Sipp~!!
"Nothing beats a fresh cup of Honey Tea in the morning! " Asta says, taking another sip right after.
Currently, it has been three days since all the crappy experience he had face back in the underworld. And now he was enjoying a moment of stress free vacation with no threat hanging over his peaceful life.
...
...
"IS WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SAY!! ", Asta throws the cup to the ground with rage as he lifts his head and looks around himself with frustration. " I skipped on sleep. Trained for days with no break and even endured Yuno's insults to learn about Mana zone... -"
He finally snaps, "-AND NOW I AM IN THIS CRAPPY BODY WITH NO MUSCLE!! "
Apparently, When the underworld collapsed, The barrier surrounding the four kingdoms vanished, opening them up to the rest of the world.
Also, maybe getting hit by a hand of literal void God was the cause.
But Asta's soul has been stretched like rubber band and is now linking two different bodies on two different side of the world.
as it turns out, there is a thing called Contract rituals in one of the other continents- a summoning spell similar to the Devil binding Contract faust family.
The only difference was that it summoned a Devil's soul, A literal random Devil from anywhere ranging from literal hell to the goddamn void.
Asta face palms just from thinking about it, "Just how unlucky am I? "
That's right. Asta was Devil summoned and his damaged soul ate away the summoner's soul to repair itself, linking it to his feeble body in the process.
And now Asta was stuck in a place he had no memories, no idea of his location and surrounded by people who spoke a language completely unfamiliar to him, with the only saving gaze being that he could still see the condition of his real body through a sort of linked vision.
He was forced into a new body and his real body was left in a Coma like state where he couldn't move anything except the eyes and even that was delayed. He wasn't even able to summon up Astra in his new body.
Even so, despite only being able to use the stage 2 of the system for his new body. Asta had found out that most of his traits didn't pass on since they were mostly Racial ones and only three exceptions: Swordsmanship expert, Mental stabilizer and the final trait that formed due to his soul being split, Hive mind.
[Trait: Hive mind]
[ Effects: 1. split parts of your souls to control different bodies at once. Speed depending on ratio]
[2. A link forms between the connected bodies, growing stronger overtime and allowing better control as time passes until it becomes natural. ]
[3. Soul split ratio controllable after link strength passes 70]
[Current link strength: 13]
Asta was about to continue complaining when he noticed a change un his real body's vision, almost as if someone was lifting him up from his bed.
It was Princia, a greedy smile plastered across her face while she glanced around the room with caution before turning towards him again.
"Just what is this women planning now!?" Asta thought, now fully aware of what Princia's personality was like.
Thankfully for him, Another person was accompanying her, a person much more trustworthy– Conrad.
"They seem to be saying something. " Asta said, "too bad The link can't transmit sound yet."
Nevertheless Asta didn't let something like this sadden him and decided to shift his focus to the bigger picture.
He looked ahead for a second, only the sight of an bustling city with its countless brick houses, inns and shops coming into his vision.
Silently he turned around, walking back into the small room and towards the mirror as he took a look at his new body.
Suddenly his mouth turned, a smug smile forming as he admired the thing he never had before- A tall height.
His new body belonged to a scrawny young man with looks close to 19 in age. The notable features was his 6'2 height which he was most satisfied about, cyan coloured hair with dandruff and a face comparable to Yuno's.
" But it's weak...super weak. "
There was not even smallest of muscles on his new body. It was so bad that he was sure even his little brothers back at Hage church would use him as a wet rag if he fought them right now.
And to make matter much worse, there was something else that was gone.
"Sigh let's try again."
Asta closes his eyes and begans using mana sense but the mana in air was atmost about one-tenth of the quantity normally present throughout Clover kingdom.
"In simple words, this place has close to no mana to awaken mages naturally." Asta continued his observations, still looking around at the floating manabits.
"-but atleast its not completely gone... Phew. Its not like thinking will change anything... So how about I make a little trip down the town? "
Growl-
The stomach growls in approval, confirming Asta's next actions.
And it seems the Contractor has also noticed his intent to go outside and gave a mission to assist him.
[Mission aquired: Find the town hall]
[Reward: Southern Continent Languages dictionary, +5 Link strength]
[Advice: The town hall is a two story building with grey bricks and a massive coloured in Yellow and purple.]
"Thanks for the help. Co— " Asta pauses, "By the way... What do I call you? I can't keep calling you contractor, can I?
[Contractor's message: Took you long enough to ask that... But I can't just tell you my real name. ]
Asta raises an eye in confusion,
" Huh? The heck you mean you can't tell me?"
[I dont have the time to explain to a lazy bum like you. Just use my Alias... Clover.]
"Fine fine... Geez, no wonder Astra hates you... You are like a nagging Old man."
No reply came for Asta's comment, meaning The Con—... Clover had already stopped listening to his words after he was done saying his share.
Now it was just Asta again, a lone man who could only sigh because there was no one to talk to.
Nonchantly he began looking through for any suitable clothes for himself, trying to find anything good enough to cover his face so nobody recognises or tries to talk to guy he was currently possessing.
