KINETIC

'What's happening?' Leo stared at the creatures writhing around in pain in confusion.

'I don't know but whatever it is it happened when the timer ran out... Did the system know this would happen?' Dreifus was just as confused as Leo.

Some of the creatures still tried to crawl towards Leo by pushing through the pain they were in but they didn't make it very far before the pain became too much and they stopped.

After less than a minute of watching the creatures had gone by, something started to happen. Their skin started to swell in places, causing bubble like warts to appear all over their skin.

Black liquid started to pour out of their eyes, mouths and ears. Their teeth started to fall out of their mouths and their skin started peel off their bodied.

The warts began bursting with black liquid that seemed to melt their skin upon touch. Their eyes liquefied into sludge and with one last scream of pain they fell flat on the ground.

'They're dead...but why? It looked like their bodies just fell apart.' Leo was very confused about what he had just witnessed.

'Im surprised by your reaction, Leo. Most people would have been disturbed after seeing how these creatures died, but you're only confused and curious. Do you not feel anything?' Dreifus asked with a curious tone.

'There's just no point in allowing myself to get emotional over creatures that mean nothing to me. If I'm able to kill something with my own hands then why would them dying in front of me make any difference?' Leo replied bluntly.

'That's not what I meant...' Dreifus began saying but stopped. It seemed like Leo was irritated with being asked that question so he thought it best to leave it there.

Leo decided to put the death of these creatures at the back of his mind and opened his system to check on what he could improve using his rewards.

'im level 14 now, which means I should recieve another skill point when i level up again. I currently have 1 skill point and 1 stat point to use.' Leo opened his stats first so he could choose what to improve.

STATS

- Strength - 16

- Speed - 15

- Stamina - 13

- Agility - 13

- Intelligence - 13

- Perception - 13

- Mental Fortitude - 13

- Defence - 13

- Energy - 60/60

- Unassigned stat points - 1

- Unassigned skill points - 1

'My strength and speed arey most useful stats at the moments. Stamina is something I should consider increasing but even after running for 12 hours straight I only started to feel tired around the 9 hour mark.'

'Some of my skills use up my Stamina quickly, like dash, but so far I haven't had any problems. My agility isn't too useful at this point and my intelligence is already higher than most peoples.'

'My perception is basically useless since I can see more with my Aura than with my eyes and my mental fortitude is only useful against enemies that use mental attacks, which I've only fought against once before.'

'The most beneficial stat to increase right now is defence. I'll focus on strength, speed and defence and just keep the other from lagging too far behind for now.'

With that in mind Leo added the point to defence, bringing it up to 14. He then opened up the skills section and took a look at all his skills.

SKILLS

- Aura (level 2)

- Energy Control (Level 4)

- Pulse (Level 1)

- Absorb (Level 2)

- Dash (Level 2)

- Palm Strike (Level 1)

- Regeneration (Level 1)

- Redirect (Level 2)

- Leap

- Palm Strike

- Battle Aura (Level 2)

- Force Strike (Level 1)

- Wind Bullet (Level 1)

- Wind Blade (Level 1)

'I could use the skill point to increase the level of my current skills but I think it would be better to unlock new skills instead. It's easier to improve a skill than it is to create one.'

Leo went into the locked skills and picked one of the available options at random. With them simply saying [Locked] there wasnt anything to go and so it was all up to luck.

[Skill Unlocked - Repel]

[Repel] (5 Energy)

- Push the target away from you in a straight line.

'That's it? I don't think it can even be considered an attack.' Leo was disappointed with the skill he received.

'Well that depends on how hard it pushes them. In any case, its still something that will be useful in combat. You could push someone away if they get too close and you need space, or maybe you could push someone off a cliff one day.' Dreifus said, trying to look on the bright side.

'Hmm... I guess you're right. Usually I learn how to do something new whenever I get a new skill since it shows me a new way of using my energy, but I don't have the time to test this out right now. I need to head to the mountain and help Cain and Rene.'

Leo closed the system and took off running towards the mountain as fast as possible without completely draining his Energy.

***

Cain and Rene had been walking through the tunnel for a few minutes already and had finally found something.

Just ahead of them the tunnel was sealed off by a stone wall with a door at its center. There was a man wearing armour standing watch at the door. Immediately Cain recognized the symbol of the cult, a basilisk, engraved on the guards armour.

Wasting no time, Cain lifted up one of his hammers and threw it as hard as he could at the guards head. The guard wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, most likely due to boredom, so he didn't notice the hammer approaching until it was too late to react.

The hammer collided with the guards head and he fell unconscious instantly.

Walking up to the door Cain turned the handle and was surprised to find that it wasn't locked. He slowly opened the door while peeking through to the other side and was relieved to see that there wasn't another guard standing there.

He opened the door completely and was surprised to see that the interior of a hallway in front of them. Rene arrived next to Cain a few seconds after he opened the door and confirmed their safety.

The two of them walked down the hallway with both surprise and suspicion in their hearts.

The question both of them had on their minds was 'Who built this place and why?' if it had been built recently then it would be safe to say that the military would have investigated it.

Nobody builds a secret tunnel in a mountain without a reason, and with the cult being created not too long ago, the military would have been even more suspicious.

The hallway was filled with doors and Cain attempted to open each one. Unfortunately they were all locked and with no reason to put extra effort into opening that specific door, they moved on.

Eventually the pair reached the end of the hallway and a large double door made of iron was blocking their path.

With little hope of opening it, Cain attempted to turn the handles. Unsurprisingly, the door was locked, just like the rest of the doors in this hallway.

"Alright, this door obviously leads to something important, otherwise they wouldn't use a metal door while the rest are made of wood." Cain said while examining the door.

"Yeah... Probably..." Rene replied, her mind still distracted by her fear.

"Then we only have one option." Cain lifted his hammers and began smashing them into the hinges of the door. His aim was either to destroy the hinges directly or if that wasn't possible, to break the wall that the hinges were connected to.

After only seven strikes there was already damage appearing on the wall and the hinge became loose. He repeated this process of every hinge until each of them was detached from the wall.

He then made both of the doors lighter and pushed them with all his might. The large metal doors fell forwards as Cain pushed them and revealed a large open room on the other side.

At the center of the room was what looked like a large rectangular stone tablet with writing all over it, next to the tablet were two figures.

One of the men was wearing the typical cultists robes but without a mask, while the other had nothing but pants on. The cultist had his back facing Cain and turned around with a huge grin on his face.

The boy with only pants on was kneeling on the ground in a pool of blood. He too turned to look at the sudden noise that Cain caused when pushing the doors over.

The boys eyes met with Cain and now that he was looking directly at them, Cain finally managed to recognize the boy and his face displayed his disbelief. He was almost too stunned to speak.

"John...Is...Is that really you!?"