It had been hundreds of years, or perhaps a thousand years, since the Eternal Night arrived.

It wasn’t long before the world order collapsed and governments vanished.

Billions of people died when they came in contact with the Nightmares.

Every day at dawn, the world was filled with half-eaten dead bodies.

But through the sacrifice of countless lives, people slowly discovered a way to survive the predicament.

The answer was the Nightmare Stones.

As long as one could absorb the stones, they could become an Aberrant.

They could enhance their physical bodies and even learn spells to fight against the Nightmares.

These people soon became the pillars of the broken society.

However, strength did not mean freedom in this bizarre world.

No matter how strong one was, there was no way for them to defeat the endless Nightmares.

Only a small lucky few had survived the Eternal Night without staying close to an Unbroken Fire.

Some of the Aberrants had distinct special abilities.

For example, a Water Lord could control water to a certain level.

Or an Alchemist, who could use the corpses of the Nightmares along with spiritual herbs to create elixirs with various miraculous effects.

These people were welcomed by every clan and settlement as they were the backbone of society.

The rarest of them all was the Builder, someone who could create magical, otherworldly things.

And with the help of the system, Edgar had become one as well.

’So, that’s how it is...’

Edgar nodded his head after hearing the history of the Aberrant from Oswald.

He did have some memories of it, but after Oswald’s explanation, everything became clear to him.

’Looks like I need to be careful.’ Edgar thought grimly. ’If the Atreus Clan gets a whiff of my abilities, they will definitely try to kill me.’

To add to this, Edgar wasn’t a normal Builder. Unlike other Builders, he didn’t need a "building blueprint" that dropped after killing Nightmares in extremely rare cases.

With his system, he could directly get the building blueprint and create the same item in the real world without fail.

Other Builders created new things through trial and error. Such a crude way was a waste of both time and resources.

One could understand how much value a man like Edgar would have, someone who could save both.

’....Yeah, the Clan, especially Albert, will definitely try to kill me.’

Edgar drew in a deep breath and looked at Oswald.

"We should get some rest." He said, standing up. "We have traveled a long distance to be here."

The barren land was three quarters of a day away from the main settlement of the Atreus Clan.

Those soldiers that came to drop them off must have stayed at the closest Clan fortress.

"As you wish, young master." Oswald said, bowing his head.

He didn’t object to Edgar’s decision to not return to the Clan.

If Edgar didn’t want to go, Oswald wouldn’t force him.

He was just a servant who wanted to look after his previous master’s son and make sure he was safe.

Edgar walked inside one of the barely standing houses and closed the door.

The inside of the house wasn’t good. Everything was shattered around.

There were some bags of grain there that could last them a few days.

With a tired sigh, Edgar sat down on the stone bed without any cushion. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The hard surface made him uncomfortable as Edgar kept adjusting his body.

Edgar remembered his comfortable bed and suddenly felt depressed.

’Don’t worry.’ he consoled himself. ’I can create anything I want as long as I am alive.’

With the accumulated tiredness throughout the day, it wasn’t long before Edgar fell asleep.

---

The dull grey-black fog returned along with the first ray of sunlight.

’Daytime’ came quickly and the Eternal Night subsided, but never truly disappeared.

Despite the tiredness eating away at his body, Edgar still woke up a few times during the night.

He was still rather fearful of the new bizarre world that he had transmigrated into.

When there was some sort of illumination, Edgar got up from the bed.

With anticipation in his mind, he quickly rushed out of his new house.

The Unbroken Fire was still burning, the only constant from the night.

Around the broken walls of the fortress, Edgar quickly found two dead bodies and the trap he had crafted last night.

The dead bodies were shaped like strange monkeys which were eerie to look at.

Inside the trap was a rabbit-looking monster that was dead as well.

Beside its body was a glowing Nightmare Stone.

Edgar was rather perplexed when he saw the monster.

’How did it die?’ he couldn’t help but wonder to himself.

He crouched down and examined the weird-looking monster without a word.

At the same time, Oswald walked close to him and noticed the monster as well.

"That’s a Snow Hand Rabbit, young master." Oswald said in a deep voice.

"It’s a common low-level Nightmare, usually Level 1-3. It poses little danger, and its characteristic is its extremely fast movement speed."

Edgar looked at him with a perplexed expression. "How do you know so much?"

"I was but a butler of a great person, young master." He replied with a sad smile. "Being with your father made me learn a lot."

Edgar nodded his head and didn’t ask any further questions.

He took the Nightmare Stone and shoved it into his pocket.

Including the previous two stones, he had a total of three Nightmare Stones.

"Can we eat it?" Edgar asked while looking at the beast.

There wasn’t anything on it that made it repulsive to eat.

Oswald shook his head. "Their bodies are filled with toxins. Eating them will only make you sick and could even cause your death."

Edgar nodded his head and grabbed the Beast Trap.

He planned to use the trap again at night and hopefully earn more Nightmare Stones.

’I still need to learn a lot about this world.’

Edgar held back his sigh and looked up at the murky sky.

Just then, he heard the sound of two people having a conversation.

Within only a few seconds, Edgar saw two soldiers walking towards the base.