Luke looked at the beautiful Lunari standing before him, questioning him coldly, and his mind began to work at high speed.
"I-I'm lost… I didn't mean to enter the forest, but I was being chased by bandits and I had no choice but to flee in this direction. But if you show me the way, I will leave the sacred forest immediately!"
Luke made his stance clear immediately and bluntly. He wanted to avoid conflict with the Lunaris at all costs. After all, he had just been reincarnated and he didn't want to set a record for the fastest successive reincarnation.
One of the Lunaris who was aiming his bow at him approached the beautiful leader and said "We shouldn't trust this human. Humans know nothing but lies. He's probably part of the group of slavers we captured."
"That's true, it would be best to finish him off right here!"
"Yes, Lanti, let's not take any risks.."
The Lunaris group began to stir as more and more people began to voice their opinions. The hostility was palpable.
"Silence! I will be the one to decide the course of action to follow!" Lanti Nyx, the beautiful leader, exclaimed, immediately silencing her subordinates.
Luke looked at Lanti firmly in the eyes, without looking away. And she in turn observed him with scrutiny, as if she could see the very essence of his being with her deep blue eyes.
Finally she sighed.
"Capture him, we will take him to the village and let the council of elders decide his fate."
She turned around as the Lunaris group under her command subdued Luke who did not put up any resistance.
"If your story is true, then you will have a chance of survival, although not many. It will be a diplomatic matter, and such matters rarely come to a good end lately"
Without saying anything else she left, leaving only the beautiful silhouette of her back moving away in Luke's still firm gaze.
Two hours later
*Ding*
*Congratulations Host for completing mission 01!*
*After great pain and effort, you have found a human settlement, with the certainty of having found a refuge and new hopes for the future, your journey begins a new stage *
*Reward distributed. You can find it in the internal inventory of the system*
Luke read the system message and slowly observed his surroundings. A dark and humid corridor, a large number of rooms arranged in rows, each with its own bathroom and implacable security.
"Indeed, it is a damn prison!"
The human settlement the system is referring to is nothing more and nothing less than a dark prison, where a dozen humans are locked up, with a lost and resigned look.
Typical operation of this bug-filled system.
Luke decided not to think too much about it. That was his defense mechanism to maintain his sanity, that and staying optimistic whenever possible.
He examined the inventory and saw that there were two new items. One was a sphere of light, upon looking at it the legend "experience pack: survival (basic)" popped up. He was already used to interacting with these spheres of light. They are basically compressed knowledge. By consuming this sphere of light, a certain knowledge can be learned immediately, with different levels of proficiency. In his previous life Luke consumed countless amounts of these spheres, which caused him to gain expertise in various fields of knowledge. The only problem with these spheres is that the knowledge gained does not transfer upon reincarnation, at least not the proficiency. So there are several pieces of knowledge that Luke currently possesses, but cannot deploy with complete comfort.
Luke concentrated his spirit on the sphere and said "absorb". Immediately the sphere disappeared and a large amount of information began to emerge in his mind. After a few seconds the process finished and he opened his eyes, confused. He reviewed the new knowledge he had received and his confusion turned to anger. The system had given him memories of his past life, from when he was traveling around the world. If he had forgotten his past life, this pack would have been useful, but what advantage can there be in giving him memories that he already had to begin with?! The "experience pack" turned out to be completely useless
Luke sighed and rubbed his brow. "You have to stay positive" he thought.
He immediately checked the second item. It was a small red sphere, tiny in size. Upon reading the description, the anger and disappointment he was feeling completely dissipated.
"Blood drop of the mythical beast 'Lunar Dragon'"
Finally something useful!" Luke exclaimed with a joy that was more in keeping with his jovial teenage appearance.
He looked around and saw that his cellmate, a decrepit old man, was asleep and snoring loudly. Without further hesitation he absorbed the drop of blood, which upon entering his body began to generate incredible changes at great speed, his fragile body began to destroy and rebuild itself successively, which caused him tremendous pain that almost left him unconscious. However, Luke gritted his teeth and resisted, clinging to his consciousness. He had to be conscious in case something went wrong, as a last resort he could stop the assimilation of the blood using a forbidden technique he learned in his previous life.
Luckily, the bad scenarios he imagined did not happen and he was able to absorb the dragon's blood without problems.
Tired, he fell flat on the hard wooden bed that was the only comfort in the cell, and fell asleep.
He dreamed of his past life, his beautiful wife who always proclaimed her love, his friends, his family, and… his children. He woke up startled after being killed in his dreams by the same enemy who killed his previous incarnation. A shadow, he never knew its name, or even saw its face.
