'For a long time, I was a wandering soul with no purpose until....'
His eyes fluttered open and he glanced at his surroundings… his retina struggled to contract. It had been a long time since he had seen the world from this perspective, where the sun shone during the day and there wasn't always darkness all the time.
He shifted his weight and raised his body up from the pile of dirt he found himself in, the surrounding area was nothing but a pile of rubble and dirt. Stones were packed upon each other and dead bodies lay littered on the ground.
'This looks worse than I thought…' he sighed, manoeuvring through the rubble and pile of dead bodies. He skipped them all and went uphill, where he could breathe freely. The air caressed his skin as he took a deep inhale. 'It's been so long…' he smiled broadly.
At that moment, a sharp sting rang through his ear, followed by a static voice and a holographic screen. He covered his ears sharply and skidded back with his hands placed before him in case of any attack, and for a faster reaction.
The texts materialised before him, slow and objective. He hadn't seen anything like it before, it felt surreal!. He maintained eye contact as the words formed, drawing his attention with the red neon lights that escaped its surface.
[You have successfully been reincarnated! Congratulations!]
[System binding ======== complete]
[Name: Lucius Arkebold]
[World: Astralis]
[Level: 1/500
Exp: 0/100]
[Class: None]
[Title: Nil]
[Host Status
HP: 15/100 – Body severely damaged]
[Mana: 10/10]
[Stats:
= STR:?
= AGI:?
= VIT:?
= INT:?
[Stats points: 0]
[Skills: 1
= Absorption Skill [Grade A, Rank D]
[Absorb any living material containing mana!]
[Kills: 0]
[Companion slot: 0]
[Unlock after slaying 2 gods]
[Inventory: 0/10 slots unlocked]
[Objective assigned: Fulfil a dying wish. Slay the sun and weather gods]
[Tip: Absorb nearby corpses to recover and gain strength]
He stared at the holographic message like a young child, scratching the surface of his scalp with so many questions to ask but he had already been briefed about the whole situation before being reincarnated, and some things were still confusing to him.
'I'm guessing this is the system said to assist me in fulfilling the task? Looks….unreal' his hands went through the surface of the message screen and came out behind it.
He flexed his fingers, 'It's holographic, I wonder if it's only me that can view it or if there are others who can see it as well' he rubbed his chin with his hands.
It took a while for his soul to settle into the body, but once it did. The pain and exhaustion hit him hard, like a hammer to the head. He fell to the ground and gasped for air, his lungs felt deflated and useless at the moment.
'The system wasn't kidding about this body being severely damaged..' he reached for his surroundings, trying to grab onto anything he could use to anchor himself to his feet.
A moment ago he was free and painless, moving about without taking action. Now he was struggling for the air he was breathing freely some seconds ago.
His sclera grew pink, then red as veins bulged from his face. He managed to roll his body over, staring at the sky when a system message appeared above his view.
'Damn…its been so long I've felt pain. I somehow miss my spirit body' he coughed terribly, blood spewing from his lips. His injuries returned and the pain came along, all over his body hurt badly and he didn't know how to ease it.
[Tip: Absorb nearby corpses to recover and gain strength]
The system message flashed before him, advising him of what he could do to save his life. 'Absorb corpses? What do I look like? A ghoul?' He grumbled, clutching his stomach as the pain worsened.
'Actually, now that I think about it…. I am technically a zombie. Because this body is dead and cold, but I inhabited it and now I'm feeling the pain the dead boy left behind… tsk!' He spat and watched the spit fall back on his face.
'Shit!' He pushed himself over, staring down the hill. The way down was hard, there was no way for him to walk all the way there without feeling worse pain than he currently felt, unless…
He recalled that gravity reacted differently in the real world compared to his life as a wandering soul. 'If I manage to push myself, just a bit. I will roll over to the base of this hill without using an ounce of my strength to move!' The idea struck.
'The only problem is the pain I'd feel from the obstacles, but it's currently my only choice.' A sigh escaped his lips as he took the initiative to consider possible ways to push himself to the edge of the hill for gravity to do the rest.
He used his fingers to tilt his body just a bit, allowing the pressure to push him over. He continued in that straight momentum, pushing his body closer to the edge of the hill until he found himself rolling down the hill.
Once he reached the edge, gravity took over and considered his body weight before using twice the force to push his body down the slanted hill. He rolled, smashing his greatly pained body into various obstacles like stones, small rocks and boulders along the way.
"Eyy, owww, pff, oh" he screamed as his body found its way to the base of the hill. 'Maybe I shouldn't have climbed the hill afterall,' he cried out as the pain worsened.
After a short while of torture down the hill, he finally reached the base and landed with a loud thud on the surface of the earth. His body skidded and rolled until it crashed into a corpse.
"OH MY FREAKING GOSH! GODDAMMIT! I CAN'T FEEL MY SPLEEN!" he yelled, reaching for the joints all over his body.
It grew worse but he had finally reached the base, so half of the task had been fulfilled, the second was absorbing the corpse to heal and regain his strength as the system instructed.
He pushed himself over and met face to face with one of the corpses, fear gripped him but he reminded himself it was a corpse and nothing more or less.
'Calm down, it's dead. It's not going to attack you, I hope..' he reached out his hand to the surface of the corpse and grabbed its hand.
'Absorb!' He commanded mentally.
[Absorption skill activated!]
[HP: 15 + 3] the numbers began counting upwards as he absorbed more of the corpse's essence.