In the end, Levi decided to stay quiet. He didn’t know enough of what was happening to so hastily come to a conclusion. For all he knew, he wasn’t even in the west. But he listened to the discussions that came after Darian’s comment. From that, Levi picked up on the information and committed it to memory.

Prying out information was difficult. It was like gathering pieces of a puzzle. He had to take one thing from a sentence, and join it with another string of words for it to make sense.

The eternal darkness outside of Levi’s house was named the Krag. A world that consisted of nothing but an endless graveyard. They also gave this place another name: the Grave-World. What these graves were, and who they belonged to, however, Levi didn’t know. Although he suspected they home to once powerful beings.

The Krag didn’t appear every night like Levi had thought, thankfully. But recently, it was becoming more common. Once, it was only once a month. Now, it was once a week, but sometimes the Krag would open up more than that, like Levi had experienced. Only those who were ‘chosen’ could see the giant's hand wrap around the moon, casting the world in blackness. That was another thing he didn’t know. The hand. He surmised that it was some godly being doing it, but he would try and delve deeper in the library tomorrow morning to find out more information.

Also, Levi pieced together that Ubez was only one of many lesser worlds. And as he guessed, each world had a pathway to the Grave-World thanks to the godly hand.

No one knew what had happened to the west. And so that meant that no one at the Round Table was located here, or nearby. At least he was safe from them, if they were even a threat at all, for that matter. But Levi had to be cautious. He didn’t know these people. Maybe he was being paranoid, or maybe it was his instincts working to protect him. Whatever it was, he decided to remain on the safe side for now.

The topic moved on from the Krag, and shifted to politics. Some kingdom in the east of their own world was waging war against a rivalling faction for a rumoured Legendary-grade Ingredient. Some great family had a child already born to a Birthright, and was displaying immense talent.

It fleshed out his understanding of the universe he had arrived to, but it didn’t give him what he needed right now: information to stay alive. The wide universe was currently of no concern to him. He needed to know more about Ubez–the world he was in now.

The meeting was coming to an end. Most left the space. The only ones to remain was the Ruler, Levi, and one other–the woman by his side. She turned to him.

“So, Traveller,” She said, slouching back into her chair. “Do you want to know what he wished for?”

Levi rose his brows. Of course, he already knew the answer to that question because of his System. Although that led him to an interesting internal answer: Isolde didn’t know of the System.

“Isolde,” The Ruler warned.

“Oh now, now.” The robed woman named Isolde laughed, leaning closer to him. Levi remained calm. “I’m just teasing the newcomer.” She was so close that Levi could smell the alcohol on her breath, and the citrus of her perfume. People often wore citrus perfume in hot climates, Levi thought, storing that piece of information.

“I wanted to give you a warning, but based on your current vigilance, it seems you are cautious. That’s good. I don’t know if you are familiar with this world, but I would stay that way if I were you. There are people here that would be interested in your soul. There are many Ingredients. That is just one of them. Of course, you may already know this. If you do, just take it as a good hearted warning from your fellow table member.”

People can feed my soul to their Birthright? Holy shit.

“Why are you trying to help me?” Levi asked.

“I scratch your back, you scratch mine. This way, we can keep in contact and share any information we are privy to. It’s like Darian asking about the west of that little world. Everyone knows his character, so we steer clear of him. Even if we did know what was happening, we wouldn’t share that information so easily.”

She was trying to form an alliance. He wouldn’t say no. God knows he needed someone he could rely on for information.

Levi, instead of talking, just simply nodded in agreement.

“Excellent,” She said in excitement, clapping her hands. “I’ll see you in next week’s meeting, Traveller.”

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Levi nodded, and with a thought, his consciousness returned to his barricaded house. He brought out his hands from under his blanket; they were trembling. And this time, it wasn’t because of the cold.

Someone may be hunting him for his soul, all because he decided to enter the Round Table. What if he had just wished for more power? An attacking magic, of some sort?

