Volume 1 – 34. Starry Sky
By the time darkness had fully settled over the city, Lucien had claimed the living room sofa for himself and stretched out across it as he stared absently at the ceiling.
Seren was in the kitchen preparing dinner, and the occasional clatter of cookware drifted through the house. Ava was somewhere upstairs, presumably still entertaining herself with her stargazing. As for Edric, he still hadn't returned from whatever trade had taken him away earlier.
With nothing particularly urgent demanding his attention, Lucien turned his thoughts inward and checked his current XP and CP.
[XP: 185 / 200
CP: 57 / 200]
After killing the Spider Hollow earlier, he had immediately converted 100 CP into 1 SP. The more he looked at his CP Capacity, the more restrictive it felt. Two hundred points really wasn't much room to work with.
At least he'd managed to figure out part of how the XP calculations worked. The greater the amount of CP gained, the larger the percentage of XP awarded alongside it. That seemed to be the basic principle.
Lucien exhaled quietly and shifted slightly, folding one arm beneath his head as he settled deeper into the sofa.
Considering both Seren and Ava only have a small amount of Corruption, I doubt I'll gain much tonight...
His thoughts gradually drifted toward the remaining members of Seren's group—the Nephilim and the former noble Weaver.
Hopefully, meeting them would go smoothly.
According to Edric, the Nephilim was naturally more vulnerable to Corruption because of her race, while the Weaver's abilities exposed the noble to greater risks as well. From Lucien's perspective, both sounded like unusually promising opportunities.
The realization made the corner of his mouth twitch slightly.
Sometimes he genuinely wondered what other people would think if they could hear his internal monologue.
Probably not anything flattering.
Then again, considering his primary purification method involved sleeping with people to remove Corruption, there was a limit to how respectable he could realistically appear.
A faintly amused snort escaped him before he shook his head and let the thought go.
Lucien redirected his attention back to the System.
Since he had already unlocked every Skill in Tier I, Tree I, a new set of abilities had become available to him. For the moment, he ignored the classifications, costs, activation requirements, and upgrade details, focusing only on the names and effects.
[Name: Shadowstep
Effects: Teleport up to 8m to any shadow within line of sight.
Cooldown: 3 Seconds.]
[Name: Death Touch
Effects: Contact causes Weave / Abyssal disruption at touch point—target feels nothing for 3 seconds, then experiences sharp localized pain.
Contact Touch: 2 Second.]
[Name: Dread Aura
Effects: 8m radius—instinctive wrongness in targets (like being near a predator). Strong-willed entities can resist its effect partially or fully.]
[Name: Shadow Pool
Effects: 4m diameter pool of dense shadow. You can see clearly within; others are effectively blind.]
[Name: Resonance Null
Effects: Produce an Abyssal signature that suppresses your presence as ambient Corruption to Stage 3–4 Hollowed. They do not distinguish you from the miasma they live in.
Area of Effects: As close as 5m of a Stage 4. 8m null field.]
Every single one required 3 SP to unlock.
Lucien's gaze lingered on Shadowstep a little longer than the others.
Naturally, that was the Skill he wanted most.
The ability to instantly cross eight meters and do it again only three seconds later would be incredibly useful whenever a situation went bad. Whether for escaping, repositioning, or simply staying alive, it was hard to overstate how valuable something like that would be.
Still...
His gaze drifted down the list again.
These Skills become ridiculous at higher levels...
A faint frown formed on his face as he reviewed some of the upgrade descriptions. All Skills were capped at Level 5, but the difference between their initial state and their final state was absurd.
Death Touch had an obvious example.
At Level 5, a successful touch could kill a target and delay the death for up to one hour.
Not only that, but the description explicitly stated that the death would be forensically clean. No Corruption trace would remain at the point of contact. No detectable Weave signature would be left behind. According to the System, even an examination conducted by a High Radiant of Aléthris would conclude that the death was consistent with natural causes.
That was only Tier II.
Every Tree extended all the way to Tier V, each specializing in different aspects of power. Mastering all of them would elevate him into the realm of high-ranking figures or maybe even beyond legends at the level of Archweavers, Avatars of the Gods, Transcendent Bloodliners, and Unified Tamers.
