Compared to the calm and uninterested newcomer, the rest of the tribe entered an extremely stressed, or should it be called festive, mood. It isn’t just Baal who gathers herbs, all warriors and villagers gather flowers and herbs in hopes to get lucky or one of their loved ones get lucky. Normally they would then pitch in. When a blood purification ritual happens, it is a cause for a festival in the village.

Most warriors have a very impure bloodline, that said, the more experienced ones like the war chief has had many years to develop his strength, he underwent three blood purification rituals and his only Asura Mark solidified.

Similar to him, most captains and other higher ranked warriors have undergone the ritual.

At the center of the village, a huge stone cauldron capable of completely holding five large men inside easily, was pulled out. A roaring fire was lit under and it was partially filled with water. The beast which was killed by Baal was completely bled out before all its meat, skin and bones were removed. The bones were broken and then ground before thrown in while the meat was minced and the skin ripped until it was tiny strips and thrown in.

Herbs and fruits from this world were thrown into the giant stone cauldron along with the meat, skin and bones before even more water was thrown in.

What came next was extremely grizzly. Poisonous bugs and small snakes were brought out, killed and thrown in, poison and all. If it was not proven many times to improve the bloodline, one would think this was madness.

The final bug was extremely special, it was a blood red beetle as big as an adults fist and its legs and wings were carefully removed before being thrown in. The boiling mix of different materials which were swimming around suddenly underwent a violent reaction. From the source, the red beetle died and released a viscous liquid. This liquid spread out and whatever it touched began to melt.

Every herb that melted had a different reaction and because many were layered under meat and bone, they reacted in a particular manner from top to bottom. The reddish liquid turned vicious and impossible to see through.

The chief watched and nodded, he turned to one of the warriors, “How is my son?” he asked.

“A messenger has just arrived saying the seer and the women have finished painting the Asura Ritual markings with the ritual ink.” the warrior said.

Asura Ritual markings are manually drawn markings of the asura mark naturally formed by those of the Asura race. The reason blood of a powerful beast is needed is because it is mixed with special powders and herbs to make a special ink and drawn upon the body of the one undergoing the ritual to substitute the markings they miss as well as stimulate them. Only through these markings can the Asura race absorb the energy around them so this part of the ritual was of utmost importance.

“Where is the rest of the blood and the blood flowers?” the chief asked.

“Here sir!” he said and behind him was a large container with thick dark red blood and four flowers. Baal had found ten flowers but six of which were used for the ink which is on his body.

“Place the blood in the ritual bath.” He said.

They nodded and walked close and tipped the blood over. The thick liquid fell into the already thick boiling liquid below and the liquid began to react to the added ingredient. When the two red liquid mixed, a strange reaction happened and suddenly they started to, strangely, turn blue. It was as if the oxygen in the blood was fully removed. At this time, horrible black smog flooded out. If not for this section of the village being high and having many exits it would be suffocating. The chief looked towards the exit and pulled out a strange wooden fan and swung.

WOOSH!

Under his powerful strength, a powerful wind came from the fan blowing this smog out towards the exit passage.

The smog kept coming out for a minute before it stopped seeping out and revealed a faintly bubbling blue liquid.

“Add the remaining blood flowers now.” He shouted.

The four flowers were instantly thrown in and slowly sank in.

Everyone sighed as they saw it enter, now it would take a short while for it to melt and finally complete the concoction.

A short distance away, the villagers watched, many young children were giddy because this batch of liquid could make them really strong. It is always said that the younger a person has this process, the better the process is but to gather it, most of the time adults use it for themselves to make it easier to gather the next batch.

Asur was not very curious about the preparation process but he did want to see what this ritual was. Since his workshop was built within the central area of the village, it was easy for him to see the great movement and the strange setup from far away.

He looked around and found there was a small ledge on the wall which would allow him to comfortably sit. Adsila was watching him and followed his gaze.

“Want to go sit up there to watch the ritual?” he asked.

“Together?” she asked.

“Would i be asking if i wanted to go up alone?” he said.

She blushed because of the rather obvious reply and nodded, the walls had many grooves which were good for climbing so it was rather easy to get to the ledge and sit down.

From this spot, it was easy to see the center of the space and even into the cauldron.

