Ghilanna twitches her lips and said, "We gave them 5 things that they requested. I thought that they will ask for money or some expensive but I was surprised, they just want 10 liters of blood, not necessarily human blood but monster blood is fine. The second one was human hair. The third was Salt. The fourth was human tears and the last one is wood ashes." When Kyle heard all of the things requested, he sighs because his guess was right. " The things that were request are part of a ritual which is prerequisite in raising the dead" Kyle explained. Ghilanna gasped and shows a complicated face awhile looking towards Rode. Kyle smile and said, " It was not your fault not knowing those requested items. Not all people or even citizen who is in line with dark whisperer class knows such things." Ghilanna seems relieved, " Is there something else that we must do?" Kyle explained, "The zombies earlier are just the earliest signs. The ritual needs the power of darkness and the most effective catalyst is during the darkest of the night without a light source. It is during the New Moon that the power of the dark is strongest. When will be the moon covered by darkness," Ghilanna counted, " That would be 20 days from now."
When Kyle heard about this, he compare the event on what happened to the game and what he is experiencing as of the moment. Almost all player when they came in this town, the town was already burnt to the ground, for how they were burnt he has no idea but in the forum, there are at least 4-5 people who came very early and stated that they saw two cavaliers inside the village and the monster that the animator created almost wipe them out. Since they were caught surprised they were not able to describe the features of the monster. When Kyle thought about it, it brings shivers to his spine. In the game one can only die once, if one of your teammates has resurrection spells then they can easily revive the player once but once they died twice the player will be forcefully log out and wait for 24 hours to 7 days and depends on the severity of physical damage. The more severe it is, the longer the banned time.
Kyle tried to think on how to counteract this incoming doomsday. He thought of something then he realized that before anything else, he needs to join the rank list, at least copper maturity. He will think along the way when he reaches that stage. Killing zombies is not beneficial because they will not increase his Growth Points but according to the games killing of zombies and other undead creatures is a great help for the citizen of this world. In other words, it will increase their grades and rank but will not be applied to him.
Rode saw Kyle seem not talking and just staring in the mid-air so he fakes his cough, " I think the best way is to inform first the Chief." Kyle smile and said," I don't know why you guys hide you true maturity?" Ghilanna sigh, " Actually, it was the request of the previous chief, which is the current chief's father. It was about a month ago before he died. During that time Risha was will unranked, a grade 8 and in order for Risha to win the villager trusts, she needs to appear strong and must be the strongest within the village. Just imagine if two Brass Class appeared in the village without affiliation to any settlement, there would an outcry and the population within the village will be divided." Kyle understands the situation so he just did not dig more upon it.
Kyle stands up and told Rode if he could finish his weapon because he will go out to the village to kill some monster. Rode responded that his weapon will be ready in the morning. Ghilanna suggested that it would be better that he will tour in the village while she will investigate if any mana disturbances occur. Kyle nodded and went out the house.
The village is quite big about 3-4 times bigger than the hamlet based on the previous owner's memory. Kyle went to the gravesite area which is located in the eastern area of the village and saw several people who were crying while burying their loved ones. Then he saw the Risha with ever-changing expression from soft when she is not attending with the citizen and poker face when facing them. Risha paused for a bit when she felt that someone is looking towards her direction. She lifted her face and saw Kyle with slight smirking expression and then she frowned. She walks toward his direction still frowning," You must be enjoying the event." Kyle just stare at her with poker face," What do you mean?" Risha face becomes red. Kyle lifted both of his hands in the air, " I did not come here to tease on you. I came here to suggest….no not suggest but request." Risha stared at Kyle, when she felt that he was serious, she gesture to continue speak. Kyle smile then made a serious face, "I would like to suggest to burn all the corpse of soldiers or citizens who died earlier." Risha frowned and looked at Kyle with disbelief, " How dare you! Those people died and you want to burn all those bodies in front of them?" Kyle tilted his head, "If not in front of them, we can burn them when they are asleep." Risha's face became red of anger, " Don't you ever try to suggest that again! I will pretend to be deaf once because you helped me earlier!" Risha walks towards the people in the gravesite when Kyle spoke, " What do animators want in order to make zombies?" Risha halted, "These people are blessed by the Church of Light! Their soul will be protected by those dark arts!" Kyle stares towards her back and thought, Even here…there are still fanatic… Rish keeps talking while facing her back towards Kyle, " These are the people that I must protect and we will keep whatever left from the dead loved ones and buried them in the ground." Risha continue to walks and attend with the family who mourns. Some of the families who heard their conversation stared towards him with hatred and disgust.
