"Ahhh.. Ahhh! "
A sudden shout of pain break the silence of the early morning sun. It reverbrated to the whole area around 200 meter and caused the early morning roosters to cuckoo in disatisfaction. Clearly the animals had the thought that someone else is stealing their limelight which they are extremely proud of. Hence, a cacophany of sounds broken through the morning with roosters yelling, animals neighing and some vulgarity that people who suddenly got woken up made.
"F*ck you Bolemo! Are you trying to get yourself killed again?" a burly man who has six pack abs, tanned skin, short height of about 4 meters and some inches came out of his hut and roared. He look disproportion to his muscled body that he can be considered almost a midget that overworked his muscle. Clearly someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger but just shorter.. a bit more shorter.
"Ah.. shit! "
The burly man almost drop his pants that wasn't even button when he heard another scream.
"Just leave him be VaklangTwoo. You've been here for a few years, there's nothing new about him so why get upset?" an old man who was standing not far away from VaklangTwoo said and lit up his cigar. The old man inhaled some air and created halos made of smoke when he exhaled.
It was quite a sight to behold. Especially when the old man spit out halos after halos. The smoke look like some kind of strange beast when superimpose. It even have the eye light like spiritually conscious creature has.
The old man crouch down. Continued inhaling more air that made him cough like someone who will breath their last.
"That lad never change. What can you get with those dirty tattoo? He should have just till the lands behind his yard, thats better way to spend your time"
"My daughter like him before but now, he looks scary enough for halloween"
Chuckles of some old ladies came while holding big basin with clothes inside. The sun just started to shine rays in this tiny village but the women has already started going to the river to wash clothes while some men geared up and head to the forest to hunt and tend to their farmlands.
"Just let him be. Its his own life to squander anyway, why care? I heard his relatives are quite rich in the city. Bolemo doesn't need to sweat to eat unlike us poor villagers"
The women cannot help but sigh to what the old man said. The burly midget just sneered and went back to his hut.
"Sigh, I wish I can come back to the time when I was strong and women are lining up for a bit of my time"
Everyone in the vicinity just laugh at the old man scrambling and made their way to do their chores.
Bolemo heard everything. He was made fun of but he didn't care. Gritting his teeth he continue carving or at least thats what it looks like, he draw a black spot the size of normal nail head at his arm where the arteries are. Sweat drop of his face but he did not lose his concentration. He use the electrical needle and colored the circle until it became black.
It scalded his skin. The red burning skin and black ink gives a chilling feeling. Bolemo did not winced in pain. He let it be while admiring his masterpiece. The drawing was simple but it took him almost 6 hours to made his latest tattoo. A masterpiece that he is proud of. He started 11PM and finished just now.
Bolemo gave it a few more glances and nodded.
"It was hard but I really love it" The tattoo is a a black triangle facing left, two horizontal lines at the right side followed by a black triangle facing the right and a block spot at the side. They were arrange in one neat order like a play and pause buttons found while watching videos in a cellphone or computers.
Bolemo caressed the tattoo like caressing his own lover. To tell the truth his body is full of tattoo, but this is the only one he put himself. Bolemo is a total fan of tattoo art. It was a fanatism that went beyond the norms. When he see a tattoo, it is like he can see them alive, moving and even glaring at him.
It all started when he attended a tattoo conference that he saw a lifelike phoenix at the back of the artist body. The birds mouth is screeching while stretching out its wings that envelope the artists arms through the shoulder. The fiery bird was bathing in flames. The feathers was drawn with a crimson colored ink that made it burn even hotter. You can feel the heat even though it was just a tattoo. This fascinated Bolemo. Its feathers were drawn with so much details that it almost feel like real feathers attached to the skin.
"Wow I cant believe I will be able to do this someday" Bolemo exclaimed. He titled his head and lean his tired body in the wall and regulated his breathing.
Total silence. He started to immerse in a relaxed state for a few minutes. Only the ticking of the clock at the wall can be heard. The sounds of people getting up and started working did not cause disturbance to Bolemo's peace of mind.
He felt his tattoo squirming. In his mind, every piece of ink that was on his body started to get to life. The chains that was on both on his feet from the knees to his toes starter to give out grating sound like a machine moving that has not been oiled for a very long time. It winded the whole of his feet that even ants cannot pass through. There were small portruding like thorns in the bodies of the chain, and ended up with a pointed arrow that coiled around the thumb of his foot.
Bolemo'd eyes remained close. He caressed the chains in his mind like it was real. This is it. This was the very feeling he felt when he started the journey of making his body a canvass. He can't help but imagine every piece of his skin with masterpieces he will be creating in the future.
His front body had been completed. A lush balete tree is rooted at the right half of his body. Fluttering in the wind are the leaves under a big yellow sun that reached his throat encircled with three little stars fighting it out and trying to give out brilliance situated just down his adam's apple.
Balete tree is a bonsai like plant but a bit overgrown. It stands 15 meter tall with lush leaves and exposed roots from the bottom. The roots coiled to its body making its trunk like fingers attached together. This tree is mostly used as a horror movie tree due to its roots crisscrossing the body and hair like roots that extends all through the ground. You will have to be careful when near this tree as it could very well tripped you with its roots.
Imagine tripping on it and be drag inside its body like how horror movie goes. No matter how you cut them, it will always be countless. It is indeed scary however Bolemo like this tree. He feels his vitality is surging whenever he see the thickly covered leaves in its numerous branches.
