Extra's Abyss-Chapter 23: Banquet[1]

In the Nightryn's estate,

Lira had just finished packing her young master's clothes for the social meet, which would happen tomorrow evening.

She was in Noctis's room while her young master was having lunch with Lady Ericka.

Picking up the trolley, she walked towards the duke's private quarters, where other servants were present, waiting for their master.

Having placed it in the car, she waited with the other servants for a few minutes before Noctis and Ericka arrived wearing casual clothes.

Lira looked at her young master, who was wearing casual clothing for the journey; she couldn't help but laugh a little on the inside.

'All that training, yet he doesn't look much different from 7 months ago. Young master was already good-looking as a boy back then, but now that he let his hair grow for some reason, he doesn't realize he looks like a girl now.' She thought, letting out a sigh, Lira remembered something about her young master.

'I don't know why, but he would always consistently downplay his own attractive face as an average-looking, decent face. I thought he was humble at first, but as months passed, it repeated constantly, and even after he let his hair grow long, he was the same, and now I have come to a conclusion! Young Master must have a kind of mental disorder related to having a flawed perspective on his own appearance and more'.

Lira looked at Ericka dragging Noctis with a headlock on him, walking towards the open door of the car.

'I should report this to Lady Ericka once both of them return back from the capital city.'

Noctis struggled to break free from the head lock, but he couldn't overpower his aunt's grip, sighing he let her drag him into vehicle.

Both of them sat in the back seat. Noctis waved his hand to bid a short farewell to Brad, Lira, and other servants. Ericka nodded towards them before she gestured for the driver to move.

Both of them sat in silence for the short journey; after a few minutes, they had arrived at the train station.

Before the driver was about to help pick up the bags, Ericka stopped him and used her storage ring to store them. She nodded towards the driver as he bowed and left.

Noctis and Ericka both boarded the train and found their reserved VIP room.

"Sooo? Why didn't we use the teleport terminus to travel?" Noctis asked as he lay on his bed by the window, looking out as he watched figures passing by trying to board the train faster.

Ericka was leaning back on her seat; she answered back lazily, "The capital city, also known as the Star City, doesn't allow teleportation unless it's an emergency or approved by the head of transportation himself."

"Only the royal family and a few others are allowed to use it. As for why, it's because many years ago, there was a huge attack that occurred in the star city. The corrupted officials let suicide bombers enter the city; they self-destructed their fractured mana core, which led to a devastating loss of many human lives back then." Ericka finished speaking with a sigh.

She still remembered that incident while she was studying at Ethereon University with her friend Grace.

Noctis turned his head, staring at his aunt with a surprised look on his face. 'That's new! In the game, Star City was accessible through the teleportation terminus, and aren't fractured mana cores supposed to appear midway through the game's main story, so why did they appear so early? And that was years ago!.

Feeling the air around his aunt a little heavy, he didn't continue to speak and turned his head the other way and tried to take a nap, but he couldn't. Taking out his phone from his pocket, he opened a random game to play.

Noctis played for about an hour until his eyes began to close. Tired, he checked the time on his phone.

[24th Oct 1647, 03:12 PM]

'We should be able to reach Star City in 6 hours; till then I should take a nap.' Yawning, he closed his eyes before he took one last glance at the window.

He could see a picturesque valley nestled between towering mountains, the train winding its way towards the distant peaks.

----------------------------------------------------

A river flowed through the center of a mountain valley. There were several trees growing in a long stretch along both sides of the river.

A black-haired boy with a few white streaks of hair sat by the river. After skillfully catching a few fish from the river, he had set up a makeshift bonfire and began roasting them.

He drooled as he looked at his roasted fishes. Turning the stick a few times, he added a few seasonings.

The aroma of the fish filled his mouth. Rei held the stick with roasted fish in his hand, blew on it a few times, and then he feasted on it.

"Hmm~, this is so good!",Rei spoke while eating his fish, with a face full of bliss.

It's been a month since that incident occurred. He had walked for days before he arrived at the stellar city. Without any money on him, he couldn't afford a place to sleep or have food to survive.

He left the city the next day, planning on completing the quests assigned to him by the system.

Speaking of the system, he didn't hear the voice he heard in the beginning ever again; he was left to find out about the system for himself.

Rei found a few things about the system: when he killed an animal, he gained 1 exp; it was not a monster but a normal animal.

He found a few awakened monsters, but he wasn't brave enough to face them in the beginning.

After he tried a few things on his status, he figured out that he could use the EXP he gained from killing animals and maybe monsters, which allowed him to increase his mana, his affinity for resonance.

He also found some milestone rewards: collecting 10,000 EXP will unlock a skill store to buy common skills for himself.

The other milestones were not visible for him. Knowing he could grow stronger with this system, Rei fought against an awakened rank monster and killed it after nearly 30 minutes of using hit-and-run tactics on it.

A single Awakened-ranked monster gave him 10 EXP. Feeling a rush of excitement, he wandered around the forests, planning on grinding EXP.

Increasing his mana was expensive, as it cost him 10 exp for each point of mana.

To increase his Affinity for Elunara cost him 10,000 EXP points, and Eonix was 100,000 EXP points.

The system also had something called quests, which gave tasks to complete with rewards like weapons and EXP points for now.

"I should head back to the city and sell the materials I collected from my hunt." As Rei finished his meal, a sense of melancholy crept over him. His gaze swept across the surroundings; in his vision, the world was slowly losing its once vibrant colors.

The air around him darkened in an instant, and his face lost the smile it had before.

'Klein, Mika, Lina, Sister Jenny, and everyone, please rest in peace and wait for me to find those fucking bastards who killed everyone.' Rei was constantly plagued by nightmares for days, and he hadn't forgotten that tragedy that occurred.

He would wake up every night with a cold sweat, haunted by the faces of everyone he knew and he would be suffocating as though someone were choking him.

He could still recall the incessant nightmares in which he was cursed by people he knew, who asked him why he had survived and they had not.

Each day, he felt as if he was seeing the world in a less colorful light, his mental state deteriorating gradually.

Rei had already sensed his deteriorating mental state a few days ago; since that day, he would go around trying to pretend to be happy, having a smile on his face every day even though all he felt on the inside was hollow.

But it was working; his mental health wasn't deteriorating anymore.

As Rei shook off his somber thoughts, a sudden loud sound pierced the air, jolting him back to his senses

Turning his head towards the sound, he saw a train travelling on its track, heading towards another tunnel in a mountain.

He stared at the train; just then a familiar white window flashed.

[You have a new quest.]

Rei clicked on the text; another screen appeared above it.

[Objective: Save the people on the Train]

[Details: In a few days, an unknown group will attack and kill everyone on the train.]

[Reward: 5000 EXP, 10% of Seal Removed on Unique Skills]

[Note: Make a choice; you won't regret it...]

Rei stared at the Quest for a few moments; he didn't speak till the sound of the train faded away.

"For now, I am not going to question how this system just predicted the future; I will leave that for my future self. Make a choice; I won't regret ha!" Rei furrowed his brows, rubbing his chin, contemplating on whether or not to stay here.

"Okay, I have decided I will stay here; if things get too complicated, I will just run away",he said seriously..

"Hmm, that's a really dumb idea, but I am going to do it anyways.,"