Record of a Thousand Lives

Morning came, andthe four left the inn with Henrick guiding the way. They walked for quite a distance before arriving at a cemetery.Shaneth looked around beforeasking,“You put your family’s heirloom in a place like this…?”

“What? It’s much better than a castle filled with undead, right?” Henrick retorted as he rubbed his chin and walked toward a grave. It was an old and shabby grave that did not seem to be special in any way.

Henrickgotdown on his knees, starting to dig through the soilcovering the grave. He dug through the ground for quite a while before turning aroundto lookat Iris andremarking,“Come to think of it, you’re stronger than me, right?”

“Hmm… Isupposeyou are right,” Iris said. She grabbed the tombstone with one hand and easily pulled it out of the ground. It was an amazing display of strength; Henrick was shocked,despite havingseen it multiple timesbefore.

“I just can’t get used to it, since she’sdoing that while in the form of the princess,” Henrick saidwith an awkward expression.

An old, worn-out box was in the ground;Henrick opened the box after pulling it out.It containedasetof crafting tools,a fewbrown patches of leather, and astrange-lookingthing;one could not possibly imagine whatthe last itemwas used for.Although it looked quite old and shabby,theboxandits contents strangely resembled a first aid kit.

Shaneth frowned as she asked, “Don’t tell me…This is your family’s heirloom…?”

“Huh? How did you know?” Henrick replied.

“…” Shaneth felt a sense of meaninglessness.Shehad not expected anything grand, but to think that all they had received in return for completing Henrick’s quest was some worn-out boxcontaining useless miscellaneous items…Her reaction was justified, as anyone who put in the effort to complete his quest would feel a sense of lossupon seeingthe rewards.

Henrick clicked his tongue a few times beforeexclaiming, “Hey, you punk! Aren’t you looking down on it too openly? I guess I have to show you how it’s used.”

He grumbled a few times before grabbing the worn-out box thatresembleda first aid kit. He took something that looked like a sharp awl[1]and gently slashed his left wrist with it.

It was not that strong of an action, but Henrick’s left hand suddenly detached from his arm.

Thud.

Hisleft hand helplessly fell to the ground; the area around his wristwassevered cleanly.

“…!”Shaneth was so shocked that she could not close her mouth.Kang Yoon-Soo, on the other hand, seemedunfazed.

Iris lookedat Henrick'sleft hand on the ground and asked, “Can I eat it?”

“I knowour little miss is an epicure, but my conscience will be guilty if I let you eat junk food like that,” Henrick answereddramaticallyas he picked up his left hand without a fuss.Hethenpointed toward the first-aid kit and said, “This is my family’s heirloom. It lets you attach doll body parts to yourself and usethem asyour own.”

A message suddenlyappearedon the wrist device.

[The owner of the heirloom has taught you how to useit.]

[You may check the new information made available to you.]

New information and detailsonthe worn-out tools in the box popped up.

[Body Crafting Kit]

The heirloom of the Elrickerson family. It is a magic tool that allows the user to attach doll body parts to their own body. It is said that an insane Puppeteer once used this to convert numerous childrenintopuppets. It is highly dangerous to attempt to attach or convert a body party to a doll if the user does not have good crafting skills.

*If someone else’s body part is attached to the user,itshould be fresh and well preserved before being attached.

*A poor attemptto attach partsmay cause the user to losesensationin their nerves.

“How is this possible?” Shaneth asked in utter disbelief as she stared at Henrick waving his left hand—attached to his right hand.

Henrick scratched his cheek with his right hand and said, “I don’t like to be dramatic, so I’llkeep the explanation brief. The Royal Artisan suddenly caught an incurable disease on his left hand that slowly made itstiffen, and knew it would soon spread to his whole body. He decided to retire and wander around before finding out about the heirloom, and he decided to chop his left hand off and replace it with a doll’s hand. Then, that guy felt immense guiltabout performingone of the forbidden actsfor aPuppeteer and resigned from his position as the Royal Artisan, and spent his days drunk and wasting away.”

Shaneth was still in shock, her mouth hanging wide open.Kang Yoon-Soo, on the other hand, was still indifferent to the whole story, calmly puttingthe Body Crafting Kit into his backpack.

.

Henrick watched Kang Yoon-Soo take the Body Crafting Kitand gave himan ominouswarning.“Listen, I’m giving that to you because it was a promise, but I want you to remember this. The fact that you can replace a lost body party with a doll’s isn’tthat great, and there’s a high chanceof failure.”

