《Beast Master System》


 Chapter 1 - Sowing Karma

    "Prometheus? What a nice name, I''m Zeus"


    "That''s cool"


    "We both come from the same pantheon, hahaha" laughed the youth.


    His eyes, brown in color, suddenly seemed to shine with a golden light for a second. It only lasted for a second and then they returned to their normal color. Yet, the man''s expression completely changed, a sense of pity emerging on his face whenever he was looking at Prometheus.


    "Karma, yes, this must be Karma... let me help you then... what kind of life would you like to have?"


    ''Oh no, it''s a talker''


    "Ehm..." Prometheus was annoyed by the strange behavior of the guy before him. He just wanted to get his tip and go away, this was his last delivery for the night.


    "I don''t know... listen sir, I really need to g..."


    "Come on, you don''t have any idea about the kind of life that you want to have?" interrupted him the man, passing one of his dark-colored hands between his short white hair.


    The pizza delivery man was thinking about some kind of random answer to give to that weirdo just to make him stop, when with a ringing sound his smartphone lighted up.


    ''It''s just Totem Master''


    Indeed, it was only a notification from the game that he loved to play the most in his free time.


    "Oh, what''s that?" asked the weird client.


    "it''s a game..." laughed nervously the delivery guy.


    The white headed man smiled. "What is it about?" he then asked with a strange smile.


    "You know... you need to capture beast souls and make them your totems... it''s one of those idle games... a stupid one... just to pass time between deliveries" explained Prometheus, on the defensive. In reality he played the game even in his free time, but he didn''t want to admit it to some random stranger.


    "Uh, you seem to like it?"the man noticed how Prometheus''s eyes shined when talking about the game.


    "There are worst things, yeah" said the deliverer, eying his scooter parked not too far from where he was.


    "Oh, I get that..." Zues'' fingers started to play with the ring on his right hand. "Well... let''s see... oh yeah, I did put together a similar matrix after I gave a look to the Keratu Method. I also managed to find a solution to the soul contamination problem... those morons Turukuha Devils would kill for this one hahahah too bad for them, they fu?k?d with me one time too many, fu?k?n? anarchic morons... " blabbed the man, talking what appeared to be complete nonsense to himself.


    "You can have it, with the compliment of the house... " concluded the man, while a globe of dark light came out from his ring and after a pointing motion from him, dashed inside Prometheus''s ?h?st.


    "What the hell" cried in shock Prometheus, eyes widening.


    "Now let''s bring you back to home... Illusory Thunder was it? Damn, that place is in that stupid cat''s weird territory... whatever... sowing karma is the best shield against the future storms"


    When Prometheus heard the words Illusory Thunder, his eyes almost popped out of his socket. He didn''t have any idea about the other strange things the man was talking about, but he did know Illusory Thunder. It had been 25 years since he last heard someone talk about that place.


    "Who are yo..."


    "I already told you, I''m Zeus. " smiled the man, while his eyes started shining like two golden stars.


    "You''re not from here! You''re like me!" suddenly exclaimed the pizza delivery guy.


    "Nope, I''m definitely from here. However, yes... I was once like you, a stranded puppy in a foreigner world... the only difference is that I went to a cooler world than mine, you kinda had it backwards... buddy... whatever, have fun back home..."


    Golden light enveloped Prometheus, blinding him completely. The last thing he remembered, before passing out, was a simple farewell from the strange man.

 Chapter 2 - All Dead Already

    [Soul Synchronization... 1%...2%...3%...]


    A strange voice woke Prometheus up. English, with a peculiar accent. Maybe french? In any case, it was weirdly echoing all around the room.


    ''I might have left youtube on auto play again... Jesus, what kind of horrors will show up on my home this time''


    Yawning loudly, and hoping that his youtube main page wouldn''t be flooded by weird videos about the secrets behind Elvis''s death or (more likely, listening to the accent of the voice resounding in the room) some podcasts in french, the young man tried to get up. He tried to put his hands on the bed, using his arms as a lever to pull himself up.


    Left arm, ok. Right arm... ''????''


    "What the actual fu?k?" a loud panicked scream surmounted the monotonous count of the french sounding voice in the background.


    Prometheus lowered his gaze towards his right arm, trembling in shock when he realized that in the place where his arm was supposed to be, there was absolute nothing!


    "Where''s my arm?" asked himself the youth, almost as if the question could make the limb appear again from nothing.


    He moved his gaze towards his shoulder, noticing the only thing that remained from his arm: a stump, wrapped in bloody yellow gauze.


    "No... no,no,no!" He suddenly felt his whole world explode in pieces. How about his job? How about gaming? Playing the guitar?


    [Soul Synchronization 100%]


    ''What the hel..."


    The french sounding voice started to read the lines that were appearing on the screen.


    [Welcome to Matrix FYD003201, all functionality have been activated]


    [Name: Prince Seven Illuria, Prometheus Flogos, Sif]


    [Age: 17 (Biological), 44 (Total) ]


    [Cultivation: None, Mortal]


    [Strength: 0.3/1


    - Moderate Wounds ( -0.2 Temporary)


    - Lots of Arm ( -0.5 Permanent) ]]


    - Moderate Wounds ( -0.2 Temporary)]


    [Intelligence: 2]


    [Endurance: 1.3/2


    - Moderate Wounds ( -0.2 Temporary)


    - Lots of Arm ( -0.5 Permanent) ]


    [Soul: 1]


    [Totems: None]


    [Skills: Archery (Intermediate), Guitar (Poor)]


    [Techniques: None]


    Prometheus looked around in shock, realizing that he wasn''t in his bedroom. The walls were made of black wood and there weren''t windows. The only piece of furniture was the bed he was in.


    He tried to remember the last thing that happened before waking up in what seemed to be some sort of wooden cabin.


    ''Oh...''


    The strange man with golden eyes, the black ball of energy entering his ?h?st, and now him waking up in a totally foreigner place. Even a fool would understand what was happening.


    ''It happened again... this mean that this isn''t my body...''


    Prometheus moved his gaze towards his left arm: brown, scrawny and full of nasty scars. This definitely wasn''t the body that he was using before.


    Maybe a normal person would have needed some time to digest the fact that the body he was in wasn''t the one he was born into, but for Prometheus that was almost a nonexistent problem. He had only two real problems: his missing arm and the fact that he wouldn''t be able to see his family ever again.


    Why he wasn''t that interested about the fact that he seemingly transmigrated into a new body? Simply because this wasn''t his first rodeo. He called himself Prometheus because he liked it, but his birth name was Seven Illiria, one of the many princes of the omonimous Illiria Kingdom. Can you guess which one?


    Wrong.


    When he died, killed by his own brother, he transmigrated to another planet: Earth, waking up in posses of the body of two years old Prometheus.


    Earth was a very different place from that he grew in. For starter, cultivation wasn''t possible. The energy concentration was too low. Not that he cared anyway: even in Illusory Thunder, the planet he came from, he couldn''t cultivate because of a genetic defect.


    He also didn''t care about being the third son of a poor family, in fact he preferred his life on Earth to that he had in the Illiria Kingdom. Nobody called him a cripple, his parents genuinely loved him, and his own brothers didn''t try to murder him to get the girl that was creepily promised to him when he was only a child.


    He had a family, something that he never quite experienced in his first life. And now, they were all gone forever.


    ''Mom, Dad...little brothers''


    Prometheus eyes filled with tears, when he realizes that he would never again see those people that really loved him.


    ''Damn you, how dare you send me back without my consent you self centered prick?''


    He sobbed, looking with watery eyes at the black screen that was showing what seemed to be some kind of character sheet. Only that the character in question was him.


    ''This is a System! Like those in novels and games...''


    The exact moment he though that, the screen before him vanished and a new one appeared. The french voice, that now Prometheus could tell that definitely wasn''t youtube, read the new messages out loud.


    [Initializing Memory Sync? ]


    [Yes/No]


    After a moment of hesitation, Prometheus focused on the "yes". He gritted his teeth, preparing himself to the countless fleshes of information that would appear in his mind for hours.


    However, nothing happened for a while and when the young man finally opened his eyes to see if he really had activated the option, he realized that the screen in front of him was now showing a long text.


    ''Oh, this also works''


    The text in question was obviously the life of Sif, a young man son of a local hunter. His life was pretty boring, nothing particular happened until a bandit group razed his home, Mora Village, killing everyone who opposed them.


    The bandit group was called Sons of Kaliah, and in their crazy ?ssault they killed all Sif''s family and heavily injured him. In the end Sif died from his wounds, even if the village elders tried to heal him with all that they got.


    Prometheus eyes began to burn with fiery rage. He had lost his Earth family and now even his third life''s family was gone? Vengeance! Retribution!


    As he imagined, the first screen that he saw appeared again. He studied the information on display, his eyes shining with a dangerous light. He didn''t see anything that suggested that his body wasn''t able to cultivate.


    "Totem? What''s that?"

 Chapter 3 - First Totem

    The strange voice that echoed in the room seemed to answer his question.


    [This Matrix prime purpose is to Create, Maintain and Control Totems.]


    [Totems can be used to progress in cultivation, stronger the Totem, stronger the cultivator]


    [Do you want to scan for possible Totem?]


    [Yes/No]


    Prometheus murmured: "Yes". His mind was reeling, he remembered that the strange individual that sent him back to Illusory Thunder asked him about Totem Master before putting inside him a ball of dark light.


    Was this some kind of real life Totem Master?


    [Scan Completed]


    [12 Potential Candidate Found, Classless]


    [x 10 Black Antenna Ant, Compatible]


    [x 1 Blue Silk Spider, Compatible]


    [x 1 Silver Fly, Compatible]


    ''0.1% Chance of forming a cultivation base?''


    Prometheus didn''t know much about cultivation, but he felt that it was a little too much low. It was in that exact moment that a red shadow speed inside the room, coming from under the closed door.


    The young man saw it hide in a corner of the room, but he didn''t get a good look at it. It was incredibly fast.


    ''Was that some kind of ???kroach? Disgusting!'' He now remember how little hygienic was this world compared to Earth.


    [Buffering... new specimen found]


    [x 1 Horned Flaming Lizard, Compatible]


    ''A lizard?'' The maimed youth looked at the information of the new available creature, his eyes widening in surprise.


    ''Fire Elemental Affinity, High Regeneration Ability, Highly valued for its secretion of precious Flame Oil...''


