He woke up. Every limb hurt and his stomach was so empty that he felt like he had to puke.
He was in a small cell, with a dry, cold floor, dirty walls and a high, small window through which cold air drifted.
Considering in what state his body was, he was surprised that there was no puke or blood on the floor. He was just lying there, covered in bruises.
After a while, he realized that there was something wrong. The body was too small, he was already a student! This body... That was a child.
Was this one of those famous transmigrations? But how...
Oh.
He remembered.
Barely.
He had been run over by a tractor.
Black lines appeared on his face as he remembered that. It was... disgusting.
What about his family though? He didn't really remember much about them. And he didn't think that there was a possibility to do so. He didn't miss them. Maybe there was something wrong with him for not missing them.
Now, he had to sort something else out: Memories that deviated from his original... mind, probably.
Growing up in the slums, fighting to survive and then being captured by slave traders. Sold to a minor noble family of a small country near 'vampire nation', or better known as kingdom of Cure.
Currently, he was in this cell to 'reflect' on himself. Apparently, he had offended the child of those minor nobles.
How old... Approximately 8 years. Race... Yes, there were multiple races. Those with scales, horns, pointy ears, teeth, nails... He had no idea what they were called, but he was pretty sure that he would learn that later.
From what he remembered, this world had long, dark winters and humid, dim summers. The people... seemed to be just rotten.
He sighed. Oh yeah, what was the name of the brat he now was? Tenno. Weird name. But he also didn't remember his name from his real world, so he had to settle with that.
After a while, he heard something distorted. He turned his head and saw how the door was being closed. There was a plate with plain rice, vegetables and something that looked like a chicken leg.
He slowly crawled to the plate. Like in slow motion, he began to munch on the rice and vegetables and gnaw on the chicken leg. If he ate too fast, he would throw everything back up and feel worse. That would be bad.
Though the food was a bit tasteless, without salt, it was better than starving.
After eating, he took a closer look at his body. The bruises seemed to be slowly disappearing. There was a strange, soft and warm energy circulating in his body. When he closed his eyes, he felt like he could see fire flowing through his body.
He wrinkled his nose and chose to ignore it for the moment. He would figure it out later.
He went to the window, jumped up, clung to the bars and looked outside. There was a grey courtyard with withering plants. A kid played in the middle, surrounded by three other kids. They all looked like they were at a funeral.
He jumped back down and looked to the door. There was also a small window, but he wasn't able to look through it. It was too high.
After a while, the door was opened.
Tenno remembered that this teen was called Septimus and the seventh slave of the minor noble family. Tenno was the tenth, no... the eleventh, but since the registration went like "He's number ten, no...", so, Tenno.
When that memory surfaced, Tenno wanted to slap his forehead. That was so stupid...
Anyway, Septimus was someone who obeyed his orders, else he would die, so Tenno didn't mind him.
He followed Septimus out of the basement and into a room with a bucket of cold water.
"Clean up and put on fresh clothes. Though they'll only arrive in a week, the mistress said that you should be in a presentable state."
"Okay."
"The Cure family is very prestigious, at least that's what I heard..." Septimus scratched his head.
"Can you tell me more about the races? Or ask the mistress for books or something so we look better to the royal family?"
"Oh...! I'll go ask!"
Said Septimus and disappeared from the room while Tenno rolled his eyes and put on fresh clothes. They were white, making a contrast to his bronzen skin. His silky black hair hid his big, dark eyes that were being mirrored in the dirty water. He looked cute.
After he checked himself in the silvern mirror, a young woman entered. Everything about her seemed grey, and there was something unsettling about her.
"Tenno, come to the study."
Tenno nodded and followed her. He didn't really feel attached to this body, so he didn't want to interact too much with the others. Even if he had the memories of the original, they weren't his. He was different, and nobody in this mansion would care. He would be gone soon anyways.
The study seemed to be the only room with color.
The books were dark red and green, but still vibrant, the shelves were dark and carved with beautiful ornaments just like the desk and there was an inkpot with a feather besides a stack of yellowed paper.
Behind the desk sat a man with insignificant features, pallid blond hair, hazy blue eyes and in black clothes.
"Tenno, since you asked to learn, I will tell you a bit about the world. Karin."
The mistress nodded and left. Tenno was gestured to sit down on the stool opposite the man. It seemed to be the master of the mansion. the original didn't see him often, at most two times.
"So, we live near the kingdom of Cure, which is reigned by the nobles. The nobles are the vampires, even the new borns are incredibly strong with psychic powers. Normally, they just abduct children, but good ones can be sold."
"Master, may I inquire about the continent?"
