NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: 3. NEW WORLD
MIDDLE WORLD….
In a chamber composed of lost relics and mystical artifacts, a man of scholarly demeanor sat behind a candlelight that continued to flicker in the dark.
His dress seemed like those from historical movies, the ones with the images of knights and wizards like those from some fantasy novels.
Before him, an orb of polished silver kept upon a table that looked old as if it was about to collapse yet this wood would rival a king's treasury and here it was used to make a table.
If you looked closely inside the orb, you'd see something incredible, a tiny planet floating.Crazy right ?.
This orb that looks like you could get at any magic shop hovered gracefully, portraying features of landmasses, oceans, and countries, encased within a transparent orb that seemed to pose a challenge question as who the hell is this person.
Suddenly, the man that was sitting down writing shifted his eyes towards the sphere, his eyes narrowing as a flicker of recognition crossed his face. "Anomaly," he murmured, the word carrying with it a weight of confusion that reverberated through the quiet room.
He walked over to the window and looked outside. What he saw was a black flash flickering in the sky, resembling a lightning. But instead of fading away, it grew larger and larger until it disappeared as if it was not there a second ago.He was sure no one had seen what just happened, only his eyes would be fooled by this world's will.
"Never have I ever witnessed such radiance in someone's soul" he murmured, his voice barely more than a whisper in the midst of his fascination that enveloped him.
"Feels as though something is on the horizon I wonder what this being will cause" he mused aloud, settling into his chair with a sense of anticipation. With a gentle exhale, he opened the pages of a book titled "The Middle World."
----------------------------------------
In a room adorned with luxurious decoration for royalty, a pale and frail-looking boy stirred from his slumber, his eyes fluttering open to the strange yet new environment that surrounded him. With a feeble yet determined resolve, he summoned the strength to rise from his bed.
A few minutes later....
Shane sat on the bed decorated with royal blue sheets embroidered with golden patterns, Shane put his hand on his head as if he was suffering from a severe migraine.
Yet, it wasn't a headache that troubled him; rather, a flood of memories had rushed into his head the moment he woke up. Which led to overwhelming him with their volume and intensity.
"So I am the son of a duke" huh! Interesting."seems like my speculation was right, that women fooled me at the end. After all, sending me into this body, surely my life won't be as peaceful as I wanted."
He said as he looked at his left wrist where one could see a healed up cut, and a bloody dagger in his right hand.
Shane just came to know from the memories he received that the previous owner of this body had been killed by an assassin last night, and it was done in such a way that to everyone it would appear that this boy committed suicide.
Shaking his head he could only sigh.
The name of the previous boy was Shane Nolan. Having the same first name as him and finding out that he was the only single child of the duke. Usually, nobles would have many kids in this world and polygamy was a common practice,but from the memories I received, he had heard people talking about how Duke Nolan only married once, and his mother was a commoner woman who had caught the eyes of the duke.
She had passed away while giving birth to Shane, who was born very frail and weak. And on top of that he had no talents at all. In this world, the so-called geniuses were always born with a talent or two, those indicated their bright futures.
All he remembered from his childhood was growing up with the maids and meeting his father only once a month. His father the duke was always occupied by his work and had remained very distant and aloof towards him.
He had yet to go through his class awakening and become an adult, since he was only fourteen years old, still two years away from the fateful day.
But when news about him being talentless and his weak physique reached the citizens, the anticipation and excitement about his awakening dropped down in an instant. It was widely believed that the class you get at the time of awakening depended on the talents you get at the time of birth.
Like his previous world, in the middle world people also had their own status panel to show their attributes.
Shane had already opened his status panel in front of him.
[Name:Shane Nolan]
[Race:Human]
[Age:14]
[Class:None]
[Level:5]
[Talents:None]
[Skills:None]
[Physical Attributes:2]
[Magical Attributes:5]
"Although I want to live a peaceful life, I don't seem to have an option. An unknown person has planned my death and as soon as the news of me being alive reaches that person's ear's he will surely be in more trouble, and I don't even have the strength to defend myself properly right now. I can't even inform my father or anyone, since there might be a mole in the castle."
"After all, infiltrating the duke's castle is not easy."
Yes, My Father lived in a castle since the area under his jurisdiction was a rocky mountainous region and the castle was situated on a hill under which the capital city of the dukedom flourished.
Castles/palaces were only built by the imperial family, Other nobles generally lived in estates smaller compared to the latter as a form of submission and respect to the royalty of that particular dynasty.
As he got more comfortable in this body, he woke up and cleaned all the mess of the room that shows his suicide, then he called in his personal maid Alice to the room.
Although he was suspicious of her being a spy of the unknown enemy because she was the closest person to the previous Shane, so naturally she was on the top of the suspected list in his mind. Still, he told her to do her daily chores like cleaning his room and preparing his bath. All this time he was carefully observing her for any suspicious move. It was funny because Shane subconsciously acted that way, not realizing that if she wanted, she had the capability of killing him several times over. I mean what was his weak ass going to do anyway?.
She may be his personal maid but her recruitment process was similar to that of knights, so she had a decent amount of strength and Shane knew that already.
After doing her daily duties, Alice left the room and Arthur started getting dressed. "Feels like a dream but still I am not excited one bit this assassination has my brain scrambling."
"sigh."
He didn't know the reason, but the shock and excitement that he expected to hit him after transmigrating never really came, instead he felt unbothered even when his life was so uncertain."is it because of that thing...." Looking down at his chest as he murmured to himself.
After donning the neatly pressed uniform of the Nolan family, colors in shades of blue and white, Shane stood before the mirror, his reflection a reminder of the boy he now inhabited, something he can never let anyone know about. With each adjustment of his attire, he couldn't shake the weight of Shane's memories.
Sitting down on the couch nearby he said "ok, now will u come out, or you are just here to watch the show."As soon as he said that, a line of text appeared in front of him.
[Ding!!congratulations on awakening The Unique System.]
[I am uniquely made for the host who is tired of the simple power leveling fantasy.]
[So what are you waiting for? Let's roll....]
(-_-)
"sheesh... That was a flashy entry, still a unique system was not what I was expecting from the goddess."
Having read countless novels in his last life, Shane wasn't new to hearing about special types of systems for the first time, as he knew the general information and what to expect. Still he felt the need to ask.
"So what can you do?."
Silence.
After a few minutes.....-_-
"seems like the system doesn't have its own consciousness and the previous intro was just a pre-feeded intro."
He tried to click the popup screen in front of him but a different popup window opened in front of him, it seemed like it was a starter guide.
[1. A single roll is granted to the host every day and after the day is over the system resets.]
[2. All rewards are stored in system subspace and can be retrieved at any point of time.]
[3. In special places and occasions, there is a chance for a special exclusive roll to be granted, It will be counted to your daily roll if not used.]
[4. 10 beginner hyper lucky rolls are granted at the start to give the host a head start.]
[5. Most of the rewards can only be used by the host and the entities contracted with the host.]
[6. Only appropriate queries related to the unique system and rewards will be answered.]
[All the best for your journey host!!.]
As Shane read the details given by the system, a smile crept up his face.
"This can be the key to having an unbothered life. What did they call it in those lightnovels again ? ahhh yes "a slice of life." Although the future is unpredictable, for starters I should utilize everything I have to safeguard myself from the unknown danger inside and outside this Castle."