Zach was in his bed, in a state of unconsciousness due to the system synchronization with his body, it was about to end, there was still 15 mintues left and the sun was slowly rising in the horizon lighting up Tionys village.
The first sun ray that got through Zach's window brightened Zach's face which was full of sweat, from time to time his face was twitching and suddenly his eyes opened, he got up and was heavily panting. He then heard in his head the ancient robotic voice of the system.
[Synchronization with Lord of Death System achieved]
[The Lord of Death System will guide you toward becoming the incarnation of Death. As Death the host shall become the master of every soul, for that purpose the system will help host in mastering everything related to souls.]
'How the system will help me for mastering everything related to soul' Zach wondered.
[Host apparently don't know but there exist 3 types of cultivation, host know about physical and dantian cultivation as for the last it is the soul cultivation.]
[Beware, the system shall help host mostly on the soul cultivation, as for physical and dantian cultivation host shall work on it by himself]
'By myself, I don't understand how will it works ?' Zach was a bit confused about the system's warning.
[The system shall give opportunities about skills related to souls as for physical and dantian cultivation host shall get a better understanding when host will get his first level up.]
'Ok, so I shall level up, system how do I level up ?'
[Host needs to kill being having energy.]
'Can I see my status system ?'
[Host status:
Level : 0 (peak of the human stage)
EXP : 0/100
Title : none
HP : 150/150
Mana : 100/100
Strengh : 10
Speed : 10
Stamina : 10
Spirit : 10
Intelligence : 10
Charisma : 15
Skills : none
System points : 0
Souls : 0]
'What are those system points and souls ?' Zach was curious about those two features.
[Souls are the currency of the system as for system points host will get those when host will level up.]
'System, how do I get souls ? And what use have system points ?' Zach priority was the souls as it was the system's currency.
[Host needs to collect souls by killing any being that have a soul, as simple as that. The system points are used to level up any skills or any stats point.]
'This mean I will need to kill being, I wonder if beast are counted' Zach was taken aback, though he stayed calm. He was not agaisnt the idea to kill, in fact if needed he would kill without the sligthest hesitation but he won't start killing spree here and there without reason.
The sun now fully illuminated his room and it was time for him to get up and ready himself for the venture in Pygma forest. He needed to put this in the back of his head for now, he shall come back to it later.
He got up and went down the stairs as usual and as usual his parents were having breakfast, he joined them and hurried himself because he was late due to the system synchronization.
"Be careful in the Pygma forest Zach, even if you should not be endangered too much by the forest's beasts, but you should beware even more of humans." Aldrich warned Zach.
"Okay dad, I will pay attention." Zach wasn't an innocent child, he knew that the world was worser than it seemed.
When he finished his breakfast, he runned out of his house to join his friends. They decided to meet in front of Jess' house, he saw his two friends in the distance waiting for him.
"Finally there sleepy head, we started to think that you would not show yourself Zach." Jess' said to him teasingly.
"Yeah sorry, I overslept ... but I would never withdraw myself from this venture knowing that my friends would be alone." Zach scratched his and said apologetically.
"Nevermind this guys, we should get on our way." Arnold interrupted.
And so Zach, Jess and Arnold went on their way toward the Pygma forest, it was at the north from their position and they should reach it in about 2 hours if they hurried themelves. The first part of their travel was on a sinuous path through a not so high hill, it went without difficulties.
Then they got to travel in a plain, midway in the plain a bunch of 3 men appeared out of nowhere. Each of them had a saber, with a blade of about 65 centimeters, sheathed at their waist.
Zach had his scythe on his back, it was totally made of metal, the handle was made of some sort of carbon fiber, it was very though and light at the same time, as for the blade it was incredibly sharp.
Jess had her bow in hand and a rather big quiver full of arrows. Finally Arnold had each of his blades in their scabbards which were tied to each of his thigh.
"Hey kids, you are playing the adventurers ? That's so cute. Perhaps you lost yourselves ? You might need some help to get back to your home." One of the men said with a creepy smile.
'They are here for troubles, they probably won't let us go no matter what we do.' Zach thought about the situation and he knew that it wasn't good for them, all the more if the men in front of them were cultivators.
"No, mister we are in a hurry and we are not lost so if you don't mind we will go on our way." Jess said in a firm voice.
"But, little girl, I mind so you shall shut your mouths and follow us, you will be sold as slave on the black market, as for you girl you have some potential, maybe you could be sold to a rotten noble for a hefty price and if there is none interested we could still sell you to a brothel. Now surrend yourselves before me a great mid rank 1 cultivator." The leader of the men said with a smile which was now more evil than creepy.
The group of men were confident in subduing the 3 kids as they were travelling by themselves and wore clothes which were not shaby but not too luxurious, they were confident that the kids were not from a noble household. They thought that they were only kids of slightly wealthy merchant. In addition the leader was a mid rank 1 dantian cultivator et the other 2 were low rank 1 cultivators.
When he heard what the man said Zach's face darkened, he was furious, utterly enraged, he imagined that this sort of things should not be uncommon but they were only out of their village for 1 hour and they were already belittled and treated like merchandise.
However when he heard the man being so proud of such a laughable level of cultivation he saw some hope, then the ancient robotic voice which he put in the back of his mind this morning manifested itself.
[Ding ! Quest issued : Lowly being are trying to confront host, the one that shall become death, as an unforgivable deed, host shall slain those lowly being to remind them that death is not something that should be provoked so easily.
Target eliminated : 0/3
Time limit : 0 hours 30 minutes
Rewards : 1 random skill]
Zach only get a glimpse of the quest he just got and he did not focused on the content, he got in a state of absolute focus on the fight before him. Fortunately, they were ready, they were trained like the cream of the crop of the army by their dads, they got a great synchronization in fight and even if they were below in cultivation actually they were technically far ahead.
Zach who was in front of his two friends turned his head to look at them and see in what state of mind they were. When he looked at Jess the only thing he saw was determination and concentration and when he looked at Arnold he saw the exact same thing.
'Good, with the state of mind they have we can do it, we can show these arrogant bastards that they are nothing more than failure who think great of themselves. Though we will need to give our all.' Zach was now rather confiant in their win agaisnt them even if they were 3 versus 3 despite their cultivation, only at the peak of the mortal stage.
The leader noticed the calmness the kids displayed and it disturbed him. In fact it was so disturbing to him, he doubted, yes he doubted in front of three 12 years old kids.
"You thought that we are easy prey but too bad, the only thing you will get today is your death." Zach said to them emotionlessly.
When the leader heard Zach saying this he felt a chill down his spine, but to him it did not make any sense to him so ignored it and focused back on capturing the kids before him.
"We will see who will meet his end today and now kid." The leader chuckled and said with confidence he forced back.