The silver rays of moonlight escaped through the clouds, revealing a dark, harrowing grass plane, stretching endlessly, littered with thousands of skeletal heads, their hollow eyes staring into nothingness, bodies buried beneath the earth.
The air reeked of decay, and the silence was broken only by the rhythmic crunch of dirt. A few meters away, a massive spider-like beast loomed, its grotesque limbs methodically burying another corpse, its mandibles clicking faintly as it worked, completely ignoring Vaelion's fading presence.
As for Vaelion, his body lay collapsed in a pool of his own blood, a sharp hole piercing through his stomach. Even as each labored breath brought him closer to death, he couldn't help but muse at his current situation.
This… it was the perfectly miserable ending for an equally miserable life.
He could still remember the day he had been reincarnated into this wretched place. How excited he had been when his new parents held him in their arms.
He had gotten a new lease on life, after all—a fresh start to cement his legacy in this fantastical world.
Oh, what a fool he had been.
Located in the far east of the empire, the House of Avarice had always acted as the empire's defender, protecting it from planar invasions. But the minute he awakened a weak core, the supposed love from his parents vanished. It happened the very day he awakened a D-grade mana core with a mere twenty percent purity, the lowest in the family's history.
From that moment, everything in his life had gone downhill.
His parents eventually sold him into a political marriage, where he was abandoned and humiliated by his wife, who left him to reunite with her first love. Of course, the blame fell entirely on him. His parents, who had once doted on him, disowned him, casting him out of the family with nothing—no money, no future.
Desperate, he had been forced to join the kingdom's army. There, his senior commanders sent him on one life-threatening mission after another, just like this one today.
THUM!
The sound of digging suddenly stopped, causing Vaelion to tilt his head slightly to the side. His vision had begun to blur, and his surroundings darkened with each passing moment. Yet, he could still make out the beast slowly moving toward him.
To the side, he could see the figure of one of the corpses, its head sticking out of the ground.
Looking at the sorry sight, Vaelion couldn't help but let out a sigh. Guess it was his turn now. When suddenly—
–
Participant number 9 has been located.
All participants have been located.
–
Strange, flowing letters appeared before his eyes, causing him to flinch.
–
Too much karmic disturbance.
Initiating Protocol 17.
Using Hourglass of Time.
–
Huh? Vaelion narrowed his eyes. What was this? Was his mind playing tricks on him because of the blood loss?
–
Commencing regression in—5… 4…
–
What did it mean by regression?
–
3… 2…
–
He didn't even get to see the end of the countdown before the beast lunged at his body, and the entire world around him went dark.
—-
"Oi, the human you're carrying doesn't seem to be moving. You didn't kill him, did you?"
"What? Of course, I didn't kill him. He's probably still knocked out from before."
"I don't know… he looks a little too lifeless to be just knocked out. Turn around, let me check his heartbeat."
Vaelion slowly woke up, only to come face to face with an ogre wiggling its hand around his chest.
What the—? He immediately lurched backward and tried to draw on his mana, only for—nothing.
Looking down, he saw his hands cuffed with some sort of mana-dampening chains.
Wait… why did his hands seem so… delicate?
"Ha ha, look at that! I told you he wasn't dead."
One of the other ogres, his body covered in an oversized cloak, spoke while letting out a chuckle.
"You two, stop playing around with the sacrifices. If he's alive, put him in the cage. The humans should be on our trail already. We need to reach the tribe before the end of the week."
A gruff voice from behind caused the two ogres in front of Vaelion to stiffen up before they hurriedly carried him onto their shoulders and threw him into a nearby cage attached to a carriage. Inside the cage was another wounded student dressed in an academy uniform.
Vaelion, on the other hand, was more confused than he had ever been. His hands, which didn't seem to have ever held a sword… ogres speaking in Solmari… What was happening? Wasn't he supposed to be in that graveyard, about to be eaten by that mutated Nytheron?
Then again, why did this situation seem so familiar?
–
Regression Complete.
Time Reversed: 10 Years.
–
A series of glowing texts caused Vaelion to jump in surprise once again, only this time hitting his head on the cage.
This… hadn't he seen something similar before passing out in that graveyard?
—
Please choose a blessing—[Countdown: 59 sec]
(Note: If no choice is made, A blessing won't be assigned to you.)
Blessing of the ElementsBlessing of the MoonBlessing of the RunesBlessing of NecromancyBlessing of AlchemyBlessing of Beast TamingBlessing of ExtractionBlessing of DominationBlessing of SwordsmanshipBlessing of Martial Arts
–
What the hell is this?
His hands shaking, Vaelion slowly raised them to click on one of the choices.
–
Blessing of the Moon has already been claimed. Please select something else.
–
What? Confused once again, he clicked on a different blessing.
–
Blessing of the Elements has already been claimed. Please select something else.
–
–
Blessing of Swordsmanship has already been claimed. Please select something else.
–
–
You have chosen—Blessing of Extraction.
Congratulations, you have received the Blessing of Extraction.
Please stand by for a system upgrade.
–
Seeing that his choice had finally gone through, Vaelion let out a sigh of relief.
Although he wasn't sure what choice he had made, he was certain it couldn't be any worse than not getting to choose one at all.
"Oi, stop moving so much inside the cage. You're unsettling the lizard."
One of the ogres from before slapped his cage, forcing him out of his thoughts.
Oh yeah, this.
His mind immediately went over the glowing message he had seen moments ago.
It said something about an hourglass of time and regressing back in time. But how was that even possible?
Then again, this situation did seem a bit too familiar. Wasn't it about ten years ago when he had been in a similar situation?
The academy had taken him and his class to a different plane for the practical portion of their semester end exams, where they were divided into groups of five and sent into the forest to hunt some low-level magical beasts.
The exam in itself was supposed to be an easy one too. Aside from the fact that he had been forced to group with his fiancée, he had been in a pretty good mood as well. Or at least that was until these guys had shown up.
Turns out, the neighboring ogre tribes in the forest had been conducting a ceremony to honor one of their gods, and young human mages made excellent sacrifices to the great ogre spirits.
He still remembered how they had ambushed him and his group, how everyone had tried to escape into the forest, and how his group had used him as bait to save their lives.
Vaelion unknowingly clenched his fists. Just thinking about the incident was enough to make his blood boil.
Anyway, the way he remembered it, they had been taken to the nearby ogre village, where the ogres had used a vat of burning oil for three continuous days to skin their bodies while continuously healing them to make sure they didn't die.
Three days. Three days he had to suffer through the pain before the academy had managed to locate and save them.
Vaelion unknowingly let out a sigh.
He didn't know what had happened to him, but he knew one thing for sure: he wasn't going through the same fate once again. And there was only one way to escape out of this situation.
–
Nexus has been rebooted.
–
Blessing of Extraction is online.
Name: Vaelion Avaris
Age: 18
Cultivation: Adept (2nd Grade)
Blessing: Extraction
Charges Left: 3 (3/day)
Time Left Until Next Beacon: 29 days, 23 hours, 40 minutes
Quests: Use the Blessing of Extraction on a corpse.
--
A corpse? Where was he going to find a corpse? Vaelion frowned, before whipping his head to his side. There huddled in the corner was a boy around his age, dressed in the same academy uniforms.