“I know,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied as he started walking toward the streets.

Henow had two more things to do. The first was to conquer theRuins of Ice and Spirit to continue with the legendary quest, and the second was to meet the alchemist whohadcreated Iris and ask about the identity of the White Shadow who knew about his regression.

‘Which one shouldIdo first?’Kang Yoon-Soo soon made his decision.

***

The Martial Blood Clan was an organization that used their intense bloodlust to fight to the death. It boasted a massive 1,000 members, but it was only considered a middle-sized clan in the capital.

The condition to register as a member of the Martial Blood Clan was simple. Anyone with apowerfuldesire to grow strongerand was able to prove their thirst for battle, whether they used the sword, the bow, or magic, was allowed to be a part of the clan.

“The Ahinkuls have recently been rampaging in the swampsnortheast of the capital. The Ahinkuls are animal-type monsters that feast onanimal fatand convertit into explosive oilin their bodies. You will make it easier for the traders and merchants to travel outside the city walls if you manage todispose of at least2,000 of those monsters.”

As expected of a middle-sized clan, the quests theycarriedout were quite a bit larger than what an average party would receive. Most clans that exceeded a certain size could also receive massive quests, such asmanufacturinggoods to be supplied to the royal palace.

The Martial Blood Clanwereusually in charge of carrying outquests forbandit or monster subjugation. The leader of the Martial Blood Clan, Jiang Ren-Wei, took two hundred of his clan members to the swamp to subjugate the Ahinkuls.

The Ahinkuls lived in herds, but their individual intelligence was quite high formonsters. They were around Level 200, andeach of them couldhuntprey alone.

Jiang Ren-Weistruck the last surviving Ahinkul on the head with hisblunt weapon, and it died on the spot.He returned his weapon to hiswaistand began walking slowly,lightlyswinginghis thick, muscular left arm.

“Good job, everybody. I’m glad no one died this time;go get some rest,” Jiang Ren-Wei said to his clan members. The clan members of the Martial Blood Clan lowered their weaponsandstarted to rest.

Jiang Ren-Wei was a sophisticated manwhohad an intense thirst for battles. His main weapon was a destructive but hard to control blunt weapon, and his combatsensewas far higher than that of most average Travelers.

However, there was one thing about him that stood out—he only had one arm. After hehad beenabruptly summoned to the Sylphia Continent, hehad beenattacked by a vicious monster. That monster had bittenhis right arm offandfeasted on it in front of him.

Most people would have despaired at that sight, but it was different for Jiang Ren-Wei.Hedid not give up. Hehadoriginally been aright-handedperson, but that did not deter him as he had rigorously trained hisleft-handday after day. He hadmanaged to become the leader of a middle-sized clan despite his disability of having only one arm.

Jiang Ren-Wei had obtained the class Indomitable Warrior after countless battles; it had been made possiblebyhis intense grit that transcendedthat ofa normal person. Unfortunately,people often assumed that the reason the Martial Blood Clan only remained a middle-sized clan was because he only had one arm, thinking thatif he had both of his arms, it would have been very easy for him to dominate the leaders of other clans.

However, the clan members of the Martial Blood Clan respected Jiang Ren-Wei. His attitude of passionately fightingonthe front lineand treating his clan members well without any prejudice was somethinghis clan membershighly admired abouthim.

It was around the timetheclan memberssat down on the ground and took out their rations that one Continental quickly approached Jiang Ren-Wei, reporting,“Boss! I found something strange over there!”

The Martial Blood Clan, unlike other clans, did not differentiatebetweenTravelers and Continentals when accepting members. Thatwas one of the reasons why most of the other clans made fun of the Martial Blood Clan, calling it ahalf-breed mongrel clan.

Jiang Ren-Wei slowly stood up and asked the Continental, “What did you find?”

“Ah…Well, I couldn’t believe my eyes either when I saw it…Ifyou put it in fishing terms,it’s a big catch, and if you put it inbedterms,it’s a giant cock!” the Continental named Durman, who was the breadwinner of his family,exclaimed.

Durmanhad beenan alcoholic, and he had caused a commotion one day that forced him to become a mercenary at his age. However, he had turned his life around after meeting Jiang Ren-Wei, and henow focused on working hard to provide for his family.

Jiang Ren-Weiscratchedhis cheek with his left hand and asked, “Bigcatch? Giantcock? Have you found a treasure or something?”