But Levi shook his head. He had made his decision after thinking about all the other possibilities. He wouldn't go back on that, not that he could, anyway.

***

Levi stalked the streets, taking in sights of carnage from the border. Five of the homes he had used as traps were burnt to a crisp. Thankfully, he had removed everything inside that may have caused a wildfire. The last thing he wanted was to burn the whole place down–himself included.

It was so quiet. Just like usual, the lack of wildlife sounds, cars, or people chattering was starting to grate on his nerves. And, for the Levi of Earth, that was a crazy notion. He loved being alone. It was true that he had a low social battery, but now that he was truly alone, it was a different feeling altogether.

The silence was deafening.

Kicking a stone on the stone road of the town, Levi sighed. When will I get to see someone? Even if I do, will they just try and kill me like those greenkins?

For some reason, Levi was expectant. New faces brought danger, but honestly, he didn’t care at this point. He just wanted to see something, someone that looked human. Or even better, was human. Bonus points if they didn’t try to kill him on sight.

Levi returned to the battlefield of yesterday, he had almost entered the forest when he heard munching and bones cracking. Sneaking his way onwards, he peered around a tree.

Wolves? Levi thought as he spotted the familiar dense fur, four legs, long snouts of the hounds he was used to seeing in zoos, or overly large dogs.

They were tearing into the flesh of the greenkins. Levi had come to see if the leader had anything on his body worth taking. You know, like loot. He may have had some equipment, potions, or something that would be useful in the future. Or hell, rare Ingredients.The chieftain, with his strong body, was a perfect candidate.

But it seemed that the strongest greenkin was one of the main targets of the wolves' intense hunger.

Levi felt something bubble within him. Scowling, Levi shouted, his powerful words assaulting the wolves.

“Stop criminal scum, get away from my prey!”

The wolves, startled, scrambled deep into the forest. The weakest of them, an elderly wolf, instantly fell to the ground, spasming.

Holy shit, my words are that strong?

Levi quickly approached the wolf. It looked up at him, blood seeping from its ears. Levi patted the animal on the head.

“There there,” Levi said, a warm feeling budding within. He was talking to something. He pointed at the other greenkins. “You can eat the other ones to your heart's content. I want this one. Deal?”

Not knowing if the wolf understood his words–it probably didn’t–Levi focused on what was left of the corpse of the chieftain. He focused on it.

Birthright Ingredient (Uncommon) — Greenkin Chieftain: And elderly greenkin that has survived numerous battlefields. Once a common greenkin, he clawed his way to the top of his pack–only to fall to the plot of a child.

| Class: Warrior

| Path: Berserker

Yeah, well the words of a child are the most venomous, thought Levi with a smirk.

Bang!

Levi’s head twitched, shoulders jumping at the sudden loud noise. He glanced deeper in the forest. His eyes widened. A solid object blasted out from the darkness, colliding into the elder wolf that was creeping up on him. Its head exploded in a mess of gore, sprinkling Levi’s face red.

Scrambling to his feet, he lost his balance and fell face first into a greenkin stomach. Groaning, Levi launched himself behind a tree.

“It’s just a wee lad!” A man’s voice shouted from behind the tree’s, his voice sounded… Scottish.

Levi peeked around the thick tree. A gruff man in his early thirties emerged from the depths of the forest. He was wearing a grey three-piece suit with a black cloak over his shoulders and a pocket watch made of gold hung out of his waistcoats pocket. On his right arm was a red band. He had slicked back hair, a once well groomed beard, and thick, steel-toed leather boots to finish.

In his hands was a smoking pistol of steampunk design.

Two others broke past him in the next instant, their guards raised and vigilant. One was a woman who had a high and loose ponytail. She held a curved blade in her hands. While the man was bald, overly muscular, and had his knuckles covered in dense metal.

“Who are you?” Levi asked with caution, his mana twirling within his body at the ready.

“We’re here to investigate the town of Beron,” Said the woman gently, she glanced at the greenkins scattered on the floor. “My name is Sera. We are here to help.”