Rei never had expectations or hope about his life after his parents passed away...
How could he?
His life was always full of struggles and hardship after all... just surviving, just earning money to keep himself and his little sister alive and make sure she's happy brought him to his wits end... it took all his efforts...
So why would he waste energy complaining about something that's never gonna change?
He never had hope about his damn luck to begin with!
I Am just unlucky…'
He thought…
Life is just cruel like that he thought...
I just have to crawl out of hell myself he thought...
Yet…
Yet…
Still when he died… when he saw that damn system message… when he realized that his gonna be transmigrated into a new world!
He couldn't help himself but grow a bit hopefull...
Is it really such a bad thing…?
To grow a bit hopeful...
Do i always have to be such a hopeless bastard?
Can't i have a bit of hope for once?
I already lived a hopeless life once damn it!
I didn't even have such high hopes damn it!
"Just send me to a random city… give me some slightly useful skills to earn a living… maybe let me make a few real good connections for once…"
"That's all I'm asking for!"
"It shouldn't be that unreasonable to hope for just that much right?"
But no…
what a fool he was to hope for such a life...
[Title: Worthless Wretch]
[Title Description: Your a useless insignificant being that brings nothing but misfortune...
You are worth nothing.
Your existence itself is so uniquely wretched that a new Title had to be created just to describe you.
You can die honored for such an unprecedented feat has never been done before.]
Rei's lifless golden eyes finally shone with a small spark... it was intense...
He gritted his teeths in fury as he looked at his information status shining so brightly as if mocking him...
His knuckles whitened from being griped so hard and he had to bite his lip to not shout in anger.
"Die honored you say…? "
"So i should just go die in some random corner because I'm so worthless! is that what your trying to say huh bastard?"
Rei muttered with a low intense tone...
[Yes]
A shadow of a new message appeared for a fraction of second before disappearing immediately.
'Huh? was that a yes? i couldn't read it properly… it wasn't right? '
'Is this bastard playing with me!? '
Sighing in frustration Rei decided to not think about it.
it's gonna be this bastard's win if he did after all.
'anyway fuck the system… i don't have time to waste on him…'
'I better check my other statu-
-Clang! Clang! Clang!
His thoughts were interrupted by the jarring sound of an iron bat hitting the bars of a cell as a guard shouted...
"Oi! bastards! wake up it's time to work!"
'What …?'
Looking through the bars of his cell Rei saw a bunch of guards wearing rusty armors and holding sowrds...
They walked through the dark chamber of the prison and opend the doors of the cells using iron keys.
"Alright! gather around idiots! those mines aren't gonna mine themselves!"
A brown haired guard with an armor that isn't rusty and seem to be a the leader of the other guards shouted.
'Mines…? '
Confused Rei complied and silently headed to stand next to the other dozen or so prisoners after a guard opend his cell.
"Alright fools you know the drill were going to the mine, make trouble and you die… on the other hand you will get food for each soul fragment you bring."
The guard ordered with a commanding tone.
Then he gestured for another guard to bring something.
"Hey you bring that!"
"Yes sir kane!"
'so his name is kane? sounds like an asshole...'
Rei observed silently having an ominous feeling about this.
The other guard noded to kane and went inside the prison cell nearby him and came back holding something...
It was a corpse...
The corpse was that of a young man not that much older than Rei and his body was full of bruises and cuts all over it... it was as if it had been tortured...
"AHHhhhgh!"
Scared screams and stifled gasps of fear murmerd through the prisoners as they gazed at the corpse.
'N-no way...'
Rei himself felt his hands trembling at the horrifying sight before him...
Everything around him turned into background noises as his eyes locked into the tortured body in front of him..
His legs gave out and his eyes widend... he gritted his teeth and covered his nose trying not to throw up at the at the heavy stench of blood...
-Drip... drip... drip...
Then Rei realized something as he heard blood dripping out of the corpse...
The sound of the dripping unknown liquid he heard when waking up…
It was blood, it came from this...
"You see that?"
kane spat in a cold tone as he pointed at the corpse.
"That's what's gonna happen to you if you don't obey!"
"Now follow us you vile criminals!"
Kane said as he walked forward leading them through a stone corridor...