    Prometheus'' was incredibly excited. If this was anything like Totem Master, he would also become able to use the Fire Element thanks to his totem.


    The moment he gave the decision, the interface before him change and started to display a graph.


    [Objective Weakened. Chance of success: 70%]


    ''Probably of success? Seems pretty high.'' considered the youth, trying to use his sole remaining arm to get up and observe whatever was going to happen when he confirmed the order.


    [Continue?]


    [Yes/No]


    ''Yes''


    Suddenly black gas started to come out from his body, flowing toward the corner where the lizard was hidden. It started to make circles around the creature, until it formed a black sphere of some sort. Then, the sphere suddenly started to compress itself.


    At first it was loosing volume rapidly, then it started to slow down.


    [Totem Creation Status: 30%]


    Announced the strange voice of the system.


    ''That''s a lot of time'' sighed Prometheus. He observed for a while the weird black gas: it remembered him of the ball of light that the strange man threw inside of him.


    While he was waiting, he tried a couple of orders to see what he could and sound not do.


    ''Inventory'' nothing happened.


    ''Options?'' nothing.


    ''Totem?'' a new interface appeared before him, with only had one item inside the whole screen.


    [Horned Flaming Lizard, 51% Captured]


    [Juvenile, 8 Days ]


    [Affinity: Fire]


    [Strength: 0.2]


    [Endurance: 0.5]


    [Velocity: 1]


    [Intelligence: 0.1]


    [Soul: 0.3]


    [Techniques: None]


    [Skills: None]


    At first, Prometheus was a little disappointed about those statistics. They were incredibly low! But then he considered that it was only eight days old.


    ''It will become stronger... I hope''


    There was no mirror in the room, so Prometheus had to use only his hand to vaguely discover his own looks by touching his face and hair. He kept doing so for a long while, trying to put together a mental picture of his new aspect.


    "Uhm.. ehm ehem" a strange coughing sound interrupted him.


    Turning towards the door, he saw a old man looking at him with a strange expression. Prometheus had no idea of who it was. However the thing that pressed him more at this time was the presence of the black gas in a corner of the room.


    He wasn''t sure about how to explain its existence if it was noticed by the old man. Thankfully, the man seemed to be more interested in his facial patting motions. He was probably considering it to be very strange behavior.


    Indeed, the old man was in fact considering the possibility that the pain and the loss of his family had turned the smart boy that he knew since his birth, into a retard. What else could explain the strange things that he was doing to himself when he entered the room?


    "Sif, you should rest... Syndra will be visiting you soon" he said with a concerned tone, before giving a nod and rapidly going away.


    Prometheus gave a sigh of relief when the old man went away. He really had no idea about how explaining a hovering bass of black gas hidden in a corner of his room. Plus he had no idea of who he was, as the memories of the previous inhabitant of the body weren''t detailed enough.


    ''Who''s Syndra?''


    [Requesting Information on Syndra]


    ''Yes''


    A new series of texts appeared on the interface. It seemed to be all the information that the precedent Sif had on this Syndra.


    ''A friend''


    No, it was his best friend. Syndra was the daughter of the village''s butcher, and the only good friend that the precedent Sif had in his whole life.


    He kept reading the information about her that the system feed to him, completely loosing his sense of time. This was something that happened to him quite often when was reading something interesting.


    The thing that brought him him back to reality was the system''s voice.


    [Capture Completed, Proceeding With Totem Creation]


    The ball of black gas darted towards Prometheus ?h?st, reentering into his body.

 Chapter 4 - So There Is A Malus After All

    Prometheus felt like if someone had touched him with gelid hands on the spot hit by the black gas. The dark sphere emitted a low whistle, consuming the cloth that was covering his ?h?st and merging back with his body.


    The young man looked at his torso, seeing a hole in his ragged but clean shirt right on the zone that covered his right pectoral. He could see his robust body under, brown and decored by numerous devious scars.


    ''What''s that?''


    A faint red stain was appearing on his bronzed skin, slowly becoming more vivid each second it passed. Prometheus also sensed warmth coming from it, combating the cold feeling of before and even spreading all over his body.


    [Stabilizing Process]


    [Time Lef: 3h, 23m]


    ''Ah, so it didn''t speed up''


    Thought the youth, looking at the red sign on his ?h?st with curiosity and a hint of concern. If he remembered correctly the system said that the totem would take more then four hours when the ball of gas had absorbed the little lizard. This stabilizing process seemed to be included in that estimate.


    Not having better things to do, the youth kept looking at the red mark on his skin.


    After a couple of minutes, the red stain became something b?r?ly recognizable as the shape of small lizard. It was very blurry, however each second it passed the colors and lines that defined it became sharper and clearer.


    It was crouched in a fetal position, its long tail covering a side of its head, almost as it was sleeping.


    ''So that''s a totem... well, it does look pretty similar to the original animal''


    Considered the youth, scratching his head. It was in that moment that something that left him shocked happened: the lizard moved! Yes, his tattoo moved! It literally twisted its entire body, turning itself on the other side.


    The lizard''s red eye abruptly snapped open, looking at him right in the eyes, a deep furious sentiment buried inside that dark red iris.


    This was the first time seeing something like that. A moving tattoo? This was some Harry Potter level weirdness. Prometheus realized that maybe it was something that had to do with the fact that totems were supposed to contain living creatures.


    ''This is so weird... I really shoul...argh!"


    Suddenly the youth felt a great sense of confusion and pain, it was almost as if someone had just hit him right in the head. The young man felt his vision fading, his ears began to tingle and everything around him became distorted, sound and images alike.


    ''What is happening?''


    [Consciousness levels is falling] announced the System, in the annoying french accent.


    ''Why?'' asked confused the maimed youth, trying to make sense of the sudden headache that he was experimenting.


    [0.3 of Soul is occupied by Totem N 1]


    Even not understanding what was the problem, Prometheus was panicking. He could tell that his senses were becoming more and more unreliable as time went on. Plus there was the system, giving explanations that made no sense to anyone around.


    [A part of the host soul is occupied by the new totem, Totem N 1, this is equal to having lost said part resulting in the gradual lowering of mental capacity.]


    ''Whaaat?'' the youth felt afraid for the first time since he was back in Illusory Thunder. Nothing was worst as loosing part of your mental acuity!


    ''How much lower?''


    [Hosts soul was low to begin with, lowering it to 0.7 is equivalent of having the consciousness of a 2 Years Old Human]


    Prometheus almost lost his mind when he understood what was happening. He was loosing consciousness because part of his soul was used to maintain the totem. The totem was causing him an absurdly serious problem!


    Weren''t System supposed to always be overpowered? With no malus whatsoever? Why his own system was causing him to become a literal retard?


    ''This is the worst power ever! Zeus, you despicable liar! You took me away from my dear family and trick me into using this disgusting trap-system!''


    Prometheus'' moral was incredibly down.


    His future was still full of life and opportunities back on Earth, and now that he had been sent back to Illusory Thunder he was going to become some sort of complete moron!


    ''I can''t let this go on!'' thought the young man.


    "Stop the Totem!" he then ordered with authoritative voice.


    [Totem creation can be stopped, but the souls won''t heal] explained the system, giving Prometheus an interference to chose if he wanted to stop the totem creation.


    [Yes/No]


    ''I...'' Prometheus was left without words. This was a disaster!


    ''Will I be a retard forever?'' Was this the future that the Heavens reserved him in this third life of his? Become a mad cripple?


    [Absorbing the Soul will restore the previous level of consciousness. Activating Soul Unification?]


    [Yes/No]


    Prometheus almost started weeping with tears of joy. There was a method to revers this after all! Without any hesitation, he immediately nodded and give his consent.


    [Soul Unification requires 364 Days, 12 hours, 6 minutes and 2 seconds] continued the System.


    ''That much time?'' Prometheus bit his lips, slapping the bed with his only arm. He was going to lose an entire year for this stupid mistake? No, this wasn''t that simple: while he wouldn''t be able to remember it, he would still be alive in the world for a year!


    It was practically leaving his body unprotected for 364 days! Absolute madness. However, he didn''t have any other choice, even now while he was thinking through his situation, he felt his mental faculty keeping their slow but steady fall.


    ''Yes! Do it!''


    [Are you sure? Totem N 1 will be unusable until the Unification has been completed]


    ''YEEES!''


    Who cares if the totem wouldn''t be usable? He wouldn''t even be enough aware to know his own name, why should he care about some totem? No, it was way better to have it non active! Only the Heavens could know what a two years old mind could do with what supposedly was some kind of magic power!


    [Unification Activated] concluded the system.


    Prometheus gave a long sigh of relief. ''Uf... I''m saved... even if... oh boy, one entire year?'' he really was concerned: he wasn''t ''t in the body of someone who had people left to care about him for an entire year! This wasn''t Earth! Illusory Thunder was a land were the strong pried on the weak, it had always been that way.


    [Critical level will be reached in approximately two days] responded the echo.


    ''Two days?'' he collapsed back down on the bed, feeling the pressure of an entire mountain on his back.


    "Two days..."

 Chapter 5 - The Solution Is Simple

    "Two Days" continuously said the young one armed man sitting on a shabby bed. He felt like someone was holding a sword right on top of his head.


    ''I''m definitely not going to survive without help...''


    The sole idea of being alone, in this cut throat world for an entire year with the mental capacity of a two year old was chilling. Prometheus didn''t think that just because the village had helped him after the attack of the bandits they would also care about him for an entire year after he began to behave like a mentally impeded child.


    Not even in a aristocratic house they would do something like that. Probably in a royal family they would keep you and try to sold you of to connect the family to some rich merchant clan, but that was only because of the royal title.


    Poor people? They would probably kill him themselves and feel good about it.


    This was what he thought at least. He wasn''t an expert on poor people living in Illusory Thunder. In fact he didn''t know much about how poor people lived in Illusory Thunder. Yes, he was from here, but didn''t even know what region of the world was the one he was reborn in.


    Illusory Thunder was a huge world after all.


    Just take the kingdom where he was born in his first life, the Illuria Kingdom, as example: first, it was only one of the fifty-eight regions of the Luma Empire. Comparing it to a country from Earth, the Illuria Kingdom was about the size of modern day Russia. Even so, it was only one of the smallest region of the Empire. Plus, the Empire itself was only a small power in the North-East of Atlante, the Central and only Continent in Illusory Thunder. All around, spread the tumultuous Sage Sea and even farther there was the legendary Crown of Fire, an impassable mount range dominated by the most powerful organizations in the whole Illusory Thunder.


