"Luke, I am not into MEN! FIND SOMEONE ELSE!"
"Fuck you Raze! what did you do to my sister!"
"Help!! Luke wants to defile me! HELP!"
Two boys were running across a small muddy street, one who had Pitch black hair and ragged clothes while the other had blond hair and similarly ragged clothes on. Their voices reverberated through the village as the onlookers shook their heads seeing them.
"Go get him Luke, give him a beating" And old man smiled as he encouraged the blond haired boy.
"Haha, Raze, better not get caught again or you will be in a bad situation." A middle aged man who was walking with a bag on his shoulders shouted as they passed him.
"These two... such trouble makers." the guards shook their heads seeing their antics.
"Let them be, at least they make the village a bit more lively." The captain had a small smile on his face seeing the two boys pass them.
"RAZE!!" A girls shout echoed in the village, making all the villagers except for two chuckle.
"Oh shit! the devil is coming! Luke, help me!" the black haired boy named raze instantly stopped as he looked at Luke, his eyes showing clear signs of fear in them.
"Humpf! bastard! now you know not to mess with Lisa? Stay still and let me bring you to her, or i will get the beating instead!" the blond haired boy, Luke scoffed as he tackled him to the ground, making sure he can't run away.
"Luke, you are my brother, all i did was show her some illusions." Raze said as if he was the one wronged here.
"What kind of illusions." Luke furrowed his brows, naturally he would not believe this trouble maker of a friend. Ever since he could use magic he used it as a pranking tool towards the villagers.
"It was just IT, you know, nothing serious..."
"You showed her that abomination!?" Luke's face went white when he remembered that thing... that mouth...
'oh god'
Without any hesitation Luke dragged him by his leg and ran back, someone will get a beating, either him, who had invited this trouble maker to his sisters birthday party, or the trouble maker himself.
"Luke!! don't do this to me! You know the devil."
"Not my problem! AND DON'T CALL MY SISTER A DEVIL!" Luke increased his speed while Raze dug his hands in the mud as he tried to crawl away.
"So, who is gonna get the beating this year?" A middle aged man asked some people around him, who just laughed when the remember what happens every year.
"The trouble maker has to prank her every year, i remember Luke got last years beating."
"5 coins on Raze getting the beating this time."
"I bet 10 on Raze."
"15 on both."
"5 on none"
"...."
Raze started panicking as they were getting closer to Luke's house, when he saw the house in the distance, and the familiar figure who was looking at him with a smile that could only be described as terrifying, and idea popped in his mind and his face morphed into an evil grin.
Luke who saw his grin instantly felt his heart get cold.
"If you bring me to her i will say it was your idea!"
"BASTARD! DON'T DRAG ME DOWN WITH YOU!" Luke shouted as he held him by his collar
"THEN LET ME GO!" Raze similarly held him by the collar and both of them were in a standoff. But, Raze was never Luke's match in a physical fight, because Luke had a low-level strength perk, while he had a low level illusion perk. Luke then carried him like a bag of rice and walked towards Lisa, ignoring their dirty clothes.
"RAZE! LUKE! COME HERE THIS MOMENT!"
Both of them felt their heart grow cold, Luke, who was walking diligently, stopped in his tracks, he looked at Raze's grin and Lisa's sinister smile and made up his mind.
He put Raze back oh his feet, made sure to dust some of the mud on his shirt, while Raze similarly did the same for Luke.
Both of them had a look of understanding as they looked at each other and then at Lisa.
Without any hesitation they both darted away. Leaving behind an angry Lisa, who similarly to Luke had blond hair as she sent sparks of lighting towards them.
"OW!" Raze shouted as he held his put his hands on his bum and rubbed them, he just got hit by a bit of the lightning and got a shock.
"Hahahah! serves you right!" Luke grinned looking at him, but before long he too was similarly hit by a flicker of lightning.
"Aww shit! seems like we both were gonna be in bed for a few days." Luke cursed, but a smile blossomed on his face.
