Lucius awoke with a loud gasp as he found himself in an unfamiliar place. His eyes widened as he tried to figure out where he was and why he was here exactly, and as if a switch had been switched on, all his memories came back to him.
'Wait, is this hell!?' Lucius thought
He was currently floating in what looked like the ocean but the difference was that this 'ocean' wasn't on earth and was dark red, almost crimson. There was also no clear blue sky either as the sky….. Well there wasn't really a sky, instead there was a giant red eye that was gazing down at everything.
Around the eye was just ... .darkness, Lucius didn't find it as dark as the void and for some reason, he didn't feel like he should be cautious towards whatever this eye was. He felt an evil and malevolent presence when staring at the eye, the evil presence it gave off would make Nemur's feel like the aura of a child.
But surprisingly he also felt a protective and loving feeling emanating off of it, it was slightly confusing, having something radiating the most evil and terrifying presence ever and at the same time also giving off a loving and caring vibe.
Nonetheless, Lucius still decided to move with caution since he knew nothing about where he was. Lucius lifted his arms and started swimming forward, what surprised him was the amount of force his little arms could generate and the speed at which he could swim.
Lucius guessed that he could probably swim at least ten times faster than the best Olympic swimmers, this surprised Lucius and made him even more cautious because by merely being reborn he was already in the realm of the superhuman, and from the size of his body he was merely a newly born demon.
The sight of something new up ahead caused Lucius to pause his thinking as he finally found something that wasn't just an endless ocean, quickly swimming even faster, Lucius made his way to the shore in five minutes.
He pulled himself out of the water and started to analyze his surroundings, looking from left to right. There was sand beneath his feet, but unlike earth's pretty white sand this sand was instead dark red, like nearly everything else in this dimension. It gave off a very warm and comfortable feeling just like the water he was in previously.
If Lucius were to put a comparison to it, it would be as if he was laying in a bath of warm water back on earth, nice and comfortable. Other than the sand beneath his feet, there were large patches of black rock that produced magma, so basically a permanently active volcano.
[You have been gifted a Status by the entity called Nemur, God Of Potential and Chaos]
[Please call out the word 'Status' in any language to access your Status]
'A Status? What does it mean exactly? An overview of myself or…?'
'Hmm, I don't know what this is exactly nor what it could do to me.'
'Its best to find a safe place then follow the instructions of whatever it is that just spoke in my head.'
Following that thought, Lucius cautiously walked up to the nearest volcano, hoping his hypothesis was correct.
'If i'm right, then the lava shouldnt burn me or at least it shouldn't be hot enough to burn me.' Lucius thought
'The red ocean that I was apparently reborn in had extreme amounts of steam coming out of it, it was literally boiling, it's probably way higher than 100 degrees too. And all I felt was a comfortable warmth.'
'I doubt this water is just comfortable to demons, it's most likely that demons are just tough enough to actually withstand this level of heat, I mean I could go literal superhuman levels of speed while swimming.'
'It wouldn't be far-fetched to assume demons are extremely heat resistant.'
Making his way to the volcano, Lucius managed to find a small hole in the volcano that had just enough room for him to stay, the volcanoes were huge, if a single one of these volcanoes were to suddenly appear on earth Lucius didn't think earth would last more than a month.
*sizzle*
A small drop of lava fell on his shoulder and started burning and sizzling his skin. Luckily for Lucius it wasn't that bad, it was bearable and he could brush off the lava if too much dropped on him.
'That little drop of lava would have probably melted off a regular human's shoulder, but for me it isn't so bad.'
Lucius finally settled into the small crevice of the volcano, shrouded in the glowing warmth of the magma. The heat enveloped him like a protective cocoon, still slightly painful but protective nonetheless and he found himself surprisingly relaxed, almost nestled in his own fiery embrace.
'Okay.' Lucius thought
'Let's figure out what this "Status" is all about. I need to know what I can do in this realm.'
Lucius calmed himself, hoping he wasn't about to accidentally kill himself by doing this. He chose to trust the fact that Nemur didn't instantly kill him even though he very easily could as reassurance of the choice he was about to make.
Aligning his thoughts, Lucius took a deep breath and focused.
"Status." Lucius said softly
Suddenly, a holographic panel display appeared before him, it was very gamelike in its appearance and had a light purple colour. Lucius' heart started to beat slightly faster as he wasn't exactly expecting something like this to appear.
