Prologue
Listen carefully.
House Wyrmgrave protected the southern border of the Empire Ashmore for three generations far better than the previous lords and kings of the distant past!
No sir, they didn't have enough scholars or honorable knights or even novice magicians in their military like the other noble factions but they didn't sugarcoat this fact with false tales of their talent in magic or any other bull*hit. This ordinary noble family accepted this truth and moved on.
But when it came to Monster-Hunting, oh boy, they were the very-best in that field no matter who you ask on Planet Midkan.
Hunting Monsters was their fine Regalia-the symbol of the Wyrmgrave Dukedom.
Apart from their bloody strategies of hunting monsters, efficiency of abominal trickeries and the questionable army system, Wyrmgrave was also the most famous for their libraries even if it sounded strange.
They spent too much time in killing every possible monstrosity and lots of...lots of research, and recordings of almost everything killable on the Empire's History.
Wyrmgraves tried to kill everything, failed, then tried again in different ways and finally found some way and recorded it in their libraries then sold the books across the continent.
Their archive held horrors and weird mutations that never showed up in the Human territories before. The Wyrmgrave family would bathe in abomination blood every day coming from the south. And deep down, it made them prouder with every new generation, which was pretty normal for their situation.
Being able to claim of defending against the abomination raids, monster armies and mutant flora attacks from the south by just themself without any help from the Empire was a big deal all across the continent. The whole humanity had several problems from all kinds of horrific things and Wyrmgrave Family was just one noble faction that had a giant underdeveloped region in south which everyone had to stuck together in the middle and didn't dare to spread.
Just below Wyrmgrave Family's ruling area of Southern Region, there was the Dark Sea. It was a black stretch of water that never saw sunlight because ten thousand meters above it floated a whole damn continent which violated all laws of physics.
People called this place as the Death Island but common folk used the "Flying Darkness".
The Death Island, as a continent was known hung in the sky, floated like a ceiling over the world. Its shadow was so massive and so permanent that the waters below had turned pitch black who know how long ago and the coastlines of every island underneath lived in a state of perpetual horrific darkness.
The Cold Isles, flying small ıslands were scattered across the Black Sea's surface like stepping stones between the floating continent Death Island above and the Dark Sea below. Some of them were on the sea, some were under and most of them were on the middle of Black Sea and the Death Island.
And if it was just under or on the sea, that would still be okay. But being in the middle and acting like a bridge in between was the real problem. Cold Isles acted like a somewhat working bridge for the monstrosities and all kinds of horrors.
The main Death Island on the top was covered in forests and who know what else. But even the known forest wasn't the kind you walked through for a pleasant afternoon, no! It was a living, expanding, rotting forest that grew downward in many ways to invade everything.
It was an invasive plant life that didn't care about human survival spread from the continent's underbelly like a disease, dropping seeds and spores and alien vegetation that took root wherever it landed. Plagues that no healer on the mainland had ever encountered before drifted down from the canopy. And with the plants came the creatures - abominations of every shape and size, magical beasts, things that didn't have names yet because nobody who'd seen them up close had survived long enough to write one down.
The creatures that couldn't fly used the Cold Isles as a staircase. They'd drop from the floating continent's edges onto the highest islands, breed there, spread to the lower ones and eventually reach the Dark Sea's coastline to from there they pushed north to human territories. The terrifying forest they brought with them kept taking permanent root along the coast and expanding toward the Southern Region of humans year after year. Every season the tree line crept a little closer to them.
At least until Wyrmgrave Family took control of the Southern Region and started changing things in the last hundred years.
And the worst part about this living hell was, Empire's attention wasn't focused entirely on the south even if it was one of the worst problems. Empire Ashmore had other borders against other enemies, other problems in every direction. The Southern Region was just one front out of many and the military resources allocated to it were never quite enough.
Which meant if the South fell, the whole Empire would follow. The abominations wouldn't stop at the border. They'd pour north into the heartlands and every other region would face the same nightmare without three generations of Wyrmgrave hunting knowledge to guide them.
That was why House Wyrmgrave existed.
Their purpose wasn't to hold the line, but find the fastest and most efficient way to kill every unimaginable thing that crawled, flew or oozed down from the Death Island or from the Black Sea. They had to find a way to document a way to kill strong ones and develop faster killing methods for the weak ones with numerous numbers. it. Then they would sell the knowledge in the form of education or books and and do it all over again tomorrow once more.
