《A Life Rewritten》 Chapter 0- Prologue A Life Rewritten Chapter 0: Prologue It hurts¡­ It hurts so much¡­ Fuck. But I have to hold him. I must¡­ ¡°aGhAHHH!¡± I scream out with a tangled tongue, a sharp pain blooming bellow my shoulder blade. The bastard stabbed me again. God¡­. Damn it. That knife''s edge is way too damaged to cut cleanly, and I hate it. I don¡¯t know how, but I still have him in my grip. I am¡­ NOT letting go. Even if it kills me. Not until they get away. ¡°Let me go, you piece of shit!¡± The dirty bastard screamed in rage, bearing his twisted yellow teeth at me. His eyes are bloodshot, his mouth is foaming up. Like hell I will! I tried to scream that out but nothing will come out of my lips, other than gurgles and wheezing sounds. And blood. Plenty of blood¡­ I¡¯m pretty sure he stabbed my lung through my back that last time. The floor is cold, and wet with blood. Mostly mine. Though I did manage to give this fucker a bite that is making his shoulder bleed pretty damn good. Or is that the neck? The... trape... Trapi... the Trapezius muscle? Hah. Good. I hope you bleed out with me. That way they¡¯ll be safe. I look up now, past the struggling arms of the man that keeps stabbing me, though more weakly now than before. Moving his arm must hurt a lot. I bit him good. ¡­ It hurts. Never mind that though. Are they safe? I spot Alana trying to support a bleeding Johan with one arm, while constantly shouting at a phone. It feels like it has been forever since she called the police. They better get here fast. She can¡¯t carry him far like that, and the edges of my vision are going black. ¡°AHHHGHrk!¡± I think that was me shouting just now. Fuck that hurt. I can feel that knife lodged in my spine. Damn¡­ It hurts! That knife is abnormally painful. It hurts so much I see spots of light appear and fade away in my eyes. All those blues and reds dancing in front of me¡­ pretty. No, wait¡­ there is sound too. High pitched, screaming sirens... Those aren¡¯t just lights. Those are police cars! Ha. Too late, ya bastard. I win. ¡°Let go, let go, LET US GO!¡± The man screams and squirms frantically, but I cling to him anyways. He is twisting the knife that¡¯s lodged on my spine, trying to pull it out. This piece of¡­. I bite him again. Hard. ¡°AGHfhack!¡± He curses and cries at the same time. What a sweet sound. Him screaming I mean. Though it is getting harder to hear, well... anything. I feel like my heartbeat is drowning out other sounds. ¡°You¡­ bastard. You-you monster!¡± He screams at me. I can hear it more clearly¡­ I wonder why? Ah. My heartbeat is quieting down. Good. I want to hear him scream for trying to hurt my family. ¡°How the fuck¡­ are you still able to move! Why won¡¯t you let go!? WHY WONT YOU DIE!?!¡± He screams. I can¡¯t see his face since I¡¯m biting on his arm as hard as I can. For some reason I remember Ruffus, with his big square head, shaking his toys viciously. It was a fraction of a better memory, but its all I need. I do my best to mimic him, and shake my head as hard as I can, and feel hot fluid land over me as the scent of iron fills my nose. Blood. And I think its his blood this time. Its satisfying but tiring. Just doing it a couple of times drains my energy more than I care to admit. The rest of the energy in my body goes into clinging onto the man viciously. I can''t even hold my head up anymore, I can only stare at a piece of sidewalk right in front of me. But I hear the panic in his voice. Serves him right. ¡°Put your hands up where I can see them!¡± I don¡¯t know that voice. It¡¯s a nice voice, but it sounds serious. Sounds like a woman. Ah shit¡­ I can barely see now. It¡¯s like freaking tunnel vision. He stops twisting the knife on my back. He is trying to move his arm¡­ I won''t let you. A polished black shoe comes into my field of vision. It must be a policeman. No need to bite anymore, or hold on to him by the waist. My arms ease up. It¡¯s done. I let go. I can¡¯t really stand. It all hurts. I hurt everywhere. I can only collapse to the side, like a ragdoll. But I can now see the twins, though they seem kind of blurry. Alana is crying, her pretty face looks so sad, but at least someone put a blanket on her shoulders... I think it¡¯s a blanket. Johan is being sat down on something, and they are tending to his stab wound on his arm. I can barely focus on them now, darkness fills most of my vision. They are both looking at me. Even as the colors of the world smudge and blend, I can some how tell how sad and tired they look. Don''t be sad. You are safe now. The bad man cant hurt you now. Neither of you. I try to verbalize these thoughts, but I can''t. My lips and tongue wont listen to me properly. Instead, I can feel a smile forming on my blood coated lips. It takes a lot of effort to move my arm, but I manage to turn my wrist to the side as I give them a feeble thumbs up. I wish I could comfort you two more, but I am so tired. A thumbs up and a smile, that should be good for now, yes? You are safe now. Now let your brother rest a bit.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. I close my eyes, and my vision finally goes black. -0-0-0-0-0- A poor family, living on a wasted apartment, located in a poor, trashy, and dangerous neighborhood. What¡¯s this? There are six people in the family. Mom, dad, a teenager, a young kid who is only a preteen at best, and two babies. I¡¯ve seen this before¡­ The boy looks around. He doesn¡¯t like this. He doesn¡¯t like at all. The walls are damaged; there are only two small rooms and a small washroom with a half-broken mirror. The place is bad and dirty. It looks like it could fall around them at any moment. But his older brother doesn¡¯t seem to mind. Ah¡­ the boy is me. I remember this. The boy looks at his parents and at his baby brother and sister. The twins. He doesn¡¯t want them to be here, not in this apartment. Mama and daddy tell him to look after them. He nods. He loves his little brother and sister. He asks his mother why they have to live there. Mother tells him its because they don¡¯t have money. He asks her how to get more money. She tells him you need a good job to get more money. She also tells him that if he works hard at school, one day he can have a very good job that lets him earn lots of money. It¡¯s the same answer that she has given him before. The boy nods. He is good at school. He is the best in class. If he works hard, he can get a good job and help mama and daddy and the twins! He needs to be the best for the twins. His brother said he didn¡¯t need help though. Brother is tough. I see¡­ these are my memories. The scene changes, colors and shapes blurring like a landscape speeding along. It¡¯s the kid walking back home from school. He looks a bit bigger. A moment latter he is attacked by other kids, who look older than him by a couple of years. It¡¯s not the first time this happens. His older brother told him it was okay to hit people that were trying to hit you first. So the kid fights back. He is good at this too. Dad taught him a bit of self-defense, and he is in the wrestling club. He can handle it. He is used to street fights. In the end, he is bruised and battered, and his shirt is a bit torn¡­ but he is standing and three kids are not. He keeps walking home. The memory distorts, blurring, and again the scene changes. The boy looks quite a bit older now. He is a teenager. He must be about sixteen. He is working really hard at school. Every day he sturdies like he is possessed while he is at home, and at school, he does his best at every club he has joined. He must be the best to get scholarships, since mom and dad can¡¯t afford it. He doesn¡¯t want to worry them, so he doesn¡¯t tell them about the street-fights either. His brother looks tired lately, and smells of alcohol and cigarettes. But he is still a good brother. He somehow is making some money to help out. No one asks how he gets the money. He still cares for the twins, even gets them a tiny puppy for their birthday. Ruffus he calls it The twins are doing okay. They are growing fast. Looking at them smile makes him work harder. The colors and shapes twist in a whirlwind. The boy is not a boy anymore. He is twenty now, getting close to twenty-one. He was accepted into a high-end, prestigious university. He is half way through his third year in university, and he has the best grades in his year. The professors are all very impressed. He gets a call on the phone of the dorm-room. It¡¯s someone he has never heard, but he sounds very serious¡­ somber even. He says he has to tell him bad news, so he should take a seat. His parents are dead. Hit by a car while walking to the grocery store. Next day he drops out of university and heads home. Once more the scenery changes. He has a job now. He studies a little when he can, hoping to one-day return to university. But he works a two full time jobs. He needs to help the family. His older brother has been in bad shape since their parents died, and slowly he seems to be getting worse¡­ Ruffus seems to help hold him together, such a sweet Pitbull, gentle as a bunny. His brother somehow he still makes money. No one asks how. He and his older brother have an agreement. Somehow make enough money to pay the twin¡¯s for their university degrees. They must protect the twins. They are only twelve years old. The scene changes again. It¡¯s a funeral. A cheap one, but a funeral nonetheless. The older brother is dead. He was a drug dealer it seems. He got shot by a rival gang. He got shot five times. But the shots were taken at point blank range, the first two shots where right into his skull. The police said that the evidence pointed at an execution more than a drive-by shooting. But the second eldest brother doesn¡¯t cry during the funeral. He wants to. He really wants to. But he has to be strong for the twins. The poor twins... They are crying their eyes out. He hugs them and they hug him. He needs to work harder now. That¡¯s all he knows how to do anyways. The scene changes again. Something tells me that the scenes will end soon¡­ This time, the young man is now much older. He is thirty. His body has grown much stronger, thanks to all the heavy jobs he has done, but he wears the eyes of a man far older than him. He looks very tired. It¡¯s as if he is carrying the weight of world on his shoulders. The twins are in second year-university now. They are doing well. Alana is studying to be an environmental scientist. Johan is studying to be an electrical engineer. It¡¯s going well. He smiles to himself. In two years when they graduate¡­ things will finally be better. Everything will be fine. The scene changes for the last time. The twins are back in town. They have graduated. It¡¯s smiles, hugs, and jokes all around. They are happy to see their older brother, though a bit shocked at his appearance. But the fire is still in his eyes. He laughs and smiles, gives them, as a gift, a cellphone to each of them. The first cellphone either of them have owned. They are very happy. They even talk about getting a dog once again. Ah¡­ That happened this morning¡­ They walk around town, and go out for dinner. Their older brother is paying this time. It¡¯s a special day after all. They could afford to go this one time. Besides, soon the twins would have jobs, and then his burden would be reduced. And then they could all be happy. ¡­Or that¡¯s what I thought¡­ It¡¯s nighttime now. It¡¯s dark. They are heading back to their decrepit apartment¡­ the same apartment where they have had to live in for years. Soon, they would be able to sell it and get something better. Everything was finally shaping up. But when they enter the poorly lit street that leads to their home, a crazy looking man with a knife in each hand jumps them. The twins jump, scared, but he remembers the face from the news. He is that suspected serial killer the police are after. The killer lunges at the twins. The twins scream. Johan gets stabbed in the arm. Johan¡¯s brother leaps against the man without thinking. Tackling him to the ground and rolling with him. He screams at Alana to call the police, and to help Johan too. And that¡¯s all the time he has before he is stabbed for the first time. From that point on, it¡¯s a one-sided fight. The only upside is that the killer lost one of his knives thanks to the initial tackle. Over and over again the elder brother is stabbed as he tries to hold the killer in place, until the police arrive. And then the film of his life finally ends. Thirty-two years of life conclude. Ah¡­ I died, didn¡¯t I? Everything goes white. Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Black. That¡¯s the next thing I remember. I was in a world painted in black, where a grey mist with tiny specks of white floated around lazily. I felt myself be weightless, floating in the vastness of this monochromatic world, a drift through the endless void. No thoughts came to me for the first few minutes, my mind remaining blank as I watched the mist start to slowly swirl in front of me, like a phantasm in the shadows. I wonder what the mist is doing.... I wonder where its going... I... I try to move my head to the side to look around, and find that my body feeling surprisingly heavy. I felt a sort of resistance against me as I tried to move my head, as if I was floating in a vast ocean made of some liquid thicker than water. However, I manage to look around, finding the same inky black world all around me in all directions. ...Where am I? That question solidified in my mind, drifting idly through my consciousness, though my mind would not register anything other than that. Despite this, I was aware of my surroundings. I could see the mist dance faster and faster in front of me, turning from a gentle swirl into a chaotic vortex of shadows. It was almost as if the mist was trying to imitate the appearance of the Milky Way. Soon, the shadows invaded the seemingly endless emptiness, and they began to warp as well. Phantom gears, strings, moons and planets, stars, and even more shadowy apparitions of galaxies filled in the vast blackness. Black, gray, and white, in various shades and compositions, came together to make an innumerable number of things. Eventually, the monochromatic world seemed to settle into a shape it found appropriate, and new shapes stop coming into existence. These new... things that came into being, like paintings were not static either. This was no painting, but a work of art that reminded him of clockwork. Everything moved at its own tempo, governed by forces he did not understand. It was seemingly discordant at first, but as he continued to observe, he began to grasp a sense of firm harmony linking each seemingly random motion. It was... beautiful. As if the world recalled something it had forgotten, small silver spheres started to appear all around, shinning like small stars that levitated mostly within the shapes created by the smoke. And then this ¡­ Space? Universe? Dimension? I don¡¯t know what to call it¡­ Well, the entirety of the space I found myself in, finally seemed to be at peace. My sense of time was lost in this place as I observed the universe unravel before me. I don¡¯t know for how long I observed the marvel that was around me. Seconds, minutes, years or eons, I could not distinguish between them. But that was okay. My observations, however, were interrupted by an ethereal voice. It was like a whisper that filled my mind. ¡°What do you desire?¡± Who¡¯s that? For some reason that doesn¡¯t seem to matter to me though. I can feel a vast presence beyond that whisper. How I know this I can not tell, only that I am certain beyond any doubt that its an vast entity capable of dwarfing the immensity of this endless space. Yet, I don¡¯t feel threatened at all. Instead, I feel at peace. Soon, this sense of peace invaded my mind like a warm current of water, and the fog that covered my mind was gradually replaced by clear and serene thoughts. ¡°You will know in time. What do you desire?¡± I stay silent for a moment, and ''stare'' through the fog of my mind. I am not sure if it was because of the voice, but all at once I recall the entirety of my life. It was a harsh life I think, but I don¡¯t hate it. I achieved a lot, like putting my younger siblings t through university. That in itself is a huge relief, as they could now surely survive in the harsh world they were in. A shame about not being able to see them grow more, but such was life. At least my savings would help them out for the short term. I was proud of my siblings. I don''t regret what I have done at all in regards to that. Rather, my biggest regret was that it, my life, was so short. All that work, all that studying and manual labor¡­ to be ended by a simple knife in mere minutes. That¡¯s kind of sad, isn¡¯t it? If I had only adapted better to the situation¡­ maybe I wouldn¡¯t have died like that. If only I had been tougher. If I had been stronger, could have overpowered him safely. If I had been faster, I might have not gotten stabbed. If I had been more tougher, maybe I could have ¡­ Ah¡­That''s dumb. If I was tougher...tougher how? Grow skin like a honey badger? Make it hard like a rhino? Magically level up and get an iron body? Yeah, maybe then the knife would have been stopped by my thick leathery skin. Great plan, if it were possible. That sort of thing was the stuff of fairy tails and comics. If only I could level up in the heat of the moment like heroes do in all those fantasy stories¡­ ¡°I see¡­ I understand.¡± Wait, what? But I haven¡¯t said anything. ¡°I can hear what you are thinking. How else could I have a conversation with you when you can¡¯t even talk right now?¡± Ah. So that¡¯s how it is. ¡°Now then¡­ Lets grant your wish.¡± ?! Instantly I feel the universe around me start to rush past me, accelerating. The greys and whites start to blur, the little bright spheres of light become streaks of white speeding around me. Or is it me that is moving at unbelievable speeds? I can¡¯t tell. I don¡¯t feel like I¡¯m moving at all though. ¡°Let''s see¡­¡± The voice says, starting to fade away slowly. ¡°Ah yes, this one will work well. Very good. Now then, do remember you''ll be needed in the place I''m sending you, so keep that in mind. I will grant you the power to fulfill your wish, though there is a price to pay because of the laws of that world. I''d rather not break it by forcing things too much, so you''ll just have to adjust as best as you can, okay? Don¡¯t worry too much about that though, I¡¯ll try to reduce the cost as much as possible. Its going to be a bit disorienting at first but I am sure you can manage. Ah, you should get going. Off you go.