Zack was a small village boy with no rights to a surname, to the north of his village was a level 50 forest. To the west a level 30 swamp. And to the south… a place none dared venture. However, the villagers survived ordinarily, not requiring such ridiculous levels and never trying to enter such places to hunt.

But those things changed today.

“Finally!” Standing up tiredly from the dusty ground, his head ached from smashing against the floor, having tripped up on a rock or something. “The spell needs some improvements, but it actually worked!”

“Hey, fuckwit. What are your shouting about? Finally become a nutjob?” Turning around, he saw a group of three boys, the largest one currently taunting him. His head ached, but that didn’t matter when seeing himself alone and backed into a remote corner of the village by these three. Perhaps if he shouted…

What a joke! Three kids wanted to bully him?

The middle boy was clearly the leader, but on top of that sported a fair bit of weight. Just through size alone his fists could do severe damage to this scrawny body, whether or not he was an adult yet.

“I’ll give you one chance to apologise before I tear your eyes out.” He lived by one code in his last life, and the result of it was his death.

‘No Second Chances’ he would always say. But when he was on the receiving end… Well, it didn’t end well. At the time, he barely activated the spell in time to revive here today. So for the first time in years, he gave these idiotic teens a second chance.

Not that they earnestly deserved it, since they clearly bullied this body before. The markings and bruising all over him only confirmed it.

“Apologise? You fucking piece of– Kenno, grab this bastard. I wanna break his arm today.” The brutality even amazed him to a degree, this guy was actually a child? No, no. More like an older teenager… Nevertheless, the bunch of them weren’t good people in the slightest.

The boy to his left looked at the overweight leader, appearing surprised for just a moment before smiling and walking over to him. It gave rise to a simple analysis, “Second chances... Guess they work better on reasonable people.”

Before the boy could approach any close, he kicked their crotch, clearly putting him through pain but nothing sufficient to send the opponent sprawling. How weak this puny body was, but to stop some children it was enough.

An elbow smashed towards the youth clutching his precious marbles, striking his temple accurately. His head turned but he no longer stood in rage, throwing a punch out just as his own connected with the boy’s jaw. A kick to the belly sent them taking several steps back before collapsing onto a pile of woven baskets.

“You– You!” The leading bully seemed too unarticulated to understand what just happened, and tried to charge at him, obviously giving away his intentions by raising his arms up to protect his face. Weaving out of the way was as simple as taking some steps to the right, but just as he planned on following behind the beat up the leader, an unexpected situation occurred.

“Zack! What the hell are you doing with these three again?” A flushed and clearly mad woman walked over and grabbed his hand, staring daggers into all four youths. She took his hand while he stood, unsure of what to do.

With her being an adult, there was no way he could beat her for now, and as such was forced to walk away with her. He regretted not being able to cripple those three…

They’d be a problem in the future. Not that it truly mattered, belligerent individuals always tried to seek revenge. It was how he killed tens of enemies in the past. Still, he was more concerned as to what relationship this body had with this woman. Mother? Sister? Or perhaps this was a strange world where young men are married off to women of all ages?

The last… would probably be the best. Not because he’d already have a wife, he couldn’t care less about that, but because he could leave and avoid any form of care involved! A mother or sister might search for years to come, and if they recognised him in the future…

Headaches are best avoided.

“Young man, I have told you several times to stay away from those three in any way you can. Even if you have to run. You’re not hurt again, are you? Your parents might truly take you away at this rate,” her sweet words made him flinch. Such care was a foreign emotion after he received the title of Blood-drinking Blade. But he also flinched at the mention of parents, now having two problems instead of just one.

Actually… If both parents were alive then he’d probably have siblings! No!

Why was he even thinking about this?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“How stupid of me…” His mind came to a simpler truth, and returned to the woman’s words, thinking up a reasonable excuse quickly enough. “I’m sorry, they tripped me up.” She just clicked her tongue and continued dragging him away.

“You need to stop being such a coward, Zack. Until you kill something and gain access to the lord’s power you’ll always be mocked.” He immediately knew what she meant.

“The lord’s power huh… Miss, can you help get me a rabbit to kill?”

She stopped and turned, clearly shocked and looking deep into his eyes at that very moment. He took a step back, pretending to be unnerved by her gaze and wondering if not using her name was too suspicious.

“You better not be messing around,” with dire words, he didn’t dare joke around now. Nodding seriously and showing off a strong conviction. “Come with me, and don’t be so serious. Just call me big sis like always.” While she said that so seriously, an almost excessive laugh at the end made it clear that she merely joked.

