Dual Class [LitRPG] – Current Vol 4

Chapter 186: The Race Begins!

“D..ke! .ake!! DRAKE YOU FILTHY LAZY APE WAKE UP DAMN IT!!!!”

Drake shot up with a start, his aura and senses going into overdrive as he felt out the situation.

“Ah… Natto, why are you screaming into my ears?!” Drake sighed, rubbing his ears.

“You are going to fail in receiving the first System Sanctioned Town at this rate you imbecile! Check your notifications and make your way to the nearest System Center!” she screamed at him again.

Drake had some time to check his surroundings now, his hand pressed against the soft covers he felt underneath him, his head turning to see familiar light blue colored walls, a desk housing a large drawing tablet, computer, and several monitors.

“W-we’re back?” Drake said, stumbling over his words briefly.

“Yes, good for us! Now hurry!” Natto shouted again, poking him in the side.

Drake scoffed and picked her up, pulling his entire room into his inventory quickly.

“Ok, so it wasn’t all a dream then. Looks like all the functions work here too… Aura’s working, Magic…” Drake thought flexing his will and a fireball formed from a circle in front of him, “Working! Nice! Alright! I don’t hear any screaming so I hope that’s a good sign and not a sign that everyone is dead…”

Drake moved to his closet, pulling out a large hoodie that was several sizes too big now that he had lost so much weight during the tutorial.

“Damn, I was a big boy, but… this is crazy how much bigger this is. Whatever, it's a nice and cozy feeling. Them buffalo winters… Speaking of,” Drake mused, slipping on the hoodie over his Asuran Garbs and looking out of the window.

Drake whistled slightly, not thinking he would see such things again, then noticed his reflection in the glass.

“Oh? So this is what I look like now huh…” Drake smirked, moving his mask to the side to get a good look.

In the slightly translucent reflection Drake saw himself, his familiar black hair extended down well past his shoulders. His jaw much sharper and defined, his face chiseled as if it were a sculpture. His blue eyes shifted from blue to green to yellow in a constant eerie flow that hummed with power behind them. His most striking new feature, his skin tone had taken a few steps down in saturation, his creamy tan had become a more deep caramel.

After a few more seconds of admiring himself, his eyes refocused to the outside.

Outside it was snowing lightly, the flecks of ice tumbling to the ground in a constant stream. Covering the ground in blissful white fluff. The streets were covered, and the houses he could see from his apartment were also fully clothed in a white blanket. 

But what concerned Drake was what else he could see, or frankly not see.

The houses near his area were tightly packed, or supposed to be. What he saw were spacious lots of land, trees he had never seen, and even some buildings split in half down the middle huge gaps between the pieces.

“Guess they weren’t lying about the world expanding, but that is nasty… If people still lived there-” Drake realized his words, his jaw tightening slightly as he ran from room to room in his apartment, pulling everything he could into it. Food, books, furniture, toiletries, soap, cleaners, anything and everything went in.

Natto clung for dear life on the edge of his hoodie, “Drake! Drake stop! The notifications!!!”

Drake’s brow raised as he heard her but he didn’t stop moving. Completing his task of collecting his home into his inventory, he made for the door as he opened the screen.

[Welcome to the new and improved Earth! Your planet has completed its overhaul of integrating several other planets to form one of the two remaining planets with life in your solar system]

[New Quest! Planetary Upgrade! Defeat the Four Cardinal Beasts.]

[Reward: Experience. Planetary Rank Upgrade. Permanent Access to E-Grade Large Dungeon Tower. Access to First Interplanetary Travel Node]

[New Quest! Be one of the first to establish a System Sanctioned Town!]

[Reward: Experience. Nobility Ranking based on placement. Basic System Buildings based on Placement]

[New Limitation Release! 9 Years, 364 Days, 13 Hours, 34 Minutes]

[When the Limitation is Released, your planet will be introduced into the vast system network, allowing for Planets above E-Grade to travel to your Solar System]

[New World Wide Quest! Defeat the Waves! Begins in 99 Days, 13 Hours, 32 Minutes]

[Your first test against adversity in your new world will put its new citizens to the test. Will you band together and overcome the endless waves of monsters as you fight for control of land, protect your loved ones, and conquer this new world? Or will you create the biggest schism between your new norm]

“That is an excessive amount of information,” Drake agreed, “Natto any info you can give me on them?” he asked, reaching the bottom of the stairs with his hand on the door.

Natto exhaled, taking a breath as she relaxed on Drake’s shoulder, giving him a death stare before shaking her own head and merging with him.

“As of now, nothing is of relevance, once you establish your town we may go from there. Until then reaching the System center is your priority,” she implored.

“Fine, but where do I go-”

Before Drake could finish his sentence he heard the crackling of brick and wood across the street, the building beginning to splinter. In the breaks between that, he heard screaming.

A child’s scream.

Drake instantly shifted into his lightning endowment, his feet almost burning marks on the ground as he rushed to the home as the snow melted below him.

Navigating the collapsing building he spread out his aura, happy to see that because it was a pre-system structure it didn’t block it. He then pinpointed the room with two children inside huddling together as they looked around in abject fear of what was going on.

Drake pulled the door open, their eyes locking onto him in confusion.

“W-where are our parents?!” one yelled.

Drake bit down on his lip, feeling a lump form in his chest. The few words from the kids made him realize what he had suspected in the tutorial a reality. Their parents hadn't made it out of their tutorial. Leaving the children alone, confused, and scared when the tutorial was finished.

“I don’t know,” Drake lied with a hint of sadness in his voice, “But you are coming with me, it isn't safe here.”

“N-no! Our dad told us to never go with strangers!” the other shouted.

