Glimpse of Eternity [A Reincarnation Isekai Fantasy]

With some help from his trusty walking stick, Reivan forged onward through the forest.

The ground was soft and uneven, everything smelled dangerous, and he often got his foot stuck on roots or tiny little holes.

It was not an ideal forest to have a relaxing stroll through, that was for sure.

But at the back of Reivan’s mind, nothing could stop him, so he remained calm throughout his little adventure. It was truly amazing what a sense of security could do to a person's mental state. He even had the leeway to seek enjoyment from the novel experience of being inconvenienced.

‘I hope I don’t meet the big guy who produced such a gigantic pile of shit though.’

Reivan carefully navigated through a small field of purple vines as he thought back to what he’d seen earlier—a giant turd bigger than a dog.

That was not a promising discovery at all since it meant there was something in here that could squeeze out a turd that large. While size wasn't everything, it wasn't a completely useless quality either. There was a very high chance that such a large monster had a formidable force under its belt.

‘Good thing it wasn’t in the area.’

When he used [Supreme Insight] on it, it told him nothing except that it was a dangerous beast’s feces.

Nothing more.

Given how dangerous knowing nothing about his potential adversary was, Reivan had made the wise choice of taking the long way around what he estimated was the unknown creature’s territory. Now was not the time to limit test his lacking capabilities.

“Whoo, there we go...” After successfully passing through the bed of purple ivy without being itchy anywhere, Reivan scanned the area to regain his bearings and headed toward where he assumed the village to be.

After a few minutes of walking, he saw a spring that was surprisingly devoid of anything that looked dangerous to touch or consume. There was vibrant grass all around it, some bushes, and a fallen tree that seemed like it would be perfect for him to sit on.

‘This place looks good. I think I should take a break.’

Reivan was in Clover’s body, after all. And he was starting to feel a bit winded by how challenging it was to traverse the forest full of dangerous fauna. Now that he realized it, his lower back needed some scratching too.

After parking his ass on the fallen tree, Reivan used his wand as a backscratcher to relieve the itch while observing his surroundings.

‘I wished there were berries or something to eat. I’m getting kind of hungry and I obviously didn’t have the leeway to bring any food…’

Unfortunately, although there was an absence of dangerous fauna around the spring, it was also completely barren of anything he could snack on. Now that he could rest, he realized he was running on empty and needed something to fill up his complaining belly.

Just as he was about to give up and simply accept that he would get nothing to eat until he reached the village, he suddenly noticed a few pheasant-like birds perched atop a nearby tree.

They weren’t too big and therefore wouldn’t be very filling, but what Reivan liked about them was how they didn’t seem like the type of birds that would kill him once consumed. There were three of them too, so he could compensate for the lack of quality with quantity.

But even with three of them, he likely wouldn't be very satisfied either.

‘Eh, beggars can’t be choosers.’

Still seated, Reivan rapidly fired three bolts of magic power to accurately shoot down three of the birds. They each fell to the soft earth close to the spring one by one.

“Easy,” Reivan muttered, twirling his wand around his fingers before stowing it away.

Such a feat was apparently impressive among beginner sorcerers, but Clover could do it rather easily — proving that if circumstances had been a bit different, he would have been a great asset for Arkhan.

Now, Clover was his asset. Not the republic's.

“Agh…” Reivan grunted as he rose from his seat and walked over to where the fallen birds were, bending down to grab one by the leg. “Nothing personal.”

Only battlemages had access to truly lethal spells that could be shot from range, and Clover hadn’t learned any yet. The worst he could do was cause a concussion if he struck someone on the back of the head.

As such, he would have to deal the final blow to these birds personally — a coup de grâce to end their suffering, so to speak.

“I will eat you with gratitude.” Reivan easily snapped the bird’s neck, mechanically moving on to the next one after saying the same thing. He held them up for a few minutes to let the blood drain out before plucking out all their feathers and cleaning them.

‘This is… kinda fun, actually.’

Hunting his own food on his own, eating it on his own, and being in the great outdoors on his own…

Reivan didn’t think it was too bad as he hummed a soft tune while he worked.

