# CHAPTER 4
Eldorra was a planet inhabited by a species called 'Neohumans'. This planet held a mystery of its own. The species of Neohuman disappeared from the planet , leaving behind all of what they had achieved. The researchers believed that just like what happened with all the other species, Neohumans could be in a similar situation. Nevertheless, their achievements and architecture served as a starting point for the newly teleported people.
Later, researchers found evidence that the Neohumans disappeared around one month prior to 'The Mass Teleportation'. These researches were based on the conditions of their inhabiting places, food and other habituary evidence. In contrast to this, some results and findings also indicated that the Neohumans might have already known about their situation beforehand. This doubt's main reason was Doran's Asta Book series.
"No, thanks. Instead, please give me a map of the city."
"Huh? A map?"
"Yes." The receptionist looked at Ray with a surprised expression, a question was asked of her which she wouldn't expect from a newly enrolled adventurer.
"Sure. One minute that'll be 1 gold."
"Inventory."
"And about the payment, I would like to sell these." Ray took out the horns of Lycans from his pocket, by positioning the entrance of his inventory inside his pocket.
"I guess I can use my inventory in more ways than I thought."
"Yes, I'll process it right away sir." The receptionist did have a look at Ray's pocket, but she ignored it due to her workload.
CLING! CLING! CLING!
"Hey, did you hear?"
"What do you have to tell me this time?"
"Our Ross has dipatched Edeline Yuna on the Slavery Abolition Mission."
"Oh! Is that so?"
"Yes, finally we can relax about our worries regarding our children."
"Can't say about that. That Edeline, she's a human? Isn't she?"
"Hey, shh....lower down....."
"Oi, you two, we are here!
Two beastmen talked as they entered the guild. Their tangential talk disrupted a lot of people's conversations. This was very typical of male cat beast men.
"Edeline's mission has started? That means there's two months until they find 'that.'" Hearing the beastmen's conversation caught Ray's interest. Such a person was Edeline.
Edeline Yuna, a 5* swordsman, 4* at the current time. She's a very well known person in the future, nickname, Slaver Slaughterer. As her nickname suggests, she despised slavery, and trafficers. She later on achieved the rank of an 7* swordsman and became the ruler of Xandere.
"Getting close to her won't be bad considering the future benefits. I guess I'll have to look for her. After all, it was after two weeks of her dispatch that the next Asta book was found."
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
~Headquaters of United Alliance, Ross's room, 2 hours earlier~
"You might have already heard about the recent kidnappings, those slavery bastards have started to act up again," A Lioness beastmen, spoke while gritting her jaw. Ross Anglod, a 5* lancer and the sole inheritor of Lion beast men's claw technique. Her muscular body was proof of the battles she had had in the past bearing their proud scars on her body. "and those rascals of Chalice also seem to be on the move."
"Yes, Madam. I've put my informers on Nikora's tabs." A human lady, in her early 20's spoke. Her short, navy blue hair swimmed in air with the breeze from the open wind. A slender longsword by her side, the future Slaver Butcher, Edeline Yuna.
"It's just my guess but, Chalice and Nikora might be working together." said Ross looking outside the window.
"Lance's death in the Euren's forest isn't a coincidence considering his strength, that too when the opponent was a three horned Lycan. Seeing the recent activity of Umbral Chalice in the Euren's forest, there definitely is something cooking there."
"I'll look into it mam." Edeline spoke with a confident tone. Her eyes were burning with rage.
"Yes, please. You are excused."
"Just what are they planning this time. I think he might have an idea, guess I'll need to have a talk with him soon."
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
~5 days later~
SCREECH! RUSTLE! STEP!
"Grr...." Ray withdrew his sword from the Lycan he had earlier thrusted into.
[ NOTIFICATION
YOU HAVE LEVELLED UP! ]
"Status Window."
[ STATUS WINDOW
**LEVEL- 12**
NAME- RAY HYSTER AGE- 17 TITLE- REGRESSOR SEX-MALE
TRAIT - ???
STRENGTH - 15
STAMINA - 15
AGILITY - 15
INTELLIGENCE - 15
PERCEPTION - 15
(ADDITIONAL STATS- 12)
SKILLS - EYES OF ISMARA ( ACTIVE )]
"I'll distribute them later after giving it some more thought."
