Jord hurried to the group of people at the west since he had already encountered and sent back the Human and the Half-Viro that is mute for some reason. On the way, the Grimoire explained to him more about the Virofolk and how magic works in Onocent.
*The Virofolk like you have already seen, they had semblances to animals and the Half-Viro only had some parts of an animal like the ears, tails or even the eyes. What makes the Virofolk special is that they can transform themselves to become a real animal from Earth. But with the Upheaval this ability became kind of useless because this Viro form will make them at the middle of the battle lose all their weapons and armors, putting their life at risk to just receive a little bonus in the Attributes.*
*The Humans are the same from the Earth. And the magic here is ‘weak’. They use the Mineral Aether of the Number Aeonian together with poems to use basic Elemental Manipulation. For convenience, they call the energy inside of the Minerals necessary to activate magic of M.A.N.A.”
Sincerely, I will just call it Mana.
“What do you mean by ‘poems’?” Jord said.
*They can also be called of chants. To use magic you need to hold the Mineral that becomes more powerful based on its purity rate and shout a verse that yourself created. The maximum is two verses. And if someone sings a song instead of a short poem the power of the magic become beyond the limits allowed to exist. But only the Holy Woman and the Messiah are able to sing without dying or the Mineral exploding because of the concentration of M.A.N.A.*
The figure named Messiah appeared a lot when the Grimoire talked and Jord wanted to ask more, however, their objective is close. How Jord knew without the Grimoire saying anything?
A bellow of feminine rage was loud enough to Jord know exactly where the rest of the people are. “Come, thrash! This Carmina here will shred all of you until nothing is left to your shit mother recognize you! It is your punishment for disturbing a lady when she is using the Nature’s bathroom!”
It seems Ethakon’ wife isn’t weak as he had said.
*She still is the same, huh.*
“Do you know her?”
*Story for another time.*
Arriving at the battle scene, this time the enemy is just one, no, there were some rats sneaking in the children once again, Jord quickly impaled them. What is their problem with the children?
“Hey, if you also want to die, wait your turn.” The female Virofolk with the aspect of a leopard, bulging muscles, blond hair or blond fur on the head? And also wearing pelts covering her most important parts, said to Jord while fighting a slightly bigger wolf.
“I am here to help at your husband’s request and I already rescued two people that became lost to prove it.” Jord tried to create another hatstand to impale the big wolf, but it was able to evade it. Maybe the wolf had seen the rats being impaled and learned from their mistakes?
Not that it will make a great difference.
“If you are really strong enough to receive Etha’s respect, so kill this damn thing. It is too quick for me to hit.” Carmina stabbed her spear at the wolf’s direction, putting so much strength that from Jord’s position was possible to hear the spear’s wood cracking. But it was useless because the wolf evaded the stab and plunged at Jord.
“Now you are talking in a more easy way to understand. I just need to kill it, right?” Jord’s Core shone. “If you can avoid one hatstand, how about a bunch of them?” On the wolf’s path, innumerable hatstands began to appear to impale it. But with its life in line, the wolf’s legs became blue with a small wing tattoo on it and avoided all of them with a speed even higher than when it was fighting Carmina.
The wolf had some strange speed ability to take it from danger, but it is just a futile effort because-
“Your path became too much predictable.” Jord used the hatstands to guide the wolf to a tree that he prepared a curved hatstand behind of it.
When the wolf was close enough, Jord’s Core shined with a blinding intensity and the hatstand behind the tree became hard as metal while twisting in the same place. “O My Heart! Sometimes to friends go to your place, you need to,” the spinning hatstand with a sudden burst penetrated the tree that it was hiding behind and grew enough to reach the wolf, “dirty your hands!” The hatstand impaled the wolf in the ground by penetrating its brain, heart, and stomach.
The wolf hanged above the ground by the hatstand just like an animal in a barbecue before being served.
You killed a Wolf Leader Lvl 6.
You gained 16 XP.
You're now Level 3. +3.5 to Manipulation. +0.5 to the rest.
+0 to Alignment.
Was he that strong? No wonder the Muscle Woman had problem to deal with it.
