Rise of The Living Enchantment [LITRPG REGRESSION]

"So, there you have it." Aiden waved with too little enthusiasm. "The new member of our crew."

Done with the introduction, he slumped down onto the ottoman in Zen's room. He had—by the surprising life of him—a headache.

What the hell did the [Sage] hit me with? He groaned, hand held against his head.

When he'd woken up last night after his fight with the [Sage], he had been on Jang Su's back with a headache that felt like two mountains fighting in his head. When Jang Su had let him down, he'd led them to the inn, where he'd passed out in his small cubicle of a room while Jang Su ordered himself a room.

He'd woken up not too long ago with a more tolerable headache. It had taken some time before he'd gone to get Jang Su and present him to the others.

Jang Su stood awkwardly in front of the entire group. Somehow, he managed to look like a shy transfer student introducing himself to the rest of the class. His lips continued to work around, moving from an attempt at a smile to an attempt at a frown to an attempt at quivering.

Aiden would've pitied the boy if not for his headache.

Valdan, Fjord, Ted, Zen, and Feira watched him. They all had the same expression on their faces: curiosity.

Valdan was the first person to break the silence.

He squinted at Jang Su for a moment before asking, "Nel Quan?"

Jang Su nodded.

Ted looked from Jang Su to Valdan, then back. "You know him?"

"He had a spar with Aiden at a party hosted to welcome Envoys of Nel Quan," Valdan answered. "They were actually a team."

"And Lord Lacheart put down my companion with a single blow," Jang Su said.

Aiden frowned through his headache. "Aiden," he said. "My name is Aiden."

Fjord gave Jang Su an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that, he's not a fan of being called Lord."

"Oh." Jang Su scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"What's with the dress?" Zen asked plainly. "Why are you wearing it like that?"

It was late in the morning, the sun pressed its light through the only window in the room to bathe it in its warm glow. The orbs in the room were unlit. In its presentation, Jang Su stood with an inner black t-shirt with short sleeves. It clung to his body well enough to outline his muscled features. He wasn't heavily built. If anything, he looked more like a swimmer.

As always, his inner shirt was covered by his flowing kimono. A single hand hung through the lapel of the kimono, resting calmly on the hilt of one of his katanas.

"It's a style from my home…" his words trailed into silence. "Where I come from, people dress like this sometimes."

Aiden had told him that the only people in the group that were aware of Earth were Valdan and Ted. Thus, his existence as a summoned was meant to be a secret from the rest of the group.

"I've never been to a place that dresses like that," Fjord mused. "Must be far away."

"A bit."

"But you're from Nel Quan," Feira pointed out, tone suspicious.

Aiden raised a brow at that. Was she the kind to always nitpick at every… Aiden pressed his lips into a thin line. Of course she was. She nitpicked at everything he said, after all. It would be a surprise if she so happily allowed other things to slide.

"Yes," Jang Su answered her. "But I'm not from there. My father said this is how those from my home dress."

Aiden couldn't help the slow turn of his head as he fixed his attention on Jang Su.

"And where did your father say he's from?" Feira asked.

Zen grabbed her by the sleeve of her shirt and pulled. "Don't be rude," he whispered harshly.

Feira frowned slightly. She bowed a little at the neck. "Sorry, if I'm coming out too blunt."

Jang Su shook his head, smiling sheepishly. "No, it's fine," he said. "Sadly, he died before I ever cared enough to find out."

Aiden watched him. He's good at this.

"Sorry to hear that," Feira said solemnly. "The loss of a parent is a hard thing."

Aiden couldn't disagree. The question was if his situation could really be considered the loss of a parent. His parents were still alive, somewhere out there in the cosmos. In his past life, he had wanted to return home for the sake of his parents. But as the years had gone by, things had slowly changed. His urge to return home had become fueled by nothing but stubbornness. A basic principle.

