In that brief moment, Edran's urging made countless thoughts race through Rayne's mind. Should he run away? Should he admit he was an amnesiac? Should he reveal the truth about who he was and how he had no idea what was going on?
Each option felt like a deathtrap given the sparse memories he had. But as he thought harder about a way out, he realized the best answer lay in the memories themselves.
"A healing potion," Rayne blurted out, making Edran raise an eyebrow. The chair creaked beneath him as he leaned back.
"I found a healing potion and drank it to survive. I lost consciousness soon after and woke up alone, making my way back here," Rayne continued.
"A potion, you say?" Edran asked, disbelief clear in his eyes. "The forsakens aren't allowed to take potions from the supply unit; they have to make do with the ones they loot. And you just arrived last week. This was your first assignment. Where did you get a potion?"
Rayne wondered again what the title "forsaken" meant. His memories had snippets of people calling him that, but he had no idea what it actually entailed.
As he prepared an answer, the old man from the back spoke up. "Captain Edran, he must have stolen it. I noticed some discrepancies in the accounts book."
"Is that so, Henry?" Edran glanced back at him.
Henry nodded, shooting Rayne a hateful look tinged with some satisfaction.
"I didn't steal," Rayne said before the accusation could fully take root. "I found the potion on a man's robe right next to me. He had died from an arrow to the eye. I opened it and drank to preserve my life."
"That's a very lucky story."
"Indeed, sir," Rayne agreed. "If not for that man, I wouldn't be alive right now."
"And who was that man? One of the regulars?"
Rayne's heart skipped a beat, but he kept his eyes neutral. Edran's gaze was sharp, as though searching for cracks in his story, and there was a definite interest in his eyes.
"I don't know, Captain Edran. I lost consciousness before I could properly look at him, and when I woke up, his body was gone."
Edran went silent, fingers clasped together. Rayne couldn't tell whether he believed him, but the silence gnawed at him.
Fortunately, Henry broke the silence. "I think he's lying, Captain. Why didn't that man drink the potion for himself? He wouldn't save it for the afterlife."
Rayne squared his shoulders at Henry. "He was dead before he could. I was lucky, like I said."
The Captain chuckled. "Well, I do believe you're lucky. I truly do. But I can't just take your word for it. You could very well be a shapeshifter."
Henry grinned at that.
"I'm not a shapeshifter," Rayne said, his voice a pitch louder, projecting a nervous confidence.
"That's for me to decide, forsaken."
Edran's gaze was hard, thoughtful. He seemed to be considering something, his eyes narrowing as he weighed his options.
Rayne's heart pounded in his chest as he waited. Memories continued to flood his mind, a dull ache at the back of his head, but none of them were useful. They were of riding horses, not of escaping accusations of being a shapeshifter—whatever that meant.
"I believe we can easily find out if we use a soul shard on him and let him reflect his status," said the young woman from the back, her voice surprisingly sweet.
"Where will we get a shard, Casper?" Edran asked, turning his gaze to him. "The last one got drained with the new recruits. It'll take a month to send someone for it, and no one's going to send it—not for a forsaken and definitely not for him."
Henry nodded sagely. "Yes, it's better to just kill him than waste resources."
Rayne clenched his fists, the urge to punch Henry in the face almost overwhelming. He didn't know the man, yet Henry seemed to push for his death without cause.
"I have one," Casper said, surprising both Edran and Henry, the latter looking at her with a hint of jealousy.
"You truly have one?" Edran asked, and in response, Casper took out a small blue orb that fit in her palm, pulsing with faint light and energy.
Henry's eyes widened as Casper placed it on the desk.
Edran touched it, his eyes widening. He nodded after a moment. "Yes, it's real. This will save us a needless execution." His eyes shifted from the shard to Rayne. "Well, here it is. Look at your status and reflect on the first page. "
Rayne nodded and took three steps toward the desk, staring at the shard. It seemed more like a glowstone to him. In the back, he saw Henry pulling out a small dagger from beneath his robe, eyeing him with caution and animosity.
