Extra's Abyss-Chapter 22: Invitation

Noctis went over his stats, pleased with the results—his mana increased by 100.

Looking over to his watch, he saw today was the 30th of May. He couldn't believe it had already been around 5 months since he arrived in this world.

He followed Lira's advice and had been increasing his mastery over both resonances; his Zephyr went from E to E+, and his Umbra got a rank up from E+ to D-.

His mana manipulation went from E to D; this should be enough for him to shorten his casting speed from 19 seconds to around 10 seconds..

He acquired the skills of sword mastery and marksmanship after nearly a month of training under his aunt.

When he first saw both of the skills, he was quite shocked since in the game it was stated that only law shards can grant skills, but this proved him wrong. It seems swinging around a sword for a certain period or practicing any firearms will grant him skills.

'Spells seem to be not considered as skills, just like in the game, where they had a separate section dedicated to spells.' Rising from the bed, he tapped on his watch, bringing up his screen.

'I should buy a mobile; I miss the familiar feeling of holding one and scrolling through the screen,'

Noctis mimicked with his hands, motioning his fingers to scroll in the air, feeling something missing in his hand.

He quickly added the latest model to the cart. He looked at the time of delivery, which was around a week. Switching to a new tab, he searched for law shards.

'Last time I checked it, they were too expensive, and I didn't know if I had Bits in my account or not,'

Bits was the official digital currency acknowledged all over the continent after the technology advanced and they discarded the use of gold coins, switching to a much more efficient way.

Glancing at his account balance, which he had opened to order a mobile.

[Balance: 2,990,000 B]

"Damn, that's a lot of money, I mean Bits",He had lost count of the number of times he repeated this sentence.

A duke's revenue for the year accounts for a grand total of 100 million bits per year, and some huge corporations have around 100 to 500 million in revenue.

Now around 3 percent is sitting casually in his account.

Back to the prices of law shards, even the cheapest one cost around 500k, which was an E-rank skill called Glow.

It literally makes a person glow like a human torch, and nothing else. He scrolled around, trying to find any interesting skill.

'No luck, should have known; they only sell useless ones on here. The really useful ones are way too expensive and over my budget.' Noctis kept scrolling, despite not finding any good skills.

"Hmm, this one is not bad." Noctis looked at a black-colored law shard named Sharpen Shadow.

"If I remember correctly, this isn't the right effect of the skill", he murmured, reading the effect of the skill.

[C-Rank Law Shards]

[Skill Name: Sharpen Shadow]

[Effect: Increases a Shadow's Sharpness]

[Price: 1.5 Million B]

Noctis made sure to reread the skill's name before he quickly bought it; the next second his purchase was successful, and instantly his balance dropped to 1.49 million bits.

'Lucky, finally I got something good, although it was a bit expensive; it hurts looking at my balance now.' He smiled at the screen.

Sharpen Shadow's full effect can only be bought out if the user has a shadow magic spell called Shadow dash- It was a D-rank spell.

The spell turns the caster into a shadow for a few seconds. The caster can phase through objects or a person seamlessly.

The skill Sharpen Shadow enhances a shadow's sharpness. When the skill is paired with the spell Shadow Dash, the caster can phase through a target, and simultaneously their shadow slices through them, leaving deep cuts.

Noctis scrolled through the screen again, hoping for another fortune to fall on him.

Despite even after an hour, he couldn't find another law shard; giving up, he closed his holo screen and lay back on his bed, planning to sleep.

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

The next three months passed by quickly as Noctis followed his daily routine of training. Each week his aunt would keep increasing the intensity of the training, pushing his limits.

19th September 1647,

Today was the usual, getting his ass beaten by his aunt, just as his sword training came to an end with his sword getting knocked out of his hand.

Ericka was snickering at him; she rested both of her arms on the handle of the greatsword, staring at him.

Noctis was about to throw a curse at her when Brad approached them bearing an intricately embroidered letter that shimmered with a faint, official seal in his hand.

He looked back at Ericka with a gleeful smile on his face. "Aunt, good luck with that. I am sure you would be very happy making a visit to the capital city." His smile turned into a smirk at the end as he laughed at her.

Ericka's eyes twitched looking at Noctis's smirk as she heard his words, "Just you wait, you little brat!, When I come back, I will make sure that you won't be able to walk for a few days." She walked towards Brad as she took the letter from him.

Before she could open it, Brad spoke, "Lady Ericka, the letter isn't for you; it's for young Master Noctis.".

The room fell silent as Noctis's face paled and he slowly turned his head to Brad and Ericka.

Ericka saw Noctis's name on the letter, confirming that it was indeed sent to him.

"Just what trouble did you cause, Nox!" he heard his aunt's annoying voice along with her trying to hold back her laughter.

