Can Regression go Wrong?

Grey's Pov

Lucas Andresson.

The protagonist's older brother.

A drug addict.

The one who met his pitiful end five years ago.

He was now in front of my eyes, sitting menacingly on the top of a mountain of human corpses, staring at me blankly with his menacing eyes. 

Did he kill all these people?

Him? Why does his condition look so good?

He should have been dead, but even if he wasn't, his condition shouldn't look this good, and the blade marks on the corpses showed his mastery of the dagger he was holding in his left hand.

Koltr4951, that person revived a man who should have died five years ago. This isn't good, from the personality I had described in the novel, it isn't good.

He was a maniac who tried to kidnap his very own sister to sell her for drug money. During the struggle, she fought back and accidentally killed him while defending herself from harm.

But the person in front of me didn't look like someone who would do these heinous things; he stared at me with a bored expression.

"You look like you have seen a ghost. Do you know me perhaps?" He asked me.

Feeling a little hesitant, I finally replied.

"I don't, but you look similar to someone I know."

Lucas looked at me, squinting his eyes as if not believing me.

"If you say so." He said with a stoic voice. He didn't believe me, not that it mattered more than my life.

He jumped off the mountain of corpses and then raised his dagger, pointing at me.

"How about a duel? Between you and me." He said. Instinctively, I gulped; this might be a death sentence hidden in an opportunity to learn.

Lucas smirked.

"Boy, I thought you had something in you. Perhaps I was wrong, mistaking a damsel for a man... pfft." 

A vein bulged on my forehead. Death or whatever, it didn't matter now. I was going to make this guy a new addition to my kill list.

"Looks like you are ready, quite easy to provoke, huh..." He said with a small grin on his stupidly handsome face.

I didn't answer his question. Noticing my silence, he took it as an answer to the duel. He took his stance, and I took mine. Holding my pen in front, I stared at him with confidence.

It was then that I noticed the veins building up in his right hand, the inhuman amount of veins bulging in his forearms, scared the shit out of me even before the fight started.

We stared into each other's eyes. The train moved at its normal speed, and time seemed to be flowing slowly. The tension around us was thick, as we were contemplating each other's moves.

And then Lucas made the first move, his body moved at superhuman speed, cutting the air with his dagger, with no options available, I faced him head on.

I need to test his capabilities before making my move. Stopping his razor-sharp dagger with my pen wasn't a good choice, so I ducked, rotated my torso and kicked my left leg upwards, aiming at his face.

Lucas instinctively crossed his arms, stopping the blow, but he didn't stop there. Unnaturally rotating his right arm, he grabbed my leg. 

Ah, this doesn't look good.

Lucas smirked. 

And then he made a move I had expected; he used my leg as leverage to throw my whole body onto the seats, and my body collapsed on them, breaking a few in the process.

"Agh..." I groaned. The pain wasn't too much, but it still hurt. 

I had broken a rib, perhaps.

His strength is too much for my body.

[1,250 Astral points have been used.]

[Dexterity Lv 1 ---> Dexterity Lv 5]

[Agility and attack speed have been increased drastically.]

[Total Astral points: 4,960]

Lucas was waiting for me to rise. As I got up, I felt the pain in my ribs, one of them had broken.

"Are you giving up?" Lucas mocked me, and I would have to. My breath was heavy, and each time my lungs moved, I felt a pang of pain; it hurt like hell.

I raised my pen. If it were destroyed, I would fight with my hands, and if they were rendered useless, I would use my teeth to bite his flesh out. I will kill him right here and right now. 

"Come on, albino..." I took a deep breath, feeling the pain of my broken rib. "Surely, breaking someone's ribs is the only thing you can do." I mocked.

I dashed at him, and he followed suit. My pen clashed against his dagger; it was a prey of two more clashes only. Using my free hand, I punched his solar plexus, but surprisingly, it didn't affect him.

Wasn't the solar plexus a vital point of a human? Or was the information in those medical classes wrong?

Or is the person in front of me not human? I didn't know.

All I knew was that my face was the next thing that was going to be broken if I didn't stop the punch coming straight for it. 

The punch, however, looked surprisingly slow, or it was just that my dexterity had increased my ability to perceive things slowly.

Shifting slightly to the left, I dodged the blow at that moment, and using this time, I grabbed his arm and stabbed the pen straight into his shoulder near the joints.

The pen hit its mark but was never able to achieve its task; the pen broke when it came in contact with Lucas's shoulder. It penetrated his clothes but couldn't do any harm to his skin.

I backed off quickly, not wanting to get smashed on the seats once again. Lucas wasn't looking at me; he was staring at his shoulder at the hole made in his coat.

He stared at me then, he smiled, but the veins bulging on his neck portrayed how much pissed off he was.

"Tch... I liked this coat, you know." As soon as he spoke, he vanished in a blur of speed, and the next moment, a powerful blow struck me.

I was thrown back, hitting the mountain of corpses piled up at the end of the cabin. My chin hurt. While lying on the platform, my eyes stared at the ceiling of the cabin, and a few hands with blade marks.

Apart from the scenery in front of my eyes, I could see a few stars rotating in front of me, moving in an uncertain pattern.

I couldn't feel my whole body and was slowly losing consciousness.

I could hear a few voices, but they sounded distorted to me.

[What a mess...] Sylas exclaimed.

"I guess." Lucas replied to Sylas with a sarcastic tone.

That bastard, I could hear him, a little distorted, but I could understand what he was saying. I could hear his footsteps; he was walking closer to me. 

I still couldn't understand how his body could be this strong.

[A little duel, you say? Hmm...] Sylas was thinking something.

