She saw Horus staring at one spot and knelt in front of him.
"My liege, are you alright? You seem awfully quiet," she asked, her brows furrowing as she feared the worst.
But for Horus, he had only one thing to say.
"I reincarnated inside the body of a fool."
Soon after he said that, silence settled between them, while the lady blankly stared at him. Horus was busy reading through another interface that had just appeared.
---
-[Welcome To Fall Of Empires; Lord Horus]
Level: 10
Race: Human
Lineage: Son of the late emperor Seth, direct bloodline of the undead queen mother Athena.
---
Skill Set A)
-[Skills: Builder's Thought (Active): The player is capable of building anything he imagines, depending on the upgrade point.]
System Hint: Use this skill to build your empire.
-[Skill 02: Infinite Upgrade Points (Passive): By staying in one position, you accumulate a million upgrade points.]
Horus scoffed at the skills; none of them seemed useful to his taste. He needed something he could fight with.
Then suddenly, another interface appeared in front of him.
---
Skill Set B)
-[Skill: Upgrade Authority (Active): The player can upgrade anything—beast, human, or weapon—to its max; each upgrade costs at most ten thousand upgrade points.]
Upgrade points can be gained through completing missions.
-[Skill 2: 10x Binding Reward System: The player can bind with any person, beast, or weapon. Once the bound target grows stronger, the player receives 10x the reward.]
-[System Notification: Please choose from one of the sets.]
-[Set A]- -[Set B]
Horus's eyes lingered on the interface. He took a good look at Set A one more time, then back to Set B.
Obviously, in each set, one skill couldn't function without the other. And for him, the best skill combo was Set B.
'Shit, how did I even get in this mess?' he thought. 'I wasn't even a game addict'
-[Ding]-
-[System Notification: You have successfully acquired Set B attributes. Good luck, Lord Horus.]
-[System Status has been updated.]
The knight lady in front of him blinked.
'Alright, Set B, so I can upgrade anything... I wonder how many upgrade points I have,' he thought.
As if summoned, the familiar blue interface gave him a report of his current upgrade points. However, Horus only had ten thousand upgrade points, given as a starter bonus.
'Just ten thousand?' he sighed. 'I better find something worth binding to—' Horus paused. 'Why is she staring at me that way?'
The lady in front of him frowned.
Horus had been awfully quiet, and she didn't expect him to say such things about himself. She had clearly not paid attention to the word reincarnation.
She moved forward and lifted his chin. "My liege, don't say that about yourself."
Horus stared at her. Obviously, if he said dwarves were the tallest race, she'd agree. He scoffed and slapped her hand off his face.
"And who are you supposed to be?" he asked.
Reincarnating into the fool's body did not come with a memory manual, which meant Horus barely knew who this person was.
All he was certain of was that she cared about him.
She casually overlooked his rude and submissive attitude and smiled. "If you insist, my liege, I am Lady Vi, Commander of your personal troop."
While she was introducing herself, Aslan had already stood up and begun walking outside.
He realized he couldn't walk alone due to the sharp pain, but Vi was quick enough to stand by his side as support.
"Tsk, who made a woman a commander?"
"You did, my liege."
While walking outside, Horus chuckled. He saw this as another act of the foolish emperor.
"Why would I make you a commander? Aren't there males?"
"Of course, my liege, but my ability makes me special. No one in the seven kingdoms can match my Time Gaze."
Horus felt confused. He didn't know what that meant. Was it supposed to be an ability?
Vi's time ability allowed her to rewind time to ten minutes before her death, while also enabling her to predict future outcomes.
Furthermore, she could create a time domain where her enemies would be a million times slower than her.
"Hold on," Horus said, pulling them back; they were nearly exiting the cave.
Horus kept looking at her. 'How can I bind with her?' he thought.
This time, he confirmed the system was somehow connected to his mind, because even now, it gave a reply.
-[Ding]-
-[Binding ability activated]
-[Ding! Lady Vi. Does the host wish to bind with this individual?]
Horus thought about it for a moment. His attention focused on what he could possibly do with a time-like ability.
In the end, he chose to bind with her.
-[Binding... 10%... 45%... 90%... 100%... Successful]
-[Lady Vi is now the target]
Horus sighed. Obviously, he couldn't wait for her to grow stronger; thus, he activated his upgrade system.
'Upgrade the commander.'
-[Ding: Upgrade Authority has been activated]
-[Target: Lady Vi]
Target's Status:
Ability: Timeless Goddess
Sets: Time Domain, Time Rewind, Time Expansion, Time Freeze.
-[Ability Level: 90]
-[Marital Status: Lord Horus's Second Wife]-
-[Does the player wish to upgrade the target?]
Horus paused—not because he was considering the upgrade, but because the marital status caught him off guard.
'She... she's my wife?' he thought, momentarily stunned, but quickly composed himself.
If he had known earlier, he would have reacted differently. Horus sighed. 'Yes, upgrade Lady Vi.'
As soon as he said that, a blinding light enveloped his wife, who stood beside him. The force lifted her into the air.
Horus couldn't withstand the light, so he carefully stepped back and covered his eyes.
When the upgrade ended, she fell to her knees, gasping for air. Her injuries were gone; she felt more than alive—she felt reborn.
Then Horus received a notification.
'System, display the ability obtained'.
[Cosmic Time Gaze]
Description...
While Horus was reading through it, he barely had enough time before a knight entered the cave unannounced.
"My liege, pardon my interruption," he said, kneeling. "Some of the soldiers are now leaving the camp."
As soon as he heard that, a system mission popped up.
-[Instant Mission: Gain Your Soldiers' Trust]
-[Reward: 10,000 upgrade points]
Summary:
After cowardly fleeing the orc abduction and trapping more of your people, the wounded soldiers no longer see you as fit to rule. They no longer trust you, and their loyalty is decreasing. Prove them wrong.
Loyalty Progress: 25%
Trust Progress: 5%
---
Horus remained quiet for a while after seeing the sudden system interface.
"Fuck," was all he could say.
Because indeed, he was fucked.