บท 31: Ch 31:- Flashback
As Rayne entered the café, the door produced a jingling sound. A girl who was organizing the tables turned around and stared at him, her cheeks turning pink with a blush. "I thought you wouldn't be coming today. Go to the boss in the kitchen. He's helping the staff organize things and will give you your uniform," she said before turning back to her work.
Rayne couldn't help but feel confused as to why she was blushing. The longer he stood there, the more stiff she became before finally turning around and asking, "Do you need anything?"
"No, I just wanted to ask about the direction of the kitchen," Rayne said.
"It's just behind the counter, you understand what I mean, right?" the girl now known as Daphne said.
Rayne looked towards the counter and pointed at the door located just behind it, to which Daphne nodded.
Rayne entered the kitchen through the door and walked over to the boss. "Excuse me, I'm here for my uniform," he said.
The boss, a middle-aged man with a gruff demeanor, looked up from his work and eyed Rayne for a moment, as if having trouble recognizing him. Then, his eyes widened. "Rayne?" he exclaimed, and Rayne nodded. The man, now known as Jeremy Carter, pointed to a pile of aprons and shirts located at the corner of the room. "Get changed and help your colleague," he said before turning back to his work.
Rayne quickly grabbed a uniform and went to the employee bathroom to change. As he put on the apron and shirt, he noticed that it was coincidentally full-sleeved, probably to hide level of staff members.
As he stepped out of the bathroom and back into the main area of the café, he took a deep breath and prepared to face his first day on the job.
Rayne began by helping Daphne organize and clean the tables, and they finished quickly thanks to their natural speed. By 7:15 am, the café was open, and customers began to arrive. While cleaning, Rayne chatted with Daphne and learned a bit more about her. She was also a first-year student with a speed-type ability, which Rayne could tell from the level 2 displayed on her wristwatch. As the customers started to arrive, Rayne immediately started to do his job as a waiter.
Now that Rayne is busy serving his guest why don't we have a recap of what the actually happened in the nightmare realm.
~Flashback~
On their way to the capital, Rayne, along with Mina, encountered several beasts ranging from the dreaded Red Fang - a kind of wolf with strong jaws that could tear apart metal plates with ease - to small poisonous toads whose poison was so effective that he was sent into a near-death experience. He was only able to recover after drinking some of Mina's blood. After that, they almost got lost one time, but his system map ability saved them from certain death. They traveled while resting for a day or two in any town that they found along the way.
During one such stay in the town of Apricorn, he came to know that to enter the capital, one needed to have an identification. They were not letting any person enter, no matter how much money one provided. So, Rayne went on quietly following the man until they were in a dark alleyway where he took out a cigarette and started to smoke. Rayne immediately jumped from the rooftop and landed perfectly in front of him. Rayne immediately activated his [Draconic Vampire Eyes], which caused the man to freeze, and then Rayne said, "I would like to know if you know anyone who can forge a fake identity."
The man immediately blurted out, "Yes, there is an old man who lives in the forested region outside the capital. He has a way to forge real identity."
"Thank you, and you may forget this encounter," Rayne said, and the man turned around like a robot and started to do what he was doing.
'Did it work?' Rayne thought.
[I think it worked.]
After that, Rayne immediately used his movement technique and vanished from the place before appearing far away. The next day, they exited the town in order to make their way to the capital once again. During their journey to the next town, Oak leaf, which lay between Apricorn town and the capital, Rayne purposely started to hunt as many beasts as he could, which further established his foundation as a swordsman and a marksman. During their journey to Oakleaf Town, he had started to collect various herbs to practice alchemy, and today was no different. He sat down on the ground and took out the fire formation, along with the cauldron, from his inventory. He set them up and supplied the formation with soul shards before setting aside some herbs on a clean plate. Then, he made a small cut on his palm to draw blood and make a wand. Afterward, he cast a "Purgatio" spell to clean the cauldron of any residue from its previous use. He turned up the heat and utilized his flame scripture to control the fire, similar to firebending. He went through the recipe for a healing pill as the cauldron reached the optimal temperature.