Both boys and a Liss were running through the town while the boys would laugh and occasionally shout in pain. the onlookers all smiled and did nothing, they too will miss this sight and some of the sighed for them.
"They will be 14 next week.."
"I will miss these two trouble makers."
Not long after, the embrace of the night came as all the villagers went to their house.
Raze was sitting in his small cottage in deep thoughts.
'It has been 14 years... just why was i reborn here...' Raze has asked himself this question many times now but no matter how much he ponders over it he can't come to a conclusion.
'Soon i will be forced to join the Army.. unless the war ends, this will be a disaster for me. If only i knew how to make Firearms, i would be somewhat able to protect myself, but then again, more eyes would be on me..' He shook his head as he felt truly depressed.
When he was first reborn, he was all ecstatic, who didn't dream of being reborn with a system or a cheat, or maybe even a few wishes from a ROB. But, sadly he had no such luck. although he gained a Perk like everyone else, his was nothing impressive, in fact it was so weak that it could only be used as a hazy illusions. Anyone with some training can see right through them. And improving it is too hard as he does not know how. After 14 years of using it, all he achieved was doubling the initial power.
'It works like a muscle, the more i use it, the stronger it get's, but that is the most rudimentary method.' Raze thought to himself. He knows that there are many methods of improving a Perk, there is no "Best Method" as everyone's Perk is different. Even two people who have low level Strengthening Perk might be different, one might be more towards increasing hand strength, other might strengthen the bones only.
'My illusions are from my fantasies.' Raze thought as he opened his hand, a hazy golden gauntlet with 6 stones of different colors embedded into it came into being.
'But it is just that, a low level illusion... not to mention i have no talent in body training as i am still at Stage 2 of Body Refining after 4 years, compared to Luke, who is already at Stage 10 Body Refining, my talent is useless.'
Unwilling to just give up, he kept thinking of ways to solve his predicament, sadly, nothing helped him with it.
The next day, he met Luke and Lisa outside the town.
"Damn it Raze, instead of all these Pranks, why don't you Practice more." Lisa held him by the ear as she twisted it.
"Ow, Ow, Lisa, stop, Ow! you hit me enough yesterday." Raze said as he felt his ear hurting, he saw Luke similarly have red ears and knew he can't escape this punishment.
"We will have to grow stronger to survive this war, yet all you do is make trouble, how do you think mom will feel if something happened to you!?" Lisa shouted as she twisted his ear even more.
Luke just slowly walked back and made his presence as weak as he could. 'Serves you right.' he gloated as be saw Raze's painfull expression
"Oke, Oke, i get it!" Raze said as he was finally let go. Rubbing his ears his eyes twitched when he saw Luke's gloating expression.
"What is with that expression, look at your ears first."
"Oh yea? want a fight, bastard?" Luke said as hips twitched, he walked next to hin and held him by his collar.
"Show me what you can do Foxy" Raze too held his collar as and illusion of a demonic being flared behind him.
"What did you call me!?"
*Bump, Bump*
"ENOUGH" Lisa bumped them both on their heads as heaved a sign. 'These two idiots.'
"Let's go before sundown, we need to increase our strength as much as we can before the draft." she said as she walked away. Unlike Luke and Raze, she Had an Electricity Perk, although not that powerful now, it can be useful in a battle as the damage is moderate and the shock value is also good to have in a battle.
Walking inside the forest, the three of them held their weapons, which were some basic swords given to them by the guards. Not long after they came across a small Wind Wolf who looked malnourished.
"Seems like he got kicked out of the pack." Raze said as he looked at it.
"Doesn't matter, we do not fight any Pack animals." Lisa softly said and backed away with the others.
Even though together they can kill this wolf, the risk is too high. Pack animals are not prey they can afford to fight with only the three of then now.
The kept looking and it did not take long until the found another lone beast, a rabbit that had some very muscular legs and 3 sharp horns on its head.
"A speed devil..." Luke said as he grew vigilant.
"It is just a damn Rabbit, why do you give it such an over the top title." Raze's eyes twitched.
