I pulled my sword out of the wolf's neck, my eyes never leaving the other two standing in front of me. I quickly glance down at the dying body of the one at my feet, its eyes giving out instantly. His body laying in a pool of blood standing still as if time is frozen… eyes open with those gold pupils still holding every bit of spark and defiance. But it is simply dead, not even getting the time to register its own death… there one second and the next it's gone.
'This bastard got off easy… whatever I guess this is the most efficient way.'
Sensing the change in atmosphere the other two step back, like they know that this won't be easy now. Originally 4 of them now reduced down to just 2, their confidence waning but those eyes… still as ferocious eyeing me like prey, just more calculated now.
'Thankfully these bastards are predictable and all they can really do is jump and lunge at you trying to overpower with their bodies.'
Truthfully I would been long dead if they were any smarter or… god forbid they could use magic or something like that ball of water from his previous death. But since these wolves would only jump at you, he took advantage of that by charging at one of them knowing the other two would try to intercept his path. That's why he was able to take the step back knowing one would land right in front of him, and from there he just had to finish the job.
Now with confidence I step toward the two that are left, they stay still as I got closer to them like they were examining me. Then when I was close enough both of them started sprinting towards me one in front of the other and then they jumped, a lunge from about 8m away straight at me.
I stood in the path till the one in front almost cut my skin with its claws but I dodged at the last second. Simply taking a step to my left and rotating my body toward it, it missed and jumped past me but the one behind was still in midair. Its body in front of mine, neck extended like it was gonna take a bite off me but now it's just there for me to slash.
My lips curved into a smile as I brought my sword above my head and then
Slash
Up to down. From the heavens to earth. A simple slash gripping my sword with both hands, feet planted and my body weight behind it. It tore open the wolf's neck but only halfway, its head hanging off its body barely attached by some skin and muscle, bones hanging out blood gushed on my face and body. Blood covered the ground as the wolf fell, the other one who jumped first barely got to turn around to see its friend neck split half open as I quickly stepped towards it.
And then
Stab
I stabbed my sword straight through its ribs, the wolf for a second fought back with my sword inside its guts. Trying to get away, trying to do anything, he roared and twitched his body slamming against the ground. But it gave out, his last breath was as he stared into my amethyst eyes… blood covering my body and face. My sword pierced into its belly between his ribs, and just like that it died.
These 4 wolves died so I could live. It is as simple as that. Kill or be killed.
As I let out a breath and retrieved my sword from the body, I looked around…. The sun still high, greenery all around me, trees and bushes everywhere. Various fruits and berries hanging off certain ones now that I look closer.
Wait now that I look closer, they're faint etching on the barks of the trees and some leaves glow, some fruits are multicolored while others give off a hum. In the distance I see trees impossibly tall like they reach the clouds, and even the grass… what is this- the grass seems to emits small wisps that float up and dissapate into the air. Even the sky is impossibly blue and there are no clouds above, can a sky even be that blue? It looks like someone painted it a dark vibrant blue, not a subtle sky blue but a deep ocean blue.
As I was admiring the forest not noticing the blood around me I heard that lady's voice again…
She let out a low whistle and then said
"Not bad. Not bad at all, dirty but it was efficient. So how are you feeling? Feeling like you might awaken? Feel any mana yet?"
'Awaken? Mana? What the hell is any of that?'
Sigh. Let's just be honest.
"Uh no mother, I don't feel anything."
She gave me a look of astonishment then looked me up and down and put her hand on her forehead.
"Still nothing? ### your 10 years old now. I don't even think you'll be able to attend school with your sister. How can you still feel no mana?"
I said nothing in response keeping a calm face… after all I don't know what the hell she's talking about.
She just looked at me then sighed again before saying "This kid I swear I can never understand you… that sword technique was nice though. It wasn't our family technique did you learn from someone?"
Again I said nothing and kept a straight face to which she let out a groan and just said "Fine. Fine. Keep your secrets and don't worry even if you don't awaken. YOUR STILL MY SON. Anyways let's get back to the capital and get you in a bath… you smell disgusting"
As she said that she pinched her nose as if to show that I give off a putrid smell and I just rolled my eyes as I started to follow her.
When we were walking back she suddenly turned around and said "By the way did you check your status yet?"
I had no idea what she meant so I simply nodded, she raised an eyebrow as if to suspect me but didn't ask any questions.
'Status? What does she mean? Do I have a system? I must right… after all don't all transmigraters.'
'Status' I thought in my mind focusing on myself but nothing happened…
Then a voice in my mind… this one was robotic and monotone almost like a system prompt. Not like the one who talked to me in the darkness, that voice sounded like a young boys.
[Invitation to the Obsidian tower]
[Accept] [Decline]
In front of me materialized a screen, every thing about it was see through except the text displayed. The robotic voice simply said "Invitation to the Obsidian tower".
…..
…..
It has been about 40 minutes since we started walking back in silence, the screen is still in front of me and I saw see a city come into view over the horizon.
The city was like something out of a fairytale, seeing this sight finally made me accept that I was in some sort of magic fantasy land. In front of me was a lake, a massive lake glowing and shimmering with silver water… Yes silver water. It literally looks like a pool of liquid mercury but the way it flows is like water, waves crashing against each other splattering silver liquid in every direction.
Above the chaotic lake was a huge mass of floating land as big as a city, and yes again it was floating… like at least 5km off the water level. The mass of land was as big a huge city from my previous world, it was a circular mass of land about a 100km across and from the sides were chains that shot out diangonally down.
The chains did not follow the laws of gravity or physics… well nothing here really did to be honest.
But the chains felt off to look at as they shot out in almost a 45 degree angle aiming down and out from the main mass of floating land and they attached to smaller masses of land. I couldn't even count how many… maybe a hundred?
I couldn't see anything built on top of the masses of land but I can tell the view is majestic just by looking at it.
This was literally… magical.