Chapter 16: History

Tormund nodded.

"I do; however, the memories are as if they are from a dream. They come and go, slipping away as quickly as I remember them. There are a few memories that are quite clear though."

"Mmm, okay. So, you said your race is an Asura, right? After looking at my status I can see I am a race called a Celestial Asura. It seems to elude that I am the first Celestial Asura. Also, it says that Celestial Asuras are half Asura and half Diva, whatever that is."

Seeing Tormund's face scrunched up at the mention of the Diva race Rosario continued.

"What is that face for?"

"When you mentioned Diva's I remembered that we as Asuras used to be at perpetual war with them. No one knew why we were at war, but it was at the point that after so long we didn't really care. Everyone at some point had lost a loved one on both sides of the fight."

"How do you feel about me being half Asura and half Diva? Will you have an issue working under me?"

"No, even if you were a full-blooded Diva it wouldn't matter. The way summons like me work is that we are brought back, we do have memories, and we do have the ability to think however we want. However, feelings from our previous life are muted for us."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes as they both fought with their own thoughts.

"Do you know how long ago you died?"

"I remember when I lived it was Nisan 5112, what is the date now?"

"I am unsure about how long the trip to this planet was, they said it was around a week. And with how long it took me to hike here I would say it's probably close to the end of January 2025. What is Nisan?"

"It's the first month of the year, what is January?"

"It's the first month of the year.?"

Both of them stared at each other in silence for half a minute till Tormund finally broke it.

"If you open your status window there should be a calendar provided to you there."

Rosario opened his screens and saw a spot he had missed before.

[1/27/13526 18:32]

"It says 1 slash 27 slash 13526 and then there is an 18 semi-colon 32."

"That means it is the 32nd minute of the 18th hour, on the 27th day in the month Nisan, of the 13526th year."

"So, this month is Nisan? And 18th hour? How many hours does this world have in a day?"

"Days are 24 hours here and yes the first month would be Nisan."

"What are the rest of the months?"

"It goes:

First: Nisan

Second: Iyyar

Third: Sivan

Fourth: Tammuz

Fifth: Ab

Sixth: Elul

Seventh: Tishri

Eighth: Marchesvan

Ninth: Chislev

Tenth: Tebeth

Eleventh: Shebat

Twelfth: Adar

Thirteenth: Adar Sheni

"There are 13 months? How many days are in each month? How many are in a year total?"

"There are 28 days in a month based on the moon cycle, we have 364 days in a year. But in between each year there is a day of celebration that is not included in any of the months. It sits between the 28th of Adar Sheni and the 1st of Nisan. It's a day where whole empires will pause everything to reflect upon the past year and celebrate the coming of the new year."

"So, you said that you died in the year 5112, does that mean if its 13526 it has been 8,414 years since you were alive?"

Rosarios eyes widened as he thought of just how long of a time Tormund had been gone from this world. Even humans on earth could only prove records of human civilization on earth dating back 6000 years everything past that age is more speculation and theory.

"It seems so, I apologize but if it really has been so long I will not be of much use to you when it comes to information. To be honest looking around I don't even recognize this area."

"Its fine could you at least tell me what the technology was like when you lived back then?"

Tormund went on to describe his tribe's daily life. From what Rosario got out of their discussion the Asura society back then was a medieval one mixed with magic. They fought with melee weapons such as swords and spears and their range weapons were bows and crossbows. Instead of black powder weapons the richer countries would have magic cannons where they would channel the energy of essence stones through these cannons into a concentrated ball and fire it at their target. Poorer and smaller countries didn't have many of these cannons and would still fight with catapults and trebuchets.

"Did you have family?"

"I did, I had a wife and a son. My son was killed my wife was kidnapped by a human kingdom while we were out raiding a Diva settlement. I do not know if she is alive."

"It's been 85 hundred years wouldn't she also be dead?"

"Possibly, but we Asuras are long lived also. Last I saw she was not being attacked by the Humans and was alive so she could very well be alive. She was an Evo 4 being after all."

"How long lived, you said you lived in the year 5112 that would indicate that your race could live over 8 thousand years?"

"The Asura and Diva races lived well before the collective came. The year only represents how long this planet came under the collective. We know we are a long-lived race as there were numerous records of our ancestors living for multiple millenniums. Also, the higher your strength and the more Evo levels you reach the longer you live as you expunge the impurities in your body every time you evolve."

"How long can someone at the Evo 4 live?"

"Well once you reach Evo 1 you expand your life span by 100 years, Evo 2 is 500 years, reaching Evo 3 adds another 1000 years, and when reaching Evo 4 a being would then extend their life another 5000 years on top of their current life span. She was only 40 and at Evo 4, she was considered a genius among our race and the Divas. Reaching Evo 4 that young meant she had already extended her lifespan by 6600 years on top of our already naturally long-life spans. Unfortunately, our warmongering ways with the Diva would bring everyone to death long before our natural spans would ever end."