And one day that same proud family and their proved hunting mentality shattered with the sound of a "bang!"
..
BANG!
A gunshot came out from a small garden area next to the Dukedom House Wyrmgrave.
None of their monster-hunting instincts prepared them for that evening. Their eight-year-old heir of House Wyrmgrave, the little lord of the whole territory put a hole in a wild boar from fourteen meters away without touching it.
He didn't do it himself obviously. They used a gardener for the weapons testing but the alien weapon was made by the little lord himself!
A giant animal was forced into a cage of black iron. It kept ramming the bars until its breath turned into angry white foam. The boar wasn't even a Tier One danger of monsters which called as "Wildling" but it was so close to that dangerous level.
The household watched from the balcony while the small personal army of the Wyrmgrave Family surrounded the test field while the whole household's workers and all the visitors from everywhere were scattered around for easy view.
The publicity was because Duke Armand wanted witnesses for his son as the tiny troublemaker had demanded this event for a month nonstop! It wasn't the first time the boy had begged for things. Most of the time it was all about sweet candies or cakes.
But one month ago, little Gustave's polite voice changed suddenly and he started asking weird things from everyone. The Duke was sure that if the boy didn't stop eating sweets like crazy, he would believe him to be possessed and maybe even came under a mind controlling monster's influence.
They still tested him of course, but it was because of the security measures and rules of the Family, nothing personal..- Ehem.. They had to follow some rules that were written with the blood of thousands of soldiers and family members from multiple generations.
But adding pleasure to the family, the boy was okay and the same little charming and smart one. He just started messing with metals, dusty chemicals and some weird fluids but who cares as long as he was happy right. The whole family-hells, even the whole southern region was full of batshit lunatics. Duke wouldn't care if his son had some weird antics. They weren't the most normal family in this crazy world.
But even among their strange family line, the boy was pushing the limits a little bit too much sometime.
What normal eight-year-old would want to test the power of a fireball spell on his arm? Or demands alchemy products with a smithing forge built by dwarves?
What the hell even is a dwarf?
The boy went extra crazy all of a sudden and that was the only reason his family was concerned.
But after a month of nonstop pestering the whole household, his Duke father finally agreed to his heir's little "demands." The boy kept muttering strange words about metals and powder but he looked serious so Duke Armand didn't stop him from his new toy it's testing event.
He invited two Baron Lords from close towns to this dinner as he wanted his heir to show whatever idea he'd been cooking for so long. The Duke didn't have high hopes for something revolutionary but still humored this lovely day and finally the damn testing began.
Little Gustave stood out on the garden path with a gardener in front of him.
Duke warned him to first made someone else use it, even offered one of his personal soldiers as the user but his son insisted a normal person had to use it. No aura training and magical abilities were a must. But this was the hellish Southern Region. Almost everyone was trained for at least some basic stuff.
Finding a truly normal and untrained person was more challenging than they imagined but finally they found it in their own house!
One of the gardeners, an old man worked for the house for more than 40 years was untrained because of a disease in his childhood. It made his body unattuned to magic, mana or any other physical training.
Old man Marten, the untrained gardener stood a few steps in front of the little son of the lord with his arms out, holding a metal rod as if it might bite.
The old man was terrified when they took him from his house and sent him to here this morning. The son of the lord even talked with him and taught him so much weird stuff about this metal thing.
It was a weapon, at least that was little lord said to him.
A single sheet of paper lay on the gravel floor with a stone on it in case the wind blew it away. It was near Marten's foot so he could see the instructions but Martin was a smart man and already memorized everything little lord showed him.
The poor man shook with fear of ruining whatever expensive looking treasure they gave him but still didn't look at the paper and just took a deep breath. His hands started the action slowly and got faster as he used the powder and tools on the metal rod.
Reloading the weapon was the most important step according to the paper and his little lord and he had to do every step himself with extra care.
His little lord Gustave even said something like "Proof of Competence..." but Marten didn't understand what that meant. He tried to do his best and followed every command with perfection. He was a smart man even if didn't have the chance to train with this sick body..
