Unravel (4) - Proof
Although Veil, Han and the leader were alarmed from Felix's sudden declaration, they all stayed quite when they saw the expression he gave was far from the subject being a jest.
Stigma initially could not understand what Felix meant for his request, until he recalled a little bit of the Original Stigma's situation.
'...Now that I think about it, the Original Stigma did had a memory in where he was from the Naga clan, but there was no indication he felt any closeness from the family....either there was no lingering attachment to them or no one loved him as no memory was ever triggered.... but how come no other memories surfaced from the name alone?'
Even when Stigma skimmed through his current memories, he can only give the feeling of pity as it only showed how the original had lived until now.
From the memories, the current Stigma could see the original was constantly ignored by others, surviving on his own while working with having no one to rely on, always asking himself why continue living when there was no reason to live on.
There were other memories from the absorbed souls, but Stigma could only find out what were their last moments before they died:
One was dying inside a poorly lit room with a knife on their chest, another was lying in dark alley covered in their own blood, but all the victims stared blankly in the air with no clue as to who killed them.
With his understanding from the Demon Imp's knowledge, the skill 'Soul Eater' absorbs souls along with their memories and merge it to Stigma's mind as a form of a dream but what he sees are memories interpreted by the victims point of view.
But the process itself is not reliable as it is with many flaws, because it relies heavily on the said victim's ability to remember.
In the event the memory is forgotten or the victim did not see what had happened before the time of death, Stigma would find nothing if the said memory had never existed.
There was also the issue of seeing faded memories with only the key parts, while the remaining memory showed clouded images.
With the memories original owner being a dead person, Stigma can only work with what he had obtained.
Another problem was comparing each memory, Stigma was in a position where he can't tell between the truth from false as the souls can only contain memories from the souls individual lives.
An example would be trying to compare a memory from two chefs, one male one female, from how to cook a fish in where both sides use the same method but had a different outcome, the issue was which was the correct as both sides believe they have the correct method.
So Stigma was in an extremely difficult situation to discern all the memories, much less find other clues, there was the great issue of where to begin.
There was also bizarre phenomenon whenever Stigma tried to delve deeper through the memories of the non Cultivator, a sensation similar to agitation overcame him, as if the memories were influencing him from trying to remember the past.
'.....It hurts so much!!!!....Medicine!!!!!!....Medicine!!!!!...Medicine!!!!!!....Medicine!!!!!...When will the pain end!!!!!!!'
'....There isn't enough!!!.....There isn't enough!!!!!....there isn't enough!!!!!!!'
'....They promised us!!!!!!!....They promised us to heal our pain!!!!!.....They lied to us!!!!!!.....Where are they NOW!!!!!!!'
With all those thoughts circling his mind, forcing him to be agitated, Stigma then remembered where he was and looked at Felix with confusion on how to respond and gave an honest answer to Felix's out of place request.
The three assassins were also confused from seeing the slight chance of expression on the white haired boy, but after looking between Stigma to Felix face of indifference, they said nothing but made eye contact to each other and agreed to stay in the sidelines.
Felix ignored the four gazes directed at him and repeated his request without looking away.
".....Senior Felix, why do I need a check up?"
"Stigma....please proceed with the medical examination as it relates to your request with, that man."
Even from Stigma's direct questioning, Felix gave no actual answer and only replied with vague reasoning using a monotone expression.
For whatever reason there was behind Felix's request, Stigma could only recall their previous conversation and summarized that his senior did not have any good impression on the Naga clan, meaning that he was aware of Jaculas Fel identity.
When such a thought surfaced, Stigma jumped from the bed and stood up with an erratic and forceful tone.
"Senior Felix! Do you know you who Jaculas Fel is!? Please tell me!!"
Stigma did not know why, but if he ignored the issue right now, he might regret it for his entire life. Even Stigma's heart started beating at alarming pace, if nothing was done, it would put anyone in a state of shock
With Stigma's sudden demand, the assassins were confused, while Kirin woke up from hearing its master's upset tone.
