Marionette.
A puppet controlled from above using wires or strings.
Light from an iron lantern illuminated the surroundings.
The wooden puppet under my hand had major issues about movement. So far, it could only do nothing but stand tall and straight as a soldier. Any further movement results in either the puppet falling over, or it would bend backwards.
It was frustrating.
With my outstretched right hand gripping at a solid wooden cross. The strings underneath each four corners of the tool were connected to not only the hand segments, but also to the foot regions of the wooden doll. It was hard to move it. The cross had to remain slanted in order to maintain a balanced, standing puppet. Making the puppet stand up was easy. Yet making it move was a task harder than sculpting.
Both required dexterity and precision. Though being a marionettist also demanded the virtue of patience supported by endurance. Hours had already passed after the false sun had set. And I was still here by the rock near the pond. Leaning against it with my hand reaching forwards.
It's like my arm is about to fall off.
"Damn it." Cursing, I let go off the wooden cross attached to the wooden humanoid puppet underneath it. The cross fell flat onto the ground in tandem with the featureless doll underneath it collapsing. The segments lost their balance. The feet bent over as the body hunched forwards. The puppet fell onto the ground with it's face sticking into the dirt and the butt flashing outwards into the skies.
I looked to the skies blankly. My heart was beating slowly and steadily with a certain rythm. I was calm. I was determined to live through this new life. To struggle once more for something better. Questions would often cross my mind. Doubts. Certain pessimistic thoughts. I suppressed all of it and focused my energy on the present.
Oddly enough... I feel Empty.
The world may seem like a colorful place. And it absolutely is one. This was a world graced with magic, a system, gods, even special global events. In this world lay infinite possibilities. Anyone else would've been screaming in joy and would've wanted to make a harem if they were in my place.
For the past three years. I had been distracting myself. Asking for knowledge from Grandma Antionette. I had denied the possibility of this life being real. It faded quickly after the first year. I was frustrated at myself and at the world in the second year. That anger had vanished now.
I was experiencing the five stages of grief. This abnormal state impacted my thoughts. The threshold of Anger and Denial had already been passed. And now, I was having trouble learning how to make a puppet move due to the questions plaguing my mind.
'What about the world I left behind?'
My parents are dead. They matter not to me anymore since young. I had a few close friends, friends who weathered storms by my side. Sticking together like glue against an onslaught of challenges whatever life threw at us. I had their backs. And they had mine. What would they be feeling right now that I had departed?
Worry started eating away at my heart. I knew everyone so well...
That girly looking, trap boy would become depressed. Crashing back into his unhealthy sedentary lifestyle, locked inside the house doing nothing but using virtual reality as a means of escape. He was never really one to function well when his mind was in chaos or drowning in self deprecation.
Muscle head may become violent again. His anger issues leading to getting jailed.
A particular foreigner would stop being so loud and excited.
Those three are strong. We've been through worse and we've grown. Deep down, I know that they would be able to get past this little setback of losing their leader. Yet I am still worried. About them. And about my sister. Mary would be protected by my three close friends and Mary is a smart child. The only problem was that I had enemies.
Life was never easy, and life would never allow for everyone to be peaceful to each other. Along the way, people would still hate you even if you are the greatest saint to exist on earth. It was in human nature to be greedy or to embody one of the seven deadly sins or to hate the prosperity of others.
Crab mentality is the most annoying thing I had to deal with. Countless people barred my path.
I just hope they would be fine. And I need to believe that those four would be able to live peaceful lives. Even if I know and believe that much... I still ask myself what if?
What if I didn't get run over?
What if I didn't choose to go out at that certain day?
Innumerable what if's deafened my ears and made my head spin into a cyclone of pure discord. One mistake, so many probabilities...
I raised an arm and sighed.
PA! A resound crisp slap from my right hand blew away that fog circulation in my mind. I need to focus on the present. I need to be more selfish and stop worrying about others.
"Especially now..." I mumbled. Putting my wooden doll into my pocket, picking up the iron lantern glowing due to a lit candle inside. My eyes trailed over to a certain spot in the darkness. I know that in that area of darkness were a bunch of trees. I had memorized the landscape around Grandma Antionette's house.
Call it intuition of you must...
But someone is watching me...
I'm somewhat sensitive to danger.
[Ding!] A bell sounded in my head. Damn... That's really loud.
[Requirements Had Been Met...]
[You have learned [ Lv 1 Detection](Common)!]
Aside from the loud chime of a bell, that voice speaking inside my head kept on trailing off. The voice, I had grown used to it's presence. It wasn't mechanical like a robot's. No. It sounded soft and gentle. Carrying a caring little tone to it coupled with a mature charisma.
Hmm... How do I sum it up...
Ah...
The system's voice sounds like a gentle onee-sama. I guess this tone of the system helped in making me adapt to it easily. At first, when it notified me of my attributes increasing to whatever my grandmother was feeding me, I was shocked at the prospect of having a functioning personal system. Yet Grandma somehow read my mind when I was spacing out one time. But it turns out that everyone else had the same system.
"Oh? You've opened up the system status my little grandson?" Grandma...
You scary overprotective demon.
I scratched my head while looking at my status board. The skill detection was my first skill. I haven't really learned other skills yet due to one universal rule of this world.
Learning skills or upgrading said skills before having a class is harder than usual.
I do not understand why such a rule exists. But I certainly am annoyed at it. It's inhibiting my growth. And it is probably the reason why I haven't learned a skill related to puppetry yet despite practicing a lot. I could've tried my hand in swordsmanship but that path is too overused.
Even if I chose being a swordsman, it would only lead to even more problems.