The two began to chat about anything, Asur was more quiet but he asked simple questions about the village, the creatures and what the villagers do most of the time.

He found that the village was actually quite relaxed, one interesting fact was that there was a mix of male and female supremacy mixed but without any bad side effects. The way it works is that women are generally known to be smarter, as such they stay home but not because they are weaker but because they are smarter, this means they learn more than men and they manage village affairs. Men on the other hand are warriors, although the chief has the title chief, it is because he is the strongest male. If it was changed, he would be the Great War Chief but everyone calls him chief since its simpler. He commands the hunters and war parties if needed and below him are the war chiefs of which there are three.

That said, ‘product’ wise, the village is very poor. Despite women being smarter, they all came from a poverty stricken area and most of the villagers were born in this realm from the get go. They aren’t like Asur who came from below and even if they did, an interesting fact being that worlds which have had the gates opened didn’t develop technology as well, or so it was said. This was quite interesting to Asur because humanity in his world could have been said to have reached the pinnacle of technology to the point where the power armor they built ran on fusion power without any danger to the passenger.

With the gate so close, Asur hoped more humans from earth would rise up from that gate because he sorely needed intellectuals to help him. He had ambition but from what he saw, it was a hard to accomplish one if he relied simply on these common villagers.

Soon Baal walked out, his chest was out, he grinned in an arrogant manner and swaggered towards the cauldron. Behind him, his mother, the seer.

Baal had blood painting on his body covering most of his arms and legs as well as a few on his face which went to show that even Asur didn’t have the most complete bloodline. Asur’s tattoos on his arm went from his shoulder down halfway to his elbow and from his hip halfway to his knee. This was the same for everyone but the paintings on Baal showed the tattoos could expand all the way to the hands and feet and even to his face.

“This guy’s face is irritating.” Asur muttered.

“Baal is known for his… strong personality. He likes the attention he gets from the villagers.” Adsila said.

“To me, he seems no different from an idiot child who likes the spotlight.” Asur said coldly.

Adsila smiled wryly but Asur’s face showed no emotion as they watched.

“We shall now commence the ritual!” the chief shouted.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Suddenly, loud drums were sounded in a specific rhythm and the villagers began to chant as if praising him.

At that moment something caught Asur’s eyes, thin grey, but faintly glowing, strands came out of each person as they chanted. They flew towards Baal as if attracted and swirled around his body.

Adsila suddenly chanted out and a similar strand came out.

“Wait a second Adsila!” Asur said and grabbed her hand.

“Eh! W-what?!” she exclaimed but saw his serious face after opening her eyes.

Only to his eyes, he saw the gatekey open and from it, it showed Adsila’s karma. Previously he saw her karma was 35,000 for good karma and 12,000 for bad. As the numbers rose, his face darkened as both types had decreased by a resounding 5,000 karma from that one chant.

Upon seeing this, his face turned black as night.

“W-What’s wrong?!” she asked.

“Whatever you do, don’t chant that again. It just made you lose a very large amount of karma that single chant.” He said.

“Eh! K-karma! H-how do you know?!” she said.

“I came to this world and had a very large amount of karma, when i evolved i felt it so i can feel it more clearly than most, just do what i say, don’t chant anymore or it will make your chances of ever evolving your bloodline vanish.” he said.

“Ah… o-okay.” she said.

He sighed and before letting go, he saw her karma, upon agreeing, suddenly sky rocket upwards to 40,000 and 15,000.

He let go while finding it funny how any choice he gave her would result in such a large increase.

If he knew the appraisal that the seer gave him, he would understand why. The so called, person with immense destiny in their bodies all produce large effects on their surroundings and those they interact with.

He watched the ritual but got more and more angry as he saw the karma end but the people still chanting. The ball of karma around Baal swirl and after ten minutes the seer walked up.

She opened her eyes and looked at her son and nodded. Just this was a confirmation that she clearly knew what was going on.

She raised her hand, “By the blessing of Adityas, this ritual shall commence!” she shouted.

Suddenly a world turning power condensed above the cauldron and slowly formed a small drop of clear liquid which dropped down within the cauldron.

The purple mixture suddenly surged and the purple became clear like water with nothing left in a solid state.

