// Chapter 4; Birthday Awakening 1/2

MORTAL REALM, BINGYUN PLANE

FIRE PALACE CONTINENT, BLUE MARSH FOREST

DAY ???, DANTE'S CONCIOUSNESS

'DANTE'S COMPENDIUM 2/2'

DAY ??? - I regained conciousness. I don't know how many days or weeks have passed since I was attacked by Diego in the torture room. It appears my soul sea along with the area all around me has become pitch-black.

The only thing surrounding my ethereal soul body was a room of blackness holding only myself and my diary inside.

Oddly however, my vision and sight have came back. Along with full body control of my main-body hobbit self. It seems I can control myself from this black-notebook room. Moreover, for some reason my thoughts are being willed into the notebook aswell. Probably automatically taking down information.

Well I have some control, even if it is not normal.

Taking a deep breath, I willed myself to control the body.

***

I saw that I was currently sleeping in some form of manure haystack in the outside world.

As eyes opened I saw night sky and it's three moons staring back down at me.

The millions of small stars looked as if there was no pollution present in this entire world.

The beauty filled me with a sense of awe..... before the around me attacked my nostrils.

With the smell of humid poo and sweat boosting my energy, I slowly willed myself to sit up and look around to see my current location. And to my dismay, I was still inside the forest. My body was currently sleeping in some form of manure haystack in the middle of the elv- Blue Marsh Forest.

Looking down and seeing my small frame dressed in some form of beggar outfit, although it was different one from what I remember last. I noticed that my body has barely grown from the last time I was in control of myself. It seems that I'm only around five-foot tall.

My arms are still rail-thin and every inch of myself is now filled with ichy layers of dirt, dried blood, and grime.

It seems like my hair is about shoulder length long as well.

But the worst part is feeling myself beneath these clothes and dirt. I understand that my body is nearly crippled under them. I feel layers of different size scars. I can feel under my lumpy skin the permanent damage that has been accumulated to my body over time.

A feeling of despair hits me as my body sinks back down into the manure. The Triplet Moons seem as if they are taking pity on me. The smell of hot-shit makes the tears coming down my face sting even more.

As I close my eyes with a feeling of fatigue. I whisper a silent prayer to myself hoping that someone can hear it.

***

DAY ??? - I woke up with a fright as I realized someone was hitting my real body awake. I assume I slept for a day since it sunrise in the outside world.

***

When I took control of my body once more and opened my eyes.

I saw that in front of me stood a near six-foot five barbarian beastial man. Going off my own height I could only assume. He stood domineeringly and had a massive black-axe made of some sort of clunky steel on his back, his right shoulder adorned with a single iron pauldron, and only beast hides covering his junk. The rest of his body was completely free, showing off the odd totemic-like tattoos covering his chest and back.

Looking up towards his eyes I saw two sapphire like beads, and a bearded man looking a twisted grin. Flashing his yellow sharpened teeth.

I don't remember ever seeing him before, but I could tell he was probably not going to be my friend.

With a ikemen-type voice he trumpeted out a sentence,

"HEHE, Beggar boy. Are you ready to move today? It seems we are going to battle towards the northern front of our territory. Don't fall behind or we will leave you. Got it beggar Slave?."

As recovering from the punch of being woken up and taking in the information another man, in similar gear and stature walked up behind him.

"Captain Slater, why do you always have to bully this human little beggar? Can't you see how frail he is? Not even any meat on his bones.... Like a little runt of the pack eh?"

The Captain, whose name was apparently Slater, responded to the newcomer with a look of disdain.

"Rico hear me out. Can't we do whatever we want to the newer batch of slaves? I heard from the village Elders that they would be sacrificed at the Ancestor worshipping ceremony on the Autumn Moon regardless if they made it out alive from our current warpath with the Maku. Right?"