He had missed his parents until they had come to feel like dead relatives. Sometimes, though, he caught himself wondering how they were, what they were doing. Did they try to have another child to fill in the absence of him and Ted? Did they adopt? Did they simply accept that they would have no other children?

The thoughts had plagued him in the beginning until they had dwindled into nothing more than passing phantoms—whispers of old thoughts.

"So," Jang Su looked at all of them. "This is the group. If you don't mind, may I ask a sensitive question?"

Ted shrugged. "Go for it."

He was not aware of who exactly Jang Su was, but he had to know enough to know that Jang Su was from earth. At least he had to suspect. The kimono alone had to be enough for that.

"Who's the strongest in the team?" Jang Su asked.

To Fjord's complete bafflement, Zen and Feira pointed at him.

"Our wild card," Zen said.

Fjord pointed at himself. "Me?"

"I still remember the fight at the entrance," Ted said with a distant look. "Still can't believe you took on three of them."

"Four of them," Valdan corrected. "I still say that there was no reason for it. He was bullying the weak."

"They deserved it," Zen objected. "He was protecting Feira's honor."

Fjord's expression turned from confusion to worry.

Aiden shook his head, holding back a smile as he closed his eyes. "I've always told him to learn to control his temper. He never listens."

Fjord's jaw dropped. "Sir?"

Jang Su looked at him now as if he truly was a wild card. "My master likes to say that if you want to control your emotions, channel it into fighting those that are stronger than you. That is the only way to succeed."

Aiden snorted quietly. He couldn't imagine the [Sage]--Jang Su's master–saying that. "The same one I met?"

Jang Su chuckled lightly. "He can be a walking contradiction." To the others, he added: "Who's the second strongest?"

Zen got up from the bed proudly, chest puffing out in full bravado. His sister placed a firm hand on his shoulder and shoved him back down.

"I am," she said.

Jang Su looked at Valdan. There was a touch of confusion on his face.

Valdan shook his head. "I'm the weakest. But Ted and I have a running tally of eight wins to seven losses in his favor."

Jang Su moved his head, panning across the group. He was clearly trying to figure out who Ted was.

Ted raised his hand, enjoying himself. "I'm Ted. Nice to meet you."

Jang Su nodded. "Likewise."

Aiden had no idea why they were playing games with Jang Su, but he wasn't going to spoil their fun… yet.

Jang Su raised a finger. "One moment," he said.

Everyone paused, watching him as he shimmied over to Aiden. He leaned down and spoke in a quiet voice.

"They're messing with me, right?" he asked in a whisper.

Smart.

Aiden kept his eyes closed, doing his best to ignore his headache. "What gives you that impression?"

"The strongest looks very confused and flabbergasted. The second strongest has so many openings that I can take her down with a single feint and no follow up."

His words were enough for Aiden to smile slightly. "Go on."

The others were still watching them.

"The one who knows I'm from Nel Quan looks like the strongest," Jang Su went on. "I can't find any openings if I wanted to attack him."

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Aiden's eyes opened and moved over to Valdan. That was interesting. Jang Su couldn't find any openings but Aiden could see at least three.

"Ted looks like the second strongest," Jang Su continued. "He has a lot of openings but they feel more like traps."

Aiden looked at Ted. He was as comfortable as anyone could be. He saw the reason his brother's openings looked like traps. It was because of how relaxed he was. Too relaxed.

He nodded in acceptance of Jang Su's findings.

"Are you two done whispering?" Ted asked.

Aiden nodded, then he adjusted his position on the ottoman so that his feet were on the floor and he sat leaning forward.

"I will now reveal the truth," he declared. "Why? Because you all are making Fjord very worried."

All the eyes turned to Fjord and he looked like someone that was scared he was about to be sold into slavery but couldn't do anything about it.

Feira was the first to do anything about it. She placed an apologetic hand on his shoulder. "We're so sorry, Fjord."

Ted smiled. "I'm not. It was fun."

