[A/N: edited 02/07/21]
[A/N: Sorry! I am really sorry for being absent for such a long time but as I said before I am doing this just because of my interest so real-life problems will definitely take a much higher priority for me.
Also, I am editing the chapters so I would recommend reading only the edited or new chapters.
See you all again soon.]
*****
[A/N: Since this is a prologue, it is somewhat of an info dump along with a basic introduction to MC's mentality and thought process.]
*****
This is one of the clearest and important as well as one of the most unclear and hateful memory remembered by Aruhik.
Aruhik still clearly remembers the faces of his grieving father and crying mother as well as confused younger brothers, he saw upon reaching them after calling for a medical emergency.
And then the crying mother telling Aruhik that they are proud of him; something he wanted to hear for years but not like this, absolutely not in this condition.
At that time Aruhik was unwilling to believe just how can a day that started as one of the best is turning into one of the worst nightmares.
However, no matter what Aruhik believed, wished, or tried to do, it ended up becoming a nightmare haunting him for a long time.
This memory is important for Aruhik because this is the event that changed him and started the process of building the current him.
This memory is hateful for Aruhik because that was the worst way of invoking those changes in him.
This memory is clearest because how can Aruhik forget the dying faces of those he loved and respected since birth to that day.
This memory is most unclear because the moment his mother closed her eyes for the last time, just after his father, Aruhik also blacked out and doesn't even remember how the funeral was held.
*****
~Around a decade later~ {POV 3rd person}
Aruhik, a boy in his late teens who is aware of fact that he has died not long ago, is sitting around a wooden tea table in front of a man around the age of 30.
At the same time, he is also wondering that why even though he tried it more than once, whenever he takes his eyes off the person sitting in the front he found himself unable to recall the face or any other feature except for approximate age by the looks and gender of the man.
Furthermore, the place he is at the moment reminds him of his favorite travel destination from childhood, a Hill Station; from his position, he can even see the double rainbow which is a pretty rare occurrence even for that place along with natural vegetation that looks to be untouched by humans, yet another quite rare thing for a modern society.
The only difference from his memory is that even though time is of sunset thus increasing its beauty, he can't find any signs of a living being except for both of them; whether it is insects' noise, birds chirping, or the nearby human settlement which was previously visible from this place.
As if the older man can read Aruhik's thoughts, he started the conversation with the topic Aruhik was thinking about and at the same time confirming that he can read thoughts or has at least looked into it before.
"This place shows one of your favorite locations from your mind and I have to say, this place indeed has its charm. It is a pity that I can't let it create any living being by your memory, although I agree that is a different but also another side of appeal this place has."
Once again Aruhik failed to recall what exactly the voice sounded like; however, he clearly understood what was said and also draw some conclusions from it.
First; the older man has access to Aruhik's memory and Aruhik thought that it is safe to assume that he knows all of it as he mentioned that it is Aruhik's favorite place.
Second; Aruhik guessed that the old man shouldn't be able to replicate his exact thinking process, otherwise there would not have been a need for 'friendly' conversation between them. Yes, Aruhik indeed thinks they are going to have a conversation, as making his favorite place appear is both a sign of goodwill and the control other person has over him.
Lastly, the third and the obvious one is that the person in front of Aruhik has at least somewhat control over life and death, as he should have died but here he is; furthermore, as the old man mentioned before, he prevented the creation of life at this place but it might also mean that he can do it if he wants to.
And Aruhik didn't have to wait too long to confirm his guess.
"You are far too weak to know who I am and indeed I want something from you, as you will be going to a so-called fantasy world after this conversation."
Well, even though Aruhik expected it, this doesn't make it any less frustrating for him that the one in front of him can read his mind during the conversation.
However, due to this conclusion, Aruhik decided that he doesn't have to hide anything and should try an open conversation with speech as it might feel better than this; furthermore, not trying to hide any negative thoughts when he can't really hide anything would at least make it look less offensive than the one in front discovering those negative thoughts due to mind reading.
