The ancient soul in the body of a young man, the one who had just sliced his own neck yesterday, who was so ready to do the same thing again this morning. The rabid scribe who had torn chunk of flesh from a thug with his bare teeth, the one who almost strangled a young man to death as a warning.
That person who, in utter helplessness, had wished for salvation. That person sat dumbstruck on a stone by the rocky banks of Tamal River.
The blue semi-transparent window floated mid-air. Looking very out of place with the background of shady bamboo groove and slow moving river. Its white lettering glared with mockery, like a parade of sparkling fuck-yous for the miserable Nazir.
[Congratulations! You've gained 2% story progression.]
2%. Two whole percent of progression on his first day. He didn't even achieve 1% in his last life, even after fighting with the very Ravana himself. Hell, he hadn't gain any progress for a few lifetimes—in more than a century.
What in the bloody hell is going on?
The only reason he could think of was—
"FALGUNI!" he shouted at the top of his lungs and stood.
The fake beggar was nowhere to be seen. Nazir ran towards the path they've taken and the sudden movement made his whole body creaked painfully as if being sliced by invisible nails. The slippery rocky banks almost broke his ankle. His eyes frantically searched, trying to find the likely cause of this unexpected boon.
"Falguni!"
No one answered him, only chirps of birds and insect were heard, as if singing and laughing at his stupidity. There was no trace, no track left behind. It was as if Falguni had just vanished into thin air. How could Nazir not have anticipated it? Beside his looks, there was nothing ordinary about the mysterious Falguni. The fake beggar must have a lot of tricks up his sleeve.
Still, he kept calling that name desperately.
'My offer of friendship still stands, Nazir.'
'I refuse.'
Stupid. Stupid. Stupidstupidstupid.
"Fuck."
Nazir grabbed a fistful of hair and roared.
He had grown careless, perhaps more than anything he had been too arrogant. Thinking someone unknown like Falguni wouldn't have an impact to the main storyline.
He had walked alongside the main characters of [Chronicle of Mora]. He had been with Farhad of Akatara, one of the most pivotal hero in the book, as his closest adviser. He had been married to Samira of Honta, the powerful rishika[1] who almost succeeded in stopping Ravana's ressurrection. He had even become a woman of the night who managed to be the most favored mistress of Kabir Tahuera, the King of Morro.
But none of his efforts, even after living out the lifetime, were ever rewarded so generously like this.
Who was Falguni? The name and face could be fake, but that kind of personality would be hard to forget. Nazir tried to scour his memories, looking for such particular character. A suspected son of a lord, a noble birth, with masochistic tendencies, who liked to go incognito as a beggar. There's no such person in his memories. Was Falguni a hidden character? A future character who hadn't been released in the original series?
Nazir stood alone at the edge of the bamboo groove. The riverside slum wasn't far away. There were people milling about their lives, blissfully ignorant to the going ons of the big world. Womenfolk washing by the river, pounding on their rigged washboards. The children splashing in the muddy water, trying to catch the fries of dwarf-snakeheads. Some middleaged men sat scattered on different rocks, their fishing pole jutting out from between their knees.
And no Falguni at all in sight.
Nazir couldn't blame anyone but himself.
Think. Think, damnit.
A massive headache pounded his head and he swayed a little. Bitter, caustic bile welled up at the back of his throat, threatening to throw up. The wounds he sustained before finally caught up to him. He had lost quite a lot of blood from the cut on his forehead and the thugs had beaten him hard too. His whole body felt like a wreck, his limbs weighted with lead. Nazir held onto a pole of bamboo to steady himself. Then slowly he retraced his step back to the hidden lagoon.
He might find some clues there about Falguni's real identity. At the least he could recuperate and think about his next move there.
When he arrived, the lagoon had changed.
At first glace one would not see any changes, but the small waterfall from the little creek by the cliff had become only a trickle.
[Oong. Oong. Oong.]
And there was a humming sound. An echoing sound that vibrates deep into one's bones. The source of it was the large stone with inscription by the cliff side. A cold dread spread in Nazir's gut. Quickly, he approached the stone and saw the faded inscriptions were disappearing bit by bit.
