One more time

Once again Eli woke up from his slumber.

'Hah, so everyone just keeps reincarnating until they somehow end up attaining divinity? How are humans even multiplying if the amount of souls are fixed? Are all newborn children actually lost souls from another world whose memories have been wiped? Then why are my memories intact?'

Even though his thoughts seemed to be in disarray, Eli was actually quite happy on the inside. The reason for that was naturally due to finding the answers to some of the questions that had been in his mind for as long as he could remember.

But then as if ice cold water had been poured on him, all his happiness vanished away the moment he thought about what kind of cruel fate his close ones must have suffered.

'I hope that you all also got another chance at life like me.'

A glint of icy cold resolve shone in the eyes of the giant child... before he was hit by loud winds and crashed into the nearby wall and let out a loud groan.

"Am I ragdoll for you to keep flinging around?" Eli said in a low voice while staring at the disappearing body of the gigantic dragon.

After taking a couple of deep breaths, he finally decided to earnestly look at his current situation.

First, he decided to do a quick checkup of his body and the first thing he noticed that was different were his limbs. They were long, way too long even for the tallest human to ever exist but at the same time, his skin was also way too soft, almost as if it belonged to a child. 

After scanning his face using his hands, his suspicions were confirmed.

Big eyes, small nose, thin lips along with plump cheeks, extremely soft hair and two tiny tusks coming out from either side of his mouth. 

'Definitely a child, but not of a human. Maybe I'm some sort of orc and human hybrid.'

This did not surprise him much, after all, there is only so many times you can get your mind blown in a day and after seeing a dragon, committing suicide, meeting God and then coming back to life, that quota was definitely filled.

'The biggest issue would be mixing with the humans, but there should be other species in this world as well. After all, the first thing I saw was a damn dragon.'

The next step was to figure out if he had any special abilities. He was hoping there would be some sort of unique energy in this world such as mana or aura that he would be able to pick up on due to his soul not originally belonging to his world.

After sweeping the ground with his bare hands, he sat down in a cross-legged position and concentrated on his body, hoping to discover something that wasn't there before. But what he saw next gave him a giddy feeling.

Name: Eli.

True Name: —

Rank: Aspirant.

Soul Core: Dormant.

Memories: [The Forgotten Chronicles of the Frost Giant Tribe].

Echoes: —

Attributes: [Lost], [Born of Frost], [Resilient], [???].

Aspect: [Frost Giant Warrior].

Aspect Description: [Warriors were known throughout the lands for their strength and honor. When these tales reached Jotunheim, the land of giants, they were heavily inspired and set out to carve their name into the heavens itself and leave an unforgettable mark in the records of the world, marking the beginning of the legend of the Frost Giant Warriors].

'So this is a system.' Eli thought was he began reading the letters floating in front of him. 'And I'm not an Orc but a Frost Giant?!'

The words were written in a strange runic language that Eli had never seen before but was still somehow able to understand, most likely the result of the system.

When his eyes focused on his attributes, new runes appeared below them, giving more information about them.

'How convenient.' Eli thought as continued reading.

[Lost] Attribute Description: "A lost soul met a living corpse. Stitched together by an unknown entity, they now represent your being."

[Born of Frost] Attribute Description: "You were born and raised in the cold, becoming one with it."

[Resilient] Attribute Description: "Your soul is resilient."

[???] Attribute Description: "Your soul guards a secret which overflows with divinity. The divinity has seeped into your being, but that does not make it yours."

"Why are these descriptions so vague? Who's writing them like this?" Eli tried to ask his system but after not receiving any answer, he sighed and got up.

'From what I can understand, the [Lost] attribute is due to me taking over this body and the [???] attribute is probably a result of me meeting the God. [Resilient] seems to be just a unique property of my soul, which leaves [Born of Frost].'

'From the description alone, it's obvious that it gives me some sort of affinity with ice but how should I test it out?'

Leaving the burden of figuring out that ability for his future self, Eli decided to focus on the next thing that caught his eye.