"Oh, yes. Well, there is only one continent and there are many unexplored or lost islands around the world. The biggest powers of the continent are the kingdom of Cure, Shade empire, Miror nation and Patoms domain.
The races are beastmen, elves, dragonkin, titans, vampires, humans, siren and fairies. Demons are generally seen as a crossbreed between all races. Every race has sub-classes and reacts different to the natural energy around them.
Through the absorption of energy, the body will be cleaned and become stronger. But apparently, the energy here is very bad, so the people here are weaker than usual. In Cure however is the energy very rich. When you get there, train hard."
"Yes."
"One can become a warrior or a mage. Mages are complicated, warriors simple. That's about all of my basic knowledge. It's not very much, so you'll have to learn a lot and bring prestige to our household."
Tenno nodded though he already knew that he would never come back to this place. It seemed so devoid of life that he found it repulsing.
"Oh, I forgot that you can't read... Well, I'll just teach you now. Hopefully, it'll be enough."
Tenno nodded, acting like a child that was happy about all the attention, but inside, he frowned. He knew from the memories of the original that the master would only be nice if he thought he would get something out of acting that way. He was rather detached from this mansion and its people.
The master taught Tenno how to speak properly since he felt that the child didn't completely know this and just got fancy words from the streets, hearing rich people say those, and also how to read and write.
On Everni, most people spoke the language of Ren, the dialect of the south was called Rin, that of the north Ran, west Rem and east Res. The writing looked like ones standard elven language, and the grammar was the same as Tennos original one.
But it wasn't that easy for him to learn, since his mental state was already very advanced and full with other knowledge.
As the days went by, he saw more of the mansion. It was made out of grey stone, with two courtyards, a big and a small one, two stories high with the upper floor restricted for most people and there weren't many windows, mostly small ones, because of the regular miasma storms that occurred in this central-north region.
Tenno discovered that the miasma was an accumulation of negative energy, created through hate, greed and such emotions that bent the character of a person. The storms would destroy the crops and plants, take the colors away with it. And for Tenno, these storms were horrible. His whole body would be covered in cold sweat, every sound would scare him and he couldn't think straight. And there was no one who could help him, no one who understood his condition.
The doctor came to the conclusion that Tennos mental state didn't get along with the emotions in the storm, but that was only a small part of the problem.
The day before Tenno would be taken away by the people of Cure, the master of the mansion gave him a small box made out of dark wood. Inside, on a blue velvet cushion, was a small, black ring.
"This is an inter spatial tool. Tap on it to open the storage, it will prove useful."
Tenno nodded and put the ring on his left ring finger. He tapped on it and put the small box inside it. There were 50 spaces inside the ring, each 2 by 2 square meters big. What was this for? A looting game??
The ring fit perfectly and - Tenno couldn't remove it. It didn't get off his finger anymore, even though it should. Well, he didn't want to lose it, but still...
While he was heading to his room, still in thought, he suddenly heard a mechanical voice inside his head.
"Rebooting system.... Please wait. Progress: 50 %."
He couldn't keep a straight face and stared at the ring. It must be the ring, what else could it be!
"Rebooting complete. Scanning host."
Host?
"Conclusion: Host is in poor health. Eating energy rich food is recommended."
Tenno sneered. Energy rich food? Where would he get that from, in such a godforsaken place. And he didn't expect the vampires to treat him kindly. After all, he was being sold to them.
He entered his room and sat down on the small bed. The room was barely big enough for the bed and the drawer with the bowl of water on it. There was a small window, filtering the heavy air.
He let his legs dangle as he stared at the ring with narrowed eyes.
'How do I use you...'
"System guidance activated. This system scans for information to share with the host. Due to the system being damaged, host has to touch the object he wants to acquire data about with the ring."
He blinked blankly, then touched the wood of his bed.
"Wooden bed frame made out of black wood from the black blood tree found in the central northern regions of the continent. A very sturdy wood that is often used for furniture, absorbing negative energy and cleaning the air in the room, achieving a calm ambience."
Tenno swallowed his salvia in astonishment. The system really worked. That he had to touch things to get information... Well, at the moment, it was enough for him. He thought a bit, then touched his other arm to see what would happen.
"Genetic tissue detected. Initializing scan."
He patiently waited as he felt a weird energy spreading out from the ring, going through his whole body, making the hairs on his arms stand up and sending shivers down his spine. The foreign energy scanned everything, then retreated into the ring.
"Scan completed. Analyzing collected data. Please wait a moment."
he wondered what the system was taking so long. It had already scanned him and told him the condition of his body, so what exactly was it scanning?
"Analyzing complete. Conclusion: Host is of the rare demon race Ifrit."