Kyle sigh and went back towards the eastern gate and saw a silvery mark on the floor, he kneel on the ground and touches it. He felt a little tingling on his index finger. He follows almost halfway towards the northern part but the drawing stop in there. It looks like a curve line. Kyle thought that the lines seem familiar but he can't pinpoint where he saw this one. He stops staring at the drawing on the floor and continues to walk until he made to walk in a circle. There is nothing unusual happening.
It was almost the sun or whatever the name of the star is now resting. He went back to the Inn and saw Ghilanna bringing a soup with coarse dark brown bread from the kitchen and place it on the table. Ghilanna saw Kyle, " Oh! You are home, you can have your dinner. I will be going to the gravesite to help to bury those corpses earlier." Ghilanna walk passed him and stop, " Just don't wait for us, I will be late and my husband still has a task he must finish tomorrow. I think it was your sword." Kyle nodded and Ghilanna went outside with no hurry.
Kyle sat on the chair and ate his dinner and notices that it was just salted soup with some bits and pieces of yam like texture. The bread hard and bland with a slight of saltiness. He just dip it in his soup to make it a bit softer. He finishes it all because he doesn't want the couple to think that he is rude. After he finish eating, he went to the stable and saw the trihorse sleeping in his usual place. He walks towards the empty cubicle and smells the same putrid something in the air. He grab a stick on the ground and pokes the slimy like substance on the floor but it seems like nothing happened. He sighs and was about to poke the trihorse but it just hurriedly stands and walks back. The trishorse seems disgusted while staring at the black substance at the tip of the stick. Kyle notices its expression and thought, there must be something wrong with the substance. When he looked back towards where he pokes the substance earlier, the black slimy substance is gone. He spread the hay where the slimy substance but it was already gone. The trihorse make a "ngeee" sound and went back to its cubicle to sleep. He thought, he should sleep first, the new moon will be 20 days from now, he has several days to mature.
Risha POV
Risha thought this man was annoying, even though he is just a guest. The safety of his people is the top priority and right now they are emotionally unstable. Risha just finish doing their ritual by praying to the God of Light so that the soul of the departed will not be lost on his way to the kingdom of light. Risha saw Ghilanna was just finishing consoling the residents, she approached her and smile, "so how was the guest?" Ghilanna smile and said, " He seems to be weird and knows something that exceeds that of his age" Risha frowned a bit and fakely laugh, " Do you know what he suggested earlier?" Ghilanna tilted her head and Risha continues to explain, " He wants me to burn all the corpses!" The nerve of that man!" Ghilanna knew that in the Glacial area, the majority of the people prayed in the church of light. One of the teachings, if their God of light is not to burn the body as the body, must be naturally returned to the soil, the other one is the soul of the departed is blessed with the prayer from the church of light and that the body must remain intact or the chain of the soul will vanish and the soul will loss its guidance.
The teaching of the church and monitor by several ranks of people. The lowest are the Deacons who observe the laity. Since the lowest rank is the Deacons, the deacons are only available in small village living in a chapel. Majority of the deacons are the light bearer or light base magic and miracle magic. Miracles magic is magic that focuses on healing magic and Auras.
After a long paused, Ghilanna interrupted her thought, " You might not like his suggestions but, if Kyle really did say that to you then it would be better give him a benefit of doubt. Although, I know a little of him but he seems to be the person who will not make a joke on critical phase of our village.
They were about to continue to talk when they heard a knock. When the door opens, Ghilanna saw a mid 50th's man, wearing black cassock entering the room. The person was the Deacon of this village and was asking for compulsory donation, more like payment for his service. The Deacon called her petite secretary to let hand him the coarse paper and handed them to the chief, "that is the entire payment of the services." Risha open the coarse scroll and frowned, " This!... Very expensive! Why would a small wound has similar price to a large wound. Risha skips the entire front page and focused on the second page and you a total of 10 gold. The old man smiled and said, " I will be back seven days from tomorrow to collect the money. The Deacons glances Ghilanna and just bypass her and went out. Ghilanna opens her mouth but did not say anything she walks towards the window while the wooden carriage moves farther away from the chief house.
