"Why did you bring him here? You don't even know him. What if he's a mage. Didn't you see what Mages did to your grandfather?"
"I'm sorry. But he was on the verge of dying and I couldn't just ignore that. I will tell him to leave once he wakes up."
"Hmph. Whatever, don't tell me I didn't warn you."
....
"Aah.. Where am I? I thought I would die." Mizar woke up and tried to move his body but due to his injury, he couldn't move.
Mizar looked around. He was in a round hut made of stone and mud with grass and leaves as the roof. He was lying on a mattress made by leaves. Clearly, someone had brought him here. He looked at his body, his clothes were still on soaked with blood, the blood had already dried.
'Ah! You woke up. Do you know what happened?! I got sucked inside your body. I got mixed in this thing, this game, this system. This thing is constantly sucking in my soul essence. Save me....'
Mizar hadn't even woken up when he heard such a weird thing. He took out his black tablet. He heaved a sigh of relief seeing that it was same as before. This wasn't his fault. He was surprised that the soul was speaking fluently.
Hearing the words of the soul, a fire of rage burned in his heart. If only he had got the [100 km Teleportation Jade].
'Maybe I am wrong. What if the price of that item is that, I hadn't checked it beforehand. It's all my fault, if I had done enough preparation, this wouldn't have happened. I should depend on my own, I shouldn't be overly dependent on others.' Mizar could curse all he wanted, but at the end of the day his achievements in this world were all due to the system. Mizar also understood this but he couldn't help but feel rage remembering his desperate situation.
Mizar calmed down and tried to open his status window. The window showed up for a second before glitching and disappearing. Mizar was stunned for some seconds, without the system it would be a miracle if he could progress more. The shouting of the soul also abruptly stopped. He tried opening it again but it didn't show up. Mizar was so angry and upset, he swung his fist towards the wall. He had to stop his hand midways due to pain.
"Aah. Fuck! All my potions are in inventory, Fuck!"
While he was cursing, a blonde boy of 13 to 14 year old came inside the room. Mizar looked towards him. The boy appeared quite shy.
"He- Hello. My name is May. I saw you were wounded badly, so I brought you to our village to treat your wounds. But you have already woken up, I haven't even applied any medications, you are quite stro..." His voice was lowering as he spoke and at the end, it was almost inaudible.
"Thank you very much, you saved my life." Mizar genuinely thanked the boy. If he was left in the wilderness like that any wild beasts could easily kill him.
'Mars was wrong. He is such a nice guy, not at all arrogant like those mages.' May thought as he gave Mizar a bowl of soup and said "Drink this. This is a herbal soup that hunters in our village drink when they are wounded. It helps to heal their wound."
Mizar took the bowl from the boy. He didn't suspect the boy of poisoning it or anything. If his goal was to harm him, he would have already done that. The soup was lukewarm and was a bit sour. He drunk it all in a few gulps.
"Thanks for the soup. How long have I been asleep for?"
"You have been asleep only for 2 hours. It has been two hours since I brought you here. I couldn't treat your wounds because Mars didn't let me. He said you were a bad guy. But seriously, you are strong and healthy, you already woke up and are talking...." The boy kept talking and talking, unlike his previous shy self. Maybe he felt comfortable with Mizar.
Mizar was also surprised. He was expecting a day or two but 2 hours was just too short. Maybe it had already been days before this boy found me. But, to survive in the wilderness for days that kind of luck is heaven-defying. Mizar was thinking when a system notification came.
[Aged Herbal Soup]
{Soup made by using aged common herbs}
[HP+ 15]
'What is happening? The soup isn't even in my hand, why is it show-' Mizar was pondering when his thoughts were ended by a small scream of the boy.
"Aaaa.. What is that? Aged Soup, that is the name of the soup. You really were a mage. I should have listened to Mars. Don't kill mmppr..." The boy started shouting. To keep his quiet, he had to forcefully stand up and block his mouth with his hand.
Mizar was surprised that the boy could see the system notification. He didn't know what to do. He tore his robe and stuffed it inside the boy's mouth. The boy was struggling but Mizar was far stronger than him. Although something has happened to the system, all the stats were permanent in his body. He tore another piece of clothing and tied his hands.
He touched his face and didn't find the mask. He asked the boy.
"Where's my mask?"
He removed the clothing from the mouth but he was ready to shut the boy if he tried anything funny. Before the boy could speak, again a notification came.
[Consumed Aged Herbal Soup]
[HP +15]
The soup had already taken effect a while ago otherwise Mizar couldn't do the things he did now.
"Kid, I mean you no harm. Why are you screaming? And don't cry. Now, can you tell me where my mask is?" Mizar asked gently.
"I.. I don't know. I didn't see any mask." The boy said while sobbing.
'The mask was probably dropped when I was sent flying by the punch. What do I do now? That place is probably a wasteland now. Plus, this system, something weird is going on with it.' Mizar decided to go search for the mask before someone else found it. But before, he had to at least be able to walk.
"Hey, do you have more of that soup? Can you bring it to me?" Mizar didn't have any other options than to ask the boy for help. Judging by the hut and the boy's reaction, this probably was a village of mortals. So even if he does something fishy, Mizar could use the authority as a Mage and bluff his way through.
He freed the boy. Meanwhile, he was trying to open his status window, inventory, shop but nothing opened. After a few minutes, the boy came with a man and a bucket of soup.
"Here drink this soup and please get out of our village. People of this village don't like Mages very much." The man said in a cold tone.
Mizar took some time to finish the soup. No one could finish a bucket of soup in an instant. He felt energized after drinking it and now he could walk and swing his fist.
Both the man and the boy were surprised seeing Mizar. They knew that the soup was miraculous and even some Mages bought it and drank it but the effect was shown over time, not in an instant like this.
He put the bucket down and excited the hut after thanking them and asking May the location where he found his body.
Exiting the hut, the surrounding was like any other Mortal village, full of small huts like the one Mizar was in. Maybe the people didn't know, but no one acted like the man described the people would act like.
He exited the village going northwest, that's where his body was found.
[Consumed Bucket of Aged Herbal Soup]
[HP +45]
This notification cane when Mizar was searching for his mask. After searching for a while he found nothing. In addition to that, there were a lot of people investigating the ball of gas. So there were a lot of people.
For him, the worst-case scenario would be the mask falling inside the gas and the best-case scenario would be finding the mask himself. If others found it and took it, it would be his loss, he could only blame his luck. He was thinking and searching for the mask when a system notification came up.
[System is Updating]
[For the system to update, the user must complete the task given by system]
[Task#2: Collect 200 souls of Magic Acolyte, 100 souls of Adept Mage, 50 souls of Junior Mage]
[If the user can collect any souls of a higher level than the task then additional rewards will be given]
[Rewards: ???]
[If the task isn't completed and the system fails to update, the result will be the death of the user that is you.]