Chereads / Archemia; A Brand New Life / Chapter 3 - Bloody Bodies

Chapter 3 - Bloody Bodies

Neil Blinked multiple times, making sure that what he saw was truly real.

In front of him sat a small window that displayed the information of what he was holding, it seemed to look identical to item cards within Archemia.

"I truly am a lucky man," He said to himself as he stared forward. The window listed the details, benefits, and name of the item, along with anything else that may be of interest.

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Bracelet of a Forgotten Noble

The shining silver and numerous red gems make this bracelet stand out for its unique beauty. Furthermore they symbolize silent strength of the wearer.

Uncommon Grade

+2 Vitality

+1 Dexterity

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After reading the description of the bracelet Neil beamed at his luck. Though at the moment he didn't know fully well how good the benefits of the bracelet were as he didn't know his own stats. Nonetheless he knew it would be helpful, especially with his prior knowledge of in game characters stats.

He hoped that if he was given the ability to see descriptions on items then it was possible to see one of himself, the biggest issue was how to activate this self scanning skill. He set the bracelet back down within the drawer and thought of possible answers.

Thinking back to how he saw the window of the bracelet he realized it was based off of him saying that he wished to better understand it.

"May I look at myself?" He asked to the empty room, feeling a little dumb but hopeful that something would appear.

Yet again a window popped up in front of him, this time reading off details of himself. The window was identical to how character sheets within the board game looked and at this point Neil was beginning to realize just how useful the skill he got was going to be.

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Name: Neil Hunt

Species: Human

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Class: Undecided

Level: 1

Vitality: 8

Endurance: 7

Strength: 4

Dexterity: 3

Intelligence: 5

Agility: 3

Will: 4

Skills:

The Eyes of an Outsider (level 1): You're prior knowledge of Archemia allows you to investigate what is contained within it with an already well known system. Though you are better able to understand the items and yourself within Archemia the beings of Archemia are distrustful of you.

You can call for and receive basic information about any nonliving object, you may also see information on yourself. This skill cannot be used on other creatures and people are automatically distrustful of you because of your unique eyes.

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This world truly was like that of the board game he played, with their even being levels and skills instituted. His base stats seemed rather reasonable though and he was pleasantly surprised by his high starting endurance.

'I guess all of the hours in the gym paid off' He thought to himself.

The largest point of focus was the skill Eyes of an Outsider. He both felt overjoyed and slightly annoyed upon seeing it. The skill it provided was unarguably incredible as he could see his own stats and the benefits of any item he desired, basically making him a walking library of knowledge. But this came at the cost of being an untrustworthy and shady character in the eyes of anyone else he would meet.

It seemed as though the world almost wanted him to continue being a lone wolf and battle through this world by himself as he had done in times before. He decided that even with this difficulty he'd still try to make kind and trustworthy friends who he could rely on. He wouldn't let anything stop him from this goal, he viewed the skill as just better training for making friends and acquaintances to make up for the lack of it he did in his last life.

Now that he had a better understanding of himself he slipped on the bracelet he had set down earlier, immediately feeling a rush of power. It was as though he could feel his vitality and dexterity increasing in the instant he put the bracelet on.

It shined on his wrist as he was wearing a dull brown shirt and pants, the bracelet being the only seemingly nice thing he wore. After putting the bracelet o he walked back over to the staircase, still making sure to be as quiet as he could.

Even with his recent gain in power it was only minimal and he knew that he'd have to still be very careful if he happened to interact with any others. He walked up the stairs following the blood, which he was surprised to see there was still so much of. Those in this battle must've been mighty warriors to endure such large blood loss.

After climbing for another minute or so he came across what seemed to be the last floor, and his eyes widened as he peered into the room.

Two bodies laid seemingly dead on the floor of the room. They were surrounded by large filled bookcases, a bed sat in the back right of the room and a door could be seen leading somewhere in the back left

Neil concern was first on the two bodies in the room, both of them seemed to be humans.

