《The Forbidden Arts》 Reincarnation "Balut!!, balut!!, balut!!". Hearing the vendor selling his goods, I was reminded of how hungry I am while I am on my way to the nearest convenience store. It was already 10 in the evening, so some of the stores are already closed except for the convenience stores as well as the other stores that are open until 12 in the midnight or the others that are open 24/7. Usually I would have already eaten at this time, but considering that I am the only person in the dormitory right now because I need to retake some courses that I failed, while my twin brother and my older sister are enjoying their vacation. When I am alone I pretty much forget about the necessary things that are needed, like food, soaps, toiletries and other necessities as I am laziest and the least responsible among the siblings so when considering buying the necessities I just let my twin brother and older sister handle it. And unluckily this time, I ran out of rice without even realizing it. ~~~ As I entered the convenience store, I immediately went towards the shelves where they sell bread, chips, and other types of snacks, and although I¡¯m Asian and I usually eat rice, most of the small convenience stores does not sell rice grains, so I¡¯m forced to eat bread and other snacks to fill my hunger while I only plan to buy rice tomorrow after I finish my classes. As I was making my way to the counter, I saw a man, who entered the store while looking around nervously as if he¡¯s looking for something, seeing someone who acts just like that, I just ignored him and besides maybe that¡¯s just how he usually acts and it¡¯s not my business to stick my nose to the business of others. But as I was about to remove my eyes from the man, I saw a metallic thing that is under the vest of the man, as I was curious as to what that thing was, I unconsciously took a few steps towards the man, to get a better view. As I was taking a look at the man while also approaching him, he also returned the gaze and seeing where I was looking; he suddenly tensed up, while nervously looking at me, and immediately retrieved the thing on his jacket. As he was retrieving the metallic thing on his jacket, I was able to see what that thing was, and when I confirmed what it was I was immediately startled and my body moved out without realizing it trying to fight for the thing on the man¡¯s hands. ¡°A gun, it¡¯s actually a gun, and why the heck am I actually trying to fight for the gun on the man¡¯s hand?!¡± That was the thing that was actually going through my mind now, until now I don¡¯t even understand why am I fighting for the gun and why my body suddenly moved after recognizing it, maybe it¡¯s instincts, or maybe I just saw something that can threaten me so I try to remove that threat immediately after recognizing it, I don¡¯t know the reason, I¡¯m even regretting looking at the man, or going to the convenience store at this hour. But all those regrets are behind me now, I can only struggle to gain control of the gun as I will be in danger once I let go of it. As I was struggling with the man, the people on the store finally noticed the commotion. Hearing screams and shouts coming from the people behind me, I was distracted and nearly lost grasp of the gun on the man¡¯s hands, giving the man an advantage against me, the struggle continued for a few seconds before I finally lost grasp of the gun. Immediately after getting the gun, the man while panicking pointed the gun towards me and pulled the trigger, I was so shocked at what happened that I cannot even feel the pain on my chest. After that, I just suddenly lost control of my legs and fell to the ground. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.Suddenly the place became noisy of shouts people calling for help or people yelling to chase the man. And that¡¯s the Last thing that I remembered after losing consciousness. ~~~ I do not know how long I was unconscious for, but I suddenly felt pain while breathing. ¡°Arghhh!¡± Although pain was not that excessive, still it was too sudden. But surprisingly instead of groans or screams, I let out a painful cry of an infant. ¡°Congratulations Fred and Lina, he¡¯s a boy!¡± As I want experiencing these things, I suddenly hear a voice of woman. As tried to open my eyes I was surprised that I was not able to, I also tried moving my arms and legs but they felt too heavy as if there is a huge weights covering my arms. ¡°Thank you, Aunt Judy, let me hold him so I can see him.¡± I heard another voice, this time a voice of a man, his voice is slightly big and hoarse. ¡°Fred, Give him to me, I want to see him.¡± This time I heard another voice of a woman, her voice is warm and gentle. Suddenly I felt sensations on my arms and on my head, as if someone is touching me. ¡°He¡¯s so cute and small; he looks just like you Fred¡± The woman was saying these things while I assume that she was holding and hugging me. ¡°Who are these people, and where exactly am I?¡± As I was thinking these things the old woman suddenly spoke. ¡°What name do you plan to give him?¡± ¡°We already agreed upon to name him Leon just like my brother¡¯s name if it is a boy and Alicia if it¡¯s a girl.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s Leon then, a good name¡± Said the old lady. As I was listening to what they were saying, I suddenly felt extreme drowsiness, then I immediately fell to sleep, perhaps babies really cannot be awake for long periods of time. ~~~ 3 months have passed since I travelled to this world. First thing I noticed after arriving here was that my parents looks exactly the same with my parents from Earth, so I¡¯m still torn between feeling comfortable as they are still the same familiar faces that I see every day, or if I should feel scared as I am sure that this place is different from Earth with all is reincarnation thing and them having different names. Second thing I noticed was that this place seems like medieval ages of Earth, wooden houses, wooden fences, wooden carriages and more wood. Seriously this place is full of wood; I haven¡¯t even seen anything made out of concrete yet. The next thing that I noticed was the people, although a few of them are humans like my parents and Grandma Judy, the midwife that helped my mother during her delivery. Most of them resemble different kinds of animals, although there are some that looks like trees and golems and others that resemble orcs and dwarves. Seeing them for the first time I was so shocked that my mouth turned so wide you could probably put you whole fist in there. Also, apparently magic exists here, although what I was only able to see were the simple ones like lighting a small flame like what my mother does when she starts cooking. Despite all those amazing discoveries, the succeeding days after I arrived went uneventfully; I was only able to do the standard things that a baby will do, eat, sleep, then repeat. As I was not even able to walk or even crawl yet and my mother does not bring me out of the house except in the morning, thus I pretty much just stayed inside the house for the first few months. The history Surprisingly I have the same name on this world as well as on Earth. 