Gus and Frank
*
[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%]
*
*Familiars:*
1. Dusk
***
'Lets see, it seems that a new notification appeared. Familiars... If I remember correctly, familiars are those small creature that follow your every will after summoning them. I suppose naming them is one of the condition to make them your familiar, but it seems they have to agree first...'
Stigma, who had just climbed out a valley, was currently going through his Status window and was looking at any changes that had happened when the notification appeared.
After taking a quick look and remembering the sequence of events, Stigma made an assumption from his updated status.
Other than the cause of the notification, Stigma was quick to understand that, if he wanted, he can add more familiars in the near future and that the added function was not due to a skill's activation but due to a separate power.
With that in mind, Stigma became excited. As he quickly realized the potential of the new function, Stigma started thinking of his future plans but suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stomach and instinctively hunched forward to ease the pain.
*Stomach growling!~~~~~*
"...Right, I haven't eaten anything yet, guess I should put my desire to experiment on hold again."
After most of the pain in his stomach subsided, instead of finding a place to lie down, Stigma had ordered Dusk to help him climb on top of a small boulder and used his skill "Essence Reader" to look around.
With a birds eye view on his surroundings, it took no longer than two minutes for Stigma to find a pathway leading towards the specters he saw from before. Stigma also did not find anything abnormal along the way, so he should be safe for the time being.
'It looks likes their not that far, I wonder if those up ahead are people and I hope they have enough food with them...'
"Let's go Dusk."
...
...
...
After walking for more than an hour, Stigma could not help but notice a few things when he double checked his surroundings.
After walking for more than 80 meters away from the valley, and finding no visible form of human structures along the way, Stigma was able to understand as to why no one came forward to investigate the valley despite the commotion.
This also meant that there was a low possibility of finding anything valuable in the area, but compared to finding valuables he can find and sell, Stigma was more inclined to find something that could fill his stomach.
Of course, even when Stigma used his skill 'Essence Reader' in intervals to inspect each corner he passed by, he saw nothing that caught his attention.
The second thing he noticed was his familiar Dusk.
Stigma discovered that, although it was summoned a long time ago, Dusk did not show signs of disappearing after being summoned and believed that it was a permanent being. Which was a good thing as Stigma thought that if Dusk had disappeared halfway it's climb, it would not had ended well for him.
With that in mind, Stigma tried using his skill "Poltergeist" to summon another Dusk to test the limit of the skill, but was unable too no matter how many times he tried.
This result showed that, although he had the ability, he can't repeatedly summon an infinite amount unless he figures out some conditions.
Aside from his analysis on his skill and familiar Dusk, Stigma also wondered about the list he saw with the following energies: Pure, Grudge and Wrath. Other than knowing their literal meaning, Stigma had no other explanation for them.
All in all, after going through a series of events one after another, Stigma would prefer to have a relaxing meal and a good night's sleep first before doing a in-depth investigation.
Hence the reason why Stigma was adamant in meeting the specters, if those figures turn out to be human then it would be easy to find a human settlement.
After a while, Stigma had finally left the valley's area and had entered a forest.
Although he wanted to avoid exploring areas that was hard to see in the dark, Stigma used his skill 'Essence Reader' and continued to move forward when he saw that the specters had not moved at all.
After finding some wild berries to eat along the way and stopping by a small river to take a break, Stigma started to hear a small quarrel not far from where he was resting.
With the sound of the argument becoming constant, there was a high possibility that there were people nearby. But instead of going towards the commotion in great haste, Stigma hid himself near some bushes and slowly made his way with Dusk following him.
As much as he was excited to discover a group of people, Stigma was not foolish enough to believe they were approachable.
As he got closer, Stigma could not help but stop halfway as he was hit with a strong smell of liquor in the air.
Despite having the mentality of a twenty year old, Stigma or rather Cheng Xuan wasn't much of a drinker so he wasn't use to the smell. Eventually, after he hid between a large rock and a tree, Stigma found himself staring at two men who were happily drinking by a roaring camp fire.
Although he had no idea why these men were staying inside the forest, Stigma realized that these men may have some idea to where he was and may have come from a human settlement like a small town not far from where they camped.
Then again, if the nearest city was more than a day's walk, Stigma might have to consider finding a safe place in the forest for the time being.
Just as Stigma was about to step out to introduce himself, he suddenly stopped when the men started a heated discussion. Due to being in earshot, Stigma could clearly hear what they were saying.
