A Lil’ Bit of Random Infodump.
"So, let me get this straight. I'm a Revenant, a ghost of sort who has risen from the dead to haunt the living. A Revenant cannot die, cannot heal, a zombie basically. From which angle do I look like a zombie?" I ask.
"Well, technically you are a zombie. Revenant, I mean. The original kid to whom the body belonged is long dead and you've given life to a body which should've stayed dead in the first place. That certainly certifies you as a zombie, I mean, Revenant.
He must've not got a proper burial and that must be the reason for your Revenant class, though. Don't worry, it's not all too bad. Infact, I don't think you will even notice the difference." replied Moose, the opossum, Moseley, was famously nicknamed as Moose whereas the bulldog, original name Dantelion, was nicknamed Pef. Pretty names, ain't they! Wrong! These guys are not simple animals but animals who dropped out from Heavens!!
Moose gave a 'meh' expression and looked away.
"Hey, kiddo! You can check that later, can't you?!" said Pef, a little angry, "right now, can you please focus on the task at hand. Like, your identity, in this world."
"Okay, okay, I got it. Wait, lemme check it!" I said. I snapped my fingers and a nearly blue transparent screen appeared above the tips of my fingers which displayed a lot of, what many would call, stats.
"Let's see…
...
Stats: -
Original Name: Theo Aldric Merci
Family Name: Merci Family
Bloodline: ***************************
Race: Undead/Human
Class: Revenant
Titles: Cryos Prince, Otherworlder, Revenant, Young Master of Merci Family
Affliction: Soul Fatigue, (Undead Curse)
Cultivator Rank – Early Foundation stage. Technique – Grand Ice Serpent Technique
Lord Rank – *****************************************************
Magus Rank – Rank-2 (Velsdadt's Soul)
Body – Body of Cryos (Rank – 2) / Ice Serpent Transformation (Elementary Stage)
Body Tempering Technique - Ice Serpent Scales Tempering Technique (Stage-1)
Magic Essence: 0
Dantian: Empty
Soul: Fatigued
...
Skills & Spells
Passive:
Body of Cryos – Decreases the temperature of the surroundings of the user. Has a minor Aura effect.
Aura of Death – Makes the living wary of you, instinctively.
Revenant's Strength – Immense strength of a Revenant. Nearly 10x increase to your raw body strength irrespective of your current Cultivation stage or anything.
Revenant's Resistance – Immense resistance to natural elements like slash, pierce, poison and even to most of the basic magic spells and skills. Completely immune to basic Flame and Wind-type spell. But extremely weak against every and all kinds of Holy magic, Thunder magic and Arcana magic.
Revenant's Endurance – Greatly increase the endurance of the flesh and allows the user to run and do normal stuff at inhumane pace, agility and precision.
Ice Dragon Evasion Technique – Evade the incoming attacks directed at you with uncanny agility of an Ice Dragon, a relative of Ice Serpent. (Comprehension – 40%)
Active:
1. Freeze – Freezes the opponent solid. (Comprehension – 90%) (Additional effect) Active effect – can freeze anything freezable inside or outside. Passive effect – has a slight poison affliction.
2. Ice Spike – Hurls a dangerously sharp spike of solid ice at the opponent. Passive ability, slows enemies for a short duration if not dead. Has a slight poison effect. (Comprehension – 70%)
3. Icy Blizzard – Blasts a gale of wind with a sub-zero temperature to slow enemies down at a wide range without damaging them, considerably. (Comprehension – 50%)
4. Ice Serpent Poison Needles – Blasts a gale of cold wind filled with small icy needles tipped with deadly poison of the legendary Ice Serpent. (Comprehension – 50%)
5. Soul Devour – Devours the Soul of your enemies to give a small but instant boost to Magic Essence. Has grave afflictions if Souls are not digested completely. (Comprehension – 70%)
6. Face-Shifting Skill – Masks the user's face with a small blanket of Magic Essence to hide their actual face. (Comprehension – 50%)
7. !@##@!$ - !#@@#%^&%$^&%^&$%$%^&^&*%$ ...
!@##%$^ - &*(*)*^^&*^&*(& ...
...
The last lines of the stats window became a long line of weird symbols and character. A glitch, perhaps.
"Interesting! You've some puffed up skills, even for basic ones. Considering that sky-high comprehension, I would say that you're good to go. Mostly." muttered Moose.
"That's good to hear," I said, sighing inside of me but then a few questions arose in me.
"Hey, guys, can you tell what this comprehension stat is? And why do I have a cultivator rank and Lord rank with me? Ain't I a Mage of sorts?Also, what's with all those weird symbols? Is the System hiding something from me?"
"First and foremost," started Pef, "There is no System, my friend. The window you are seeing is a special ability of all Mage class people.
Second, the stats window is not hiding anything from you. The weird symbols are all a result of your own incapability of 'digesting,' as many calls it, Prince Velsdadt's Soul.
Actually, the Soul inside of you is not yours, completely. It is the Soul of Cryos Prince Velsdadt and these skills, even the ones you are able to comprehend, are Prince Velsdadt's and you can only use them because you've partly absorbed his Soul during your crossing-over, or what you call as transmigration.
