[2 - REGRESSION (2)]

[Player 'Erstwhile King of Ice' is now an Alchemist.]

That was one little desire out of the way.

"Ming-ge!"

The door slammed open with a bang as Shuixian barged into my room.

"Let's watch the fireworks together! They're still going, I managed to convince Shuwei to come onto the balcony too!"

This silly child.

He left the room as quickly as he came in, forgetting to close the door as he usually does. Well, I was going to follow him anyway.

He almost slammed the door to his own room open, before remembering that it was midnight and our mother would have his head if she was woken up.

Shuwei was on the balcony.

"You're too loud." "I just wanted Ming-ge to watch the fireworks with us!" "What if mama and baba woke up? What are you going to do then?" "They won't wake up!"

The twins were about to bicker with each other again when the first firework shot up into the sky, silencing them as they watched on in awe. The night sky was soon painted in a myriad of colours, bright and explosive, yet transient. Hues of reds, blues and greens adding splashes of colour in the sky, sending all of us into a trance as we watched the fireworks of the new year.

"The new year's fireworks are always so pretty!"

Shuixian looked at Shuwei, hoping to have earned a reply. Shuwei just stayed silent, his face blank, but I could tell he was enjoying the fireworks, it actually looked like this was the first time Shuwei actually saw the new year's fireworks.

Did this child really sleep through the new year's fireworks every year?

"Shuwei, do you see those fireworks? The ones coming from that tower over there look especially pretty!"

Shuwei looked at where Shuixian was pointing.

"Did the city always have a tower that high though?"

They were looking at the Tower.

Wait, did the Tower always have such large and extravagant fireworks? It did just appear out of thin air, but I don't remember ever reading any articles about the spectacular fireworks show it put up the moment it spawned. Was this already a difference in the timelines?

"Ming-ge, look over there!"

Wait, Shuixian, don't tug on my bare skin!

I looked where he had pointed.

Wait, wasn't that the building for the HC Enterprise? I remember that it was turned into the HC Superguild 3 years after the Tower's arrival. They were throwing up an extremely extravagant fireworks show as well. Rich people have the life, don't they?

To be honest, I didn't think I'd spend the first few moments of my regression with these two, watching the fireworks together in the new year. I don't know what happened to them after I was…most likely presumed dead within the Tower.

Well, the past is in the past. They're here right now, aren't they?

I wrapped my arms around the twins in a hug, unexpectedly saying something I'd never say in the past.

"I love you two so much…"

Shuwei was the first to hug me back, mumbling something along the lines of "I love you too." I didn't hear what he actually said.

Shuixian flinched instead. Wait, wasn't he the one who's more open to touches rather than Shuwei? Was he embarrassed? Well, your Ming-ge's kind of embarrassed too, I didn't think I'd say something like that so out of the blue.

[Player 'Erstwhile King of Ice' has earned a Constellation's respect and has awakened the following blessing!]

I jumped, startling the twins out of the hug. I'm starting to feel like the Tower enjoys announcing its presence out of nowhere.

[Blessing: Hearth of Hestia - A-rank]

[The Goddess Hestia watches over you and your family and bestows her protection upon them. You are able to access the Hearth of Hestia at any time.]

At a time like this!?

[You have gained a new passive skill: Heat Resistance - S]

[You have gained a new active skill: Appraisal - A]

[You have gained a new active skill: Hearth of Hestia - A]

What the hell was this? Where did my original C-rank blessing go? How did I awaken an A-rank blessing this time?

Blessings that came from the Greek Gods were common, in fact, my original C-rank blessing was from the Greek Goddess of magic, Hecate, which was why I managed to become a mage.

In addition to the blessing, I've also received 3 skills at once, one of them was even S-rank as well! It wasn't uncommon to receive skills alongside a blessing, but it was rare to gain 2 skills from a single blessing, let alone more than 2!

Wait, I've gained Appraisal already?

Appraisal was a learnable skill in every class, but was highly coveted due to its usefulness and versatility from what I remember. I remember that a skillbook for Appraisal sold for millions, it's a massive help for any player who wanted to climb the Tower. The skill provided information on unfamiliar items and organisms, and could also display the status of Players. Such an overpowered skill was just…handed to me like this?

