Sübügätäi had never believed in the so-called afterlife he had seen so many of the foreigners preached throughout his life. Much like most other people of his time, he was a believer of the Tngri, and even when old age claimed him in the end of his days, he remained one. As such, it was quite a surprise for him to suddenly wake up after his death, in a body not of his own, in a world also not of his own.

On the one hand, he was somewhat disappointed that he would not be watching over his descendants from high above. Some mischievous part of him even thought that he would have pulled off some mischief if that was the case indeed. On the other hand, he found himself incarnated into a new, youthful, and powerful body, with tales told by the people around him of a great war to come where his role would be crucial for them to win.

The praise and the thought of going into battle once more greatly pleased him.

In his previous life, he had risen from a lowly nomad into one of the most trusted generals of his Khan. He, Sübügätäi, son of Järchigüdäi, together with his older brother Jelme, had served his Khan and the one after him, reaching the highest position of command possible for one not directly related to the Khan by blood.

Both friend and foe alike called him one of the Khan’s “Dogs of War”, an appellation he embraced and completely lived up to. His prowess on the battlefield was the stuff legends was made of, something he hoped the later generations could learn from. One of his proudest moments was when he broke the backbones of two different enemy armies in two consecutive days that one time, truly a feat which allowed him to revel in pride for once.

As for having his soul summoned to a different world, incarnated into a different body, and told he was crucial for the war effort there? That was something he definitely could live with. Sübügätäi would be lying to himself if he were to say that he did not feel a passion for war. After all, he had fought and led troops in war for the majority of his previous life, even when he had grown old and would have normally set aside such matters in favor of enjoying his final years in peace.

Instead, he did lead that one last campaign just the year before he passed away at seventy-two.

As such, he had quite gleefully accepted what the natives of this world wanted, namely for him to [Champion] their cause and lead them in war against their hated enemies. There were three others like him that day, supposedly all people who had also left their mark in history and were summoned for the same reason he was.

The two women sounded a bit more reluctant at first, but at least seemed curious about the prospect and their new lives after death, while the other man, who introduced himself as a swordsmith, was one of those who were completely absorbed into their own craft. As soon as the natives gave him a forge and a smithy to work in, he was as happy as a child with a new toy.

Sübügätäi could tell that none of them were from the same place he was from. The two women both had names that reminded him of the westerners he fought and crushed during his lifetime, while the blacksmith’s name made him think more of the southerners beyond that wall of theirs. None of that mattered to him. What he did know was that their fates were intertwined together now, and he only hoped that they would not weigh him down when they had to work together.

As for the reality of this new world he had been reincarnated to, and the way this “system” of theirs worked, he paid little attention, other than knowing that it would allow him to grow stronger, far stronger beyond even his prime years. Even the new body he received was one superior to his old one in almost every way thinkable, other than being rather ugly, but that was something he could care less about.

When the natives suggested for him to enter one of these “dungeons” where he could hunt down beasts greater than any he had ever seen in his previous life, Sübügätäi was all too happy to oblige. He had rejected the offer of having others accompany him, though. He wanted to see for himself what this new body of his was capable of, and thus insisted on hunting on his own.

Some of the natives grumbled about companions and whatnot but eventually gave in, as apparently none of the others were as adamant about wishing to hunt on their own, if they even had the thought at all.

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Instead he went into the dungeon full of large, fearsome beasts – they resembled great bulls that had a humanlike upper torso and arms attached to where their heads were supposed to be, their heads like a mockery of the human face, adorned with great horns and a wide maw full of sharp teeth – with nothing but a bow, some quivers of arrows, and a machete in his hands.

It was a glorious fight, the fearsome beasts proving themselves also capable of wielding weapons as they fought back ferociously against him. More than a few times Sübügätäi found himself perishing in the hands of the great beasts, only to return once more after a short while. His weapons shattered early on, and he killed a few of the beasts with his bare hands before claiming their weapons as his to use.

In such a manner, he slaughtered the whole forest full of such creatures over a period of two weeks. Given that fighting in such a confined location on foot was completely out of his element – he much preferred fighting on horseback in the open plains – it was a passable performance, he thought to himself. The beasts grew stronger the deeper into the forest he went, but so did he, as he gained “levels” and grew ever stronger from slaughtering them.

