Stigma Falsus
*
[Name: Stigma
Age: 10
Ranks: Unique
Skills: Unavailable]
*
'Huh? Wait, wait, Stigma? Is that suppose to be a name?'
Due to feeling a sharp pain on his stomach, Cheng Xuan had forced himself to wake up from his unconscious state.
Before he even had a chance to find something to eat, Cheng Xuan had found himself staring at a set of glowing text that looked like a notification from a character's status scene that was commonly seen in games.
After recalling what had happen to him so far, Cheng Xuan thought calmly about his current situation in the most possible scenario.
Crossing out the scenarios of waking up from a nightmare and the possibility of having a very realistic dream, as he thought such scenarios were impossible after seeing his current body, Cheng Xuan took three deep breaths and made a rather baffling conclusion.
'... It appears as though I died and I've been reborn in a different world." After going through a number of possible scenarios in his head, Cheng Xuan felt that none of them could explain his current situation and that his earlier statement sounded more logical.
Though he was on edge from what had happened to him, Cheng Xuan believed that trying to figure out what had happened to him would be a waste of his time, and it was better for him to collect his thoughts and understand where he was currently at.
As Cheng Xuan turned his attention to the floating text, a flurry of questions started appearing in his head.
'....What's the purpose of this notification anyway, what does this name mean, did my name change? Is the name provided based on this world's standards and customs? Am I bound by some system? I also appear to not have any skills? No stats, no information, I'm missing an explanation here!!?!!!!?''
Even after browsing through his memory for an extensive period, Cheng Xuan felt rather irritated as his mind drew a complete blank. Then again, after going through a horrible experience in the falling elevator, Cheng Xuan felt that retaining his life was already a form of blessing.
Eventually, the text before him disappeared and Cheng Xuan believed that the text might only appear under certain conditions like in games. But because he felt too weak to figure out the trigger, Cheng Xuan thought.
'I'll figure it out later…first things first, where am I…'
When Cheng Xuan tried to stand up, he suddenly felt the ground underneath him had a wet surface. After a quick look to his right hand, Cheng Xuan found out that he was on top of a straw mat that was covered in filth of dried blood and vomit.
With such a bizarre mixture underneath him, Cheng Xuan felt disgusted from the foul odour and pulled himself of the floor and brushed off as much of the dried filth off him.
Naturally, the unpleasant smell could not be removed so easily so he had to bear with it for a while.
After looking around for a while, Cheng Xuan gave up in finding a water source due to poor visibility. Based on a rough outline, Cheng Xuan could make out a tunnel made of some brown red rocks with a faint light at the end for his guide.
From what he can make out, Cheng Xuan saw a row of wooden pillars along the tunnel and believed that he was in a mining tunnel. After examining the nearest pillar, Cheng Xuan grew slightly concerned as he saw that the pillar was worn down.
Since he wasn't familiar with how mining works, Cheng Xuan threw his worries at the back of his head as he was far more concerned on how long he had been in this cave as he saw some sand and small debris falling on the ground.
'…Well, I guess I can only move forward. After all, it's better that I don't stay here for too long as the place might collapse at any second.'
Using the wall as his support, Cheng Xuan tried to walk for quite some time and soon found himself facing a pile of straw mats at the end of the tunnel.
When his eyes looked up to where the light originated, Cheng Xuan was surprised to discover that there was a huge gaping hole in the ceiling and that there was a high cliff at the end of the blinding light.
Eventually, Cheng Xuan turned his head away as he deduced that the cause of the hole on the ceiling was likely due to it collapsing from the sheer weight of the straw mats that continued to pile up.
After roughly counting the visible straw mats, Stigma thought.
'Could this place be a trash site? But why throw away straw mats, one could simply burn it if they don't mind waiting...'
Out of curiosity, Cheng Xuan tried to peer out of the hole to see where he was. But with how deep the valley was, Cheng Xuan could only see the bright sky with huge walls of rock covering his view which left him stunned on how he fell so deep in the hole.