I tested the skill on the twins.

[Ye Shuwei]

[The youngest member of the Ye family. Blunt yet timid, Shuwei is considered a genius by the Tower's standards.]

[Ye Shuwei has the potential to become a Player]

[Ye Shuixian]

[The second youngest member of the Ye family. Lively and optimistic, Shuixian has boundless energy and holds deep love and appreciation for his family.]

[Ye Shuixian has the potential to become a player.]

The twins have potential to become players?

[The twins have shared Rank No.1 on the Tower's Leaderboard in the player's past timeline.]

Rank 1?

My innocent, sweet little brothers shared Rank Number 1 on the Tower's Leaderboard!? Oh, I'm sorry Shuwei and Shuixian…whilst your older brother was busy wasting away in the Tower for 10 years, you two have been working hard to support our parents, haven't you?

I'm so proud of them, but at the same time I don't want them to ever step foot in the Tower ever again. It was a hellhole to survive in, and even though they're more than capable of standing their ground, (They were Rank 1! Rank 1!) I refuse to let them put themselves in danger's way.

Just as I finished my internal monologue, the fireworks show ended.

So I ushered the twins to bed. They were both 15, still young children who needed their sleep. How old were they when they had reached Rank 1?

[The twins were aged 22 when they reached Rank 1 on the Tower's Leaderboard.]

They reached the top 2 years after I was stuck inside the Tower, huh. Is this the difference between the youth and the old?

These questions came up in my mind when the Tower answered the burning questions running through my head.

Wait, since when was the Tower able to read minds?

[The player has allowed the Tower to access the player's mind. This may be disabled at the player's request.]

Well, there's no harm in letting the Tower access my mind, so I guess I can leave that option on. Besides, it'll eventually become helpful if I need information from my past life. I can't remember everything from 15 years ago, after all, and there's a lot of memories that I may have repressed from being inside the Tower.

But for now, I want to sleep.

⸻⸻⸻⸻

The sun shone into my eye through the curtains.

I've been up since 8, reminiscing about the future that no longer exists.

As an Alchemist, I'd need to gather most of my resources through the Tower if I want to make anything new right now. But I did have an advantage, knowing exactly what was in the floors of the Tower, up to the thousandth floor.

My disadvantage was how much of a glass cannon Alchemists are.

If a fighter could kill 5 horned rabbits of the Tower's first floor in close combat, an Alchemist could probably only severely injure a single horned rabbit in close combat before dying. But in the correct situation (also known as having the high ground), Alchemists could kill thousands of horned rabbits with just a flick of their wrist.

3 gentle knocks sounded on my door, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Ming-ge? Are you awake?" Shuwei's voice was gentle, a stark contrast to Shuixian's loudness. "Baba's made breakfast and wanted me to wake you up."

"I'll be up in a minute!" I called out.

Getting up from the comforts of the bed and pulling away the curtains, I made my way to the exit of my room. My room was a hot mess now that I could see it clearly, sweaters on the floor, empty ramen cups on my desk, I'm fairly certain I spotted at least 3 mugs just from a single glance in here. "Note to self, clean this place up," I mumbled. It looked like a broke college student lived here. (Which, fairly enough, was the truth until a month or so ago. Would it be 15 years and a month ago, or would it still be a month ago? Ah, time was such a hard concept to grasp.)

I opened the door, kicking away the bit of trash by the doorside. It only took a few steps for me to end up in the living room. Shuixian waved at me from where he was sitting at the dining table as Shuwei patted the seat next to him.

"Good morning, Mingyu, did you sleep well?"

I nodded to answer my mother's question, taking a seat where the twins had gestured. "That's good," she responded, continuing to browse through her phone. My father set down the last plate of food for me and proceeded to sit down at the table.

We ate in silence.

Until my mother started to talk about an article she had read. The article about the Tower. "Have you kids seen this? Last night, some strange announcement sounded, and this large Tower appeared overnight!" Shuixian got curious, leaning over to look at the article that our mom was showing us from her phone. "Oh~! That's the Tower we saw last night, the one throwing up a big fireworks show!" While unnatural, I did have to admit that the fireworks were quite pretty.

"A fireworks show? But this article doesn't talk about a fireworks show."