¡± And then, just like that, I accelerated roughly towards one of the silver spheres like a bullet. No, a bullet could not do justice to the sudden velocity I was subjected to. Either way, it was terrifying to move so quick, even more so when moving towards a sphere that seems to glow with a silver light. But as soon as I touched it, the sphere sucked me into it as if it was a black hole. And then the world went dark one more time. 0-0-0-0-0-0- When I woke up again, my body felt numb, and found myself in a room carved out of stone, dimly lit by the pale light of the full moon. The light filtered in through the large hole on the ceiling, casting shadows in my surroundings. The ambiance was gloomy, and quite creepy in my opinion. I mean¡­ There were gray stone gargoyles standing on pillars that line the walls, small piles of broken up stone on the ground, and cobwebs extending between corners. It''s just... eerie. Not to mention that there are skulls and bones around me. It¡¯s like I just got dumped in the ruins of an abandoned Halloween horror house. Shaking my head, I slowly sit up, still feeling groggy from¡­ whatever that experience was. I immediately regretted trying to move though, my body screaming at me to stop right away. My muscles contracted painfully, forcing me to gritted my teeth, as my vision wavered briefly. The pain was such that I found myself frozen, not daring to stand or even lay down again in case that triggered another wave of pain. My head feels heavy, though considering what just occurred, I suppose I can¡¯t be expected to feel fine right away. After just sitting there for what must have been at least thirty minutes, I had enough composure to start attempt to move again. The moment I tried to move, another wave of pain washed over me, but it was significantly weaker than the previous one. This time, it was more of a dull pain, as if I had exerted myself too much physically, rather than the searing pain that had burned my mind previously. If it was just this, I could bear walking. Hm? I feel like I¡¯m oddly calm. I wonder why? Well whatever. For now I should probably start moving. It would be good if I could get an idea of where I am. Standing up, I felt that my body was oddly different. Perhaps even unbalanced? Though when I look at my hands, they seem fine. They do seem like they are just a bit smaller than what I recall, but then again, they seem¡­. Younger? That¡¯s the feel they give anyways. Looking down at myself, I am completely naked. There are several fading bruises and cuts along my limbs, and my chest has a large, odd scar dead center of my ribcage. It seems like my body has gone through quite a bit of abuse recently. In addition, I feel like my body is still odd... disproportionate maybe? Well, there is at least one part that is certainly large. It seems that I¡¯m still a male at least. But that¡¯s aside the point. I should find something where I can look at myself properly¡­ and something to cover up myself. -0-0-0-0-0- I spent the rest of the night looking around, and I managed to find some ragged trousers that seemed to fit. Better than being naked I suppose. Anyways, it seems like this place is almost like a cross between a labyrinth, a village, and fortress of some sort. But it seems like it¡¯s old. Really old and damaged. How to define it¡­ when I first started exploring, I discovered that I had awoken in some sort of rundown tower, thanks to a balcony that I found. The balcony was missing parts of the rail, but the balcony itself seemed sturdy enough, so I dared to step on it. From there, I could look down at the impressive construction of the structure where I found myself, as the sun began to rise beyond the horizon. From the tower it looked like a small fortress surrounded by a dense forest in every direction. The outer walls of this fortress seemed to form a circle around the other structures, and appeared to be made of thick slabs of gray stones, and were covered in vines. But behind the outer walls, a fairly complex-looking set of walls and buildings create an almost labyrinth-like village made of stone. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.To be honest, it almost seemed like a village or ancient military outpost, designed to slow down intruders from breaking in through the outer walls. If I had to guess, though nearly all the roofs of these buildings were rather flat, it would make it easy to mobilize troops on the roofs and have them defend their positions. If I had to estimate the size of this¡­ village fortress, it might be about 400 maybe 500 hundred meters across. I don¡¯t think it would be larger than that. However, given that the inside of the town was a labyrinth-like complex, I could imagine that trying to go from one end of this fort to the other would take some time, unless you were properly acquainted with all the paths¡­ or unless you were lucky. Something drew my attention though, despite my bafflement at the entirety of this place. Even from where I stood, I could see that this place had suffered at least one major attack in the past, if not more. I could see that several of the walls had large holes that clearly were not meant to be there, as if something had blasted through them. Some of the walls even show dark blotches that seem like scorch marks. Several such sights could be seen across the town. There were even several buildings reduced to nothing but rubble. At that point, I slowly looked away from the scene with a frown, turning my back to it as I tried to find out more about where I found myself. However, now that I was more aware of the situation, I began to notice similar signs of a struggle in the walls around me. There were scratches and chipped off sections on the walls, and scorch marks on them as well. Not only that, but dust lined most of the crevices, and there seemed to be ashes in certain areas too. I even found the charred remains of what probably used to be furniture, before it was burned to the ground. This place was definitely attacked by something. The idea made me feel edgy, and I fervently hoped that whatever had managed to take down this place was not around still. Without warning, an image crossed my mind for only a fraction of a second. The image of harsh, brutal, man-like shadows that set fire to anything they could get their hands on. I shuddered slightly at this image. My imagination must be overreacting. Considering all that had occurred since my death in my other life, it wasn¡¯t too farfetched to consider that my imagination was working extra hard. Ah, before I forget, one more thing worth noting about this fortress was the building at its core. The tower I woke up in seemed to be at the center of the town, but it was not a freestanding tower. In fact, the tower was part of what seemed to be the central building of the fort. The tower itself was not very tall, containing only six floors total, and it was connected to what seemed to be a sort of crudely built mansion. Actually, even though I say it¡¯s a ¡°mansion¡±, in reality it gave more the impression of medieval barracks. Furthermore, the building itself only had three floors above ground, so it was not all that imposing on its own either. For now, I suppose I¡¯ll just call this place the core, since it''s at the heart of the fortress. It was while exploring the first floor of the barracks that I heard a sound that caught my attention. It was a metallic sound, the sound of metal lightly scrapping against metal. Needless to say that I froze in mid step instantly when I heard this. This was probably because I had not heard any sound since I woke up, other than my own footsteps and the occasional howling of the wind that filtered itself through a hole on the wall. Therefore, the sound of metal stood out quite brilliantly amongst the silence. For a moment I debated between searching for the source of the sound or avoiding the issue completely¡­ but in the end, my curiosity won over my caution, and I set myself to the task of finding the origin of the weak metallic sound. The self-imposed mission was brief though, as it only took a few minutes for me to find myself before a badly damaged door made of heavy wood that somehow was still functional, despite being scorched and scratched all over the surface. I knew instinctively that the source of the constant metallic sound was behind this door. Bracing myself, I took a deep breath, and slowly pushed the heavy looking door. Surprisingly, even though the door was damaged and the hinges crackled in protest to my movements, the door gave away, splintering loudly at the hinges. In other words, it was a poor excuse for a ¡®silent and careful¡¯ movement. I wanted to curse out loud, but refrained from doing so. Instead, I simply pushed the door open all the way, and stepped inside the strange room. But I almost choked on the air I was breathing due to my surprise. The room looks like a hurricane of fire blew through it, smashing whatever furniture the place used to have, scorching walls, and leaving the debris scattered around. But that wasn¡¯t what caught my attention. It was the person that was suspended and bound by heavy silver chains that were attached to the walls and ceiling of the room. Attached to the pristine chains, were a number of paper tags with odd writing on them, giving the chains an archaic, yet mystical look to them. However, the man did not seem to be in great condition, but given that he gave the impression of being crucified by the chains, perhaps that was to be expected. His white hair was matted and hanging low over his dropping head, his black suit was stained with rust-colored blotches and dirt, and his white gloves showed tears at the knuckles. Even his clothes hung somewhat loose, as if he had not been fed properly for weeks. For a moment, I thought him dead. I gasped unconsciously at the scene, wondering why would anyone be left in such a cruel state, without food or water. However, as soon as I gasped, the man¡¯s shoulders twitched, and he jerked his head up slightly, just enough that I could see a pair of sharp honey-colored eyes stare up at me with predatory hostility. But all aggression melted away from his eyes a moment after our eyes met, and was replaced by surprise, and then wonder, before settling into a look that radiated relief from them. Once more a memory flashed through my mind. A refined man, maybe in in his mid fifties, with metallic grey hair and a suit, a perfectly trimmed full-beard, and a gentle smile. It was the man in chains, with impeccable finesse and respect, bowing at the waist towards me in respect. Alfred Belveder. And then the image was gone. Once again, my image focused on him, and I smiled. Somehow, I recognized this man, and in my heart, I was glad to see him. I could not resist calling out to him with a smile. ¡°Alfred.¡± My voice sounded alien to my own ears, being far too young for what I was used to. Yet it sounded familiar. The man lifted his head bit higher, his face showing his beard and mustache, though they were certainly less well maintained than I recalled. ¡°Young master.¡± His voice was filled with emotion. ¡°I¡¯m relieved to see you are alive.¡± Eh? Alive? What is he talking about? An ominous feeling filled my heart for a moment, but I decided to put that aside for a moment. Questions could wait; getting him down from there was a priority. I took a few quick strides, to the nearest chain, and reached out to grab it roughly. ¡°Young master, wait!¡± Alfred shouted out, but it was too late. I grabbed the chain and pulled on it as hard as I could. I briefly felt a tingling sensation in my hand, but it quickly faded into nothing. Surprisingly enough, the chain did not break, but instead it got torn off the wall, taking a chunk of stone from the wall with it. The chain gave away suddenly, much more easily that I had expected, so much so that I tumbled backwards and fell on my rump. At the same time, the end of the chain that I just had torn out of the wall whizzed past my head like a bullet, smashing against the wall behind me hard enough to damage it. ¡°Huh?¡± That¡¯s all I manage to say as I look around with confusion. I had seen with my own eyes what had happened, but my brain was still working to understand it. No matter how hard I might have pulled, a heavy chain, weighted with a chunk of rock almost as big as my head, should not be able to fly across the room and damage another wall. And that¡¯s if I ignore the fact that I tore the chain from solid rock as well. I turned my head and looked at Alfred quizzically, but he looked even more baffled than I did. Shrugging off the situation, I stood up with a smile. This was going to be way easier than I thought. ¡°Alright, here we go!¡± I said with a grin, feeling childishly ecstatic. Without further ado, I proceeded to systematically tear down the remaining chains. I did this more carefully than the first time, testing the amount of strength and regulating it to avoid getting my face smashed by one of those rock bullets. At last, Alfred who had been suspended in the air by chains, fell to the ground. But before I could reach him to help him pull off he chains that still bound him, he let out a refreshed sigh, and smiled. ¡°My humble thanks, my lord.¡± He said with a bow of his head. Before I could even reply, his eyes turned serious and he started to force himself against the chains that still bound him. The muscles and veins in his neck swell as he applied force against the chains, and the chains started to creak under the unbelievable strain. A second later, they snapped altogether, small chunks of metal bursting out everywhere like bullets when the chains ruptured. I could only stare dumbly for a second as he dusted his suit as best he could, seemingly no worse for the wear. My brain was drawing a blank as to what just happened. How did the malnourished man before me manage to not just break chains, but snap them like that? ¡°My apologies.¡± The sound of his refined voice brought me back to my senses. He was kneeling down on one knee, his head bowed. ¡°This servant apologizes for being seen in such an unsightly manner. Thank you, young master, for freeing me from those enchanted binds.¡± I could only nod at him in reply. I want to ask him a hundred things. Maybe more than that actually. Why was he chained up? How long was he there? If he could rip off the chains that easily, why didn¡¯t he do it before? And that was just the tip of the iceberg as far as questions went. It seems like I need to learn about this¡­ world first. And Alfred was going to help me with that. Chapter 2 Chapter 2 My situation is much more unusual (and perhaps also more perilous) than what I could have imagined. After I convinced Alfred to stand up and tell me in detail what happened to this ¡­fortress, I had to sit on the floor and ponder the information he gave me. To summarize what I had learned: I was the son of a so-called Forest lord, who (as the name suggests) ruled over this forest. Despite this, being of a rather solitary nature, my father did not have a set territory nor did he have a large amount of subordinates. Having relied mostly on a few skilled individuals and his own strength, he had managed to keep any intruders or attacking forces at a bay for decades. However, about a decade ago, a wave of enemies rose up from beyond the edge of the forest and flooded into it. Everyone in this fortress rose up in arms to meet the enemy in combat. For three days and nights the battle raged in the fortress. Despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered by the foreign enemy, the two forces were in a deadlock. On the fourth day, the odds turned in favor of the fortress dwellers, as the enemy was running out of troops. Victory seemed at hand. However, on the fifth day reinforcements arrived. Despite this, the fortress dwellers might have still had a chance, had it not been for the traps laid by the enemy. While the fight raged, the enemy had small teams try to infiltrate the depths of the fortress, aiming for the non-combatants (which were mostly children). Alfred did not know if their goal was to kill the children to drop the morale of the fortress dwellers, or if they were plotting to use their lives as bargaining chips¡­ either way, it seems that the plan was only partially successful. They did manage to infiltrate the barrack-like building, where the weak, young, and old were hidden, but I was also there, along with a few adults to protect the children. Of course, a fight ensued. Father sent Alfred back to help us out when he realized that something was amiss, but Alfred arrived just in time to see me, who was surrounded by several corpses of the enemy, impaled through the chest by a sword. However, it seems that the children were nowhere to be found. In his rage, Alfred slaughtered many enemies, but he was lured into a room, where several seals had been set up to restrain him. They succeeded, but only at the cost of all of their lives. However, that discord was all that was needed. Several other traps were set around the fortress by the infiltrators as well. The traps reduced the power usable by the fortress dwellers, and tipped the balance of the fight. Alfred, who was bound, was unable to help at all. Struggle as he might, the sealing chains sapped his strength and restrained his power, rendering him unable to break free. Thus, he heard the entire fight rage for two more days, before everything went silent. At first, he had assumed that the Forest Lord had won, but no one came back. Days passed, and not even the enemy came around to loot or check for survivors. Nothing was to be heard. Alfred had concluded that both forces had utterly annihilated each other. Which left him, Alfred, all alone in the remains of the once glorious fortress, condemned to die in solitude and silence in the carcass of a once great fort. Or so he thought, until I arrived. The story was¡­ very unpleasant for me, considering that I died. However, thanks to Alfred I had managed to draw up a couple of conjectures about my circumstances. Firstly, I was not exactly ¡°reincarnated¡± in the normal sense of the word. Rather, it seems that my soul was forced upon a body that no longer had a soul¡­ How I managed to skip in time several years into the future, I have no idea. Second, Alfred had been tied up for at least ten years without food or water and somehow he was still alive and kicking¡­ that was most definitely not normal, even if he had some way of hybernating through it all. Third, it seems I¡¯m not of a human species. Fourth, it seems that this body of mine has some outrageous abilities if I was able to kill trained infiltration personnel while barehanded. And lastly, this world clearly has some sort of natural laws that I don¡¯t know about¡­ It¡¯s probably magic, if I had to guess. How else would these ¡°seals¡± that managed to capture Alfred work if that wasn¡¯t the case? ¡°Uwaa¡­¡± I groaned out. This was too much information. Way too much! What kind of unreasonably difficult world is this? Its like I¡¯ve been thrown in the middle of an RPG when I don¡¯t even know the rules of the game. Isn¡¯t the dificulty level set way too high for me? Moreover¡­ shouldn¡¯t I be freaking out like a lunatic right now? Why am I not? What the hell happened to me? Just as I was about to complain out loud, Alfred interrupted my thoughts. ¡°My lord, what should we do now?¡± ¡°Hmm? I¡¯m supposed to decide?¡± ¡°Of course. As the young master, all power of the Zilvamane household rests upon you.¡± Alfred said with a dignified bow. Oi, Alfred¡­ Even if you say that, I am new here you know? I¡¯m not even from this world. How should I know what I am supposed to do? Also, does my family even have any power right now? I mean¡­ hasn¡¯t the entire population of this fort been erased from existence, with the exception of you and I? I want to say all of that out loud, but I suppose I can¡¯t say it. This man seemed to be truly overjoyed when he saw me alive, and I can¡¯t find it in my heart to disappoint him. Moreover, isn¡¯t his loyalty too amazing? How many people would spend a decade in chains and still be willing to serve under someone else? ¡°Well¡­¡± I start to reply, rubbing my jaw slowly with my hand as I think of how to proceed. ¡°Alfred, you were alive right? Do you think anyone else might be captured in a similar fashion?¡± To be honest, I truly doubt anyone could survive like he did¡­ but he if he could stay alive for years without food and water, why couldn¡¯t someone else do it too? Alfred met my question with silence for a moment, apparently deep in thought as he stroked his beard. ¡°It might be possible¡­¡± Wow¡­ really? What kind of superhuman monsters used to inhabit this fort?! Of course, I do my best to retain a stoic face. ¡°I see. Then perhaps the first thing we should do is search all the rooms.¡± Alfred bows at me obediently. But I get the feeling I am forgetting something¡­ Growwwllll~ Ah that¡¯s right. Food. I need food. My stomach demands it. ¡°Young master.¡± Alfred says sharply all of the sudden; his eyes stare at me, looking sharper than before. ¡°May I recommend acquiring some sort of sustenance before we proceed with the search?¡± ¡°Um¡­ sure. That will be fine.¡± I reply uncertainly. Come to think of it¡­ he hasn¡¯t eaten in at least a decade has he? He must be far more hungry than I am. ¡°But I am pretty sure that there is not much food that could have survived a decade unattended.¡± ¡°I understand your concern.¡± He says smoothly. ¡°I will acquire fresh meat from the forest. Please wait here for me. I shall return shortly.¡± ¡°Ah, I understand. But please do not push yourself too hard.¡± I reply. I don¡¯t really know why I feel the need to say this, but it seems appropriate. Rather, it seems that something in me tells me its necessary to tell him that. ¡°Understood.¡± He replies with a perfectly elegant bow. ¡°When I return master, I would be curious about you as well. Please consider answering a few questions from this servant when I return.¡± It might have been my imagination, but I swear I saw his eyes sharply glare at the scar in my chest for a brief instant. ¡°Ah¡­ O-of course. You better get going then.¡± ¡°By your will.