Spear Devil - 002

Chapter 002 – SDSS

[March – 2008]

Pain suddenly erupted from deep within my body, as my mind was thrown into disarray.

Opening my eyes, I could see black veins spreading all over my arms and legs. Moving, twisting, and throbbing inside my flesh, pulsing with a demonic red glow every few seconds.

The pain wreaking havoc on my form was so intense that I couldn't even scream in agony, as all that left my lips were groans, while my body spasmed with every red pulse of those inky-black veins.

Slowly but surely, they grew denser and denser. And when it finally felt as if these black veins had invaded every cell of my body, every fiber of my being, they retracted just as fast, before gathering in my right hand.

Again I could only watch with equal measures of fascination and horror, as small abyss-black branches broke through the skin of my palm and gathered there before expanding.

With every blood-red pulse of energy, the inky-black mass grew in length, and a few moments later, a spear lay in my hand.

I had done some martial arts in the past until I had eventually settled on Spearmanship, as it had just felt 'right' and I seemed to have a real talent for it, so I wasn't unfamiliar with such weaponry.

Slowly standing up, I grasped the abyss-black spear with glowing red veins all over its body and once again felt a feeling of familiarity with this type of weapon.

The spear was roughly 2.2 meters in height, while the blade had a length similar to the length of my hand and forearm added up, which was roughly 40 centimeters. From experience, I knew that the blade was a bit too long, but I didn't mind as I knew that this could be useful when utilizing the weapon for slashing motions. The shaft thickness was just perfect to fit snuggly into my closed palms, while the weight seemed to be just right for my strength.

And while I was still admiring the magical weapon, trying to wrap my head around what just happened, a holographic panel suddenly appeared in my field of vision, and on it, a message was written.

[Congratulations! You have finally managed to awaken the Spear Devil Support System after only being reincarnated/transmigrated/reborn once! This feat grants you an extra reward in addition to the System, a 'Gift Pack' if you will! Do you want to proceed with System Activation? (Yes)]

Dumbstruck, I realized that I may not have awakened a Sacred Gear after all. Still, I didn't hesitate to tap on the (Yes)-icon, after trying to activate it mentally which yielded no results.

[Please first spin the wheel to determine the Strengthening Path, before the System Activation. (Spin)]

A prize wheel appeared under the message, with four different coloured sections and a bright red arrow pointing at the field at the top.

“Ore Absorption, Spirit/Soul Absorption, Item Absorption, Weapon Absorption. Seems fairly self-explanatory what it means by Strengthening Path.”, I muttered to myself, as I read the words in the four different fields.

Though I couldn't really be sure what each path entailed specifically, as I may interpret it differently than intended, so I wasn't sure which one I should hope for.

Pushing away these useless thoughts, I tapped (Spin).

The wheel started to spin at great speeds, the colours just blurring into each other, though I could see that it was slowly losing velocity. I probably stood there for a good minute until the wheel slowly came to a halt, ultimately landing on the field 'Weapon Absorption'.

[Congratulations! Your path to strength is the path of 'Weapon Absorption'. This allows you to absorb other weapons, which are classified as spears to strengthen your own, while you will gain the inherent skills of the absorbed weapons.

Access to the other Paths of Strengthening is inaccessible to you until you reach the hidden requirements, or through other special means.

The Support System will now be initialized. Do take note though that the system has no sentience and as such cannot interact with the host. It is merely a tool to facilitate the growth of the host's power as the Spear Devil. Good Luck! (Initialize)]

Reading the lengthy message, I couldn't help but be curious about the functions of the Support System and promptly tapped on the (Initialize)-icon.

Suddenly that holographic panel shrunk into a small spark of white light, before shooting at my forehead with unavoidable speed, as a sharp pain suddenly shot through my head that nearly made me blackout.

When the pain disappeared only a moment later, knowledge about the inner workings of the Spear Devil Support System was firmly branded into my mind. The method may have been rather crude, but much more efficient than having to read through a manual and figure out the do's and don't's myself, so I knew the pain was well worth the result.

Still having the demonic-looking spear in my hand, I mentally ordered it to vanish and once again watched with fascination and horror, as the weapon just turned into hair-thin inky-black branches and stabbed into the palm of my hand, fusing back into my body.

I didn't feel pain or discomfort as this happened, even though the sight was strange.

Recalling the new information firmly planted in my mind, I mentally called out 'Status', thankful that mental commands were now possible.

[Status:

Name: Akira Sasaki

Race: Human

Physique: 0.2

Energy(All): None

Free Attribute Points: None

Other Rewards: Gift Pack

Spearmanship: Unranked

Affinity: None

Resistances: None

Weaknesses: None

Strengthening Path: Weapon Absorption

Skills: None ]

A new panel, similar to the one before had once again appeared, this time though it had appeared inside my mind. Sitting down on my bed, I closed my eyes so I could better focus on the information displayed on the 'Status'-panel.

The first two rows of information were rather self-explanatory, Physique though was a bit different. Physique was the combined average of all my physical attributes, including strength, constitution, agility, vitality, etc.

A normal human being had an average of 0.1 in Physique, while even the weakest Devil had 1.0 in Physique. This ranking system though wasn't completely linear, as higher ranks often came with qualitative changes. Comparatively speaking Ophis or Great Red would have a value of 100 in their Physique, even though their power was near immeasurable.

Objectively speaking this body's Physique was only as high due to my age and regular exercise, though it was still unimpressive when compared to even the weakest members of the Supernatural society, even other humans.

The reason for that was rather simple, as other humans like exorcists and magicians used supernatural forces like magic to boost their attributes.

In the end, Physique simple wasn't what most Supernatural beings excelled in, as the power of Devils for example was measured according to their Demonic Power, their bodily strength not nearly as important as the power of their magic, i.e. their Clan Trait. 

[A/N: Patreon kinda destroyed the format of the Status display, and I can't seem to get it fixed. So yeah, that sucks...]