Aiden woke up in the void, he no longer felt the excruciating pain the potion brought him.
“Did I die? Is this the afterlife?”
A female voice answered him “No you are not dead at least not yet. Do you want to die?”
The voice did not scare him, oddly he felt comfort from it.
“No I do not want to die, I have barely lived to begin with. Who are you and where are we?”
“We are inside you, your soul space to be more accurate, My name is Fleur, and before you ask I do not know where I come from but I know if we complete this baptism we will be together until we die”
Aiden was a little pissed that the man did not tell him about this, but maybe he had his reasons not to tell him. “So Fleur, how do we complete the baptism?”
Aiden felt two arms wrap around him, he could not see her but he knew it was her giving him this embrace. “All that is left is for us to accept one another, tell me Aiden what do you want to do in your life?”
“I want to see the world around me, I have spent my whole life locked inside walls, The forest has been my only escape”
“You could have done that without joining the old man's Order? So why did you take the potion from him? Are you that desperate for power?”
Aiden did not have an answer for Fleur, but how else could he escape joining the church?
“I do not remember my parents, the orphanage is the only place I know. I also have never had control over my life until today when I decided to drink the potion. Fleur, I had nothing to lose by taking his offer of power”
Aiden felt Fleur release him from her embrace, maybe his answer was not good enough for her to accept him. A form started to appear in front of Aiden, Fleur looked almost human. She had midnight black hair, with two emerald green eyes with slit pupils instead of round like normal humans. The fangs when she smiled at him were also a give away she was not human. If Aiden was to describe the girl in front of him with a single word it would be beautiful.
“Aiden, do you accept me, Fleur the Hydra in this baptism of souls?”
Aiden remembered reading about Hydras in some of the storybooks the church gave to kids; they were beasts who were almost impossible to kill because of their regenerative powers. Aiden did not have to debate accepting her. It felt like a piece of him that has been missing has finally been found.
“ I Aiden the Human, Accept Fleur the Hydra in this baptism of souls.
Fleur’s body broke into green orbs of light and floated to Aiden's right arm. With the baptism complete Aiden's body forced him to rest. Aiden slowly let the void take him to restful sleep.
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Torin was rubbing his sore face when the kid's arm started to glow. “So he was able to make it through the baptism after all”
Alyce looked up from the fish she was roasting over the fire. “I wonder what mark he got, go check his right arm I stilling cooking my fish and I don’t want to burn it”
Torin rolled his eyes and got up to check what mark the kid got. After taking out a rag and wiping away the blood from his arm Torin could finally see it fully, Nine Hydra heads spiraled down the kid's arm from his shoulder to just below his elbow. Torin let out a whistle. “I did not expect this, lady fate did you well today kid”
Alyce's interest in her meal died when she heard Torin’s words. She left her fish by the fire and started to walk over to the boy but before she could get into touching distance of the boy his mark glowed and his bond manifested over him crouched with fangs bared, she hissed out “Do not get any closer basilisk”
Alyce took a step back and smiled “Protective are we youngling, I guess it is common for us higher-tier monsters to be, it is part of our nature after all we do not like other people messing with things that belong to us”
Alyce turned around and started to walk back to the fire she looked over her shoulder at the young hydra “I won’t touch your human little hydra, but we both know you can not stay manifested for much longer, My name is Alyce, and my bonded’s name is Torin”
Fleur relaxed and staggered a few steps, manifesting for this long was taking a toll on her. “My name is Fleur” She reached down and held Aidens face.
“My Bonded’s name is Aiden, I have to go back now, so please watch over him as he sleeps” When Fleur said those final words she broke into lights and went back into Aiden's body.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
It was early morning when Aiden awoke the first thing he noticed was the multiple systems prompts about him unlocking his system.
*System fully unlocked, The Class selection is now available.
* Would you like to select a class Yes/No
*!error class preselected
*Class selected Hydra Lord
*!error not able to be used by the human race
* Host race changed from Human to Chimera-Hydra/Human
*Class selected Hydra Lord
*New Skills gained, Hydra Physique, Identify, Mark of Storage,
Hydra Physique- You have gained the most coveted ability of the hydra, their ability to regenerate health to the point of semi-Immortality. Your physical ability has increased. These effects will increase per level
Identify- Used to learn the level of people and monsters the higher the level the more information you will be able to gain from the target of this ability
Mark of Storage- You gained the mark of Baptism, which marks you as a member of the Order of Wanderers, you are now able to use this mark to store items in an extraplanar space inside your soul. The size of this space will grow based on class level.
