1 Life, Death, and Other Unusual Magic

He awoke wet and disoriented, his face down in the mud with a hole in his head. Thankfully, the hole was more metaphorical than literal. Still, death wasn't supposed to feel this bad.

The man had the figure of a warrior with jagged muscles and a lithe athletic build, yet his body felt tired beyond measure as he rolled himself over to sit up. Squinting his eyes, he assessed his situation. There was an abnormal sense of calmness in his movements, even though pain warred to consume his mind.

He was under the naked sky, the scorching sun hovering in mid-sky as a breeze swayed the leaves of the surrounding towering trees and tall hedges. There was dampness in the air, and water flowed constantly in the stream.

Then his eyes turned to his figure, and all the calmness puffed off. He was in some kind of specialised attire, wet and heavy. His cloak and light armour seemed waterproof. However, the rest of his clothing and undergarments were drenched in water.

I was in the stream? he mumbled, leaping to his feet to face the water. He found a sheathed sword strapped to his back, and unsheathed it to discover a real blade.

Why did he possess a sword? He did not know, but it felt right to have one. If he didn't know better, he would have swung it to test his skills, but his current condition brought only a deep sense of urgency.

What the hell is going on? But more important, who am I?!

As if to answer his question, something appeared before his eyes. A disembodied holographic screen floated in mid-air. Unwittingly, he reached out to touch it but found his finger phasing through the hologram.

[Interference detected! The system is unable to detect the user's all attributes and features.] [Restrictions have been detected! Unable to determine the full stats. . . .]

He looked around in suspicion as the message blinked out of existence. Is this a prank or what? Or am I going nuts?

His eyes transferred to his palm, revealing a dark and eerie black circle mark. Another floating window appeared before him.

__________________________

[Warden]

Race: Human* (Prime/Corrupted – 27%)

Title: [Redacted] [Redacted] … [Redacted]

Attributes

Strength: configuring...

Mind: configuring...

Soul: configuring...

Recovery: configuring...

...

Abilities: 

configuring...

____________________________

"Warden?" he mumbled. Is that me?

The more he thought about the name, the more natural it felt in his mind. Warden. At least he had a name to latch onto, though it sounded a bit weird.

As for the other information in the window, most of it seemed unfamiliar. He had an obnoxious feeling that he should know it all, but the words didn't spark any memories.

Warden didn't know a single thing about himself. What kind of amnesia did he have?

As though trying to remember more, he clutched the sword to see his reflection. His eyes were black as they should be, but his hair was strikingly grey. It wasn't dyed or coloured due to old age, but naturally grey.

"That isn't right, is it!" Warden did not have any memories to accept or deny his features.

Quickly, he moved to the stream to see the full reflection of his face. He was fair-skinned with unkempt hair. He looked somewhat brutish and sick, but no medicine could change in the short term.

Even the choice of freaking out was taken from him when a loud howl reverberated in his ears. He spotted a large dire wolf on the other side of the stream, eyeing him.

"Oh, a wolf?" he said unconsciously. Hmm, I recognise a wolf. Maybe my mind isn't that bad?

By the way, are wolves supposed to be this huge? He slapped himself mid-thought, realising it wasn't the time to think. Dire wolves were feral and most didn't survive an encounter. Not to mention this one was his waist high, and Warden was a tall man.

I need to flee.

The dire wolf leapt onto the stream before he took the first step and was swimming fast to reach him. He doubted its intentions were the least bit friendly. Even without his memory, he could conclude that.

Warden clutched the blade's hilt with both palms and bolted into the woods. He thought his wet, heavy clothing would slow him down, but the run was effortless. Besides, his speed was higher than most normal people should have, though he was unsure how long he could keep up with the unfathomable sense of tiredness.

Unfortunately, the dire wolf was faster than your average wolf as well. It covered the distance Warden managed to reach with the head start in no time, ready to pounce on him.

Desperation clawed at his heart as he ran with everything he had, his lungs burning in indignation. The dire wolf howled hungrily after him.

"This is a nightmare," Warden screamed.

Hold on, if I have a real blade, then shouldn't I…shouldn't I have some skill in it?

Who knows maybe I'm a swordmaster?

His eyes brightened at the realisation as he jolted to a stop. He spun on his heels and faced the beast, the unsheathed blade in his arm. Contrary to his expectation, the dire wolf halted as well, a tinge of intelligence and hesitation in its eyes. However, that didn't stop it from baring its savage maw, and displaying jagged teeth.

