Early in the night, William stirred awake.
His body felt weak, and there was a strange, dull numb pressure on his back.
'Ugh… This transmigration doesn't seem like normal transmigration at all.' He thought bitterly.
Cautiously, William glanced around. Sensing no one nearby, he tried moving, but quickly discovered he was tightly confined. Trapped inside an iron cage placed within a dimly lit tent.
'A cage…? And chains as well?'
He shifted slightly, only to find his wrists and ankles bound securely by thick shackles. Even worse, the cage itself appeared sturdy, far beyond what his current strength could handle.
After a few minutes of testing the chains, he sighed. They were impossible to break with brute strength. He leaned back against the bars, frustrated, and decisively giving up, not wanting to waste any energy.
No plan came to mind, and frankly, he wasn't in any shape to attempt any heroic escape
From what he sees at the ritual and his senses warning, at least half of the people here were able to take him down the moment they met, that was at least ten people, not mentioning if there more people hidden like his captor before.
Still unsure what to do, he opened his status panel, hoping for clarity.
[Status]
Name: William Deathwill (Unique Identity) (Winged Lord Vessel)
Rank: Captain / Extraordinary Level 1
Mutation: Winged One (20% And Growing)
Ship: Ordinary Fishing Boat
Pet: Open Inventory
Personal Skill: Delivering…
[Identity Exclusive Skill: Extraordinary Senses, Hunter, I'Am Here.]
[Remark: The First Day Isn't Even Over, Yet You Seems… Have Mutated? Will It Be Your Blessing? Or Your Doom?]
'So that's the reason for the weird feeling on my back was…'
William exhaled slowly. Surprisingly, he was calmer than expected. Perhaps the shock hadn't fully registered yet. Or maybe it was so overwhelming that his mind just… stopped reacting.
Regardless, the mental pressure from earlier, the one whispering submission to the so-called Winged Lord, was gone. Even the weight on his shoulders felt more like a background discomfort now.
He chuckled bitterly. His first day had truly been fantastical.
Ambushed by cultists and becoming an evil being vessel for resurrection by minutes he stepped on the land.
He even wondered if he was too rash after getting excited by the prospect of transmigration? His answer is just maybe, he wanted to explore the land and meet with native, it was just his luck making him meet cultists on the first island he explored.
Did he ignore his senses warning? No, but lack of experience is what makes him easily guided by his enemies.
Did he regret it? Honestly not… he doesn't know what will happen at the time and regretting it now is useless.
Observing the cage again, he wondered where his captor and other cult believers go? He already became their Lord Vessel, and by that identity at least there should be someone guarding him.
Yet his senses don't pick anyone in this place.
But then, a System Notice caught his attention…
[System Notice]
[The Night Has Arrived]
[System quest Issued]
[Quest:
> Survive For Seven Nights.
Quest Info:
> Every Night, The System will Invite Enemies(Mostly Monster or Beast) To Player Location.
> The Player Only Need To Survive, But Being Able To Kill The Enemy will Give You Bonus Item Drop.
> The Enemy Strength Is Proportioned To Player Strength And Players with Unique Identity will Have Unique Monsters They Needed To Slay.
> There Is No Punishment For Failure, Because At That Time You Are Already Dead.
System Note:
> After The Third Day, A Ranking System Will Be Added.
]
Then there was a small Hud in the corner of his eyes.
[Night: 1 (Six More Night To Go)]
[Unique Monster: 1/1]
William blinked. The quest had clearly triggered by at least thirty minutes ago. While he was still unconscious. And it also answered his earlier question.
'So that's where they all went… fighting monsters for my quest.'
He smirked, 'Take that, you bastards.'
Sure, the monsters probably weren't strong enough to kill the elite cultists. But at least it will make them restless, wondering why suddenly they are attacked by monsters. And that gave him a little satisfaction.
After gleefully thinking about the cult condition, he then scrolled the notification log. He'd seen flashes of updates earlier during the ritual but because of the situation he couldn't check it at the time.
[System Notification]
[You Are watching, D Level Historical Node:
>> Winged Lord Revival Ritual (Success Percentage: Very Low)
Information:
> Using At Least Hundred Of Living Sacrifice, The Believer Will Make The Chosen Vessel Mutate Further, Becoming Closer To The Winged Lord Mystical Form.
> This Ritual will Fail Because The Chosen Vessel Doesn't Have Natural Mutation Of The 'Winged One', What They Have Is An Induced Mutation That Will Make The Vessel Crazy With Pain.
