Stepping through the doorway, Franz found himself in a small room about the size of a regular garage. It looked extremely barebones with just a couple of things inside the room. Franz didn't really get a chance to look around though, as his head immediately split open and he fell to his knees.
It felt as if he was dying. His eyes were freezing. His organs were trebling. His muscles were spasming. Worst of all, his head was being filled with countless memories.
A memory of a glass bottle filled with blackish corpse fluid reeking of decay.
Another bottle flashed through his mind, this one a blood-red liquid that has a strong, fishy smell.
The man from earlier that day also went through his head. It was father. He was a Gatekeeper. A prestigious role with lots of responsibility.
Finally, a single phrase flashed through Franz's mind: "Congratulations. The dual pathway sequence 8 project has been completed."
With that, Franz's body gave out and he fell onto the floor of the cave, unconscious.
…
Well, what a nice little pickle I'm in.
Franz had awoken from his unconscious state a couple of minutes ago and was leaning against one of the walls of the room.
He was currently going over the memories he had received from Peus. A major feat to try and achieve because there were a lot of events packed into the teens life.
Peus was a 16 year old teenager who lived in the village of Kaiya. It was a fairly large and powerful settlement when compared to other humans, though not much compared to the mythical races.
It was a village that specifically pursued the "pathways" of "Warrior", "Corpse Collector", and "Sleepless", but they did have humans of other pathways as well. When Franz had realized what these terms were, he was incredibly shocked. The night before he awakened in the village of Kaiya in the body of Peus, he was watching a popular donghua by the name of Lord of Mysteries.
How surprised am I to find myself here, in the world of LoM. Paralleling the original character from the Chinese anime, I've also been transmigrated to this world. How bad must my luck be to arrive in this hell hole however? I would take Klein's poverty issues any day!
Rubbing his hands thoughtfully, Franz went back to remembering the memories he had received.
Peus was the son of Greus, the brother of the village leader. Greus was someone called the Gatekeeper, a sequence 5 of the Corpse Collector pathway. As the son of a high-mid ranking member of the village people, Peus had, just like his father, become a Corpse Collector.
This however, wasn't the end of Peus's story. He had been born as a - as the original LoM work called it - Beyonder. Much to the surprise of Franz, this term wasn't used by the people of Kaiya, but instead just called ability users. He suspected it would be implemented later on when human civilization reached high enough numbers.
A born Sequence 8 Gravedigger was an incredibly rare event, the village leader had decided to offer Peus up to the "scientists" and "potion developers" of the village. This meant that Peus was used as a lab rat, specifically to see if natural born Beyonders had better chances of being dual pathway.
It was very well known in Kaiya that at high enough sequence, certain pathways could be interchanged. It was also known that the same could not happen at sequences below the said point. But the researchers believed that a natural born Beyonder would be different. To their dismay, they were wrong.
Peus was able to become a sequence 9 Warrior easily. He did show some signs of losing control, but that was normal. After he had acted and digested his sequence 9 potion, he was permitted to advance to sequence 8 Pugilist. During the advancement everything seemed fine at the start, but it went completely sideways right at the end.
Long story short, Peus lost his memories of that moment and was filled in after the end. A spirit at the level of a sequence 6 was sacrificed in some way to prevent him from completely losing control. After that, the researchers said he would have to complete his acting and wait around 2 years before he would be permitted to advance again, this time choosing between one of the pathways.
Hmm… thinking about it, the 2 years should have just about passed… but that's for later, right now I need to better understand my situation.
From top to bottom, the most important thing to understand is that I've been transmigrated. I watched 5 episodes of the Donghua, and I read through some of the wiki. From what I understand, there are 22 pathways and some of those pathways are evil, like the criminal pathway.
Each pathway governs a specific domain of reality. The Seer pathway is all about change, history, and bizarreness. The Warrior pathway is about strength, combat, twilight, and holiness. The Corpse Collector pathway is about death, enslavement, spirits, and pallor. That doesn't really tell me much…
Next thing I know is some of the potion formulas and rituals, including some for the Warrior pathway! One of the abilities of any beyonder is having increased mental attributes, but that honestly doesn't even matter since I have photographic memory. Finally, I know that this world is incredibly dangerous and possessing knowledge one should not will always lead to death. Good thing I don't know anything special or else I would be dead…
Sighing, Franz squeezed his eyes shut and opened them. He was incredibly tired, but it didn't matter. He had to move and understand what the Cave of Lineage was to survive. The military training proved useful as Franz willed himself off the ground and started to have a look around the cave.