Aiden shook his head, smiling. Ted had a few bad traits, one of them was that when harmless jokes, such as this, worried a fellow guy, he was in no hurry to apologize. If it was a girl, he would.

To him, if a joke didn't attack you as a guy, there was no point in feeling bad. If the joke attacked you, however, that was a different case. After all, he would not intentionally attack a person with a joke.

"Valdan is a knight of Bandiv and is the strongest in the group," Aiden said, pointing at Valdan.

Ted gave him a look.

"I said what I said, Ted," Aiden said. "Ted is the second strongest. Fjord can't fight to save his life… yet, but you can trust him to survive a dangerous situation. Zen and Feira," he pointed the siblings out, "are the weakest in the group in a combat situation as well as a dangerous situation. They have zero fighting or survival skills."

Jang Su took each person in as Aiden spoke.

When Aiden was done, he said, "So, that's the knight."

Valdan's brows furrowed. "The knight?"

"He's from Nel Quan," Aiden explained. "Our story does not only exist in the Bandiv palace."

"Your story?" Feira asked, confused. "Are you two like a forbidden couple or something? A young master and his knight?"

Everyone paused. Jang Su looked at Aiden with an expression he couldn't quite place. It seemed like he was one of those people who weren't sure how to react around these kinds of things.

"Wait," Feira's jaw dropped. "It's true? I didn't… I was just…" her face froze, as if in sudden realization. "That would explain a few things."

Valdan looked at her. "A few things like what?"

"Like why you're always so stoic but he always gets a reaction out of you," Feira said, her mouth moving quickly, her eyes darting around as if she had just found the mathematical solution to the secret of the universe. "I always wondered why you're more emotional when it comes to him, more emotional than his own brother. There's also how he's always so rude to me." She gasped. "It all makes sense now."

Aiden sighed and looked at Zen. "She gossiped a lot back home, didn't she?"

Zen chuckled, nodding. "She knew all the news but only gossiped with me."

"With you or to you?"

"To me."

Feira smacked him on the arm. "I'm not a gossip."

"And I'm not in a secret relationship with Aiden," Valdan said with a tired sigh. "Is this how everybody sees us? Like lovers?"

"You two are kind of close," Fjord pointed out timidly.

Ted grinned. "Like besties."

Aiden sighed. What was it with them today? They were having way too much fun.

"Ted and Valdan know what I'm talking about, and so does Jang Su," he said, uninterested in expanding further. "And I'm mean to you, Feira, because someone has to be mean to you."

"And because you look like me," Zen added.

His sister scoffed. "Please, I'm too beautiful to look like you."

Aiden wasn't sure if she was being serious or not. In the end, he chalked it up to some level of sibling rivalry.

"If that's not the case," Feira said. "Then what's this thing about you two that's so secret?"

"None of your—"

"The king sent us on a task," Valdan cut Aiden short, "and we left the kingdom with Ted instead of returning to the castle."

Aiden gave him a surprised look.

"What?" Valdan asked. "I have a woman waiting for me at home. The last thing I need is her hearing rumors that I eloped with a boy barely half my age."

That was right. Melvet, Aiden remembered.

If he wasn't mistaken, they were not yet officially married. He wondered why that was. But he'd never asked.

Jang Su looked at Aiden. "You really don't listen to anybody, do you?"

"You don't know the half of it," Feira snorted.

"Alright, alright," Ted announced, drawing all the attention to him. "So, why were you so interested in finding out our power levels? And why wasn't Aiden added?"

"I watched Aiden fight my master and he managed to slice a piece of his cloth," Jang Su said. "I've never seen anyone do that before."

"Your master was under more than enough handicaps," Aiden pointed out.

"I've never seen anyone do that while my master was under more than enough handicaps before," Jang Su rectified before turning back to the others. "So, I know that he's the strongest. When joining a group, it's good to know how strong everyone is. It helps with the synergy of the group."

