Moonlight bathed the world in an ethereal light, but the insides of the shadowy cave remained untouched. The fire had long since gone out, and standing next to the sleeping figure of a man, was a shadowy figure of a woman.
Her expression was unclear, but at times, she seemed to stretch an arm down, only to pull it back. This back-and-forth continued for what seemed like hours, until she finally stopped, and went to the empty bed of grass on the other side of the unlit bonfire.
She lay down on it, curling into a fetal position.
Soft cries shook her hazy figure.
And eventually it became quiet, and turned into the broken sound of a light, yet troubled snore.
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The first thing I did when I woke up was yawn for what seemed like ages. And the first thing I noticed?
The delicious smell of roasting meat. Turning my head to the source, I saw Claira roasting a few small carcasses on a skewer above the fire.
“Slept well?” I asked, to which she looked up.
What was hidden from view was now in plain sight. Her eyebags were pronounced, and I could tell that she hadn’t slept well.
“Never mind.” I murmured.
“Here. Breakfast.” She said, skewering one of the carcasses onto another stick, and handing it to me.
“What is this?” I said, receiving it.
“Rabbit… It was the only thing I could find.”
I see.
The two of us ate in silence, watching the crackling fire in between us. The meat was good but, my mind was elsewhere. I was thinking about my system, and I’d only belatedly realized that there might be a description for the level-up process. I brought up my system and touched the number of my level.
As expected, a pop-up appeared.
[Description: Gain experience by completing/performing productive activities. Whether this activity is productive to a sole individual or society as a whole is inconsequential and experience gained can be used to level up. The following is a description of rewards reached for reaching every Nth level:
Every 1 Level: Gain a Stat point
Every 5 Levels: ???
Every 10 Levels: ???
Every 20 Levels: ???
Every 50 Levels: ???
Level 100: ??? ]
My brow scrunched. I hadn’t designed any of this. All I had in mind when leveling up was increasing my stats. Wasn’t that what leveling up meant? What other thing could you get from leveling up?
My curiosity burned as I stared at the question marks, as if doing so would unravel them into the words they hid. But obviously they didn’t, so I simply dismissed them, fed up with all the questions I had. And because there were just so many questions, I’d glossed over some obvious ones.
I’d assumed that because this was another world, this was just another bog standard isekai. But something was obviously different. I recalled that she’d mentioned a ‘training center’ where she accepted this mission.
“I want to ask you some more questions, if you don’t mind.” I said, chewing the rabbit meat.
Her eyes perked up, and were focused on me even as she chewed.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Tell me about this training center.”
She was slow to start, the sleep deprivation clearly visible, “What’s there to say? They invited us to this damned place… Then they make us fight a war that… that we can’t possibly win— I mean I hope we do, I really do but…”
“Whoa whoa whoa, slow down. War? What war? Here in this new world?”
She nodded, “Yeah it’s been going on for a few decades apparently.”
“So…” I pieced together what I knew, “We’re being summoned, no— invited— to this other world, to fight a war?” The premise was really unconvincing. Could the natives not handle it? How were regular ass people from Earth with no powers better than people with magic? Did we atleast get a leg-up or an advantage?
She nodded, affirming what I pieced together.
“Alright.” I bit into the meat, waving it around, “And who is this big bad enemy we’re supposed to defeat?”
I’d like to think she chuckled because of what I said, or how I said it. But what I said wasn’t particularly funny.
“It’s a disease… Is what they told us.”
“And who is ‘they?”
“The people at the training center… They’re people from Earth apparently. Just that they came way earlier than any of us.”
“Can we go back home?” I asked. That was the most important question on my mind honestly.
“We’re… We can go back whenever we want apparently. It’s just that we can’t refuse the summons when they arrive.”
I nodded in satisfaction, swallowing the juicy and tender meat of the rabbit. Honestly, this whole talk of a ‘big bad enemy’ and fighting a war and training was beyond me. I just wanted to get home with my new found powers and live a life of luxury and power.
A smile grew across my face as I imagined showing off with my System on Earth. Gods… I really couldn’t wait to get back home.
And just for the sake of satiating my curiosity, I shot off another question,
“What’s this disease? Are we fighting zombies or something?”
“No… much worse… Much, much worse. Atleast zombies bite to spread the infection…”
I chewed, watching her intently.
“But this infection has already infected everyone living in both planets… Is what they told us.”
My brows furrowed deeply.
“So I’m infected?”
“Uh… You might be? But, I don’t think so…”
“Alright.” I shrugged off her reply, “So? What is this disease… And if it’s sooo dangerous, why is everyone still alive? Last time I checked, the world was still fine.”
“Well it’s not really a disease per-se but—”
I sighed, “Could you get to the point?”
“It’s Lust.”
“I’m sorry?”
“The— the disease is Lust.”
I laughed so hard, the meat in my mouth flew out towards the fire, and I quickly apologised. I bent over with laughter, slapping my knees.
“Lust? Lust is the disease? That doesn’t sound so bad actually!” I roared with laughter.
And when I’d finally stopped, left with only the lingering smile on my face, I asked her,
“So? The ‘big bad’ we’re supposed to fight is a disease? Why not just call the CDC or the world health organization?”
“No it’s, it’s not like that… It’s… complicated. The disease is apparently because of an Empire. They call it, the Empire of Lust.”
I felt like laughing again, but I held back.
“So? If I’m understanding this properly, an evil empire unleashed a disease to kill us all and now we’re… Wait, what are we fighting exactly? Not bacteria I hope.”
“No I… Listen, I don’t know anything, I’m just telling you what they told us. They said the people of the Empire became monsters transformed by Lust and unless we kill the person who started all of this, the disease is going to transform all of us into monsters. Both on Earth and in this world. That’s just what I’ve heard.”
“So we kill the person who started this and it all ends… That doesn’t sound like any disease I know but, who am I to say. We’re in a world with magic so anything’s possible.” I took a breath to finish chewing,
“So there’s a person behind all this, and if we kill this person, all our problems, including this mysterious disease will disappear… and is this person some kind of Demon king or God we have to kill?”
Her eyebrows scrunched, “Demon king? I’m not sure what you mean. And I don’t think he’s a God. They told us he was just an ordinary person.”
For some inexplicable reason, I felt the need to ask a question I frankly didn’t care about. The answer was useless and wouldn’t have mattered to me anyway, yet I asked purely to satiate my curiosity.
“And what was this ordinary person’s name?”
She looked at me with no particular emotion behind her eyes. But the name that rolled off her tongue was like thunder.
“Rudra”