Later that night, Evan got up from his bed and sneaked into the spare room which he found out, not thanks to his grandfather, was soundproofed.

Maren had told him that he would keep the lantern there until Evan’s birthday.

He pulled the lantern out from the cabinet in the night stand and placed the lantern on top of it. At night, the lantern’s presence seemed a lot more sinister with its light red glow casting dark, twisted shadows on the walls.

After taking a deep breath, he stretched his hand and recited,

“Shadows flicker and Spirits burn, Ghosts that dream of endless fire, One will light the Nightmare Lantern, and brand the truth on a world of liars.”

As soon as the chant ended, the lantern exploded into a pillar of flames, just as it did before.

However, this time, Evan knew that the fire did no damage to its surroundings, nor was it hot. He instead placed his hands on the burning lantern and activated his breathing technique, focusing on the changes in the mana of the lantern.

Evan was amazed by the sight. He could see mana inside the lantern glowing spectacularly like some sort of magical star.

‘This is amazing!’ Evan thought.

Just then, Evan heard something odd. Something airy, like a breeze in the wind.

‘Huh, that’s odd. But there’s nothing outside-’

Then, the gentle breeze turned into a raging hurricane. Evan fell to his knees, clutching his head with a splitting headache from the sensory overload. As they got louder, he recognized what they were.

Whispers. Some were crying, some were screaming, but all of them had one thing in common:

Fear.

‘Make it stop!’ He screamed internally.

Suddenly from his right palm, a radiant, white-red light shone, overpowering the lantern’s flame, making it shrink and putting an end to the whispers.

Panting heavily, Evan casted a healing spell on himself that he had copied and modified from a Church sister that had come to the house when Zed got injured while practicing the sword.

“Illyum Marethas.”

Using the mana inside the body to enhance his body’s natural regeneration while the spell eased the pain, he soon recovered and saw that his palm, where the light originated, was glowing with a mark.

‘Huh, that’s new. I wonder-’ Evan thought before he passed out.

…

‘Ugh, what just-’

“Evan! It’s been a while. How are you?”

“Fucker? What are you doing here?”

David abruptly appeared out from the shrunken flames. His appearance hadn’t changed since Evan last saw him. David looked like an old man in his fifties with grey hair. Age, however, did not seem to have affected him in the slightest. If anything, it only made him seem wiser and more peaceful. He wore a suit and projected an aura of confidence around him.

“That was rude of you.”

“I don’t think there is a reason to be polite to someone I’m going to kill.”

“Oh I believe there is. You need me, Evan.”

“Yeah? Why is that?” Evan asked, his voice monotone.

“To win the games, Evan.”

Cold.

Once again, David felt a chill come from Evan’s soul. This time though, they were no longer in the soul realm. They were in a world rich with mana.

Full of magic.

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees and Evan’s breath started to fog up.

“Let me tell you something, Fucker.”

“I will win this game with my own abilities. My own knowledge, my own power, and my own wit.”

“I don’t need you, or anyone else’s help. When I win, it will be simply because I deserve to win.”

“I will win this game, even if it means sacrificing my family, my friends, and my life. I owe Erin that much.”

“Are we clear?”

‘Heh, a soul not even a century old standing up to me like this.’

‘I found a very interesting person for this game.’ David thought, inwardly smirking.

“Crystal.”

“Alright, now piss off unless you have something important to do.”

“Well, congratulations are in order, Evan. You’re the first person to activate their relic in this season.”

“Thanks, do I get an aspirin as a reward because my head still fucking hurts. What the hell was that?” Evan asked while wincing.

David waved his hand over Evan and the pain suddenly disappeared before continuing to explain.

“That is the price you have to pay for using the lantern, my relic, or the one I have chosen to use anyway.”

“As you’ve figured out, magic always has a price. My relic, the Nightmare Lantern, can do a lot of things although I will have to admit, it is not the best relic for combat compared to relics from the other Inviters.”

“Alright you lost me at magic always has a price. Who are Inviters and do you mean by their relics?”

“Inviters are those like me, jerks who have too much time on their hands so decide to take the souls of people who recently died and place them on worlds like this for our own entertainment.”