He had expected the System to be powerful, but he had not expected it to be this powerful.
The fact that the System could even specify the results of a High Radiant examination was arguably the most disturbing part. Lucien had no idea how it possessed that information, nor did he particularly want to know.
Leaning back against the sofa, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and let out a long breath.
The origin of the System was still one of the few things in this world that made him uneasy.
Why had he been chosen as its user? Was it deliberate? Or had it simply been chance? He hoped it was chance. But if it was chance, then what kind of chance had led to him being selected in the first place?
The thought lingered unpleasantly in the back of his mind.
For all the benefits the System provided, Lucien still knew almost nothing about where it had come from, who had created it, or why it existed at all.
That ignorance bothered him more than any of the powers it offered.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Hm?”
Lucien lifted his head slightly and found Edric walking into the living room, still dressed in his work clothes. Dust clung to the hems of his coat, and there was a faint weariness in the way he rolled one shoulder as he stepped inside.
“Ah, Edric. You're finally back.”
Edric raised an eyebrow as he stopped beside the sofa.
“Shouldn't you have noticed that from the sound of the door?”
Lucien blinked.
Come to think of it, he hadn't heard it at all.
He must have been more buried in his thoughts than he'd realized.
“Of course I did,” he replied without missing a beat.
Edric looked at him for a long second, his expression making it abundantly clear that he didn't believe that answer in the slightest.
Lucien suppressed a smile and pushed himself upright, settling into a proper sitting position.
“What kind of trade were you doing, anyway? It's gotten pretty late.”
He kept his tone casual, though his curiosity was genuine.
“Some artifacts. Nothing particularly special.”
Edric waved the matter away before lowering himself into a nearby chair with a quiet sigh. The movement seemed to cost him more effort than usual, and only now did Lucien notice the faint exhaustion around the older man's eyes.
For a moment, he considered bringing up the Spider Hollow's claws and asking whether Edric could help turn them into something useful. Looking at him now, though, that conversation could wait until tomorrow.
Edric rested an arm on the chair's armrest and continued.
“I also spoke with the group of four I mentioned this morning. That's part of why I got back so late. I had to do quite a bit of walking.”
That immediately caught Lucien's attention.
His posture straightened slightly.
“Are they willing to talk about it?”
Edric nodded.
“Yes. They're open to discussing the proposal.” His expression became slightly more complicated. “Though I didn't tell them they'd be meeting a half-Inferni and a dark elf.”
Lucien's brows drew together.
“Was that a good idea?”
Edric rubbed his temple.
“They—no, Isolde wouldn't have come if I had.”
“Wouldn't she just leave the second she sees me?”
“Don't worry.” Edric waved a hand dismissively. “Seren is one of her closest friends. As long as Seren is there, she won't walk out.”
“I see...”
That was reassuring.
Somewhat.
Edric studied him for a second before speaking again.
“Prepare yourself mentally. Isolde has an exceptionally sharp tongue. Even you might get irritated.”
Lucien's smile immediately turned strained.
“Seren told me the exact same thing.”
As though the conversation had summoned her, Seren emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray with two cups of tea. A faint aroma drifted through the room as she set them on the table before glancing toward Lucien.
“Could you go get Ava? Dinner should be ready soon.”
“Alright.”
Lucien picked up one of the cups and took a sip before setting it back down. The warmth lingered pleasantly on his tongue as he rose from the sofa and headed toward the staircase.
The upper floor was quiet.
A hallway stretched ahead of him, with several rooms branching off to the sides. One of the doors belonged to Seren's room. At the far end stood a pair of glass-paneled double doors leading out onto the terrace.
Lucien pushed them open and stepped outside.
The evening air greeted him immediately, cooler than it had been during the day.
The terrace itself wasn't particularly large, but it was comfortable enough. A low railing surrounded the edge, while a pair of adjustable reclining chairs sat near the center. Beyond them, the rooftops of the Eastern Slums stretched into the distance beneath a sky filled with stars.
Ava occupied one of the chairs.
