Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (8 page)

Without having to attend
at Bluemist Academy or any other duties, Regal spends the entire weekend
practicing his alchemy and martial skills at the Training Hall. The communal
training center is much busier during the weekend as other students from Regal’s,
and other nearby academies also stop by to practice from time to time. Many of
them see Regal, but no one knows who he is and none  take the initiative
to approach him.

In his solitude, Regal
diligently creates ‘Ice Bullets’, casts ‘Stone Skin’ thenstarts to practice his
marksmanship and knife skills. He even begins to get used to using ‘Curve’,
managing to hit the target two times out of ten while standing sixty feet away.

His comprehension of his
skills takes its first step forward during this time. It appears in the corner
of his mind, in the form of a small spark that could vanish at any moment.
Despite finally starting to comprehend the two skills, his speed of
understanding is only half that of the other students who lack talent in these
alchemical skills.

When Monday arrives, Bluemist
Academy opens again for another week. The order of lessons is similar to the
previous week, and while revisiting some of the knowledge previously taught,
new information is constantly added in.

Regal studiously takes
down notes, ignoring the yawns of a couple of students bored with theory.

Lunch is as lively as
ever, as most students are recklessly casting their skills in the yard and some
of the braver ones even duelling one another. Regal’s lunch is different compared
to last week’s: two slices of barley bread and a small amount of curry leftover
from last night.

Regal places his lunch
down on the ground and takes a few steps back. His fire based divine art is too
hot to directly cook food, but by casting a short distance away from the lunch
box it heats up the food to an appropriate temperature. Veronica, Kilde and
Astore stare at this process intently and despite it not being direct cooking,
decide if they are all in a squad together; Regal will be responsible for
food.

After the academy closes
for the day, students are picked up by their parents and head home in different
directions. Regal makes his own way home, deciding what to make for dinner
tonight while walking.

Finally arriving at his
house, he abruptly stops before the front door when he sees it slightly ajar.
Anguish washes through his body and he feels a sense of loss while pushing open
the door to view inside. He hasn’t felt this way since his parents left him to
seek eternal peace at the Temple of Death.

Every piece of furniture
has been flipped over and is in complete disarray. Loose objects are strewn
across the floor as if they had been thrown around. All the precious books that
were once on the bookshelf are missing.

Feeling a bad premonition,
Regal hurries to his room where his money is hidden beneath his bed’s mattress.

The bed has been lifted to
its side and is currently resting against the wall. Of course, all his money is
gone. If he had kept the money on him, even if he was mugged and killed, the
most he would lose is half of it.

As a Soulless, Regal’s
emotions follow a very logical routine and it is difficult to sway them. His
expression remains neutral, but despite this, torment causes his heart to
palpitate with a stabbing pain.

Regal stands like a
statue, staring at where the money used to be hiding. The chatter between
several people walking down Regal’s street echoes through the silent household.

Organizing his emotions,
Regal leaves his house and rushes toward the nearest guard post. He had learned
today at his academy that crimes leave behind evidence, which certain people
with the appropriate search skills can analyse. The city guards all have these
skills and should be able to trace the break in back to the culprit, hopefully
returning his books and much needed money as well.

Living in the southern
side of Grand Theore’s first floor, the nearest guard post to Regal’s home is
the Southern Guard Post, which is in charge of a quarter of the first floor.
The building has a fortified wall of steel and black iron surrounding it to
defend against any revolts or the monster invasion that occurs once every
century.

Two guards wearing brass
cuirasses over short sleeved, black military uniforms stand guard outside the
entrance to the guard post. They casually carry iron rifles made from bluestone
but don’t raise them as Regal’s small stature doesn’t cause them to feel any
concern.

Regal explains his
situation to the guards out front, one of which takes him inside the post and
to someone that can help him.

“So, you’re saying that
you got home from Bluemist Academy and that your house had been robbed?” a man
one rank above a guard, a captain, asks Regal in a straightforward tone. He is
an exceedingly handsome man with an outstanding stature, has clear blue eyes,
blond hair, and holds an important position with the city guard. This person
likely has many women swooning over him in the hopes of catching his affection.

