'So fluffy… and big!'
Ash thought to himself as he felt something plump in his right palm, unconsciously squeezing it out of pleasure.
After a few seconds of enjoying the sensation of kneading something, he slowly opened his eyes and was shocked by the sight in front of him.
He noticed that he was in an unfamiliar room.
The room was spacious, its walls built from packed clay, while the ceiling was nothing more than tightly bound hay stacked together. The scent of earth and dried grass lingered faintly in the air.
However, the thing that shocked him wasn't that, but rather someone who slept in front of him—more precisely in his arms, as he hugged her from behind. It was a girl that he didn't recognize at all, especially with her weird attire made out of animal skins that only covered the important parts of her body.
'Am I dreaming now?' Ash thought to himself for a moment and nodded, believing that such a situation could only exist in a dream.
'Then…' He grinned viciously and continued squeezing the massive mountain in front of him.
As Ash squeezed harder, the girl's eyes twitched for a split second, then snapped open. Her gaze dropped downward and instantly locked onto the hand brazenly kneading her chest.
Her entire body stiffened.
"Kyaaaaaaaaa!!"
She shrieked as she slapped his hand away and scrambled out of bed in one fluid motion.
Ash jolted awake at the sound, sitting upright with a dazed expression.
"Wait—what? What happened? Who are you?!"
"You!" She pointed at him furiously before slapping the shit out of him, throwing him out of the bed.
The girl snorted angrily, stomped her foot, and stormed out of the room, leaving him sprawled on the floor like a discarded sack.
At the same time when he was smacked in the head, memories rushed into his mind.
A torrent of foreign experiences, emotions, and fragmented scenes crashed into his consciousness all at once. Though it felt like an eternity passed within his mind, only a few seconds slipped by in the real world.
"So… I've transmigrated into this young man's body like those in the novels after I die?" Ash muttered to himself as he started to gather his thoughts piece by piece slowly to understand his current situation.
Based on the memory he had just skimmed through, the world he transmigrated to was evidently similar to Earth but from the primitive era.
However, there was something different that shocked him. It was the fact that a long time ago, a catastrophe happened as dungeons descended upon the world without warning.
From that moment onward, monsters began pouring out of mysterious gates. Ordinary animals mutated and grew stronger. The world was violently reshaped overnight.
And the most shocking part?
A system appeared alongside the dungeons.
The people of this world believed it to be a gift from an almighty god. The notifications it displayed were regarded as divine messages 'God's voice itself' because no one could actually understand what the system was saying.
Which made everything tragically ironic.
Ash learned that the original owner of this body had suffered greatly because of it.
This body belonged to someone who also had the same name as him—Ash. Apparently, he was the current yet temporary Lord of the Ragh'Tal Tribe.
Temporary, because he had only one month left.
Eleven months ago, Ash's father, the former Tribe Lord, had passed away. By tradition, Ash inherited the position immediately.
However, tradition alone wasn't enough if the inheritor was deemed too weak as the elders could object. They could challenge the Tribe Lord directly or issue a trial to prove their worth.
Ash's trial was simple enough:
Become a 2nd Rank Warrior within one year.
The problem?
He had been stuck at 1st Rank Warrior for five whole years.
Most people believed it was impossible for him to finish the mission given by the system.
Desperate not to disgrace his father's name or lose his position, Ash tried everything he could without knowing his system's mission at all.
With only one month left, desperation pushed him toward the final, most dangerous option known to the tribe, which was to kill a higher-rank beast alone.
Against all odds, he succeeded. He killed a 2nd Rank Beast, but the victory came at a terrible cost.
He was gravely injured and immediately pursued by several other beasts. As he was cornered, he leapt off a cliff into a raging river below.
That was where his life ended.
Strangely enough, his body remained intact without being eaten by beasts and was eventually discovered drifting downstream and brought back to the tribe.
'Now, let's start with the most important thing I need to do, right?' Ash thought to himself after recalling the important parts that he needed to remember from the memory.
'What do those main characters say about looking at their personal information once again?' He pondered to himself for a moment and mumbled softly. "Status window?"
The moment the voice left his lips, a translucent blue screen suddenly shimmered into existence before his eyes, surprising him a little bit even though he had already expected such a thing to happen.
[Personal Information]
[Name: Ash Ragh'Tal]
[Age: 23]
[Race: Human]
[Rank: 1st Rank Warrior]
[Talent: Primal Dual Ascension (SSS), Heightened Senses (A)]
[Equipment: - ]
[Stats]: Strength: 77 / Agility: 80 / Health: 73 / Endurance: 71 / Sense: 84 / Mana: 72 / Magic: 71
[Active Skills]:
_Twin Dagger Rhythm (C Rank)
_Shadow steps (C Rank)
_Twin Shot (D Rank)
_Piercing Draw (D Rank)
_Shadow Lunge (D Rank)
[Passive Skills]:
_Predator's Premonition (A Rank)
_Vital Point Perception (A Rank)
_Hunter's Calm (C Rank)
The moment Ash finished reading his personal information, his eyes widened—then he burst out laughing.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
The laughter echoed through the clay hut as Ash clapped his hands in delight.
