Chapter 60: Sun and Strength
Edgar’s consciousness left his body and reached a place he had never seen before.
It all started from an endless darkness. It was life and death.
From the darkness appeared black holes, and from those black holes appeared wormholes.
In the vast space filled with them, Edgar alone floated like a lifeless object in the infinite world.
His mind, which was alive and dead at the same time, was being bombarded with information, which led him and his thoughts to one thing.
Sun.
The planet that Edgar resided on once had a sun, and it also had a physical form that lay bare before Edgar’s eyes.
The ’Sun’ was half beast and half man, whose face resembled a human, but it had the body of a centipede.
A centipede whose legs were made of human hands, each one bigger than most continents.
Edgar, in his lifeless form, saw the ’Sun,’ which was glowing brighter than anything.
But that brightness was slowly dimming down, like something was ’eating’ the Sun from the inside.
Edgar saw the ’Sun’ crying in agony, slowly losing its light.
In the span of either an eternity or just a few breaths, the ’Sun’ was gone and was replaced by the ’Eternal Night.’
The remaining dead body of the ’Sun’ broke apart and turned into small glowing crystals of myriad colors.
Those crystals gave birth to eleven different monsters that were as grotesque and ugly as the ’Sun’ itself.
Those eleven monsters reached the nearest planet and took shelter within it.
The shape and structure of those monsters were carved into Edgar’s mind and could never be forgotten, no matter the condition.
On that planet, those monsters gave birth to little monsters that terrified the native races.
The natives of that world gave the monsters a name.
They called them... Nightmares.
That was all the jade showed and engraved into Edgar’s mind.
Once it was over, the world around him shattered, and Edgar was thrown back into his body in an unconscious state.
---
Edgar groaned in pain and discomfort like never before.
He slowly opened his groggy eyes and looked at the familiar ceiling.
’...What the hell happened?’
He slowly got up and heard loud popping noises from all around him.
It took him a second to realize they were his own joints.
Once he stood up, Edgar noticed he wasn’t wearing anything, but the shame of his nakedness was quickly overtaken by the weird ’dream’ that he remembered.
"What the hell did I watch?" he mumbled to himself.
His voice was so hoarse and crooked that it sounded like rust had jammed it.
Edgar slowly raised a trembling hand and looked at his palm, then his arm, and finally his whole body.
His skin was healthier, softer, and cleaner than before.
Edgar clenched his fist and immediately felt something different.
A strange feeling of power flowed through his body that was both explosive and gentle.
His entire body felt different.
It was as though every muscle, bone, organ, and blood vessel had finally begun working in complete harmony.
Before he could think further, a translucent panel suddenly appeared before him.
---
⟨Nightmare Trance: Order of the Sun⟩
⟨Body Reconstruction Complete.⟩
⟨New Organ Successfully Formed.⟩
⟨Passive Ability Acquired: Solar Heart, Six Sage Hands⟩
⟨Description: Even in a world without a Sun, your body shall continue seeking its light.⟩
⟨Current State: Dormant⟩
---
Edgar’s face gradually became solemn as he read the words written before him.
’...A new organ?’
He couldn’t help but emphasize those words for a long second.
Focusing his hearing, Edgar tried to hear his own heartbeat, and surprisingly, he could.
’...Wait, there is more.’
It took him just a second to notice another heartbeat that was slower than the previous one but still ever-present.
’I have two hearts...’
Edgar didn’t know how to react to such a drastic change in his body.
But soon he noticed another change.
His eyes slowly wandered around him.
Perhaps to normal eyes it was invisible, but ’they’ were emitting a strange resonance that matched his own body.
In all four directions around his body, there were four invisible hands that worked like extensions of his own.
Edgar thought of moving one, and the hand moved.
"....."
His eyes constricted.
The giant translucent hand mimicked his thoughts perfectly, as though it had always been a part of his body.
It hovered less than a meter away from him.
Its fingers were thick, each one nearly the size of his forearm.
Edgar let out a deep sigh, sat down on his bed, and looked at the status screen, which had another message.
---
[Name: Edgar Atreus]
[Class: Sun]
[Level: 1]
[Stats:
Strength: 20
Speed: 20
Agility: 20
Endurance: 20]
---
’This is new....’
Edgar thought to himself, staring at the new section on his system panel.
"...Class?"
That single word immediately caught his attention.
Until now, his system had only displayed blueprints, materials, and construction-related information.
This was the first time it had shown something that resembled an RPG status.
’Sun...’
His curiosity only grew when he saw that his class wasn’t Builder.
’Come to think of it, Edgar did fail his class awakening...’
Does that mean that up until now, whatever he did was never truly his own?
’...No, I shouldn’t think that way. The system is a cheat for me, and I never planned to rely on it too much.’
Taking in a deep breath, Edgar finally felt the dryness in his throat.
Looking around, he quickly found a mud jug placed beside the bed.
Instead of using his real hand, Edgar commanded one of his invisible hands to pick it up.
The upper-left hand moved and grabbed the jug, which looked tiny in its grasp.
It passed it to Edgar, who quietly took it and drank the water inside.
Even though he didn’t make much noise, the loud sigh of satisfaction at the end alerted those outside.
The door quickly opened, and young Andrew rushed in.
"Are you alright, Young Master!?" he asked with clear concern.
"I’m fine."
Only after hearing those words did Andrew finally let out the breath he had been holding.
"You scared us."
But his gaze quickly turned grave, which didn’t go unnoticed by Edgar.
"What happened?" he asked calmly.
Young Andrew hesitated for a long while before he slowly said,
"We got the message just a while ago from Manji."
He lowered his head in grief.
"The main Fortress of the Yamhad Clan has been annihilated."