    ''Yes, that''s about all what I remember about this world'' considered the young man, trying to recall other information about Illusory Thunder that could help him.


    For the moment, everything he remembered proved to be completely useless. He was a prince in his first life, after all. He didn''t have much common sense knowledge. He knew a bit of general geography, lots of history about his own Illuria Kingdom and the Empire it served, and could recite and explain tons of poems and literary works. That was it.


    He had no real skill, nor he had been trained on how to find help while being a complete destitute.


    In his first life, most of his time had been spent preparing to marry inside the Imperial Family. Ah yes, he - Prince Seven- had been chosen by the Emperor himself to be the husband of his third daughter. It was because of a weird celestial sign that seemingly connected with the one that appeared when the princess was born. And again, yes: they were born in the same day.


    Weird stuff. But not the weirdest thing that ever happened to him.


    So, the Emperor decided that he had to marry his daughter. Probably that was the reason he was killed in the first place.


    Not being able to cultivate, his parents forced him to stay always inside the castle, fearing that some other power would try to ?ssassinate him.


    Well, they were kinda right. However, even staying holed up inside his royal castle didn''t save him from death. A death that probably occurred while he was sleeping, as he didn''t remember it at all.


    Which was a thing that Prometheus had always been grateful of. Just imagining how much disturbing would it be to remember his own ?ssassination made him shiver. How could somebody peacefully live remembering their own death?


    Especially one caused by a wife that they never met. How would you be able to ever form a meaningful relationship with such a disturbing memory?


    Prometheus laughed lightly.


    ''Marriage killed me... hahaha... wait?''


    The young man suddenly stopped laughing, his face freezing in a strange expression for a couple of minutes.


    ''I''m a genius''


    "A GENIUS" he exclaimed his face brimming with joy.


    "... marriage"


    He mumbled. His eyes suddenly opened wide and he bounced up from the bed, his body exploding with new energy. This was an incredible idea!


    "HAHAHAHA, YES MARRIAGE!"


    He screamed with passion, hope returning to lift his spirit. That was a genius idea! Why didn''t he think about it before? There were plenty of poems and myths were the hero lost his mind for a period of time and was cared about by his wife.


    Yes, they were only literature, but stories had some truth on them.


    "HAHAHA, Prometheus you are truly a genius!" he exclaimed loudly, slapping his tight.


    "Mmm? A genius? Who''s this Prometheus?"


    A vibrant voice came out from the door. Looking at it, Prometheus saw a tall fit girl with flaming short red hair. Her dark eyes looked at him with curiosity as she entered the room.


    ''Who the fu?k is she?''


    ''System!''


    An black interface appeared around the pretty face of the girl, enclosing it in a frame of some sort and displaying a multitude of information about her in black boxes around it.


    [Name: Syndra]


    [Surnames: Flower Picker, Firehead Syndy]


    [Age: 16]


    [...]


    Lots of information remembered Prometheus about who she was and what relationship she had with the predecessor owner of his body: she was his best friend and hunt companion.


    ''Best friend?''


    Prometheus looked at the girl more closely: she clearly was a beauty. The tomboy kind. A flash passed between his eyes, as he tried to think about the information that he read about her before.


    Maybe was the confusion caused by his recent inter-dimensional travel from Earth to Illusory Thunder, maybe it was the panic of having so little time before becoming a retard or maybe was his mind regression having an effect on his memory, but he couldn''t remember much about the things that he read just not too long ago about her.


    ''What the hell?''


    [Short term memory compromised by the decreasing of consciousness] informed him the system, with the weird english-french accent.


    ''Fuck! This is broken! I hate this system! I should be invincible and have free packs of super useful stuff, not getting a useless lizard tattoo and fu?k?n? Alzheimer!''


    "Hey silly, I''m talking to you!" said the red haired girl, putting an arm on her side while stopping right in front of the bed.


    "Oh sorry, I was distracted" nervously said Prometheus, trying to gain time. At the same time he ordered the system: '' System! Was Sif close with this girl? Not friendship close... I mean, very close...''


    [Please provide examples of "very close"] asked the System.


    ''Damn you stupid thing! You are truly useless... you know... walking under the moon or some thing like that...'' started the youth, thinking of some random things that could rapidly confirm to him that they really were childhood sweethearts. ''...or doing thing n?k?d together'' he immediately added after thinking of it.


    [Indeed, Sif and Sydra have talked many times under the moon and bathed n?k?d together in numerous occasion] revealed the system.


    [The most recent time was 3 days and 13 hours before the bandit ?ssault] responded the System.


    ''Oh? That''s... amazing! I don''t even need to work on it!'' Prometheus almost couldn''t hold back from exploding in laughter at the news.


    ''Fuck it, if the power of the mc is disgusting but at least I have the childhood love interest that can help me stay safe.'' thought the Illuria prince. He just needed to ask her without rising any suspicion. Maybe he didn''t even need to marry her in the end.


    ''No, I still need to make it sure!'' he decided after a moment of thought. What would happen if someone else tried to take her hand or some other crazy thing like that? In this world she was already supposed to be married.


    "Ahaha, of course... I was just in awe of you beauty Syndra, you look amazing today" confidently said Prometheus, after having received confirmation about their relationship from the system why would he feel nervous?


    "Uh? Good, you clearly are feeling better today, at least your brain is surely working better" said the girl with a radiant smile. She seemed pretty happy about the compliment.


    ''I''m saved! The Heavens truly do have eyes!''

 Chapter 6 - Of Your Own Age, They Said

    "Sif, did you see a red lizard somewhere?" suddenly asked the girl, looking around the room with a serious expression on her face.


    Prometheus froze when he heard her words. He immediately put up his best poker face, trying to look intrigued by her question.


    "No, why?" he carefully responded, his hearth already up his throat.


    "A Squire has given out a prize of 10 silver coins for anyone who finds it! 10 silver coins Sif! We could buy our way in the Mercenary League!" said the exited red haired girl, grabbing his only arm.


    She suddenly seemed to remember something, her gaze wavering for second. She then looked at his other missing arm, a sad expression appearing on her face.


    "If you become an adventurer you''ll have a chance to be admitted to an exam for knights! Father told me that some of them learn to grow back entire limbs!" she confided, looking at him like if she was waiting for him to pull the lizard from under his bed.


    "That sounds cool..." he really thought that. Being able to regrow his own arm? That would be nice. He really didn''t like it like this.


    ''10 silver coins? That''s a misery!'' he internally felt very depressed. ''Ah, I''m really destitute and poor in this third life of mine, even 10 silver coins seem an incredible amount to my closest friend. What a complete shame.''


    "So did you see a red lizard around?" asked the girl approaching to his face. "I...no, I didn''t see any lizard thing" lied Prometheus, trying to appear the most sincere he could.


    "It''s quite a shame that I can''t move... or I would have gone around the village to try and get my hand on the prize!" he added, to try to sound more convincing.


    "Yes, it''s a real shame... " she confirmed the girl. She leaned over, giving a pat on Prometheus''s shoulder. Se then sit on the side of the bed, looking concerned about the bloody stump cover in cloth.


    ''It''s your chance boy!'' tried to encourage himself Prometheus. ''Here we go... make it or break it! He straightened himself, looking right in the dark eyes of the tomboyish girl.


    "You know, during these days I had plenty of time to think..." he started.


    "Same!" interrupted him the girl, her eyes shining with a gleaming light. ''I think we all did the same, after what happened to us..." continued the girl, suddenly pensive.


    The bandits killed many people, but they also changed those who remained alive. People were reevaluating their life choices in the wake of that disastrous event.


    "That''s cool, but I was thinking of something different... on a more intimate level" started Prometheus trying to steer back the conversation on the right track.


    "Ah... yeah, people are getting lots of that too...you know the blacksmith''s son? Darius? Ahahah, he confesses to me! hahahhaha" laughed the girl.


    ''Fuck, who is this guy? System!'' immediately order Prometheus, black lines appearing on his front. However, before the system had the chance to show him the information it had on this Darius, the red haired girl said something that reassured the inter-dimensional traveler.


    "Like I care about his old stupid ?ss... more than thirty years old and still chasing young girls, what a looser"


    "Yeah, you are right! We should definitely find only a partner of our own age" said self-righteously Prometheus. On the inside he was instead taking a large sigh of relief. For a moment he almost thought that he had already been too late.


    "Plus he isn''t my type at all... he can only think about forging weapons... boring" continued the girl.


    "Ah... so what''s your type?" smugly said Prometheus looking at the girl right in her eyes. Syndra seemed confused by the question. She looked back at her old friend, who was looking at her with a strange half smile.


    "Are you done playing stupid?" she jokingly asked pinching his right leg.


    ''I''m not doing it, but soon enough I won''t even need... I will be naturally retarded for an entire year'' thought painfully Prometheus.


    "Sif, did you hit your head or something? How could you not remember, we talk about her all the time..." said Syndra looking at him with serious concern. She didn''t look annoyed, but a mix of surprised and worried.


    ''What?'' Prometheus felt his heart skip a beat. Did he hear correctly? No, he couldn''t.


    ''She didn''t just say...''


    "Uh, really don''t you remember?" continued the young girl, putting a hand on her right side. Her face changed, showing an intoxicated expression.


    "Young pretty girls! Hahaha, like that hot beauty of the Gurma Village! Petite, black hair and phoenix eyes! If I could put my hands on that ?ss... hahahaha" her eyes shined with intense feelings, and both her cheeks reddened.


    Prometheus stood there in silence. Outside he was seemingly quietly listening to Syndra, but inside he was exploding with furor. It happened again!


    ''System? Did you just trick me again?!'' Prometheus was seething in rage. This was the worst system of them all! ''Maybe it''s like those system that are in reality living intelligent being and they try to fu?k with their hosts!'' evaluated the young man.


    [The Matrix can only respond to your command. It''s a tool, nothing else]


    ''Dam you lying piece of shit! If you explained things more clearly we won''t be in this sea of trouble now!''


    "Ok, ok, I remember now..." tried to calm her down when she started to describe a vast array of s?xu?? techniques that she had thought of.


    "Oh, Sif, you seemed to be strange today? Are you sure you have not hit your head or something?" said the girl, looking at him strangely.


    "No, I''m fine... I support you, I support you... just, i don''t need to know how you wanna do it... not in detail at least, ok? " said the young mutilated man, trying to be the most sensible possible.