3 years have passed since I arrived here. During those 3 years I learned a lot about this world, at 8 months I was already able to walk well, at 18 months I was already able to talk at full sentences, although I was already able to talk much sooner, I did not reveal it as normal babies even at being 2 years cannot speak too well. After I first learned to walk I always try to sneak out of the house to try to roam the village, although I cannot move more than a few meters away from the house before my parents or neighbours were able to see me, but still those few meters were better than staying all day at the house, and the awesome is that our closest neighbours are beast men, canine beast men to be exact. They surprisingly have the build of a large human while having the face of a dog that looks exactly like a shiba inu, after I learned to talk whenever I saw they I call them doge, they always thought that it was just a endearing name that I have given them as calling the canine beast men a dog is a respectful term for them. Oh just if they knew. After I learned how to speak I always accompany my mother asking her a lot of questions, like the geography of this world, Floras and Faunas around the village and other nearby places, the jobs of the people of this village, the lifestyle here, culture and other important things that I should know, but of course the way I asked her was like how a baby should act like. ¡°Wow, mama what is that animal with a brown skin called?¡± ¡°Why is father always leaving before I wake up?¡± ¡°Mama, why I have to do *insert superstitions or weird cultural things here* those things?¡± I always ask her like a baby, so she would not get suspicious. It is always better to be cautious as I do not know a lot of things on this world yet. As for my father, I learned from my mother that apparently he¡¯s a hunter, he¡¯s a part of the hunting group of the village, they usually bring different kinds of animals in different sizes ranging from the smallest which are as small as a hare and some which are incredibly big that they probably are twice or even thrice the size of adult elephants. Seeing the sizes of those beasts, I initially thought that they would last for a few weeks or even months but after seeing how much some villagers like those crocodile men and the orcs eat, that extremely large beast only lasted for a week. From asking my mother and some of the nearest neighbours I was able to get a somehow clearer view of this place, apparently this place is like a tropical country, no winter or fall here and most if not all villagers experienced winter yet. Well, coming from a tropical country I guess there goes my hope of experiencing winter for the first time. This place is also like a typical small village on medieval times, a village surrounded by forest and a flowing river that flows from the south east of the village to the west and consisting of around a hundred and fifty households with an average of six persons per household, it is a pretty large village and could even be considered a town if you place it in the standards of Earth but here it can only be considered as a small to average sized village. As for the nearest village it is 15 kilometres away from here, and the nearest town is around 400 kilometres, if you would measure this on the standards of Earth then it is extremely far as the usuall villagers only needs a day to carry their goods to the cities in order to trade and be back the same day, but here the average citizen can travel up to twenty kilometres per hour just by walking and can travel up to eighty kilometres per hour by riding a domesticated mammoth like creature they use for carrying people and items, which they call as Kruls. As for the food, the main food source comes from hunted animals, as the lands here are not that fertile and the plants planted yields only a small amount of food. Hunting on these lands yields a greater amount of food than farming as the places surrounding this village has a lot of different kinds of animals and most of them are larger than a rhino, although most of the wild beasts are aggressive and pretty strong so hunting alone or in small groups is usually not done. As for the government of these lands and the surrounding villages, it all comes down to the council of the respective villages as uniting these chaotic lands are extremely hard especially that the races that are living here are extremely diverse. There have been a lot who tried but none have succeeded so far. Banditry is also not that rampant as villages usually help each other in quelling bandits and people here are more concerned about the wild beasts roaming around the forests, mountains and plains and the beasts also serves as a natural barrier and deterrent against travelling gangs and bandits that lives on the secluded areas. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. As for the geography of this whole place, apparently the area of the whole continent that we are currently in is divided into two, there have been no interactions, news or messages from the other side of the continent for the past thousands of years and any information about them is pretty much forgotten and even the few records about that side of the continent is only stored at the largest libraries in the cities. The only known information that is widely spread among the populace about the other side of the continent is that this side is only a tenth of the size of the other side of the continent. As for the reason why the continent was separated into two, it was because of the extremely large forest called by the locals as the Nightmare forest, this forest separating the two sides of the continent suddenly had a massive amount of wild beasts that appeared out of nowhere, and these beasts are far stronger than the various races¡¯ warriors, and those are only the beasts on the outer perimeter of the forest, there have been reports that the deeper you go into the forest the stronger the enemy gets. Since the beasts arrived, several attempts have been made in order to cross the forest but none have succeeded so far, even the farthest they were able to travel have been only been four percent of the whole forest, and that is even with the strongest warriors and mages that have been gathered for years. As for the history of this continent, there were a lot of things that happened and some stories my mother would tell me for hours, but the one which I was most interested on and the one that I remembered most was that apparently contrary to the stories on Earth where humans usually are the superior and dominant races, here humans have been nearly reduced to fewer than a million due to wars from other races. Generally some races wants the riches and lands of the other races leading to wars, and as most of these races tend to avoid the stronger ones to avoid losses; they would attack rich weaker kingdoms. Humans generally have an average magical capability compared to other races, they also have lower physical strength, although