The man, who wielded twin longswords on his back instead of an axe, responded with a sly smile,

"We are called the Strongsword squadron for a reason. Out of all of our 10,000 brothers on this warpath, we have a reputation to live up to. And since you the 'First Sword of Hemlock' that means the Elders and Chief assume a great battle will take place there. You need to be prepared Brother.

Regardless, let me tell you about this slave. He was apparently different than the others back when they found him during the annexation of the Battle Moon idiots years ago. I'm not sure how, but yy good brother who was in the unit that raided their Tribe told me they found him in torture pits being experimented on by their priests in some crazy ways. It scared the whole council for weeks. Good thing he is completely soul sealed!

Anyways, The elders discovered during interrogations that he knows odd knowledge and tinkering. But he is an absolute trash, they tried to teach him each of the different cultivation arts but he couldn't even learn the first layer in any of the three. So they made him another fodder slave."

Slater nodded with a grin in understanding showing his sharp teeth, Rico continued saying

"It has been over six years since then, and now they just use him to do random jobs. With his knowledge he taught our Hemlock Tribe useless things. Like how to make something called a 'car'.

All of it was useless to our tribe, espescially when he spoke about some enviroment called a 'Savanah'. Just don't waste your breath on him anymore. Our only job is to make sure he survives until the Autumn Moon Festiv-"

He tried to continue on before Slater interrupted him,

"I understand Rico, I will focus on the task and make sure the slave is delivered."

We need to leave by nightfall. The Maku outpost is 48 kilometers north and we must arrive first in order to claim the glory."

Slater's eyes started to gleam red ferocious while he was speaking. Until they quickly returned to normal

He then screamed,

"Gather men, lets roll! Get ready to slaughter these beasts! We have to kill many this time, I want to rank up in the Councils' eyes and get a v*gin beauty all to myself! KEKEKE!"

As they began to prepare for the march they didn't notice the small beggar who stayed behind was left with a horrified expression.

'What.... the fuck. Years. More than 6 years? Assuming they took over the Blood Moon's during the situation when Vera was married off to Stone.

That means I should turning eighteen in two days?

I'm not sure if my math is correct but that should be the closest estimate. I was experiemented on again? For years they tried to teach me cultivation techniques and I couldn't fucking learn?

This is absurd. Did he mention sacrifice as well? When is the Autumn Moon Festival?

All that I have had is questions since arriving in this trash world. When will I get answers?'

As little Dante was lost in his thoughts, he did not notice a rope being attached to his ankle.

With a harsh tug, someone yanked on the rope causing him to jerk back and slam his head onto the forest floor.

'Ughhhhhhhhhhh I'm concussed, atleast brain hemorrhage from whatever just hit me'

"KEKE, Look boys, lets go! I got the last of our baggage. We arrive by sunrise!"

As Dante saw a few large figures standing above him with his hazy vision, the world around him began to flip around and around. He realized he was being pulled like a ragdoll.

Before he could even react in horror, the next thing he knew is that the pain of being slammed around on concrete soon guided him into the land of unconciousness.

***

(YEAR 7 MONTH 4 - 1 DAY BEFORE 18TH BIRTHDAY)

DAY ??? - When I woke up I realized my body was inside some type of warzone. I can't really be too shocked or surprised anymore taking in the stuff that has happened to me recently.

In front of me was a massive gorge in the middle of a secluded valley. This must be the northern outpost. This valley was surrounded by the large elven trees and a multitude of plant life in-between them.

In front of me however, atleast twenty-thousand barbarians were facing off with what looked like the so called 'Maku'. These Maku were not what I expected. They looked like the normal trope demons instead of grotesque beasts.

They came in a lot of different shapes and sizes. I could spot out some succubus type beauties with horns and all. Sentient flesh and massive Occult Eyes floating around in the air overseeing the battle along with huge demon creatures that had red-bulging skin and muscles that were even larger than the enraged barbarians battling them.