From what he understood from their conversation, these two men had a drinking contest and had emptied about two jugs worth of liquor and were about to start their third one.
Maybe it was due to being heavily intoxicated from drinking the liquor, Stigma believed that these two may have not noticed the commotion from the valley or they may have brushed it of as some small earthquake.
One things for sure, it shows how high the alcohol content was in the liquor, and each jug appeared that it was able to hold about 1.5 litres.
With light from the campfire, Stigma looked around the campsite and saw a medium sized cave with some crates and about 10 more jugs inside. Assuming that they had continued drinking for so long, these two were here since yesterday.
Although he found drinking all 10 litres of liquor and sleeping in the cave to be weird, Stigma believed that it was considered a miracle no one actually stole their belongings when they had them lying around during their drunken stupor.
At first, Stigma decided to hide himself to observe with Dusk by his side and thought that if the specters where approachable, he would ask for some of their food along with some directions.
Unfortunately, because of their drunk state, Stigma had heard them rant on for a quite while and had started to change his view.
After listening for a while, Stigma could not help but look at the two men as nothing but beast in human skin.
Based on what he could see, one was a short, bald, obese man with a wart on his nose, named Gus. One of the distinguishing features Gus had was that he was wearing a pelt made out of a bear on his right shoulders and a leather shoulder pad on his left. On Gus's back was a one handed, large Viking Ax and strapped to his waist were throwing daggers.
The other one was named Frank, a tall man with a tanned complexion and had red sideburns on his face. While iron greaves were strapped onto his legs, Stigma saw that Frank also was wearing a chain-mail with three spears hanging on his back. From what he could tell, each one had an iron spear head and he saw that Frank had a weighted net tied on his waist like those Retiarius[1] gladiators used.
The reason Stigma called these men beast was because of the inhumane things they had said, if not for vividly detailed their descriptions were, Stigma would have assumed that they were only lying.
"…I was so angry when my partner cancelled her night visit, because she ignored me I violated a woman that was passing by my house and killed her, it was still warm so I choked it thinking it was her. I can still remember her distorted face…"
"...Did I ever tell about what I did to the boy who stole my bread, I beat him until he was bleed through his teeth and he had an expression like this: 'Please, forgive me…', I enjoyed his expression as I kept on beating him until he was dead and I threw his corpse by an alley. His mother was sold for…"
"…There was an old fool who didn't pay me for my dirtied shoes he stepped on by 'accident', I told him to pay for my new shoes and he refused, so I raped his daughter when he couldn't pay me, when he fought back I chopped his arms of…"
As Stigma heard them recount their stories, he felt a chill down run down his spine as they had gleeful expressions when they described the events. Indicating that they had no signs of guilt whatsoever to what they have done.
What was worse was when he activated 'Essence Reader', Stigma saw that they were radiating small embers in them similar to those specters he saw before. At first, Stigma only activated the skill to verify if they were the specters. But given the situation at hand, it did not matter anymore.
He did not know why, but anger welled up in him as he heard them casually remark about their exploits of cruelty.
Normally, after encountering dangerous individuals, one's natural response was to either run or hide.
But as these men laughed at others suffering, that made Stigma or Cheng Xuan remember what he had experienced after being swindled from con-artist.
After being lied to and falling victim to blackmail, he always wanted to find those swindlers and beat them half to death until they begged for mercy. But failed due to the difference of connection and wealth.
As of right now, Stigma situation was no different and was in a child's body, which meant he pose no form of threat to two fully grown men. However, if Stigma was able to use Dusk correctly, he should be able to take them on one at a time.
'But I don't think anyone will wait around to be beaten, especially from a child that looked like he was starving to death.'
'A frontal assault would have little success, the possibility of winning will be higher if Dusk takes them by surprise.'
Stigma though for a moment, and remembered something.
'Wait, the skill!' After closing his eyes for a moment, Stigma gave a silent chant.
'Essence Reader'
*
[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%]
*
After Stigma pressed on the skill 'Soul Eater', a familiar list of skills appeared again.
*
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]
*
Looking over the list of skills one by one, Stigma studied them for a moment and thought.
'Archery seems to be the right choice, but I don't have a bow or arrows at hand, Hunting will work, if I had time and tools to work with, and those two look like they have plans to leave once their done. The rest seem useless at the moment...'
After the status screen disappeared, Stigma silently sighed from his options.
'Looks like the only option I can take is using the skill 'Throwing' so I can help Dusk as he deals with them from a distance using stones and pebbles as I distract them.'