Perhaps this body used to say such a thing in the past, but not any longer. Nevertheless, he followed obediently, choosing a rabbit of all things to kill for a simple reason.

Not once had he seen a case where awakening changed based on the killed creature, and killing something small is considerably easier than a fox or boar. Although, how a body went months to years without killing anything is incredible.

Bugs don’t count towards awakening, but even mice did! How did he avoid such a thing in this dinghy village?

Regardless, he followed the woman through this village and understood most its structure pretty well. Pretty much everyone lived in wood houses here, most of them being able to afford nails to keep the structure together. These small houses were one or two room at most, and contained entire families.

Some wealthier individuals may have homes with a couple bedrooms, allowing children to sleep in in their own room and giving parents some privacy at night. And then there was the chieftain’s building, a gathering place where notable citizens could come to seek solutions from the chieftain and a small council of trustworthy, wizened villagers.

Such a social structure is incredulously common to his knowledge. Commoners trusting in the knowledge of the elderly happened everywhere, and he became one of them in his last life. Just that no mere mortal would seek him out for trivial matters.

As for the building, it stood out from every point in the village, in fact with a small watchtower on top with a huge brazier, possible to lead back any lost villagers during the night. Or perhaps a signal…

Regardless, once at the chieftain’s building, a pair of guards blocked them from entering. A set of double doors rested behind them, fitting the extravagantly large building for such a mediocre village.

“Zack here wishes to undergo the ceremony and receive the lord’s power. He has asked for a rabbit to be prepared.” The two men looked at one another before knocking on the building’s door, when a series of knocks came back they opened the doors. One followed them in, guiding them towards a large chamber room at the back with a ritualistically dressed chieftain and his entourage of elders. The latter all wore some silver on their face, normally in the form of earrings, as well as some sort of tattoos coating their bodies.

Just on sight he knew these weren’t just mere custom. They’d all chosen [Totem Warrior] classes, perhaps the only class knowledge available to this underdeveloped village.

In which case, the only thing setting them apart from a tribe were the simplistic tools which allowed for wood structure to be built. What a disappointingly uncivilised place this was, even worshipping the… Actually, calling it a god wasn’t that far off.

He obtained so much power in his last life, and yet just seeing a miniscule fraction of the thing’s truth was impossible.

“Chief, teacher Kaori has asked us to prepare a ceremony for this young man.” Everyone looked over to him immediately, seeing the scrawny figure stand with a straight back, unperturbed by the elderly figures’ gazes.

The chieftain took a deep look for several moments before finally saying, “This boy is Zack, I believe. He has changed his mind?”

The woman, who he now knew as Kaori, spoke for him, “He claims to. His eyes appear sincere.” From just a few words the entire room returned to a less stressful atmosphere.

“Bring a live, healthy rabbit to the ceremony room. Is anyone else attending?” It was a strange question to ask as family usually crowded to watch their children receive a blessing. But in such situations, it was understandable why he wouldn’t want anyone watching.

Not completing the ceremony back then completely humiliated Zack and his family! They didn’t hate their son for it, but the grief it created wasn’t anything small. Even in his past life, children who hadn’t awakened when given the chance were jeered and mocked.

The ceremony room was placed directly beside the chieftain’s building. Once inside, a rabbit wrestled on the ground with its legs tied up tightly. The room appeared quite simply and rustic, having a large circular opening which allowed sunlight inside while a circle of yellow tallow candles rested right below. The chieftain draw lines in chalk connecting the candles in a specific way.

If modified a bit he might have made a real formation with this, although the chalk and candles would cause it to collapse due to insufficient strength anyway. But for now the lines were nothing  more than garbage unless something happened to change the very laws of reality while he slept.

“Step inside the circle now, anywhere will do.” He followed at told, stepping into the centre, and turning to face the chieftain. “Take the sacred blade and cut a fingertip. Now let the blood drip down.” He didn’t feel particularly happy about allowing his blood to interact with formations, even with seemingly fake ones, but simply followed through to get out as soon as possible.

He wouldn’t have done this if not for wanting to avoid questions down the line about how he awakened or obtained a weapon. At least, he had to stay here until growing strong enough to survive the surroundings, however much that may be.

But as soon as his blood hit the chalk, things changed.

The candles began to flicker, even without a natural source of wind, and small motes of green light rose from the chalk… This wasn’t meant to happen.

This shouldn’t be able to happen!

His mind could only think up a few possibilities, instantly removing the possibility of this insignificant village actually keeping advanced magical knowledge exceeding his. In which case it had to be that.

This formation was actually a deity’s symbol. Only one word came to his mind in response.

Shit.