Chapter 69: A heated Night

Eden had spent the entire walk home thinking about one particular sentence.

"You’ll make it up to me."

He had asked what Sylvia meant.

She had refused to explain.

That should have been enough of a warning.

Unfortunately, Eden had ignored it.

Now, several hours later, the house was quiet.

Mihui had already gone to sleep.

The lights were off.

And Eden was lying comfortably in his bed, staring at the ceiling while mentally reviewing everything that had happened during the first round of the Awakened Tryouts.

And somehow, despite everything that had happened today, his greatest concern was still the strange promise Sylvia had made.

Eden sighed.

’She’s probably just messing with me.’

’...Probably.’

A few seconds passed.

His eyes slowly closed.

Eden had almost drifted off when the mattress dipped hard.

His silver eyes snapped open just as a heavy, soft weight settled across his hips.

Sylvia was straddling him in the dark, completely naked, her generous chest swaying above his chest.

"Sylvia—" he started, voice rough with sleep.

She pressed a finger to his lips.

"You said you’d make it up to me," she whispered, low and shaking with something sharp.

"With the benefit of Hindsight—"

Sylvia didn’t let him finish.

She had a long night prepared for him.

Morning eventually came.

Sunlight slipped through the curtains.

Birds chirped outside.

The world felt peaceful.

Eden finally opened his eyes.

He stared at the ceiling.

"I’ve really done it now..."

He couldn’t move. Or rather, he was scared to.

Eden was afraid the smallest movement could awake what Eden could only call a sex-demon laying next to him.

So, for several long minutes, he simply lay there.

’I feel like I had my soul sucked out of me.’

Then he slowly raised one hand.

Looked at it.

Lowered it again.

"...At least I’m alive."

His voice was completely devoid of energy.

Beside him, Sylvia was sleeping peacefully.

A satisfied smile rested on her face.

Eden looked at her.

Then at the ceiling again.

"...I should avoid upsetting her."

Sylvia shifted slightly in her sleep.

Eden immediately looked away.

After several minutes of mentally preparing himself, Eden finally forced himself out of bed.

His body felt fine, other than the strange tiredness he felt from the lack of sleep Sylvia caused.

His dignity was another matter entirely.

He quietly left the bedroom and headed toward the kitchen.

Mihui was already there.

She was standing by the counter in her pajamas, preparing breakfast.

She glanced over her shoulder.

"Good morning."

"Morning."

Mihui looked at him for a moment.

"...Are you okay?"

Eden froze.

"Yeah."

"You look exhausted."

"I had a rough night."

Mihui frowned.

"Did you have nightmares?"

Eden’s eyes twitched.

"...Something like that."

Before Mihui could ask anything else, Eden felt something strange.

A sensation deep within his body.

Dark Matter.

His expression immediately changed.

He could feel something moving within the reserves shared between himself and Sylvia.

Eden closed his eyes.

There was a faint pulse.

Then another.

His eyes widened.

’Obsidian?’

Eden smiled.

’It was about damn time you finished recovering.’

Eden stepped into the living room.

He stood in the center of the room and closed his eyes.

The Dark Matter within him stirred.

He reached toward the connection.

It felt different from before.

Stronger.

More stable.

Previously, Obsidian’s presence had been faint, almost like a dying ember.

Now it felt like a small but steady flame.

Eden raised his hand.

"Obsidian."

The room became silent.

"Come forth."

Darkness spread across the floor.

Black particles began gathering in the air.

They swirled together, forming a humanoid silhouette.

Armor appeared.

Then shoulders.

Arms.

A massive chest.

Finally, the familiar horned helmet.

Obsidian fully manifested before Eden.

The Black Knight towered over him.

Even at only five percent of his former Dark Matter, his presence was imposing.

Eden looked up.

"...Did you get bigger?"

Obsidian remained completely silent.

Then he lowered himself.

One knee struck the floor.

His head bowed.

The gesture was unmistakable.

Loyalty.

Eden stared for a moment.

Then smiled.

"Welcome back."

Obsidian remained kneeling.

Eden opened his System.

A familiar status window appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[STATUS]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Name: Obsidian

Dark Matter: 5% [B-Rank]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Attributes

Strength: 600

Agility: 500

Vitality: 400

Dark Matter: 200

Perception: 200

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Skills & Authorities

Dark Matter Manipulation [S]

Impeccable Spirit [SS]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Eden stared at the numbers.

Then frowned.

"...Wait."

He looked at Obsidian.

Then back at the status window.

"Why does the system consider you a B-Rank?"

Obsidian tilted his head.

Eden pointed at the screen.

"Your Strength is six hundred."

Obsidian continued staring.

"Your Agility is five hundred."

Eden sighed.

"Your Vitality is four hundred."

He rubbed his chin.

"Those are basically low A-Rank attributes."

The System, naturally, provided no explanation.

Eden narrowed his eyes.

’Does the system Rank Abyss creatures differently than humans?’

That made sense, technically.

’A B-Rank Boss does have much higher stats than a B-Rank Awakened, in most cases.’

Obsidian’s current five-percent state was severely restricting him.

But his underlying attributes were already absurd.

Then Eden remembered something.

A conversation with Sylvia.

"You can share your buffs with your Retainers."

Eden slowly smiled.

"Obsidian."

The Black Knight looked toward him.

"Do you want to test something?"

Obsidian tilted his head.

Eden turned toward Sylvia, who was slowly approaching them with a satisfied but drowsy expression.

