Sear Whiteburn
Sear Whiteburn
◆
Beneath a pitch-black sky overflowing with death. Even on the Ulssen Continent, filled with crumbling souls on the verge of annihilation, there exists a single sanctuary for warriors braving their harsh journey.
It is the shrine of the maiden who charitably embraces even the dead who lost themselves in a miserable world, amid endless battles against monsters from the abyss and temptations of incomprehensible demons.
"No fragment of the abyss, no matter what it may be, can invade the Sanctuary of Light."
"Please rest comfortably before you go. I will help you."
Those who have gathered from all across the continent to slay the demons each possess their own background. A northern barbarian, a betrayed assassin, royalty of a fallen kingdom⋯⋯
But do not worry. The Maiden of Origin will heal your wounds, bless your journey, and give you the strength to move forward.
"You are injured. I will heal you."
"Can you hear my voice, warrior?"
"Rest assured. No matter who you are, I will become your friend."
"I was born for that purpose."
Listen closely to the voice of light bestowed by the Maiden of Origin.
For it will serve as the sole clue to navigate this madness-filled world.
-<Lost Soul Character Intro>, entry on 'Maiden of Origin' Shea Whiteburn
◆
Arpendorf, capital of the Valheim Empire.
If Yurik Bator remembered this place, it was only as scenes boiling with all kinds of terrible horrors against the backdrop of a completely collapsing city.
⋯⋯Not a landscape so cute and peaceful that it could be used as an illustration in a fairytale book like this.
'Where is the maneater?'
Yurik tilted his head, recalling the named monster that lurked at the entrance of Arpendorf regardless of the series entry.
Lost Soul's iconic newbie lawnmower, which had eaten so many people it had turned into a practically melting chunk of meat.
It was a monster that should be visible as soon as one stepped into Arpendorf, the game's actual starting zone.
"Haha-! Seeing your size, northern warriors are as dependable as ever! Have a good rest while you're in the empire!"
Yurik stared blankly at the guard at the entrance who cheerfully slapped him on the back.
He was the very first human Yurik had encountered upon reaching the entrance of the city.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯."
Huh.
This guy looks somehow familiar.
He looked identical to the face of the maneater, if it had somehow been neatly sculpted into human form.
Come to think of it, wasn't the maneater's original identity before turning into that monster also a guard of Arpendorf?
Supposedly, as an epidemic spread and turned the imperial capital into a living hell, he killed people one by one as they tried to escape, went completely insane, and started cannibalism.
There was some terrifying lore like that attached to him, but the person standing in front of Yurik right now was just a nice-looking middle-aged man.
As if he had been remade into a completely different entity.
"⋯⋯."
As Yurik silently stared down at him, the color gradually drained from the guard's face.
Honestly, anyone would react that way if a towering giant with a fierce impression like he was carved out of rock were staring silently down at them.
"⋯⋯W-Well then, have a good time!"
Yurik walked past the guard, who hurriedly spoke and gestured for him to quickly go inside.
He tilted his head.
'What did he say?'
A fun fact.
The language used by the northern barbarians and the language used in the Valheim Empire are on completely different tracks.
The problem he currently faced also stemmed from that.
'Status Screen.'
With that thought, something floated up in front of Yurik.
Something made of a game interface.
Although the most intuitive object symbolizing a possessor's miraculous fortune and indicating that this world was inside a game was right before his eyes, unfortunately, to Yurik, whether this existed or not made little difference.
<⸸⸸⸸>
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
𐓂⟟⋏ ᛉ꙰Λꙴ Ϟ⸸꙳
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
⟦ ꙮ⸮𐍈 ⟧ : ꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳
⟦ Ϟ𐓂ꙴ𐍈 ⟧ : ⸸⸸⸸⸸⸸
⟦ ⋏ꙮᛉΛ ⟧ : 𐓂𐓂𐓂𐓂
⟦ ꙳Ϟ⟟ꙴ ⟧ : ꙮꙮꙮ
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
𐍈Λ꙳ ⟪ Ϟꙮ𐓂⸸⋏ ⟫
𐓂ꙴᛉ ⟪ ⸮⟟Λ꙳ꙮ ⟫
ꙮ⋏Ϟ ⟪ 𐍈𐍈𐍈𐍈𐍈 ⟫
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
※ 𐓂ꙮ⟟ ϞΛꙴ⸸ ᛉ𐍈꙳⋏
ꙮꙮꙮꙮꙮꙮꙮꙮꙮ
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
"⋯⋯."
What is this saying?
No, seriously, he had no idea what it said.
If they were going to give him a Status Screen after possessing a game body, they should have given it properly. Giving it like this, how on earth was he supposed to use it?
