Movement.
Night has already fallen long ago, but something woke it up. A nasty stench radiates through its nostrils. It’s nose twitches, irritated that it was disturbed. This familiar stench. This is the stench of death, blood, and battle. This means only one thing.
A challenger.
Someone has dared to challenge it’s rule over the forest. Something has challenged the lord of this forest.
It snarals. Its eyes open to the darkness of the cave. It picks its head up and takes a long sniff of the air.
‘Finally. It has been too long since this forest has produced anything worthy of a hunt. At least I hope it entertains me. Hmmm…..To enter my domain and send that much hostility and hate through the air. How foolish. Your overconfidence will be your downfall. Heh. I will show you who the lord of this forest is. No one can beat me. I am the one and only alpha.’
It slowly rises up from the ground. It’s teeth shining under the moonlight as it exits the cave; glistening canines, sharp and vicious. It’s long legs stretch under it as it’s pointed claws cut deep into the dirt, rock, and stone.
This marks the beginning of its hunt. It takes one long look at the moon, full and radiant, lighting the forest floor. Its fur is in glowing radiance off of the moon, mimicking it''s beauty.
Tonight a beast has risen, tonight it shall feast. Nothing shall stand in it''s way.
It gives one long and powerful howl towards the moon and then leaps forward at speeds normal eyes cannot follow. It’s figure fading into the darkness, flying through the forest after its new prey.
------
Morning shows itself as a glimmer over the horizon. My sleep. So soothing and soundly quiet. I finally felt at peace.
*clears throat*
<<WAKE UP!! IT''S AN AMBUSH!!! THERE ARE ENEMIES ALL AROUND YOU!! YOUR GOING TO DIE!! RUN!! RUN!!! RUN!!! AHHHHH!!!!!>>
I jump so high up in the air and fall right off the branch 10 feet below. My body is reeling and bruised. My mind confuzed. There was only one thought in my mind,
‘Enemies?!?! I’m in danger?!?!? I need to run?!?! Move body move!!!’
“AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
I screamed a scared battle cry as I start running, my head spinning looking for the enemies. I’m running as fast as I can in whatever direction I can, but in my haste, I slip and fall over a vine and fall flat on my face. I stumble as I try to get up. Then I turn my head and see it. Darkness and shadows in physical form.
AKA. The biggest jackass in the universe.
“DEATH?!?!?! WHAT''S GOING ON?!?!?! WHERE IS THE ENEMY!?!?”
My mind is still reeling after such a rough start. My mind is still foggy to my situation and past.
<
>
I see the black body of death I remembered from before floating a few feet off the ground in front of me laughing his guts out(if he had guts). I’m still startled and my adrenaline is pumping at super high levels to where I can hear my own heartbeat in my lungs. I slowly start to breathe in and out to try to stop my heart from beating so much. It takes me a while but I slowly regain my composure. I also notice no imminent threat near me and no enemies could be seen around me.
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!”
<<HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! YOU JACKASS!!! YOU WERE SO SCARED!! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!! Oh no! I’m going to die! AHH!! AHH!!........pfff AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA>>
I just stood there dumbstruck and angry. I then realize death was laughing at my expense. It was barely before dawn. The sun just barely was up above the horizon and death pulls this on me. By now, all of the sleep had left my body. I am fully awake.
“You almost gave me a heart attack you bastard!! I’ll KILL YOU!!!”
I jump up to punch death in the face but I immediately feel myself flying. I had been thrown back through the forest with a woosh sound into the trees. The next thing I know, I’m crashing into a tree and I hear a loud crack sound and my life becomes filled with unimaginable excruciating pain. I scream in agony. I open my eyes to see that I am on my back looking up at the trees.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!! AHAHHAAAA!!!!”
I look down at my body and see that my legs are bent in directions they shouldn''t be, bones are sticking out of my chest and arms. The pain is all I can think about. It is all of my being. I am nothing but pain. However, after while the pain starts to recede. My bones painfully begin to pop back into place, my wounds start to heal, even the scars left behind disappear. All that was left was the blood everywhere on me and the ripped clothing. I was slightly lightheaded from the bloodloss and the pain.