"Sylvia?"

She looked strangely refreshed.

...And strangely composed, at least compared to last night.

"Yes, Master?"

Eden pointed at Obsidian.

"Is he just stubborn or does he not know how to talk?"

Sylvia glanced at the Black Knight.

"He can’t talk yet."

"Why?"

"His Dark Matter reserves are too low."

Eden frowned.

"I thought the dark matter only affects his strength."

"The Dark Matter does recover his strength."

Sylvia walked toward Obsidian.

"But it also restores him in his entirety."

She placed one hand against his armor.

"Obsidian’s original body contained an enormous amount of Dark Matter. What you see now is only five percent of what he once possessed."

Eden looked at Obsidian again.

Sylvia smiled faintly.

"And his current form is restricted accordingly."

Eden raised an eyebrow.

"Restricted?"

"Yes."

"He will without a doubt grow more powerful once we recover more of his Dark matter."

She gestured toward Obsidian.

"But his physical form will also change. His armor will become more complete. His presence will become stronger. His skills will gradually return."

She paused.

"And eventually, he will be able to speak."

Eden’s eyes lit up.

"At what percentage?"

"Approximately twenty to thirty percent."

Eden looked at Obsidian.

"So you’re telling me that right now you’re basically a mute version of your future self?"

Obsidian tilted his head again.

Eden laughed.

"Yeah. That’s about what I expected."

Sylvia crossed her arms.

"The same applies to the other four Retainers."

Eden’s expression became more serious.

"So once I find them..."

"You’ll have five Retainers who you have to gradually nurture to their former strength."

Eden nodded slowly.

’Yet another reason...’

’Another reason to eventually enter the Abyss.’

If even Obsidian was this powerful while reduced to five percent, Eden couldn’t begin to imagine what the remaining Retainers would look like once they recovered.

And then there was the matter of the Abyss itself.

The eight Archdukes.

The Rulers.

Zephyros.

Mendax.

Ryuhei.

There were far too many unanswered questions.

But Eden couldn’t chase all of them at once.

First, he needed power.

Real power.

And that brought him back to his immediate problem.

Eden looked at his own status.

His gaze settled on one particular skill.

Devour [S].

His expression darkened.

He had come so close.

After everything he’d done in the Essence Knight dungeon, after obtaining Dark Matter, after defeating the Black Knight, after passing the first round...

He still couldn’t use it.

The System continued to display the same message whenever he attempted activation.

[Insufficient Attributes.]

Eden clenched his fist.

"Annoying."

Sylvia glanced at him.

"Is that skill still unavailable?"

"Yeah."

"You’ll be able to use it eventually."

"I know."

Eden looked down at his hand.

"But eventually isn’t good enough."

Sylvia remained silent.

His strongest skill evolved.

It’s the sole skill that let him grow stronger faster than any conventional methods allowed by the system.

And he couldn’t even activate it.

It was almost insulting.

Eden sighed almost dramatically.

"Guess I’ll just have to raise my attributes even higher."

Sylvia tilted her head.

"How?"

"I have an idea."

He walked toward the window.

Outside, the morning sun illuminated the city.

Eden’s eyes narrowed.

He was close.

Very close.

His current level was already approaching the threshold of B-Rank.

And more importantly, he knew exactly where to go.

There was a Gate.

A C-Rank Gate.

One that, in his first life, had become famous only after an entire Guild expedition had been organized to raid it.

Hidden inside that Gate was an item Eden remembered very clearly.

An item that could dramatically increase his attributes.

An item that had never been publicly explained properly because its existence had remained a secret for a long time.

’Lord’s Wrath.’

Eden’s lips curled upward.

An S-Rank item.

A ring capable of increasing all of his attributes by twenty percent.

And that wasn’t even its greatest feature.

It could create a set of S-Rank armor around its wearer.

Regenerating armor.

Something that could potentially cover one of Eden’s biggest weaknesses.

Defense.

The only problem was that the Gate wasn’t supposed to be raided for another month.

Eden already knew that.

He also knew something else.

The Gate wasn’t meant to be discovered for another two weeks.

Eden smiled.

"I guess I’ll be paying that Gate an early visit."

Eden glanced once more at Obsidian.

The Black Knight remained kneeling silently.

"You know, you don’t have to remakn kneeling the entire damn time."

Obsidian slowly rose.

Then, unexpectedly, he raised one armored fist.

Eden stared.

"...Are you asking for a spar?"

Obsidian nodded enthusiastically.

Eden couldn’t help laughing.

"You just back from deaths door."

’Ah.’

’That reminds me...’

He activated Corrupted Surge.

Crimson Essence immediately surged around his body.

The air trembled.

Then Eden extended his hand.

"Come on."

Obsidian stepped forward.

The next moment, Eden poured additional Essence into the connection between them.

A crimson aura erupted around the Black Knight.

Obsidian’s Dark Matter reacted violently.

His body became denser.

His presence increased.

His already terrifying Strength climbed even higher.

Eden’s eyes widened.

"As I thought..."

"That’s ridiculous."

Sylvia smiled.

"I told you."

Eden watched Obsidian slowly straighten.

Even at five percent Dark Matter, even while restricted, the Black Knight now possessed attributes that rivaled those of an decent mid tier A-Rank.

Eden smiled as he deactivated the skill.

"Good."

Obsidian tilted his head.

Eden’s grin widened.

"You and I will have a lot of fun together."

Eden pat the knight’s shoulder.