CHAPTER 5 - Chosen Soul Progression System

  The shock didn’t last.

  A wave of calm and presence washed over him, abrupt and external like a strong medicine taking an immediate, noticeable effect.

  [ Codex > New Arrival Adaptivity: All Chosen Souls are given strength of mental acuity, flexibility, and tenacity to cope with the short-term and long-term effects of switching worlds. ]

  “Okay,” Levan thought, still aware of the panic rippling beneath the surface.

  A crash, something like stone splitting, sounded from outside the temple, accompanied by terrified, far-away screams. The sounds from outside carried, the screams temporarily defeated by the solid stone walls of the temple, only slip between the shattered teeth of broken stained glass and fall on his ears.

  “Okay, okay, okay,” he thought to himself. Get your bearings.

  He turned in a circle.

  Still no clothes.

  Survive.

  And what had those other things been?

  [ Objective: Choose Elemental Affinity ]

  [ Objective: Choose Ability Core ]

  Noted, Levan thought.

  But maybe clothes first.

  His eyes crossed over the carnage in the temple, not lingering on any particularly gruesome sight for too long. He found someone mostly his size, mostly intact.

  Can I strip the dead?

  “I’m sorry. This is a lot…easier in video games,” he said, taking the chiton off the man.

  He threw the toga-like fabric over his head and climbed into the pants.

  [ Equipped: Bloodstained Acolyte’s Tunic | Item Quality: Damaged | ??? | % Defense Increase ]

  [ Equipped: Bloodstained Acolyte’s Pants | Item Quality: Damaged | ??? | % Defense Increase ]

  [ Codex Entry Unlocked: Equipment | Learn about equipment slots, items, and more. ]

  [ Codex Entry Unlocked: Innerworkings Skill | Increase your Innerworkings Skill Level to see more granular stats on gear, more information on systems, more detailed information on spells and attacks, and more. ]

  Levan shook the codex entries out of his head. Later. All this stuff later.

  Survive. Survive. Survive.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  He looked for a weapon. Surely, with all this violence, there had to be a spare weapon on the ground?

  But he couldn’t find any.

  Something drifted in front of his eyes as he scanned the ground.

  He was wearing a necklace, which he hadn’t noticed before.

  [ Equipped: Chosen Soul Talisman | Talisman | Description: ??? ]

  Great, very helpful, thank you.

  More sounds rose from beyond the temple. An orange glow rose in his periphery where a section of the temple wall had been broken like a caved-in skull.

  The fiery light of dawn, maybe?

  No, he thought, as an acrid and dusty smell filled his nostrils. Not dawn. Just a lot of fire.

  There was broken glass near the sides of the building, and Levan scanned the area once more for something to take, honorably as he could, from the dead.

  Two more notifications popped up in his mind as he slid into a pair of sandals found by another one of the acolytes.

  [ Equipped: Bloodstained Acolyte’s Sandals ]

  [ Chosen Soul Progression System Ready! Continue? ]

  Levan hesitated.

  There was yelling outside. Masculine voices, barking what sounded like orders.

  Soldiers, maybe.

  Not good.

  Levan cursed.

  Yes, he mentally answered, and the information bloomed in his mind as he began looking for a place to hide from the voices as they grew closer.

  [ Codex Entry: Chosen Soul Progression | The first two progression systems involve the closing of an Elemental Affinity and an Ability Core. This combination serves as the seedling by which the rest of the Chosen Soul’s progression tree grows. ]

  [ Chosen Soul Progression: Elemental Affinity ]

  Levan took in the information.

  Elemental Affinity?

  What, like water, air, fire, that sort of—

  He stopped.

  Stupid, stupid! What if she survived?! What if one of them survived?

  Levan let the Elemental Affinity options fill his mind as he tore back the way he came, running over to the head of the temple where the seven summoning stones held the rest of his ill-fated “Chosen Soul Flight.”

  [ Elemental Affinities:

  > Fire | Available

  > ??? | Available

  > Water | Unavailable

  > Air | Unavailable

  > ??? | Unavailable

  > Stone | Unavailable

  > Life | Unavailable

  > Death | Available

  > Aether | Available

  > ??? | Available

  > ??? | Available

  > ??? | Unavailable

  > ??? | ??? ]

  Levan slid to the ground near the mermaid. His fingertips went immediately to the space beneath her jaw, doing his best to mimic the actions taken by doctors and medics he’d seen taken a hundred times in movies and other media.

  No pulse.

  But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, he thought grimly. For all I know, she’s got a completely different vein system.

  The mermaid was from another world, traveling along the Emberlaines from wherever she lived to this new, strange place. She could have been a stranger in a strange land, just like him—but they would have had each other—and the rest of the group.

  If they had lived.

  [ Choose an Elemental Affinity ]

  “Yeah, yeah, hang on,” he muttered, going over to the spider crab.

  The thing was dead. Unmoving, rigid, lifeless.

  At least…again he thought so.

  Maybe I chose the “Life” affinity, maybe I could help it.

  [ Elemental Affinity: Life | Unavailable ]

  Levan clenched his jaw.

  The other dead Chosen Souls didn’t seem much better off. Still, he checked each and every one of the beings for life signs, losing what little hope he had as, Chosen Soul after Chosen Soul, he internalized that he was the only one left alive.

  He spun.

  It was the water-woman, the mermaid-thing. She stared up at him, blinking once slowly, still bleeding from the wound in her heart.

  With webbed fingers, four digits with frills and scales, she reached up. He slid over to her on the cold stone and held her hand with his own.

  “It’s okay,” he said, quietly, “It’s okay.”

  She looked…scared.

  But when he moved to grab her hand, she pulled away. It fumbled for her neck and closed around something invisible until her fingers wrapped around it.

  A talisman, like his.

  She tugged, with a small grunt, and it broke from the rope that held it. Her webbed hands were shaking; his own hands were shaking too. With trembling hands and an effort that looked beyond what she could do, the woman dropped the talisman into his palm.

  The two maintained eye contact as she died.

  Strange, beautiful creature.

  He placed his hands around hers, and something that might have been a smile crossed her lips before the second pair of eyes grew as lifeless as the first.

  [ Item Gained: Chosen Soul Talisman (Water) | Status: Dead ]

  Swallowing from a rough, dry throat, Levan staggered backward.

  Water.

  Dead.

  [ Choose Elemental Affinity? The Codex pressed.

  “J-Just g-give me a damn second!” he shouted.

  It rang out in the temple, angry and impotent.

  Levan began to blink furiously, holding back tears.

  “Just give me a second,” he said again, in the quiet.

  In the…quiet?

  Chills ran up Levon’s spine.

  What happened to the soldiers’ voices?

  I shouldn’t have yelled, he realized with horror.

  I shouldn’t have yelled.