Longing

Since the snake used most of its energy to propel itself forward, the forward force it generated was more than enough to fatally injure itself. 

It was like a race car moving at 200 km/hr, colliding head-on with an unmovable-indestructible wall.

The result wasn't anything hard to imagine.

After reaching the snake's twitching body, I unsheathed a not-so-sharp old knife and tore open the belly of the snake. Amidst the flesh and blood inside the snake's belly was a glittery orb, which I instinctively recognized as a beast orb.

Putting the knife back into its sheath, I placed my hands into the wide cut made in its belly and scooped out the shiny orb. I held it in my firm grip as red blood dripped down my hands.

[Rank-2 Beast Orb Detected, do u want to revitalize it or absorb it?]

Since dad fused his leftover soul with the ENAMAL core chip, the notifications had gained his voice.

"Revitalize?" I said as I wondered, 'Just what did you do with the core-chip, Dad?'

Suddenly, the orb dispersed into a glittery mist. 

"Oi wait!" I half-yelled as I fruitlessly tried to grasp the intangible mist.

[Revitalizing Beast Orb, Success.]

The mist started moving and circling around me. The mist was like a small cloud, but instead of being white, it was jet black and sparkled. Just like the stars in the night sky.

After circling me for a couple of minutes, the mist formed a cloud over my chest and entered my body.

[Initiating Soul Contract, Success.]

[Call out 'Summon Obsidian Serpent' in your mind or aloud to summon your soul bound beast.]

[Soul Bound Beasts: 1

Obsidian Serpent: Mutation of a common Tri-colored Serpent.

Not enough authority to view full information.]

I was shocked by the result. I focused on the word 'hidden'. Curious, I said "Command Override, Code-00800, Unlock Information." Yet again I was shocked.

[System Override Denied. Not enough authority to view full information.]

"Haa…" I sighed in frustration. I stood up and scratched the back of my head. Which had become a habit from my previous life when hitting an annoying error. 

After coming up with some possibilities, I put the matter aside and started removing the serpent's teeth. 

It was easy after accessing the boy's memories. They were now as if I had access to a library with a search function. 

After removing the fangs full of the mutated poison, I tore off a piece of the rag I wore to carefully store them. The fangs were a bright white, which contrasted with the serpent's dark body.

The more I moved, the more used to the body I became. I checked the system log for unseen messages. About to close the log, I noticed something interesting that caught my eyes.

[Call out 'Summon Obsidian Serpent' in your mind or aloud to summon your soul bound beast.]

I grinned like a kid who found a new toy to play with and called out "Summon Obsidian Serpent", and a cute snake no bigger than my palm appeared on the ground in a curled pose. 

It unfurled and slithered towards me as it sensed me. My gaze softened, and I bent down extending my hand. 

The serpent gazed at my hand, as if contemplating what to do. A moment passed before it climbed on my palm and slithered its way up my arm. Coiling atop my head, as if my head was its rightful place all along.

"Prideful, are we?", I chuckled at its antics. It was also jet black like its previous self. Its scales were not as pronounced since it was practically a baby. I felt a strange sensation as a mind nudged at my own.

[Master…? Am… Hungry…]

My face froze a second, but then I burst out laughing at the serpent's voice being that of an toddler. 

[What would you like to call her?] 

Again, my dad's voice spoke in my head as a system prompt appeared in front of my eyes.

"Let's call you Dia."

[Dia: Obsidian Serpent (Young) (In-Progress)]

"Come let's treat you to an 'all you can eat buffet'!" I said laughing, as I lifted Dia off my head. I set her near the obsidian serpent's original body and urged Dia to eat.

I suspected that she might not eat her own body. But Dia seemed enthusiastic as she tore into the body of the snake she resembled.

By the end of her eating spree, Dia was so bloated that she could only roll on the ground.

"Why did you eat so much if you can't handle it? Alright now rest inside, you need to digest all that before you can come out." I laughed, holding my stomach. Dia became a beam of light and shot inside my chest.

For some reason, It didn't feel weird seeing things out of a fantasy world. In fact, I readily accepted them! 