“Yes, sir. The front door
was slightly open when I got home and everything has been thrown around. My
father’s books and all my money appear to have been stolen.”

“And what about your
father? Your mother? Why have you come here instead of them?”

“They both went to seek
the eternal rest seven years ago.”

“What? Seven years? You
would have only been… no, wait, are you a Soulless?”

“I am, sir.”

The guard captain lets out
a sigh, then shakes his head gently while seeming to speak to himself, “That
makes sense then.”

“What makes sense, sir?”

“You don’t know? I’m
surprised they never told you. It’s not just the Soulless that… actually, they
must have had their reasons so I won’t mention it. Back on topic, your house
was broken into and a thief stole some valuable belongings. What is your
address? We will head there immediately to inspect for traces.”

“Thank you, sir. My
address is 34 Cloudfire Lane, Floor 1.”

“Very well, let’s go
then.”

The guard captain inputs
the address into a translucent map and stands up once he confirms the location
of Regal’s home.

Regal is surprised that
the guard captain himself is coming. He had expected the captain simply to
assign a guard to attend to the matter after hearing him out. The guards who
are posted at the front gate are evidently also surprised to see their captain
leave the post and attend to the matter.

“Don’t mention this to the
superiors, else you will regret it,” the handsome captain warns the guards with
a cold smile as he passes by them.

The guards’ faces start
sweating as they salute their captain with wavering smiles.

Regal and the guard
captain walk down the street side by side and attract the attention of many
Immortalis nearby. The men look at the two of the curiously, wondering if they
are related. The women stare at the guard captain alone, wondering if he is
currently looking for a wife.

The guard captain’s
military uniform is the same as the guards, with the exception of a single gold
stripe sewn onto the sleeve of his shirt. The brass cuirass is slightly
different as well. It has what seems like a skirt extending from the bottom
made out of thin vertical plates of reinforced brass overlapping one another.

The trip to Regal’s house
takes half an hour to walk as they aren’t too far from the guard post. The
captain tells Regal to wait outside and enters the house first, inspecting the
aftermath of the break in. He determines that it is indeed a break in exactly
as Regal described and begins his investigation.

There are several methods
for tracking an intruder. The first, which the captain does, is use a
miscellaneous skill that inspects footprints and is capable of detecting a
single one out of hundreds.

Unfortunately for Regal,
the intruder had some stealth skills which wiped away all traces of footprints.
The captain suspects it was done with a Divine Art of the martial skill ‘Ten
Shadow Steps Technique’, but there are other skills that he has no knowledge of
and could be used for a similar effect.

The second method is to
examine for any hand prints left by the intruder, but the only recent hand
prints around the house are that of a child’s. Searching for a lingering scent,
any waste left by the culprit, all methods fail to identify a person here other
than Regal.

Knowing Regal is a
Soulless and with nothing to gain from reporting the break in other than the
return of his goods, the guard captain knows Regal isn’t lying and attempts one
final method to search for the intruder.

The final method is the
Tier 4 Divine Art ‘Residual Aura’, of his inherent skill ‘Ethereal Eye’. This
divine art is the only method that bears fruit, revealing the aura of a level 1
Regal and also an unknown level 64 man.

There is no method to
track the aura and find the real body, but he can store the aura information
and immediately recognize him if he comes across him later. With his work
concluded, he leaves the house to let the boy know about the situation.

“Regal, I have good news
and bad news,” the captain says solemnly.

“Please give them to me.”

“Okay, the good news is
that I have detected the aura of the culprit.”

“And the bad news?”

“I cannot track the
culprit based on his aura. He had some stealth skills so all other traces have
been completely erased. He is quite skilled so I don’t understand why he would
rob your house.”

“I understand. Could he
have been paid to do it?”

“Interesting, you’re quite
a bright individual. That is indeed a likely situation. Unfortunately there
isn’t any more information to go on, so it is only speculation.”

“Thank you for your help,
sir.”

Regal becomes depressed
and downcast as the only chance to get his money back has vanished, unless the
guard captain can find one person in about five hundred thousand.

