The Abyss was a dimension that no human should even be.
The toxic energy sapped a person’s life with every moment they stayed there.
It was a realm of death that, even with ample preparations, would find one way or another to kill you.
Its only saving grace—if it could even be considered one—was the invaluable resources one could harvest from its inhabitants.
Soren, however, wanted nothing to do with this death sentence of a world.
He was a mere normal scavenger and severely underprepared for the trials the Abyss would throw at him.
If he could use one word to describe his fate, it’d probably be ‘royally screwed’.
Although it was two words, it really described his situation.
He took in the Abyss and shivered, gritting his teeth as he explored his options.
To the sky was the Void, a dimension rumored to be the birthplace of all the Abyssal Creatures with their harrowing might.
Below him was an endless sea of stars known as the Starlight Abyss, a seemingly innocent expanse that consumed you if you crossed a certain point.
When he looked beyond into the infinite horizon, he saw a swirling, black mass that caused Soren’s head to throb with pain when he looked directly at it.
As they say, if you stare into the abyss, it stares back and the saying seemed to fit really well with the black mass.
Hell, if you looked at any of the Abyss—the Void, the Starlight Abyss, and the swirling black mass—your head could probably explode.
Soren shifted his gaze away from all of it, looking back at solid ground that so sweetly relieved his mind.
He glanced around at the floating cities of the shattered city that floated above the Starlight Abyss, grimacing at what he saw.
The island he was on was miles away from the Grand Stage where Empress Meridia was.
When he tried to use his binoculars, he found that the magnifying power was no longer effective to get a clear grasp of what was happening at the central island.
He tsked at that, putting down his binoculars and stuffing it into his cloak.
He had to find a way to gather information quickly because he believed that information was the strongest weapon a person could wield.
If someone went in blind, they were no better than a monkey.
Soren felt a pulse from his right hand where he looked down to see the dream sword.
Confused, he brought it up to his face but found it difficult compared to the dream.
It was much heavier in the real world than in the dream.
However, determined to discover the pulse, he lifted it and looked at its mesmerizing mirror.
He stared at it until he huffed, annoyed that nothing changed when he looked at it.
He felt another pulse on his chest before the dream sword shifted, showing an glowing inscription embedded on its silver blade.
[Dream Sword] it read.
Soren gasped, surprised at the text.
He assumed that he wouldn’t be able to use the sword because Abyssal Items usually required the user to be at least Awakened but he was a normal.
The consumer-grade enchanted items that were sold in shops—like his binoculars—usually were stored with entropy that needed to be recharged by an Ascender after it had been fully used, reduced to a normal item.
It didn’t make any sense for Soren to be able to use the Dream Sword as he wasn’t an Awakened.
He was a mere normal scavenger that possessed little to no prospects in life.
If he was an Awakened, his life would instantly rise to be one of the elites of society.
Then he remembered the pulse on his chest just now and back in the dream.
He dug into his cloak and under his shirt and pulled it out.
His necklace.
It was a necklace that had immense sentimentality to him since it was the first thing he remembered as a child.
It could be nothing, like a cheap accessory some philanthropist threw at him as a scavenger child.
Or, it could be a family heirloom his parents gave him that could possess clues as to where they could be.
As he looked at his necklace, he found a radiant, white pulse from the white orb hanging from the chain and felt that the latter was more the case.
He palmed the orb, trying to find any mechanism as to why it was glowing but found nothing.
All he could tell was that it probably did something with entropy, therefore allowing him to activate the Dream Sword.
Willing the necklace to flood the Dream Sword with entropy, it shifted the inscription embedded in it to show multiple lines that caused Soren to salivate.
Name: [Dream Sword]
Rank: [Awakened] x [Soulbound]
Attributes: [Looking Glass], [Dreamy]
He looked at the Dream Sword with even more respect, nodding in approval.
As he said, information is priceless, and having the ability to look at the sword’s stats was invaluable information.
Soren squinted at the [Awakened] x [Soulbound], confused on what exactly it meant.
When he did, a pulse came from his necklace before the reflection of the text shifted to show a description of both.
Rank: [Awakened]
Description: [This weapon is Awakened]
Rank: [Soulbound]
Description: [When your rank ascends, the Dream Sword’s rank follows.
This sword is bound to your soul]
He frowned at the description, sighing at the information he just gleaned.
