Galopp ... Galopp ... Galopp
That's what Ragna was hearing the whole time. After all he was riding a horse, just like the many soldiers around him.
The only difference was that Ragna's horse was white while the other ones were brown. He was also riding in the middle of the bunch, the most protected point. No one really talked and they looked dirty, like they have just fought a war. Red light was also shining down on them since high above stood a moon, a bloodmoon.
Ragna tried calming down while continuing to ride the horse. He thought about the many online forums and books he has read about the Nightmare Spell.
'The first thing you should always do in your Nightmare is check your attributes and Aspect. But how do i even summon it ?'
Ragna thought back to the webnovels he read when he was younger. The characters normally summoned their status by thinking about something like "Menu" "Skills" or "Stats".So he just thought about the Menu and runes quickly appeared in front of him.
Name: Ragna.
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: —
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Fated] [Unseen Link] [Bloodbound Heir]
Aspect: [Prince]
Ragna was pretty suprised by what he saw since the Attributes and his Aspect didn't seem so bad at first glance.
'Hnmnhm, not bad'
He first concentrated on his Aspect since that was presumably the most important thing and new runes quickly appeared.
Aspect: [Prince]
Rank: Awakened
'Oh nice, it's awakened. Thats really good since most people start with a dormant Aspect.'
Aspect description: [Prince is an individual of significant and privilege, often holding a position of high regard and authority. Unlike lesser Titles, a prince is expected to posses a blend of refined skills and inherent qualities, embodying leadership, diplomacy and nobility.]
Aspect ability: [Reinforce]
'Reinforce, huh ? It's probably a support ability.'
[as a Prince you lead armies. With the voice of your authority you can strengthen your warriors, increasing their power, speed and reflexes].
'Indeed a support ability. Should be useful, especially with the soldiers around me. Lets look at my attributes now'
[Fated]: "The strings of fate wrap tightly around you. Unlikely events, both good and bad are drawn by your presence. There are those who are blessed, and those who are cursed... but rarely both."
Ragna didn't know how to feel about this attribute since it could be a blessing or his downfall so he didn't give it much thought for now and went on.
[Unseen Link]: "You have an unusual knack for finding and understanding hidden connections between seemingly unrelated things, as if a mysterious force guides your intuition towards unseen patterns and truth."
Ragna had a more positive reaction to this attribute since it was basically just a boon and a rather beneficial one at that. Knowledge was power so understanding and finding out things others couldn't would be very helpful. And now he decided to look at his remaining attribute.
[Bloodbound Heir]: "Born on a bloodmoon you carry the legacy and secrets of blood. Because of that the blood seas you as one of their own"
'An affinity to blood, huh ? Could be useful later on, especially if the [fated] attribute makes me gain more skills towards the path of blood but right now it doesn't do much. I have high hopes tho'
And so Ragna was done checking his status. He felt confident to be honest. His attributes seemed useful and he had an awakened aspect. He also had the soldiers at his disposal so beating the Nightmare shouldn't be hard, right ?
Oh how wrong Ragna was. At that time he didn't yet know what kind of horror would happen.
***
A week later Ragna was already adapting to his life as a Prince it wasn't particularly hard. He could get anything he wanted with just a snap of his finger.
It was rather a dream than a nightmare, expect for the fact that he fought nightmare creatures from time to time. Fighting those beasts alone would have been a horror but he had an army with many dozens of men at his disposal and so he had already killed a few dormant beasts, even some awakened ones.
***
Right now he and his soldiers were fighting an awakened monster, some attacking from the back with rifles, some fighting in close combat with their swords and some defending the others with heavy iron shields.
The creature itself was very bearlike but he had thick red fur hiding its big muscles underneath. It also had 2 giant paws, the claws as long as a forearm and as sharp as a sword.
His soldiers were fighting against the creature while Ragna was running around it to attack it from behind. 4 shielders were in front of the monster, defending against it's huge paws and claws.
They couldn't do much but Ragna didn't need much time.
Ragna finally arrived behind it and jumped off the ground, onto it's back, climbing up to its head. Since the creatures arms weren't that long he struggled to reach Ragna, so he started running around wildly, jumping and turning but Ragna held on firmly.
He put his legs around the bears neck and pulled out a middle long sword. It was just a normal sword so it wouldn't do much damage against an awakened beast, but thats only true if he would attack it directly at its sturdy body.
Every living being had weakpoints. He thrust his sword into the creatures eyes and then turned it, slicing into deeper into the middle.
The creature cried out at the pain, the soldiers using the opportunity to attack it more. Then Ragna put his palm on the swords pommel and punched it deeper inside, piercing the creatures Brain.
In just a few seconds the bear started to drop onto its belly and then he heard the voice of the spell whisper into his ears.