"Raze, use your illusions to scare her into our directions, then me and Luke will fight it." Lisa said as she held her sword and was ready. Similarly to Luke, she as well was at the 10 Stage of body refining. Although this beast is equal to a Novice who opened the Gate of Healing, it is not a smart animal.
The body refining people do in this world is very simple to understand, It starts with 10 stages to strengthen and prepare the body, and then Opening the 8 Gates inside the body, Each opening of the Gate is extremely hard and about 90% of all refiners can't go past the Gate of healing, while there has never been one to succeed past the 3th Gate, Gate of Wonder. Instead most people focus on their Perks to reach higher levels of strength and neglect their bodies.
Raze looked around and saw a big boulder in front of a Tree, he instantly had an idea and decided to implement it.
Waving his hand, some energy left his body and slowly took shape in front of the stone. It became the body of a weak little girl, before he could even make it better quality the Horned Rabbit saw it and instantly kicked the ground as it dashed at the illusion headfirst.
*BOOM* The rabbit hit the stone and shattered it into pieces, then its slightly damaged horns pierced into the thick tree behind it, but did not pierce through.
Not having any foothold to use its strength, it became stuck in the tree. Raze grinned while Lisa and Luke just looked on speechless.
Although Raze's illusion will not fool any human that is on guard, some mindless beasts might just fall for it.
"Or you could do that." Lisa's lips twitched but she walked forward and stabbed the rabbit in the neck with her sword.
The kept hunting in the forest until late at night with Raze and Luke bickering while Lisa kept twisted their ears whenever they talked too loud or were just straight up annoying.
They hunted 6 beasts, mostly because Lisa's electricity was very useful with Raze's illusions against some weaker beasts.
They did this for 2 weeks, his birthday passed, and they arrival of the Army recruitment Caravan was getting near.
Outside the Village, Lisa, Luke and Raze had just hunted a small Lizard and were resting. Lisa looked at Raze for a good 10 minutes before making up her mind.
"Raze, you should leave." She said, instantly silencing the 2 boys.
"Huh?" Raze looked at her, not understanding what she meant.
"Leave the village... leave this place, go somewhere far away from this war." she softly said but even she knew the implications of what she just said.
"How can i do that? this is my home, this village... it is my family, stop joking with me." Raze rolled his eyes, not taking her words to heart.
"Yeah sis, Raze is ou-"
"Shut up Luke." Lisa said, interrupting Luke.
"Listen to me Raze, I will come with you, although i am not strong, i can protect you for 6 years, then we can return."
"No." Raze denied immediately, he must be crazy to take this offer, he knows what will happen if they really deserted, not only they, even the villagers will suffer.
" We have no choice, unlike us, your Perk is not useful against humans, not to mention your body is weak, even if you were strong, you will still be at a disadvantage. Once we join any war, you will certainly die or be seriously injured."
"I will not leave my family alone, not to mention letting this idiot out of my sight." Raze said as he pointed at Luke.
"What did you said to me, you little shit!?" Luke threw a branch at him.
"Raze, listen to me, the Army only searches for those with strength, Illusionist will be used as slaves by the higher ups, especially when they are weak. your life will be more miserable than ever. Let me help you, you are just as much a family to me as Luke is." She said softly, trying to convince him.
Seeing Raze thinking, she pushed even further.
"Raze, Don't feel guilty. If anything happened to you, i would feel torn." She held his cheeks as she looked into his eyes.
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Raze knew they were right. In his 14 years in life, there had been other illusionists, most of them came back scarred all over and losing limbs, When Raze asked them how they got it, they trembled no stop as those memories seemed to be too traumatizing for them.
"Fine, but, we will use my plan instead." making up his mind Raze stood up. If they truly desert, then they will be hunted to make an example, although the army won't bother, but a simple bounty would make them not able to ever join society ever again.
The only way to make sure no one knows of him and those that do don't bother him was to fake his death.
"We will do it this way....." Raze then proceeded to make a plan and not long after the sky turned dark as the guards were getting ready to close the gate. 2 silhouettes came out of the forest and ran inside tears filled their face as rushed inside.