Lee stared at the strange person in confusion and surprise. And then it hit him – it was not the foreign looks or the contents of the guy's speech that threw him off.
It was the manner he was talking in, the choice of words and the posture – the guy acted like a grownup while still being a twelve year old child. Now Lee finally understood how Tess and Freeda felt around him, and for a split moment felt nostalgic.
The potato head seemed to not notice Lee's reaction as if it was a faked one, and said, "For the two of us it's much easier. Even though it can't be done endlessly, we could simply start over, right? Since no one is being born around here we'll be right back where we started. In fact, we didn't waste too much time, did we? How old are you? Nine, ten?"
"How …" Lee involuntarily blurted.
The guy clearly wasn't talking about philosophical theories on reincarnation – it was obvious he knew Lee's most treasured secret and the implication was he had a similar ability.
"No need to play games with me, pal. I knew who you were from the day you arrived at the fortress. You waved your right hand around as if you wanted to show off the master's seal on purpose … and I was so angry at you … but only at first." The potato headed guy said.
He looked closely at Lee and continued, "When from the next day on you became barely noticeable, it was clear you had a goal – you were looking for me! Well, not exactly me, but for one of us. You were wondering if there's another guy who passed the master's challenge and wanted to team up in order to get out of here. Am I right? Although I must say the choice to put the seal on your right palm is an unorthodox one. I have mine on the chest, right on top of my heart – as a symbol of the eternal devotion to the master."
Then he pulled up his shirt, showing off the dirty, but well trained young body, and in the middle of his chest there was the familiar yin-yang symbol, similar to the one Lee had on the palm. The guy had not washed in years, but the symbol was clearly discernible, even the little runic marks within were surprisingly clear.
Lee glanced at his own palm as if verifying he wasn't seeing things, but the guy jumped to his feet and said, "Anyway … your little buddies are getting restless. We'll talk another time. My name is Oruftanzoff, just so you know."
"… Leax …" Lee automatically replied, still not fully comprehending the implications of this conversation.
"Hahaha … Leax … ye, right!" The potato headed guy laughed and walked off under the annoyed eyes of Lee's squad members.
They became increasingly agitated the longer the two spoke, but since Oruftanzoff was from the oldest group, they didn't dare to make things difficult for him.
'What the fuck was that?!' Lee stared in disbelief at the guy walking away, carelessly kicking a pebble now and then, 'How the hell … no … who the hell … what was his name … fuck … ok, I'll call him Potato from now on … how ... what the fuck is a master's seal?! … so is this thing what allows me to retain memories after dying or something? And a master? Does he mean there is a guy who can make people … fuck!"
It was hard to believe after all these years he got a real, relevant information on what happened back then, 'So the artifact the superhumans fought for in the underground pyramid … ok, someone had to craft it, I'll give you that, but for it to have the ability to … for the fuck's sake it's not as easy as drawing penises on a wall! The one who could create something this miraculous has to have the powers … of an actual God or something?!'
Seeing the complicated changes in Lee's expression, Fenax came over and said, "Don't pay attention to him. Sometimes the older guys try to play mind games to make sure we won't defeat them in the competition. But who can blame them – everyone wants to get their first spark as soon as possible! Don't worry – our squad is hard as a rock! We do stand a chance against the strongest during the next selection."
"Selection?" Lee absentmindedly repeated.
"Ye." Fenax nodded, and then said in a hushed tone, "Lirox overheard the one-eyed's conversation with another instructor. He said they spoke about allowing some squads to graduate after the conquest."
"Ye. That would be wild if we could make the cut!" Kilax said.
"Ye. I definitely heard them say it!" Lirox joined, "Ye, Definitely!"
While Lee was lost in his thoughts, the rest of the squad gathered around him, and a discussion broke out on how wild it would be for them to became fully fledged vanguard members so early.
Every squad had these conversations and it was their favorite thing to talk about, but Lee's mind was busy trying to comprehend Potato's words and meaning behind them.
Fortunately he had a lot of time.
Lee realized that thinking too much wouldn't do much good, but what he just heard made him uneasy. While everyone slept, he tried to analyze bits and pieces of the information he got to understand the situation he was in, but even after a long meditation session and marching for another day he wasn't getting much further.
Only on the following morning, during the prayer, he suddenly realized the reason for his restlessness. Up until now he perceived himself and the whole reincarnation thing as a whim of the nature, an irregularity. But judging from what Potato said, his current condition was granted by someone, someone incredibly powerful.
And a buttload of people from various races paid with their lives to acquire this ability! The main problem was – after listening to Potato it became clear there was a limit to how many times he could reincarnate with his memories in tact …
And then there was the problem of someone granting him this ability. And Potato called them master. And that meant that the master at some point could ask for something in return, or even take the ability away …
When he was reincarnated for the first time, Lee didn't think too much of it. He was too busy with the deep hatred he felt towards the fat Russian for killing Lisa and simply decided it was a gift from God that allowed him to take the revenge.
When he, after spending several years crawling up the ranks in Wo Shing Wo, one of the Hong Kong's oldest triads, finally got in one room with Konstantin Smirnoff, Lee didn't bat an eye when he pulled pins on grenades he held in each hand and threw them at the terrified Russian, blowing them both up.
Lee was surprised when he reincarnated again, this time in a whole another world, in the Cloud kingdom. But he spent his first months of life happily giggling at the expression on the Smirnoff's face when the fatty realized that instead of hiring his next bodyguard he actually invited a killer to his fancy home.
Afterwards Lee didn't think much of the whole reincarnation aspect. The mark on his right palm served as the reminder of the love once lost and that was basically it. He led his lives as if watching a semi-boring TV show – he could've done better things, but was too lazy to sweat about it.
Regular physical training to keep himself in good shape was generally sufficient to not get too bored, and besides that he didn't have particular goals, that is – until the incident in Pine Village, of course.
But all of the sudden Potato, who appeared from who knows where, threw his mind in a mess. Seal, master, probability of actually dying … it was kind of scary.
Luckily, in the morning of the third day, the group of the young soldiers arrived at the outskirts of Ashland and the joint training with the vanguard was about to finally begin. From then on Lee was forced to pay the attention to what actually went on and simply had no time to think about other things.
Besides his group of around two hundred, Lee spotted at least six more similar groups of kids, dressed in full armor. Apparently forces from other fortresses had arrived earlier and were already preparing to camp in the vast field next to the city.
From where they were located one couldn't clearly see whether the city was there. One had to have big-eyed Butalax's eyesight to recognize the tiny buildings in the distance.
But there was one structure next to the main campsite, though. It was ten yards wide and ten yards tall stone arch, resembling a gate, except it was in the middle of the nowhere. It wasn't painted nor it had any engravings, only a couple yards high dirt mounds at each side.
From far away the whole thing looked like two gigantic boots, facing opposite directions and connected with a handle on top, but Lee already knew what this thing was.
This was the Rift gate – the thing that allowed the scourge to traverse through worlds.