The Black Pits

Year 81 of the Glorious Calendar, September in the midst of a blizzard.

Achoo!

A boy wearing a sickly expression wiped his nose with the sleeves of his shirt as he frowned.

Slurrppp—

Drinking the water mixed with God-knows how many harmful substances, he quenched his thirst as he looked ahead.

Ahead was the same old Lower Street District, where women were the cheapest source of warmth, worse than even wood.

Due to the world going through various wars, trees had become scarce, so did oxygen and wood, thus spiking in prices.

A single piece of wood cost 7 Black Crystals!

7! Seven!!

He could buy the whole menu of the Bright Days Café with that much money!

'Heck, I heard that there were some types of wood that get sold for Mana Crystals... Why can't I get a bumper harvest such as those?'

He sighed as he looked at the dried-up and short branches he'd had used to get a temporary source of heat as he clicked his tongue.

'I don't even have a single White Crystal to buy anything... I have to "work" the whole day tomorrow if I need to buy food, much less wood...'

He didn't rely on begging much. Although sometimes, it was the major source of his income.

But 'sometimes', that is.

It was like gambling at the casino, but the thing he waged was his life.

If lucky, he'd encounter someone who would give him half-a-Black Crystal or one White Crystal.

But if unlucky, though... Then getting a single crystal itself was a huge problem in and off itself.

Not to mention those tall kids who claim even the smallest pieces of land as their own.

...and those poor people who would shoo them away if they begged in the same place for too long, grumbling about something like, "You have arms and legs, why don't you work..."

But what work! In this damned Lower Street District where prostitutes were considered to be high class!

What can he, a mere kid do?!

Nothing!

Except die from malnutrition, with not a single organ in his body working properly!

'Exactly...'

He looked around his 'tent', which merely consisted of bedsheets, clothes and veils mixed together and which could barely fit 2-3 people.

'I need to pack the tent up, the blizzard might get worse anytime.'

'Damned Last Embers! What Glorious Era! The disparity between the Low and High classes keeps on increasing! The Imperial Era was far better even though the witnesses of that era didn't have any superpowers or magic until the very end...'

Packing his tent up while grumbling, the nameless boy finally finished packing his tent up and headed to the centre of the Lower Street District.

Prriii!

A loud whistle blew, halting the boy in his tracks.

In front of him stood a bulky man who had his arms crossed, wearing a bandana that had the symbol of a slashed 'B' inside a circle.

The recently rising underdogs, Blevoics.

"One White Crystal for one night, 7 Blacks for a week and..." The tough man stopped mid-sentence. "Never mind, you won't have anything else."

"Just pay up fast and leave."

Gritting his teeth and anxious while shivering, the boy paid a White Crystal to the bulky man in front of him as a clumsy metal gate with spikes protruding on top opened slightly before closing in again after he had walked in.

Inside the gate, he noticed a large bunker on the ground. A bunker said to be made by escapees underground during the Last Embers war but recently dug out by various forces.

It was the only light for those in the past, and it was the same for those in the present.

For the whole of the Lower Street District, it was the only bunker which could protect them from the inconsistent weather of the so-called Glorious Era.

Heading inside the bunker, the boy heard many gossips, most of them about the recently thriving 'Master of Thieves' Kesiar, and about how good his looks and skills were, and how he managed to dispatch fifteen enemies in one night!

But paying no heed to them, he headed towards the Central Room of the bunker and peeked inside through the window, which was left unprotected as if they couldn't care less about being watched on.

'How confident... It's undoubtedly due to that superhuman, Gellard!'

...

Achoo!

"Sniff... I am getting too old..." Armado wiped his snot on his long collar as he looked at the game of Black Jack in front of him. "Hit!"

The man who was sitting opposite of him, Gellard, immediately grinned as he snatched all the crystals placed on the side of the long-table.

"Bah, too bad! You lost!" Gellard immediately twisted the cards in his hand as Armado counted the total number and snorted softly before extending his hand.

"What?" Gellard asked, exasperated.

"You fool, the total comes up to twenty-one, you have long since lost!"

"What? Twenty-one? This is seventeen! Belite told me that this card was only worth..."

Thud!

But before he could continue his sentence, the side-door of their small yet compact room was opened with a loud voice as Gellard immediately chuckled.

"Speak of the devil..." But his voice trailed off when he saw Belite — who was covered in ice and was shivering, but was holding his hand and pressing it against his left cheek.

"Uh-oh, looks like someone got slapped right in the face." Amidst Gellard's laughter, Armado sneakily stole the crystals of Gellard, which Gellard immediately noticed as a fight broke out.

"You... Who's crystals do you think those are?"

"It's mine ofcourse! Just do the math dammit!"

"Who do you mean 'mine'? Why don't we ask Belite since he's already here?"