Next, he grabbed black willow grass, an herb that stabilizes the pill and is a crucial ingredient. The refining process for such an herb requires a temperature of around 450-500°C. After putting the herb in the cauldron and closing the lid, he moved it around with the help of another spell. When the refining process was done, he knew because the herb had turned into powder. He took a cut piece of radix ginseng, an herb with a high amount of vitality that aids in healing and is one of the main ingredients. After cooling down the cauldron to 250°C, he put the herb in and began refining it as before. He continued refining the remaining four herbs before increasing the heat to 600°C to complete the process. He gathered all the powder into a clump, used his remaining soul force to exert control on the escaped energy, and forced it into the now forming pill. The powder soon bonded, forming a pill, and a system prompt appeared.
[You have met the requirements to start the tutorial for Alchemy.]
Rayne was thrilled to receive this message because all the knowledge he had received from the system was A grade. However, the process shown by the blonde person was too foreign and complicated for him to understand, so he immediately dismissed it. He took out the pill and asked his system to inspect it.
[Item: Healing Pill
Level: Earth Grade
Description: A magical pellet that is able to heal all kinds of minor wounds.]
Disappointed with the result, he started making another pill with a new batch of herbs. He continued making five more pills, taking breaks in between to recover his soul force. Finally, after completing the fifth pill, he had created something to be proud of.
[Item: Healing Pill
Level: Awakened(20%)
Description: A magical pellet able to heal all kinds of wounds.]
After finishing making the pill, he cast a cleaning spell on the cauldron to clean it of any residue before storing it in his inventory. As he went on to store his formation, he saw that there was still a little bit of flame left. Not wanting to waste it, he utilized his flame scripture and made it flow to his palm before floating above it. He made it float between his fingers, before accumulating qi in his lungs and blowing with all his might while exclaiming, "Fireball jutsu!" A stream of fire exited his mouth, forming a gigantic ball and burning the ground in front of him. Mina's eyes widened because she didn't sense any soul force being used.
"What was that move?" Mina said curiously.
Rayne thought for a moment before saying, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu."
After saying this, he checked if he had unlocked any new skills, but unfortunately, his skill was still under the flame scripture skill.
After that, they continued on with their journey towards Oak Leaf Town. Upon reaching it, he was fascinated by how grand the whole town looked. As usual, he entered and paid a hefty amount of money for entry, booked an inn, and left Mina there before making his way to sell things. While wandering around the town, he came across something called the Alchemist Guild, but he ignored it and went to a shop to sell the pills that he made. Unfortunately, one cannot sell a pill without an alchemist badge, and to obtain one, they need to take an alchemy exam. Fortunately, an alchemist badge also serves as identification. Without further ado, he registered to take an exam at the Alchemist Guild. The exam was fairly simple, requiring knowledge of the human body, its parts, and how to make a pill. After two hours, he had finally succeeded in the test, and now he possessed a level 2 alchemist badge, which granted him access to the exotic books located on the 2nd floor.
He decided to sell the pills after obtaining the badge. Upon selling the pills, he went to the quest board of the guild, where he found requests for making pills. Not being skilled enough, he bought a whole batch of food for Mina and paid the receptionist for 12 days' stay, directing her not to let Mina exit the room. After that, Rayne made his way to the jungle located outside the town wall. He broke into a sprint and started to kill beasts left and right to increase his soul force. After a few hours, he had killed almost 12 beasts, giving him 12 shards. He then proceeded to increase his pill-making speed and efficiency while collecting herbs found around the jungle.
The next morning, he returned to town and sold some herbs he had found while training in the forest. He continued to work tirelessly for 12 consecutive days, effectively increasing his level of alchemy. After that, he took the exam again and was easily promoted to the 3rd level of alchemist. He completed a few more tasks, increasing his balance to 100 gold sycee. Finally, he left the town along with Mina, who had also trained and become a moderate fighter during the 12 days.
