78 Family...

"Greyson! It's time to wake up! Mother made her favorite flower cake and tea for breakfast today." A young girl's voice called out. Hearing the voice calling out, a young boy lying on his bed opened his beautiful blue eyes. Yawning and rubbing his eyes, Greyson slowly sat up on his bed.

"Get up, get up!" A teenage girl burst into the room. Her long grey hair and serious grey eyes were an exact copy of Eden Ley. Hands on her hips, she glared out the still drowsy boy sitting on his bed. Walking over she slapped the back of his head and splashed a cup of water in his face.

"Alright, sister, I'm getting up!" Rolling his eyes, the young Greyson rubbed the back of his head, wiped the water from his face, and began to get dressed for the day.

"Hmph! How much longer will I have to wake you up like this? You are already 13-years-old, start waking up on your own. You have to help mother at the shop, as well." Snorting, the girl's words were angry, however, if one looked closely, they could see the endless indulgence in her eyes. Greyson just shrugged before walking out of his room into the living room. There was an older woman's back facing him in the kitchen while she waited for the cakes to finish baking. Hearing footsteps, she turned around and warmly smiled. She was an exact replica of Sister Lily.

"Good morning, Grey." Petting his head, she pulled him to sit at the table.

"Good morning, mother." Following her lead, Greyson sat in his seat. Before long, delicious looking cake and fresh hot tea were placed in front of him. His sister and mother sat next to him and they all began to eat quietly. The entire scene was extremely peaceful and while no one really spoke much, there was a closeness that anyone could see. After breakfast was over, both siblings followed their mother out of the house and into town. As they walked through the town, everyone greeted them happily. Before long, the three stopped in front of their family restaurant. Per usual, they went about their own roles. Greyson cleaned the floors, tables, and chairs while Eden helped their mother prep the ingredients. The day wore on with customers filing in and out. Greyson and Eden took the orders and waited the tables while their mother worked tirelessly in the kitchen. Night arrived and the family of three closed the restaurant for the day and cleaned the inside. Although exhausted, they walked back to the house. Seeing is mother sit and hit at her back and shoulders, Greyson stepped up and helped to massage her.

These days were boring and repetitive, but filled with calm, happiness, and love. Deep in his mind, Greyson felt there was something wrong that he was forgetting, however, something was blocking him from understanding the lasting uneasiness. Week by week, month by month, life continued moving.

Another normal day at the store, Greyson and Eden were taking orders. However, today the restaurant was filled with a group of drunk customers. The men continued to bother Eden and tried to take advantage of her. Luckily, the other male regulars from the town helped kick them out. Letting out a breath of relief, the family continued on their normal routine and soon were walking back home. At this moment, multiple figures appeared from the dark. Expression sinking, Greyson could tell these were the earlier drunks that they chased off. Decisive in her actions, their mother stepped out and offered up their earnings for the day asking them to let their family off. Laughing wildly, the men took the pouch of coins but continued to attack the two women. Greyson tried to fight them off, but was continuously beaten up. He saw his sister and mother getting beaten and their clothes torn.

Something... anything... I have to do something. The blue in his eyes became even deeper as all the men were stabbed through by ice spikes. Spitting blood and with eyes wide in shock, the men all fell to the ground dead. His mother and his sister all puked in disgust, but soon got a hold of themselves and grabbed Greyson to run back home. Greyson stayed silent this entire time. Everything was so familiar to him and tugged at his mind. He kept feeling like he should know something. Grabbing his head in pain, Greyson could feel something was blocking his memories.

"Greyson! You need to wake up! Greyson!" A familiar voice echoed inside his mind. In shock, he looked around the room only to realize his mother and sister were not hearing the same shouts. Bewildered, Greyson felt a burning sensation down on his wrist as a red rope tattoo glowed on his wrist. Looking down at the tattoo, Greyson felt something arriving at the back of his mind. A name. There was a name to the voice. He should know it. Why couldn't he remember it? Furrowing his brows even further, Greyson massaged his temples trying to think of the identity of the familiar voice calling out to him.

"It's Lucius! Greyson you need to wake up! It's a mist spell, it's causing you to hallucinate!"

Hearing the name Lucius, Greyson felt as if the fog in front of him completely cleared. All his memories returned to him. The entire scene of the house in front of him cleared and he only saw a thick mist surrounding him. Looking down, he saw the now awake Lucius. Finally understanding what just occurred, Greyson could feel a cold sweat drip down his back. If not for Lucius, he did not know how long he might have been trapped inside the illusion. This area must be the second stage of the trial that he entered.

"Thank you, Lu. Are you alright now?"

