Chapter 9: Reunion
Aster jumped off the griffin and the paid the rider the taxi fee of 20G.
G stands for gold and is the currency used in human settlements on Gaia along with silver and copper, the universal currency is mana crystals or monster cores.
The money value goes like this; 100 copper equals 1 silver, 100 silver equals 1 gold, 1000 gold equals 1 platinum. Copper is like spare change while silver is used for everyday transactions, gold for expensive gear or services and platinum for transactions in national scale. Pretty straightforward so Aster got the hang of it but it felt weird using coins instead of paper money for him though.
'Blake gave me about 200G to get my life started and I'm grateful for that. He even got me permission to visit a dungeon!' But before that, He wanted to visit his family so he came to the Capital.
Aster could see the difference from Division 4 almost immediately, the wall surrounding the city was more grandiose and bigger, the forcefield surrounding the city was stronger and everyone here had more mana but that's expected as the royal family of Elysium resides here.
The 7th hero had affinity towards about 8 elements which made him the strongest of the 9 and it earned him the crown of the newly created Elysium.
The descendants of the 7 heroes practice something called [Bloodline heritage], it allows someone to gave their power away to the next generations perfectly so the powers of the original 7 remains with the current heads of the family which became the solace for many people of many races.
He ventured around the city and explored it a bit. There were no homeless earthlings here which was a big plus, it looks like the king is a good one.
Aster eventually reached his destination, a hotel named "Brilliance residence"
'Gee, I wonder who came up with that name?'
The interior was brilliant indeed, it was reminiscent of a castle.
There, Aster met his parents. It was a tearful reunion to say the least. His parents looked like they have lost weight and dead tired. They strangely wore a lot of make up which was strange considering none of them were the type to focus on their appearances much.
It almost as if seemed they were hiding something. Aster remembered a short movie that he watched in class on Earth, in the movie it said that some women wear make up to hide the bruises that their abusive husband or boyfriend inflict on them. Aster couldn't help but recall that information.
'But who would harm them? They are a harmless couple, they wouldn't offend anyone. Unless some dudes decided to blame their pathetic situation on them. If so, then I'm going to level up before I get to the dungeon.'
His mom got up, opened the fridge and took some stuff out to cook for Aster but it didn't escape his senses that the fridge was basically empty.
'If I know my parents then they always stuff the fridge to the fullest every week. Something's definitely wrong.'
He didn't even see his annoying little sister anywhere. She did not come up to greet him or scold him for being away, he asked his parents but the only answer he got was
"She's at... her friend's house."
This was it. His parents were hiding something from him, he didn't want to resort to this as he valued his remaining braincells but he really hated being in the dark.
[[True sight Lv 1] has been activated] the system informed him, signaling the start of the wave of pain.
Immediately, his vision changed as his brain throbbed and his eyes burnt. He saw all sorts of different particles in the air, in the ground, in the furniture. He saw floating blue spheres inside his parent's body, the spheres had a lot of carvings on them. He focused his attention to the carvings and saw his father's status screen.
[Name: Jonathan Gaelcius]
[Level: 1] [EXP:0/100]
[Personal trait]: [Earthling](Inactive), [Gaia], [Determination]
[Hp:2/30] [Energy: 4/40] [Mana:2/2]
[Status: Fractured, bleeding, intense pain poisoned]
A flame of anger ignited in Aster's heart upon seeing this. His parents got startled as their son's eyes suddenly started changing color with obvious rage reflected in them. They wondered if they did anything to anger their son.
Meanwhile, Aster took a deep breath and continued to gaze into his fathers soul, specifically what was carved on them. Torrents of images flashed inside his head and information started to flood his brain but he skimmed through the memories to find what he needed to know.
He saw his family's misfortunes. How they have been rejected from society, from employment, how every single thing they have owned have been taken away from them. Their life was equivalent of hell until a man with a golden hair helped him, saying he was indebted to their missing son. And for a while everything seemed fine. They got jobs they can work at, a school for their daughter, a comfortable home to live in and the fact that their son was alive, somewhere.
Everything seemed like it was settled until the local gangs decided to butt in and make their lives hell once again. Although some money came every month from the golden haired man to pay for food and rent, those fuckers took the money away from them. They apparently knew the bank owner and they took ownership of their bank account, the one that Blake sends money to and they somehow made his parents lose their jobs. Nobody would hire them to do anything so their only source of income was to work for their source of misery, the bloodhound gang. They 'hired' his father to do manual labor enough for 10 men with barely any payment and his mother to become a waitress in their bar while they repeatedly tried to force themselves on her but they never did, thankfully.
Because of the minimal payment, his parents had no way to buy food or pay rent so the Bloodhound gang offered a solution. They were making some poison and they needed guinea pig to test it on so they wanted to test it on them and they would pay the basic necessities for them to live. His father wanted to protect his mother so he voluntarily drank 2 doses, one for him and one meant for his mother. He drank poison every month since then
If he didn't gain [Determination] trait in the midst of all this, he would have died. The only silver lining in all of this, if it can even be called that, their daughter caught the eye of a kid of someone rich and they offered to treat her well if she would live with them and they had to agree.