[Status]
[Name: Lucius]
[Race: Demon}
[Age: 39]
[Rank: Infant Demon]
[Bloodline: ???]
[Strength: 2]
[Speed: 3]
[Durability: 1]
[Perception: 2]
[Demon Energy: 5/5]
[Skills]
Active Skills: Mental Blankness(lvl 1)
Passive Skills: Heat Resistance(lvl 1) Fire Resistance(lvl 1) Void Touched(lvl 1) Progenitor(???)
[Status End]
What Lucius saw when he said Status was both worrying and confusing, firstly, his stats were pitifully low. He vividly remembered him swimming at speeds that would blitz a literal olympic swimmer. And secondly, he had skills he didn't quite understand, he knew what a progenitor is, it was a person or thing from which something originates or descended from.
But what was he the progenitor of exactly?
What also confused him was the question marks beside the skill Progenitor, it had no level and Lucius had no idea what he could do to make it level up.
Void touched seemed self explanatory to Lucius as he was quite literally stuck in the void for over ten years, but he still didn't know explicitly what the skill did, all the other skills were either self explanatory or he already knew what they did.
Lucius was secretly relieved he could still enter the state of mental blankness whenever he needed to as he knew nothing of this realm and needed any advantage he could get.
Suddenly, that same robotic voice once again echoed inside Lucius's head.
[Please Create a Last Name to gain a level in the skill "Progenitor"]
Lucius blinked in surprise as the voice resonated in his mind. The notion of creating a last name felt oddly monumental for some reason, back on earth, getting a last name was important but there was a sudden feeling that came over Lucius as soon as he heard those words from the mechanical voice in his head.
He had the sudden realization that not choosing a last name might have extreme negative consequences and so he began to think. He began to think about what he wanted his last name to be, he didn't want it to sound lame or overly majestic, especially because right now he was just a weak low level demon.
[Depending on the meaning of your last name, your bloodline will gain abilities related to that name]
Once again the voice echoed inside his head, seemingly being able to read his thoughts. He was a little annoyed at this but realised there was nothing he could do about it for now, and whether or not Nemur was planning anything, he had helped him.
Lucius chuckled, suddenly thinking about the face of dread many of his victims would make whenever he allowed them to see him. It was satisfying, knowing that at the mere sight of you, you could make someone's face morph into a face of dread.
And so Lucius decided
"My last name will be Dreadcloak." Lucius whispered
As soon as Lucius said those words a searing hot pain came over him, causing him to grit his teeth as he endured. It wasn't nearly as painful as the madness causing pain he had experienced from the void, but it was painful nonetheless.
Quickly, Lucius entered a meditative position as he tried to calm himself. He knew he could just enter the state of mental blankness but didnt know what consequences that would have on whatever was happening inside his body so he held off on that.
…
About five minutes after Lucius had entered the meditative stance the pain he was feeling slowly started to recede, to acceptable levels at first until the pain was just completely gone.
And as soon as the pain was completely gone the familiar mechanical voice of the status echoed inside his head once again. Something else also started to happen as Lucius could feel something manifesting in the center of his back, he couldn't see it but somehow knew the exact thing that was on his back.
He also realised that three new skills appeared on his status sheet as he hadn't dismissed it yet.
[You have chosen the last name, "Dreadcloak"]
[You have gained the skill Self-Shadow Manipulation]
[You have gained the skill Shadow Corruption]
[You have gained the skill Dread Inducement]
[These are bloodline skills and as such do not require demon energy to be used, it instead uses the very essence of your being, Infernal Essence]
[Your essence is regenerated especially fast and can use these skills for a long while]
[Status]
[Name: Lucius Dreadcloak]
[Race: Demon]
[Age: 39]
[Rank: Infant Demon]
[Bloodline: Dreadcloak(Progenitor)
[Strength: 2.5
[Speed: 3.5
[Durability: 2]
[Perception: 3]
[Demon Energy: 5/5]
[Infernal Essence: 1000]
[Skills]
Active Skills: Mental Blankness(lvl 1) Self-Shadow Manipulation(lvl1) Dread Inducement(lvl1) Shadow Corruption(lvl1)
Passive Skills: Heat Resistance(lvl 1) Fire Resistance(lvl 1) Void Touched(lvl 1) Progenitor(lvl1)