"Alright, I'll learn the Throw skill." After making his decision, Stigma loomed over his finger on the said skill and immediately a notification appeared.
*BING!*
Skill to learn: Throw [YES] [NO]
*
'Oh! Looks like I can instant access it, convenient!'
Moving his finger towards the [YES] button, Stigma pressed it and a new notification immediately appeared.
*BING!*
[24:00:00]
[23:99:98]
[23:99:96]
[23:99:94]
[23:99:92]
'What the… a time limit? Or a countdown? Looks like something will happen after 24 hours... I wonder…'
Stigma thought for a moment and walked away as Dusk followed behind, after making sure he was far away from where Gus and Frank were, he then picked a small rock then threw it at the large rock 10 feet away from him.
He wanted to see if he can hit it so Stigma took a deep breath and threw the rock with all his might. Unfortunately, the outcome was that the stone was thrown at a few meter in front of him and was not even close to the rock.
If someone where to look at his attempt, they would describe it as a distance that a child can throw.
'…Doesn't look like I learned it, or maybe I have but the body is weaker than normal, so the numbers are still not clear.'
With such thoughts in his mind, Stigma raised both of his hands in front of his face and looked them, his gaze then travelled to the arms and legs.
At first, when Stigma saw his current body, he was shocked to discovered that he was extremely thin to the point that he was malnourished with little body fat.
It was a mystery to Stigma on how was he still able to walk or stay alive until now, but he had to put the thought aside as food will be his priority after he capture Gus and Frank.
'Looks like I no choice, I have to make do and use of the three skills I already have. Maybe if I use the tricks I used on the Survival game for hunting would help, but with no tools available, I can't prepare any traps…'
"Looks like my only role would be a bystander, bait, or a distraction."
'Its safer to be a bystander when violence breaks out, but if Dusk gets taken down and they find out about me, it won't be good.'
'Being bait could work, but a child can't outrun an adult, especially when one of them can hurl a weapon at you.'
'Distraction might work, especially when one is using the element of surprise.'
'…Should I take the fat one out first or the other one?'
Stigma wasn't even aware of it, but the face he was making was like when he was at home playing RTS games, when he was outsmarting a high levelled veteran player in brutal tactics.
Unknowingly, while Gus and Frank were reaching their next jar of liquor, these men were being targeted by a demon.
---
Curva[2] Mountains, a huge mountain range known for its unique topography.
With a large forest covering most of its land, unless one had lived here for quite sometime, it would prove difficult for any traveller to find a safe route. Especially when dangerous beast roam the lands on a daily basis.
At the deepest part of the mountain range, a clan with over five hundred years of legacy had placed down its roots.
With a wide valley as its base, two steep mountains roughly shaped like horns are seen facing upwards at the sky.
Because of it's unique shape, the mountain was giving off an appearance that a large beast with horns had emerged from the ground, hence most local had named this mountain as the 'Horned Beast Mountain'.
With numerous openings, crevices and man made paths such as stairs on each side of the mountain, it was clear that there were residences living within the area.
By the foot of the mountain was a fortress, with walls made up of grey stone, it was guarded with men in leather armour made from an unknown beast. Behind the fortress were stone steps leading upwards towards a temple at the very top.
The temple was three stories in height and was covered in green and yellow tiles, the most unique thing about the building was that there were two large horns erected by each sides, giving the impression that the temple was top of a buried beast.
As one got closer to the top, one would pass under several wooden bridges like those in Chinese temples. Each of the bridges were connected to opposite side of the mountain with banners hanging the symbol of the clan, a shield with two long boar tusk.
At the entrance of the temple were two marble statues of large boars with tusk larger than their own bodies, each placed beside an oversized door.
If one stared directly at their faces, they were meet with fierce glare from each side like stone dogs guarding the entrance of a sacred land, intimidating any form of intruders from entering.
When one reaches to the top, they would see the whole view of the breathtaking scenery of a bustling city, connected by a bridge made of stone.
Stone guard towers were placed at the end of the bridge and marble slabs with the words carved on: "Steadfast & Victory".
Here, resides a clan ruling over a city, one the five clans surrounding the territory of the Naga Clan. The Mountain Boars Clan
---
Inside one of the caves was an man sitting under a small waterfall.
The man was well over fifty years of age, yet he possessed a remarkable physique for his age and had a tanned complexion with noticeable scars on his arms.
