NOVEL NEXT Chapter 143: Terminally Ill Rael.
Within a silent training room, Noah swung his sword again and again. His arms ached and his muscles trembled but he didn't stop.
The blade responded to his will as its surface started glowing a deep violent crimson throwing arcs of energy across the room.
It was nearly midnight but that didn't matter.
The moment Noah had arrived in his personal dorm, he started training without a second thought.
After losing to his sister Arza, he just couldn't rest.
The moment when death had come close to him repeated again and again in his mind, bringing a smile on his ever so cold face.
He felt excited by how close he had come to achieving what he wanted.
If the teleportation hadn't triggered at the last moment, he might have actually reached that long-sought peace.
But even then, he had no intention of trying to face Arza again and die.
Because dying before reaching his full potential… felt like a real waste.
And he wanted the thrill of brushing past death by an inch again.
"One more swing."
"One more."
He repeated the words as he swung his sword again and again.
He wasn't just training aimlessly…
No.
He was trying to reach something which had been in his sight ever since he received his sword but he hadn't been able to grab it.
A single golden thread.
The thread had always been out of his reach as if taunting him from a distance. But suddenly… something inside him felt that it was within reach now.
He didn't know what had changed but he felt curious.
So he kept swinging his sword, again and again, as the thread started coming closer.
"One more swing."
He could feel it now, the thread was finally within his reach.
His crimson eyes glowed with a deep dark hue as his white hair began to glow at the edges.
Finally, the thread was right in front of him.
And Noah grabbed onto it without any hesitation. As soon as he did, a golden light erupted outward.
"You are here at last, my child."
A strange voice echoed around him as Noah found himself standing in a completely different space.
Where is the voice coming from?
He raised his head to trace the source of sound but all he saw was never ending darkness.
"I cannot keep you here for long… but beware of him, my child."
The sound echoed again, this time more cautious and even slightly fearful.
"Beware of the one who laughs at fate."
The voice felt familiar but Noah just couldn't understand where he had heard it before.
Just then a golden radiance surged toward him, engulfing him before merging into his body.
[THE ?????? HAS BLESSED YOU]
"Stay alive and happy, my child… I am always watching over you."
As the sound faded, Noah was back in his training room, completely drenched in sweat. His head ached as he tried remembering what he had heard.
But before he could think anything a status window appeared before him without his will.
—●『STATUS INTERFACE』●—
『Name』 → Noah Ashen Noctharion
『Classification』 → Abyssal Demon Variant.
『Rank』 → E → E+
『Core』 → Iron Core
『Core Affinity』 → Abyss, Darkness, Water, Lightning.
『Nexus』 → ????????????????????????
『Nexus Potential』 → Unique
『Flaw』 → Willbound
『Blessing』 → ?????????????????
『Stat Matrix』
∟ STR → E → E+
∟ AGI → E- → E+
∟ VIT → E+ → D-
∟ END → E- → E
∟ INT → B+
∟ WIL → E → D+
∟ LUCK → S+
∟ CHARM → SS+
***
『Mana Reserve』 → 4000 / 4000
『Martial Technique』 → First Abyssal Weapon Art.
『Registered Skills』 → [Click to Expand]
『Class Quest』 → [!!!!!]
—●『STATUS CLOSED』●—
His eyes scanned his status window and he could see a few new changes.
He had ranked up but more than that, a new section had appeared, one which wasn't there before.
Blessing.
But there was no name, description of anything within that except question marks.
Even when he willed for more details nothing happened…
Then there was one more difference.
The Class Quest.
He didn't have any class quests before but now it was blinking, showing the arrival of a new quest.
He focused on it slightly as the new system prompt appeared before him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ CLASS QUEST
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Description: Find the Successor of One who laughed at fate.
Reward: ??????????
Penalty: ????????
Time Limit: None.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Noah frowned as he stared at his class quest.
Who is the one who laughed at fate?
And why am I supposed to find this person's successor?
He just couldn't understand and the rows of question marks in the reward and penalty sections only annoyed him more.
Ever since he had awakened, most of his status window has been like that as if something or someone didn't want him seeing the full picture.
He didn't even know the name of his own Nexus and now the system had decided to throw even more question marks at him.
But he didn't care.
He had only one goal, to grow stronger and die.
Noah took a deep breath, closed his status window and decided to rest for the day.
After all, tomorrow was the first day of his academy.
And he was curious about the one chosen as successor by his cold father.
Rael Ashborn.
He remembered him, after all he was the one whose paths seemed to move and shift chaotically.
I hope you are someone strong, Rael.
—
[Rael's POV]
"What the fuck is this?"
I yelled it out loud, like a woman discovering her first pimple.
And trust me, this was absolutely not an overreaction because unlike a tiny pimple, my entire face was a disaster.
It was slightly swollen, sure but that wasn't even the worst part.
There were cracks on my face.
Actual fucking cracks.
Thin lines glowing green, like my head was about to explode any second.
And beyond all that, my hair and eyes had changed color. My hair had turned pure white, and my eyes had become green… and suddenly, everything made sense.
The reason those bastards didn't recognize me.
The reason Bearlo kept asking what happened to me.
And the reason my face had been itching like crazy.
It all lined up perfectly.
But what the fuck is this?
Everything had been normal until I spoke to Morvana… I was sure of it. I had caught a glimpse of my face in one of the reflective surfaces there and nothing looked out of place.
Hell, I had even praised myself for still looking handsome despite being drenched in toad saliva.
Which meant this change had happened afterward.
Just then, I remembered what that stalker book had said.
"Unlocking the Trickster Domain early has given you a flaw…"
Is this the flaw it was talking about?
"Fucking hell."
I cursed and immediately opened my flaw window, my heart pounding in my heart… as if it would jump out.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ Flaw: The Trickster
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ Description: You are the lie that became truth, a soul so soaked in deceit that even honesty bends around you…..
.....
....
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ Effects:
✦ Cannot speak the truth of important plans or intentions directly to others.
✦ Permanently carries a subtle aura of falsehood, making others instinctively distrust your words.
✦ a Trickster must always maintain a faint smile or composed facade. Trying to show natural emotions causes inner pain or instability.
✦ A Trickster can, under no circumstances, share their true feelings to anyone directly.
✦ You will die within two months.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I skipped the long-ass description entirely and went straight to the flaws… and the moment my eyes landed on the newly added one, my mind went completely blank.
I had just become terminally ill.
Still, I didn't give up.
A smile appeared on my lips.
Two months… two fucking months.
After everything I had suffered through and everything I had planned and all I get is two months?
Like hell I was accepting that.
I focused on the final effect, my death sentence, hoping it would show more details.
And, just as I expected, a new system window appeared before me.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✦ You will die in three months —
You have activated the Trickster Domain before its fated time and your body cannot withstand the burden and is breaking down slowly. Unless you find the Eternal Blue Blood Flower and absorb its power to stabilize your body… you will die within three months.
[Remaining Time: 89D 23H]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Eternal Blue Blood Flower?
Yeah. I was beyond screwed.
I dug through every scrap of information I had on that name and, to my absolute despair, only two places came to mind.
The flower wasn't just rare, it was practically extinct. It only appeared in places overflowing with natural energy, places where that energy had been accumulating for hundreds of years.
And in the novel, only two locations were ever mentioned where the flower had existed.
One was somewhere I couldn't hope to reach anytime soon.
And the other… was a place I had prayed I would never have to visit this early.
So I did the only thing I ever did in moments like this.
Fuck you, fate.
I cursed the thing that was and always had been responsible for every one of my problems.
And for the first time ever, even after saying it… I didn't feel any better.