Alex looked Ishiki straight in the eyes and spoke in a voice heavy with desperation that bordered on pleading.

"You must be strong. Because... because you survived in that forest. No normal person would have."

Ishiki looked at him in bewilderment. Was he insane?

Did this man—this pale, silver-eyed stranger who apparently spent six days watching him unconscious, not see the broken leg? The blood loss? The fact that Ishiki had reached this village through sheer, improbable luck rather than strength or skill?

"Stop... stop, I am not strong at all. I just survived because the trees stopped and returned back to normal. So, don't have any wild fantasies that i can help you get out."

He sighed. Alex looked like, he had gotten even more pale after Ishiki utterly shattered all his expectations.

Alex gulped hard, and stood up. His expression was unreadable as he walked to the door. He stopped at the threshold for a second and then turned around, facing Ishiki with eyes that carried something worse than anger or disappointment.

They were empty. The eyes of someone who'd lost all hope, watching it drain away like water through cupped hands until nothing remained except hollow acceptance. Wasn't it too early to loose hope?

"Well..."

He said flatly.

"You should know, there is no water and food here inside this Village. Summon something to wear and call me." He took a breath. "I will heal your leg."

Then he opened the door and stepped outside, leaving Ishiki staring at the door with wide eyes.

After a second, Ishiki snapped out of the daze and gritted his teeth. 'That bastard. He is trying to manipulate me.'

Of course that's what this was. The way Alex had mentioned the lack of food and water—then positioned the healing as something separate. Something Ishiki would need to ask for.

It was textbook manipulation. Create dependency and make the target feel indebted.

'Clever.'

But Ishiki couldn't deny the effectiveness. He needed his leg back at full health. And Alex... Alex must be desperate to get out of here if he was resorting to psychological tactics on someone he had just met.

There was so much to catch up with. Ishiki exhaled heavily and tried to calm down, he needed to focus on one thing at a time.

'First thing first.' He summoned the System window and read it.

========= Player : ????? ========

Name : Kurozumi

Age : 16

Title : [Memory Reaper]

Rank - [Mythical]

Exclusive Skill - [Soul Archive]

Skill Description - [Allows the bearer to chain the very consciousness of the Slain in an eternal collection. The new master can reap the memories within.]

Exclusive Corruption - [Phantom Voice]

Corruption Description - [Listen closely When the Reaper speaks, You may hear the whisper Of everyone they've reaped.]

Synth Reactor Tier - Innate

Level - 8/50

Data Fragments - 550/4,000

Basic Abilities :

Strength : 13/100

Agility : 13/100

Endurance : 13/100

Charisma : 11/100

Protocols : [Recursive Anomaly (Unknown)], [Curse of the Forgotten (Exclusive)]

Attribute : [Half Royalty (Epic)]

Skill Cards : [Ghost Blade (Epic)]

==============================

{Vestiges}

{Relics}

{Shop}

===============================

He got 500 Data Fragments from killing that Infested Boneworm. Suddenly he remembered something he had neglected back then. There was a system notification mentioning that he received a Vestige.

He focused on the vestige option without wasting any time. Maybe he will get something to wear, after all, armors were also categorized as Vestiges.

Vestiges - [Aether Blade (Legendary)], [Curved Bone (Rare)]

Ishiki's expression became somber as he looked at the screen. [Black Tether] was really gone. After he had tried to learn how to wield a spear, it was destroyed.

And there was something else in place of that, he focused on the new name and another window materialized.

=======================

Vestige - Curved Bone

Type - Weapon

Rank - Rare

Adaptability - I

Description - [A piece from the particularly hard bones covering the hide of a Boneworm. This specific Boneworm and its unborn child was killed by the cruel Memory Reaper in the Crimson Canopy during the Crimson Night.]

Abilities - Unbroken

Unbroken - [The Sword will not break until the wilder's will doesn't falter. If the wielder's heart harbor any kind of doubt, the sword will shatter like any other bone.]

=======================

Ishiki's eyes twitched as he read the window. First he was disappointed because the vestige was a weapon and he was equally happy that he had a new weapon because his spear was gone.

The second thing that made him flinch was the description. Wasn't the system... trying to get to his nerves?

'What now? Should i pity that... uh.'

He stopped himself mid-thought, reconsidering his word choice.

'Bitch, she was trying to kill me alright, I am not cruel.'

The internal justification felt necessary even though no one was listening. Or maybe especially because no one was listening.

Whatever.

The thing that disappointed him the most was the ability, it was great at first glance but, not so much at the second. How can a human not have doubts? This blade was made for devils. Hell, even devils have doubts.

"And What are Crimson Canopy and Crimson Night?"

His eyes narrowed, these two were new terms for him and to him they seemed too much important.

'Canopy... huh? Does that mean the forest?'

It made sense. The golden-leaved nightmare grove that had tried to eat him would need a name. And "Crimson Canopy" was certainly appropriately ominous.

Crimson Canopy.

That was one terrifying name, and as for the other one. Crimson Night, Ishiki had no idea how to interpret it, but he had a feeling that he would find out soon enough.

He sighed. There was nothing for him to wear.

'Hmm, so vestiges are Items. Right? I got two weapons from my trials and now i got this one from killing some beast. Its complicated.'

He organized his understanding mentally, trying to establish pattern from limited data.

Does every object around him count as a vestige?

Ishiki tried to touch something and remembering how he felt the first time he touched the bladeless tachi and the obsidian spear. Back then, he felt a strange tingling sensation as he summoned of dismissed them.

But he felt nothing like that now.

'So, Only Special items are considered as vestiges. They are like loot drops in games after we kill the boos. Was that Boneworm a boss? Or do i get vestiges every time i kill something?'

As if answering to his questions and window materialized in front of, on it there were three lines that glowed like they were calling to him.

=================

1- Vestige drop rate after slaying Withering Beasts is 1%

2-Vestige drop rate after slaying Demons is 0.5%

3-Vestige drop rate after slaying players in 50%

=================

Ishiki read the lines and frowned. "Well, I am familiar with demons from my trial, but Withering Beasts?"

The term was new. And honestly, he didn't like the name one bit. It made him feel uneasy in ways he couldn't articulate. like the word itself carried infection.

Looking back at what happened in the forest, the Boneworm was clearly a Withering Beast. Which meant he had gotten extraordinarily lucky with that one percent drop rate.

'Seems simple enough. And still so complicated.'

Because Withering Beasts definitely had distinctions. Categories within categories. The system loved its hierarchies after all.

Ishiki could have confirmed specifics if he'd examined the kill notification properly back then. But now he knew how important every notification can be.

And as he was thinking about the mundane things, he remembered something that made him scowl. Wasn't he inside NEXUS now, and so, he was sure that he was being watched.

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