From the wolf’s corpse, a small blue ball of light appeared and went to Jord’s front.
Congratulations! This is the first Tattoo Soul that you received by killing a Monster.
Liberty Wings(Uncommon) Lvl 1: When you activate the Tattoo, your Dexterity will be increased by 10% and if your Class is from the Speedster type, you will passively have a small chance of avoiding an unseen fatal attack.
Warning: At your current Level you can only have one Tattoo Soul and the process is irreversible. Choose carefully and if the Tattoo Soul is not adequate to you, you can give it to someone.
You have one hour remaining before the Tattoo Soul disappears.
Jord was unfortunately from the Controller type, so this Tattoo Soul was useless to him. Looking around he saw Carmina coming to his direction, he perceived she was the sort of woman that valued more actions than words and since he will have to live together with the people taking care of Vimesh, he didn’t see a problem in improving their relationship.
“Accept it or not. It is your choice.” Jord threw to her the ball of light.
Carmina caught the ball without fear in her black eyes and after reading the system’s message, she grinned. “I feel we are going to become great friends if you continue to give me such great gifts.” The Tattoo Soul fused into her hand and appeared as a small tattoo with a form of a wing on her legs.
“Are you a Speedster?”
“Yes, do you a problem with it?” She folded her fur arms.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“No,” Jord said while thinking, this world is strange. How is someone so full of muscles from the Speedster type?
Carmina took the wolf with her and asked some questions to Jord before allowing the rest of the people follow him to Ethakon’s position.
While guiding them with his trusted GPS, Jord asked the system more about the Tattoo Soul.
Tattoo Souls are the essence of Monsters and they can be obtained in two ways.
* Any time that you kill a Monster with two names there is a chance of receiving a Tattoo Soul.
* If you have some kind of domination skill (people with the King Class don’t need to have one), you can capture a living Monster and extract a Tattoo Soul from it. The problem is that the Monster will still be alive inside of the Tattoo. Do it at
“What about the rarity?”
They just represent how ‘powerful’ the Tattoo is. But there is an exception, if you receive a Tattoo with the rarity of Custom, means its powers will be based on your Attributes, Skills, and Race. So it is impossible to properly evaluate it.
Arriving at the place where Ethakon and the others are, Carmina and Ethakon began to sprint when they saw each other.
Ethakon opened his arms with a refreshing smile and Carmina let go of the wolf and spear.
What a lovely couple was the first impression of this scene, but the next action of Carmina made Jord change his opinion.
“Stupid Chief!” Carmina roundhouse kicked Ethakon’s abdomen, sending him flying. “I told you we can’t travel when the moon is red in the Worm Forest! Because of your stubbornness, people became lost and if that Jord Udalth didn’t appear to kill a strange Monster, I would have probably died! What do you have to say in your defense?”
“I am sor-” Ethakon tried to speak after coughing blood, but Carmina kicked him again.
“Say louder!”
“I AM SORRY!” When Ethakon finished, Carmina lifted him up and roughly kissed him.
“Our daughter is fine?” She asked after releasing him.
“Yes, Jord had saved her.”
Carmina sighed with relief and went to search her daughter.
“Where is Vimesh Quye?” Jord asked with the Grimoire is his hands.
“He is with his mother, just go straight and you will find him,” Ethakon said after recovering from the encounter with his wife.
“Thank you.”
When Jord was beginning to walk to Vimesh's direction, Ethakon said. “Some children were too tired and their mothers took them to sleep in the bed of your house without any fear. They loved the bed and blankets.”
“I am happy to hear that.”
“So, if it is not too much hassle to you, can you make more houses in that place?” Ethakon pointed to a flat land amidst all the forest.
They probably have cut the trees.
“No problem. Do you have any kind of special request? Like more windows, beds, doors, designs in the blankets or hatstands? I would especially recommend the hatstands.”
“If possible make as many as possible beds.”
Ethakon bowed once again. “I am really sorry for asking so many things to you. You have already rescued everyone and now is making houses for us. My father must be laughing at me now, how could I be asking more favors to the person that have saved my daughter?! I am my family’s shame!”
