Alden sat inside his room quietly fiddling with a plain black ring with a green emerald stone on it with his hands, the only memento his mother left.
The ring looked just like any other common fancy jewellery. But it was far from it because it was a storage ring.
With a deep breath, Alden put the ring onto his finger and gently channelled his mana into it. The emerald glowed brightly for a moment, its light flickering before it dimmed again, settling into a soft, steady glow.
Alden had just registered himself as the user of the ring. He peeked inside the ring. The space within was vast, stretching endlessly in all directions.
But as he scanned the interior of the ring, he found a few items—a pendant, a book,an envelope and many potion.
The portion were Healing Potions and there seemed to be thousands of them in the ring.
Alden quickly took out the envelope without thinking much about other things as his heartbeat started to quicken with anticipation. As soon as he opened the envelope, he found a photo and a letter inside.
The photo was of a beautiful woman with emerald green hair and warm golden eyes. The woman was holding a baby with black hair and red eyes, and a man with similar features to the baby stood beside her.
The woman had a mischievous smile on her face, which contrasted the mocking frown on the man's face. It was as if the woman had been teasing the man until the photo was taken.
Alden's breathing became rough and uneven as he immediately understood who the woman was; she was his mother, Ceres.
He quickly unfolded the letter, hoping to find any clue as to where she had vanished.
[Hello, my dear baby, Oops, I shouldn't call you a baby now, should I? I bet you've grown into a handsome young man by now; after all, you inherited my genes. But no matter how much you change, to me you'll always be my adorable baby boy.
I know you might've had thousands of questions as to where your beautiful mother had disappeared to. Unfortunately, I can't tell you that right now. You see, Mama's on a secret mission; sounds cool, right?
Just kidding… I can't tell you, Alden, where I am or what I am doing currently, but remember I am always with you. So my dear, just focus on growing stronger…We'll meet again one day…
And by the way, cut your old man some slack, will you? He's kind of a rude and cold bastard, and he probably has been pouting ever since I left without saying a word to him…. But trust me, he loves you... Even if he doesn't show any affection or ignores you, just know he loves you very much... He just doesn't know how to express that well.
I have left you a sword art as well as an artifact that will help you in critical times.
Don't be a crybaby over this letter…. Take care of yourself, and I promise we'll meet soon.
I love you, my precious baby; you are my greatest blessing. ]
Alden held the letter tightly as he read its content. His fist clenched and his jaw tightened….
He didn't just feel pure longing for his mother, he felt frustration.... and anger.
"Really, you couldn't give any better reasons…" His voice was soft but filled with anger.
'You just vanished when I was just a kid, leaving me with a father who barely acknowledged my existence, and now you expect me to just wait... to forget all those hellish years?'
'If you really cared so much about me, then you wouldn't have let me grow up feeling abandoned??'
His eyes moved to the photo. His mother smiled in it, teasing his father like it was just another normal day in a normal loving family…
'And I'm just supposed to believe he cares? That he loves me but doesn't know how to show it?' he thought as he looked at his father's face in the photo…
"Hahaha, what a load of utter bullshit, huh?"
For years, Alden had lived in this cruel family all alone, receiving no affection…not even a bit of acknowledgment…
'If he had truly loved me, wouldn't he have at least tried to show it? Where was he when I was beaten nearly to death everytime by Cedric?'
'Was he just hoping I would somehow survive by some miracle….'
He felt many different emotions—anger, frustration, confusion and mainly Indifference—
He didn't care about his parents in this life anymore....they let a young child suffer through all this due to some reasons they couldn't explain properly....
Everytime he thought about it, Memories he had inherited.... that had become part of him flashed through his mind making his anger surface...
But there was one more emotion...an emotion he didn't want to acknowledge--relief. Relief that, That maybe… just maybe, she really did care about him… that she wanted to see him again.
'But I won't just sit around waiting for some happy reunion. I'll find you myself and get my answers.'
He took a deep breath and steadied his mind as he moved on, as there was no point thinking about the past.
He quickly turned his gaze toward the remaining contents of the ring to distract him—the pendant and the sword art manual.
He first looked at the artifact and channelled his mana into it to make it recognise him as owner. As soon as he was done the system showed him information about it.
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[ Pendant of Lost Wanderer]
[Rank - Ancient]
[Effect (1/2): Provides absolute protection from any attack below Primordial rank (Can be used once a day.)]
[Effect (2/2) Teleport user to any random location. (The effect will vanish after single use.) ]
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As Alden looked at the description of Artifact, Alden's mouth opened in disbelief.
"And this is an ancient rank artifact and can even fend off attacks from anyone below Primordial Rank." Alden muttered, "This is too OP."
The artifacts followed the same ranking as the Mana Tome and martial arts manuals.
Alden had previously thought his mother had some ordinary background, but he had to change his thoughts after checking the artifact details. There are currently no Primordial Rank Artifacts present in this world.
So Ancient Rank artifacts were the peak, and even some of the Overlord rank individuals didn't have one.
Alden understood if anyone ever found out that he had an Ancient Rank artifact, they would do anything to get hold of it. So he had to hide it; otherwise, it would only invite unnecessary trouble for him.
But thankfully others won't be able to check the rank and details of his artifacts, as the system only shows details of artifacts that the person owns.He quickly put the artifact around his neck and took out the next thing in the ring, A Sword Art.
As soon as he touched it to check, the manual turned into motes of light and was absorbed into him.
Alden braced himself to feel pain as some information about weapon art flowed in his mind… "Huh?" But the expected pain never came. Alden had gotten so used to feeling pain that it didn't even hurt him anymore.
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[Eternal Flow Sword Art]
[Rank - Mythic]
[Proficiency- Novice (0%)]
[Description - A unique sword art created by a legendary swordmaster in the Forgotten Age.]
[First step:Flowing Strike- The user accumulates momentum and thereby increases their strength and speed by 1% with each successive strike.
Current Max Increase - 30% ]
[Second technique: Eternal Surge—the user can launch a devastating strike with the all the momentum accumulated at any time.]
[Third technique: Phantom Slash—The user can create multiple illusions of sword strikes. Current Max Illusion - 3 ]
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Alden quietly scanned the sword art as he recalled the specific circulation methods given in the sword art.
The sword art looked great, but it was harder to use as he had to use a precise energy circulation within his body and sword for attack increase to take place, and if he was even slightly off, the stack would be reset.
There are also slight side effects of his body not being able to bear the burden of increased attack speed and effect.
"Well, I won't know until I try it." Alden spoke with a smirk. "But that can wait for a while."
He was eager to check the sword art, but there was something else he had to decide currently as he looked at the notifications screen that had been there for quite some time now.....
[Your Special Ability, Soul Ability and Spirit Eyes are strongly reacting with each other.]
[ All three Abilities are in Harmony]
[The Abilities can be merged to create a stronger Ability.]
[Do you Wish to Combine them to Create A Supreme Ability.....]
[YES] [NO]
Alden didn't know what the Supreme Ability meant as it was never mentioned in novel and there was nothing about it in any books of this world either...