Keith imagined his stomach being made of iron. With the mental image in place he began to search the corpses one by one for anything of use. Most of their weapons were destroyed. Their armor was also nearly torn to shreds.

It was not all in vain though. He found a few items of use. When he appraised them, his suspicions were confirmed. These Hunters were not new, they were experienced and at the least they were B-Rank. People like this would not normally come to the Kavala Wastelands as it was not profitable enough for them.

These people were rich enough that they had rings which were enchanted with Spatial Magic. Keith transferred any useful contents into his own inventory. There was camping equipment, spare sets of clothes, water and rations, as well as a few other commodities and Mana Gems –the current currency of Earth and the myriad realms-. Most of the Mana Gems were middle-grade.

When he scavenged the items, Keith’s vision fell upon what appeared to be the leader of the group. His body was the one with all of its limbs torn off. But the armor on his body, even if it was destroyed it clearly was the most expensive from looks alone. Next to the body was a sword. Luckily there was only a small chip in its blade. Picking it up Keith appraised it.

[Atraxia’s Wrath: A longsword made from the B-Class Winged Serpent Atraxia. Forged with the venom of Atraxia’s Fang, this sword will poison its victims with Atraxia’s Venom. Chance on Hit: Poison the target with venom that attacks the nerves.]

Although he never used a sword before, Keith grabbed it and attached the sheath to a spare belt that he looted from one of the corpses. At the end of the day, a sword was better than a dagger in a head-on clash. Aside from the sword, next to the body there was a ring and what appeared to be a scroll.

[Ring of Mara’s Faithful: A standard ring sold by the Church of Mara to their believers. Enchantment: Restoration. As long as this ring is worn, natural recovery rate increases. Hp increases by +3 a second.]

“Mara…? I’ve heard of the name. But I never went to the church in Wraithos City. Elena do you know of a person named Mara?” Keith asked.

“I seem to faintly remember of a Divine Ruler by such a name. But I am not sure. I feel as if she was popular with men, and not necessarily as holy or pure as she led people to believe.” Elena said half-heartedly. She wasn’t sure. Perhaps in the future as Keith’s soul grew stronger, she would remember. However one thing was for sure, when she read the name through Keith’s eyes Elena grew irritated and she didn’t know why. She could not remember if she had ever personally met Mara, but without a doubt the name really annoyed her. Perhaps there was bad blood between the two of them.

Through their connection Keith was learning to pick up on the emotions Elena felt. He believed her when she said she didn’t know. There was no reason not to trust her. He could feel her discontentment though. Perhaps she subconsciously had bad feeling towards this Mara person?

Due to her feeling irritated, Keith didn’t put on the ring. Instead he asked, “Would you rather I didn’t take the ring if it bothers you?”

“No, take it. You need to use everything that can be used. Just because I feel a sense of foreboding, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it. Just… be careful and extremely vigilant of anyone associated with Mara. At least until I remember why this name bothers me so much.”

“Alright”

Keith put the ring on his left index finger. The moment he did so, he heard a mechanical voice.

“Error: System does not have a display for natural regeneration rate. Stand by, rectifying in 3…2…1… complete, please check Status.”

When he checked his status, there were two new entries. One represented Hp regeneration, and the other was Mp regeneration. It seemed that his body was still weak. Hp: Was only 3.25, which meant that he only recovered 0.25 originally. As for Mp: It was only 0.10 a second.

‘Ugh, I hate math.’

Just as he complained in his mind, Keith suddenly came up with an idea. The System changed to suit his needs. Perhaps it wasn’t as passive as he thought it was.

Clearing his throat, Keith said, “System change the values for Hp and Mp regeneration to the total recovered every minute.”

“Command Acknowledged: Applying change to suit owners request in 3…2...1… Complete!”

‘Alright, 195 Hp a minute and 6 Mp a minute, I can work with this. The Hp was boosted by the ring, but Mp is a bit low. I’ll need to be careful since I don’t have power of Law yet. My abilities will most likely cost mana as long as they aren’t passive abilities.’

After confirming his status, Keith picked up the scroll on the ground, but it was full of gibberish. It was a language that he couldn’t understand. Although it looked tarnished, if a B-Rank was holding onto it then perhaps it had some value.

The moment he was about to throw it into his inventory, Elena suddenly shouted in his mind. “Wait! Let me look through your eyes a bit longer! I sense the power of Law coming from this scroll!”

“What, why would there be something with the power of Law in a place like the Kavala Wastelands? Even if it is mutating, it was originally an E-Rank Realm. If this is really the power of Law, wouldn’t the realm be locked down while the S-Ranks and higher fought over this scroll?”

Keith didn’t receive his answer for a long time. Elena observed the scroll through his eyes for nearly ten minutes before she let Keith put it in his inventory. After a few more minutes of waiting, Keith finally elicited a response from Elena.

“This scroll is ancient. I dare say it is from my era, when the Four Divine Pillars were still alive. However, I do not have any proof but there is something familiar about it. I believe that the reason the Kavala Wastelands is mutating is because of this scroll.”

“…”

Elena seemed to always say things that made no sense to him. How could an entire realm mutate because of an ancient scroll.

“Explain.”

“When you understand Law, you will be enlightened. But put briefly, Divine Rulers were capable of altering realms. There is a reason people worship them as Gods. Some could even create life from seemingly nothing. Naturally, the Divine Monarchs were on another level altogether. Essentially the Kavala Wastelands may not be as simple as you and I thought it was…”

“So, you’re saying that this… Scroll… was probably in the possession of, or created by a Divine Ruler? Then that Divine Ruler was perhaps… I don’t know do Divine Rulers own realms like they would own a house?”

“That’s right. Although your analogy is a bit off… but that’s essentially it. However, only those Diviner Rulers who had been Divine Rulers for hundreds, if not thousands of years were capable of owning their own realm. Some created their realms, others just found one and laid claim to it. So if this realm belonged to one and this scroll belonged to that person…” Elena left Keith to come to his own conclusions.

“It’s like we are robbing a house. So it is safe to assume this dead party somehow learned of this scroll, and by taking it away from this realm they infuriated the realm itself? But is that possible?” Keith asked. There were too many unanswered questions and too much that he was ignorant of.

“I do not know. Realms are living things. Even the Earth is alive. However their spirits, souls, or whatever analogy you want to use are not conscious. So, typically the realm wouldn’t become enraged. No, I have never heard of a sentient realm that can feel anger, or even any emotions. Heck, I’ve never heard of a sentient realm.” Elena said tiredly as if thinking was painful.

“Then if we want to leave the Kavala Wastelands. Wouldn’t the best bet be to replace the scroll where it was found?”

“Well… it’s a starting point. But we don’t even know where it was found.”

“Its fine,” the storm was finally dying down as Keith looked towards the horizon, “Something tells me that you and I will be here for a few years. Are your ready for an adventure Elena?”

“Ha… you’re suddenly confident,” Elena sighed, “Lead the way. We might as well just head towards anywhere that catches your interest since this realm is no longer the one you knew.”

“Let’s go. It’s time to march to our deaths.” Keith said in order to try and ease the tension he felt in his muscles.

Elena: “…” Don’t jinx us you idiot!