Loud in the Night

Dark clouds masked the star. The air was filled with smell of rain and roasted meat even if not a single drop of water had dropped on the ground.

As for the meat, that was clearly there. A small deer was suspended on a stick over a camp fireplace. Large and dirty stones that contain a couple of flaming pieces of wood that were roasting the animal.

Prometheus was sitting before a fire, his eyes lost in a screen that only visible to him.

[Welcome to Matrix FYD003201, all functionality have been activated]

[Name: Prince Seven Illuria, Prometheus Flogos, Sif]

[Age: 18 (Biological), 45 (Total) ]

[Cultivation: I - Foundation Establishment, Early Stage]

[Affinity: Fire]

[Energy: 0/10]

[Strength: 5]

[Velocity: 5]

[Endurance: 8]

[Intelligence: 3]

[Soul: 2]

[Totems: 1 x Horned Flaming Lizard]

[Skills: Archery (Intermediate), Guitar (Poor)]

[Techniques: None]

When he first asked the system to show him his new stats, he almost couldn't believe it. The change was too sudden, too extreme. One day he was a broken young man, with a body that was even less strong than the normal average of mortals, and the next he was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator?

From what he understood, the merit of such a change was due to the Horned Flaming Lizard. The little creature continued to mature even in its totem form and when it reached the rank 1 cultivation stage, the so called Foundation Establishment, his body also followed it.

This system was broken. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure. If he managed to find a creature that was feeble but had the chance to evolve to a high rank of cultivation he would be able to ignore any kind of bottomleck and just continuosly level up.

A smile appeared on his face, while strange shadows caused by the fire danced on his skin. Naturally such a creature did not exist and even if it did, it wasn't something that he could put his hand on.

Yet, even as it was he realized that he had endless opportunities thanks to his system. The only ceiling that he could hit was to be unable to find creature of the appropriate rank or the founds to acquire them.

"Sif, you should eat, it will make you feel better!"

Syndra sighed from her position next to the one armed guy. She believed that the silence that her friend was some form of depression that was dued to the facts that she told him about the woman that he married and how she mysteriously disappeared.

In reality, Prometheus didn't really care that much about it. What Syndra told him was pretty sad and made him feel bad for a while, but that was it.

He was thinking of more pressant things, like the most effective method to gain enough power to protect himself in such a word of crazed young lords and egomaniacs that believe that they were always right. To not talk about the constant ugly bloodsheds that were common occurrence.

In some way he missed Earth, he missed the safety of civilized society. Yes he was strong, but only in comparison to common and low level people. Foundation Establishment was only the first step of cultivation.

Plus, contrary to other cultivators, that had trained in more or less rapid cultivation methods to recover and improve their strengths, he only had a very basic innate skill to absorb energy from the surrounding. It was the innate fire absorption ability of his totem, that allowed him to absorb a ridiculously low amount of fire energy per hour.

Just to use the only technique that his lizard knew a single time, he had to absorb energy for at least five hours. All that work to use a very weak fire skill, that allowed him to burn things that touched his body.

He couldn't even use it to rise his cultivation level.

'I have a lot to work on...'

Sighing in his mind, Prometheus followed the advise of the red haired girl and took a piece of roasted meat from the spinning stick that the latter was operating.

He began to munch on it and made a grimace when he found out how bad meat tasted without any kind of spices.

Looking his expression, Syndra slapped her tight in grief. The young man could even swear that there were some traces of tears in her luminous eyes.

"Ah, look at you... so depressed that you don't even seem able to appreciate a proper meal anymore..."

Prometheus smile started to tremble, thick lines forming on his forehead. He was utterly unable to find any word to express the frustration that he was feeling.

He definitely wasn't depress at all! She was a shitty cook, that's all. Heavens! Even using some random herb would have been better that just cooking the raw meat.

The one armed young man could have swear that he saw some bushes of rosemary not even a dozen of meters from where they set up camp. Why the fuck she didn't try to use that at least?

Yet, the girl truly seemed to believe that the strange expression made by her friend was due to the stuff she revealed to him that morning.

In fact, it was his fault in some way: after their escape from the village, he made the mistake of asking Syndra what happened to the woman that he supposedly married in his less mentally active status.

The red haired told him that the poor old woman had been kidnapped, probably by the same mercenary force that took the girl that Syndra was in loved with back then. The timing of her disappearance coincided with their passage through the zone.

Now, she didn't know for sure that she was kidnapped. From what Prometheus could gather, she could simply have escaped to another village. She wasn't truly part of the community. She was an outsider that joined the village during her late teens and had always been a loner.

There was nothing truly holding her down.

Yet, if one should believe Syndra, this old hag really liked him for some reason. The red haired girl swore multiple time that when she brought him to her little house at the border of the village, the old woman started to tear up, trembling in emotion.

She immediately agreed to the marriage and even pretended that it must be celebrated that same day before anything else. Even when she understood that her husband to be was not fine in the head, she continued with the marriage. During the following three months she did everything in her power to find a solution to his strange mental illness.

Prometheus could tell from her tone that Syndra had some kind of respect for the old hag, even if she didn't want to show it. Which in some sense was understandable. If you watch someone caring about a dear friend of yours, you will develope some sentiment toward said person. Even if you hated them in the beginning.

However, one day the woman simply dissapeared. She didn't leave any note or told anyone that she was going away for a while. She simply, dissappeared.

Prometheus found it a very sad story, but that's all. Well, he also found it incredibly creepy: and old woman that jump with happiness when she is offered to marry a young man that is mentally challenged?

The Heavens only know what she had done to him when Syndra wasn't there to watch. Also, it was a good thing that he didn't rememeber anything about that period of time.

"Listen, Syndra... I really don't care abo- ??"

Prometheus was going to try and explain another time that he really didn't care that much about it when something else in the distance captured his attention. No, it demanded it. It forced all his attention away from whatever he was doing.

A sound, a loud bellowing shook the night.

The entire forest seemed to be terrorized by the scream that tore through the darkness. Countless animals started to scatter around in panic, flocks of birds that normally would not move in the night began to fly away in terror.

Prometheus' eyes narrowed. He could feel something peculiar in the air, similar to what he normally sensed when he was using his totem's skill to absorb fire energy.

Suddenly, the night was lit up for a single instant by a strange blue thunder. An azure path was painted on the darkness, that held it as some sort of giant dark canvas. It started from the dark clouds and fell toward the ground in a very intricate way.

A second bellowing, brimming with defiance echoed all over, filling the air even more with that something that Prometheus could now recognize as some form of energy. Some energy that was clearly different from his fire energy.

However the sound only lasted for a single instant, before it transformed into a grieving lament. Then, finally, it all fell silent again.