In the Nightmare Realm, in an old tavern lit by dim lamps, many people sat scattered around the room. Among them, four people were gathered at a corner table.
There was a man whose hair looked dark green as the light reflected off it. He had a lean, tall build and wore leather hunting clothing, with a dagger at his waist. Taking a sip of beer, he asked,
"Any news from Tellus?" His tone clearly showed he was the boss of the group.
A short man with several moles on his face—an ugly-looking fellow—spoke up. "Yes, Young Master Valtor. There is news that your brother has awakened."
A cold light flashed in his eyes upon hearing that. "Is he under the family's training?"
The ugly man grinned, making his face look even worse. "You don't need to worry, Young Master Valtor. Your brother is a coward. If you give the command, I'll kill that Zuko."
The man kept a calm expression. "No need. You cannot kill him in Tellus. There will be proof if you do that. Not to mention, Father cherishes him."
He sighed and drank a full mug before continuing, "We would be lucky if he accepts the training. The moment he steps into the Nightmare Realm… it will be his end."
A cold smirk appeared as he finished his words. "Now the most important thing is that I get more abilities. Let's go."
Saying that, the man left the tavern with his group.
---
It was morning, just minutes before class started.
The triplets, Drayen, and Fedric were already present. Today Leo was the most excited; even Drayen felt a bit jealous seeing the ability Leo got. Apart from Leo and Drayen, none of them had awakened an ability, but they had successfully absorbed the core and become Nightborne. They just didn't have any ability to test out.
This was what made it difficult to be a Nightborne. This was why talents were important. If they had super-grade talent, even if their luck was worse, they still had a chance of awakening. But without talent, mostly luck dominated the area.
Leo was breathing out fire constantly and showing off to Drayen and Fedric. Fedric's face was worse than Drayen's as he watched Leo's smug expression.
"See? How awesome I am."
He breathed out, and about half a foot of small fire came out.
Leo was the only one who had awakened among the triplets. Both sisters smacked his head. "Do you want to burn the benches?"
Drayen was laughing — Guess they already got back to normal.
Kira entered from the entrance. She saw Leo breathing fire. Leo's eyes were excited, clearly looking for praise.
Kira had a disappointing look on her face. "Anybody get other abilities other than this fire camp?"
Leo, who was expecting praise, stared at her. "Ma'am..."
"What?" Kira looked toward him.
The sisters couldn't hold on as they started murmuring and laughing at Leo.
Drayen lifted his hand. Kira gave a low critique for him as well. "Yeah, you told me the day before yesterday. It's not very good. But you are in luck, since the ability is a counter to Shadow Hounds."
Fedric and the triplets stared at him. Leo blurted out, "Gang leader, you didn't tell us! When did you tell Ma'am?"
Drayen was about to give his explanation when Kira spoke, "You can talk about this later. Didn't you all want to go and explore the village?"
Drayen was the most excited guy at her words, his eyes shining. "Finally."
Apart from Leo, who was still digesting the critique, everyone was happy as they talked.
Kira coughed, "Before going to the village, let me remind you. You guys don't have one good ability—the whole gang. So avoid trouble at any cost, and don't drift too far away from me."
After the short reminder, the group went to the Nightmare Realm using the portal in Etherion.
The Nightmare Realm was also daytime, so the trees on the streets were glowing. Combined with the lamps on the houses, it looked like a magical world. There were people walking on the mud streets; some were going for hunts judging by their gear.
Kira and the group were also wearing shadow-leather dresses, which were the common clothes of this village. The leather from Shadow Hounds was very light and black. Even after processing the skin, it remained dark black.
Drayen's eyes roamed around the huts and some of the two-storied buildings made of brown bricks. He noticed some people here were using items from Tellus. Some wore stylish slippers or colorful shoes from Tellus. Some wore hats from Tellus.
He saw that some kids were playing with plastic toys or other stuff from Tellus. Because of the merging of the two worlds, the culture was starting to mix.
Leo spoke, "They all look like humans."
Fedric corrected his spectacles as he said, "Are you deaf when the instructor was teaching? It's proven that Nightmare people and Tellus people are all humans."
Drayen spoke this time, "I didn't expect this level of culture mixing already. Not to mention people of Tellus don't even have a hint."
Kira spoke, "It's mostly because of the greed of the people in power."
Drayen agreed with a nod as he continued conversing with her.
Lia asked, "Fedric, don't you think Ma'am and Drayen got close? I mean… too close."
Fedric hadn't noticed before, but the two did seem very friendly. "Hmm, very suspicious."
As they were talking, their eyes shined when they saw a huge building. It was built with white stones. It was old and even had some cracks, but it was grand. Drayen's eyes shined. "Wow, so this is the Temple of Supremes."
Fedric also praised, "It looks marvelous under the purple moon."
