Chapter 1: Life, Death, and Other Unusual Magic

Chapter 1: Life, Death, and Other Unusual Magic

He awoke wet and disoriented, his face down in the mud with a hole in his head. Thankfully, the hole was more metaphorical than literal. Still, death wasn't supposed to feel this bad.

The man had the figure of a warrior with jagged muscles and a lithe athletic build, yet his body felt tired beyond measure as he rolled himself over to sit up. Squinting his eyes, he assessed his situation. There was an abnormal sense of calmness in his movements, even though pain warred to consume his mind.

He was under the naked sky, the scorching sun hovering in mid-sky as a breeze swayed the leaves of the surrounding towering trees and tall hedges. There was dampness in the air, and water flowed constantly in the stream.

Then his eyes turned to his figure, and all the calmness puffed off. He was in some kind of specialised attire, wet and heavy. His cloak and light armour seemed waterproof. However, the rest of his clothing and undergarments were drenched in water.

I was in the stream? he mumbled, leaping to his feet to face the water. He found a sheathed sword strapped to his back, and unsheathed it to discover a real blade.

Why did he possess a sword? He did not know, but it felt right to have one. If he didn't know better, he would have swung it to test his skills, but his current condition brought only a deep sense of urgency.

What the hell is going on? But more important, who am I?!

As if to answer his question, something appeared before his eyes. A disembodied holographic screen floated in mid-air. Unwittingly, he reached out to touch it but found his finger phasing through the hologram.

[Interference detected! The system is unable to detect the user's all attributes and features.] [Restrictions have been detected! Unable to determine the full stats. . . .]

He looked around in suspicion as the message blinked out of existence. Is this a prank or what? Or am I going nuts?

His eyes transferred to his palm, revealing a dark and eerie black circle mark. Another floating window appeared before him.

__________________________

[Warden]

Race: Human* (Prime/Corrupted – 27%)

Title: [Redacted] [Redacted] ... [Redacted]

Attributes

Strength: configuring...

Mind: configuring...

Soul: configuring...

Recovery: configuring...

...

Abilities:

configuring...

____________________________

"Warden?" he mumbled. Is that me?

The more he thought about the name, the more natural it felt in his mind. Warden. At least he had a name to latch onto, though it sounded a bit weird.

As for the other information in the window, most of it seemed unfamiliar. He had an obnoxious feeling that he should know it all, but the words didn't spark any memories.

Warden didn't know a single thing about himself. What kind of amnesia did he have?

As though trying to remember more, he clutched the sword to see his reflection. His eyes were black as they should be, but his hair was strikingly grey. It wasn't dyed or coloured due to old age, but naturally grey.

"That isn't right, is it!" Warden did not have any memories to accept or deny his features.

The whole blade turned pitch dark, as purple smoky tendrils swayed along. Wielding it, Warden shot a menacing glare at the beast, who for a second didn't charge outright. Witless and feral, it might have been, it had sensed the danger oozing out of him.

"It was wrong of me to think of us as peers," he said. "There are no equals in the jungle."

Warden held his ground, his eyes narrowing at the beast. His sword was ready, pointing towards the sky at a right angle. It was weird how right it felt, even though he didn't remember learning the stance.

The savage wolf seemed scared to shit as it took a step back, unaware of the human it targeted to possess such strength. Even its feral instincts couldn't drive it to pounce with the dark energy pulsating all over him. In the end, it was intelligent enough to make the right decision. Or perhaps it was rather instinctual fear towards the dark power.

Warden didn't expect the beast to actually draw the tail between its legs and flee.

"Where are you going, motherfucka?" he screamed, almost losing his stance to chase after the running beast, forgetting how helpless he was under its clutches a moment ago.

"I'll make you pay for biting me."

The dire wolf was faster than Warden, yet when he leapt, he didn't expect to land on its back, covering the long distance within a blink of an eye. Much less the beast, even Warden himself hadn't expected the exponential increase in his power.

The dark purple tendrils swirled around him. Despite the unexpected power, Warden didn't fall back once he was over the creature. He swung his blade, aiming to plunge into the neck of the beast.

This time he made no mistake and made sure the blade connected where he intended. The wolf bared its teeth, lunging, but Warden's eyes tracked its every movement, his blade plunging into the beast's neck in one clean swing.

Blood sprayed in the air, and one last howl echoed, as the beast dropped dead instantly.

[Copper grade energy harvested.]

[+0.7 Strength.]

[Configuration Completed.]

[Unable to determine full specification. System access (Category-4) is limited.]

_____________

[Warden]

Race: Human (Prime/Corrupted – 27%)

Title: [Redacted] [Redacted] ... [Redacted]

Fatelock: [Void Prison Realm]

Disposition: Chaotic

Rank: [Broken Calamity]

Attributes:

[Strength: 18.7]

[Mind: 12]

[Spirit: 74]

[Recovery: 99]

Abilities:

[Left Hand of Calamity]

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Revised and edited on 19/02/2024