The roots of tree continued all the way to his abdomen area where it criss cross to what seems to be the hair of a baby angel sleeping with its hands holding a gun with its nozzle still smoking. It was a weird combination. Seeing a baby angel with its short wings having a gun is like seeing an old man sucking a lollipop with all its might. They have their own quirkiness.
A big skull with its mouth open can be seen on his left breast part. The look on its hollow eyes will make you shudder. It does not have any eye balls on it but weirdly enough, it would seem like staring at you from any angle you look at it. The skull is dark, added the black ink use made it even more sinister. There was a crown of top of its head made of somewhat coarse bones tied with tendons that gave it majesty. Even its a skull, it can be considered a royal King of it's kind.
"My babies are still magnificent as they use to be" Bolemo nodded in satisfaction and continued caressing his body (MC is a weird huh?)
A sudden yelp can be heard mix with some laughter broke Bolemo's state of mind.
He scrambled to his feet. Gritting his teeth, Bolemo stood up and glared at the young man in front him.
"What the fuck Indi, you fucking pig!" Bolemo cursed.However all he got was another whip that made his tired body ache further.
"Daydreaming again trash? It never gets old with you huh?"
"Playing with your sick tattoos and thinking your some kind of a hero. Thought I didn't know? You been slacking the whole day!"
With his double chin high up, Indi the mine supervisor looked at Bolemo with disdain.
He clearly is a mortal, not even becoming 1-Leaf Warrior. Someone who even spiritual energy rejects and can only amount to being a coolie all his life thinks he can cultivate and be an Elemental? Has the sun rose from the west? Perhaps even if the sun really rises from the west one day, it will never be his turn to be an Elemental. Not until he, Indi, who had been a 3-Leaf Warrior for three years can ascend.
"Save your pervert looks on this tattoo later and do your work. I will tell you this, you will never get food to eat if you don't do your job properly. We don't provide free food, especially to people who cannot even lift 50 kilogram stone, I mean you Bolemo, worthless peoplw like you."
Indi cursed and kept his ranting for another few minutes before he left.
Bolemo wearing ragtag shirt and a pants with some hole in it finally gave out a sigh and look at his tatoo one more time. It is fortunate that Indi did not have his minions when he saw him, else he would take another beating for sure. Indi might be a bit black he is not in the dark yet. From what he knows, Indi is just a bit prideful and like to kept putting up his facade especially when his subordinates are present. He still has a bottomline that he never crosses himself.
Letting another long sigh, Bolemo picked himself up. He gobbled of whats left of his hard bread,drank a lot of water and went out to continue his job. Being a coolie is at least what he tbought he is. A slave for food are what others thinks of him. He only have few minutes of rest left and he should really do his job, else he will not be able to afford even the hardest bread there might be.
Indi was right, he is a mere mortal. This is a fact that he knows and will not be able to change for a long time. He has long known that he is a normal human, at least since he woke up in this bizarre world one year ago amidst a beast siege to the city.
He is a normal 19 years old teenager who fantasize that one day he will be able to complete his masterpiece -a body of tattoo. Body art that completed himself. It was alright that his back and front are done my someone else since he cannlt really do it himself, but he should complete the art by himself.
Bolemo caressed the play button tatto on his wrist. No matter how bony his body gets, how much stinky he is, he is still proud. For this tattoo is the only he did.
Walking out if his hut, Bolemo tried to cover the bruise on his face and walked steadily. Being thrown to this world where magic and swords prevail, he should be happy but he is not.
He was just a normal person. Yes he was excited at first, however things change.
People here cultivate to be immortal. They train their body and mind to grasp power that he could never imagine possible before. Lifting 100 kilograms rock like it was nothing. Felling trees with bare hands. Fighting magical beast with swords and killing people thousands of kilometers away.
He woke up in this world when a massive number of beasts biseige the city. Beasts that stands 10 meters tall or even bigger. Bolemo was in one of the trampled villages when this calamity struck Edsa North City.
Seeing building like beasts and human flying in the air, Bolemo could not help his blood boil. He can already imagine himself flying up in the sky with all those clouds on his feet. Cruising in the air like how Sun Wukong does.
However things did not happened the way they should be.
His meridians are good. His spirit is not broken nor he has problems with his constitution. Bolemo had been cultivating. He had been doing hard labor to eat and learn to properly cultivate for the last two years.
However all the sweat and blood he spent did not show any result. When he ingest spiritual energy and circulate it through his body, it dissipitates like water vat leaking at the bottom with hole that was left uncheck.
No matter what excitement Bolemo had, it was never his turn to be happy. He can never be an Immortal, a thing of legend people tried to achieve.
"Sigh, I wish I can go back to my world. Living and doing tattoo is sonething I can already be satisfied. I never wish to be immortal anyway"
Bolemo looked into the horizon unsure of his own future. Even wondering why he kept on remembering the day he created his play and pause button tattoo. The same day he scaled the mountainous region of Kalinga, Philippines to have the last remaining traditional hand-tapped tattoist Wang Od Oggay to recreate on his back the legendary Philippine Eagle at the right top quarter of his back to complete the symphony of devils and beasts in the graveyard.
Touching the mouth of the skull on his left breast, he can feel the heat from the mini flame Wang Od Oggay drawn at the spot where his heart is.
"This flame is like you soul, believe and it will never be extinguish"
Wang Od Oggay denied his request and instead tattoed him a flame on his heart, however Bolemo believe. He believe in his heart flame. This has saved him from the beast siege two years ago, and he believes he only started to learn it's mysteries.