I need a class that can allow me to stand alone by myself. Not needing others for support nor do I need others to fight for me. I wanted to control everything. So far, the prospect of being a puppeteer, marionettist... Well whatever that class is called in this world. The idea of gaining that class is something I badly want.
In my mind lies countless possibilities. Strings. Dolls. Magic.
Puppetry.
If I succeed... Then I'll become an existence that defies logic. An existence that can stand alone against all odds.
Cold crept into bones. My hairs standing up. The night had become darker as the flickering flame of my lantern threatened to leave me. It was time to go back home. Nighttime was a time that everyone dreaded. Even Grandmother, a person who could ruthlessly slaughter armed men like lambs repeatedly warned of not lingering too long in the darkness without shelter.
What do these people fear?
Another question that aroused both my interest and curiosity. Part of me wanted to stay and snuff out my lantern just to see what lays in the darkness. And like any man with a brain, the other part wanted to leave immediately. Heeding my caretaker's words as gospel. Maybe when I'm stronger. Or maybe when fate decides to screw me over due to that negative trait. I'll know the answer to this question at the cost of something dear.
"I'm home!" I called out upon entering the house.
Our house was a little neat log cabin. Spacious enough to house six people without much worry. And the garden was large enough to feed a dozen people for the rest of their lives if the crop harvest was done properly. Much less two people.
Hearing no reply, I set down the lantern onto a table. Stretched and headed towards the garden.
Lush herbs and vegetables welcomed me. Stone fences tainted by green moss or vines enclosed the whole garden. A well with a red triangular roof of clay tiles stood on the center. And four paths heading straight for north, south, west, and east branched out from the well. Paths that were clear of plants and whose floor was riddled with clear cobblestone.
Wherever you look, vegetables would say hello.
Crouching on the side of the western cobble path was a hunched back figure. Wearing a full brown dress with long sleeves. A white veil covered majority of the head except for an aged face. A face full of smiles and wrinkles. Eyes hidden beneath nearly fully closed eyelids. Anyone looking at her would mistake for the old woman to be asleep.
That wasn't the case.
Granny was always wide awake. Always watching over me with a smile when I was around.
"Dominic. I see that you have returned my child." She chuckled. Grabbed a bundle of green hollow stalks then uprooted something.
A brown onion with wriggling roots as legs.
"REEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" It started screaming. I hurried to cover my ears.
"SQUEEEEEE!!!!"
Granny Antionette's face distorted into a frown. She raised a hand and muttered coldly her usual phrase. A phrase that demanded total obedience or heed absolute destruction.
"Noisy..." Unfazed, the little monster shaped like a plant kept on screaming in pain. And irritated, grandma proceeded to slap the plant and shake it until it became silent. White bubbles foamed from the hollow stalks and Grandma walked up to me to give me the now dead monster.
A bit relieved. I let go of my ears and grabbed the monster with to hands. This monster was a rare monster but Grandma had tons of them growing in the garden. It was rare and valuable.
Yet to me. It was just food.
Using the hollow green stalks as straws, I sipped and drank the dead monster dry. A soothing aroma wafted out of the thing coupled by the gushing creamy white liquid. It was milk.
[Your physique has been nourished!]
It was expensive milk hailing from a plant monster called Milon. Milons were rare creatures that could only be found in the grassland neighboring the village near our small forest. As nocturnal living beings, they spend the majority of their time submerged underground. Taking in sunlight. At night they still stay underground but upon reaching midnight something special happens.
If these things were to be harvested while submerged, just like a mandragora, it would keep on screaming and may even possibly deafen an adult. It was easy to kill though. Just shake it violently and it would die. The milk inside it was like a drug that strengthened the body.
In short, Grandmother was feeding me expensive healthy steroids.
"So how was your day?"
"I still can't make the puppet move properly."
"Is it really your dream to resemble someone like me?" I looked up at Granny.
Her eyes were wide open. Showing cloud like pupils. Those pupils made me uneasy.
"Grandma... The Cycle had already restarted. It's only a matter of time before everything bursts into flames." I shook my head at her. I wanted to get Grandma's class.
"Do not fret my grandson. Grandma would protect you." She rubbed my head. And her smile became sweeter.
"But Grandma would one day disappear." Heart beating with pain. I stared at the gentle old woman who had always protected and nursed me. The village wanted me dead. And a lot of attempts were made. All warded away by Granny Antionette's ruthlessness.
Grandma was already old. And nothing lasts forever. Only beings like the gods could live for eternity.
A frown surfaced again from her features. Pained by that look, my head shifted to the side. Guilt started etching away at my mind.
Grandma desired nothing other than my well being. It was a treatment and protection that I did not deserve.
The original owner of this body was long dead ever since they were an infant. I was just a soul of a young man that had stolen this body and this identity as my own. Albeit unwillingly.
I wasn't supposed to exist in this world anyway.
Grandma sighed. Patted my head and headed into the house. I watched her put on a long summer hat and grabbed an iron lantern before leaving for a walk.
I...
"Grandma!" I called out. But no one answered.
The old woman had already left.
I gritted my teeth at the guilt that was eating away at me. I should've chosen my words carefully. I should've given it much more thought. The old woman was strong. But I was her sole weakness.
What should I do... Should I chase after her?
No I can't do that. It's night and I might get killed by some monster.
I stood there in the garden. At a loss at which action to take.
I can think. I can plan. And I can act.
Yet why do I feel so helpless?
I didn't know what to do...
The night slowly grew more silent and colder. It was getting really late.
I felt a gaze land on me. Shifting into full alert, I looked around, using my detection skill to the fullest. Unable to catch a glance of the source of that dangerous gaze, I clicked my tongue, went inside and closed the doors.
Just my luck...
Grandma had left. And now someone is watching me.
I'm going to be killed.
I need to survive. I need a plan.