Risha crumple the paper and throw it on the floor, "Those greedy shitheads!" Ghilanna placed her head down and said, "I will go back to my house. I don't want to stay outside too late, my husband might get worried." Risha slightly smiles and nodded. Ghilanna slowly walks out from the building while Risha sat down, closes her eyes and massage her temporal area.
Kyle POV
When kyle woke up, the sun was not yet up. Too early? He thought about what happened yesterday, the zombies….those fresh blood that was pasted on the ground. It was a nightmare. He looks at his both hands and every time he thought about it, his hand will start to shake. The actions that he did yesterday is not out of bravery but out of fear. Fear that he will die again so he fights.
He check his status and noticed that his growth points is still the same. In the game when killing zombies, the growth point should increased but here it seems different. Kyle stands up butt naked while looking at the window. He watches the sun goes up till he decided to go down. He looks at the table near the cabinet, it seems like someone place clean clothes. He has off white trouser with a cloth belt and oversized t-shit almost half length of his arm. He changes to his clothes without his underwear, he is just glad the those coarse clothing is not see-through.
He went down and saw the couple was already sitting on the table, he sat on one of the empty chair and saw the same food from yesterday he could not help to gasp a little. Ghilanna excused herself after she ate her breakfast and went outside the inn. Rode handed him the sword, "I changed it according to your specification plus I make it a bit rough so that it looks like any other cheap swords" Kyle nodded and smile. "So, where are you going?" Rode asked. Kyle responded, " I will be hunting some monsters. I might sell some useful parts of the monsters when I come back." Rode face is worried, "Kyle…do..don't be too overly vocal when you meet the deacons of the light of church, they are not…." Kyle interrupted him," No worries….I am not that idiot" Rode just stared at him as if not to believe him.
He thought: The church of light is here? This is really complicated they are the very opposite of the animancer or it could be a good thing that they are here. I have a bad feeling about this.
Rode bid his farewell and went towards the chief office to report something while Kyle was on his way to the western part of the gate.
Along the way, there are few people he met. Some are nice to him but the majority of them stared him with hatred. He ignores them and continues to follow his objectives.
In the game there is a green rice field few miles from this small village of Lacusta 1, it was called the feeders field. Most green horned chicken are below Brass Maturity. On the way, Kyle noticed that there more monsters than usual. He arrived at the area after 1 hour of walking. The area is vast with rice like a plant, the indication that the rice is already ripe is when the panicle is already bright yellow-green. There are no trees in the middle of the field, only green rice or in the game called Verde.
One can distinguished the difference between the male and female horned chicken. The corona of the male chicken is more prominent than the female chicken. The sizes itself is also an indicator, male horned chicken is twice as big as the female chicken. Male chicken size is at least 2-3 feet and female is less than two feet. Most of the chickens venture the field in group with at least one male and 5 females. Unlike the slime, these chickens don't have core nests, they still hatch through the egg and the core is located at the base of their horn.
Kyle was hiding in the tall Verde leaves and observe the movement of the chickens. He waited for at least one chicken to be separated. After 1 hour of waiting, two male horned chickens with no entourage can now be seen. Kyle immediately dashes towards one of the chicken and lunge as piercing attack which pierces its neck and separated it from its body, the body keeps walking while the blood is still gushing to the decapitated body, then few minutes little it fell down. Kyle immediately locate the other one and lunge another attack which automatically cuts its head. Kyle took the head and the body of the horned chicken and grab some ripe Verde on his way back to the entrance of the field.
Fortunately, there was spring near the areas, he cut some bamboo-like plant and filled it with Verde. He slice the chicken using the river cut sword and gently remove the horn. At the based of the horn there is a circular fleshy gel-like substance embedded on it. It was the core of the horned chicken. He cleaned the chicken and place all of it inside the bamboo including the washed Verde. He adds the spring water within the bamboo and close the lid. He made a fire using stones and dried leave with added twigs. He place the bamboo above the fire just like roasting. Kyle waited for about 15 minutes when he smell the chicken aroma, he almost cry because he thinks this is the first time he will be able to eat a portion of good food since he came to this world. After an hour, the food already was cooked. He uses a pointed stick to remove the bamboo lid, the moment he open the lid a burst of aroma escape. He place two cores and mixed it gently until it dissolve. He made a bamboo spoon using his sword and start to chow down. The food is not bland, the food is mouth-watering. The meat is quite tender, it taste like the native chicken he always ate in Southeast Asia. The color of cooked rice is light green with an aroma of pandan leaves. He just ate two whole portions of chicken.
