Chapter 205 - A Prisoner Too
It took Elliot a couple of hours to complete one Guard Emblem. Pulling alone took him a lot of time, with the meticulous procedure of extracting the essence from the items and into his Console.
He laid on the wooden floor after finishing the Purple Palace Guard Emblem, exhausted after doing such delicate task over and over.
Using The Creator's Sloth skill, he junked the corpse and let The Creator's Gluttony skill to feed on it.
Reading the notification, he immediately sat up and checked on his Console. His eyes widened, looking at the words on his vision.
'The Creator's Gluttony full.'
'Exchange for any items in the next tab.'
Elliot formed an O with his mouth as he saw the Console switch to a neaw tab. This time, it was a list of items that weren't found in his recipe list.
He scoured through the long list of items that he could exchange all his dumped items with.
…
<< Sonova Blood Dagger >>
<< Demon Lord Scythe >>
<< Twilight Cocoon >>
…
As he scrolled through, he stopped right after seeing the familiar item. He took a look at it and tilted his head, oddly looking at both words.
"Does this have to do anything with the Twilight Wings?" Elliot asked and was about to click on it. He then retracted his hands, doubting about his decision.
It took a long time for the skill to let him exchange. Heaven knows how long it would take for it to exchange again?
But then again, his gut was telling him to investigate. The Twilight Wings are comparable to artifact items. If he could somehow cultivate Twilight Wings from this item, he would have an artifact with him.
He shook his head and followed his instincts. "Fine, whatever."
'Exchange for << Twilight Cocoon >>?'
< Yes > < No >
"Yes," Elliot pressed and gulped, waiting for it to load.
'Succesfully exchanged! The item is now in your Inventory.'
Elliot switched to his Inventory and didn't waste any more monent and checked on the item.
'Feature unlocked.'
< Grade Inspector >
// Grade Inspector lets the user to identify the grade of an item.
[ Criteria:
Common
Refined
Elite
Epic
Divine
Celestial ]
<< Twilight Cocoon >>
Grade: Divine
Level: 0
Next Stage: Twilight Wings
// The Twilight Cocoon is the preceding item before the Twilight Wings. The Twilight Cocoon will hatch and its speed will depend on the mana fed to it every day.
! The item can only feed on the user's mana. Other mana placed on the item will be counted as negative and will deduct to the current mana placed.
Elliot couldn't believe his eyes. He had only inspected weapons and equipment before. And it was ranked based on the Adventurer tiers. He didn't know items could be classified as well.
Gulping with a mix of nervousness and excitement, Elliot pulled the Supreme Dragon Immunity Crest and placed it in his palm.
"Grade Inspector."
<< Supreme Dragon Immunity Crest >>
Grade: Celestial
Level: 2
Final Stage
// Allows the user to deflect any critical damage.
Cooldown: 36 hours (reduced by level)
"So items could also be leveled up too?" Elliot asked out loud. He started to scan his Inventory for any other item he could scan. Most of them were potions and boosts since he didn't expect for a feature like this to appear.
"So, how do I activate these features?" Elliot tried asking The Manual. "Or you do it yourself whenever you feel like it as always?"
He waited for it to response, much like random times when he speaks and it answers, but he failed.
"And you don't want to talk to me anymore because?" Elliot tried conversing with it, but it seemed like it doesn't want to talk to him anymore.
With a sigh of defeat, he plopped back on the hardwood floor. He was feeling the cold wood behind him when something irked his mind.
Like a sudden itch, but he don't know what it was or what it is. He just felt like something was missing, like something was stolen from him without his knowledge.
And then, he asked himself the question.
"What lies in The Manual?"
Elliot blinked and he suddenly found himself inside an room of eternal void. He was floating in darkness without any clothing on. His body felt like air, like he doesn't have one at all. But somehow, he could still move.
"Hello?" Elliot called out to the never ending space. Everything seemed balanced here. It wasn't dark, but it wasn't bright. It wasn't cold, yet it wasn't hot.
Everything was in a perfect sync that trying to feel something would be a chore.
"Where am I?" Elliot asked himself and tried to move away.
After a while, Elliot got bored of endlessly floating. He stopped himself and focused his mind on waking up. He was sure this was a dream. Dreams have weirdness in them that this place checks out in that criteria.
How he ended up on this dream was the question. As far as he could remember, he was in his old house. He was laying on the floor when he closed his eyes and opened them, and now he's here.
"If no one would answer, I swear I would–"
'APRIL.'
A male voice said. It was deeper than the other one, and much raspier too. It didn't feel as though it was human, like it was a bear who had a sore throat.
"How many times do I have to say that I'm not–"
'You're APRIL now,' the voice said. 'Right now, you wield the book. And whoever wields the book gains the name APRIL.'
"And that's because?" Elliot scoffed. "I don't have my own freedom with this haven't I? No, I actually learned that already. I don't have any control over things when I'm with this book."
'Don't let it give complete control over you then,' the voice said. It sounded with a thick layer of sarcasm coating it like sauce. Like when someone points the pen to the person who was looking for it, when it's exactly right in front of them.
'Once you owned the book, you play a game with it. Letting it control you will only have more control over you,' the voice explained. 'Taking control from it will give you less of the benefits. It will be pissed, sure, but then it's only a step closer to your ultimate goal.'
Elliot looked up. He didn't really know where the voice was coming from, it felt like it sounded in all the directions, but looking up felt like the best thing to do, "The ultimate goal? Which is?"
'Power,' the voice said. 'When you have complete control over The Manual, you will have absolute power over it. It will give you everything you need, just like what's it doing with you right now. But imagine if you can control it. You will be The Creator that it always tells you too.'
"Control what the manual is giving me?" Elliot tilted his head. "Like the skills and featured?"
'Unlimited skills, unlimited Inventory slots, unlimited XP in every feature, you can reign once you have complete control over it,' the voice said. This time its tone had a thrill in it. Like it was pitching a perfect plan to its superior that it worked several months for.
"But how can I do that?" Elliot asked. "If it can control me right now, how can I break through?"
'The answer is within your words,' the voice said. 'Once you know the answer, the path will be easy to take.'
"The ans– wait!" Elliot yelled. "Before anything else, how can I trust you?"
The voice was chuckling, seemingly getting fond of the boy.
'Because like you, I am a prisoner too.'