Well, that's fortunate!

Sic finally felt his eyes open. He looked around expecting to still be underwater.

Or maybe dead. That was possible too.

To his surprise however, he was simply back inside his home. He sat up and waited for a bit. After the nightmare that was fighting the wolf and drowning, he wasn't in a rush to get up.

Sic took a couple deep breaths and recalled everything that had happened.

'Chaos owes me some answers'

Firstly, his dream seemed to be related to Chaos. His 'domain' as he called it. Sic felt like not even Chaos could answer the question of what it was doing there. Then, there was the chains. That was the question he wanted answered the most.

Who was the goddess of chains? Why had he somehow brought them to Chaos inside the tunnels?

And what was that thing Chaos did? He didn't know exactly what happened, but something Chaos did had helped him unlock his abilities. It most likely had something to do with it being a 'corrupted' blessing.

All of that was immediately shoved to the back of Sic's mind, however, when he remembered the biggest thing he got from that dream.

His abilities!

He immediately tried to summon his pocket knife again. This time though, it didn't come to him as easily, and he felt a significant amount of resistance from the blue liquid. He managed to make the same knife from the dream, but it he couldn't keep it materialized for long.

As worrying as it was, Sic came to the conclusion it probably had something to do with Chaos.

Speaking of... where was he?

He hasn't said anything since he woke up—which was surprising considering loved making snarky quips—and it worried him.

'Chaos?'

He waited in silence for awhile, expecting Chaos to say something. After an uncomfortable amount of time, Sic assumed something was probably wrong. He didn't know what, or even how to fix it, but he was worried nonetheless.

Sic's stomach growled. He didn't eat yesterday, but even though he was feeling pretty great all things considered, he was still hungry.

Another smile quickly stretched across his face. He had a runic blessing! He could finally get out of the dumps! He was giddy with glee. He has lived in the dumps all his life, and he was tired of it. The fighting, the trash, the crime, it was all horrible and painful.

He still had no idea why his parents decided to have a kid here, and he felt like he would never full understand. Maybe their decision making skills had disappeared after living here for so long?

He quickly got up. He had a lot to plan for, after all. First on the agenda was to find something to eat. He was, however, completely out of money.

'figures'

He had a couple ways to solve this problem. The first and easiest—albeit least ethical—way was to go rob someone. He was going to need both money for food and a train ride out of here, so the couple of bucks he would get from his job wouldn't do. He could try to ask Keith for some extra money, and could promise him a way out of here, but he didn't know if that would work. He still didn't know what had happened at the tunnels, but he was starting to suspect it was the Runic Blessings fault.

Sic wasn't necessarily above robbing people, but he didn't like it. Maybe he could go rob Victor? It would feel good to finally be more powerful than that bastard.

With that thought, he decided to go pay his old 'friend' a visit. He quickly stood up, and immediately felt strange. He hadn't realized before, but the world around him felt... Different?

Compared to the dream, at least.

He didn't notice it at the time, but the dream felt much more different than the actual world. Which, in hindsight, made a lot of sense. But Sic simply couldn't put his finger on what was actually different about it.

As he stood around and got a hold on himself, he finally walked outside. His home was situated in an alleyway that looked out into the street. As he made his way from the alley, he observed the people—or the lack there of—and walked down the street. The fact that even less people were on the streets were a worrying point for Sic.

'why were there so little people?'

Sic continued to walk and think until...

He noticed something..

No... Someone.

It was a dapper man wearing a clean and impressive black suit. The sleeves of the suit were rolled up, showing the man's impressive forearms. The man himself seemed very well built, with black hair and a single blond strand going through it. Sic could see his muscles through his suit, even if it was just barely. He didn't look very special though.

'perfect!'

As much as Sic wanted to go bully Victor with his new abilities, he doubted that even Victor would have enough money to get out of the dumps and live a normal life. If he did, he wouldn't be here anymore to begin with.

This man, however, looked quite stacked. He wasn't going to hurt the man, of course, but scaring the higher citizens was pretty easy due to their closed off lives. He was going to take some money, leave this place, and finally live with a higher sense of existence.

He was excited!

As he approached the man from behind, he quickly summoned his knife. He snuck up behind him and put the knife to his neck.

Before Sic could say anything however, he had already been knocked out cold.

***

Nicolas was exhausted. After being sent back to the dumps, he was already in a bad mood. Even more so because people had attempted to rob him twice already!

It had been a long time since he had been here, and it had gotten worse since then. Secretly, he was happy to finally have a chance to save these people from this hell. After all, there was almost no reason for these people to live here anymore. If it wasn't for that guy...

But this wasn't the time for that, Nicolas had a job to do, and he was going to try his best. He had just gotten back from checking on the tunnels near the wall, and was heading towards the train station situated at the other side of the dumps.

He decided to have a quick smoke break. It was a real bad habit he had, but it was hard to stop, considering how stressful this job was. As he was finishing his cig, he felt a knife press against his throat

'You've gotta be kidding me'

He was already pissed off after today, and didn't have the power to fully hold himself back. So in the blink of an eye, he had turned around, summoned his gauntlets, and punched the robber.

Probably a little too hard, considering he was knocked out instantly

'Shit'

Nicolas observed the young man on the floor. Considering he couldn't find the weapon, he could safely assume he was a bearer.

'Thank the gods'

He really did not feel like filling out the paperwork for killing an innocent follower.

But he also couldn't just leave this kid here.

So, he decided to pick him up and bring him to the home that he had bought for himself here. Getting a home that didn't already have people in it or wasn't filled with holes was impossible. So, Nicolas simply built his own house, with the help of some builders, of course.

As he entered his home—which was conveniently set right next to the train station—he thought about the future of the dumps...

'Screwed, absolutely screwed'

That was his last thought as he set the boy down on a makeshift bed inside one of the rooms.