Chapter 33: The Great Depth
[Nurturing Target(s)
Slot 1.) Michael Johansefort{Active}
Slot 2.) Amira Virangel{Active}
Slot 3.) __________ {inactive}]
Staring at the floating system screen, Lucien breathed out slowly, easing his heart, clearing his mind.
And then, when his mind became absolutely empty, a warm grin split his lips. And he nodded to himself, thinking:
’Fill slot three. Target name...’
He gazed at the building around him, noting the crumbling walls and feeling the crisp night air as he gazed at the cute pair seated side by side in the distance. It seemed Mikky was taking his mission very seriously. That was good. The boy was even smiling, trying his best to talk with a near-mute Amira.
It was essential. A certain level of trust needed to be formed within them before they embarked on the next journey.
Looking away from the cute duo, Lucien stared upward, noting the bright, glistening silver rays of the radiant moon, watching as the light broke through the darkness of the uncompleted building.
And when he felt satisfied with his observations, Lucien nodded to himself, saying:
"Raphael Nicolas."
[Nurturing Target(s)
Slot 3.) Raphael Nicolas(8yo){Active}
Would you like to track target |Y/N|?]
"Track him."
The moment Lucien uttered these words, the system began its work.
[Loading Map ...1%]
Wonderful.
As usual, the moment the map began loading, Lucien filed it away temporarily, focusing on the next task at hand.
Preparation.
For the first time since he set out of Sector 5 with Mikky, Lucien felt like leaving in the first place had truly been a good thing because, well, now that he was set for another road trip, he discovered that he’d gotten the hang of this journeying thing. And that was coming from a man who’d never even traveled or migrated from the city where he was born in his past life.
Clothes and other necessaries were stacked in his backpack; he had enough money to afford food for himself and the kids for a whole month, and he could even afford a proper rest area if they eventually needed one.
Yes. This was good.
Sure, there had been certain flavorful types of variables, but the general frame of events was going according to the direction of Lucien’s foredesigned plans.
And with the new augmentations he had made to his plan, Lucien found that he was feeling a bit confident.
Maybe not a bit.
And it genuinely wasn’t even an unfounded confidence.
This life, this system, this journey had taught him several things, brought out sides of himself that he didn’t know existed within him when he was Jacob.
Or maybe they didn’t even exist when he was still just Jacob. Maybe they were the results of Lucien fusing with that nerd. Or maybe they were just pre-existing traits amplified by the skills he’d gotten from the system.
But really, whatever they were, Lucien didn’t hate or dislike them. Instead, he appreciated them. And he felt grateful.
Clenching his fists, Lucien gazed skyward, staring at the moon.
"I’m not useless," he whispered.
Saying that aloud, he felt an invisible weight that he had no idea he’d been carrying evaporate from his chest.
Maybe... just maybe, he was healing too. He was growing.
’Love.’
The concept of it was becoming clearer in his mind now. And not just because of Mikky or the kids, he was beginning to get comfortable with himself, too. With who he was.
He was learning to love himself. And maybe that was a good first step.
Lucien smiled, shaking his head.
’Right. Focus.’
He’d spiralled too far from the point.
Where was he at again?
"Ah."
Yes. So many things he’d learned over the past few days.
He’d begun relying on his instincts and his ability to adapt to situations, to maneuver, to manipulate. And so, Lucien wholeheartedly believed that if he were met with any circumstance at all, he could, using his abilities, smuggle his way out.
He even had a unique set of skills tailored for any physically demanding circumstance...
A soft chuckle broke Lucien’s train of thought, and he looked up to see Mikky and Amira... giggling together.
He blinked.
That was fast.
"Well..." he shrugged. "It’s not necessarily a bad thing."
Disregarding his environment, Lucien looked up at the floating system screen.
[Map Loaded ...100%]
The map had already loaded while he was drowning in thoughts.
’Now...’ he breathed in. ’To navigate Mariva with two kids...’
The blue screen, as usual, was painted with vast landscapes, on which tiny letters hovered, identifying regions, areas, and the names of most places.
And above a building in one of the many dark sections of the map, Lucien saw his signature.
It was a green signal, hovering silently, indicating where he currently was.
Zerozone-sector 3.
Meshed together with seven other dark sectors on the map, they were the seven zerozone-sectors of Stronghold Mariva, the Rank 1 Stronghold of the Rank 2 Continent, Rosegold.
On the map, the massive landscapes of the five continents of Earth were split apart by a massive ocean.
They called that massive ocean ’The Middle Ocean that Divides the World,’ the endless depth.
Lucien felt a jolt of fright run through his spine as he recalled the countless hordes of monsters that would lurch in the depths of that ocean when Eden arrived. And he remembered the leader of those monsters.
Throughout the span of thousands of Chapters, Sky Ravensborg had tried over and over again to hunt the monsters of The Endless Depth. But he could never subjugate them. He could never defeat their leader.
Thinking about it now, Sky Ravensborg never did subjugate that ocean til the end of the novel.
Shaking the chilly feeling racing through his spine, Lucien took his concentration away from the ocean, focusing on the five continents.
One at the Northern edge of the world, one at the Southern edge of the world, the other at the East, and two at the West.
The Western continents of Earth weren’t far from one another. When Lucien squinted his eyes, he saw that they appeared split, like they were once merged and severed by something. Or someone.
Nevertheless, one of those continents was bigger than the other, and farther from the middle ocean than the other.
But Lucien’s signal was hovering somewhere inside the smaller continent.
Yes, that was right. Rosegold. The smaller of the two Western continents of Earth was the 2nd Ranked Continent. The Rosegold Continent.
Setting the thought aside, Lucien took time to carefully study the smaller landscapes inside of Rosegold, detailing the Strongholds.
As Lucien counted with his eyes, he noted over two hundred Strongholds within Rosegold, each with their own flavor of complexity and influence in The Union.
Rosegold was closer to the Ocean than Griland, the bigger Western continent. And because of this, many Strongholds in Rosegold were close to the sea. And so life thrived in those places with water-powered inventions. Lucien imagined what zerozones in those places might look like, so close to the sea.
Did people in those Strongholds eat fish every day?
Silly thoughts. But also funny thoughts.
Disregarding his shitty thoughts, Lucien focused his gaze on the Stronghold in the middle of Rosegold. The capital of the Rosegold Continent.
Mariva. One of the most influential Strongholds on Earth. Rank 1 Stronghold of Rosegold. Rank 3 Stronghold in the world.
Lucien chuckled.
"Damn Union and their obsession with rankings," he whispered.
That obsession of theirs never truly faded, even as their reign in the world ended. The Union had ruled for over hundreds of years, and the core of their culture had taken root in the world. And so, when The Union no longer existed, and when Hunters would come into power, said hunters would become terribly obsessed with rankings to define their place and strength in this world, and the job of being a Hunter would become number one on Earth.
But that was still far off into the future.
Regarding the landscape of Stronghold Mariva, Lucien squinted his eyes, noting the names and outlines of the cities of Mariva.
Counting them, they numbered well up to fifty.
And in a cluster of cities, there shone Raphael’s signal.