Therefore Aruhik asked exactly what he was thinking.
"So,... there should be some other instructions or wishes that you might give me, otherwise, we won't be having this conversation here."
To this, Aruhik got an instant reply.
"I will be giving you wishes but it won't be omnipotent wishes, as even though I did not fix the number of wishes, I will be determining the wishes by the amount of power I spent on turning your wish into reality. But do keep in mind, you can't cancel your wish and if your wish exceeds the limit, I will fulfill your wish partially till the assigned energy is completely used."
For Aruhik, it's somewhat different from what he expected but he also understood the last part might act as a trap, or in this case, it won't be wrong to consider it as a test set up by the one sitting in front of him.
Because partial completion means any part can be fulfilled first which might lead to cases that can't even be considered as bad jokes, such as Super Saiyan God without Saiyan bloodline or even life-threatening conditions as Poison Creation ability without Poison Resistance.
Though Aruhik thought all this almost instantly, first he needs to ask something else; although there is a very small chance of it getting answered properly, he needs to try at least once.
"What do you expect from me?"
As expected by Aruhik, he got a reply but not what he wanted.
"I only have one instruction for you, 'Survive'; I don't really care about the way you do it as long as you follow through with this instruction."
Still, Aruhik decided to try once again, with a different approach.
"Why do you believe I will follow your instruction? I can just kill myself after going out of here."
And, Aruhik failed once again as well as got reminded that he has been underestimating the mind-reading power which renders his word games completely useless.
"From your memories, I can draw the conclusion that you won't commit something like suicide. For all those souls that have been called here, I have confirmed they have a strong will to survive"
Though Aruhik knew that he won't like mind reading, it proved to be much more frustrating than he expected; anyway, in this case, he doesn't have any reason to keep his frustration inside so he let it out and at the same time, also asked about the important information he got just now.
"I now feel really grateful for being weak enough to not notice anything, otherwise I would have surely gotten a traumatic experience of being mind rāpéd by an old man. Anyways... you mentioned others, are they be going to the same as me? And how many will be there?"
Obviously, Aruhik was not being very polite in his speech and questions; however, he believes that showing fake politeness when the one in front of him can read thoughts would feel outright disgusting, for both listener and speaker.
After all, even with the front person being extremely powerful, which Aruhik does respect, he can't bring himself to put a strange person with an unknown goal in high regard, especially on their first meeting.
And maybe the older man understood Aruhik's reasoning, shared the same belief, or didn't even care, in any case, he answered and didn't mention anything about politeness.
"Starting point will be the same for all of you and there will be 10 males and 10 females from different ... let say, different places. And yes indeed, as you have guessed, you will be going to more than one world."
Contrary to what Aruhik said before about killing himself, he is not really resistant to starting a new life rather he is even somewhat excited about it; that's why he got an indirect warning for playing word game regarding the same,
Therefore, after getting answers to some of the important issues or at least trying to ask them, Aruhik began considering choices available for his wishes; but first, he stated two of his wishes which he considers to be of much greater importance.
"For my first wish, no matter what wish I make for from now, keep my body to be that of a humanoid male; it can be anything from a human to elf to beastkin."
After all, Aruhik definitely does not want to start his new life as an Orc or Cockroach.
"And for my second wish, please show me the amount of energy left for the rest of my wishes in percentage."
Aruhik noticed that person in front of him remained silent for a few moments and then spoke.
"Good, your wish is accepted"
And the next moment, numeric fonts made of blue light and reading '99.99%' appeared in front of Aruhik. He already expected it to be somewhat similar value otherwise making wishes would have been practically useless.
For around the next 10 minutes, Aruhik thought hard about his choices.
After all, it was only for around last one year that Aruhik got acquainted with the fantasy genre and he doesn't remember much of it from his childhood, furthermore, he has always preferred psychological and thriller over action and adventure; therefore, he doesn't have many examples from the fantasy side that can be referred to.
