His gaze swept the cramped cabin, thoughts swirling in his head. This place only had a single room, a hearth in the center, and a simple table with two carved wooden chairs. A shelf was lined with clay pots and bundles of dried plants.
There was nothing that he could do in this place. He had no intention of wasting time, at least for now, he had to understand where he had ended up.
Joe stood up, then walked into the open door. The clearing outside was empty, and the rain that seemingly poured down when he was unconscious, turning the ground into a mess of dark mud. The footprints of Carrie and the four men were washed away by the water.
After standing there for a while, he headed back inside, pulling the nearly broken door shut until it clicked into place. He had been so infuriated at the sin system, or so that thing called itself. A system that judged his every moral compromise, every thought, every desire of him? It was an unauthorized invasion of his rights.
He let out a long breath, trying to calm the rage he felt. He had to be logical, he was an engineering professor in the federal, a man who had built a career on understanding how things worked. This world operated on a new set of rules, and he needed to learn them. He had to find answers, and the first thing to do was to get to Forked.
His stomach growled, breaking the silence. He searched for food that the woman left behind, he sat down, facing a few stuff he collected from the cabin.
A few coins, which he remembered was the currency of this world—a small clay pot, he had filled it with water from a nearby stream—and a long sturdy branch, which he had broken it to a reasonable length for a walking stick. It was crude, but it was better than nothing.
*******
The sun had just begun to rise when he finally set out, as he stepped onto a muddy trail through a forest of towering trees. He took a deep breath, savoring the scent of pine and wet earth, the aroma of nature that he rarely experienced back on Earth.
As he trailed down the trail, his mind worked through the fragmented memories of Zeon. But the journey was a slow and uncomfortable one. Zeon's body was very weak, not used to prolonged walking. Joe gritted his teeth, pushing through the ache of this new body.
Trying to divert his mind of the spoiled agony of this new body, he summoned the system, its glowing screen hovering before him.
[SIN SYSTEM]
Name: Zeon Von Alexander
Race: Human
Level: 1
Overall Sin Level: 0
Current XP: 0
XP Needed to Next Level: 300
Attributes:
Strength: 9
Agility: 11
Intelligence: 10
Stamina: 9
Willpower: 13
Mana: 50/200
Abilities:
[Mana Perception] - Passive
'Nine strength…nine stamina…' He thought with a bitter chuckle. 'A child could do better.'
The only score that was above else was his willpower, and Joe, now as Zeon, thank God for that. 'At least he wasn't a total pushover'.
He dismissed the screen, feeling it was a useless thing for him now. The most important matter was that he needed to get to the city.
He continued walking, and after a few hours, the treeline thinned, revealing a massive wooden gate between stone walls, flanked by two towering stone walls. Beyond them, a city sprawled out. This was Forked.
The city was a mess of wooden buildings and dirt roads, smoke curling from chimneys. People moved about, most dressed in simple tunics and trousers. There was no cars, no trains, no electricity. Nothing. It was a city from a history book, an urban settlement from an age he had only read about.
Zeon felt his heart sink. He had hoped for some flicker of technology, something familiar, but there was nothing. It was all so primitive. All his knowledge, all of his years of study in engineering and physics, all his experiences as the federal agent… it was all useless here.
The guards with their simple leather armor and metal spears, barely looked at him when he walked through the gates. The smell of the city was a combination of woodsmoke, livestock, and unwashed bodies.
He saw a man with a cart pulled by a worg. It was a large, six-legged beast. Then a small and horned person, a tiefling, bargaining for a sack of grain in the market. A tall and slender elf woman with pointed ears and silvery-green cloak, tending to a stall selling carved wooden idols.
Everything that he saw made him overwhelmed. The races from the old fantasy stories were real. They were breathing, walking, and doing the activities like human would.
'This is… a true medieval fantasy…no tech at all…'
He felt a deep sense of frustration. He was in an entirely different world, a different body, with different rules. He found a quiet corner behind a busy market stall, sitting on a wooden bench. The sounds of the city—the haggling of merchants, the animals, and voices spoke in strange tongues. Closing his eyes, he dug into this body owner's memories, searching for anything useful.
Zeon's mind was a mess. A jumble of half-remembered lessons, vague insults from tutors, and an almost disinterest in anything practical. But there was little information about Mana.
He recalled a stern old teacher with a gray beard, lecturing about the Six Schools of Mana—the School of Abjuration, the School of Evocation, the School of Illusion. As Joe, he didn't understand what those words meant, but they sounded important. Zeon had been paying attention just enough to memorize the name of the schools, but not enough to care about what they were for.
"Zeon, you idiot," he muttered, testing the name on his tongue, and it tasted bitter. He understood why his father disowned this fool.
He took out a small piece of charcoal he found on the ground and a flat stone, and began to make notes in English, using a shorthand only he could understand.
Then, an idea flickered into his mind. This world was not what he had expected, but he was a man with a goal. He would not just survive here, he would conquer this place. He would learn its rules and break them, and brought his own age to this world of bronze. And to do that, he would use every advantage he had. Even using the seven sins of his alien system.