"W- What is it that you want!!!? Money?! I'll give you EVERYTHING! I- I can also give y- you beautiful slaves if you w- want! S- so.. P- please spare me!!"
A chubby man with spiral mustache begged on his knee infront of a shadowy figure infront of him. Clad in elegant coat and tunics, the man looked more like a noble than an innocent civilian.
He was trapped within a small room, the walls and ceiling around him covered in blood splatters as a lifeless corpse laid limp on the floor beside him. Other than that, a table was also placed in the middle, along with two chairs that seemed to have previously been seated by the man and the corpse.
There was no light source except from the small window, the glowing moonlight shone through the crevices, lighting up a portion of the room while the man continuously cried as his hands pleaded at the shadowed figure.
"Stay still and let luck decide your fate." The figure said in a cold, apathetic man voice. He then moved his hand to the table and grabbed something.
Clack!
It was some sort of a device that mimicked a gun, its nozzle was pointed right at the noble man's forehead, ready to be fired.
"H- HIIKKK!!!" The noble man shrieked in horror, his snot gushes out of his noses as he keeps begging. "P- PLEASE.. L- LET ME LIVE! Y- YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'LL HAPPEN IF I DIED!"
"Why do i need to care? Beside, you're not exactly guaranteed to die, there's a 16% chance you'd survive."
The shadowed figure answered again, his voice still sounded the same, cold, and unbothered. As the noble man gritted his teeths, the trigger was pulled.
Click!
BANG!
The noble man's head was pushed back by the force, his life ended in an instant as his head exploded with bloods showering into the wooden walls behind him. It was gruesome scene, yet the shadowed man doesn't seem to have been influenced by it even in the slightest.
"—What a pity." Said the mysterious man.
The surrounding became quiet all of a sudden, no more plea, no more screaming, just the sound of the nightly winds that breezed past the small wooden shack.
Amidst all of that, the mysterious man then left the shack and met with the two moons in the sky, that is when his appearance was revealed. A sharp jawline, a crimson eyes that looks devilish, a long white hair, and a monocle placed on his right eye, he looked approximately like a 27 years old adult.
Clad in black long coat, white tunic, and a black beret, the man took his first step forward amongst the endless trees around him. It seems like he was hiding in a forest, a reasonable decision after what happened earlier.
"THAT'S HIM!" A voice suddenly screamed in the distance from the side of the man, he looked to the source of the voice and found a dozens of people in knight armor all facing their swords towards him.
Shortly after the man had noticed the knights, those armored soldiers then charged forward, their screams filled the quiet forest as they raised their swords and ready to strike at the mysterious lone man.
"—They're all so stubborn.." The mysterious man said.
He watched the knights closing their distance to him, and with a flash of light, a magic circle appeared in his right hand.
THUNK!
The magic circle rotated for a few seconds before it was shattered into sparks of lights that was then formed into a sword.
"YOUR SLAUGHTER WILL END HERE!! BE GONE TO HELL!" A knight in shining armor arrived at the mysterious man and he swung his sword at him, intending to split him in half.
CLANG!
But unfortunately, his attack was blocked, and instead, the mysterious man launched a counter attack that cuts through his armor like butter.
SLASH!
"KAARRGHHG!!!"
The knight screamed for a brief moment before he collapsed, dead.
"DON'T BE AFRAID!! GET HIM!" Another knight charges, this time followed by everyone as they realized that fighting on a one versus one battle would mean certain death.
But unbeknownst to them..
BANG!
A gunshot rang from the mysterious man as he pulled out his revolver gun and shot it at the knights, the bullet pierced multiple of the knight's head and they all fell simultaneously.
With just one bullet, more than 5 people were killed.
"KUAAGHH!!!"
Slash!
"SHIT!"
BANG!
"WHAT IS THAT! WHAT IS THAT WEAPON!! WHAT IS THAT MAGIC!!"
SLASH!!
BANG!
The battle rampages for a couple minutes, and the army of knights that previously smugged and confident with their strength, was now trapped in an unending cycle of despair as they saw all of their comrades get killed one by one.
"M- Monster.." A hopeless knight said while being pointed by the revolver, he was the last remaining knight in there.
He thought his life would be over.
He thought that he would be tortured.
However, just as when he had came to term with the end of his life, the mysterious man suddenly spoke.
"Let's play a game." He said.
"H- huh?..." The knight replied in confusion, his tears stopped flowing as he looked at the white haired man. "A game?.."
"Guess the number in my head, one to ten."
The knight was stunned, he had no idea what to do, to guess the number that the man was thinking, that's just him telling the knight that he had to gamble on his survival.
The knight hesitated, his body was shaking, but he eventually gathered the courage, and chose a number that he will bet his life on.
"F- Four..." He answered.