    "What?" the girl was shocked. This was the first time someone said something like that to her after she started to describe her fantasies. Insults? Yeah, she got plenty of those. Awkward looks and fleeing people? Yeah, also a loot. But someone who actually said that he supported her love quest? That was the first time!


    "You definitely have hit your head... but I like you better like this Sif!" she smiled widely, then grinned and gave to the young man a elbow hit on his ?h?st.


    "He He He, seen that you support me, I should also support you buddy!" she smirked, coming near the wounded youth. her eyes examined him from head to tows.


    "Wait, what are you doin..." Prometheus backed off towards when confronted by the strange inquisitive look of the red headed girl.


    "Mmm, you don''t have an arm... but that''s ok, you can still work and you won''t be drafted by the Lord if there is a war, so that evens the bonus and the malus..." said Syndra.


    "However you are ugly as fu?k my dude... those scars are everywhere!" she continued shaking her heads while passing a finger on Prometheus face.


    The maimed youth widened his eyes in shock. This girl had no decency!


    "What? We bathed together plenty of times after our hunt trips... ehehehe, I always pay attention to details. However, in your case calling it a detail it would be pretty wrong" laughed evilly the girl her eyes forming two crescent moon and filling with tears.


    ''What the fu?k is she talking about?''


    "Listen, here''s my plan: you should run n?k?d around the village and let all the girls see it... you can just say that you were confused by the pain of whatever bullshit..." she proposed, nodding satisfied by the plan she devised.


    ''...'' Prometheus opened wide his eyes, his mouth almost hitting the floor.


    "I promise that they would immediately change their idea bout you, especially that little whore of Tendrias... didn''t you say that you liked her once?" questioned the girl, putting a hand under her chin, striking a weird ponderous pose.


    "I''m not running n?k?d around the village! Are you insane?!" screamed Prometheus pushing himself outside of the bed. He stood up painstakingly, ignoring the stabbing pain felt on his spine and remaining arm.


    "Oh well, now you''re back to your usual self... screaming at me like always... that''s refreshing and sad at the same time... however it''s a shame... a very shame... and it leaves you with very little choice. That''s because your face is pretty ugly... too many scars... told you that you needed to pay more attention hunting..." persisted the young girl, ignoring the movement of the maimed youth and keeping thinking about how she could match-make him with someone of he village.


    "What the hell..." Prometheus was almost falling into depression hearing so many times that his new body was horrendously hideous from someone who was supposed to be his closest friend.


    "Hey, there is still the old cursed hag if you''re desperate..."


    "..."

 Chapter 7 - Blind Marriage

    Prometheus looked deep in Syndra''s eyes. He soon realized that she wasn''t kidding. She truly was proposing him to marry an old woman.


    ''That''s... genius!'' shouted inwardly the youth. He wasn''t angry at all for the suggestion. Nor he was offended. He found it genial! An old matron could care about him better than a young girl! Plus, she would probably need less his help to survive.


    He took a large breath, tried to calm himself and then nodded to the energetic girl before him.


    "Okay"


    Syndra was smiling ironically, waiting for her old friend to start again cursing her and screaming in agitation like he always did when she played tricks on him. When see saw him nodding and heard him say that he was okay with her proposal, her mouth opened wide and her eyes almost popped outside her eye-sockets.


    "Okay?" se asked, shocked.


    "Yeah" confirmed Prometheus.


    Syndra gave herself a pinch, to be sure that she was really awake and she wasn''t having another of her weird dreams. The pain confirmed to her that she was indeed awake.


    "Are... are you sure?" she tried to confirm again that she did heard correctly what he said.


    Prometheus sighed: he knew that it wasn''t something normal for a young man to ask to marry an old lady. Even on Earth, a planet that was incredibly more civilized than most regions of Illusory Thunder, that was seen as a very weird thing. Yet he had no other choice. He needed someone that could care for him and he needed it now!


    In less than 40 hours he would be a complete retard incapable of securing his own survival. He didn''t have any family left and his only friend was a lesbian teenager! Marriage was his only chance for survival. It wasn''t much, but it was better than having no one to rely on.


    "Yes!" he exclaimed trying to sound the most truthful possible. "I always liked older women!" he added after a moment. The last part wasn''t a real lie. He actually liked more m?tur? women. He tended to consider that women were like wine: the one that tasted better was the more aged one.


    Now there was a line between aged and rotting, a line that he didn''t want to cross. Hold had? that seemed to cross it, but he cound''t do anything about it. It was survival at this point.


    Syndra''s eyes shined with a strange light. She smiled, hugging the maimed youth to her ?h?st. Finally she found someone that could relate to her at a deeper level!


    "I support you Sif! Us weirdos should always back each others to fulfill our dreams!" she screamed, tears of joy pouring down on her face.


    ''Wtf?'' Prometheus was taken aback from her sudden movement. Weirdos? He wasn''t a weirdo, nor was she one. ''No, I need to stop using my Earth common sense here'' he realized. Yes, if he used the common sense that he developed during his first life he could see that both their love preferences were quite far from the normal way of doing things in Illusory Thunder.


    "Argh" he lamented, unable to control himself when an agonizing pulse of pain run across his body starting from his maimed arm.


    "Oh sorry, I forgot" claimed the girl, rapidly separating herself from his body. She gave a look at his missing arm and her eyes watered a bit. The girl knew how much her friend was an archery and hunting fanatic: his body full of scars was a witness to that. However without an arm he would never be able to hold a bow again in his whole life.


    Loosing access to the only thing that he seemed to enjoy had probably pushed him on the edge and now he wasn''t caring much about what people thought of his love preferences. That''s why he was finally opening with her. This was almost the same thing that happened to her.


    Realizing how serious was the situation, Syndra couldn''t bear to just sit on the sidelines: she needed to help him directly!


    "I will go and talk with her! Just stay here and rest" said the girl already eyeing for the door. Panicking, Prometheus stopped her by grabbing her arm and pushing her back on the bed next to him.


    "Wait, I need to.." he tried to find an excuse to forbid her to go talk on his behalf. He just didn''t want her to ruin his only chance by doing or saying something stupid.


    Syndra didn''t resist, even if she knew that she could easily overpower him. She let herself be pressed down on the bed. However, when he started to talk she immediately interrupted her friend, putting a finger on his lips while shaking her head slowly.


    "I really want to help you Sif, but you can''t train your skills on me... I really don''t swing that way" she said, giving to the appalled Prometheus another brief hug and then pushing herself again up.


    Before the stunned youth could say anything else, she was already gone, moving with big steps outside towards the center of the village.


    Prometheus was beyond shocked by what just happened. That girl was completely insane. Who the fu?k wanted to exercise on her? He just didn''t want her to ruin his only chance for survival by saying some stupid thing to the woman he wanted to marry.


    She didn''t look like the person that had a good reputation in the local community, who was the moron that would want her to go and propose a marriage on his behalf? She would probably hit on the bride if she found her of her liking!


    Feeling an headache coming Prometheus put a hand on his head in despair. This third life of his was the worst!


    ''Well, at least I can only go up from here... I''m already at rock bottom''


    He had a system that continuously led him into traps, a best friend that was a moron and a s?x fiend and his whole family was already dead in a attack where he lost his arm!


    What else could go wrong?


    ''System: who is the old hag?''


    Seen that things were already in motion, Prometheus didn''t try to run and stop the red haired moron. He didn''t know even if he could manage to keep up with her speed thanks to the pain that he was feeling. The only thing that he could do was to get information on this old hag person.


    [Old Hag: Name Unknown, Aspect Unknown. She lives on the edge of the forest, expert herbalist.]


    The system didn''t any other information on this woman. In fact, the only thing that Prometheus learned was that she lived near a forest and was an herbalist.


    "So clich¨¦, is she a witch or something?"


    He wouldn''t be much surprised by that. Not with all the weird stuff that were happening to him. The thing that he found curious was the lack of information on the woman, even her real name and aspect were missing from the thing that the system was showing him.


    [The owner of the body didn''t have any interaction with her whatsoever.] explained the system to the young man''s disappointment.


    "Talking about blind dates... this is a blind marriage!"

 Chapter 8 - Ceremony

    [Consciousness 97%]


    [Consciousness 98%]


    [Consciousness 99%]


    [Consciousness 100%]


    ''Hmm'' Prometheus woke up, feeling incredibly dizzy. He tried to move his hand over to his bedside table, trying to silence his phone but instead he lost his balance and just twisted strangely, falling from the bed.


    The youth''s face met the cold stone floor with a loud snap, making him wail. His confused mind was rapidly flooded by a wave of pain.


    ''Damn'' he though, while trying to get up from his position on the ground. He tried to push himself up, only to lose balance once again and fall flat on his face a second time.


    ''What the fu?k'' Prometheus looked at his right side and was met with a brow skinned lump of flesh moving weirdly where his arm should have been. After a moment of panic, he suddenly remembered: the delivery, the strange guy, the black sphere and the fact that he was back in Illusory Thunder.


    The last thing he recalled was him waiting for Syndra, the crazy friend of the previous owner of his body, Sif the hunter. She was supposed to go and speak on his behalf to a certain Old Hag, trying to get him a marriage deal that would save him.


    "When did I fall asleep?" murmured the young man, getting up and sitting back on the large king sized bed. He didn''t remember falling asleep.


    ''Yeah, I guess that reincarnating was a stressful, especially in a body so fu?k?d up'' he considered, trying to find a motive for his mysterious little nap.


    His eyes moved around the room, in the direction where he remembered was the narrow wooden door. Instead he found a rack of weapons. Spears, to be precise.


    "What the fu?k"


    It was in that moment that he realized that the room where he was in wasn''t that similar to the one he had in his memories. Wooden ground? No, this one was cold black stone! Shabby bed? No, this room had a giant bed in black metal with a large and comfortable elastic mat.


    The walls weren''t of wood either, they were made from large rectangular stones. There were many racks filled with countless weapons, especially spears, tridents and javelins.


    "Where Am I?"


    [Location: Blacksmith''s House, Basement]


    [Yes/No]


    The sudden and weird voice of the System made Prometheus jump in fight. He then looked at the interface that appeared before him: the blacksmith''s house? What the fu?k was he doing in the basement of a blacksmith?


