The Origin Warden

Chapter 2 : Thorn Spear

Item Name : [ Azoth Armor ]

Item Type : [ Armor ]

He stared at the words and his smile brightened even more to the point that he clenched his fist and waved it. He wanted to shout the word yes but his life was more important than a foolish celebration, what if a nearby monster or zombie was attracted by the sound?.

' Armor?. Finally something decent instead of that trash I got before '

After expressing his joy he quickly moved to the description section. After obtaining three items including the current item he became experienced in using the system interfaces.

Description : [ One day an unknown hero decided to adventure and explore the other side so the merciful king heard of this matter and decided to assign the most famous and skilled blacksmiths in the city to forge the strongest armor for the hero then invited the most famous mages to enchant it with the strongest spells so the world would witness the creation of the strongest armor ]

' Seriously! These item descriptions are really strange. Was it necessary to include all this content. '

Despite his complaint about the long description Jack was extremely happy that the armor was described as the strongest armor. With a thought from his mind the interface displaying the description vanished and another interface displaying more details about the item appeared, but when he read it his facial expressions became ugly with resentment.

Rank : [ Common ]

Effects : [ My Glorious Days ]

' Haaah!? '

' Common!!, are you kidding me!!?. Strongest armor my ass! '

' Even if I am ignorant about item classifications. It is as clear as the sun that the rank Common is at the bottom of the pyramid '

He passed his hand over his face with anger and bitterness.

' I got scammed '

' At least this horrible luck of mine didn’t cause my death... at least not yet '

' Tsk me and my big mouth. Now I’m really starting to fear that some monster might appear out of nowhere and turn me into its food '

He rubbed his dirty sticky black hair. Jack had not bathed since the apocalypse happened. His appearance now was in its worst state, even a beggar was better off than him. His smell was so strong that even the mindless zombies were disgusted by him and stayed away!.

He sighed surrendering to his bad luck and directed his focus toward the last information about the item.

Effects : [ My Glorious Days ]

The last information displayed the item’s special effect or rather the ability accompanying the item. According to what he noticed in all the items he obtained they all possessed a certain effect.

Effect Description : [ In the face of the horrors of the other side even the strongest armors... were fragile.]

' That’s normal. It seems the king got scammed by the blacksmiths and mages who made the armor. Or maybe the king simply hates the hero and scammed him with the strongest armor idea to send him to his death '

Jack mocked but quickly changed his opinion when he noticed other information.

[ This armor can evolve. Number of cores required for upgrade 30/0 ]

' Great. That’s what I’m talking about. It can evolve. But I won’t apologize for insulting the king and the hero. This damned armor needs 30 damned cores. I almost died and got bitten and worse turned into a damned zombie creature, I risked my life facing a damned insect the size of a car and all that just to get only four cores '

' Fuck '

He clenched his hand tightly and forced himself not to hit anything fearing that it might attract something’s attention. He patted his thick black beard which was filled with food remains.

' Anyway armor that can evolve is better than the trash I got '

Jack closed his eyes which were illuminating the darkness of the place, then focused on summoning the item. When he got his first item he discovered how to summon the item with complete ease as if he had done it several times before, it was like breathing.

Several green light particles appeared from nowhere around Jack’s body before beginning to materialize into armor. A layer of dark black cloth appeared in the form of pants connected to a long sleeved shirt covering the neck.

The shoulder guard appeared in a marble white color leaning toward gold connected downward to the arm guards and leather gloves with some metal covering the finger joints. The armor covered only the upper part of his body leaving the lower part without protection except for a pair of black boots that covered his previous shoes.

In the middle of the chest there was a symbol manifesting proudly in the shape of a winged horse head.

Because of his inability to see in the dark Jack could not see how the armor looked on him.

' No helmet!. Tsk did they run out of metal before they could make one '

Jack complained silently cursing in his mind the king and his entourage for not making a helmet. He shifted in place uncomfortably.

