The moment he finished reading the magically formed words within the blue screen, a sharp pain attacked him in the brain yet again.
But this time, he didn't cry out or fall on his butt, for he didn't feel miserable for more than one-tenth of a second.
It was safe to say that the pain emerging from the center of his brain vanished as soon as it came.
'Huh, what is this?'
Roy's eyes widened.
There was more than just one foreign memory floating in his mind.
Before he knew it, a large amount of information about the Strongest System and the Mark of Shadow had drilled into his brain.
The system was his key to becoming strong at a rapid pace.
He just needed to level up.
To level up, he needed experience points.
He could earn them by killing any living being.
Even stomping an ant to death would grant him XP at his current level!
Every time he levels up, he would get a skill point and a stat point.
Skill points could be used to learn any skill, even spells, while stat points could be used to better his body.
As for the Mark of Shadow... it was his reward for the first kill.
It was like a better version of soul shards. They can only merge with a person's body. But it had merged with his soul, granting him power that would follow him into another body if he ever chose to soul shift. In this world, even that was possible. But it was forbidden magic. And to do it, he had to become a mage.
Unlike a soul shards, however, the Mark of Shadow didn't grant him any skills or superpowers.
He was still as powerless as ever...
On the bright side, it granted him an endless opportunity for evolution.
…
NAME: Roy
Age: Sixteen years and nine months old
EXP POINTS: 1
Power Level: Body Tempering Stage 0 Level (0/10 EXP)
Health: 2
Mana: 0
Strength: 3.5
Stamina: 1.5
Agility: 1
Perception: 5.5
Endurance: 1
Physical Defense: 0.2%
Magical Damage Negation: 0.1%
The average stat of a fully developed human in this world was five, meaning he was far less healthy than kids his age.
He was also weaker than the servants of his manor.
As for his stamina... It was better to not talk about it.
His agility and endurance… it was even more pitiful than his stamina.
Agility determined how fast he could move.
Roy was wondering why he was as slow as a snail. But now it made sense to him. His agility was four points below average. On foot, He could only travel at that speed. He was still 16, but his conditions were worse than a Balding Baby. They are old people nearing the end of their lives.
Endurance determined how much damage, be it magical in nature or physical, he could negate without doing a thing.
He didn't have much endurance.
So even healing magic was harmful to him as they radiated intense heat enough to give him burns. A typical person had enough magic damage negation to not worry about the side effects of Major healing. But Roy couldn't survive it.
No wonder the count never called a magician to simply patch him up.
If strong healing magic were to be used on him, he would die and weak healing magic wouldn't perfectly solve one problem and also create another one for him!
Although his stats were shitty, he was happy to see them as if he was a father who had gone out three years ago to buy milk for his baby, only to feel guilty and return home to see his boy all grown up and still waiting for him.
….
Roy's poker face shattered as he grinned from ear to ear, but Amelia couldn't see the maniacal smile on his face as she was standing behind him.
Thankfully she didn't, or else she would be bothered. Who wouldn't be if they see a fat man staring at thin air with eyes almost Poppin' outta their sockets and smiling for no reason?
…
Why was Amelia standing a bit away from Roy, who clearly didn't have a good sense of balance and could fall over at any time?
It was the law of the empire for the servants of a noble to stand three to thirty-three steps behind their master
But Because Amelia was close to him, he had never disallowed her from standing sixteen inches behind him.
Still, she followed all the empire's laws whenever she went out with Roy so as not to trouble him with helping her get away from punishment if someone caught the sight of them walking side by side and reported it to the count.
…
'I was worrying too much for nothing.'
Roy was honestly depressed after believing that he lacked a golden finger.
Because he didn't have a good starting point and lacked affinity with Mana, he was certain that his future would be fraught with danger and hard work.
He also knew that working himself to the bone would only push him to the entry-level of a knight; that too would only be possible if he had a talent for swordsmanship.
If he didn't, he was thinking of walking on a thin rope with his death on one side and great fortune on the other.
Basically, he had planned to put himself at risk to pick up the treasure hidden in the wild infested with monsters.
He knew the location of the soul shards that the characters of the novel were yet to find. He wasn't going to take everything from the main character and his harem, but he wasn't going to spare even lingerie or underwear for the villainesses and villains, respectively.
Taking too many treasures of the Son of Heaven and his comrades might lead to their death, which in turn would bring a change in the future of the world as he knew it and make all his knowledge about the future events useless.
But villainesses and villains were bound to die at the hands of the merciless protagonist.
As they had shit for brains, couldn't keep their eggplants in their pants, and liked to court death every other day, they were short-lived.