He barely managed to figure out that these were the characters used in the Valheim Empire, the main setting of Lost Soul, but for Yurik, who had never had the chance to learn how to read as a northern barbarian, this was practically no different from alien gibberish.
'It seems like something changed after entering Arpendorf, but⋯⋯'
It seemed like some entries had been added, but he couldn't read at all what had actually changed.
Without even knowing the language, he was practically in a state where he couldn't get a single clue to navigate this mysterious situation.
"⋯⋯."
Yurik quietly strolled down the streets of Arpendorf.
One thing he could definitely tell while walking around here was that this really was the world of Lost Soul.
The layout of the city was completely identical. The places in the game he remembered were all perfectly realized right before his eyes.
However, parts of it were twisted.
Standing in front of the statue of Emperor Karl the Great, the current emperor of the Valheim Empire, Yurik quietly gazed up at it.
'This didn't look like this originally either.'
Originally, this was a named monster possessed by a demon that chased down every living creature passing nearby to flay their skin.
But now, it was merely looking down on the city in the form of a grandfather wearing a benevolent smile.
"⋯⋯."
Let's think about this, Yurik Bator.
The world was just as he knew it.
Except everything was peaceful and normal.
In other words.
'I see.'
He nodded as he reached a conclusion.
'The main story definitely hasn't started yet.'
That explained everything.
The world he was currently stepping foot in was indeed the world of Lost Soul, but it must be a point in time before the demons crawling up from the bottom of sulfur had invaded the human world.
Then what he had to do was clear.
Anyone who possessed a body in an unstarted dark fantasy world naturally had things they ought to do, didn't they?
'Prepare.'
Build up strength, get acquainted with key characters, help them, and prepare to survive together.
Fortunately, inside his head was the knowledge that could make all of that possible⋯⋯
"Oops. A young lady shouldn't be wandering around a place like this alone. Hm?"
"⋯⋯?"
Yurik tilted his head at the insidious male voice flowing from the side.
In a dark, secluded alleyway, men drawing a few daggers were surrounding a single person.
"Get⋯⋯away⋯⋯!"
'⋯⋯A woman?'
Yurik's eyes narrowed at the sight of the woman wearing a pale, terrified expression.
Hm.
Men holding daggers approaching a terrified woman with smiles on their faces.
A warm smile spread across Yurik's face upon seeing that.
'Is it a combat lesson?'
In the north, there was a custom where full-grown men would rush at women who looked unable to protect themselves to teach them how to use weapons by any means necessary.
Because otherwise, they'd easily end up as monster food before even a single winter passed.
Seeing how people lived was all the same everywhere, it was clear that even in civilized society, warm human affection still remained⋯⋯
"⋯⋯."
No, wait. Hold on.
There was no way.
Having spent so much time in the north, there were times when his thought process functioned like the people over there.
Yurik shook his head and stepped into the alleyway.
A familiar face was there.
'⋯⋯The Maiden of Origin?'
Hair as black as ebony. Pure white eyes. Crossing through their center was a cross-shaped iris resembling a religious symbol.
Shea Whiteburn.
Number one in the Lost Soul popularity poll.
The 'Helper NPC' responsible for the player character's growth and recovery was right there.
◆
<Status Screen>
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
《 Character Status Information 》
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
【 Name 】 Yurik Bator
【 Race 】 Human
【 Gender 】 Male
【 Origin 】 Northern Snowy Region Bator Tribe
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
【 Possessed Traits 】
《 Northerner's Physique 》
Resistance to extreme cold, starvation, and pain is extremely high. Even when sustaining a fatal wound, combat ability does not easily decline.
《 Beast's Instinct 》
Instinctively senses bloodlust, lies, and ambushes. However, cannot sense lies that lack malice.
《 Overlord's Intimidation 》
Plunges beings with weaker wills than oneself into terror. Works particularly strongly against beasts, monsters, and demons.
《 The Untamed 》
Possesses strong resistance to mind control, brainwashing, and seduction-type abilities. Enters a rage state when receiving forced obedience commands.
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
【 Possessed Skills 】
- Swordsmanship
- Unarmed Combat
- Mounted Combat
- Survival Skills
- Hunting
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
【 Perks 】
《 Inflection Point 》
Possesses mysterious knowledge.
Depending on this character's actions, the fates of the protagonists in the world can be completely changed.
A new fate is unlocked for individuals who come into contact with the subject.
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
※ You have made contact with [Maiden of Origin] Shea Whiteburn.
※ Depending on the results of the actions taken toward the target, the target's fate may become bound to you.
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