"No, no, no."
He had no time to curse his idiocy and devastating bad luck. He could only try to read as much as he could. The inscriptions was in Old Akataran Aksara[2], etched deeply by a masterful stonemason no doubt. Nazir's only saving grace was that he could understand the words.
"Wang na pun ini sakakala..."
[[May we all be saved. This is the sign of the late Sri Maharaja Dashaanan, the crowned Eela Vendhar.]]
[[He is the great one who built the defensive moat of Arum. This is his penance.]]
[[He is the great one who built Samida Forest, the lungs with which you breathe. This is his penance.]]
[[He is the great one who is most pious. This is his penance.]]
[[May his everlasting grace found its way to the bosom of the Princess of Winnowing Fans.]]
[[She who shed moonlight. She who is the great dark tree. She who laid down to rest here.]]
[[May we all be blessed—]]
The letters were vanishing at an increasing rate and the vibration grew stronger. Nazir reread the inscription again and again, trying to memorize every single letter before they disappear. All the while Falguni's words rang true in his head.
'Obviously, because the Arum River is artificial. It's man-made.'
Falguni hadn't been spouting falsehood. But no matter how hard Nazir wrecked his brain, he couldn't find how this was tied to the story progression. He willed the status window to appear.
[Ding!]
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Chapter: 49/???
Story Progression: 34%
Do you wish to unlock a hidden secret?
[1] Antieum Chapter
[2] Érdé Chapter
[3] Atauro Chapter
[4] Boven-Tarim Chapter
Number of try: 2
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He chewed on his lip. The system that accompanied him in the world of [Chronicle of Mora] was very rudimentary and seemed to be created by a cruel god. Misleading at the worst, vague at best. Every 1% of story progression, a Clue Ticket was given.
He had made the mistakes of using the ticket too rashly. In hindsight, the information given by uncovering a hidden secret could be immensely helpful. But if he use it too quickly without collecting or understanding the context of his current lifetime, he wouldn't be able to make heads or tails out of it.
[Number of try: 2]
But this time he's blessed by an unexpected boon. He had two tries. Sacrificing one might be beneficial in uncovering some clues about Falguni or what the hell is going on in this current lifetime.
"Antieum Chapter."
He made his choice.
[Unlocking [1]Antieum Chapter secret. Loading in progress.]
[*To review the secrets you've uncovered, check the profile page.]
This damned system. So primitive and basic. Nazir staggered on his feet and had to sit down. By this time the inscription on the stone had vanished completely, leaving only a smooth surface. He was starting to shiver, cold sweat drenched his back and an onslaught of nausea washed over him. This damned squishy body. Why didn't you train your body more?
'But what I don't understand is... How did you get reincarnated into an adult's body—are you a wandering spirit possessing this Nazir's body? Was the real Nazir dead?'
Falguni had said those things to him. To 'Nazir'.
"I'm not sure, Falguni. To be honest with you, I don't know much about anything..." he said to the empty space around him.
It was a question that had been haunting him too. For the longest time he had wondered if he was a monster himself. An evil spirit that invaded the body of innocents. There were times when he was reborn as a baby. That felt even worse. Did his arrival killed the baby then or was it really a reincarnation?
"I've been asking that myself..."
Am I a monster?
Am I evil?
To save himself from becoming mad, he'd stopped dwelling too much in those kind of thoughts. He took the mantle of a new name in each lives as naturally as one would change clothes. And slowly time eroded everything. Eroded the self, the memories, everything that justify one's existence.
He vaguely remembered he was once a young man in a normal world. On the cusp of starting his own life as an adult. But hundreds of years had passed since then. He'd lived in this world far longer than in his original world. Which one then does he actually belong? Would he know anything, would he be able to live normally if he returned to his original world? Who was that young man, anyway?
He had lived longer as Astan the Mercenary than as that young man who barely had time yet to make anything out of himself. He had had families here, had loved, had mourned. Had lived—to the fullest—many times over. Wherefore should he progress the story? To what end awaits him?
That was his reason to wish for salvation. To reach moksha and end his cycle of rebirth.
