Shadowbound Ascension: The Necromancer's Journey

Ten days had passed since Aiden had fully embarked on his training schedule as was recommended in Cross' book. Every day he woke up early and trained his body to its limits preparing for anything that the coming day might have in for him. Each night, he could sense his power rising each time he concentrated on getting actual combat exposure and repeatedly went to D-ranked Dungeons and he encountered monsters much more powerful than the H-ranked dungeons he first entered.

His progress was astonishing. The raw power that he used to yearn for so much was gradually seeming to him attainable at least to some extent. There was 99% in the update bar of the system, and Stevens had 100 + stats in each of the parameters. He had lost some weight and his muscles were well toned, his reflexes had improved a lot and his concentration had been honed. He felt this even during his combat against dungeon beasts, where he fought them with the right rhythm an Calvin's punch.

While making his last training set of the day and sitting down, Aiden called up the inventory on the screen. There were many things in the list, however, one of them stood out to him, the recipe for the potion that saved his mum. It has been present in his stock after the system update began and now that the materials have been collected, he saw that he had all the ingredients for the potion, a D-rank one at that.

It appeared that the dish was not very simple to prepare as it demanded particular ingredients which could be acquired only from particular monsters and dungeons. Now for the last ten days he was dedicated to collecting them as well as refining the combat skills. It was not easy, but everything was now arranged, everything was provided; and in that moment he held the position which he had previously assigned to her.

Only then did the update of this system reach 100% and the man could begin brewing the potion.

[System Update Complete. ]

There was a notification in front of his eyes, and he looked at its content with great interest as to what the system would present him after the update.

[New Features Unlocked: Talents: Quest Selection, Shop]

That moment, Aiden's heart was beating fast with the excitement, and he started focusing at what the system has posted.

[Feature: Quest Selection]

[Description: A list of quests is now available for you to select from a list They are ranked like dungeons from H to???. There are benefits in completing a quest it will add to your experience point growth that you need.

He immediately moved the cursor to the quests bar on the ranked quests and began to browse through. They were from the basic missions such as killing monsters in E-ranked dungeons to more complicated ones that included SSS rank indicators and even??? which are even more complicated.

[Feature: Shop]

[Description: The system shop is ready now, where you can purchase various items like – weapon, armor, potions, and many more things, and the items in the shop are categorized from H to???. You can buy things with system points which you get through quests, and dungeons.

Inside the shop Aiden saw things that he could hardly figure out up to his age and level of intelligence. Rare weapons, extraordinary resources and marvellous equipments were all accessible for a cost. He realized that he was still not prepared to buy the more potent tools, but having access to such a tool was a breakthrough as it made so many possibilities possible.

But the last attached feature became the most interesting one to him.

[Feature: Talents]

[Description: Talents have now been unsealed. Talents were given to the First Generation Hunters and endowed them with skills above the norm. Talents are ranked from H to???, and enables efficient and specialized style in the talent's chosen area. The types of talents include but not limited to Sword Mastery, Weapon Mastery, Cooking, and Strategy, among others. Hunters can only take up to 10 talents, with only one talent being of SS class]

Owning to this, Aiden's eyes opened even wider as the system went on.

[Note: Most of the modern hunters do not even know about talents at all, let alone, its importance, unlike in the case of attributes, where the way lies hard, and the time long before one can upgrade a talent lies.]

Talents. The very thing that had made the First Generation to be different from everybody else was missing. Suddenly, the idea of having his own locked Talents excited Aiden as he thought about how such things even maybe unavailable to the best hunters of the modern age.

He switched over to his status screen, he saw a tab that newly appended as 'Talents.' His mind began to ponder at the prospects. Sword mastery? Weapon mastery? Healing? The range had been broad, and the number of options, unlimited.

The system chirped once more and showed him a selection of possible talents he could decide to go with.

Sword Mastery (Rank F)

Weapon Mastery (Rank F)

Shadow Affinity (Rank E)

Alchemy (Rank G)

Tactical Genius (Rank D)

He looked at the list, at the names of people all of whom had a potential before him which was not the same. It made sense for combat skills, and Weapon Mastery was just Weapon Mastery; Sword Mastery sounded a little more exotic, but it still related to combat; at least Shadow Affinity had a slightly more mysterious note to it and sprawled possibilities to develop abilites that might be useful as a future necromancer. Alchemy was useful to make potions and items such as the medallion that healed his mother and Tactical Genius is for those people who do well in leading and devising the strategies.

"Just 10 talents as well and only one SS rank talent," Aiden spoke aloud to himself. It was a difficult call.

He was to choose something on the list before the system interrupted him in the middle again.

[Note: The system has recommended picking your first Talent with an eye toward your future potential as a necromancer: Shadow Affinity is a must.

Shadow Affinity. It was leading him to the particular way he was to accomplish his future powers. Then again, Aiden parked himself on the selection then after a few seconds, he settled on one.

[Talent Acquired: Shadow Affinity Lowest Classification: Rank E]

He felt an overwhelming feeling of power welled up in him as the Talent became a part his existence. That was not overpowering at first but in IF's case he saw the change happening slowly. The darkness around him looked as though Khan controlled it, which gave the hint of this Talent's true power.

It was at that precise moment that another notification appeared on the bottom right of the screen and just as Aiden was going to learn more.

[Congratulations you have opened the Talent window As a result new talents can be gained from quests, challenges and secret achievements. ]

Aiden grinned. Still, this was just the beginning in terms of the innovative type of amplification they envisaged. However, he has many interesting and challenging prospects ahead of him with the new features in the system, Talents, and goals with the quests waiting for him. There is something else to ponder, something else to conquer and as he moves and gains mastery he approaches the goal he has in mind.

Even if one decided to take a shot in the dark and give the world a guess, there was no way of it being on the money and knowing what was in store for it.