this may seem fine as humans generally have higher than average amount of fertility rates they have a fatal weakness, it is that they only live for a few years, even the strongest humans can only live for a little more than a hundred years. This gives the humans a lot of mediocre level of warriors or mages but no real expert than can protect their kingdom for a long time, this led to many wars that is targeted against the human kingdoms until they were nearly driven into extinction and slavery, that is until the humans were able to discover an ancient stone stele that has words and images that are drawn on it. After discovering and interpreting the message on the stele, the humans were able to draw tattoos on their bodies, this tattoos that were placed into their bodies allowed them to borrow the power of the tattoos for a cost proportional to the strength borrowed. Thousands of years ago before the continent was divided, on the siege of the last five cities of the humans, a city named as raga, did an unimaginable thing. The city consisted of more than 50,000 humans, as they were about to be breached and captured, using the most powerful spell that they found on the stele, they placed the tattoos on every citizen of the city, by the time that the city was breached, the city sacrificed all of its inhabitants to kill all of their enemies and made the land surrounding it to be desolate. When the enemy received news about this incident they were so shocked that they immediately ordered the retreat of their armies, because if they still try to go and besiege the human cities, they might try to do the same thing on the rest of the cities, and instead of gaining something, they would only lose a huge amount of troops. Because of that incident, humans were deemed as crazy by the other races, and this belief was only strengthened throughout the years after countless humans sacrificed themselves whenever they know that they cannot escape or that they are about to get killed. This led to less and less people provoking the humans as they are deemed as like a time bomb, as even the weakest human can kill an extremely strong warrior. This tattoos that the humans were able to acquire has other different forms as well, others are for defence, attacking, movement, supporting or even just some miscellaneous skills and mysteriously, only humans were able to use these tattoos. And because of that incident in raga, these arts were then called, The Forbidden Arts. Bullhorn Tattoo Another year has passed. It has now been four years since I arrived here. Being four years old on this world as a human is of a significant event, not just because it is the time where magic can be practiced, but also because this time is where the humans can safely receive their first tattoo. Because at this is the time, with the help of magic, the magic infused blood and bones of a person are capable of withstanding the power of the tattoo. ¡°Leon! Stop playing, the dinner is ready.¡± Hearing my mother¡¯s voice I immediately went to the dining room, here my father and mother are already waiting for me in order to start the dinner. After we finished eating my father suddenly spoke to me. ¡°Hey Leon, come with me tomorrow, we would go to the woods to get some materials.¡± ¡°Father, are you finally going to teach me how to hunt?¡± For the past few months I¡¯ve been practically begging for my father to bring me outside in order to teach me how to hunt, although the villagers here are nice, and there are a lot of children here to play with, but being at the mental age of 19 before I came to this world, the games and the things that the children does are pretty boring for me, so I have been nagging my father to join on their hunting to do something different. ¡°Hahaha.¡± Hearing my response, father laughed. ¡°No, you¡¯re still too weak to join us, and even if you were able to join us, you won¡¯t be able to help us and instead you¡¯d just get in the way.¡± ¡°Then why are we going woods tomorrow?¡± ¡°You have already turned four last week, we can finally place a tattoo on your body, and tomorrow we will get the materials for it, and I want you to come with me tomorrow in order to get the materials as the way towards that place is safe and it¡¯s a chance for you to see the surroundings of the village.¡± ¡°But I thought you said that those forbidden tattoos can only be placed on your body in exchange for something else like a shorter lifespan, a curse or a disability? Would it not be detrimental for me if you chose a tattoo this early that takes away something from me in order to gain a benefit that I may even not be able to use in the future? I haven¡¯t even decided what I wanted to do when I grow up.¡± After hearing my response, my father gave a questioning look, as if he is looking at something weird, while my mother is grinning at the side. ¡°I never expected that at your age you¡¯d be able to think things up to this point. Yes, that is the case for most of the tattoos placed on the body and those are the ones which give a lot of power and might. But not all of the tattoos need something in exchange, this tattoo that we will place on you will make your body stronger, help in the growth of your body, as well as help in the accumulation of you magic gathering. Although this may sound like an extremely strong tattoo, but truthfully, the benefits it can give you is small as the help in growth, body strength, and magic accumulation is not that much, still because it is placed when you¡¯re still young and it helps you since your small, add to that this tattoo does not place a negative effect on you this makes this tattoo a popular one.¡± Hearing my father¡¯s response I was able to realize why although four years might be too young to place a tattoo, many people still do it because there are tattoos like this. ¡°But father, if you will place this on me, how much more tattoos can I place on my body and how long till I can place another one?¡± ¡°The time when people usually place another tattoo after receiving the last one is usually 5 years, although it depends on the tattoo that you received last, in your case after you receive this tattoo you will only need 3 years as this one is one of the weakest tattoos available. As for the amount of tattoos you can place on your body, it will usually depend on what tattoos you place on your body as well as your own constitution, I once saw a person having more than ten tattoos on his body while the average human usually only has around four to five tattoos.¡± ¡°What about you father how many tattoos do you have and what are they?¡± This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Me? I have seven tattoos on me as I am a hunter and we usually deal with dangerous animals, we need to have some life saving tattoos as well as ones to defend and attack.¡± Hearing this I immediately got curios as to what those magical looked like. ¡°Hey dad can you show your tattoos to me?¡± ¡°Sure, although only three of them are visible as the other four needs to be activated in order to be visible, and I¡¯m not going to show the four which are invisible as it is a little tiring for me just in order to use it.