> This Remarking The Incompatibility Of The Vessel, If They Compatible They Won't Feel Pain Unless They Artificially Progress The Mutation.
> But There Is A Change That Someone Watching This Ritual Growing Natural Mutation Of The 'Winged One' And Has A Very High Compatibility With The Ritual.
> The 'Winged One' Already Extinct On War One Hundred Years Ago, But The Trace Of Their Mutation Wont Go Away Just Like That.
> It Said The First 'Winged One' That Reborn From This Ritual Will Become The Winged Lord Itself.
System Note:
> The Revived Winged Lord Is Very Weak But It Was Still A Mystical Being, There Is A Chance To Inherit Mystical Status Of The Winged Lord.
]
At this point William wondered why there was so much information about the ritual and what it meant to have a chance to inherit the mystical status, but then continued reading answered his question.
[Judgement In Process…]
[You Have Unique Identity, Judgement Success.]
[Bloodline, Judgement Success.]
[Physical… Judgement Failed.]
[Spirit… Judgement Success.]
[Mystic Bonus Applied.]
[You Are The First One To See A Historical Time Node (D Level), Bonus Applied.]
[Personal Quest Generated:
> Integrate 'Wing Of The Lord' With Yourself, Maintain Your Sanity And Identity.
> Become The 'Winged Lord', Stole Its Identity And Became The First Myth Of This Era.
>> System Note:
> Your Mutation Must Reach At Least Fifty Percent Before Integrate With 'Wing Of The Lord'.
> After Integration, Mythical Status Inheritance Will Start, This Process Will Be Painful.
> Maintain Your Identity At All Time, Don't Let The Will Of Winged Lord Devour You.
> Remember Yourself.
> To Help You, The System will Strip One Of The Title From 'Winged Lord' And Give You 'Title Creation' After 'Wing Of The Lord' Integrated.
> Title will Become Part Of Your Identity And Status. Think What Title You Wanted, Don't Waste It.
]
[Remark: Prayer And Fame Can Help You Anchoring Your Identity. So Perhaps.. Start Your Debut In The World Chat.]
William Understood, and More than that, he knew what to do.
As a Novel Reader, William has read several novels with power systems similar to what the System explained.
He understood the importance of titles and what is Mythical being the System said.
They Are One and unique for each Myth. With this title, even if a Myth falls, they still have a chance to revive just like this Winged Lord. What's more, titles are also part of their power or authority of short.
Revived Myths are very weak at the moment they are revived and just like this Winged Lord, even someone like him can steal the identity of the Myth. Of course this was still dangerous and the chance like this is very rare.
If the system does not say it will strip One of The 'Winged Lord' Title, with his understanding, William would not dare to do this.
A Title was one's identity. Losing a Title meant losing a significant portion of one's power. With the Winged Lord newly revived and severely weakened, William realized his chance of successfully seizing the mythical status was higher than ever.
It was risky, but nothing in this world came for free.
Feeling cautiously hopeful, William began planning his next moves.
He opened the World Chat, intending to reach out to others for the first time. But before he could type a single word, the system prompted him to create a nickname.
William paused thoughtfully. Using his real name didn't feel appropriate, considering his current situation. He needed something symbolic, something tied to wings.
'Something related to wings… Birds? Garuda? Angel?'
He recalled the ritual and the title used by the cultists. In this world, beings with wings were called "Winged Ones," not angels. The concept of "angel" didn't seem to exist here, making it unique and fresh. But William wanted something even stronger, more impressive than just a simple angel.
After a few minutes of deliberation, he finally settled on:
[Seraph]
A Seraph, higher than an angel and entirely new to this world, at least from what he knew. It was perfect. As for the actual title he'd claim later, William already had ideas inspired by some of his favorite anime series.
Then he opened the world chat again, ignoring some pleas for help and other nonsense in there, he quickly typed his first message.
Seraph: "Guys, if you are captured by an evil cult and become sacrifice vessels for their lord to revive what's you gonna do? Waiting Online! Urgent!!"
After he sent that, the deserted chat seemed to freeze for a few seconds before someone answered him.
"Person Above, we are fighting monsters and sea creatures here. How do you get captured by a cult? Are cultists also monsters from system definition?"
Next, more people also got curious and started asking him. At first they are quite serious with the question, but with more people joining, the trolls are coming too.