¡± Then he was gone. Like a gale of wind, he left the room, quickly and silently disappearing as if he was never in it. If I had blinked, I might have missed him leaving. What an outrageous walking speed he has. Wait no, that¡¯s not the problem. How am I going to explain myself to him? I can¡¯t tell him that I¡¯ve been reborn after a decade¡­ can I? Hmm¡­ actually, maybe I can. I can tell him a partial truth. He doesn¡¯t have to know that I am not the exact same person that he knows. Also, how did I know his name? Could it be that I¡¯ve retained some of this body¡¯s memories? But that would be ridiculous wouldn¡¯t it? No, if I think about it, this entire situation is already beyond ridiculous. Why not also have the memories of this body too? It would certainly explain how I know Alfred, and why I feel at ease with him. If thats the case, it would not be the weirdest thing that has happened to me recently anyways. Im pretty sure being brough back from the dead and reborn in someone elses body top the list on that front. If that¡¯s the case¡­ I should try to recall as much as I can from this body¡¯s memory as I can. It would be good to have at least a simple grasp on this body¡¯s abilities and knowledge before it died. I might even discover something useful. -0-0-0-0-0- Try as I might, there seems to be lots of holes in this body¡¯s memory. If I had to hazard a guess as to why there are holes in my memory, it might be because this body was dead, at least briefly before I took it over. But I did discover a few things of use, after meditating on it. In this world, my name was Terra Zilvamane, and at the time of my death I had barely turned 15 years old. Quite a flashy name in my opinion, but nothing I can really do about it. Also, seems that my species is called ¡°Worgus Chimera¡±, which essentially seems to be a breed of creatures with humanoid form, but with wolf-like ears, hair that looked sort of like the mane of a lion, and¡­ I think that there is more to it, but I can¡¯t recall it. Anyways, other than that, the appearance is that of a human. As for my abilities¡­ there seems to be numerous gaps in my memory, but it seems like I received some sort of formal military training from my father in this world. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. From what I can recall, it seems that this body is particularly tough. I am not sure the extent of it or the limit of my abilities, so I¡¯ll have to experiment at some point. Next, I also managed to discover that this world does indeed have magic, and also something called ¡°Skills¡±. This had me very excited. What kind of man doesn¡¯t want to be able to use magic? As for skills, they seem to be something similar to magic, but able to work on a separate system. They sound really handy, however, it seems like there are conditions to acquiring a skill, so even the basic ones are as hard to obtain as magic, and the advanced ones are almost impossible to acquire. That was as far as I got before a delicious scent filled the air around me. It smelled like roasted meat with honey, and several other spices. It made my famished belly growl all the more loudly once again. Less than a minute after the air reached my nose, Alfred stepped into the room, carrying a full roasted boar upon a slab of wood in one hand, and a bottle of wine in the other. How he was carrying what seemed to be a 50-kilogram boar, to his side, without bending over even slightly was beyond me. ¡°¡­ That looks delicious.¡± I said after staring at it for a few seconds. If I had a little less self-control I might have seriously started drooling. ¡°You flatter me, master.¡± Alfred said with a slight bow of his head, though his eyes looked regretful as he set the platter down before me. ¡°Forgive the presentation. It¡¯s the most I could manage, given that most of our food reserves are gone, save for the wine, and honey. Unfortunately, the plates and silverware need a thorough cleaning before being useable. And as far as I can tell, none of the wooden furniture survived. I beg your forgiveness, but I believe that for now you must use your bare hands... and sit on the floor.¡± Alfred cringed as slightly as he said that last sentence. It seems that for him, eating in a proper dinning room is a big deal. Or maybe it¡¯s about class? Either way, he doesn¡¯t seem too happy about eating on the floor with bare hands. On my part, I could care less about that right now. I¡¯m so hungry I feel I could faint now. I¡¯m slightly puzzled from were this hunger suddenly appeared, but the food before me is far more important. I mean¡­ the boar is cooked to a nice bronze-brown color, and coated slightly with honey. Garlic around the edges, and a few ground up leaves are scattered on it. I don¡¯t know what Alfred considers presentable, but this is already plenty! ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Alfred.¡± I say with a grin, reaching out to tear a hunk of meat. ¡°Well, thanks for the meal!¡± I started eating ravenously. Seriously, I can¡¯t remember ever eating more hungrily in my life. I had eaten at least a tenth of the boar before I realized that Alfred was just standing there, his arms crossed behind his back, looking completely dignified. This made me feel a bit self-conscious to be honest. It also made me feel bad. Wasn¡¯t he tied up for a decade? He must be far hungrier than I am, yet he isn¡¯t eating. With this in mind, I swallowed the chunk of meat that I had been chewing on and looked at him. ¡°Alfred, why are you not eating?¡± Looking surprised, Alfred replied. ¡°Young master, it is not proper for a servant to eat at the same table as his master! What would other people say if they knew?!¡± ¡­. This guy really has an iron will. Is this how all butlers are? No, probably not. This guy must be an exception. I think. ¡°Is that so? But Alfred, we are the only ones here, and besides, you are technically not eating at the same table as me.¡± I say with a grin. ¡°But young master, I--!¡± ¡°Stop standing there Alfred. Just sit down and eat, you haven¡¯t eaten in a decade, yeah? You must be starving. Also, I feel self-conscious right now. I don¡¯t want to eat on my own, don¡¯t make me say it again.¡± I said with as much of a commanding tone as I could muster. Even though it feels a bit awkward dishing out orders like this, I don¡¯t think he would listen to me otherwise. Alfred seems to hesitate for a second, a small frown appearing on his face, before melting away into a small smile. ¡°As you will it.¡± Finally he sits down, and we can eat and drink together. How he manages to eat with bare hands and still look dignified is not something I understand right now. As I thought, eating with someone else is better than eating alone. -0-0-0-0-0- After the meal, Alfred cleared away the glasses and the remnants of the boar, before I was subjected to a small bombardment of questions from him. In the end, I ended up telling him that after I died, I had a dream of going into a different world before a mysterious voice sent me back, warning me that there would be a price to pay for coming back to life. It¡¯s mostly the truth, so it should be fine¡­. Right? By the end of my tale, Alfred, who was standing up right, shed a single manly tear from his eye. ¡°To think that the young master would undergo such an ordeal¡­ The ancients must favor you young master! To think that the young master would be chosen by them¡­ I am in awe! This old man is honored to serve under the head of the great Zilvamane house!¡± Oi, Alfred, this is¡­ aren¡¯t you being a bit over the top? And how do you manage to still look so refined while crying and saying such things?! If this had been a movie, the camera would have deffinitely focused on Alfred, and there would have been sentimental yet beautiful background music to suit the scene. This man is a mystery to me. ¡°However,¡± He said once he stopped his ramblings, ¡°As amazing as your revival is, young master, what concerns me is the price that the great voice spoke of. Coming back to life and receiving a gift from it¡­ however I look at it, the price must be something directly derived from you. This is just speculation but¡­ if it was a celestial being that did this, then the price must have been directly correlated with your soul or existence.¡± That sounds quite serious. I hope he isn¡¯t right. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well, if you were just a soul when you met the voice,¡± he explains, ¡°What other method of payment would you have other than yourself, young master? No money, no land, no possessions of any sort other than your own essence. I assume you must have paid with part of something that makes up¡­ well, you.¡± ¡­ That sounds scary. What if I lost something important like the ability to feel love?! Or satisfaction? Or what if I lost my ability to relate to people? Wouldn¡¯t that make me unable to make any bonds with anyone? That would be awful! Worst of all, it sounds like he could be right. ¡°Well¡­ You have a point Alfred. Unfortunately we have no way of testing this out though. I guess we will have to find out eventually.¡± ¡°¡­If you don¡¯t mind me saying so, young master, I had noticed some change in your behavior from before. Though I could attribute it due to essentially your first¡­ death, this old servant can¡¯t help but to wonder if there is more to it now that I have heard the story.¡± Alfred looks concerned, and rather¡­ anxious too. Well, only slightly. I think he has excellent control of his emotions, so he must be really worried. ¡°Ah¡­ that is¡­¡± How to explain this to him? I don¡¯t want him getting suspicious about my lack of knowledge. Wait, this is a great excuse! ¡°Alfred, to be honest¡­ I can¡¯t recall many things. I feel like I am missing parts of me.¡± Alfred¡¯s eyes widen such that it was almost funny. Or it would have been if they had not become so solemn and sad immediately afterwards. It makes me feel guilty honestly, because it feels like I am taking advantage of his trust. However, he shortly regains his composure in a matter of seconds, and nods slowly. ¡°I¡­ see. This is quite a grievous matter, young master.¡± He says with a low voice, one hand reaching out to stroke his beard slowly. ¡°Young master, this may well be the price you had to pay for your revival¡­ or at least part of it.¡± I don¡¯t reply to him for a second, thinking it over. How had this not occurred to me? But if you think about it, it¡¯s a price I will gladly pay to live again. It also gives me an excuse for acting different than what Alfred recalls. I suppose you could say that I got lucky? Still... It doesn''t feel too good to know that there could still be more to this ''price'' I am paying. It can''t be helped, I suppose. At least I am alive, so I should really be thanking that... creature? Being? Hm... Maybe it was a conglomerate of beings? The ancient ones that Alfred talked about maybe? Ugh... mataphysical entities give me a headache. I''ll think about it later. ¡°That seems likely.¡± I reply carefully. How am I supposed to reply anyways? What''s the etiquette is there? He clearly expects some sort of behaviour from what he said earlier. The mood settled into something of a more uneasy sensation. But above all else, Alfred seems to be honestly loyal to me. I had not expected him to cry at my tale. It seems like he is an ally I can depend on, and at this moment, that¡¯s priceless! Honestly, I am more at ease now that I have someone like him around. At least I wont go crazy from loneliness. After our talk, we set out looking for people through the rubble of the fortress. For three days and three nights we found nothing but destruction and rocks. It wasn¡¯t until the fourth day that we found something. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 We spent three entire days searching through the rubble of what was left of the town, looking out for any sort of useful remnants or trapped survivor. We decided to start searching from the buildings closest to the outer walls, with each of us searching a different building, and progressively move closer to the center of the fort. As a result we found several skeletons, a few usable weapons and armor, and some items that were still in a decent enough condition. However, no survivors were to be found. I also discovered that my physical ability was considerably stronger than it was in my past life. I found myself lifting blocks of rubble that were easily half the size of a grown man with one hand. Alfred himself was surprised at this, so I¡¯m guessing I wasn¡¯t able to do this before I was killed in this world. I resolved myself to investigate about this more once we had finished the search. By the end of the third day, we had cleared most of the buildings of skeletons and possessions. We had created three piles materials just outside the central building. One of them had the bodies of the people who died in the city, which we were planning to bury later. The second pile had items that were still usable such as chairs, goblets, books, swords, and clothes. The last pile was essentially all the remaining junk that might be re-usable as parts or such. Honestly, it was a rather depressing job. Despite the fact that I barely have any memories of this place, finding only corpses and destruction left a bad taste on my mouth. But for the sake of finding things that might be useful for survival, this was necessary. However, at about noon of the fourth day we encountered something different. I was going through one the largest buildings, which was quite near the central building. The two-floor building itself was not very fancy by any stretch of imagination, having a simple rectangular appearance and a few windows. However, aside from the door being kicked-in and a few scorch marks, the outside of it was in remarkably good condition. As it would turn out, building itself was a simple library. Within it I found wooden benches and tables thrown about the place, and a number of books and scrolls stored in wooden bookshelves, though there were many books also thrown about in disarray. Despite this, the level of destruction was (surprisingly) relatively low compared to essentially every other building I had searched. It looked more like a group of people had had a brawl, rather than a fight to the death. Because of this, my curiosity led me up to the second floor, where the scene was essentially the same. Other than a few ruined books, broken chairs, and over-turned tables, the damage could be said to be minimal. This struck me as odd, so I began my search on the second floor, and then moved down to the first. As one might have expected of a library, one large room occupied the all of the space within each floor. In fact, the building had no doors other than the entrance to it. Even if it was a library, the fact that there were no other rooms was strange, to say the least. It bothered me. The structure itself of the building was bothering me, but for the life of me I could not figure out why. It bothered to the point that I went back to the second floor and looked around the bookshelves on the walls, and even shifted some of the shelves to see if they hid doors behind them. After an hour, I concluded that the second floor was just as it seemed. Frowning, I sat down and looked around the floor. This floor didn¡¯t bother me at all, but the first one did. I sat in silence for a minute, and then it struck me. The second floor had taken me longer to search than the first floor. That shouldn¡¯t have been the case, as the rooms should have both being the same size. So perhaps, the rooms where not the same size? It was possible. The only way to be sure however, was to measure the length and width of both rooms. With this in mind, I sprung back up to my feet, and took measured steps to measure the dimensions of the second floor. Twenty-seven steps wide, and about sixty steps in length. Then, without further ado, I raced downstairs, and repeated the process. The first floor was also twenty-seven feet wide, but it was only fifty-two steps in length. A large smirk appeared on my face, as I patted myself on the back for the discovery. Now I was pretty sure that there was a hidden room behind one of the walls. Of course, the walls at both ends were covered with bookshelves. With renewed vigor I searched both walls carefully, pulling and moving entire bookshelves with care. Finally, I came across one that I could not pull out like the others. Rather, I had to push it to the side, making the shelf slide a couple of inches, before it could pivot on a hidden axis, allowing it to swing outwards like a door. It was a truly simple but effective mechanism. But more importantly, the spot that had previously being hidden by the wide bookshelf revealed a door made of plain wood. I eagerly pulled the door open, and nearly paid for it with my life, as some metallic object came swinging down towards my face! ¡°Holy shi-!¡± I bent my spine backwards at my waist so violently that I almost fell backwards all together. The metallic object, which had just missed me by mere millimeters, turned out to be a heavy and fully sharpened battle-axe. I swallowed a lump in my throat, and let myself fall on my rump, while my eyes remained fixed on the now lazily swinging axe from a rope that clung to the ceiling. It took me a few seconds before my heart stopped racing, at which point I managed to stand up. That was dangerous! Way too dangerous! If I had moved any slower, or if I hadn¡¯t recognized it as a threat¡­ I didn¡¯t really want to think about it. I was sincerely grateful that this body had such outstanding reflexes. I took in a deep breath, steadying myself, before I slowly stuck my head through the door. The air in the room was chilly, but that was to be expected from a windowless room. The hidden room itself was not all that large, but spider webs and a couple of skeletons lined the sides of the room. At the end of it, I could see a sort of large cocoon made of white silk glowed with a soft pale-blue light that illuminated the room. Briefly I thought of calling for Alfred, but I decided against it. He probably was getting lunch ready at the moment. Besides, there didn¡¯t seem to be many obvious places for traps here. Still, I concluded that it was better to play it safe, rather than regretting it later. I gingerly stepped into the room, weary of any other potential traps, and started to head towards the glowing cocoon. When I was up close to it, I discovered that the cocoon was not made of just silk-like material, but parts of it were composed of some sort of translucent membrane that allowed the pale blue light to shine through more clearly. It was through one of those pieces of membranes that I discerned a human-like face within the cocoon. I couldn¡¯t tell with certainty if it was male or female, given that the features were not clear through the membrane, but the face looked like it was narrow too narrow to be a man. I couldn¡¯t help but to stare in wonder for a moment. This could be a survivor! I reached out eagerly and pulled on the white strings of the cocoon, and surprisingly, I had to put quite a bit of effort into tearing them. However, the fabric of the cocoon succumbed to my inhuman strength, tearing apart. Instantly the glow of the cocoon intensified for a brief second, and the translucent membrane dissolved into thin air. From inside the cocoon, a young woman, maybe in her early twenties, fell to her knees. Her skin was pale and smooth, her long hair pitch black, and wore a white and red tunic, along with a matching hat that had two points sticking out to the sides. The hat reminded me a bit of a jester¡¯s hat actually. The pretty girl breathed slowly, taking deep, quivering breaths. Her lips trembled slightly, almost trembling as they tried to articulate something. Worried, I leaned towards her, and touched her back carefully. But before I got a chance to ask what was wrong, she greeted me with a solid punch to the chest. ¡°Gwoh?!¡± I managed to shout, in pain and surprise. The impact sent me flying a good four meters into the air, and made me skid across the floor another four. The stone scrapped against my back as I finally came to a rough stop on the hard floor. A female voice, which should have been pretty, screeched out. ¡°HUUUNNGRYYY!