Waking up from pain

After two more days of heavy rain and thunder, the storm that loomed over the land had finally passed.

Although the major roads that lead to Mordan City had been covered in layers of thick mud, which discouraged most like travelling merchants from leaving, two robust men are seen exiting the city gate as they wore cloaks and carried a straw mat and a small crate.

After travelling for more than three days, the pathway they used was finally dry as both men saw their destination, the valley known as Red Rock Valley.

Red Rock Valley is one of the few territories that the Naga clan have claimed under their ownership.

The valley was once known to house Red Iron, a type of heat resistant forging material in rich amounts. Due to the value of the metal, the land was excavated for nearly fifteen years and had helped the Naga's gain a substantial amount of wealth.

To the knowledge of these two and for those involved, after the reserves of the valley had been exhausted, the area had been abandoned as it was deemed too dangerous to occupy due to excess excavation.

Not only was the valley bellow 50-meters deep, the surface of the rocks were brittle due to years of sedimentation[1]. Just by standing on the wrong location had claim a number of lives within the first month of mining.

If not for the hidden wealth known as Red Iron, the Naga's would have longed abandoned the area than risk others gaining the wealth for themselves.

After passing a few fork in the road, a huge gust of wind past by them, signalling the two men that they had finally entered the valley and continued heading west. Once both men saw a familiar symbol carved on the wall, one of them spoke with glee as they followed the pathway.

"Finally were almost there! Man, this sure is an easy job, we're getting paid just dumping bodies and deny any involvement. Isn't that great Gus."

"Damn right, Hmm.... this one seems light, must be a child this time. Wonder why they paid more than usual?"

"Who cares, more money for us! Hahaha!!" As Frank continued to throw his head with laughter, Gus could only sneer at his partner's simple mindedness.

The two men who were walking in the valley were known as Gus and Frank, one of the many hooligans residing in Mordan City and the defacto grunts of the Naga clan.

Due to the sheer size of the territory and the riches that circulate the market, business continued to prosper under the Naga clan and these two were one of the many who serve the clan as they try to gain their favour.

Sadly, both of their accumulated merits did not amount to anything which had lead to both of them to form their own gang and had involved themselves with risky businesses. Because of their lifestyle, Gus and Frank had learned that the only way to survive was for them to follow the Naga Clan's every wish and desire without question.

Which meant that these two were currently disposing evidence of one the Naga Clans shady businesses.

In the eyes of the Naga clan, these two held no significant value as they were common thugs and were disposable. Although they had some status among their piers due to leading a gang, they were only in the level of being noticeable than being valuable.

Compared to most of the gangs in Mordan City, Gus and Franks had the least notoriety. As such, Harrison choose them to do most of the dirty work as to not draw suspicion.

In return, the two would gain some notoriety with their backing and high income, so long as they were not caught.

Up until now, they had disposed of over a hundred or so bodies while being paid in silver coins to be silent of their involvement.

If by some chance there was news about bodies being found nearby their territory, the Naga Clan can deny any involvement of the incident and shift the blame onto people like these two men.

As a precaution for their supposed negligence, the Naga clan were also uninformed in where the bodies were disposed of, nor were the two men ever informed where the corpses came from. Nonetheless, these two had yet to make any mistake and blindly continued their work.

Unfortunately, these two weren't aware that they had to dispose of the bodies using the money given to them then keep the remaining amount as payment.

What they have done up till now was dispose of the bodies in the same valley and pocketed the whole payment during their employment with the Naga clan. Hence the cycle continued and no one was aware.

Once Frank saw the last carving he left on the wall. He turned to Gus and exclaimed in glee.

"Hahaha! Finally, were here. Hey! It's your turn to dump the body this time…" Having turned his head, Frank took a sneak a peek at the crate, while Gus was carrying the body and started to lick his lips from the prizes inside.

"Your Mother! I was the one who bought liquor this time and it's quality from the south, you just want to drink the booze first. *drop!* If you dare make me throw it this time, you better make sure you pay me for the booze!"

Having followed his friend for nearly a decade, Gus sneered at Frank's excuses and dropped the body on the ground. Gus then walked away to another destination and turned deaf from Frank's followup excuses.

