Ravessa lowered her hand, sliding it gracefully from the table before retrieving an envelope from the folds of her clothing and placing it deliberately on the table before Sora. A soft, lingering smile played on her lips as Sora stared back at her, her face a canvas of confusion and boiling anger.
Eyebrows arched, Sora asked—breaking the silence, "What is this for?"
"If you truly wish to know," "then open it." Ravessa replied, her tone light yet firm. The room seemed to fall under thick silence, the air thick with anticipation.
Sora's gaze locked onto the strange elven woman, her expression stern, but Ravessa's uncanny demeanor remained unshaken. With a deep sigh, the young elf reached for the envelope, lifting it from its place and carefully opening it.
Inside the now open envelope lay a letter. As Sora's eyes scanned the contents of the words written on it with black ink, they widened with immense shock and disbelief. She glanced up at Ravessa, who had already anticipated her reaction. ""This… this is a guild invitation?" Her eyes widened. "The Night Aegis Guild?"
Ravessa clapped her hands together, her eyes sparkling. "Correct. From this moment on, you stand welcomed into my guild… as a humble member." she replied with authority.
Sora exhaled deeply, setting the letter back on the table. She turned to face Ravessa once more, her voice steady but resolute. "I'm not interested," she said firmly, sliding the paper back into the envelope and pushing it across the table to her side.
Ravessa shared a forced smile as she heard this, a confident look in her eyes, "Its fine," she said softly to the young Sora, standing from her seat, "Which is why I'll give you time to think on it. Just from the looks of it, you really wanted to become a knight. Am I right?"
Sora lowered her gaze down, trying her possible best to hide her expression. Either she accepted it or not, this strange elf was telling the truth. She exhaled deeply, before replying.
"I'll decide on my own terms"
This sentence filled Ravessa with unimaginable pleasure, "Alright then," she muttered, and with that she walked out, leaving a Sora who sat quietly, alone.
The young lady sighed at this. She knew that this woman wasn't going to give up one way or the other, but this Night Aegis Guild was the least of her problems.
As she sat there, her mind crossed with thoughts of that magical tablet. Just that single thought caused it to emerge, glowing with an ember light.
✤Quest: Gather Six Scraps
0/6
Sora jerked back, but something about this made her calm. Now she was curious to know what this thing was, "Six scraps, was it?" she murmured. "I wonder what awaits me once I do what this thing tells."
There was only one option she had in order to see what would occur. She needed to go back to the Underworld.
So she began, toiling away as she ventured deep in the Underworld. Usually there wasn't any renewal of scrap metals early in the morning till the afternoon unless she had to go deeper and that was exactly what she did, reaching the the thirteenth platform of the twentieth.
A place only experts ventured. It was a stupid act but it served get well.
Not it did this place have common metal, but different types of mineral resources were found here. Orichalcum, platnium and a bunch of other scraps which she picked—at least five of them.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Quest Completed
• Status: Success
• Rewards: Calculating...
• Progress: Updated
• Log: Recorded in Quest History
>> Claim rewards?
Sora stated down at this glass tablet as it emerged in the form of a small tab, her eyes glancing down at the 'Claim Rewards?' section.
'Claim rewards? What reward is it talking about—and how do I even do that?'
Confused, she reached out to it, her fingers brushing the 'claim rewards' section. The tablet chimed and a bright light emerged from it, shining bright with a golden light, leaving Sora quite disoriented.
Rewards Successfully Claimed
• New Weapon: Unlocked
• Experience Gained: +50 XP
• Status: Updated
>> Status?
Sora clicked on the 'Status' section, the tablet distorting.
Name: Sora Miragale
Title: ???
Stage: 1st Stage
Class: Chaos Gauntlet User
Rank: D
Physical Amplification (PA): 5
Chaos Output (CO): 2
Adaptation (ADT): 5
Entropy Control (EC): 3
Stability (STB): 3
Mental Resistance: 50/50
Sora read through, her eyes narrowing with intrigue. "The values… they're different." she said, her hand on her chin.
Not only had the values altered, she felt a strange lightness in her body. It was slight but it was there.
Whetever quest this strange tablet gave her, if she did it, she was able to grow strong, hence the lightness in her body.
