When he woke up again he was inside a wooden hut. “It seems like waking up in unfamiliar rooms is going to be more common for me in the future.” He mumbled as he groggily got up. It felt like a ten ton hammer was pounding on his head. He struggled to his feet before walking outside of the hut to the sound of screaming men.
What greeted his eyes was a clearing inside the forest with similar wooden buildings just like his neatly lined up in uniformity. A bunch of men dressed in loose clothes were forcibly running through an obstacle course three meters up in the trees. There were people on the ground casually shooting padded arrows at the obstacle goers as they try to traverse the obstacle course. In conclusion, it was chaotic and doesn’t do much to help with his headache.
“Redwall kid. You’re finally up from your beauty sleep?” A rough man approached him from the side. The man didn’t look too large, at least he wasn’t bulging with muscles. The authoritative man was actually average looking; if he were seen on the street, he wouldn’t stand out from any other person. The only thing that was different about this man were his sharp eyes there were looking down on Vincent.
“Just about.” Vincent replied as he tried to shake off the headache.
“You got a lot of balls, Kid. Drinking right before arriving at the camp. Let me guess… you didn’t want any of it confiscated after you’ve arrived?” Although his tone seemed friendly, his eyes were looking at Vincent like Vincent was some trash that had wandered across his path.
“No, Sir. I was—“ Vincent was about to explain.
“It doesn’t matter. Your punishment will be to wash the dirty clothes for a month.” The man snapped his fingers and two more youths walked over with two baskets of clothes. “My name is Halt and I will be your instructor. I’ve received noticed from the Duke and have personally put you under my charge. Now move! If you don’t finish this by noon, you won’t get lunch.”
Vincent was left standing there with a splitting headache and two baskets of smelly clothes. He was speechless and angry, he silently swore under his breath, “Shitty old man.” Before hauling the two baskets with him to the nearby stream.
There were already a few youths by the stream washing their own bundles of clothes. The looks on their faces told Vincent everything as he walked to an empty station. Vincent had never washed any clothes in both his lives, but after examining the other youths around him soon figured it out. He quickly filled the basin with some water from the stream and dumped the two baskets of dirty laundry inside. Soon he had lathered up some soap and was scrubbing the clothes on a washboard.
“Hey, you must be new here huh?” A friendly young man sat down next to him to also wash clothes. Vincent was a bit surprised by the cheerful youth. “Ah! Don’t forget to turn the clothes inside out before you scrub.”
“Alright… Thanks.” Due to his splitting headache, Vincent didn’t want to converse so he quietly thanked the youth beside him and continued washing the clothes while grumbling.
“What’s your name? Mine is Norman. I’m from Teridal, a village a few days from here.” Seeming to not get the message, Norman continued talking.
“Vincent. From Redwall.”
“Redwall? Isn’t that pretty far from here? You must really like the Rangers, huh?” The chatterbox droned on, not noticing the fact that no one was listening to him.
Even though Norman’s mouth never seemed to cease moving, his hands were the same. Not long after arriving beside Vincent, Norman had finished four baskets of clothes and already bid his farewell and went to hang them to dry.
“Phew…” Vincent sighed as he stretched his tired waist. He had just hung up his batch of clothes to dry. Now that the headache wasn’t as severe and he had some time to think, he began examining the ring on his hand.
It was called “Aion Ring” by his grandfather. The inscription on the inside of the ring read out as Sanctus Aeternum, which was Latin for eternal saint. The strange thing about it was that the writing of the common language in this world doesn’t exist on earth; just how did Latin appear in this world?
“Aion Ring… Just what are you?” He mumbled. “I never knew Vincent had such a backstory… It feels like just a game, haha…” He felt a little silly thinking about how unreal the situation was. Even though he had transmigrated into this fantasy world for a while now, he still couldn’t get over the surreal reality that was presented to him. In the original novel, “Blaze Fantasia”, the MC was able to see his status with his unique skill.
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“Now if only I was able to access my status…”.
As soon as he said those words…
===
Status
[Strength] (12)
[Endurance] (9)
[Agility] (17)
[Perception] (12)
[Magic] (6)
Talents
[Flexible Body] (null)
Titles
[Inheritor of the Aion Ring]
===
“No way…” Vincent was left flabbergasted as the dialogue box popped up. Since he was bedridden his whole past life, he had plenty of time to read novels and play games. Now that he was literally living in one, he felt his aspirations began to grow. He felt as if the clouds overhead was beginning to clear. As long as he’s able to stay away from the MC, he felt that there was another direction he could walk in.
Just as he was thinking this, Halt managed to break him from his daydream.
“What are you doing there lazing about, Cadet?!” Halt stormed over.
“I… w-was j-just—“ Vincent answered.
“No excuses. Your next task will be to gather water from further upstream.” Halt began to explain the process of drawing water. Vincent had to bring two buckets that were attached on opposite ends of a pole and fill them into the large basin located at one corner of the camp. He had to fill the whole basin, which could take up to 30 buckets. It might not seem a lot, but because the location to draw the water from was far away from the camp it would take a lot of effort.
“Stupid old man and his unreasonable punishments.” Vincent grumbled as he shouldered the filled buckets. It only took five minutes to get to the spot, but he had to make at least 15 trips. “There’s no use arguing about this, I gotta get this done in time if I want to eat.” The afternoon meal was about to start.
The first trip was easy. Vincent only felt a bit sore on his shoulder that the pole rested on. However, on the fifth trip his shoulder had begun to ache, prompting him to switch to the other. On the tenth trip, his legs ached as he constantly swapped shoulders ever few steps. Lunch had already begun when he finally finished filling up the basin.
Vincent had only managed to drag himself to the canteen area before seeing that most of the food was already eaten. Only a few pieces of bread were left which he promptly snatched up in defeat. The tables were already empty, because the other cadets had already eaten and left for their afternoon training. The remainder only silently eyed him before hastily slurping up their soup and departing.
“Seems like they know who I am.” Vincent weakly smiled before sitting down and ripping into his stale loaves of bread. As he chewed the cardboard like bread with grainy texture, he opened up his status menu again.
===
Status
[Strength] (12.6)
[Endurance] (10)
[Agility] (17.2)
[Perception] (12)
[Magic] (6)
Talents
[Flexible Body] (null)
Titles
[Inheritor of the Aion Ring]
===
“What? Were my stats like this before?!” He paused temporarily and tried to remember what he saw from earlier. “They definitely have risen.” He gulped loudly. “If so… then doesn’t this mean if I continue to work hard my low stats will increase?” He inwardly smiled.
It has to be known that the MC’s stats were in the high twenties at the beginning of the novel. It was because the MC’s talent [Growth Potential] allowed him to improve his stats easily. It was such an unfair cheat and Vincent was envious of it. However, he knew that [Growth Potential] only works until the MC’s stats were 50 and doesn’t work after that point. However, to reach 50 in all stats was already amazing in and of itself.
Even though those thoughts were going through his mind, Vincent decided to put those to the back of his mind and only focus on the improvements that came with his labor. His next task was chopping wood into lumber. Being a training camp located deep in the forest made it necessary for some independence from resources like magic stoves and indoor plumbing. Even though Vincent’s whole body was aching at the end of the day, he was smiling to himself as he viewed his improved stats.
===
Status
[Strength] (14)
[Endurance] (11)
[Agility] (18)
[Perception] (12)
[Magic] (6)
Talents
[Flexible Body] (null)
Titles
[Inheritor of the Aion Ring]
===