Out of everyone listening, Hilda became alarmed from seeing her normally calm master act out of character, but was able to understand and stayed quiet for her master's sake.
However, Felix still did not change his expression as he slowly stepped forward and placed his hand on Stigma's shoulder, then gave him an answer to calm down.
"...Depending on the result, I will explain everything, you have my word Stigma." With Felix standing face to face to him, Stigma could only calm down then nod his head.
Although Stigma was confused from his emotions, he sat back down on the bed and followed the doctor's instruction for every procedure of his examination without complaint.
From the corner of his eye, Stigma could see that Felix was nervous from how his eyes stayed focus on him, giving great emphasis no how important the results were to him.
Regardless of what was about to happen, Stigma expected his tasks to be difficult or mystic in a sense so he had to stay focused and calmed his breathing. Yet most of the examinations were all straight forward, similar to how physical or health exams are done in local clinics in Stigma's previous life.
One of the test Stigma experienced were muscle and cardio exercises, such as performing push ups under a minute or squats while holding his breath. Eventually an eye exam was included with a magnifying and illuminating tools, followed with questions regarding his diet until now.
Stigma did not need to lie and told the doctor about his consumption on the cooked wolf meat and whatever he could find in the forest along with the food he ate in the market.
For his final exams, Stigma did not expect to experience a dental procedure[1] along with a blood test, which caught him off guard.
The dental check up was normal and Stigma was evaluated that he did have any form of decayed teeth, which got him confused when he was still ten years old, but his blood test was different from what he had expected.
For Stigma's blood test, a cut was made to one of his finger and a drop of his blood was placed on a ceramic dish with a white leaf placed afterwards.
From how the doctor explained, the white leaf was a medicinal herb meant for testing a person's blood if they had harmful elements; such as being poisoned or had consumed too much of certain types of food, throwing off the balance of yin and yang[2] of the human body.
The procedure are as follows: the white leaf will be placed on the dish with his drop of blood and it's shade will turn from white into gray according to how contaminated Stigma's blood is, white being the lowest and pure gray being the highest.
Although the white leaf is only meant for poison testing, as poison stems from being potent and weak, the doctor's predecessor had used the same procedure and found that one of his patients had a discolored leg due to high blood sugar.
If nothing was done, at the time, then they had to amputate his leg at the time to remove the constant pain the patient had.
From hearing such a story, Stigma found the procedure similar in his previous life, along with their clan using herbal cleansing formulas or medicinal cuisine that saved the mans life in cleansing most of the sugar in his blood.
Continuing from their conversation, the white leaf will then be burned and by using the burned odor it release, one could tell how much had been consumed by how potent the smell it emits. Even after burning it, the white leaf will not turn to ash and remain the same unless the entire leaf was engulfed in flames.
The doctor was taught that a faint smell means there is little danger, while the opposite is a sign that a dangerous amount had been consumed in the body.
To give an elaborate reference, the smell of honey is a sign that the patient has sugar in their blood, a bitter smell like vinegar will indicate salty food was eaten.[3]
If the leaf continues to burn, it indicates that there is too much oil consumed in the body. When the leaf crumbles after burning, it shows the person has a deteriorating life force.
Upon performing the test, Stigma's blood presented a few spots gray spots and gave a no form of odor, giving him a piece of mind.
So far, the doctor finished Stigma's evaluation and gave his verdict with a pat on the boys back.
"There is nothing to worry about, Young Stigma is healthy and as strong as an ox. There are little impurities in his body but that maybe due to consuming some under cooked meat while using utensils from the forest and some sleeping pills. But other than that, Stigma has little signs of being influence by narcotics."
From the side, Felix was seen sighing a breath of relief, but the patient in question - Stigma was looking at the pair with a confused expression as the results were obvious.
"Excuse me, what did you mean influence by narcotics? I only drank a sleeping pill after exercising, not a handful, but can you now explain to me why did I need a check up? And how is the information about Jaculas related?"
.....
The doctor then looked at Felix with concern, but he was told to leave and meet with the others as the gazes followed behind him before exiting with a bow, the assassins stayed behind to pay attention as they were aware of the situation.
