Chapter 2 Regaining the Power of the Merchant's System

The smell of dried blood from the calloused wound attracted several beasts within the forest.

The clogged-up cut prevented him from dying of blood loss-

But it seems that Jacob is far from safe as feral beasts started surrounding.

It may have been a coincidence, or his instincts might have signaled the upcoming mortal danger; He regained his consciousness just in time to notice that he's in deep trouble.

If he woke up a second too late, he may have already been food to these wild beasts!

He was still in a daze from both the pain and confusion.

For some unknown reason, He was still somehow alive?

But it seems that escaping death one more time would depend on him being able to- rather than relying on luck or another mere coincidence.

He could barely remember anything as to why he passed out; and as to what happened after they were ambushed. But forcing himself to recall everything right now would be pointless.

It wasn't exactly the right time worry about it... because currently-

He's up against four gray wolves that are hungrily staring down at him!

For a prominent adventurer or a professional knight, this would have been an easy task.

But for a 14-year-old boy with nothing but the will to live, this was a bit trickier.

Although, these grey wolves weren't exactly as big as Jacob had remembered them...

During his studies back then; He read a book about the common wild beasts that dwell within the forests that surround the city of Creia...

It seems that he wasn't totally unlucky, this is just a group of adolescent wolves;

But fighting them in groups would still pose a certain threat-

Breathing out the fear and anxiousness that had built up inside; Jacob braced himself as he took the initiative to charge against this group of wolves.

The fact that he charged towards them and not the other way around had thrown the group of wolves into confusion!

Defending oneself would be the most logical choice...

Fleeing immediately would've been the instinctive option...

-But fighting head-on without hesitation caught the beasts off guard!

The wolves instinctively avoided the charging figure of Jacob that had tackled one of them.

Dragging the poor wolf across the ground, Jacob used his own weight to pin the beast down.

Without a moment's hesitation, Jacob rained down punches towards the immobilized beast.

His fists landed directly on the wolf's head!

Each punch was strong and decisive; all delivered with the intent to kill! The barrage of blows immediately smashed the wolf's skull-

"One down..."

Immediately kicking away the other three that were trying to maw him down-

Jacob stood up as he used the wolf's corpse as some sort of weapon, clubbing the charging wolves away every time they pounced closer.

Double teaming him, it did not take long before one of the three remaining wolves managed to slip past the swinging carcass and had successfully got near him.

The wolf bit off Jacob's shoulder, severing the entirety of his left arm!

...Yet- He seemingly felt no pain, none at all! His adrenaline pumped even higher!

This isn't the time to anguish, he has to survive this first!

The pre-occupied jaw of the wolf that bit his arm off provided the small window of opportunity that he needed. The poor figure of the wolf flew from Jacob's kick, towards the other two that were eagerly salivating.

Losing his arm was heavily detrimental in fighting these wolves... His next move should be escaping as fast as he could.

Without a second thought, Jacob ran deeper towards the forest, sprinting without care.

Instead of attacking and chasing him down, the other two wolves snagged for a piece of the severed arm that was still stuck on the jaws of the unconscious wolf; Jacob's figure disappeared on the horizon as he ran further away.

---

"Arghhh!..."

Reaching a mountain-side cavern after running deeper into the forest;

Jacob screamed in pain as he tried detaching the cracked bone that was left dangling from the severed arm.

Tearing off a piece of cloth from his bloodied shirt, Jacob tried his best to clean the wound and stop the profuse bleeding.

Having little knowledge regarding medicine, his chance of surviving after this was still pretty low...

It would be a huge mistake staying out here in the open while he's covered with the stench of fresh blood. Staying inside the cavern would be his safest choice for now...

It was an eerie coincidence for him to stop by at a seemingly uninhabited cavern the moment he felt exhaustion, but questioning anything that resembled some sort of blessing would just be plain dumb at the moment.

He was just happy that he somehow survived from all that...

But at the same time, he was worried-

He was unsure as to what happened after he lost his consciousness, even more so as to what happened to Lisa back then when they tried escaping.

Recuperating his wounds and regaining his strength would be his biggest priority, for now.

It might have been the blood loss, but he could not clearly think straight as what to do at this point.

Closing his eyes to gain some needed rest, he could not help but hear ominous noises resonating from the insides of the cavern.

He was barely staying near the cavern's entrance and had not ventured deeper-

It might have been helpful to stay inside to avoid the wild creatures from smelling him; but at the same time, it wasn't that reassuring for his safety to go any further than where he is now.

He had heard rumors of people getting trapped within dungeons or something of the likes, and he was not willing to risk falling into the same fate;

He had some sort of fear being locked up, ironic considering he had been a slave for six years.