    ''No, what I am doing in anybody''s basement?!'' the youth was understandably confused: just a moment ago he was in a wooden room, healing from his wounds and now he was in some creepy basement filled with weird weapons.


    Talking about injuries: Prometheus looked again at the stump that was the only thing remaining from his right arm. It was healed! Completely healed!


    ''How on earth it is already healed?''


    The young man started to move around, trying to see if there still was something that still did hurt him. Nothing! His body worked perfectly.


    "Rise and shine, young man" exclaimed a hearty female voice as a large number of locks snapped open on the the west side of the room. Then a large metal door creaked opening, and a robust woman with curly black hair entered the room.


    "This is the day, young man! Marriage! Isn''t this great? We all waited for so long for this!" she laughed happily, looking at Prometheus with a loving gaze.


    The youth listened to her words and tried to make sense of them, but his mind was keeping to thing to the sound of the locks opening.


    Locked up in a basement? What on earth was happening?


    Here, put these on!" ordered the woman with a firm voice, putting a new elegant black oriental tunic on the side of the bed. "Come on, hurry up! The others are waiting to get going!" she encouraged him.


    ''Maybe it''s a marriage tradition? They drugged me and locked me in a basement... what a fu?k?d up tradition'' he considered dubiously. ''Well in the end the most important thing is that the marriage is on! I need to make it happen before my time is out!" he roared internally.


    He immediately went on his feet, putting on rapidly the clothed that she provided while she weirdly watched him from the side. Prometheus felt that is was a little creepy for the middle aged woman to look at him while he was changing, but then he remembered that he was going to marry and old person that he never met.


    ''Maybe she thinks I have a fetish and she''s trying to get some of this...'' considered the young man, looking at his well defined but heavily scarred n?k?d body. The woman didn''t do much, only watched with the same happy expression plastered on her face until Prometheus finished preparing himself.


    "Let''s go now" she firmly said, starting to move. The youth followed behind the large woman that led the way outside the basement and into a small living room. There, a small group of people was waiting for them.


    "This must be my other friends"


    Their names were displayed in little plaques hovering near their head, making it easy for Prometheus to recognize them from the little story that the system fed him about Sif before.


    "It was time, let''s go" said a black haired youth sitting between two thin guys that looked exactly the same. He looked annoyed, almost as he didn''t want to be there.


    "Ah... ah... yeah, sorry... your right! S..sif, let''s go buddy" stuttered weirdly the black haired young man, trying his best to give a smile to Prometheus but failing miserably.


    ''These people are fu?k?d up in their heads... I don''t want them anywhere near me, let alone at my marriage''


    Yet, he couldn''t just do what he wanted. He needed the marriage to go as smoothly as it was possible.


    ''I''ll put up with these morons for now''


    He looked around the room, trying to find the woman that made all this possible. He liked Syndra, she was weird but kindhearted and she was literally saving his life with this marriage thing.


    The people in the room seemed to notice that he was looking for someone and started to smile wryly.


    It was the black haired woman that intervened again, trying to ?ssure him.


    ''Syndra is waiting for us there, silly... let''s go!''


    Prometheus didn''t get how she could know that he was looking for the red haired girl at first, but then simply considered that it was because she was the person with whom he spent more time. It would be pretty strange if his best friend didn''t show up to his marriage.


    Prometheus immediately realized that it was the place where the ceremony was supposed to take place. He was pretty impressed by the whole thing.


    He was pulled by the black haired woman towards the tent. When he entered, the first thing he saw was a old man with a large flaming red beard. He looked at him with pity then he gave a nod to the women that was pulling him alongside her.


    "Go sit somewhere, be good" he grunted harshly. Then he rapidly moved away, bringing the woman with him. The maimed youth was disgusted by such a rude behavior, cursing him inwardly.


    ''What a d??k, why did they invite him if he doesn''t like me?''


    He really couldn''t understand why a person like that would come to the ceremony. Maybe because it was a small community and everybody was invited?


    ''Still, it sucks''


    Left alone, Prometheus moved his gaze all around the tent: there were at least a dozen people there, but strangely no one seemed able to meet his gaze for more than a couple of seconds. They all diverted their sight from him, like if they were afraid of him somehow.


    ''Well, I do look like a murderer for hire... plus the previous owner of the body was a weirdo that only cared about hunting and practicing with a bow''


    Finally, between the countless faces present, the young man found Syndra. She was sitting next to a group of other girls, chatting. Smiling, Prometheus started moving towards her.


    "Ehy buddy, are you ready? You won''t let me down, now, will you?" she jokingly asked, her gaze faltering. There was something wrong with her expression, but Prometheus couldn''t tell what she was thinking.


    ''Maybe she''s bi and now she realized that she committed a grave mistake by committing only to chase girls'' thought the youth, suddenly getting closer to the girl to make sure the people around him wouldn''t be able to overdevelop him.


    "Listen up, although I''m not that big on the whole harem thing, but... let''s be honest for a second... the more the merrier" he said, looking the girl right in her eyes with an upright tone.


    "What?" shock appeared on the redhead eyes, and her mouth opened in surprise. Prometheus felt an headache coming, trying to correct what he just said.


    "I''m just saying, never say never... plus free love is very..." he started saying, but he was interrupted by a acute scream of joy coming from Syndra.


    "You spoke!" she cried loudly, attracting the attention of everyone in the tent.

 Chapter 9 - Kidnapping the Spouse

    "Yeah, funny... listen..." continued the young one armed man after giving a long nasty look to the girl before him. Screaming that loud a stupid joke like that? On the day of his wedding? If she wasn''t the one that helped him organize it in the first place, he would definitely stop talking to her forever.


    "Can you count to ten?" excitedly asked the girl, grabbing his arm tightly that he felt her fingernail penetrate his skin.


    Prometheus furrowed his brows, and he began to suspect that this "count to ten" thing was another of the crazy marriage tradition of the Mora Village.


    "Of course... of course I can count to ten...what the fu?k" answered the young man without thinking. The woman seemed to almost explode with delight at his answer, her fingernails going even deeper inside his skin. The pain was so high that Prometheus couldn''t help himself and gave a shrill scream.


    "Are you crazy?" exclaimed the youth moving away his arm and distancing himself a bit from the red haired woman that grabbed him so tightly that her nails punctured his skin.


    "This is amazing" said girl, tears of joy filling her eyes.


    He moved towards her his only arm and and showed her the blood that was now filling the small injuries that her fingernail had left on his flesh.


    "What is so amazing about this? Are you insane" he roared, getting more and more angry at the strange behavior of the girl.


    Abruptly, her smile transformed into a confident expression."Ok, I''m not doing it anymore!" she exclaimed loudly, putting her hand on her h?ps and pushing her chin toward the ceiling. "This girl has changed her mind! I won''t do it! Understood?" she then started to laugh loudly.


    ''What the fu?k is happening to this girl?''


    Prometheus started thinking that maybe she was having some sort of burnout seeing her best friend getting married. He looked around, trying to find any other sympathetic gaze from anyone. He needed some help to stop the overexcited girl from ruining his marriage. This is too much important for him to let the red haired crazed youth ruin it.


    He scanned with his eyes the area around him, and realized that everyone was looking at them. Which should be normal: Syndra''s behavior was incredibly strange and loud. Yet the looks that they gave them and the strange atmosphere that he felt in the tent, made Prometheus sense that something wasn''t quite right.


    Then he realized something: the people in the tent weren''t looking at them. They were looking at him. Most of them looked confused, then there were some people that looked amused and finally there was a very small group of people that were visibly fuming in anger.


    The latter were made of the red bearded man that was very rude to him at the entrance, the fat woman that brought him there and the black haired youth that spoke with him in the blacksmith''s house.


    Finally, the red bearded man raised his voice and slammed his hand on the large table before him. His flaming beard swing under his abrupt movement and his thick brows knitted themselves in a severe expression of disapproval and anger.


    "Dammit Syndra! Stop your nonsense right now! You promised that you won''t disgrace us if they allowed you to keep caring for the simpleton!" he screamed.


    ''Wait what?'' Prometheus eyes widened. Simpleton? Plus, why the old fogey was pointing at him while giving his little monologue?


    ''Her wedding? Wait what the hell is going on?'' thought Prometheus, lost. He looked back at the red haired woman with a stunned expression.


    "Are you sure that you feel fine?" she asked him, completely ignoring the two people that had just talk to her.


    "Yeah, I feel pretty well... except for my arm, obviously " said Prometheus. Looking at his missing arm. He coudn''t believe that he had such a bad luck, transmigrating into such a shitty body.


    "What is the last thing you remember?" asked suddenly the red haired girl, with a strange expression on her face.


    "I was waiting for you to go and speak with the old hag, why? Didn''t you make it?" he answered scratching his head. ''Why she''s asking me that...'' he felt pretty confused about what was happening. It was almost as the people around him treated him like an infant.


    ''... like a child?'' a very uncomfortable idea flashed in his mind. "Oh fu?k" the more he thought of it, the more that particular idea made sense. Yet, there was only a way to know if it was anywhere true.


    ''System!'' he carefully called out in his mind.


    [Matrix FYD003201 active, waiting for instruction]


    After a moment of hesitation spent looking at the hovering interface that had popped in front of his face, he finally tested if the idea that he had to see if it held any truth to it.


    [1 hour and 16 minutes] answered the strange sounding system.


    ''No, moron, how many since I woke up in this body''


    [325 days, 3 hours and 16 minutes] revealed with precision the voice in his head. A new window popped up in existence, showing a real-time count of the period that he had asked information about, precise to the seconds.


    Prometheus felt a cold sensation of fear run down his spine while he watched the interference. It already happened? How it was possible? The moment when he thought that he had solved that problem seemed almost less than a few hours ago.


    The fear continued for a couple of seconds, then he had another little realization: ''Wait, I survived!''. He almost coudn''t believe his luck. He did survive!


    "HAHAHAHAHAHA, I survived!" he loudly laughed the one harmed man, ignoring all the looks that he was getting.


    He didn''t get how he did it, but it seemed that lady luck was on his side this time. Even if something had evidently gone wrong he still managed to survive and that was what it mattered.


    "Wait, if I survived, then why I''m marrying?" he asked the youth as his smile died down when he realized that there was still something weird about the situation that he was in.


    "What are you talking about Sif? This is my marriage!" exclaimed the red haired girl newt to him, shocking the already confused Prometheus.


    "No, that stupid girl died r?p?d and beaten to death a bunch of mercenaries that she run off with..." she said the red haired girl, her face suddenly loosing her radiant smile.