“Ahhh, come take alook for yourself,” Durman replied.

Jiang Ren-Wei and the other clan members started to think that Durman might have actually found something big, because he was pushing for Jiang Ren-Wei to go take a look. Jiang Ren-Wei followed behind Durman as he led them to the deepest part of the swamp, and an eerie draft of wind below toward them. Autumn was around the corner, but it was stilltechnically latesummer. However, theatmosphere in the areawas strangely chilly.

Jiang Ren-Wei tilted his head in confusion andasked, “Was there always a place like this in the swamp?”

The ground that would normally turn mushier asonewent deeper into the swamp started to harden as if ithad beenfrozen solid, and the trees that normallyboasted a lushcrownof leaves on their brancheswerereplaced with rows of dried and witheredones.

It was around that time that thegroup reached therows of withered trees that the sight in front of them made them exclaim in surprise,“Wow!”

It wasa sightthat did not suit the swamp at all.The scenery in front of them was covered in thin frost and layers of snow, and the glare that reflected offthe icemade thegroup’seyes hurt. The scenery was beautiful yet eerie, and standing initmade the hairsonthe backs of theirnecksstand.

A large, majestic structure was in the middle of the area.Jiang Ren-Wei could only doubt his eyes as he stared at the structure with his mouth agape.

The structure’s majesty was carved in the transparent ice it was made out of. The carvings had been madeso magnificently thatthe clanbelieved even the best sculptor in the world would not be able to replicate such agrandstructure. In addition, the structure was so large that it was impossible to seethe entirety of it at once.There was no way a structureso impressivelyawe-inspiring could beman-made.

“It’s a ruin…” Jiang Ren-Wei muttered under his breath.

“It’s as I thought, right? I was really surprised when I saw it,” Durman responded;his mouthhungwide open in awe as well.

Ruins weredangerous places that hundreds or even thousands of monsters inhabited. In the world the Travelers came from,they were also called dungeons.They were placescrawling with monsters that gnashed their teeth at the sight of any intruders, and extremely rare treasures were guaranteed to be at the heart ofeachruin. That was not all;the top contributor to the conquestof the ruinwouldeven receive special powers.

It was the first time forevenJiang Ren-Wei to see a ruin in person;ruins were usually located far away from cities, and they were usually found in the wilderness,such as in canyon gorges or the desert.

However, no one could ever have imagined that a ruin would be locatedso close to, if not right beside, the capital of the empire.

The air suddenly turning cold was definitely the influence of the ruin.Durmanfeltthe eerie chill; he gulpednervously andasked, “What should we do? It’s a ruin, so we might strike it big if we manage to reach the center of it. I don’t think any other clan has noticed it, so why don’t we take it ourselves?”

Jiang Ren-Wei looked at the icy ruin before falling into a dilemma. However, he raised his head after a short while and said, “No, it’s impossible for us to conquer the ruin alone.”

The ruin in front of him possessed an immense amount of magic powerthat couldchange the climate of the entire area, and there were bound to be unbelievably strong monsters in it.Around two hundred people were usually required to conquer a ruin, and the clan members Jiang Ren-Wei had brought with him for the subjugation questmade upapproximately that figure. However, Jiang Ren-Wei instinctively knew that the icy ruin was going to be much more difficult than that.

The Martial Blood Clanwas composed mostly ofall kinds of classes that focused on combat, and they did not possess even one healeramong them. Jiang Ren-Wei knew that only death awaited them if they decided to recklessly challenge the icy ruin.It was impossible for a careful person likehimto be greedy and risk his entire clan just for the treasures of the ruin.

Durman sighed, feelingthat a good opportunityhad beenlost, and said, “It’s a shame that wecan only takea look at the ruin andnotget its treasures…”

“It’s alright;we can come back after we’ve grown stronger or if we recruit more people,” Jiang Ren-Wei said, pattingDurman with his arm.

However, Durman walked toward the ruin, as if he could not let go of his regret. There, he saw a small plate that had words written on it. Unfortunately, he could not read the words because of the frost thathad settled atopit.

Durman was certain that the name of theruin was written on it, and he wiped the frost away with both of his hands.The name of the ruinbecamefully visible.

[Winterkill]

“Winterkill, eh? Haha, what a frightening name…”Durman, who had beenlaughing just momentsbefore, suddenly trailed off into silence.

1. An awl is a tool that looks like a screwdriver,used by craftsmen to poke holesin things. Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awl👈