Chapter 2: Recollection
[Note: Yes, a system. As much as I hate it.]
*****
Void: Source of All, now starting…
Scanning for life…
Life found, now returning host's consciousness…
Success.
Warning, host's body is severely damaged.
Using blood to repair and replace damaged cells and recreate missing tissues thus fixing organs…
Success.
Accelerating blood reproduction…
Host is waking up, returning memories… another set of memories found, combining two memories toetgher…
Failure, only 30% of 'Raquel Crimson' were combined with host.
The host will fully awaken in 2 minutes and 5 seconds.
Establishing refined rules based on host's memories…
Complete… set difficulty: Hard
The host has fully awakened. Establishing communication ports… Success
[Hello, host]
I woke up to a mechanical voice ringing inside my head. I could still feel the pain from what those guys did to me and slowly sat up.
'It's such a miracle that I'm still alive, but who knows how long I'll survive here. For now, I should get myself cleared,' was my thoughts after I looked around.
I was supposed to clear my mind when I noticed something that shouldn't be in my mind.
Raquel Crimson, Eva Phoebe.
I recognized myself to be Eva Phoebe; however, I could remember fragments of Raquel's memories. How she conquered an entire continent, basically her whole world, but nothing about its details. I also can't tell how her life ended. It's fuzzy.
'What is going on?' I thought still confused with the memories that were both mines and weren't.
[The host has been revived by combining the individual 'Raquel Crimson's soul with your soul. All of her memory was supposed to enter you, too, but to compensate for the mortal damage that your body was suffering from, some of her soul fragments were used, which incidentally, contained most of her memories only leaving the biggest events of her life. You're now the same person in the soul. Your personality was simply dominant because your soul was bigger than hers due to said incident.] The mechanical voice that wasn't that of a female nor a male's that I first thought was me imagining things rang inside my head again.
"I see, that would make sense. But, why am I so calm despite hearing something that should not be normally heard?! Who are you?! Explain yourself," I said out loud as a retort to the voice I've heard inside my head.
[First, I am the system that the Source Of All, the Void, decided to give to you as help. I am a convenient reality-altering soul parasitic being that was randomly made by the void and was sent to you as a form of gift. I am made to simply help you grow infinitely, albeit slowly. Second, the host's soul was slightly altered to develop a sense of familiarity with me to not cause a bigger shock. Did that answer satisfy you?]
"E-eh? Y-yes… you said that you are made to help me grow but, is there insurance?" I asked.
[… thoughts collected… no, I will help you grow infinitely and help you survive to my utmost of ability, but once you die, you're on your own. I am only capable of helping you get stronger thru quests. Also, Raquel's soul is another form of help to help you refine your instincts as a beastman.]
"I-I see… but what happens to you if I die?"
[I perish along with you, so you better not.]
'Eh? Was it just me or is this system thingy just had a sudden turn of personalities?'
[I did, that is to help release the tension between you and me and establish an easier form of conversation. Yes, I can read your mind.]
"Say so from the beginning!.. that said, what are quests? I think I can tell what those are by my new memories, but I still can't get my head around it." I asked.
[Understood. Quests are forms of missions that the host will be tasked to do. Quests are rewarding but also hard, that is for the host to gain experience through them. Anything else? If none, then please get up and get out of this cave, it's way too dangerous here to be leisurely having a conversation. Away from those 'guys' would be ideal based on your memories.]
'You're right, I better get moving if I still wanna live. I've already healed, after all, it should be fairly easy for me if it's just to sneak out.'
[While you're at it, I'll be optimizing myself based on your movements in order to help you grow once you're out of this place. You sound quite confident with your ability to leave from here but still best of luck to you.]
"Much appreciated, but the harder it is the better!" I think I just said something I normally wouldn't be saying but I didn't think about it much and started running to where my senses directed me.
With my great beast-like senses, I navigated through the cave tunnels and slowly ascended. I took a few rests here and there to save my stamina in case I run into some troubles, but since my body is smaller than the average female beastmen, I was able to save stamina without much problem. As I tread thru the caves, dungeon, I recalled some painful memories that lead to this current situation.
I was a new member of an average adventurer party. At first, they treated me kindly because I am a beastman which was a great help in navigation and combat. I showed great results and was praised by everyone, but there was one person who didn't like me, simply because he was jealous. I could tell he was because we beastmen are sensitive to the emotions of people around us as well.
Knowing this, I secretly tried helping the leader to gain more of the attention of our party to himself and succeeded. That in turn, lowered my worth.
More time passed and my worth was smaller than that of a baggage carrier's and was slowly looked upon down. The leader still felt threatened of me though, I noticed his attempts of kicking me out of the party multiple times, I said and did nothing regarding it. That was a grave mistake.
We ran into a huge monster and had an incident, the leader took advantage of it branded me as a dirty traitor after we got away. He claimed that I didn't warn them about it on purpose to take away everything they had for me, even though I tried multiple times and he would talk so that the others won't notice.
I tried defending myself to no avail but it was futile. I was beaten up half-dead non-hesitantly, after that the leader asked the guy that had the most to lose in the party if he were to die to throw me away. He didn't hesitate on doing so and even stabbed me in the stomach on the way to where I 'died'.
While I was having painful flashbacks, I reached the first floor of the dungeon. I made sure not to run into those guys as I didn't know for how long I was dead. I'll ask the system about it later.
*****
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