Clover didn’t know a whole lot about preparing prey though, so Reivan intentionally didn’t do it optimally — not that he was all that knowledgeable about being an outdoorsman, of course.

For instance, Reivan didn’t take out the birds’ innards before skewering their cleaned carcasses with sharp twigs since Clover probably wouldn't have known that you were supposed to take those out.

His meal would probably not taste all that great as a result of intentionally holding back his accumulated knowledge from lifehack tutorials, but protein was protein.

After washing his hands in the spring for the umpteenth time in the past few minutes, Reivan cast a spell and created three balls of flames that levitated in front of him. He directed each toward the skewered birds and slowly roasted them.

It would cost him some magic power to maintain until the birds were cooked, but he had no other way to cook the birds otherwise — unlike elementalism, everything conjured by sorcery vanished after a certain amount of time. That was why he couldn’t just ignite a few twigs to build a campfire that Clover didn’t know how to make.

This was one of sorcery’s disadvantages and was also why he needed the spring for drinking water instead of conjuring water himself.

Luckily, anything that was affected by conjured elements would remain that way. Meaning if he cooked something with conjured fire, it would still be cooked even when the fire disappeared. And if he cleaned something with conjured water then it would still be clean when the water vanished.

‘It should be done now, right…? I’m not too sure though… Actually, cooking’s kind of hard, huh? It'd be great if there was a ringing sound in my head whenever the food was ready.'

Reivan had increased the flame’s intensity, so it only took about five minutes for the smell of burning meat to waft into his nose. Unsure if it was ready though, he decided to let it cook for a bit longer since eating overcooked meat was better from a food safety standpoint than eating some that was undercooked.

He was just a weak little mortal right now, after all. That's why he had to pay attention to even the smallest of risks.

‘I asked for it though. I could’ve just stayed in the palace like a good little prince.’

Once he deemed it enough, Reivan dug into his modest meal, quickly putting away two of the birds.

As expected, it tasted quite bland since he didn’t even have salt or pepper on hand. But it was certainly better than nothing and it was presumably sufficient to tide him over until he reached the village.

Reivan drank a few mouthfuls from the spring before moving on to the last bird. But just before he took a bite, he felt a slight tingle on the back of his neck.

‘Ah, damn it all. I knew cooking meat would attract something...'

He hated being right sometimes.

Reivan had just found the perfect place to take a rest and was too hungry to be at his most effective if something were to happen. When he’d glimpsed the hamlet he was heading to, he was on relatively high ground. It would take a while of walking to actually reach the place and he even had to take a detour.

As far as he knew, it was worth the risk to stop and rest. And this was the result.

‘Maybe it’s friendly?’

Perhaps sensing his rising tension and that they’d been noticed, there was a faint rustling in the bushes all around Reivan, letting him know that he was surrounded and was being attacked by multiple foes. There was a lot of growling too, emphasizing their hostility even more.

‘Of course it’s not friendly. And there’s a lot of them, it seems. Balls… They could have at least waited for me to finish my meal. Bunch of assholes.’

Reivan sighed heavily and abruptly tossed his uneaten food in a random direction. In a flash, something leaped from the bushes to grab it mid-air, prompting Reivan to shoot it with a Stun Bolt that sent the hapless creature crashing into a nearby tree.

As it crumpled to the ground with a soft thud, unconscious, Reivan took the opportunity to inspect its identity.

‘It’s a… monkey?’

Specifically, it seemed to resemble what he knew as a macaque and looked only about sixty centimeters tall.

He had once tried to read an isekai novel where the main character reincarnated as one, so he knew a few things about that particular species. Unfortunately, said story started going in a strange direction that he couldn’t hop on board with so he quietly dropped it. An ordinary person could only read about a monkey mating with about twenty other monkeys once before thinking they'd done it one too many times.

 

 

‘It’s four years old and can already overpower most human men. Typical monster logic…’

Reivan’s mind spun rapidly as he drew the pistol — yet another beneficiary of a waterproofing spell he’d cast earlier. He sent a silent prayer of thanks to the dead mercenary he'd looted it from as he analyzed the situation in his head.

‘It’s not too strong, thank the Sun God.’