Leo and the triplets were about to step ahead into the temple. Kira lightly muttered, "You three want to spend time in Houndswell's jail?"
Lina paused in her steps as she held the other two triplets.
"We aren't residents of the Nightmare Realm. We can't enter the temple—it's a crime. Were you three playing around in class? Even you, Lia?" He sighed.
Drayen and the gang were disappointed as they couldn't enter. But they had no choice. They left for the market, which was beside the temple to the left.
The market was at the center of the village. They could see that there were stalls and carts selling a bunch of items on the outskirts of the market. There were a variety of fruits, vegetables, or corpses of tainted on the carts. As they entered the inner area of the market, they saw all kinds of things. They sold some items from Tellus. They sold gear in the stores. They sold dresses. For a village market, it was big enough already. The majority of the market was related to hunting stuff. Items from Tellus were very popular and costly here in the Nightmare Realm.
Here, they had their own currency for trading goods. It wasn't barter; they had bills issued by the kingdom just like Tellus. Here they called it kami. One Rank One core was 1000 kami. Cores had a high value.
They didn't have much kami on them; they were just wandering around. The corpse of the Shadow Hound did have value, but aside from the claws and skin, the rest wasn't worth much. They barely sold for 40 kami, and the school took 20 kami as the fee for exchanging the core.
How is this??
As they were wandering, they soon reached a shop. There were some people entering it. It was an old building, mostly filled with cracks. Why were Drayen and the others looking at it so excitedly? This was what you could call a bookstore. It not only had books of history; it also had books on how to use abilities efficiently, and even recently added innovations that combined Tellus and the Nightmare Realm.
Drayen and Fedric were at the front as they entered the shop. They searched through many books related to their own abilities and other things related to the Nightmare Realm. They even had books about Tellus and culture. Fedric teased Drayen, "He has become more of a nerd than me."
Drayen ignored his comment completely. He was immersed in flipping through the books.
"Wing, look at all this precious data. Start absorbing," Drayen commanded as he slowly flipped the pages.
[All the bloodlines and their specialties…] Wing continued to absorb all the knowledge.
After a while of checking, they were unsatisfied as they couldn't buy any books. They didn't have any money on them. But Drayen was actually happy inwardly. He had flipped through a few books which he considered important. He was satisfied.
Fedric, however, was indignant about not buying anything. He went to Instructor Kira to plead for lending him money. Kira didn't mind much and let him buy a book.
Fedric's happiness couldn't be hidden. He quickly went to the counter as the billing was done. "How much?" Fedric asked.
There was an old man at the counter who wore spectacles. But disregarding him, Drayen's eyes moved past the man toward the back. There were books that Drayen had been wanting to read for a long time.
"Tainted and the Supremes…" Drayen muttered.
"Can I check that book?" Drayen intervened.
The shopkeeper said in a plain tone, "Can I check your identity ring?"
Kira intervened, "No, he doesn't have it."
The shopkeeper spoke, "If you aren't a resident of the Nightmare Realm, then I can't let you check it. I apologize." Although he spoke in a plain tone, there was a pride in his expression.
According to Kira, this book was somewhat considered sacred. It didn't contain any crucial information, just lore and legends of the Nightmare Realm. It was what you could call racism. There was a political agenda behind it. Just as Tellus people couldn't enter supreme temples, there were similar rules here. It was a form of superiority that Nightmare Realm people were showing. But Drayen and other's still subconsciously looked at Kira's hands which wore a ring.
After the bookstore, Drayen and the gang bought a fruit that was popular in this village—Kira paid for it. It looked like a potato, but when they ate it, it had a magical taste, different from the food of Tellus.
Like this the exploration of the village came to an end with fruit.
----
In the computer science division, classes were going as usual. It was Mr. Dordo's class; he was teaching networking today.
"Alright, understand everyone. Next…" He was about to continue.
He noticed that Lara had slowly drifted off to sleep.
Oh, another awakener. Hehehe. There was a happy smile on his face.
He didn't want to use his ability, Sleeping Puppet. It was the ability to manipulate a sleeping person, and it only worked on unawakened or low-ranked ones. This was how he took care of the incident with Fedric, Drayen, and Zuko previously. It was troublesome to use that skill as it had many weaknesses. He didn't want to risk it. He waited for the bell to ring and announced an early let-off.
Lara was a cheerful girl, even after the bell rang and he announced the early dismissal. Her friends were trying to wake her up. They were getting anxious.
"Lara, what happened? Wake up," a girl shook her, but Lara's eyes remained closed and she was breathing extremely slowly.
Another girl panicked, "We should take her to the infirmary!"
Mr. Dordo acted panicked as he said, "Yes, we should hurry."
He took her to the place where Zuko, Drayen, and Fedric were when they were awakening—the infirmary.