This indeed wasn't just some tablet. She had seen this in a book, written three hundred years ago, "If I remember correctly… they called this a web—"
Another tab emerged.
New Weapon Identified
• Name: Common Halberd
• Rarity: Common
• Type: Polearm
• Status: Available for Crafting
>> Craft weapon?
"Craft weapon?" she muttered, "Since when was I able to wield a weapon?"
Through out her life, she gathered weapons but the idea of using such was outrageous. But this system or whatever it was needed her to do so and she was going to follow everything.
She tapped on the 'Craft weapon'
[Materials Consumed]
• Resource: Scraps
• Quantity Used: -5
• Remaining: 0
>> Crafting in progress...
Sora waited, staring at this system.
Crafting Completed
• Item: Common Halberd
• Quality: Standard
• Durability: 100%
• Status: Added to Inventory
>> Equip now?
Before she could do anything, the sounds of groaning and growling emerged from the dark corners of the hole.
'I had almost forgotten... The deeper section of the Underworld were homes for night creatures'
Quickly, she rushed back climbing the Underworld and making her way back up before whatever lurked tore her apart.
——
Hours after clawing her way out of the Underworld, Sora stood alone within the quiet of her scrap shop.
The halberd hovered in her grasp—forged from nothing, yet undeniably real. A cruel union of spearhead and axe blade, its edge drank the dim light of the room. It was a weapon meant to cleave and pierce, born for versatility… and bloodshed.
Few knights favored such arms, at least those who did rarely lived long.
She shifted her grip, testing its weight. The metal answered her touch with a faint, unsettling hum, as if remembering where it had been shaped. Not a forge—but the void itself.
Sora exhaled slowly.
"If I sell this…" her voice barely disturbed the air, "…what will it cost me?"
As if answering her question, the system chimed:
[SYSTEM ALERT]
Action Failed!
• Item: Common Halberd
• Reason: Selling Restricted
• Status: Unable to Sell
• Note: Item Bound to Inventory
Sora chuckled before she exhaled. "At least I got an answer."
Sora scrolled through the system, her eyes scanning for more ways to harness the incredible power she had stumbled upon.
'They don't seem to be anymore quest. Was that the only one that I had? If that's so, how do I increase my stats?'
Though the concept of the system was becoming clear to her, she needed to understand further. This system called her a Crafter. Just like books she read, was there a need to fight monsters and grow stronger or do quest and easily rise in power.
Crafters, or rather—blacksmiths weren't the type to fight, only forge weapons.
But the fact that she owned a weapon which she could not sell was frustrating.
To answer her long forgotten question, it appeared again:
[SYSTEM TRAINING MODULE]
Physical Training Initiated
• Style: Basic Survival Conditioning
• Environment: Forest Clearing
• Assistance: None
[TRAINING TASKS]
• Continuous Run — 20 minutes
(Stamina and leg strength)
• Tree Striking Drill
— Punch Tree Trunk x50
— Palm Strikes x30
(Knuckle toughness, arm strength)
• Weapon Weight Familiarization
— Carry Halberd while walking x10 minutes
[TRAINING EFFECTS]
• Strength: +Low
• Endurance: +Moderate
• Pain Tolerance: Increased
• Fatigue: Accumulating
[WARNING]
Minor injuries possible.
Pain is part of growth.
>> Begin training?
"Well, seems like you came at the right time," she muttered to herself as she read, each word filling her with the greatest shock of her life.
'How am I supposed to be able to this. This is impossible! A lowly elf like me does not possess such strength!'
[SYSTEM INPUT REQUIRED]
Awaiting User Interaction
• Prompt: Tap Finger Against System Interface
• Status: Paused
• Timeout: None
>> Input detected to continue training sequence.
Sora rolled her eyes, annoyed by impatience, she clicked her tongue. "How troublesome… but fine. I'll do it"
She tapped the system.
[SYSTEM RESPONSE]
Input Registered Successfully
• Interaction: Confirmed
• Sequence: Continued
[SYSTEM TIMER INITIALIZED]
Penalty Deadline Activated
• Duration: 6 Hours
• Countdown: Started
• Failure Condition: Training Incomplete
• Penalty Status: Temporary Paralysis
[TIMER]
Time Remaining: 06:00:00