[The Forgotten Chronicles of the Frost Giant Tribe: A book which includes the very essence of the Frost Giant Tribe. The record of their struggles, the evidence of their resistance, and the reward of their sufferings, all just within your reach yet impossibly far away.]

'So how do I read it? Do I just have to think about it?'

Unlike what Eli expected, his guess was correct and the moment he thought about reading that book, a whirlwind of sparks suddenly appeared into his hands, slowly materializing into a thick book with a black and blue cover page. Unfortunately for him, the book was completely covered in cold metal chains which gave it quite the demonic look.

To make matters worse, no matter how hard he pulled, the chains wouldn't even budge.

'Such a scam.'

With a look of annoyance, he kept the book down and looked at his runes again.

'So [Rank] and [Soul Core] are probably what decide my level and talent, but how do I increase them? Through practice or killing monsters?'

Of course, there was the question of why he even needed to increase them in the first place but according to what God said, to reach the end, he needed to attain divinity. And that every person had their own way of doing that, so naturally, Eli chose the most fun option he could think of.

Getting stronger.

Of course, he was sure that the process of getting stronger would be anything but fun, but the reward was just too enticing for him to give up before even trying. Just thinking about the coming future made him shiver with excitement.

Which immediately died down when the faces of his loved ones came into mind.

'Stop your useless mourning idiot, it helps neither the dead nor the living. They're gone, so just accept it.'

But no matter how hard he tried to convince himself, their faces would just not leave his mind. 

Tears silently rolled down his face before he fell into another slumber.

After barely half an hour passed, Eli woke up again feeling light headed.

'Just how many times am I going to pass out? I hope this doesn't become a regular thing.'

Maybe because he had already passed out so many times today, he woke up quite fast. But with no way of keeping track of time, he had no way of knowing that.

With a yawn, he stood up and summoned the runes again.

'Time to see what this [Frost Giant Warrior] aspect can do.'

Walking towards the entrance of the cave, as he was wondering how long the snowstorm would last, his eyes caught glimpse of a shimmering line of runes embedded into ground a couple of meters away from the entrance. It's shine blended perfectly with the snowy white background, making it almost impossible to be spotted from a distance but when looked at from above, it's presence was conspicuous.

Eli squatted down, trying to get a closer look at the glowing runes to gain a better understanding of them. Surprisingly enough, his system did not translate the meaning of them for him.

'So automatic translation is not a function of the system, so then how come I was able to understand that runic language from before? Maybe it only translates it's own language and not any external-'

His thought process was suddenly halted when he was once again blown away by gusts of winds and crashed into the wall. 

"For the love of everything that is holy, can't you land just a little bit more softy?" Eli spoke in a low voice. There was no way in hell he was going to raise his voice in front of that dragon, unless he was planning another early demise.

The dragon landed in front of him and stared straight into his eyes, making his body involuntarily freeze again. 

While his body was trying its best to move again, his eyes caught sight of a monster carcass which was locked in a tight grip by the dragon's tail. The corpse had several holes in it, no doubt caused by the dragon's teeth judging by the amount of blood that was smeared all over its mouth.

After scanning his entire body, the dragon dropped off the monster's corpse in front of him and spoke in a low, raspy voice.

"This is your sustenance for the next week."

And then it laid down in front of Eli, spreading its massive wings to cover the entrance of the cave and closed its greenish-black eyes.

'So it's not just a dragon, but a damn talking dragon.' Eli fell down with a thud after his body finally broke free from the fear of the talking winged serpent.

'Why does all of this have to be so confusing?' He now had no idea why a dragon as great as this one would not only share it's hideout but also provide him with food. Are the Dragons and the Frost Giant Tribe currently in an alliance? So does that mean I'll be able to meet others of my kind? What if it figures out that I'm not the actual owner of this body?

Once again, Eli was lost in the tide of questions with no answers in sight. He wanted to ask the dragon directly but stopped himself in fear of the dragon finding out that he wasn't the actual child of giants, but an imposter who took his place.

The dragon, oblivious to the thought process of the child in front of him, quietly went into sleep.