There was a possibility that the one he examined was particularly weak compared to the others, but more often than not, most members of a hunting party would be of similar capabilities.

‘Numbers unconfirmed.’

If he still had his old body, he could probably tell how many of them there were. But Clover obviously did not have developed capabilities when it came to perception. For now, all he could do was say that there were a lot of them.

‘Earth attribute… which means they’ll be sturdy. And they’ll hit hard too. Going melee is a fool's choice.’

If he let them grab his joints or strike him in the head, it would be over for him. On the other hand, striking them anywhere but the head would yield little result. Luckily, the one earlier had hit their head against the tree when Reivan sent it flying.

‘Six bullets… reloading isn’t possible in this situation. I can’t be too trigger-happy here. Oh, but if I...’

His other hand had to hold his wand, and he couldn't not have it at the ready in most situations. Furthermore, he wasn’t skilled enough to do a single-handed reload for a revolver pistol — if that was even possible at all, that is, but someone on YouTube or something could probably do it.

There was a way to make reloading a breeze though.

‘Spell-wise… my main tools would be Stun Bolt and Force Rebound.’

Clover was incredibly proficient in using the two spells and showed great results during his hunting trips near Arkhan’s capital. The former spell was the spell Reivan had used to knock out the monkey earlier, while Force Rebound was a spell that used the opponent’s momentum against them.

It only worked against physical attacks, lasted for just an instant, and could be broken with extreme force, but it was a good spell if you got the timing right. lt also had a very economical mana cost.

The problem was that if one missed that split-second timing, whatever wanted to get to you would.

‘Clover wouldn’t miss though. And I won’t either.’

“Alright, let’s do this. Come and get me you little shits.”

Done with his short analysis, Reivan dashed toward the spring. With how deep it was, it would only reach up to his navel at most — but for the monkeys, they would have to swim, drown, or wait for him on the outskirts.

Seemingly having caught on to his plans, numerous monkeys burst out of the bushes and pursued him.

But this was a mistake for them since Reivan expected them to give chase.

Having made a mad dash for him, three monkeys were unable to evade in time as they ate a Stun Bolt to the face. Their neck practically broke from the force of their head being blown back as their body charged forward, and each of Reivan’s victims slumped to the ground unconscious.

Seeing this, the others trailed Reivan a bit more carefully, taking care to hide under cover along the way. This slowed them down significantly though, allowing Reivan to create a good amount of space between him and the bulk of the monkeys. Reivan didn’t bother trying to hit the ones who had slowed down since they had lowered themselves on his list of threats — he would deal with them later.

He’d much rather take advantage of the clear path to the spring… which wasn’t as easy as he thought since four monkeys quite literally burst out of the ground to block his path.

‘Shit. Should’ve known they could do that.’

Reivan didn’t slow down, stunning the two in the middle and jumping over their bodies. The other two tried to jump him as he passed, but they were met by a transparent plate of magic power that sent them back with the force of their own lunge.

‘There we go. That wasn’t so hard.’

After wading into the middle of the spring, waist-deep in water, Reivan turned around and tried to better assess how many monkeys he still had to take out.

A rough count told him there were about fifteen, but considering how a few of them could be hiding, maybe it was better to think there were twenty or thirty of them.

‘It's not too much… or not. I'm just coping. No use lying to myself here.’

Escape was all but impossible now that he’d placed himself there, but Reivan never considered escape in the first place. Those monkeys were likely faster than him since he had Clover’s specs after all, and they could no doubt traverse this forest much easier than he ever could.

From the very start, he either had to take them out or ring the Sword Star’s bell — thereby accepting his failure.

He had some advantages, of course. Within terrain they couldn't easily traverse, Reivan was free to use the pistol in his hand. He could now reload it in the time it took any monkeys to reach him and shoot the closest ones.

The problem, of course, was how the loud noise could potentially call other things to his location.

‘Luckily, Clover also has a solution for that.’

Reivan smiled as he cast a spell on the gun, muffling any noise produced around the object for a few minutes. Then he carefully aimed at one of the monkeys. The first shot had to count since they would be more guarded afterward.