"Leveling up has become too slow now. Is it because I've become stronger?" Ray had primarily focused on hunting in the past few days. His next goal's proceedings were uncertain. Being in his best condition was the least he could do.
"I wanted to learn magic as quickly as possible, but guess I'll have to delay it a bit more. Having a proper method comes first. Even then, it feels so unreal that I will finally be able to use magic." Ray went out every night in search for the place he had in his mind for a while now.
"Damn..these clothes reek of Lycans'. Guess I'll take a shower first, before starting my search." Evening had almost hit the sky and Ray still had a task unfinished.
"Besides, tomorrow I should go see her. Just wait for me, Edeline Yuna."
~4 hours later~
Neohumans, were a very intelligent species aside from having a vague taste. This can be seen from the structures and the magic they had built. Although, some of them were very bland and unnecessary complex. Among them, some Neohumans were particularly very different from the normal ones. They held a different spark, an imagination and curiosity which was clearly far from the bland Neohumans.
Doran was one of them. Doran's Asta Terra had Language Translation magic transcribed on them. That was why Naira Goldsky, in Andreas City, was able to read and implement the method of mana circulation which was written in Neo language. The historic excavators and researchers concluded that there was a specific reason as to why this was done.
STEP! HOOSH! STEP!
"That's how the story goes. The name of the book, Doran's second book or Asta Terra where 'Terra' in Neo language meant second, created a doubt in the readers about the possibility of another book or a series of a book." Ray recollected the story, the news articles had published as headlines from his memory. He was around the north-western corner of the city in search of a place.
The possibility of more books and research of Doran fueled the excitement of many researches and a hot topic for the news press. Doubts got exaggerated into rumours, rumours into stories. However, there was no such findings recorded until, the 3rd of the 4 month, Year 06. The article about Umbral Chalice finding the first book of Doran, Asta Magna was published. Little believed it until the explosion in the following week in Andreas City caused an uproar.
HOOSH! RUSTLE! SWOOSH!
"Using the advanced magic from the book, Umbral Chalice caused a massive storm in Andreas city. And I need to stop that from happening. That incident became the starting point of the World's ruin, as claimed by Faraney Musk." Ray jumped roof after roof until he reached his destination.
"This is the last place left in the map to search. Maybe, I'll look lower." Ray held a map in his hand, marked with various inks numerous times making it hard for anyone to understand other than Ray. He climbed off of the roof and got down on the ground. Hiding his face with his hood, a cape around his body, he was present in one of the abandoned zones of the city.
SWISH!
"Damn...." The strong gust of wind took away the map Ray was going to keep in his robe. "Let's get down first."
The street had old, worn out and bland looking geometric houses. They looked almost similar to one another and did not exceed above 2 floors. A square shaped large park in the centre. At its centre lay a normal, unfunctional pond.
"Hmm....the abandoned zones were the areas whose houses had a lock magic transcribed on them. Where the hell did those Chalice bastards find-" Ray's eyes fell on the park, specifically, he saw a speck of light near the fence. Hie eyes fell on the uneven layering of the fence and the symbols on them.
"Maybe, that light might have been my imagination, but the pattern on these fences feels strange, somehow familiar. I...Have I seen them before?"
Ray's high perception allowed him for a profound understanding of his surroundings matched with his high intellect.
"The height of these planks seem to have been designed in an ascending order, but they aren't. Have they been tampered with? And why do these symbols look familiar?" Ray looked at the symbols drawn on the five middle uneven planks of the fence on the east side of the park.
The five symbols seemed to have a meaning hidden behind them, Ray's instincts indicated.
"Where have I seen them Where... Whe.. wait....huh?" Ray was pulled back to an old memory of his.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
~a memory fragment~
"Okay, to use magic, first I need to feel mana and control its flow." A child, hiding behind a pile of trash sat in the middle of an alleyway between two houses. His murky hair and shabby clothes described his situation, except for the book he held in his lap.
HUSH! HUSH! HUSH!
The child turned pages after pages. The replica of the Doran's book which has cost him 1 gold, the money collected after saving up every penny for 3 months of labor, was his last hope.