The three assassin were already involved between the clans war, so there was no need to listen, but they stayed behind due to Stigma's knowledge to the name of a high ranking member of the Naga clan, gaining their curiosity.
"....It's alright Stigma I shall explain everything to you, the doctor is already informed and can be trusted so don't worry, now where should I begin.....I suppose it relates to the person your looking for Stigma. Jaculas Fel..... this man is the third elder of the vile Naga clan, a clan who is currently in war with the Boar clan, the clan where I hail from...."
.....
.....
When Felix finished his explanation, Stigma was stunned but was made clear to how dire the situation his Senior was in.
Although Stigma had reasons for hiding his origins, he was daunted from the sudden news of being in the middle of war. But as he listened to Felix's explanation, he understood why he held such animosity towards the Naga Clan.
Because of unforeseen circumstances in the following days, only the key points of the story were explained to prepare themselves: about the war continuing in a standstill, his clans predicament, followed with his initial reason for entering the slave market.
Even for Stigma, who had experienced too much strange phenomenon since his rebirth, found everything too overwhelming for him to believe. Yet understood why Felix held such low regards for the Naga clan whenever they were mentioned.
'To think something like that war was taking place behind the scenes.....no wonder Senior Felix was suspicious of me when we first met.'
As Felix told his side of the story, Stigma could feel the hostility behind his words and felt that the events were familiar for him to be agitated, but did not know the reason behind them.
In any event, Stigma listened and became fully aware of his Senior's situation, and was willing to help him to recover his clan.
As for Felix's suspicion, it was mainly due to their cultural difference.
Unlike in Stigma's previous life, where knowing a family name was customary, Felix informed him that only members of a clan may only be aware of other clan's family name as they have the same status.
However, when they introduce themselves to non Cultivators they use their clan's name to signify their position and association to demand respect.
Royal families are one of the few known groups to use their family names, as it implies what organization they control, where only a handful of clans can freely boost of their lineage and heritage.
Emily's House of the Four Lotus is a clear example, as she is representing the name of her organization to a member of the Boar clan.
It was common knowledge that wandering Cultivators rarely have knowledge on the family names of a clan unless they have past interactions with them, so Felix believed that Stigma being part of a clan was plausible reason for his knowledge on Jaculas name.
When Stigma revealed the Naga Clan's family, Felix became alarmed and held some suspicion towards the white haired boy's origins before his physical examination. But later gained inner conflict of interacting with him once the results showed Stigma was clean of narcotics and wanted to ask for forgiveness.
"Then the check up was...."
"Necessary, I had my friend perform a physical examination as it tells me if you were.....born from that clan."
Felix gave a pause for the information to sink in but with a face of disgust, he could tell that Stigma was not able to connect the examination to being part of the clan and patiently replied to his question.
"How is that related? Does that clan have any physical traits that I need to be aware about."
".....It's hard to find such traits from a distance as that clan spent large amounts of fortunes to hide their.....physical disabilities, you can only discover them once you do a close up examination. Like finding a rotten tooth or a bizarre skin color. But just to be clear, even with all their efforts, just being born of that clan cannot hide their...natural urges." - Felix
"Urges?.....Like, an addiction"
"Exactly, a strong temptation like mentality that is inherited from their lineage, you may not know this, but despite their so called status equaling the Boar's clan. They are weak in physical strength due to their predecessors bloodline, as for their reasons to being weak is because...." - Felix.
".....is because they rely solely on narcotics formulas to increase their cultivations, in other words they are a clan with only a handful of powerful Cultivators with the majority having no actual combat ability then." - Stigma did not need to hear the end of the sentence as he recalled in his previous life that performing multiple usage may cause numerous side effects such as using steroids.
"Exactly....you catch on quick Stigma, my reason for telling you this is because I am concern for your safety from being part of that clan. Although using special treasure and Heaven defying treasure can help you Cultivate with little risk, over dosage can lead to multiple side effects that effects a cultivator in their daily lives. In other words, if you are born from that clan, there is a chance you might not have been affected physically, but there is still a risk of your health in the future." - Felix
???!!?