"Hmph, can't you see? He's on the verge of tears and speaking to someone who is crying will make them mental!"

"Who said you that..."

But before the absurd "fight" escalated any further, a stern and cold voice rang.

"Father!" From behind the door, a girl of thirteen-years of age who wore a normal t-shirt and jeans emerged with a stack of books held to her bosom. "Belite has been sneaking around in the Upper Street District's libraries!"

"Again!"

The "fighting" came to a stop as both Armado and Gellard coughed, casting stern gazes at the teary-eyed Belite who suddenly winked at them.

Armado's brows twitched. 'This brat...'

"Kuhum, is that true?"

"Yes... Father." Replied the teary eyed Belite.

This time, it was Gellard who's brows twitched as he poked at Armado's side.

"Don't get led into this brat's traps. He switches between brain-dead Armado and Father faster than the weather after the Last Embers."

Armado nodded as he plastered his broken façade and coughed once again, gesturing at Sel to bring the books over.

Armado looked at the stack of books and picked one of them up in disdain before he threw it on the table, feeling a headache.

"What is this? Sorcery?"

Belite, who was holding his cheek that had the red imprint of a palm on it, sniffed as he spoke.

"W-well... It's science."

"Science?" Armado had a curious expression on his face but it quickly vanished under the stern and cold gaze of his daughter — Sel. Instead he asked. "What use does this bullshit science have to do with our lives?"

Belite's expression immediately brightened as he rubbed his swollen cheek.

"Plenty, many! The book I was reading was called "Prevention, Symptoms and Causes of Mental Disorders" written by Dr. Rick, who is... Is also a scientist who runs experiments on the brain."

Struggling to emphasize the complex term and words, Belite stuttered for a moment before his expression immediately brightened after finding the right words.

"It mentions that if a person is imprisoned and doesn't experience the expected change that he is supposed to experience in a while — the person might start showing signs of madness."

"Oh?"

"Yes, indeed. If a person is locked within a room or confined in darkness or let's simply say — same or unchanged room or surroundings, then that person will slowly go mad. The symptoms ranging from merely talking to oneself to desired hallucinations, hallucinations of past incidents, and self-deprecating incidents."

Gellard's expression immediately changed. "Uh... Then that means those prisoners we had thrown in the bunker..."

'Crap...' Armado muttered in his heart as he looked at Belite, who winked slyly once again.

"See? Better get them out of there before they get mad! Wasn't this useful?"

"Logically speaking..." Armado's voice trailed off once again but he immediately gestured at Gellard to do something about the prisoners in the bunker as he continued his sentence under the gaze of his daughter. "Belite has done us a favour, once again."

The sobbing expression on Belite's face immediately disappeared as he turned to the young girl named Sel and grinned.

"See? You owe me one — Oww I didn't mean another slap!"

"Father!" Sel, who was now twisting Belite's ear, spoke. "This is the third time you have sided with him! The third time! In a single month!"

"Do you know how dangerous it is to go outside in this blizzard? Even I almost froze to death!"

"You did more harm to me than the blizzard... Ow!" — A Belite in anguish.

Armado watched the two children fight as a smile had unknowingly plastered itself across his face.

He closed his eyes as he exhaled deeply, focusing his gaze on the book named: "Three-Hundred and Five Mental Disorders You Need To Be Cautious Of."

"Sel..." Armado muttered, his surroundings dark as his torso was tied with chains, his tone quivering and old. "Maybe... I should have sided with you since then..."

"If I did so... Maybe you would still be alive, instead of those wretched monsters...!!"

Volume 1: Twilight — End.

Author's note: So, the volume finally ends. There were a lot of edits and rewrites made in order to achieve a satisfactory ending, and according to me, this was the most satisfying one, where... stuff actually goes down in the end. Now, I don't know if you actually liked the volume or not, especially with the boring parts in the middle and also the parts where things aren't explained properly at all. But all I could offer is an apology, since leaving loopholes and introducing the story and power system properly was supposed to be done at later chapters of the novel. I had originally planned to make the volume bigger and explain the story... Narrate the story, power system, and the world building properly, but then, I felt that it would be more of an essay than a novel after seeing the large amount of things I had already planned out. So although unsatisfactory and left incomplete, I ask of you to read the second volume which will be released after a small break, where more things are cleared, and in which, I'll try my best to write it properly — although, as things couldn't be abrupt, there will surely be pacing issues, but I hope you'll cope with it if you've found the novel interesting enough.

Although by the time I'm writing this, the second volume is almost complete, the idea of the author's note existing came to my mind so here I am... but nevermind about that. Volume 2 is going to contain some surprise along with a bunch of reveals, and I have improved alot of stuff that I gained insights on while writing volume 1, so look forward to it, I guess.

As for when it's going to be released... Kek don't ask me, I don't know as well...