    "Oh... that''s not good" realizing that his words weren''t that comforting, the one armed youth tried to think of something else. "I''m sure that this girl you chose for the marriage is as s?xy as her" he nodded with a serious expression on his face.


    ''No that''s as bad as the first one... what''s wrong with me... three life times and still as awkward as people could be''


    A sudden loud sound of caked glass attracted his attention to the little group of furious people: the black haired dude had literally broken his glass of wine, harming himself with plenty of sharp sharps.


    "Phhh, to think that I got almost married to that moron!" said Syndra, a flash of anger appearing in her eyes.


    "Ah, you fina..." started Prometheus, but then looking at the threatening glint in the girl''s eye he stopped halfway through his phrase. "... I mean, you changed to boys? That''s cool I guess..."


    "Bitch, I did it to help you! I couldn''t take care of you alone, and Darius''s mother said that she could take care of you if I married her stupid ugly son" she explained.


    Prometheus felt a warm feeling in his heart when he heard what the girl said. She cared for him while he was a retard? That meant that she was the reason why he survived! Maybe he had someone who loved him in this third life of his after all.


    "That''s... thank you" the one harmed youth didn''t find the words to express how much he felt in debt in that moment.


    "Eh, you better help me out now... to save you I almost got married to that stupid ugly ?ss bitch over there" then she pointed at the black haired youth next to the robust woman.


    "Damn, Syndra be more considerate! maybe he''s stupid, but he doesn''t seem ugly to me... and it''s not a polite pointing at people..." said Prometheus, looking at the black haired youth and giving him a nod. He knew the how hard the pain of refusal could be, so he felt bad for the poor guy.


    "Look at him! No perky t?ts, no nice ?ss... what''s supposed to be beautiful in that thing?" she shamelessly exclaimed the red haired girl, checking out the now trembling black haired youth with a gaze full of disdain.


    "Disgraceful s?ut!" roared the red bearded man, flipping the table before him and starting to move towards the two friends.


    Syndra didn''t wait for the man to reach them to start to move. She grabbed Prometheus with a hand, and started running towards the side of the tent.


    "See you retards!" she screamed loudly, as a large hunting knife appeared in her hands taken from under her cloths. She cut the white wall that stood before her, and bringing Prometheus along she started running crazily towards the outskirt of the village.


    "Oh, look! Crazy Sif is kidnapping the spouse!" screamed an old woman near the section of the tent that had been cut by the red haired girl.


    Prometheus heard the loud scream and almost tripped face first to the ground: he was the one kidnapping her? What the hell was wrong with these people, were they blind?

 Chapter 10 - From Zero To Hero

    The Mora Village was your typical small and remote hamlet.


    It was surrounded by fields and wasn''t too much far from a forest. The habitations were made mostly in wood, with only a couple of structure that stood out for being at least partially made with large rock slabs. Most of the buildings were recently built, and there were also some new in construction on the north side of the village.


    Contrary to most places like this, Mora was quite heavily defended: the village was surrounded by a double layered palisade with a single large entrance on the southern region. Drenches had been dug outside a long wall made of spear-looking pales and the only entrance to the village was defended by massive iron doors. A tall watch tower surmounted the entrance, equipped with large plates of copper that could be used to alert the entire community in case of attack.


    More than a small village, Mora looked like a small fortress, at least from the outside.


    These defensive measures weren''t always there. There was a time when the hamlet didn''t even have wall, nor an actual entrance. There were no watchtowers and everyone could leave and enter from every side of the village.


    It all changed when less than a year ago a bandit raid had put the entire community on their knees.


    Almost half of Mora''s population died in that bloody attack, many survived only to perish shortly after from the wounds that they received. Most of the structures had been put on fire after being searched for valuable items. Many girls had been kidnapped, and almost all those who remained were abused in some way.


    To avoid this happening again, Mora''s people requested some help from the local Lord, Knight Feng, but he didn''t seem to care much about such a small hamlet. The noble said that he felt that sending his forces to hunt the bandit that attacked the village would be a complete waste of time.


    The village bordered with the Iryona Forest, an immense wild region that spanned also in the territory of several other nobles. If the bandits hid in another lord''s territory, he would have no way to reach them/


    The people of the village worked very hard creating a defensive system that would allow to protect themselves against another attack of the bandit group.


    They even made a new rule that stated that at least one person should always be on top of the watchtower. No matter what was happening, no matter if it was day or night. Someone needed to stay in the tower to make sure that nobody tried to sneak in the village.


    On the day of the marriage that someone was Rob. Rob was a tall and well built man. He was always clean shaved and wore large working clothes all the time. He had been a soldier, serving for a few years in Lord Feng''s army before settling down in the village and using all his money to pay for an apprenticeship to the local blacksmith.


    He stood there, on the top of the watchtower, looking inside the village, towards one of the stone structures that stood out between the wooden ones.


    "Ah, the ceremony should have already started" he said, talking to himself with a sad smile. He really wanted to be there, but someone needed to stay on guard.


    "Maybe it was a bad idea volunteering for this" he continued, remorse appearing in his eyes. This wasn''t his turn to be on duty after all. Normally, it should have been old Kruth''s turn, however he had asked to take his place.


    This was the day when Kurth''s gran-daughter would finally marry his teacher''s son after all. How could the old man miss the marriage of his only remaining family member? It felt the right thing to do, taking his place on guard duty.


    Rob was only a couple of years older than the son of his teacher, Darius, and he didn''t know the guy that well. However, he knew how much hard the young man had worked to get that girl to accept his proposal.


    Even when she finally accepted, he had basically forced her hand. Everybody knew that if it wasn''t for crazy-Sif she wouldn''t have agreed. She needed someone that could help her care for her retarded friend, because she wasn''t able to do so alone anymore. When Darius heard that, he offered her a deal: she had to marry him and he would take care of crazy-Sif for the rest of his miserable life.


    The man looked down, his attention attracted by a loud scream. He saw a couple of people running out from the blacksmith''s house.


    The person running on the front was surely Syndra. Her flaming hair was something very easy to identify. Rob was pretty confused: was the ceremony already ended and the newly wed couple running to their new house? No, that seemed a little bit far fetched. The ceremony would last for a couple of hours at least.


    Plus, even if Darius had been waiting for that moment for long, Syndra didn''t seem the type of girl that would run towards the place where marriage would be consumed.


    "Wait a moment, that''s not Darius!" exclaimed the man in the tower, noticing that the guy that she was dragging along with her was too meager to be the son of the blacksmith. When he saw that he had only one arm, he immediately knew who he was: Sif, Syndra''s crazy friend.


    Sif had been a silent strange guy for most of his life, even before he went insane. Before they called him the hunter mania, because he could only think of hunting and training his archery skills.


    However after the attack of the bandits, the guy completely changed: not only he lost all his family, he lost even an arm, becoming a cripple at such a young age. Something snapped in him and now he was a retard, a completely crazy person that couldn''t even talk.


    "What are they doing?" Rob noticed that the two of them had surpassed the wooden house that Darius''s parents had rapidly built for the marriage of their son. They kept running in direction of...the doors!


    "They''re running away!" he finally understood.


    A grin appeared on his face, as he started to move down the watchtower. From his side, he took out an old looking mace, his weapon from his day as a soldier that he brought with him everywhere he went. Then, he put himself in the very middle of the road that lead outside the village.


    Plus, where she thought she was going to go? Maybe alone she could manage to survive outside Mora for some time, but with that retard with her? She had no chance at all. He was sure that once she calmed down and m?tur?d a bit she would even thank him for stopping her for making such a big mistake.


    With a severe expression on his face, Rob stood there, waiting.


    Not too far from where the blacksmith''s apprentice was waiting, a young couple of friends was running as fast as they could.


    Prometheus felt his hand hurt from Syndra''s grip, but each time he tried to free himself she only closed it even more.


    ''Dammit, I can run all alone! I don''t need help to follow you, I''m not a child!'' he wanted to scream, cursing at her but at the same time he didn''t want to start an argument in such a precarious situation.


    "No" exclaimed out of the blue the redhead that was running before him. The woman stopped suddenly, without giving poor Prometheus any indication that she was going to do so. Obviously, the guy crashed into her, and they both ended rolling on the ground.


    Prometheus wailed in pain as he got up, frowning towards the girl that was still on the ground next to him. If it wasn''t for the fact that she just revealed to him that she saved his life, he surely would have beaten her to a pulp.


    "Stay down kid" Ordered a severe voice that made him jump in his place.


    Prometheus moved his eyes beyond the body of the woman before him. A dozen meters from his position there was a big metal door. In the very middle of that metal door stood a tall man that was pointing a mace towards him.


    "I said stay down, don''t let me come there to spank you kid" laughed the man, rotating the iron weapon in his hand.


    Prometheus''s face fell. Did that guy just menaced him of spanking? And why was he playing with that hideous looking mace? Was he planning to spank him with that?


    This Mora Village was truly a nest of despicable degenerates.


    "Fuck off weirdo" said the one armed guy with anger, while patting the dust out of his clothes. He wasn''t scared of a guy with mace.


    "Oh did you grow a tongue? Hahaha, Syndra you thought your pet a new trick?" said the man that was blocking their escape, giving very inappropriate looks at Syndra''s exposed th??hs.


    The red haired girl got also on her feet. Her right knee hurt like hell, probably it was dislocated.


    "Dammit!" she cussed. Trying to outrun the man was now out of the picture: probably now she needed to beat him in a fight! Syndra took out the long hunting knife that she had used before to escape from the white marriage tent.


    "Let us pass Rob, this doesn''t concern you!" she said, slowly moving around the man, trying to get to the other side of the gate.


    "Mph, of course it does. Did you forget who''s apprentice am I?" he responded the man, not seeming concerned at all about the blade that she had on her hands.


    "MOVE NOW" she roared, readying herself to fight. There was a mad fire burning in her eyes that made even the experienced ex soldier feeling uncomfortable.


    "Ahaha, stand down little girl. I''m not a dear or a rabbit, you won''t win a fight against me!" Rob tried to scare her off. "You should stay here and wait until your husband comes to get you. Your place is-"


    Prometheus, already trembling with rage for the insults taken from the tall man, exploded in fury listening to what the guy was saying to the person that saved his life.


