# CHAPTER 5
An Obsilisk. They were golems made by Neohumans using their technology. Their speciality was that they possessed a conscience i.e. a consciousness of their own. After the disappearance of Neohumans, most of the Obsilisks either died due to no maintenance or were self-destructed because of how they were programmed.
Their existence was unknown to the world even after finding numerous remains. Only after their blueprint was found that their existence was proved. The places they were found were the sites and secret hideouts of Neohumans like Doran. The blueprint's analysis was proof of the immense strength a single Obsilisk could possess.
"Huh?"
Ray looked at the small figure of stone slowly descending from the ceiling of the room. As it descended, its size gradually increased into the size of a human.
"To think I would meet one here. No, actually it's not that strange that I see an Obsilisk, but rather that it's neutral towards me."
A half human and half dragon, designed after a female's appearance, her arms half covered with scales, so did her legs. The wings behind constricted, horns on its head painted golden. Her golden eyes had an aura of their own. Even so, for some reason, Ray couldn't feel any threat from her.
[ ??? Lv - ???
NAME - ELION
AGE - ???
SEX - ???
MASTER - DORAN
STATS - ???
SKILLS - ???]
"You mind telling me about you?" Ray maintained the friendliness he sensed from Obsilisk's behaviour earlier.
"As per the analysis from the blueprints, their nature was designed to be friendly with the goal of assistance. It won't hurt to confirm it, will it?" A forced smile sat on Ray's face.
".....You already have an idea of who I am, yet you ask me?" said the Obsilisk with an expressionless face. She looked at her wings, wiping the dust off of them.
"So the research analysis wasn't wrong. Even then--"
"Did the system censor all of my information?" The words leaving the Obsilisk's mouth left Ray speechless.
"Huh?" The earlier calmness and friendliness on Ray's face disappeared.
"How....system? I didn't hear it wrong, did I? It knows about it?"
"Let me allow some things from my side." The Obsilisk said, she interfered with something floating in mid air, a window of the system visible to Ray as well.
[ NOTIFICATION
NAME - ELION
AGE - 74
SEX - FEMALE
MASTER - DORAN
STATS - ???
SKILLS - ???]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
~Outisde, the abandoned street~
"Why did you break the single use SONAR stone I gave you for emergency purposes to call me here, No.5?" A man covering himself from head to toe in an outfit similar to a ninja. He wore a black mask resembling a horned devil on his face.
"Damn....to think I was required to call this rascal here for such an important mission."
"If you had done your job properly, I wouldn't have had the need to disturb your precious torturing, No.4." said No.5, his sarcasm crystal clear, wearing a similar outfit to the other man, just that his mask's left eye 's part was missing.
They both sat on the roof of the house at the end of the street Ray disappeared into.
"Your murder of that officer from the Investigation Bureau was seen by the person I am currently tailing." No. 5 kept an eye on the place where Ray had disappeared into the ground.
"Did he see me doing it? I remember clearly checking for anyone's presence. And, you could just finish him. Don't tell me you called me here just for this reason. You know that the Alliance is on the move, yet you-" No.4 kept on babbling about.
"Shut up, you bastard."
"Wha-"
"Don't act too cocky just because you have a higher position than me."
"..."
"This is why I don't like this motherfucker. He has such a big ego. So what if he's a little stronger than me. I swear I'll crush him one day." thought No.4.
"Besides, I called you here because we'll need him alive. The place we were searching for all this time and couldn't find thanks to a certain someone's orders," No.5 looked at No.4, his eyes piercing holes into him. "That boy might have found it."
"What? Someone did?"
"Hmm..."
"..."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
~???~
"How did she know about the system? No- that window just now, it was just like mine. Wait...Perhaps she is, no- Doran is the creator of the system?"
"Did Doran create the system?" Ray had changed his mind. He decided to not trust Elion until he knew everything that was going on.
"No, it was [][][]][][]][]][][[]," Elion was still aloof and looked around the room without a care about Ray.
[ NOTIFICATION
THE PLAYER IS STILL NOT READY ABOUT [][][][][][].]
"What's this about? I am not ready? Wait...I'm not quite following what's going on."
"I thought so. You can't know it yet." Elion for the first time since Ray entered the room did it look at him, directly in his eyes.
"Does that mean he isn't the creator of the system? Then who-" Ray put his sword down realising that Elion isn't his enemy.
"You think too much."
"Huh? I guess-"
"And you worry a lot. About the future. So much so that it's restricting your present existence."
"Is she supposed to blatantly expose everything which I thought was a secret I'll need to take to my grave? And does she know everything about me?"
"..." Elion kept interrupting whenever Ray spoke, so he chose to hear it through.
"Did it ever come to you about how you survived those numerous life and death situations, yet you somehow managed to survive each one of them and died as the last being?" They both remained silent for a moment. Ray's prior assumption about Elion knowing only about Ray's system was proved wrong. Plus, the question which Elion asked was something Ray once thought to himself as well.
