Huey stormed out of the house, his anger boiling over as he marched down the darkened street. The air was cool, but it did little to soothe the heat of his frustration. As he walked, he couldn't help but reflect on the family problems that had plagued him for years.
His grandfather had been a free-spirited Verdenkind, someone with access to the leveling and class system. He had wandered through the lands of men, living a life of adventure and, admittedly, of sleeping around. Huey's father was the result of one such encounter. Despite his grandmother being pregnant, it hadn't stopped his grandfather. As per the man’s own words, he was a man on a divine mission.
For decades, his grandfather went missing. But when Huey was around seven years old, the old man had returned, bringing with him a little child—one that could’ve been assumed to be another one from his many exploits. Settling in town in the latter years of his life, it was then that Huey and his grandfather met for the first time.
Huey mainly remembered his Grandfather as a fun, knowledgeable, and inspiring man, full of endless stories of epic adventures. To the young boy that he was and the young man that he is now he was the perfect grandfather. Admittedly he was flawed but he was fun. But despite how fun and interesting he was, he never managed to get along with his son. The resentment for never having been there aside, there were just too many differences between the father and son.
First and foremost, the father was a Verdenkind while his son was a peon. The father was a free spirit who roamed the world, while the son was like a mountain that never left its place. The father and son just couldn’t agree on almost anything.
Huey, on the other hand, got along very well with his grandfather. Sharing the same characteristic of being a Verdenkind, Huey found a kindred spirit in his grandfather. This, in turn, caused even more friction with his father. But there were things that only a fellow Verdenkind could understand, something the peon his father was couldn’t fathom, which is most likely despite their strained relationship, Huey’s father had allowed his son to be mostly chaperoned by his grandfather, ironically deepening the rift between them.
Huey mumbled to himself as he walked down an alley, "I can understand his anger toward grandpa, but there's a certain level of disrespect I can't just let slide. What did Charlie have to do with any of this? He didn't ask for anything..."
Lost in his thoughts and venting his anger on the fist he was clenching onto, Huey didn’t hear his sister running after him until she called out, "Huey! Wait up!" He turned to see Fia catching her breath, a huge sigh escaping her lips. "Huey, please, don’t walk away like this."
"What do you want, Fia?" he asked, his tone harsh.
"I know you're angry, but everything will be alright. Mom will smooth things over with Dad.”
And you’ll smooth things over on my side, huh. Is that it?
"No, need. I’m done. This is a lost cause, from the beginning."
"It’s not a lost cause, Huey. You just need to give it some time and effort."
"I’m done dedicating time and effort to this," Huey snapped.
Fia’s face fell, and she looked annoyed. "If you were a little less stubborn and put more effort into the family instead of chasing Grandpa's shadow, things would be easier."
Hearing these words something snapped inside Huey.
"So that's how you see it? You’re just like him…."
"That’s not fair, Huey! I’m trying to help!"
"Help? By taking his side? By telling me I’m the problem when clearly it’s him?" Huey’s voice rose, echoing through the alley.
"I’m not taking sides!" Fia shouted back. "I’m trying to keep this family together!"
"Well, maybe it’s not worth keeping together," Huey retorted bitterly.
Fia glared at him, her eyes flashing with anger. "You’re impossible. No wonder Dad can’t stand you."
"And you’re just a spineless peon who can’t see beyond her own nose," Huey shot back.
Fia's eyes widened with hurt before narrowing in fury. "A spineless peon, huh…So that's how you see me? Fine. Go die in a random dungeon for all I care."
Huey felt a twist of guilt but couldn't back down. "Yeah, you too."
The words hung in the air, a painful silence settling between them. Finally, Fia turned on her heel and walked away, leaving Huey standing alone in the alley, the weight of their argument pressing down on him.
As he watched his sister disappear into the night, Huey felt a pang of regret for having devolved things into this, but his anger quickly smothered it.
He had enough of trying to fit into a family that didn’t understand him.
Taking a deep breath, he turned and walked in the opposite direction, heading for the only place he could call home. As he walked into the workshop, he saw Charlie rearranging some items. He only needed a glimpse, to guess, "Another argument with your dad?"