At this time, Baal walked forward and jumped landing inside the liquid. All the karma swirling around him. That said, not all of it surged into the cauldron. At most only 30% which was closely hooked to his body followed while the rest were like cloud trying to follow.

When he entered the liquid, it severed the bond and the karma cloud suddenly slipped out dispersing.

A lot of it surged upwards and vanished into the air while another, much smaller part, flowed downwards onto the lucky people closest to the cauldron. Those further back did not get their karma back.

Next to Asur, Adsila shivered from the glare he was giving and she had to distract herself by watching the purification happen. That said, his words were still ringing in her ears about losing karma.

“A-Asur… did i really lose my karma?” she asked.

“You did.” he replied.

A sinking feeling filled her when he said that but he turned and smiled at her, “... but because you choose to stop, that choice returned you your lost karma two fold.” he said.

She blinked and was confused. “How come?” she asked.

“Karma isn’t simply about doing good or bad things. Every choice we make gives us karma, weather good or bad. Normal choices only give little bits but major choices in our lives would give lots. Your choice was a somewhat big one.” he explained.

“Somewhat big?” she said confused.

“Yep, before i evolved i had an instrument which showed me my karma, I don't have it anymore but i don’t need it since I can feel how much karma I have and those I touch. Oh right, keep that a secret. Never tell, Never!” he emphasised.

“Ah… y-yes!” she said flustered.

“Good, anyways there were some times when i would make a truly major choice and it would give me tens of thousands of karma. Although, at the same time, i had done some bad things which resulted in the same result but i don’t regret them.” he said.

“Y-you did bad things? Like?!” she asked.

He smiled and gave a simple explanation of what virtual reality was, “Inside this, i was once pushed to become a necromancer, this is a person with the power to raise the undead. Normally they are very evil people but i choose to become one such person because many people pushed me into a dead end until i found a savior. This person was the spirit of a dead mage who wished to rebuild his kingdom. I helped him, i used the power to revive the bodies of his people, i survived the battle which followed and using that i rebuilt his kingdom and took revenge on those who attacked me.” He said his eyes filled with cold killing intent when he remembered that.

“If it is that then i agree with you, it was the right choice because all your choices eventually lead you to here. I learned from the seer that there are many realms in this world and many types of races and only because of the choices you made that you arrived here.” she said.

He looked at her and smiled. “That is one way to think about it but there is another reason i don’t regret it.” He said.

“Huh?” she said confused.

“My parents vanished when I was 4 years old, they didn’t die. My biggest life's goal is to find them and the device I had was from them and it lead me to the gate of evolution. They taught me that for every one bad action i have to do three good actions. Because of this, even though i lead the normally ‘evil’ undead, i was not a cruel necromancer. Countless poor and exiled people i gathered and gave them a home, security and a place to work. Eventually i even brought peace to part of that world with my guards being the reanimated bodies of my enemy. Because of this I don't regret what I did because I provided more good than evil.” He said and smiled.

She also smiled when she heard that.

At this time, several minutes had passed and Baal suddenly reached out an arm. The blood on his body had melted off but as he pulled himself out, his skin bright red from the heat, he jumped out from the liquid and fire and collapsed outside of its range.

Men came with barrels of water, warm water so as to not cause shock, something probably learned through experience.

He was washed and his temperature returned to normal.

Finally when he was examined, even from far away, because the guards kept most people away, Asur could see two solid glowing tattoos, each on one of Baal’s arms.

“He condensed his second Asura mark!” The chief shouted.

Loud cheers resound throughout the village. Adsila clapped a bit before turning solemn because she remembered what Asur said.

The person in question was silent without any reaction but his eyes were moving about. Those cheering the loudest were the ones at the front while the ones at the back were a bit more reserved but because they seemed a bit paler.

“Similar to the gates, the person's energy is absorbed to sustain the karma.” he thought.

From there a festival started. The second two tattoo warrior in the tribe had appeared and it was a great fortune to the tribe.

The seer had returned to her room with the help of her husband. At that moment the guards said Asur was inside waiting to talk to them.

They were both curious and walked in but as soon as the chief saw his expression, his face tensed.

Two abyss-like eyes and a silent, cold killing intent appeared from him.

