Feeling the pain in my head slowly receding, I woke up on a bed made of animal skin stuffed with hay.
"Hey bro, you're finally awake, I made a soup for you filled with the meat of the Earth Hog you guys hunted."
Hearing a voice talking to me, I saw a boy around fourteen years of age smiling at me while holding a bowl filled with soup and meat. As I was about to ask him about where I am or who he is, a flood of information went through my head.
Leon Biliran, a sixteen-year-old kid of the human race who had his younger brother Gerard as his remaining kin in this world of Daig as the locals call it.
The village that I am situated at now is called Cana, a village that is part of the kingdom of Cavata which is the only area in the continent where humans are abundant. In this world, humans are one of the bottom feeders in the food chain, having one of the weakest physical and mental capabilities compared to the other races.
The only redeeming quality of the human race is them being able to place tattoos on the different parts of their bodies using the blood and remains of the other creatures they killed, this gives them some of the capabilities of the beasts that they have slain.
As all of these things were slowly being integrated into my mind, instead of bringing clarity to the situation, it only got me more confused.
"Why am I here? What happened to me?"
Seeing me spacing out, my brother from these new memories worriedly looked at me and continuously tried to talk to me.
"Hey bro, hey are you ok? You have been spacing out for nearly a minute now, you're scaring me. I'll call the shaman again to look after you."
"Don't! I'm completely fine, my head just hurts a little."
"What time is it by the way? And what happened to me after the hunt."
"Noon just passed, yesterday you passed out after the hunt, the shaman said that it's just a concussion brought by hitting your head, although he wonders why you did not immediately pass out after hitting your head and instead still had the time to run."
"By the way, Arthur was looking for you, he said he needs to tell you about the upcoming trade in the city, apparently George fell sick that's why he plans for you to join them if you're already fine from your injuries. Oh right, I also need to leave now to tend to the farm now that you're awake."
After this, Gerard took his rucksack and a few tools before leaving the house.
As I was trying to sit up, a wave of pain in the head hit me again, although this time it did not bring more memories or manage to knock me out. But this headache enabled me to think more clearly about my current situation.
Up until now, I was just an average everyday worker from Earth, with average dreams and aspirations. Although I wished at some point in my life to transmigrate due to the novels that I have read, the possibility of it ever happening never really crossed my mind.
I never had close friends from my past life nor a lover so I'd say that my only regret in my past life will be leaving my parents and sister very worried about my passing. I just hoped that I'd at least have treated them to a meal or said that I love them for the last time.
Thinking of how I need to live from now on, I thought that maybe like every other protagonist that transmigrated in the stories, I'd be able to have a few advantages.
Obviously having strong and rich parents was not one of them, I remember clearly from this body's memories that both of my parents died when I was younger, my mother from childbirth, and my father from depression following my mother's death.
Another thing I thought of was having a bloodline from an ancient race, but even that is unlikely.
I thought of a few other advantages that I might have, but pretty much all of them are unlikely until I remembered a feature that a lot of MCs in other novels have. A cheat-like system.
Immediately after I thought about that, my cheat has finally appeared.
Name: Leon Biliran
Race: Human
Physique: 10.9
Mentality: 9
Blood energy: 0
Blood arts: None
Seeing the familiar panel which appears in numerous web novels, I was able to see the differences and similarities.
Blood energy and blood arts are the two stats that initially I have no idea of what they are for until I remembered how the humans here strengthen themselves, through inscribing the blood of the beasts they hunted into patterns that enables them to use blood arts as the locals call it.
Fiddling through the system for other possible functions, I was able to see another feature of this system. A shop that I assume uses blood energy as its currency. As I opened the shop, five different items are displayed.
Physique booster (Low) --- 500BE
Remark: Immediately strengthens the body physique by 1 point, decreases the effect by 0.1 for each subsequent use. Can only be purchased once a day. Cannot be used once the physique value exceeds 20.
Mentality booster (Low) --- 1000BE
Remark: Immediately strengthens the mentality by 1 point, decreases the effect by 0.1 for each subsequent use. Can only be purchased once a day. Cannot be used once the mentality value exceeds 20.
Body cultivation art (Basic) --- 10000BE
Remark: Basic cultivation art for strengthening the user's physique, consumes a small amount of blood energy for every cultivation session. Can be used until a physique of 30 is reached.
Mentality cultivation (Basic) --- 20000BE
Remark: Basic cultivation art for strengthening the user's mentality, consumes a small amount of blood energy for every cultivation session. Can be used until a mentality of 30 is reached.
System upgrade (LVL2) --- 100000BE
Remark: Increases the number of functions the system can provide, as well as increases the amount and quality of items sold at the shop.
"Hmm, I don't know if the items sold here are cheap or not as I do not have a reference yet of how much blood energy I can acquire or how exactly should I acquire it."
"Do I convert the blood from the beasts I hunt to blood energy directly like a vampire sucking its victim's blood?"
"Or do I just need to be in the presence of the beast as they die in order to acquire it?"