¡± After that my father took off his shirt allowing me to see three different tattoos on the different parts of his body, a bull horns tattoo on the place near his ribs, three wavy lines on his shoulder which are parallel to one another, I¡¯m guessing that it has something to do with increasing his speed as it looks like a wind symbol, as for the last tattoo it was a sun shaped tattoo on his left breast just above the heart, all of the tattoos are colored black while the design is pretty simple. After seeing it I was curious as to how it can strengthen the human when it looks like just a regular tattoo that I usually see on Earth. ¡°Dad, how can it strengthen the humans if it looks like just a regular drawing?¡± Hearing this, my father just grinned to me. ¡°Yeah it looks like a regular drawing because the process of the drawing is the important one not the image of the tattoo itself, besides the one who placed this on me was also someone not that good at drawing so the drawing itself is pretty rough, although if you go to the larger cities and request for a professional to place one on you, it looks good and sometimes the object on the tattoo itself looks real.¡± ¡°Oh, then what about the power of those three tattoos you have?¡± ¡°This horn near my ribs is the one which I¡¯m going to place on you tomorrow, it is called as the Bullhorn tattoo and the power it gives you is the one which I have already explained early on. As for the three lines on my shoulder, it is called as the wind blessing tattoo, it is also a tattoo that only gives benefits while not having a single detriment but just like the bullhorn tattoo it also only gives a little benefit of having increased speed and greater mobility. As for the final tattoo, this is called as the Raga sun tattoo, it is named as that because of that event from a few thousand years ago that happened at Raga, this is the most iconic tattoo that humans have and is the most common second tattoo placed, it enables humans to become greatly stronger for a small period of time then detonate after a few moments, usually even being able to kill enemies far stronger than them. This is the tattoo every human places on them, this is also the tattoo that saved the humans from slavery or even extinction.¡± After my father finished explaining I was able to see them smiling bitterly. I was shocked after hearing that information from my father, here humans are literally a bomb, if they are threatened or in danger they can unleash extremely powerful force capable of even rivaling stronger people, no wonder that although humans are not the majority on this continent when it comes to population they are still quite populous, not because they are strong, but because they are dangerous. ¡°But dad is there a possibility that it might suddenly activate without you intending for it to?¡± Hearing this, my father smiled at me. ¡°I have never heard anyone where it suddenly activated.¡± I just smiled at him after hearing it, although it needs for you to activate it personally, still having placed a bomb inside you makes you feel uncomfortable. ¡°Leon, you should sleep now, it¡¯s getting dark, you and your father need to leave here at dawn. You will need to walk for a few kilometers from here and it is better if you could come back here before noon.¡± ¡°Okay mom, goodnight.¡± I¡¯m interested at seeing the world outside for the first time since I arrived here, I wonder if the plants and animals here look different from the ones on Earth. Village of Baan ¡°Hey wake up! Hurry up!¡± ¡°Ugh.¡± I groaned while hearing the voice of my father. Looking at the windows, I saw that the sun has not even risen yet and that the sky outside is still dark. ¡°Isn¡¯t it still too early? It¡¯s still dark outside.¡± ¡°You need to wake up now because in a few more moments the sun will rise, you still haven¡¯t prepared yet nor eaten.¡± Hearing this I forced myself to stand up, as I was walking towards the kitchen while wobbling and rubbing my eyes, I was able to smell the food while it was being cooked. A milkfish, two different meats from the hunted animals my father hunted and a few different vegetables. Usually when we eat there is only a single dish partnered with rice, but today because it is my first time going outside of the village my mother prepared a small feast for me. ¡°Leon, it¡¯s your first time leaving the village, you should try to see as much as you can while you are out there, and don¡¯t go causing unnecessary troubles for your father.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry mom, I would try not to.¡± I said while grinning at her. Hearing this, mother just rolled her eyes. ¡°There are a lot of dangerous beasts outside, and although you are with your father and you are not going inside the forest, still you should be careful, sometimes beasts tends to go outside their territories when the food surrounding them starts to lessen or when something else threatens them. Always listen to you father.¡± After we ate breakfast, we immediately set out for the place where we could get the materials. This village is surrounded by forests on all sides which means that if you are not familiar with this place, it¡¯s extremely easy for you to get lost, and even the people who have ventured inside for a few times still gets lost occasionally, and the only way to get back is to follow the river that leads back to the village, and even finding the river could take you hours if not days if you are unlucky. ¡°Hey dad, what are the materials that we need?¡± ¡°There are only three materials that we would need, a flower called as the morning rose, it grows on the foot of the mountain north the village, it¡¯s pretty easy to spot and there are usually a lot of them so we won¡¯t have difficulty finding it, next is a dark rock called as Raprite, it¡¯s pretty common as well but it¡¯s usually attached to the other rocks that¡¯s why I brought a pickaxe with me, and the last is the hardest one to find, it¡¯s the blood from a level two bull, any bull that is considered to be on the second level will do but they are pretty rare on this parts and that¡¯s why we¡¯ll try to go and trade one on the closest village from us. As for the rest of the materials, I already have them and for some I could borrow them from the village.¡± ~~~~ A few moments later when the sun is already up, we have arrived at the foot of the mountain. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°We should start searching here, don¡¯t stray too far, most of the animals here at the foot of the mountain are weak and docile, the higher you go up the mountain the stronger they are.¡± After that we started searching. My father already told me the appearance of the metal and flower that would be needed so we started searching separately. After a few moments, around ten minutes I think, my father was able to find the flower that we are looking for. Looking at the flower it looks like an ordinary rose, except that it has an extremely dark red color, and the thorns are extremely large. While the flower itself has the same size as the roses found on Earth, the thorns are probably eight centimetres long and two centimetres thick. As I was holding the rose, my father warned me. ¡°Don¡¯t touch the thorns, although the thorns are not lethal it still irritates the skin and for some weaker people it can also affect you eyesight and hearing for a period of time.