Chapter 81: Appraisal (1)

Chapter 81

"Huuuuuuu....!"

Asher drew in a sharp, raspy breath of air as his eyes snapped wide open.

But what greeted him was pitch-black darkness.

He couldn’t see anything.

It was as though he had been robbed of his vision entirely.

But that wasn’t right.

He could feel that he could see, so it wasn’t that his vision was gone.

Instead, it seemed like he was simply surrounded by darkness.

The entire place was shrouded in a suffocating blanket of darkness, making it almost difficult to breathe as Asher struggled to see even a single thing.

It was the same void he had found himself in after taking those sleeping pills, before entering the Nightmare.

Unlike the previous time, however, he wasn’t panicked at all.

He simply floated gently within the endless void, his body weightless as he allowed himself to remain suspended in the darkness.

’Well, from my previous experience, I can figure out that I’m not dead, and this isn’t the afterlife.’

Asher narrowed his eyes.

’Probably a bridge between the real world and the Nightmare.’

Twisting and turning his head around, Asher scanned his surroundings before looking down at his own body.

He desperately patted himself from head to toe.

Nothing.

He couldn’t feel any pain.

Though he had just been burned alive, there wasn’t a single blister, burn, or injury anywhere on his body.

’Hm. Impressive.’

Before he could come up with another explanation, a loud mechanical voice suddenly resounded deeply throughout the void.

It was the same mechanical voice that had announced his entry into and exit from the Nightmare.

It almost sounded like a robot....

A System voice.

It spoke:

«Congratulations, Dreamer Asher; you have just completed your Nightmare.»

The voice paused for a moment, almost as though it were thinking deeply before continuing.

«You will now be appraised.»

’Appraised?’

Asher’s brows furrowed.

’What does that mean? Don’t tell me that I’m about to be thrown into another Nightmare. I will ki—’

«Appraisal....»

The mechanical voice interrupted his thoughts.

[Dreamer: Your Nightmare is Over.]

[A broken son who wanted and yearned deeply for his family’s love and safety. Despite the treachery of the Nightmare to keep the Dreamer locked in its trap and, at the end of time, devour him; Dreamer managed to defeat the Nightmare by using his wits, observational skills and, at the end of the day, dealt with the spawns of the Nightmare and its vessel.]

[You have defeated a Hollow; Jack Dawson.]

[You have defeated a Hollow; Clara Dawson.]

[You have defeated a Hollow; Jesse Dawson.]

[You defeated the vessel of the Nightmare ruler: Jayden Dawson.]

[You have received the blessing of bonding with the Nightmare ruler—an Eidolon.]

[You have achieved the impossible of the impossible. You survived the Nightmare nobody in the whole of history was able to conquer. Truly marvellous!]

The mechanical voice almost sounded excited for some reason as it laid out all of Asher’s achievements before him in a block of blue text.

At the same time, it read the words aloud for him to hear.

The voice continued:

[Final Appraisal: Heavenly. Your smartness and observatory prowess truly knows no bounds.]

Well, that last part was truly not necessary.

Asher stared at the words over and over.

He had always known himself to be observant.

He didn’t know why, but he had always loved observing things deeply and thinking critically.

Always ready for whatever might come his way.

His instincts were always dialed a notch beyond what was humanly capable.

Whether it was because of watching tons of anime and thinking of himself as one of the main characters or not, he simply was just different.

But about being smart?

Well, he had never truly noticed it and had never even had the opportunity to use his wit in situations like this.

It wasn’t like he had ever been put in a situation where he was forced to use his brains....

Or even his brawns.

This Nightmare had exposed a lot of things to him.

And honestly, as he stared at the blue texts floating in front of him, he still found everything confusing.

What was this voice?

And these texts?

They looked and sounded like the Systems from the countless anime he had watched.

But for some reason, they looked oddly different from what he was used to.

But the main question remained:

Why?

Why was he receiving this?

Now that he had apparently survived and completed his Nightmare, what came next?

Well, as if answering his question, the mechanical voice continued.

[Dreamer Asher, receive your new title!]

’Huh?’

Asher blinked.

’Title? What title?’

[Daywalker Asher.]

’Er?’

[Daywalker Asher, your Eidolon is ready to bond.]

’Wait.... The hell is an Eidolon?’

[Bonding.... 20%]

’What—what is going on here? I—I don’t feel strange.’

[Bonding.... 50%]

’Okay. That was a huge jump.’

[Bonding.... 75%]

[Bonding.... 80%]

Asher swallowed hard, unsure of what was going to come next.

Honestly, he didn’t even understand what the hell was going on with these strange messages.

He had never been educated about any of this.

All Asher had wanted to do was enter the Nightmare and die.

He had nothing left to live for with his family gone.

And now, he found himself here?

The strange entity’s voice from his first time in this void was nowhere to be found. Instead, it had been replaced by this mechanical voice that kept yapping about things he had absolutely no idea about.

It was all crazy.

And almost overwhelming.

[Bonding.... 100%]

[Congratulations; Bonding Completed.]

[Eidolon successfully bonded with Daywalker.]

[Daywalker Asher, Congratulations; you have just received an ability.]

’Eh?’

Asher’s eyes widened.

"Abilities? What are those?"

[Summon your Veil Interface to view.]

’Huh....? Veil Interface?’

Ding!

The sound resounded from deep within Asher’s head instead of bouncing all around the void.

Then, a translucent obsidian window appeared before his face.

[THE VEIL INTERFACE]

[Name: Asher Reid]

[Status: Alive]

[Synchronization: 5%]

[Eidolon: The Hollow Watcher]

[Mental Stability: 96%]

[Corruption: 0%]

[Shadow Essence: 13 Units]

As if on instinct, Asher decided to call out inwardly.

’Ability tab.’

[Abilities:]

[Name: Eidolon Sight.]

[Ability Description: Daywalker can now see Shadows no matter the time of the day.]

’Woah.’

Asher stared at the description for a moment.

’Okay... I was skeptical before, but now.... This doesn’t look half as bad.’

Asher rubbed his chin as he scanned through the interface, a deep frown settling on his face.

’This doesn’t look like those typical systems from the light novels I read.’

His eyes moved across the obsidian window.

’I don’t have any quest tab nor an attribute tab.’

His brows furrowed.

’So there’s no way to grow st—’

A second later—

A voice suddenly resounded, echoing all around the void.

It sounded ancient.

Primal.

Something completely out of this world.

Like the voice of a thousand-year-old creature that had just been awakened after an eternity of slumber.

"Hm."

Asher froze.

"So I guess you’re the one I’m bonded to now."

The strange voice paused.

"For the first time since the creation of the Nightmare, I finally get a user?"

A faint sigh escaped the voice.

"Sigh...."

Asher swallowed hard almost instantly.

His entire body stiffened as he heard the voice speaking directly to him.

It wasn’t the mechanical System-like voice.

It wasn’t the entity from the beginning of his Nightmare either.

This was something else.

Something that had apparently been with him all along.

And now—

It could speak.