¡± Disoriented, but sensing danger, I scrambled to stand up, only to see the unknown woman cling to the ceiling with two pairs of what seemed to be spider legs protruding from her back. The bizarre scene made me freeze for a split of second as I got up on my knees. As if sensing my hesitation, she launched herself at me. My eyes go wide as I see her open her mouth, full of sharp teeth. Her hands are stretched out as if to grab me with greedy hands. I try to stand, and instinctively get ready to try to punch the creature before me. Just as I¡¯m about to launch my attack, a strong hand covered in a white glove appears into my field of view, and grabs hold of the woman¡¯s head. The hand clings to her head with a vice-like grip, and throws her head to the ground brusquely. An instant later the spider-woman is thrown directly downwards, landing flat on the floor with a heavy SMACK! Confused, I looked at the owner of the hand that had stopped the creature. Alfred is on the scene, but for once, he doesn¡¯t look completely composed. Though he retains a rather dignified position, with only one knee on the ground and an arm seemingly only pressing down the woman¡¯s back, the aura around him is clearly one of anger. It looks a bit disturbing since her spider legs seem to only twitch now. ¡°Gerbera.¡± He growled out, ¡°If you would be so kind to regain your senses, please look at who you are attacking.¡± Alfred¡¯s tone is sharp, and through he worded his speech as a request, I doubt many men would have been able to refuse it. The woman struggles slightly, and raised her face, confused. ¡°¡­Alfred?¡± She asks, her voice sounding pleasant now that she wasn¡¯t trying to eat my face. She looks up at the butler with squinting eyes, and quickly looks away from him with a shudder. I can¡¯t say I blame her. Alfred is scary at the moment. She turned towards me and her eyes go wide, yelping as if she got burned. If Alfred hadn¡¯t been pinning her down, I am pretty sure that she would have leapt up into the air in surprise. ¡°Young master Terra!¡± She said in agitated state, her mouth trying to form words for a few seconds, scrambling for words before settling into a very apologetic tone. ¡°I apologize for my conduct!¡± Alfred was still glaring at her with eyes that were so intense that I could almost imagine lasers coming out of his eyes. ¡°Gerbera, even if you are the former resident librarian of the Forest Lord, attacking the young master is a grave crime!¡± He hissed out, clearly still angry, despite the amount of self-control he was exerting to control himself. I was still confused at this point. But I concluded that Alfred appeared to know her, so that was probably good? Also, she did call me young master too, so she was probably from the fort¡¯s original population. I look inquisitively at Alfred, who seemed to understand my confusion. ¡°Young master,¡± He began, ¡°This is Gerbera, the librarian. She is an arachnoid hybrid known as Arachnaika, and also part of your father¡¯s trusted people.¡± That put me a bit at ease. At least my suspicions were correct, and she was not some random killer monster of some sort. Still, how does she manage to retract those spider legs back into her body? I think it would be rude to ask, so I¡¯ll leave it at that. ¡°I see¡­¡± I replied, ¡°Alfred, let her sit up. I want to hear why she suddenly attacked me.¡± Nodding, Alfred retracted his arm, though he kept his eye on her quite intently. I was grateful for that. Though she hadn¡¯t been exactly ugly when attacking me like that, it hadn¡¯t been pleasant to have someone want to eat me either. In any case, Gerbera sat up quickly in a formal manner, and bowed her head at me, practically smacking her own forehead against the ground and apologizing once again. I waved off her continuous apologies, and asked her why had attacked me in the first place. ¡°Ah! About that, it¡¯s because young master forcefully intruded into my hibernating state while there was no other food around.¡± She said while fidgeting nervously. ¡°Though I had consumed some food before the hibernation, more time must have passed than what I expected, otherwise I would not have reacted as such. Once again I apologize for my conduct!¡± ¡°I¡­see?¡± I replied uncertainly. Hibernating for a decade? That seemed quite hard to believe, but if Alfred could survive without hibernating for the same length of time, then her story was possible after all. ¡°But why have you being hibernating for a decade?¡± ¡°A decade?!¡± She asked bewildered, her eyes widening with shock. It can¡¯t be helped that she is shocked. After all, if she was hibernating, she was most likely not aware of anything happening around her while she remained in that state. Anyways, I let Alfred explain what happened during the conflict, and how a decade had passed. Gerbera herself was in a state of disbelief, and by the end of the story, her eyes had become sad and tired. ¡°To think that the Forest Lord would be defeated¡­ I had never imagined that.¡± Her eyes seemed to moisten for a moment, and I could hardly blame her. Nearly everyone she knew was dead. Her head suddenly jerked up after a moment though, and she looked at me intensely. ¡°But young master, how are you alive? Alfred said you got pierced through your chest by a wide sword. That should have pierced your heart and lungs.¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s a bit of an odd tale.¡± I replied, ¡°Long story short, I was killed, but some unknown celestial being brought me back to life, at some unknown cost at my expense. Alfred and I think that part of the cost is a partial loss of my memories.¡± Gerbera looked at me with doubt written on her face. But in the end, she nodded and accepted that explanation, after I showed her the scar on my chest. It seems that my circumstances are extraordinary even for this world¡¯s standards. Anyways, I had a question of my own for Gerbera. ¡°Gerbera, why were you hibernating in such a place? What happened to you during the fight?¡± Gerbera sighed at this, and proceeded to explain. ¡°During the attack, a small group of seniors came to seek refuge at the library. They were safe here for a day, before a group of enemy soldiers charged in. As it turns out, the enemies were humans in black garbs, mercenaries it seemed. These men proceeded to attack and slaughter whomever they could. The elders and I put up a fight, and within ten minutes the fight had concluded.¡± Gerbera smiled bitterly at the memory now, eyes looking back a decade into the past. ¡°But all the elders were injured, some of them grievously so. I could not help them with my magic, which had been exhausted just repelling the enemies fire magic. As a matter off fact, my mental exhaustion was such that I had lost my ability to even walk. Thus, the elders decided to run out into the streets and join the fray, acting as a distraction. But I¡­ I could do nothing, and I passed out amongst the books. It wasn¡¯t after the next day that I woke up, still tired but able to function to some limited extent. I concluded that I would only be a burden in the fight. I decided to hide myself in this room, and sleep until someone from our side came to check the room. After all, the Lord knew the room. He would sure check it. But to hibernate I needed strength. I¡­I consumed the two human soldiers, and used the strength I gathered from them to create a spell that would reduce the damage received to the building, and to activate my hibernation ability. I set up a trap with one of the axes of the enemy soldiers at the door, and then locked myself up in here, to sleep until it was safe... I never suspected that it would have been years before I woke up again.¡± ¡°Wait¡­¡± I replied, ¡°When you say consume you mean¡­?¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.She cringed slightly but nodded. ¡°I had to eat them.¡± Thus her story concluded. To be honest, the story was quite grim. Being forced to eat two people in order to survive did not sound like it would be easy to do for people. That small cringe I saw her make¡­ was it a trauma? Had accidentally hit something that I shouldn¡¯t have? She seemed to want to say something, making a face of distaste. ¡°¡­They tasted awful.¡± ¡°¡­¡± I stared at her blankly. Ah that¡¯s right. She isn¡¯t human. Is eating humans not traumatizing for her species, or is it just her that is odd? I really hope it¡¯s just her, and not an entire species, that considers eating others merely inconvenient because of the taste. Groooowwwll~ Her belly decided to rumble at this point, and I started to wonder if I should perhaps step away from her again. Even though Alfred was with me, I didn¡¯t want to have to deal with her trying to eat my face again. However, Alfred came to my rescue again. ¡°Ah, young master, Lunch is ready.¡± Alfred said as he recalled his original motive to search for me. ¡°Today I managed to hunt an iron-horn deer that strayed from its herd. It¡¯s quite a lucky find.¡± As expected of Alfred, he had such perfect timing. She could join us for lunch and I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about her trying to eat me. More importantly, if she was a librarian she must have been very knowledgeable. She would definitely be an asset for me if I could assure she was on my side. She did seem to react strongly once she realized who I was, but I have no solid proof that she was as loyal as Alfred. Well¡­ I can¡¯t do much about that right now. ¡°Is that so? Thank you, Alfred.¡± I stood up and looked over at Gerbera, before offering her a hand to stand up. ¡°I suppose you must still be hungry huh? Join us for lunch.¡± I extended my invitation to her with a bright smile, and I swear I saw her shed a tear before she quickly covered her face with her hand. However, a second later, she had removed her hand and was smiling with gratitude. ¡°By your will.¡± She replied, and took my hand. 0-0-0-0-0 It took some doing to convince Gerbera to sit down with me and Alfred to eat. Is it really that weird to eat with your boss? Also, this ¡®young master¡¯ business is getting a bit annoying. I do have a name you know? I suppose I¡¯ll have to find a way to tell them to change the way the address me at some point. By the way, Alfred ¡°suggested¡± that I refrain from tearing up glowing cocoons without thinking things through. His eyes were surprisingly sharp when he said this. I couldn¡¯t really disagree with him. It could have ended badly. Anyways, after lunch, the beautifully roasted deer was reduced to mere bones. Gerbera certainly had been famished, since she ate almost as much as I did. It was truly unexpected, considering her thin waist, but a decade without food would do that to anyone, I suppose. After lunch had concluded, Alfred stated to clear away the table, and Gerbera approached me with curiosity. ¡°Young master, I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time to ask a few questions.¡± ¡°What¡¯s on your mind?¡± She hesitated for a moment, fidgeting with her fingers, before speaking again. ¡°How much of is the young master able to remember?¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± I had think about it for a second, but I replied honestly. ¡°To be honest, I remember only a fraction of what I should know. Currency, abilities, magic, skills, diplomacy, politics, even common sense; my knowledge of all of these is abysmal at this point in time.¡± To be honest, I suspect that I have lost at least 90% of this body¡¯s memories. I¡¯ve been trying to recall more memories, but I¡¯ve only had limited success. ¡°I see¡­¡± Gerbera replied with a thoughtful look, before she looked up at me with shining eyes. Clasping her hands together eagerly, she leaned forwards. ¡°Then please allow me to educate you!¡± ¡°¡­Alright.¡± I had no reason to refuse. Though her eagerness has me slightly puzzled. ¡°Excellent!¡± She cheered, leaping to her feet. ¡°I will do my best to educate the young master!¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Alfred¡¯s voice rang out as he approached us once more, holding the polished skull of the iron-horn deer in one hand. ¡°The young master is agreeing to being educated? His memory loss is more severe than I expected.¡± I cringed inwardly at this. I get the feeling that my ¡®previous¡¯ self in this world did not enjoy studying. ¡°It¡¯s necessary.¡± I replied somewhat defensively. ¡°I would agree.¡± Alfred replied swiftly, nodding in a sagely manner. ¡°Then, please allow me to collaborate however I can.¡± ¡°I would appreciate that.¡± I replied, breathing an internal sigh of relief. Gerbera nodded her head, and crossed her arms in a self-important manner. ¡°Then it is settled! The first thing we should do then is¡­¡± Her eyes seemed to shine, as she stretched out the pause for dramatic effect. ¡°Determine the young master¡¯s soul realm!¡± I had to try really hard to not look bewildered at her suggestion. Whatever that was, it sounded like it might cause trouble. I hope it doesn¡¯t detect people¡¯s souls or anything like it! What would they do if they found out I wasn¡¯t the same soul?! ¡°Gerbera!¡± Alfred spoke up, his face somewhat tight. ¡°Please do not speak so thoughtlessly, we don¡¯t have the tools for that anymore. Most of the items in town have been destroyed.¡± ¡°Ah, don¡¯t worry about that Alfred.¡± She replied with a dismissive tone, ¡°There is a simple method to do this thanks to me.¡± She said as she puffed up her chest proudly, smirking. ¡°Don¡¯t forget, I have the special ability ¡®Detect¡¯. As long as we have even a poor-quality E-rank monster crystal, I can do it.¡± ¡°Excuse me?¡± I interjected, looking at them with a concerned expression. ¡°What is the point of knowing my soul realm?¡± ¡°A thousand pardons, young master.¡± Alfred said with a bow, ¡°It had slipped my mind to explain. As the young master might not recall, allow me to give a full explanation.¡± ¡°Please do.¡± I replied. ¡°By your will. Young master, as you may recall, there are several abilities and magics available in the world. However, not everyone can use them. The laws of the world are such that there are distinctions between different abilities, magic schools, and skills. An individual¡¯s ability to acquire and use any of these is dependant on various factors, the most important of which are the individual¡¯s physical strength, mental strength, and more importantly, their soul realm. While a person¡¯s physical and mental aptitudes, conditions, and strengths can be trained easily through studies or exercises, a person¡¯s soul realm is not so simple. Moreover, while a person can strengthen or weaken their soul realm, there are limits to the changes that can occur with regards to the nature of the soul realm. As such, it is critical to assess a person¡¯s soul realm to understand what their strengths and limits are.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± I replied. So basically, to find out what I can do, the most important thing to identify my soul realm in order to understand what my strengths and weaknesses might be. ¡°But how does my soul realm affect magic, and skills?¡± ¡°Allow me to answer that!¡± Gerbera jumped into the conversation, and started to explain without pause. ¡°Magic and skills are similar but very different things. Magic and skills both have the ability to manipulate nature, but the way they achieve this is different. To understand why this is the case, one must understand the nature of the execution of magic and skills. ¡®Magic¡¯ and ¡®Skills¡¯ work on basis of mental and physical strength respectively, but they both also use soul energy. Soul energy is exactly what the name suggests! It is the excess energy of your soul. In other words, your body needs a certain amount of energy from your soul to stay alive, and whatever surplus of energy your soul produces is the energy that is used to execute magic or skills. However, one must be careful to not use too much soul energy, or it will cut into the energy that the body needs to function!¡± ¡°I¡­ see. I think I understand.¡± I replied. In summary, in order to execute magic, the most basic equation would be ¡®Soul energy + Mental strength = Magic¡¯ and to execute a skill, the most basic equation would be ¡®Soul energy + Physical strength = Skill¡¯. But if I use too much of my soul energy, it will be harmful to my body. I get it. It is at this point that I notice Alfred looking me over curiously. I get the feeling he is scrutinizing me. ¡°Hoho!¡± He laughs lightly. ¡°It seems that the young master really understands. That¡¯s good. I am surprised.¡± How is it surprising?! It was not that complicated. Wait, could it be that the previous ¡®me¡¯ from this world was just a muscle-head idiot? I hope not. Whatever. The most important thing was to find out what my soul realm is. It also doesn¡¯t seem like finding out about my soul realm will tell them I am from a different world, so it should be fine. Besides, I really want to know what magic I can use! ¡°Alright then!¡± I replied enthusiastically, ¡°Let¡¯s do it. I want to know my soul realm!¡± Gerbera smiles broadly and nods. ¡°Of course! Alfred, do we have any E-rank monster crystals? Higher ranked ones would do too. An unused one would be best.¡± Alfred nods instantly, and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a small yellow crystal that fits into the palm of his hand. ¡°Of course. As a matter of fact, the Iron-horn deer is a high E-rank monster. It had a decent quality crystal, which I removed.¡± ¡°Excellent!¡± Gerbera says with a smile. ¡°It looks like this will be easy then. Young master, please, grab the crystal.¡± Albert hands me the crystal, and I hold it in my hand. ¡°Does the young master recall how to move spirit energy?¡± Gerbera asks curiously. ¡°Ah¡­¡± I reply with a frown. ¡°I am not sure.¡± ¡°Then please follow my instructions. First, close your eyes, and focus on yourself. Hear the sound of your own heart. Very good. Now¡­ young master, search inside you, you should feel something¡­ a flow of strength. Do you feel it?¡± I do as she instructs and focus on myself. Indeed, after a few seconds, I did feel within me the motion of what I can only describe as energy. I feel that that this flow has a certain¡­depth to it. I nod silently at her, my eyes still closed. ¡°Very good. It seems that the basic training that the young master started before the war still remains in you. Now, reach out with your mind, and touch that flow. Let it fill you, then direct that power to your hand, and from your hand to the crystal.¡± I did as she instructed. It¡¯s like liquid electricity that flows from within me, coiling and twisting as it surges forth down my arm and into my hand. I hear Gerbera gasp with surprise, and so I open my eyes while maintaining the flow. In my hand, the crystal glows with a lively yellow colour. It¡¯s almost as if I was holding a light bulb. ¡°Marvellous! Truly marvellous, young master!¡± She exclaims with joy, ¡°To think that the young master grasped the flow so quickly¡­ Now, please focus on the crystal and leave the rest to me!¡± Her eyes turn serious as she fixes her gaze upon the crystal, and extends her hands towards it, before invoking her ability. ¡°[Detect: Spirit Realm!]¡± The light from the crystal focuses upwards now, and projects an image a few inches above it. The light contorts and twists, condensing into a number of scattered, glowing small dots. As soon as those dots of light are formed, a single larger orb of white light appears at the center. Finally, around them a large ring of gold light starts to take shape after a brief pause. As if being forged by an unseen hammer, the ring starts to morph from a simple ring into a sort of very long lizard eating its own tail. Then, the lizard sprouts wings on its back, and the scales on its hide become beautifully defined. It is only then that the holographic display ceases to change. The image holds for a few seconds, before collapsing entirely. ¡°That. Was. Awesome.¡± I say cheerfully. Is that magic? It sure looked like magic. It was like a hologram! Personally, I think that was the most amazing thing I¡¯ve ever seen since I¡¯ve been reborn. It looked cool! So cool! I was beside myself with excitement, before I realized that neither Alfred nor Gerbera said anything. ¡°So, how was it?¡± I ask. Their silence is slowly leaching away at my excitement. ¡°Gerbera, was that¡­?¡± Alfred asks in a tone I haven¡¯t heard him use before. I can¡¯t quite grasp what it means. ¡°That was¡­¡± Gerbera said thoughtfully. Her face is perfectly still in a magnificent poker face. ¡°Young master, let me be frank. I have never seen this combination before. Usually, a soul realm holds only two symbols for naming. A third one is exceedingly rare, and always brings about unexpected results¡­ be it a blessing or disaster for the owner.¡± I felt my previous elation sink like a rock. In its place, worry began to flourish. ¡°I¡­see. Please, tell me what it means.¡± Gerbera closed her eyes briefly, and started to talk. ¡°The first symbol was dictated by the scattered but clear dots of light. The second symbol was the formation of a strong, larger orb of light at the center. Normally, that combination reads as ¡®Scattered stars, domain of the white sun.