A few days ago, a letter came with some make up paint that said to act casual while his son comes home or their daughter will be killed.
Aster finally canceled [True sight] and coughed up blood, panicking his parents.
[-43 hp]
[Hp: 37/80]
[The host's brain has suffered permanent damage due to influx of excess information]
[Comprehension: 0.69 >>> 0.61]
[It is advised that the host does not use any of his unique skills unless his comprehension reaches at least 4.00]
Ignoring the blood that was flowing from his nose and his ears, he opened up the shop of his system and bought [Lesser healing potion] with all of the credits he had.
Violet sparks materialized out of thin air and flew towards his hand and engulfing it. After a second, it disappeared and a thin vial of red liquid appeared in his hands.
"Drink this, it should help with the your injuries but I don't know about the poison." He said to his father and stood up.
[A Quest has arrived]
[Main Quest: My annoying little thing]
[Quest description: Get your sister back]
[Quest difficulty: E]
[Quest danger: D]
[Rewards: 500 credits]
'Good timing' he thought.
"It's time I meet my brother-in-law."
***
Aster stood in front of the door of villa house.
He then rang the bell.
A person in an elegant butler's uniform opened the door.
"This is Mr. Strongheart's residence and how may I help you?"
"I wish to meet the head of the house."
"And you are?" he raised an eyebrow.
"You don't need to know."
"Arrogant little shit, are you?" He said, his attitude took a complete 180 degrees turn.
"Go away now and I won't report you to the security. Oh and how about while you lick my boots while your at it? You are clearly an Earthling since you are dumb enough to venture into someone else's house and demand to meet the head of the house, screw off" He said. It was clear he was someone who liked to use the name of the person to make himself seem important.
Aster who finished analyzing his entire life smiled meekly and said
"How is your baby? Oh right, you don't have one. Your wife left you for some trash Earthling didn't she? How does being considered worse choice than the Earthlings feel? Oh wait, don't tell me you hate Earthlings because of that? Seriously how pathetic do you have to be to hate an entire group of people just because of one bad apple?"
The arrogant expression of the butler scrunched up and became beet red and shouted "DIE" as he threw his fist towards Aster's stomach.
Aster who was still weakened from using his skill had no choice had to grit his teeth and endure for the pain that's yet to come.
"What is going on here?" a quiet voice was heard but it was enough to make the butler halt.
"Sir! This intruder here dared to insult your body size!" the butler blatantly lied.
"Is this true?" A man came into Aster's view. He had crystal blue eyes, blonde hair and width longer than his height.
"Yeah I did! How about you come here and talk me face to face? Or is it too much of an effort for you?" Aster taunted him while his entire body was producing litres of sweat and he was desperately resisting the urge to vomit blood and just die on the spot.
"Certainly not, sir!"
The polite tone of his employer greatly shocked the butler.
'What, is this a joke? The Strongheart I know will never forgive being insulted about his body. Could it be that this bastard here is someone important?'
What he didn't know about was that Aster used his [Inscribe] skill to instill a fake memory of him saving his employer and it caused Strongheart to respect Aster greatly. It's also why he was dying inside.
"Alright so uhh, let me rest for a while" Aster said before he collapsed.
***
Aster woke up feeling like shit.
Both literally and figuratively.
He literally felt like shit because he used 2 of his unique skills in a row without resting. His skills interact with the outer soul membrane which is where the memories and the skills are carved on. When he uses his skills, the carvings flood his brain and it causes the setback. His current smooth brain is simply not meant to process years of memories within a second.
He figuratively felt like shit because he used his skill on Strongheart. Sure he was 21 and he 'liked' his sister who was 13 so he deserved the death penalty but Aster saw his memories and learned that it's not so simple.
'Blake... I will fucking kill that lying bastard, I only met him twice but I believed him like an idiot.'
He learned that Blake paid Strongheart to make his family's life difficult which was the secret behind his fortune. So although Strongheart was not as bad as he thought, he was still bad since he accepted the payment but Aster felt like he didn't deserve to get his privacy and his sense of self violated.
'But whatever, I will just delete the memories... and I have to delete the memories of the butler too, goddamnit. He is definitely the type to hold grudges and he might even make a deal with a demon to get back at me. Arghhh my head's about to burst. How much did my comprehension drop?'
[Comprehension: 0.41]
'Oh, oh fuck. It's half of what I started with.'
Still feeling like shit, he got up and observed the surroundings. His sister was resting on the chair next to him which relieved him.
'Good to see you back'
The Gaelcius family was reunited.
'I think I'm gonna take a bit of money from Strongheart and erase his memories of me along with Blake, it's the most peaceful solution I can come up with.'
'I should do what I have to do and rest for today because I'm finally going to a dungeon.'
'I'm finally going to level up.'
***
Feedback is appreciated!
I apologize if this chapter sucks. I'm thinking of using 1st person POV next so what do you all think?
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Billurigan
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