I saw in the vicinity I was dropped off into. Was some form of shabby twelfth-century battle infirmary filled with large seven-foot glowing barbarian women.

I confirmed it as well, Vera must have just been huge, not fat. Especially their boobs, I could tell that barbarian women boobs are atleast H down the alphabet... If not further... *Gulp*

Regardless, with sounds of death and pain all around me I decided just to wing it and started wrapping anything I found around wounds of these warriors who appeared in this area for treatment. When I was putting random dirt and plants into their wounds, I could see their faces twist up in pain before I quickly covered the now-dirt filled wounds with leaves.

'Heheh, I hope it hurts bastards!'

Whilst treating the idiots I started inspecting the surroundings.

The women around me were all red-faced and exhausted treating their tribesmen warriors who were missing limbs, holding their guts in with their own hands, and requesting healing from near death.

I noticed all the warriors have some type of red aura, im assuming Qi or Body aura that helps them clot blood and keep themselves alive until treatment from these big ladies.

Some of the more powerful barbarians that have appeared today have been walking back with missing limbs completely holding just a few pieces of themselves gliding back over. They had no expressions of pain at all, they all wore an expression of anger and shame instead for facing defeat.

As I was fooling around sticking random shit into these hateful barbarians who enslaved me, I heard the sound of an explosion.

I looked over to the battlefield and saw the biggest beast I have ever seen so far in this world. It was atleast twenty-meters large holding two bloody greatswords.

Demonic horns were atop its head and it's snake like red eyes were staring down on the battlefield oozing bloodlust. It had bipedal legs similar to a goat and arms with veins like rivers.

As it walked into into the packs of barbarians battling other demons. The swords around the demon began dismembering barbarians from the waist down, leaving organs flying everywhere.

But the insane part of this is that each swing was reaping atleast twenty of their barbarian lives.

Looking closely, the entirety of the powerhouse demon's body was clad in blood-red aura, even projecting onto his twin swords. This was making him so fast the normal eye would only see him walking slowly, when in fact he was moving in inhuman speed.

The barbarians were an extremely prideful race, when they saw their tribesmen being killed like ants. They began howling in unison until their eyes turned red and their primal instincts came out. A red aura surrounded them began to congeal to an even darker blood red color.

They all rushed towards the most dangerous to their tribesmens survival, sacrificing themselves.

The massive slaughter demon-beast looked as if it was grinning when it saw its 'food' come to him voluntarily.

But in the middle of the rush, I saw Slater holding his axe, with his mouth seemingly chanting some type of barbarian language mantra. All of the blood red aura surrounding him looked as if it was flowing into his axe, making it shake with fervor.

The next moment, his body flashed with tribal totem symbols from his feet to his forehead and his eyes glowed red.

With a superhuman leap crushing the ground beneath him.

The Strongsword Captain jumped one-hundred meters in the air under the cover of his fellow tribesmen.

As he came down with the force of a comet, the demon was still lost in his slaughter before he realized he had to react to the next attack he would face.

Whilst looking for the source of danger, he saw that below him his bipedal legs were locked in place by massive thorny roots.

The monstrous demon saw the source of these annoying pests in the distance. They were ten priest like women glowing green with tattoos holding onto a single large elvish tree.

Slater did not falter as he saw that opprotunity and continued to swing his glowing axe at the demon's head aiming to decapitate him.

As the demon could not dodge anymore, it tried to prepare to counter the barbarian as it flexed its neck and body to absorb the inevitable blow before it was too late.

When the axe came down on the demons head, the edge of it inched into the large veiny neck bit by bit.

With a grunt, Slater screamed out and released another pulse of aura,

"HMPH, DIE VILE BEAST!"

The axe continued with a second push of strength until the demons face started to fill with confusion and shock. Until the demon realized it was already dead.

Slater landed on the forest floor with a crash and complete silence surrounded him due to the feat of strength that just took place.

However moments later, a large thumping noise could be heard throughout the forest, followed by an even louder spraying noise that comes from a twenty-meter geyser of demon blood.