¡± After that my father carefully cut the flower and placed it on his bag made out of leather. The search continued for a few more moments before I was able to spot a small rock protruding from a boulder. ¡°Is that a Raprite?¡± Hearing this, my father immediately arrived and studied the rock, after a few breaths of time he finally said. ¡°Yes, this is the rock that we needed.¡± After that father immediately grabbed the pickaxe and started chipping away the stone from the boulder. After we have gathered the first two ingredients we started heading into the next village. After walking for quite a long time, we were finally able to see the village of Baan. The sun is already up and it¡¯s already completely clear by the time that we arrived; probably it¡¯s already eight or nine in the morning. As we were nearing the village of Baan, I saw a lot of people passing by. It looks like this village is thrice as large as Carna, Carna is the name of our village by the way. ¡°Wow this village is large.¡± Hearing this, my father smiled at me. ¡°The products that we produce are usually sold to the nearest villages surrounding us and this village is the one where we trade the largest amount of goods.¡± Hearing this I nodded and we immediately entered the village, looking around the village I spotted some items that our village do not have, like heavy armors, metal carriage, steeds that looks like a horse but half as much as large, different kinds of weapons and other items that you can only usually see at a larger place. ¡°Dad, where do we go next?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s look around the pharmacies and general stores, that¡¯s where they usually sell beast bloods.¡± After that, we headed out to the center of the village, a lot of stores are situated there where you can buy a lot of items. The bidding ¡°Armors! Selling armors! We have different kinds and they are very durable!¡± ¡°Young Wolf man I think that this dagger really suit you, you look really quick and agile try this one.¡± ¡°Potion for all kinds of wounds and diseases sold here!¡± ¡°Hey shopkeeper how much is this Iron greaves?¡± As soon as we arrived at the town center, the cries and shout of the merchants and customers were heard. This town actually has around three thousand locals and add to that this place is usually crowded by people coming from other towns just to trade. This explains why this town has large amount of goods being bought and sold. Looking around, I was able to see different items, weapons, armors, salves, potions, pots, carpets, leathers, scales, and other whatnots. It ranges from things needed against beast, healing items, fruits and vegetables, meat, and even other miscellaneous items like papers and bowls. As I was looking around, a certain thing caught my eye; it was an asymmetrical dagger around twenty centimetres in length with wavy edge similar to a kris dagger. What made it different with the other weapons on sale is that there is an engraving on the dagger itself that gives off a bluish light as well as the occasional lighting sparks that comes from it. As I was amazed by how the dagger looks different from the others my father gave a slight budge while saying. ¡°I see that you have an eye for things, that¡¯s a dagger with a magical engraving, usually there is not even a single magical item sold when I come here, we must be lucky to be able to see one today.¡± Hearing this I was immediately happy that I was able to finally see the first magical item since I came to this world. With the existence of this items this I have realized how magical this world really is. Although I have already seen some villagers cast and use magic, it was the simplest magic that people can use and most of it cannot even be used for combat and dealing with enemies. ¡°Are magical items that rare?¡± ¡°Yes, magical weapons are extremely expensive as well as extremely hard to find because they are not produced on these parts, they are only made at the cities or sometimes the largest towns because they are the only places where there are engravers that can make them.¡± ¡°What¡¯s special about those weapons? And why are they so different from normal weapons, do they inflict magical effects on your enemies?¡± Usually magical items on games and novels have certain element attached to them, this makes items more powerful and easier to classify. There are also some that has active effect, while some have passive ones. I was really curious to see just what type of power this dagger gives. ¡°Magical items¡¯ effects differ depending on the engravings on them. I am not good when it comes to those kinds of things as I have only heard a few things about it but I¡¯m sure the merchants whose selling the dagger knows what kind of effects it gives.¡± We went closer towards the place where the dagger is located. Here a lot of people are already gathered, most of them are clothed with more expensive clothing, and most of them even have their personal bodyguards with them. As we were discussing the effects of the dagger, the Dwarven merchant immediately climbed towards the wooden platform that his assistants placed, while holding the wooden box containing the magical dagger, the merchant suddenly shouted. ¡°Greetings people of Baan I present to you this kris dagger that I am holding, the blade of this dagger is made out of the strongest steel and crafted by a grade three blacksmith from the grand village of Damas. Its handle also made out of the bones of a level three wolf, while the rest of the parts are made from different level two beasts. As you can see, the most special thing about this is that this has an engraving placed here by a level one engraver from the same village, and I know that the thing that you are most curious about is about the effects of this engraving.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. While saying this, the merchant looked at every people around him while smiling. He grabbed the dagger while his assistant stood next to him while holding a tree trunk around fifteen centimeters in diameter and around a half a meter in height. While holding the dagger, the merchant placed his feet a half a meter apart, one at front while one at the back, then he raised the dagger, after raising it atop his head he immediately brought it down. ¡°Ha!¡± After a he brought the dagger down, the wood immediately split in half, in the middle of the trunk you could actually see the charred portion where the dagger cut the wood, it is cleanly cut in half and some smoke are still appearing. The merchant then turned towards the crowd and then smiled. ¡°As you can see this dagger has increased slicing capability while also having a lightning ability that adds to its destructiveness. It looks pretty weak when viewed by the ones who do not know its true capabilities, but I believe the experts among here knows the true value of this item.