*This is my side project. It will be uploaded rarely but going to be extremely good in quality
:D
I hope you enjoy my story
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Prologue
House Wyrmgrave protected the southern border of the Empire Ashmore for three generations. They didn't have enough scholars or honorable knights or magicians. But when it came to monster hunting, they were the best in that field.
Their archive held horrors and weird mutations that never showed up in the Human territories before. The Wyrmgrave family would bathe in abomination blood every day. Deep down, it made them proud.
That same proud mentality shattered on the sound of a "bang!"
None of their monster-hunting instincts prepared them for that evening. Their eight-year-old heir of House Wyrmgrave, the little lord of the whole territory, put a hole in a wild boar from fourteen meters away without touching it.
He didn't do it himself. They used a gardener for the event.
A three-meter-long animal was forced into a cage of black iron. It kept ramming the bars until its breath turned into angry white foam. The boar wasn't even a Tier One danger. It was close.
The household watched from the balcony because Duke Armand wanted witnesses. His son demanded this event for a month.
It wasn't the first time the boy had begged for things. Most of it had been sweet candies or cakes. One month ago, Gustave's polite voice changed a little.
What normal eight-year-old wants to test the power of fireball magic on his arm? Or demands alchemy products with smiting forge by by dwarves?
The boy went crazy all of a sudden!
After a month of pestering the whole household, his father finally agreed to his heir's little "demands." The boy kept muttering strange words about metals and powder but he looked serious so Duke Armand didn't stop him.
He invited two Baron Lords from close towns to dinner. He wanted his heir to show whatever idea he'd been hiding for so long.
Gustave stood out on the garden path. Old Marten the gardener stood a few steps in front of him with his arms out, holding a metal rod as if it might bite. A single sheet of paper lay on the gravel near Marten's boot in case the wind blew it away.
The poor man shook with fear of ruining whatever treasure they gave him. He took a deep breath and used the powder and tools on the metal rod like his little lord showed him.
Reloading the weapon was the most important according to the paper and he had to do every step himself.
His little lord said something like "Proof of Competence..." Marten didn't understand what that meant but followed every command with care and fired the weapon.
BANG!
Nobody in the Wyrmgrave garden could agree on what to call the sound that came next.
Thunder?
The knights reached for their swords on instinct. It was even louder than monster screams.
It was so fast. Too damn fast for them to react!
Gardener Marten's finger tightened on the crude trigger. He was frozen with shock. It was just a finger movement. Then the boar screamed.
The animal kept screaming as it bleed. It threw itself against the bars in blind panic, shrieking with blood pouring out of its thick neck.
"What was that?"
"Did you see how the weapon attack?"
"I can't see any aura or magic..."
Soldiers that used to the ways of this world were confused because most dangers from an abomination or a magician give you a warning.
Using magic creates signs of mana heat in the air. Or monsters use aura attacks with pressure that grows over a few seconds.
No matter what it is, power takes time to show itself. Everyone trained in the world learns to read the signs when they are young.
But the metal rod gave no warning.
No aura buildup. No mana signature. It was like something completely common, like an arrow. But much stronger than that...
While everyone was thinking about this new weapon, the eight-year-old boy stood with a satisfied smile. New text appeared in front of his eyes.
[Test No. 10: Complete]
[Range 14.3 m | Deviation Negligible | Mana Cost 0]
[New Experiment Data Recorded]
Just as Gustave was about to speak with his new father, he heard a new voice.
[Congratulations! Missions Completed 10/10
-Average Finishing Score: 10.00
Rewards:
1- Access to the Main Interface and Market Page
2- 5 Stat Points
3- 100 Market Coins
√ Perfect Score Reward: Mana Analysis Module Blueprint (Crude)]
Gustave's eyes focused on the text that nobody else could see.
His skin prickled because the text looked like the kind of writing artificial intelligences used on Earth. A moment of hatred flashed across his face but suppressed it and started thinking about the rewards.
While he was making his own plans, Duke Armand von Wyrmgrave came down from the balcony with a single jump. It wasn't proper etiquette but Duke Armand didn't care.
Everyone in this household was a warrior. Even his wife and daughters. The barons were his vassals and former students. Nobody would judge him for it.
He jumped down and walked toward his son with his right hand inside his pocket.