Since Cheng Xuan was literally in a hole, he decided to collect his thoughts and figure out his situation, starting with finding something to eat.
'Wonder what's inside these mats, I hope some of them have some food since I feel like I haven't eaten anything…'
Before he could finish his train of thought, Cheng Xuan grabbed the nearest mat with great difficulty and tried to untie it, but had immediately threw the object back in the pile and jumped back in fright.
What he did was done out of reflex, after all, what would anyone's response be if he or she saw a corpse covered in wounds.
As his hands continued to shake with fright, Cheng Xuan took large deep breaths and realized that the air in the room was quite pungent for some reason. Maybe it was due to curiosity, Cheng Xuan steeled himself and took a closer look at the corpse.
The corpse in front of him was an old man who appeared to be in his fifties. Because of the numerous wounds on his face and body, it took Cheng Xuan a while to figure out that the man may have been tortured, as he found that the wound looked like ones of tortured victims like the ones he saw in films.
Maybe it was out of curiosity or his fear of the possibility, Cheng Xuan bravely pulled the body away and tried to look through the rest of the straw mats that was underneath it. Eventually, Cheng Xuan had regretted his action as he discovered that many more were behind it.
He wanted to throw up upon seeing the large number of corpses, but Cheng Xuan held it in as he felt that his scalp numbed from fear as he saw a large pool of dried blood at the edge of the pile.
From the size alone, Cheng Xuan made a rough estimate that the bodies numbered more than a hundred. After taking a few steps backwards, Cheng Xuan saw that there were also young men and women in the pile from all different age groups and even saw children.
Even though he could not stomach it, by the smell alone, Cheng Xuan believed that these bodies weren't here for long.
After his gaze wandered, Cheng Xuan saw a pile of bones in the back, with some even still have rotting flesh still attached to them.
With everything happening all at once, Cheng Xuan felt that he was at his limit and finally threw up in corner near the tunnel he was in.
First, it was falling from what seem to be a never ending darkness, then hearing some nonsense eventually waking up from what could only be described as a hellish wake up call. Now he found himself face-to-face with a mountain of corpses covered in blood tied in straw mats.
After spitting what was left of the vomit in his mouth, Cheng Xuan closed his eyes for a moment to steady his breathing.
As he wiped away the drool on his lips, Cheng Xuan suddenly experienced a migraine followed by a stream of images.
Although the images abruptly came to him, Cheng Xuan slowly deciphered each image as a memory and found out that he was currently in a body of a youth named Stigma.
From what he can summarise, Stigma was a failure of a clan and was removed of any form of inheritance and left in the small room without anyone looking out for him.
Because Stigma had no worth in the clan, children around his age often sought him out to abuse him to vent out their frustrations.
Eventually Cheng Xuan saw Stigma's last memories and could only sigh of his predicament.
Then it came to him, there was a straw mat underneath him when he woke up along with the number of bodies, Cheng Xuan felt a sudden cold sweat came to him with the following thoughts: 'he was dead' more accurately Stigma was dead, he was killed, and Cheng Xuan took over his body.
'Is this the afterlife! Was this Hell!!! No wait! Did I die from the crash and this is hell!!!!!'
Because of the sudden realization, Cheng Xuan started to hyperventilate.
He was dead, he had died, that can only be the answer he could think off.
With his hands trembling from all the realization, Cheng Xuan felt that he was about to pass out again.
With the sudden urge to vomit again and tears welling up to his face, Cheng Xuan could only feel a great sense of dread.
With the colour draining away from his face, Cheng Xuan's vision started to blur from the anxiety until he heard the notification…
*BING!*
[Host establishment confirmed, realization of life and death confirmed…]
[Processing, host has accepted his death after assimilation, therefore conditions have been meet…
System will allow skills to be used…]
[Requirements have been meet…]
[Host has gained the unique skill "Essence Reader", System will allow body to continuously evolve to higher realm…Re-evaluating…]
[Host has gained the unique skill "Poltergeist", System will allow body to continuously evolve to higher realm…Re-evaluating…]
[Host has gained the unique skill "Soul Eater", System will allow body to continuously evolve to higher realm…Re-evaluating…]
*
[Name: Stigma
Age: 10
Rank: Unique
Skills: Essence Reader, Poltergeist (1), Soul Eater
Current Souls Absorbed: 0%]
*
Huh?