By the time he reached the largest and greatest of the beasts – a behemoth that towered over twice his own not-inconsiderable height – Sübügätäi had gotten used to how this new world worked. He stashed several sets of weapons near the battlefield before he went in to confront the great beast. Death was nothing for him to fear, and it was with such a mindset that he charged forward with near childlike glee.

It took him seven deaths and one before he finally felled the great beast, their battle one fit for the legends.

After he felled the beast, he was given a choice of new “classes” from the world, and one of the options was a familiar and nostalgic one. It was the title he had won for himself back in his previous life, that of a warrior famed for their prowess in war. Sübügätäi had not needed much thought before he picked up his old title once more, its weight settling on his shoulders like an old friend.

He was the [Örlög Baghatur] once more, and it felt right.

After the exhilarating – Sübügätäi had rarely felt so alive even in his previous life – dungeon run, he returned to the city of the people who brought him to this world to learn that the other three had also succeeded in their attempt, even if it took them longer. Apparently the three had taken a careful, measured approach in contrast to his more straightforward one.

The dungeon they went to was further away, though, and it would be days until they returned to the city. As such, to fight off boredom, when there were rumors of a heretic coven found in the wilderness and the team assigned to cleanse it invited him to tag along, Sübügätäi had accepted the invitation. Little did he expect that the mission was just one of even more boredom.

It had not taken them long to discover the heretics, the one who had been caught by patrolling rangers freely squealing the whereabouts of the rest of his group. At a glance, the fight would have seemed to be a rather lopsided one, to boot, with forty of the rangers and soldiers on one side and well over three times their numbers in heretics on the other side.

Sübügätäi found it all to be a distasteful joke, however.

One of his early skills was one called [Eyes of the Eagle], which allowed him to see things clearly even at distances where it should have been impossible. As such, he had seen the reality of the village from afar, and saw that practically none of the villagers had a dedicated combat class, as per the parlance used by the natives.

They never stood even the slightest chance against the rangers and soldiers that accompanied him.

He also noticed that the ones most fervent about hunting down these “Heretics” were the noble scions who had invited him in the first place. While the people who summoned him did not have the same idea of nobility as his previous world, where birth determined one’s status, and instead chose talented children to carry on their house’s line even if they weren’t their own, many of the conventions still applied.

For what it was worth, one of the five noble scions earned a notch of respect from Sübügätäi when he too balked at the idea of slaughtering defenseless women and children just for the sake of some doctrine. There was no honor in such slaughter, something both of them could agree on. While Sübügätäi himself had perpetrated greater massacres in the past, those always had a purpose behind it.

He never slaughtered merely for fun, something he noticed the other four noble scions had sunk to. For that, the four of them earned only his disdain.

In the end, he did nothing but watch, and offered silent prayers for the souls of the dead. The scion who had shared his thoughts stayed with him, together with three of his personal guards, some of the strongest in their group of forty. Their presence was unnecessary, as while the village had several fourth tiers, none of them were of the combative sort and as such never stood a chance against the trained rangers and soldiers.

Sübügätäi only shook his head when the four scions took off in pursuit of a group of escaping citizens, mostly children and a couple youths, escorted by some of the village’s best. He knew that what awaited them was only a cruel fate, and it was one he had no wish to partake in, not even in sight. He only shook his head in disappointment when the four did not return after a while, probably too engrossed in their cruel game with the escapees.

So it was with surprise when he saw three fearsome creatures charging at the group of soldiers he had tasked to gather the corpses – he thought the least he could do was to give them a proper burial – and started to slaughter them. He raised one arm to halt the four still with him, and only watched as the three creatures – two of which at times appeared almost canine in nature – tore apart the majority of their group with just the three of them.

A smile graced his lips when he saw the creature at the center assume a vaguely feminine humanoid form, albeit one like those from nightmares, with features that appeared to mock the idea of a human and far too many eyes and toothy maws all over its shape. Despite the creature’s fearsome appearance, Sübügätäi strode forward with a smile as he unlimbered the bow slung across his back and held it firmly.

Meeting some of the creature’s eyes with his own, he solemnly intoned, “Finally… a proper challenge!”