“I’m Drake. Drake Wallen, see? Not a stranger anymore. Here, I even have candy,” Drake said, trying to give a diffusing smile as he reached out his hand, the house rumbling more and more.

“Our dad said that's exactly what a stranger would say!”

“Smart man. Sorry kids, I don’t have time to do this gently,” Drake grimaced the house beginning to split underneath his feet.

Drake pointed his palm towards the opposite wall of the children a green magic circle manifesting quickly.

“Impact!”

The magic formed and burst out with incredible force, quickly blowing the wall from its foundation. Drake picked up both children in a fireman carry as he leapt from the room to the ground. Landing safely and smoothly with the crunch of snow. The children flailing in protest as he put them down.

The three looked towards the house as it fell to pieces.

“O-our house…” they both said sinking to the ground on their knees.

Drake gave a solemn gaze as he saw them begin to cry, his mind racing on exactly what to do about this situation. He knew very well they wouldn’t be the only ones left alone on his street or in his city, or even the state or country.

“Drake…” Natto chided, reading his thoughts.

I won’t leave them. Drake responded in his head, biting down on his lip in frustration.

Before they could argue, the ground rumbled once more. Drake’s instincts going into overdrive as he scooped the children up once more and jumping backward.

The ground shifted with a sound of grading metal then splintered, the head of an enormous faceless slithering thing worming its way out of the ground.

[Mana Worm Level 12]

Drake’s eyes widened.

“No quest?” Drake wondered as he landed on the ground, putting the kids down.

He quickly summoned a barrier of Earth around them despite their screams and protests. He couldn’t have them run off and getting killed.

“Natto?” Drake asked again.

“Quests and skills are handled much differently outside of the tutorial. Excluding World Quests and System-Wide Quests, you must go to the system centers for now until you are able to establish a town. You will still receive experience, but drops will be far more scarce, as will skill stones,” she answered.

“Good enough for me,” Drake frowned looking at the worm as he pulled his staff from his inventory, his hair changing to white.

“You aren’t even good enough for a warm-up,” Drake sneered, cracking his neck, “Going after kids? Dick move.”

Drake pointed his staff at the worm.

“Bararaq, Saiqa.”

From Drake’s staff, a flash of yellow turned forming his magic circle as it instantly changed to a violet streak of lightning jumping from his staff to the worm. Raining down with such force it scorched and cracked the earth around it, burning the worm to a charcoal lump.

[You have subjugated Mana Worm Level 12 [F-Rank] [Experience Earned]

Drake spat on the ground towards the pitiful husk of the monster, “Is it worth anything Natto?”

“It is not.”

“Good, let’s go.”

Turning he let down the barrier around the children, their faces still in fear as they looked from him to the burned monster.

“W-what was that?! Who- What are you!?” one child shouted and pointed at him.

Drake tilted his head putting his staff on his shoulder, “I already told you, I’m Drake Wallen. They call me the Tyrant. What’s your names?”

—---------------------

“Get off me!”

The girl shouted at the man who was pressing her against the wall, his strength unbelievable as the tricks, magics, superpowers, or whatever he had shown before.

“I have to get to my house and find my brother! Get the fuck off my creep!”

“Now, now… This is the new world girly! The strong get to do whatever they want!” the disgusting man chuckled.

“N-No! Get the hell away from me! Someone! Someone, please help me!” she shrieked, despair welling up in her chest as she desperately tried to push the man away.

“No one’s ganna help you! Didn’t you get the memo?! The world is for the strong! And we take what we want now!” he howled, laughing again tightening his grip around her wrists.

The sound of someone clearing their throat came from the end of the alley.

The man turned his head from the girl, still pinning her to the wall of the building, his face sneering as if someone had interrupted his dinner.

“Who the hell are you?” the man growled.

The other man stood stoically at the end of the alley wearing a gray hoodie, the hood pulled down over his face obscuring any discernible detail.

“What was that about being strong? Hmm. Only level 9? You haven’t even reached F-Rank yet and you’re already going around doing sickening B-rate villain acts while saying your strong? You're the 10th one in the last hour, there have been so many of you I’m starting to lose hope,” the hooded man said, his voice dripping with cold venom.

“What’s it to you?” the other man sneered, focusing in on the hooded man, his eyes shining with a weird light as if he was looking determinedly for something, but his face slowly shifted and curled into a frown, “L-level 14? How are you so high!?”

The hooded man took a step and the next he was holding the other man by the throat, a beautiful four-leafed staff in the other, forcing the man to drop the girl as she scurried out of the way.

“T-thank you!” the girl studdered looking back, only to see the hooded man’s hood fall, revealing his fiery red hair and striking white mask as he raised the man several feet into the air seemingly without effort.

The girl stood for a labored second staring at him before his eyes shifted only briefly to her from the other man, his eyes shifting from brilliant blue to yellow.

“Leave.”

“Y-yes sir!”

—---------------

Drake turned, holding the man up against the wall.

“What kind of sick fuck gets off kidnapping a kid. Never mind I don’t want to know,” Drake spat looking at the man in disgust, “What were you even doing in your tutorial to not get above level 10? Then you want to preach about being strong?”

The man looked down into Drake’s eyes with horror, his hands manically clutching and clawing at the grip around his throat as he began to drool. His body begging and pleading for air.

“I-I’m sorry….!”

“No, you aren’t,” Drake said evenly his eyes that of someone looking at pure garbage, “But you will be.”

“P-please don’t kill me!”

“Kill?” Drake said, his eyes flashing, “I’m not killing anyone. I’m simply doing my civic duty. Cleaning up the neighborhood, making sure the streets are nice and tidy. I’m taking out the trash.”