“What are these?” His voice croaked as the girl placed the small crystals onto his hand.
He noticed the thumb ring on her finger, but it was bland compared to the shiny rocks. The flickering light from the torches made them look more mysterious than they probably were. It might still be something his broken mind conjured, but he just couldn't stop looking at them.
“These are called monster shards, and they are the very source of magic,” she whispered, and he swallowed a gasp. “I know you are not from this world, but humans gain magic by absorbing this. But… I will never ask this from anyone if I have any other choice.”
Her hesitation aside, he just couldn’t believe his ears.
Did she just say what she had just said?
How did she know he was from another world?
And did she have just also said that these flawed but pretty gem-like crystals came from actual monsters?
Was she crazy too?
“I know this is all too much and too sudden for you,” she sighed as if she knew what he was thinking. “But we must hurry before my turn comes as I will never return the same me. Just like this boy did,” she placed her hand on his chest.
He stared at the girl like she had said something insane.
His head was shaking from side to side before he realized it. Did she just say that he had returned to this cell with the boy’s body? But that’s impossible.
No, he couldn't do this. This was crazy. All of this was just hallucinations. He had always wanted magic to be real but this was all only crazy talk.
The girl bit her lips at him as he pushed the small crystals in his clenched fist back to her.
The shards disappeared in her hands before she closed her eyes. It looked like she was trying to make up her mind about something before she sighed.
“Look, I have it too,” the girl said as she pulled her raggy shirt up.
He swallowed a gasp as his eyes were glued to the full round and bouncy breasts.
The girl's face was much redder than before but soon he noticed something he never expected to see. No normal human could have such a thing.
There was a single crystal-like tip that poked out in the middle of her chest.
The girl bit her shirt before she grabbed his wrist.
She pulled and placed his hands on her chest as if she wanted to end the argument right there. His fingers roamed on her softness as his thumbs grazed at the gem.
It was alien and solid to the touch. The skin around it folded in, creating a small bump before it met the crystal’s extremities. In a closer look, the thumb-sized jaggy crystal looked like it had grown out of her skin after spreading its roots in her.
Right around it, a few tiny purple veins surface from under her olive skin. The unnatural roots spread from what looked like a gem buried under the flesh before they disappeared under the fine flawless skin.
The uneven crystal was also cold, the complete opposite of the lovely pair of womanhood he was enjoying in his hands. Though the train of thought made him realize that he might have squeezed her fine perky tits a few times more than necessary.
His cheeks and ears burned. He tried to pull away his hands and failed miserably.
The small hands weren't even trying yet her vice grip was unfathomable.
Of course, it wasn’t close to his first time, but the whole situation would make anyone react the same. Who would even do such a thing? The girl had gone this far just to prove her point, and she probably wouldn’t let him go unless he conceded.
“How, how do I use the shards?”
The girl sighed in relief as her grip loosened and his hands were freed. She had let down her patched rag shirt before he realized it, which was probably for the best.
Her whole face was beet red as she gently grabbed his hand, placed the shards in it, and gently closed his fingers. She then pushed, and placed the closed fist to his body, just above the abdomen.
“Just will it be absorbed,” she said.
Just will it? For real? His modern scientific mind retaliated.
No magical mumbo jumbo required?
“Everything magical is rooted in intent, just trust me, please,” she pleaded. “I will take full responsibility if anything happens to you.”
A sigh escaped him. Such a thing was always easier said than done.
What was she willing to do if something did go wrong? Would she still take care of him if he became a vegetable for example?
But to her credit, it took real guts to be here by choice and do such a thing. She was even ready to be held accountable after this.
That was a whole lot more than any modern girl was willing to do.
He knew it was just words but what else could he do?
It’s not like he could see any other way out either.
Regardless of whether this was real or not, he entertained the idea of absorbing the solid objects into his body. The magical rocks would be absorbed if it was the last thing he would ever do. It felt stupid to even try but he truly hoped it would be enough.