"What about you?" Ted asked. "How strong are you?"

"Weaker than Sir Valdan," Jang Su answered without missing a beat. "Maybe as strong as you. I'm not very sure. I'm level fifty-nine with the [Samurai] class."

"Never heard of a class like that," Valdan mused. "How does it work?"

"Uhm…" Jang Su looked thoughtful for a moment. "I guess my master says it's person specific. It's more about a state of being and a method of combat?"

"Like the [Knight] class?"

"Or the [Berserker] class," Zen added.

"[Berserker] is a title not a class," Feira corrected.

"It's common as a title," Aiden corrected. "But it also has a class. It's an evolved class that is quite rare to get."

The conversation left him a little annoyed. Despite how impossible it had been, he had been a step away from learning about what his unique class could evolve to and how to evolve it.

Maybe a step away is being too generous.

Still, it had been a possibility. But at least he knew his class could be evolved, now he just had to find out how.

"So," Ted said. "What tactics do we have in place for our trip?"

"I already know how you guys fight," Aiden said. "And Jang Su has seen me fight. I'm guessing it would be best if he sees how the both of you fight."

"That makes sense," Valdan agreed.

"What of the others?" Jang Su asked. "Do I not need to see what they are capable of?"

Ted crossed his legs. "They will not be coming with us since it's too dangerous."

"Oh."

"Alright, then." Valdan pushed off the wall he had been leaning against. "It's bright out and the training ground should be free. Let's go see what we're working with."

"I wish to spar against you first, Sir Valdan," Jang Su requested politely.

"How about you spar with Ted, first," Valdan offered. "In your self-analysis, you are more along his line of strength, and his level is higher than yours."

"Then will we have to wait until evening for me to see how you fight?"

"Not really, I can always just face Aiden after you and Ted are done."

Aiden waved the suggestion away immediately. "I'll have to turn you down, V. I've got a wicked headache."

Everybody paused.

"How?" Valdan asked. "Are you alright? Should we be worried?"

Jang Su chuckled a little at everyone's expression.

"He'll be fine," he said. "I always get a headache after training with my master. I still don't know how he does it." He turned thoughtful. "He hits you hard enough to not kill you but hard enough to give you a headache."

"And you're sure you're fine?" Feira asked Aiden, already halfway to the door.

Aiden nodded. "I just need to rest my head for a while."

With that, he laid his head back and closed his eyes again. He heard the door open and was more than happy to let everyone leave.

"Aiden?"

He opened his eyes at Jang Su's voice. "What's up?"

Jang Su held a folded piece of parchment out to him. "My master said I should give this to you."

Aiden took it. "Thanks."

"Do I need to hold back with the others?" Jang Su asked. "I've been fighting an all powerful being since I got here so…"

Aiden waved his words aside. "Go crazy with it. If you don't, you'll regret it. And tell my brother that no manifesting skills allowed."

The last thing Aiden wanted was the knight with the weird sword and armor showing up in the middle of their sparring.

Jang Su nodded, then left. He closed the door behind him.

Finally alone, Aiden pulled up his interface.

[Name - Aiden Lacheart]

[Species- Human]

[Age – 19]

[Class- Weaver Lvl 72]

Class Skill

[Enchanted Weave (Mastery 88.29%)], [Walking Canvas (Mastery 54.33%)], [Unarmed Engrave (Mastery 43.58%)], [Modify Engrave (Mastery 31.00%], [Broken Weave (Mastery 14.11%)], [Locked (Mastery 0.50%)(U)], [Fate Walker (Mastery 0.00%)(U)], [Enchanted Void (Master 05.00%)(M)]

Affiliation

[Kingdom of Bandiv].

Title

[Goblin Slayer], [Defier], [Protector], [Stone Guard], [Giant Slayer], [Unfettered], [Unnatural Hunter], [Knight Killer(T)].