He wasn't the only one.
Edran rose from his seat, taking a step back. Only Casper remained still, her expression blank as she observed. Rayne guessed they were all taking precautions in case he was a shapeshifter, but that wasn't the problem.
The problem was, Rayne had no idea how to operate a soul shard. So, he did what he had seen Edran do to check its legitimacy. He touched it with his whole hand. At first, nothing happened. He was about to pull away when a shockwave pulsed through his arm.
Something tugged at his insides, and pain shot up through his body, like a vein was being ripped out. He wanted to pull away, but then he saw something move across his vision. Words etched themselves in the air as if written in ink.
They continued to fill his vision until they stilled. The pain faded away, and Rayne got his first glimpse at what these people called "status."
***
Status (1/3)
Name - Rayne Frayser (Human)
Age - 21
Class - Soldier
Rank - Common Soldier (Forsaken), Valeria Kingdom
Level - 7
Trait - Noblesse
Health - 100%
Mana - 100%
Stamina - 65%
Stats
Strength - 13
Vitality - 12
Endurance - 12
Agility - 11
Arcane - 10
***
Rayne gaped at it, feeling lightheaded. It looked like a video game stat screen right in front of him, but instead of a character, it displayed his status. Just by reading his level, he realized one thing.
He was weak.
"So, display it in front of us," Edran's voice broke through, pulling him from his daze. Rayne wondered how to do that.
Maybe sensing his uncertainty, Casper spoke up. "Just think about your status and pull it in front of us. That will do it."
Rayne nodded and did as told.
Immediately, the others straightened. Rayne took the hint and waited for a response. His eye flicked to the door, ready to run if something strange happened.
"It's normal," Edran's voice released the tension in Rayne's shoulders. "Your story seems to check out, Rayne. You really are lucky."
"Couldn't save his house, though," Henry grumbled, but he stepped back when Edran shot him a fierce look.
Rayne had no idea what that was about, but he was eager to leave. Where would he go? Hopefully to a room with a bed.
"Can I go back then?" he asked, already sensing an argument brewing between Captain Edran and Henry.
Edran nodded. "Yes. Find your way back to the North Tower and get some sleep. I'll give you tomorrow off to get your bearings before any further orders. You're dismissed!"
Rayne nodded. Henry looked like he wanted to say something but thought better of it.
Before leaving, Rayne turned to Casper. "Thank you."
Then he saluted by putting his right hand on his chest—his body remembering the motion even if his mind didn't—and walked out, eager to escape the building and find the North Tower.
**"
Rayne encountered dozens of soldiers asking directions for the North Tower, but they simply spat at him. It was only after half an hour of looking that someone took pity on him.
When he finally found it, he simply moved through the floors, found an open, empty room, and collapsed onto the bed. Before he could even think any further, his eyes closed, and sleep claimed him.
He slept with dreams so vivid he hadn't thought possible. When he opened his eyes, he realized he was living the life he had dreamed of—the life of Rayne Frayser, bastard son of the fallen Duke Frayser and a traitor to the Kingdom of Valeria.
"Fuck!!"
Those were his first words when Rayne realized that he was actually... well, Rayne. For an hour, he debated and verified with himself whether it was truly real. The answer was a resounding yes.
He sat on the bed, eyes downcast at his muddy, bloodied armor—the same one he hadn't even bothered to take off before sleep had claimed him.
He almost wished it hadn't. At least he would've been ignorant of the clusterfuck he'd found himself in.
He did not doubt for a second that his dream was true. It was the culmination of memories he had started to piece together since waking up in this body. Somehow, his brain had decided to show it all as a dream.
A depressing one.
The only good part was that he was a noble. Or more specifically, a former noble, but he had the blood of an ancient house running through his veins, and that meant something in Valeria. Maybe he could count good looks among his assets too, courtesy of his late father's affair with a famous courtesan.
