Daira’s shop was a complete mess after the little fiasco.
I undermined just how destructive Sylverwulf’s fireball was when she threw it at me, and I apologize. You see, the sheer force behind it left a shock wave that scattered everything in the shop.
“My shop’s a mess…” Daira said, picking up random debris. “And it took me months as well…”
Sylverwulf placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure the Chief can spare a few workers to rebuild,” she said.
“What if he says no?”
Sylverwulf laughed and patted Daira on the back. “He can’t! If he’s not an idiot, he won’t refuse to aid the best blacksmith he has! AHAHA~”
“…yeah, but you were the one who caused this mess anyways…” she said under her breath.
The moonlight’s illumination pierced through some cracks in the crumbling ceiling. An idea ran through my head: Right now, I’m much too weak to survive anything out there in the forest alone, let alone the real world. And if I’m going to find Tsagi, I need to become stronger. I’ll need allies to watch my back for me as I become stronger, though, so I’ll need to earn their trust.
“I can help rebuilding,” I offered. “I may not look like much, but I think I have the skills to do the job,”
Daira looked nervously at me, then gave Sylverwulf, who was in the far corner, a questioning stare. Sylverwulf’s gaze sized me up and down, and after some time, she sighed and nodded; shrugging her shoulders as well.
Daira nodded at me. “Could you give me an example? I’d like to see the ‘skills’ you mention,”
Perfect, an opportunity to prove myself. Opposite from the corner Sylverwulf stood in were a pile of weapons. Halberds, swords, daggers, and all sorts of melee weaponry were laid scattered and destroyed.
I floated to the pile of weapons with Daira behind me and Sylverwulf watching from afar. Now was the time to prove my worth.
〔Computer, is it possible to re-construct those weapons using my barriers?〕
〔ANSWER: No.〕
Well, can’t rely on her for everything. I had to use my noggin’ on my own… how is it possible to process these items and reconstruct them… wait a second, PROCESS! This idea may be stupid now, but it just might work.
I created a 3D rectangular barrier the size of a closet, garnering some shocked reactions from the girls even though they’ve seen me use it, and used a barrier to dump all the broken swords and weapons into it. Now was the moment of truth…
〔Assign the skill ‘PROCESS’ to this barrier〕
There was a brief silence at first. Did it not hear my command properly? Maybe the task was so taxing that it needs a moment to compute… whatever it is, I pray it works. Daira and Sylverwulf were already giving me weird looks.
〔SKILL APPLIED!〕
It worked! No way it worked! I’ll celebrate later, though, don’t wanna jinx myself when everything is going smoothly.
〔Process the properties of the items and, using ‘DISPLAY’ and ‘BARRIER’, re-construct them〕
Here was the schematics in case you think what I’m doing is utter bullshit. What I’m doing is simply applying one of my skills to a barrier so that the barrier now has the capabilities of my skill, those skills being ‘DISPLAY’, ‘BARRIER’, and ‘PROCESS’.
‘PROCESS’ allows my barrier to process anything’s information that is placed inside of it, ‘DISPLAY’ outlines the blueprint for re-construction, and ‘BARRIER’ acts like super adhesive glue that sticks the materials together, and they’re managed by ‘SUPERCOMPUTER’.
Daira and Sylverwulf watched with wide eyes as the contents inside my barrier began to move in a fluid motion and place themselves together, practically fixing itself. What was once a pile of junk had been turned into an amazing and masterfully crafted array of weaponry.
But Yuru! you may be asking. I thought Computer said it wasn’t possible to re-construct stuff using barriers! You poser! DIE!
It wasn’t possible for my barriers to outright re-create something out of nothing. That’s why I used the display skill as a blueprint to map everything out, and then everything took care of itself.
Sylverwulf rushed over to my barrier slack jawed. “You can do that!?” she shouted, grabbing me and shaking me. “Make more! Make more weapons!”
I created a barrier around myself to escape her grip. “Well, with the right materials, I can. Hell, with better materials, I can make better swords!”
Daira tapped on my still active barrier in awe. She grabbed a sword from it and analyzed it, gasping louder.
“The craftsmanship on this sword is… machine-like! It’s like one of those machines the humans use to make their weapons… only I’ve never seen a human sword quite this refined and polished,”
Sylverwulf rubbed her hands together and laughed maniacally. “Just THINK! With weapons like these, we could wipe the floor with all the other Beast Tribes! We could wage war against those bastard centaurs and come out without a scratch. Hell, why stop at ruling the valley? If this spirit keeps making weapons like these, we could challenge the humans! And with bigger numbers, not even the Karmic Lords will stop us! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-”
“Woah calm down,” I said. “Listen, I never want to use my power that way, understand? I only want to make your lives easier, not make everyone else’s life complete crap,”
Sylverwulf crossed her arms and pouted. “What’s the point of such power if you’re not gonna use it correctly…” then her eyes lit up. “I nearly forgot! Forget world domination, there’s something more important we need your powers for,”
Sylverwulf gave a knowing nod to Daira, who then snapped her fingers in remembrance.