¡¯ This combination is strong and uncommon. Though the ¡®scattered stars¡¯ are common, the ¡®white sun¡¯ is not. This combination dictates a powerful soul with many possibilities, though it also points at no real focus of magic and instead shows resistance towards it. But¡­ the third symbol¡­ by itself it reads ¡®Realm of Ouroboros.¡¯ The clarity with which the symbol was formed is unbelievably strong. This segment is so rare that it¡¯s seen only in history in a millennial scale! It is essentially believed to be a myth and is not completely understood. It represents many things, and is similar to the phoenix in nature, but its presence is much more powerful. It may hint at a cycle that begins anew as soon as it ends. It can also represent the idea of primordial unity. But most likely, it is proof of a beginning with such force or qualities that it cannot be extinguished¡­ Young master, without a doubt, your essence is beyond what one could call strong. But it is unclear what it means.¡± ¡°So¡­¡± I asked slowly, trying to digest this. I was not sure if it was good or bad at all. ¡°What do you think it means then?¡± Gerbera was silent for a long minute, and I felt my heart pound in my chest powerfully as I awaited her verdict. The face she is making is complicated, as if worry mixes with uncertainty. Such an expression does nothing to soothe my heart. ¡°Young master¡­¡± She began, carefully choosing her words. ¡° Your soul realm definitely reads ¡®Scattered stars, domain of the white sun, realm of Ouroboros.¡¯ It is undeniable, and it means you have a strong existence for sure. It has been speculated that this realm of Ouroboros amplifies the effects of the other segments as one of its several characteristics, but the rest is wild speculation and blind guess work. But if we assume that the Realm of Ouroboros does cause amplification, then regardless of what other effects it has, it is highly possible that you are incapable of casting magic altogether.¡± Chapter 4 *****Author''s Note***** Sooooo I have not yet figured out how to properly use the BB code to create the Tables. I''ll be experimenting with it for a bit, so for now please bear with it. I will try to fix it ASAP Special Thanks to Sharon **************************************************************************************************** Chapter 4: -Alfred¡¯s POV- A ray of light filters through a half-broken window, arousing me from my comatose sleep again. I barely open my eyes as I hang by the chains. How many days has it been? Weeks? Years? It takes a few long seconds to recall. 3700 days, today it seems. Exactly ten years since the fall of the great lord. Ten years since the invasion by the detestable Bladvund and his cohorts. Ten years since I failed to rescue his son. Ten years since I saw any living thing, other than the occasional insect or rat. How many more years before this accursed body finally gives out? I can barely conjure up enough water to fill a glass on a daily basis thanks to this abhorrent restrains, thus I can¡¯t even quench my thirst properly. But perhaps this is proper. After all, my failure was great. If I had been able to rescue the young master, things could have been different. I might have been able to rejoin the fight. I might have saved the Forest Lord. I might have preserved a part of our beloved home. But I could not do it back then. As a butler and as a guard, I have failed miserably when it mattered the most. This failure surely is a grave sin and as such, I who have so gravely sinned, must be punished. Creeeiiik~ Sounds like hinges from an old door are creaking and wood is splintering. This mansion has been unattended for a decade¡­ A door must have finally started to give out, or else it must be the wind filtering through some hole in the mansion again, pushing against the door. Or so I thought, until I heard someone gasp. Instinctively I looked up, fixing my gaze upon the doorway intensely. My frustration was about to reach new heights, as I was sure that I was finally going insane. Before me an apparition presented itself. The ghost of the child I failed to save. His appearance was the same as I had last seen him: a mane of wild black hair, teeth that seem just a little too sharp for a human, a strong jaw line inherited from his father, a skin tanned like bronze, deep green eyes, and defined muscles fit for a warrior. The only difference is that faint scar upon his chest. I want to rage for a moment, and to tear apart the illusion before me. If it be a mere illusion from my mind, let it not stand there and watch me in my despair! Even if it¡¯s a figment of my imagination, it must not sully the last moments of the deceased young master. But then our eyes met. His eyes were not hollow like I expected, but instead, they shined like those of a child who had just seen the world for the first time. Those eyes were vibrant, full of life and energy. It is then that all my senses told me the truth. This creature was not a ghost from the past, nor an specter from the dead. It was the young master in the flesh. 0-0-0-0-0 I had a dream of the time I met the new young master last night. It was like watching my own memories put on a show for me, a perfect theater. Every detail from that day was clear and crisp in the dream, from the depth of regret I held in my heart, down to the oppressing feeling that the magic restraining chains exerted in my body. Everything I had experienced that day was preserved in a perfect memory. Though perhaps that¡¯s to be expected. What kind of man would not recall all the details of the day of his salvation? Though I must admit that the ¡®new¡¯ young master is quite different from the ¡®old¡¯ young master, I will admit I think that the change is for the better. Though he is lacking much of the common sense for one of noble lineage, such as letting servants eat with him, his attitude towards his surroundings has certainly improved. Even in these bleak ruins of what used to be his home, he diligently seeks ways to survive. Anything of use is searched for, from Gerbera¡¯s knowledge to scavenging for supplies in the ruins, he thoroughly examines whatever he gathers. In the past, the young master would have certainly deemed it all too troublesome and rushed headlong into a quest to revenge for his fallen family. But now, though he at times displays a lonely face, he doesn¡¯t seem to hold much attachment to the destruction of the city or his family. Perhaps losing his memories is not entirely a curse. 0-0-0-0-0 Young master becomes crestfallen when Gerbera notified him about his¡­ ¡®condition¡¯ regarding his lack of ability with magic. Though the young master never did display any great talent towards magic, nor much interest other than magic tools, I still find it odd that he is unable to use magic whatsoever. I am certain that this is related in some way to his return to the world of the living. Due to the master¡¯s clear disappointment, Gerbera immediately tried to cheer him up with soft words, and flowery encouragement. As much as it pained me to do it, I will have to intervene there. I understand that she cares for the young master, but she must keep in mind that he has forgotten much of what should be common sense and knowledge. Feeding him such sugar-coated words may prove to be dangerous if he truly were to believe them from the bottom of his heart. I must steel my heart, as much as it pains me to do so, and dispel any misconceptions before they produce problems. Fortunately, the young master seemed more mature after he came back to life. Then again, I suppose that being killed once would force people to change, wouldn¡¯t it? I cut into the conversation and dispel the atmosphere. ¡°Gerbera, I urge you to not comfort the young master too much.¡± I try to say in a gentle but firm manner, earning a reproving glare from her. I ignore her glare, and focus my eyes on the young master. ¡°Young master, as much as it pains me to say this, I beg you to pay heed for a moment.¡± I start to explain without restraint how serious the situation is. Put simply, most people of every race in this world can use magic to some extent. That is not to say that everyone is a ¡®magician,¡¯ ¡®wizard,¡¯ or some other such type of entity, but it does means that the young master has a disadvantage compared to the norm. In addition, though they are usually physically weak, accomplished magic users can use devastating long and midrange attacks if they have enough time to activate a spell. More importantly, skilled magic users have a higher status in society, thanks to their versatility. Accomplished or high ranking mages have status that is fit to rival members of nobility, and in fact, a fair numbers of nobles are magic users of some sort. The worst of it all is that people that can¡¯t use magic are usually looked down upon. Since more than 97% of people can use magic to some extent, they are an overwhelming majority. In fact, people without the ability to use magic are essentially seen most of the time as ¡®defective products¡¯ or lower class citizens. It is truly unfortunate for the vigorous young master to have developed such a condition. This is all the more true now that the young master had recently told us his wish of traveling the world. This is yet an other thing that has changed from his old self. In the past, he never held any interest for the world outside the village. But for the sake of the young master, Gerbera and I must do all that we can to help him attain his goal! I have faith that, as long as it¡¯s the young master, he can achieve anything, with a little help. If the master can not use magic, we must grant him other means of self defense. I will not fail him again. 0-0-0-0-0 -Terra¡¯s POV- Squeeeal! ¡°This bastard-!¡± I growl out, leaping out of the way as a carnivorous red boar gallops towards me, fully intent on goring me with its tusks. ¡°Hohoho! Not bad young master!¡± Alfred calls out at me, watching the battle from the safety of a high branch on a tree. ¡°As expected of the young master, even normal C-rank monsters have trouble dealing with you!¡± Damn it Alfred, pitting me against this violent fellow as training, isn¡¯t it a bit much!? I resist the urge to look at Alfred, focusing on the enemy in front of me. Unlike the common boar I ate on the night I met Alfred, this one is a C-rank monster called ¡®carnivorous red boar.¡¯ This beast is the size of a dairy cow and is known for its violent temperament. It is common in certain areas of the forest that surrounds the fortress. The boar sure lives up to its reputation for being violent. It rages and turns to look at me with beady black eyes full of hatred. It¡¯s somewhat intimidating to be honest, since it clearly wants me dead. Acting on its rage, the boar charges at me once more, and I¡¯m forced leap to the side once again. ¡°Damn.¡± I look about, realizing I¡¯ve been driven against what is essentially a wall of trees. However, I have no time to think about my position, as the boar has already circled around and is coming right at me. Since this is how it is, let¡¯s try this then! I get ready, digging my toes into the ground, and my hands reach out, getting ready to receive the boar head on. I make eye contact with the boar, not letting it out of my sight at all. Batoom! His tusks collide against my hands, struggling against them. The collision sends vibrations down my body, but I clench grip his tusks and push back as hard as I can. The boar manages to push me back about a meter, until the heel my back foot is just brushing against the root of the nearest tree behind me, before I can fully stop his advance. The boar is struggling to push forwards but it¡¯s too late. I look right into his hateful eyes, meeting them with resolution. Now that I got you, I won¡¯t let you go at all, you know? ¡°My turn!¡± I flex my muscles, tightening my core, and pull upwards his tusks. The boar squeals angrily as its body starts to be lifted off the ground, but it¡¯s futile. Growling, I jerk my arms up above my head and then swing them down violently, slamming the boar against the ground hard enough to make the ground tremble briefly. ¡°Still awake? You stubborn piece of¡­¡± I click my tongue and repeat the process one more time, before swinging the boar against the trees behind me, splintering their surface. At last the boar is immobile. The toughness of this guy is quite something. ¡°There. Finally.¡± I grunt, standing up straight. Looking over at Alfred, I see him drop from a branch 7 meters above ground and land perfectly, with such ease that he might as well have jumped off a chair. This fellow¡­ it¡¯s not the first time that I¡¯ve thought of it, but this fellow is certainly strong. He doesn¡¯t flaunt his skills about, but the way he does things make you realize that he is truly strong when you stop to think about it. ¡°Hohoho, well done, master!¡± Alfred congratulates me full-heartedly. ¡°To defeat a C-rank monster in less a minute is rather unexpected. I had noticed it before, but your strength has really increased compared to the time before your death.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± I state simply. I will take every advantage I can get since I can¡¯t use magic. ¡°Indeed. It¡¯s rather shocking.¡± Albert adds with a sagely nod. ¡°Young master, this is just a hunch, but could it be that the young master had an innate special ability this whole time? Otherwise, I find the sudden spike in strength rather hard to explain.¡± ¡°Special ability?¡± Those words quickly caught my attention. As far as I know, there were three categories of special ¡®powers¡¯ that could be acquired in this world: skills, magic, and abilities. While magic and skills could be trained and learned with relative ease, abilities are considered ¡°abnormal powers¡± that follow rules of their own, and were only obtainable in two ways: being born with them (otherwise known as innate or inherent abilities), or by meeting special requirements. However, the requirements are not necessarily the same for everyone in order to obtain the same ability. This obviously makes obtaining abilities far more difficult than obtaining skills or magic. Which is why I really want to know if I had any of these special abilities. ¡°How do I find out if I have one?¡± I ask Alfred immediately, even as he grabbed the dead boar and heft it up on his shoulder with ease. However, the moment I asked this he looked very thoughtful. Perhaps even skeptical for a moment? ¡°Young master, to my knowledge there are three ways to know your ability. Normally, most people acquire a special ability rather than being born with one. As such, they will hear ¡®the voice of the world¡¯ announcing to them their ability. The second method is to self summon the status of your abilities. The last method is to find someone with an ability that somehow reveals your ability, though this method is the least informative of all, as it only gives you the name of the ability.¡± ¡°I see.¡± I say thoughtfully. Gerbera has already explained to me what ¡®the voice of the world¡¯ is. Also known as ¡®the whisper of Gia,¡¯ it is a phenomena that occurs when the world itself deems someone has achieved or earned something worthy of note, and announces it to said person. ¡®The voice of the world¡¯ usually announces when one has acquired a special title or ability. In other words, its similar to what one would call an announcement system in videogames. I had hoped that there was something like a ¡°status¡± window too, but it seems that this world is not so accommodating. Why would there be something so convenient anyways? It¡¯s already amazing that something like ¡®the voice of the world¡¯ exists in itself. Anyways. If I do have some sort of special ability, it will probably be something like ¡®enhanced strength¡¯ or ¡®stronger body,¡¯ since that¡¯s essentially what Alfred pointed out as standing out about my physical condition. ¡°Alfred, once we arrive home, I want to learn if I have any abilities.¡± I say resolutely. ¡°Since I can¡¯t use magic, I need to learn all I can about my current condition, especially if I have an ability.¡± After all, knowledge is power. Understanding myself will lead to more efficient progress. In fact, I have a feeling that Sun Tzu said something similar once¡­or at least, I think he did. ¡°By your will.¡± Alfred replies, formal as always. 0-0-0-0-0 After we got back, Alfred and Gerbera joined forces to teach me how to self summon my ¡®status¡¯ properly. Apparently it¡¯s called a ¡®meditative soul realm dive.¡¯ It¡¯s annoyingly difficult compared to how it¡¯s done in videogames, since in videogames you can check your status with a touch of a button. But that¡¯s not the case in this world. Though the process itself was not difficult in theory, in practice it took more effort than expected, since it required total focus and a calm mind. Thus, it took me at least an hour to reach the required state of mind. However, once I reached that state of mind, I simply focused upon myself. Just like I had done when Gerbera checked my soul realm, I reached out to that stream of energy inside me, but this time, instead of just touching it I sank into it deeply. I had a distinct feeling of the world around me muting itself as my consciousness sank in itself, focusing on what it saw within itself. Within me. Soon I found myself in within a many fold magnified version of the soul realm I had seen thanks to Gerbera. I floated among spheres of light of many sizes, from the size of a baseball to those that were a good two meters across. Of course, at the center of it all, an orb of light that was the size of a house dominated over the other radiant spheres. Last but not least, a giant snake-like dragon eating its own tail encircles everything. To be honest, I think my soul realm is awesome. People would pay to take a tour around here back in my world. ¡°Now let¡¯s see¡­¡± I hum to myself, ¡°According to Gerbera, I need to¡­ Ah, that¡¯s right.¡± I fly down to the central orb and touch it with my hand, focusing strongly on wanting to know my ¡®status¡¯. According to Gerbera, visualization is an important part of examining your abilities. Essentially, if I wanted to see my abilities displayed, then I had to provide some sort of format for them to actually appear. To be honest, it¡¯s easier for me to imagine it a sort of videogame style ¡®status window¡¯ rather than just having words floating about, so I will imagine a ¡®status window¡¯ for now. Sure enough, after a few seconds, the surface of the orb of light shines brightly. As if made of glass, words start appearing in the format I had imagined. Success! ¡°Let¡¯s see what we got here¡­¡± If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Status
NameTerra Zilvamane
Age15
Divine ProtectionNone
TitlesReincarnated One; Son of the Earth; Young Master;
AbilitiesIndomitable Body [Unique]; Strong Body; Magic Deflection;
MagicNone
SkillsNone
ResistancesMagic (general); Mind Control
Woah. There seems to be a lot more information than what I expected. Lets see¡­ I wonder if I tap one, could I get some information on them? Let¡¯s test it out with Indomitable Body. After tapping on it, a separate window opens up and shows this:
Indomitable Body [Unique] (Passive Ability)
-Gives the body extremely high vitality, and high endurance. -Allows for consumption of Monster crystals to boost abilities. *Warning! Eating monster crystals of a too high level may cause backlash if the body is not strong enough to handle the power influx