But the bad parts? There were many. From being branded a traitor to the kingdom he had served, to being a forsaken, a caste of criminals sent to the Valerian army to carry out impossible missions until either their ten years of service were over or they were dead.
In most cases, it was the latter.
Yesterday's events came crashing down—waking up in a hellish battlefield, being spat on by his fellow soldiers—but also, his life on Earth.
He hadn't been able to remember it all in the chaos and confusion, but now he could recall dressing up and going on a date after a year of lectures, assignments, and weekly video games.
The bit after leaving his dorm was missing. He couldn't recall his name, but somehow he had found himself in a completely different world with monsters, magic, and mayhem.
And now, he was at the center of it all as a soldier.
Rayne liked historical military reading and had watched videos about it, but nothing had prepared him for a life like this. At least not in the body of one of the most hated in the army.
He sighed, trying to release some of the tension and moved towards the window at the centre of the room. It was a cramped space and he had to jump over a small tool, but he needed some wind desperately on his face.
He leaned down from the window, seeing a vast land stretch beyond the tower. Tall, fort walls stood protecting them and behind them, camps and other structures were built. He could see a group of soldiers moving through the streets in a mock march drill and others sitting around, having their breakfast.
He will join them tomorrow. And that thought alone filled him with dread.
The scene of the battlefield clouded his mind. Corpses killed in gruesome ways and some dying in retreat. He didn't want to go back to that.
Unlike many people, he had no qualms about being a coward if it kept him alive for one more day. But he also asked himself if he had the option to be one. And the answer to that was no. Not in this world.
When he had moved on from his denial of the situation, the first thing he had accepted was that he was in a vastly different world with its own laws and logic.
Science was secondary to gods and magic, and his status screen was an indicator of it.
***
Status (1/3)
Name - Rayne Frayser (Human)
Age - 21
Class - Soldier
Rank - Common Soldier (Forsaken), Valeria Kingdom
Level - 7
Trait - Noblesse
Health - 100%
Mana - 85%
Stamina - 65%
***
He looked over it once again, the strain he felt every time opening it stayed the same, but by this point, he was used to it. It helped distract him from the wallowing reality he had found himself in.
He didn't linger on this page and willed it to show the second one. The one with his titles and skills.
A longer menu opened up this time.
***
Titles -
Bastard of the Fraysers
The Tortured Child
Soldier of Valeria
Survivor of the Trolls
Otherworlder
Skills -
General skills
Valerian Language Mastery (Basic) - Level 5
Lycarian Language Mastery (Basic) - Level 2
Foraging (Basic) - Level 2
Mathematics (Basic) - Level 2
Toughened physique (Uncommon) - Level 2
Footwork (Basic) - Level 3
Unarmed mastery (Basic) - Level 2
Pain tolerance (Uncommon) - Level 2
Class Skills (2/10)
Sword mastery (Basic) - Level 2
Formation Knowledge (Basic) - Level 1
Unique skills (1/10)
Skill Stealer (???) - Max
***
"These are certainly some interesting ones," Rayne muttered, his eyes moving through each of them.
He had looked through the information of each of his titles previously, and he had to say all of them were useful other than the first one which was more of a hereditary title to identify him as a member of the Fraysers with no additional buffs.
The second one however gave him a lesser tolerance to pain and Soldier of Valeria gave him one additional stat point in Strength. Survivor of the Trolls was probably hinting at the battlefield he had woken up to—Even if the original Rayne had died there—and it gave him a lesser boost to attacking power against trolls and any of their kind.
The one that had piqued his interest the most was expectedly the last one—The only title that spoke to his identity as an Earthling.
***
Otherworlder
The cosmos stretches far with countless planets and species residing on them, each with their own boundaries, but you are one that has breached over those to land yourself in a place far from home, proving your mettle.
Gives 1 additional stat point every level
Gives a strengthened soul
Gives access to the status at command
Unlocks dormant potential
***
Titles in this world were far more personal, especially for the nobility and the second page of the status was hardly ever shown to others, if at all. Rayne had no idea why, but this custom had saved Edran from learning who he really was. A shapeshifter might have gotten him killed, but getting found out as an otherworlder sounded worse.