One was a young woman who couldn't be older than 30 from how she looked, in either hand she held a dagger and she was decorated light armor, akin to what an assassin would wear. Next to her laid the body of an older man with a large axe strapped on his his back, it head was a gorgeous light blue and seemed to shine in the light.

Upon closer inspection he realized they were actually of a different race. Their skin was a light brown that had bright blue geometric line work covering the whole of their bodies. Upon first look one would assume these to be tattoos but in reality they were actually birthmarks of the group of people known as the Myatheans. They were native inhabitants of the desert and they lived in a relationship with it, as each Myathean was connected to the desert and its beautiful sands through magic in their blood, the blue marks across their body represented this.

"What brutality." Neil muttered to himself upon further investigating the two bodies. It seemed that the two on the floor hadn't been fighting each other but instead some other enemy. Both bodies had slash arks from a sword covering their torsos and backs, it seemed these two warriors had not given up easily and fought to the bitter end.

Neil looked up and around the room to see what else there was, bookshelves covered the walls with brought some excitement to him as he knew some contain useful knowledge for his continued adventures.

In the back right of the room a single door with walls around it sat, surprising Neil as he believed to be on the topmost floor already. He approached the door and easily opened it, curious to see what lay behind it.

It seemed to be a small closet that had a window, a desk, and a rather large full body mirror.

The window caught his attention first as it was the lone one of the tower and he wondered why put it so high. He then began to check himself in the mirror to try and see any physical changes to his body from before he had died.

He looked identical it seemed, six feet tall, light blonde hair, and a somewhat muscular build but not enough to seem jacked by any means. He still had his broad shoulders and large thighs as squats were his favorite exercise.

That's when he noticed his eyes, instead of the brown color they had been in his prior life they were now a deep burgundy red. And within them were specks of black with rather large black pupils in the center. He could see why people may not trust him with eyes like this, he looked like a child eating monster.

'I'm a little upset, but they're honestly so cool so its not like I'm gonna complain about it' he thought to himself as he stared into the mirror. He accepted his new appearance and moved onto the last thing thing in the closet space.

A desk lied in the back of the closet and on it sat one thing, a small purple pouch with a yellow star pattern.

"There's no way" Neil said to himself upon seeing the small bag.

"Analyze" It seemed this also did the trick as the details on the pouch quickly cam up.

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Pouch of Holding

A magical pouch meant to hold nonliving things within it, has 50 slots which fit one singular item each, whether this be a single coin or an entire monster corpse. If a living being is put into the bag they will suffer intense pain and die extremely quickly.

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"It seems I'm blessed by the gods, huh" He said to himself, he couldn't believe he had already found such a useful item. Even though it was just a small pouch it was still an incredible find as he could now carry large amounts of items, corpses,, and whatever else on him with ease.

He excitedly snatched up the pouch, but upon removing it from the table it seemed the entire tower seemed to shake. After being stunned for a second he looked out the window to see that the tower as indeed being eaten up by the blue sands beneath it.

Neil ran back into the larger room, knowing he had little time to spare he opened his newly acquired pouch and began stuffing the two corpses and there weapons into it. It seemed that placing the corpses with their weapons attached to them only took up a single inventory space which he knew could be useful information for later on.

Once done with the bodies, he began quickly scanning through all of the books on the shelves, judging their importance based on their title alone, after roughly a minute of searching he found seven that he felt could be very insightful and helpful to him. He shoved them into the pouch as well and then began heading down the stairs for a way to escape.

But it seemed he was too late as the second floor had already started being swallowed up by the endless sand, Neil stood thinking about anyway he could escape from this trap alive, when he remembered something and sprinted up the stairs as quickly as possible.

He continued, running into the back corner and throwing open the door. He looked at the window and smirked, he put his shoulder down and ran at it full speed, pleading that it would break upon his impact.

He felt the warm glass of the window and heard a shattering sound and knew he had been successful. He fell out of the window and a few feet into a pillow of blue sand where he laid, watching the rest of tower be eaten up by the great sand.