His son's drawing paper was still under the rock the old gardener used. Duke took the paper and brought it close enough to see the complicated drawings and numbers.
"Gustave," he said in a voice kept low for the boy alone. His eyes never left the child's face after the name. "How many of these can we make?" He waited for the answer without blinking.
Little Gustave held his gaze against the lord for a moment. Then he reached into his coat and pulled out one tiny sheet. He pressed it into his father's hand with careful fingers. The gesture looked cute in his father's eyes.
It was funny actually. His wife forbade Gustave from speaking for a whole day as punishment. Duke didn't know the details but he heard something like "no sweets for a month if you talk."
Duke Armand held the tiny paper and looked at the small, neat letters. The message was short.
"We can make as many as we want. But I want access to the alchemy room and the forge. And two chocolate cakes every day!"
While the Duke of the Wyrmgrave House was thinking about his son's weird antics, a memory surfaced in Gustave's head.
Seeing the system messages always brought up those bad memories.
He lived another life in a different place. And that life was very different from this one.
It was mostly burned plastic under acid-rains with a lot of metallic life forms. That world had a particular smell he would never forget.
Even now he could remember it and it was disgusting.
He also remembered a small workshop that reeked of chemical smoke and a very tired middle aged man.
One day he asked the most senior colleague beside him a question.
"Do you know how to kill an immortal?" The words came out flat in that filthy shop.
The man laughed under his breath and shook his head like Gustave was crazy. "You can't," he said. His smile didn't reach his eyes after the answer. "That's the whole point of them." He shrugged like it was settled. "Immortals, literally.."
"There must be a way. Nothing can be unending. Everything must end at some point!" Gustave replied as he slid the draft back into his coat. His fingers left a streak of ink on the paper's edge. "Maybe we should stop asking how to kill them and find their weak points. Like those stories..."
"That's not how it works," the colleague snapped. He looked away as if the idea offended his whole belief. "They must change and everything can be good again. No need of ending them. You know it, man."
"I don't believe that. They are manipulating us," Gustave said. He watched the man's jaw tighten. "We just haven't found how..." He turned down the corridor toward his sleeping capsule.
That colleague joined a civil protest with the dream of revolution.
Gustave heard the crowd from his window, shouting slogans like "Rise up, brothers and sisters, they can't hang us all!"
He knew they meant every word of it. The protesters shouted loud enough to rattle the glass in his workshop.
They were dead by morning. Including that one friend.
Nothing changed except he was alone in the workshop after that.
"Emotional idiot..." he thought as he remembered the scenes of his old life.
He couldn't find an actual answer to that question before running out of time and dying from cancer. One life ended on Earth. Another began here as Gustave.
He was eight years old with a noble identity in a world of magic. He stared at his small hands, still struggling to process the sheer absurdity of his second chance.
...
A few seconds later one of the barons came closer after jumping from the balcony. Everyone followed and inspected the rifle with great wonder.
Baron Neville asked the Duke, "Where did young lord learn to draw something like this, My Lord?"
The duke looked down at the schematic paper. Then he looked at his son. He answered with a deep voice. "He says he worked it out himself." Duke muttered with pride. "He invented it himself."
Nobody in the garden of the lord's manor said anything after that.
Under everyone's interested eyes, Gustave reached into his bag on the floor and brought out a second rifle. It was already loaded and ready to use.
He raised it and took aim at the far end of the garden. The motion looked too steady for a child. Like he was a seasoned soldier with a lot of military practice before. Nobody understood the implications of his behavior.
Gustave drew in a slow breath and fired at the head of the screaming boar. Smoke came from the muzzle. The smell hit his nose with the same familiar bitter edge. He missed this smell.
"How do you kill an immortal?" The question was still inside his head as he lowered the rifle.
He didn't have the answer yet. Maybe he'd lost his mind somewhere along the way.
But the desire to solve it had survived death and rebirth. If this was madness then so be it.
He had a plan before. He sketched it on stolen paper in his old workshop through too many sleepless nights. It failed for the simplest reason. Poor old Gustave never had the means to build it.
Not this time.
He'd step off the fields they had already won. He would build something new. Something an Immortal never had to fear before.
Gustave lifted his rifle to the already dead animal and felt the ambition he never had bloom in his chest.
They shouldn't have let me touch magic.
Fools...