I was barely conscious, all I could do in this moment was to restore my vitality, conjuring a single command in my brain.

[1000 Astral points have been used.]

[Stamina Lv 5 ---> Stamina Lv 7]

[Durability and Vitality of the body have been increased.]

[Your fading consciousness is returning with newfound strength.]

[Total Astral points: 3,960]

The words from the system were true, my fading consciousness returned with a surge of power, and I opened my eyes wide.

"Looks like his consciousness has returned." Lucas said with a slight chuckle.

I raised my body upwards, and my chin and rib were now healed. I scratched the back of my head and sighed.

It seemed my mind had become clearer.

"I lost." I said.

Lucas seemed momentarily surprised, seeing how I admitted my defeat.

"I hope your mind has become clear... It is good to have spite, but you need to control it, at least in front of an enemy who can erase your existence in a few moments." Lucas said with a little smile.

He moved his hand towards me, offering to help me stand. I took it with a small smirk, standing up with his help.

"Someday, we will reach our final conclusion, but right now we need to get off this train and survive." I said.

Lucas shrugged.

[The constellation "Demonic-Judge of the Heaven" is touched with your comradeship.]

[500 Astral points have been sponsored.]

Ah... Uriel. I thought. She wasn't mentioned in the novel during this time, as Archangels usually avoided the first main quest, as it was too brutal for human standards. Uriel, although she wasn't your normal archangel, even she didn't like this quest.

Her presence here was far from normal.

[The constellation "Golden Sage of the Sundering Heavens" is disappointed that they couldn't see more of your fight.]

Damn... He, the great sage, was spectating us? That's nice. I smiled inwardly.

[The constellation "Sovereign of the Hollow Realm" is looking forward to your interactions.]

I had no thoughts for this constellation, they were too mysterious. But for some reason, I feel a little annoyed whenever they comment.

Sylas then approached us, floating. He looked at us with his usual calm expression, clasping his hands together.

[Now that you two have come to the truce. I shall give you a small explanation of how things worked.]

Sylas explained how functions like , , , , and . I knew all of them, but still heard everything Sylas told to make sure that bastard didn't change anything while Lucas listened like a diligent student.

was, as its name meant. It was a function that provided an interface for the users to buy items or even created by others, sometimes constellations. It also has auctions, which is sort of a faster way to sell your goods, but it has some rules, which is why people who believe they can sell their materials at higher prices use this function.

was just a function to store items.

were a special slot designated in the of a user. Few can possess many attributes, and few don't have a single one. It was something innate and could not be earned or bought, but it could be level up through experience, and it had a system of rank.

An attribute might possess many abilities, which was a boon for someone if they possessed one, although the chances solely depended on the rank of the attribute.

The higher the attribute, the higher the chances.

The highest was , then the level went from , , , , , , , , , , , , and .

. There wasn't much to explain about them. They were special abilities a person could gain or possess.

It had its own level of mastery; user could level up their skills only through experience and methods of application. Skills were like stats, they possessed levels, but there was a difference between skills and stats.

Skills could surpass the system of levels and reach the realm of constellations. If a skill surpasses the levels, it could become a transcendent skill and can improve further. Sylas didn't mention it, as constellations didn't want humans, especially to grow stronger than them.

A skill that becomes transcendent can affect the laws of universe, a supreme skill would override them, and a mythic one would have full control over them, and they could create a new law, and its user can imprint it on others lower than them.

A transcendent skill was one of the conditions for one to enter the realm of a .

and were related functions. The first one allowed the creation of artifacts using materials, its rank, which followed the same route as , depended upon the material used. 

The other one helped in adding specific enchantments to a material, item or an artifact and on oneself. Creating the runestone was a little difficult because it required high mana and intelligence stat, and it had other sets of conditions.

Come to think of... I haven't checked my attributes since the beginning, but I didn't have any time to take a look before, so I should check it now.

Lucas was still busy talking with Sylas, asking about a few things he felt he needed to ask, and Sylas was forced to answer them because that is how I designed the yakshas in the novel.

Since they were busy, I took my time to check my attributes. Thinking of the status window, a translucent screen materialised in front of my eyes.

[Name: Grey Carter.

Age: 29.

Constellation Authorities: None.

Attributes: Peerless Talent[S], Co-Author[?], ???[?].

Skills: Basic Dagger Arts Lv 2, Cold-Blooded Lv 1, Unlucky Lv 3.

Stats: Stamina Lv 7 Strength Lv 5, Dexterity Lv 5, Mana Lv 1, Intelligence Lv 10.]

Unlucky Lv 3? Isn't this too much? Wait, now that I think about it... too much time has passed. This means... Before my thought could have fully been finished, my fear came true.

Someone entered the cabin through the door I had forcefully opened. Sylas looked over the direction of the door to the next cabin with a slight smirk.

[With this, all the participants of train no. 5483 have come together.]

The person had deep midnight black hair, she was the same height as me, and her figure was lithe. Her eyes were of similar design like her brother, with the difference that she possessed eyes of deep violet colour with glint of gold and red in it.

Clad in a tight black shirt and pants, showing her figure, her black boots were the only ones to be stained with blood. She was wearing a grey overcoat and was holding a long sword covered in a black sheath with red engravings on it.

The protagonist of my novel, the regressor of this world, was here.

She was here.

Luna Andresson was here.

I looked at Lucas, wanting to see his reaction, my gaze turned towards him. I noticed the facial expression he had on his face, it was confusion. He opened his mouth, and when his words came out, my mind blanked out.

It was too different from what I imagined, it was something that shouldn't have happened.

"Do I know you?" He asked.