Despite the terrifying pressure, he didn't move. Instead, he tightened his grip on the spear. His eyes stayed locked on the man and the tiger… but part of his mind was elsewhere, questioning something strange.
Why could he understand the man?
The language he spoke in was not one he was familiar with, and it sounded strange. Yet he understood it perfectly. He could also feel that he could speak it if he wanted. This caused him to frown a bit.
He knew that only his soul had total control of this body and had no memories whatsoever of learning this language. Yet he could understand it.
His eyes sparkled slightly before they turned cold again as he stared at the man.
The man seemed to have noticed his lack of response and sighed.
"Look, I am not here to harm you, okay? I just want to talk."
He had a reason to consider his words. After all, he could feel from the pressure the man was emitting that he could kill him, probably effortlessly too.
Since he was still alive, he could trust the man's words somewhat, but he decided to remain on the tree.
"What... what do you want?"
Taking a few seconds to get used to speaking, he asked.
Noticing that he had decided to remain hidden, the man sighed.
"I don't want anything. I just want to ask if you were the one who killed this Wooden Monkey."
No response came for a while.
"What if... I did?"
The man scratched the back of his head.
"If you did... then I would like to buy its corpse from you."
No response came, and this seemed to irritate the man slightly.
"Hey, could you come down now so we can have a proper discussion?"
"No."
The man sighed again and glanced at his tiger, which only yawned in response.
"If you are afraid that I will attack, I will retract my soul beast, okay?"
Again he was met with silence.
He walked to the tiger and touched it lightly. It glowed slightly and then disappeared. He then turned to look at the tree again.
"Okay, it's gone now... you can come down."
He was not entirely sure what the man had done for the tiger to suddenly disappear, but the pressure that had been emitted had been reduced by a lot. So he decided to come down.
He jumped down from the branch and stabbed his spear into its bark to slow down his momentum before landing softly on the ground.
The moment he arrived, he got into a slight defensive stance and locked eyes with the surprised man. Now that he was on the ground, he could finally see the man's full features.
He was a tall, bulky man with wavy black hair that reached his neck, a few streaks of white running through it. His face was sharp, all angles and edges. He had a clean-shaven beard, and deep blue eyes that were currently widened in surprise.
A beastly aura hung around him, not wild or out of control, but overwhelming and tamed, just... like a sleeping tiger.
He wore a black chest plate that looked sturdy but not too flashy. There weren't any weapons visible on him, which somehow made him feel even more dangerous.
"Wait... a kid? I was wondering why your voice sounded... childish."
His deep blue eyes seemed to see through him, and for a moment he felt naked, as if nothing could be hidden from him.
Suddenly, the man's eyes opened wide in surprise again.
"You... are unawakened?"
He looked at the man, doing his best to hide his confusion. He wasn't completely sure what he was saying, but he had a feeling he was examining his power, which only made him grip his spear tighter.
"I... am down..."
The man finally snapped out of his daze and rubbed his nose bridge.
"Wait. Kid, what are you doing here at the outskirts of the red zone? Are you in a party? Did you really kill this Wooden Monkey by yourself?"
He kept firing question after question, and he only looked at him expressionless. Even if he wanted to answer him, he was not sure what most of those words meant. Seeing this, the stranger sighed again.
"Sorry about that, I just didn't expect to find an unawakened kid here..."
He then turned to the monkey corpse. This time he fixated on the wound on its neck before glancing at his spear.
"I am willing to buy the Wooden Monkey from you. You can keep its soul disc, of course."
He blinked slowly, not replying right away. His eyes flicked to the monkey's corpse, where a black disc with hints of red in it was floating. He assumed that the soul disc the stranger was talking about was the disc he could absorb for power.
"Why... do you want the corpse?"
Why would he want the corpse of a dead beast instead of the soul disc? Was he a collector who collected these types of beasts to study them?
The man stared at him weirdly before, but answered anyway.
"That corpse right there is an infant Wood Monkey. They are really rare, especially the infants, as they are mostly guarded deep in the yellow zone. Their skin sells for quite a lot since it has natural camouflage ability, and killing an adult Wooden Monkey is simply too hard."