She had reclined it almost completely flat and was lying back with her hands resting loosely over her stomach. Her crimson eyes were fixed on the heavens above, reflecting faint points of starlight.
Lucien paused for a moment, studying the sight with mild surprise.
Ava was usually playful, provocative, or openly amused by something. Seeing her this quiet, this still, felt strange enough that he briefly wondered whether he had somehow stumbled across a different person entirely.
“...You really were stargazing, huh?”
Without looking away from the sky, Ava let out a quiet hum.
“Mm.”
Even her response sounded more subdued than usual.
Lucien walked closer and rested a hand against the back of the empty chair beside her.
“Seren says dinner's ready.”
“Is that so?”
Ava finally blinked and turned her head toward him. The tranquil expression lingered for a moment before she looked back at the sky.
Lucien followed it instinctively.
His mouth opened slightly as he prepared to say something, then closed again.
His first thought had been, You don't seem like the type who likes stars.
Then he remembered Seren's earlier warning about making assumptions.
The corner of his mouth twitched faintly.
Instead, he asked, “Do you like stars?”
“Not really.”
“...Are you sure about that?”
Ava's lips curved ever so slightly.
“Well...” She shifted one shoulder in a lazy half-shrug. “A little, I guess.”
Lucien raised an eyebrow.
Ava shifted slightly in her chair, settling deeper into it as she continued staring upward. Faint starlight shimmered in her crimson eyes, giving them an unusual softness that contrasted sharply with her usual mischievous demeanor.
“I knew some people who were obsessed with them.”
“Friends?”
Ava was quiet for a moment.
“Something like that.”
Lucien noticed the unusual hesitation but didn't press.
“They lived at high elevations. Places like the Skyspear Mountains.” Her gaze remained fixed on the heavens above. “You know how the sky starts feeling close enough to touch when you climb high enough?”
Lucien gave a small nod.
“They used to spend hours talking about constellations, star cycles, seasonal shifts. Things like that.”
Her tone carried a faint trace of amusement, as though she were recalling a familiar annoyance rather than a cherished memory.
Lucien folded his arms.
“So you're the scholarly type now?”
“I wasn't listening most of the time.”
Ava immediately ruined the slightly sentimental mood with a completely straight face.
Lucien let out a short snort of laughter.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
For a while, she simply watched the sky again before speaking.
“Do you know that the high elevations were hit much harder when the Eclipse happened?”
Lucien glanced at her.
“No.”
“Figured.”
Her fingers tapped lightly against the armrest in a slow, absent rhythm as her eyes remained fixed on the stars.
“A lot of people don't know that. Everyone talks about cities falling and trade routes collapsing, but there were entire communities in the Skyspear Mountains that practically ceased to exist.”
Her voice remained casual, yet there was something oddly distant beneath it, as though she were speaking from much farther away than the terrace they stood on.
“The people up there weren't really suited for low elevations to begin with.”
She paused, her gaze never leaving the stars.
“Underground even less.”
The words landed strangely.
The way she said it sounded less like historical trivia and more like a memory.
Lucien studied her profile with a complex expression. For the first time since meeting her, she seemed entirely unaware of the impression she was making.
He considered asking a question.
Before he could, Ava suddenly sat upright and stretched her arms above her head.
“Mmm... anyway, enough depressing topics.”
Just like that, the moment vanished.
The distant look disappeared from her eyes, replaced by the familiar mischievous glint he had come to expect.
“What a shame,” she said, turning toward him with a teasing smile. “I was just starting to enjoy myself.”
“...You can stare at the sky again later.”
“Can I?”
A slow grin spread across her face.
“I thought we'd be busy doing something else after dinner.”
Lucien immediately regretted assuming the calm atmosphere would last.
The realization must have shown on his face, because Ava let out a soft laugh as she rose from her chair.
“There you are, I guess,” Lucien exhaled.
“There who is?”
“The Ava I recognize.”
Her grin widened.
“Glad to know you missed me.”
Lucien rolled his eyes, though the corner of his mouth twitched despite himself.
“Let's just go before Seren comes looking for us too.”
Ava laughed again and brushed past him toward the terrace doors.
Together, they headed back inside.