'The text that disappeared before, had appeared again, but this time some more text are added.'
After the text disappeared again, Cheng Xuan had no idea what had just happened but took three deep breaths and started to calm down with steady breathing.
To verify he was awake, Cheng Xuan bit his lip and tasted his own blood, confirming he was in reality and very much alive.
'Now then, since Stigma is considered dead, that means this body is mine now.'
Since Cheng Xuan was no longer bound by any form of responsibility, there was nothing to stop him in going where ever he wanted.
'Based on the 'Original' Stigma's memories, he always wanted to make a name for himself and eventually become a figure where others would respect him and have control over his own fate.'
Since Cheng Xuan had no particular goal in mind after his rebirth, he decided that Stigma's dream of making a name for himself doesn't sound so bad and began making future plans.
'Now then, how do I can make it appear again?'
With Stigma's memories, Cheng Xuan was able to gain some information, but that didn't answer most of his question of where he was. As such, Cheng Xuan decided to focused on the floating text from before.
Once he closed his eyes, Cheng Xuan started thinking, and started uttering words that would make it appear like he was playing a game.
Open, View, Menu, Open Menu, Status, Open Status, Stigma's status, System, System Open, Life Gauge, Open System…
After numerous attempts to display the text, he could only say one more word he remembered that caught his attention.
"Right it was…Essence Reader!!!"
Cheng Xuan closed his eyes then chanted 'Essence Reader'.
*BING!*
[Name: Stigma
Age: 10
Rank: Unique
Skill: Essence Reader, Poltergeist (1), Soul Eater
Current Souls Absorbed: 0%]
*
He once again came across the floating, but that wasn't all that he saw.
When Cheng Xuan turned towards the corpses, orbs of light were floating around the entire room, and when he looked at the nearest one, information started to appearing before him.
…
[Name: Gen
Age: 14
Rank: Common
Skill: None]
…
[Name: Dino
Age: 27
Rank: Common
Skill: Hunting]
…
[Name: Sandra
Age: 30
Rank: Common
Skill: Cooking]
…
By the time Cheng Xuan realised it, he had read about another dozen names with the same status of being common and saw that most had repeated skills: they were either farming, cooking or hunting while the majority had none with some being the exception…
…
[Name: Danny
Age: 53
Rank: Rare
Skills: Blacksmithing, Glasswork, Masonry]
…
[Name: Wendy
Age: 25
Rank: Rare
Skill: Sewing, Dancing, Calculation]
…
[Name: Peter
Age: 40
Rank: Rare
Skill: Archery, Riding, Animal Rearing]
…
[Name: Oscar
Age: 81
Rank: Rare
Skill: Wood Carving, Pottery, Herbalist]
…
Cheng Xuan had guessed that there were a few more underneath the bones underneath, and caused him to be alarmed to what had happened to them.
'Such people with talents were killed, but for what reasons…'
After reading a few more name, Cheng Xuan eventually lost interest and tried to looking for a way out by peering into the other tunnels. When Cheng Xuan found out that there was no other openings to go through, he looked above and calculated his options.
Cheng Xuan then checked his own status, to see if any of the skills will have any help to his current situation.
*
[Name: Stigma
Age: 10
Rank: Unique
Skills: Essence Reader, Poltergeist (1), Soul Eater
Current Souls Absorbed: 0%]
*
After looking through his status, Cheng Xuan could vaguely understand that Essence Reader was a skill that lets him see information along with bizarre light which he assumed to be souls of the dead, then off the remaining two?
'Poltergeist, maybe it was like those in horror film where things move around, but I remembered they could only move small objects like books or anything only you could carry with one hand and I think something heavy like a closet was floating too at one point.'