“It is fine. Just for you already recognize me as a person is enough.” Jord went to the designated place and considered his options to permit the maximum of people and beds in each house without being too crowded.
Doing some math and using the same square base to all the houses, Jord created ten houses with four beds in each one. He also added some holes in the walls to improve the air circulation, doors with earth knobs and some extra pillows in case someone likes to sleep with two or more below their heads.
Jord finished the houses and went to Vimesh’s location while everyone looked at him with grateful expressions, especially the children and the elderly.
Seeing Vimesh and going close to him, the first thing Jord did was to wince and hold his breath at the smell of rottenness and… something he can just describe as death and corruption.
“Who is… oh! You.” Vimesh took his gaze away from the corpse, no, a female body that sometimes twitched and was the reason for the bad smell. “Thank you for saving me and sorry for fainting. When I see blood… it is as if this not even my own body and I can’t control what I do. On most of the times I just faint without screaming and in others I do things I regret until today. For luck when I have sex with a virgin, I end up not seeing the blood because it is really hard to see anything on the night nowadays.”
This is for real? He just said that without any shame?
“What is the deal with the book and you being my familiar?” Vimesh said with his short black hair and face full of sweat.
The Grimoire transported itself to Vimesh’s hands, provoking a gasp from him. *I'm a mighty Artifact of the beginning of the Multiverse and I have chosen you as my Master. If you release my seals, you would be able to summon more Familiars and receive grand powers. And this one at your front is Jord Udalth III and he is your Familars’ King.*
“Even if you say all these things, I’m not really interested in being your Master and having something like a Familiar. Since if I have one, maybe those two blockheads chiefs will make me fight at the frontline and this is the last thing I want. Just let me take care of my mother.” Vimesh threw the Grimoire to Jord.
*What if I know a way to cure your mother? Would you still deny your ownership over me and continue as a coward?*
This man really knows how to use the people’s weakness.
Vimesh with blank and void eyes as if without any kind of hope, said, “I’m listening.”
*Your mother will die in three days. Your half-baked treatment in the last years using nearby herbs has finally reached its limit.*
“...”
*And the only person capable to grant you a way to prolong her life is your Familiar, Jord Udalth III!*
Jord gazed at rotten body not understanding how his powers would save someone so close to death.
*If he becomes a King, he will be able to give you a Class to prolong more your mother’s life. And he is also the only person capable to completely cure your mother in the future! The key to your mother’s salvation is Jord Udalth III! So accept your role as my Master, you want to save her, don’t you?*
Vimesh looked at Jord. “... when you help me prolong mother’s life, I will become this book’s master. But for now, just leave me alone.”
“What happened to her? I need to know to help her.” Jord said.
“She sang to use magic and the Mineral Aether of the Number Aeonian corrupted her body. It is now slowly decaying her while at the same time proving her nutrients to survive.” Vimesh turned back to his mother.
Jord became wide-eyed at the prospect of singing while using magic be such big deal enough to let someone that is not the Holy Woman or the Messiah at this state.
Thinking about the Messiah made Jord remember that he doesn’t know why these people are here in the middle of a jungle. “I came to this Universe today, so can you explain to me what happened to you guys be ‘outcasted’?”
Vimesh sighed. “Fine, it happened like this…”
Vimesh explained to Jord that after an Ice Age where all the Races got separated, for years their group wandered through Onocent. But without a home and religion, tension began to born between the Humans and Virofolk. And then one day, someone from the Humans had invented the concept of a city. The people from both the Races were excited by it.
When they were building the wooden city, a herd of swocs- the cows from here- had appeared and threatened the safety of everyone, so the person that had invented the concept of a city came forward and sang while using magic to kill them. As this person didn’t suffer after singing the Holy Song, she became the Messiah.
Months passed and the city was finished, however, she suddenly introduced a caste system that Virofolk without any talent as blacksmiths, artisans or other useful profession had to receive a slave mark to be in the city, if not, they would be expelled from the city.
This led to the actual situation with Humans that didn’t agree with Messiah or relatives of the ‘useless’ Virofolk had left the city yesterday and ended up becoming lost in the Worm Forest.
As Vimesh finished the explanation, the night came.
And with it, the Monsters too.