Moreover, all the good things he can remember are either too strong and hence might not be fulfilled with the energy allotted to him or are not good enough, due to having something like a trigger condition or fatal weakness; yeah, he can remove all those unwanted things from any of the abilities but that will also consume more energy hence going back to the first case, that is good ability but too expensive to afford.
Still, after much thought, Aruhik thought of a choice that is rather straightforward in abilities and doesn't have unwanted things like a trigger condition or weakness; furthermore, this isn't even that strong therefore it can also be used to test the limit of 'wish energy' allotted to him.
"For my third wish I want bloodline of Lucian Royalty of Final Fantasy XV, make its starting point to be of a normal human but its potential should not be limited. I mean, I can work hard but its potential should not be limited by whatever superpower world I would be in at that moment."
Aruhik 'wished' this because the capabilities of Lucian Royalty from Final Fantasy XV are quite straightforward; first is warping or in other words, teleportation with no cooldown for as long as there is enough mana; and second is equipping the weapons, a practically very useful ability as with this he won't have to worry about losing his weapon mid-battle or storing them at other times.
Obviously, the Lucian Royalty also has other abilities and although those aren't completely useless, Aruhik doesn't believe them to be strong enough to consume too much energy; furthermore, he isn't sure if removing those abilities might disturb some balance of the bloodline.
And there is one more uncertainty that whether removing those small abilities would actually reduce the cost of energy or rather consume more energy; therefore, he refrained from demanding further changes in the bloodline.
Instantly after Aruhik finished speaking, he heard the confirmation.
"Wish accepted."
As that person gave his affirmation, Aruhik noticed the percentage going down to '83.62%' and released a sigh of relief that at least high potential does not consume too much energy.
Then Aruhik began thinking about his next wish while keeping in mind to consider the only instruction he is given, and he thought of it much faster than the last one because, well, even if there were better choices out there he wasn't aware of them due to his inexperience in this 'field'.
"For the fourth wish, I want the bloodline of pureblood vampire from the series Strike The Blood; here my starting point should at least be this much that I don't die instantly from a fatal wound such as bullet through my heart. Also, similar to the last one, its potential should not be limited by the superpower world I am in at that moment. And, it should also include a way to accept new beast vassals."
Aruhik clearly remembers that Vampires in Strike the Blood world have a very strong regeneration power along with a vast amount of mana and a very strong combat capability due to beast vassals contracted to them; hence it has both high survivability and combat capability.
Aruhik is sure that there must be many other similar bloodlines out there, with some of them even being much better; however, he isn't aware of those, and 'designing' a new one by himself is also out of the question because he isn't sure that he won't miss any important part and ultimately making that a failure; that's why he chose from an 'existing one' and this was best he can think of.
Once again, Aruhik received an instant affirmation after he finished speaking.
"Accepted"
After the affirmation, finding that there is still some energy left, once again Aruhik released a sigh of relief. Then checked the percentage to be at '26.17%', and again confirmed that direct power costs much more than higher potential.
Then for the remaining energy, he mentioned the wishes he has thought of long before.
"For the last wish, increase my luck for the next 10% of the energy; and for the remaining energy, give me a beast vassal of the lightning attribute."
Aruhik doesn't have any particular reason for choosing the lightning attribute, except for it being his personal preference over others; and obviously, he asked for a beast vassal so that he can have some combat ability just after reaching the new world he will be put into.
As for the reason behind investing in luck, well, although Aruhik knows as well as believes that 'Luck' absolutely isn't something that can be depended upon, he also believes that many times good luck does make things easier and bad luck might turn a simple thing into a nightmare; therefore, he ultimately decided to invest on luck and it isn't for good luck, rather for avoiding bad luck.
After stating the last wish, Aruhik noticed the percentage going down to '00.00%' and along with the last message from that person, he lost consciousness.
"Your wish has been approved, now you will be sent on your journey; Aruhik Nox Chalenet."
*****
{~POV Aruhik~}
I woke up, and while still being somewhat dizzy, I tried to see where I am.
