I collapsed to the sand, right out of the water. Not because I was physically tired. Oddly enough, after all the crashes and the wading, I still had energy left in the tank. There was another form of exhaustion—the mental fatigue. Even when all my injuries had healed, my young mind was still in shock after all that had happened.
Now that I was out of danger, relaxed on a calm shore, watching the beautiful sea, the thoughts grew louder.
Starting with the fact that my parents had actually tried to kill me. I knew they did not love me, but the worst I had thought they might do was kick me out of the house—not throw me to die in a river.
Then there was the fact that I should be dead. When I had been standing by the bridge railing yesterday, watching the angry river, I had resigned myself to my fate. By now, I should have been a floating mutilated corpse.
And of course, how could I forget the relentless torture that followed? That feeling of drowning that went on for hours. The relentless bashing against the riverbed and the boulders. It was the most traumatizing experience of my life so far, and that was saying a lot.
For a moment, I found myself there again—in the depths of horror and helplessness. A groan escaped my lips, and I was on the verge of tears. I was just a child. How could I be suddenly thrown into all of that without going insane?
The train of dark thoughts threatened to derail until I remembered why I was here, and not in the depths of the sea. That strange blue light. Each time it appeared, it granted me something to help with my debacle.
The last time it appeared was just a few minutes ago, just before I emerged to the surface. I didn't know how to conjure it willfully—or at least, that's what I thought.
As soon as the idea entered my mind, the blue sheet of light was conjured in front of me, as if a natural response.
[Status Menu - Traits
Base Trait: Deathless
Adapted Traits:
Cold Resistance III
Amphibious Respiration
Dense Musculature
Low-light Vision
Pain Tolerance II
Balance Compensation
Rapid Clotting
Adaptive Regeneration
Kinetic Conditioning
Predator's Reflex
Predatory Focus
Damage Conversion]
I had seen a lot of magical spells before, but presenting a body of text within a sheet of light was something new. The closest thing I had seen was a mage lifting and opening up a scroll in the air.
I immediately recognized some of the words.
'Deathless.' That was the first word I had read as soon as I woke up from that brief unconsciousness.
[Base Trait: Deathless Acquired]
[Condition has been met: You have experienced death]
[You can sustain injury, drowning, burning, poisoning, and all forms of bodily destruction—but will not die. Pain and damage will persist until fully healed.]
The contents of the blue sheet of light shifted to display what I was curious about. It seemed to read my mind and eagerly answered my thoughts.
I focused on the body of text presented, and my skin crawled. I still didn't know how trustworthy the information was, but the description explained a lot. Why I had not died when I should have, and why I continued to survive despite the continuous fatal damage.
It was both the reason I survived and the reason I suffered so much.
I wanted to read the other entries. The blue sheet of light responded to every mental request. Soon I was shifting from description to description, until I recognized a pattern.
These so-called traits, which were in no way normal, were earned through receiving damage. As I suffered in the water, I appeared to have gained characteristics related to the types of suffering I endured.
All the burning pain from the drowning gave me [Amphibious Respiration], which made me able to breathe underwater. I got [Cold Resistance] from enduring the biting cold, and resistance to it. I got [Pain Tolerance] from all the pain, [Rapid Clotting] from all the bleeding, [Low-light Vision] from all the darkness, and so on.
But why now? I had suffered all my life. Where was the blue light then—
I chuckled as the realization dawned on me. It was my sixteenth birthday, the day I was supposed to awaken. Something must have gone wrong. Maybe a slight error in the exactness of my birthdate, or maybe the awakening orb was broken.
As strange as it was, maybe this was my magic. Not an elemental affinity like other children got, but the ability to acquire traits through damage.
Already I could see a myriad of possibilities. I could be an anomaly. Feared by other magic-wielders.
Traits, unlike spells—which were time-limited and mana-consuming—appeared to require neither. They did not need gestures, chants, or concentration to activate. Traits were part of my nature and not merely a conjuration.
Not to mention, of course, that by attacking me, they would only make me stronger.
And how could I forget the most important trait of all: [Deathless]… immortality. That alone would be enough to bring me into the good graces of my parents.
If I went back now, maybe they would finally value me. I could be the pride of my father's house. My siblings, instead of kicking me down, might perhaps look up to me with envy and respect.
I huffed, then chuckled, before my whole upper body shook in loud and boisterous laughter.
Damn them! They had killed me, and behold—Stephen is dead.
With this power, I could start anew. Ideally somewhere far away.
I turned to the harbor in the distance. What a beautiful coincidence.
I decided I had rested and thought enough. I stood up from the ground with excitement and thrill, and a feeling of freedom I had never felt before.
I was still not used to the physical improvements I had gained. I could not recognize my physique. From sickly, to someone with decent musculature. With it, my strides were faster and covered more ground.
I stuck to the shoreline as I traveled towards the port town, enjoying the feeling and the view. It was my first time visiting a beach, and it was just as beautiful as it had been described in books.
The bustle of the docks soon reached my ears. The rest of the town came into view. I climbed the stairs from the sand up to the wooden platform.
Gawking at the sight of the ships, I delved deeper into the crowd. The whole place smelled of all manner of scents, many of them unpleasant, but I was just glad that I could endure such a suffocating environment, instead of collapsing as I would have before.
All the ships there were massive to a boy like me, but one of them was significantly bigger than the rest—like a floating wooden mansion.
Unable to contain my curiosity, I navigated out of the crowd, nearer to the ship.
"Where is this ship headed?" I asked a man nearby, who appeared to be of common birth and working on the docks.
He turned his head, scanned me from head to toe, and then his face softened.
"That one's bound to Enasses… young master."
"Enasses, I haven't heard of that place," I replied.
"'Tis a newly discovered continent. Found by explorers who just returned months ago. They said it's filled with both riches and dangers."
"Dangers… and riches, huh." I grinned. I liked the combo.
"The ship leaves in three days," he added.
Three days. That would be enough time to gather my thoughts and make some preparations.