[System Assimilation to the host in progress: 88%]

The monotone voice said in a voice that of an AI bot. The progress filled up pretty fast than Théoden would have expected it to.

In the meantime, Théoden was consumed in his thoughts. A few pieces started piecing up the big puzzle in his head. The reason he survived falling into the new world and the comet-like light didn't kill him instantly.

He possessed another body so the fall wasn't his body but rather his soul which had collided with the body. A body which he took host off. It was the only deduction Théoden could make out with so little information

It seemed that that light that almost killed him was a system. The Omnipotence System. The synchronization of the system didn't take as long as he thought it would. Only roughly half an hour in Earth's time had passed.

[Assimilation completed]

[The omnipotence System has identified the host as a suitable vessel]

[System synchronization starting]

[System Synchronization to the host in progress: 1%]

The sync process occurred live in real-time right before his eyes. He decided to ignore it for now. He didn't have the leisure to give it any attention. The sky was quickly darkening and he didn't want to be food for creatures of the dark.

Growl!

Most importantly, he was starving. He needed food if he was going to make it anywhere. Both food and water were a priority to him.

The terrain was somewhat flat. There were hilly areas but not high enough to block his view to the ends of the horizons as he stood on relatively high grounds. There didn't seem to be any human life as far as the eye could see. The area seemed like a wasteland.

'The perfect place to dump lives.'

The ground was of sand with a mixture of fine soil and small rocks, but it wasn't too hard to navigate over. The color of the soil was very light like that of beige-silver. The dark marks of blood on the ground were rather very highlighted with the color difference.

There was no sign of water sources anywhere. In a desert-like place, water was a must-have. The high temperatures of the day would cause quick dehydration. It was not a risk Théoden liked to take. He thought of many different ways to move from there but there was no silver lining to this line of thought.

Moving around he realized there was no other method but to get his hands dirty. Not dirty in the sense of dirt or stains but to search the corpses.

In truth, he knew it was a 'bit' disrespectful but was also highly aware of the benefit. A good stimulant. A low loss high-profit maneuver. He leaned down to one of his former fallen comrades in battle. He took a breath and tensed his muscles and extended his arms.

He went through their pockets and picked out anything that held some value. It didn't matter if it was inappropriate, it was more important to survive, right? He did this repeatedly until he had gone through twenty of the dead people.

He had, of course, met with women's corpses as well but he didn't see any issue if it was stiff, cold, and dead.

In the process, he found out that the soldiers didn't have items much of importance to them except for a select few. They were dressed in much more convenient clothes that could carry things safely. Of course, this was after he had taken off their armor. A hard and tiring process.

It was something he normally would have never done, not even in the same situation, back on Earth. He could never have the courage nor the gut to approach a dead man. However, his heart seemed partial to this. It was like an every other day activity. There was still the pungent smell that haunted his nostrils but even then it didn't seem to phase Théoden.

His calm heart rate scared him a bit. Though he wasn't scared, his thoughts said otherwise. He was never this cold-hearted. Not to feel remorse, pitiful, or guilty while doing that. He knew well enough now, that he had drastically changed. He felt so unfamiliar with himself.

The reason was not something that anyone could give him. He came up with a few theories. Maybe, the death of the body made it so that he lost all attachment to his humanity.

It could have been the fact that he was still in a shock reactive state where his mind was pushed to the extremes causing a shutdown of certain body actions in the necessity to take certain actions.

Or...rather the third which he preferred not to think about and hoped that it was not the case. All in all, there was no definite answer. There was no conclusive evidence to confirm.