“Yes, she’s right! If it’s no problem, we’d like for you to meet the Chief,” Daira asked. “Your powers may save tons of lives, please, I beg you to come meet the Chief,”
Wow. Just a minute ago, they were trying to kill me. Now they seek my help in something important to them. Guess I’m making good progress finding allies, and if I accept her request, I may get even more.
“Of course!” I said almost too giddily. “I’d love to help,”
Daira excitedly clapped her hands and Sylverwulf had a large grin on her face. A feeling bubbled from deep inside of me, something I hadn’t felt in a while. It was like a mushy feeling deep in my gut, like something inside me was fired up.
“That feeling is companionship, my friend,” Deity said, his sudden appearance startling me. “You should treasure this feeling and these people. In a world like this one, friendship is the best thing you can have,”
I smiled internally. I had made my first batch of friends.
“When can we see the Chief? It seems we’re surrounded by forests,”
I could clearly see through the multiple giant holes in the wall that there was a stretch of forest but no other sign of civilization. What was Daira’s blacksmiths shop doing all the way here?
“Oh, this is an outpost,” Daira said. “This isn’t my ACTUAL shop, this is my outpost workstation. The Chief lives in Canis, our hometown,”
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Canis? Like the scientific name for wolves? I’m not sure if that was intentional or pure coincidence.
Sylverwulf pointed westward. “It’s a night’s trek down that path, but I’m sure you have something up your sleeve that’ll make it faster,”
“I’ll figure something out haha,” I said. “By the way, can I ask you a question? It’s for both you and Daira,”
Sylverwulf shrugged non-nonchalantly. “Ask away,”
“You mentioned other Beast Tribes, centaurs, and Lords? I know this is gonna sound dumb but… where am I?”
Daira gave a knowing look at Sylverwulf, who nodded. Daira gently cupped me in her hands and brought me close to her face. Looking closer, her eyes almost seemed to glow a bright golden color. She then asked me the question:
“Have you been reincarnated?”
----------------------------------------
The soft moonlight illuminated the forest, making everything gleam and sparkle. I traveled along the path Sylverwulf mentioned earlier with the girls with a protective barrier around me, as one can never be too careful.
“You know about reincarnation?” I asked.
Daira nodded, her eyes flipping through a thick leather-back book. “My grandfather was a reincarnator. He told me just before he died that he reincarnated into this world from a place called… ugh what was it called… I’m gonna butcher the pronunciation but he was from a place called Nihon, I think,”
“That’s Japan! Your grandfather came from my world!”
Daira laughed. “Well, it’s not an extremely rare thing. What is rare is someone remembering the fact that they got reincarnated!” she flipped through some pages. “Ah, here it is: Reincarnation into the Karmic Worlds is not a rare phenomenon. However, reincarnation with memory intact is a very rare phenomenon that only happens to one out of 2,000 reincarnated. Those who remember past lives bear a disease called ‘Dual Soul’, in which the new personality battles the old one. If not treated, they will die.”
“Ahh, I see. Did your grandfather exhibit the same symptoms?”
She nodded and giggled. “We called his old personality Bear and his new one Bunny. Bear was extremely violent and would often get into fights with the wild beasts, but Bunny was more timid and shy and would faint at the sight of blood,”
“Did your grandmother know he was reincarnated? How’d she treat him?”
“Of course she knew, these are her notes!” she said, tapping the back of the book. “We couldn’t treat my grandfather, though, but a miracle did happen. It would seem that Bear was the more dominant personality and took over the body. Bear wasn’t violent towards us, though, he just had insane blood lust for fighting. He taught me how to fight!”
“Can the same happen to me?”
She pressed a finger against her chin and cocked her head. “I don’t know about spirits… from the looks of it, you don’t seem to be fighting any other personalities,”
But I worried this was the case for Tsagi. my situation is extremely rare, so if Tsagi was reincarnated as a normal person he most likely had the ‘Dual Soul’ deformity. But this is just a theory, so in case it was, I’d have to figure out a way to heal it.
Sylverwulf yawned loudly, probably feeling left out. She put her hands behind her head and whistled innocently as we stared at her.
“Oh me?” she said batting her eyelashes. “What could I possibly know?”
She definitely knew something.
“Say Sylverwulf, you anything about this world?” I asked.
She smiled smugly. “Of course I do!” she cleared her throat to sound more academic. “The world is called the Karmic World, specifically this is the Overworld. There are other spirit realms but they’re not important to us! I don’t know much about human nations, but the lands we live in is called the Primal Zone. It’s home to a variety of races like the Centaurs, Beastmen, and Mermen,”
Daira inched closer to me and whispered. “…I think she just copied off what was written in the journal,” she said, showing me the exact text.
Sylverwulf looked pretty proud of herself so I didn’t say anything about it.
Everyone went quiet as a loud rustling could be heard from deep within the forest. Sylverwulf tensed up and jerked her head around as Daira slowly stepped closer to her.
