Plot armor

Arloch

'Apophis!! what have I done to deserve this? Is it because I didn't call you PAPA?? Is it because you gave me such a wonderful storage item that is full of everything a growing kid needs? Is it because I got my dream Telekinesis skill?, or is it because I'm your son that you think you can drop me into another world and I would automatically burst through any obstacle and become the strongest of this world? well PAPA!!, I am going to die....yes! I'm going to die like a fish out of water with my mouth open and still looking at my killer. Putting a man in a five-year-old's body and expecting him to go through hell's difficulty is a sure way to kill a kid...just thought you should know!'

While Sheyken was cursing Apophis, he was looking at something no one wants to see in one's life unless you think you are strong enough to deal with it. In front of him, standing 1.7 meters tall, a black hooded figure with fine robes hanging in tatters from a withered corpse's frame was none other than a LICH. The man from earlier seemed to be her subordinate.

Sheyken was in a cave-like room, with no window and no light. The room smelled somewhat musty and earthy, the only light coming from a light ball in the air. He did not have time to ask himself how the light ball was floating in the air or how it was conjured because looking at him was a Lich patiently waiting for him to gather his thoughts.

He was sitting on a chair and was not tired up. It went to show that he had nowhere to run as he was not considered to be even a threat. He woke up with the Lich in front of him and he had no time to think clearly, hence why he was cursing Apophis.

"Seems like I have been underground for far too long, it looks like kids have grown insane while I was doing my experiments. I need to study you. Tell me, kid, are you insane?"

A sweet voice of a grown woman came out of the Lichs mouth.

Sheyken was stupefied. It wasn't the fact that he could understand the Lich's language, he somehow expected it. He did not have the boy's memory but he trusted Apophis to not be stupid enough not to give him a way to communicate. It wasn't the fact that he heard the words 'Study you' or that he was being asked if he was insane, it was the fact that the Lich had a lady's voice. He was just not expecting it.

"Your....your voice is sweet..."

Those were the first words he said to a Lich. The words he spoke came out in a different language, but he could understand it like he understood the Lich's words.

"I see, you are insane, but tell me, why do I feel a different power from you? It is gone, but its presence as tinny as it is was something not of this world. I never have sensed something like it before."

Sheyken was still ashamed. Even if this was a Lich, it was still a female Lich. Never before has he been clarified as insane for telling a lady she had a sweet voice. Maybe he had lost his touch.

The question the Lich asked him, he had prepared for it. All the months he was alone was not for just training but also for working on all the likely questions he might get asked. Since he knew nothing of this world, it was better to be prepared for any scenario, except meeting a Lich of course. He did not know if there was magic that can tell if you lying in this world so, he told a half-truth.

"I don't know, I just woke up in this forest, not knowing where I was and what I was doing there. I tried to find my way out of the forest and I ended up here."

Sheyken answered while amazed at the words coming out his mouth. They were flowing out like he was speaking Korean or English.

"So, you are not insane but a little insane."

The Lich said while conjuring a chair out of nowhere, sitting right in front of him. She let out her arm and with her bony fingers, she touched his chin, turning his head from left to right like she was examining him.

"I was in the midst of an important experiment which would last for another two years, but I think it can wait. I need to dissect you and study you. You don't have a core yet but maybe the power I sensed is still in your bones."

As soon as he heard 'dissect', he did not hear anything else the Lich said. He was again cursing Apophis, this time borrowing Beak - hyun style of curse words which wherein so many times directed at him. Such was the absurd situation he was in.

Remembering his one and only friend, he remembered the words he used to say every time they would fight the other students ganging up on them and win, or when they would successfully run away from them when they brought their big brothers along.

"Casanova, you know, whenever the situation seems dim or we have been dealt a bad roll, you always seem calm in those situations. Even sometimes when you fight, the more the fight seems to be against you the more I see the real you. I think you were made to blossom under pressure Casanova, but make sure you come out like a diamond, not coal. Who knows, maybe you are the type that strives when the world is burning and there is chaos everywhere."

