Godly Grey Sky

In the far reaches of the Outer World, a huge monster, almost as big as the wall itself, with four massive claws, grey fur, with fangs the size of a building, ran towards the large, black wall that separates the Outer and Inner World.

It could have easily toppled the massive, black wall with ease.

It seemed that the Inner world would be destroyed by such a monster, one that was beyond comprehension for Rank 0's.

Just as the monster was on the horizon, a single man stood on top of the wall, with his white hair dancing in the wind, overlooking the monster, as if it was nothing, as it speedily headed straight towards him.

Even with this dreadful monster charging towards the wall, threatening any human who lived inside.

The man stayed calm, and pointed his double edged sword towards the monster that was three miles away by now.

He chanted something under his breath.

After he finished chanting, he then turned away from the monster, which was about a mile away from the wall, and started leisurely walking away, as if nothing mattered.

Ten seconds after the mysterious man had chanted.

The monster suddenly disappeared.

Not in some destructive fashion, no of course not.

That wasn't his style.

Instead, he opted to just erase it in a beam of light, as it was the least hassle to him.

"I wonder what Yuna made for dinner" The man said, walking away, as if what he did had not defied all forms of rationality.

This man's name was Reiss Walker.

…..

Aeth was meditating in the guild's training grounds, working on his meditation ability.

He felt the familiar feeling of his stamina depleting as he gained his Ethereal.

*Ethereal gained: 6*

*Total: 18/20*

Aeth had been saving up Ethereal, as today, he was setting out into the Outer World to earn some money from selling the meat of Ordinary Greys, which sold for a decent amount.

I won't be able to carry that much meat, I'll just have to drag the corpse to the gate I suppose.

Aeth got up from the ground and summoned [Shadow's Curse] and [Starborn], which he put into his sheath that he had bought a day ago, in preparation for his outing today.

Before he left though, he went to the dining hall and ate some of Kara's amazing food, which he still didn't know the names of.

After eating, he started walking to the Marsh District, to go through the gate, as the one in the Meadow District was always bustling with activity.

…..

It took Aeth around an hour to walk over to the gate, he would have taken a carriage there, but sadly, none went to the district of Marsh.

That's probably why no one takes this gate, or why it's so empty with only one official worker.

He made his way towards the gate and walked up to the official.

"Name, License, and Position Rank"

"Aether Torn, Rank X" Aeth said, as he handed the official his updated ID card.

He looked at his card for a few seconds, before handing it back to him.

"You're good to go" The official said as he pulled the lever, opening the gate.

Seems to be a different official than before, wondered what happened to him.

Aether walked through the gate as it closed behind him, leaving him in the Outer World.

Weird, it's only been five days since I've been here, but the landscape looks completely different? Or maybe I'm just remembering it wrong.

Instead of the rocky, tuff surface of the ground last time, the ground seemed softer, as if it had been paved over by something

But Aeth did not pay too much attention to it.

Aeth then started walking on the soft, grey ground, as he made his way away from the wall, traversing the dead landscape.

Besides wanting to earn money, there was another reason Aeth wanted to head out here.

He wanted more training with [Starborn].

He could swing his sword as many times as he wanted. But it wouldn't make him better at fighting than any real fight could.

There was a quote somewhere about this. How one fight could do more than a thousand hours of training could ever do, can't seem to remember who said it though.

Still, he could still very much die here.

Well not because he was weak, well, compared to the average Ordinary Grey he wasn't.

It was because one or too many slip ups could easily end in his death.

Life was cruel, and ended very unexpectedly for some, and Aeth did not want to become one of those people.

So he needed to get stronger.

To sum it all up, Aeth just wanted to improve and gain as a Position.

Aeth continued walking until he saw a Grey in the distance.

It was around double Aeth's height, with a lanky dark body, almost as if it was made of wood, with two long arms that looked almost like branches, it was standing in an open grey valley.

It was pretending to be a tree.

An Abnormal huh, tricky bastard.

Ordinary Ranked Greys are mostly brain dead creatures, usually staying isolated from any creature, as they don't have the intelligence to work together.

An Abnormal Ranked Grey wasn't too different from an Ordinary Rank, it was slightly stronger in every aspect, and was capable of cooperating with other Greys, but what made it much more dangerous was it had a rudimentary intelligence.

But Aeth had seen through the trap of the Abnormal, which didn't seem too smart if you knew anything about the Outer World.

It's that no plant matter, dead or alive existed.

Now what the Abnormal was made of, Aeth wasn't too sure, he knew two things though.

One, he might be able to get the drop on it.

Two, whatever it was made of, would be worth a lot of money.

So, Aeth decided to risk it.

He started his way over to the Anormal, until he thought about it for a moment.

