Not Even Half

"You can stay here for the night, it's not much but I hope you like it"

Mathias enters a small room located near the back of the house, his eyes scanned the room and saw a couple of fundamental wooden pieces of furniture. A wooden table and a chair can be seen in the corner of the room, next to the wooden bed that takes up more than half of the room.

On the other side of the room is a bookshelf that is filled with books from top to bottom.

Noticing that Mathias is looking at the bookshelf stacked with books, Alvin walks past him and heads over to the bookshelf. Taking one of the books, he looks back and smiled, "This is actually my eldest son's room, he really likes to read books"

"Where is he right now?", Mathias asked, not wanting to burden Alvin's son by sleeping here.

But Alvin can only smile acutely before putting the book back into the bookshelf, he then heads to the door before tapping Mathias's shoulder, "I've told my wife what happened out there, and she wanted to thank you for helping me. She hoped that you would stay tomorrow for dinner, it's fine if you don't want to though if you're not willing"

"Good night, Mathias", Alvin added before he left the room and closes the door gently.

Mathias sighs when Alvin finally leaves the room.

From the look Alvin gave earlier, Mathias knows that his eldest son probably died due to a Supernatural. It must still be a common thing here too even though there are Human Kingdoms that can provide the necessary protection.

Even with the Kingdoms, life as a regular human must be still very hard.

Most of the strong mages associated with the Human Kingdoms definitely have their attention on the stronger Supernatural creatures such as Elves, Dragons, Vampires, and such. Weaker Supernatural creatures like the Ghouls they met earlier are neglected despite them still being able to kill many people.

In this new world, humans are still suppressed. Supernatural creatures still outnumber them.

Sighing inwardly, Mathias sat on the chair right beside a lamp on the table. Looking at the glowing fire inside the lamp, his mind traveled elsewhere as his mood turns gloomy, "Sister, I miss you already..."

But just as he mutters that the door got knocked on a couple of times.

Upon hearing this Mathias stood up to open the door, he was greeted by a middle-aged woman with brown hair that has a particularly gentle smile on her face that is pleasant to look at. Without a doubt, this should be Alvin's wife.

When he arrived here, he didn't meet Alvin's wife as she was in her bedroom.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but I've brought clothes for you to wear. Change into this, that robes would be uncomfortable to sleep in", the middle-aged woman said before handing over the set of clothes prepared for Mathias.

Responding with the same smile, Mathias accepted the clothes, "Thank you"

Just as he was about to close the door to change, he noticed that the middle-aged man didn't move from her spot as she seems to want to say something. Waiting for a moment, the middle-aged man then finally said, "Err... about tomorrow, would you stay for dinner?"

Mathias can only chuckle lightly, he was expecting something serious.

"I'll leave the day after tomorrow, I'm anticipating the dinner you're going to make, ma'am", Mathias replied, deciding that staying for a day in this small town wouldn't be a bad idea. It would also provide him an opportunity to learn more about this world.

Although it's similar to his home world, there are bounds to be something different.

The middle-aged woman's face lit up brightly as if she was a kid given candy for the first time, her smile blossoming as she nodded her head excitedly, "Don't worry, I'll not let you down with the dinner!"

With that out of the way, the middle-aged woman bids good night and heads back to her room.

Even while Mathias is closing the door, he can still hear her humming cheerfully from the fact that he decided to stay until tomorrow's dinner. It was a pleasant sight for him, 'Nobody from my world has a glimmer of thought about that kind of problem, she's very lucky...', he thought before closing the door shut.

A moment later, Mathias finished changing into the clothes he was given.

Despite the clothes being only a brown tunic that reaches his knees and brown trousers, it's way more comfortable than the heavy black robe of the Black Ardent Mages that he wore earlier. Now it's easier for him to move.

Mathias sat on the edge of the bed before he can feel the soft but thin feather mattress.

Laying his hands on the feather mattress he slowly feels the softness and savors the feeling, he was used to sleeping in the rough grounds back before he got reincarnated in this body. Something like this which can be considered peasant class in this world is a luxury for his home world.

None of the remaining humans has a shelter to live in, everywhere is dominated by Supernaturals.

For a couple of months, he and his sister have also experienced being kept as livestock by the Vampires. It was a hazardous time of their lives, being drained from most of their blood, being fed just barely enough, and also sleeping in a cage.

When remembering that time, this small and simple room is like a blessing from God itself.

Since he's feeling the excitement to be sleeping properly for a very long while, his eyes are refusing to be closed as he's not sleepy at all despite what he has been through. Mathias lays on the bed for an hour or so without being able to sleep.

Glancing to the side, he finally decided, 'Maybe reading would make me sleepy...'

Mathias gets up from the bed before he heads over to the bookshelf, he scans the books from top to bottom and finds that most of them are fairytales and books about plants. But then his eyes caught the sight of a book that caught his attention.

