adam dreamt of a city.
it was encompassed in a solid grey stone wall that stood tall enough to pierce the sky, it seemed to have all been cut from the same piece of stone, part of the stone wall was missing, a large jagged rupture tearing through it their was enough space to fit a warship.
looking around adam saw hundreds of wooden houses, once pure and beautiful, now, every house had been burned, raided, or with missing bite shaped chunks larger than a person taken out.
a soldier burst out a house, blood staining their once silver reflective armour which covered them from head-to-toe they wielded a large blood red claymore, the colour coming from their countless victims, it seemed clear that they had killed an insurmountable number of innocents
the person started walking backwards, the buildings relit with fire, but instead of burning seemed to regenerate, a large group of soldiers, the amount being in the thousands walked backwards, they marched in this comical way out of the kingdom, the wall repaired itself and the sun rose from the west.
adam counted the amount of times the sun rose and set, 31, he had 31 days before such a catastrophe would occur.
'the way to get an appraisal of glorious would probably be by stopping the siege, if I'm a soldier how would I do that'
when light returned to adam's eyes he saw a lavish room to his right was a bedside table with a beautiful goblet, made of solid gold, encrusted with various valuable gems.
he then realised he had been laying in a bed, he quickly left the bed and turned around to look at it better, it was a large king-sized bed with many layers of blankets and countless pillows, their was an indent where he had been sleeping.
'I didn't think I'd be a rich person'
he walked to the foot of the bed where a clothing chest stood, opening it he found a set of silk clothes which he quickly changed into.
'I should probably check my runes'
name: adam
true name: -
rank: aspirant
soul core: dormant
memories: -
echoes: -
attributes: [spectator] [mark of divinity]
aspect: imbecile
aspect description: an imbecile is a dull fool who has closed his eyes and ears to the world]
the first thing he noticed wasn't his aspect but instead his attribute.
'spectator, as in the sequence 9 of the visionary pathway, amanises and bethel probably got apprentice and sleepless, but what is this aspect, imbecile, but I'm the mastermind of our trio, why would my aspect be imbecile'
putting his complaints aside he left the room, he wandered an endless maze of halls, each and every one decorated with a different assortment of paintings, vases and stuffed or mounted animal carcasses.
he decided to walk up to one of the many people that walked through these halls, at that exact moment a butler with short grey hair and wise brown eyes walked up to him, he adjusted his monocle as he spoke.
"young master, the lord wishes to speak with you"
"very well, you may take me to him" this was adam's plan to make himself seem normal and have a direction to this "lord". the plan seemed to work as he was quickly escorted to a large wooden door, it was an expensive looking wood that had clearly had much work taken to keep perfect, their was not a single mistake on the entire door, it was all one colour, yet it didn't look painted, adam knocked on the door and waited.
a muffled voice sounded "come in", so adam obliged, he grasped the silver door handle, and twisted it clockwise, he pushed the door forwards and walked in.
he saw a man sat at a desk with neat black hair and sharp yellow eyes, like a hawk, this gaze seemed to peer into adam's very soul, adam wasn't yet a telepathist and so he couldn't properly hide his thoughts, but he was skilled enough to conceal his actual identity
he stood up and took out a sheathed rapier, 'he figured me out'. he then walked over to the petrified adam and held the sheath of the blade offering the handle to adam, when he took the blade, the lord pulled out a rapier of his own.
the lord took a stance, readying his blade, he bent his knees while leaning forwards which resulted in a decrease of height, adam mimicked this, with surprising accuracy, maybe a mix of his body's muscle memory and his spectator attribute.
the lord slowly advanced, (contrary to popular belief, the rapier doesn't usually have lunges for it's attack) when he was close enough he stabbed out with his sword, adam jumped back before advancing himself and attacking, his stab was intercepted by the lords quick stab which simultaneously guided adam's attack slightly higher up but also allowed his own blade to glide right in front of adam's face before he brought it to a stop.
"that's what you'll be learning in the next 20 days before your duel for the thrown"
'my what, I'm supposed to duel for the thrown, let's think, I should probably try and win so that I can prevent that siege on the kingdom I saw. doing that should get me a divine aspect.
"you will spend the next five days here to learn the technique I just demonstrated, by the way the sword I had made for you should be ready soon."
"thank you" adam was indeed thankful, but still, he would need more than just hard work to win after all, it was very likely that in the original timeline, this person lost the fight, of course he would have been working hard, who wouldn't want to be a king after all, so he should treat his opponent as someone he could not beat with effort alone. he would need cunning.
I don't know what to call adam's aspect
I'm asking for [suggestions]
writing is honestly a lot harder than I thought, I started writing this chapter 11 hours ago
merry christmas!