And found myself lying flat on the ground surrounded by trees, which are quite tall compared to what I remember; I don't think any of them will be less than 100 meters.
Well, what can I say, according to that person's words this is a 'so-called fantasy' world after all.
While lying on the ground and being unable to move, I began thinking that is this what feels like to be in sleep paralysis? No, I remember there should also be some hallucinations; well, these really tall trees aren't really helping here.
I even thought that maybe, I have somehow messed up my wishes by completely forgetting the compatibility of different powers; however, thankfully, I was able to move in what I think is the longest couple of minutes.
And instantly after waking up, I began checking myself because, well, for the first, I already feel myself to be a little shorter than from what I remember. Second, while making the wishes I indeed completely forgot about compatibilities between the powers so I need to check it out.
And the third and last, it is quite obvious to check my powers and capabilities before treading any further; after all, fantasy is always associated with dangerous and the only instruction I have been given by that person is 'Survive', which obviously means I will be facing survival crises in the future.
Once I began checking, I confirmed that I have indeed become shorter than before, now around 150 cm. Also, my hands and skin are no longer rough like before and whatever minor scar I remember is not there, like I never worked all those years and lived a life of luxury.
Those two are the first changes I noted but neither of them is of much importance; however, there is indeed one change in my body which made me happy, my degraded eyesight from the previous life has returned, or to be more specific, it has upgraded to a superhuman level; as I can see veins of a leaf on a tree that is more than 100 meters away.
The same goes for my hearing; though not as good as my eyesight, I can quite easily distinguish different sounds I am hearing; from insects crawling, wind rustling against partly dried leaves, a couple of birds chirping on a nearby tree, and few other sounds along with their approximate directions as well as distance.
I think these changes should be majorly credited to my pureblood vampire bloodline, but I never knew any of my bloodlines will affect my height; anyway, it is not like my height will matter anytime soon as long as I belong to the normal human height range.
Now comes the important part, my powers; so I began concentrating to feel my powers.
And almost immediately released a sigh of relief as even though not in a combat-oriented way, I can at least feel my powers quite easily and subconsciously know what they basically do as well as how to use them.
First of all, I can feel some kind of energy in my body which I think must be mana as both of my bloodlines use mana for their different abilities. And even though I don't know the average quantity of mana, my instincts of Lucian bloodline are telling me that it is vast compared to what normally should have been; and by vast I mean, really, really, vast, so much so that one is completely insignificant to the other.
Next, I can feel the presence of another living being inside me, most likely the soul of the beast vassal sleeping inside me and is connected to me in a subordinate relationship; or to be more specific, if I satisfy the conditions for waking it up, it will be like a servant to me and follow my orders.
From Anime, I remember it requires feeding on blood to wake up as well as get the recognization of a beast vassal.
Speaking of blood, I remembered the reason why vampires are called vampires and tried feeling the vampiric fangs with my tongue only to find it missing but also expected it, as I remember that vampires from Strike the Blood were capable of retracting their fangs.
So, I tried to get vampiric fangs out, but, well, it isn't easy because even after closing my eyes and willing to make it come out, I didn't feel even a minute change in my canines.
Then I remember that in anime, the protagonist needed to be sexually excited to bring out his canines but...that can't be the only way, right? I mean, where will I find a girl in what I suppose is in the middle of a forest, and even then, that girl should be willing to seduce me.
Therefore, I thought of the next logical solution; vampiric fangs are needed for drinking the blood so I must have a desire for blood to make them come out.
And after a few tries, it indeed worked and I felt my sharp elongated canines; also, strangely enough, it was quite easy for me to think about consuming blood and didn't feel even a little repulsiveness from that thought, like the act of drinking blood for me is as common as drinking water; maybe a not undesirable side-effect of my bloodline?
Also, this may be the reason why the protagonist had to use such a way for drinking blood because even after becoming The Fourth Progenitor, he believed himself to not much different from before or in other words, he didn't think of himself as a vampire who must feed on bleed.