'Supernatural Encyclopedia'

Upon seeing the book, he can't help but reaches out to take it.

With the book in his hand, Mathais went over to the table before he inspect the book.

Although it's an encyclopedia the book is not at all thick and heavy, it's thin in comparison to what he expected. Most of the memory that he inherited from the previous owner of this body only contains carpentry and hunting animals.

It's clear that the previous Mathias never really adventure aside from his city.

Engraved on the cover of the book is a symbol shaped like a star inside a circle, a pentagram.

'From all the running back before I died, I learned and most of the Supernatural races there are. I wonder if there's a new Supernatural race in this world that I haven't heard...', Mathias thought before opening the book and turning to the first page.

As expected, the first page is the list of the book arranged in alphabetical order.

Mathias didn't bother to read the list all the way down and instantly turn to the first Supernatural race, it was the Arachne, a spider creature that has very similar behavior to an actual spider. It becomes stronger by eating many humans.

While reading the first chapter, Mathias frown at finding something different.

"It doesn't eat humans just because of the taste, but it also eats humans to extract mana...", Mathias mutters, he's still unfamiliar with this magical side of this world. From the foreign memory, he knows that mana is present inside every human.

Mages have more mana, but this is just common sense that even Mathias instantly understands.

But the more he reads through the few pages of the Supernatural Encyclopedia, the frown on his forehead creases even stronger. Mathias realized that the Supernatural races here are the same but different at the same time.

From what he read, the Arachne can get stronger using mana but it also can transform.

An Arachne will get stronger by eating humans or other living creatures that have mana, and they will keep on transforming as they got stronger. Some of the stronger Arachne develop a human body that mounted its spider body, the strongest and the most fearsome one has a completely humanoid body.

One feature that makes it stands out is that most of its skin is ink-black.

Upon finishing the entire Arachne section Mathias can't help but suck in a deep breath, it seems magic is not only present in humans but also in Supernatural creatures. Something that is not present in his home world.

With that Mathias keeps on reading as he was too invested in the encyclopedia.

As an hour passed with him reading the encyclopedia, Mathias managed to finish the book and realized one thing that sticks out, the thing that differentiates this world and his home world aside from magic, "The Supernatural races here..."

"It doesn't even reach half of the Supernatural races in my home world", he mutters inwardly.

Finishing the entirety of the encyclopedia Mathias doesn't find some of the Supernatural races that exist in his home world, Dark Elves, Grendels, Gargoyles, Cyclops, and even Werewolves are not listed in the encyclopedia.

Mathias frowned as he finds this confusing and interesting at the same time.

But he didn't think much about it as it must've been the encyclopedia, "It's probably the encyclopedia not being complete. Yeah... that must be it", he mutters to himself before closing the book and putting it back on the bookshelf.

Now that he reads so many pages in that short amount of time, his eyes are tired already.

Laying on the bed comfortably, Mathias glanced to the window just beside the bed, looking at the sky that is only decorated by the full moon, "Ehmm... why is the moonlight very beautiful and comforting", he mutters as his eyelids slowly closed.

It only takes a minute before his soul left his body and his consciousness went to the dream world.

~

"SISTER!!"

"No, please..."

"P-Please... Please..."

"NO!!"

Mathias jolted awake as he reaches out his arm forward, sweat covers his entire body as he was breathing very roughly. Blinking his eyes a couple of times, he realized that he was on a soft bed that cushioned his body.

Upon seeing this, his eyes widened for a second before he sighs, 'Oh, yeah... I'm here now'

Looking outside the window that is already sunny, Mathias moves his legs and sits on the edge of the bed. Holding his head that is throbbing weirdly, he stayed still for a moment trying to forget the nightmare he was having before.

It was that Werewolf again, devouring his dead sister gruesomely.

Remembering the devious grin that Werewolf gave to him, Mathias gritted his teeth as his chest started heaving up and down. Even in a new body and a new world, that Werewolf still haunts him endlessly like a ghost.

But his body loosen up when he heard a cracking noise coming from the side.

Mathias glanced at his hand and finds that the edge of the bedstead was broken because he unconsciously gripped it too hard, he was surprised to see this as he didn't realize that he was gripping the bedstead that hard.

Just as he started to panic, not knowing how to tell Alvin about this, the door swung open.

"I heard something inside, are you ok-", Alvin was stopped mid-sentence as he gets inside the room and saw the bedstead broken with Mathias looked at him with widened eyes, he doesn't know how to react in this kind of situation.

Instead of being angry, Alvin chuckled upon seeing this, "Don't worry about that, I can fix it"

"I'm sorry...", Mathias apologizes with a wry smile as he stood up.

Not minding the broken bedstead, Alvin wraps his arm around Mathias's neck before leading him outside of the room, "Come have breakfast quickly, I'm going to introduce you to my second son. You're about the same age, I bet you're going to get along with him instantly"