Huey sighed. "Yeah."
"Wanna talk about it?"
"No. I'm not in the mood to talk about it. I'm heading to my room. Need to get that nap I wasn't allowed to have."
Though clearly both curious and concerned Charlie simply nodded. "Alright then."
Huey climbed the stairs to the second floor, his body feeling heavier with each step. Entering his room, he threw himself onto the bed, hoping to find some relief in a nap he was so craving yet wasn’t able to take earlier. But instead of drifting off, his mind replayed the argument with his father, only fueling his frustration further.
He tried to divert his thoughts elsewhere and found himself reminiscing about what happened in the Dungeon, reminiscing about the woman whose words and existence he couldn't and didn’t want to shake from his mind. She was a fellow otherworlder, like his grandfather. Her last moments and final words haunted him.
Unable to rest, Huey got up and headed to a corner of the room cluttered with blueprints, notes, and books. Most of these items were left behind by his grandfather, a collection of knowledge acquired during his lifetime, this one and the previous one.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
"It should be here somewhere," Huey mumbled to himself as he rifled through the papers. "Ah, there it is."
He found what he was looking for hidden beneath a pile of papers in a secret and locked compartment of a drawer: his grandfather's diary. Opening the first page, Huey was greeted by the initial entry
---
Entry 0
I can't believe I'm actually doing this. Writing a diary. But what else am I supposed to do in this medieval nightmare? No cars, no metaverse, none of the basic technology. It feels like I'm stuck in the distant past, a place so archaic it might as well be ancient history. Heck, I even had to struggle for a while before I discovered paper. Yes, discovered, as in doing it myself. Can you believe it? Paper. But once I had it, I knew that I had to write a diary.
Why a diary, you ask? Back in my world, before intercontinental travel, people had to use boats. Boats that often crashed. It was, from what I understand, customary for the lone survivors to write diaries, detailing everything. And that's what I am: a lone survivor shipwrecked in this strange world. It's not all bad, though. It's far better than that hellish place I left behind. Anyway, here we go, diary of mine.
——
Skipping ahead, Huey skimmed the diary to the part that interested him, roughly two-thirds through the diary.
——
Entry 147
Dear diary of mine,
I met a Geistgobbler today. They told me these creatures can eat memories, making them lost forever. I wasn't just told what they do; I saw it firsthand. It's terrifying. As a level 27 Magician, slaying the creature was easy, but the thought of becoming like that woman who forgot her own son's existence is frightening. What if I forgot everything? Sure, there are things I'd love to forget, like the time I spent in that place. But if I forget everything, does that mean I'd die again, clueless? There's a certain bliss to it, but the thought of being sent back to that place... argh, just the thought of it stresses me out so much.
If I die in this world, will I be sent back to that place again? No, I don't want that. I don't want to die! But I know I will, if I don't get that damn Longevity skill. Yet I still can't unlock it for some fucking reason. Same for my other alternatives. I'm completely clueless about what I'm supposed to do in this world. I know instinctively that I have to get super strong, but at the same time, if I don't unlock that skill, I'll die just like the average peons. This is such a headache; I dread the future. Arrgh, I'm so miserable. Hehehe, to think that that low-level creature left me in such a miserable state. Hehehe, this is laughable.
——
Entry 148
Dear diary of mine,
After my encounter with that damn Geistgobbler, I thought about it. I decided to write about it so that if I ever forget, I can at least learn about it. I checked the earlier part of this journal and realized I've yet to tell how I wound up here in this world. My current name is Rudy, but from the world I came from, I had another name: Anakin. I don't have enough pages to talk about what kind of world I come from, but I come from Terra, in the year 78th century of the Technological era. I come from a world very different from this one...
——
Skipping ahead the entry as he was certain was later that the part that interested him was, Huey read,
——
…Every time I think of it, I can't figure it out. What was he referring to when he said he would entrust a part of himself to me? Initially, when that entity told me that, I assumed he'd entrusted me with some sort of divine blessing. I've yet to see that. Sure, I now have access to magic—something that in my old world would have earned me bullying for believing in—but that, I believe, is the case for everyone. It's been 34 years since I've been reincarnated into this world, and I've yet to feel like I'm any different than any other Verdenkind. Am I missing something? Because I feel like I am.
