His Cursed Living had its rules, and there was no point in complaining any further. Murai knew that even suicide in the hope of a better next life wouldn't be any help. It would be worse... so much worse. He tried it a few times in some of his... more messed up lives. The reincarnations that he had to go through would just return him to his place, a different time, or it would continue the cycle with no change or any easy way out.

Though, if he will be patient, he can willingly die later down the line, but that was the question of years. Well, it could change. There were some limitations to the living things and his soul, but his Curse was probably the main problem, or the universe itself was playing with his soul. It was hard to tell what was more probable since he didn't know the reasons for his Cursed Living.

Either way, he was hopeless in this case.

For now, he ended not even as a duck, and not even as a duckling according to the Will of the Battleworld. He was still in his egg, somewhere in the wilderness, not ready to hatch. As for the name of this world, Battleworld didn't reach any memories. So as far as he knew, this was his first time in this world. It was no surprise. He hardly got some duplicate lives for his stakes.

C-calm down first. Murai thought to himself, You got through much worse situations. This is just another one of them! He reassured himself, trying to calm his erratic mind that he adjusted many times in the past days.

Reincarnated as a duck. What a fucking joke... And what is even that Will of the Battleworld? Attributes? Blessings... reeks of Gods. Should I take it as a toolkit to be used? I had something like this in rare lives, so I wonder if this is going to be flawed like those too.

Murai reconsidered his choices and had a hunch of what to do next.

The Will of the Battleworld gave him some help. By following it, Murai got to know a little about his current situation and predicaments. He will call it his status since everything was well organized when he figured out what mattered. Which wasn't much, if he was honest. There was a mission first.

After thinking for a long time, his soul was steadily approaching the point of stability, modifying its flow and becoming calmer. It was at that point—where his senses felt sharp and deep—that he got a feeling of a new calling. Will of the Battleworld soon speared his soul.

[New abilities have been unlocked]

[Caused: your unshaken soul of many lives and countless comprehensions discrediting the rules]

[Soul-Essence is opened. A type of unique soul-based power unlike many others]

[Soul-Essence: A unique effect outside of the body. It is part of the Soul Pathway. It can help ready one's soul against enemies and unkept situations, while its possibilities are various, or near celestial]

[It grants a high probability of understanding the structure of the Will and soul aspects of the universe. Certain limitations are detected, yet unknown. Level-ups, fusions, or general recollection or comprehensions are required to unlock more hidden strengths of this unique essence]

[Level none: Unique type of power]

[Grade S]

[Growth could be massive]

[Next, Soul-Read is unlocked]

[Cause: essence, soul... potential]

[Soul-Read: A passive ability to perceive the souls and Will of others. An encompassing passive ability that uses your soul perception and power of Soul-Essence]

[Its uses are various. Training and using is recommended]

[Level 1]

[Grade S]

Oh? This is rather interesting. I am getting abilities out of my soul. Isn't it quite broken since my soul went through so much? Murai thought, and couldn't help but assume he was correct. He never counted how many times he lived, but he held many lives up to his mind. Some of them more than once or twice, and some were intense or worse.

As a human, his experiences were numerous in that vision. His soul was highly adept at them since the beginning, he figured. But the further he went, the progressively worse his life went. For the most part, other humanoid creatures made up interesting times. Orcs, elves, and others, he saw many worlds and Skies.

Those, however, were far from a freaking duck.

Murai discovered a high probability that was only possible after his soul completely calmed down through this reincarnation. This species of duck may as well be abnormal. How else he would end as one? The phrase of a duck still bothered his mind.

Monster with a Class E? What Am I supposed to take that letter for? Alphabet? Well, the tongue of this world seemed to be the overall norm. What was this Sector again? Uh, never mind. What is even that Life Companion and the soul of the World? Grades... Levels? Seems like a systematic approach to numbers and power. Fine. I can live with that. Give me more numbers. Or... not? What is here for me? What choice?

Murai had a lot of questions, though no answers were coming. He felt that everything was kind of lacking; be it his soul, living itself, or the weird welcome that went to his soul instead. For now, he decided to endure his time and wait for his hatching. That might happen soon, or much later.

