Chapter 14: First capture
"That’s a lot to take in, no?"
Selina also smiled wryly and nodded.
Right at that moment, Shelly called out.
"Miss Selina, your room is ready."
Selina looked at Jaden with a reluctant expression before turning away and leaving.
Jaden now stood alone on the balcony, and his body quivered a little as he finally let the weight of emotions affect him.
"Hah..." A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he muttered in a low voice.
"I have to get my memories back..."
He, however, didn’t know how to do that. But he was sure that he had lost his memory because he now had a proper vision of what could have happened, and the answers and information he had obtained from Selina fell like the missing pieces within this puzzled existence of his.
"I had been in this world for two years now... within the first year, I met all of them and became Selina’s lover. Then, a year later, we entered this realm because of that apparent accident and fell into the hex of the city... I built the empty core and awakened the system, but the hex stopped it from binding with me. Two days ago, I woke up from the hex, but all of my previous memories got wiped by the city, so I thought that I had transmigrated two days ago..."
He rubbed his face and looked up for a few moments as he mumbled.
"It still doesn’t answer why I had my clothes and camera on me."
"I would have ditched them to not bring any attention to myself... It doesn’t make sense..."
A smile crept on his lips as he shook his head and added.
"The sense of logic itself has long fallen, heh."
He looked towards the southern walls of the city with a sharp glint and thought of his next course of action.
"I don’t remember the absorption art... But, I am the son of the mayor," his smile widened as he added in a greedy tone.
"There is no way the mayor would deny his own son from learning all the spells and arts available in the city, right?" His eyes turned dark for a moment as he turned around and left the balcony.
The moon was already at its peak when he left the balcony.
Jaden entered his room and changed into his nightwear, and mumbled to himself.
"Tomorrow I will get all the spells and arts from that father of mine."
He collapsed in his bed and closed his eyes to enter the embrace of sleep, but before he could do so, a knock echoed in his room.
Jaden opened his eyes with an annoyed expression and questioned.
"Who is it?"
But no reply came from the other side. He raised an eyebrow and stepped down from his bed. He opened the door and, surprisingly, a maid stood there. She was the second maid he had tried his capture skill on.
Jaden took a few steps back upon seeing her because her eyes were glassy white, as if made of flowing mist, and an eerie smile stretched across her lips. She stepped inside the room, and suddenly her body convulsed.
Jaden’s eyes widened, and his heartbeat started to rise as he felt his body freeze.
"What the fuck is this?" he muttered with a terrified look.
Her, no... Its body suddenly turned similar to its eyes, glassy white with mist flowing within and at the place of its eyes, it had two green orbs burning with eerie light. Its limbs elongated, the fingers turned into claws, and it soon reached a height of about two meters. Towering over him like a wicked deity.
’What’s going on? I-Is this what a nightmare is?’
The glassy mist creature - the nightmare - lifted its claw and swung at Jaden. Jaden’s terrified look, however, suddenly turned into confusion... the nightmare he could read its movements because they were not that fast.
’Huh...?!’
He jumped towards the table where his camera was and dodged the claw, which was coming towards him like a grim reaper’s scythe. Strangely, though, the attack phased through everything and made no sound at all.
’I just have to capture it before it kills me...’
Jaden hurriedly picked up his camera and got ready to capture the dreadful creature in front of him, but right then, it turned towards him and jumped with its claws ready to shred him to pieces.
At the moment the claws were about to reach him, He rolled to the side and positioned his camera before the nightmare creature. His hands were shaking as he got ready to take the picture, but the fear of death was binding him down... making his actions slow.
He tried to calm his heavily beating heart as sweat rolled down his face. Jaden, however, was confused by this.
’What’s wrong with me? I shouldn’t be this scared...’
Right then, his eyes fell on the slight mist coming out of the nightmare’s body, and his eyes widened as the realisation hit him.
"That mist... It’s enhancing my fear."
The creature once again turned towards him and got ready to attack, but right when it tried to move, the necklace around Jaden’s neck glowed with a dreamy light, and his mind cleared. Jaden blinked a few times but came to his bearings as the nightmare was still here.
The nightmare leapt at him with its right claws in front to skewer him. Jaden positioned the camera lens at the nightmare and pressed the shutter button. A blue screen appeared before him.
It read:
[Capturing an E-Rank Mistwraith.]
[Capture Requires - 1 slot]
[Confirm | Deny]
The nightmare’s claw was about to reach him, Jaden closed his eyes and shouted.
"Confirm!"
The nightmare suddenly broke into black sparks, and those sparks entered his body. A few moments later, messages appeared before him.
[Congratulations, you have captured an E-Rank Mistwraith.]
[Experience +20 (Capture)]
Jaden heaved a sigh and lay on the ground with his arm on his head before a curse slipped through his lips.
"Blasted hell..."