Then maybe the weakest person in the entire Southern Region of humanity fired the metal weapon..
BANG!
Nobody in the House Wyrmgrave's garden could agree on what to call the sound that came next.
Thunder?
The knights reached for their swords on instinct. It was obvious instinct for them. But the problem was even if the shot was louder than most monster shrieks, their weapon drawing reaction was too slow to react to it!
"What was that?" A commander of the family army and one of the best hunters of the Southern Region muttered. He didn't show his shock but even he was impressed with the attack and tried to analyze this new weapon.
It was strong even in the hands of a common old man which was a impressive part. But more impressive thing was, that thing was too damn fast for even adept soldiers to react!
The question on everyone's mind was the same.
How?
Under the eyes of everyone, Gardener Marten's finger tightened on the crude trigger. He was frozen with shock and the recoil of the basic old school rifle in his hands. It was just a finger movement then the boar looking monster screamed and the voice was too frightening.
The animal kept screaming as it bled under the watchful eyes of everyone in the back garden area.
Boar-like monster threw itself against the bars in blind panic, shrieking with blood pouring out of its thick neck.
"What was that?"
"Did you see how the weapon attacked?"
"I can't see any aura or magic..."
Soldiers used to the ways of this world were confused, because most dangers from an abomination or a magician gave you a warning beforehand. Even monsters followed the same rules as their abilities weren't almighty like the rest of the empire believed.
No! They were Wyrmgrave hunters before being soldiers and knew the reality behind power-balance of this world better than everyone.
Nothing was too absurd or better than the other in the basic picture of power. Of the Monster, Aura and Magic triangle, all of them had the same level of rules and basic common points you get to notice after an immense research and tests.
For example, when a magician used magic it would always create signs of mana heat in the air before it was shot, or permutated into a form.
Another example was when a warrior tried to use an aura-filled strike with their sword or fill their close combat skills with aura. This basic action of strengthening wouldn't happen instantly but instead grow over a few seconds. Nothing would and could happen in an instant with basic biology rules involved in it.
Last of the power triangle was the monsters. And even the most absurd monsters that horrified House Wyrmgrave weren't almighty like the rest of the world believe. Monsters also still had some rules in their environment or other kinds of balancing issues about their population, personal defects or brain capacity. Some monsters were too strong but they were also hurting their own bodies with the insane power levels. Or other abominations had some undefendable deadly powers but couldn't live longer than a few days after their birth. It was a running game against this type.
Too many creatures, bloodlines, special skills, abilities or horrific eldritch shit was happening around the world.
But no matter what it was, "power" took some time and signs to show itself even if it happened in different forms. And everyone lived and trained in this world learned to read the power signs as it was the only solution of survival.
Today, the new weapon in the shape of a metal rod gave no warning for the strike, felt like it happened instantly, almost like it defied distance and time.
Soldiers and other onlookers didn't sense the usual aura buildup from the metal, or any mana signature they were used to from alchemy divisions of other regions. This was something completely common like a tiny metal arrow. And tiny metal arrow was shot from the metal stick. It was much stronger than common bows with aura enchantment with no clear warning beforehand.
The possibilities were endless when hunting monsters because no monster would expect this..
While everyone was thinking about this new weapon, the eight-year-old boy stood with a satisfied smile as new texts appeared in front of his eyes.
[Test No. 10: Complete]
[Range 14.3 m | Deviation Negligible | Mana Cost 0]
[New Experiment Data Recorded]
Just as Gustave was about to show his new father another rifle in his bag, he heard a new voice.
[Congratulations! All Missions Completed 10/10
-Average Finishing Score: 10.00
// Rewards:
1- Access to the Main Interface and Market Page √
2- 5 Stat Points √
3- 100 Market Coins √
Perfect Score Reward: Blueprint of Mana Analysis Module (Crude) √]
Gustave's eyes focused on the text that nobody else could see.
His skin prickled because the text looked like the kind of writing style artificial intelligences used on Earth in his old life. A moment of hatred flashed across his face but he suppressed it and instead started thinking about the meaning of the rewards.
This world was outside of his expectations to be honest.
Gustave was much more of a tech guy and this mana, magic and warrior stuff was a total unknown field to him for the last month. Being ably to hear a mechanic voice and seeing technological modern texts made him question so many things once again.
