章 14: Jar Of nothingness

The night reached its peak as the bluish moonlight, that came from the massive bluish moon that was hanging above the starry sky, intensified and became more dazzling than how it was as though it encompassed the entirety of humanity's serenity.

Derek — who was sitting on the side of his bed as his feet touched the floor — held the ostrich-sized mysterious Egg with his hands;

the center of everything that had transpired inside the Hidden Dungeon a few days ago.

The ostrich-sized mysterious Egg that was entrusted to him by the Mistress of Twilight contained enigmatic external features as though it was the embodiment of "night" and "mysteries".

Its outer shell was dyed in dark purple with a mix of dark blue; there were also indescribable characters that Russell couldn't understand,

but upon thoroughly taking a closer look at it, all he could read, at least based on what he's seeing were a few lines that resembled the following characters in the English Alphabet that still exists to this day:

[####E### D#######]

Among the scattered, carved symbols on the outer shell of the mysterious Egg; Russell, who at least tried to find some familiar symbols, heaved a sigh of resignation as he tends to quickly get irritated upon staring at something he was not able to "quickly" understand.

"…I'm probably the only being in this world that knows "Her" existence…"

Derek mumbled while hugging the mysterious Egg as he contemplated some things.

Some Constellations aside, he believed that he was the only being on this planet who knew the existence of the Mistress of Twilight.

According to his unpublished novel, "She" barely made an appearance as "She" barely never cared about the business of some of the Constellations.

She's also the Primordial Mistress of Twilight who never took an interest in a human or any other race.

"…It still feels like a dream."

Everything that transpired just before the beginning of the main storyline, based on his unpublished novel, shocked him.

His decision to acquire something that he wasn't supposed to might have already ruined the causality of the story.

"…But, when I think about it, it's not like it really matters… because I really need to get stronger."

Believing that his decisions — although would somewhat affect what he knew — would barely affect the original story, he brushed off the negativity of the possible consequences of his actions.

Knowing the future events, especially the post-academy years; getting the Seed of Chaos, and unexpectedly falling under a contract with this constellation was something he absolutely needed.

It would allow him to grow quicker than others; although it would only matter in the early development due to a certain Tower that would give someone a chance to increase their Growth Rate, it was still better to have something than nothing.

Derek couldn't deny that his younger sister, Luna Raven, had more combat experience than him, even though their current stats were comparable.

Growing up, he had witnessed Luna's efforts under the guidance of their parents, absorbing their advice along the way.

In fact, he had recently shared some advice with her after they began living in their respective dormitory rooms at the Obelisk Academy.

He absentmindedly caressed the top of the mysterious Egg sitting on his lap as he thought about his sister's future interactions.

Though he knew she would initially avoid interacting with certain individuals, he also knew it would only be temporary.

As he recalled the events leading up to their enrollment at Obelisk Academy, Derek couldn't help but feel fate was playing tricks on him.

He remembered checking his assigned class and mistakenly thinking it was A-1, only to find it was A-11. And when he discovered his sister's assigned class, his mind had frozen.

Despite this, Derek knew it was only a matter of time before he surpassed his sister's overall stats.

He didn't need to rely on his Eye of Twilight (EX) skill to know this; he simply remembered their Status Window information from when their parents had requested it.

Status Appraisal Skills were expensive to learn through Skillbooks, so the Obelisk Player Association freely conducted Status Window Appraisals, especially for players enrolling in player academies.

The process was meant to provide advice to parents, although ultimately the decision-making rested with the parents and the child.

He fell into deep thought as he muttered to himself; being used to talking to himself when he was alone.

A personality that he seemed to inherit from his previous life as he was previously a shut-in stock trader, and at the same time, considered a pseudo-author because he didn't get to publish his novel.

"…Nothing more, but combat experience. That's what I really need for now."

Other than one's "Rank" and "Stats", when it comes to real-life battles, it was one's experiences and execution of the skills that were two of the deciding factors to survive.

But, it was only applied when the rank gap was not excessive, specifically, a "two" rank gap would suffice.

Though when it comes between S- rank or above, the gap was something like heaven and earth because ranks S- to SSS+ would certainly have more than enough life and death experiences.

"Sigh… There's nothing I can do for now."

Letting out a sigh, Derek put the mysterious Egg — which he could not make out of meaning — inside his Dimensional Inventory, and then he took out an ominous-looking jar.

…

Derek took out a dark blue jar with an exquisite exterior design and intricately carved symbols, similar to the mysterious Egg.

Standing at a height of around 10 inches, the jar had a mouth-like hole with a diameter of approximately 6 inches.

While examining the esoteric symbols, one, in particular, caught his attention. It was an "X" tilted by 45 degrees to the right, deeply carved compared to the others.

The symbol seemed to represent the Abyss, emanating a dark blue aura that resembled Chaos.

Derek couldn't help but wonder if the Mistress of Twilight, had created the jar out of boredom. He admired the exterior design, recalling the description that it was a jar personally crafted by the Mistress of Twilight.

With his curiosity, Russell tried to cast his gaze inside the abyss-like mouth of the jar. Then, in just a few seconds, System messages appeared in front of him.

…

[You have gazed in the "Nothingness"!]

[Warning! You do not have enough Chaos in your body!]

…

Although he didn't know what exactly the System messages meant, he retracted his gaze from the hole of the jar as he felt like he would be consumed any seconds longer.