Uwaaa! It seems I have a great Ability right off the bat! Though I¡¯m worried by that backlash, I think I should be fine as long as I¡¯m careful. I¡¯ll have to experiment a bit though. The abilities [Strong Body] and [Magic Deflection] are pretty self-explanatory after looking at them. Essentially, [Strong Body] is a special passive ability that makes my body stronger and tougher than normal, but [Magic Deflection] is a bit odd. Essentially, it deflects harmful magic. That¡¯s all it says. Still, it sounds extremely useful! I try tapping on the titles, but nothing happens. I should ask Gerbera about them. Alright, mission complete. Let¡¯s get back to reality, I am sure that Gerbera and Alfred will be surprised at these abilities. 0-0-0-0-0 The reaction I got from Gerbera was excellent. She was clearly shocked to hear someone as young as I had more than one special ability. On the other hand, Alfred merely rose his eyebrows in surprise while the rest of his facial features didn¡¯t really change. Still, I like to think he seems pleasantly surprised. Perhaps I should have expected it, but Gerbera seems truly delighted. She is looking me over intensely, with a broad smile on her face while she starts to walk around me. ¡°To think that the young master would have such magnificent abilities¡­Truly unexpected!¡± She says with a nearly singsong tone to her voice, ¡°Ah~ What a wonderful thing! It seems we have a prodigy with us, Alfred, a prodigy! And I¡¯ll get to witness his story personally. It will make a great book!¡± I think that she is even more excited about my abilities than I am. I have come to understand that she loves books and stories a lot, but for her to view me with something akin to scholarly interest is a bit odd. ¡°Hohoho,¡± Alfred replies with his soft laugh, ¡°Yes, it would seem you are right Gerbera. However¡­¡± Oi, what¡¯s with the sharp look you are giving me? I didn¡¯t do anything wrong. ¡°I would like to advice the young master to refrain from explaining his abilities to people in the future.¡± Alfred says firmly. ¡°While it is fine right now since there is only the three of us, in the future it¡¯s not impossible that someone to be listening into our conversation. There have been cases in which men have gone to extreme lengths to capture or forcibly indenture someone with a unique ability.¡± Ah, so there are that kind of people in this world too, huh? I guess you can find that kind of people everywhere. ¡°I understand.¡± ¡°No young master, I don¡¯t think you do.¡± Alfred rebutted in a firm but courtly manner. ¡°Young master, for the sake of your memory loss, I would like to remind you that we, as part of the Malicia race, are not viewed favorably by most other races. I recommend exercising extreme caution when anything related to your abilities comes up.¡± I see. Well he is not wrong if that¡¯s the case. There are six main races: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Romas, Malicia, and Fairy-folk. The Romas constitute of what could be called beast-men, and Malicia are something akin to monster-men. Out of all the six races, Romas and Malicia are the most unpopular of the bunch. It isn¡¯t difficult to imagine that some avaricious person would be more aggressive towards me than to a human or elf. ¡°I¡¯ll be careful Alfred.¡± I assure him. I just got back to life, I don¡¯t have any intention of becoming indentured to anything or anyone any time soon. ¡°Ahem,¡± Gerbera clears her throat, bringing attention to herself, ¡°While Alfred has a point, young master should still take advantage of his abilities. As it is now, young master stands out compared to the common folk due to his abilities, but if he were to encounter a particularly powerful enemy he could be in danger.¡± I want to point out that I have no enemies in this world, but perhaps she is referring to monsters? No, since I am a member of the Malicia race it is possible that people will come that want to pick a fight with me. Or perhaps someone out there hated my parents and would like to relieve their resentment by attacking me. However, this is all speculation without any basis. I should ask Alfred about my political standing later. ¡°Indeed, Gerbera has a point.¡± Alfred nods in a sagely manner, stroking his neatly trimmed beard. ¡°I think that we should increase the level of difficulty of training now that we know your special abilities.¡± Alfred remains polite and proper as ever as he said this, but I swear I heard a hint of glee in his voice. It might be just my imagination, but I can¡¯t help but wonder if he secretly loves to fight. Now that I think about it¡­ what species of Malicia is Alfred? I should try to find out some time. ¡°If Alfred and Gerbera think it¡¯s necessary, then I will do it.¡± I reply simply. It¡¯s not like I have many other better things to do anyways, since the search through the ruins is nearly done. More importantly, I currently want to go travel and explore this world, so I must be ready to defend myself incase any monster attacks during my travels. ¡°I¡¯m glad you are so energetic young master.¡± Alfred replies with an uncharacteristically satisfied tone to his voice. ¡°In that case, let us start! For the sake of the young master, I will harden my heart and push the young master to his limits!¡± ¡°What?! Now?¡± I ask startled, but before I realize it, I¡¯m being dragged away by Alfred, back towards the forest. Battle-maniac! Slave-driver! I cry this out in my heart. 0-0-0-0-0 It has been just over three months since I¡¯ve arrived to this land now, and I have discovered that Alfred can be a real slave-driver. Every day is filled by several hours hunting and sparring practice with him. My daily routine has settled into waking up, hunting for breakfast, eating breakfast, studying with Gerbera for about an hour, then back to hunting for lunch. After lunch, I have sparring practice with Alfred, and before dinner, Gerbera teaches me things about this world again. And of course, every meal includes monster cores for me. It is quite exhausting, but at least I am already used to hard work. Eating monster cores really helped me increase my abilities at first, but it seems that eating too many of the same cores results in a case of diminishing returns. In other words, the effect they have on me decreases if I eat too many of the same kind of monster core. Because of this, Alfred takes me to explore new areas of the forest on a roughly weekly basis. But to be honest, eating monster cores has become a bit of a pleasure for me, as each monster core taste like a different sort of candy. For instance, a core from a carnivorous red boar tastes subtly like an orange flavored hard-candy. Currently, we are in an area of the forest that¡¯s about a day-and-a-half hike from the village fortress, if one is walking briskly. The area around here is very lively, full of monsters that range from D to low B ranks. If you consider that a C rank monster is considered a threat to a village, and B rank is labeled as a threat to a town, then you can assume that this area has some scary monsters that even normal adventurers would rather avoid. That said, it does have its upsides. Mainly, there is a small pond here, fed by a small waterfall with pristine water. The pond is only about 10 meters across and roughly circular in shape, so it¡¯s not ideal for swimming but its perfect for showering under the waterfall. This little pond has become my personal favorite location in the entire forest. I can just lean back against one of these smooth rocks and soak into the water. My only complaint is that I¡¯m still not used to the face I see in the reflection of the water whenever I look at it. I almost look like a delinquent of some sort. But otherwise, this is as relaxing as it gets. I dare say that due to the atmosphere and beautiful forest, this place has a little extra soothing power, in addition to the water. Its great. Showers are the best. Batoom! ¡°Hiiii!¡± ¡°Oh for the love of¡­¡± I sigh, frowning. What is it this time? I hope its not an other stone-head ram trying to pick a fight with an other red boar. Their fights are always so noisy, and if they start a fight it will ruin my bath time. That second noise though¡­ that doesn¡¯t sound like a boar. That sounded like¡­ Krrbang! ¡°HEEEEEELP!¡± ¡­ a girl. ¡°For real?¡± I ask to myself in wonder, leaping upright in an instant and splashing water around me. This place is supposed to be desolate, without any civilization for miles and miles on any direction. I leap towards the noise right away, my toes gripping the earth briefly before propelling me further with each step. I can feel my heart pound as heavily as war drum while I make my way towards the voice. By the depth and tone of the voice, she is likely a teenager. I put more power into my legs. I leap over fallen logs, and tear up the ground between the trees, racing to the source of the now hoarse sounding voice. However, I didn¡¯t have to run much further. Just up ahead, I can hear the angry roar of a beast, followed by the heavy panting of someone. No time to loose, my sense of urgency propels me forward as I lunch myself towards the sound. I can hear lighter steps now that I am this close. It must belong to the girl. ¡°GRowWWAAaaan!¡± ¡°Ah!¡± That gasp of the unknown girl is followed by a soft crash. It¡¯s now or never! I leap through the trees and land in the path of whatever it is that is chasing her. Maybe I should have thought a bit more before doing that, because before me is not a red boar. Rather, I see something that is clearly above it in terms of power: a ravine bear, also known as the warmonger horned bear. Its about 50% larger than your average grizzly bear, and can easily deal more than twice as much damage as a normal grizzly with those steel-like claws and ram-like horns of theirs. Couple that with his tough hide, and its clear why it ranks as a ¡°B-¡± monster. Its something that even a group of very experienced adventurers would struggle to defeat. Worst of all, there is two of them. Well shit. This is not going to be as easy as I thought. Surprisingly, the bears stop when they see me, glaring me down as the bear their teeth. This is not good. This bears are usually not hostile, unless provoked. Once provoked, they will hunt their prey relentlessly, and take down anything in their way. And in this case, I am in their way. ¡°GRowWWAAaaan!¡± one of them roars at me, angry. ¡°Come at me bro!¡± I shout at it, provoking it. I rather have to deal with them one at the time. I am gambling enough as it is here, so I would rather not risk more than this if I can help it. My provocation seems to work, considering that it lunges at me at full throttle, clearly hoping to impale me with his horns. Excellent! If its just this, I can handle it like normal. I ready up my position, setting myself up with a practiced stance as I get ready to grab his horns. This technique has quickly come up as one of my favorites for dealing with this kind of attack, since it renders the enemy immobile for some time. The bear¡¯s horns collide with my hands, and I grit my teeth as I dig my feet into the ground, trying to stop his momentum. Despite being only a few inches taller to the shoulder than a red boar, the bear easily weights twice as much, making stopping him a much more difficult task. Still, my abilities have not abandoned me! Despite being pushed back a good three or four meters, I finally stop the forward motion of the bear. Like usual, I tighten my muscles and start to heave, pulling him. However, there is a slight miscalculation on my part. There are two bears after all, and they don¡¯t have such a thing as situational awareness, like they would in a TV show or manga. The second bear launches itself at me viciously, thick 30 cm long claws reaching out to slice me up. I quickly react the only way I could think of: I used the horns of the bear I had stopped as leverage, and leapt over onto its back, forcing its head back violently, and ever so narrowly avoiding the other bear. The bear I am now riding rears up on its hind legs and starts to flail around desperately, his claws slashing at the neck other bear in the process, wounding him. It seems that because they have a short and thick neck, pulling their head back too far bothers them. I wonder if it makes it hard to breathe? No time to think of that though, the other bear is angry at being injured, and is launching himself at me with renewed energy. Or is it attacking this bear? I can¡¯t tell. But now an idea flashes through my mind. I let go of the horns of the bear I¡¯m ridding, and instead I wrap my arms around his neck. It¡¯s a bit harder than I thought since his neck is thick, but I can do it. Now, lets see if it can handle this! I grit my teeth and start strangling the bear. This causes the bear to thrash around violently, injuring his companion in the process. The next sixty seconds or so are filled with confusion. The other bear starts attacking my bear in a rage, while this bear starts to foam at the mouth, clearly suffocating. Finally, both bears collapse. It seems that while I killed one via suffocation, the other one bled out from the wound on his neck. If I had to guess, the bear I was riding must have sliced an important artery. Well, at least its finally over. I think I got lucky, if it was a normal fight between the two of them and me, I highly doubt I would come out unscathed. These bears are monsters that individually could take out entire teams of good adventurers. But that¡¯s okay! It seems like I survived alright, so I let go of my bear, and let out a tired sigh. Alright, time to check on the victim. I turn around and look at the stunned girl. As expected, she is young, but it¡¯s hard to tell her age. She is short, maybe about 150 cm (5 feet tall), and slim, with small breasts but with already rather curvaceous hips. Her face looks young but it¡¯s not cherubic, but her lips are a little more plump than what would be considered normal, and her eyes are wide with deep brown irises. Moreover, her hair is messy and short, as if cut with a knife, which gives her a somewhat pixy-like appearance. It¡¯s¡­ confusing. I can¡¯t narrow-down her age range at all. If I had to guess, I would say anywhere between twelve and sixteen years old is fair game. I would not call her a great beauty, but she is certainly cute. She could grow to be a great beauty though. She certainly been blessed with some good genes anyways. However, I should probably refrain my judgment until later, after all, she is only wearing some dirty rags on her. I¡¯m sure she would look much better after a bath. ¡°Ah¡­¡± The girl speaks out in a hoarse voice, bringing me back to reality. Oops. I think I have just been looking her over for a few seconds without saying anything. That might be considered rude right? I smile at her refreshingly, and put my hand on my hip. You know, I think every man has a romance in his heart of some day saving someone and looking cool. Maybe it¡¯s because of that, or maybe its because it feels good to not be in immediate danger, but I feel like I am on top of the world right now. Is this how a knight in shinning armor feels like in story books? ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you are safe now.¡± I say warmly. Surely this is what they call a flag right? I¡¯m not the most well versed man when it comes to videogames or manga, but even I know the most common pattern would be for her to thank me right now, right? ¡°B-b-big¡­¡± She stutters with her eyes fixed on me. Her cheeks are turning red. Wait¡­ I don¡¯t know this pattern. ¡°Excuse me?¡± I ask, somewhat perplexed. Maybe she is still in shock? ¡°S-s-sn-snake!¡± She almost shouts out while stuttering, before fainting on the spot. I quickly turn around, ready to fight but¡­ there is no snake? What? Right then, I feel a breeze brush across my body, and for the first time, I realize I am still wet and in the nude from my bath. I never took time to grab any clothes, I just rushed over here. ¡°Shit!¡± I curse out loud. Well, so much for my heroic rescue story. Chapter 5 *****Author''s Note***** Sorry for the lack of updates guys! I am in university at the moment, and finals are already hitting me hard. It''s kinda difficult to update frequently for the next month or so, but I will do my best to get it done! I haven''t edited this Chapter by the way, so please know that this chapter may have spelling mistakes. I will try to edit the chapter when I have a chance. But for now, please enjoy. **************************************************************************************** Chapter 5 Gerbera¡¯s POV For as long as I can remember, books have fascinated me. They are my joy, my peace, and a very real part of my world. I am convinced that without them, life would certainly be more bleak. I love the history books that tell of the development of civilizations, I enjoy the diaries of men from ages past, or the scrolls of the research from ancient alchemists. All of them hold a magnificent amount of entertainment and information that I can¡¯t seem to stop reading. I suppose that¡¯s why I became a librarian. That said, my favourite type of literature amongst all the genres that one might find, are that adventure and fictional heroics. I often think that it might be childish for one my age, but there is a certain thrill, a certain type of romance, in stories about a hero braving off against the world for one reason or an other. I suppose it¡¯s what one would call a guilty pleasure. I like to become immersed in those stories, imagining what it would be like to have fated encounters, fights against enemies, saving the world, falling in love, and all those things that can be usually found in stories. However, I will readily admit I would very much not like to be the main character. Often, the main character meets a number of challenges and suffers a lot. I wouldn¡¯t really want to have to go through that if I had a choice. However, I would like to be one of the friends of the main character. At least I would get to see things up close! I suppose you could call that a fantasy of mine. Ever since the young master returned to the land of the living, I feel like I live in one of those stories though. A mysterious being revives the son of a noble house that was destroyed¡­ sounds like the makings of a fairy tail to me. As if that wasn¡¯t enough, the young master has some an abnormal amount of abilities for one so young, and you could even call the combination of them outrageous. When he told us about his special abilities, my first thoughts were, ¡°A genius! He must certainly be a genius!¡± I was unbelievably happy! The young master surely would be a great man one day, and I would be with him every step of the way, recording his great story. It was almost a like a dream. I know this is not fairy tail, I know its not fiction. But it sounds like it could lead to an adventure similar to one of those. In my heart, I thanked the young master for this opportunity. I was satisfied. But I was foolish. The young master is a genius after all! To think that I believed the development of the story would not truly begin for a few more years¡­ Foolish, I say! The young master¡¯s fate, or perhaps his luck, is stronger than I conceived. Last night, when I was busy compiling the next lecture for the young master, an unexpected event happened! The young master and Alfred, who were supposed to be away until tomorrow in one of their training excursions, had shown up in the lord¡¯s mansion without any warning. At first I feared one of them injured, for what else could make them make such a hasty return? However, I was proven wrong almost immediately when I saw what they were carrying. Alfred was carrying what seemed to be a ravine bear on his back, as if giving him a piggy-back ride, while the young master brought in his hands a girl with messy, short orange hair. Maybe it was because books have influenced me, but immediately noticed that he was carrying her like a princess. A flag! My instincts tell me this is what some authors describe as flag, is it not?! ¡°Young master! Alfred!¡± I called out to them, walking briskly towards them. ¡°What has happened?¡± Alfred¡¯s expression became somewhat troubled, his lips frowning slightly, but he remained silent. Instead, he looked over at the young master, as if to say that it was better for him to explain. That alone was a sign that something did not sit right right with Alfred. ¡°I can explain,¡± the young master exclaimed. He has an expression that is somewhat tired, and perhaps even sheepish. ¡°Long story short, I rescued this girl from a pair of ravine bears, and we had to come back because she looks like she is not in good health.¡± Young master, that explanation is way too short! Please consider my love for stories more. But I could not say that. Instead, I nodded my head, and held my tongue. I could ask the girl or Alfred for a more complete story later. ¡°I see. I only see one bear though?¡± I exclaimed. ¡°Alfred said that carrying both would be difficult because of their size, so we just took one whole and the core of the other.¡± Master explained as he set the girl down on the floor slowly. ¡°More importantly, could you look her over?¡± ¡°Understood.