Ake startled awake on the floor drenched in sweat.

He was on his feet before he knew it and he looked around in a hurry. A breath of relief escaped him when he found no one else around. Despite the fact that the three were hauntingly beautiful beings, he was really glad that they were gone.

His back gradually found its way to the floor as if all the nervous energy inside his body had been drained out of him. It took him some time to regain some strength back as if he had had a long sleepless night. He knew it wasn’t the case as he would have remembered such a night regardless of how scary it had been.

Regardless, he has to stop fainting left and right.

It also felt like he would have shit his pants if he saw the woman, or whatever lecherous creature that was, again. She might look like a demon depicted in many literature from his old world, but it wouldn’t be wise to also classify her as a succubus.

He checked his [Soul Ledger] to confirm it was not just a nightmare, and sure enough, there it was, almost taunting him to deny its existence.

[Ake] [Age [17]]

[Level [0] Villager]

[Title: Tribe Chieftain]

[Shards: Ether, Strand, Flesh IV]

[Mana: 10/10]

[.]

[Absorbed Shard: Flesh IV]

[Type: Aspect (Corrupted)]

[Governing attribute: Intuition]

[Effect 1: Aspect the mana into the intangible, fleshy essence.]

[Effect 2: Minor regeneration.]

[.]

[Warning: Unique addition effects detected]

[Additional Effects [2]: Unknown]

He touched somewhere above his belly button, and sure enough, a slit of cold, probably blood-red, crystal was there. It felt different from the pair on his chest but he couldn’t describe it in words. He just knew the two had a distinct difference.

Ake would bet his neck that most other [Flesh] shards wouldn’t have the unknown unique status or the Roman number four in the end. He didn’t know what to make out of it, but to be honest, whatever it was last night, at least, he got something out of it.

It sounded like and probably was a poor excuse but he definitely would need the shard to keep on living. Shivers ran down his spine as his mind revisited it. Whenever he got even a little lucky, the universe surely had to get back to him somehow.

‘That is the story of my life,’ Ake lamented.

But the question was, would he help her to get her tribe again?

Ake was afraid the answer would be a huge YES.

He would feel sorry for those men, but he simply had to, well, when he was against such a crazy demoness. No matter how he looked at it, he didn’t think he even had any other choice but to tuck his tail in and do whatever she told him to do.

It was not like he had summoned with some kind of overpowered ability. He was kidnapped here and cursed as a ‘white’ on top of that. Even though he didn’t know how at the moment, he knew he had to try something, at least, if he wanted to keep his sorry life.

The last thing he needed was to piss off a very powerful entity for no reason. The good news was, she had stated clearly that she hadn’t expected him to do anything anytime soon. The three probably had gone off to enjoy f-ing others than the tribes’ men.

‘Maybe this is far into the future kind of stuff?’ Ake mused and shrugged.

Maybe she was telling him that he was just too weak to do anything. She had given him time because she would need him to be powerful enough to do the nastiest stuff for her much later in the far future. It made sense that she would need him to grow a whole lot stronger in this monster-filled world.

Perhaps, only when he was strong enough the scary woman would show up and demand him to do her bidding. He could just hope the tasks she required from him wouldn’t even be as scary at that time.

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‘And hopefully, no dragons will be involved,’ he mused.

Nevertheless, he promised himself that, when the time came, no matter how weak he was for the job, he would absolutely face her like a man. He would absolutely NOT make her regret it even if she thought he was a meek and useless other-worlder.

‘She is free to keep that opinion of hers,’ Ake chuckled.

He walked around the room and checked everything but it looked like no one had even been there. The bed and everything else in the room was collecting dust.

‘Are all tribes like this? Do they all have a powerful entity they worshipped?’

Ake wondered if that was true and what kind of mess he had gotten into. He certainly didn’t want to live his life as some tribe’s chieftain, title or no title. A free spirit like him only knew how to seek adventure. Mild adventures, more exactly.

He still had not regretted that one time he had found himself accidentally lost in the woods back on Earth. They made great videos, after he got out, of course.

