"The tutorial has ended."
"Everyone will be sent to your new world in 10 minutes."
"The Lord/Servant system is now global"
"The Lord/Servant messaging system is now active"
"You're planet's tutorial survival rate was 42%."
"Consult your system map to find safe zones where monsters do not spawn."
"Congratulations on your survival."
From the mouth of his volcano cave, Eli read the system's windows with curiosity, scratching his chin. From the height of his volcano, he could see small lights appearing on the ground below randomly. From the faint screams he guessed it really was random and some people were brought back near a monster. Before he could decide whether or not to help those people more system windows came up and distracted him.
"You have been given rank of Lord"
"Taralyn Lambert has requested the rank of Servant under you."
"Do you approve?"
"Yes/No"
Eli almost pressed 'No' because he didn't want to be a lord and certainly didn't want a servant, much less did he see Tara as one. Then he stopped and put his hand over his heart, he didn't usually think of her as Tara, it was usually Lambert. Now when he thought about her, his chest ached and he wanted her near, so near he could touch her. He shook his head and slapped his face so he could focus, she obviously wanted this, and he wanted her so he needed to select yes, but he wasn't going to do so lightly.
Breathing slowly, he cleared his mind and just let his thoughts and emotions float around. This wasn't the first time his emotions felt different since the dungeon and now he was worried that the system had done something to him. Was his desire for her something the system implanted or was it always there and it had been suppressed? He was feeling all kinds of emotions that were stronger than before, so maybe they are just unsuppressed now. This presented a danger though, he would have to keep himself in check since there are people here now and a lapse of control could hurt them.
Since his memories only went as far back as when he was 12, he didn't know about before that, but since then he always felt like his emotions were muted, or that he was some kind of sociopath. However, if magic was clearing that up then maybe it was something external that was holding them back. With that external hold eroding, he was going to need some emotional control skills, especially when he meets up with Tara. She wasn't even near him yet and he could already feel the intensity of his feelings for her by the way he reacted just by thinking about her. Still in meditation, he allowed his feelings for her to consume him so he could explore them.
This was very new to him and he wanted to know what it was before he accepted her request. The feeling was possessive, consuming, protective, nurturing, and exciting. Those were the stand out emotions but it overall felt warm and right, it felt really right, like his purpose for being alive was wrapped up in his feelings for her. Sitting in this feeling for a few minutes while memories of Tara ran through the front of his mind. He knew what this was, this was love. Looking back he could remember how she would get if he was ever in any kind of trouble or under threat, she would get a look in her eye that was full of fire and passion.
That look said that she would burn the world for him, if that's what he needed. And he could remember a faint version of that feeling whenever anything would threaten her. They got trapped in a firefight during a deployment and without thinking he covered her over anyone else and took a round to his right shoulder in the process. He knew she loved him, but now with his emotions coming loose, in his memories, he could feel how much she loved him and it was the best emotion he has ever felt. It made him feel whole and complete, he had to trust her, trust that her love and his would lead them in the right direction.
"You have accepted Taralyn Lambert as your servant"
"You and Taralyn Lambert may now use the message system"
"Message system has a one minute delay and is restricted to 30 characters"
Eli knew her and knew that she would message first, so he waited a minute and nothing happened, but he could hear a faint tick every few seconds. He opened the menu and found a new tab called 'Lord' and opening it had a lot of empty options but at the top was messages. Opening messages he found her message.
"Eli send me your location"
Immediately he knew she was in trouble, or at least she really needed him. Tara never used his first name unless she was doing one of her decompression sessions, which thinking back, she would kiss him at the end of those. The memory of those kisses with his emotions turning on was exciting, she must have felt even more. Good thing the world ended or she might have jumped him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to get himself under control so he could write a response, but he was too distracted and needed to respond so he just sent something.
"SE Z Volcano you? Love E"
It wasn't until he sent it that he realized what he had sent, he wasn't sure how she would take that but too late to worry about it now. This emotional stuff was complicated and he didn't know how to control it when it came to Tara, she just evoked such strong emotions in him that things were difficult. Waiting for the message to get to her and then come back felt like an hour, but it finally came back and he was shocked.
"I NE I CTU ILU2"
So, Tara is north of him, she is going to come to him, and she loves him too. He just stared at the last part with the biggest and goofiest smile on his face that he probably has ever had. The rush of emotions that he felt almost knocked him on his ass. He felt like he wanted to respond but his emotions were swirling around so he didn't want to write something embarrassing. This message function saved every message so he needed to be more careful, knowing she was staring at the one he had already sent.