¡± I replied right away. If the young master needs my help, I must do my best! However, when I looked at the girl again, my eyes caught sight of something I had not noticed before. Her ears, while not quite round like a human¡¯s, were somewhat longer and more pointed than they should have been. I felt my eyes widen, my pulse quicken, and my hand twitch. I did a double take, and looked over her body. Slim, but somehow giving the impression that in the future she might be a beauty, and her age was difficult to discern at a glance. I little to no doubt about it. A half-breed. A human and elf one at that! My lip twitches, and instinctually my hand reaches for her throat, while I feel some of that old hate start to stir again. ¡°Gerbera!¡± The stern voice belongs to the young master. Startled, I looked up, as if awakening from a dream. I look up at him, seeing him frown. I think that his eyes hold some concern. Maybe disappointment? I am unsure why, but instantly I feel a sense of shame. ¡°Apologies.¡± I muttered out, looking away, but it seems the young master heard me. His hand reached out and patted my head. It caught me by surprise, but its pleasant. It soothed me. ¡°I understand Gerbera.¡± He replied in an oddly mature voice. Why does it feel like he is the elder and I am the child? This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Gerbera,¡± he continues, ¡°right now, she is my guest. Please examine her, and give her medical attention if she needs any.¡± ¡°By your will.¡± I replied, my voice stronger than before. Old grudges could wait, right now I have a duty to the young master. This person, human, half human, elf, dwarf, whoever or whatever she is, is inconsequential. She is now a guest of the young master. I must act with respect. I take a deep breath, and take a glance at the young master. He smiles a smile that seems too mature for his age, but his eyes reflect a soft satisfaction. I wonder if the young master has understood my thoughts some how? The young master then turns around and starts walking out of the room, signalling Alfred to follow him. The minute they are both out of the room, I quickly started stripped her of her rags and began to examine her, noting that her slim body was covered in cuts and bruises. The soles of her feet and her hands in particular seem to have the most scars. Most interestingly, her neck has faint markings around it, even some faint scars. It seemed to me that she used to be a slave A few of her wounds seemed fairly recent, some starting to show signs of infection. Thankfully, the forest has some medicinal herbs that we have gathered, and these can be used to treat her. What worried me more, however, was that despite looking pretty, she was a bit too thin. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she hadn¡¯t eaten properly in days. When I finished my analysis and started to treat her wounds, my mind started to wander a bit. I think I understand Alfred¡¯s troubled expression earlier. He must have had a similar reaction to mine, or perhaps even a stronger one, so I wager that he was personally chastised by the young master. Yet, even through all that, even though the young master has brought this¡­ ¡®guest¡¯ to our home, I felt a small smile form at my lips. Despite having a potential enemy with us now, the bookworm inside me is starting to giggle with joy. Master¡¯s life was turning out to be more of an adventure than I thought. I couldn¡¯t help feeling a little joy. 0-0-0-0-0 Terra¡¯s POV It was rather disturbing to see Gerbera react in such a way to the girl, though he probably should have not been surprised. Even Alfred¡¯s face tightened up when he saw the girl, not to mention he started to release a sizeable wave a murderous aura before I told him to stop. He understood the source of that though. There seemed to be some bad blood between the humans, the elves, and the Malicia. Though there had be no open war between the races, there had been plenty of small battles, skirmishes, and all sorts of unsavoury events between over the past hundred years. In fact, the battle that took place in this town was one of those conflicts. The humans and elves had teamed up to take down the Forest Lord. That being the case, I could understand why Gerbera and Alfred openly showed hostility towards the girl. However, I can¡¯t truly relate to that hate. I can understand why they would hate them, but when I looked at the girl before, I could only see a young girl, and not a dangerous person. I mean¡­ I can¡¯t truly see her as a threat. This is why I had decided to help her out. Who knows, she could even become useful later down the road? I could only hope that I could teach Alfred and Gerbera to be more tolerant towards other races. I would like to avoid conflict with them as much as possible. With this in mind, I prayed that helping this girl would not turn to be a mistake. I sighed at this thought, and I looked over at Alfred, who had been watching me silently for a while. I wonder if he was upset¡­ ¡°Young master.¡± ¡°Yes, Alfred?¡± ¡°I would like to make a request.¡± I raised an eyebrow at Alfred, wondering what he would ask for. After all, Alfred had not asked for anything selfish before. ¡°And what would that be?¡± ¡°Young master, I humbly request that you explain to me why you show kindness to the half-breed.¡± Alfred asked politely. It seems that he was genuinely curious. I stared at him for a minute, not saying anything. How do I explain to a man that has lost everything to forgive a person from the same affiliation of those that took everything? I could not tell. But perhaps, Alfred was reasonable enough to understand. Perhaps it would just take time, and a chance to see the good in others. ¡°¡­Alfred, what do you think of humans and elves?¡± Alfred made a somewhat complicated face. ¡°Humans are devious, sneaky creatures that plot treacheries, and elves are obnoxious, two-faced cowards who hide in their forests perpetually.¡± ¡°And you think all of them are like that Alfred?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Even their children?¡± ¡°¡­Pardon?¡± Alfred looks like he had been caught off guard for once. ¡°Do you think even their children are that way?¡± I ask evenly. ¡°Well¡­¡± Alfred seems to think about it, so I add more to my argument while he hesitates. ¡°Alfred, even if there are humans and elves like that, there are always exceptions. Children learn their behaviour from parents, so a child bears none of the ill will that an adult may have. The hate that has been built for the last hundred years¡­ What good has come off it? Death? War? More hate? Look around Alfred. This town was destroyed because of that hate. How many towns and cities have been razed to the ground like this one? I am sure we are not free of sin as well. If we don¡¯t stop hating each other, then what will happen? Will the conflict continue endlessly? Will some one be whipped out? Or will everyone die?¡± ¡°¡­I see.¡± Alfred makes a face looks like he has tasted something unpleasant. ¡°I don¡¯t mean to say that you should forget your hate right away.¡± I add in. ¡°That would be unreasonable. But I hope that you can give this child a chance.¡± ¡°¡­Young master speaks like a man far beyond his years.¡± Alfred bows courteously, accepting my words. ¡°By your will.¡± I just hope it all turns out alright. Chapter 6 *****Author''s Note***** Hi everyone! Sorry for the massive delay in the latest chapter. I was finishing my final exams at university! Wooo! I am finally graduating! Well, that aside, it took me a while to figure out how to word my ideas. BUT now it is done! Thanks to the people that have kept reading my story! I will try to upload more frequently. I hope you enjoy the new chapter! ********************************************************************************************************* Chapter 6 It has already been two days since the girl has been a sleep, recovering from her experience with the ravine bears and she shows no signs of waking up yet. Since I had not seen her even stir slightly in her sleep, I was worried for a while that she had some sort of internal damage or disease, but Gerbera has told me that the girl¡¯s condition was just a result of extreme exhaustion. Though that did put me at ease, Gerbera quickly added information that made me curious about the girl. The girl had odd scars around her neck, wrists, and ankles. Her back also has signs of abuse, which manifested as scars caused by whips. Gerbera immediately suspected that this girl was a slave of some sort, or at the very least a prisoner. I guess I shouldn¡¯t have been surprised that this world had slavery, all things considered, but I couldn¡¯t help the surprised expression that appeared in my face.¡± ¡°Ah, so the young master had not noticed the marks.¡± Gerbera had said when she spotted my reaction, and simply assumed I had not paid attention to the girl I recued. ¡°Young master, some of the scars seem recent as well, and her lack of shoes and proper clothing was rather odd for a freed slave or prisoner. Moreover, the slavery crest has been burning away on her shoulder. If I had to guess, her master has met an untimely end and she has run away.¡± ¡°Can you explain that crest to me?¡± I asked. I couldn¡¯t help to asking, since I have no idea what it means. ¡°Certainly!¡± She quipped up happily, ¡°Simply put, it¡¯s a special tattoo that is imbued with magic that binds a slave to its master. It¡¯s a fairly high-level restraining contract that allows the master to track the slave¡¯s location, and to cause pain to the slave at will. It¡¯s also fairly expensive to place one on a slave, so its usually done only by wealthy people, or placed on important slaves. The crest itself can only be properly removed when the master officially releases the slave. If the master dies without releasing the slave, the mark starts to ¡®burn¡¯ away, which means that someone related by blood to the original master has a chance to claim the slave before the slave crest completely burns itself away.¡± I cringed inwardly at this information. It seems like slavery here is on a whole different level than back in my original world. To be branded with something that could track you even if you successfully escaped was nothing short of terrifying for a runaway slave. ¡°However, young master¡­. this is odd.¡± Gerbera said as she crosses her arms thoughtfully. ¡°Why would that be?¡± I asked. To me it was already plenty odd that slavery existed already, so I may have missed something important while I was distracted. ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any villages or towns nearby from where the half-breed could have come from. Moreover, people that can brand their slave with an expensive crest would be very rare even in fairly wealthy towns, so branded slaves are often seen almost exclussively in cities were there are wealthy people. The nearest city is a good fifteen days away at best, if you are riding a good horse and do not meet any trouble along the way. How did a small girl like her get all the way here?¡± That seemed like a good point. A very good point. ¡°Perhaps,¡± I replied, ¡°She was in a caravan of wealthy travelling merchant?¡± ¡°Perhaps.¡± She allowed, but the expression of her face was still thoughtful. ¡°We must ask her when she awakens.¡± ¡°Do that.¡± I replied with a nod. ¡°I am also curious to know where she comes from, and why a human-elf hybrid was branded with a slave crest.¡± That was what I had ordered Gerbera to do, but the girl had yet to awaken. That¡¯s why, today I am studying with Gerbera in the same room were the girl was sleeping. This way, if she wakes up then me and Gerbera will be there to help her gain her bearings¡­ and to interrogate her. Today, Gerbera is teaching me about the monster ranking systems and the adventurer¡¯s guild. Apparently, this world has adventurers, which are a type of mercenary that specializes in dealing with monsters and gathering items from dangerous areas. Occasionally they do odd-jobs as well. ¡°The adventurer¡¯s guild,¡± Gerbera says, ¡°Has been around for roughly 450 years. Each continent has its own adventurer¡¯s guild. Though the guild of each continent acts as a separate entity from the others, they have conferences every few years were the guild masters of each continent meet to discuss their status and other things that might be of importance. There is one very important quality about the adventurer¡¯s guild though, and that is their neutrality towards the conflicts between countries, since they deal with monsters only as a policy. Adventurers themselves are free to travel between countries and are excepted from certain taxes, as they contribute to the wellbeing of many kingdoms. However, on the flip side, if they wish to obtain any new land or housing in any country, they often have to go through a significant amount of procedures and background checks.¡± They sound like a mix between a workers¡¯ union and a global council to me. But the arrangement for a successful adventurer must be pretty good. It might be something to look into in the future. ¡°The adventurer¡¯s guild,¡± Gerbera continues, ¡°has also been responsible for the creation of the current monster classification system used to this day. We discussed the classification system last time. Young master, do you recall how the classification system works?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then could you please explain it to me?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I replied confidently. ¡°The classification system uses a qualitative danger measurement for monsters to rank them. Essentially, the more potentially dangerous a monster is to people, the higher the rating. There are nine ranks from G to SS, with G being the lowest and SS being the highest.¡± ¡°Very good!¡± Gerbera praises me, nodding with a smile. ¡°Please list each of the ranks for monsters, young master, and add a brief explanation for each of them.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I reply, and immediately started listing the rankings. Essentially, it goes something like this: G: Harmless. They can even be pets. No monster core. F: Very weak. Any person can beat it. F rank monsters have a small, dirty grey monster core. E: Weak. Armed civilians have a chance to beat it. E ranks have yellow monster cores. D: Moderate. Normal civilians can¡¯t hope to beat it even with weapons. Orange monster cores. C: Strong. These monsters can wipe out small villages. Red monster cores B: Very strong. These monsters can be a threat to towns of moderate size. Purple monster cores. A: Extremely strong. These monsters can be a threat to entire cities. Blue monster cores. S: Titanic. These monsters can be a threat to entire kingdoms. Black monster cores. SS: Otherworldly. Can be a threat to entire continents. Unknown color of monster cores. ¡°Marvelous!¡± Gerbera quipped, looking quite satisfied. Personally, I think that she is far too happy considering that if it¡¯s just this amount of memorization, anyone can learn it in a day. That said, I think that Gerbera is simply the kind of person that enjoys teaching things, so that might be the reason for her happiness. ¡°Now, added to this,¡± She continues, ¡°Adventurers use a separate classification to rank themselves in their organization. The ranking also consists of nine levels, but their ranking is not equivalent to that of a monster. The rankings are divided into three sections: Common metals, Precious metals, and Mythical metals. Each of these is further subdivided as follows in order from lowest to highest ranking: Common metals: Copper, Iron, Steel. Precious metals: Bronze, Silver, Gold Mythical metals: Mithril, Orichalcum, Adamantine¡± Wow, so this world even has mythical metals? Gold must be plenty expensive already¡­ I wonder how much just a few grams of those mythical metals be worth? The value must be astronomical. ¡°Young master?¡± Gerbera asks uncertainly. She must have noticed I was distracted for a minute. ¡°Sorry, please go on.¡± ¡°No, I am at fault. The lecture has been a little more than a long rant on my part. I apologize.¡± She replied apologetically. ¡°Nonsense. I like the class so far.¡± I reply as quickly. I can¡¯t have her be discouraged at all. After all, she is teaching me a lot of the things that should be common knowledge here! If she were to become shy and teach me less, I could risk missing out on important details. ¡°Is that so?¡± She asked with a smile that shone like a star, before enthusiastically adding, ¡°Then I will continue to do my best!¡± ¡°¡­Loud.¡± A soft female voice groaned. I instantly snap my head around towards the direction of the source of the sound. The voice itself was new to me, and even though though the voice was rather weak, it had a certain pleasant sound to it. The girl had finally woken up. 0-0-0-0-0 The girl was confused when she first woke up, which was not surprising since she was no longer in the forest. Instead, she found herself laying on a bed, inside a rundown-looking building. Unfortunately, Gerbera¡¯s reaction to the unknown voice was a bit more dramatic to my own. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.Upon hearing the foreign voice, Gerbera had gone immediately into a defensive position, her spider legs bursting from her back and pointing themselves towards the girl who had just woken up. Of course, the girl nearly fainted upon seeing that. Was it my imagination, or did Gerbera let out a very small smile? ¡°Put those away, Gerbera!¡± I scolded her, ¡°What are you going to do if she faints again because of you?¡± ¡°¡­My apologies.¡± She replied, flinching at the sound of my voice, before she slowly started to retract her spider arms into her back again. I turned my head back to the girl whose face was still a ghastly pale colour, and smiled. ¡°Relax. Gerbera might be a bit¡­mischievous, but she won¡¯t hurt you.¡± I said as I shot a side glance at Gerbera. ¡°Is¡­Is that so?¡± The girl replied shakily, slowly sitting up on her bed. Her voice was weak, and slightly raspy due to her weakened state, but it still retained a certain pleasant sound to it. ¡°Yes. That is so.¡± I confirmed. ¡°She is actually quite sweet when she wants to be, she is our librarian you know?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ I see?¡± She replied uncertainly, but the colour was slowly returning to her cheeks. Speaking to her casually and in a friendly form seems to be working. At least, she seems less terrified. ¡°B-but isn¡¯t she a Malicia¡­?¡± She figured out pretty quickly that Gerbera was Malicia. Well, I suppose anyone would if they say spider legs burst from her back. I better soothe things with this girl quick before she thinks of us as enemies. ¡°Yes she is, and so am I.¡± I said in a matter-of-fact tone, quickly following up. ¡°However, we are not going to hurt you. You didn¡¯t seriously think all Malicia were evil monsters did you?¡± I ask light heartedly, but I added a hint of ridicule at the end, as if to mock the idea. She makes a face that clearly displays her uncertainty. ¡°By the way, I am Terra Zilvamane. Would you mind telling me your name?¡± I ask gently, trying to keep the mood light. ¡°Ah! M-my name is Luna. Luna Glow.¡± ¡°Pleased to meet you Luna.¡± I smile, ¡°Me and my butler brought you here after we found you being chased by ravine bears. You should be safe now.¡± ¡°Ravine bears¡­? Oh!¡± She seems to recall the experience, blushing briefly, but looking rather shocked. ¡°That¡¯s right! I was being chased by those awful bears and you k-ki-killed them while you were nude!¡± I let out an awkward smile when she summarizes the event like that, but it¡¯s the truth so I can¡¯t really correct her. ¡°¡­ That¡¯s right.¡± She stared at me silently for a few seconds after that, before finally speaking out. ¡°¡­Thank you for your help.¡± I nodded at her words, my face relaxing into a natural smile. ¡°Glad to help. How are you feeling?¡± She looked herself over briefly, flexing her hands slowly. ¡°¡­I feel good. Better than I have in a while.¡± ¡°Good.¡± I nod briefly, while signalling towards Gerbera. ¡°Gerbera treated your wounds. We couldn¡¯t let you be without some treatment you know?¡± ¡°But¡­ why? Why did you help me?¡± She seems clearly confused. ¡°Would you have left someone to die if you could help them?¡± I asked simply. The look on her face seemed clearly surprised at my answer¡­ Wait, maybe my common sense does not apply in this world? Crap. I did not consider that. I guess it¡¯s too late to take back my words anyways though. ¡°Besides, I went through the trouble of saving you, so wouldn¡¯t it be a waste if you died right after that?¡± ¡°I¡­ see.¡± She replied uncertainly. The look on her face was one of conflict and unease. I suppose it is understandable. If you spent your entire life hearing a group of people is evil, that idea becomes entrenched in your mind and it becomes difficult to change. I can¡¯t expect her to smile and agree with me right away. ¡°You are not convinced, are you?