Chapter 22 - Shallow Grave

"Your voice, it changed, I like it." He said getting up and realising he was still wearing the clothes he made.

Which meant the hell was as real as the beating heart on his chest.

The system decided to change its voice, it lied back then when it said it couldn't. As a form of a reward, this was what he got for achieving everything he did. Although he was still just at the foundation gate.

"How come I can see? It's so dark." He remembered the new ability he acquired, "oh right, what is that?"

There was a silhouette at a distance. It looked like somebody propped up against the cave wall. He slowly walked closer and realised that the person was actually just a skeleton now.

"Is that...my mum? or..." This was all very confusing, he thought he'd been abandoned only to find that somebody kept him company.

His eyes fell on the parchment on the skeleton's hand. It was most strange and this made him uneasy. This feeling scared him even more because compared to what he went through, not many things should be affecting him.

He knelt besides it and took the paper intending to see its contents.

He was disappointed to see that he couldn't read anything written on it. It wasn't a language he recognised, he wasn't a linguist by any means but this reeked of something else.

"Fuck, how come I can't read?"

[You're in another world now Master, while you can speak the language—reading it requires an entirely different skill]

"I didn't even realise I was speaking a different language? Even now I don't realise it. Would you..."

[Unfortunately, I can't teach you.]

"Well, read it for me at least?"

[I can't do that either, I apologise master.]

"Fine." He cramped the letter into his waistband, regretting that he made pants without pockets.

His eyes could not leave the dead person in front of him. Levi was overcome with emotions he'd never experienced in his previous life.

He couldn't deduce what had happened, but with the limited knowledge of the outside he made his conclusion.

This person must've been his parent, trying to protect him from the outside world. The system had told him about the extinction if his race, so he imagined this was part of it.

That's something he felt strongly about and for the first time, he felt obligated to pay respects to the dead—the proper way.

"If only I had a shovel? I don't think my hands can dig through this rock..."

Just then, something glimmered from his peripheral vision. He hesitantly got up and walked toward the light.

Upon realising what it was he frowned, "a hilt? Was there a battle around here?"

The thing was heavier than he expected it to be, but then again he was still a child. Even as the hybrid he was there were things that were well beyond him.

Levi wasn't aware of the many metals in the world he was thrown in. Perhaps they differed from the ones in his old world.

[Negative. There doesn't seem to be any signs of battle anywhere around here. That must be a broken weapon of that person.]

"It's weird, it feels just right in my hands..." He commented taking a closer look.

The metal was bronze with strange inscriptions and since he couldn't read there was no way of knowing what they said. The system wasn't much help either.

He had the bright idea to dig with the hilt, though he wasn't sure whether it wouldn't crumble since the stone under him seemed solid.

Clang!

It wasn't much but the stone gave way, the hilt was stronger than he originally thought. He spent his days digging and finally the grave was deep enough.

"I don't know if this hilt was yours but I'm keeping it." He said proud of himself. "I don't know who did this to you but I'll avenge you."

He gave himself a purpose. Levi figured killing for the good would be justifiable in the piercing gaze of the afterlife system. He would be lying to himself if he said that the urges weren't there still.

[-9 999 999 999 999 999 999 999]

[-9 999 999 999 999 999 999 998]

Numbers suddenly appeared in front of him, startling him a bit, almost falling over. He threw a punch thinking it was an animal of some kind but his fist went right through it.

"What, what is that my powers?"

[That's all the bad karma you've accumulated in your past life. That number should be in the positives if you want to save your soul—since you've done a good deed it decreased.]

As the system talked Levi's mouth was left agape in shock. He couldn't even read the number, was it in the millions, the billions? Trillions?

"By just one? And what's even that number, there's no way I accumulated all that in one life! There's just no way!"

[Price you pay for taking a life. Master, beings with sentience have a high value on their heads, be very careful what you kill. The more sentience something has the more your bad karma will increase.]

"How the, how the hell am I supposed to bring down the numbers? Save lives? That's not who I am." He frowned.

[Good thing you're immortal, you have all the time in the world. Literally. You can change, anyone can.]

"The urge is too strong saint system. It's too strong, I don't know what your actual master was thinking reincarnating me." He couldn't contain his excitement.

[Just remember, every time you kill, a piece of your soul will be taken, dead.]

"Yes, yes. You've mentioned that before already. Now then, how to get out of this cave?"

[....]

The system wasn't going to hand him any answers, this was his journey it was only there to guide him. He understood that.

"You can sulk. I think it's befitting to name you, don't you think?"

[I'm a system master, I have no need...]

"You'll be Lilith."