Chapter 4: 4

༺ Precept (1) ༻

 

  I killed Park Sihu.

 

  I killed the player.

 

  Next to the corpse of the one who shared the same homeland as me, who had been with me through the ups and downs of my life, I deeply pondered to myself.

 

  There will be a void created due to the player’s death. The story of ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ of defeating the final boss and saving the world had ended before it could even begin.

 

『Huhu, jackpot!』 

 

  “Well done. Nice job killing him.” But thinking of what he had done, I commended myself.

 

  It would have made me a little guilty if he had succeeded in defeating the last boss, and I might have even hesitated while killing him. Placing the lives of a hundred thousand people he will be killing later on and the world on each side of a scale, I might have contemplated my path.

 

  More importantly, what mattered the most now was the message that appeared when killing Park Sihu…

 

 

『Sub-player, Korin Lork』

 

  It wasn’t my first time seeing a status screen, because I did see it when I was swallowed by Park Sihu’s shadow and was locked inside.

 

  – Thump thump.

 

  My heartbeat increased. I knew better than anyone else how much Park Sihu had gained by using the system window. 

 

  “…Status Screen.”

 

 

〚Korin Lork (Hero)〛

 

  Ohhh, ohhhh…! Finally, I have the godly status screen myself!!

 

 

Class – {Restricted}

Personality – {Restricted}

Talents – {Restricted}

Aura – {Restricted}

Mana – {Restricted}

Specialties – {Nothing}

 

 

 

 〚Character Skills – 4〛

Details – Restricted

 

 

  ………………..

 

  ……….…..

 

  ………

 

 

  “Crafting Window?”

 

 

『Access denied due to insufficient qualification』

 

  “Inventory!”

 

 

『Access denied due to insufficient qualification』

 

  “Skills Tab!”

 

 

『Access denied due to insufficient qualification』

 

  Aish, god damn it! Uninstall this damn game!

 

  Is this what ‘bare minimum’ meant? This is just too much…!

 

 

  Other people shout ‘Status Screen!’ to allocate skill points, craft legendary weapons and speed through quests, so why is this only happening to me!

 

  And did you have to say ‘Nothing’ for something I didn’t have? Oh my, how nice of you!

 

  – Cough…!

 

  “Haa…”

 

  Leaving aside the discouraging turn of events, I had to save her.

 

  “Alicia Arden? Are you alright?”

 

  “Auuh… Noo…”

 

  “Yeah… Looks like it.”

 

  She seemed alright for the time being judging from how she could still speak.

 

  “Uugh… Eyes, my eyes. I can’t seee.”

 

  “Do you feel dizzy, and is it hard to smell? Are your ears also fuzzy?”

 

  “H,how did ye know?”

 

  “Your tongue’s also twisted.”

 

  Blurry vision, dizziness and slurred words. There was only one possibility for that.

 

  “It seems like the poison of a duke frog.”

 

  It was fairly common in the east. There was even a quest to find a duke frog from a well in the player’s starting village, and he must have used that using the crafting system of the system window to separate the poison.

 

  His crafting level must have been low so it shouldn’t be lethal, but it will continue sucking her HP dry if left unattended. I had to feed her a simple antidote at least. 

 

  5 seconds would have been enough if I had the crafting window but…

 

  It was annoying the more I thought about it.

 

  Anyway, carrying her all the way to Merkarva City would take at least a few hours, so the best option would be to stop her bleeding and remove her poison here.

 

  Since it wasn’t a lethal poison, she should be fine after a few days of suffering as long as she wasn’t bleeding. 

 

  “Huhuk… Am I going to diee?”

 

  Ignoring her, I tightened a belt around her wound.

 

  “Kuaaakk?!”

 

  A pitiful scream reverberated across the forest, but a hemostasis was supposed to hurt. Although it might be deathly painful, it had to be done in order to avoid death.

 

  “———!!!!”

 

  “It’s alright. I’m a master at stopping blood.”

 

  To be fair, I had never been the one to use a system window. I had to live in my own way without it.

 

  ———!!

 

  Wow, look at her scream. Her voice was thunderous like the cry of a baby born to be a general. I had no idea if she even heard what I was saying.

 

  – Gush!

 

  Blood spurted out through the gaping hole created by the beowulf.

 

  “Huu… B, benefactorr…”

 

  “Nn?”

 

  “Let me leave, my last words…”

 

  “Last words my ass. Bite onto this.”

 

  “…?”

 

  I placed Park Sihu’s wrist inside Alicia’s mouth. It would be very painful so I wanted her to hold on to herself by biting on it.

 

  “It’s okay to bite down as hard as you want.”

 

  “…!”

 

  Alicia looked teary as if she was in a great amount of pain. I continued with the hemostasis and she bit down hard from the severe sense of pain as her teeth dug into Park Sihu’s wrist. 

 

  Well, it wasn’t my hand so it was none of my business.

 

  I was somewhat done with sealing the wound below her rib. What I had to do next was detoxify the poison and… I had been in this world for 3 years already, and knew how to make a basic antidote without the likes of a system window.