¡± The merchant smiled and then said. ¡°The starting price for this item is three thousand gold coins.¡± Hearing this I was startled with how much this dagger costs. ¡°Three thousand gold coins? Father isn¡¯t that too expensive for just a dagger alone?¡± It should be known that commonly a middle class family usually earns around thirty gold coins per year, while a lower class family usually earns only around ten to fifteen gold coins per year. Hearing this, my father just shakes his head then saying. ¡°This price is actually low for a magical item, this is bidding will probably double or triple the price depending on the people whose bidding on this item. Magical items are extremely strong when used by an expert and it¡¯s extremely rare to see one on this type of village so the price is especially high.¡± ¡°Three thousand five hundred!¡± ¡°Three thousand eight hundred!¡± ¡°Four thousand!¡± ... The bidding continued until it reached the price of eight thousand gold coins. An Avian beast man wearing a green scaled vest and scale pants with intricate designs was able to outbid the others for the dagger. He was accompanied by five bodyguards from the same race while all of them were wearing different weapons. After the bidding, the avian quickly left with the dagger along with his bodyguards and the people watching immediately dispersed. As they left, I was able to see some people who were looking and went in the same direction as the man. ¡°Quit looking, we have already seen the bidding it¡¯s now time for us to get what we came here for.¡± ¡°Yes father.¡± After we went towards the nearest general store to look for the blood of a level two bull, not all stores have them, so we would have to visit a lot of shops in order to look for one. The man at the counter We arrived at a general store about thirty meters away from the auction, here they sell a wide variety of goods, ranging from everyday tools, animal parts, weapons, armors, scrolls, books and other things that you can find at the other stores as well. People usually visit these kinds of places especially when they are on a hurry, as you will only need to visit a single place rather than visiting different shops. As we entered the store we were able to see around a dozen or so shelves, each containing different items, the place looks to be around a hundred square meters in area while different kinds of decorations are placed everywhere. Two clerks were arranging and dusting off the different kinds of goods in the store while a man was sitting at the corner of the store while holding a tobacco pipe and a reading a paper. ¡°Welcome sir, books and papers can be found at the eastern side of the store while equipments and simple jewelries can be found on the far eastern side of the store, food and ingredients can be found at the western side and alchemical equipments can also be found on the western side albeit a little father, anything that you may not be able to find must either be on the central shelves where we keep the rest of the miscellaneous items that cannot be categorized or on our stockroom where we keep most of the items that are rare or are not that popular.¡± Hearing the clerk¡¯s words I thought that it might not be necessary to tell us where to find the items that we are looking for as the store is pretty small and that you could actually see the products from the entrance, but as this is an alternate world, maybe the customs and common sense of the people might be different from Earth. ¡°Excuse but we¡¯re looking for a bull¡¯s blood of the second level, any blood of the second level will do, I was wondering if you have any of those in your current stock.¡± The clerk searched first on the place where the alchemical products and equipments are placed, after a minute or two of searching without any yields, he searched on the shelves where they keep the miscellaneous items, after another minute or two searching for the blood that we are looking for he finally gave up and said to us. ¡°Hmm, excuse me sir but I would try looking for one in our stockroom. If you could just please wait here for a few seconds while I go look for that item.¡± ¡°Sure, we¡¯ll be browsing the goods here while you¡¯re looking for it.¡± As the clerk left for the stockroom, we also started browsing the store; at most, people from the village would go to another village twice or thrice a year, more if their jobs are on the line of buying and selling goods and products or a job where they need to buy materials for their products like a blacksmith or leather worker as going to another village usually costs a lot of time which would be better off used somewhere else and at worse sometimes there are dangerous beasts leaving the mountains making the roads connecting the villages unsafe. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. So at most for the common villagers like my father who is a hunter, it would take a long time before he will probably come back to this village, around four or more months, and since we¡¯re here, we might as well as enjoy it and see all the stuff that we could find here. There are not that many things to see in this shop when compared to others, but since it¡¯s my first time coming to this town their products and the quality really differ from the ones that you can find at Carna. Time passed, soon around six to ten minutes have passed, as we were looking around, the clerk who left to look for the bull¡¯s blood came back. ¡°Sir, we have a single vial of the bull¡¯s blood on the stock left, I do not know how much vials you will need but sadly that¡¯s the only one we have on stock.¡± ¡°That will suffice, we will only need one and I¡¯m glad that the first store that we have visited already the thing that we came for.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great then.¡± The clerk was smiling while he led us to the counter to pay for the vial of the blood. After we arrived at the counter, the man holding the paper looked up towards us, he gazed at the clerk who was holding the vial to confirm the things that we are buying. ¡°Ten silver coins for the vial.¡± The denominations for this place goes as, a single gold coin is worth a hundred silver coins, and a silver coin is of the equal value to a hundred copper coins. The man only said these words before returning his gaze to the paper that he is holding while occasionally smoking the tobacco that he is holding on his other hand. After we paid for the blood, we made our way towards the door, as we we¡¯re leaving I heard the man on the counter mumble. ¡°A lost soul, that¡¯s something I haven¡¯t seen for years, I wonder where he came from before arriving here.¡± After hearing him say that, I was immediately frozen on spot. ¡°Hey Leon, what¡¯s the matter, you still want to browse the shop?¡± Seeing me frozen on the spot, my father thought that I would still like to look around the shop a little more. Hearing this, I just smiled at him before saying. ¡°No father, we should be going now.