Shadow Slave: The Great Hunt

He opened his eyes again to a splitting headache that was matched his his legs. As he peeled his eyes open and raised his head he saw the now familiar golden tiles strangely pristine despite the overgrown jungle. 

He looked from side to side seeing the same wood pile and fern with only a stray bloody stick being out of place lying next to him from the fall it must have taken to land directly on his head.

Artemi felt the strange urge to get to that golden city so he started dragging himself grunting and groaning the whole while, unsummoning the Tainted spike in the process.

The distance to the city was comparatively short for someone that could walk and wasn't suffering from dehydration but through sheer will power and the stuborn difiance to not die in this acursed jungle he kept on arm by arm dragging himself.

As minutes turned to hours the sun peaked and started to draw closer and closer to the horizon once again, only cementing the idea that if he did not enter the city today he would almost surely die from this alien shifting jungle, this mostly came from the idea that whatever it was that he needed to get out of this Nightmare must be the golden temple.

Some time around two hours before the sun set a deep fog settled over the jungle leaving the golden target that was his only focus barely visible.

The next hour and a half as far as he could tell must have been the longest in his life as he meter by meter felt his muscles strain and his breathing labouring on with the sweat dripping down his his back and through his hair.

Gods… Please, give me the strength… to… get there.

Everything hurt, from his head to his toes and every movement made it worse the excruciating pain surged through his body like liquid fire but he was so close to the golden tiles that were the only thing Artemi's pain addled mind could focus on.

The sky kept darkening as the lone figure crawled through the undergrowth past saplings the size of small buildings towards the the not so distant now, city of pure gold.

The last moment before the sky fell to darkness the figure reached out and touched the gold.

[Wake up, Artemi! Your nightmare is over.]

[Prepare for appraisal…]

And just like that the pain and the golden tile was gone replaced with a endless black void specked with motes of light that were interconnected with strings of pale radiant light woven like a complex net forming archaic shapes and objects through the gloom

The inner workings of the Nightmare spell

Artemi though as he gazed in wonder at the out of this world image that would forever be framed in his mind not only because it saved him from the pain but also because it reminded him of the limited information he had about the creation of computers and their inner workings.

Knocking him from his awed silence came the now familiar voice of the nightmare spell.

[Apirant! Your trial is over.] 

[A first time hunter shunned and left to die by his tribe explored the wilderness, climbing a massive tree he saw the Golden City and dreamed of a better time. Facing an awakened monster in battle he managed to send it and him toppling of the the tree, luckly surviving though his legs were completely broken. Crawling into relative safely he saw the moon and was moved knocked out and moved by the living forest. Ending up near the great city he crawled to it and despite the odds reached the steps to the entrance. The gods were dead and yet they saw] 

[You have slain an awakened monster: Blighted Panther.]

[You have acheived the impossible.]

[Final appraisal: glorious. Your perseverance knows no bounds.]

This was high praise for what he saw as pure luck and this rating made him at least hopeful that he would not be stuck with the same dormant Aspect.

[Dreamer Artemi, recieve your boon.]

[You have been bestowed a True Name: The Heart of Hope.]

Gods above, This is simply unbelievable.

True Names were considered outstanding for all of humanity and only came to those who were considered the heroes and heroines of humankind, and to gain such a name during the first night-mare was completely unheard of.

But before he could fully process this information one last reward came 

[Your aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]

Without any forethough "Yes." came blurting from his mouth

[Dormant Aspect Ameture Beast Hunter is evolving..]

[New aspect acquired.]

[Aspect Rank: Devine]

[Aspect Name: Heart of the Hunt]

With that Artemi fell his hands went to rub at his eyes and pinch his skin, surly he had miss-seen, misheard. Divine aspects like everything that happened in this in-between space were unheard of, complete anomalies.

Then he started laughing and not the joyous one the mark of someone who had lost their understanding of the world and was completely speechless.

He began to think of the pure impossibility of it all, the spell had said he was seen by the Gods what did that even mean? What was his flaw that must be so fatal to go along with the power he was just handed? 

Aspect: [Heart of the Hunt.]

Aspect Rank: Divine

Aspect Description: [You are the new Leader of the Great Hunt. Here to bring the dead gods back to life by killing that which killed them. As a said Leader using the power of Heart God who created you, you will be able to create the perfect hunting party to defeat that which is undefeatable. However you are wild and untamed, unable to use your greatest weapon.]

Innate Ability: [The Great Hunt]

Ability Description: [You are fated for more than what is possible and to do that you will need companions. When you give someone two memories of their tier or higher they will be a part of said hunt and when near you can share in your abilities.]

This is… Interesting, it seems like I am here for a higher purpose, but how am I meant to kill that which cannot be killed. Other than that I am obviously broken and if i can gain access to enough memories will be invaluable in any cohort.

This and many other thoughts raced through his head as he tried to process the enormity of whatever this Apsect meant for Earth and mankind as a whole. This spiral was only interrupted when one last message falshe before his eyes.

[The First Seal is broken.]

[Awakening dormant powers…]

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Well he did it finally out of that darn jungle, I also wrote 2 chapters in one day! Hold the applause. I hope I can get one maybe two tomorrow and please give some feed back on the direct this book it's going. See yall!