Humans fear death... they fear pain and just seeing the body of a dead man can instill fear in them...
And fear? fear can instill obedience.
Rei understood that.
it's a psychological tactic to create obedience.
He gets the logic... he knew that kane did that to show them… to show the prisoners what will happen if they defy the guards.
Yet still… Rei couldn't stop the trembling of his hand for a while as he followed silently...
----------------------------------------------------
- 30 minutes later
Rei realized something after walking through the dark corridor...
'This prison seem to be underground...'
He reached that conclusion after observing his surrounding and noticing that there wasn't any windows or any sunlight that he can see...
Then his theory proved to be correct after they reached the mines.
The mines... they didn't go down... there was just a door that they went through to get in the caves.
'So i can't get out unless i find a way up...'
Rei noted to himself as he observed the mine...
The mines... they weren't that special.
They were, or was just a really big stone cave that stretched very deeply...
At first it was spacious and even… with some torches there and there to light the way, but as they walked deeper into the cave the space became narrower and narrower, and they had to hold their own torches to light the way...
There was bats and some insects living there with small bonds of water coming through little holes in the ceiling...
And after reaching close to the end of the cave kane orderd the group to halt and gather.
Rei stood in the group of prisoners next to a tall man with blue hair and brown eyes...
They exchanged a look but didn't say anything knowing it would get them in trouble...
Then kane and his men gave the prisoners a bunch of pickaxes and told them to start mining...
Out of fear and the desire to survive and get food the prisoners complied silently and started mining..
Rei took his pickaxe and went to the corner after observing how the prisoners behaved for a bit...
Sighing Rei started hitting the wall with his pickaxe aimlessly to pretend he is working...
He still didn't give up.
Seeing the corpse took a hit on him but he had recovered rather quickly...
'That's right... I still have somthings i didn't check...'
Rei hadn't checked his attributes... he had been interrupted but now he have the time.
Smirking to himself Rei made a mental command.
'System show me my attributes description.'
Instantly a black window appeared in front of him alongside the infuriating melodic voice of the system...
[Attributes: Transmigrator, Prisoner of hope, dormant curse, Moon bound]
'Yeah i already saw that now give me the description of the first one.'
[Attribute: Transmigrator.]
[Attribute description: You are not a soul of this world, having came from another world you possess the body of a normal human fated to die soon as a vessel, and the vessel have been chosen based on its similarities to you, on top of that the vessels features and body have been modified to fit your soul...
And as a side effect your soul falls in the category of the outer beings , which gives you a considerable resistance to soul attacks and some unnatural phenomenas that occur in this world, Furthermore the "Transgmirator" attribute will give you notes when it's immunity is in effect.]
Rei's eyes widend as he read first half of the description finding it explaining a lot of things...
'I see... that makes a lot of sense... so that's why my body looks the same even though this body is that of another person… i wonder if his name is the same as me or if it has been changed too..'
Then an audible gasps escaped his mouth as he read the other half...
'Wait that's surprisingly very useful! resistance against soul attacks and some natural phenomenas of this world can definitely come in handy!'
Having heard his gasp the tall blue haired prisoner looked at Rei with a confused expression but Rei just lied whispering that he found a soul fragment and got slightly excited making the prisoner shrug and go back to mining.
'I should be more careful...'
Rei thought as he checked his second attribute.
[Attribute: prisoner of hope.]
[Attribute description: you are a prisoner of the kingdom of hope, This fallen kingdom has made a covenant with the dragon of hope in the past, but after the doom of this kingdom the dragon lost it's mind and started attacking the castle hoping to kill the criminals who brought the ruin of this kingdom, thus the dragon of hope feeds on your hope.]
Rei's jaw dropped as he made a more loud audible gasp after reading the description.
'Wait there's a fucking dragon! And what the hell do you mean it's trying to kill the prisoners! Is it gonna try to kill me too!? How does it even feed on my hope? and how the hell is this even an attribute! it's a damn curse damn it!'
The blue haired prisoner looked at Rei again in disbelief, his expression saying: "How the hell did you find another one this fast?! "
And surprisingly Rei actually did find a soul fragment this time!
'Huh!?'
Rei rubbed his eyes to double check but it's still there...
