Chapter 4: Precept (1)
vxExI killed Park Sihu.WFMFgau
NGhngI killed the player.KMsizJ9
n9nXz8Next to the corpse of the one who shared the same homeland as me, who had been with me through the ups and downs of my life, I deeply pondered to myself.LqnQ2
WliThere will be a void created due to the player’s death. The story of ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ of defeating the final boss and saving the world had ended before it could even begin.uVopkW
TuDq『Huhu, jackpot!』7dK9ou
Qum“Well done. Nice job killing him.” But thinking of what he had done, I commended myself.jeUAFG
e3KlIt would have made me a little guilty if he had succeeded in defeating the last boss, and I might have even hesitated while killing him. Placing the lives of a hundred thousand people he will be killing later on and the world on each side of a scale, I might have contemplated my path.FhH
mlalMore importantly, what mattered the most now was the message that appeared when killing Park Sihu…clHN
5OF47『Sub-player, Korin Lork』GnFSHY
Yo9ORCgIt wasn’t my first time seeing a status screen, because I did see it when I was swallowed by Park Sihu’s shadow and was locked inside.UatDYJ
wUw– Thump thump.ql2Dcr
jWsF8PMy heartbeat increased. I knew better than anyone else how much Park Sihu had gained by using the system window.pkmKl
B86L“…Status Screen.”IrD2q
96kidFY〚Korin Lork (Hero)〛pVw
vKnOhhh, ohhhh…! Finally, I have the godly status screen myself!!Fr2bB4
c9CO3iAClass – {Restricted}ztF2
E4SCPersonality – {Restricted}Lbz
tFgPYTalents – {Restricted}BKHpYrz
DvA2Aura – {Restricted}OKf
6SSsiMana – {Restricted}3LD
8ZhQccaSpecialties – {Nothing}Htp
WaeFXlR〚Character Skills – 4〛
Details – RestrictedUSuVFV
7htg………………..1NBixD
4ttEL……….…..fqxZUE
E6tyD………zptH8el
LN6EK0n“Crafting Window?”NbA
o3DKqY『Access denied due to insufficient qualification』2wvW4
NnveAzW“Inventory!”GSzoB
vljt『Access denied due to insufficient qualification』GbY6
UKPr0l“Skills Tab!”McIzv0
lPJ0Es『Access denied due to insufficient qualification』FAwRJY
kucsAish, god damn it! Uninstall this damn game!g38
WGOIs this what ‘bare minimum’ meant? This is just too much…!7uBeonN
4QkelZ4Other people shout ‘Status Screen!’ to allocate skill points, craft legendary weapons and speed through quests, so why is this only happening to me!NUr
M10GtAnd did you have to say ‘Nothing’ for something I didn’t have? Oh my, how nice of you!Jke4ok
bMX7– Cough…!6LcCPRL
8OxItqF“Haa…”rlyOE0
v2IHRnLeaving aside the discouraging turn of events, I had to save her.j5CKd
ompoQU“Alicia Arden? Are you alright?”kN8
EW77t“Auuh… Noo…”eLUof1
1ZVp“Yeah… Looks like it.”p3kcW
UmooShe seemed alright for the time being judging from how she could still speak.Fjpb4
20i“Uugh… Eyes, my eyes. I can’t seee.”aLn
opYlMN“Do you feel dizzy, and is it hard to smell? Are your ears also fuzzy?”M4LYfIM
gOMV6“H, how did ye know?”RY42LBG
vOvJRx6“Your tongue’s also twisted.”zZpO8K
AnS0LBlurry vision, dizziness and slurred words. There was only one possibility for that.xgMhA
2jOqAc4“It seems like the poison of a duke frog.”ZomzQQ
4uMwr5It was fairly common in the east. There was even a quest to find a duke frog from a well in the player’s starting village, and he must have used that using the crafting system of the system window to separate the poison.9zd
9XPVKPHis crafting level must have been low so it shouldn’t be lethal, but it will continue sucking her HP dry if left unattended. I had to feed her a simple antidote at least.8Gk
umMMVzo5 seconds would have been enough if I had the crafting window but…nX1SEES
M59It was annoying the more I thought about it.DVJUSX
nN5yAnyway, carrying her all the way to Merkarva City would take at least a few hours, so the best option would be to stop her bleeding and remove her poison here.w2U
WbXceHSince it wasn’t a lethal poison, she should be fine after a few days of suffering as long as she wasn’t bleeding.qaIO5
CdZmvhm“Huhuk… Am I going to diee?”WuH
hylCZJIgnoring her, I tightened a belt around her wound.DVb
6wbbq45“Kuaaakk?!”ms2
Pq7AfGuA pitiful scream reverberated across the forest, but a hemostasis was supposed to hurt. Although it might be deathly painful, it had to be done in order to avoid death.4rkHOlK
t2V1S“———!!!!”ijnxON
3kS5aO“It’s alright. I’m a master at stopping blood.”uA5gR4
4GFSIWXTo be fair, I had never been the one to use a system window. I had to live in my own way without it.VI64ZYv
FzET———!!e12ymtQ
ARSfEBWow, look at her scream. Her voice was thunderous like the cry of a baby born to be a general. I had no idea if she even heard what I was saying.slljr