He looked at his [Soul Ledger] again and noticed his mana was filled up overnight. It made him wonder how he could unlock his HP, or if there was something like it in this world. The only thing he knew was the Hit Points in the games didn’t really translate well in real life.

Ake added it to the list of things he needed to ask Liara.

Obviously, he would need to ask her without using the gaming term or perspective.

She already knew he was a wayward soul, but he would rather keep things on ‘a need to know only’ basis. There was no need to geek out in front of her only to confuse the hell out of the girl. Such things would only work against him.

Ake shook his head lightly as he reached for the door. He didn’t want to spend another night here and so, he would need to make enough money today for a room in an inn or something.

Pulling the door open revealed the person who had been waiting for him. Liara fidgeted at the door and looked around as if she were expecting someone else would be beside him.

“Don’t worry, no one else is here,” he told her as he stepped out.

“But there should be-” Liara peeked inside and gasped in mild surprise. “There is no one here, but what happened last night?” she said.

“Nothing happened, they left almost immediately after they noticed that I’m no longer the person they know,” Ake told the half-lie.

Of course, he would explain it to his senpai later after he had sorted it out inside his head.

“Oh, really? I’m sorry that happened,” she said while trying not to smile. Why she was happy about it was anyone’s guess but he wasn’t going to complain.

Ake chuckled, “It is okay, but what about you, how did it go last night?”

“We had a huge fight, but we made up,” Liara smiled even wider.

“Well, good for you,” Ake said.

“Thanks to you, Sila is more agreeable now,” replied Liara before she folded her hands under her chest, and harrumphed.

Something told him that Liara probably had been in the more masculine role. He tried not to stare, but whatever she was happy about, it was clearly none of his business.

Ake shook his head, “I’ve done nothing, but still lead the way, ma’am.”

Liara smiled as she led him into the bustling town once again. There were groups of adventurers in all kinds of armor and weapons mixed in with everyday town citizens.

She guided him through the alleyways before they emerged at one of the larger streets. Liara looked around and nodded as if everything was going as planned.

He was right when she brought him to a tailor shop, based on the clothes displayed through the glass. The lady talked to the owner about something and she only smiled when Ake looked at her questionably.

What he saw later had blown his mind.

Ake watched in wonder as the tailor's assistants used their [Extract] ability to pull fibers from some kind of cotton bulb and bit-by-bit merge them into long cloth pieces. The shop owner herself magically combined these cloth pieces together into shirts and whatever piece of clothing using her lively and very delicate looking [Strand].

Only then did his constantly daydreaming brain realize that the clothes everyone was wearing had no seams at all. How he could miss such an obvious thing was anyone’s guess.

Unlike in his old world, no threads or strings were used to sew these clothes together into one whole piece. Magic of the Shard had done a much better job.

“Magnificent, isn’t it,” she said to his wide-open eyes.

He didn’t say anything about it but he knew for sure that she must not know the true significance of the fact. If his hunch was right, the application of this lost tech could be quite significant or perhaps even unprecedented.

“They can do this with their eyes closed because of [Strand]’s innate sensing capability. The Shard is from a plant monster after all. But don’t be mistaken, it will take years to level up the [Strand] to such a degree, and you can only see the [Strand] because the owner wanted you to see them,” Liara warned him.

“Sensing ability? That’s incredible,” he muttered and Liara nodded.

“Everyone else knows that it can be used to actively gather mana, but everybody also knows that the elemental shards can do it a lot better. For this reason, many will say the [Strand] is useless but it still has its uses elsewhere,” Liara said as she tried to convince him.

“Thank you, Liara,” Ake said. “I would’ve never thought it could be used this way.”

“I’ve said that I’ll show you the way, right?” Liara smiled. “Now let’s go and grab breakfast, we have a long day ahead of us.”

“Yes ma’am,” Ake replied.

Liara chuckled and that should mean she didn’t hate it.

Ake had looked everywhere as the small lady led him towards the gate. Surely enough, there was something crucial missing. He couldn’t find a piece of mundane everyday technology that had a similar impact as the wheel.

This was the true discovery of a lifetime.

And if he was right, this missing piece of technology could be the thing he desperately needed to have a much easier life. He couldn’t wait to do something about it, well, without anyone noticing it, of course.