It was also something that reminded him of the fact that his memories weren't actually something he had lived through.
As for benefits, he had nothing to compare it to, but Rayne felt like they were immense.
He had seen Henry and Captain Edran being surprised and jealous of the soul shard Casper owned. And if it was actually the only way to track one's status, his title was precious.
Even the additional stat point was invaluable. From scrolling down his new memory lane, he knew his class only provided one stat point a level, so having another one would simply double his growth.
Dukes didn't have titles that could do that.
And the part of the dormant potential, that had already been done by the unique skill displayed in front of him.
A memory of Rayne gaining his class three weeks ago was the first time he had accessed the system—A bit late by Valerian tradition of eighteen—and there had been no unique skill.
Rayne was sure it had appeared due to the title.
***
Skill Stealer (???) - Max
Everyone has skills. Only a select few have the ability to steal them.
This skill allows the user to steal skills from the foes they have slain—humans, monsters, spectres and otherworlders alike. You gain the power of the fallen to rise above everyone else.
Gives a one percent chance to get a skill of any kind from a slain foe. The higher grade the skill, the harder it is to get.
Gives a ten percent chance to get a random stat point from a slain foe.
***
If there was an overpowered skill, this was one. Rayne was sure of that.
He knew skills came in grades, but he didn't have one Rare Grade one. And now, he stared at a skill that he was sure was well beyond the grading system thanks to the question marks next to it.
Just by him having it, Rayne felt like his future prospects were limitless in this world, if he can't find a way to go back to Earth and see if his date was still there waiting for him.
Obviously, having prospects and actually working towards it were two different things.
Rayne liked gifts, but not all of them were completely free. Some came with baggage and his unique skill wasn't something he had chanced upon going by the information on his title.
It had been dormant inside of him all along.
He was from an ancient house. Now traitors for trying to start a rebellion against the crown, but Fraysers were actually prominent throughout history, so his dormant potential having such a skill shouldn't be surprising.
But he felt there was more to it. Far more than what his status was describing.
It wasn't just instinct.
Part of it was because of the memories he had attained on the last patriarch of House Frayser, William Frayser and his rebellion to gain the crown for himself that had ended in his whole bloodline getting erased, except for Rayne himself who was found unworthy of the guillotine, having lived separately from the main house in a farm and instead was sent to die fighting monsters.
Something flickered in his mind. Something that he had felt before, but hadn't given much thought till now and mustering some courage, he opened up the third page of the status.
The quest window that was largely known to be useless since the Epoch of the Fallen had ended seven hundred years ago.
But now, a quest appeared in his vision.
***
Lineage Quest - Monarch (Legendary)
Men aren't born special. A select few make themselves special and lay the foundation for their descendants to be the same. More than mere mortals. More than their own person.
They set themselves to be Monarch— The ruler of all.
Prerequisites for completing it (1/10)
Become a squad leader
You have just started on your journey to be the Monarch and found yourself in the bottom rung of all as a forsaken. Rise above it and show the world your status can't hold you back.
Lead a squad of man to sow the seeds of a promise of a greater future.
Rewards - ???
***
Rayne nearly fell reading it.
A Monarch? Him? He didn't think he was capable of even commanding one person, less alone the whole world? What does it mean by it being a lineage quest? Was it the reason his supposed father had started a rebellion?
It still didn't make sense to him and he grabbed his head in frustration. He knew good things won't happen without any baggage and now, he had gotten a quest that would certainly send him to a march of death.
"Should I just run away? Do I even need to complete the quest? It's not like—"
A knock on the door made him jump.
He turned back. Has the person behind the door heard him? Was it the person whose room it was? He had thought it abandoned.
"Rayne Frayser! Are you in?"
A rough voice came from outside and Rayne's heart sank deeper than even the depths it had already reached.
He wondered what new trouble awaited him now.