An unspoken agreement was acknowledged between them as they sized each other up. A manic grin spreading across his face, Warden charged at the beast. The wolf responded with just the same amount of zeal, as it was a contest between peers.

It pounced on him, and Warden met with the same passion, swinging his blade like a true swordsman.

There was nothing clumsy about Warden's swing, but his sword fell short by a considerable margin, even though his eyes managed to follow the complete trajectory of the beast's movement. Perhaps it was the exhaustion.

The massive wolf slammed into him, its horrifying maw opened to take a bite of his arm.

"GHHUUAAAAA!"

It was not a contest of peers at all.

A bone-piercing pain assaulted his senses, wrenching a raw primal scream out of him. Am I going to die?

No, not yet. Not until I ...

Something moved inside of him, resonating with the ungodly amount of pain and fear. It surged through his veins, a chilly obnoxious sensation before it poured out in an outburst of smoky dark-purple tendrils.

In pain, Warden lost full control of the purple energy, not that he had any control to begin with. Thankfully, the sheer force of the outburst flung the animal into the air, relieving the weight of him.

[Congratulations! You have unsealed a hidden aperture.]

[Void Prison Realm is accessing the hidden aperture. Warden's capacity is under 5%, unable to integrate Void Prison Realm completely.]

[Ability assigned: Left Hand of Calamity.]

A sudden chill ran through his left palm as though a venomous snake bit him. The chill spread throughout his body, sending shivers down his spine. Warden's pain hadn't subsided. Crimson blood gushed out through his clothes where the wolf had bitten him as he barely managed to get a hold of himself. Black and purple tendrils surrounded his form, accompanied by a chilly sensation.

"Owwlll!" the wolf howled, returning his attention to it. Warden stood back again, clutching the sword tight, even though pain consumed his right arm. Magical power, huh? Thankfully, he knew how the magic worked just like how he knew how to swing a blade. At least, he had some idea of it, as if the lesson were engraved into his bones.

Speaking of which, amnesia wasn't supposed to make you forget completely everything. Like you'd never forget how to swim or ride a horse if you once knew.

It was all visualisation and imagination, he hoped. A terrible pull yanked at the back of his mind, but the energy did form into a protective armour around him.

All he needed was his imagination. Instinct guiding him, Warden knew exactly what to imagine, where to draw the energy. He visualised the purple energy into the sword, imbuing it...

The whole blade turned pitch dark, as purple smoky tendrils swayed along. Wielding it, Warden shot a menacing glare at the beast, who for a second didn't charge outright. Witless and feral, it might have been, it had sensed the danger oozing out of him.

"It was wrong of me to think of us as peers," he said. "There are no equals in the jungle."

Warden held his ground, his eyes narrowing at the beast. His sword was ready, pointing towards the sky at a right angle. It was weird how right it felt, even though he didn't remember learning the stance.

The savage wolf seemed scared to shit as it took a step back, unaware of the human it targeted to possess such strength. Even its feral instincts couldn't drive it to pounce with the dark energy pulsating all over him. In the end, it was intelligent enough to make the right decision. Or perhaps it was rather instinctual fear towards the dark power.

Warden didn't expect the beast to actually draw the tail between its legs and flee.

"Where are you going, motherfucka?" he screamed, almost losing his stance to chase after the running beast, forgetting how helpless he was under its clutches a moment ago.

"I'll make you pay for biting me."

The dire wolf was faster than Warden, yet when he leapt, he didn't expect to land on its back, covering the long distance within a blink of an eye. Much less the beast, even Warden himself hadn't expected the exponential increase in his power.

The dark purple tendrils swirled around him. Despite the unexpected power, Warden didn't fall back once he was over the creature. He swung his blade, aiming to plunge into the neck of the beast.

This time he made no mistake and made sure the blade connected where he intended. The wolf bared its teeth, lunging, but Warden's eyes tracked its every movement, his blade plunging into the beast's neck in one clean swing.

Blood sprayed in the air, and one last howl echoed, as the beast dropped dead instantly.

[Copper grade energy harvested.] 

[+0.7 Strength.]

[Configuration Completed.]

[Unable to determine full specification. System access (Category-4) is limited.]

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[Warden]

Race: Human (Prime/Corrupted – 27%)

Title: [Redacted] [Redacted] … [Redacted]

Fatelock: [Void Prison Realm]

Disposition: Chaotic

Rank: [Broken Calamity]

Attributes: 

[Strength: 18.7]

[Mind: 12]

[Spirit: 74]

[Recovery: 99] 

Abilities: 

[Left Hand of Calamity]

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Revised and edited on 19/02/2024