fAO– Gush!XkOT3sU
Ol4S4Blood spurted out through the gaping hole created by the beowulf.hsVifP
eboISB“Huu… B, benefactorr…”BzzfG
6a9hBJ9“Nn?”16N1g
HCgS62E“Let me leave, my last words…”P0AP
evVsllH“Last words my ass. Bite onto this.”pLBd
dk4Jy“…?”8x6
O51bQI placed Park Sihu’s wrist inside Alicia’s mouth. It would be very painful so I wanted her to hold on to herself by biting on it.bVCOsV
HkVSz“It’s okay to bite down as hard as you want.”1T4JO
osM“…!”sexTfM
BfFAlicia looked teary as if she was in a great amount of pain. I continued with the hemostasis and she bit down hard from the severe sense of pain as her teeth dug into Park Sihu’s wrist.Cf4i
Apl5Well, it wasn’t my hand so it was none of my business.zjnQGm
JedfaBI was somewhat done with sealing the wound below her rib. What I had to do next was detoxify the poison and… I had been in this world for 3 years already, and knew how to make a basic antidote without the likes of a system window.NNNii
97qtTFortunately, the ingredients were nearby so all I needed was some water and a tin to store the medicine and…W03ZxBB
XA88I“Found it.”muxc
ghpUT3As expected, there was a bag discarded on the floor. It was probably Alicia’s bag that she threw away before jumping in to save Park Sihu.SYD
VZSV7f2“Ohh, there’s a tin pot as well.”6vZd
mGYL1yPouring water into the pot, I mixed in a few ingredients. Starting a fire wasn’t that difficult thanks to my abundant camping experience.yr7fZb6
j423i“I’m making the antidote now. Hold on a bit more.”qgaHXM
IRz“Uhh…”iGCn
khjtUFdShe sniffed without saying anything, which was probably due to the poison still encroaching her body. From how she was talking about ‘last words’ and stuff, she might be thinking she’s dying but…cE4Y
LWyiB‘People don’t die that easily.’kFdk
njuqwzWhile boiling the antidote, I threw Park Sihu’s corpse away. Alicia had been biting on the wrist so hard that I could see the bone inside the wound.Tvoz
GGBU5I was in the middle of adding the key ingredients to make the antidote when Alicia sniffed and twitched her nose.5SYX
s5bdkThe guts of a horned rat had a pretty nasty smell indeed.AJt6
EE4FA“Uhhm… Benefactoor…”VuA
Dcml6Arduously opening her mouth, she called me her ‘benefactor’.9YOK
djB“Y, your name… Please, tell me your namee…”F5PKU
W8AFS“You don’t need to know. Don’t bother asking.”5lm1h
ZRo“Why?”64VF
ea2nt5M“Don’t worry and take a good rest. I will wake you up when the antidote is done.”a07dOb
TTVhWA“Okayy…”gyUnNd
JwwgF2It might have been to make her shoulder a mental debt towards me, but what I was going to do now had to be kept a secret. The antidote would be finished in about 30 minutes so until then, I placed a piece of cloth wetted with medicine over her eyes.ZFREtP
KtnUjrNow, let’s analyze the situation.9l0
qrEGIThe current point in time was the tutorial quest and the time before the admission into the academy. I had regressed to 3 years before my death.P6Ay9m
alHlzThAstonishing events would be occurring with the academy at the center, and many stories will be affected.sgYki0y
7f2gU3O❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ was quite literally the game of the legendary records of a hero. The player was the hero tasked with saving the world and defeating countless villains as well as the final boss.9ai1EmJ
F11MLlfAnd yet that player had been killed by me, so who would be the one that had to act in his stead?DQOw
2ghfBl5‘I have to do it.’bmc
YpOuIt was something I had prepared myself from the moment I decided to kill Park Sihu. He and I shared a few conversations about what would happen after clearing the main scenario of the game…Te2Ls1
iszThe reason he had been diligently clearing the game regardless of his evil trait was because the world would be destroyed without defeating the final boss. Ever since we entered this world, we had no other choice but to risk our lives in saving this world.7nfVMp
5pj53That was why… I could understand him a bit; on why he had been killing people for the sake of his efficiency.13CA
lkSBut he shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t have become a villain just because he wanted to beat this world.Am7i
noixx“Huu…”xhRItZW
jweAAt the very least, it was fortunate that I would be receiving some level of support thanks to that sub-player or whatever but…v7fEQ2j
UNdurB『Access denied due to insufficient qualification』5sBqfjJ
F4ix3I wish they had done it properly if they were going to do it. It seemed that I shouldn’t expect anything from the system window and think of it as nonexistent.avdr1z
