CHAPTER 21: REFLECTION AND THE NIVER FAMILY

(A/N Big thanks to

Talvin_Shiji

Talvin

Mist_vibe22

For the power stones, they mean a lot. As usual, please don’t hesitate to comment or drop a review. ENJOY)

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STATUS

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NAME: Orion Chronos

AGE: 6

GENDER: MALE

RACE: HUMAN

ATTRIBUTES:

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STRENGTH: 35 --30

AGILITY: 40--30

ENDURANCE: 40--30

VITALITY: 100

INTELLIGENCE: 100

MANA: 100

CHARM: 30

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RANK: (PEAK) ACOLYTE RANK

TALENT: MYTHICAL

BLOODLINE: ???

AFFINITY: SPACE, TIME

ABILITIES:

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Innate Skills:

*Temporal Distortion (Mid proficiency)

-The ability to alter the space around you. You can break, mend, and control the fabric of space. Depends on your proficiency.

*The Seer (Mid proficiency)

-The ability to view glimpses of the present, past, and future with varying locations. It can be through visions or dreams. Depends on your proficiency.

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Acquired skills:

*Eye of truth and façade (Low proficiency)

The ability to access the information of another party with a single glance in the form of a status screen and alter your perceived strength from others. Heavily depends on proficiency.

*Reflection

The ability to dive into one’s memories, recalling every single detail with unnatural clarity. (Requires no mana)

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’System, seriously!!. Not once did I tell you I wish to reminisce, besides, I believe the Seer skill has gotten that aspect covered, this is absolutely redundant’. Orion thought, exasperated.

SYSTEM RECALLS PLACING THE OPTIONS OF ACCEPT/DENY, AND YOU CLEARLY ACCEPTED. YOUR COMPLAINT HOLDS NO VALIDITY.

’That was before I knew the skill was going to turn me into some reminiscing guy,’ Orion quipped back.

AS STATED EARLIER, YOUR COMPLAINT HOLDS NO VALIDITY. YOUR CONCERNS ARE ALSO BASELESS. REFLECTION IS IN MANY WAYS DIFFERENT.. I SUGGEST TRYING IT OUT BEFORE FURTHER COMPLAINT.

Orion just took a deep breath and tried using the skill. Soon, he was deep in his memories, and he saw the fight from his perspective all over again.

It was like a record player he could pause, fast forward, and replay, a surreal experience. He analyzed everything he could have done better, decisions he could have made in the fight, close calls that could have incapacitated him.

He stopped there and went further, his mother’s words, his sister’s antics. Even further, his time in his mother’s womb, the night of his transfer, the dream, his family on earth, Lara’s attitude, and his father’s stern and comfortable face.

He stopped for now, silent. It was a wonderful experience, but it was as dangerous as wonderful. Still, he had to give the system credit; the skill was truly nice. Maybe he was too focused on damaging skills, actually, to see the usefulness, another lesson learnt.

’Cough, cough... I’m sorry, system, you were right, the skill is in many ways perfect’ Orion tried to placate the system, and as he predicted.

~.........~

’Right,’ He knew he wouldn’t get anything out of it again.

Now that he was calm, he started thinking of ways he could use the skill. First things first, he’d limit himself from going back to his days on earth.

It would be useful to recall every fight in such detail; improvement would be much easier to follow and record.

The next few days settled into the familiar rhythm. Orion got to see Isolde again, which reminded him of what happened before his blackout; he had been able to sense Isolde was going to teleport to his back, and he was right.

He asked her to try it again if he could replicate the feeling; unfortunately, it seemed last time was due to the high after the battle and the adrenaline rush in his body.

He asked for the guard’s name and found out it was ’Zurvan’; he was intrigued by the unique name. He and Zurvan spoke about his fight, but neither was much of the talking type. After Orion’s description of the fight and Zurvan’s minor advice, the conversation quickly drew to a silent and awkward pause.

Isolde continued personally taking care of his needs; he could have acted independently, but what was the use? Who didn’t want a maid taking care of them?

On the fourth day after the fight, they finally arrived at Niver City. By now, Orion was completely better; his fatigue from the fight was gone, using Temporal distortion had completely drained his man reserves, but now they were back to their peak.