The man's hair was short and grey but had not lose the glow of his hair colour due to his age. As the man opened his eyes, one could see he had crimson red irises as he performed his breathing exercises.
As cold waves came crashing down on his shoulders, the man remain motionless and did not show signs of discomfort from the freezing waters.
Although his eyes were staring at an empty daze as his body was being beaten, his presence was calm, as if the man never noticed the freezing water cascading on his body.
As the man took deep breaths in intervals, he noticed a presence nearby and turned his head.
"Greetings Elder, Senior Disciple Felix is in your presence."
Though the elder did not immediately reply, he could tell that the youth standing by the entrance had brought some news as he saw three scrolls were placed on a nearby table.
"Speak, what did you find?" After noticing his disciple's expression, the elder realized that there was no good omen among the news.
The youth who came in was named Felix, a Senior Disciple of his clan.
Because their clan was facing some difficulty, Felix was under orders from the elder to observe, investigate and summarize any movement from one of the nearby clans, the Naga Clan
Namely, whenever members leave their territory, those who they spoke to, and those who are heading towards them.
With a face of filled with worry, Felix took deep breaths and began his report.
"There are three major news Elder: First, because the Naga's had made an alliance, the remaining clans have taken the opportunity to form their own alliance. However, rumour has it, the alliance is only for means of protection and not an established on."
Felix continued as he pulled down the scroll with one hand.
"The alliance are as follows the Naga and Panther Clans have established an alliance via marriage, the remaining two clans; Bone Lizard and Blood Vulture Clans have decided to form an alliance by using the excuse of protection. They are signs that they are planning to marry off their kin, but there is no visible evidence shown that they plan to involve themselves in our affairs."
After finishing his reports, the elder had released a shock wave dispersing the waterfall momentarily, it was obvious the news was not to his liking.
"Keep tabs on them as well, they were planning an alliance with the Panther's before, they should still have such intentions once the regain their foothold."
He showed a face of indifference, hearing the remaining clans have join forces was a bad omen at this time, and it is likely they will make a grand alliance to subjugate the Boars sooner than expected.
The man walked out of the waterfall during his explanation with no visible notion of discomfort, normally people would suffer from hypothermia when they are under such freezing conditions, but his body emitted intense heat instead.
The Mountain Boar Clan, who are second only in power, were originally in a neutral position, never involving itself to the political battles, but they are by no means weak in terms of military forces.
The Panther clan was already an enemy of the Boars, before they made the alliance, and were once called the second strongest in the area and started an invasion on the Boars 12 years ago to expand their territory.
However, the war was not in their favour.
The Panther clan had lost a lot of military force in the process, so the Naga Clan took the opportunity to make an alliance, or more accurately have the weakened Panther be a vassal state/clan[3].
With the newly formed alliance the war was then put on hold, but grudges continued.
If not for the Alliance, they would have wiped out the Naga Clan eventually, for claiming their
territories when they were focused with the war with the Panther's.
However, the reason for the enmity for the Naga's, was deeper, his clans men's had started disappearing whenever they go to Mordan city to establish trade, especially the younger generation.
Though he was not sure, he had a feeling that the Naga's have some involvement but he had no physical evidence.
He wanted to end the clan's alliance already, but if he did so personally, other clans will use this opportunity to join in the war and pick sides or invade the territory which had a long blood feud and gain flavor.
If things got worse, then not only would the Boar's clan lose the war, the clan would be destroyed completely, so he had no choice but to put his desire for revenge on hold.
Since then, they had focus solely on replenishing their military forces and inventory, the mountains have natural resources as well, but the vegetation was limited to mushrooms, wild grass, potatoes and bamboo.
After doing some trade from other merchants, the seeds from other fruits and vegetables were gained and now they were able to grow and farm, including hunting wild game that could last for the summer.
Because of the long war their resources were diminished in a rapid pace, and farming for harvest has been put to halt, fearing the farmers will be killed in the war. By then, even if another war broke out, they would be self-sufficient enough when the winter seasons arrives.
Now, they are slowly regaining there power along with their military might.
'It was a standstill between the two, no three factions. Someone must tip the scales in their favour!'
[1] Retiarius – are roman gladiators that uses a trident and a net with weights tied to each end.
[2] Curva – Latin for curve.
[3] Vassal clan, I'm not sure if such a term exist, I know a vassal state exist but what about a vassal clan. Can someone leave a comment if I used the correct term.
Thank you.