    He never was a very calm and poised guy, so his first reaction was to go there and beat that man to a bloody pulp. He didn''t have any weapon, but he still attacked. Taking advantage of the fact that he was completely ignoring him and was focused on Syndra, the one armed guy flashed towards the mace wielding man.


    In the moment he started moving, Prometheus realized something strange: he was too much fast! Before he could even realize it he crashed into the tall man, tackling him like he was in a rugby game. They both ended up on the ground.


    The one armed man immediately got on his knees, eyeing the mace that was still in the other man''s hand. Rob, instead was paralyzed by the pain for a moment: he felt like if he just had an impact with a solid piece of rock.


    He couldn''t believe his eyes: was that really crazy-Sif? When did he become so fast and strong?


    However soon his fighting experience made him recover from the stupor and with a loud scream he forced his body to move. He swung his mace towards the young man''s head, not hesitating to try to deal a mortal strike against him.


    Syndra''s eyes almost gouged out of her eye-sockets. One moment Rob was teasing her while playing around with his mace and the next one he was wrestling on the ground with Sif. Before she could join the fight, helping her friend, she noted that Rob was striking with his iron mace towards Sif''s head.


    Prometheus looked at the approaching seven bladed iron mace. He didn''t feel any panic at all. Why would he? That mace seemed to travel with an insanely slow speed.


    He moved his hand, and closed it around the wrist of the man that was trying to kill him. It was something that he learned in a self defense class when he was in high school, but he never thought it would be so easy to do it in a real life and death combat.


    ''Maybe this is adrenaline?'' he though dubiously. He tightened his grip on his enemy''s hand, and the air was filled by the cracking sounds of broken bones.


    Rob screamed, he was in disbelief and pain. He, a trained veteran that served for years had been so easily subdued by the madman of the village? How come he was so insanely strong?

 Chapter 11 - Leaving Home

    Prometheus looked at the man that he was entangled with: the shock and the pain that was evident in his expression made him feel a little proud about himself.


    "Not talking shit anymore, aren''t you?"


    The youth let go of the man''s broken hand, and at the same time took hold of the old mace that Rob left on the ground. His eyes narrowed and he gave to the wailing man a slick smile.


    "You seemed to love it when you menac-"


    However, before he could even finish his words, Prometheus'' eyes widened in shock as his face was slapped with warm liquid.


    His whole body shivered, his knees trembled and his breath became rugged. A weird gurgling sound echoed in the air and the one armed youth felt his nostrils invaded by a strong metallic smell.


    Prometheus moved his eyes towards the trembling slim figure that stood behind Rob. He could see the shock in her eyes.


    She stood there, her face pale but also marked by fresh scarlet stains. Blood. The same blood that sprinkled all over the face of Prometheus, the same blood that was still gurgling out from a wound on Rob''s throat.


    "I thought... I thought he was going to kill you... I thought..." Syndra''s voice was rough and broken, lacking any shroud of energy that she usually had.


    The large knife that she used to attack fell to the ground but she didn''t even react to that. She kept looking at the man that was trying to take his last breaths, his throat flooded by his own blood.


    Death.


    This was the first time that he ever saw someone in such a state. It definitely wasn''t like he had imagined it: It was bloody and messy. It didn''t even look real. It was like he was looking to some kind of prop from a splatter movie. No way a normal person had that much blood inside.


    "Stop!"


    "Look, they beat Rob to the ground!"


    "Syndra, stop playing around! You are embarassing our family!"


    It almost seemed like an infinite amount of time passed while the two young friends looked at the dying man in front of them.


    "Embarassing your family? that stupid bitch? She promised that she would marry my son if we took care of her friend and now she shames us publicly the day of our great day? She embarasses the whole village!"


    "Watch your tongue. She is still my-"


    "I''m going to break her little retarded pet and throw it out the village! And she will marry my son, willing or not! She will submit or I''m going to take this whole travesty to the Judge in Feng City!"


    "I''m done! They are going to bring me to the Judge and I''m going to be executed!"


    Prometheus'' ear moved slightly and his blank eyes suddently seemed to regain focus. He looked at the girl in front of him, noticing the horror in her expression.


    He then noticed that the man that stopped them from fleeing was now motionless. Even the blood that came out of his wound was less watery.


    "We can explain, he was the one using force to detain us, he had no right to do so, we only tried to defend ourselves!"


    Even as he said those worlds Prometheus felt a grip on his hearth. Who was he kidding? This was not Earth. There was no real fair justice here.


    Syndra''s face was paling even more now that she had recovered her senses. "Rob served under Knight Feng... I''m going to be hanged. It''s all over... " A sad smile appeared on her thin lips. "Sif you must run away, there is nothing that can save me now, but you can still save yourself! I delivered the killing blow, they won''t care much about you..."


    Prometheus felt his whole body shake.


    ''Run?''


    A strange light shined in his eyes for a moment. He took a large breath and then moved towards the girl. Before she could say anything, he f?r??b?? pushed her back, sending her towards the opened doors of the hamlet.


    "You killed him to help me. And I owe you my life already."


    The red haired girl realized that Sif''s sounded different. No, not only sounded: he gave her a different feeling.


    It was like if a strange air materialized itself around the young one armed man. She could feel a certain gravitas coming from him. An innate sense of authority that shocked her deeply.


    "I got this."


    No hesitation could be seen in his eyes. He looked towards the villagers that were now so close that he could hear them breathing heavily while running.


    His eyes moved especially towards the old man with a long red beard and the fat matron that he met when he regained his senses.


    A grimace appeared on his face. Disdain, pure and simple disdain. He pointed towards them with the mace in his hand. "Stop following me you commoner scum!"


    "Sif, you slimy little fu?k! Get away from my Syndra!" the first to react to Prometheus'' words was Darius, the young man that was supposed to get marry today.


    His face was red with fury. "I''m done being nice to you, retard. I''m going to go to Feng City and demand justice from the Jud- ???!!!"


    Suddenly the approaching horde of villagers stopped on their track. They all looked in shock towards the slim one armed boy while he extracted a bloody mace from what remained of Rob''s head and he pointed it towards them.


    Some people started to retreat: Rob was a warrior. A true warrior! If Sif could kill someone like him, they stood no change against him. While they wanted to protect the honor of the village and make the marriage happen, no one wanted to risk their life.


    Plus, leaving alone the fact that killing Rob was already incredible, the way that he was slain was truly too much: his entire head had become a dirty mush of blood, cerebral fluids and broken bones. When did crazy Sif become so ferocious?


    But things did not finish there. Under the gaze of the entire Mora village, the crazy cripple that everyone considered a meak and foolish crazy person, started to slam Rob''s mace on the corpse of the poor ex soldier.


    "He''s still crazy!"


    "No, it''s even worse! Now he''s become a vicious demon! I knew that something like this would happen when he married that old witch"


    "Crazy Sif has become a true evil madman"


    Prometheus ignored the horror of the villager and kept slaughtering the remains of poor Rob. He stopped only when the corpse was completely unrecognizable, with not even a single bone intact. Even the ground where it laid became a little crater, with long cracks that spread out from the shattered body.


    He then sent a threathening gaze towards the small amount of villagers that didn''t seek the safety of their homes during his butchering.


    He squeezed the bloody mace between his belt and his body, looking directly towards Darius. Almost daring him to say something so he could keep it outside.


    The dark haired young man tightened the grip of his closed hands, his face darkening in rage. Yet, he didn''t have the courage to say anything. Not after what he just saw.


    Prometheus snikered and then grabbed the red haired girl that was standing a couple of meters behind him.


    ''Let''s go." He said, giving his back to the villagers and starting to walk with calm towards the lush forest that surrounded the Mora.

 Chapter 12 - Catching Up

    "Sif, are you sure that you feel fine?"


    It was hours that the two young fugitives were traveling in silence, walking deep into the Iryona Forest. During this time, Syndra re-examined what happened back at the village multiple times in her head, especially the last things that Sif had done to Rob''s corpse.


    At first she didn''t think much of her friend''s actions. However, that was mostly because she was in shock about what she had just done. She killed a man. She wasn''t new to killing or violence, she was an expert hunter and she had beaten pretty badly a lot of people in her life.


    However she never thought that she would one day kill a human being. It was different that killing an animal or beating someone that had been rude to her. It felt different. One could say that she was in shock from the moment she realized what she had done to the moment that they finally reached the forest and began their escape. So she couldn''t be blamed for not immediately recognize the weirdness of her companion''s actions.


    It was only way after they left the village, in the tranquillity of the forest, that she started to examine to the thing that happened with more calm. It didn''t take long to make her realize that Sif''s actions had been pretty extreme.


    She had murdered a man, true, but it was in the fury of the moment. She was trying to save her friend that she believed was going to get murdered. Sif, however, was extremely collected and rational when he started to smash Rob''s corpse into pieces.


    That wasn''t sane behaviour. Even if it was just a corpse, who could do something like that? And why?


    Maybe he did it to intimidate the people of the village and make them stop from following them No, that was absurd. Just making them know that he bested Rob in combat would have been sufficient.


    Not even her grand-father would had taken the chance to follow someone capable of dispatching of Rob in such short span of time. There was no need to destroy its corpse in such a ferocious way.


    She really couldn''t understand why he did it and she even began to have the suspicion that Sif had really lost his mind.


    Observing him now he didn''t look completely normal: he moved around in silence, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. From time to time he made some strange gesture in the air in front of him and muttered some strange words.


    All this, plus the fact that he just recently recovered from a long period when he was in an almost catatonic state. Where he would never talk and move around slowly like a living puppet, unable to feel pain of any kind, made her fear for the worst.


    Was he going to fall into a new type of craziness now? She needed to known.


    Not having received any answer to her question, she tried to tap his shoulder. "Ah!" She immediately retracted her hand, fleeing the scorching temperature of her friend''s skin.


    Prometheus stopped on his tracks, turning around and looking at her with a guilty expression.


    "Fuck, I''m sorry... I was testing something"


    Syndra looked at her hand and then to the thin young man in front of her in confusion. Did she just get burned touching him?


    The one armed youth looked at her hand with apprehension. He made a large gesture with his hand, causing a small red lizard to appear from under his clothes.


    "This is the reason why I was in that state during the last year."


    Syndra''s eyes narrowed looking at the long narrow body of the small crimson creature. A red lizard?


    A memory passed through her mind. She actually recalled something about a creature like that.


    "That, a squire was looking for it!"