"Orion, take this and keep it on you till I say to take it off," Erevan said while handing him a ring before they got into the city.

Orion took the ring and inspected it; it looked like any regular ring with a single small blue gem at the top. Still, he did as his father said.

Placing it on his finger, he noticed the aura emitting from him had severely diminished. He turned to his father with a questioning gaze.

"For now, it would be better to hide your rank; too much attention would be detrimental in the long run. With the ring, people will see you as a highly talented mid-grade Acolyte," Erevan explained.

Orion wasn’t a fan of hiding, but he had to go along with his father’s decision; besides, he knew Erevan was right.

They soon got into the city, where another group of guards joined them, leading them to the platform where the Niver family was waiting.

Orion looked out the window, inspecting the city. Overall, everything was in order, the people were well fed, and he didn’t see any sign of suffering or impoverishment. This spoke well of the Niver family; any city under a noble was their responsibility.

If one of Erevan’s goals in this journey was to inspect the Niver family’s management, from the outside look alone, they had certainly passed, but something told Orion that his father already knew all this.

As expected, the large entourage quickly drew attention; this was the duke’s carriage after all, and it seemed so many idolized him, the whole energy was like that of a festival with people cheering.

Orion quickly tried his TEOTAF (A/N: It’s The Eye Of Truth And Façade, I’ll be using the acronym from now); he’d forgotten to use it in the estate earlier.

Sure enough, he saw some of them, even full-grown adults, who were visible, and as he thought, not everyone had the talent for magic.

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STATUS

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NAME: Tony Adams

AGE: 34

GENDER: MALE

RACE: HUMAN

ATTRIBUTES:

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STRENGTH: 10

AGILITY: 12

ENDURANCE: 9

VITALITY: 10

INTELLIGENCE: 20

MANA: 10

CHARM: 5

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RANK: (Mid) ACOLYTE RANK

TALENT: LOW

BLOODLINE: -

AFFINITY: WATER

ABILITIES:

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Innate Skills:-

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Acquired skills:-

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He checked the status of some random blue-haired man, and he felt a kind of disdain, not disdain for the man himself; it was disdain for his weakness.

The rational part of him knew it was no fault of the man; some were simply born without talent. Still, he couldn’t hide the disdain he felt.

The whole event took about fifteen minutes before they arrived at the platform.

The place was built like a small mausoleum or arena; the whole Niver family stood in front of the building, ready to greet their Duke.

Erevan was the first to step out of the carriage, with Orion in tow.

This was Orion’s first time coming into contact with people outside the Chronos family, and he got to see a whole other image of Erevan.

Erevan stood tall, his overwhelming presence drawing the attention of those around him, a true symbol of strength and nobility, the kind that made you want to bend the knee, there and then.

Orion had seen his father’s serious face and demeanor a lot of times, but this was different; he felt and looked so regal.

They had changed their attire earlier today. Erevan was wearing a standard white high-collared tunic with golden accents, his silver hair framing his swoon-worthy face, complemented by his deep silver eyes.

Orion was in a similar get-up, yet he failed to draw the same awe that his father was getting. It came again, that same feeling he’d started feeling a lot in this journey: Pride.

He admired the attention and awe his father was getting, petty maybe, but that was how he felt, he swore to himself, that would be him someday.

The Count quickly came forward for pleasantries, his family a step behind him.

Orion observed them, the count himself was a handsome man with deep blue hair and eyes, he stood tall with an air of nobility and an easy smile on his face, his wife followed behind him, she had warm brown air, dark eyes, a mature stature, and a trained smile on her face, over all she possessed the whole feminine charm of a noble lady.

Orion looked behind and saw another young man with the same hair and countenance of the count, his son and heir most likely, he had that same trained smile his mother put on, most likely ingrained from birth, he looked around twenty, showing that the Count was quite aged himself.

"Greetings, my lord, the platform is ready for your use. I must say I was quite surprised when you requested to use the platform. The Niver family is honored to be at your service," He said with ease befitting his experience.

His wife noticed Orion beside his father. "Oh my, this handsome young man must be Lord Chronos’s son. May I know your name?" She asked with that same smile.

"Orion," He replied simply with a serious gaze, for some reason, he disliked the smile on the woman’s face.