As a child, Arnold used to wake up in the night and wish for the sun to rise. The darkness used to worry him. He was scared of demons and monsters, but his imagination fueled his fear even more by conjuring many beasts with beastly jaws which, apparently, lurked beyond the range of his vision. Waiting for him to slip up and strike him down.

But now he embraced it. The darkness was an ally of him as the night provided cover from the flesh and blood monsters of the day, humans and monsters alike. Even on the most moonlit of nights, he was used to seeking shadows to blend in with. Staying clear of those pools of yellow light that flow from the street-lamps. The wastelands didn't have the neon and white lights that used to flood from the bars and restaurants. It was weird but he felt at ease while he was in the wastelands. In here he only needed to worry about monsters, and not the ones hiding within human skin.

The only reason for him to venture out at night was to gather his thoughts and... to calm down his little dragon after the 'prank' Natasha pulled off on him.

He was strolling around the base. There was still a couple of hours for the sun to rise again. In the meantime, the moon was enjoying the glory to bathe the land in its bright and calming light. The moonlight spilt onto his chest and shoulders.

As much as Arnold loved the darkness, he didn't want to be consumed by it. Hence the moonlight was special to him. If someone were to ask him about he felt about the night and the moonlight, he would describe the moonlight as his only companion in the night's darkness. The soft shimmering glow of the moon held a special purpose, it gave him a direction in what would otherwise be a maze of impenetrable darkness.

His footsteps echoed sharply around the deserted base, apart from his summons, no human could be seen around. He was calm and collected, but his heartbeat sounded awkwardly loud in his own ears, like the booming heartbeat of a condemned prisoner.

'Should I start running, instead of walking? It might take a while before Nina woke up so, I'd be able to pass my time while keeping myself fit.'

Arnold thought about it for a while and then decided to do it anyway since this had been his plan early on. Without any intention of not complying with his thoughts, he suddenly zoomed past a couple of automatons who were patrolling around the base, leaving them covered in a trail of dust.

As he ran, his feet kissing the land. Perhaps a few years ago, he would have laughed at the idea of running so far and fast, and now all he could do was to cherish the prospect of doing so. His agility wasn't over the roof like a few individuals, still, it was more than enough to make him feel like he was flying out of in air rather than running on the ground. His feet were made to travel at speed and as light as the paws of a lion. Yet it wasn't enough. 

He was about to use [Rapid Flash] to increase his speed even more. But before he could, a notification popped up in front of him. 

___

You have 159 unallocated attribute points to use.

___

He went from the speed of a raging Lamborghini to that of a Bullock cart within a fraction of a second.

"I can't believe I forgot about this." He said, shaking his head, "The confrontation with Nicole screwed up my memory. Haha."

His smile wasn't genuine but he could've fooled anyone around him. Even himself. The sad part was, he knew he was trying to fool himself. He shook his head one last time before opening his status plate.

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NAME : Arnold Ling

TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist], [Master Tamer], [Killer Of The Masses]

LEVEL : [Can't be determined]

RANK : [Unranked]

(Finish the ascension question to unlock your new level and rank)

SPECIAL SKILL : [DEVIL'S RAGE]

CLASS : [Cosmic creationist]

SUBCLASS :

• [Magical Gunslinger] (lvl 10) [Max level]

EXP : --/--

[Abilities]

[QUICK SHOT] (lvl : 15)

[EXPLOSIVE SHOT] (lvl : 15)

[LUCKY SHOT] (lvl : 15)

[CRITICAL SHOT] (lvl : 15)

• [Engineering Pioneer] (lvl 10)[max level]

EXP :--/--

[Abilities]

[QUICK ASSEMBLY] (lvl :15)

[EFFICIENT RECYCLING] (lvl : 15)

[NOVICE PROGRAMMER] (lvl : 15)

[QUICK DISMANTLING] (lvl : 15)

• [Blood Maniac] (lvl 30)[max level]

EXP : --/--

[Abilities]

[BLOOD NECROMANCY] (lvl 30)

[BLOOD BOURNE INTELLIGENCE] (lvl 25)

[BLOODLUST] (lvl : 25)

[BLOOD BOND] (lvl : 25)

AFFINITY : Ice (Wind and Water), Lava(Earth and Fire)

[Increase your intelligence to learn more affinities]

Personal details and stats :

HP : 10138/10138

MANA : 20837/20837

EXP : 0/15000

STRENGTH (STR) : 161[+65] (due to the gears)

DEFENSE (DEF) : 161 (due to the gears)

STAMINA (STA) : 78

INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 210

AGILITY (AGI) : 91

ACCURACY (ACC) : 94

EVADE (EVD) : 78

CHARISMA (CHA) : 86

MYSTIC (MYS) : 155

ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING : 159

POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING : 14

Excess EXP : 694,596

___

One line on his status plate caught his eyes... 

[Increase your intelligence to learn more affinities]

'I think it's about time to learn something new, right?' A smile crept on his face. 

Until his ascension quest was complete, the number of ways for him to become stronger were limited.

One of the ways was to create more automatons, for which he'd require an endless amount of supplies. Which sadly, he didn't have. Another way was to increase the strength of his existing summons. This is what he had been doing till then. But now he had a way to increase his strength directly- to learn a new affinity by increasing his intelligence. 

Without hesitating for another moment he quickly dumped all the attribute points to increase his intelligence. However, since it now required him to invest 5 points in his intelligence to see an increase by 1 point. Thus even after spending 155 attribute points his intelligence only increased by 31 points and was now 241 points, just enough for him to learn a new affinity. 

He kept the remaining 4 points for later and waited. Soon enough, another notification popped up on his interface. 

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You can learn a new affinity! 

Searching of affinity scrolls in the inventory, please wait... 

... 

... 

Found two affinity scrolls in the inventory. Please select the one you would like to learn now:

• Light

• Shadow

[Please note that you'll only be able to learn another affinity after your intelligence reaches 360 points.]

[It would now require 10 points to increase the intelligence by 1 point.]

___

"I already knew something like this would happen. But this won't change my mind a bit. I'll choose-"