Mortis stood up, wiped himself off, and picked up his space ring.
"It feels good to think straight again and be a real person. At first I felt like a kid in this world, with the attention of a mouse in front of a cheese."
°Welcome back to life, Host. It seems you are back to your old self.°
"Yes, I am. And I have many questions. Let's start with the earliest events. Why are there always masses of ghosts outside the crypt? And what did you mean when you said I was now a real reaper?"
While asking the questions, he went up and opened the door to the gathering of souls.
°The souls have realized that they are in danger and refuse to come to the place where they would normally find salvation. When the place is cleansed and rewritten, they flock here. The fact that you are gathering them is a gift from death.°
°As you noticed, not only were you crippled, but your intelligence and everything else were underground. Even with the potion of rebirth, only your outer body was improved. The system was activated inside you, but since you could not really be considered human, there were some problems. The biggest problem was that normally you would get 2 SP more than others, but this way you only got 1 more.°
°But rejoice, you can now make up for everything, including those of the Hero Potion. Distribute your 63 status points.°
"I will do that with pleasure, but don't think that I forgot that you wanted to make my animal time to go to the whorehouse, you vixen. First, however, I will seek water to wash myself."
He went back down to the basement to look for water, as it is used to clean corpses. He found a small water pump at the far end with wooden tubs and rags. He washed thoroughly, put on his gear and looked for a mirror.
°No sooner are you fully recovered than you have a straight gait again and are slightly arrogant. That's how I love my handsome.°
"I'm not arrogant, I just value class. I could puke when I think about the fact that I didn't give the Countess anything out of my ribs and had to bow down to everyone. But I just have good instincts. I'd rather run than fight a battle I can't win."
"But now for more questions. Why should I kill my brother? And what is my task?"
°Your task is to bring balance back into the world, as you did with the three graveyards. Your brother has been considered an evil of this world, and because you know him, you have been given this quest.°
"If he is to die, then I will kill him. As his brother, it is my duty to eliminate this evil from the world. But I have one more question. Aren't my stats too high if I give them out now?"
°No, since you have a special class and the heroic potion doesn't count, only the base stats count. This also applies to additional stats you can achieve as a child. These don't count, which is why nobles have a better start. For you, it was the opposite. This area goes up to level 25, which means that the base value is 180.°
"Distribute my stats: 20 agility, 15 stamina, 9 strength, 9 intelligence, 4 life force, 6 mana. Let's go to the next town, according to my memories it should be Hunter's Castles."
°Mobility reaches 60, you get the Sprint ability: you run 60% faster for 10 seconds. Cost: 5 stamina.°
With renewed strength and the new skill, Mortis continued his journey north. On the way, he repeated the exercises from the book to become more familiar with his weapon.
After 4 hours he reached Hunter's Castles. It was a small town with a castle on a hill.
Mortis went straight to an inn to spend the night and ordered himself something to eat. The next morning he went shopping for supplies for the trip. As he did so, a furniture store caught his eye. Curious, he rushed into the store to finally find a mirror.
When he found a large mirror and saw himself completely in it, he was shocked and narcissism gripped him. His hair shimmered silver in the light and turned black in the shadows or darkness. He had a striking face with silver luminous eyes, was tall, slim and had muscular body features like Adonis.
The saleswoman wondered at his behavior, but could say nothing. She herself was fascinated by his beauty and would not have minded if he had stood in front of the mirror forever. Before leaving the store, he put 5 silver coins to the saleswoman and said with a friendly smile, "I wanted to look at my new equipment. Thank you for your mirror."
As he left the store, the saleswoman called out, "You can come back anytime, handsome." Mortis smiled, enjoying the attention he was receiving.
He thought about what else he might need and bought flints and ingredients for cooking. With his ring of space, he didn't have to worry about supplies going bad. He grinned amiably to the crowd and handed out compliments whenever he had the chance.
With good spirits and a wonderful day of warm sunshine, he headed for the place his former body would have called hell. There was nothing happening on the main road further north. Just looking at the road you could see that this road leads to the wasteland where there is nothing.
After 5 hours of walking, training and reading, he reached hell. Since he didn't meet anyone, he went straight to the spirit realm. If he was going to finish off his so-called brother, no one had to see him do it.
Now he saw some villagers whom he recognized well even in the spirit realm, as they seemed to go through life neutral and friendly.
As he walked through the village to a larger farm, he saw a figure - a soul with black bat wings, chains around its neck and arms. When he saw the face, he noticed a red glowing glow that radiated only hatred.
The figure disappeared into the forest, but Mortis followed. The forest became denser, as if this area had been neglected for ages. The creature stopped in front of some bushes and pushed them aside to expose a cave.
The mischievous soul did not go all the way into the hell, but only to the edge and performed an action on the wall there before turning around, putting the bushes back in place and disappearing.
Mortis waited until no one was around, left the spirit realm, and moved the bushes aside. He immediately recognized the same sign as on the sculptures of Osmirnis on the wall. A little further back was a large door. Mortis switched to the spirit realm again, but to his surprise, there was a door here as well. "What does this mean?"
°I don't know, but just take a look.° "That sounds exciting, I'll take a look in a minute. But first I'll scratch away the sign."
He stepped back into the normal realm, looked for a stone and scratched the sign from the wall, when he heard a loud scream.
Without thinking, he ran and approached his house with an uneasy feeling. Other farmers and villagers also approached the building. Three women rushed out of the house, tripping over each other as they tried to run to safety.
A tall man with brown hair, light brown eyes and a bloodied axe stormed out of the house and chased after the women. As he did so, he laughed eerily.
The farmers stood protectively in front of the women, armed with tools, when they heard the scream and rushed to Gerd's estate. But they saw Bernd rushing toward his mother Inge, his wife Helga and his sister-in-law Hanna with a bloody axe.
In a trembling voice, his mother roared, "You murderer, you killed your father and now you've killed us, even though you got everything."
Then Bernd laughed and said, "I got everything because I took it. Just like I poisoned you when I found out I was to have a baby brother. But that bastard was born anyway. Luckily he became a cripple, so I could take my frustrations out on him, and you all tolerated it. And not only that, I forced him to marry Hanna just to sleep with that whore. Then, when the battle was over, we all joyfully sent him to the battlefield to die for me in battle."
"You were only 5 years old, how could you have poisoned me?" the mother asked fearfully.
"It's quite simple. After all, we are already picking mushrooms at 3 or 4 years old, and we all know which ones are poisonous. So a few drops of mushroom juice and of poisonous plants were added to the tea here and there when no one was looking."
"Oh, how wonderful were the days when Mortis was still around and was beaten by everyone like the dog he was. But now he's gone, but don't worry, so will the village soon. You are all victims for the Dark Emperor."
"That's enough, Bernd! You are insane! We will stop you here and now. The gallows awaits you," roared a huge old man.
"You want to stop me? I am no longer a peasant. I am a servant of the Dark Emperor and much stronger than you are."
Mortis Level 21
Strength 40(+23), Agility 61( 27), Int 30, Vitality 29, Stamina 50, Mana 47, Charisma 45