He just walked towards her and snatched the letter, quickly reading through the contents.

Noctis let out a sigh after he read everything in the letter. "It's an invitation for the princess's 15th birthday ceremony. It's likely a social meet for everyone around her age who would attend the university to form connections", he said casually, but on the inside he was panicking.

'Fuck, shit, all of them will be attending this party. What should I do? I literally ghosted them for a year. Well, half a year was the original Noctis, but now it doesn't matter.'

'Clara, Ethan, Rain, Lena, and Trisha—all of them are childhood friends with Noctis. How should I deal with this?'

Ericka's voice pulled him out of his daze, "You there?, nox hellooo"

"Yeah, I am here, was just wondering about on how I should talk with others, I did ignore them after that happened", He said quietly, his voice a little rough.

Ericka's eyes softened, placing her hand on his head , knowing who he was talking about. "Nox, I am sure they will understand you; the six of you were very close to each other. So don't worry; when you meet them, just apologize honestly, okay?"

Noctis nodded his head.

"If this makes you feel better, then I will come along with you."

"But, what about your work here?"

"It's fine; I am sure Mary will handle it." Whistling, she cocked her head to the side.

Noctis chuckled at her actions and took another look at the letter. "It's on the 25th of October, we would need to leave on the 24th." Ericka nodded.

Noctis He handed the letter back as he walked back to train his marksmanship, his head filled with heavy thoughts.

'I still have a month; either I come up with something or just brace for it head on'

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In the northern Reign of the Starborne Empire,

A lively small village called, Ironvine was build in the corner of the dense forest.

Not far from the village, inside the dense woods, a boy was walking towards the village having completed his physical and magic training for the day.

The boy's smooth black hair, with striking white streaks, his face had sharp features and long eyelashes, while his eyes were silver-grey. He was handsome and quite well-known in his village.

"There's roughly a year left before I can enter a university; I would be glad if I could enter a second-tier university." His voice was soft as he looked around along the route, he was taking back to the village.

Gazing at the sky with his hands clasped behind his head, a thought crossed his mind, 'I wonder how it feels to have a family of my own, to belong somewhere.' His eyes dimmed a little, thinking of his family.

He was an orphan; he only knew that his parents had left him in this village's orphanage with only a small paper placed alongside him.

He snapped out of his daze, as he was close to the village, just before he could go through the entrance.

A piercing scream shattered the village's peace, followed by a deafening explosion at its heart, sending shockwaves of the explosion rippling through every corner of the village, engulfing the entire village in an instant .

The explosion engulfed him quickly, blasting his small body back like cannon back to the forest.

His body smashed across several trees, breaking most of his bones as he came to stop as his body hit a huge tree.

Sliding off the trunk, his limp body feel to the ground.

The boy felt immense pain through out his body, he wanted to scream but his throat was burned in the explosion.

He was turned into ashes as he was in the further away from the explosion.

The boy fought against excruciating pain, his gaze shifting to his injuries as a pool of blood formed beneath him, a stark reminder of the brutal aftermath of the explosion.

'Is this how it really ends?' Resignation washed over him as he abandoned his will to live. The chilling realization of mortality gripping his heart.

Closing his eyes, he let the darkness take over him.

...

'I- I am going d- die'

...

'm-me die'

...

'N-no, I don't want to die.'

...

'Please, someone save me'

...

...

...

[Host Has Been Chosen]

[Integrating with host's soul]

Maybe he was imagining stuff in his last moments, that he was hearing a voice in his head.

[Scanning Host]

'wait who's talking, who are you', the voice continued, he realized he wasn't imagining nor hallucinating.

[Critical injuries detected ]

[Initiating Regeneration Module]

Looking at his wounds heal at a remarkable pace, the boy watched in shocked as his body swiftly returned to its previous state, the rapid recovery from his severe injuries, left him in a state of disbelief.

"W-what j-just happened?" his confused voice rang out through the woods.

[Enemies detected]

[Initiating Teleportation module]

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a swift change engulfed his senses leaving him disoriented for a few seconds.

One second, he was in a never-ending void like world flashing through across it , and the next second, he was in a different spot from where he had crashed from before.

His mind buzzed, trying to process everything, and he heard the voice again.

[Please say Status]

He complied, "Status."

[The tutorial has ended. Please explore the system yourself, host.]

"hmm, hello?"

The voice didn't answer him back and a white screen appeared in front of him floating in the air.

[Status]

Name: Rei Feyrith

Rank: F

Mana: 100/700 (+)

Resonance: Eonix (A)+, Elunara (C)+

Unique Skill: Sealed

Skills: None

Exp: 0

Staring at the screen with a clueless expression, Rei couldn't wrap his head around on what just happened in a few minutes.

'What the helll?!'