While on my side, although I also don't think myself to be a different person from before, I personally don't think I have any attachment to any race, whether it is human or vampire; because at the end of the day, I will still be me, irrespective of the race.
On the other hand, if I really changed significantly just because of becoming a different race, that would be really pathetic.
Anyway, although I managed to bring out my vampiric fangs, I still need to find another person for consuming the blood and waking up my familiar. I really should have remembered to add in the wish that my familiar should already be awake when I wake up in the new world; well, it is nothing to discouraged about, I just need to find a person and ... 'ask' for its blood.
Next, I checked my first combat-related ability; the ability to equip weapons, which comes from the Lucian bloodline.
I can equip six weapons, at least in my current condition; four of which are temporary that I can easily and instantly summon one at a time, and upon forcing myself, summoning all four simultaneously is also possible but I subconsciously know that it will burden my body and will be a massive drain for my mana.
Even though I think both can be covered up by vampiric healing ability and the massive mana reserve, I should still keep it in my mind to check the simultaneous summoning of all four weapons later on in a safe place.
But the important ones are my other two equipping slots because once equipped, I won't ever be able to unequip them. However, it isn't like these two don't have an advantage over my other four slots as I will get to permanently keep the abilities of equipped weapon as my own, it will be a slightly degraded version though.
Though these two permanent slots do have a side effect, which I think is negligible as direct use of weapons in these two slots will cause a burden on my body as my bloodline will amplify those weapons' capabilities to their maximum extent but I think it can be easily covered with vampiric regeneration.
However, I still need to test it before getting sure and recklessly using it. And obviously, these can also be summoned together with the same condition as the previous one.
I get the feeling that these are like Royal Arms from the game so I will also call it Royal Arms.
Next is my ability of Warping or teleportation, my instincts as a Lucian tell me how to do it but I need to do some testing to know its limits which will require me to move from here so I kept it aside for now.
Then comes a minor ability of Lucian Royals that is Elemancy and I remember there were 3 elements Ice, Fire, and Thunder.
I started with ice and willed to create an ice block on my palm. Instantly, I felt surrounding energy converging above my hand; however, even though ice is forming, even a combat rookie like me can tell it is too slow to be practically useful in combat; for now, the only use I can think of for this ability is for making ice-creams, not that I am unhappy with unintentionally getting the ability to make ice anytime anywhere.
Then I thought, what if I channel my own mana in this? So, I did it and within a few moments, I found my right hand covered with more than an inch thick ice.
The biting cold had already begun making my hand feel numb which also made me come out of my daze and stop mana channeling.
Then I released a helpless sigh looking at my almost numb hand now covered with around 2-inch thick ice.
~10 minutes later~
I finally freed my hand from the ice by breaking it using a nearby large rock using the most primitive way, by hitting them against each other.
I also thought of using fire elemancy but rejected it instantly at the thought of going through a traumatic experience of boiling or blowing up my hand, which might really happen.
I can already feel my hand recovering from numbness, quite fast at that; credit to vampiric healing. And within a few seconds, my hand recovered completely.
Then I tried Elemancy for fire as it is necessary to at least know my capabilities, and the best way I can describe it is by using the word 'lighter'. Even though I didn't channel my own mana, I feel it is at the same level as my ice ability, so I think no problem in starting a campfire?
On a side note, even with all the precautions, I still burned the palm of my hand. But this also completely proved to me that I am not immune to my own elemancy.
However, I instantly felt a difference upon testing Lightning Elemancy, as upon using it my whole body was covered in weak dark purple lightning with a higher concentration on my right hand where I willed it to manifest. The important part is, all this happened without using my own mana reserve, this effect is only by using surrounding energy.
Although I already have a primary guess, still feeling lucky I began channeling my own mana into it and instantly found myself and the surrounding area of around 15-20 meters covered in the dense purple lightning. While my body is only feeling the slight sting from it which can be easily ignored if not directly concentrating on it.
After stopping the elemancy, I found almost all the grass and plants in the range of 15 to 20 meters around me burned black; well, although I don't know the condition for starting a forest fire, I am thankful to my past self for choosing luck as one of my ability.
