The boy looked towards his feet, staring at the corpse of a young girl. Her ribcage was clawed open with her organs devoured; uneaten pieces of organs and broken bones around her.
The boy looked at the lifeless face of the girl… and smiled.
I might have known her... she may even be a precious part of my life
He wanted to laugh, but he vomited on her instead. She did not matter now, not in his new life.
But… even if Elias Kiefer did not remember her, he felt bad for her.
She was just a kid.
This world is messed up.
Maybe I am even more messed up… after all, I am laughing at it.
The world was covered in half-eaten corpses as blood flowed like a river; Elias had long emptied his stomach as he was trying to walk in the appalling remains of his tribe. Elias took a step forward and picked up a big rock; without exerting much strength, he crushed it as if it were chalk.
Elias had vomited, cried, laughed, pitied, suppressed his heart, suppressed his desire of running away; he had acted with himself ruthlessly for his goal, after all he had to survive first.
Tiny insects fed on corpses, and Elias stole from them.
As heartless it may be, crossing the dense forest without supplies was suicide, and if he were to join the empire empty handed, he would be sold off as a slave.
Ahh man, I really hate this… This better help me to become stronger in the future
Even if he did not remember any of these people, he still had empathy for them, not to talk about the disgust he felt; even if he did not want to admit it, he felt somewhat thankful that he survived.
He soon reached the false treasury, with blood covering his feet and his purple hair hair dancing he sighed.
I can not open it
Well, he had collected enough resources; he had 25 glass Requim and about 177 Requim crystals — enough for him to form a small tribe, but the false treasury held much more alluring rewards for him.
With a chuckle, Elias looked north, towards the Red Tiger Empire, his destination.
In the north, Elias saw a bright pair of eyes before the world disappeared, and he went limp.
His vision went dark; neither could he hear anything nor could he feel anything. He felt as if he had suddenly learnt of an infinitely long number or saw something so complex that his brain gave up on everything to understand it – only to fail to grasp it.
Information so vast his brain could not handle it, ending every task to understand it solely.
He could not think nor understand. Time seemed to have frozen — or he had.
A boy with rugged purple hair was laying on a pool of blood face first. His wet leaves and animal skin were slipping off from vines, revealing his tan, chiselled body covered in bruises.
A growl could be heard, followed by the sound of an elephant running; of course it was not an elephant — it was a giant dragonfly, dashing towards the tanned young man with astonishing speed.
Its one wing was broken; hindering its movements. It had a giant stinger pointed towards the purple haired boy.
…
Elias felt that something inside him disappeared, as if something foreign had entered his mind and left, leaving a vague trace. He could decipher a few phrases like "The creator can create himself," "create yourself," "learn creation before destruction," and "It is not omnipotent nor is it omnipresent."
After a few moments, or an eternity — Elias Kiefer could not keep track of time in the otherworldly experience, he stood up with a damning headache.
His head was exploding, so was his speed when he saw that hideous monster running towards him.
He had stayed in the pond of strength longer than anyone, for whenever one uses such ponds, its magical water level decreases. Because of Elias's use of the pond of strength, he could barely match the speed of that harrowing, injured dragonfly.
Why did the giant insects run?
Where were they going?
Elias put every bit of his strength into his legs, his bulging muscles working overtime as the sound of water flowing increased
"Fuck, fuck, fuck my Requim crystals and glass Requim!"
He hoped that the beast would not absorb his glass Requim to try to evolve into a higher Grade. Elias leaned down, taking off his feet covering made from animal skin before sprinting barefoot on the sharp rocks.
Ah, it hurts. I needed to take off the feet covering for grip, but this sucks.
The sound of water splashing increased as Elias Kiefer ran along the stream.
Elias ran and ran. He glanced back for a second, just to see the insect slowly catching up to him.
"Finally! Oh, god!"
Elias had been following the small stream of water where the combat warrior had once met him. The stream of fresh water was bound to lead to the river, after all rivers and tributaries join together; Elias was also keenly aware of his surroundings since this was his home ground.
Splash!
He jumped into the river, swimming against the flow to escape from the insect — his strength was equal to that of a combat warrior!
Elias swam for about an hour until he found a basket made of vines; he tried to laugh only for a fish in the river to enter his mouth — Elias spouted it out immediately.
Grinning Elias found his way to the shore and fell onto the smooth riverbed. "Ah, fuck…" He quickly glanced around, making sure that the insect was nowhere to be found.
"That damn insect was only a Grade 1 Requim beast, or I would have been dead…" Elias sighed, his expression did not calm down, however… "Only Grade 2 Requim beasts can have mind attacks though."
Grade 1 beasts were usually prey too, it was baffling how all insects were predators. Moreover, the grade 1 beasts could only use magical attractive or repelling lights, but that insect used none. The only thing which signified its grade was its physical strength.
He grimaced, "What the hell happened to me back then?" Well, he could do nothing about it now. He forced his tired body to stand up, and then he noticed something dire.
"My coverings… Do I have to make new coverings?"
Elias chuckled at himself before walking towards traces of life.
But my Requim crystals and glass Requim... I will need to do some tricks to get into the Empire now. I had just gotten rich.
He let out a bitter breath as he felt his heart become heavy; but he also felt grateful for surviving.
When he reached the main settlement, he sniffed and chuckled — "Ah, so this place was spared."
Elias stood in front of an empty settlement; the houses were torn and broken apart. But there was no blood. No dead bodies and no signs of settlement except the lonely houses.
He soon reached a small board with the Blen tribe written on it. He remembered that his tribe used to trade with this tribe for fresh potatoes, thus he searched the houses for food.
Every house was broken apart, Elias checked each house and spent hours searching for any resources. He was completely baffled as he found no resource left.
Elias's expression turned grim… "What happened here?!"
This is completely illogical! How? What?
Something unprecedented had just happened in Chinen-kind history, the giant insects emerged from nowhere and now this!
Will I really have the resources to become the strongest?
The future mattered to him; he needed there to be enough resources for him to become stronger and plunder.
Elias's expression suddenly changed, turning into one of absolute longing and affection.