5

Chapter 6

We spent one more night there,finishing breakfast the next morning everyone started to get ready for our departure. Showers and packing was the main priority. I started packing my car with the luggage I was given. My mind preoccupied with what I could do in the almost two weeks left of vacation,to be more prepared for the cracks. In my past life we had all gone into it blind which resulted in countless deaths. Martial artists had an advantage seeing as they were pros in hand to hand,even if their weapons broke or they ran out of mana,they could still contribute to every battle. That's what I lacked. If my weapon broke in my past life I was out of the fight. Now,I could change that. If I learned as many martial arts as possible I could save lives even if my sword broke. If my hands are broken,I'll use my legs. If my legs are crippled,I'll use my teeth. If my teeth are used up,I'll detonate my mana and give my friends time to regroup. I wouldn't tolerate any other deaths. Not for as long as I loved and had strength. While waiting for the others,I looked up martial arts more suited for dealing great amounts of damage. Things like Muay Thai and Kali Arnis came up. Kali Arnis being a dual weapon technique was out of the picture,but Muay Thai was perfect. I called to sign up to a dojo close to my home,training was only on Wednesdays while I was in school but would switch to Monday,Wednesday and Fridays. Now to solve my other problem,my sword technique. Even with a sword,I couldn't contribute much even with a sword skill. I never had any experience,misjudging the range I had,not having the right form to strike. It took me almost five years to get even the basics right in sloppy and one sided massacres,the demons being the only ones doing the killing,while we could only hold out and wait for the stronger chosen to arrive. I had already thought about this,the best route to take would be fencing or Kendo,both using only one sword and both able to be used with one hand,which was perfect since I also used a shield. I went with kendo since fencing mainly relied on stabbing and thrusting motions,not well suited for me since I would have to move my shield away from my body,leaving too many openings,kendo also had this flaw,but made up for it in speed and a bigger blade. With kendo,a variety of ways to block,parry and counter attack were created with every stance and every action you took. Perfect for long battles relying on stamina.

-Roughly six months later-

As I stood on the stage alongside the rest of the ruling 5,we delivered a conjoined speech on how great high school was,an obvious lie. Thanks to our past lives,we had finished high school as the top scorers and had been elected as valedictorians. A unneeded but welcomed achievement. With top marks we could have a higher education than we did in our previous lives,being able to get better jobs and bigger pay. That also meant we could prepare more for the cracks. Highschool had taken five years. We had seventeen years to continue our preparations. The record for the highest level chosen was held by a Japanese spearman only reaching level 150,he had said that the experience needed was such a huge leap from level 149 that he might as well give up on breaking through to level 151. During the cracks every 10 levels unlocked something in the status window,first it was stats at level 1,although it didn't show your stats it still gave you something to aim for. At level 10 it showed your stats,by level 15 passive skills were unlocked but not shown yet,by level 20 your passives were revealed. Level 25 brought nothing and by level 30 the inventory was introduced. Level 40 brought skill evolution into the game,although I never got to evolve any of mine. That is the furthest me and the ruling 5 got in our past lives but as I heard,level 50 brought stat evolution into the world,being able to take your stats and evolve them into enhanced stats. the cap for stats were 100,once you hit that cap,the only way to improve was to hit level 50 and complete the evolution quest. Skills were mostly the same. Once skills reached level 10,you had to reach level 40 to evolve them,though you didnt need to do a quest for them,you just had to have certain items and conditions. Nothing new came all the way until level 100,where you could evolve your class,depending on your actions,choices and the gods who sponsored you,the system gave you three options best suited for you. Those were heights we would never have been able to achieve in our previous lives. But now...they all seemed like a possibility,even though what lies beyond level 100 is still an unknown to me,I was up for the challenge...