¡± I asked. It was a rhetorical question. ¡°Well, you are going to have to spend a few days here recovering at the very least, so perhaps your time here will change your mind.¡± ¡°Wait! I can¡¯t!¡± She croaked out, trying to shout. ¡°I have to find the master!¡± ¡°The master?¡± ¡°My master, yes!¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± I frowned as I tried to work out how to tell her the news, but that role was stolen from me by Gerbera. ¡°He is dead.¡± Gerbera said flatly. Not an ounce of emotion could be found in her voice. ¡°Y-you, what¡­ how?¡± Luna was in a state of confusion. I shot a look at Gerbera, and made a mental note to myself to have a word with her after this. ¡°How do I know?¡± Gerbera asked simply, trying to not look at me. ¡°Your slavery crest. It is burning away.¡± The girl¡¯s eyes widened, and quickly pulled down the neck of her shirt roughly, pulling it down until the top of her left breast could be seen clearly. Upon it, a black tattoo, half of which looked like it had been literally burned away, could be seen. What was left of the tattoo seemed like a jagged crescent moon that was bound by chains. ¡°This¡­!¡± Her eyes seemed to look down in disbelief and confusion. ¡°No¡­no!¡± Her words of denial come out as little more than a croak. She seemed to be on the verge of tears, her eyes becoming moist as she starts to shiver. I am not good with consoling people or with words of support, but I still could not leave her alone. ¡°Hey, hey. What¡¯s wrong? Maybe we could help?¡± ¡°No¡­ You don¡¯t understand sir, I-¡± ¡°Lord.¡± Gerbera cut in. ¡°Young lord. Master Terra is the son of the late Forest Lord.¡± ¡°Gerebra, do not interrupt.¡± I said with a clipping tone. ¡°Please, Luna, continue.¡± ¡°I-I understand¡­¡± Her voice was sombre, trembling slightly with blue tone of cold sorrow. ¡°My lord, after I became a slave, I suffered much under the hand of a cruel master. However, my master at the time fell into economic ruin, and planned to sell me into prostitution. However, by the grace of God I was bought by different man. The man who became my new master was strict and had a scary face, but he held no prejudice towards me. He protected me from others, even if he made me work hard. I was useful and he protected me from those who did not approve of me. Without the master¡­ I have no home, no protection, no food, no life of my own. Even if I tried to, I would not survive.¡± ¡°Why would people have prejudice towards you?¡± I asked. A number of questions crept up, but that one stood out to me as the most important one. ¡°¡­Young lord, my mother was known as the red witch.¡± She started, her sorrowful eyes now looking far away, beyond me, into the past. ¡°She went mad after she was betrayed, and swore revenge against the alliance of men and elves. In her madness, she murdered a four human lords and an elven prince. The alliance sent forth their forces, and destroyed my mother after a long, drawn out fight. Our house was destroyed, and all the adults in the direct family were executed. I was the only child at the time, merely seven years of age, so I was sold to slavery instead of being executed. Since then, I have always been viewed as the daughter of the red witch.¡± ¡°Harsh.¡± I replied. It was a pitiful response to her sad story, but it was the first thing that came to mind. ¡°So¡­ you are afraid for your future, now that your master is not protecting you, yes?¡± She gave me a weak nod, her eyes kept down. ¡°I see.¡± I said thoughtfully. ¡°Why were you running through the forest?¡± ¡°Young lord, my master and his servants were relocating.¡± She says with a tired sigh, ¡°We were taking a shortcut through the forest, and we were met with a series of misfortunes, one after the other. First the axels in the wagons broke and had to be replaced. Then trees had collapsed upon the road and they had to be cleared by hand. Then we stumbled upon a group of large wolves who attacked us, and injured some of our guards. Then the final straw came when one of the guards protecting the young master ate some mushrooms in the forest and went mad. He caused a commotion and threw about all sorts of our foods, which ended up attracting a group of Ravine bears. A fight between our caravan and the bear broke out and¡­ well. I ran.¡± ¡°Sounds like you¡¯ve had a hard life.¡± I said with a sigh. It was tiring just listening to her story. Between her story and Gerbera¡¯s lesson, my brain was already full for the day. ¡°Well, you have plenty of time to think what you want to do now. I won¡¯t force you out of here, so you can stay as long as you want.¡± She looks up at me, her face unreadable, but at the very least, it seems less desperate than before. ¡°Say, Luna, let me tell you something more.¡± I added, thinking of something good. ¡°Did you know that this town never had a name?¡± She slowly shakes her head. ¡°No.¡± ¡°This town was built by my father and mother, and it was barely 20 years in age before it was destroyed. They never named it. But everyone around here called it the same thing.¡± She looked up at me with a puzzled look, and I smiled. ¡°They called it home.¡± Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Third person POV Eric Bergad sat down and looked with a grim face at his advisor as the courier read the letter. One hundred and fifty six civilians dead, bringing up the tally to a total to four hundred and thirty six within the last two months. As the Baron of the region known as Mekt, this was a very serious problem indeed. As a member minor nobility with little political power, his connection to the citizens was, for all intents and purposes, a vital piece of his power. This was specially true in his case, as the ruler of most northern territory in the entirety of the Berka kingdom, were the population was small and scattered, and every single person alive was a valuable resource. Which is why the loss of so many people in two lone months was nothing short of unacceptable. It accounted for an entire 3% of his territory''s population, a number that would go if the situation was not remedied with haste. The problem, however, lied in the in the source of this issue. "So... that... beast has vanished again?" Eric asked as he stroked his short beard slowly. "Yes my lord, the scouts have confirmed it took off towards the northern forest again." The courier replied, "They dared not track her past the ravine that cuts across the south of the forest near the Marki village." "I see..." Eric wrestled with the information provided. This was the third village to be attacked, and the seventh attack over the past 2 months. Their information was scarce, given that the attacks were all conducted at night. "Gazef, your assessment." Eric ordered, his eyes flicking towards his elderly advisor. The man was in his late-fifties and had a bald spot at the top of his head, but his cunning mind was worth a small fortune when it came to analysis. Eric was lucky to have such a fellow under his wing. Gazef tapped his bonny cheek in thought, and after a few seconds, his hawkish nose flared for a moment as he released a blast of air through his nostrils. "My lord, we are certainly dealing with a rare beast here. I have a few suspicions, but with this, I am almost certain. We are almost certainly dealing with an aswang." The air in the room seemed to freeze for a moment, the only sound in the room was provided by the soft patterning of rain against the windows. "How did you arrive to that conclusion?" Eric asked with guarded curiosity. He had to ascertain the probability of this claim. An aswang was asked certain terrible monster with very high stealth and speed, not to mention it was strong enough to manhandled a grown man with ease. In addition, it had some shape-shifting abilities that gave this creature a terrifying advantage when it was at ware that it was being pursued. It could easily hide and dispatch its enemies one at the time. Gazef nodded his head dutifully and began his explanation. "Three reasons. First, the victims. A large portion of the victims are recently born children who have had their hearts and livers consumed. The rest of the victims have been men or women, who have disappeared for a brief period of time only to return home and die within one day from and unknown sickness. The second reason is actually due to our dear courier here, whose report includes the mention of a certain noise during the attacks. This "tik-tik" sound is present almost always in any attacks that are caused by aswangs. Lastly..." He said as he pulled out a parchment from a nearby shelf, and extended it on the table before Eric. "The attacks are in three separate villages, but you see, they are all fairly next to each other, perhaps 2 days away by foot. Aswangs tend to hunt relatively far from their nests to avoid suspicion, so it¡¯s a fair guess that this villages fall within her hunting range. There are a few more hints here and there, but the fact that no one has seen the monster after so many deaths gives further credibility to my claim, as aswangs are known for their stealth and trickery. The people that are dying mysteriously from an unknown sickness is probably due to the aswang¡¯s curse too. If one has enough of their blood drained by an aswang, the aswang will leave them be, only to syphon off their life force over the span of a day, killing the person slowly." Eric grit his teeth slightly as he listened to Gazef explain the clues he had used to unravel this mystery. To have sorted through this mess of murders to narrow it down to these key clues would not have been a simple matter for most people, and it wouldn''t have been possible with a broad understanding of several the characteristics of monsters. Gazef once again had proved his usefulness to Eric, and not for the first time, Eric was glad to have the him as his advisor. "I see... the facts certainly do point towards a aswang, don''t they?" He muttered to himself, grimacing at the thought. Aswangs were a high B rank monster, capable of single handedly whipping out entire villages in a single night if they felt like it. Fast, cunning, stealthy, and able to change their form, aswangs were creatures that were difficult to find and even more difficult to eliminate. To take down a single aswang they needed aswangs least two full teams of gold rank adventurers, if you didn''t mind a few casualties in the process. Given the fact that most adventurer teams had about five people, it was possible to appreciate how strong even one of these creatures was. Each gold rank adventurer was an imposing figure, worth more than thirty trained men on the battle field. As such, the price for hiring such adventurers was quite high. On the other hand, he could hire a team of platinum ranked adventurers for an even higher fee, but they would have a better chance of success. Platinum level adventurers were rare, accounting for only about 2% of all adventurers in the guild, but their power was extraordinary, and their teamwork was even more so. To become a platinum ranked adventurer was a goal that most adventurers could only dream of reaching. Of course, there was a third option: he could use his own army to fight the aswang. But all things considered, he probably would not be able to gather more than 200 soldiers under his flag for that expedition. And fighting a cunning creature that specialized in stealth and speed to kill its prey with a large group of people with low mobility did not sound like a great idea. The aswang would probably pick off half of his troops in the first night they spent within its hunting range. Eric weighed his options, deliberating carefully. He concluded that it would be difficult to acquire a team of platinum ranked adventurers this far to the north, so far removed from the main land or popular dungeons. It was doable, but the length of time needed to get them here would be too much if they weren''t near already. It was worth looking into however, even if it would hurt his personal reserves of gold.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "You there," Eric spoke up, pointing at the courier," contact the adventurers¡¯ guild, request information of all nearby gold and platinum ranked explorers. This is a top priority request, I need that information as soon as possible. Go!" The courier saluted and bolted out of the studio faster than a scared rabbit. Even Eric was mildly impressed by the man''s speed. He made a mental note of asking for his name at a later date. "Gazef." Eric spoke up again, his eyes focusing now on the older man. "Let us start decrypting the probable location of the nest of this beast, and start calculating the rewards of its defeat." Gazef bowed his head solemnly in acknowledgement. "As you will it, my lord." 0-0-0-0-0 Terra¡¯s POV It has been three weeks since Luna was rescued, and about four months since I have awoken to this world. Luna has decided to stay with us for the time being, acting as our resident chef. As luck would have it, she was a house keeping slave mostly, in charged of cooking and cleaning. Her slave crest has burned away now, but her memories of servitude are ingrained into her. She keeps busy at all times by either cleaning or cooking despite my protests, claiming that the familiarity of the tasks is comforting. I suspect that she also wants to make herself useful, perhaps in fear that I might decide to throw her out, even though I have reassured her that she is very welcome to stay. However, I have to admit that I am secretly glad she chooses to clean and cook. My new home certainly is better off for it. Also, my strength has consolidated fairly well, settling at a physical prowess that can allow me to match a strong ravine bear in raw power, while retaining the speed and stamina that could match a dire wolf, which is considered a high C rank beast. Alfred tells me that this is a far more impressive achievement than he expected, seeing as my age was just approaching 16. He has finally labeled me as ¡®just passable¡¯ for travelling, but he warns me that this bench mark is simply the first of what he has in store for me. Ultimately, for me to truly travel the world, he says that I must be able to defeat him in single combat. Frankly, that is a terrifying goal from my point of view. While I can fight toe to toe with a ravine bear in a fair fight and win with some light injuries after some struggling, I have seen Alfred literally kill one with a single punch. ONE punch was all it took for him to break the thick neck of a low B ranked monster. In other words, one punch has the same strength as a rampaging bull charging forwards. What the actual hell?! How am I supposed to fight that? I shiver at the thought of it. I am sure if Alfred got serious, I would lose right now in a matter of seconds. Despite my enhanced body, I doubt my bones could take more than one head-on attack without cracking. Two hits would probably start breaking my bones. Anymore than that would cause them to shatter into multiple fragments. Perhaps it¡¯s better to not think of that right now. There is more to accomplish anyways. I focus back on the task at hand. I have to prepare for my test. Which is why I was pilling supplies and equipment into a leather sack with straps which would act as my backpack. Alfred considered that I had reached a rudimentary level of strength that would allow for survival. However, he still wanted to test my current level of skill. He and Gerbera had resolved to create a trial for me which would serve to further asses my abilities. It was quite simple really: Travel alone from home to a designated location, and hunt down the target that Alfred had scouted ahead of time. It was a simple test that managed to test a at least two things from my point of view: My fighting ability and my ability to sustain myself in the wild. Thus, I had to prepare. Who knew what creature Alfred had chosen for me to hunt down after all. But whatever it was, I was mighty sure that it wouldn¡¯t be something as simple as a common ravine bear (which already were a decent enough fight as is for the current me). I hope Alfred doesn¡¯t go overboard and make me fight something like an A rank beast, or I am seriously dead. The difference between each letter grade in the ranking of monsters is huge. For example, a single ogre, which is ranked as B rank monster, could probably fight eight C ranked carnivorous red boars on its own and win. Hell, an ogre could probably fight two ravine bears on equal footing, despite them being low B ranked beasts. On the other hand, even two ogres would struggle against a minotaur, which is a high B rank monster. ¡°Young master.¡± A feminine voice awakens me from my thoughts, and I turn to find Gerbera waiting on my reply. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Alfred has returned. He has requested that you join us downstairs to discuss the target.¡± I sighed and stood up, hefting my leather bag over my shoulder before turning to face Gerbera. ¡°Alright. Lead the way.¡± We moved quickly down to one of the larger rooms in the main floor of the building. The room had once been a magnificent waiting room, decorated with armchairs, tables, vases, and paintings. Now it was decorated with little more than a crudely crafted table and a few stools that Alfred had managed scrounge up during our search when we first met. Alfred bowed towards me as I stepped into the room, and waited for me to sit at a stool before he started to speak. ¡°Young master,¡± He said, ¡°I have found a suitable target for your hunt.¡± I eyed him with mild suspicion, still unsure if I wanted to know what kind of creature I have to wage war against. Sighing inwardly, I nodded my head at him. ¡°Alright, I am all ears. Tell me about this monster.¡± ¡°Certainly.¡± Alfred replied. ¡°The creature in question is am aswang, a creature loosely related to vampires and ghouls. It¡¯s a high B rank creature that specializes in sped and stealth, though it does have a moderately high strength.¡± Moderately high, huh¡­ you said the same thing about the Ravine bear the first time I fought one. I thought to myself wearily, but continued to listen to his explanation. ¡°It is almost humanlike in its disguised appearance, but in truth it is no more than a front for the vile creature that it truly is. Master must be weary of its intellect and shape-shifting ability. Unlike ravine bears, the intellect of an aswang is very close to human level, making them significantly more dangerous. Their ability to shape shift is particularly dangerous when they want to hide, as they can ambush people.¡± ¡°Master must not forget,¡± Gerbera quipped, ¡°That aswangs are dangerous in their home turf, as they know all the little places were they can hide. They tend to be quite thin by human standards, allowing them to hide behind trees or wedge themselves between tight spaces easily.¡± I nodded at both of them, carefully taking note of their words. ¡°Anything else I should know?¡± Alfred smiled knowingly and shook his head. ¡°I apologize, but I can not give you further information such as tactics or efficient counter measures to their attacks, as that would defeat the purpose of seeing how the young master handles himself against a new danger without help. I am fully confident that the young master has the required skill set to take down this enemy however.¡± Great. No pressure or anything, right Albert? I chuckle at my own thought, and nod at Alfred. Indeed, he is correct. ¡°Alright, then were do I find this critter?¡± Alfred¡¯s smile broadens, and he spreads a map on the table. Its old, but it¡¯s well crafted. It shows the entirety of the forest, and the three nations surrounding it. Alfred¡¯s finger moves down, and he points at the south of the forest, about eleven days from their current location, if he moved quickly. The spot was actually near a place that was landmarked with a small rocky hill, which made it easier to find. ¡°I see¡­ Are you certain that the creature is there?¡± I asked curiously. Alfred had pinpointed its location to a very precise area. How had he identified the spot so well without being found by this supposedly cunning monster? Chuckling, Alfred tapped the side of his nose. ¡°My nose is never wrong. One of the advantages of being a descendant from Managarm.¡± I looked at him curiously for a second, committing that name to memory, before nodding at him. There would be a time for questions later. For now, I had to get ready to hunt.