*whoosh!*

The sound of a speeding dart subtlely echoed around the enclosed walls of the cavern as it landed on Jacob's chest...

His vision started to blur. He felt the familiar sensation of light-headedness-

*thud!*

Jacob fell, face flat on the ground.

---

The suffocating smell of the smoke awakened Jacob's senses.

His eyes were greeted with the bizarre looks of goblins dragging him towards a cauldron filled with boiling water.

He's about to be eaten!... yet again.

Trying to calm himself down, all he needed right now was to time everything perfectly in order to escape.

Acting as if he never woke up, Jacob then prepared himself to run as fast as he could the moment they'd untie him.

*schlik!*

The rope on his feet was then cut loose. Two goblins grabbed a hold of his legs as they prepared to toss him on the pot of boiling soup.

In an instant, the goblins flew like rag dolls being tossed aside, hitting their head on the cavern walls.

It was yet another familiar scene, for the third consecutive time- Jacob ran as fast as he could to escape yet another perilous situation.

But it did not take long before the mob of goblins could keep up to him.

Their legs may be tiny, but the injured Jacob could not run any faster than he did back then, his steps started faltering...

Tripping over some jagged rocks, he could barely muster enough strength to stand back up and run.

'This is it I guess- I could never utter the words to say that "it had been a good run" though. It had been pretty terrible.'

Closing his eyes, Jacob had accepted his fate as he smiled for the last time...

He tried his best, yet maybe he was meant to die today.

After all, ending this terrible path of life is better than continuing it miserably.

He could feel the numerous tiny stabs landing on his back, yet it felt like ecstasy for him to finally be relieved from all this running and escaping and whatnot.

---

[Tsk tsk... What in the name of the great heavens had befell unto you, brother?]

'Huh? I could clearly hear a voice resounding within the cavern... But, shouldn't I be dead by now?'

'How am I still hearing this? Am I already in the afterlife? Wait- The voice just called me "brother"?'

'I do not remember having any sibling though...'

The fazed soul of Jacob, blindly floating over his body, was still in confusion as to what is happening, [I could not believe that the day would actually arrive when I could see one of the most powerful beings to fall in such pitiful state... *sigh*]

"Who... Who are you? Are you- are you God?"

[Come on now, don't make me laugh big brother]

"And why are you calling me "brother" anyway, as far as I know, I am the only child of my parents"

[Hahaha, that couple? They aren't your parents, per se, but- Ah, I've said too much.]

"Too much? You haven't said anything relevant at all! Damn it, talk straight, who are you!"

[Ah, You're still as hot-headed as ever...]

[But still, I couldn't do so, besides, it had been a part of your request back then to not remind you of anything.]

[...I couldn't stay for long, but I am just glad to see that you'd be just fine, it seems that besides your powers and memory, you didn't remove that 'thing' from you back then, a smart move as always, brother.]

"What? Wait- For once, could you make any sense from what you're saying? Am I not dead already?"

[Dead? Hahaha, see? You've still got that humor with you brother, here, let me help you]

Looking around, Jacob noticed that everything stopped. The group of goblins even halted from all the stabbing...well-

Halting was a bit of an understatement, literally, nothing is moving, not even the debris of rocks from the ceiling of the cavern- It was as if time had stopped in itself.

A gigantic scythe appeared out of nowhere...

With one swift motion, the heads of all the goblins popped off in an instant!

"Wait... Who exactly are you!"

[I've told you countless times, You made me swear on your name that I won't tell you.]

[Anyways, I'd be going now. It had been a decade and a half almost, please hurry up with what you're doing in this place. Oh, and by the way- ]

[Mother said that I should hand this over to you...]

A tiny speck of light appeared from the void.

[You might not want a portion of your powers back, but she had been worried that you might not ever finish the things that you so dearly wanted, so might as well.]

"Mother? Wait... who- Argh!"

Jacob could not finish his sentence when he suddenly felt the surge of immense pain as the blot of light entered his forehead...

The chilling coldness of it ran down through his spine as he snapped back to the land of the living, his soul landed on his body, that was lying "dead" on the ground.

Huffing and puffing, Jacob tried to recover from what happened as he inspected the surroundings...

"...So it wasn't a dream." Around him were the bloodied corpse of the goblins;

Each of them was cleanly beheaded.

"Then what was all that?" Rubbing his head as to make sure that it was not bleeding or injured, an astonishing thing happened-

His forehead glowed as the sudden gush of information flooded his consciousness...

Multiple 'tabs' of unknown and mysterious information presented themselves in front of him as a ringing noise resounded on his head...

[Ding... System Initializing... Now activating the "Merchant's Hack"]