowed.

He turned around.

"Mother."

She waved at him. "Come here. Me and your father has someone to show you."

He left the window and went to her. She led him outside the room, out the hallway to the yard.

His eyes settled on the people in the yard, whispering and smiling. "What is it mother?"

"Patient Elias." She tap his head, and lead him to a woman.

"Greetings, young Lord," the woman bowed.

He wasn’t looking at her. He was already tilting his head, usually bored eyes widening in curiousity.

"We brought you a playmate." His mother said.

The woman stepped out of the way, revealing a boy who was trying to crawl away from them.

"Roche! What are you doing?!" His mother gasped.

"Mother!" The boy was already in tears. "The young Lord is scary! Find another playmate for him."

"Roche, we talked about this!"

"No. You didn’t tell me it was him!" Roche retorted. "Did you see what he did to that crawler yesterday?! I don’t want to die!"

The adults exchanged glances, expecting Elias to walk away the usual way, but he just stood there.

After Roche had crawl a reasonable pace away, Elias finally moved towards him. He caught the child by the hair, and began to pull him away.

"Nooooo! Mother save me!"

Both mothers just waved with a smile.

"Motherrrrrrrrrr!"

___

"I missed you! My Lord!"

Elias shoved his face.

"I thought you were going to flee again."

"I’m not six year old."

"Why are you here?"

"A ray of light brought me here."

Roche disengaged from him, and gave a sheepishly smile.

"You have no idea how happy I was when I saw you a week ago."

"I’m not happy to see you." Elias turned away.

"I know you’re lying." Roche sneaked a hand around his neck. "Where have you been? We have been searching for you."

"Searching for me?" He frowned. "Didn’t you thought I was dead?"

Roche scoffed. He raised his knuckles and strike the cracked necklace around Elias’s neck. It emitted light and went still.

"Did you forget the use of this? Your vital signal still burn in the black empire. Although faint."

Elias who didn’t even know what was the use of it just nodded.

"By the way," Roche released him and came to his front. "What artifact did you pick?"

"Artifact?"

Roche summoned the screen and pointed. "The second reward. We were allowed to pick an artifact that matches our ability." He streched his hand. "I got this bracelet that let me copy a person ten times faster."

"...oh."

"So what did you pick?"

Elias summoned the system, but the only thing displayed was his information.

[World 0252: Qld]

[Name: Elias Morail]

[Age: 13]

[Height: 4’11"]

[Weight: 30kg]

[Species: human]

[Occupation: S rank raider]

[Status: player]

[Ability: creation]

Beneath the information was the inventory, which he checked to be empty.

"I didn’t get anything."

"What?" Roche peeped at his system, squinting his eyes like he could see it. Then, he waved at the air after failed attempts.

"You didn’t get a reward?"

"No."

"Did you do something bad?"

"Not that I know of."

Roche stared at him a bit longer, then shrugged with an infuriating smirk. "The system doesn’t like your face?"

Elias instantly created a dagger.

"Wait! Sorry!"

Five minutes later, they sat by the water. Elias had taken off his clothes, tossing them away, and submerged himself into the water for a full bath, while Roche sat at the edge, legs in, while he comb Elias’s tangled hair.

"People are here. Why did you take off all your clothes?" Roche kept complaining as he cast glares at the people murmuring around.

"What’s there to hide?" He snorted. "The strangest part is where you got a comb from."

"I was holding it before I came here. Figured I’d just keep it."

"Elias!" Laura’s voice suddenly pulled their attention.

The rest of the team came out of a space between two trees. Quil carried Yvonne on his back.

"He’s here!" She ran forward, only to stop when she met the ridiculous scene.

"Who the hell is this?! And why are you naked?!"

Yvonne snapped out of her thoughts. Her eyes found it’s way to Elias, and then the stranger taming his hair.

She was off Quil’s back in a second, flying at Roche with a jump kick. The latter dodged and fell into the water.

"Elias! Are you okay?! Did he kidnap you?!"

"Kidnap him my ass!" Roche retorted. He kick off the water and crawled out. "Am I going to kidnap him with a comb?!"

He stepped forward.

"I should have eliminated you! How dare you use your sinking ability on my Lord’s hands?!"

Yvonne shrunk back.

"He put his hand..."

"Excuses!"

"You look like him." Laura muttered.

"We’re cousins." Elias replied. He casually stepped out of the water.

"My Lord!" Roche covered him. "Wear your clothes!"

The rest shut their eyes, expect Yvonne.

As soon as Elias began to wear his clothes, Roche nagged at her.

"What are you trying to see?! You two faced short girl!"

She snorted.

"It’s not like I haven’t seen it numerous times."

"WHATTTTTTTTTTTT?!"

"That’s enough." Quil cut in. "We have a problem. We haven’t seen Roche anywhere."

Roche looked away and began to whistle.

"Yeah. People are already searching for camping spot. I suggest we do the same. First we need to find him." Lisa nodded.

Elias pulled the hood over his head, before pointing.

"This is Roche."

Collective glance at him.

"Am talking about the Roche on our team." Quil muttered.

Roche fold his lip.

"I’m Roche. B rank. Ability, Copy. The face you saw was the first person that died in the first trial."

They gasped.

"You copied the ability and face?" Laura dashed forward.

"Yes." He moved back.

"How long does the ability stays?" Quil asked.

"Since the owner is dead. About a year or more? A month if the person is alive."

"That’ll come in handy." Lisa nodded.

"Now our problem on camping." Laura said. "We need a—"

System notification.

[Natalie Naya]

[Kill count: 40]

A moment of silence followed.

"We need to avoid that one too." Roche muttered. "We don’t want to run into a nutj..."

They all glanced at Elias. The one with the biggest kill count in the desert.

He turned away.

"To avoid those Serpentiles, we have to return to the safe zone."

"What?"

He pointed to the far end, where the desert was located.

"We’re going back there."

Every human in the cave reacted.

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