He checked his status and smile when he saw that he gain 100 growth points just by eating two chickens. Kyle smile, just as he thought earlier, it seems that food does increases growth points than eating the core alone. He now proceed to hunt and cook at the same time.
Eighteen days have passed since he came here. He checks his growth status and a message pops up, would like to mature up? Kyle selected yes and immediately he arrived in the sprout within his soul. A pop-up message again, need 500 GP for growth, would like to use your GP? He got exactly 500 so he touches the sprout and countless of energy swirl within his body and being absorbed by the spout. After a few minutes the sprout grows into one meter then it stop. Kyle was immediately send back to reality and check his growth status.
There are more than a thousand copper maturity abilities listed but only three will be selected by spinning wheels. The first spinning wheel is numbered 1-9. These numbers indicate how many times one person can spin the wheels. After he got the number three another spinning wheels appeared with the lists of abilities. Kyle spins the wheel three times and whatever he got will be embedded for the rest of his life, meaning in the game there is no such thing as a skill or ability resets whatever your select either by luck or by choice will be permanently owned by the player. He spin the wheel third time and he gained the Identify skills 1 and storage space and plus 2 skills slot. Since copper skill slot originally has 2 with the addition of 2 he can now use 4 abilities. He also notices the all his attributes increases by 0.5. Pop-up messages gave him 6 classes to choose from which includes soldier, mercenary, mage, acolyte, archer and stalker. Almost all players will choose only one or two classes but not him, he needs more to survive in this world. He wants to select only two classes but since he got 4 abilities then this would be fine to choose 4 classes, which mean in order for him to increase his grade he needs to maximize each class before increasing the citizen maturity and the Growth consumption of citizen maturity grade is the total of the entire class. Since each class need 500 GP then he need 2000 GP for citizen maturity each time one will be upgraded. From copper and beyond, one needs to be grade I to trigger and pay selected skills for each class. He has 6300 GP so he uses it and selected skill for each class.
His plan if his luck is to get the soldier vocation to increase both his hit points and stamina, then in the mage class is to get the caster vocation to increase Mana points. Kyle Increases the soldier class first and 5 random skills list was shown. To his dismay 4 out of three are an active skill and only one is passive called soldier's will. The skill's effect can only be shown once it is selected not during the selection. Since, it would be wasteful he selected the soldier's will and he can't contain his happiness. Next was the mage he selected lightning infusion, the lesser heal for the acolyte and swordplay in stalker. There is only one profession available which is Botany I which increases intelligence and dexterity by 1 point per level. Most professions is difficult to raise due to high cost and manual labor. Citizen Maturity ability increases as maturity increases.
Name: Kyle Xian
Age: 15 years old
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Citizen Maturity: Copper: BattleCaster
Citizen Maturity Grade: 1/10
Growth Points: 300
Health Points: 62
Mana Points: 72
Stamina Points: 72
Health Regen: 2.5/hr
Mana Regen: 2.5hr
Stamina Regen: 2.5/hr
Attributes:
• Strength = 1.6
• Constitution = 1.6
• Intelligence = 2.6
• Will = 1.6
• Dexterity = 2.6
• Agility = 1.6
Resistance:
Status:
Profession Bonus:
Unranked: Botany: +1 Intelligence and Dexterity
Profession:
Unranked: Botany: 0/500 GP and 0/500
Citizen maturity Ability:
Copper: Identify I, four square meter storage space, additional two skill slot I
Class:
Unranked = Commoner 100/100 MAX
Copper= Soldier 0/500, Mage 0/500, Acolyte 0/500, Stalker 0/500
Skills Slot:
Commoner Skills: MAX
Unyielding: MAX: Automatically retain 10% of maximum health upon
Copper skills: Passive 0/500GP: Active: 0/500 used
Soldier's Will I/X: 10SP: Permanently Increases Health, Mana, Stamina points by 30
Lightning Infusion I/X: 10MP: embedding electrical property to weapon or armor for 10mins
Lesser Heal I/X: 10MP: Heal minor wounds
Swordplay I/X: 10SP: can perform 2 slashes continuously
He was happy with the result. He can't count how many chickens he have eaten. The horn of the chickens are used for medicine and the feathers are for clothes or alchemy. Kyle was counting his loots when a swarm of blackbirds flew towards the direction of the village. Kyle's heartbeat raises when two familiar people running towards his direction. Kyle knitted his eyebrow and thought, this is bad!