"Well, much better now that I don't have to keep shouting my lungs out at you. I still have to recover somewhat, though."

"What happened after I fainted? How did you get me here?"

"It's an innate spell that all Destiny Cats can use after they reach the magister level. We have to burn some lifeblood to activate it so I cannot use it often, however, it allows us to teleport ourselves and our contractor to the closest location full of good luck or possible fortune. I didn't realize it would actually transport us to a one-star dungeon. This is well against my expectations. I thought it might have just been a place with high density of mana or maybe a natural treasure. Those places are also usually abandoned so I thought it would be safe for you to recover." Lucius explained the spell he used. Greyson's eyes widen in surprise. There was actually such a spell that existed? It was a shame they could not use it often, otherwise couldn't he always be automatically transported to treasures for himself.

"I know what you are thinking, but nothing can be that easy. If we mess with this spell too much, we will both die. Destiny is hard to understand and difficult to control or take advantage of. Until I am stronger, I can only glance into the near future. These kinds of powerful spells use up lifespan, so don't even think about relying on it. You will have to search for your own fortunes."

"I get it, Lucius. I was just thinking it was a shame that things couldn't be that easy." Greyson scratched his nose in embarrassment.

"Hahaha, well, now do you understand your supreme luck forming a contract with me? You should be honored that I use your shoulder as my resting place, think of all the other people of this world who would love to have a partner like me!" Puffing out his chest, Lucius smugly smirked. Greyson just rolled his eyes and finally got up. After he was transported into this place, he was quickly under the spell of the mist, so he had been laying on the ground. Looking around, he could not see through the mist, so he could only slowly walk forward. Lucius hopped up onto Greyson's shoulder and continued sleeping as he had not fully recovered. Walking around, Greyson did not notice anything strange. He did, however, have to continually burn the air around him to evaporate the mist. The more he breathed in the mist, the more he was affected by the hallucinations. By using his fire element, he could keep the air around him unaffected by the mist. Albeit slowly, this constant usage of his fire element was still draining his mana stores. The longer he walked, the more he was getting desperate to find the exit to this awful place.

Feeling the pressure growing while the fire element was slowly running out, Greyson could only sit down and try to meditate. Unsurprisingly, he could only absorb the water element in this area. Knowing that his fire element mana remaining was finite, he decided to spend his time trying to analyze the spell being used in this mist array. If he could become immune to the mist, then he would have nothing worry about while walking around. Without paying attention to the time, Greyson continued observing the mana patterns within the spell. Sitting and meditating for hours, then days, then weeks, he continued to observe. Finally, his eyes lit up and he stood up.

"I understand!" Standing up and rushing over to a certain spot, Greyson could tell that this was the center of the array. Summoning Genesis into his hand, he stabbed the sword straight down. The ground cracked and the array broke apart and the mist started to dissipate. After the thick mist was gone, Greyson could clearly see the room he was in. To his surprise, it was actually not that large, the mist must have had him walking in circles. The exit became apparent to him after the mist dispersed. Walking over to the opening, Greyson paused because he was a little nervous about what could happen on the other side. If not for Lucius, just the second stage could have kept him stranded for much longer. Determination filled his eyes as he straightened his shoulder and decided to continue walking through. No matter what, he had to keep going and try to gain something from passing these trials. Slowly making his way over, his approach seemed rather dramatic. Standing in front of the entrance, he tried to enter the doorway.

*BANG!* Shocked, Greyson slammed into an invisible wall blocking the door.

"Bahahaha!" Almost snorting from laughing so hard, Lucius began to tear up from the hilarity of it. "You were walking so seriously, I could not stop you. Oh, I haven't laughed this hard in so long, I feel like the last time was that time you were learning shadow escape." Upon mentioning that moment, Lucius started to burst out laughing again.

"LU! You knew there was some kind of wall here?!" Blushing red, Greyson could not help but feel extremely embarrassed.

"Stop laughing! Now help me get passed it." Forcing his expression to go back to indifference, Greyson tried to return to the earlier seriousness. Lucius tried his best to stop laughing but the minute he saw the red mark that was forming Greyson's forehead, he began giggling all over again. Greyson just continued to glare fiercely.

"Alright, alright. I'm done. I don't know how to get passed it, I just knew it was there because it was a spatial element barrier." Lucius finally responded. Greyson felt the vein in his forehead pulsing. This stupid cat! Calming himself down, Greyson started looking around with how to get around it. It did not take him very long however, because he soon realized that he just needed to cover himself in the wind element to pass through. Maybe because he chose the green door in the beginning? He could not be sure, but it did not matter as he stepped through to the final door.