..
While the little lord, Gustave Von Wyrmgrave was making his own plans about a strange system's rewards, his new father Duke Armand von Wyrmgrave jumped down from the balcony with a single step.
This was supposed to be a noble gathering of the southern region and his way of getting down wasn't proper etiquette. But Duke Armand damned the rules most of the time and didn't care as long as his wife didn't see it.
Actually, even his wife would tolerant this much uncouth behavior.
In the end, everyone in this household was a warrior. Even his wife and daughters and the little pet dogs behind the garden were trained hunters. The two Barons as dinner guests were also both his vassals and former students. So nobody would judge his antics in his own house.
Duke Armand jumped down with a classy landing and walked toward his son with his right hand inside his pocket. His son's drawing paper was still under the rock the old gardener used. The Duke took the paper and brought it close enough to see the complicated instructions on the top with many drawings and numbers at the bottom.
"Gustave," he said in a voice kept low for the boy alone as Duke's eyes never left the child's face after the name. He didn't even look at the shaken and nervous gardener close to them. Poor Marten sat down on the ground and muttering some stuff. But Duke ignored the old man and said quietly. "How many of these can we make?"
He waited for the answer without blinking which was a bit intimating if he wasn't looking at the Gustave, which had a fearless and almost amused look on his face.
Little Gustave held his eyes against the lord for a moment then he reached into his coat and pulled out one tiny sheet. He pressed it into his new father's hand with careful fingers. The gesture looked cute in his father's eyes.
It was a funny story actually.
Yesterday, his wife forbade Gustave from speaking for a whole day as punishment. The Duke didn't know the details but he heard something like "no sweets for a month if you talk." And this little devil was so serious about eating candy that he still didn't talk in this tense ambient.
Duke Armand held the tiny paper and looked at the small, neat letters as the message was short and clever:
"We can make as many as we want. But I want access to the alchemy room and the forge. And two chocolate cakes every day!"
Duke Armand respected his son's weird antics about sweets, but also worried about his teeth and while the Duke was thinking about how to convince his wife about this deal, the little boy's eyes changed a bit.
Gustave acted like he was thinking about the weapon but his mind was filled with old memories. Seeing the system messages always brought up those bad memories. Especially one important memory surfaced in Gustave's head as usual.
He lived another life in a different distant place. Gustave theorized his old world to be in a different alternative universe but the information wasn't enough to make a certain claim on this. And that life on Earth was very different from this new one.
That disgusting world had a particular smell he would never forget.
It was mostly burned plastic under acid rains with a lot of metallic life forms all around everywhere you looked. Even now after all this time, he could remember the smell which disturbed him while thinking about his old life.
There was a small workshop that reeked of chemical smoke and a very tired middle-aged man. Gustave lived in that place the last years of his life and this special memory was too important to him for some reason.
It began with the same bloody purple ceiling on the lower grounds of the worker floors and they were carrying some stuff in the small cramped workshop.
Gustave asked his longest colleague in that place a sudden question;
"Do you know how to kill an immortal?"
The words came out flat in that filthy place.
His colleague laughed under his breath and shook his head like Gustave was crazy. "You can't," he said.
His smile didn't reach his eyes after the answer. "That's the whole point of them." And shrugged like it was a settled matter for him. A definitive truth like nothing could change it. Water was a fluid, fire was hot and Immortals were endless... all the same in his mind and added with a cold smirk. "Immortals, literally.."
But Gustave in his old life was stubborn. He still pushed the topic even if it was insanely dangerous to talk it loud.
"No. There must be a way and I will find it. Nothing in life can be unending. Everything must end at some point..!"
Gustave replied as he slid a paper of strange draft back into his coat before even showing it to his collogue. His fingers left a streak of ink on the paper's edge but it was already an impossible design so didn't matter how clean the paper was..
He pushed his luck one last time to convince this stubborn man. "Maybe we should stop asking how to persuade them and find their weak points and their gimmicks. Like those stories of ancient-"
"That's not how it works," his colleague finally snapped with real anger. He looked away as if the idea offended his whole belief. "They must change back a little bit then everything will be good again. No need of dreaming of killing them which is impossible but also the whole civilization is centered around the immortals. You know it too man."