He rummaged through the wardrobes, finding only a moss coloured cloak that he deemed barely suitable.
With no other optiona, He hesitatingly wore the cloak. His mind also puking in disgust at the smell of it while his months of wearing comfortable Royal clothes made the cloak seem like pure garbage.
However he didn't let those feelings come to his mouth since he knew that this cloak could very well be something many beggars on the road could only dream about.
"Now then! Let's explore this city!"
Asta barges through his room's door, climbed down a narrow flight of stairs while constantly looking around for any people.
Even if it was just for once, he didn't find anybody on his way down, a unfamiliar stroke of luck that made his vigilance skyrocket to the heavens.
"Are things going my way...? Nope! Not falling for this crap again! I know my luck better than anybody else, and I know the misfortune is just waiting for me to let my guard done."
Asta refused to ease up, his tension rising with each step he took forward until he was out the inn he was in.
The only person he saw in the way was the inn owner but he didn't bother to talk with Asta which went to showcase th relationship between the summoner and others.
But Asta wasn't shocked one bit.
"I figured as much, " Asta thought, " Anybody who will go as far as to sell his soul to a devil would either be a hopeless outcast or a evil bastard... The problem is figuring out which one this guy was. "
If this was the former situation, Asta wouldn't have to worry about anything big. If it was latter however... He would have to sleep with his eyes open to not get involved with possible enemies.
Yet whatever it was, the solution in the end was always Strength and knowledge. The two things he needed the most.
Eventually Asta found himself standing in the middle of street, surrounded in all directions by various of types of food stalls, shops and hundreds of people there to buy stuff.
Even he himself wanted to buy something like a quick, albeit with no understanding of the language, he has no idea of how much anything was cost and refrained himself.
"I have to find the town hall first. " He said to himself.
"But how? "
Then a idea popped up in his head, an idea to find the highest ground he could find and memorize the city from above.
Quickly he found himself an alley. He entered it with no hesitation and put his back against the wall.
Asta then closed his eyes and focused, gathering raw mana from their air by flailing his arms around and absorbing any manabits he came in contact with.
He had no idea what using Anti-magic will do to his new body. so he didn't want to risk dying due to his own carelessness.
Instead he opened the System panel in his mind, using it was figure out the mana attribute suitable for the current body.
Ding
[Host has acquired basics to mana and possesses decent talent. Trait: Apprentice Mage has been formed]
[Magic attribute: Darkness+Lightning]
"This guy got a body suitable for double attributes...? Was he a idiot? Why would someone like that sell their soul to a Devil?"
Nevertheless Asta couldn't change the past. So he stoped caring about the guy's decision unaware that most of people in southern continent have close to no access to magic due to monopoly.
But whatever his reason maybe, The body now belonged to Asta so without any stress and awkwardly movements, he began remembering how Luck's and Captain yami's mana moved.
First he remembered the heavyness of Darkness, the slow but impactful power with high penetration against defence that he didn't need very much right now.
lightning on the other hand, was energetic and allowed instant bursts of speed with no care of what it passed through in the process.
Even so, a new attribute wasn't something Asta could just learn on a whim. Luckily for him through he had something that had almost all the knowledge he needed.
"System! Open the tomb of knowledge. Search for anything related to how to identify a mana attribute."
[Accessing Tomb of knowledge... Searching. ]
[- page 45 of mana attributes– each person's mana possess different shades of a colour only visible when used, but raw natural mana has fixed shade of different colours that they all related magics have.]
"Colour huh? I never thought about that. Now that you mention it Ice magic or magic circles mostly cyan and water is blue so maybe water related are more one-sides towards that colour."
Asta puts his hand on his head, "But what about lightning? Luck's looks the same as ice magic... Argh! What a headache."
Then suddenly, a flash of light surprised Asta as a hand tugged at his cloak.
He quickly opened his eyes in caution, preparing to fight anything that may be dangerous but all his caution was a naught.
The person in front was no thug, no guard and no fighter. It was a child, a small toddler that looked barely 8 or 10 in age with a small broken mirror in hand and greatly bruised appearance of a beggar.
"*foreign language.*" The kid spoke in a weak voice but Asta couldn't understand.
"Phew! You almost scared me little guy *kneels down and pats the kid * Anything you want? " Asta asked with a kind face.
But the answer came from his and the kid's stomach.
Growl!!
Looks like both of then were hungry and sadly Asta couldn't use the money even if he wanted to.
However that's when he noticed the kid's raggy shirt making small sparks when the kid tried to pull it up to wipe his sweat.
And he got an wierd but plausible idea.
"If I can make enough sparks from anything... There is a chance I can find some stray lightning mana nearby. "
And as if the heavens had been on his side for once, Asta heard a low crackle above and looked up to find dark storm clouds gathering.
A smile formed on his face as he grabbee the shiniest coin from his pocket, putting it in the kid's hand as a thanks for his luck before dashing towards the street.
He was unaware that the single coin whose value he was unaware of, will become a avalanche that will affect greatly in the future.