He wouldn’t allow a god interfere with his awakening now, at the least they can’t force him to do something against his will. As much as they might want to, all ‘gods’ are below the omnipotent force. After all, where did they even receive their classes?
The chieftain’s eyes remained steady, but even he could tell that the old man grew excited from the appearance of those motes, indicating that this body possessed the talent to become a worshipper of their god. So long as he picked the correct class…
But why’d he ever do that?
“Perfect, now we may complete the ceremony. Do you remember the words to our lord from last time?” A newfound warmth appeared in the old man’s voice, only furthering the confirmation that they truly expected him to follow this crappy divine being. But he chose to play along, with the aim of leaving the village anyway.
“I’m sorry chief, may I ask of you to guide me through it?” He spoke quietly, as though frightened by the immense presence of this leader.
It worked perfectly as the tied up rabbit soon ended up in his empty hand and the chieftain told him, “Repeat after me.”
“To the great one in green, we thank you for all life you bestow upon this world. We bow our heads to the prosperity received, and pray for continued safeguard. Your tears water our crops, breath spreading our seeds, mind granting us thought, and heart allowing us to love. We are born from you, as we will return. May you watch over our kind from birth to grave, continuing the graces so kindly given. This is done in reverence to you, and to enact the natural cycle created by you.”
After a short prayer, the chieftain motioned for him to slit the rabbit’s throat. Being too avid about the process now would be strange, and he instead went about slowly readying the blade. Take quick deep breaths to mimic nervousness, and finally closed his eyes before pushing hard and cutting.
The blade cut right through the small rabbit’s neck, going all the way through to its spine, even then cutting halfway through!
He hadn’t been able to check, but this ritual blade was actually made of something better than plain iron. Too bad he couldn’t steal it, even disregarding the anger to this village. Any tool linked to a god is easily traced, and he didn’t need a god to be over his shoulder all day.
Just a few seconds passed with the rabbit gushing blood onto the floor and dying the ground as the chalk continued to release green lights. But as its body finally stopped twitching, it completely died and he stood looking at the three standing on the side.
Kill Accepted. Initialising system protocols.
A screen appeared in front of him, showing words he hadn’t seen in such a time it felt immemorial. The words faded and replaced with a circle, a tiny light moved around its insides and the word ‘loading’ remained underneath. This initialisation process generally took a minute or two.
Existing user found. Data deleted 6,445,986,623,288 ticks ago.
Generate new data? Y/N
This was unexpected, although such lengthy resurrections were uncommon. Most powerful beings generally came back in twenty to fifty years, not…
Wait, that was well over a thousand years.
He double checked the maths, knowing there to be 120 ticks in a second, and sure enough. Had it really been such an astoundingly long time? His spell shouldn’t have been capable of keeping him alive that long, or perhaps some deviations happened due to his prior level.
The exacts were impossible to tell, but for now he silently thought ‘Yes’ and watched the screen vanish. How long had it been since he actually died and cast the spell then?
While he considered the overall importance of such a question, it clearly didn’t matter in comparison to his goals. If he found out, then excellent! If not, then no use crying over it.
While the initialisation process began, the three watching took the dead rabbit and ritual dagger from his hands. As its blood continued to seep onto the chalk it released more little motes, all of them rising up to his eye level before dissipating. And the teacher Kaori asked him, “How do you feel? I know this wasn’t easy for you.”
Two heavy breaths from the others clearly illustrated both their relief and frustration with the boy, having taken so long to finally complete this amazingly simple ceremony.
“I just wanted it to stop, the bullying and how my parents are treated. It feels like years now…” Trailing off a bit, he hoped a bit of exaggeration could have someone answer a rather important question.
“It’s been a tough three months, Zack. We all wished you completed the ceremony and then said those words instead.” The chieftain spoke up, not only giving him a time but making him wonder just what the past body said. Reasonably, it should’ve been something about never taking another’s life…
Hopefully.
15 years and 3 months, a great age to begin at. But first he needed meat, this bony body was useless in a fight, and he needed some sort of weapon. Knowing very little of this place’s structure, he took the most direct route to obtaining what he wanted.
Asking the one in charge.
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“Chief, is it possibly for me to me to borrow a weapon from the village? I will pay it off in food from future hunts,” he said with a few stutters thrown in for good measure.
None of them expected those words though, and for some reason the chieftain of all people grew excited the most. Snuffing out all the candles with a single wave of his hand before leading them back to the main room, where they stood in front of the elders as prompted.
“Take this and go select a suitable weapon from Sabbat, you may pay it off at your own speed. However, do not go beyond five miles in any direct except east. Understood? There are totems to mark the boundary,” the chief made a clear point and he had no desire to enter those high level areas.
Additionally, hunting in the land of others is generally a huge point of contention. Normally amongst villages and towns that is, as natural wildlife only regrew so fast.
But his eyes were always on something else. Something worth hunting.
Initialisation complete.
Welcome to Neuro, would you like to receive training? Y/N
Selecting ‘No’ this time, he saw it close, only for a new screen to jump up.