Then, what is my primary guess? Well, it quite reasonable to hypothesize that it must be due to my lightning attribute beast vassal giving me an affinity to the same attribute while significantly increasing my resistance for the same.
Doesn't this also mean that I can increase my affinity with other elements or even get a new element by getting a corresponding beast vassal? Now I am really looking forward to proving it right in the future.
On a side note, due to lightning burning holes in my clothes, I finally noticed that my clothes are a black T-shirt and stretchable black jeans along with black long boots, which are rather comfortable in movement. Although I don't think they have any kind of defense capabilities in them, they can repair quite fast by feeding my mana which is quite insignificant compared to my total mana reserve and restoration rate.
After checking all of my major abilities, I know which ability of mine I need to understand and train first, the ability of Warping.
As even in my previous world I don't think I can call any of the natural forests a friendly neighborhood forest let alone this a fantasy world forest where the smallest tree is thrice the size of the average size of trees in my world.
Therefore, no matter how pathetic it might look, I need to improve my ability to run away; furthermore, it isn't like warping is only useful in running away as I am pretty sure that mastering it will provide me extreme mobility and flexibility in any fight.
However, before testing out Warping, I need to solve another problem that is I don't have anything that can be used as a weapon, after all, I need to equip at least one weapon for being able to use warping ability.
However, I don't have anything that can be used as a weapon at the moment but I managed to think of a replacement that is at least good enough for testing out warping.
So, after a few minutes of searching, I found a rather flat palm-sized rock and equipped it in my normal weapon slot with a helpless sigh.
Once I willed to equip the rock, it began transforming into a red-black transparent crystal, and when it completely transformed, it broke down into smaller floating red-black crystals and disappeared.
I am honestly surprised by the color of my crystals as they are of the almost same color as that of Ardyn Lucis Caelum, the main antagonist of Final Fantasy XV, with an additional black tint to it which only makes it look more evil.
I suppose it might be due to me being a vampire; well, not like it matters and I honestly prefer this shade more than the original one.
I summoned the rock back and along with the appearance of red-black crystals around my hand it appeared on top of my palm.
It doesn't look any different from when I picked it from the ground, except for the fact I can feel a very small amount of mana contained in it and a connection it has with me which allows me to know its location even without any physical and mana senses.
Now it is time to check out my ability.
I threw the rock a few meters ahead of me, then without even looking at it I tried sensing its position through my connection and willed to warp above that location; my instincts of Lucian Bloodline told me what to do and I subconsciously did it.
At the very next moment, I am already standing above the equipped rock and looking at my previous position. Furthermore, in less than a second, I also recovered the consumed mana; well, in the first place, the amount of mana consumed is completely negligible considering my total mana.
Then I willed for the rock to appear in my hand and it instantly disappeared from the ground appearing in my hand. Next, I began repeating the process by approximately doubling the distance every time.
By the time I did the warping for more than 200 meters of distance, I also got a much better understanding of my powers.
The first being that I have much greater strength than a normal human as I can easily throw the stone for more than 200 meters most likely credit to my vampire bloodline.
Second is the amount of mana I consume while warping increases with the distance, though it is still negligible for me and recover under 5 seconds.
And the third and most important of the three discoveries is that I can sense the space around the stone for about 15 meters that include even below the ground surface, though no sound can be received by the stone. And that is why I don't need to look at the stone directly to confirm the position of warping around the stone.
Also, it isn't like I didn't try warping to a much farther distance or was unable to throw the stone any further, it is just that these dense trees blocked the path of the hurled stone.
Obviously, I can check the limit of my warping by moving physically but 200 meters is already good enough for now, and training my short distance warping holds much greater importance that's why I kept it for a later date to find the limit of warping.
~A couple of hours later~
After randomly choosing a direction, I began moving through the forest using warping so that I can get used to it as fast as possible.