With such a thought came to mind, Stigma immediately realized the gravity of the situation and remembered their earlier conversation along with the puddle of black substance around his body when he first woke up, but that did not explain what the white haired boy was influenced with.
From Felix's explanation, the Naga clan only had a handful of Cultivators follow a specific cultivation route, while the rest relied on a dangerous method in where their Cultivators solely use Cultivation formulas or Heavenly Treasures to force their cultivation route to rise in a alarming rate called 'Narcotics Cultivation' or 'Overdose Route'.[4]
Although the method can force a Cultivator into a higher Tier in an earlier time frame, such a dangerous method can either shorten the Cultivator's lifespan or destroy the descendent's future.
Physical deformities were also plausible, as some Cultivation formulas had to change the body structure in a dynamic degree, thus physically changing the child Cultivator appearance.
Or worse, damage their mental health.
When Felix saw his expression, it confirmed his fear of Stigma's memory loss was related to the information he heard from Harrison on the Naga clan enforcing Narcotics Cultivation on their Junior Cultivators with a promising future.
But the fact of the matter was far from the truth, as both side were wrong and had misunderstood the situation. In reality, the Original Stigma was never influenced by such substances even after he was born.
When the Naga clan found that Stigma made no progress in an early age of five, they did not dare waste resources on him and focused on his brother Veritas, who eventually became his replacement when he showed better results in the shortest amount of time.
Leaving the Naga clan to immediately abandon Stigma from any inheritance and stripped of his social position to living a life far worst than a slave.
Although both sides had assumed their own version of the truth, they were only accepting the believable lies they had in mind. Yet such lies were enough for Felix to provide evidence from Harrison's information and a rough description to Stigma's situation.
As for the black substance from Stigma's body, that was mainly due to the Original Stigma constant diet of poorly made food.
Because the Original had no one to rely on for his age and no one made food for him, he had to consume with what he can find, such as rummaging through the garbage and had moldy food involved in his diet as he was still to weak to find his own.
Having eaten undercooked, overcooked, charred to scraps; all those elements had slowly poisoned Stigma's life away.
If the two men had not attacked him, the Original Stigma's poor eating habit would have ended his life sooner than anyone noticed, including himself.
On that note, when Cheng Xuan was about to be reborn, his body was full of toxic substance mixed with dangerous energies.
If Cheng Xuan were to merge with the negative energy still present, it would affect and damage his soul like a child being born in an inhospitable environment, hence his body had to be cleansed of all forms of impurities.
For that process, the Zen energy from the Original's body had started performing their original purpose and started to reform the body and forcefully removing the black substance through the pores of his skin, hence the intense pain he experienced before.
Although Stigma was left in malnourished like state when he woke up, his new body had been completely cleansed and little negative energy, but left him in an extremely weaken state
On that note, before reaching the First Tier, Stigma had unintentionally survived through the use of his skill: 'Soul Eater' by absorbing foreign Zen energy around for him to walk and even swing an ax.
Zen energy by itself was called life energy or the a living being's aura.
Cleansing the body of dangerous elements was one of its original purpose while strengthening the body through Cultivation training was the secondary purpose found by Cultivators and Heavenly Beast to survive confrontation.
When Stigma finally ate some Heavenly Beast meat, his body started to slowly absorb the remaining Zen energy in meat, eventually nourishing his body and organs and by absorbing the souls, his mind had started gaining instincts and change from acting like a man into fighting like brute or a beast[5].
Felix on the other hand had believed that Stigma was influenced through narcotics by his parent, so he was worried for Stigma safety. Being born from a Cultivator who abused his life with narcotic cultivation will lead to multiple complication like damaged meridians or worst - a shorten life span.
****
After their conversation, Felix left to meet with his group, thus leaving Stigma and the assassins to stay behind the tent until the morning.
Comparing incidents had to be postponed as Stigma should not stay up for too long and will continue tomorrow.
Once morning came, Veil and the leader left for their mission, while Han stayed behind to watch over Stigma.