Shuwei paused in his eating while Shuixian started heavily insisting that there was a fireworks show. I could see gears turning in Shuwei's head, with his genius I think he could easily figure it out. But this got me thinking as well, why was the fireworks show visible only to specific people like us? "Ming-ge." Shuwei tapped me on my shoulder, "You saw the fireworks show too, right? We didn't imagine it, did we?" "No, I saw it too." I gently pat Shuwei's head as he continued eating, seemingly content with my answer.

[Did the player enjoy the fireworks show?]

The message popped out of nowhere right in front of my face, startling me. Everyone at the table looked at me as I coughed. "Went down the wrong pipe…" I croaked out, subtly nodding as the popup from the Tower disappeared. The rest of my family seemed to have bought my excuse as they continued eating, though I'm not sure if Shuwei bought the excuse, he's always had a knack for detecting lies..

I had to hide my knowledge about the Tower for now.

I finished my breakfast rather quickly after that, getting up from the table first. "I'm going outside." I walked back to my room in a rush.

Throwing something on quickly and slipping on a face mask, I walked outside the house while saying goodbye to my family.

Knowing the twins though, I feel like they're going to follow me. At least they had potential to become players if they do get trapped in the Tower, but I'm not risking it. Making my way to the city square, I see the Tower and a crowd of people surrounding the entrance, holding up their phones. Even a news station was reporting on the situation right now.

Though an Alchemist was weak in terms of physical strength, as long as I used the correct method, I should be able to create the most basic potions for combat. The horns of the horned rabbits were basic catalysts, but the problem was killing the little things in the first place.

[The Player may access the Hearth of Hestia.]

I'm starting to grow immune to the Tower's sudden pop ups

But it did prove a point, I still had the Hearth of Hestia from my Blessing I received last night. Though I had to slip into an empty alleyway in order to do so without interruptions. Activating the skill, a crack opened up in reality, glowing bright white as I stepped inside, entering the space that was the Hearth of Hestia.

It was a nice homely little room, with a giant lit fireplace made of marble with the statue of the Goddess Hestia standing above it. A soft leather chaise was placed to the left of the fireplace, bathed in the fire's warm light. To the right was a workbench, already stacked with different equipment made for basic Alchemy. "It's like this place was prepared for me…" I mumbled, looking around the room.

Something then caught my attention, opposite of the fireplace was a giant crystal, which looked similar to an Amethyst, but I knew this was a different mineral. Hyacinthium Amber. It was named so because of it's purple colour, which also held the ability to preserve life, similar to that of normal Amber. Though the jewel held something quite interesting.

A young man, looking quite young, appeared to be slumbering inside the jewel. Curled up in a fetal position as his long white hair spread out, as if he were trapped inside one of those massive tubes of fluid rather than a crystal. I'm not sure where such a pretty young man had come from though, nor why he was inside the jewel.

Hey, Tower, if you can read my mind, then surely you know something about this young man?

[This information is classified.]

I scoffed, of course the Tower wouldn't make it easy for me.

I used Appraisal in case it could provide any information that the Tower couldn't.

[Unnamed Homunculus - Owned by Player 'Erstwhile King of Ice']

[An artificial human created by the Tower for Player 'Erstwhile King of Ice'. It rests inside the Hyacinthium Amber and will awaken if its Master demands so.]

…

That was it? A homunculus created by the Tower and the Tower refuses to explain about it? Was it too shy to say that it was a gift for me? I feel like something deeper is going on here that the Tower refuses to explain.

"So how should I wake you up?" I mumbled, knocking on the crystal as if it would startle the homunculus awake. To my surprise, his eyes opened up. "Uh, Hi." I waved awkwardly. He got out of the fetal position and moved his face closer to mine. I could clearly see the colour of his eyes now, a gorgeous indigo colour. The way he moved inside the crystal was also quite curious as well, like he was moving inside fluid instead of solid matter.

I held out my hand, "You can come out…"

He slowly took my hand and moved outside of the crystal, phasing through it. Looking at me with wide, unblinking eyes.

A name.

I stood still, trying to think of a name for him. I looked around the room for inspiration, and then we met eyes again. That's when his name hit me.

"Xingxi. Your name will be Xingxi."