Aiden had conflicting feelings when he learned he was no longer a part of the human race. Would he now be an outcast and hated by others? “It will not matter if you are hated by everyone, you will never be alone, I will always be by your side,” Fleur said to him and sent him comforting emotions. Aiden let himself smile and after calming himself down from the news of him no longer being human Aiden stood up and to his surprise, his clothes did not fit him anymore. He was no longer a skinny orphan who has not had a decent meal in years. He now had muscle like the adventures he had seen in the city and he also noticed he grew quite a few inches taller. He was once around 5’10 and now he was a solid 6’3. The other surprise was he was now alone in the forest; the man who gave him the potion was no longer there. He felt bad he would not be able to thank him for what he did for him and how he has changed his life. After walking back to the campfire Aiden noticed the pile of items by the fire.
There were five items on a blanket in the burnt-out fire pit. Aiden picked up the letter which he guessed the man left for him.
Dear Aiden,
Fleur told us your name when she talked to us after she manifested to stop Alyce from getting too close to you when you were passed out from the baptism. You will find higher tier bonds are a little possessive towards their bonded. Alyce is my bond and my name is Torin. I have left you a sword with a belt to carry it. You might think you could just keep it in your mark but there will be times when you do not have time to take it out. Please carry it with you. The sword is nothing special but it should be good enough for you to level up a little while you make your way to the capital which is where our Order’s headquarters is located. The person who gave me my potion did the same thing to me, so I decided to do it for you. It is kind of a right of passage for us who join the Order. There are also two cloaks, one for you and one for Fleur if she wants to venture outside your soul realm also there are a few sets of female clothes for Fleur provided from Alyce’s collection. I probably will not be in the capital when you arrive but that does not matter much. I would recommend not going near any of the church’s people before you have leveled quite a bit. They do not like our kind. I am also guessing you are reading this after you read your system messages and found out you are no longer human. Do not worry about it. It is one of the things the mark takes from us who receives higher-tier monsters as bonds. You will most likely be able to kill the lower leveled people of the clergy at the moment from the powers from your bond with Fleur, but they will send higher leveled people after you and kill you. The Church and the Order have an understanding with each other that we will allow our younger members to fight and kill each other if they are close in level. Also please do not go on a rampage and murder a lot of them if they piss you off somehow, it will be a headache to deal with for the rest of us. I wish you luck Aiden and if you somehow find a way to get yourself killed with the powers of the hydra at your disposal I will be impressed.
-Torin
Aiden stood still for a while after reading the letter left for him by the man he now knows is named Torin. Fleur gave him a small mental nudge to stop him from spacing out after processing all of the information packed into a simple letter. Aiden stored the letter in his mark, picked up the sword, and used his other new skill, Identify. The information he gained from the new skill made him break into a fit of laughter. “Well I know where he got this at least and he definitely did not pay for it.”
*Crusader’s Longsword -uncommon
Aiden looked over the rest of the items with his skill and all of them were basic common items.
Aiden belted the sword, donned the cloak, and stored the rest of the items in his mark. “We should find some low-level monsters so I can get used to this new body of mine”
Aiden started making some quick movements and threw a few punches in the air. He then pulled out his sword and took some practice swings. He knew it was more of a club in his hands since he has had no proper training with it. Fleur informed him that there were a couple of boars nearby so Aiden let her lead him to where they were.
The first boar he found was level 5. Aiden steadied his breathing before charging it. His goal was to hit it with an overhead downswing with his sword but he misjudged his new body’s strength and he tackled the boar instead of striking it with his sword. One of the boar's tusks impaled Aiden in his lower torso. He screamed in pain and started to smash the skull of the boar with the hilt of his sword. After bashing the boar's skull in, he pushed it away from him which caused the tusk to dislodge from his body. When he looked down at his wound it was already closing and the pain was fading. “So this the power you have given me Fleur”
Fleur came out and started poking him where the wound was just seconds ago. “You know you are supposed to slice and stab with a sword not bludgeon,” she said with a smirk.
She walked over to the boar and checked if it was still alive. It was just barely “Finish the boar and store it in the mark so we can have it for dinner.” Aiden pushed the blade tip into the boar's brain. He gained two levels from it when it died. After storing the boar Fleur told him where to find more monsters nearby and how he should take it slow so he won't accidentally tackle the next one.