So it was for tool purposes... and that thing is an infant? Then how strong is a fully grown Wooden Monkey?
The man seemed to sense his confusion.
"Hey... who are you, kid? You don't seem to know things that even the greenest hunter would, even... suicidal ones like yourself."
Again, he was met with silence. This seemed to be his last straw, as he seemed to get even more irritated.
"Urgg... you know what? Let's start over, kid. I am Kren, a rank 3 Soul Beast Master. What's your name?"
It seemed like he was getting impatient, but he could not really answer any of his questions, since he didn't know. But this one for sure he could.
"My name is..."
Suddenly, for the first time since he started talking to Kren, his expression changed.
His mind suddenly went blank. He could not remember. No matter how hard he tried, he could not recall what his name was.
He could recall his title, but the name associated with it was not coming up. Every time he thought of it, his mind would simply repel from it.
"I… don't remember?"
He was so surprised that he didn't even notice himself mutter. How was it possible? Was there a compromise in his mind blocking it?
Kren stared at him weirdly, this time slight concern appeared on his face.
"You don't remember? Then... where are you from?"
He managed to regain his cool again. Now was not the time to investigate what was happening. He knew where he came from, that he could answer, but he didn't want to. This realm was not related to his old one. He was not sure how he would be treated if he said that he was a soul that possessed this body in order to live again, so...
His face changed again.
"I don't know... I... don't remember."
Kren sighed.
"So, where were you before coming into this forest?"
He turned around and pointed at the temple still visible from this distance.
"I don't know. When I woke up... I was sleeping there. I don't remember... anything else up until that point."
He turned back around to look at Kren and was slightly surprised.
Kren's face had visibly gone paler and his eyes were unfocused, then they showed slight fear in them.
"You... you woke up in the Sun God Temple?"
He assumed that was the name of the now ruined temple, so he nodded.
Kren got to one knee, and before he knew it, he felt a big hand land on his shoulder. He had not even noticed him get so close to him.
"Okay kid… listen to me. I want you to do something for me, okay? I want you to close your eyes and think about yourself. As if you want to see yourself in your mind."
He looked at Kren in confusion. What was he hoping to achieve by asking him this? But seeing how panicked he was complied anyway and closed his eyes, beginning to do what Kren told him.
Nothing happened for a while, but then he sensed something in him shift, and soon weird floating letters began to form in his vision. He instantly opened his eyes, but they were still there.
"Tell me, kid! What do you see!?"
The letters continued to fly around before finally stabilizing.
--------------------
Name - Arah Kianthu
Age - 13
Rank - Unawakened
Innate Trait - Purifying blood
Soul weapon - Spear
--------------------
'By the heavens...'
He was not completely sure what he was looking at. The language the letters were written in was something he had never seen before, yet just like before, he understood it. But that wasn't what surprised him. It was the information on it. It somehow knew something that he himself did not know, his current name. It was not the name he had in his past life. That was for sure, he could feel it, even if he did not remember it.
But... what named him? From the moment he had woken up in that egg, nothing had given him this name. How did this... 'thing' know what his name was? How did it work in the first place?
Before he could go on in his thoughts, he was soon shaken by Kren.
"Tell me! What do you see?!"
Snapping out of his daze, he looked back at Kren.
"I see... my name and age..."
He could feel Kren's hands tighten on his shoulders.
"What's your name?"
Weirdly, the aura that he had been suppressing was going wild. He stared at him for a second before answering.
"It says... I am Arah Kianthu."
Kren suddenly exploded in laughter. But it was not a joyful one, it was filled with madness and rage. His aura at that moment was crushing, even more suffocating than the tiger's.
For a moment, he thought he had made the wrong move, when suddenly the laughter was gone as suddenly as it had started, with the pressure vanishing as if nothing had happened at all.
"Those cult bastards... they are back..."
He muttered under his breath and turned his gaze at Arah.
"And they named you... a mere sacrifice after their god?"
"What...?"
He got up from his knee and looked at him.
"Listen kid. I think you might have been offered as a sacrifice in that temple by a... very bad group of people..."
He walked toward the caravan and stopped for a second.
"And you now carry the name of one of the gods that disappeared a long time ago..."