Wait, why would it pretend to be a tree, even though Abormals aren't the smartest, it should still realize what it's doing isn't a good strategy.

And if this was the full trap, why hasn't anyone killed it.

Aeth was suddenly very cautious.

He then unsheathed his white katana, as he made his way slowly towards the tree.

He creeped up, trying not to make any sound, as to not alert the Abnormal.

As he got closer, he felt that feeling he got when he was picking out his sword.

Where he looked was not at the Tree, or on the horizon.

He looked at the ground.

Aeth's wide eyed, then jumped to his side.

As he did, a huge, pitch black, tentacle shot up fast from where he just was, then retracted.

Ah shit, I see now, this is the trap.

This Abnormal was definitely higher up there in power, honestly, Aeth wasn't too sure it was an Abnormal anymore.

He then felt the ground move a little.

Aeth then started running towards the Tree.

If its attacks are this powerful, its defense must be shit, I could kill it in one strike if I'm lucky.

He ran, with his katana up, as he dodged a second tentacle.

As it shot up, Aeth said the name of the wind, enhancing his strike with it.

"Notus"

Wind swirled around his blade, boosted by the enchantment of [Starborn].

Aeth sliced through the tentacle, with relative difficulty, but with [Windbound] he ultimately sliced through it.

Damn it's tougher than I thought.

He started running towards the Tree again.

He was closing the distance between the Tree and him, a few more seconds and he'd be on top of it.

Then he felt his [Six Sense] kick in.

Aeth stopped in his tracks, then looked at the Dark Tree.

As he looked, he felt the ground shake violently.

The Tree seemed to pull itself out of the ground, its roots being used as legs, as two, bitty, red eyes opened up on the trunk of its body.

It looked extremely angry.

The Dark Tree closed the distance quite fast as it sprinted forward.

Aeth was ready though, with his katana up, ready to kill it.

The Tree swung at him, as Aeth dodged and countered, slicing the Tree across his trunk.

This only angered the Dark Tree more.

Aeth jumped back, but the Tree moved to his right, trying to crawl at him.

Aeth wasn't as ready as last time.

The Dark Tree swung its lanky claw at him.

Even though it looked skinny, it still had incredible power.

Aeth blocked with his blade, struggling under the weight of the Tree's attack.

The Tree then swung with his other hand, as Aeth had no way to block.

"Notus" 

He screamed, as he jumped in the air, wind propelling him up, allowing him to jump over the Tree, barely being hit by the claw.

The Tree then looked up as Aeth landed on him.

The Tree tried to attack, readying his claws, but it was too late.

"Notus" 

Aeth then plunged this sword down, as wind whipped around them, the white blade sliding between the eyes of the Dark Tree, staining it with a black liquid.

As the claws were about to hit Aeth, they went limp, losing all life, as the red eyes of the Dark Tree turned grey.

The fight ended quite quickly.

As the Abnormal Creature had died.

As it did, Aeth felt something rush into his soul.

A voice then sounded in Aeth's ear.

*Grey of higher Rank killed*

*Ethereal rewarded: 5*

Aeth then layed on the floor, exhausted, breathing heavily.

Damn, that was difficult, five? I guess that's a decent amount.

Atlas status

*Of course Aether Torn*

————————-

System: Atlas

Name: Aether Torn

Position: Outcast

Ethereal: [17/20]

Abilities: [Spark] [Windbound] [Six Sense]

Tools: [Small Knife] [ID Card] [Starborn] 

[Shadow's Curse]

Rules: [Godless] 

————————-

Aeth had used [Windbound] three times while fighting, which took two Ethereal every time, and had gained five Ethereal for killing it.

He could use [Windbound] theoretically in any attack, but the more force he wanted would require more Ethereal and strain on himself.

So he decided on two Ethereal per attack was a good ratio.

This isn't bad, although Atlas did mention higher Rank, so I doubt I'll get much Ethereal, or any at all for killing Ordinary Rank Greys.

All in all, I didn't get hurt too much, only a couple of scratches, and I'll make a decent bit of money.

Aeth then wiped the black liquid from [Starborn] then sheathed it.

He then summoned [Small Knife].

The knife was no longer a dull and beaten knife.

Since the knife was considered a Tool by Atlas, when Aeth put it away, it repaired itself over time, as all Tools did.

Looks like it only took a few days for Atlas to repair it, it looks good as new, better even.

Aeth then took the knife and cut up the Dark Tree in pieces, to carry it easier on the way back to the gate.

As to why he didn't use [Starborn], as the katana was much sharper and more durable.

He felt as it was distasteful and disrespectful to the pristine blade for this type of task, making its worth seem only that of a saw.

He chopped the wood of the Dark Tree, carried it under his arm, then made his way back to the gate of Marsh.

Just nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-nine to go, damn the Gods.