20 days had already passed since his reincarnation, so there was some delay. His perception of time could also be warped or was it all caused by his soul and unfamiliar new species? That shouldn't happen. Waking up early wasn't a normal thing. This was incredibly early.

Murai had never been such a little monster before, and it was reasonable to assume why. His soul should be quite unfamiliar and unadjustable to that sort of thing, yet he woke like one, so... what was that other than pain? What about being an orc? That was a fine time, full of the powerful flesh of a humanoid race, and differences from regular humans. Orcs were a burly race, acting with more instinct and brutality, but it was still familiar to his soul.

As for the non-living objects... Murail long thought of them as a punishment. By whom? Universe sounded like menacing answers to his mind, or some individuals that better not be spoken? That was just a guess; he didn't know if his Cursed Living had its end or some Bliss.

Perhaps it went on because he was sinful or evil. His hunch worked, though nothing else was sensible. He never had many answers for himself apart from vague shimmers of truths from many distant Skies with various names, depictions, and stakes.

When I think about it, Murai thought, the demonic life was kind of monstrous, but that might've been because of the Bloodlines involved at that time. The world was also Alysum, or... Alysium? How was it called again... Anyway, that must have been it, and this time may be different. For example, the numerical value of Strength is at minus 10, which is... How freaking weak, am I? Does this mean if I will punc... Murai momentarily hesitated about how the duck attacked their prey.

That was a weird idea. Ducks weren't hunters, weren't they?

B-beak! If I attack with the beak, will I get injured instead? He continued his wandering. There were a lot of mentions of the greater things from that wild message. When he focused, he could hear it echoing in his soul. There were a couple of interesting words: Evolution, Task, Blessing, and Equipment.

He had time to waste, so he thought about everything as much as his time allowed. Which meant endless and like an idiot, because his guesses weren't that fine.

He couldn't change the passage of time, yet it felt like the days passed by quickly, the more of his soul familiarity returned. It made his soul and ideas more vivid and his time much greater. His soul was able to feel the flow of the information with a flick of his mind, meaning there was always a connection with the Battleworld. Whatever that meant.

60 days later, the incubating period was yet to come to an end. Murai ended up irritated and impatient.

Goal... The goal of the Task? He wondered and went over that information for the millionth time. Getting out of the eggshell... He recalled.

That was the last message. That was it. In these 60 days, he gained nothing, so he thought about his past. That devolved into thinking about his pair of soul abilities. There was nothing much he could do about them. With mind alone, his soul endured time and nothing else.

However, Soul Read was intricately voiced, sounding like something straight-up impossible to have. Reading a sou sounded nice indeed, yet he still felt like a soul, while his body wasn't ready to read some papers, let alone some souls. But its letter was S, or was it finer to call it Grade S? Whatever that meant, he was learning.

His physicality didn't change much; he slowly monitored his growing body thanks to his improved awareness. It was forming.

None of his mental feelings were yet to connect to the main body. Maybe his soul was too large for this sort of body, thus it all waited instead? Was this... prison sentence?

Murai was shocked. He hadn't done the worst things in the past life to endure some prison sentence again. That was far too awful and dull.

Another awful possibility was simpler: his body couldn't take his soul at all. He considered it a failure. And a piece of good news. He was already in the body. The body just didn't grow yet. Some doubtful ideas were brewing, but was he to blame? He spent 80 days in the perpetual darkness without a speck of chance.

However, he could tell his soul wasn't some soul form, weird soul-based lifeform, or something intangible. He was far too stable and endless for that. The connection wasn't all that great. That was all. More waiting than.

The Will of the Battleworld talked as if getting out of the egg was a mission I had to do. Isn't going out of the eggshell a rather easy thing to do for all sorts of birds or... other animals? The species that hatch from eggs goes out when the time and their body are ready to face the world. Am I not ready? My soul is... but my body isn't. How am I supposed to do anything when my body isn't ready? Murai acknowledged these facts, contemplating that this was something even a kid would tell.

Ducks's eggshells are like chicken's. Hatchlings figured their way to the world by their instinct, breaking their eggs with their bodies to get out. Yet, this duckling in reality may not be a normality.