A few seconds passed before he felt it. Something cold entered his chest, and to his surprise, the two shards disappeared from his hand.
He stared at his now empty palm flabbergasted.
He checked his chest and held his breath.
As expected, a similar magical growth happened almost exactly where he saw the girl had them. Two tiny crystal peaks broke out of his skin painlessly and he could almost feel it as its purple veins spread into his body.
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The crystal tips felt solid and cold on his skin. They felt as alien.
A screen appeared in his eyesight.
[Shard absorption detected]
[The Astral Link Adaptive System activated]
[Soul Ledger formed]
[Initialising… Initialization completed]
[Scanning…]
[...]
[...]
[Above average intellect detected]
[Exceptional mental artistry detected]
[…]
[Optional configuration adapted]
[Downloading data]
A shiver ran down his spine as something he did not know of suddenly emerged inside his head. It was probably luck when there was no pain involved. Before he knew it, he had learned plenty of new things, and oddly enough, it felt like he had suddenly recalled many things that he had long forgotten.
It may have felt like it were his own, but he definitely had never learned or known anything close to this before. It was pretty obvious when almost all of them hadn’t even existed on Earth, his old world.
And with a simple mental command, three small screens appeared before him.
[Soul Ledger] [ALiAS v2.5]
[Warning: Personalization is still ongoing]
[-]
[User name: Ake] [Age [17]]
[Level [0] Tribesmen]
[Shards: Ether, Strand]
[-]
[Absorbed Shard: Ether]
[Type: Aspect]
[Governing attribute: Intuition]
[Effect: Aspect the mana into the intangible and neutral essence.]
[-]
[Absorbed Shard: Strand]
[Type: Construct][Level: 1]
[Governing attribute: Resolve]
[Effect: Construct the formless mana into the fiber form.]
He turned to look at the girl and she was smiling at him.
“Good, both shards are compatible with you, this will make everything a lot easier,” she sighed in relief.
“Now what?” He said as he tried to clamp down his excitement.
No one sane could keep their cool after experiencing the magic for the first time and being held down by the busty girl had certainly helped. She had held on to his arms as she probably knew he would have jumped on his feet or whatever.
He almost lost it when he learned his name. His name was Ake, and it rang true for whatever weird reason. But if his deduction was right, he would say his soul was somehow placed into this young tribesman's body.
And as if an invisible filter was removed from his senses, he could feel a mysterious invisible fog sparsely spread around him. He was looking straight at it but it felt like he was looking at something in the corner of his eyes.
He somehow knew this mysterious thing was the [Ether].
Astonishingly, it was everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
“You can feel it right, the [Ether]?” She said as she noticed him looking at nothing. “It is called mana when a person absorbs it and makes it his own. We’ll talk about it later as now I’ll need to use the [Strand] to guide the surrounding [Ether] into you and fill this sigil card with your mana. Just a little mana is enough, can you do that?”
The mysterious girl placed a thin almost metallic card onto his hand as she explained.
“I can try,” he said.
A see-through tiny ‘strings’ came out in between his chest as if he had just grown another limb. It was tiny and flimsy but it still felt a real and tangible part of him for whatever reason. He called these things a limb because he could move them however he wanted easily, just like it was his arms and legs.
It also felt natural to do so most probably because of the knowledge which had been shoved into his head. This mysterious knowledge should also be the reason why he was able to wrangle the semi-visible fog with the ghostly in a loose spiral before pulling into him.
The fog stretched into a thin line as if some of it refused to move. He kept on pulling into his chest and it didn’t take long before another window popped up.
[Ether absorption detected]
[Mana unlocked]
[.]
[.]
[Current mana: 2/10]
[.]
[Non-elemental Sigil card detected]
[Spend mana on the [Light] sigil card? Y/N]
He didn’t know exactly how he selected yes but his mana filled the card. The card became alienly colder in between his fingers as it was beginning to light up.