‘Breathe in, Breathe out…’

When he was ready, Reivan pulled the trigger and quickly aimed at the next monkey, shooting the next bullet into its head. He repeated this as rapidly as he could until all six bullets were used. By the time the monkeys realized that six of their kin suddenly dropped dead, Reivan was already halfway done reloading his pistol.

Perhaps their emotions at their kin’s death were too overwhelming, about a dozen of the monkeys actually dived into the spring and started swimming toward him despite how it would endanger them. They were quite fast too, something their lightness and monster muscles probably caused.

‘You're all fish in a barrel.’

In the water, their superior physical capabilities didn’t matter as much. Their heads were also conveniently exposed to him, allowing his bullets to find their targets more easily.

Contrary to his initial plans, Reivan only managed to shoot down four of the swimmers when his pistol suddenly jumped out of his hand. Naturally, it hadn't done that on its own — a rock had hit it from the side and he accidentally let it go.

Stunned, Reivan looked at his hand for a moment before gazing at the source, finding a few monkeys holding what seemed to be makeshift slingshots made of wood and some kind of plant fiber. They weren't too hard to find since they were being quite noisy, jeering at him and mocking him for losing his weapon.

‘Fuck.’

He didn’t know where they learned to make such tools, but his curiosity was eclipsed by his frustration. Part of his training as a knight was to never accidentally let go of his weapon no matter what. Sure, soul armaments could just be resummoned — but that would inevitably cause a delay, and in a fight, any delay could be fatal.

Now, because he didn’t do exactly what his training warned him against, one of his most lethal weapons was somewhere in the bottom of the stream and probably too wet for him to use for a while.

‘Stupid, stupid, stupid…’

While berating himself, Reivan quickly used most of his remaining magic power to erect a different sort of shield around his position — one that lasted a bit longer but had weaker protective properties. It would be enough for now though.

Hopefully.

With his defense against projectiles covered, Reivan started using Stun Bolts to knock out as many of the approaching monkeys as he could while his defensive ward caused stones to bounce off into the water.

The spring wasn’t that big though and the monkeys didn’t have to swim for too long to reach him. So he had to quickly use Force Rebound shields to create space when they tried to grab him then shot a Stun Bolt at another one. Since the monkeys couldn’t muster much momentum while in water, his spell didn’t have much of an effect either. But it gave him a moment to take out another foe while the first one was still reeling.

There were too many monkeys though, and he knew that he would eventually run out of mana. The magical ward protecting him against the other side’s projectiles would also expire soon.

‘Right. Guess I’m not getting out of this unscathed.’

Reivan clenched his teeth and let two monkeys reach him while he took out the last three swimmers.

Immediately, one of them grabbed him from the front and sunk its claws into his chest, all while the other tried to take his wand away.

The very moment they made contact, Reivan felt the weight of the monster’s biological superiority against him. Despite looking like they weren’t very heavy, Reivan could hardly resist the force they were exerting on him.

His only physical advantage was that his lungs could probably hold a lot more air.

After taking a deep breath, Reivan curled up, submerging himself and his unwanted hangers-on. Caught unprepared, the monkeys quickly let go of him and tried to get away, but this was exactly what Reivan wanted.

Underwater, Reivan tucked his wand into his pants and grabbed the monkey’s tails, pulling them further down with his entire weight. In their struggle to get away, they didn’t think to just follow him underwater and claw at his face or something.

But eventually, their struggle faded into nothingness as their powerful limbs went limp.

Reivan let them go and quickly snatched up the pistol he’d dropped earlier, tucking it into its holster before straightening up.

“HAAAAH!”

After taking the loudest breath of his life, which may have been mixed with an exclamation of victory, Reivan started unloading spells at the monkeys on the spring’s edge, finally ending the battle.

‘I win, little bitches.’

Obviously, he had to trash talk. But only in his head. He was too classy to say it out loud, after all.

Reivan chuckled as his chest rose and fell rapidly, adrenaline still pumping in his veins as he scanned his surroundings for anything else that may have wanted to capitalize on his current situation.

