Tomorrow morning, after Abner took a rest, he finally checked the runes of the memories he had gotten.
Name: [The Cursed Sword of Mercy]
Rank: [Ascended] [II]
Type: Weapon
Item description: [A noble merciful swordsman once dreamed for the peace of his home, but as the years passed, he fought and fought, yet peace had never come. The despair slowly tainted his flesh and his very soul, yet even then the mercy he had never once faded, instead it lives on in this blade alongside despair.]
Abner was used to memories not having a clear description of what they did.
Unless it was appraised, most awakened would discover the abilities of their memories by feeling, so he wasn't annoyed at the cryptic description; besides, besides Kaelen had offered to appraise the memories they got after they were given to them.
Abner and the rest agreed to it, so Abner called Kaelen to tell him he was coming. It was quite fortunate that all of them lived in Antarctica.
After telling Kaelen he was going to his clan's building, Kaelen's next words left him shocked: "Oh, already? I will send a limousine to pick you up then." Abner sighed as he thought, 'Rich bastard, there's no need for a limousine!'
But he didn't say that out loud. The truth is, who doesn't want to travel in a limousine?
He didn't have to wait long for the limousine to appear, and Abner, although a little nervous since it was his first time in one of them, got in and tried to relax. It was surprisingly easy, with the limousine being so comfortable and the soft background music playing at low volume inside.
After stepping down the limousine and walking towards his friend's clan building, he stopped as he heard the alarms ring. His communicator rang too, warning him of a gate that will appear nearby in about 20 minutes.
Abner sighed as he used his communicator to find the gate's location, leaving Kaelen a message that he would come soon after dealing with this.
While waiting for the gate, he noticed 12 others awakened from the house of Night Clan. Since their headquarters were near, it made sense that they would be here.
Shortly after, his friends arrived too. Brave muttered under his breath, "A gate just so happened to appear right next to us, man, what bad luck!"
Kaelen chuckled as he assured Brave, "Relax; there are many Awakened with us, and even a Master is here, my teacher Bloodwave; what could possibly go wrong?"
And indeed, behind them was Master Bloodwave a man with smooth ebony skin and perfectly white hair, his eyes glinting with shades of indigo and deep blue. His towering figure was board and fearsome.
Brave looked at Kaelen like he was stupid and yelled, "DON'T JINX IT, MAN!"
Kaelen looked at Brave like he was a child and said calmly, "I know you tend to be scared, but what's there to be scared of? It's likely just a category two gate; the chance of it being a category three gate is less than 1 percent! We can easily deal with a category 2 gate with all the people here"
Brave looked like he was resigned to his fate as he barely muttered, "You're courting death, aren't you?"
Kaelen just sighed and told him, "You just watch and see; there won't be any problems dealing with this gate; I can guarantee it!"
Brave answered, "Fine, but if there's a problem, then you have to buy us all dinner!"
Kaelen nodded, and they waited for the gate to appear, and soon it did—a category 2 gate.
The first waves were quite easy with a master and 18 Awakened; no casualties occurred before the Gate Guardian arrived, but when he did, the Awakened panicked because...
"I-Its a Fallen Terror! We can't deal with this! Someone run and call for a saint!" one of the awakened who had an ability that helped him discern the strength of opponents screamed, but everyone froze hearing his words and looked at the supposed gate guardian.
The Gate Guardian was almost completely identical to Goblin, except for the fact that its skin was golden, and it had an extra mouth on its stomach.
Bloodwave, usually unexpressive, showed a grim expression and told one of the Weaker Awakened to run and call for backup.
Although the gatekeeper looked weak, he didn't underestimate it; after all, carelessness was the number one killer for the average awakened, and arrogance was a close second.
The goblin screamed as he rushed at Bloodwave Although Bloodwave was an Ascended, he was much more used to fighting in the water than on land, and his opponent was a Fallen Terror. Soon it became clear he was at a disadvantage.
Abner and the rest were busy dealing with the remaining Nightmare creatures still coming out of the Gate, so they couldn't help him much.
Brave Cursed, "Kaelen you bastard, I told you not to jinx it!"
Abner interrupted them before Kaelen could respond, "Now is not the time; focus on the Nightmare Creatures!"
After a few minutes, they saw the Awakened that ran to call for backup return... alone.
He screamed, "I can't leave! I really can't! Whenever I try, my legs stop moving, and my mind is filled with greedy and sadistic thoughts about stealing your memories and getting the kill on the Gate Guardian—the fame, the money, it must be its ability!"
