By the time the morning sun climbed over the jagged treeline, my shirt was already hanging from a branch and sweat rolled down my chest. I drove the makeshift spear forward, wood cracking against stone-hard bark.
Thrust.
Slash.
Flick.
Again. Again. A thousand repetitions in two days. My palms burned, blisters forming and hardening, but the rhythm soothed me. Each motion was cleaner, sharper. Even the tree had started to show dents where none should've been possible.
That was when the notification popped.
[Congratulations! You have obtained the skill: Basic Spearmanship.]
I blinked. The words hovered in front of me, then dissolved into light that sank into my head. Heat flooded my mind, knowledge not my own arranging itself into stances, footwork, and grip. Just like that, I knew the basics. Not just swinging blindly at a tree—spearmanship.
I whispered for my status screen.
Skills
Core Skills
[Helios's Stars] (Heritage of Helios)
Common Skills
[Basic Spearmanship] (New!)
A neat little division.
"Looks like it worked," I laid down my makeshift spear, and glanced over at the roughed palm of my hands. It was weird to think that I was now in this homunculus body, or that I was in the world of my own novel, or even that I possessed the core of a dead god inside me.
And yet, despite the core inside me, I couldn't exactly use it yet since I didn't have the aura or mana circuits inside me. Sure, I had enough aura/mana for them to be quantified as Rank IX, but that just showcased how strong Helios's Core was, to even give off enough mana and aura despite me possessing absolutely no mana nor aura circuits at all since I had broken out of my cage prematurely.
A decision I'd still make if given the choice again.
"[Helios's Stars]," I intoned, as a single black dot first appeared in front of me. It looked like a fleck of dust, until heat started warping around it, before growing in size as a 'star' the size of a tennis ball appeared before me.
Now, how could I use a skill when I didn't have any circuits to channel them? That's where the power system of this world came into play.
Not toothing my own horn but, I had made it so that there were two main power systems that one could follow in this world, more commonly known as the middle realm of "Dust".
The close-combat/warrior pathway of Aura.
Or, the mage/magic pathway of Mana.
But, to make sure that not everybody became either a knight or a sorcerer, I introduced the 'Occupation' into this world, so that variants of the mana pathway such as Witch, Druids, Necromancers, and the same for the aura pathway could appear.
The second main addition to the power system was the system of 'Skills' divided into 'Core Skills' and 'Common Skills'.
"Core skills for the legacies, inheritances, and bloodlines," I sang. "And, common for everything else. Work hard enough, bleed long enough, and the system would eventually acknowledge your skill."
It was like a mantra that anybody who read my novel knew. But, it wasn't the be-all, end-all knowledge for the [Skill] section.
See, some core skills, such as [Helios's Stars] were tied directly to the authority of a god, something that didn't require either mana nor aura circuits to work.
You just think about it, and it appears. But, instead of mana or aura, it relied on the 'will' and 'mental acuity' of the person using it, so basically, for someone like me right now, at this current stage of my strength, if I used it any more than 3 times a day, I go sleep-sleep.
Trust me, I tried.
Thus, the need for a common skill such as [Spearmanship] [Basic]. Well, that and I didn't know how to make any other freaking weapon from just the trees, nature, and nature's little rock monsters around me.
Seriously. It was a relief to finally acquire [Spearmanship] since for the last two days I'd relied almost entirely on The Sun—burning weaker beasts to ash with starfire. It was strong sure, but it was like having a gun, but only 3 bullets in the magazine. . .while being literally dropped into a forest full of monsters, either partially or fully made out of rock, shot sharp rocks, and smelt strongly of sulfur when he burnt them.
Also, if I missed once, I was panting like a dog in the snow. That wasn't sustainable.
No, the spear would be my bread and butter. The sun would be my hammer—the special attack for when I couldn't win otherwise.
I pulled my shirt back over my head. The moment sunlight hit my skin, I felt it: fatigue dissolving, muscles knitting, warmth threading into me.
Title: [The Second Coming of the Sun] [New!]
Boon: While under the sun, gain minor increases to stats and regenerative healing.
I could get addicted to this feeling.
Back inside, the cabin smelled of broth. The little stone stove was glowing faintly, heat making the air shimmer. My stew was ready.
Rock deer. Rabbit. A handful of wild vegetables I'd yanked from frozen soil. I ladled it into a rough bowl, steam fogging the air.
It tasted… bland. Edible, filling, but bland. Meat tough, vegetables chewy, broth thin.
I grimaced. "Couldn't have given me a seasoning system, huh?" I muttered, stabbing at the stew with my spoon. "No salt, no pepper, no soy sauce? Thanks, shitty system."
The system ignored me, like it usually did.
I kept eating anyway. Complaints didn't fill my stomach.
Still, my thoughts drifted. To that DM. To that cursed username that brought me here.
[ForgottenTruth].
"Let's see if you can back your words up, shitty creator."
Who were they? Someone from this world? A construct of mine, given voice? I wasn't exactly going to say impossible since they very much sent my ass to this world.
A shiver ran through my spine as I thought of any of my main cast being the one responsible for my predicament. "They're not going to put me through hell for what I wrote, right?"
I put two of my hands together and begged for forgiveness. "Uh, if you're watching me right now, I'm sorry for the ending. You were right. It's a shitty ending, so. . .can you please get me out of here?"
". . . ."
". . . ."
"Yeah, I didn't think so too," I sighed, before sitting back down.
The motives were clear enough. They didn't like the ending. They wanted me to change it. They wanted me to fix it.
And maybe they were right. In canon, in the absolute ending, Leon and his party fought, bled, and won. Ten evil gods defeated, world saved… but half the entire cast dead, half of the planet destroyed and scarred, skies cracked, literally since Dust couldn't hold the dimensional pressure from all ten evil gods descending.
It was like if you survived through half the countries nuclear-bombing each other.
A pyrrhic victory at best. I slapped my own face for thinking that it was a good ending, edgy and perfect but now that I was living in such a doomed world, yeah, shit wasn't so funny anymore.
Which meant what? That I had to interfere with the plot? That I had to take the reins from my own protagonist?
I stared into the broth. If I could secure Helios's full heritage, plus the other two hidden power-ups I'd tucked away, I might have enough strength to kill the evil gods myself. Not just survive—but end it differently.
But, I really didn't want to take that route.
Wait, what did "ending" even mean here?
In the old world, it had been closing my laptop, moving on with my day. Here? Would I dissolve into the void? Float in the dark between stars? Or just… stop?
A shiver crawled down my spine.
Before I could spiral further, the world interrupted.
BLARE!
A trumpet. Loud, clear, divine.
The cabin rattled. Light poured in through the cracks, brighter than the sun, flooding the sky in gold. I staggered to my feet, bowl forgotten, and shoved open the door.
"Ah, so it's finally started," I said, leaning on the cabin. "Can't believe my first time seeing an aurora would be inside my own novel."
The forest glowed. Every stone tree, every rock-lizard den shimmered in the golden haze brought forth by the prismatic glorious, golden aurora rolling in the skies.
A Heavenly Declaration to the world, by the world.
It had begun.
The Hero had been chosen.
Which meant, the story had officially begun.
My chest tightened. Three weeks. That was all the time left before Leon Cromwell walked into the Academy. Before the plot I'd written began in earnest.
Shit.
Time really did fly.