"I just can't believe all of it. They are manipulating us," Gustave said with certainty in his eyes. He watched the man's jaw tighten with anger again but still muttered. "We just haven't found how..." He turned down the corridor toward his sleeping capsule after that.
That colleague joined a civil protest with the dream of changing of the whole system, civilization, worth of living and even the rulement of Immortals.
Gustave even heard the crowd of protestors from his window, they were shouting slogans like; "Rise up brothers and sisters, they can't hang us all!" He knew that they meant every word of that sentence as their shouts were loud enough to rattle the window panels in the workshop.
But the reality was different and they were all hanged by morning in that bloody event! Including the only friend he had... Nothing changed after that, except he was now alone in the workshop an it stayed the same until the day he died.
"Emotional idiot..." he thought with the sad memory. They weren't like best buddies but still had some moments and friendly banters while getting drunk. Losing things was difficult, even for someone as emotionless as Gustave.
He still remembered that that how sick and desperate he felt while watching all of it on internet while asking the same question with a crazy muttering.
"How to kill a god..? How-HOW-how-h-h-hh-howwww....aşfkalhıogodkilling%'!"
Sleepless nights and some tiny insanity didn't help for finding an answer. Gustave couldn't find an actual solution to that question before running out of time and dying from cancer. He didn't know how to end immortality or gods.
He just died with many unfinished projects, untested theories and so many questions.
One life ended on Planet Earth as a nobody.
Another began here on Planet Midkan as Gustave Von Wyrmgrave.
He was eight years old with a noble identity in a world of magic and sword.
He stared at his small hands, still struggling to process the sheer absurdity of his second chance.
..
A few seconds later, one of the barons walked closer to the place the rifle was used after jumping from the balcony like his lord.
And everyone followed after him.
Before that, the soldiers couldn't come closer to the weapon no matter how much they were curious about it. They needed a proper reason and now they had one. They had the duty of covering their lord from all danger and this also included protecting the Duke from all foreign people even if they were vassal barons of the region or personal students of the lord.
The soldiers knew they were much weaker than the Duke but still got the chance and came close to the testing area and inspected the rifle with great wonder.
The first person to come here, Baron Neville, asked the Duke.
"Where did the young lord learn to make something like this, My Lord?"
The Duke looked down at the schematic paper for how to create the rifle but it looked too complicated for his taste. He was a beginner level enchanter and blacksmith but this looked way too out of his league. Then he looked at his son and answered with a deep voice. "Little Gustave says he worked it out himself."
He looked proud of his son and added one last word at the end. "He invented it himself!"
Nobody in the garden of the lord's manor said anything after that. Under everyone's interested eyes, Gustave reached into his bag on the floor and brought out a second rifle. It was already loaded and ready to use.
He raised it and took aim at the far end of the garden.
The motion looked too steady for a child. Like he was a seasoned soldier with a lot of military practice. But nobody here understood the implications of his strange behavior.
Gustave drew in a slow breath and fired at the head of the screaming boar. Smoke came from the muzzle and the smell hit his nose with the same familiar bitter edge.
He missed this smell.
How do you kill an immortal being?
The question was still inside his head as he lowered the rifle.
He didn't have the answer for his weird obsession connected to this question. Maybe he'd lost his mind somewhere along the way but the desire to solve it had survived death and rebirth. And if this was some kind of madness, then so be it.
Gustave would gladly accept that he was crazy..!
He had a plan before which didn't work no matter what he tried. The plan was sketched on a stolen paper in his old workshop through too many sleepless nights with too many variants and unknown factors.
Even with the lack of information, he could make it to the end but it failed for the simplest of the numerous possible reasons.
Poor old Gustave never had the means to build it. No money, recourses or enough experience for some innovative addons to his ideal weapon. Being poor with this much ambition was maddening..
But not this time again.
Fu*king hell!I won't feel the same despair and powerlessness this time.
He'd step off the fields they had already won and make something new that Immortals never had to fear before!
Gustave brought down his rifle after making sure the monster was dead and felt the ambition in his chest growing stronger every new second of this new life.
Every time he saw someone did some scientifically impossible thing in this new world, his plans grew bolder and crazier.
They shouldn't have let me touch magic.
Fools...