〔ALERT: Evil Karmaic energy signature detected 10 feet away〕
I instantly created a double layer barrier around the girls and I, to their surprise. This energy was way less potent than the one I felt when I was with Joana but still had the same foul and pungent smell to it. I gazed over at the girls; Sylverwulf looked like she was about to snap while Daira hugged her frozen in fear.
The moonlight made the situation all the more tense and creepy as the rustling got closer and closer, each step more and more ominous. Sylverwulf and I braced herself for combat, whatever that was going out those bushes was not our friend.
“Kneel,” a deep and domineering voice spoke, it’s voice reverberating throughout the forest.
Sylverwulf and Daira instantly dropped down to both knees seemingly against their will, with Sylverwulf grunting in vain to get control over her body back. Daira simply whimpered and shivered in fear. However, I did not feel the same effect as the girls. My barrier was useless against something like this.
“Did I not say to kneel?”
〔Target is using a Command-Type ability. The skill targets the brain of it’s targets, but you are immune due to a lack of one.〕
I have never been so grateful to be called brainless. Jokes aside, I had to get the girls out of here as quickly and safely as possible. The aura the mysterious creature radiated was way beyond me, so fighting was completely out of the table. My best bet was negotiating.
I gulped. “Who are you?”
Heavy footsteps slowly approached me out of the bushes and the creature revealed itself. A gigantic humanoid werewolf with jet-black fur and it’s head and upper bicep engulfed in a ethereal blood-red fire, with it’s eyes being a depressing void of black. It’s teeth and claws were made solid gold and it had an outline of an eye on it’s chest.
It was probably the scariest thing I’ve seen.
It walked towards me and tapped on my barrier. “A spirit using a skill? Impossible…”
While it monologues to itself, I took the chance to analyze as much of it as I could. This creature was an absolute monster when it came to karmic energy, but it wasn’t as frightening as the aura I felt with Joana.
It licked it’s fiery maw. “But yes, to answer your question: My name… is Rhaddan,” it said. “Now tell me your name,”
I shuddered a bit. “W-Why do you need my name for?”
The intensity of it’s aura increased, and it stared nonchalantly at me. “I like to get know the names of my meal,” it said. It’s voice was so polished and human that it was uncanny.
“You can’t eat spirits, y’know, hehe…” I said, trying to get on it’s good side.
“Oooh, good point! I’ll eat the girls behind you then!”
In one swift motion, Rhaddan slashed my barrier away and aimed his claws straight at Sylverwulf’s neck. It was inches from completely decapitating her, but I managed to create 3 stacked barriers that barely stopped it’s momentum. Rhaddan leapt back, it’s jet-black eyes staring at me.
“GAH!” Sylverwulf screamed. She jerked her body around violently, but no matter how much she tried, she was stuck in the same kneeling position. “L..Let me…go!”
Rhaddan pointed a finger at me. “Get in the way again and I’ll find out what spirits taste like,”
The situation seemed dire. Daira had already passed out from shock and exhaustion, Sylverwulf was restrained under the strange beast’s power, leaving only me to figure something out. My abilities were all weak against this monster, what was I supposed to do.
“R-run…” Sylverwulf said, her voice being choked out. “Get away…inform the chief…”
I could run away like a coward, leaving the people who trusted me and took me in to die. I could do that and live, but forever live with the action I had done. I would be a coward, but I’d be a safe coward.
Fuck that.
I couldn’t save my sister or my best friend because of how weak I was, and because I didn’t accept that fact, I died. I died because I failed to realize how stacked the odds are against me, and how futile a desire is against an overwhelming force.
I created two spinning barriers, getting battle-ready.
Rhaddan laughed and clapped. “The little tiny spirit going up against the big, bad wolf? What a classic! What are you gonna do against me, huh?! Sprinkle some fairy dust in my eye and run like a little bitch? AHAHAHAHA-”
SLASH!
I watched as Rhaddan turned his head to the side and saw a thin birch tree nearly cut in half. It turned it’s head hesitantly towards me and nodded slowly.
“Oh I get it,” he said. “You got new powers and wanna take on the biggest guy in the room, huh?”
“YURU RUN! DON’T FIGHT IT, RUN AND AID THE CHIEF!”
Rhaddan clapped his hands and a long red chain formed around his hands and wrist, and he began to spin around and high speeds. Laughing, he pointed to me.
“Can’t you see the odds stacked against you? You really think a puny attack that could barely hurt a tree can damage me?!”
He raised his chain-wrapped fist and smashed the willow tree, the trunk of the tree bursting into blood-red flames and illuminating the dark forest.
“Come out: FOOD CHAIN,”
Long, red chains sprouted from the beast’s back, floating and dancing around like snakes. The beast laughed and got into a battle stance; it’s legs spread out, it’s right arm pulled back ready to punch, and it’s left arm protecting it’s stomach.
“Show me what you got, little spirit!” it shouted. “Let me crush and bury that pride of yours!”
I created two thin and flat barriers next to me. “It’s not pride or arrogance,” I said.
“Oh? Then what’s gotten into you to do something as stupid as fighting me?”
“Delusion.”