¡± As we we¡¯re leaving, I glanced back at the man on the counter, he does not seem to have any reaction or whatsoever in me leaving, I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s just a coincidence or if he¡¯s meaning to say those words to me, but looking at his current movements and expression, I think that it¡¯s the former and that he is just probably reading from the paper that he is currently holding. Robbery (Guys, when I say the word ¡°people¡± I¡¯m talking about not just the humans but the other species and races as well. Beastmen, elves, dwarves, orcs, etc as other words does not fit well. Example: organisms, species, living beings.) We were standing outside the shop while staring at the pedestrians walking at a lost on what to do. ¡°Wow, I never expected for us to finish that fast.¡± My father said while having a big smile on his face. It probably only took around thirty minutes since we arrived at this town and we have already found what we were looking for, we were initially expecting that we would finish after an hour or two as the bull¡¯s blood is pretty rare even in this kinds of villages and now if look closely at how long the shadows projected by the objects around us, we can deduce that it is only around 8 or 9 o clock in the morning. ¡°I never expected for you to be that happy just because we finished earlier than expected.¡± ¡°How can a kid like you possibly know how rare is it for us able to visit towns like this and most of the time we¡¯re either trading or going here for some business.¡± ¡°Why? Can¡¯t you guys just visit whenever you want to? Our village is not that far from here, even if you try to travel back and forth it would not have much on an impact on your jobs.¡± ¡°Look at this kid, he looks like a great scholar with all the knowledge he has.¡± He was saying all of these things while having that sarcastic tone while also dragging me towards the nearest weapon shop. ¡°Hey! What¡¯s wrong with what I¡¯m saying, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m wrong or something, besides why are you dragging me!¡± my voice was pretty high pitched while saying this and the people around us were giving us weird looks. ¡°Haven¡¯t you been curious as to why the roads connecting the different villages only have dirt roads but never have paved roads like the roads on this village or some parts of our village?¡± ¡°Is it because it¡¯s too expensive to build a road between the villages? And what is the relevance of that to the topic?¡± ¡°No, it is relevant to the topic. If the villages could be connected by paved roads then even if it¡¯s expensive the different villages would still build it as it would better facilitate the trade of goods and information better which would also result in an increase in productivity and increase of revenues. The reason why they would not build those paved roads is because it will only get destroyed as soon as it¡¯s created.¡± ¡°And why is that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s because the roads that we traverse going to the different villages usually has different kinds of dangerous beasts around them throughout the whole year, except for the first and the last days of the month, which is currently today and tomorrow. A lot of those beasts usually have hulking bodies which leads to them destroying anything they tread upon including building and roads and those beasts are the main reason why we rarely leave the village, it¡¯s perilous to travel when those beasts are around, they are strong and fast, and there are a lot of them making it hard to even sneak up to them.¡± Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Why do they disappear on the first and last days of the month then?¡± ¡°That we do not know, countless years have passed and no one has ever been able to prove or even get a clue as to why that happens, some says that maybe those beasts perform a ritual at that specific time, some says that they are sleeping, who knows what they are doing or why they disappear at those times, but for the past thousands of years, there has never been a time where they did not disappear at the first and last days of the month.¡± Hearing this I could only confirm that this world is more and more mysterious. We browsed around thirty different shops before we decided to return back to our village, at nearly the end of us visiting the shops I found a bookstore where I found a book about the basics and foundations of using magic and a short history of it. I have actually been trying to search for a book in our house or borrow one from our neighbours to no avail except for a thin book of forty pages thick entitled as the ¡°The Fenas¡± which apparently is the name of this part of the continent, I was able to borrow it from a neighbour who only received it as a gift, it includes a short history of this place as well as the most common animals, plants, minerals cultures and races living on this side of the continent. I¡¯ve had to beg my father nonstop for about ten minutes saying that maybe he can gift it to me as a birthday present since I turned four before he bought it for me, I really wanted this book because since I was a kid I¡¯ve been dying to see and use magic even if it¡¯s just a simple one. After the bought the book, we immediately set out for our village, we already had all the materials and I¡¯m also excited to see what will happen when I receive my first tattoo. As we were returning home, we were able to hear a few voices from a distance shouting and cursing at one another. ¡°Hide quickly!¡± My father hurriedly said in a small but commanding voice while pulling me towards the nearest bushes in order to hide. ¡°Just stay quiet, although we are not directly involved in this, if we just leave we might get involved if we are to be discovered so we might as just try to stay hidden and leave when we get the opportunity.¡± I quickly nodded after hearing this as the people arguing looks like there are a lot of them and we definitely would not be able to fend them off with only the two of us. ¡°How dare you people try to rob us!¡± ¡°Hehe, we are very sorry sir but we are only following the orders.¡± As I was curious as to whom the ones involved are, I took a quick peek from the bushes only to see that the ones who is apparently getting robbed are the avian beast men I saw from the auction site. The battle at the woods The situation ahead looked very bleak for the avian men as they were surrounded from all sides. ¡°Shit! I told you we should have flown instead of walking, we would not be able to defend with a difference in number as this.¡± ¡°Then quick scatter towards different directions by flying! At least some of us may be able to escape this way.¡± As the avian men tried to flee from the battle by flying towards the air, four totems with complex patterns lit up on the forest and rays of light shot up towards the sky, as the rays of light reached around fifty meters high it suddenly stopped and more rays light were formed connecting the four totems forming a square shaped cage of light. ¡°Did you honestly think that we did not prepare anything in order to catch you?