But after quickly thinking about it, the latter seemed impossible as I was in the presence of the dying hog as it died without my blood energy increasing.
Thinking to myself about how useless it is to just think about these things, I just decided to put my theories to the test.
Slowly getting familiar with my body, I rose from the bed towards the front door.
As I went past the door, a sight of a village that resembles the Native American tribal villages albeit a bit modern with the occasional use of bricks greeted me.
Tapping from the memory of the former owner of this body, I was able to locate the building used by the hunters in order to store their hunting gear and spoils. It was the biggest building I saw in this village. The armory was separated from the area where the spoils are placed. The armory took up a quarter of the whole building while the storage took up the rest.
Arriving at my destination, I saw an animal resembling a giant panther being dragged by four men. Remembering their names from my memory, I greeted each of them and asked where Arthur is. I needed him for two things, first is for the spoils of our last hunt, and the second is for the trade which my brother told me about.
"Arthur just went out in order to talk with the chief, he'll be back shortly. You could just wait here."
Hearing that, I thanked him and proceeded inside the building, looking at the various materials and weapons stored inside.
Looking through the materials used for the weapons, most use animal bones with the occasional use of metal that resembles iron and bronze. I am unsure if there is magical equipment here but looking at the luster and appearance of these weapons, I think all of them are just normal ones.
As I was looking at the weapons, it did not last long before a familiar man went through the door and greeted me.
"Oh hey Leon, you're finally up."
"Hello, good morning Arthur."
"It's already past noon, still disoriented from the last hunt?"
Arthur went towards the chair situated near the door while giving me a small grin while eating a green fruit that resembles a mixture of an apple and a pear.
"No, I just woke up late this time that I forgot it's already past noon. By the way, what happened after I passed out last time?"
"Oh, with regards to that, after you passed out yesterday the earth hog was already on its last breath, we just easily hauled it back to the village and nothing unusual happened. You on the other hand passed out after what happened which is pretty unusual."
"Well from what I remembered I bumped my head on a rock while we were being chased by the beast."
This most likely resulted in the death of this former owner of this body, and me taking over afterward, but of course, I wouldn't tell him that.
"Certainly, that's also what others told me. But enough of that, you're fine now, let's instead talk about the spoils from that Earth hog, as the biggest contributor to the hunt, you get the priority pick from the parts, so what do you want to have?"
According to the memory of the former owner of this body, an Earth Hog belongs to the lower tier of the magical beasts surrounding this village. It's pretty common to hunt this beast every once in a while, but still, as a magical beast, its value far surpasses the common animals found in the surroundings of the village.
"I want some of its meat as well as its blood ."
"Blood?"
As I told Arthur about my choice, a visible surprise was present on his face. Although Earth hogs are magical beasts, they are also on the lower tier of all the magical beasts, and the values of the blood of these beasts are directly proportional to their tier.
The worst magical beasts' blood is almost worthless while the highest-tiered magical beasts have their blood as the most valuable part of their body. Of course, this logic only applies to humans and other races that have a use for the blood of these beasts.
I requested the blood as I wanted to test out the effect of the system. But still, I remembered that the former owner of this body has some interest in the experimentation on the usage of beast blood and is helping out the shaman on a few occasions which is a good excuse for the request.
"Yes, as you know I have been helping the shaman through his experiments and I have also been conducting my own experiments. Don't worry, I won't use these for my tattoos."
After I said that, Arthur thought for a moment before he finally acquiesced, as the blood of lower-tiered beasts is really inappropriate to use for the blood arts as they have limited use and power and will only unnecessarily take up a place on the body of the user.
As the skills are inscribed on the body as tattoos, there is only so much space where people can place them, so people usually wait until they can get higher-tiered blood or the blood of a beast with special usage.
"But still, as the blood has a low value, I'll give you its tusks, although this is smaller than usual you could still use it when making your weapon."
Following that he called another person who helped us to haul the blood and meat of the Earth hog towards my house. It took approximately half an hour in order to haul off that as we had to take a few trips before we were able to carry all of the buckets of blood and stacks of meat.
"Thank you, Arthur and Joseph."
I quickly thanked both of them before proceeding inside the house, but before I was able to step inside Arthur quickly stopped me.
"Oh right, Leon I forgot but, did Gerard tell you about us going towards the city to trade?"
"Yes, he mentioned that George is sick so he won't be able to accompany you but he never told me about the specifics."
"The trade will happen 6 days from now, I was hoping that George will be fine by that time but the shaman told me otherwise, apparently he needs to rest for two weeks. You don't need to prepare that much for the trip, we just need an extra hand with guarding the caravan as well as with helping on moving the goods. We'll be leaving as soon as the sun rises so try not to exhaust yourself before that."
"Okay, sure I'll be there. Thank you again."
"No problem. We'll get going then."
Arthur then flashed me a smile and proceeded to leave alongside Joseph.
I then proceeded to haul all of the buckets of blood and meat inside the house, it quickly became cramped inside the house, but I needed to hide what I would be doing as I also have no idea of what will happen to this blood or if these would even be useful at all after I use the system.