"Stay calm" he thought, trying to hypnotize himself again.
He looked at the transparent screen that was floating in front of him, indicating that the absorption process had finished.
"Status" he said to himself, and the screen changed.
-Name: Luke Liryksen
-Race: Human (hybrid) / Lunari.
-Bloodline: Lunar Dragon
- Occupation: Convict. (Universal slave)
- Age: 15 years
- Health: 7/15
- Build: 7/15
- Strength: 6/20
- Agility: 6/20
- Spirit: ??
- Luck: ??
- Skills: ??, Xylara's Eye (level 1)
- Talents: ??
-??
Seeing the changes in the data displayed by the system, Luke was stunned. The changes in attributes and the way they were displayed were within the expected parameters, but something Luke had never seen before appeared there now. The occupation "universal slave." It definitely didn't sound right.
"System, what is this universal slave?"
* The host does not have enough Karmic power to be able to access that information *
Karmic power. It was the currency with which the system was managed. The products in the store, or the improvements, were all obtained by exchanging Karmic power, and to obtain said power it was necessary to carry out system missions, or drastically influence the original timeline, that is, the timeline in which Luke did not exist.
"How many points do I need? "
*The host doesn't have enough Karmic power to access that information*
Luke sighed.
"I guess this is one of those situations where I need to level up the system."
It wasn't the first time something like this happened. In past lives Luke found himself in similar situations several times, where he couldn't move forward and the only way was to be patient and develop the power of the system little by little. The system, as already mentioned, was not infallible.
"System, what name do you use in this incarnation? It's depressing having to talk to you if you don't have a name."
*I don't have a name, but I can suggest the following: "Syzygy"*
"Mmm, I don't like it very much. I'll call you Syzy. Syzy, tell me, why have you leveled up? Is it because of the Dragon's blood?"
*That's right, the host's level has increased drastically and thus my level has also increased accordingly*
"It's just as I suspected, normally I would have needed about 10 basic quests like the one I just completed to level up the system, it seems that this time the results were unexpectedly good."
The system's functions advance as it levels up, and the information on the status screen also becomes more detailed and precise. However, the direction of the system's evolution is not always the same, it varies depending on the decisions and opportunities that Luke encounters along the way. For example, the new ability called "Xylara's Eye" is new to him, and he never encountered it in his past lives.
"Xylara, the goddess of wisdom and clairvoyance huh…"
Luke closed the system screen and looked around. In the adjoining cells, a dozen battered men were sleeping or brooding in thought. A pungent smell permeated everything, and in general a depressive atmosphere flooded the dungeon.
As he concentrated his spirit, small descriptions began to appear on his retina.
*Metal bar: Low quality, durability (90/100)*
*Small elemental lamp: Low quality. Energy (50/50)*
*Dirty rags: Very low quality, defense: 0, warmth: 2/7. Durability 2/5*
Luke was amazed by his new ability, although the information provided was limited and practically useless, that would change when the ability leveled up. Generally, level 1 abilities were not that powerful. A fire ability he obtained in a past life, for example, only served to generate a little light, and did not even generate perceptible heat at level 1.
"It is an ability worthy of bearing the name of a goddess"
Luke was about to deactivate his ability, since it consumed quite a bit of spiritual energy, but just at that moment, new information appeared in front of him.
*Human: low talent, low potential; Occupation: slaver; Physical state: poor. Mental state: resignation*
Luke's surprise this time grew exponentially. Obtaining information from objects is a powerful ability but one that is still within the realm of the conceivable, something like an encyclopedia that is in contact with universal information. But obtaining information about people fell into another category, an ability that bordered on the divine, since it is information that involves other more complex concepts such as destiny and Karma. Entities with volition are impossible to deduce, they are protected by the universe so that no one can actively interfere with them, so it is unintelligible knowledge for mortals.
And yet, there were the descriptions of those people, rough level 1 descriptions.
Luke continued looking at the other prisoners and they all had more or less similar descriptions. Finally he turned to see his cellmate, the old man who was sleeping soundly, snoring loudly. And when he laid eyes on the old man, an unbearable pain attacked his eyes, and his mind. He immediately stopped using the ability and held his head with both hands, trying to endure the intense pain.
After a few moments, his state returned to normal.
"For a moment I thought I would go blind" Luke said, still a little nervous about what had happened.
"I better not use the skill on people for the time being, I don't know under what circumstances that rejection I just experienced occurs, but I'm sure I don't want to go through that again if I can avoid it."
The old man was still sleeping peacefully on the uncomfortable bed in the cell.
And while Luke was preparing to start planning his near future. The familiar sound of a bell rang in his mind.
*Ding*
*New missions available*