The guard captain looks
down at Regal with a troubled expression that would make any women who
witnessed it to become completely love struck.

“Please, call me by my
name, Justice. Ironic, isn’t it? Being a member of the city guard and being
called Justice? Have a laugh and smile.”

Regal doesn’t smile, but
looks at the guard captain and says bluntly, “I don’t understand what you mean
by ironic. I do think your name suits you though.”

Justice, often jokingly
called Captain Justice by his peers, doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at
Regal’s reply.

“Right, a Soulless… humour
isn’t exactly your strong point. Anyway, you currently have no money. I’m sorry
I couldn’t find the thief, especially considering all your money was stolen.
Take these two silver here. It isn’t much, but it should help you get by for
now. The only way to become stronger is to rise above every trial this world
throws at you. Even if you fail, keep persevering and you will succeed.”

“I understand. Thank you,
Captain Justice.”

“Please, just call me
Justice.”

“That would be
disrespectful, Captain Justice.”

“Justice.”

“I couldn’t pos-”

“I’m begging you, please
just call me Justice.”

“I couldn’t possibly cal-”

“Fine! All right, fine.
Could you just refer to me as Sir like you were earlier?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Justice is caught off
guard and in a position where he doesn’t know how to respond. The guard captain
ends up leaving Regal at his house and walks down the street, back toward the
guard post.

Once the guard captain
leaves, Regal studiously begins to clean up. The smaller items are easy to
tidy, but consume a lot of time, while the large furniture forces him to use
his entire body weight to just upright them. If he was a few levels higher and
put some points into his strength, this task would be much easier.

In his mind, Regal is
going through various methods to earn money. Most of them are not possible for
someone who hasn’t graduated from an academy, or won’t make a profit, so he
immediately disregards those. Without being allowed to work, his most viable
option is to sell goods.

If his father’s books were
still here, they would be worth at least several silver pieces each. After
going through the list of things he could possibly sell, he decides to sell his
‘Ice Bullets’. They are low grade bullets that aren’t worth much, but it is
still possible to sell them.

Regal equips his revolver
and uses all his mana to create .38 ‘Ice Bullets’. Rather than loading them
into his weapon, he stores the ‘Ice Bullets’ in one of the two empty bullet
cases. Despite being made of ice, the bullets will not melt over time and can
be stored indefinitely.

Without using any mana
recovery items, Regal’s mana recovers a single point every two minutes,
allowing him to create one ice bullet every ten minutes; six every hour; and
excluding the time when he is asleep, a little over ninety a day. This is
enough for one and a half bullet cases.

Regal’s production of ‘Ice
Bullets’ while at his academy the next day is slightly slower as students are
not permitted to use any skills inside the classroom without the teacher’s
permission. He can only use the alchemy during the lunch break.

None of the students
consider him stockpiling the alchemical bullets to be strange. In their eyes,
he is just practicing his alchemy. Veronica takes an interest in him practicing
alchemy and boldly says to Regal, “Little brother, come over to my house
tonight. We can practice alchemy together in the backyard.”

“I’m sorry, Veronica. I
have other things I need to do tonight so I can’t come.”

“I’ve told you before,
call me Big sis’.”

“Yes, big sis’.”

“Great! So you are coming
over then?”

“I’m still not coming.”

“Then how can we practice
together?”

“Can’t you two practice
now?” Astore joins the conversation but is quickly shut down by Veronica.

“There isn’t enough time!”

Unwilling to give up
trying to help, Astore comes up with a different idea.

“Why don’t you two meet up
at the training hall later?”

“Yes, big sis, I can meet
you later at the training hall to practice if you like?”

“Fine, we will do that. As
soon as you are finished with your business, come to the training hall. I will
be waiting.”

“I will go as soon as my
business is done.”

The four Soulless chat
about various topics throughout lunch, especially those related to
comprehending their Divine Arts. Each of the students has a different method of
relating to their Divine Arts. Regal, the last to form comprehension into his
Divine Art, likens it to a small spark within his mind, but has yet to
understand how to expand it.