The knight looked at the mysterious man, his face was blank like usual, he can't make out what he was implying, was he correct? Or was he wrong?
Click.
A jolt of electricity rushed through the knight's body, the gun's trigger had just been pulled, and yet.. No bullet came out, he wasn't dead, he survived.
"You win." The mysterious man said, he reluctantly lowered his revolver and stab his sword to the soil below. "Go, see your family, and report this to whoever your superior is."
Hearing that the man had spared him, the knight froze in his place, even if he doesn't believe it, he didn't want to miss the chance. So, after everything, the knight stood up and ran away, out of the woods, and disappeared from the mysterious man's vision.
Who is this mysterious man?!
.
.
A few weeks ago—
Cough! Cough!
Within the empty and dusty place, a voice from a man was heard, he coughed multiple times before he opened his eyes.
Although the lighting in the room was lacking, it was still bright enough to see the man's appearance clearly, thanks to the sunlight that went through the small crevices and holes.
The man looked familiar, white long hair, red eyes, and an adult. Except this time, he wasn't wearing his black coat nor his monocle, he instead wore a simple tunic and pants that was torn apart.
His body was malnourished, his skin had dried, his face was dirty, unlike the merciless killer that he was before, the man now looked nothing more than a slave.
Where.. is this?..
The man looked around, and found nothing but wood logs, it seems like he fainted or slept inside of a storage room.
My right eye.. Is a little blurry than my left eye..
Then, when he tried to remember his identity, a strange texts and panel appeared in his mind as if he was forced to imagine it.
[Obtained Skill: Creation Magic Lv. 1]
[Obtained Trait: Trait Stealer Lv. 0 > Have a low chance of obtaining one of the trait from any creatures you killed]
Huh?... What's that?
The man questioned the panel, he felt confused and was unsure of what to do.
My hair.. Long.. and White– Im hungry..
This isn't.. My body– Im supposed to be, dead..
Is this what they call.. A reincarnation? A second life–
The words that appeared in my mind.. Is it a system?..
Creation magic.. So there's magic, i've been reincarnated in a fantasy world it seems.
Trait stealer?.. Is it different from a skill? Maybe.. It's like a passive skill.. I can get traits from killing?
But why level 0?
This room.. My clothes.. My current body state, there's a high chance that im a slave based on these clues..
My name.. What is my name now?..
Just then, a water droplet dropped inside of his mind, and in an instant, the memory of the body that he was possessing crashes all over him like an ocean wave.
"Mghh.." The man groaned and held his forehead tightly, the headache was intense, but it wasn't something that he couldn't bear.
After a few seconds, the man finally knew himself.
"Astrith Granfeld.." He abruptly said.
That's my name.. Astrith, the name of this body–
An orphan.. And a slave, just like i thought..
As Astrith was looking through his memories, he came across an information that angered him. It was the memory of the previous Astrith, being betrayed by a noble who bought him when he was sold in the slave market.
After both of his parents had passed away, Astrith lived as a wanderer, taking oddjobs in towns and cities while sleeping inside of an alleyway or an inn when he had enough money.
However.
Fate doesn't seen to take a liking to him, as one day, Astrith was caught in a massive kidnapping spree that took more than 30 people in the town he settled in.
The kidnappers were slave traders, and Astrith who never learned combat or magic, couldn't do anything but accept his new fate, as a slave.
Usually, slaves were used for pleasure such as sex, but other times they were also used as a test subjects of wicked experiments. With few rare cases of where a slave was bought with the intention to be let them be free as a normal functioning human again.
And Astrith, he.. Was bought by a noble.
One might think he should've expected his life to get worse after being a slave, then why does he felt betrayed?
That's because, the noble promised him love and affection before he bought him.
But what he received wasn't love or real adoption, he was instead forced to do extreme labor, his life previously was already hell, but now it turned for the worse as he was forced to become a perpetual human machine.
The noble used Astrith for his own entertainment, often times torturing him with various weapons and tools, the noble also forced Astrith to clean his mansion every single day, constantly, and if he got caught slacking or breaking something, he would be beat up relentlessly.
Astrith's body almost got destroyed, but he held on on a single light of hope. That hope is to see him be free again, one day.
A few years after the noble took Astrith as his slave, he eventually became bored of him, and he decided to sell Astrith to a slave market again, where then he was then bought and brought to this place, a bandit camp where slaves were used as plaything. Similar to how the noble treated Astrith.
That noble name.. Berreck De Ravenfall, i see.. So you've been suffering for a long time.
And in the end, you weren't able to see yourself be free from the shackles of enslavement.
...I don't know what to do in this new world, but finding that noble might be a lot of fun.
Astrith walked to the wooden door infront of him, when out of nowhere, it was opened from the outside.
Creakk!