As he remembered those words from Beak - hyun, he started to assess himself starting with the last three months.

'When I got here, all I have been doing was complaining every chance I got. I would be scared of so many things even when many of those things I knew I could kill. My emotions have been on a roller-coaster ride since my synchronizing. Is it because of my body or coming to this world? either way, I need to get hold of myself and be calm. I don't know why Beak-hyun always said I was calm in such situations, but I need to think of a way out of this."

Sheyken would never know his state of mind when he was still on Earth and being always calm in those situations. It would be like asking why you breathe.

While the Lich was still looking at his body, possibly checking where she was going to start dissecting him, his mind was at full gear. Looking around the cave-like room, he saw a portrait on the far-left side of the wall which he could only make out a little since the light couldn't rich all the way there. He saw a beautiful woman with white silk hair and wearing what he could make out to be an adventurer's outfit. It was an adventurer's outfit because that is how a magic caster would wear in a guild. After many hours of reading and watching anime, he would never miss it. He couldn't see it clearly but it looked like the lady was holding a Staff.

'Sheyken!, this is it!.'

He thought to himself.

'If I am going to die, I will at least die after doing the one thing I know I'm the best at.'

With those self-proclaiming words, the world was about to see a five-year-old boy try to charm a Lich for the first time in the universes. Calming his beating heart and chaotic mind, he opened his mouth.

"You look beautiful and you smell nice."

A thunderstorm was brewing outside for the first time since he came into this world, seemingly in protest of those words.

If the Lich had a face, you would have seen her shocked expression. It wasn't because of the words he said, but of how he said them. She could hear his heart calming down and the change in his nature when he said them.

This was why girls would profess their love for him one after the other at the camp. When he complimented a girl, it was with so much confidence and the words coming out of his mouth with such calmness made them think they were the only ones in his eyes. Of course, Sheyken was just passing down a compliment.

When he still had his Earth parents, he would often see how much his mother made an effort to look as beautiful as she could for his father, even when she was so beautiful already. His father would never miss the subtle changes she made to try and surprise him, giving her the utmost compliments every time, never failing to make her smile and happy. It was safe to say he took his charm from him.

The Lich did not feel right for the first time in ages. A kid just said she was beautiful and smelled nice.

'Does this kid have weird tests.'

She thought.

"Kid...are you really insane or are you going insane? I know asking a person if he's insane is a waste of time through my experiments, but.... are you insane.?"

Sheyken was thanking Apophis. They were not talking about him being dissected for the moment, even though his insanity was being questioned. Thanking Apophis was a thing of his during his stay on Planturos. If things were good, he would thank him, if they were bad, he would curse and swear at him. Everything was his fault after all.

"I am sane. You really look beautiful."

He said pointing at the portrait.

"I have never smelled a Lich before, to be honest I was expecting a rotten smell, but you smell almost like sweet roses. I think even a child would stop crying just to smell that pleasant smell."

He never failed to give out a cringy line in the end.

The lich was taken aback. She had been working on a potion that would make her ever so rotting bones smell like anything else either than that rotten smell. She used it 500 years ago with it taking 20 years to make. The test subject she had locked up and made him smell her had died with just one whiff. She could not get it off of her and this was one of the reasons she became one of the most feared Liches. This was because you could never come close to her.

'It seems like my experiment was a success... only that it took 500 years to naturally adjust the potency to a normal state.'

She was feeling happy by that point. One of her experiments had worked after so many others had failed. She had not seen a human in decades and thought the power she felt on Sheyken's body was the reason he could stand her. Even if it was gone, it was a long shot that it was still in his bone marrow. In the end, she just wanted to cut up a human again after a long time and see if anything about them had changed.

"Kid, I shall let you know my name before I dissect you up for confirming one of my experiments was a success. Thanks for the compliment by the way, but I'm taken "

She finally said.

Sheyken's cool was downed in hellfire when he heard those words.

"My name is Arloch - THE LICH OF A SINGLE BREATH."