'were all fucked.'
Cain wasn't saying it from worry or being scared, they were objectively outmatched, the elite class has the future sword saint, the saintess and the hero of our era.
not only that but there is also one more group of people he's worried about
'there are likely other reincarnators in the elite class'
while he hasn't confirmed it yet, its an incredibly strong suspicion that he will be checking in the joint class
'and unlike me.. i do believe they each have a cheat'
while you could argue his blessing is a cheat.. its not. blessings are a power of this world and can be absurdly strong, the truly terrifying ones cant even be compared to his, it was something he had unlocked painstakingly after enduring hardship after hardship
and the same goes for his status, its something everyone has in this world not just him.
and in order to compete with such monsters.. he hasn't been slacking, you see on the first night he had gotten here, after unlocking echidna's gift, while he did indeed try to sleep he couldn't. after all a seed of doubt had planted itself in his mind
'echidna was a martial artist, but that's the power system of this world'
he had a strong suspicion that echidna was from this world, after all there had never been a person who seduced half of London was there? so its safe to assume some of his lives could come from parallel worlds, and who is to say every world has the same power system?
so he had done some digging.. and he was right, the Maren kingdom does exist, infact. echidna had been its previous ruler, who is now replaced by a new one
'my apparent.. daughter. and the one who had killed me'
but that's not the point, the point is that perhaps there are other lives of his in this world, and if he could find their traces, he would unlock their gifts, same as he had done with his past life's memory's
and so, while he had expected it to take a long time to find them, perhaps even years, he had seemed to be quite lucky
'no, not luck. it was planned by me after all'
there are many era's that have gone by in this world, like the era of Chaos, where the gods went to war. while not much is known about it it is known that many many gods died during it
but that's not the era he's interested in, its actually the era of calamities that he's interested in. it had been an era created by nine people, each called a calamity, among them. the fourth calamity, known as 'the one who sees all' is the focal point of it
'he had been my past life.. and while not fully known, his powers were known to give him knowledge, alot of it, infact'
he knew he would be reincarnated as me long in the future, so he had deliberately left me traces of him to help me
the traces themselves were something only he would likely know
'morse code'
he had known multiple languages in his past life, but his past self seemed to have chosen this one for some reason, but in short, the morse code said
"find my grave"
and it wasn't very hard, it had actually been laughably easy. it was his last battlefield and the place he died.
so, he had sent people from the academy under the guise of retrieving an artifact, and the expedition was incredibly dangerous, the battlefield was still teeming with mirror beast's left behind by the 3rd calamity, the souleater.
but they had indeed found the grave, and within it a strange wooden box, which they were instructed not to open.
they had only brought it back last night, directly before he went to sleep.
after touching the box did he find only he could open it.. and the contents, well content. since there had only been a single item were quite strange.. to say the least.
it was a single eyeball, seemingly made of crystal. luckily, it shattered the second he touched it, unlocking him a new gift, but that's for later, what was truly important was what was engraved on the inside of the box.. in a language perhaps only he, and maybe the gods. could understand
'Hebrew'
in his past life he had been born and raised in Israel, and Hebrew was a language he had spoken for all 34 years of his life, even now, 18 years after his reincarnation he could still easily speak it.. but the words engraved were truly.. cryptic
'as expected of a seer'
there had only been 3 sentence's. maybe only two of them important.
אני מעכל לך מזל
i wish you luck
תיזהר מהאלים
careful of the gods
תמצעה את אמא
find mother
the first had seemed to be encouragement, which was quite nice, the second was weird, but straightforward, but the third.. it baffled him.
'the fuck does that mean? mothers just a commoner.. well was, i guess..'
not only that, but despite so long passing, he still cant bring himself to confront her, atleast not yet
'il do it in the future.. yea..'
[gift of a promise]
description: laying atop a bloody mound in the hands of a crying woman is a seemingly peaceful man.. well, as peaceful as they can seem with both his eyes gouged out. with a calm yet struggling breath, the man asks the woman holding him
"will.. will you watch over me even after I'm gone..?"
clasping his bloody hands like a lifeline the woman answers
"i.. i promise..!"
seeming satisfied, the man speaks to someone else.. not the woman, or anyone on the battlefield
"you can hear me.. right? or something similar.. well either way, whatever happens.. i hope the gift i left you helps you well.."
type: passive
function 1: a fragment of "her" watches over you
{is everything alright dear?}
a beautiful, soothing tone speaks in Cains mind
'I'm fine, ariel'
that promise that woman had made to his past self.. it was far more literal than he had thought.. that eyeball. she had literally left a fragment of her soul in that eyeball
ariel had been the 3rd calamity, souleater. and also his wife
'are you sure you still love me..? not to be rude but I'm not the same person you know..'