'Then, what about Soul Eater?....Let's try it out later, don't want anything weird coming out.'
"Then, let's try this then, Poltergeist!!!"
Cheng Xuan waited for something to happen, and what he got was a terrible scare.
The scene before Cheng Xuan can only be described like once was watching an Asian horror film, like watching Sadako crawling from the ground towards you in a room with flickering lights.
But if one was watching the scene taking place, one might think that Sadako was cute, because you can see her face and appeared normal.
The scenario before Cheng Xuan was far more eerie.
Imagine this, the room was dark and the only form of light can be seen is in one area, and that was where all the corpse were piled on.
Because the area was already narrow, one could hear the sound of heavy stomping, now everyone's natural response was to look around to find the source and try to hide.
In Cheng Xuan case, because he had no choice and the fact that he had already investigated that there was nothing alive that resembled human. He was more afraid than curious on what was walking towards him in one of the dark tunnels.
A few moments later, he was shocked to find a hazy figure walking towards him from one of the tunnel he just walked out from.
As it slowly stepped out of the shadows and on its way towards the light, Cheng Xuan heard something that resembled heavy breathing.
From what he can make out, the figure was bipedal. The figure was standing 4 feet tall and had a dark aura, although it was slouching, it was tall enough for Cheng Xuan to lift his head to look at it's face.
As it got closer, Cheng Xuan was able to tell that the mysterious figure had long arms that were reaching by its shins. Its hands resembled sharp bird-like claws, which looks as though it was capable of cutting flesh.
From its legs, Cheng Xuan saw that it had lean muscles and had a normal appearance, if one didn't count it's feet looked bizarre.
The figure was very lean and was bandaged all over by head-to-toe including it's face covered, except for its the mouth that was full of sharp teeth like that of a shark.
It continued to hiss like a snake as if it were hiding in a deep hollow tube, waiting for something to move or make a sound to attack it.
What was weird was that the figure was following Stigma's figure in its line of sight or line of presence, turning its body like it was a dog following his master as it got closer to him.
After building up on his courage, Cheng Xuan shouted from the alarming figure with one word.
"Stop!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the figure suddenly stopped upon his command and turned towards him from its position waiting for his next commands.
Upon closer examination, Cheng Xuan discovered that the body was basic in its appearance, with a rounded, dome-like head, and a thin body that looks like it is composed of black bandages.
Other than its' disturbing appearance, Cheng Xuan found the creature to be intimidating from where he stood and shouted.
"Go away!"
Without giving Cheng Xuan a reply, the creature did what it was told and follow the order in absence of turning back, eventually Stigma ordered it to stop then return to him. Which it did.
To see what the creature can do, Cheng Xuan had ordered it to jump around the cave as fast as possible.
From its actions alone, Cheng Xuan assessed it to be extremely nimble, even able to attach itself to walls and 'bounce' between at a fast pace. But such actions made Cheng Xuan panic after seeing cracks around the cave and a hanging stalactite almost falling near him.
*Crack**Crack**Crack*
"Stop! Stop! You can stop!" . . . *drop!* . . . "That was close, anymore and the wall might immediately give in."
From what Cheng Xuan examined, the shadowy figure immediately stopped at the first word he gave. Out of curiosity, Cheng Xuan had it move again but this time he whispered the order, it appears to have heard him.
'Sigh, that was close, looks like it functions like a servant, now let's try 'Soul Eater' next…' Without warning, a notification appeared Cheng Xuan.
*BING!*
[Current Souls Absorbed: 0%
Area is filled with abundant souls…
Would Host like to absorb them?]
[YES][NO]
"Huh souls? Ah, I get it, because of the dead bodies, then the lights represents the souls.…Might as well help them pass on."
[YES]
…A few seconds later, another notification appeared.
*BING!*
[Special act taking place…Initiating…Soul Burial commencing in 3…2…1…]
When the notification finished, all the lights that were floating around started to flow towards him and a notification appeared, what happened next could make any feel serene.