After he saw that his buddy left, a look of annoyance was on Frank's face, but he eventually gave in as he had no other excuse.

Because of how brittle the landscape was, both men had no other choice but to throw the bodies from were the last symbol was - which was five feet away from were Frank stood.

"Alright, alright, you got me…Humph! There, now let's drink my brother!"

After throwing the body at the valley, Frank grabbed the crate that was on the ground and followed behind Gus who headed towards a cave not far from the road they went too.

---

After Frank ran after Gus, the straw mat that Frank had thrown was hurled towards the edge of the cliff and fell towards the valley and into the darkness.

As the two walked away, both men were unaware that corpse they were carrying until now was non-other than the failure of the Naga clan named Stigma.

Throughout the whole journey, Stigma was unconscious due to being attacked and had all four of his limbs broken from running from his captors.

Four days ago, Stigma remembered that he was only gathering firewood in the forest until he was attacked from behind by two people. After being chased for a while, Stigma was knocked unconscious and had his left leg twisted in the process.

As he had no one to rely on, Stigma continued to struggle for his freedom and successfully escaped from his captors, only to end up getting captured again and had his right leg broken as a warning.

When he woke up the next time, Stigma tried to escape. But in the process, had gotten both his arms broken from fighting back, as well as having a few of his ribs broken in the process.

Even though he had been physically beaten to the point where he tasted his own blood, Stigma had felt slight satisfaction when he continued to curse at his captors who for some reason had not killed him upon his capture.

Despite sustaining injury after injury, Stigma did not give up his resistance but slowly lost his vigour when hunger and exhaustion finally took over.

After waking up the second time, Stigma had no idea where he was nor who was carrying him around like dead weight so he could only bite his lips as the pain he felt on his lips kept him awake.

Having lead a life full of nothing but hardship and not knowing who he was, Stigma could only silent curse to where his fate led him as he felt the wind brush past his face and saw the great darkness ahead of him.

'Why did this happen… why do I have to suffer? Is this even fair! What did I do to ever deserve this!' Despite felling the throbbing pain of his body, anger rose within him as his conscious faded.

But after trying to stay awake while bearing pain was already too much and Stigma eventually lost feeling towards his limbs one by one.

Finally, after biting his lips one last time and tasting his own blood, Stigma thought.

'It's unfair...I wanted… to live... I wanted .....to.....get…stronger… so no… one, can… treat me… this… way', After pushing through the pain, Stigma's vision grew duller as time passed and each time he tried to open his eyes, the more his breath grew weaker.

'I want to change my fate' were his last thoughts.

After a moments, Stigma's vision became dark…and he silently died as his body cascaded in the darkness.

---

"AH!!!!! HOW LONG AM I GOING TO FALL LIKE THIS!!!"

By the time Stigma fell towards the end of the tunnel, Cheng Xuan continued to fall in a dark abyss.

After being spirited away not long ago, Cheng Xuan was still falling in darkness and continued to scream with fear, but what he was scared was not how high he was falling nor how fast he was going.

What scared Cheng Xuan was that he could not see anything in the veil of darkness and continued to hear whispers in his head, mocking his unfortunate dilemma. Eventually, as the voices in his head grew more vicious, he contemplated how much time had passed since he first fell.

Cheng Xuan felt as though he had been falling for almost nine hour and yet nothing had changed, at some point in time, the whispers's jeers and mockery had started asking him questions.

'Do you want, to see another world?' was one of the questions he kept on hearing.

'Do you want, to prove your worth?'

'Do you want, to live a different life?'

All these questions keep entering in his ears, entering his head. Because of the unknown, Cheng Xuan did not answer in fear of the outcome.

One thing is for sure, every single one of those words was what he wanted.

When he was in his home, he only played computer games, games that were story-driven, that were RTS or Real Time Strategies, Simulation, Crafting and Survival games.

Games that gave him fantasies and what gave his life excitement, discovery, meaning and hope of his mundane life.

If he did not had those games, each day was dull to the point that it was more fun to give up his sleeping hours to continue his gaming and have sleep deprivation during his day offs.

Finally, after another hour words, words that would change everything entered in his ears.

*BING!*

['Do you want to change you fate?']

[YES] OR [NO]

A notification had popped up with choices.