Murai was somewhere, yet he couldn't see a light at the end of this darkness.

90 days of this incubating period became 150 without a blink. Murai slept and pondered over his soul and memories. Then, it was 200 days.

200 days of incubation period was a long time of boredom. Murai couldn't tell if something was wrong with it or not. He was a monstrous kind of duck, so maybe there might be some differences in hatching.

Don't tell me it will go like this for years. He scowled inside, thinking it wouldn't be the worst thing he endured, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to think about it.

Because of his anxiety, the following days were quite different from the past where he did whatever. Now, something was changing, turning for the better. His soul was going over the tough wall called... living conditions, and fusion. Well, the former was kind of lacking. He was in his body. But not as a master, and more like a caged fool.

It was hard to tell how much of it was because of him, or how much was its natural formation coming from his body. That wasn't his, per se. His soul was always his. All the time, he felt as if he was an invader to a foreign flesh. Yet, weren't both natural? Him or the body accepting it, there wasn't anything artificial about it.

The process began with beats crescending to low hums. His new heart seemed weak and slow tides of pained or strained nerves created an emotion called pain. It was more like ants crawling in his mind, but millions of tiny little creatures akin to a mist. The last notable thing was the flow of his blood in his veins, the movement of lungs, and muscles and flesh that acted like half-death fish.

Then, it all connected like many lines of cobwebs that made the perfect center. It happened like a jolt of lighting, adjusting like a fine machine. The body was finally catching up with his soul, and 220 days into this life, Murai got the full feelings of his body.

It was clumsy, small, soft, and feeble. But it was his body. And it was far from hatching. There was a surprisingly long beak in perspective to the rest, but figuring it was troublesome. Murai just felt the beak existing, similar to everything else.

What it could do was hard for his head, as feelings were just what he had. Moving it was impossible, yet it was best. A sturdy beak should be an excellent tool. His eyes were yet to adapt, or the inside of his egg was way too dark.

Murai figured the physicality of his body shouldn't be the norm for regular ducks, so this may be a stranger species of some duck variant. it said it. An Anatidae? What was that word? It reeked of some old languages. A small number of feathers poised as a growing duckling, a pair of small wings on his back were like featherless sticks, and his legs were kind of weak, feeling worse than sticks. He moved then a little, thus he slowly got to know it by sensing everything he could.

Is the time right to get out of this prison of an egg? I still have a rather weak disposition to move, while the sense of growth goes from this egg. Not me, or...well, I get that body and soul are connected. The body has a long way to go, huh? How strange... I haven't felt a thing at all until now, so I need more development. It helps a lot...yet it isn't in my hands.

Murai figured that waiting hadn't changed. So he went over what he had by starting experimenting, or flexing his beak, and neck, followed by wings and legs. It was small training to get weakness and numbness out of the way.

A couple of days later, at the mark of the 224th day, he used his flexible neck to perform a strike with his beak, aiming it toward the shell that was above his head. It was the perfect target, albeit the results weren't as he expected. He didn't have a lot of places to move his beak, even though the space inside this egg wasn't that tight yet.

His beak, which was longer than usual, moved awkwardly inside the egg. Was this how all ducks and chickens feel when hatching? Soft at first glance, yet they could still rip through the shell. Something Murai hadn't thought yet was what kind of duck he was, what this egg depicted—as in what duck gave birth on it—and what time was holding for him.

Either way, his probing strike caused a small crack. He heard something too, which meant his ears were also there; somewhere around the temples of this duck species. However, the attack indeed caused some self-inflicted damage, which he felt through the neck the most. Nerves got damaged, and even the soft muscle tissues tore.

Bloody great... Great... How Am I supposed to do this? What's the point of having such a weak body as a hatchling? I thought this was supposed to be a demonic beast species like that weak void said. Murai complained, but this little episode wasn't something that would stop him from trying to get his freedom.

With the first crack already forming, he went with a strike every day for 10 days straight, and after some time, self-indulged healing—that went through natural recovery—the beak went through, revealing a speck of light. For the first time in his life, he felt delight with his eyes.

