Prince of The Abyss

Aether lay on the ground, just staring at the sky. He had spent so many hours in this place already, and he was already very bored. It was taking a lot of time for an NPC to appear; a whole hour had to pass, and to make it worse, they took an hour to give the EXP, which he understood was for the training ground... ”But does it really take you a whole hour exactly to eat your food? Like, come on!”

The only good thing was that he was right: the more you appeared, the more facilities you had, which made him want to get as many as he could; that way, he could level up faster, but at the same time, it wasn’t that big of an investment. Each time the restaurant was used, it gave him one coin... just one. And cost him a lot more. Was he really going to waste all his money to get another one, just to gain one more EXP?

’I mean... I would also get more money, double if you think about it, but I will also have a lot less, and maybe better things come when I level up, or maybe I’ll be able to upgrade my facilities. I will need the money... so should I risk it?’

Aether sighed, resting his arm on his forehead. ’I’m a fighter, not whatever this is.’

Ironic, when he was supposed to be an heir to the throne of a giant Kingdom, and he was having a hard time making easy decisions.

...

It did hurt his pride slightly... after all, it reminded him just how bad he was at leading, of being in charge.

Many times has he been put in this position, having to make his own decisions, and he couldn’t say he hated it; he loved being able to do whatever he wanted and to be free, but he also couldn’t deny that it was hard. If he chose to do something that just wasted his time, he would curse himself for it. If he did something wrong, he would blame himself.

They didn’t necessarily make him rethink whether he was responsible enough to be making choices for himself; they were just one-time things he said, forgot, and then focused on fixing things. But when he also had someone with him, who his leading affected, it was way worse, since he also had to take the blame for whatever happened to the one next to him.

He hated it... but... You can’t do everything alone.

...

Getting up, Aether waved his thoughts away, stretching his body that hadn’t done anything in a long time.

’Maybe I should go to another Anchor; that way I could maybe be inspired.’ This was a lie; for him to actually get inspired, he needed to go to an anchor at his level, but he wanted to go to the Blue Rose’s anchor, which was already probably fully developed.

His true reason for everything... he really wanted something to do. He had already sold his relics, and he didn’t feel the need to buy anything. The Anchor needed time to grow; the egg just wouldn’t hatch, and he needed time to get his mind right for what to do in the Withered. So he didn’t really have anything to do to pass the time.

Aether closed his eyes as he thought about the Blue Rose’s anchor, and once he opened them again, he found himself in a giant plaza. It was interesting, just how easy it was to travel from anchor to anchor. Since, if you thought about it, they were all really far away from each other.

The place was filled with people, to an exaggerated point; the difference between this and his anchor was like night and day. ’Of course it is. My anchor is brand new, and it’s not like anyone really knows me outside my friends and some other people. This is the Anchor for the whole of the Blue Rose, and is owned by one of the only Breakers; of course it is going to have more people than me.’

Aether squeezed himself through the sea of people, checking out the many stands and shops. The diversity was really impressive, from housing stuff to buildings to relics to restaurants; and all were run by people, not NPCs. It looked as if it was real life.

But one thing about it was that it was very overwhelming. Aether slipped out of the crowd, into a small alleyway, to catch his breath.

’How are they even able to just endure it? It felt like I was a small fish crammed with many others in a small metal box.’ The Anchor was impressive; he wasn’t going to deny it. After all, there was a whole castle in here, but at the same time, there were too many people. He wondered what the limit was, if there even was one.

But also how big it was, since from where he was, you could have more anchors, so just how big was it? And was it all like this?

Looking around at the alleyway, it was nothing like the ones he knew. It actually looked like it was well kept, very different from normal, but maybe that was because his normal was the ones from the Withered. Which had dead bodies inside.

But....

Inside it, there was something that caught his eye... a wanted poster.

Aether tilted his head, staring at the price; it was a lot... a lot, a lot. ’One hundred whole golden coins, just for one person that’s just insane...’ Ripping it off the wall, Aether stared at it... It could help him; if he found him and cashed in the money, it would be amazing. But he had to be very strong to have such a bounty on him, so it was probably a good idea to let others do it.

...

But this didn’t mean he wasn’t going to remember his name. Just in case.

...

...

...

”Cain... I’ll keep it in mind.”