It was but a simple question, but it was the most difficult decision he had to make.

'Change one's fate?'

Obviously anyone would agree, his life was difficult because he was ignorant of everything of society and had stayed ignorant, until all forms of difficulty came crashing down on him.

He didn't blame his parent's death, but his own shortcoming, and had feared he became a disappointment to his parents.

When he wakes up from this never ending darkness, he will honour their wishes, and live without regrets and make his parents proud of him, no matter what comes his way.

With some difficulty, Cheng Xuan pointed his finger to his choice.

[YES]

There was no need to hesitate, he only needed to brace himself for what comes next…

*BING!*

[A new soul has entered the Realm of the Spirits, and has accepted a choice…

Error… Error… Error…

New entity's requirements follows needed criteria, but a suitable host is not available…

Error… Error… Error…

Accessing Secondary Source…]

Words started to enter in his ears, which sounded almost like a computer system trying to reboot a failed instalment or an update.

Suddenly, a blinding light flashed before his vision, and he felt like he was paralysed from the neck bellow. If anything, Cheng Xuan felt like he was in a vegetable state.

If that wasn't enough, it occurred to him that he felt intense amounts of pain on his chest, his arms and his leg and especially his head.

He felt his body was burning and started snapping in every corner of his body.

*BING!*

[Soul assimilation to new born attempt failed, unable to find a new born with requirements that match soul's criteria…]

[Summon method attempt failed, no available area which match requirements…]

[Host Body with matching requirements found, however damage is present…]

[System will take time to repair new body…]

[Host body has very little life force…]

[Initializing Life Restoration Protocol…]

[Initializing…]

[Until further notice, new soul....]

Words kept entering in his head, but he couldn't focus, the pain kept on getting intense as each moment passed, but he held on as to not pass out.

[Changes will be made to host body… Entering previous memories to the soul…]

Images and voices he'd never seen and heard before came pouring in front of him until he was blind, by the time he realized what was going on, everything turned dark again…

---

At the same time…

Red Rock Valley, one of the few mining area that had once contain abundant treasures with its own natural beauty. However, because of the constant excavation of Red Iron from generations of mining, the valley's wealth had long been exhausted and the natural beauty it once held had been destroyed.

Though it was considered as an abandoned valley, because it was one of the few large territories in the province, the Naga's clan have yet to relinquished there ownership as they believe that the land is included in the Naga clan's domain.

It was not long until Stigma's body was about to reach it's end destination.

THUMP!!!

Instead of hearing the sound of bones breaking from the fall, the body was instead cushioned from a dozen or so bodies underneath it and rolled into one of caves.

Because of the recent killings in Mordan City, Gus and Frank had continued to dispose of the bodies by the throwing them in the valley. In doing so, these men had unknowingly filled the location with a number corpses as they believed that the beast within the valley will handle the bodies.

Unfortunately, as there were no guards present to stop them, Gus and Frank were unaware that such plans would be impossible as there were no beasts living within the valley

Because of such circumstances, the bodies had slowly accumulated into a small mountain and had to slowly rot.

Call it an ironic twist of fate. If not for Veritas, that had been going out of control for months, the bodies below would have been a pile of bones leaving Stigma's body to be unable to heal if he were to survive.

Fortunately, the body count was enough to cushion the fall but could not stop Stigma's descent.

BUMP!!!! BUMP!!!!BUMP!!!!

THUMP!!!

As the body landed in the end of a tunnel, the ropes that held it the straw mat in place broke and exposed a figure.

The figure was none other than Stigma, or more accurately it was dead carcass of the former. With visible blood dripping from his head and mouth and the absence of movement, it was already clear that Stigma had long passed away.

*Creeaaak*

Out of nowhere, the sound of doors opened by the side could be heard along with a low humming tune of a flute followed behind.

As the sound of flute continued to play in the air, a figure walked out the doors and revealed the musician behind it. The one who played but a beauty with a thick, white veil covering her face.

Under the veil was pale white skin, the skin itself was clean as snow without a blemish or even make-up seen, her eyes were golden pure with black iris, that would drive any man, mad for her directed attention.

Her face didn't show a smile or nor a tinge boredom, but that of a sullen expression. What dragged along the beauty's feet was her raven like hair that reached to her feet.