 

  Fortunately, the ingredients were nearby so all I needed was some water and a tin to store the medicine and…

 

  “Found it.”

 

  As expected, there was a bag discarded on the floor. It was probably Alicia’s bag that she threw away before jumping in to save Park Sihu.

 

  “Ohh, there’s a tin pot as well.”

 

  Pouring water into the pot, I mixed in a few ingredients. Starting a fire wasn’t that difficult thanks to my abundant camping experience.

 

  “I’m making the antidote now. Hold on a bit more.”

  

  “Uhh…”

 

  She sniffed without saying anything, which was probably due to the poison still encroaching her body. From how she was talking about ‘last words’ and stuff, she might be thinking she’s dying but…

 

  ‘People don’t die that easily.’

 

  While boiling the antidote, I threw Park Sihu’s corpse away. Alicia had been biting on the wrist so hard that I could see the bone inside the wound.

 

  I was in the middle of adding the key ingredients to make the antidote when Alicia sniffed and twitched her nose.

 

  The guts of a horned rat had a pretty nasty smell indeed.

 

  “Uhhm… Benefactoor…”

 

  Arduously opening her mouth, she called me her ‘benefactor’.

 

  “Y, your name… Please, tell me your namee…”

 

  “You don’t need to know. Don’t bother asking.”

 

  “Why?”

 

  “Don’t worry and take a good rest. I will wake you up when the antidote is done.”

 

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  “Okayy…”

 

  It might have been  to make her shoulder a mental debt towards me, but what I was going to do now had to be kept a secret. The antidote would be finished in about 30 minutes so until then, I placed a piece of cloth wetted with medicine over her eyes.

 

  Now, let’s analyze the situation.

 

  The current point in time was the tutorial quest and the time before the admission into the academy. I had regressed to 3 years before my death. 

 

  Astonishing events would be occuring with the academy at the center, and many stories will be affected.

 

  ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ was quite literally the game of the legendary records of a hero. The player was the hero tasked with saving the world and defeating countless villains as well as the final boss.

 

  And yet that player had been killed by me, so who would be the one that had to act in his stead?

 

  ‘I have to do it.’

 

  It was something I had prepared myself from the moment I decided to kill Park Sihu. He and I shared a few conversations about what would happen after clearing the main scenario of the game…

 

  The reason he had been diligently clearing the game regardless of his evil trait was because the world would be destroyed without defeating the final boss. Ever since we entered this world, we had no other choice but to risk our lives in saving this world.

 

  That was why… I could understand him a bit; on why he had been killing people for the sake of his efficiency.

 

  But he shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t have become a villain just because he wanted to beat this world. 

 

  “Huu…”

 

  At the very least, it was fortunate that I would be receiving some level of support thanks to that sub-player or whatever but…

 

 

『Access denied due to insufficient qualification』

 

  I wish they had done it properly if they were going to do it. It seemed that I shouldn’t expect anything from the system window and think of it as nonexistent.

 

  Whatever the case, I had to take the player’s place, but the problem was that I had none of the convenient devices of a player. 

 

  The skills tab which allowed the player to choose skills;

 

  The inventory that allowed one to take out things from anywhere;

 

  And the item crafting window which was essential for some of the quests were all gone. 

 

  But most importantly…

 

  ‘Park Sihu lost with all of that in his possession.’

 

  He knew more about the game ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ than I did. Even after monopolizing all the hidden pieces and experience points using his overflowing amount of information, he still lost to the final boss.

 

  Relying on questionable support and information about the future was not enough. I needed power outside of the system.

 

  What was fortunate was that I wasn’t a normal ‘possessor’ either.

 

  3 years.

 

  While advancing the story, I was tempered throughout the vicious fights and struggles.

 

  I was desperate in my own way for survival, and I didn’t skip any of the training events that were simply ways to gather skill points for Park Sihu.

 

  Judging from how I was graded as a ‘Hero’ which was the highest rank a named character could get, one could say it was a huge growth for a random side character.

 

  However, that was still far from enough, and there were also plenty of hidden pieces that I couldn’t use as a non-player.

 

  That was why I had to use something outside of the system, for example…

 

  – Jiik

 

  I wrote a letter on the ground with my finger. The symbol engraved with the layer of dirt as the canvas and my finger as the pen was the ancient letter meaning ‘Wind’.

 

  – Hwaruk!

 

  The fire boiling the medicine wavered faintly from the breeze.

 

  It worked.

 

  What I used just then was rune magic. These were the ancient letters where the letters themselves functioned like magic. It was the only magic that I learned in the previous iteration, and was the only thing I could use as a dumb non-magic user.

 

  It was a dead language that you would now only be able to find at the corner of Merkarva Academy’s great library.

 

  What I was going to do now was arrange these rune letters which contained power on its own to engrave sentences into my body.

 

 

A Precept.

 

Duty, a vow that had to be kept.

 

Restriction, a limit placed upon oneself.

 

Pledge, the ambition that one had to be aspiring for.

 

 

  These three were tied together as a Precept, and was one of the strongest ‘rules’ of this world, that either acted as the source of superhuman power or the agent of ruin. 

