"..."
'Don't curse, Raylin. You can resist the urge to curse. Remember that you promised Aria, REMEMBER!'
Taking a deep breath, I looked around and examined my surroundings, finding a familiar sight.
Sitting on a wooden chair, I found myself inside an old rusty room.
The walls and ceiling were barely holding themselves and the wooden floor looked as if it would shatter if I applied a little force on it.
In fact, it happened to Zephyr. I still remember the screams when he fell on a man that was trying to take a shower.
Touching my face, I found night terror hiding it completely, even giving a cloak for more safety.
My gaze fell on the person in front of me. He was an elf with long white hair wearing a mask that looked like a bad replica to mine.
From his eyes, I could say he was as confused, frustrated and irritated as me.
"Cliffhanger." We both said in unison.
"These sons of sons of bitches!" Zephyr started cursing loudly.
Of course the moment the second challenge began to start they would send us back early.
If they saw all that hell as a show for fun, then they definitely knew the idea of cliffhangers.
They would probably make the first month of the second challenge without gifts then make us watch what happened in 2 months.
Sighing in frustration, I opened my bracelet and checked the social media, and indeed, everyone got sent back early.
I also saw many, MANY posts about Yami.
It was fun seeing all those people regretting not choosing him.
I was sure that a huge fight would happen between the kingdoms, the government, the great clans and the guilds only to recruit him — especially after seeing the Grimoire.
All this information would lead to a golden era of discoveries even without the help of Yami, the dwarfs were probably dying of happiness and overwork now.
And Yami — who had soul affinity and talent for all those soul related things — would end as the most valuable ally in this era.
Hell, even the demons would try to recruit him!
Though the government had an advantage because Kaito is part of them, everything was possible when he was living with demons.
The easiest thing they could do was have a VIP viewer tell his challenger to find a way to make him close to Yami.
Of course, I wouldn't let them do that.
I would simply tell him the truth, it's information about what was happening in Eldoria so they wouldn't stop them.
Who cares if not all demons are villains?
Who cares if they have life and feelings?
Even Drax — who was a villain in the novel — didn't look evil now, but who cares?
It was a war.
A war where there were no heroes nor villains, only allies and enemies.
And I truly needed Yami's help now. I couldn't let some demons recruit him.
Leonard said in his Grimoire that he found out about reincarnators, but they didn't have memories.
But here was the problem, I was a reincarnator with all his memories!
He said that a soul would go to the nearest suitable vessel to reincarnate, but how did I end in another world?!
If I blamed my space affinity as the reason, then how to explain the fact that it was a novel?
Not forgetting the fact that Leonard's world itself with awakeners system also looked like a novel.
And if a reincarnator is the fusion of 2 souls, then that would explain the kid side in me that existed when I was born.
But did that mean I wasn't Michael? Was I just a soul that had the memories of someone from earth?
I had too many questions, but didn't have the means to find answers.
Not yet at least.
"Let's just go tobget our rewards and return, I'm hungry." Zephyr smirked and stood up after cutting off my thoughts.
*Crack*
Suddenly, a crack sound came out of the wood under him. He gave me a side look as if begging for help.
"Tsk, you are becoming fat." I sighed as I snapped my fingers, making his weight lighter.
"I'm not fat, I'm just muscled!" He yelled while showing me his hands' muscles as we left the room.
Going down the stairs and looking around me, my eyes fixed on the man with a pig mask on a desk.
He was staring at the ceiling with dead eyes and an empty glass of beer in his hand as if someone killed his wife.
Or maybe his chosen challenger was someone from team 3, who knows?
I took some steps and stood in front of him before knocking gently on the desk.
"Room 4 is empty, we are leaving."
"Yeah whatever. Never come back."
"..."
'Don't curse, don't curse!'
After that, we left the rusty hotel after Zephyr showed the pig man his middle finger.
I took a deep breath, imagining that the air was entering my lungs. "Finally some fresh air."
All around me, the people were wearing different types of masks and cloaks.
Looking at the right and the left, I saw all different types of buildings beside each other.
From the rusty hotels and shops like the one we were in to huge buildings with guards around them.
We weren't in the city anymore, but the black market instead.
A black market that was literally a city under the capital.
Yeah, I made that bitch Zephyr finally let me enter the black market.
But I didn't know how I was supposed to find the secret rusty treasure in the corner of an old blacksmith's shop or the normal looking egg that contains a mythical beast inside.
I already wasted many points on garbage items that were completely useless, so I just gave up.
But I didn't throw them. I was keeping them for… emergencies. Yeah, they may be useful someday.
Shaking my head, I walked with Zephyr to the centre of the black market.
There was a huge building that I could see from anywhere in the black market which was our destination.
After walking for half an hour, we finally reached one of the building gates, seeing hundreds of people in a long line.
I read the name on the gates and couldn't help but smirk.
[Greenland Gambling Center]
No one said we can only gamble about the winners of that show.
Here, people were gambling about who would die, who would survive, when would the first challenge end and many more.
Of course, my bet was that Nameless would survive until the challenge ended and put my necklace as a bet.
The result?
We moved directly to the guard and gave him our VIP cards and he let us enter into a special golden room.
After waiting for 15 minutes, a woman in black suit wearing a black cat mask entered before bowing.
"First, I want to congratulate both of you for winning your bet." She then took out 2 rings out of her pocket. "Your rewards are on these rings, you can check them now, and consider the rings as gifts from our center."
She handed us the rings and I took all the items out of mine instantly.
Appearing in front of me were my necklace, 4 glowing cards, a sword breaker, and many magical materials.
Immediately, I checked the sword breaker and the necklace, and fortunately, they were real.
Then I went to the real prizes.
I picked up the cards and grinned while reading them.
════════
[Tier 3 — Spatial Gate]
•••
[Tier 5 — Lightning Judgement]
•••
[Tier 6 — Black Hole]
•••
[Tier 3 — Wind Cleave]
════════
They were skill cards.
A real rare Skill cards!
In Eldoria, it's so rare to get skill cards because they rarely come out after clearing a dungeon.
I didn't know the full details, but this didn't matter, because I was holding them in my hands now.
To use a skill card I only had to have the same affinity as the card and a mana core, so I just channeled my mana to them.
*Crack!*
The cards shattered instantly, turning into small light shards that entered my brain— no, it's my soul, filling my mind with information.
"Tsk, I'm jealous." Zephyr looked at me with envy, but I ignored him.
The skills in this world were simply giving you information about spells that I couldn't use currently…
Yeah that's all.
It makes you master spells instantly, not giving cheat abilities that can break the reality.
Aria told me that they were the real sources of the first spells, but I would learn more about them in the academy.
They may look useless, but I saw real hell while trying to learn how to make gates without progression, but now? I could make them easily as if I was shooting a mana bullet, and I only needed to edit it a little to make it Tier 2.
I wore my necklace and put everything else into the ring before giving it to the cat woman. "Again, everything on Yami, including the ring."
Yeah I used their gift on gambling, I was that shameless.
Zephyr also took what he needed before making the same request.
She nodded and opened the door for us.
"Let's go back. I will stay with Celestia before going home."
I nodded to Zephyr before following him to the market's exit.
On our way, we found a small shop with an old man working inside, and unable to resist, I ended up buying a dagger made of rotten wood from him.
Eventually, we left the market and returned home.