[You have slain an awakened monster, Redfur]
Ragna grinned with pride but what happened next made his grin grow even bigger.
[You have recieved a Memory ...]
The soldiers were treating the wounded while Ragna jumped off the creature and walked towards a big stone, sitting on top of it before summoning his runes.
Name: Ragna.
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: [Redfur cloak]
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Fated] [Unseen Link] [Bloodbound Heir]
Aspect: [Prince]
Ragna, seeing that he really got a Memory, had his heart drop. Memories were very rare after all and probably the most useful thing an Awakened could get.
Memories were items which people, who were infected by the nightmare spell, could summon at ones which. The Memories ranged from tools to swords, armors and charms, all of them having attributes of their own and being way sturdier than anything created by humans could ever be.
Ragna hastily read further into his Memory.
[Redfur Cloak]
Type: Armor
Rank: Awakened
Tier: 1
Description: "A cloak made out of the hides and fur which once belonged to the Monster, Redfur"
'An armor, makes sense'
Attributes: [sturdiness]
[sturdiness]: "sharp objects struggle piercing through this cloak"
'So i got an awakened armor and it has a defensive attribute ? This is perfect !'
Ragna smiled and looked up into the air as the bloodmoon still shone with red light. He continued looking up for a few seconds
'Did the moon come closer ? .... Nah, I'm probably hallucinating because of the hapiness'
Ragna then turned towards his troop and spoke loudly
"We'll go back to the kingdom in a hour. Continue treating the wounded in the meantime."
***
A few days later Ragna was in the giant castle of the kingdom, laying on his kingsized bed.
He was actually starting to get worried. 4 weeks have passed by now and he still didn't find any clue of escaping his nightmare.
He had already slain many beasts and stopped a few conflicts but nothing worked. And the worst part was that time was running away from him. His body, the one in the real world could be rotting right now and he wouldn't know. He just hoped that his parents came home from their work trip and found Ragna in the meditative state and then brought him to a facility where they would keep his body safe while he was doing his trial.
Ragna sighed and got up from his bed before walking towards the windows, red light shining through. He looked up, up to the ominous bloodmoon.
'It feels like it got closer again ... and this time I'm definitely not hallucinating.'
Suddenly he heard a crash a few meters away from him and glas shattering. He instantly turned around and infront of him stood a man clad in a thin black robe, holding 2 daggers in his hands.
Ragna instantly understood who he was. It was an assassin, send to kill the prince, him.
Ragna dodged to the side as the assassin thrusted his left dagger at him. White light danced around Ragnas body as he started to summon the Redfur Cloak.
It would still take a few seconds till it completely manifested so he somehow needed to survive for that time but if he did he would probably win since the cloak was awakened so a normal dagger couldn't to much to him, especially because of the [sturdiness] attribute.
Wanting to stall time Ragna spoke with fake sacredness.
"W-what do you want ? I .. I can give you a-anything. Is it money you want ? J-just don't kill me."
The assassin stood still for a second but didn't answer before trying to strike down Ragna again.
Ragna dodged to his left and picked up a vase from his nightstand before shattering it against the enemies leg, stunning him a few seconds because of the pain. And those few seconds were all he needed because his Memory finally manifested into existence.
Ragna cloaked himself fully into the cloak, not giving the assassin any chance to attack him through it.
Since he now had an awakened armor on, he pretty much won because his enemy only used normal daggers.
Ragna dashed forward and the assassin tried thrusting at him but the blade did nothing to his cloak.
He then punched him in the face, making the assassin fall over. Then Ragna climbed onto him and tried stealing one of the daggers of the struggling man.
After he got it he instantly thrusted it into the mans chest, piercing his heart. Ragna then stood up and just coldly looked down at him, the first person he ever killed.
'He's just an illusion of my nightmare anyways, it doesn't matter.'
[You have slain a dormant human, Max]
Ragna put his palm onto the mans eyes and pulled his eyelids down, closing his eyes off.
"Your nightmare is now over"
——-Author's Notes ——-
1794 Words
Yo 👋
I feel a little bit better about this chapter than the last one but I'd still be happy about criticism.
So his first Nightmare started this chapter and it will probably end next chapter and then he will get his appraisal in the fourth one.
I've thought long about what attributes i might give him and im pretty happy with the ones he got. Sunny also started with [fated] tho so i kinda feel uncomfortable with choosing it but its just such a good excuse to give the mc plot armor from time to time so i just needed to use it too
This chapter probably wasn't that exciting since Ragna didn't really struggle but this was my first time writing fight scenes so give me some slack 🙏
I said that I'd try writing longer chapters last time but i cant really reach the 2500 words i want sadly but I'll my my best.
Peace.