 

  This was different from the skills and stats of a player. It was just one of the hidden settings added to explain the power of the boss characters.

 

  Why did I not use such an amazing thing in the previous iteration, you may ask, and it’s because the risk was too high.

 

  As one would be able to tell from the word ‘Precept’, these three acted as the source of tremendous power, but it was possible to work around them after reading the sentences engraved on the body.

 

  The enemy might be able to use my Precept like I did, to create a trap leading to ruination.

 

  There was no reason to bother risking it in the previous iteration where the player was growing without a problem, but things were now different.

 

  Biting off the skin on my fingertip to let it bleed, I then started carving rune letters into my body.

 

  Duty. It was the vow that always had to be kept, and was one that would grant me power when followed.

 

  The trick to engraving Duty was by writing down something that could be ‘repeatedly activated’.

 

  Let’s say it was running 50 meters everyday. In that case, my stats would increase every time I accomplished running 50 meters everyday.

 

  A safer duty would be for example, ‘I will not eat birds for the rest of my life’ which is done ‘cumulatively’, but it was okay to increase the risk here because I knew a lot of things about the future.

 

  Besides, the amount of incremented power also increased depending on the weight of the vow itself.

 

  In this world, there was something called ‘Karma’ – which was the same as experience points, except that was what it was called in this world – and the Karma you gain by defeating a Grade 5 monster was nowhere near the one you gained by killing a Grade 1 monster.

 

  Similarly, this Duty had to be shouldering a heavy enough Karma in the perception of this world to give an equal amount in return.

 

〚I will not disregard the misfortune of the good.〛

 

  – Chiiiik!

 

  “Kuuk…!”

 

  Rune letters were carved onto my body as complete sentences. 

 

  This might be how it feels to have a scorching hot piece of metal engraving a letter on my body as I unconsciously uttered deep groans.

 

  “Huu… huu…”

 

  My body felt heavy – that was how heavy the ‘Duty’ engraved in my body was.

 

  The regulations of Precept were only applied within the user’s range of cognition.

 

  Even if it was about a future or an event which had yet to occur, it would come to me as my Karma as long as I was conscious of it.

 

  The keywords here were ‘the good’ and ‘misfortune’.

 

  In this game, the good and evil of a character’s personality were specified in the character screen, and good-natured characters overcoming their misfortune would be helpful for me as well, because they were the ones that would be fighting against this world’s crisis.

 

  Put in another way, this meant the ‘Precept of Duty’ would be repeatedly applied to me as I continued solving the quests of this game, and would result in a suitable return to my power.

 

  However, there was no need to save every good person in the world, because a Precept was activated in the range of my cognition. Even if the unfortunate person walking down the street was a good person, my Duty would not be activated as long as I wasn’t aware of it.

 

  Next up was Restriction.

  

 

  ‘Restriction’ was a consistently activated rule that intentionally placed an unfavorable condition to oneself to permanently increase the stats.

 

  It was by nature high risk – high return. Because it was the most vulnerable out of the three Precepts, it might be taken advantage of as a weakness, and perhaps was the most important one of the three.

 

  Making a weakness on their own. A normal ‘Restriction’ could be a detrimental one binding me like shackles, but—

 

 

〚I do not perceive spirits.〛

 

 

  – Chiiiik!

 

  “Kuugh…!”

 

  Spirits.

 

  It literally meant astral bodies, like ghosts and elemental spirits that did not have a physical body. Like demonic beasts, the enemy of humanity that hunters had to defeat were called demonic spirits in this world. 

 

  Well, although they were called demonic spirits, it didn’t mean anything. Every astral body that was hostile to humanity were all referred to as demonic spirits.

 

  Elemental spirits that did not like humans, and defensive astral bodies of ancient ruins were all called demonic spirits as long as they attacked humans.

 

  And in this world, there was one rule for spirits.

 

  Spirits interfered with one another upon mutual cognition. An example was how spirits were unable to enter the mind of an unconscious person.

 

  In this world, every human had even a tiny bit of spiritual perception no matter how ungifted they were. 

 

  There might be 1 or 2, but there was never 0.

 

  What I did just then through Restriction was reducing that number to 0.

 

  In other words, I would not be able to perceive spirits. I will be exempt from the rule of mutual cognition and spirits will not be able to deal with me, just like how I can’t deal with them.

 

  The only way for them to touch me, would probably be with the help of an elementalist materializing and giving bodies to those spirits. 

 

  I knew how strong this Restriction was more than anyone else, because this was the very ‘Restriction’ of the world’s strongest rune mage, and the boss character, Valtazar. 

 

  Its effect was 0% accuracy to spirits, at the return of 50% increase in power against physical existences. 

 

  Anything else apart from the one used to play around Valtazar’s Restriction would not be able to destroy mine either.

 

  Finally, what remained was the ‘Pledge.’

 

  This was the grand ambition that warriors had to be aspiring for, and the weight of that aspiration acted as a support. It was literally pledging to yourself that you would always aspire for that grand ambition.

 

  There was no need to even hesitate for this one.

 

 

〚I will save the world.〛

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