43jFWhatever the case, I had to take the player’s place, but the problem was that I had none of the convenient devices of a player.7VtwZ
QrfeV15The skills tab which allowed the player to choose skills;s7k
b6FThe inventory that allowed one to take out things from anywhere;Ws6h
e8jLTBOAnd the item crafting window which was essential for some of the quests were all gone.2SJgX5
Y2jt2But most importantly…IevUfD
fKYdjk‘Park Sihu lost with all of that in his possession.’cjD
nVIox0He knew more about the game ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ than I did. Even after monopolizing all the hidden pieces and experience points using his overflowing amount of information, he still lost to the final boss.U5f5l8
7VrRelying on questionable support and information about the future was not enough. I needed power outside of the system.KsXX
Xj9VWhat was fortunate was that I wasn’t a normal ‘possessor’ either.57WCb0
fUvg1mN3 years.5tyBc
LlVlWhile advancing the story, I was tempered throughout the vicious fights and struggles.0ObA
Oty1URXI was desperate in my own way for survival, and I didn’t skip any of the training events that were simply ways to gather skill points for Park Sihu.PbF2D
pXTU1KJudging from how I was graded as a ‘Hero’ which was the highest rank a named character could get, one could say it was a huge growth for a random side character.12gIVCD
scuyMGHowever, that was still far from enough, and there were also plenty of hidden pieces that I couldn’t use as a non-player.nE6
g8qThat was why I had to use something outside of the system, for example…yw4
E1ac5– JiikCqJRh4
yNvvwI wrote a letter on the ground with my finger. The symbol engraved with the layer of dirt as the canvas and my finger as the pen was the ancient letter meaning ‘Wind’.uwfY
bJgVK0d– Hwaruk!3Eq
USLQFkThe fire boiling the medicine wavered faintly from the breeze.RIQJ
wS7JVIt worked.8vAY4
eHyXMBWhat I used just then was rune magic. These were the ancient letters where the letters themselves functioned like magic. It was the only magic that I learned in the previous iteration, and was the only thing I could use as a dumb non-magic user.qgzTu
n189gzdIt was a dead language that you would now only be able to find at the corner of Merkarva Academy’s great library.vdfwLVW
QQt1What I was going to do now was arrange these rune letters which contained power on its own to engrave sentences into my body.XBj6j
dSnUA Precept.cs0
kpkS7U5Duty, a vow that had to be kept.ubHh
LREBShRestriction, a limit placed upon oneself.a6a0xN
paYXVbvPledge, the ambition that one had to be aspiring for.xNn
avAtGMThese three were tied together as a Precept, and was one of the strongest ‘rules’ of this world, that either acted as the source of superhuman power or the agent of ruin.2TQp
8LjaThis was different from the skills and stats of a player. It was just one of the hidden settings added to explain the power of the boss characters.u6ntqzF
hUya3HWhy did I not use such an amazing thing in the previous iteration, you may ask, and it’s because the risk was too high.VAKDD4F
TNo8yAs one would be able to tell from the word ‘Precept’, these three acted as the source of tremendous power, but it was possible to work around them after reading the sentences engraved on the body.9tI0G5G
2EW9SThe enemy might be able to use my Precept like I did, to create a trap leading to ruination.9Qra
wifLB4YThere was no reason to bother risking it in the previous iteration where the player was growing without a problem, but things were now different.AQ1bJ
JGr78Biting off the skin on my fingertip to let it bleed, I then started carving rune letters into my body.H98
AaJRwUaDuty. It was the vow that always had to be kept, and was one that would grant me power when followed.6kebLP9
FEyJEEThe trick to engraving Duty was by writing down something that could be ‘repeatedly activated’.eGin
m9QkeyLet’s say it was running 50 meters everyday. In that case, my stats would increase every time I accomplished running 50 meters everyday.u0WQvb
2wtWjaA safer duty would be for example, ‘I will not eat birds for the rest of my life’ which is done ‘cumulatively’, but it was okay to increase the risk here because I knew a lot of things about the future.7g2fxx
HRSKiBesides, the amount of incremented power also increased depending on the weight of the vow itself.qgkuP
ycwV9EOIn this world, there was something called ‘Karma’ – which was the same as experience points, except that was what it was called in this world – and the Karma you gain by defeating a Grade 5 monster was nowhere near the one you gained by killing a Grade 1 monster.qXXLn