I have lived in this life almost half the lifetime I lived in my old one and certainly spent at least more than a third of my life expectancy if I don't manage to unlock that longevity skill. And I've yet to feel like I've done anything important toward the goal I've been entrusted with. This is frankly disheartening.
I know such thoughts might be seen as blasphemous, though I have the feeling that as a superior being, "he" isn't the kind to care about the thoughts of an insignificant being like me. But I can't help but feel like it's blasphemous. Hehehe, is this a sign that that pious nature from back then isn't dead yet?
Anyway, I'm getting off track. I think I would have done much better if I were given better instructions. This way, I wouldn't feel so lost. Lately, with how progressively older I'm getting, I have the strange feeling that I'm missing an essential part of my mission. I'm, of course, referring to that which "he" mentioned when he said he'd entrust me with something to help me with my mission.
At first, I assumed it was a mistake of translation, that there was nothing particularly tangible that I would be given to help me with my mission. But as of late, with how stale things have gotten, I'm beginning to feel like there was indeed something I was supposed to get from "him" that I didn't get or that perhaps I got but somehow failed to realize I have...
——
Huey read the diary with rapt attention. "I was right. That wasn't just my imagination."
He knew the situation reminded him of something he heard or read somewhere."
In that moment, Huey's mind raced. He muttered, "That woman knew K.R.U.L, the same entity Grandpa met. What if she was made the same offer as Grandpa, but unlike Grandpa, she got access to something that's supposed to help her? That makes sense..."
That made a lot of sense in Huey's mind, especially considering her last words, which were for him to make better use of whatever she was handing to him than she did. Though he saw nothing tangible that she could have passed onto him, he remembered that it was shortly after she uttered those words that he felt a sensation beckoning him to go deeper into the Dungeon. His mind racing at the thought, Huey looked at his hand. "This could be it," he thought, remembering his earlier strange experience that could be attributed to this thing he might have been handed.
Leaving the diary behind, he quickly made his way out of the room, calling, "Charlie!" as he descended the stairs to the lobby, if one could call it that.
"I'm here," Charlie said, a broom in hand. Seeing how ecstatic Huey was, Charlie asked, "Something happened?"
"Yeah, where's the manacyte chunk from earlier?" Huey asked urgently.
"It's behind the counter," Charlie replied, a bit taken aback by Huey's intensity.
"Did you check the manacyte as I asked you?"
After playing around with the manacyte on his bed while his sister was waiting for him downstairs, Huey had noticed something peculiar about it. Not being an expert in manacyte, he had brought the chunk to Charlie, who was far more knowledgeable about the subject that he were, for him to figure out what was wrong with it..
A little apprehensive, Charlie said, "Yeah, and it's exactly as I told you. It's a particularly high-grade manacyte, though its size makes it problematic for me to do anything with it."
"You didn't find out anything else?" Huey pressed.
"If by 'anything else' you mean a little voice, then your answer is no," Charlie said, retrieving the manacyte chunk before handing it back to Huey.
"It's not a voice; it's a sort of noise," Huey insisted.
"Well, sorry, but I didn't hear any noise either," Charlie responded.
Huey once again looked at the manacyte chunk. At first, he didn't hear anything, but as he emptied his mind and focused better, he began to perceive it. It was a subtle, almost imperceptible noise—like the faint hum of energy.
"It's there, I'm sure of it," Huey said, looking at his friend, who now eyed him with suspicion.
"Try it again," Huey urged, handing the manacyte chunk back to Charlie.
"Try what?" Charlie asked.
"Inspect it as you said you did. There's something here, something that I can tell is here," Huey explained.
"How?" Charlie questioned, puzzled.
How indeed? It was a good question, one that Huey felt he couldn't properly explain without full context. Understanding that he had to give Charlie context, Huey began explaining what had happened in the Dungeon.
"Okay, listen Charlie," Huey began. "It’s going to be a long story but listen to me well…"