"So she does. And I did, but wasn't it just luck on my side?"
"What do you mean?"
"Ask yourself, was it really just luck that saved you or was it something you always had but couldn't ever find because of your genius, ignorance and fear from one failure."
"I feared my failure? It wasn't luck? Then what was it? Ignorance? I tried, I tried everything I could." Elion's words shook Ray deep within.
"Oh! did I shake you a bit too much? Even so, how could it be that this thought about your survival never crossed your mind?...you came for the book, Doran's book, right?"" Elion stared directly into Ray's eyes, unflinchingly.
Elion maintained a calm composure contradicting the harsh words she complimented Ray with. Her eyes were fixed at Ray, but also not at Ray at the same time. It was like she saw through Ray and everything that made him.
"..."
"What is she implying?"
"Even though I'm not supposed to do this and directly handle it to you, seeing your condition and ignorance, this seems necessary." Elion again typed something on the screen in front of her. Her eyes glowed in a light hue of blue, and her wings swung open.
[ NOTIFICATION
A QUEST HAS BEEN GENERATED!]
[ NOTIFICATION
QUEST - PASS THE TRAIL GIVEN BY ELION.
REWARD - ???
FAILURE - FOREVER TRAPPED IN DORAN'S HIDEOUT.]
"A quest?...It can give quests as well.." Before Ray could read the contents of the quest, the ground around him started to shake. SPATIAL EXPANSION
DRKKKKK! GRKKKKK! DRKKKK!
"Uh..!" The ground around Ray lengthened and broadened at the same time. The whole room expanded, folds unfolded from corners where folds never existed. The whole room continued to expand until there were no boundaries visible.
"Look into yourself, Ray Hyster." Elion ascended in the air backwards, and vanished into thin air.
Memories of events, incidents and tragedies retraced their way into Ray's mind.
Be it the memory of him being robbed by his employer and almost getting killed or it be him being hired as a porter for a group of adventurers and then getting used as bait by them to run from the dangerous monsters. Being alive in the monsters rampage in a city or coming out back alive from an explosion in the lab he was working in. Saved from almost being sold as a slave or be it getting killed from a madman's excitement. However it went, Ray came out of the situation alive. How could he not have a doubt.
"Was there really something to all of these? Did it really have any meani- no she surely couldn't have said all that without any meaning, right?" Ray stood in the middle of a room devoid of boundaries. The only thing this room had besides Ray was a book. It was Doran's second book.
"Am I supposed to find my answers in this book which I've read dozens of times. Tskk!"
"Hah..What am I ignorant about?" Ray looked at the book on the ground. He sat in a lotus position on the ground, thinking of recollecting his memory of the book which would be quick.
SWISH!
"Nah....Let's just read it for real while I'm at it." Ray picked up the book from the ground and began reading it.
'Magic is our own desires, taking a sensible form. Its form could be visible to our eyes or maybe not.....'
Ray read through the book. His focus was deep in it, to the extent that time for him had vanished. This was a skill he had developed as a researcher.
"It's almost the same as I remember, isn't it? There's nothing different...huh?" No, there was something different. Due to Ray's increased perception he could see more clearly than before. And what he saw was a speck of light in a particular shape. It blended perfectly with the page's color so it would be hard for someone to notice it. Plus, it was shining in an empty part of the page.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
"!!!"
"What's this shining thing here? Was it always here-no it wasn't." Ray flipped through every page, the context of the light increased page after page, and around the middle of the book, its text overlapped with the inked context of the book.
[ NOTIFICATION
THE PLAYER HAS OBSERVED THE LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD.]
[ NOTIFICATION
THE WORLD HAS GRANTED IT'S APPROVAL.]
"Was I really even a researcher, the past few moments of my life really make it hard to believe it. And what's this World's approval thing?"
[ NOTIFICATION
THE LATENT MAGIC CIRCLE OF THE BOOK HAS ACTIVATED. BEGINNING THE IMPRINT.]
HIISSSHHHH! SWIRL! SWIRL!
The book released itself of Ray's grip and floated in the air. Light escaped as its pages kept on being turned. The air, no- the mana in the air was all being sucked into it like a cyclone.
[ NOTIFICATION
IMPRINT IN PROGRESS.....3%....9%.....27%....81%.....]
"..." Ray was swept up in his memories which were being forced into his mind. He floated in the air just as the book was. The book slowly dissolved in the air, letters which looked arcane escaped from its pages and rested inside Ray. They were being absorbed into Ray.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
~Outside, the abandoned street~
"He's taking too long." No. 4 looked around the surroundings while No. 5 kept his on Ray's last location.
" There must be something great inside if it's taking this much time. The book by that Goldsky overturned our situation here, assuming others are of the same value, it will change us forever."
BOOOOOM! RUMBLE! SHAKE!!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[ 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 )]