7MTJOSimilarly, this Duty had to be shouldering a heavy enough Karma in the perception of this world to give an equal amount in return.BDv9
BbfW4l〚I will not disregard the misfortune of the good.〛XNlG6f
qME– Chiiiik!7rSTN
kBIR“Kuuk…!”0owd
Ye4pRune letters were carved onto my body as complete sentences.yb99Lj
IUotXLlThis might be how it feels to have a scorching hot piece of metal engraving a letter on my body as I unconsciously uttered deep groans.PdTV
efoZf“Huu… huu…”xdgw
RTNER5My body felt heavy – that was how heavy the ‘Duty’ engraved in my body was.iaiyO
7IyUVlfThe regulations of Precept were only applied within the user’s range of cognition.QvZ
neBZyVFEven if it was about a future or an event which had yet to occur, it would come to me as my Karma as long as I was conscious of it.uWfLp
6IdgThe keywords here were ‘the good’ and ‘misfortune’.Pd4
KsAIn this game, the good and evil of a character’s personality were specified in the character screen, and good-natured characters overcoming their misfortune would be helpful for me as well, because they were the ones that would be fighting against this world’s crisis.RZJ
TuNCPut in another way, this meant the ‘Precept of Duty’ would be repeatedly applied to me as I continued solving the quests of this game, and would result in a suitable return to my power.fYZ
VHs9However, there was no need to save every good person in the world, because a Precept was activated in the range of my cognition. Even if the unfortunate person walking down the street was a good person, my Duty would not be activated as long as I wasn’t aware of it.oBp3q
NQlIMwcNext up was Restriction.Zmty3
Whk‘Restriction’ was a consistently activated rule that intentionally placed an unfavorable condition to oneself to permanently increase the stats.G4E
xJXIt was by nature high risk – high return. Because it was the most vulnerable out of the three Precepts, it might be taken advantage of as a weakness, and perhaps was the most important one of the three.4TPsSXJ
U4KV3heMaking a weakness on their own. A normal ‘Restriction’ could be a detrimental one binding me like shackles, but—Aau
X7etb〚I do not perceive spirits.〛AZJT8oZ
X4J0AQS– Chiiiik!mPjn2sr
r0qL2“Kuugh…!”9DML
Wk4GSpirits.TsX
7sjLE46It literally meant astral bodies, like ghosts and elemental spirits that did not have a physical body. Like demonic beasts, the enemy of humanity that hunters had to defeat were called demonic spirits in this world.Nap
XUXIWWell, although they were called demonic spirits, it didn’t mean anything. Every astral body that was hostile to humanity were all referred to as demonic spirits.SVoeIc
AaHUVCElemental spirits that did not like humans, and defensive astral bodies of ancient ruins were all called demonic spirits as long as they attacked humans.cWyv
8YQLpAnd in this world, there was one rule for spirits.71JA
fURSpirits interfered with one another upon mutual cognition. An example was how spirits were unable to enter the mind of an unconscious person.w0YWBO
WhwQIn this world, every human had even a tiny bit of spiritual perception no matter how ungifted they were.NfnV0eU
fzj5GThere might be 1 or 2, but there was never 0.JjjpCK
XbvAFWhat I did just then through Restriction was reducing that number to 0.LrOsMwG
dp4CLZIn other words, I would not be able to perceive spirits. I will be exempt from the rule of mutual cognition and spirits will not be able to deal with me, just like how I can’t deal with them.tztLfri
1Em4O4The only way for them to touch me, would probably be with the help of an elementalist materializing and giving bodies to those spirits.j9VED
9Jv531I knew how strong this Restriction was more than anyone else, because this was the very ‘Restriction’ of the world’s strongest rune mage, and the boss character, Valtazar.PDA
JT1hkIts effect was 0% accuracy to spirits, at the return of 50% increase in power against physical existences.s99gB
c5qjAnything else apart from the one used to play around Valtazar’s Restriction would not be able to destroy mine either.vz3m
o8AFinally, what remained was the ‘Pledge.’HTV
KhgThis was the grand ambition that warriors had to be aspiring for, and the weight of that aspiration acted as a support. It was literally pledging to yourself that you would always aspire for that grand ambition.G2BtPfb
v7YdUThere was no need to even hesitate for this one.KPGdE5
zMjV〚I will save the world.〛bB2grP
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