It suddenly lost all its luster and crumpled in his hand. He could tell that something had sucked the mana out of it, and in extension, him.
[Warning mana in the negative]
[Emergency System shutdown activated]
His whole body had become jelly.
The world twisted and turned around him when he couldn’t even straighten his head up.
No doubt, it must be the drain the girl was talking about. His head almost hit the floor before her soft hand caught him. The girl mouthed her thanks and ushered his face to rest in the generous warm bosoms.
As darkness began to creep towards him once again, he realized that the words he had heard or he had exchanged with the girl weren't even English. It only felt like English inside his head while what had entered his ears was alien gibberish at best.
He was in another world in another body.
Accepting the fact had suddenly made him feel whole again. Ake was comfortably pressed into her warmth when the lights finally went out once more.
####
“Are you sure about this, Liara, taking the tribal boy in? Whoever he had become the boy, that person still came from another world,” said a female voice as he woke up.
“You should already know why,” Liara replied with a small sigh.
“Yes, I know someone like him could change our fate, but unlike others, he is a god-depraved WHITE, Liara, and you know what that means.”
He didn’t know what she was saying but he could almost taste the disdain in the voice.
The splitting headache also didn’t help him to just hate the tiny whiny voice. It didn’t help when he had been forced to faint more than he liked recently.
“I know what that means, Sila,” the girl sighed. “But it doesn't matter if he is white or whether he can help us in return or not. I’m going to show him the way this world works as it is the least I can do for him. He is a victim to the follies of the people in our world, I hope you remember that.”
“But what about us?” The other woman asked. “Do you know how worried I was? I can’t even sleep at night when you are out there risking your life for a few coins.”
The female voice sighed, “You know my feelings for you have not changed.”
A groan escaped him when the telltale smooching sounds entered his ears.
From what he heard, the horny girls were really going at it. His groan probably went unnoticed when the action intensified as if he wasn’t right there, listening to them.
“Get your own room, for god’s sake,” he said out loud while keeping his eyes shut.
Silence. Whispers were exchanged before a pair of feet shuffled away, probably embarrassed.
The girl chuckled, “Sorry about that and you can open your eyes now.”
Ake opened his eyes to a room that reminded him of a hospital with its pristine all-white theme even when it was lacking the usual antiseptic smell. He took another careful look at his hands, and surely enough, they were still a lot smaller than he recalled.
The [Soul Ledger] had confirmed that he was only seventeen at the moment, and the smaller frame also didn’t have a single hair on his much darker-skinned chest. This had proved without a shade of doubt that he had become a teenager again, or a boy, or at least biologically, just like the other woman had pointed out.
The hospital room was on the second floor. The mix of greenery and building tops could be seen in the square wood framed clear glass. A tall white wall stood grandly, completely blocking the view of the horizon.
The twin yellow and blue suns in the sky made it undeniable.
He didn’t know exactly how, but he wasn't on Earth anymore.
There was one more bed beside him, but no one was occupying it at the moment, but perhaps he was the last to wake up.
He turned towards the youthful beauty who turned out to be a lady with an unusual petite figure. After what had just happened, it was better if he tried not to think about what had happened in the dark and damp cell.
Desperate times require desperate measures, after all.
Nevertheless, she reminded him of the famous, or perhaps, the infamous stunted growth criminal case. But unlike before, she was properly dressed and it made her look much more mature compared to the previous very scandalous rags.
She might look like an incredibly small woman in his eyes, but if he stood by her side, his new self would probably be no taller than she was. As far as his plain human eyes could tell, they both looked like they were still in their teens.
And she was most probably not a murderous adult who looked like a child.
“Welcome to the Aurine Kingdom,” said Liara. “So, what should I call you?”
The petite redhead had an infectious smile that reached her big, green, beautiful eyes. The girl was also much prettier without the grime over her cute round face, and he didn’t think she had any makeup on.
But it was odd how she looked happier after the other woman had left. She seemed more like herself as if a burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
Ake wondered what was inside her head right now.