"Ok, I need to feel the mana. Feeeel.....Hoosh....Swoosh!" The child sat with his legs folded. He tried to replicate the same concentration which he had seen some of the adventurers doing.
"If I just work hard and practice everyday, I'll be able to overcome this. After all this is how it is supposed to be in these situations, right? If I just work hard enough, I'll grow stronger and then one day I'll set out on the adventure I wanted to."
Such was the thought of a 15 year old who had only ever learned how to study and score marks with the help of his photographic memory in his school which no longer existed. Having his fantasy come true, he thought about this world as fantasy itself. Later, after experiencing the hell of interspecies conflict and the power displayed by the strong mages, he had thought that Hard work was the key, the multiple articles used to say in his previous world.
Using magic and becoming a mage became his purpose of life, the dreams of a child depicting it's childish colors.
The adventure in this newfound world became his goal in life.
Unfortunately, there was no one to tell him that he had been casted and separated by the world.
He sat at the same spot everyday, tugging on to his hope of hard work. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months!
"At this rate, will I really be able to learn magic? They said I don't possess any talent. Were my dreams only meant to be dreamed?" The boy flipped on to the last page of the book. Three months have passed by now.
MAGIC IS A PERSON'S CREATIVITY ITSELF. IT IS A PERSON'S OWN CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH LIMITS THE BOUNDARIES OF MAGIC. WHAT CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD WITH LOGIC IS THE LIMIT SET BY OUR MIND. BUT DOES IT REALLY NEED TO ALWAYS HAVE LOGIC BEHIND IT?
[][][][][]
The question at the last page of the book along with the five symbols, their meaning unknown, drew a line at the end of the book.
~Present~
"Hah, how can I ever forget these." Ray looked at the symbols from the last page of Doran's second research.
"The symbols who put a full stop to the book as well as the purpose of my life." Ray's face at this moment was devoid of any human emotion except torment.
GRDDD! HEGH! GRDDD!
A thought occured to Ray.
"Maybe their arrangement is the key?"
Ray rearranged the planks back in the order, the symbols were arranged in the book.
SHRRRRRRRR!
[ NOTIFICATION
YOU HAVE FOUND DORAN'S FIRST HIDEOUT.]
"Yes, it.....really is what I wanted. And the system's notification confirmed it as well."
The ground behind Ray opened up into a narrow passageway down inside the earth, lit up by mana lamps.
"I get it now. How they managed to find this place." Ray's eyes hid a very dark expression. A trauma he didn't want to get reminded of left after a bitter taste.
SCREECH! HEEEENG!
The stairs opened up into a normal wooden door.
SHEEEEEEEENG!
The old rusty hinges of the door made irritating sounds. The opening on the top of the stairs closed as soon as Ray opened the wooden door.
The door opened up into a room as large as a living room, mostly filled with books and papers spread all around into a mess. Some potion bottles, artifacts, old machinery, and other instruments typical in a researcher's lab.
"Was this to be expected from a researcher?" Ray mumbled to himself cautiously moving around the room, careful, not to step on anything. He himself had never left a room so messed up like this one.
"Well, I used to be a researcher myself so I can understand, but even then my room wasn't so messed up. Maybe, that's because of the difference in the genius between me and him."
"Anyways, where should I start my search?" Ray looked around the room, searching for something eye catching.
"You won't find the thing you're here for like that, Human from Earth." A voice, deep and rhythmic, with an unconsolidated aura.
"!!!" Ray leaped backwards while unsheathing his sword and turned to face the owner of the voice.
"Huh?"
[ ??? Lv - ???
NAME -
AGE -
SEX -
MASTER -
SKILLS -
STATS - ]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[ STATUS WINDOW
LEVEL- 12
NAME- RAY HYSTER AGE- 17 TITLE- REGRESSOR SEX-MALE
TRAIT - ???
STRENGTH - 20
STAMINA - 15
AGILITY - 17
INTELLIGENCE - 15
PERCEPTION - 15
(ADDITIONAL STATS- 5)
HP- 1340 MP- 0 (750)
SKILL - EYES OF ISMARA ( ACTIVE )]