Now, let's go back home. I thought of going back, remembering my mom's condition, "Oh shit!" I sprinted back the way kid Ryan took.

–

–

–

While sprinting, I recalled all that happened in the past few minutes. And if I were to think of all this as coincidence? It would be dumb of me!

After all, dad also told me not to delve into it any further. 

But the next second, I shook my head to yank out all of those useless thoughts.

It took me 10 minutes to exit the 'Forest of Nightmares'. 

What a dumb name that was…

The path home was not long, but I had to walk with my eyes open and my ears focused.

Exiting the dense foliage, what greeted me was a stone wall as high as a two-story house, old ivy spilling over from both sides. There were two gates with one being big enough for two caravans to pass side by side whereas the second gate was for pedestrians.

A guard stood next to the smaller gate, checking people's identities. Even in this world where technology is nowhere near as advanced as earth, there are many ways to identify people.

As I approached the pedestrian gates, the guard called out to me, "Back from another one of your adventures?"

"Not now, Terry, I'm in a hurry today." Probably seeing the amount of blood on my clothes and the ripped apart shoulder part, he didn't bother me.

And since the guard knew me, he let me pass. Following my newfound memories, I found my way to a building that probably had not seen any maintenance in several years.

I went to the backdoor and made my way up the creaking wooden stairs.

—Click

Reaching the top, I opened the door with bated breath. On the other side of the door was a one-room floor. In one corner of the room, a lady in her 30s lay on the couch.

The lady was taking haggard breaths, her clothes drenched in sweat. One of her arms was folded over her eyes, the other hanging down almost touching the wooden floor.

With one glance, any person could tell that the pretty lady had a dangerously high fever.

I rushed hastily to the kitchen shelf in the corner of the room. I took out the obsidian serpent's fangs and started extracting all of the poison into a bowl.

I opened the knot I had tied on my shirt and took out the herbal leaves and red flowers that the other Ryan had picked and threw them into the bowl.

[Tier-1; Pelci Leaves: Herb with soothing properties. Used as a reagent to neutralise poison.]

[Tier-1; Fuera Flower: Herb with mild healing properties. Used as a healing paste.]

I swiped my fingers right to remove the notifications from my sight and focused on the bowl.

The leaves started melting and mixed with the poison. 

The natural mixing of the solution was so excruciatingly slow that by the time it was ready, I had changed Mom's cold water bag twice.

As soon as the leaves melted, I sighed in relief and started diluting the mixture in a water bucket. Because the poison being from a Magic Beast – mom must never hear about that – the medicine's potency was off the charts.

[Tier-1; Healing potion (Mid): When ingested, boosts the body's natural recovery by 50%, when poured directly over a wound, heals skin wounds and boosts the clotting of major wounds. Tolerance: 4 Doses]

When the medicine was ready, I put some of it in a bowl and approached my mother. Something stirred within me as I got closer.

I knelt on the floor in front of the couch, with moist eyes I fished a spoonful of medicine to her lips. "M-Mum, here, I brought you medicine."

When she heard my voice, she groggily opened her eyes. Her complexion was pale, paler than the whitest paper. She saw me extending a spoon, parting her parched lips to let me give her medicine. 

The bright-pinkish liquid seemed to burn its way through her mouth. Making her throat glow. The medicine seemed to give her relief as it entered her body. 

A change in her demeanor alerted me that the medicine was working. I watched as her skin grew warm and then the fever seemed to spike up before beginning to dissipate.

She seemed almost drowsy, like she had been finally revitalized. From the outside, her complexion turned rosy. Seeing this, I sighed in relief but the worry I felt did not completely lift.

She immediately tried to stand up. My hands went to steady her as I was concerned she was moving too quickly.

"Mom! You shouldn't be-" Despite my plea, she knelt on the floor and hugged me. I hugged her back immediately, afraid she would fall if I didn't hold her tightly.

My eyes closed as the warmth and love of my mother's embrace washed over me. I wanted to stay like this. I missed this feeling of motherly warmth.

Ah how much I missed this warm and fuzzy feeling. I thought as I subconsciously tightened the hug.