~1 month Time Skip
Rayne could be seen practicing Renewal Taekwondo with a wooden dummy in a field along with several other children his age who were practicing martial arts of their own choice.
When he entered the capital one month earlier, he was confronted by a person who was in the middle of the forest by the riverside forging a weapon. Rayne became fascinated with how the man was turning pieces of metal into a sword. He had never personally seen someone forge before, and it could be said that it was his first time seeing forging in real life. But he was soon caught in the act when the man turned around and looked through all the leaves in the darkness, spotting him. Rayne was stunned when he saw how the man was able to spot him in the veil of night.
"Come out, whoever you are," the man said in a commanding voice.
Rayne slowly stepped out of his hiding place before presenting himself.
"So, it was you," the man said with a sigh and visibly relaxed.
"Do you know me?" Rayne asked, intrigued by the man's behavior.
"Well, I don't know you personally, but I know that you come out in the forest to collect herbs and kill beasts, and sometimes I even saw you practicing medicinal alchemy," the man said before proceeding with beating the red-hot iron to get it into shape. Rayne proceeded to watch the entire process. Midway, he asked, "Why forge a weapon? Can't we simply cast it?"
Hearing him question, the man smiled a little before answering while beating, "Yes, we could cast, but it would reduce its effectiveness as forged metal has high tensile and high fatigue strength, resulting in a more durable metal. And if you want to know the mythical side, just like how soul force provides us with a definite amount of strength, just like that, a metal or an alloy infused with either soul force or qi will result in a much stronger alloy. The reasons are still unknown as to why such a phenomenon occurs, but research is still going on."
All while Rayne kept nodding, understanding the topic that the man was saying. After a while, as he finished explaining the fundamentals of forging, Rayne asked, "Mister, I didn't ask you your name. My name is Rayne, by the way."
"Well, my name is Vulcan," said the old man, now known as Vulcan.
"Are you interested in it? If you are, then I can think about taking you as my disciple," Vulcan said.
Hearing it, Rayne was stunned, and his mind immediately wandered to all those cultivation novels in which the main protagonist encounters an old man and then receives a technique to become insanely powerful. Rayne immediately agreed.
"Well, if you want, then you could find me at the Capital's Azure Raven Academy," Vulcan said.
Now, due to that encounter, he got himself admitted into the academy with the help of a fake ID. After that, he chose to take martial arts and forging as his main subjects. But coincidentally, he was also able to take magic classes to learn more about magic theories, spell casting, and how spells were usually created. Did he mention that now he has a wand of his own which he mostly stores in his inventory so that it doesn't break? Through the whole year, he was able to learn a lot about spells, along with forging. Forging was especially more exciting when he was taught about a technique called celestial forging, in which the smith fuses aura into the metal through constantly beating it, slowly refining it, and infusing the metal with the said aura. He also later learned Runic art, which the system fused with celestial forging to create Runic forging. Throughout the forging process, his fire control also increased to the next level. Mina also learned some spells, effectively increasing her defense. His Heaven Devouring Technique was also slowly increasing in level, helping him to take in soul force from surroundings and refine it for his use. He also decided to write a copy of it before storing it in his inventory.
Right now, he has officially lived for 1 year and 6 months in the nightmare realm. Today, he will be early graduating from the academy as the most talented student with a certificate and also a treasure from the armory of the academy. He chose a hammer because it has high soul force conductivity.
After that, Rayne and Mina departed once again, mainly to explore the world and gather as many resources as possible before exiting the nightmare realm. Throughout their journey, they encountered many things, such as the poisonous swamp of the east and the desolate land, which had an enormous amount of beasts that helped Rayne to increase his soul force. They also encountered the labyrinth of Mourning forest, which had nymps that would seduce people into following them to suck their souls alive. To protect himself, Rayne had to keep a fire and six blood orbs floating above his head and behind his head, respectively.