What she wore on her was a white, long sleeve gown with embroideries, depicting a moving river and as her dress sways. As she moved, the images on the gown came to life and complimented her greatly.

Although the was no form of accessory on her, be it rings, bracelets nor a headdress much less make-up. Such trinkets could only be deemed a distraction to her appearance.

Overall, there can only be four words to describe her, a beauty in mourning.

After playing the last note of her flute, the beauty stopped playing and looked around, eventually landing on Stigma's corpse.

Slowly she walked toward it and knelled, with her eyes closed the beauty chanted a mantra then whispered 'I was too late to save this child… You have lead a poor life..... may your fate change on the next life.'

Before she noticed anything, a ball of light came from the doors and flew towards the corpse when she walked away. As she trudged towards the door, the beauty restarted playing her flute as her figure disappeared behind the closing doors.

Unknown to the beauty, the light that had passed through her was none other than Cheng Xuan's soul. For some unknown reason, Cheng Xuan soul managed to exit the dark abyss but had lost his physical body.

As for the reason as to why he lost his body, even Cheng Xuan himself could not explain as he was currently in a daze.

By the time he could realized what was happening, Cheng Xuan's soul had flew to close to Stigma's body and entered the corpse that continued to lay on the ground.

Although there was nobody nearby, the corpse showed signs of life, signalling Cheng Xuan's soul was slowly integrating itself into Stigma's body.

Before Cheng Xuan could realized what was going on, he suddenly opened his eyes but suddenly convulsed as he could only remember his last thoughts - total darkness and seeing light for the first time.

"Ah!!!"

The moment the corpse howled in the darkness, echos started forming within the cave, but because the valley was to deep, those who were nearby were unable to hear it.

Before Cheng Xuan realised what was going on, he suddenly saw words pop into his head and suddenly felt a burning sensation on his body that continued to rise.

*Bing!*

[Foreign Element and External Damage present, due to success of the Soul's integration, System will provide automatic repairs to the body until proper assimilation…]

"What the...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!....." Before Cheng Xuan could react to what was going on, the burning sensation of his body suddenly shot up and caused him to yell in pain.

Although his skin showed no signs of changing, the pain can only be described as having continuous second degree burns. Though he continued to clenched his teeth, Cheng Xuan could not ignore the burning sensation he felt and almost fainted.

Although he could not turn his head, Cheng Xuan felt as though the bones of his body creaked and felt as though they were mending starting form his arms and legs.

Even though Cheng Xuan had just woken up, the pain grew more intense after each breath and had forcefully woken him up. But because he could not move to embrace his body, he could only clench his teeth out of anger from the endless torture.

With his body constantly feeling the heat and pain, the pores of his body started to shed blood and greatly shocked him.

Due to experiencing pain in a constant interval, Cheng Xuan was unaware that his current body was undergoing drastic changes. His current body that was once covered in cuts and bruises started to heal and had left no scars, his hair that was green turned black with a hue of silver, his eyes that were once gray started to turn black.

What was left of the fat of his body started to shrink, like he was experiencing rapid starvation.

Inside his body, the bones that were once broken started to mend to the proper positions, his organs that were damaged from the sharp bones piercing them were being repaired.

The toxins that were in his body started to focus in his stomach, and started to boil, making him regurgitate in the process.

One after another, pain after pain, Cheng Xuan finally had enough and howled with rage.

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! WHY DID I HAVE TO WAKE UP FROM PAIN OF ALL THINGS! CAN'T I WAKE UP BEING EMBRACED BY A BEAUTY INSTEAD OR IN FIELD WITH A DOZEN BEAUTIES BATHING IN A WATERFALL!!!"

Unfortunately, even with Cheng Xuan venting out his anger in curses, the pain continued for more than an hour. By the time the pain and the heat subsided, Stigma felt as though he was about to pass out.

*BING!*

[Successful assimilation, compiling…]

*BING!*

[Name: Stigma

Age: 10

Rank: Unique

Skills: Unavailable]

'Huh? What the...Fuck it.....'

Moments later Cheng Xuan gave up and didn't care about his current situation and passed out…

[1]Sedimentation – the process when rocks break into smaller rocks or pebble.