"But now..." he croaked out a breathless laugh.
Because of a 'mere' 2%, he had plunged himself into this futile race again. He couldn't deny the anticipation welling in his chest, the fire burning to finish 'something'. This chance meeting with the fake beggar Falguni had reignited him.
[Loading complete.]
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[1]Antieum Chapter
[Tale of Two Rivers]
A yakshini[3] travelled along the branches of Kalpataru, the Sacred Tree, and found the world fruit hanging on the middle plane. There she found love in the bosom of a sage. Blessing their union, the Sacred Tree gave them seeds. One grew a light tree, the other dark.
The light tree bore kingdoms and men.
The dark tree gave birth to rivers and forests, from which men lived.
But the greed of men knew no bounds and soon the forests fell, the rivers dried, and the dark tree slowly withered.
Find a way to save the dark tree and you may stall the light's revenge upon mankind.
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Nazir finished reading the hidden secret displayed in the status window as he sat with his back against the large stone. He heaved a long sigh and rubbed his face tiredly.
"As I expected, it's still too soon..."
The story made no sense and he might have wasted one Clue Ticket for nothing. No, no, these secrets should be useful once he understood the context well enough. For now he could only keep them in mind and be more concious of how this lifetime flow.
All Nazir could make out right now was the connection between the stone inscription and this 'Tale of Two Rivers'.
"This Princess of Winnowing Fans, she who is the great dark tree..." Nazir frowned. "This Dashaanan, this Eela Vendhar... They were not a couple... but brother and sister?"
He stood and inspected the stone once more, trying to find if there's anything left around that could help him understand.
"The king who built the Arum because... The Tamal was dying?"
There were nothing left around the stone inscription, no other carving, no signs of supposed tomb. Perhaps the inscription was the only thing left here. Or was it underground? All the while Nazir's head was running.
The Arum River was originally built as a defensive moat but now it has become a whole river. Perhaps it was once built to feed water into the Tamal? Or divert the burdens from the Tamal? And that Samida Forest mentioned, it was the royal forest beside the palace—
Where Girivar and his family resided.
[Oong. Oong.]
Suddenly the humming sound returned and the ground shook. The vibration almost threw him to the ground. The thicket around the riverside shook alive with wildlife. Birds flew up in droves in the sky, the sound of wild monkeys calling each other as they fled from branches to branches.
Then came the gurgling sound of something large.
Something like a flash flood.
Nazir quickly pick himself up and ran towards the path back to the slum. The ever changing Tamal had once again shown its temperamental side. The people of the slum—the womenfolk by the riverside. The children. The men. Nazir needs to warn them. He ran as fast as he could, the sound grew louder.
Then he realized that he wouldn't be able to outrun the coming flood.
'See that cliffside? That weird line there? In rainy season, the Tamal River reaches that high. And, and—'
Falguni had said before, and sure enough as Nazir ran he glanced towards the cliff on his right side. High up there was a faint line, dividing the color of the soil and sediment. The sound grew louder, deafening. He had to stop running and climb up instead.
He saw a root of a tree jutting out from the face of the cliff. Quickly Nazir catch the root and heave himself upwards. He didn't dare look back, he had to climb towards that weird line between the rocks. There were no other sound but the roaring of the incoming flood.
He could feel the lick of water on his legs, just right before he managed to reach higher ground. His body fell to the ground, his energy spent, and only then he dared to look back. The maw of an angry flood. The muddy color of water, rolling down like angry horde of bulls.
He saw tree trunks being dragged along, saw upturned rafts and small boats, cows and buffaloes struggling to keep their heads above water.
He saw men holding onto planks of wood. He saw a woman drowned.
Nazir thought of the people of the slum. The womenfolk, the children, and the men by the riverside. He laid there helplessly, trying to catch his breath as the Tamal River raged. Here he's safe. Breathing and alive.
And just as Falguni had said, the water didn't once reach above the line.
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[1] Rishika: a female rishi, a sorceress
[2] Aksara: alphabet, in this setting its similar to runes
[3] Yakshini: female yaksha, nature spirit