[Soul Burial - a ritual where souls will pass on, cleansing them in the process. This ritual can only be done by heavenly beings or those blessed from them. Please note that mortals are not the only ones blessed to have an afterlife.]
After reading the sudden notification, the orbs of light that had a faint light and had changed into silhouettes of people ranging from children of boys and girls, men and women of young and old.
Each one had a talisman on their faces each of a different colour, white, gray and red. Although Cheng Xan could not see underneath the talisman, it appeared as though the injuries on their faces were now healed, and the clothes that were worn were white robes meant for the deceased for burial.
Although it was sudden, Cheng Xuan was lead to believe that they were all ghosts of the deceased in the room.
Before he could make up what was going on, the ghosts glowed brighter from his vision and started shrinking into orb like figure, what happened next was that each light eventually turned into transparent butterflies, and flew towards his body.
[Soul Eater skill linking with Soul Burial...]
[Processing Skills absorbed…]
[Skills: Cooking, Farming, Hunting, Blacksmith, Glasswork, Masonry, Sewing, Calculation, Riding, Archery, Wood Carving, Animal Breeding, Herbalist, Pottery, Brewing, Dancing, Musician, Alchemy, Fishing, Throwing, Penmanship, Butchering, Decipher]
Skill to learn: [YES] [NO]
[Warning because of current strength only capable of absorbing one skill at a time!]
[Soul Absorbed:
Pure Energy: 1.1%
Grudge Energy: 5.8%
Wrath Energy: 3.1%]
*Note the total is computed by amount of souls absorbed!
Surprised from the sudden situation and notification, Cheng Xuan exclaimed in glee.
'Whoa! What the hell! I gained a large amounts of skills from what had happened until now, and something called energy appeared next, must be their final emotions they had before they passed on…'
Even though he had not idea what had just happened, Cheng Xuan believed that he should show his respect to the dead then clasps his hands together.
'May the souls have safe journey.....'
As Cheng Xuan closed his eyes and offered a silent prayer for the souls safe journey, a strange notification was heard as he ended his prayer.
*Bing!*
[System has recognised an act of invocation towards the souls of the dead, Host affinity towards foreign elements has now increased...]
"....What the hell?...If I don't see stats, how am I going to.....*Sigh*Well whatever, I'll figure it out after I get out of here, and I guess I should give offerings and burn some incense[2] for them after getting out of here…"
After reading the notification, Cheng Xuan clapped his hands three times then looked away .
"Now, before I can provide a proper offering, how do I get out of here?"
'But first, I should figure out what should I call myself. Since my name might draw attention because of how unique it is, I should take on the name Stigma and make some of his dreams come true. After what his life lead him, he deserves to have some of his wishes granted…Oh yeah, he kinda reminds of that one guy… what was his name... right it was Faust, but let's change it a little, right…Falsus[1].'
Stigma Falsus…
*BING!*
[System has updated…]
*
[Name: Stigma Falsus
Age: 10
Rank: Unique
Skill: Essence Reader, Poltergeist (1), Soul Eater
Current Souls Absorbed:
Pure Energy: 1.1%
Grudge Energy: 5.8%
Wrath Energy: 3.1%]
*
[Skills: Cooking, Farming, Hunting, Blacksmith, Glasswork, Masonry, Sewing, Calculation, Riding, Archery, Wood Carving, Animal Breeding, Herbalist, Pottery, Brewing, Dancing, Musician, Alchemy, Fishing, Throwing, Penmanship, Butchering, Decipher]
Skill to learn: [YES] [NO]
[1]Falsus – I wanted a name that would fit his situation. Falsus, is Latin for False, hence his origin.
[2] Burning incenses, specifies a religious meaning in Chinese culture for praying for the deceased (but it's only for relatives, however I was told that if you are close to the deceased, its allowed for instance someone who is a step-father can be prayed to), since he gained something from them he will burn some incense for them because no one knows where they are and they helped in some way. This also means as a prayer.