The other three try
helping him understand how to expand it, but their explanations feel illogical
to him and could potentially stunt his future growth. Astore’s understanding is
like a small flame that grows in intensity in correlation to his comprehension.
Kilde’s is like a pool of water, slowly getting bigger. Veronica describes hers
as a flower bud, blossoming one petal at a time.

Afternoon classes pass
quickly and the bell signifying the closing of the academy rings. Everyone
seems to follow their usual routine and no one notices when Veronica bids
farewell to her parents and walks off in a direction different than to her home
or the Training Hall.

She is currently following
Regal while making sure she remains out of sight if he happens to look behind
him. Veronica didn’t change her mind from when she said she would wait for him
at the Training Hall, this has secretly been her plan all along. If Regal
happens to not go to where they are supposed to meet, she will forcibly drag
him there.

Regal has a full case and
a half of ‘Ice Bullets’, which he stores in his inventory and enters Market
Street. The store he looks for is a relatively popular ammunition store called
Hundred Rose Bullets. It is a two story store that has shelves and crates on
both floors filled with various types of bullets in different sizes and with
different effects.

There are exploding
bullets, hollow point bullets, armour piercing bullets, various elemental
bullets, and countless more that most people don’t even know the name or effect
of.

The store owner is an
enormous man at eight feet tall and with veins bulging out of every muscle on
his body. He wears a worn grey vest, long sleeved shirt and loose brown pants
that help to pacify the intimidation of the scowl he was born with.

He isn’t actually an
Immortalis, but a half giant from one of the wasteland’s outer communities. His
race is similar to the Soulless in that they were artificially created by the
world, but different because they do not have souls residing within Mind
Bubbles.

There is no discrimination
towards peaceful half giants. Being a different race to the Immortalis, they
don’t look down on them like their own Soulless, but see them as a slightly
less intelligent race when compared to themselves.

The enormous store owner
looks down at Regal, trying to smile in front of the child but ending up giving
a menacing smirk and speaking with a heavy accent. “Good af’ernoon, child. How
can I be o’ help?”

“I would like to sell
these .38 calibre ‘Ice Bullets’.” Regal briskly takes the full case of bullets
and also the half full one out of his inventory, presenting them on the store
counter.

The half giant dexterously
inspects the ice bullets, looking between the child in front of him and the ice
bullets. After some consideration, he hand the bullets back to Regal.

“Sorry ‘id. I can’t buy
‘hese, ‘he quality is too poor. I only accep’ ‘hose with a min damage of se’en
or more. Increase yer skill and in’elligence and ‘hen bring me some.”

Regal doesn’t respond to
him, quickly leaving the shop to look for a different ammunition shop. It isn’t
that there is a qualitative difference in the production of his ‘Ice Bullets’,
but his skill is only at the second level. For low tier alchemical bullets like
‘Ice Bullets’, Hundred Rose Bullets will only purchase them if they met a
certain standard.

A skill at level 50 will
have a fifty percent increase to all Divine Arts of that skill, one percent for
every level. A standard ‘Ice Bullet’ does 4 to 6 additional ice damage, while
one created at level 50 will do 6 to 9 additional ice damage. Increasing the
intelligence stat will also add a bonus to alchemy, further enhancing damage.
Even if the damage is low, it is still considered a superior bullet.

As Regal is exploring
Market Street for another store selling a lot of ammunition, he doesn’t notice
the shadow of Veronica getting closer behind him. Regal eventually finds
another store that sells a large stock of ammunition.

This store is called
Atelier Gun & Bullet. It specializes in custom guns and different types of
ammunition. It is only single story and has a much more limited range of
bullets compared to Hundred Rose Bullets, but it has its own appeal. A single
wall is dedicated to customized weapons with large price tags attached.

All of the weapons have
various modifications, including extended scopes, adjusted rifling with the
barrel, silencers, more comfortable handle grips, and even some different rifle
pieces that appear to have been designed for visual appeal more than
practicality. Each has engravings on them, such as the creators autograph, a
single sentence motto, vivid artworks, or even alchemy symbols.