He had his eyes opened for quite some time, but it was so dark, he only noticed it after the first crack. Throughout these strikes and 10 days, his injuries healed through his sleep. It was about the only decent benefit of this confined space.

The one crack he created wasn't a big one, but it was enough for a good start. It was a simple chip, less than a centimeter wide. Mural used his furthered familiarity with his body to clutch the edges with his beak, trying to eat the surrounding hole around this crack and increase its girth.

By now, Murai was slowly feeling he was running out of Vitality. He should eat, right? How was he even growing? Was it this egg that did it? Had it some nutrition? He knew he wasn't eating a thing, yet his sleep always stimulated his body. Many birth species that hatched from eggs ate theirs, so why should he not do the same?

Murai felt the lack of energy and even his sleeping wasn't an encompassing like a blessing. One had to grow stronger in other ways. The best was eating in his opinion.

His usual day consisted of half activity and half slumbering, and letting his soul rest. This decision caused him not to get bored too much, or lose his mind. Rightfully so.

Now, he had other things to consider. He ate the eggshell pieces that he chipped away after many tries, revealing a 3-layered shell of a surprisingly tough egg. His beak was only good at it so much as his strength, so he gulped those chips as a whole or chewed them with some small teeth he figured he already had. It worked and he felt the blessing of a meal for the first time.

The taste of the eggshell wasn't that great, nor terrible. It tasted like some crackers, but they were hard to swallow. Chipping it into smaller parts was all he could do, or use his beak or teeth to slowly make them smaller enough to eat.

By a couple of hundred chips, he uncovered the reality of this eggshell. It was rather thick and layered, making it quite hard to chip away or create a bigger hole. It took a lot of effort to make the smallest hole wider.

But with some food coming into his system, a couple of days later, another call from the Will of the Battleworld extended to his soul.

[Vitality is increased by consuming the Eggshell of the Xxxxxxxx xxxxx]

[A good choice.]

[+ 5 Vitality]

[Current Vitality: 5]

[Effect of the growth and Vitality is thus, commencing...]

The voice omitted the information about the eggshell, speaking muffed as if it was a crime to utter some words.

Upon this massage, Murai felt a coat of heat and energy come up to his core, heating him in comfort. He figured it was probably the heart since this comfort followed up a stronger flow of blood, which then burst everything to a new light.

Like a domino effect, it was mild at first, until it was a river of bliss. Strength was coming to his weak body, but it wasn't coming from him. It was an outside influence that he had yet to see or comprehend.

Regardless of knowing it, Murai was no longer hesitant. The call voiced the matter of his egg in a strange way, making the origin of this egg hidden with a Chaos of words and noises. He put it behind him after feeling that surge of Vitality. It boosted his body and terminated all of his losses, hunger, or even minor injuries.

Hence, reckless attacks against the eggshell shall continue. He struck it to pieces and ate so he could achieve his goal of getting out.

It took some time, but he felt relieved to see the hole turning wider, giving birth to more light and...sun. Sun? There was no sun yet, but bright it was. The world was ahead, so Murai poked his beak into the hole barely fit for it.

After days of eating and hitting, it was earned, though troubled thanks to bad adjusting to this light. He cheered regardless of what was waiting for him in reality.

A couple of moments later, the view of the surroundings was in his eyes. It was a gargantuan forest of quite a large scale for his current perception and blurry vision. Greenery filled the corners of the ground, indicating he was in some bush. Further away were some rocks and gravel, and the wide edge of some cliff.

He wasn't able to see the full extension of the forest, but he understood it was massive. Trees were as large as buildings and leaves were as big as people. That might be fake because of his lack of perspective since he was a tiny little duckling. It made sense. The soil was a mixture of grass, bushes, crunchy leaves, or mud, but the part of the cliff before him was rocky and unsteady.

And beyond the cliff—after his vision adjusted even more—the sight changed. Down the cliff and towards the horizon, there was a sea as far as he could see. That amounted to nothing much; his vision wasn't what he wished for.

Adjusting his head away from the brightness; there was not a single sun but 5 round objects radiating the light in the sky. There were 5 suns in his squinted vision, and 2 were brighter and appeared larger.