Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

The Neanderthal shrugged his massive shoulders. He smoothly switched from his broken English to his own guttural native tongue, knowing perfectly well that Uhtred’s translation device would handle the transition without an issue.

”I simply want to reveal some harsh truths and understand the mind of the one who stands at the forefront of the humans we are up against,” the giant said.

Uhtred crossed his arms over his chest, his face blank.

”Forefront? I think you haven’t met many humans if you think I am standing at the apex of my kind.”

The Neanderthal chuckled, shaking his head.

”You do not need to play up the strength of your race, human. I can clearly see the global power ranking panel for your kind.”

Uhtred’s expression remained solid, but a small spike of shock hit his mind. He played it off coolly, merely raising a single brow in response.

”You will also gain access to the ranking panel of my kind once your core reaches the boundary of the mortal realm,” the Neanderthal explained offhandedly, treating the massive revelation like common knowledge.

”So you are at Level 25?” Uhtred asked, his eyes narrowing.

”The peak of Level 24, to be exact,” the giant corrected. ”Level 25 is where the next realm begins.”

This new information basically confirmed Uhtred’s earlier suspicion.

”I’m right then,” he said. ”Your people gained access to the System long before we did... Which means you were already roaming this planet while we were still inside the integration space.”

The Neanderthal looked at Uhtred and nodded, a genuine look of respect coloring his rough features.

”Now we are getting somewhere,” the giant said. He shifted forward, resting his thick forearms on the table.

”Yes. My kind were active on the planet well before your race returned from the integration space. And this is exactly what I need you to understand... Your kind harbors the arrogant thought that this world belongs to you.

You hold the foolish idea that the integration was designed specifically for humans... that the planet evolved purely for your personal progression. The beasts, the resources, the dungeons. You view it all as a ladder built for your climb up the path of ascension.”

He locked eyes with Uhtred, his gaze entirely calm, bearing no haughtiness.

”If you hold such thoughts, I will tell you here and now that you are sorely, fundamentally wrong.”

”From what we have learned from the humans we captured, it seems this world truly belonged to your civilization for a brief flash of time in the past, before the System integrated and reformed the planet... But that history is so old that holding onto ideas of ownership is nothing but a childish fantasy.”

He reached into his spatial storage and pulled out a small, metallic orb, placing it carefully on the table between them.

The device hummed, casting a flickering, hovering projection into the air, mapping out historical timelines and geographic shifts as he spoke.

”The reformation of this planet had already concluded long before your integration space opened. The native beasts had already evolved through multiple generations. Ancient, dominant creatures were resurrected... including us.”

The giant gestured toward the glowing projection.

”Your modern historians seemed to have been quite adept at digging up traces of our history from our ruins and ancient bones, but your short-lived civilization still cannot fathom just how many variants of man have perished across the millions of years since the first of us.”

He stared deeply into Uhtred’s eyes.

”Every single variant of man that has ever drawn breath on this soil was brought back simultaneously by the System. Every single lineage, including the bloodlines your historians never discovered. We were all revived and introduced to this new reality... a reality where only three out of all the prehistoric variants of man are permitted to survive.”

The giant’s eyes grew slightly distant, as if he was remembering an old, gruesome tale.

”The war your kind is experiencing right now is not new to us. We have already slaughtered hundreds of rival variants just to secure our right to exist in this current era. We, the Neanderthals... The Homo erectus variants you have witnessed in the forest... And the last of our trinity, whom I will not name, since your kind remains completely ignorant of their existence.”

He leaned closer, the projection reflecting off his angular jawline.

”All three of us are victors. We have already bathed in rivers of blood just to earn our status under the System. To us, your modern human race is nothing more than another stepping stone we must overthrow to secure our final ascension.”

The true reality and full scope of the conflict was now open to Uhtred, and a frown was evident across his face. He didn’t even try to mask the expression as he stared at the Neanderthal.

”You may be surprised as to why I am revealing our cards to you,” the Neanderthal said, a wistful smile touching his lips. ”But if my judgment of your intelligence is correct, you must have discerned my meaning by now.”

”Your kind holds no special favor in the eyes of the System. You blindly believe that in its fairness, it is giving us a temporary penalty to allow you to prepare for a fair battle. But in truth, it is simply giving your species a brief opportunity to prove it wrong.”

He tapped the metal orb, shutting down the projection.

”The System has already determined that taking the historical pool of a planet’s dominant species and forcing them into a brutal war of elimination is the most efficient method to breed flawless, high-tier ascenders. You modern humans are not the main characters of this world. You are simply being given a passing chance to possibly prove the System wrong.”

He leaned back fully, watching Uhtred with a quiet, intense eagerness.

”I do not want to break your resolve, Pathfinder. Even I do not wish for this coming war to be a simple, effortless slaughter. I want a proper conflict. I want to see exactly what traits made your modern version the dominant strain that took us out of existence even before the arrival of cosmic essence.”

The giant rose to his full, seven-foot height, his shadow casting a long line across the mound.

”It is why I sought this discussion. I want you, the forerunner of the human race, to understand exactly what you are up against.

Ready your people, Pathfinder. Because when the three-month grace period expires, we will descend upon you with our full might like a flood.”

Uhtred remained seated in absolute silence. He sat motionless, processing the new information he had just learned. The deeper intricacies of this global quest.

The true scale of the war was exponentially worse than anything humans could even imagine.

The Neanderthal watched the micro-expressions flitting across Uhtred’s face, waiting patiently for the inevitable look of grim acceptance or broken despair that usually claimed lesser combatants when faced with an impossible situation like this.

For a split second, a dark shadow did cross Uhtred’s eyes, causing a brief look of disappointment flashed across the Neanderthal leader’s face.

But before the giant could open his mouth to dismiss him, the look on Uhtred’s face morphed into something else entirely...

Uhtred laughed.

In the face of the grim reality... in the face of the harshness of the System... in the face of the threat that was exponentially more threatening to the survival of his race... he laughed a hearty laughter.