I look at my body, startled and afraid. The massive amounts of adrenaline are the only thing keeping me conscious. After a moment my pain and anger become curiosity.
‘...what? How? How did this happen?’
The pain that was sanity breaking disappeared almost as fast as it came.
“...what...the hell?...”
With speeds that doctors from my world would find impossible, I stand back up on my previously broken legs and stretch my now healed arms. After a moment I find myself in perfect physical condition. I look at my body in awe and shock at what just happened.
‘My legs were definitely broken but they somehow healed themselves. How is this possible?’
I look up and notice death with, what I can only assume is a satisfied grin on his face, floating a few feet away from me in the shadows of morning.
<<Your a million years to early to start a fight with me sport, but it was funny to watch you fly through the air. You break too easily though. hahaha>>
“What the heck happened? Wait….no! What the hell are you doing waking me up like that!?!?!? No, wait. Answer Both!!!”
<<oh? Well, your increased constitution helps you regenerate health and I used a bit of magic to speed it up. Constitution is kind of like how fast your body heals. The higher your constitution, the faster you regenerate health. Also, the wake up call was just my way of having fun with you. I mean you spent ALL night sleeping. It was sooooo boring. I was halfway hoping something would come and attack you while you slept.>>
Death smiles like a cocky bastard at me. I try to calm down and focus. I organize my thoughts and begin my response.
“Death. For one, you suck giant fish balls. Two, DON''T FREAKIN WAKE ME UP LIKE THAT!! YOU ALMOST GAVE ME A BLOODY HEART ATTACK!! And three, what the hell do you mean constitution? Magic?”
<<UHH!! There you go again with the yelling and the name calling and the insults! I’ll ignore your comment on sucking giant fish balls because I thought it was funny. And I already explained what constitution is to you. If you want to know more look up your stats, duh. Also, there is magic in this world. Didn''t you learn anything from my message to you last night??>>
“Messages? Stats?.....wait. YOU GIANT ASSHOLE!! I READ THE MESSAGES!! YOU MOLESTED ME!!! YOU CURSED MY DICK!!! I’LL KILL YOU!!!”
I jump at Death again, trying to punch him and kick him. However, I am sent crashing through the tree, breaking it and making the tree fall down.
<<Enough of that! You can''t beat me SO SHUT UP AND LISTEN!! Wait…..what? I didn''t curse your dick!!! I told you! I DROPPED you because your dick grazed my hand! Why the hell would I want to molest you?!? If anything I’ll molest someone who is decently good looking. Not you!>>This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
My body slowly heals again. Not as fast but fast enough so that I can sit up and argue consciously.
“Oh ya! Well then how come I got a message stating that you cursed my dick you bastard?!?”
<<......What?!......no...no that''s not possible…….............show me>>
I was startled for a second. Deaths voice turned dark and it froze my voice.
<<SHOW ME!>>
“E-HeHedeb...eh.”
I cough to try and reorder my startled thoughts.
“....How? Can''t you see all my messages anyway? Weren''t they all from you?”
<<STUTUP! Open that message and then say show Death. That will allow me to see the message. Now SHOW ME!!>>
I quickly go through the process and bring up the message and show it to him. He looks to be reading it a few times before he closes his eyes and sighs loudly.
<
I didn’t even know I could do that! Hahahaha...haaa.. Well, at least it isn’t a horrible curse right? I almost freaked out there. When you said curse I thought it would be worse, but it just looks like the people you sleep with will be cursed with the inability to seek pleasure if it''s not from you. That''s not bad at all. It could have been worse right? Hahahah!! That''s sooo funny.
Ya know, if it was a different curse I would be in a ton of shit. I’m not aloud to give that curse to anyone. But this! Pfff hahahahahah!>>
Death starts to calm down and looks at me with an amused smirk.
<<All seriousness though, this could cause a problem for you in the future. You probably shouldn''t tell people that you are cursed. The ones that killed you will be able to track you if they know you were cursed by me. They will be able to search for cursed beings using magic and find you. Also, in this world cursed beings are usually killed when they are found. So you will need to learn to be able to resist identification magic. But that''s all down the line.