“Is something wrong?” the chief asked.

“I should be asking you that. Specifically with your brains.” he said.

Both frowned, “I don’t believe we did anything to be treated in such a manner.” the chief said.

“To me directly? No, you didn’t but using this ritual which steals the karma of all the tribesmen is more than i can really stomach.”

Their expressions suddenly changed and the seer even opened her eyes in shock.

“You…” the chief exclaimed.

“Me? Me what? ‘I can see’ is what you want to know right, yes i can indeed see karma. I can also feel how much a person has in their bodies. I saw all the villagers karma fly out.” he said.

“How?” the seer asked.

“It’s my own secrets but I can definitely see what this ritual does but I am just curious, if you knew it did this, why keep doing it? It gravely injuries your people and will lead it into a disaster because the karma is being removed.” he said.

“We have no choice.” the seer said.

“How come?” Asur asked.

“Our world is much more dangerous than you know. Like us, beasts try to purify their bloodlines and their bodies are stronger and can handle more brutal methods but we are not them.” the chief said.

“What about the karma stones?” he asked.

“We would waste too much karma on a more painful method.” he said.

Asur was very disappointed by his reply but everyone has their own choices. He walked to the door behind the two, he looked back, “I will not stop you or say anything, this is your choice and I respect that and me not speaking is my choice but don’t expect my help when this tribe falls to ruins.” he said and walked out before heading to the feast because there was true roasted meat since it was a day to commemorate.

He stuffed himself to fill the black hole in his stomach. Later he returned to his room. That said, he had not noticed that during his talk, Baal, who was resting in his room nearby, had heard his talk. Baal knew of the inner workings of the ritual and when he heard the words spoken by Asur he scowled.

“Trash, you dare threaten my family! The tribe chiefs and seer! See if i don’t feed you to the beasts!” he shouted inwardly. “No, killing him is to easy. I’ll make him struggle until his death.” he thought and grinned.

***

After the bloodline purification ritual, a week passed. It was a very irritating week for Asur.

Baal would take any chance to pass and send curses and there was even a morning when he woke up to half of his material stack broken.

Strangely, the villagers looked at him with pity but he didn’t care because his materials were just the bows of the villagers so by breaking them, Baal was destroying his own villagers weapons.

At the end of the week, a new festival began.

“What is this all about?” Asur asked Adsila.

“It’s a coming of age festival for us women.” she replied.

“Hm? Just the women?” he asked.

“I said before that the women are the ones who run the tribe while men run the hunter parties.” She said.

“Oh i see. So it's a kind of birthday party?” Asur said

“Yes, we only have this festival twice a year, one at the start of the year and at the middle. Now it is the middle of the year. Anyone born between the start and middle of the year will celebrate today and those after will do it on the turn of the new year.” She said.

One fact to note is that the time frame is no different from earth. 24 hours, 365 days in a year and all that. Of course, they don’t have the technology to follow that but they use ancient astrology techniques, something even primitive humans would use much less this tribe.

“Today is also my coming of age.” she said.

“Is that so? Congratulations.” he said.

“Will you be coming?” She asked.

He stopped working and looked at her and saw that she was actually a little anxious. “Sure, if you want i can go watch.” He said.

She smiled and nodded before running off to get ready.

He continued but the weapon he was making was different. Since he arrived, already close to a month had passed and by using the sales of weapons, he could obtain a lot of meat which he cooked and ate to satisfy himself, as a result Asur’s body had gone from skinny and malnourished to strong and well built.

He was now making a spear for himself because he felt he would be able to hunt soon. That said, even though he began training every morning, he still had not consciously grasped the way to use bloodline power as a weapon. He could only improve his senses and could activate it in his muscles giving himself a burst of power.

Just by regaining his physical condition his strength had gone from lifting a boulder of 2,500 kilos to 3,500. When he was able to supply the bloodline power he raised all the way to 5 tons.

Even if he couldn’t use a weapon with bloodline power, his fists were enough to kill. Maybe it was because Baal had heard he could do this that he decided to destroy his part of his materials but he didn’t care about the young man’s childish actions.

When Asur found out his current strength he had a single thought, “My body is as strong as an official government worker Power armor.” he thought.