"Wow that's insane. How many Evolutions are there? What does an evolution entail? Do you change races, like we have old stories from my planet where a Karp will evolve into a dragon one day."

Chuckling Tormund answered. " Ha, yes and no, for more bipetal races such as Asuras, Divas, Humans, Beast men, Elves, Dwarves and such there is not a fundamental race change. However, for animals and plant life yes ingesting certain evolutionary resources they can completely change their race. When Bipetal races reach evolution usually they will receive an enhancement to a trait they already have. Some people do receive mutations when they evolve but the base DNA of their race didn't change because of the evolution. Some of the biggest mutations I have seen are some people growing wings or tails, however most mutations are hair and eye color, enhanced senses, and bigger mana pools. As for your question on how many evolutions there are, when I was alive there were 10 evolutions. Rarely would anyone ever make it past the 5th evolution into the 6th, the amount of essence needed is astronomical at those levels."

"Whet were some of the mutations the Asuras and Divas received?"

"The most common Asura mutation was a mutation called phantom arms, it would allow us to unconsciously manipulate the mana in and around us into a second set of arms we instinctively could control. So1me even would get a mutation giving them control of 4 extra arms. As for the Divas they would usually get wings. Half our fights were them flying in the air shooting arrows while we took cover under shields. Thankfully our civilizations were in thick jungle that made the Diva's come down from their perches or we would never have been able to match them."

"Where there any other racial traits on both sides?"

"Yeah, enhanced senses and perception for Asuras and enhanced eyesight for the Divas. Asuras are extremely gifted when it comes to any weapons the same as Divas, however Divas specialized in bows while Asuras specialized in melee combat."

"I wonder which evolutions I will obtain when I reach them as I am a combination of both. My system tells me I was given a Bloodline upgrade material. Do you know anything about that kind of stuff? Also, it said that I can utilize the resource that made me into a Celestial Asura to also make my subordinates into Celestial Asuras also."

Tormund's eyes almost popped out of his head.

"You got a bloodline upgrade material?! Why haven't you used it! Use it now! We can talk about the resource you have that turns subordinates after you have upgraded your bloodline."

"Wait, wait, wait, Hold on. Hold on. Calm down, I need you to tell me what it is and why your freaking out."

"I am sorry, it is just that anything that upgrades one's bloodline is so rare that they cannot be bought or sold regularly. Most things that can upgrade bloodlines are interchangeable between races however there are a couple races out there that need specific material. Both the Asuras and Divas needed race specific materials to upgrade their bloodlines. I have only ever heard of the Asura Patriarch and the Diva Matriarch having upgraded their bloodlines. They were both unmatched to all others on the battlefield, we looked like children trying to fight them."

"So, I should use this bloodline upgrade material right now is what I am getting out of this."

"Absolutely!"

With Tormund's confirmation that the bloodline upgrade shouldn't be put off Rosario looked into his storage necklace to find the bloodline material that the system mentioned was in there.

He found it quickly because of the bright glow from the golden swirls moving about its void like dark appearance. It was hard to look at with your eyes as once you looked at the void-like dark areas you would feel like your soul was being dragged into an endless dark abyss but if you looked at the golden swirls your mind would feel like it was being dragged into a blinding trance. It was just a small insignificant sized pill no bigger than a quarter of an inch.

Pulling out the pill Rosario read the information about it on his screen.

[Primordial Celestial Asura Bloodline Upgrade Pill: This pill can only be consumed by a Celestial Asura. Once consumed this pill will purify the Celestial Asuras bloodline to that of the Primordial level. This pill can only be taken by the Celestial Asura with the [First] title.]

As Rosario finished reading the prompt he glanced over at Tormund whose gaze had seemed to be ensnared by the brilliant pill. Not wanting to flaunt it in front of Tormund for long, Rosario popped the pill in his mouth and swallowed it. As it traveled to his stomach he felt the pill begin to dissolve. His eyes widened into saucers, and he was only able to mumble before an all too familiar and traumatic needle like pain came surging back through his body, circulating through his veins.

"OH SHIIIIAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

As the pain became unbearable, Rosario passed out.

Tormund watched as Rosarios eyes rolled to the back of his head and his body slumped as if strings holding him up were cut. Rosarios' body began shaking and convulsing as his muscles squirmed under his skin. His skin too on a dusk gray hue that was lighter than the grey of a normal Asura, almost like there was a light on behind his skin making it glow softly. He watched as Rosarios hair turned white as the purest snow. He got up and grabbing Rosario under his armpits he began dragging him to the tent, dropping Rosario inside the unfurnished tent he took one last glance back before exiting. With his last glimpse he saw as a brand was marked across Rosario showing he had joined the ranks of Primordials.

"That's going to bring a lot of problems."