Herbs and Stats
"So I have transmigrated and possessed this body…, it just had to be a body of a cripple."
Elias naturally found the fate of Feron sad, but it was now Elias's mess to handle. He wasn't exactly planning to die right after transmigration, but he would have to live as an ordinary mortal in a world where people can train supernatural strength. Who would find such news as good?
[Correction, host did not possess this body.]
"Wha-?!" - Elias was caught off guard. Only now he remembered this cold voice he already heard before.
"What.. Who are you? Where are you?" - he started asking while looking around for this unseen person.
[System was designed to help the host. System does not have a physical form, it is bound to the host's soul.]
"I remember now, a truck hit me. Am I in the hospital having a fever dream? Or maybe I am dead and just did not come to terms with it yet?" - Elias asked himself, pondering on the possibility of him being alive.
[Host isn't dead. Host was reincarnated here 15 years ago but the system had not enough energy to awaken the host's soul.]
"What do you mean by that?"
Elias looked up to see orange tint slowly grow on the clouds. It wasn't there when he first opened his eyes.
[Host did not possess anybody, Feron was a rudimentary personality that developed because of the host's soul being only half awake.]
"Wait, you want to say that I did not transmigrate right now, but I was almost killed by some assholes today?"
[Host's analysis is correct.]
Elias sighed.
"This day keeps getting worse and worse. I hope I'm really just having a fever dream."
After spending a minute to lament on his unfortunate situation, Elias decided to look around. With some difficulty, he got up, and when he turned around, he almost fainted when he saw the amount of blood on the ground.
"Can people even live after losing so much blood? No wonder I feel so weak and dehydrated."
Elias saw the herb that was right under his body this whole time. It looked miserably crushed and even drained. He reached down to pick it up and only then he noticed the thick herbal smell almost as strong as the bloody stench permeating the cave.
"So this thing supposedly saved me, huh."
[Correct. Host is recommended to ingest it.]
"Well, better than nothing, it feels like I didn't eat for 15 years." - Elias chuckled - "Oh, come on, it was at least mildly funny."
System did not answer, but Elias felt like he was being judged.
"Figures. Now I need to find my way back with what feels like broken ribs. And some other bones too."
Relying on Feron's, or rather his own memories, Elias found his way to the village by the nightfall. Since he actually lived here, he wasn't stopped by anyone. He walked to his hut almost automatically, but was actually shocked when he saw a dilapidated mudwall hut.
"Do I really live in this?" - He racked his brain only to remember Feron living for a whole year in this hut. The vivid memories of actually decent dwelling of a tribal chief were only so vivid because he spent his childhood there as Feron.
Elias quickly made his way inside. Rough furniture and a musty smell were only things that welcomed him. With no other option, he quickly found some food stashed away and filled his belly. The moment his body touched the bed, the door of his hut was slammed open.
"Feron! Where the hell were you all day long!?" - the shout came from a sturdy looking man standing in the entrance. His name was Yel, and he was the supervisor in charge of laborers and slaves. He made his way to Elias, but stopped abruptly when he saw bruises and bloodied clothes on Elias.
"Hmph, can't even keep your life intact in the safe regions of the mountain." - Yel snorted with a hint of disdain. - "We can't feed failures. Bring today's quota tomorrow as well, or go hungry."
Elias wanted to say that someone pushed him off, but realized that with his current standing, it won't help him. It may actually harm him. Whoever tried to kill him wanted to do it silently, and if he speaks of it, it will only provoke those people to get rid of him as soon as possible. He watched Yel leave his hut in silence.
"System, you told me that you exist to help me. Why? Why me? Who created you?"
His answer was silence.
"Alright, show me my status." - he tried another approach
***************************
Host name: Elias Gunn
Aliases: Feron
Age: 15
Body - 1.1
Strength: 0.5
Dexterity: 0.3
Constitution: 0.3
Energy - 1
Inner Energy: 0
Spiritual Power: 0
Soul Force: 1
Cultivation Realm: N/A
Cultivation Base: 0/0
Techniques: N/A
Skills: N/A
Current status: Weakened due to injury. Complete recovery in 6 hours.
*******************************
"Those are some pretty low stats..."
[A healthy adult would average 1 in each stat.]
"So I'm piss weak. Great." - Elias felt a wave of fatigue finally hit him. - "Let's rest and look at them again in the morning."
Elias fell asleep almost instantly.
When the sun just barely showed it's light over the horizon, Elias woke up. He felt refreshed, however waking up this early without an alarm felt unusual an familiar at the same time. Elias got up and did some stretching.
"Is this really just a long fever dream? Or am I really living in another world now?" - Elias pondered as he finished the small amount of food Feron managed to save up.
"Haaa, I need to find some food."
Elias left the hut and his legs brought him to the supervisor. The moment Yel noticed Elias, he glared at him.
"Remember what I told you yesterday." - Yel pushed a woven basket into Elias's hands - "Go! Don't waste time if you want to eat!"
Unsure if he can even survive a fight with Yel, Elias had no other option to leave the village and start looking for herbs. However this time, instead of going to the mountain, he decided to go to a forest by the foot of the Fierce Tiger Mountain. That forest sported 50% less herbs, but also, 100% less cliffs, which was a very welcome change in Elias's eyes.
Elias almost reached the forest as continued to ponder his predicament, when he finally remembered about the system's stat interface.
Instead of talking aloud, this time he tried to just think about it, and the next moment, a familiar interface popped up in his vision.
***************************
Host name: Elias Gunn
Aliases: Feron
Age: 15
Body - 2.5
Strength: 0.8
Dexterity: 0.9
Constitution: 0.8
Energy - 1
Inner Energy: 0
Spiritual Power: 0
Soul Force: 1
Cultivation Realm: N/A
Cultivation Base: 112/0
Techniques: N/A
Skills: N/A
Current status: Healthy.
*******************************
"Well, this looks way better." - Elias relaxed
He took a second look at his stats, and while they did not reach one, he wasn't a full adult yet, so he had some growth potential. When he was about to close the interface because he had finally reached the forest, he noticed one more thing that changed from yesterday.
"System, why is my cultivation base 112/0?"
[Leftover energy from the plant you ate yesterday was converted into pure energy. It has numerous uses, mainly advancement of a cultivation realm.]
"So, you can make me stronger now?"
[Not enough cultivation base.]
Elias sighed.
"Alright, what can you do with what I have?"
[Analyzing best possibilities for the host. It will take some time as System is in low power mode. Please wait.]
With nothing better to do, Elias began to look for herbs in the forest. However, forest wasn't that kind to Elias. If one takes the Fierce Tiger Mountain, Feron went there every day and knew where to look for herbs, and how to spot them there. As for forest, Feron rarely visited here, and had not much knowledge about what kind of herbs grew here and how to spot them. An hour and a half passed and Elias only found half a dozen herbs. Luckily for him, the system had exactly what he needed.
[Analysis complete. The best way to spend the energy for the host in the current situation would be upgrading the system's detection capabilities.]
[For 100 CB host can enable close range spirit herb detection. All the spirit herbs would be highlighted in the host's vision.]
This was too good to be true, but Elias already had more incredible things he yet had to completely accept, so he pondered for a while and chose to spend the CB.
[Energy received. Upgrade in process. ETA: 18 minutes.]
Exactly 18 minutes later, Elias's vision filled with pale blue spots in approximately 5 m range. Turns out there are a lot of herbs containing energy in the forest.
"Probably, locals are simply not aware of this species?"
Elias did not spend too much time thinking, and got to gathering. His dinner was on the line, after all.