After warping once again, as I was holding the stone to throw it further ahead, suddenly my instincts screamed at me to move. And due to the keen senses that I wasn't aware of I had till now, I sensed a hairy hand with long nails moving extremely fast towards my back.
Therefore, I willed my body to move towards the right but due to my senses, I understood that even with all my effort I am still too slow to avoid the hand.
However, instead of giving up, I desperately tried to avoid it and actually found myself escaping the almost certain death with just a few bone-deep scratches on my back.
Maybe it was due to a sudden rush of strong emotion, desire, or whatever other reason it might be, but mana automatically began channeling in my body at a much faster rate than any previous times I have felt and red-black crystal started appearing in the surrounding.
And as the nails of that hand pierced through my back skin while moving further to increase the size of my wound, the pain acted as the trigger for me to appear on the right of the owner of that hand at a distance of around 20 meters and facing towards it.
I then found out that the owner of the hairy hand is a monkey-like creature more than 5 meters in height covered in dark brown fur and a tail of nearly the same size as its body. However, unlike the monkeys, I remember from my previous life, with my improved eyesight I can see that this overgrown monkey has sharp teeth.
I can feel that my back, which is still bleeding, has already begun healing and purple-black lightning is starting to cover my body as the soul of my familiar is about to wake up from its slumber sensing a life-threatening crisis near me.
However, I know that I can't let it wake up otherwise when my familiar will return to its slumber after removing the crisis in front of me, I will also lose consciousness; and looking at the overgrown creature in front of me, I know that if that happened I won't even get to know how I died.
Therefore, while mentally trying to calm down the beast vassal, I immediately threw my rock with all my strength; and by the time the shocked monkey found me toward its right, the stone was more than 100 meters away from here so I instantly warped near the stone in the air then fell down.
Then without paying attention to anything else I got up while summoning the stone to my hand and the moment it appeared in my hand, I immediately threw it again with all of my strength.
And without looking again at the thrown stone, I turned to the creature which I think is too big to be called a monkey and saw that it has just found me again.
I now have two options, first is escaping which I think would be quite easy due to warping and second is fighting to kill this overgrown monkey; surely, I know that first is a much easier and safer option, but I choose second.
Obviously, I didn't choose the second because of something stupid like anger, revenge, or excitement; but because I know that once I escaped without even trying to fight, it might become a habit and bad habits don't go away easily.
Therefore, I channeled my mana at full force to use lightning elemancy and once again got covered in dark purple bolts of lightning; but this time it isn't due to my beast vassal trying to wake up forcefully, rather it is only the effect of elemancy performed at full force using my mana.
I can already feel small burns and slight stinging continuously forming and healing all over my body; however, while keeping it from distracting me, I lifted my right hand towards that speeding overgrown monkey and willed my lightning to attack it.
My lightning being much faster, it instantly reached the monkey currently less than 50 meters away from me. The overgrown monkey momentarily stoped and roared at me but then once again began moving toward me, though much slower than before.
Major burns were appearing on its fur but because it was still moving I kept channeling my mana at full force to continue the attack. And by the time the overgrown monkey reached the mark of 30 meters away from me, some parts of the skin on my right hand have started to turn black due to lightning burns rate at my hand overcoming my healing rate.
But I continued to ignore the pain, keeping my eyes on the monkey and as it continued moving closer the attack intensity also kept increasing due to fewer lightning bolts getting directed elsewhere.
By the time monkey reached the mark of 20 meters most of its fur has already disappeared to show the burned black and pink 'skin', but it kept moving forward, and I know that it getting any closer would be dangerous for me as I am pretty sure that being a monkey it must be quite good at leaping.
Therefore, I sensed the position of the stone through my connection and unexpectedly found it embedded in a tree less than 150 meters away from here but it isn't much of a problem for me so I prepared for instant Warping at any given moment.
As the monkey, now the burned overgrown bald monkey reached the mark of 15 meters and I was about to warp away from here, it suddenly fell down but I still kept channeling my lightning for about 10 more seconds before jumping away and observing it from a distance.