Anywho, now for the real reason I came down here. I came down this morning to do three things. The first was to mess with you and show you what magic is. Which I did when I healed you. I hope you were paying attention. The second was to help you out because you aren’t getting anywhere fast and this forest may not be as safe as I thought. Then the third thing was to give you your gift to help you. I did say I would help you with some power so I’ll start with that.>>
Before I could say anything, the top of my right hand began to burn. No, that''s not it. My hand felt like it had been stuck into a burning fire and was in the process of being branded over and over again with sering metal. I could feel my blood start to boil, my flesh melt, and my bones burn. I could smell my burning flesh in the air. My desperate screaming echoed throughout the forest. I was only able to barely keep conscious due to the fact that I had felt excruciating pain before from death’s hits. Compared to breaking your legs and back and having shattered some internal organs, this pain was slightly easier to handle.
It felt like hours had passed, each second becoming worse than the last. It felt like it was getting worse as the time went on. I had become delirious. I didn''t know what was going on other than feeling tremendous amounts of pain. I thought I saw some notifications pop up but I was too out of it to care. When the pain finally started to recede I found myself on my back looking up at the treetops.
Almost immediately I picked up my right hand to see what had been done, to find out why I had experienced such pain.
What I saw was a black tattoo. It covered the entirety of the back of my right hand. It consisted of a thick black ring with a large black scythe in it and two closed red eyes also inside of the ring. The almost silver looking blade of the scythe was pointing towards me from the top left of the back of my hand(fingers pointing up). The deep black staff of the scythe extended until it touched the black ring at the bottom right hand part of the back of my hand. The two red eyes were closed in the top right corner of the tattoo inside of the ring.(picture incoming)
I was mesmerized by it. It looked beautiful. However, this did not explain why I was in so much pain before. I look up to see the body of death with his back turned to me, looking out into the forest. It seems I was out of it for a while. His face was unreadable but I could tell he was not happy. I sat up while caressing the back of my hand, trying to get rid of the lingering memories of pain.
<<....eh? Oh! Your awake! Finally! I had to heal you almost six times because you almost died. You really are weak if you can''t take this amount of pain. So, how do you feel?>>
“......Better than I was. What did you do to me? What is this tattoo?”
<<Heh. No, thanks for keeping me alive death? No, thanks for the awesome gift death. No, You really are the greatest death?>>
“Well, thanks for keeping me alive death but what is this tattoo? Don''t tell me this tattoo is my gift?”
<<Huh. Well, at least you thanked me.>>
*Death clears throat*
<<Yes this tattoo is my gift to you. It is a very powerful gift. You can see the specifics when you look it up in your stats, but to sum up, this tattoo is a branding tool. In this world you will need allies and comrades to help you track down and kill your enemies. The reason you were given this gift is because that when I brought you here, to this world, it took longer than I thought it would. So, sorry about this, but your enemies have now been here on this world for roughly 10 years. This has allowed them to get stronger and become involved in this world. That''s good for you because you can find them easier, but it''s bad because they have probably amassed allies that will kill you before you could even get close. That''s where this comes in. You can never truly trust someone to have you back, but with this tattoo you can. It gives you the ability to brand beings to you. That is to say, they will become your slaves, unable to kill you or betray you. You also have the added benefit of gaining stat points from what they kill and giving them some of your stat points when you collect them. It''s a very powerful tool to help you kill your enemies. I don''t want you dying out there. So, what do you think? I’m pretty awesome right?>>
I was dumbstruck.
‘10 years! They have been here for 10 years! They have been able to live their lives for 10 years without consequence for what they did to me!’
I could feel the anger boiling in my blood. My fists clenched and blood started to come out of my mouth and hands in anger.
“10 YEARS!!! 10 WHOLE YEARS!!!! Why the hell did it take so long?!?!?!?!?! HOW AM I GOING TO KILL THEM IF THEY HAVE SUCH A MASSIVE HEAD START?!?!?”
<<SHUT UP!!! JEZZ! JUST BE GLAD I GOT YOU HERE!! LIFE''S NOT FAIR SO GET USED TO IT! SO WHAT IF THEY HAVE A HEAD START! YOU WILL JUST HAVE TO GET STRONGER THAN THEM AND KILL THEM!!!!! THEY DON''T EVEN KNOW YOU ARE ALIVE YOU JACKASS!! YOU CAN USE THAT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE TOO!!>>
We both stare at each other angrily. However, I cannot refute deaths logic.
