[Error]
[Error in player power detected]
[The strength of awakeners is estimated to be too weak to fight dimensional portals.]
[Initial training session will commence]
"What is going on now?"
"What the hell does he mean by too weak?"
Confusion seemed to wash over the crowd as they were very unsure of what would happen next. Some were also outraged to be referred to as weak, and with their newfound strength, gained from receiving their classes, they were raring for a fight.
Without pausing for the uproar, the voice spoke again, rolling like thunder across the field and echoing against the distant mountains.
[The training will be a battle royal. Players will be rewarded depending on the number of kills they get.]
[There will also be a leaderboard for the top one hundred players with the most kills. If you are able to get into this leaderboard, you will get extra rewards as well.]
[This is quite rare, as the awakening process alone should normally increase a species' power to a level that they can fight the dimensional gates, but a training session seems to be necessary in this case.]
A glowing leaderboard appeared above the plains, projected high in the air so that everyone across the fields and under the trees could see it.
Some players had used their real names out of arrogance, others hid behind aliases. It didn't matter to Raven. He only cared about the numbers.
It was then transferred to their system panels so they can.
[Please enter a name for yourself]
A message popped up on the panel asking them to enter their name. Raven, seeing this, wanted to stay as anonymous as possible and so decided to simply call himself Death. It was quite a fitting name considering that he will bring death to many today and many more in the future.
[In the battle royal, every player will receive experience from killing other players.]
[But don't worry, as it is impossible to fully die in the initial training session. Everyone will revive after 10 minutes, and the training session will last for 2 hours.]
[For every kill, you will gain experience, and other rewards will be given at the end. Good luck. Oh, also, there will be 5 seconds of damage immunity after your respawn to stop any unsporting behaviour.]
[Also, we have decided to give you all a passive skill which translates everything you hear to your language, in real time, allowing you to communicate with everyone here.]
[I sincerely hope you will enjoy your time here. Good luck to you all.]
People were naturally reluctant to start killing, but a timer appeared next to the leaderboard, which added pressure and prompted them to start fighting. Even still, no one wanted to be the first, and so Raven, who was starting to get bored with waiting, decided to strike first.
"I need to hurry this up", he thought.
High above, hidden in the branches of one of the great canopy trees, Raven crouched in silence. While the others hesitated in the open field, he had already moved. He scanned the crowd below until his eyes fixed on a smug-looking, middle-aged man standing near the edge of the gathering.
"That face…" Raven's jaw tightened. It reminded him of his captors. He felt no guilt; the system had already confirmed that death here wasn't permanent.
And it made no sense to lie to them at this point.
They wouldn't really die, so he felt no guilt, and his face really annoyed him.
No one currently had any weapons, so Raven decided to see just how strong his physical body was. Even if he didn't have the strength skill, his Inner Strength skill can cover for it and even do comparably more damage.
"I'll end it in less than a second, then", he slowly whispered to himself and took a stance.
His muscles coiled.
With Martial Power and All Master guiding his movements, he dropped from the branches in utter silence.
Before the man could even glance upward, Raven's fist crashed squarely into his face. Bone shattered, the man crumpled, and Raven was gone again, melting back into the canopy before anyone understood what had happened.
The body hit the grass with a dull thud. Shocked gasps followed.
"Murderer!"
"What are you doing?!"
Those nearby, not knowing what had transpired to cause this man's death, tried to accuse each other.
Outrage flared, but froze the moment the corpse began to glow.
A pale light consumed the man's body, washing it away bit by bit until nothing remained. The grass where he had fallen was left untouched, as though he had never been there at all.
The system hadn't lied.
Death here wasn't permanent, but it wasn't instant either. The man would reappear in ten minutes, fully revived.
Murmurs swept through the crowd, disbelief mixing with unease. For a heartbeat, all eyes stayed fixed on the fading glow. By the time they looked up again, Raven was gone, already slipping back into the cover of the canopy above.
No one could believe what they were seeing. Though some still wanted to blame him, not many cared since what the voice said was already confirmed, and just like a game, death here was no longer permanent.
While the others argued, Raven was already gone, slipping deeper into the trees, unseen and forgotten.
The crowd's attention turned inward, and the hesitation began to crumble.
Raven knew that soon chaos would ensue as the risk of death had been eliminated.
[Special Achievement Unlocked: First Kill]
[Reward: 1 level and 5 attribute points to be distributed later. And a D-grade Iron sword]
'Oh. So you can actually gain levels and loot by killing people here, huh?'
'This is quite good.'
'I didn't do it thinking that I would unlock an achievement, but it was quite beneficial.'
Raven realised that not only did he need to level up, but he needed to complete these achievements to get special rewards, which would allow him to overtake the rest.
Then he glanced at his system panel to check what this D-grade sword was all about. To his immediate surprise, he spotted some changes in the system panel.
{Name: Raven Dmitry
Class: Classless
Level:6
Exp: 0/1300
Attributes
Aether 15/50
All elemental magic 15/50
Martial Power 15/50
All master 15/50
Divinity 15/50
Attribute points: 5}
Skills: None
Inventory: Iron sword (D-Rank)
It seems that a skill and an inventory tab had been added, and under the inventory tab was the D-grade sword that he had received previously.
He assumed that currently, he was probably the only player with a weapon, so he would be at a huge advantage when they started fighting.
Raven would not have to wait long, as the seed had already been sown, and those who wanted to have some fun and try out their newfound powers were raring to go.
There were some psychos mixed into the crowd as well, who were naturally excited to start slaughtering those around them, but, since all the awakened on earth were here, there were bound to be many diverse types of people.
They were simply reluctant to get targeted by being the first to kill, and so decided to wait until the fighting had started. Now that even the players who were scared of death or didn't want to kill others no longer had a reason not to fight, everyone prepared for battle. After all, who didn't want to get stronger?
Many started by picking an opponent; however, since everyone was trying to fight those who looked weaker than them, it was unable to stay civilised.
What started off as a simple argument or a scuffle had rapidly escalated into a free-for-all, and so, carnage ensued.