Everyone's expressions turned grim; mind attacks were particularly hard to defend against, although that usually means the goblin is weak in physical combat, probably the only reason Bloodwave could even battle it alone.
Soon they managed to defeat the nightmare creatures, bar the Gate Guardian still in combat against Bloodwave, who was clearly the most wounded of the two.
All the Awakened joined the Master to fight the fallen terror, knowing they couldn't run away, but whenever they got closer to him, thoughts about stabbing their own allies to get them to surrender their memories appeared along with a strong impulse to do so, causing casualties among the Awakened.
Naamah was the first to kill an ally, a random Awakened. She soon heard the voice of the spell whispering into her ears.
[You have Slain an Awakened Beast: Zahra Axim]
[You have Received an Echo: Zahra Axim]
Naamah smiled with a little joy; finally she got an echo! Then she remembered, owning a human echo is extremely frowned upon and will likely cause more trouble than it's worth.
She bitterly thought to herself, 'Couldn't you drop a memory instead? tsk! You're useless!'
Soon it wasn't just a few deaths when they approached the goblin; he started strongly influencing them even when they stayed away from it.
Bloodwave gritted his teeth as he thought, 'While facing me, it's been preparing a strong mental attack to kill the others so they couldn't team up on him!' but he couldn't really do much more to help them though.
The Awakened became more and more crazy by the second; greed became evident in their eyes, now filled with malice as they looked at each other as if they were wallets dropped on the ground.
Alec Barely managed to remain sane as he shouted, "The Gate we have to go in if we want to live; we can't beat the Gate Guardian!"
Other than the Attendants of Mysteries, there were three others awakened alive; they barely managed to accept the call of the Gate, and soon they heard the voice of the nightmare spell.
[Awakened! Prepare for your Second Trial…]
[9 brave ones… welcome to the Nightmare!]
Abner dreamed of vast, empty plains devoid of life. As time rewinded, he saw the ruins of a village appear beneath them, turning back into a village that appeared to be on fire before that fire too disappeared, leaving the village unscathed.
His point of view shifted as he felt strangely alienated; soon he realized this wasn't his body!
Abner looked around; he was in the middle of the village; luckily there was a river nearby, so he went there, trying not to trip while walking, making him look stupid.
He carefully inspected his form; he had blonde hair and golden eyes like when he got his divine rank aspect, but he was slightly taller and his body was built completely differently; it was way too bulky! He looked like a gym obsessed bodybuilder on steroids from the twenty-first century!
Awkwardly going back to the city, he noticed that almost all the villagers looked unhealthily skinny, as if they hadn't eaten for days. Abner thought to himself, 'But why am I so... buff, then? What makes me so special?'
Abner decided to ask one of the villagers about his status.
Asking a middle-aged man who looked like he could die of starvation the next moment, he got a response to his inquiry: "Y-you lost your memory!? Is this your way of stealing even more from us? We already have nothing; what more could he possibly want? Just leave already; there's nothing more to take from us!"
Everyone looked at them, and Abner, feeling embarrassed, exclaimed, as he left, "But I really did lose my memory! I'm not here for stealing! If I bothered you, then I will leave now."
After a few minutes of wandering around without a destination, he saw what looked to be a guard approaching him.
The guard said, "It's me, Alec; you are from Antarctica too, aren't you?"
Abner smiled and said, "Alec, you're here too! I'm Abner, if you couldn't tell."
Alec nodded and said, "The Lord of this place, some bastard exploiting the town, called for you; apparently you are his son"
Abner was surprised by Alec's statement but sighed and nodded. "Then let's go already," Abner said, and walked with Alec to a luxurious-looking mansion away from the village by a few hours of walking for mundane people.
Finally, he met his "father." The saint in charge of the villages around the area
The saint didn't even greet him and asked him coldly, "Have you done it, boy?"
Abner, having no clue what he was talking about, asked, "Um, what are you talking about? I lost my memory after tripping and hitting my head."
Complete silence descend over the room.
The saint sighed and shouted, "THEN GET OUT, YOU USELESS LAZY LEECH! YOU'RE GROUNDED FOR A WEEK!"
Abner quickly got out of the room and went to find his room, since it was already late. He prayed to Arthur like usual, and after waiting for a bit and getting no response, he got on his bed, but before he could close his eyes, he realized he was standing surrounded by Grey Fog.