As the barbarians began roaring they basked in the rain of demon-blood to celebrate their victory. Chasing after off the straggler demons, or 'Maku'.

***

Dante was sitting on a bloody rock with awe and shock after witnessing this entire spectacle from start to finish. This was the first true sight of the cultivation world he has gotten in years since his arrival on this planet.

'What the fuck am I going to do if there are people like this who exist?'

As he watched how the men begin to skin and clean the slain demons for materials. Dante looked towards the women, who were even happy and uplifted due to the victorious battle.

He looked back through the crowd of lightly tanned barbarian women, and tried to find the smallest one who he thought would be naive enoguh to communicate with.

As he was looking around the hundreds of poorly dressed ladies and men, he saw a five-foot five barbarian girl. She had light green hair pulled back into a ponytail, sharp-hazel eyes, and tanned skin.

She was wearing something similar to a beast hide workout bikini. Also, her assets were about E's... Not bad either... *gul-ahem*

The only odd thing was that her body was covered with light tattoo inscriptions over her shoulders, back, legs, and stomach. They looked similar to the totemic ones Slater showed in battle, and even the root-ladies, but she had a different variation then both of them.

'I will approach her, she seems like an easy talker right. She is probably bullied for being small since they are all barbarians!'

Dante approached the small barbarian lady from behind and attempted to speak to her in a polite tone.

But what came out was not the expected cute voice of a hobbit of his size, instead it was the squeaks and howls of a zombie.

He did not realize since he was controlling his body in soul form, but his throat was beyond repair.

Apparently the torture made him unable to speak or project his voice at all from the amount of damage done to it.

So when he tried to say,

"'Hello beautiful, could you help me out?"

The woman in front of him reacted in a way he could have never expected.

***

Tixie was having a great day, she and all of her sisters' finally got to take part in a battle with the men for the first time.

It's a ceremony that takes place yearly in the tribe before the Autumn Moon Festival. But this year it was against the Maku at a new outpost of theirs.

Tixie did very good for her first battle, she healed over 50 people. It has been said the Hemlock Tribe was blessed by this year's priests due to the fact that all of them had talent for Qi and nature affinities!

Not to mention that she is already in the Third Level of the Merdian Passage Realm at eighteen years old.

After she saw Young Master Slater decapitate that cursed demon with one stroke of his axe. Tixie was filled with awe and a young crush she has never felt before staying inside the tribe began to grow inside of her.

While she was day-dreaming imagining her and Slater kissing in the sunset, slacking off on her healing duties.

A string of bestial growls close from behind the rock she was currently sitting on woke the small barbarian girl up from her love struck reverie.

She did not expect to be attacked by a Maku in the camp!

So Tixie quickly jumped back and punched with her full five-hundred kilograms of force, the maximum strength of her nature-qi cultivation onto the surprise beast's chest!

But she realized after connecting with the assailant that it kind of felt like some sort of.... soft flesh?

Whilst she was thinking that, a spray of blood flew from the top of the flesh creature in front of her spewing a bit on her clothes.

As she was in shock from the events that took place just now, the little thing was trying to get up again. So she quickly circulated her Qi and stomped her foot on its chest rendering another spew of blood from its lips and making it immobile.

As it spazzed out a little bit, she bent down even more for a closer look.

But after Tixie got a closer look at the creature, she was shocked as she realized that it was actually just a small human slave boy!

Or atleast thats what she thought, as she has never seen a human before in her tribe and only heard about them through her Grandpa. But she thought that they could speak normally and not growl,

'Grandpa Juju never said that they growled! Grandpa is always right though! So this one must be broken?'

As she was getting ahead of herself again, the slave boy tried to growl at her once more.

She looked down with disdain and said,

"Little slave! Why did you try to sneak attack at me? Can't you speak? Or only growl at beautiful young ladies?"

***