Reaper's Resurgence: A System Reset

Alexia Knight

I stretch a little while staring up at the ceiling.

At least it finally gives me a chance to really think about what's happened. Since I haven't really stopped to think about everything yet.

I've just been fighting and working nonstop.

But now that I'm actually thinking… I lost everything, didn't I? Everything but my family and friends. Which are all that really matter, especially since I didn't exactly have much that I cared about in the first place. Nothing that I really cared about in terms of items at least.

I wish we could've kept our photo of mom though. But it was getting old and blurry anyways, since it was from the early days of the System. Maybe even before that.

Gramps actually thought our mother was someone from the original Initialization, when our world along with who knows how many worlds were all merged into a grand plane centering on our planet with the initialization of the System into the world. And the addition of monsters too, because apparently they didn't have those back then. Before the Initialization.

Which I find bizarre.

I believe the professors at the academy also mentioned that the System's Initialization stalled regular technological development permanently as well. Not sure why or how though.

No one ever explains that.

But Gramps to this day still thinks mom was from that time purely because of me and Lexi's Class B affinities. After all, it could've just been a coincidence if only one of us had one. But for both of us to have a Class B affinity?

We had to have been born to someone powerful.

Although too bad our affinities didn't leave much to the realm of use since both mine and Astrid's are rarer affinities that very few people really know how to use beyond the basics. And very few classes are offered for them.

Shadow for Astrid, and Astral for me.

And while there are plenty of classes out there for shadow magic, just none that Gramps knew how to get, there aren't many out there for astral magic.

Actually…

I sit up on the rock.

…do I even have that affinity anymore? Considering that I got a Class S perfect affinity for the quantum element now? One of the few elements that doesn't use mana.

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Huh. Interesting thought. But at the same time, I don't have mana, so I don't think I'd be able to use the magic now even if I did still have the affinity.

I lie back down on the rock again.

Wonder how Astrid is doing right now? Is she safe? Did she get Magic Knight back? Or maybe a better class?

I hope she's at least with the others from our team, assuming she wasn't separated like I was. She tends to get a little narrowminded when focused on something.

Not that I'm really one to talk, considering I haven't even thought much about the actual consequences of the Reset while fighting for my life this whole time.

Part of that is just that I don't care much though. I didn't really like the other dimension, and I didn't have any real attachments besides people who are also now in this new dimension.

In fact, if anything, I'm probably happy about this Reset. Not so happy about how it happened though.

I don't like being forced against my will to do things. Even if the benefits I got are very nice.

Only thing I take issue with aside from that though is the whole 'dumping me in a dungeon' thing.

Because that's just rude.

I let out a sigh at that thought, continuing to stare up at the ceiling for a few seconds before glancing at my status to find my soul having only gone up by several dozen points.

This is gonna take a while.

A couple hours pass in boring silence before I finally climb to my feet, my soul mostly regenerated now even if it's still missing a few hundred points. Then I begin walking towards the tunnel, soon entering the dark that is not dark again.

I quickly summon my polearm as I walk, making sure not to activate the energy around it so as to keep the area dark. Since I wouldn't be surprised if the creatures might end up finding me a lot faster if I filled it with light.

Seconds pass in silence, then the seconds turn into minutes and before I know it, I'm entering a large cavern. The cavern is filled with trees and large leaves stemming from the trees like platforms. And all across the little underground forest are who knows how many scythids just roaming around.

I kneel down to make myself as small and hard to see from down there as possible.

Okay, I don't like this place.

My eyes are drawn to a large body of water at the edge of the cavern, but once again I feel no thirst towards the water despite not having had anything to drink for what must be at least a day now. Maybe nearing two days.

Guess my body really must be absorbing the quantum energy of my surroundings to sustain me. A rather convenient fact.

Wish it made it so I didn't need sleep though.

Looking down at the forest and all of the scythids, they seem to be moving in a rather ordered manner, and all of them are working. Meanwhile the trees themselves have holes in them where the creatures are going in and out of the trees.

It's like a hive in a way.

Although I don't remember praying mantises ever having any sort of hivelike structure.

In fact, I'm pretty sure they don't. So I guess these really aren't just oversized mantises after all.

Not that I truly thought they were.

I watch them move about for a little bit before briefly wondering how exactly I'm going to go about leveling up in this room. And it doesn't take long to come up with an idea.

But first I'll have to test some things.

Like how good their hearing is, how good their smell is, and how far they can see.

Most importantly, I'll need to test how obvious it is to them when I shine a bright light in their pitch black cavern filled with a vibrant green forest that I have no idea how is living down here in the first place.

Then again, sometimes it's better to just blame the System for unexplainable things and move on rather than trying to figure out a logical reason for it.

The System does tend to have a habit of warping reality after all. It's kind of what the quantum element is best at.

That or destroying reality.

Anyways, time to get to work.