After not finding any sign of it being still alive for around the next half-minute, I confirmed it to be dead; and in order to avoid any creature coming here because of being attracted from the fight that just happened, I warped to the stone.
But before warping away, I once again looked at the sharp teeth of burned monkey and confirmed that it definitely isn't a herbivore; well, this is a fantasy world, so a carnivore monkey is not that ...unexpected?...Anyway, now I am pretty sure that there must also be a carnivore rabbit in this world.
*****
After appearing near to the stone, I summoned it to my hand, and then I began checking my current condition.
Both burns on my hand and the wound on my back have already healed, even my mana reserve is still nearly full with whatever I consumed being close to getting completely recovered. However, my clothes have turned into an authentic beggar attire, so I channeled my mana in it and which turned it back to the original condition within seconds.
After confirming that I am already back at my top condition, I continued moving through the forest and this time also I traveled by warping but without using the equipped stone; because I am well aware that being proficient in warping without using the equipped weapon would be much more favorable in a fight.
However, I am still holding the equipped stone in my hand, just for precaution in case I faced another crisis like getting attacked by an overgrown monkey.
Then, after traveling and practicing for an hour more, I began looking for a place to stay the night; as this is a dense forest, light is usually quite low so even though my eyesight isn't affected, it is already dark and I think it is better to rest for a while.
*****
~At night: Inside a makeshift shelther~ {POV Aruhik}
I am currently lying inside a small rough shelter I built using broken branches and long leaves from a nearby tree which I placed around the roots of a large tree to create a leafy roof big enough for me to lie down underneath it.
Also, just as a precaution, I dropped my equipped stone a few hundred meters away from here so that in case of emergency I can instantly warp away from here.
Finally getting a rest in what I feel like a long time, I can't help but think back to what happened since I last slept and believing that it would have been the last time I closed my eyes.
First, just when I accepted my death, instead of dying I woke up in front of a powerful, mind-reading, mysterious, humanoid, and possibly male creature.
Then that person gave me powers according to my choice and strangely enough told me to 'survive' in this fantasy world he has thrown me into; however, since that person has gone through my memories, isn't it obvious that I definitely won't give away my life at least without trying my very best?
Oh! Yes, he already told me about being aware of this fact when I tried to get more information from him; however, he still gave me such instruction. Isn't this just the same as telling me face to face that he has some other goals but won't be disclosing them anytime soon?
Well, this is something I need to think and work on because who knows if his real goals might put me in a condition worse than death; well, I have already died once and it wasn't that horrifying, or rather I didn't feel anything...
Anyway, due to that annoying mind-reading, he should already know that I am cautious regarding his true goals so no need to hide my wariness, at least until I am capable enough to protect my thoughts and memories.
Anyhow, whatever this might lead to, I can't do anything about it at this moment; for now, surviving and living in this world takes higher priority.
And to survive in this world, I must have power in my hands; therefore, for now, I need to focus on increasing my strength then upon encountering the society of this world, get a better social status or in other words strength of people in this world.
After all, I am not an idiot enough to think that either of the personal strength and political strength is more important than the other, because I believe both compliment each other and are necessary to live a better life.
This is why I didn't escape upon encountering that overgrown monkey after it missed its first strike, even though I had more than 95% assurance in successfully and easily escaping from it.
Because even though I can 'Survive' in any way possible, running away and hiding is really not my thing.
Obviously, I am not an idiot who won't ever escape or hide irrespective of the situation, so they will be my options and I am pretty sure that at some point in my life I will have to do it; but running away will never be my first choice.
Well, now that I look back, my conclusion is also the same as what that person told me.
Improve my 'strength' to overcome all the challenges and follow the only instruction I was given, 'Survive'.
As this is prologue, it is somewhat of an info dump along with a basic introduction to MC's mentality and thought process. There will be world travel in the next chapter.
And as you can see, I will keep the word count per chapter high so there won't be daily chapters. I can also do the other way around if that is more preferred.
Have some ideas about my story? Comment it and let me know.