One particular weapon, a
large rifle with a strange alchemy symbol engraved on it, catches Regal’s
attention. It is about three feet long with a short magnification scope on top
of it.

“Ohh, you are looking at
the Silverstein Westing Special; A heavy rifle with an extended barrel. It also
has a minor lightning alchemy formulae engraved to give the bullets extra speed
and penetration. Do you want it?”

A cute girl with wavy
brown hair tied up in a ponytail and multiple ear piercings on each ears speaks
from behind Regal, startling him. She is the same age and height as Regal, and
wears the uniform of an academy unfamiliar to him.

“No, store owner. I was
just having a look. What do you mean by alchemy formulae engraving?”

“Haha, I am the owner’s
daughter. You can just call me Aqua. Don’t you know about alchemy engraving?”

“Thank you Aqua, I will
remember your name and no, I haven’t heard of this engraving. What is it?”

“Some skills have a Divine
Art that allows you to engrave various alchemy formulae from that skill on to
weapons or armor. They each have their own properties that affect the gun so
there are an endless amount of them. This engraving is of the Divine Art,
‘Lightning Step’.”

“I have never heard
anything about this before.”

“So, if you didn’t come
here to buy this weapon, what are you here for today?”

“I would like to sell
these bullets.”

Regal once again takes the
case and a half of ice bullets out of his inventory and presents them to the
girl, who studies them closely and looks a little disappointed.

“Please, I really need to
sell these bullets,” Regal says while politely bowing to Aqua.

Aqua is lost in thought
with a complicated look on her face, but eventually stills her face and answers
Regal, “Very well, we will buy them. But you have to know, it is only this time
that we will. My father may be especially unhappy about this, so don’t expect
to be able to sell more.”

Regal feels incredibly
relieved inside and involuntarily lets out a charming smile, causing Aqua to
turn her face away while blushing slightly.

“These aren’t worth much;
I can at the most pay you five bronze coins for a full case of bullets with the
case included.”

Regal’s mind starts
calculating the figures of the profit. A single bullet case costs two bronze
coins, slightly less if they are purchased in bulk. This profit is incredibly
small and barely enough to live on, but it is possible.

“That is fine. Thank you
so much for purchasing these bullets.”

They complete the
transaction before Regal turns around and runs out of the store, calling out to
Aqua as he leaves, “I will see you tomorrow!”

“Hey! I said don’t expect
to- tch, he’s gone!” Aqua pouts as she realizes the boy, who she doesn’t even
know the name of, has escaped.

“You should have turned
him down in the first place, I have little desire for those scraps of bullets,”
the voice of Aqua’s father, a rogue-like man with the same color hair as Aqua,
enters the room from outside the rear door.

“I know, father! But, I-”

“You reap what you sow,
Aqua. I will take no part in this. You will have to deal with it, whatever your
choices.”

Aqua continues to pout,
ignoring her father as she grumpily sits behind the counter at the rear of the
shop. Using a combat knife, she carves a small picture of the boy’s face into
the wooden counter to ensure she will remember it.

***************************************************

Mixed amongst the crowd of
Market Street, Regal quickly navigates through the throng of people with
Veronica following behind him like a shadow. He finds a general store and
purchases a bulk quantity of twenty bullet cases suited for .38 bullets for
thirty bronze coins. His current remaining funds are 1 silver 75 bronze.

Regal has completely
forgotten about meeting Veronica at the Training Hall in his determination to
make money. Rather than heading to where he was supposed to be, he leaves
Market Street and briskly walks towards his home.

Seeing him not heading to
the Training Hall, Veronica increases her speed to a run. She is incredibly
unhappy, even slightly angry, that he isn’t going to the Training Hall after he
said he would. Had she gone straight there after leaving the academy, she would
have ended up waiting for him all night.

As Regal is walking home,
his arm is grabbed, preventing him from continuing on his way. He turns his
head around to see the unhappy Veronica glaring at him. He instantly realizes
he was supposed to meet her at the Training Hall, but before he can apologize,
she turns and proceeds to pull him down the street with her.