Chapter 24: Tenebrilux

The closed kingdom of Flemero, one of the most influential kingdoms of the world, was a kingdom divided into three main regions.

Each region was made up of numerous towns and a couple of cities making up the entire population of the illustrious kingdom.

The first region which was known as the highest region was the region of Megano where the capital City of Flemero, Megano was located.

The middle region was known as the region of Kento, the region known to be the most peaceful among all the regions, other than that, there wasn't really anything special about it.

Finally, there was the last region, Tenebrilux. It was called the last region but it wasn't exactly considered the lowest region, the normal part of it at least.

Tenebrilux was the most dangerous of all the regions for one very specific reason, it was divided into two parts, light and dark.

Neo had been living in the light part of Tenebrilux where everything was normal all his life and although he had heard some things about the dark part of the region, he couldn't really tell how exactly it was.

The dark part of the region got its name because the logic of day and night didn't matter there. After all, no matter what time it was in the other parts of the kingdom, it was always dark there.

The whole area was covered by thick dark clouds that had refused to move for over twenty years now.

It was said that the clouds came about as a result of a highly concentrated mana reaction on that part of the kingdom and the dark clouds weren't the only after-effect of the reaction.

There were constant mana fluctuations in the region making it difficult for people with low mana to properly use their ability in the region.

There was also the fact that the atmosphere was contaminated by this unsafe mana putting the health of everyone living in that part of Tenebrilux at risk.

Ordinarily, nobody would willingly live there but some people couldn't afford to live in the regions with a better quality of life or the good part of the region for that matter so they had no choice but to reside in the zone where the sun never rises.

At the moment, Neo seemed to be in that particular zone, making his way down a deserted road with nothing but trees on both sides of the road.

He seemed to have found himself a long black coat before he left the house of the man who saved him but the belongings he had with him, he wasn't able to find.

There was his sword, which he was sure he had with him but even after turning everything in the house and looking in every corner, he wasn't able to find it.

There was also all the stuff he had in his bag, the dagger his father gave him, Emilia's flashlight, and even the special gift from his mother which he had yet to open, they were all gone.

He found the bag hanging on the door but none of those were in there, the only things he found in there were the seeds Nicole gave him for his training. What he had over his shoulder now was just an empty bag.

"I wonder what he did with all of those."

He wasn't angered that the man might have sold all his items mainly because he just murdered him.

Well, there was also the fact that everything wasn't missing, he still had Aina's scarf and that wasn't all.

While he was still moving, he dug his hand into his coat from the neck to pull out the green pendant hiding under his coat.

He held the green stone and stared at it for quite a while before letting out a sigh, his gaze slowly averting toward the left as he let go of the pendant.

He could tell he had not been unconscious for more than twenty-four hours yet he had not seen a drop of snow since he left that house.

'I heard that the weather didn't really matter in this part of Tenebrilux but I didn't think it would actually be true, if it doesn't snow here then there's also a good chance of the one about this place being devoid of rain all year round being true as well.' He articulated inwardly as he suddenly stopped moving to look up.

It was just as they said, the sky was nothing but dark, he couldn't even tell if it was nighttime or daytime, and if it wasn't for the fact that he was now a vampire who had night vision, he wouldn't even be able to see the road or anything around him.

"I don't even know where I'm going." He sighed before turning to the right.

He contemplated returning to his home for a couple of seconds after leaving the old man's house but it didn't take him long to abolish that idea and even if he wanted to return there, he didn't exactly know how to get there from where he was at that moment.

He decided to find some people and maybe find a place to stay for now but he had been walking for over an hour now without getting anywhere or finding anyone, not even a single person.

"Do people even live here? And if they do, how do they even survive in a place this dark and devoid of nature's sustenance all year round?" He uttered. "The place feels like it was nuked which is exactly what happened in a way I guess."

'I guess I'll just have to keep moving until I find someone to ask for directions.' He sighed inwardly as he continued moving forward.

Another thing he had also noticed while walking was that the air was extremely cold, almost as cold as when snow was falling and that led him to the theory.

'Maybe the clouds are blocking the weather but the effects still managed to slip through somewhat.'

To keep his mind busy as he walked down the road because there was clearly something he didn't want to think about, he decided to go through the system interface.

He couldn't see the full menu at the moment but there was a green dot in front of him, and just thinking about touching it instantly opened the system menu.

'It's crazy to see that something like this actually exists in this world.'

He scanned everything on the screen from top to bottom before saying. "I've seen everything on this page but still."

[ Physical stats ]

[ Strength: 15 ]

[ Dexterity: 22 ]

[ Endurance: 25 ]

'Without knowing what the cap is, I can't tell if those are good, mid, or just terrible.' He said inwardly. 'Now that I think about it, my body's felt a bit heavier and slower since waking up, might be nothing serious though.'

He swung his arms back and forth to get a proper feel of them before doing the same to his legs.

'If this is just like a normal game system menu then there's definitely a way to increase those numbers other than training.'

His gaze shifted up at that moment to the tabs on top, there were four tabs there but at that moment he had his gaze on the 'A' tab in the middle which had a red dot above it.

'What's that?'

Just thinking about opening the tab was enough to open it and now he was about to find out the answer to his question.

[ Current Abilities ]

[ Blood ]

[ Blood skills ]

[ Blood slash: level 1 ]

'Blood slash, what's that?'

He heard what sounded like a quick passing sound of a waterfall right in front of him at that moment forcing him to cut his focus from the system to see what appeared to be some kind of rift opening right in front of him.

The rift was glowing with a bright green aura and just after opening up, three huge lizards all towering up to seven feet stepped out of it, their heavy steps terrorising the ground and pushing back the pebbles close to them.

They had huge long tells with edges that looked quite sharp, a symmetry mixture of red and black on their scaly skin, and their long sticky tongues sticking out of their mouths.

Compared to the tiny person that were facing, they looked quite intimidating but Neo wasn't exactly fazed.

To put it plainly, his emotions have been a bit weak in response to anything since waking up, they were clearly there, just no longer as strong as they used to be, otherwise, it would have taken him longer to recover from murdering that man.

"I've learned so much about rifts but I've never seen one or the beasts that spawn from them until today, I guess there's a first time for everything. I just hope the B for green rifts actually means basic and not broken."