It seemed like he couldn’t find a way to sell it on the black market which meant that major profits would be lost from this excursion to the dreaded Abyss.
However, it would be invaluable to have such a weapon in the Abyss because not having a weapon in this world would spell death.
Soren was confused about the [Awakened] rank if the weapon was soulbounded to him and his rank was normal but brushed it off, thankful that he had an Abyssal Weapon.
He shifted down to the attributes and focused on them, causing the reflection to shift.
Attribute: [Looking Glass]
Description: [This blade reflects what you desire to see.
Focus your intent and your will shall be revealed]
Soren stared at the description, jaws open at the sheer potential of the attribute.
The things he could do with the weapon was beyond an Awakened rank.
He wouldn’t be surprised if he heard that the attribute was only in Divine rank tools.
The fact that he could see anything he wanted opened up so many possibilities for him that he couldn’t completely wrap his head around the versatility of it.
Attribute: [Dreamy]
Description: [Allows you to manipulate the properties of the weapon to your desires]
“Now that is useful,” Soren muttered under his breath, adjusting his grip on the hilt.
He willed the entropy from his necklace to flow into the blade and shift from a heavy broadsword that took a lot of strength to hold up to a thinner longsword that he found more comfortable to hold.
“Now,” he mumbled, infusing the Dream Sword with more entropy.
“Let’s see how the Looking Glass attribute works.”
The mirror-like steel warped before he willed the sword to search for Shindo to see if he was safe.
After waiting a moment, the sword stilled and the reflection remained the same.
Just a reflection of the Dreamy attribute.
The damn thing doesn’t even work.
He thought Abyssal Items didn’t malfunction like human-made creations did.
Soren pondered for a bit before changing gears.
He willed the reflection to show the Grand Stage where the Order Break happened and saw the reflection warp before it stilled.
This time, the sword stayed on the reflection of the central island where a group of guards and royal guards surrounded a hazy figure he couldn’t quite make out.
Beyond them, a purple rift stood at the very center of the island where a gigantic hazy figure guarded the rift.
‘What the hell?’ he thought, puzzled.
‘How come I couldn’t see Shindo and the Empress?’
He tried to think of any reason as to why the Dream Sword couldn’t capture the two before giving up, accepting that the Dream Sword was somehow malfunctioning.
Soren originally thought that he could possibly try to reach the central island and get saved by the Empress and her guards, but that was quickly squashed when he saw how much he would have to travel.
The island he is on is around half a mile long where he would have to travel across the Abyssal Creature-infested streets to reach the edge of the island.
Then, he would have to somehow cross the Starlight Abyss—which was impossible for him—and to the next island which was equally as big.
Then, he would reach the central island, which is at least twice the size as the island he is on.
With every step he got closer to the central island, the more Abyssal Creatures he’d probably find due the higher density of people watching the Grand Coronation.
Soren knew he was resourceful and quite smart, but he wouldn’t bet that he could get to the central continent in one shape.
Soren sighed, deciding that he was likely on his own in this nightmarish world—very much like the rest of his life.
He decided to look for another option and looked into the Dream Sword once again, scouring for any option that could let him see another day.
He saw a path that led to the royal guard he and Shindo sought to steal from.
However, this time, the guard was dead.
It looked like his head was bit clean off, leaving only a corpse and the armor he left behind.
Further beyond it, he saw a path that led to a pulsing rift in the basement of a restaurant.
The Anchor.
According to a handy handbook he read in the past about Order Breaks, the world brought into the Abyss is split into many fragmented islands depending on the rank of the Order Break.
Each island has Anchors that must be activated by some action—an action he wasn’t sure about—before the central island must activate the Nexus Anchor to bring the world back to Atheo.
Every other path he saw was infested with starving Abyssal Creatures that lurked in the streets for a morsel of human.
Soren sighed before steeling his resolve.
He was going to go to the royal guard, steal the armor from him, and somehow activate the Anchor.
According to the Dream Sword, there were no Abyssal Creatures nearby so if he went right now, he’d be safe for the meantime.
Maybe he’ll have fun!
He might find his inner true calling of being an Abyssal Hunter and this would be the first step.
He cut a piece of cloth from this cloak and fashioned it into a makeshift sheath.
He sheathed his sword in the sheath located right next to his hip, and breathed in deeply.
“Let us begin.”
He jumped off the building.