Right now, there are two Souls in your body, one is yours and the other is Velsdadt's in a concentric spherical way, outer being Velsdadt's and inner being yours. Since, the Soul Merging Ritual went near perfectly, I'm sure you won't have much complications with your Soul in the earlier phase of your life. But, slowly and inevitably, Velsdadt's Soul will dissolve into yours and if your own Soul is not powerful enough to contain the massive power of a 100,000-year-old Monarch, your Soul will explode and your body will be possessed by Velsdadt! The real, Velsdadt." He warned.
"Oooh! That will hurt, won't it?"
"Epically!" says Moose from the side.
"Moving on, the reason why you have a Cultivation, Lord and Mage rank is because the Magi who were conducting your ritual were probably drunk when they were selecting the right body for you to cross-over.
You see, the boy to whom the body actually belonged, ahem! Young Master Theo Aldric Merci is a Central Continent native with an 'untapped' bloodline of a lordly creature but settled in the Eastern Continent which is filled with pure Qi, even walking the Path of Cultivators. One cannot totally see the problem here in the lower phases of their Cultivation, but in the long run, there are hundreds of problems, like Entanglement of Aura's, bloodlines etc.
But, as if not satisfied, these buffoons also merged the Soul of a once prominent and powerful Cryomancer into this body. Thus, there is a battle going on for the body between the Lord bloodline and the pure Qi and a battle going on for the Soul.
In short, the three most powerful energies of Audenia is coexisting in a single Mortal body on a delicate balance. And oh! The moment this balance is tipped off, one energy will try to subdue other and tear the body apart. Got it? But don't worry, for the untapped Lord bloodline of this body, or rather, your body is suppressing both the pure Qi and Velsdadt's Soul influence."
Gulp!
"Absolutely!" I say, frightened. Death by getting one's body torn apart! Not pleasant, dude! Even if it is used metaphorically, the outcome is going to be in no way pleasant.
"Good! As for comprehension, it is another important aspect of a Mage, infact it is important for every Path. It means how much you've understood the spell or the skill and how much you can truly exert its power. I will explain with the help of a flow-chart.
1% -> just started practicing.
5% -> can draw the spell or utilize the skill to get a minor result.
10% -> better than the flock of useless incompetents.
20% ->amateur.
50% -> adept.
70% -> master.
80% -> maestro.
90% -> as good as the creator of the spell.
After 90%, one either stops comprehending the spell or enters the domain of the Laws governing the spell, both of which is of no meaning to you, right now. Get it?"
"I think … I do…" I reply, confused but not like before.
"What else do you have in mind?" asked Pef.
"Ummm… tell me about the greyed out Undead Curse. Sounds cool but what is this affliction?"
"Nice question!" Moose commented.
"Quiet!!" barked Pef. Puffing his chest up, he said in a teacher-like tone, "Listen well, for I will not repeat. The Undead Curse is a hotly debated topic in Heavens and Hells and many Angels and Demons and Devils alike have consulted me on this topic. I will not go into details of the curse but I can tell you all of its basic properties.
The Undead Curse is like a propeller to the Undead race. The curse is meaningless to living people and only strikes the dead, dead who haven't been properly cremated. Like you. But it can also strike someone who has made a pact with the Gods of Underworld like Nephythys, Osiris or Anubis.
Anyway, most people call it a curse but one can arguably call it a blessing, because dead struck by Undead Curse are nearly Immortal. Well, sort of. If you meet a Reaper, though, you are as good as gone.
The curse is very simple. It will revive you as long as you embrace undeath. The side-effect of repeated resurrection, though, is nasty because to resurrect, the curse uses a part of your Soul as ingredient.
And it will keep on doing it until and unless you don't have a Soul anymore. Then, you become a Hollow and roam the surface like a deranged man and when killed again, you will go to the Underworld to serve your due to the Gods of Underworld like Nephythys, Osiris or Anubis or the hundred others."
"And how does one become human again?" I ask.
"The best answer to that question, is you can't. I've never heard of a plausible way to undo the Undead Curse. But in your case, surprisingly, the Undead Curse has been completely subdued by your bloodline and have made you part-human which gives you the '/human' attribute in the race section. Makes me wonder what kind of a bloodline you have, though."
"Powerful, I guess. Anyway, lets get the hell outta here. Talking about undead made me wanna find out how much of a human I really am." I say, bored completely. Moose agreed with me completely.
"Okay, I will just give you the summary of this world on the way."
"Cool--!"
"He-e-e-lp!"
"!"
All of a sudden, a cry of help echoed out from the cave and stopped us in our tracks. I frowned as it hit me that I completely forgot about the boys back in there.
"Did you guys leave someone back in there?" asked Pef with a frowning face.
"…"
"…"
...
"So, are we ready boys?!!!!" I shout, beaconing at the paltry group of adolescent boys, aged between 13-15. These were the same boys whom I encountered when I was 'crossed-over' to this world, the ones whom I thought were dumb. And as it happens to be, they aren't dumb or anything. They are perfectly sane, if you take all the quivering, shaking, sobbing and wailing away.
"A-aye…." They cried in unison.
"Nice! Let's get going! Valshade City! Here we come!"
"…"
...