"Person Above, are you on land? Or do the cultists have a ship and chase you before you get caught?"
"How strong are the cultists compared to the sea monster?"
"Between fighting sea monsters and getting captured by cultists, I don't know which one is more miserable…"
And so, more conversation started…
Seraph: "My spawn point is close to an island and let just say I'm very curious about the native here, so I go to the island with hope connecting with native but after I got on the island I noticed something weird as there doesn't seem anyone on the house, so I searched deeper in the island and got ambushed, the rest of the story are what I said above."
Seraph: "I also haven't met any monster or sea creature yet, as I'm being jailed in the center of the island right now. For who is stronger, the cultists or sea monster, I will say the cultists, and they have at least 30 people on the island. SO, Someone please help me!!"
…
"Lol… I will pray for you seraph."
"+1."
"+2."
"My man is getting that hell mode starting point."
"Bro got kidnapped by cultists? And here I thought angry crabs were my biggest problem."
"Can you log out and reroll your character? Asking for Seraph."
"Respect to Seraph for speedrunning the worst scenario possible."
"Cultists count as monsters, right? Do they at least drop good loot?"
"Forget loot, did Seraph just confirm that islands aren't safe either?"
Seraph: "I don't know about loot, but chains and cages are definitely confirmed."
"Day one, captured by a cult. Remind me never to party with Seraph."
"Seraph's living in a horror story while we're still figuring out fishing mechanics."
Seraph: "Glad my misfortune is entertaining you all. Seriously though- send advice."
…
William smiled faintly. Despite his circumstances, chatting with others in the world chat provided a brief escape from reality. It reminded him exactly why he loved those global transmigration novels in the first place.
People joking, teasing, and entertaining each other even in dire situations.
Of course, he knew these chats wouldn't actually be helpful.
Most of the responses were playful trolls, and in truth, he didn't want outside assistance right now anyway. The opportunity presented by the Winged Lord's ritual was too valuable to pass up, and he certainly couldn't trust any random players just yet.
The chat was simply a distraction, something to make time pass more easily.
Several hours ticked by.
Unsurprisingly, no genuinely useful advice appeared in the chat. Most suggestions ranged from the impractical; Like poisoning all the cultists, to the downright impossible, such as knocking out his guard, disguising himself, and casually strolling away.
But William hadn't expected much.
His initial message had mainly been to follow the system's recommendation of gaining fame and exposure before confronting the Winged Lord. Without the system prompt, he probably would've remained silent and merely lurked quietly in the background, watching others interact from afar.
Still, the time spent in the chat wasn't entirely fruitless. He'd managed to glean several valuable pieces of information:
> As long as they keep moving with speed above fifteen knots, the enemies spawn from the system or what they called sea monster can hardly catch up, but if you stay in one place you will be swarmed to death.
This explained why the World Chat still buzzed with casual conversations despite the supposed dangers. And also explain why the cultists doesn't have anyone watching him, the sea monster continuously spawned.
> The objective is to survive, it doesn't matter if you don't fight. But if you can, then fight. The drop items are mostly weapons or survival kits, extremely valuable at this early stage. The reported drop rate was decent, roughly one item every seven or so monsters killed, with some lucky players getting even more frequent drops.
> For players on land, consider hiding yourself and let the native fight. Some unfortunate soul reported that when a native discovered that monsters were specifically targeting him, he was quickly thrown to them as bait. Apparently, natives weren't mindless NPCs, they were rational, self-preserving individuals who'd even take dropped loot for themselves.
Yes there are people on land, or more correctly 'Landwalker'. They don't have ships and their spawn points are on islands with native. But their numbers are small.
> Don't fight head on, their strengths are on par with you. But other than that they don't have any more advantages other than numbers. They could be kited, trapped, or tricked into attacking one another, and their movements on board or land were slow and clumsy, likely due to being aquatic creatures forced ashore.
Aside from these major insights, William learned minor details too, like commonly dropped monster items. There were even a few players who directly asked him questions, trying to gain information about cultists or figure out exactly which island he'd spawned on.
Considering his helpless state, William felt these discoveries were meaningful gains.
He had just begun feeling comfortable with his temporary peace, when suddenly, the tent flap was yanked open.
William immediately tensed. A familiar cultist stepped inside, roughly dragging two captured girls toward the iron cage. The atmosphere inside the tent turned cold, and William felt a familiar dread tighten his chest.
'Looks like my peaceful chat session is over…'