{you are, your the exact same soul, and in due time. i wont just be a voice in your head, il have a spiritual body only you can see, and once you've used my power enough, even summon my real form. and while I'm not sure, perhaps once you fully master it, even unlock your old memories}
'so that's it'
he had suspected that to be the case, atleast to a degree, this only confirms it
along with her voice, she had also granted him a few other abilities, similar to his ring, his eyes changed slightly, now deeper and more beautiful, along with it, he can manipulate mirrors, although its incredibly hard to do so, even with ariels coaching
'there's a little more too it but that's the most of it'
after that lengthy, lengthy recap, he had finally arrived at the training hall, everybody wearing skintight black suites for training,
'i was right.'
looking at the elite class students walking in, his eyes lock onto a specific group, what he didn't expect though, is two people being there
'aside from the original four.. for both the hero of the goddess of light and the grand daughter of the sword saint to also be reincarnators'
if the two of them who are famously powerful are reincarnated than its safe to assume the other four are just as powerful too
but how had he known they were reincarnators..? well its quite simple really.
'curses in English? middle finger? i suppose they didn't expect there to be any other reincarnators than them'
now lies the question.. why didn't Cain go to the elite class? he had already known the noble class was outmatched so why go with it, despite clearly saying he want strong allies? the answer is also the same reason why his hands are shaking
excitement, desperation, and resentment.
they had been handed their cheats on a silver platter, while he was the suffering an orphan, while he wants to say he doesn't care.. he wants to prove that despite him getting nothing, despite them being stronger and of better status.. he can still win against these so called "geniuses"
and he's also desperate to prove to himself he's better.. after all, what good would any of his past efforts be if he cant win against them?
'but I'm probably going to face my first loss'
his strength isn't his strong suite.. maybe echidna could manage, but not him. even if he's incredibly strong for a mage
so how could he win a physical battle against not only the elite class, but even his own class
the plan is clear..
'just win.'
that's the plan, grit your teeth, straighten up. and ignore the pain and keep going. no matter what.
"attention students! i wont get into ANYTHING unnecessary during these classes. you will do what your told and behave as instructed. now 50 laps! go!"
the quick witted ones, like him, the princess and many others, began to run. the others who weren't..
they stood there baffled, after all. a single lap would kill a man on earth, even if the average power even for those without mana in this world is leagues beyond anything a normal human can do.
'but that's the point of it, its to test our mental endurance aswell as our physical ones'
{good luck my dearest one}
'thanks ariel'
while he did say the plan was just win.. he does have a backup one incase things get too hard
and so, side by side with the other noble class students on a steady pace, they begin their run. while those of the elite class run to their utmost power, aside from a handful of them.
'stamina conservation is essential, especially with a task like these, the nobles have already been trained by tutors before, so its engrained into them to conserve every bit of stamina'
'but most of the elite class students on the other hand are just talented commoners or of lower status than us, this stuff still needs to be taught to them.'
and so, after multiple hours of running, those who kept at a lower pace all get to lap 20, although they all seem dead tired, including Cain, who is sweating from head to toe and sweating his ass off
by lap 30 some of the elite classes and a few mages from the noble class have already collapsed, Cain looking the worst of those still running, being the only mage left. but on the outside? absolute calm, it may aswell have been as if he was taking a light jog through a park
by lap 37.. Cain is on his final leg. so he activates his trump card
'ariel helped me form my mana core, which mean.. i can use spells..'
the playboys gift allows him to use charm magic, in that is hallucination or brainwashing magic aswell.. which he will be abusing to trick his mind to be unable to feel pain, which might break his body.. but he's willing to do anything to defeat those reincarnated bastards
-CHAPTER END-
heyo yalls! hope u enjoyed the chapter! sadly i legitimately cannot think of a writers note so not today lol, maybe next time!
peace!