“These are the people you mostly see in those reincarnation novels you read. We call them the Unmarked.”

“There are some people, however, that are different. Through some way or another, they discovered a relic that an Inviter had placed in their world. These people can then accept a contract similar to the one I was going to make with you. These people are called the Marked.”

“Finally, there are people like you, those who have gained the interest or favour of their Inviter. These are called the Favoured. The Unmarked, Marked, and Favoured are all generally the same. The difference is, the Marked and Favoured have some form of tattoo or marking that shows a depiction of their Inviter. They also have more potential in terms of overall abilities and the Favoured more so than the Marked.”

“Relics are artifacts, whether magical or not, that we have created and chosen to represent ourselves. For example, a bard may leave a diary behind, recording different accounts of beasts, people, and treasures he has discovered along his travels. Those who can activate the relic can tap into the relic’s powers and use them for their own benefit.”

“So there is a diary in this world that stores somewhat infinite knowledge, then?” Evan asked while taking a mental note of such a powerful artifact.

David grinned at the question. “Sure, you could call it that. Although I will warn you, activating a relic will alert the Invited to whom the relic belongs to and if they don’t like what they see, they might just end up killing you. Also a word of advice since you’re already thinking about it, the bard in question is very strong, stronger than even me.”

“I’ll take my chances. I’m here to win and beating some kind of invincible bard to obtain infinite knowledge would definitely be an interesting point in my life story.”

David laughed at Evan’s confidence. “You have no idea, but I guess you’re right. I can tell he’s going to like you already.”

“Alright, what can this, Nightmare Lantern, do?” Evan asked.

“The Nightmare Lantern has several features, but its main function is its ability to adapt itself to any combat situation.”

“All people have something they fear deep down, even gods. Sometimes, those fears manifest themselves in reality. We call them nightmares.”

“The Nightmare Lantern will adapt its user’s abilities to better suit the enemy. To put it in terms of education, if you were in college level at fire magic, but your opponent is more afraid of water, it would give you the same level of magic as your fire magic, even if you were still in eighth grade at water magic.”

“What, so it’s just a training tool for different elemental affinities then?”

“Cough, more or less.”

“Then it’s useless to me then.”

“What do you mean, it’s useless? Didn’t you already figure out that mages usually only have one or two affinities, and that anyone with all magical affinities would be considered a prodigy from the legends?”

“I see.” Evan said, nodding.

“...”

“Did you do that on purpose to get more information on this world?”

“Maybe.”

“Son of a bitch.”

Evan grinned, “I get that a lot”

“Oh and I forgot to mention, everytime you kill someone using this power, the lantern’s power will grow, but so will the cost of its use. You’ve already experienced it once so I don’t need to remind you how painful that was.”

Evan shuddered at the memory. All the fear, pain, and despair still resounded deeply within his mind.

“Well, you’ll have to wait for a bit for your reward. Being the first to activate their relic in a season is usually a big deal, especially in the early game. It shows great talent and potential so the reward should be equally fitting. I have an idea of what to give you but I’ll need some help to create it. It should be done in about eight years.”

“Eight years!” Evan yelled. “What kind of reward takes eight fricking years to make?”

“The best kind.” David said with a mischievous grin. “Trust me, I’ll also throw in some stuff for free as compensation for missing four years of birthday presents.”

“Four years… You mean you’re not going to give a present now?”

“No. Again, trust me. You’re going to love what I'm going to give you. Anyways, I’m going to go now and it looks like you have company.” David said before disappearing back into the flames.

‘Wait, what? What do you mean?”

Suddenly, the door to the spare room burst open. Two rough looking men rushed in while a third called out.

“Hey Jerry, there’s a kid in here along with a magical artifact.”

“Great, bag them both then take whatever you can from the house. We’re leaving the place in ten minutes. The second floor is warded so we’ll have to settle for ransom money. Tell the Boss we have the package.”

Evan tried to cast a spell to protect himself, but one of the thugs beat Evan cleanly on the head, knocking him out. Unable to do anything, they easily tied him up and gagged him.

“Damnit, I wanted to play with Cara Galien too!”

Those words made Evan burn with cold rage, but before he could do anything, he fell unconscious.