Now that that was set and it would probably take her over a week to get here, he could go out and try to rescue some people and help them get to the safe zone. At first he wanted to talk to them but he realized that with his current look, ash feather cloak and white mask, most would probably be more scared of him so he just killed monsters. People seem to be spawning all over the place, some were even close to his volcano so he just got down and started rampaging. There wasn't much that could slow him down at this point in this area, before the tutorial had ended he had cleared from his volcano to the safe zone near the mountains at the north west corner of the zone he was in and back. Now he was clearing the coastal safe zone in the north east corner, since his volcano was the northernmost of the three, sticking to the northern safe zones just made sense.
Eli went on a spree of monster killings spending the majority of the next 24 hours clearing around his volcano and moving closer and closer to the safe zone where the monsters were weakest. He had done a similar pattern before but he was moving faster now. Being able to one-hit most monsters meant he didn't slow down much and he covered a lot of ground. He didn't loot anything and was just trying to make it easier for people to move to a safe zone. The problem was that most people didn't know how to read a topographic map so they didn't know where they were on it or what direction to travel. Doing his best to help he would draw large arrows on the ground in clearings to hopefully help, he could do more by talking to people but it would kill a ton of time explaining everything to each person he came across.
Some of his time was eaten up when a group of people were fighting a monster and to their senses he just appeared and it died. He realized that he moved too fast for them to see when they kept asking how he did it and if he could guide them or guard them. He just told them which way to go, but in one case he actually did guide and guard someone. Towards the end of his full day of clearing the way for others, only about a 3 hour walk from a safe zone, a teenage girl was crying next to a tree and he heard a monster approaching her. He killed the monster before she even saw it and poked her forehead to try and snap her out of it. He explained which direction to go and that the safe zone was close, but she wouldn't stop crying and kept a tight grip on his cloak, not caring about the ash from it that was covering her.
So, Eli, with his new emotions he couldn't control, spent the last bit of time walking her to the safe zone. They only got attacked twice, once by monsters and once by a guy who seemed to be collecting young girls and "helping" them. He had three with him and they didn't seem happy and when he saw how disinterested Eli was at the one following him he offered to take her off his hands. Eli got very angry and his emotions became hard to control, unintentionally his will pressed on his magic and a presence fell over all of them knocking all of them to their knees. The girls were only level 15 or 17 and the guy was level 34, but Eli had grown with his highspeed killing and was now level 44 with a supreme class and very high will stat. The guy and one of the girls wet themselves and all of them had tears running down their eyes, as he slowly walked up to the man, who tried to apologize.
Eli was not hearing anything, and all his eyes could see was red, the unfamiliar rage was not something he was able to control yet and he conjured his cudgel with a massively dense head, and started to swing. The weapon was so heavy that conjuring it took almost 4 seconds when it was usually instantaneous, and the ground under his feet cracked and buckled from the weight it was now holding. When he put strength behind his swing it seemed like an instantaneous move and the man was gone and the ground was a crater 10 feet wide. All four of the girls were knocked over but were not hurt, and he dismissed his weapon while breathing heavily.
He relaxed his presence and fell to a knee, more emotionally worn out than unable to continue fighting. Eli's hand was shaking, he had never taken a life in anger before, there wasn't even a conversation, just a gut feeling about the strangers dynamic. While trying to gather himself so that he could move on, one of the girls slowly walked up to him and hugged him. She stayed there, hugging him for a long time and one by one the other girls joined and whispered thank yous to him. However, the original girl did not look happy, when he finally got up and they took a step back he spoke to them.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," Eli said, "I'm going through some things, would it be too much to ask for you all to not speak about this with anyone."
"I can't speak for the others but I will stay quiet, thank you for saving us from that man." the older of the girls said with the younger two staying quiet but nodding.
"I will stay quiet," the original girl he had been walking with said, "if you promise to take me with you."
"I'm guiding you to the safe zone, but I cannot stay because I cannot enter them," Eli lied, hoping she would drop it.
"Take me with you, wherever you are going, or I will tell everyone that the man in a white mask is a murderer," she said.
Eli let his presence out again, having a better feel for it now that he understood how it worked. The girls fell down again and he looked her straight in the eye without blinking.
"Please do," he said, making his words vibrate through his presence.
Then he stopped his presence and used a chaos blink to disappear from their sight. The three girls stood there in shock staring at the other girl, with the oldest getting visibly angry.
"Why would you do that," the oldest said, who was probably 19, "he was my ticket to an easy life." The younger girl looked confused but the other girl smiled at her.
"I've been with him for hours and he showed me some of his power. He may be the strongest person in the area. I wanted him to leave before you could try and get your claws in him. I saw the way you were looking at him, like a person shaped meal ticket. He is better off without any of us. I would be dead without him so even if you kill me, I owe him." she said casually, as if them killing her wouldn't bother her at all.
She never thought she would make it this far, thankfully, she just kept running into people who protected her. First there was Tara that she hid behind, then Stephen and the Canadians, and now Mr. Mask. There had to be a reason that she was still alive, but she would not let herself be the cause of suffering for those who are kind enough to help her.