‘.......tch...He is right. Life is not fair. I know that for a fact. I may not like it, but that is life. Now I have a second chance at life and I have the potential to become stronger to get my revenge without them knowing I’m alive. I hate to admit it but I shouldn''t be angry with him. I should be thanking him for all he has done for me. Even if he is a complete jackass.’
I breathe in and then out calming myself before closing my eyes and smiling.
“......heh. Thank you. It pains me to say it but you are right. I’ll just have to make due with what I have. And with what you gave me, I can become stronger and make up for the 10 years I have been absent. This is just what I needed. With this I can brand everyone I come in contact with and I can use them to kill those bastards! So thank you. Thank you for everything.”
Death smiles at me and he chuckles a bit before he responds.
<<Your welcome but you have the wrong idea. You can''t brand everyone you idiot. You have a limit to how many beings you can brand. For instance, right now with your level, you would only be able to brand 1 being. Also, if that being has a higher intelligence stat than you they don''t have to follow your orders. So you can’t go crazy. Plus, this brand is for life. It can''t be taken off or removed. Not even death can remove the brand. Got it?>>
‘He’s right. I can''t let myself be carried away and brand everyone I meet. I need to be cautious of what I do. If I make the wrong move or choice then I die. Those bastards got a head start but that doesn''t mean they can''t be beat. I need to think through who I brand. I don''t want to brand people who can''t help me. I need to find beings that can get stronger and can get me to where I need to be to take my enemies down.’
“Ok. I understand. I’ll keep that in mind. By the way, how strong are levels here?”
<<Hmm? Levels? It''s just so you can gage a beings strength. But don''t think a high level being is always strong. It''s more of a guess. The specifics your figure out on your own. I don''t have a lot of time and I still have two other things I need to do before I leave so lets get a move on. You spent too much time screaming. Ok? Good.>>
Death clears his throat again before he begins.
<<Now for the second thing I came down here to do; help you out because you are not progressing fast enough for my liking. And, I mean, to be honest, you really need help. Especially after watching you freak out for almost an hour trying to get rid of the notifications screen yesterday. I was still thinking that you would have punched yourself face to get it to go away, but sadly, it opened. Heh. I was sooo looking forward to you hitting yourself in the face too. Heh heh>>
Silence.
<<Alright, basic how to not die knowledge 101. I’m going to go a little fast here so keep up. First lesson, this world has magic and skills. First up, skills. Skills in this world are a representation of what you can do well. You can gain these skills if you complete certain requirements or are knowledgeable about the subject. For instance, do some math problems and you could gain the mathematician skill. Or cook some food and you could gain the cooking skill. It''s not as easy as I’m making it sound though. To gain the cooking skill you have to cook probably 100s of meals correctly and in different environments with different food stuffs. But once you have it you can start leveling it up. Leveling it up means you get generally better at it. So if you level the cooking skill, you get generally better at making good tasting food, like knowing when to stop heating it or when it''s the right time to flip it over to cook the other side. That sort of thing. If you dedicate your time and energy to leveling up the skill to the max then you could bring out the best of the skill. For the cooking skill you could make any food the most delicious ever and your food would also give added bonuses like increasing your mana or healing you faster. Although it gets harder and harder to level skills over time. So, in a nutshell, these are skills. Got it? Good.
Now, magic is something else entirely. You learn magic either from a teacher or from a grimoire; a book of spells. Spells, in the olden days, originally came from the imagination of the caster. The castors then wrote them down and then those teachings spread. It''s very hard to create a spell, but if you are able to, you can either teach it, sell it, or keep it to yourself to make you stronger than an opponent that won''t know your spell. Your enemies probably have made some unique spells of their own so you will need to be ready.