' Annoying. Wearing this armor over clothes is uncomfortable '

Despite his discomfort Jack did not dismiss the armor, it brought him some false sense of security.

He passed his hand over the protruding emblem on the chest and felt the arm guard before lowering it to touch the sturdy leather boots. He smiled a wide smile showing his yellow teeth. He had one missing tooth from his upper jaw, it was not completely missing because a small broken part of it refused to fall like the rest.

' At least I got good boots '

Jacob remained silent for a long while immersed in inner silence interrupted only by the strange sounds coming from outside. They were strange and terrifying sounds that Jack did not even want to know the source of.

' I wonder how mother is doing, the hospital is somewhat far away... maybe... maybe her corpse has already started decomposing right? '

Unfortunately he had no companion except darkness and rotten garbage to answer his question which was not even a question but an attempt to comfort himself.

' I really hope she is dead...'

If someone heard his current thoughts they might think Jack was an evil heartless and cruel person to wish death upon his biological mother who carried him in her belly for nearly a year without asking for anything in return.

But Jack’s thoughts were simple and their motive was mercy and love not the opposite. For him he preferred to see his mother dead rather than transformed into a mindless monster or zombie.

Jack released a long sigh that eased his troubled heart a little. In an attempt to distract himself from negative thoughts he decided to inspect his status interface. When he thought about it a transparent black interface appeared before him.

....

Name : [ Jacob Lightherb ]

Level : [10/6]

Rank : [ Dormant ]

Origin Energy : [60/57]

Attributes : [ Physical ] [ Spiritual ]

Items : [ Lily’s Handkerchief ] [ Narcissist’s Mirror ] [ Azoth Armor ]

Points : [0]

....

' Oh. I leveled up. '

Jack raised his eyebrows when he saw that his level had increased from before. Previously he was level 5 but now he was already level 6.

The level increase happened when he killed a monster or zombie where according to what Jack noticed when he killed a monster or zombie he obtained fragments of Origin Energy which when reaching the required limit contributed to raising the level to the next one.

His gaze dropped to the writing at the bottom and he rolled his eyes bitterly.

' Tsk. Where was this system, it’s extremely stingy. Those heroes in manhwas get points every level they increase '

Until now despite leveling up six times Jack had not obtained any points, but he was certain that he would obtain one point or more when he fulfilled the requirements which were reaching level 10.

Level : [10/6]

Even if he did not obtain points something would most likely happen or else why would the system show him that he had to reach level 10?!.

Jack rubbed his eyes which were red and filled with blood vessels due to the stress from the horrors of recent events and lack of sleep from fear of sleeping and never waking up.

' Only one week has passed and I already started missing the life before this living hell... thinking about it I really spent an entire week wandering between companies searching for a damned job to pay the hospital bills and just when I got an opportunity in a decent company. The interview committee turned into damned zombies '

' Thinking about it my luck really isn’t that bad. I was the only one who didn’t turn into a zombie in the building and on top of that I managed to escape without a single scratch...'

He raised his hand and touched the broken tooth.

' Except this '

He smiled awkwardly when he remembered how he lost his tooth because of something trivial, tripping over a damned rock, but at the same time it saved his life.

' Has night already fallen? '

Jack wondered silently. He hesitated for a moment before slightly lifting the container lid to create a small gap enough to see the situation outside.

The situation outside was complete darkness, within Jack’s field of vision there was no trace of light.

Origin Energy did not only affect living beings but technology also had its share as all electrical devices stopped working, making planet Earth return to the dark ages.

Jack closed the lid and sighed bitterly.

' I’m really extremely tired '

' Is it really necessary to get a firearm?, what if I encounter some danger?. Is it worth the risk? '

Unable to make any decision Jack put his hand in his pocket and took out a coin and an Origin Core that illuminated the place slightly with its milky white light.

He placed the coin on his thumb then flicked it upward. The small silver metallic coin spun several times in the air before landing on the palm of his hand. Jack brought the core closer to see which side the coin landed on.