    "Yes, it''s the same that the squire was looking for... it bonded with me" Prometheus didn''t beat under the bush, giving her an honest reply to the girl.


    Seeing that she clearly didn''t get what he was saying, he tried to be more careful with his words. " This is no ordinary lizard, it''s a Horned Flaming Lizard that has the ability to use fire magic. If someone bond with it, they will also gain such an ability..."


    Although it wasn''t the whole truth and he had grossly simplified his powers, it was the clearest way that he could make her understand what he was talking about. Talking about how a strange man gave him a magic system in another world would not be that easy to follow for her.


    To make his point even more clear, he decided to even show her what he could do now that he had full control over his first totem.


    "And now, I can do this..." the young man snapped his fingers and the lizard transformed into a ray of red light, darting towards his hand. A red tattoo appeared on the back of his hand, depicting the crimson reptile. It was an exact replica, that didn''t look like a drawing at all. It even seemed to breath.


    "And this..." Prometheus moved his hand towards one of the branches that was obstructing his path, touching a particular leaf with his fingers.


    Immediate, the point of contact between his fingers and the leaf began to generate smoke. Then, a crisp burning sound started to emanate from the leaf, and it began to transform to ashes that drifted away with the wind.


    The reason why he did so was that he had read and watch so many adventures where the main hero kept secrecy around his powers and only got endless trouble for that. If he trusted a person and he did trust Syndra, why wouldn''t he let her know the extend of his powers?


    That was just stupid in so many ways. Sure, he wasn''t sure that it was the moment to reveal to her that he wasn''t her "Sif", but that day would also come eventually.


    He truly had no problem revealing that. It was not like he harmed her friend in any way, he was dead when he took his body and continued living as him.


    Syndra was blown away. She moved her arm towards Prometheus, pointing at his face with a slender finger.


    "You''re truly a magician?"


    Prometheus felt that something was wrong with her expression. He expected some strange reaction to his revelations, but Syndra was taking all that crazy information very well it.


    "Uhm? Well...yes, I guess..."


    She stood there in silence for a moment, then she started to jump around laughing with joy. Her eyes shined with an unprecedented amount of excitement as she moved next to Sif.


    "HA HA HA, then we can just go to another domain, far from the Feng and join a mercenary group there! Magician don''t even have to pay for admission to the Guild and they can create their own company!"


    ''Magicians, uh? I remember a couple of stories about them...''


    In his precedent life he had heard of regions where cultivation was not the most used method of gaining power and people followed different paths to gain power.


    If he was not mistaken, magicians stored their power outside their body, on gems and staffs, and were renowned for their incredible complex incantations. However he didn''t know anything more than that, so he wasn''t completely sure that trying to make himself pass as one of them was a good idea.


    Syndra put her hand on her sides, pointed her head toward North East. "We can leave right now, I know the road to Marraki City, grandpa showed it to me once when we visited Feng City"


    Prometheus shook his head. "I don''t think it''s a wise idea, we should stay here for a while..."


    The red haired girl seemed surprised for second, then a sad look appeared on her face. She came closer to her friend, sighed, and put a hand on his shoulder, making sure to not touch any stop that had n?k?d skin.


    "Listen Sif, I understand how you feel, I truly do... when... when I was told that the love of my life escaped with a bunch of random mercenaries I felt heartbroken for days..."


    Prometheus almost wanted to stop her there. First he really didn''t understand what she was getting at, and second: only a few days? Wasn''t that too little to grieve for the love of one''s life?


    Yet, looking at her serious expression he decided to let her finish her little speech without commenting on her sense of commitment. Or better lack of it.


    Then, almost as she was talking to herself, her eyes started to shine with an invisible flame as she gripped tightly her fists.


    "They said that the Knight that rules over that city is the most beautiful lady that was ever born in the Eastern Region! I know it''s impossible, but... well, a girl can still dream..."


    Prometheus looked a the visibly intoxicated young lady with a confused expression. Old hag? Getting over it?


    ''Oh, no no no no''


    A shrill voice came out of the one armed man throath. "Wait, what??"

 Chapter 13 - Loud in the Night

    Dark clouds masked the star. The air was filled with smell of rain and roasted meat even if not a single drop of water had dropped on the ground.


    As for the meat, that was clearly there. A small deer was suspended on a stick over a camp fireplace. Large and dirty stones that contain a couple of flaming pieces of wood that were roasting the animal.


    Prometheus was sitting before a fire, his eyes lost in a screen that only visible to him.


    [Welcome to Matrix FYD003201, all functionality have been activated]


    [Name: Prince Seven Illuria, Prometheus Flogos, Sif]


    [Age: 18 (Biological), 45 (Total) ]


    [Cultivation: I - Foundation Establishment, Early Stage]


    [Affinity: Fire]


    [Energy: 0/10]


    [Strength: 5]


    [Velocity: 5]


    [Endurance: 8]


    [Soul: 2]


    [Totems: 1 x Horned Flaming Lizard]


    [Skills: Archery (Intermediate), Guitar (Poor)]


    [Techniques: None]


    When he first asked the system to show him his new stats, he almost couldn''t believe it. The change was too sudden, too extreme. One day he was a broken young man, with a body that was even less strong than the normal average of mortals, and the next he was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator?


    From what he understood, the merit of such a change was due to the Horned Flaming Lizard. The little creature continued to m?tur? even in its totem form and when it reached the rank 1 cultivation stage, the so called Foundation Establishment, his body also followed it.


    This system was broken. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure. If he managed to find a creature that was feeble but had the chance to evolve to a high rank of cultivation he would be able to ignore any kind of bottomleck and just continuosly level up.


    A smile appeared on his face, while strange shadows caused by the fire danced on his skin. Naturally such a creature did not exist and even if it did, it wasn''t something that he could put his hand on.


    Yet, even as it was he realized that he had endless opportunities thanks to his system. The only ceiling that he could hit was to be unable to find creature of the appropriate rank or the founds to acquire them.


    Syndra sighed from her position next to the one armed guy. She believed that the silence that her friend was some form of depression that was dued to the facts that she told him about the woman that he married and how she mysteriously disappeared.


    In reality, Prometheus didn''t really care that much about it. What Syndra told him was pretty sad and made him feel bad for a while, but that was it.


    He was thinking of more pressant things, like the most effective method to gain enough power to protect himself in such a word of crazed young lords and egomaniacs that believe that they were always right. To not talk about the constant ugly bloodsheds that were common occurrence.


    In some way he missed Earth, he missed the safety of civilized society. Yes he was strong, but only in comparison to common and low level people. Foundation Establishment was only the first step of cultivation.


    Plus, contrary to other cultivators, that had trained in more or less rapid cultivation methods to recover and improve their strengths, he only had a very basic innate skill to absorb energy from the surrounding. It was the innate fire absorption ability of his totem, that allowed him to absorb a ridiculously low amount of fire energy per hour.


    Just to use the only technique that his lizard knew a single time, he had to absorb energy for at least five hours. All that work to use a very weak fire skill, that allowed him to burn things that touched his body.


    He couldn''t even use it to rise his cultivation level.


    ''I have a lot to work on...''


    Sighing in his mind, Prometheus followed the advise of the red haired girl and took a piece of roasted meat from the spinning stick that the latter was operating.


    Looking his expression, Syndra slapped her tight in grief. The young man could even swear that there were some traces of tears in her luminous eyes.


    "Ah, look at you... so depressed that you don''t even seem able to appreciate a proper meal anymore..."


    Prometheus smile started to tremble, thick lines forming on his forehead. He was utterly unable to find any word to express the frustration that he was feeling.


    He definitely wasn''t depress at all! She was a shitty cook, that''s all. Heavens! Even using some random herb would have been better that just cooking the raw meat.


    The one armed young man could have swear that he saw some bushes of rosemary not even a dozen of meters from where they set up camp. Why the fu?k she didn''t try to use that at least?


    Yet, the girl truly seemed to believe that the strange expression made by her friend was due to the stuff she revealed to him that morning.


    In fact, it was his fault in some way: after their escape from the village, he made the mistake of asking Syndra what happened to the woman that he supposedly married in his less mentally active status.


    The red haired told him that the poor old woman had been kidnapped, probably by the same mercenary force that took the girl that Syndra was in loved with back then. The timing of her disappearance coincided with their passage through the zone.


    Now, she didn''t know for sure that she was kidnapped. From what Prometheus could gather, she could simply have escaped to another village. She wasn''t truly part of the community. She was an outsider that joined the village during her late teens and had always been a loner.


    Yet, if one should believe Syndra, this old hag really liked him for some reason. The red haired girl swore multiple time that when she brought him to her little house at the border of the village, the old woman started to tear up, trembling in emotion.


    She immediately agreed to the marriage and even pretended that it must be celebrated that same day before anything else. Even when she understood that her husband to be was not fine in the head, she continued with the marriage. During the following three months she did everything in her power to find a solution to his strange mental illness.


    Prometheus could tell from her tone that Syndra had some kind of respect for the old hag, even if she didn''t want to show it. Which in some sense was understandable. If you watch someone caring about a dear friend of yours, you will develope some sentiment toward said person. Even if you hated them in the beginning.


    However, one day the woman simply dissapeared. She didn''t leave any note or told anyone that she was going away for a while. She simply, dissappeared.


    Prometheus found it a very sad story, but that''s all. Well, he also found it incredibly creepy: and old woman that jump with happiness when she is offered to marry a young man that is mentally challenged?


    The Heavens only know what she had done to him when Syndra wasn''t there to watch. Also, it was a good thing that he didn''t rememeber anything about that period of time.


    "Listen, Syndra... I really don''t care abo- ??"


    Prometheus was going to try and explain another time that he really didn''t care that much about it when something else in the distance captured his attention. No, it demanded it. It forced all his attention away from whatever he was doing.


    A sound, a loud bellowing shook the night.


    Prometheus'' eyes narrowed. He could feel something peculiar in the air, similar to what he normally sensed when he was using his totem''s skill to absorb fire energy.


    Suddenly, the night was lit up for a single instant by a strange blue thunder. An azure path was painted on the darkness, that held it as some sort of giant dark canvas. It started from the dark clouds and fell toward the ground in a very intricate way.


    A second bellowing, brimming with defiance echoed all over, filling the air even more with that something that Prometheus could now recognize as some form of energy. Some energy that was clearly different from his fire energy.


    However the sound only lasted for a single instant, before it transformed into a grieving lament. Then, finally, it all fell silent again.