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Raymond's Guide to the World of Atlas
[Description: An ambitious traveler sought to be the freest of them all. In the pursuit of his goal, he climbed the highest heights and went to the deepest depths.
But despite that, he desired more freedom, reaching for the stars only to realize he had reached for his end.
The book will be your guide to this world.]
[Do you wish to open this book?]
""Yes""
In their room, they sat at the table by the window, confirming their intention.
[Opening Fragment of Chaos]
Soon, a new window opened in the system; it was different from the two they had seen before.
"A map?"
"A map of this world."
A map appeared, it wasn't extremely detailed like those maps you'd find on the internet, but was more like an antique map you'd find hanging in some attic or a treasure map a pirate would carry.
There was a single land mass, which seemed to be the continent that they were currently in.
It was mostly blacked out, with only two locations that lit up and revealed themselves.
"Baeleon and… God's Landing?"
"It's the two places we visited."
It was clear that the map was marking where they had been or were currently at,
Even though the map wasn't detailed, there was a drawing of a city where the map marked Baeleon.
And in the area marked God's Landing was a forest with a big tree in the middle.
"So it's called God's Landing."
"Astlyn mentioned that the monsters there came from deceased gods."
The [Gorge Devour] came from the god Devouring Heaven, while the [Pale Hearvesters] came from the god Pale Lord.
It was good information to know, but it wasn't useful to them currently.
Looking at the distance between Baeleon and God's Landing, it seemed that they were on opposite sides of the continent.
It wasn't like they could go there right, yet their eyes glowed with slight anticipation as they faced eachother.
"We'll probably return."
"Right, but we'll need to get stronger before then."
Returning to the place where they first woke up would probably be the best way to find answers.
They looked at the top of the map and noticed the words Atlas, the name of the world they were now in.
Looking back to the other location that was lit up, Baeleon, they found that it could be zoomed in.
As they focused the map enlarged onto Baeleon,
They could see the tall walls as well as the buildings in greater detail.
The buildings were marked with their purpose.
A sword marked an armory, a loaf of bread was a bakery, a coin marked a bank, as well as many other stores.
The usefulness of such a tool was apparent; they could adapt to city life more easily if they knew where everything was.
It wasn't like they could stay at Relia's mansion forever!
Of course, Relia would let them if they asked; other than being her benefactors, they also had a shared past on Earth, which fostered a unique trust between them.
And belonging to a Ducal family, Relia could fund their entire lives a dozenfold!
But there were problems with that.
For one, Aria and Ren didn't feel that it was right to leech off a friend, especially one as innocent as Relia.
Another was the Chaos Cult.
Since their goal to kill Relia failed, they wouldn't sit by and do nothing.
Relia had mentioned that they liked being meticulous, especially since their orders were centered around a being that could foresee the future.
So what would they do now that the future they foresaw was changed?
They would probably try to find the variables that caused their failure and kill them.
Luckily, they hadn't found out yet and probably wouldn't be for a while.
Only the Aureus knights, the royal guard Galahad, and lastly Claire knew of their existence.
They knew the knights, as well as Claire, probably wouldn't gossip, either because Relia could stop them or because they didn't have a reason to talk about it.
As for the researchers of the Nature Tower, Relia said that she would talk to her sister about that to ensure they weren't known.
Lastly, though they had concerns with the Royal Guard Galahad, there wasn't really much they could do at the time. Thankfully, it seemed the guard wasn't the talkative type.
So eventually, they would have to separate from Relia,
Of course, it wouldn't be a permanent separation, but it would have to be enough so that the Chaos Cult wouldn't suspect the two.
There was also a benefit to this as well.
Since they would be separated, they would do things separately as well, which meant they could fight back against the Chaos Cult from two sides.
While thinking about the Chaos Cult, the two looked at the map.
It was useful if they ever fought against someone, some roads and passages were complicated in their structure, and if they knew how to properly navigate them,
Escaping someone, even if they were a higher rank, would be a breeze!
If the followers of the Chaos Cult could raise their ranks during battle, the pair would be at a disadvantage for the majority of their fights.
Knowing how to escape would counteract this disadvantage.
Yet something else took their focus; it was a star marking the castle.
"It has a message."
"Right, let's read it."
[Baeleon, the birthplace of creation. Raelith graced the world with his existence here, or so the stories say. It's nice here, compared to the hot Western Deserts or the Frigid Cold down South, this is peaceful...]
It seemed to be a diary or, more accurately, a memoir, and since it was called Raymond's Guide, it was probably Raymond who put these words here.
[Chaos lingers. I was tasked by the voice to purify it, or I guess maintain the seal already here. I've already done it many times, yet this one seems particularly difficult. I can't help but wonder what to leave behind…]
Chaos.
The word stuck out like a sore thumb, the power that the two were fighting against.
Aria thought for a moment, remembering the words of the system when they first received [Raymond's guide].
"Didn't the system say there were 8 others?"
"Yep, when we touched it, it started talking about fragments."
The system said that the two had collected [1/9 fragments of purified Chaos].
Considering the fact that [Raymond's guide] was a fragment, it appeared that Raymond was the one behind them or had a close connection to their origin.
"Ren, Astlyn knew that the fragment was there. They might have a connection."
Ren nodded; the message did say that Raymond heard a voice that tasked him with purifying the Chaos. Maybe like them, Raymond had a system.
"That's probably the case, but we'll have to ask her once we meet again. Instead, we should be concerned about what Chaos is exactly."
"Yeah, Chaos and Purfied Chaos…"
Chaos was the energy used by the Chaos Cult, or at least that was what Relia said.
She mentioned that in the novel, they caused conflict to generate it and use it to revive the Chaos God, but it appeared to have other uses, such as increasing one's battle strength.
But this energy could be purified?
What made purified chaos different from regular chaos?
"Maybe we can use it to become stronger?"
The thought that, like the followers of the Chaos Cult, they could get stronger by a rank emerged.
But unfortunately, they couldn't feel any special energy from the system, so that probably wasn't it.
"Let's keep reading, Ren."
With a nod, they both turned back to the system.
Oddly, it seemed to cut and move onto a different part in time, one in the future.
[I've finished the purifying formation, but I worry how long this will take…hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.]
The two remembered the various runes all over the inside of the tree when they first got Raymond's Guide. It had an immense amount of mana, and now it appeared that it was a purification formation meant to purify chaos.
[In any case, I should leave for the next location; it's time to head to…]
Raymond's sentence didn't finish, and what was written next was left blank.
Text then disappeared in a foggy haze before the system went completely blank.
"?"
"Is it broken?"
Static
The sight and grating sound of TV. static entered their minds as thousands of characters of text overfilled the formerly empty system window.
Some text jumped up and down, some moved side to side, and others twisted into what was and wasn't a readable character of language.
The text then changed, forming a sentence, warping at the edge of what was and wasn't a voice, then entered their minds.
[I know you're watching.]