A soul fragment... It's just like he remembers it in the game… a jet blue shard like crystal that emanates a mystical hue...
Just touching it makes Rei feels refreshed and regenerates his energy…but other than that it's useless for Rei.
That's because only the people who unlocked the ability to circulate their soul force can use it to saturate their core...
In other words the Awakends.
And that's something that Rei is obviously unable to do since he isn't an awakened… and if he remembers correctly...
To become an awakened he has to finish a certain trial chosen individualy by the system to raise his rank...
But those trials are usually impossibley hard and takes a lot time so he would worry about that later...
'Anyway in short for now… This soul fragment is just a useless stone i will use to get food.'
Rei sighed as he tucked the soul fragment in his pocket internally lamenting the loss.
'It's for the best i geuss, but more importantly for now i should continue reading my attributes description...'
But before he continued reading he thought...
'I wonder why no one seem bothered about the dragon that's trying to kill us though...'
And just as he wondered about that a message popped up as if expecting his question...
[Note: Usually the dragon of hope feeds on the life force of the prisoners of hope alongside their hope and uses a mental attack to make people forget that they have the "prisoner of hope" attribute, but due to your "Transmigrator" attribute you are immune to it's life force draining effects, and on top of that you are able to read the description of the "prisoner of hope" attribute without forgetting it's existence, unlike the other prisoners.]
"Hah?!"
The blue haired prisoner didn't even bother check on Rei this time...
And sure enough… Rei found another soul fragment.
'Huh…? why am i so lucky all of a sudden?'
Thinking nothing of it Rei hid the fragment in his pocket and got back to internally freaking out...
'Wait! wait! wait! Are you telling me that no one knows That a Fucking dragon is trying to kill all of us other than me!?'
A shiver ran through his spine...
'And on top of that I'm the only one that's partially immune to his ability to drain our life force!'
'Everyone around me is slowly dying without even realizing it!'
'What the hell should i do?!'
'Ugh maybe my next attribute can help!'
He hoped to get lucky as he read the next attribute description...
[Attribute: dormant curse.]
[Attribute description: The spark of a curse dwels within you, meaning you have the qualification to take your first trial to unlock your curse.]
'huh? NO WAY! I can actually have one?'
Luckily this time he didn't make any audible reaction, anymore and they might get suspicious of him…
But still… unlike how it sounds like to a person from his world… in the world of the game he's now in…curses are actually not necessarily a bad thing but instead an important part of the power system of this world.
That's why the qualification to unlock one of the three branches of powers of this world (Blessings/ curses/ oaths) is a great boon no doubt...
'So that's great and all but what's my trial anyway?'
Just as he thought that a message appeared...
[Do you want to check your Curse trial 1 (Yes/No)]
'Huh? how convenient but… let's check my last attribute first...'
As if agreeing the the system immediately showed the description of the last attribute he has...
[Attribute: Moon bound.]
[Attribute description: Your soul is bounded to the soul of a higher Great being that possesses the blessing of the moon, as a result you can see better at night and your strength double at a full moon and at a lunar eclipse, truly what a great honor for such an unworthy wretched being.]
'First of all shut up system i didn't ask for your damn opinion!'
'second of all what the hell does that mean? a higher Great being? who the hell is that?'
'And third…huh…that's surprisingly extremely useful for once... i wonder how i got bound to that supposed higher being?'
Rei smiled feeling thankful for whoever that higher being is... and as he continued digging aimlessly…
-Crack! Crack! Crack!
He suddenly found another soul fragment!
'Eh…? How am I this lucky??'
Rei gazed at the fragment in his hand with a confused expression…
Then as if intoxicated by his sudden luck a poisonous thought suddenly occurred to him...
'Maybe... maybe my situation isn't as hopeless as i thought it is…'
'Maybe I can... maybe i can actually hope...'
Feeling slightly hopeful Rei asked mentally...
'Hey system… show me the trial i have to beat to get my curse now...'
And as if waiting for this moment just to laugh at him the system announced mockingly without wasting a second...
[Curse trial 1 : kill the dragon of hope.]
Yeah Rei should have never hoped…
Didn't he know that already?
Hope is just a poison.