Overall status: Healthy, minor dissociation between body and soul
Title: None
Class: None
Sub-classes: Reborn
Experience Points: 0/15
Unassigned Class points: 0
Health Points: 100/100
Magic Points: 1/1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Endurance: 1
Mind: 1
Magic: 1
Spirit: 1
Attunement: 1
Unassigned Stat Points: 0
Class Skills: None
General Skills: None
He looked at the screen fondly, remembering his surprise at how it all worked and the future that awaited back then. Such naivety and innocence, it was a better time overall…
The numbers were all expected, with Neuro simply ignoring one’s body and using stats as the way to affect the world. From now on, putting on muscle would give a better appearance, but only that number beside Strength mattered for fighting. And naturally such extreme physical work had some returns.
Mages spend hours pouring over knowledge not only due to obsessions, but because it rewarded incredibly valuable points. Whether intense meditation to understand one’s self, rushing through life-threatening obstacle courses, or pushing themselves to cast spells over and over again.
More stat points meant far too much as you climbed the ladder, sometimes a mere 10 points could be the different between victory and defeat.
“It seems you can see the lord’s power now, that’s excellent. On you go then, hunting parties meet at the village’s north at sunrise.” Some elders looked at Zack strangely, but did not speak up as the chief’s words were close to absolute.
Only if they all truly disagreed with his choices would they speak up in a casual matter like this.
And it all ended like that, this new body finally being recognised for awakening Neuro and no longer being so foolish as before. His teacher stood beside and looked quite pleased by the events, glad that the most troublesome child in her class finally gave rise to some common sense.
His parents ought to be happy with this news as well, at least no longer mocked by the other parents about this matter.
And in such a small place, news travels fast. The guard soon mentioning to those who saw Zack enter what just happened… And from there the news quickly reached every home. But in the meantime other he worried about more important matters, like going to see this Sabbat the chieftain mentioned.
With a slight thought, he turned to the teacher for one last favour, “Miss Kaori, I don’t want to bother you more but–”
“I know what you’re asking for, come along. Stop with all these formalities though, am I not the one who’s been keeping you safe the last three months?” With soft eyes he knew that the woman’s feelings were hurt, although not enough for him to truly care.
Instead just looking away, he said, “Thank you, Kaori.” She showed off a warming smile with that alone, and led the way to the village’s only supply of weapons.
Sabbat, a rather burly guy who clearly put time and effort into growing his strength, also happened to be one of the few individuals capable of travelling outwards to real towns and cities to acquire certain goods. And weapons were always an important one.
The village lacked a blacksmith, and while creating a basic forge isn’t the most unbelievable thing, making simply metal tools is a whole beast of its own. Not to mention it required carrying ore long distances, as well as the tools involved to shape and cast metals.
If a village didn’t have any blacksmiths, then in no way could they afford to train one up. As such, Sabbat simply bought selections of weapons and allowed his fellow villagers to take them with the chieftain’s permission.
In return, half of all their hunts were handed over until paying back the acquired weapon thrice over. Like this, Sabbat and the village made a profit.
“You’re that kid who said he’d never take an innocent life, how’s it going for you?” With a grin, he was clearly enjoying the conflict involved. However, Zack’s face didn’t change as the plank in his hand turned and revealed itself to the burly merchant.
“The chief said I could pick a weapon.”
“So… You actually did it. Weapons are inside.” He pointed to the house behind him, one which Zack guessed he placed the stalls in front of like most other merchants did. Additionally, as Sabbat took out a large metal key to open the door, he imagined the building was dearly protected for a reason.
Still holding the wooden plate tightly, he walked inside and saw weapons of all types lining the walls in dozens of racks. At the very least, pretty much every major weapon type was included here, perfect for finding one’s preference.
But why would he ever need that?
In his past life he reached level Max in three weapons! From there any improvements in his skills required an understanding beyond Neuro’s estimation.
However, he knew that even with this new body it was far too drastic to pick any of the three. His muscle memory would kick in soon enough, and having such precise yet powerful combat ability might draw attention from the god here. Let alone the other villagers who’d definitely ask questions.
Nosy bunch they are and all.
That cut out three choices, temporarily.
Sword, great bow, and spear.
Three weapons he trained in diligently to cover the three major bases of combat. Very few individuals held a comparable variability in weapons to beat him, and through that he won fights through ‘unsportsmanlike’ means. What did it matter if they died?
But the exact list of all weapons eluded him, so instead he tried to think of the lowest level ones.
Things like lovemaking only reached level 5 in his last life, having never been a priority… Same for fencing, pottery, calligraphy, and probably a dozen other useless skills.
But for weapons, looking around the room carefully, he remembered using things like a flail, mace, halberd, axe, crossbow, and even chakrams for a short while at the least.
While he didn’t cook much, knives did reach a moderate level after so many years. But that did give an idea for a temporary weapon until he left this mangy village.
He said with fixated eyes, “Excellent, I want this one.”