But even with seeing the morning sun, Stigma continued lying down on his bed as he felt the conversation last night was beyond him, but it only made him realize the original must have been through so much hardship than he could ever imagine.
Hilda comforted him, while Kirin lied down on his chest to sleep yet Stigma recalled what happened after the conversation.
Before Felix left, Stigma revealed that he had fought with a cultivator named Wade, along with him using enhancing drug that increasing his strength during the fight.
When narcotics were involved, Stigma remembered the number of bodies inside the cave may not only be victims of brutal death but from also overdose, which sent a shiver down his spine then gave up the remaining vials including Wade's arm he wanted to research on.
Once Stigma revealed the items, Felix expression became darker from the new information and along with the item originating from the black market - The Berserker Vial.
Although Stigma was hiding such dangerous items, Felix's expression shortly changed once he recalled their position at the time and told Stigma that both sides made a mistake and all was forgiven and confiscated the items.
With the unknown danger from outside, Stigma was in a dilemma to stay in the tent or leave to investigate, so he weighed his both options.
'....should I go out off the market, no doubt many are going to leave right now from the sudden tremors, so why bother lounging around. Or should I wait for Veil and the leader and ask their opinion. Professionals have a better point of view than an amateur.'
Even when an hour had passed, Stigma could not decide on what his next move will be and decided to read some of the books he had won. Unfortunately, the books he had were not labeled properly, forcing Stigma to look through the small pile of books to find the first volume to read in order.
Even with Han providing assistance, it took over three hours for Stigma to finally organize the books but he eventually found the first volumes among the books.
Yet Heaven played a cheap trick on him when Felix and the female assassins returned, forcing Stigma to hide all the books while grumbling and felt that three hours of his life had been wasted for nothing.
"Now then, Stigma, you and I are leaving later on for the meeting. But before that, can you perform a treatment for my men."
"? I will try, but Senior Felix, I'm still new to this - healing method of mine, so please don't expect that I can handle lengthly procedures or give full recovery to anyone."
"But of course, I have brought two men who volunteered and are waiting outside when they heard my story. They are willing to test whether the others should try your method."
Stigma nodded his head without hesitation, yet was never told what had actually happened when the men had heard about his ability.
When the men saw Felix's arm finally moving after so many years, many volunteered without hesitation as they trusted him.
But when Felix told them that Stigma is still a beginner, he had chosen two men for him to practice on, but the news alone gave the men hope for their clan's survival - no matter the danger they had to encounter.
When Felix called in the two men, both sides greeted each other and Stigma started with his procedure when they sat down.
Even with a number of gazes at him, Stigma did not break concentration and continued.
*Bing!*
[Host has absorbed the lighting elemental energy, processing....]
*Bing!*
[Name: Stigma Falsus
Age: 10
Rank: Unique (I)(Early stage)
1000 / 10000
Strength: 150
Agility: 170
Vitality: 250
Zen Reserves: 1500 / 1700
Skills:
Essence Reader(IV) 55%
Poltergeist (III) (1) 75%
Soul Eater (IV) 50%
Taboo(III) 45%
Demon's Soul 5%
*
Current Souls Absorbed: Soul of Impurity (I), Wolf Soul (II), Snake Soul (I), Stag Soul (I), Bear Soul (I), Eagle Soul (I), Bull Soul (I), Boar Soul (I), Monkey Soul (I), Cheetah Soul (I), Rabbit Soul (I), Rat Soul (I), Goat Soul (I), Bat Soul (I)
*
Pure Energy: 220%
Grudge Energy: 104%
Wrath Energy: 140%
Fire Energy: 330%
Earth Energy: 125%
Water Energy: 320%
Wind Energy: 120%
Light Energy: 80%
Lightning Energy: 50%
Metal Energy: 10%
***
Stock Piled Souls:
Soul of Wrath: (Complete - 100%)
Snake Soul: 80%
*Familiars:*
1. Dusk (I)(1) (1700 / 2500)
2. Brunhilda (I) (1500 / 3000)
3. Kirin (I) (270 / 2000)
*
'Oh, looks like a few skills leveled up without me realizing...even my familiars are getting stronger....good to know.'