During their journey, Rayne grew closer to Mina. While previously he considered her a blood bag, he now considers her a sister. However, Mina had become addicted to feeding and had started to develop romantic feelings for Rayne.
Their journey took an unexpected turn when Rayne fought the dying Shadow Eminent, who was at peak ascended level. Despite the odds, Rayne defeated the Shadow Eminent with ease and picked up the item drop, which was like a blob of shadow. Rayne's pupil almost got covered in black before returning to its original color, and the system sent a message: "[A strong influence is detected; the system will be in lock-down mode until a solution is discovered.]"
From that point on, pseudo Rayne's journey took a dark turn, as he became more ruthless and started defeating and killing every enemy he encountered. Due to the parasitism, his strength increased, and he waged a war against a powerful person who was a follower of the God Kos, the keeper of the nightmare realm.
During a fight with the follower, Mina died, causing pseudo Rayne to go on a rampage. He forged an armor with its own shadow essence, scales of a serpent from the draconic category, in the furnace powered by the flame of creation, with the intention of creating god-slaying equipment. He also activated the rift spell, which required the sacrifice of 12 virgin girls, and finally, he created the god-depowering ritual, which required the blood of 25 living fetuses infused with his own blood after that the whole battle happened.
After four years, eleven months, and twenty-six days the nightmare realm finally ended.
~Flashback ends~
"Yawn, that was really a tiring day, and it is already 4:00 pm. What are you going to do, Daphne?" Rayne asked his colleague, Daphne.
"I will probably sleep, I guess," Daphne said.
"Yo, boy and girl, here take this as a treat for your hard work," the boss said while handing them a bag of French fries, a shawarma, and a coke after paying them their wages, which were 270 points.
"I don't want any, sir," Rayne plainly refused.
"Don't worry, yours is special. It doesn't have red meat. I know that you are allergic to it," hearing it, Rayne's eyes almost moistened.
"Thank you, sir," Rayne said while bowing 90 degrees.
After that, both exited the cafe. Rayne decided to walk with her while eating, although eating had now become almost uncomfortable and a little bit painful, but he persisted by drinking the coke to ease his pain. As they were talking about things like which class she was in, he spotted Layla clearly wandering around, so he said bye to Daphne, saying that he had another part-time job before he returned home. After she was a fair distance away, he made his way towards Layla and asked, "What are you doing here? I thought you would be with Quinn."
Layla jumped hearing the familiar voice behind her before turning around and staring at Rayne for a couple of minutes as if sizing him up and down before saying, "Are you using some type of Charm spell on me?"
Rayne was stunned because of his own stupidity 'I should have guessed I was emitting some kind of charm radiation, which was causing people to blush left and right.'
"What is a charm spell? Are you sure you are not mistaking me for a powerful, handsome, dashing wizard?" Rayne said in a playful tone.
"Sigh, whatever, so what are you doing?" Layla said a little frustrated.
"I am going to a manga store," Rayne said casually.
"Oh," Layla exclaimed.
"So, what are you doing? You still didn't answer me," Rayne said.
"I am just walking, as you can see," Layla said.
"OK, keep on doing whatever you are doing," Rayne said before running at a human speed.
As the back of Rayne vanished, Layla could only say one word. "Damn, I didn't get to ask if he was a vampire."
As Rayne ran, there was only one thought in his mind 'Eating has become difficult, in the nightmare realm I could still eat like a normal human, so what is the problem? Is the new energy the cause of the change? That's probably what it is. It's more like previously I was a pseudo-vampire, but now I am more likely a full-fledged vampire. But it's still odd why I have a trait like a daywalker. What could be the reason? I need to check when I am in my dorm room.'
Saying that he went on in the direction of the manga store.
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Sorry I will not be able to upload chapters for the next 11 days because of personal reasons. Other than that keep on supporting me by dropping your Power Stones.
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