Once you know a spell, they will show up on your status screen under spells. Magic itself is cast from your mana. If you don''t have mana, you can''t cast spells. You constantly create mana inside of yourself from your intelligence and wisdom stats. It''s kind of like your constitution stat heals your body over time. Any questions? I don''t have a ton of time so keep your questions quick because the sun is coming and I need to disappear before the sun is high in the sky.>>
The sun was halfway into morning. I only had a few more minutes with death so I kept my mouth closed until the end.
<<Ok. So, next is your stats. You obviously need a refresher course in that so I’ll tell you that. You can open your status screen like you opened your notifications. Each stat means different things to you. You can go into more detail on your own, but generally speaking, vitality is health, constitution is health regen, endurance is stamina, dexterity is stamina regen, intelligence is mana, wisdom is mana regen, perception is for buffs like noticing small details or noticing facial moments or resisting identification magic, tracking magic,etc. Stuff like that. Carisma is how much people and beings like you, and then there is luck. That''s the general info on stats. Got it? Good.
Now when beings pass certain thresholds in stats you earn a random skill that''s based off of that specific stat. You will need to figure out what are the thresholds on your own. This concludes the class on the basics for not dying. Any questions?>>
I think a while while I organize my thoughts. Then I decide on asking death something that has been bugging me a while.
“Why here? Why this forest? I’m cut off from society and humanity. Also, how am I supposed to know who are those bastards that killed me? I don''t know who they are and neither do you. And my last question is, can you teach me any spells or skills?”
<<Ok. Good questions. Why the forest? Well, you need to get stronger. In this world, might makes right. So, my plan for you is, for the next 3 years, I want you to train and get stronger fighting monsters in this forest. I say three years because a side effect of taking you to this world was making you younger physically, so after about three years you should look roughly like when you did when you died in your world.
Next, I cut you off from the world because you don''t know anything about it, but once you become stronger people won''t be able to take advantage of you or kill you prematurely. People won''t question where you are from or who you are or try to take advantage of you if you are strong. You are in a huge monster forest near the human countries so you should be able to find your way after your training is done.
For finding those bastards that killed you? The Brand of the Reaper will tell you if you are close. Those two eyes on your tattoo will slowly open when you get closer and closer to those bastards. It senses the souls of those from your world. When the eyes are fully open then you have found one.
To answer your final question, no I cannot. It is against my contract. I can give you this though.>>
Death tosses me a small flat black stone.
<<That''s a spell stone. It''s a free, oops I fucked up stone. If you find an enemy that is way to powerful and you are about to die, use that. You can only use it once but that should keep you alive if you screw up. I’m only giving it to you because the two powers that control this world know what I did, bringing you here, so to compensate for you they put something in this forest that shouldn''t be here. It''s very powerful and very old. That spell stone might be able to help you with that thing. However, if you see it, run. You have no hope of beating it. I think it was put here to specifically kill you. If you are forced into a situation where you have to fight it, use that to give you time to run away. Don''t seek that thing out. So, ya. That''s it. Heh. Have fun with all that.>>
I sigh and chuckle.
“Well, that sucks, but what else is new. I’m just not a lucky guy. Heheh. Thanks death. I appreciate the warning. I’ll take your advice and train here for a while. Will we be meeting again?”
<<No problem. No, this is the last time you will see me until after you die. I have been letting a bunch of work pile up and I need to get it done. But that doesn''t mean you won''t get messages from me in the future. So, don''t die too quickly ok? I need some good entertainment for when I get a day off.>>
We both begin laughing at it all. I feel much more prepared now that I know more about this world. I am now more excited about my future and exterminating those people that killed me.
‘This is going to be fun.’
A wild smile appears across my face.
<<Well, I’m gone. See you later. Sorry about your dick and all. Pfff. AHAHAHAHA!! NOT!! I’m going to be laughing about that for centuries. Good luck! Oh! By the way, the camp I set up for you is in that direction. I’m guessing you lost the map. hehehe.>>
Death starts to fade into nothingness. His finger pointing to my left into the forest. I smile, shake my head, and wave at him.
“Thanks for all the help you giant sack of turds. I’m going to get you back for my dick one day. See you later.”
And like that, death was gone and I was alone again. I then turned around and looked at the dark foreboding forest with glee. A dark smile appeared on my face as I headed in the direction death pointed.
‘It''s time to get stronger.’