Although the process took longer than expected, Stigma found that both men had similar injuries like Felix with the paralysis status, while emitting a faint yellow aura on one of their limbs like their were infected.
Like before, Stigma had to carefully pull out the foreign element on their limbs without harming them, thankfully his training with the water and oil showed the results as the process was smoothly in progress.
When the procedure was done, both men felt the lost sensation of pain after a long time, they realized they were almost healed and gave Stigma a hearty hug then went to inform the others.
Unfortunately, Stigma had informed them that he did not have the stamina to heal more than two people and had to continue in the following days.
Before the left, Felix eventually warned them that they needed to adjust themselves for the following days to be fully healed like he did.
When both men left to their tent, Felix and Stigma could hear shouts of joy near their tent and could only sigh from the commotion with a smile.
Stigma was about to relax, but Felix soon informed him that they were going to meet with Emily shortly so a messenger will come over, so he had to wash up.
During their wait Felix told Stigma about a peculiar event that happened in the market when the earth quaked appeared and all those present listened.
Like its namesake, the Slave market has a number of slaves ranging from young to old, male and female servants that are bound under a contract like seal.
Without the permission of their owner, a slave cannot move upon their own free will, but that is solely from a humans standards.
Due to demands, most slave markets tend to stoke up on powerful beings such as human cultivator and Heavenly Beast.
Because of their natural strength and the idea of harming their new owners, both beings needed to be heavily sedated to be docile for every buyer in mind, but in turn weakens their strength greatly.
Unlike Human Cultivators, Heavenly Beasts are unpredictable as they follow their instinct and will need ten times the amounts of sedatives to finally calm down, where are the former was far more docile as they have the ability to think.
During the earth quake, some of human slaves were injured but stayed obediently inside their cages, while the Heavenly Beast started showing unusual but violent behavior of trying to break out of their cages.
Causing the personal watching over them to start panicking from their actions and ran off.
Only to return once the earthquake had ceased and found all the Heavenly Beast stayed in their cages, the personal had found proof of their action from the damaged cages and speculated that a disaster was about to appear so the beasts were trying to run away.
When Stigma heard the news, he speculated that the Heavenly Beast acted similar to how animals react to a natural disaster, like a volcano erupting, forcing every Beast residing in the vicinity to run off to safety.[6]
'The question is, what were they running from?'
Stigma found the story to be odd as Kirin stayed beside him and did not panic, Hilda gave her testimony that even during the earth quake, the blue wolf did not even wake up and slept beside his bedside.
Although they wanted to continue their topic, the messenger finally appeared with Stigma following behind Felix into a different, only to find Emily with a tired expression from what appeared to be working overnight.
'What the hell happened?'
"Oh, Sir Felix, apologizes to my poor appearance as a large work load fell on my responsibility. May we end the meeting short as I need to recover shortly."
"Of course."
"I have two news to inform you, what would you like to hear first, the good news or the bad news. I also have a job for you afterwards that includes Stigma to participate."
When they asked for both news, Felix and Stigma realized the market was in danger.
[1] dental procedure - never expected that China actually had any dental activity around the 6000 BC. Always thought they were the type who only focused on herbal medicine or medical food, like tea and ginger treatment.
[2] Yin and Yang - something about a balanced diet. Use this for reference, but I'm not going to deep into this idea. Site: https://www.healthline.com/health/yin-yang-nutrition#types-of-food
[3] I tried to think of a difference reference for the salt but let's face, there is no point smelling salt as there is no scent unless you want to smell sea water which makes no sense to me.
[4] Basically the rare candy cheat in pokemon games in where players use a lot of rare candies to force evolve the pokemon to their final evolution route.
[5] In all honesty, I always wanted to read a light novel where the protagonist is a beast in a fight rather than fighting like martial artist.
[6] I saw a documentary once about animals being the natural warning signs of natural disasters, like an incoming earthquake. I find that natural events in real life can happen in a fantasy world so hope you understand.