The Curse of the Village

Asther headed back home. There really isn’t any reason for him to stay outside because, the longer he’s exposed, the greater the chances for the villagers to do bad things to him. Fortunately, the assassin’s experiences in his previous life helped him avoid all sorts of trouble. Moving in the shadows and as silently as he could until he finally reached his house.

There really isn’t much to see from the place. The house is a wreck. The roof is destroyed and the windows are broken. Parts of the walls have holes on them and, all around this place are words in graffities. They aren’t written in any kind of text from earth but, because of the previous body owner’s memories, Asther knows how to read these quite easily.

“Curse.”

“Leave this village.”

“Bad luck.”

“Trash.”

These are only some of the things which Asther read from the wall. He doesn’t care about these but, he does think that the real Asther lived such a miserable life. One that remained miserable until the real Asther died.

“You really had it rough didn’t you kid?” He murmured to himself and, as he did, he immediately moved his body to the side. Rocks came flying through the direction where he stood. Hitting the wooden walls of his house and even breaking a small part of it.

Asther turned his head to look at the perpetrators of the crime and, what he saw are children. Two of these who both had a frightened look on their faces.

“G-Get out of the village!” The little boy said.

“You bring nothing but bad luck!” The girl added.

Even before Asther could give a reply, the children already turned tail and run. He thought that it’s such a pity because, he wanted to give the children a good scare. Unfortunately, this chance didn’t come and he is left to entering his house which, began with the door almost collapsing on him.

There is no lock to the place. There isn’t any shred of privacy as well. As Asther moved the door to the side of the wall and looked inside, he saw just what the imprinted memory on him showed. Nothing. There isn’t any appliance inside aside for the cooking pot in the middle of the house and the makeshift stone stove where it sits directly on top of.

Asther sighed. “This places needs more than just cleaning. It needs a total renovation.”

He reached for his pockets and got the flint that Asther always keeps. With this and his knife, he can start a fire. The assassin thought that this is just what he needs because of two things. One is to start cooking the rabbit that he caught and, the second is to provide light. The sun has almost run its course and, with the kind of house that Asther has, the only source that he can get is from the fire while he cooks.

Hence the teen proceeded to preparing this. He got some of the dry wood from the left corner of the house and placed it under the stone stove. After this, he went to the door and placed it where it should be. Covering him from the people outside as, he began to masterfully prepare the rabbit.

As an expert assassin, Asther has also been assigned to roles such as that of a cook or a chef. He knows how to handle most types of meat, even the exotic kind. That’s why he’s still a bit thankful that the world he entered has similar animals to earth.

The smoke from the pot immediately rose. There isn’t any problem to smoke forming because there are a lot of holes in the house. In fact, directly above the pot is a hole on the roof, something which the real Asther intentionally placed his cooking set under.

“Good job surviving this far all on your own kid. You have a lot of strength for enduring everything up until now.” Asther said, talking to his body again as if the previous owner is still there.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of your body properly. I won’t let any of your body parts get cut off or removed. Although, as far as scars are concerned, there would be a lot of those in the future.

Asther proceeded to continuing in his meal preparation. There isn’t much needed. A few herbs that ads saltiness and, some clean water from the river outside the village. He placed these on the pot and as soon as the water boiled, he placed the minced rabbit meat inside. Mixing everything together.

“Right. While that’s cooking, I should probably take care of the other questions I have. System.”

The game-like window appeared right in front of Asther once again. He knows how to navigate through it a bit already. He then went to the option which allowed him to view his current stats and, this is what came out.

[Name: Asther]

[Level: 11]

[Job Class: None]

[Status Points:]

[Strength – 18]

[Speed – 19]

[Intelligence – 50]

[Luck – 15]

“Why is my Intelligence higher than the other stats?”

[That’s because it’s the only part of you that has been carried over from your world master. I integrated your intelligence and this is the score that came out.]

“I see. So even with just this I was able to take down the centipedes.”

[Yes master. However, your points were lower when you fought the monsters since the original body owner’s level is just at 7.]

“He’s only level seven? How difficult is it to gain levels in this world?”

[It’s relatively difficult master. The only reason why you went up by three levels is because you fought monsters that are superior to you and, also because the previous body owner was already close to leveling up again.]

“Do you have data on how much experience points I need before leveling up and how much I got from the centipedes?”

[Yes master. Here is your requested information:]

[Experience points 0/1000]

[Experience gained from defeating the centipedes.

[700 experience points.]

[500 experience points]

[300 experience points.]

“Is the reason why the experience points I gained different because it gets lower every time I level up?”

[Yes master.]

“So I need to constantly fight stronger monsters to gain more experience points. That would be a bit difficult for me right now.”

[Do you need anything else master?]

Asther thought about this for a second. But then, he finally caught the scent of the rabbit that he’s preparing. It’s nearly cooked and, because of this realization, his stomach grumbled again. Giving him the right answer needed for that moment.

“No. I think that would be all for now.”

[Understood master.] The System displayed as it vanished once again.

At the moment, Asther lacks real strength. Although he is a trained assassin, the body he got sent to is not. In fact, it is just a weak and scrawny teen. He can’t continue his mission if it’s like this. That’s why he needs to gather up strength and, one of the simplest ways to do this is making sure that he eats right.

That’s why he stopped with all his thinking for the moment. Asther focused on his meal. Taking a good serving on a smaller wooden bowl. There are a lot of things left to be done but, for that moment, Asther didn’t care about them. All he cares about is finishing the whole rabbit and stuffing his stomach. Giving his body the first proper meal it had in ages.