Origin ARS 3 (Origin A.R.S.) Read Free

wondered about the future between the moments where he engaged in remembrance of his past. Scott had tried to ignore it, but there were many things about his current life and mental state that did not feel right. The background music currently played a soft and gentle song that perfectly emphasized the moment. It was another bit of strangeness in an already strange existence.
    The sorcerer looked down at his hands and considered them carefully. They had become instruments of death in this world. He had taken well over a thousand lives already. Yes, none of them would die and be gone forever, but he had still done it. What was worse, he had actually begun to enjoy it.
    Scott flexed his fingers and thought about the sound of cracking bones and ripping flesh. He listened to the death screams of many of the creatures he had slain. The feel of those bones as they gave way beneath his fist; the sight of blood spurting out in a brilliant crimson arc... Why did they not make him sick? What was he becoming? Why was he so calm about the changes that had appeared within his psyche?
    It was a dream was it not? Go to a fantasy world and live life like it was some sort of live-action roleplaying game. Fight monsters, get the girl... Yet, he felt disquiet about it all. It was not due to the immature desire to be some sort of hero. He could have understood and accepted that. No, what disturbed him was how much he had begun to truly enjoy taking away the lives of other creatures.
    He curled his fingers into a fist. With that hand he had taken more lives in one month than he had taken in thirty years of life back on Earth, and that included a decade spent as a soldier.
    “Dammit... What’s wrong with me?” Scott questioned his fist. He wanted to know why. He needed to understand what had changed to make him feel so much joy from overcoming his opponents.
    “Is this right? Am I supposed to do things like this?” Scott asked his fist those questions but it refused to give him solace or to provide the answers that he sought.
    Scott looked up from his fist and gazed out to sea.  Then he tilted his head up to the moon. He spent a moment gazing upon it as it hung low and full in the sky. “Why?”
    That question is what haunted him. It was fun to travel, to gain levels. However, what was the real reason? What drove him forward? Why did he feel joy and a need to hurt things just to become stronger? What purpose did any of it serve?
    “What use do I have for getting stronger, other than being stronger?” asked the man while looking up at the uncaring moon. It seemed rather pointless in the grand scheme of things. He had dealt a lot of death to the denizens of this world, and yet despite his misgivings he was not certain that he cared about that fact.
    If anything, he knew that he held a desire to add to the body count. He wanted to see how far he would be able to go. This world had either made him a sociopath or it had unleashed something from deep inside that he did not recognize; something primal.
    His emotional conflict was put on hold a moment later when he bore witness to a surprising event. Something flopped out of the water onto the surf, a strange and mythological something. “Is that a mermaid?” Scott asked the empty air. The creature crawling around on the shore certainly looked like she was half human and half fish.
    He stood up then moved to where Rhea was sleeping. He shook her gently, but she did not awaken. He tried again, but it became obvious that no amount of shaking would cause rouse her from her slumber. Scott reached the only conclusion that he could in this situation. “Damn, she really did log out.”
    The sorcerer wanted to go check out the newcomer, but he could not leave Rhea vulnerable. At least, he could not do so without good reason. So far, the mermaid had done nothing but flop onto the beach, and then start to crawl forward.
    However, a moment later it became obvious that the new arrival had not come alone.