When his heart finally calmed down and he was sure nothing else would be coming for him, Reivan collected the monkeys floating on the spring and dragged them back to land before finishing them all off by lining them all up and stepping on the backs of their necks. After each dull crunch of bone, he then mechanically moved on to the next one.

Of course, he could have also just resumed his journey without finishing them off, but he didn’t know for how long they’d remain unconscious. There was a very realistic possibility that they’d wake up and track him down with a vengeance an hour or two down the line.

And next time, Reivan wasn’t too sure if he would still have favorable terrain to take advantage of.

In any case, mercy had no place in a dog-eat-dog world like this forest.

‘That sure was a rush.’

Now that the situation had turned for the better, Reivan started to think how fun and exciting it was.

Sure, his life was never truly on the line. But he could have lost years' worth of planning if he messed up and got killed by monkeys on his way to the Spirit Tower. How the hell would he have spun this tale when he met his family?

He’d much rather have a success story to recount over some meat pie.

“That was an impressive display of skill, young human.”

“I know, right? I’m pretty great…” Reivan reflexively answered and was about to boast a bit more, but then he realized he should have been alone. He slowly turned toward the source of the voice — which sounded deep and gravelly — only to realize that he was looking at the spring.

Which wasn’t good at all.

‘Normal invisibility doesn’t work on me… so where the hell are they?’

The possibility that something could bypass his [Supreme Insight] was always at the back of Reivan’s head. But finding such a case right after he finished fighting off a bunch of monkeys wasn't on his list of expected scenarios.

Reivan licked his lips and decided to see if the conversation would help. After all, the fact that he wasn’t sneak attacked meant that the mysterious entity he was talking to wasn’t outright hostile. “Can you show yourself? It’s a bit unsettling talking to someone I can’t see.”

“Oh? You wish to see me?” the voice said. This time, it came from above him.

“Yes…” Reivan looked up, finding only branches, leaves, and the sky to greet him. Nothing that looked like it had vocal cords. “If that’s fine with you, of course.”

“If it’s fine with me, is it?” the voice seemed to ponder, seemingly coming from Reivan’s left this time. “It’s not fine, actually, since I would have liked to keep my existence a secret.”

“Then I’ll make myself scarce.” Reivan edged farther away from the spring. “Obviously, I won’t tell anyone about the mysterious voice that I talked to. Everyone would think I'm crazy if I did.”

“Now, now. Not so fast.” the voice spoke from a different direction once again, and this time, the direction it came from seemed to change with every word. “I’ve not met a promising human in a while.”

“Oh, I’m not that great…”

“Didn’t you just say otherwise?”

“...I was lying.”

Reivan's words were met with a gentle, grandfatherly laugh that seemed to fill the air around him. Then, the voice spoke again, this time sounding closer.

As if they were right behind him.

“Be not afraid, human. I mean you no harm. But if you wish to see me, you’ll have to look in the right direction.”

Reivan felt a shadow fall over him, signaling something blocking the sunlight from behind. His curiosity eventually got the better of him and he gradually turned around to see what appeared like a three-meter-tall monkey.

Though he called it a monkey, it could have also been mistaken for an old man with how human-like its facial features were — that is, if it didn't have white fur covering its back and four arms. Its chest was free of hair though, covered with rippling black muscles instead. A makeshift long skirt that reached up to its knees covered its lower body, but Reivan could make out a pair of bare feet that definitely looked like they would belong to a monkey.

Just like its hands and chest, the towering monkey’s face was also black. The color offered a stark contrast to its white skin, but the thing that Reivan noticed more than the contrast was the shining pink pearl on its forehead.

“Be not afraid, human.” the monkey repeated, baring his human-like teeth in a smile. “I mean you no harm.”

Reflexively used [Supreme Insight], though he could already feel like defying the existence in front of him would be unwise.

 

 

Reivan gulped down a mouthful of saliva and completely forgot to lick his lips. For a good few moments, he started to doubt if his ability was broken or not.

After all, he had never seen an Ascendant with that much Might.

It was like three Valters combined into one.

And age aside, this monkey had six elemental affinities too. Then there was its race.

'Why in the fuck is it just a bunch of question marks!?'

Reivan almost took out the Sword Star’s bell and rang it on the spot.