Skill

[Tongue of the Visitor (Mastery 100%)], [Unarmed combat (Mastery 88.10%)], [Willpower (Mastery 09.00%)], [Mana manipulation (Mastery 67.76%)], [Basic Enchant (Mastery 70.77%)], [Stealth (Mastery 04.01%)], [Detect (Mastery 44.60%)], [Lockpicking (Mastery 02.10%)], [Leap (Mastery 22.99%)], [Pathfinder (Mastery 08.32%)(U), [Basic Weapon-master (Mastery 12.10%])

Dimensional Skills

[Reverse Summoning]

Stats

[Dexterity 52], [Agility 37], [Mana 53], [Speed 45], [Perception 50], [Strength 40]

Traits

[Dimensional Crack (Level 50]

Life

[Health 100%], [Stamina 100%], [Mana 100%].

The new section Dimensional skill was a worry for Aiden. He knew what it meant. Others would certainly not read it as 'dimensional'. So, it kept him worried. Would it show as Demonic skill if someone looked at it? Would they see it?

His personal information was becoming a liability of its own.

Besides that, he noted a few more things. The [Knight Killer] title had a letter next to it. He assumed it stood for tethered. He'd also lost [Intermediary Swordsmanship], [Basic Axe-man], [Basic Spearmanship], [Dagger-wield], [Basic Bow-combat], and [Basic Archery]. In truth, to say that he'd lost them would be wrong. They'd all simply been combined into [Basic Weapon-master].

He'd had the skill in his past life and had enjoyed how it made learning new weapons very easy. It would prove useful in this life, too.

He also had arguably useless skills, skills that weren't growing in mastery because he rarely used them. But everyone had skills like that in Nastild. It wasn't very far from skills on earth. Not everyone who knew how to draw drew all the time. Not everyone who knew how to play video games played video games all the time.

He still had no idea what his locked skill was supposed to be and had pretty much agreed to simply ignore it. The [Sage] in Bandiv had said that it was possibly a skill locked because of levels or locked until he met certain criteria.

Now that he was over level fifty, it was still locked, so it was safe to say that it was not a criterion. Each time he'd met a criterion, the skill had informed him of it.

It will unlock itself when it unlocks itself, he thought, discarding his interface with a thought.

With that gone, he held up the last interesting thing. A gift from a [Sage].

He stared at the folded-up parchment. A world enchantment.

And one that he could actually use.

[Enchanter]s grew old and died never seeing a world enchantment. Most spent their entire lives researching and looking for them but to no avail. Some found them but could not use them.

But here he was, holding one in his hand. One that he could use.

He unfolded the parchment with a level of care that almost seemed ceremonial. This was a milestone he would've never dreamed of achieving.

When the piece of parchment stood open in front of him, Aiden's heart seized in his chest. The enchantment looked as complicated as any world enchantment would. It was far more complicated than any spell he'd seen the formula for. Yet, his mind latched on to it like a hungry beast, doing its very best to commit it to memory.

Aiden's eyes traced every line and curve and symbol. Runes and sigils were committed to memory. It was like a thousand enchantments somehow combining to become one. Bits and pieces sacrificed their very nature for a greater purpose.

His eyes widened slowly as the enchantment revealed itself and its purpose to him. Slowly, with the precision of encroaching death, he realized what the world enchantment was designed for. He saw it as clearly as the world around him.

He's gone mad, Aiden thought. It was the only explanation.

There was no other reason a [Sage] would do something as irresponsible as putting this specific world enchantment in the hands of a nineteen-year-old boy. What had the man been thinking?

Aiden's hand trembled as he stared at the enchantment. He knew its purpose.

He knew its name.

And just as he stared at it, it stared right back, daring him to name it in his head, to complete his understanding of it.

The [Enchanter] in Aiden obeyed without hesitation. He committed its name to memory.

A single word echoed in his mind, shaking his very being.

Destruction.