On earth, power armor had reached a point where it could be provided for workers and the official model used by government workers had a weight capacity of 5 tons. To be able to lift the same amount as a power armor left him incredibly content.

Later in the day he went to the festival area. It was in a different open space in the village. He looked around only to freeze when he saw Adsila. Her normally loose black hair was tied up with flowers and what seemed like some kind of pearl or rough gemstone.

She also had some kind of makeup made from the plants and a faint pink gloss on her lips bringing out her many hidden feminine features and charm.

When Asur saw her, something inside suddenly lit up with the idea of, “I will have her.” but that idea was snuffed quickly. He didn’t know why because he had never shown interest in women when he was on earth much less had he shown interest. Of course he had known of her interest in him because of the mysterious aura he gave off which were things women would be interested in.

Still that sudden thought was strange and rather primitive to him, it felt like it came from his very bones and blood and his heart was beating faster.

What he didn’t notice was his Asura mark faintly glowing and beating with each heartbeat. Similar to him, most of the men and women were similar.

The coming of age ceremony wasn’t done at the times it was done by some coincidence, there was a very special meaning in doing it at this time.

At this time the seer walked out and ‘looked out’ even though her eyes were closed. As with all rituals and ceremony, she was the prosiding person but only depended on the needs would she actually do anything. She was just here to oversee the festivals while another elder woman walked up to preside over the event.

“We are here for the coming of age of these young women!” she said and cheers came from the surroundings as the women each walked forward.

The beauty that they expressed was many times greater than what they normally express. The heat in the heart of the men all raised and even Baal was here grinning. His two tattoos were giving off a strong glow. That said, as time passed, Asur grew to a similar state and even he noticed something was going on. He felt his blood boiling and not in the normal sense or like when he was evolving. This kind of boiling was the kind which rushed to his loins and his head making him do something without thinking.

“As is customary of our Asura race, on the day of the coming of age of the women, they will now choose their life long partner, forever bound until death separates you!” She said.

The words shocked Asur and looked at Adsila. She looked at him before blushing and he instantly knew what was going on. “No wonder she wanted me to come…” he thought but this kind of feeling was strangely cute to him.

“Go forth and bring your chosen partner forward.” the presiding woman said.

The dozen or so women walked down and the crowd split but the men were excited but would instantly become disappointed when the women passed them. Adsila walked towards Asur and when she arrived, her face was blushing, “W-would you accept me?” She asked and stretched out her hand

He smiled and chuckled, “It’s rather sneaky to not explain but i don’t hate you for it.” he said and took it.

When she saw him accept, she smiled brightly.

Asur’s heart suddenly beat faster because when he took her hand, a heat passed through her hands into his and her smile was bright enough to be called a masterpiece in his eyes. He fell into a daze but she pulled him.

Many people strangely gasp at her choice and instinctively looked at Baal. The grin he had vanished but in front of him were two of the most beautiful women were waiting for him to choose.

“Begone, i have lost interest.” he said and turned to leave.

The women were left shocked and extremely embarrassed. This is because the choice was very important and to be turned down is a humiliating thing. They were nearly in tears but soon a young hunter walked up, each of them had one friend who went to console them and ended up these two young men winning the young women whom they have grown up with.

At the front the woman smiled looking at the gentle young men but her gaze turned cold towards Baal for his inconsiderate personality.

When the women all returned with their partner she smiled, “You have all chosen?” she asked.

“Yes!” the women said.

The presiding women nodded and looked at the seer.

She stood up and walked out. Her lips parted and she lifted her hand, “By the blessing of Adityas, may your partner and you be forever bound in joy and sorrow and grow together with each passing day that passes on this earth.” she said.

A bright light spread and it suddenly surged out covering those who were coming of age and their partners.

Asur looked at the light and felt his Asura marks heat up and suddenly a flame lit up in his groin.

“May the young men lead your partners to your homes and consummate your partnership.” the seer said with a faint smile.

The crowd clapped and cheered for the newly weds.

Asur felt a tug and saw a red faced Adsila. His heart beat faster and so he pulled her close and hugged her, “Shall we go?” he said.

Her ears turned red and nodded. He lead her to his home and spread many more furs to expand his bed before the two laid down and ‘consummated’ their new partnership.