Roy didn't think it was wrong to take what was supposed to be there because, in his eyes, they existed to provoke the hero when he was weak, only to die later on at the hands of the person they embarrassed.
The Goblin Grotto was the only treasure-filled place where not just any mob would be able to swat him to death.
Roy had already planned to go there, for it was nearest to the county and hid a soul shard capable of granting its devourer Great Defense against physical and magical attack.
…
'Now that I have not one but two golden fingers, I do not need to go along with my crazy plan that graunteed a 50% chance of my death at the hands of the weakest monster in the Far West, a goblin.'
A grand desire blazed in his eyes.
'I will still go there because the Soul Shards of impenetrable body is too great to give up on.'
It was the 13th day of the sixth month. On the seventh of the ninth month, the child of river will get to it. That means... He still had around three months left to take it for himself.
'In three months, I need to become strong enough to take down goblins.'
Roy had stood still for too long, worrying Amelia.
"Are you tired, my lord? Would you like to go back to the room to rest?" She asked.
"No. I am standing still, not because I am tired, but because I am admiring the scenery."
Roy turned to her & placed his hands behind his back.
"Although I grew up under your care, you read me wrong this time. I hope you'll get better at reading me."
Amelia's eyes showed horror as she bowed to him.
"This slave doesn't dare."
Obviously it was wrong for slaves to think or guess what goes inside the head of their masters.
It was a crime punishable by cutting off the tongue, gouging out the eyes, or imprisonment for 3 to 10 years.
Nobles founds slaves who would think freely quite revolting.
Freedom of thought was the first step a slave could take towards actual freedom, after all.
A slave dreaming of freedom… it was a revolting thought for nobles and royals.
If they found any such slaves, they would beat them back into submission.
That was their carrot method.
If slaves didn't submit even after getting a beat down, then they would just off them, putting them to eternal sleep.
"A maid must know what her master is thinking at all times and not misjudge his desires. This is the best quality a maid could have. You're my maid, so you must be the best! Otherwise it won't be soon before you lack the quality to stand by my side. I am changing myself to get better, so you too must become someone Worthy of the future me. Won't you reconsider?"
Roy was a man from the modern world, so he thought differently than the nobles.
Others knew her as his slave, someone he could treat however he liked.
But for him, she was the only reliable person he had in this world.
She was too loyal to him, and it was his responsibility to help her become his back bone, someone he could lean on instead of kicking her down or leaving her in the dust.
For that to not happen, he needed to shape her into a independent and strong woman who could think for herself and not just blindly follow him.
Only this way would he repay her for what she had done for the Old Him.
He started charging her mindsets by taking baby steps, helping her think freely!
Amelia natural had a strong desire to not be abandoned by Roy.
"I will do better next time."
She immediately made up her mind, deciding to become a thoughtful maid for him.
"Work hard."
Roy gave her a thumbs up.
…
On the way to the training ground, he was whistling in happiness.
They couldn't been seen because his face was too fat, but Amelia was certain that if he slimmed down, she would see dimples on his face because of how joyfully he was smiling.
"Seeing you so happy also makes butterfly fly in my stomach. But what among the things in this garden is the cause of your happiness? If you tell me, I will prepare it for you every morning."
Amelia greatest desire was to see him happy.
If it was a flower that made him happy, she would always make sure to keep a fresh one on his bedside table from now on.
If it was a plant, she had already made up her mind to buy a pot for him and place it by the room's window.
Roy read her like a book.
Her salary was hers to use. She shouldn't think of wasting it on him ever!
He flicked her forehead gently, causing her to turn silent and look at him accusingly.
"I'm thankful but you don't need to consider so much for my sake."
He chuckled and raised his head to look at the clouded morning sky, hiding the sun from sight.
"I am just happy to be alive."
Roy was just an average Joe back on Earth.
He was studying and working hard to prepare for the hunter academy's exam.
He dreamt of becoming a hunter.
That was the greatest job with the highest pay rate and also the no.1 death rate.
But by becoming a hunter, he would be able to save the orphanage that didn't have the fund to continue functioning.
The kind man running it had taken him in when he was dying on the streets. So he wanted to repay him at all cost.
He had used much of his life taking care of others, so he deserved to be taken care of by someone in his old age.
Thus, Roy choose to become a hunter over the others even though he could die.
However, he died a violent death before making any of his noble aspiration come true...
He thought that was the end but he... He ended up in another world.
He was alive.
Although not well, he was in one piece.
He didn't want to talk about the horror of having his body teared apart by a beast...
He was going to do everything in his power to live through the disaster in this world!
Only after dying did he realize the true value and preciousness of life!