¡± The leader of the reptiles said while sneering. ¡°Shit! They were even able to deploy this kind of array, Carl quick think of a way in order for us to get out of this mess!¡± ¡°We¡¯re already surrounded and disabling this array requires a large amount of time and that¡¯s something we cannot afford to do. We can only fight, maybe they are not as strong as they seem.¡± Soon enough, the battle between the avian men and the different races after them unfolded. ¡°Fireball!¡± ¡°Lightning bolt!¡± ¡°Barrier¡± ¡°Wind slash¡± ¡°Dark arrow¡± ¡°Haste!¡± As the battle started the avian men quickly used different skills that you could think of on a game or a comic book, the fireball that was around the size of a fist that the leader of the avians casted was extremely fast ball of fire probably reaching around eighty meters per second, it was able to hit a beastman that looks like a komodo dragon on his torso immediately lighting his shirt on fire and sending him back two meters due to the force of the fireball. After the avian men casted and executed their moves, the reptilians immediately retaliated leading to a very brutal battle. Several chants of magic being cast and metals hitting metals were heard. As the battle progressed, more and more blood and flesh can be seen flying around, the scene was especially gruesome as the number from the avian men and the men after them kept dwindling down. At first, the battle was pretty equal as the avian men composed of only six men strong were able to contend with the thirty plus men that have ambushed them due to cooperation and their strength being greater than the enemy, but as the battle got longer, the difference in numbers between them quickly became a crucial factor in determining the victor of the fight. Now there are only four people remaining in the avian side while the enemy still has more than twenty people. If you look at the number of people at the start compared to the current numbers, the ratio of the people dying is pretty much the same for both sides, indicating that there are no clear winner yet, but the reality is very much different than what¡¯s written on the paper as the people with currently more than twenty people still have some of them who have not fought yet and does not even have a single wound on them while still having a full stamina, while the avians all have different kinds of wounds on them and the length of the battle and the clear difference in quantity of warriors took their toll. ¡°Such a pity you chose to leave by walking on land hidden by trees and the terrain instead of flying in order to avoid detection from us, but sadly for you we were still able to find you here.¡± This was said by the snake headed man who appears to be the leader while brandishing his spear as he was walking towards the avian men. ¡°Who exactly are you and why did you come for us!¡± When the snake headed man was only five meters away from the avian men he suddenly stopped and said. ¡°Hahaha. We are robbing you? Can you please say that again because it¡¯s incredibly hilarious, I cannot believe that you guys are still pretending like you do not know who we are? I was actually surprised that you still have the audacity to reveal yourselves on the town of Baan despite what happened.¡± The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Do you honestly think that we the Replia family will just let you go after what you have done to the young miss!¡± After hearing this, the avian leader finally realized the situation. ¡°H...h...how were you even able to find us this far.¡± He took 3 steps back and nervously looked at the opposite party. ¡°Of course we have our own ways of handling things, the way how we found you is not important as you would not be able to escape from our grasps anyway.¡± After that, the man retrieved a bug around the size of a thumb and started rubbing it and smiled towards the leader of the avians. ¡°This is called as agony beetle, I¡¯m sure you must have heard of it, It has a pretty infamous reputation for your kind, a beetle that is not found on this parts but rather to the far north where the climate is considerably cooler, usually this is used for someone who has done something so horrible that killing them outright would actually be a great present to them, with this I am sure that you would experience the greatest agony that you would never think of.¡± The snake headed man was saying all of these things while keeping the grin on his face, even I who is hidden and far away felt the chilling gaze and smile of the man, and all of the hairs on my back stood. After saying those things, the man ordered his men. ¡°Capture all of them and give them the most painful death they could ever have except for that man.¡± The snake headed man then pointed at the avian leader. ¡°I would take care of that man¡¯s punishment. Soon enough another round of battle started, it was pretty one sided considering how tired and wounded the avian men were, add to that the fact that the reptile beast men finally grasped the tactics and strength of the avian men. A few more minutes passed and the battle finally ended, two of the reptilian men died while fighting the avian men while the rest have different wounds although none was too serious. One of the avian man died by getting his arm cut off then his throat pierced by a spear. Another avian man got one his wings cut off midflight while trying to avoid the swords and spears of the reptiles, his was finally beheaded by the enemy after five minutes of struggle. As for the third avian man, he got captured by a steel net the enemy used, from then on it was just a simple torture, I did not watch how he got tortured as I cannot bear to see all that blood and organs flying around, all I know is that for around ten minutes I could hear his screams continuously until it got fainter and fainter then he died, luckily my father covered my mouth before I have thrown up or else we might have been discovered. As for the final avian man he got it worse, after he was captured the beetle was forced into his mouth, then what happened next was really traumatizing, blood was flowing throughout all of his orifices and some organs was also mixed in the process, holes were made on his body where some circular things emerged from, at first I was confused as to what it was but then I was horrified after seeing those circular things crack and reveal an insect closely resembling the agony beetle the man was fed, he was made into the nest of the beetle and that image was extremely horrifying, especially that he is still standing despite all of what happened, after that I could not contain the feeling on my stomach and finally thrown up all the things on my stomach, and that is the moment that I know that I fucked up. Hearing the noise from the bushes the reptile man finally noticed our presence. Following that he bellowed out in an extremely loud voice. ¡°CATCH THOSE HUMANS!!!¡± Hearing this my father immediately grabbed me and made a run for the forest, while tens of reptile beast men closely followed.