Outside, a few tribe members passing by froze mid-step.
'Has the Tribe Lord finally lost his mind?' Some people thought to themselves when they heard it.
The reason why he laughed out loud was naturally simple, it was merely because he could read the system that no one else understood.
Apparently, the language shown in the system was nothing more than English.
Yes!
The language that everyone couldn't understand and even thought of as God's language was English.
People worshiped this thing as divine scripture, yet no one realized it was just a language barrier issue.
The absurdity of it almost made him laugh again.
As funny as he thought it would be, he also thought that it was weird because the system used English as the language that no one understood at this point in time.
However, all of these didn't matter for him anymore, as he didn't care about it. Not only that, but he felt happy instead, as he could monopolize this information and take advantage of such things.
Thinking about helping these poor souls in telling them their mission in exchange for something really worked him up to the point that his little brother started to wake up from its slumber, as he thought about such heavenly primitive bodies in his mind.
Just as he was imagining wild things in his mind, he was surprised when he heard the notifications from the system.
[Ding! Detecting a new loser—host…]
[Ding! Finding a solution…]
[Ding! Analyzing the current situation…]
[Ding! Granting a new system and merging with the current one…]
[Ding! Merger successful!]
[Ding! Activating the Tribal Lord System!]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host, you have received a welcome gift pack.]
[Ding! Do you want to open it?]
"Yes!" Ash immediately answered it without hesitation.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining 10,000 tribal points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining 100,000 system points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining an Orange Card, Scroll, and Orb.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining one chance of limitless rank upgrade.]
'Huh? What are these?' Ash thought to himself, genuinely feeling confused, as he didn't understand about the rewards he had just obtained, especially the tribal point and system point, in which he recalled that there was no such thing like these before.
Just as he was about to check the rewards and new Tribal Lord System, he heard a knock from the door followed by a voice belonging to an old man that he was somehow extremely familiar with.
"Tribe Lord, may I come inside?"
"Come in." Ash replied as he stood up slowly and stretched out his body.
An old man with long white hair and beard walked inside with a worried expression. His body was extremely refined even though he could be said to be skinny compared to other people in the tribe. He only wore something simple to cover his lower body and just wrapped bandages on his limbs.
"Are you alright?" the old man asked anxiously, patting Ash's shoulders and inspecting him carefully. "I heard someone found you unconscious, floating in the river yesterday."
"Old Ni, I'm fine." Ash chuckled lightly. "More importantly… How did the expedition go?"
Old Ni relaxed slightly and sighed. "If you say so, then that's good."
Then his expression brightened. "The expedition was successful. We cleared the gate and even obtained a Gray Card."
Ash raised an eyebrow when he heard the Gray Card because he knew that obtaining something like that was extremely rare.
Card levels were divided into multiple levels. Not only Card but also Scroll and Orb were divided into the same level as Card.
The card was an item that gave you a few choices of weapons, armors, accessories.
Meanwhile, the individual who used the Scroll would receive a random skill. As for the person who used the Orb, they would get a talent.
_White Card (1st Rank Item) | Scroll / Orb (F Rank)
_Gray Card (2nd Rank Item) | Scroll / Orb (E Rank)
_Green Card (3rd Rank Item) | Scroll / Orb (D Rank)
_Blue Card (4th Rank Item) | Scroll / Orb (C Rank)
"That's good." Ash smiled. "Give it to someone who deserves it."
"Huh? We can—"
Ash waved his hand, interrupting him. "Just do it. I have my own plans. Trust me."
Sigh!
"Like father, like son…" Old Ni shook his head helplessly.
Ash only smiled in response.
"So," Old Ni asked with a bitter smile, "any ideas yet on how you'll complete your mission?"
"Not yet, but don't worry, I'll definitely be able to complete the mission and become a 2nd Rank Warrior." Ash replied with a confident smile as if it were something trivial.
"Tell me when you have one. I'll help you as much as I can." Old Ni smiled and patted his shoulder once, then continued as he walked toward the door. "I'm leaving now since I still have other matters to attend to."
"Thanks for your concern, Old Ni." Ash smiled, as he genuinely felt thankful to him.
Just as when he saw the back of the old man who was about to leave the room, he was shocked when he heard the notification from the system.
[Ding! Do you want to upgrade Nirgos's rank?]