Chapter 45: A Greater Curse than Death... Curse of the Darkdawns
The banging in Ruthar's head urged his eyes to open. He was in a strange place he could barely recall.
'Where am I?' he asked himself, sitting upright to scan his surroundings.
A white room with no up or down, just plain white with wisps of smoke he tagged as Mana exhaust.
[Welcome User... To the confinement domain.]
"Confinement? Is this a prison yard or something? Why am I here?" Ruthar dropped his gaze to his palms, which were exhuming dark and white wisps.
As he continued to look mesmerized at this world, he heard a crackling sound that called his attention to look behind him.
The sound was from the struggle of shackles being drawn to their limits by a beast.
'It's the nightmare beast?' Ruthar held his mouth as he stared directly at the chained Nightmare beast struggling to break the chains shackling it to the ground.
"What the hell is going on?"
[System has successfully confined the beast for now... Confinement will expire in a few hours because of the prisoner's strength.]
[Shall I begin extraction?]
"Uhm... Yes." Ruthar was unclear about the right options to pick but knew this choice would be more favorable.
As time went on and he continued to watch the spirit entity struggle to break free from its shackles, Ruthar finally built up the confidence to speak.
"What the hell are you?" he asked timidly, getting the full attention of the nightmare beast.
'It really can't do anything in this state; the system is truly amazing.'
Ruthar, now having a less frightening view of the monster, thought up questions to ask it. He began:
"Why are you hunting the Darkdawns? And why did you hunt me?" Ruthar placed his question that way to test his theories. He wanted to see if the Nightmare beast would know something about his reincarnation or find him off in some way.
The nightmare beast's reply wasn't yet satisfying.
"I guess I won't find any answers from you while you are paranoid," Ruthar said, taking his eyes off the spirit entity and looking at a notification that just appeared.
Name: Ruthar Hellborn
Title: None
Job class: None
Exp: 20/620
Level: 3
Strength: 41
Agility: 26
Senses: 7
Stamina: 46
Intelligence: 3/200
Fatigue: 0
Mana: 862
Ruthar noticed a change in his stats. It had been a while since he saw it, but he could see a large difference.
'Did I just extract a bit of strength from the Nightmare entity?'
[You have successfully extracted some stats from the entity.]
[You have successfully extracted a skill from the spirit entity: Darkness Absorption.]
'I even got a skill from the beast,' Ruthar was excited but couldn't smile. He placed his hand on his chin and began to ponder the fact that this was a temporary confinement that would break anytime soon.
'If only I knew more about the system and how to strengthen its capacity.' Ruthar heaved a sigh, unable to think past that length.
"What am I going to do about this situation now?" Ruthar got goosebumps from what his mind began to insinuate about this problem.
"Can I make a contract with this monster?" Ruthar suggested, and the system chimed in at his question.
[Yes, you can, but it depends on the Nightmare beast's decision. He doesn't seem to be in the right senses now.]
'I guess I will just have to settle for this win for now,' Ruthar shook his head and placed his hands in his pockets.
Ruthar frowned, throwing out his middle finger at the nightmare beast, "I will be prepared for you when that happens. I'll break this nightmare streak and kill you."
---
A wave of water was splashed on his face, causing him to wake up from his current sleep.
"Ruthar, oh thank goodness! You are alive!" His eyes first met with Lady Taraha, who looked distressed.
"What's going on?" he asked while sitting himself up on the warm wooden flooring.
He was no longer in the castle, that was for sure. This was somewhere else, a carriage? Probably on the road because of the sound he heard from the movements.
"So you are awake, Ruthar?" The final person in the carriage asked, sitting comfortably with his back reclined to the seat.
The person seemed very familiar, as though they had met before, dressed in total white and having a sword strapped to his side. He looked a little above twelve years or more.
'He has white hair? Could he be...'
"I am Lord Darkdawn Troma. According to what Lady Taraha told me, you are my little brother, a fellow Darkdawn, and you are being haunted by the nightmare entity," Lord Troma was a bit different than Taraha from the way he spoke. He seemed pretty blank and conveyed no emotions.
'I heard he helped me to get out of prison; he must be a nice person like Taraha,' Ruthar bowed his head in respect, "thank you for all you have done for me, Lord Troma."
"If sister Taraha truly trusts you, then you have my full support and trust, but I am not the main character at this point; it's about you," Lord Troma stood up from his seat and went closer to Ruthar. "You passed out for eight hours straight; what did you experience?"
'Eight hours, I slept for that much time? It honestly felt like just minutes.'
"Uhm? I can't say for sure what happened, but I think he could not reach me. I can't explain, but he could not harm me at all." Ruthar lied since that was the simplest way he could put it. He could not tell them how he temporarily trapped the Nightmare beast within himself.
'I fully share Naruto's pain.'
"That's unlikely; I have never heard about a situation like that. We still need to take precautions," Taraha stood up from where she knelt beside Ruthar and walked up to the window of the carriage. "We are currently past the cities and heading to the border of the Spade Horus. Once we have left our region, we will have to go on foot, which makes us vulnerable to enemies."
"This also means you will experience firsthand how difficult life is, Ruthar. It's no longer nightmares but the real world," Lord Troma added, giving Ruthar a chill up his spine.
'I am finally leaving the kingdom; I'll finally gtvto see the world outside.'
---
{Quest: Help Taraha complete her mission}
***Author's Note***
Thanks for reading this far. Don't drop off, keep reading and vote for the book. I believe we are starting an amazing new arc here. Ruthar is on his very first quest, and we have finally passed halfway through the first volume, nearing the beginning of the second volume. Thanks for your support up till now.