POV: Phobius Barnes

“Shit!”

“We lost him.”

From rooftop to rooftop I ran, not entirely sure where this newfound power was coming from but it was most likely from the voice speaking in my mind. However, I felt slower than before.

That is because you are more conscious now.

“You are causing this?” I asked out loud.

You know you don’t have to talk out loud, I can hear all your thoughts.

“This feels more natural.” I replied. “Now what are you and are you causing this?”

Who I am doesn’t matter little one, but yes I am causing your surge in power.

“How is that possible?”

You were a suitable vessel.

“Vessel? Seriously, what are you?”

That does not matter.

“Still gonna stick with that huh?” During all these I was still running, on the rooftops, through the alleyways. I, or should I saw we, were headed to the gate at the top of the kingdom. The only way out of the kingdom, but it was heavily guarded. There is something wrong with this kingdom.

Seems pretty normal to me.

“You can read my thoughts, huh?”

I told you already.

“I feel violated.”

I have done that before.

“What does that even mean?” A minute passed. “No answer, seriously?” We were getting closer and closer to the gate by the minute. The kingdom is giant, feeling like a large city back in America. Finally reaching the nice part of the kingdom, more and more officers were starting to take notice of me.

“Stop him!” I heard one of the officers currently chasing me yell. This got the attention of more officers, who got the attention of more officers. It was turning into a strange game of telephone, when one officer couldn’t keep chasing they found a new one to continue the chase.

We seem to be losing speed.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

I can get you out of the kingdom.

“How?” It was true, with each minute I could feel the power running through my veins lessen. The officers were starting to catch up, and we were running out of roofs. Soon we would have to jump down to the street, where all the enforcers are.

Just let me take over.

“Take over? That doesn’t sound ominous at all.”

I can make it to where you’re still conscious if you prefer.

“Conscious? You mean it would make me unconscious normally?”

I see you don’t remember.

“Remember what?”

It will come back eventually. Now, do we have a deal?

Looking ahead I was going to run out of roof within the minute. A quick glance behind me, showed that the officers were about to catch him. Even though my instincts were telling me there was a catch I gave in. “Fine. Do it.”

All of a sudden my body stopped moving but I was still seeing out of my eyes. I tried to move the best I could but I was frozen.

“Fire your spells!” I heard someone yell. Starting to panic I was trying to move as much as possible, but nothing was working.

“Don’t worry.” The words came out of my mouth but I didn’t say it.

All of a sudden my body turned at lightning speed, and caught a small bullet of ice.

Woah. I tried to speak out loud, but nothing came out of my mouth. Instead I just said it inside my head.

There were multiple officers on the road, looking like 7 with a quick count. Almost like we teleported, we appeared in front of one of the officers. With a quick shove of the hand, he went flying into a building's wall, crashing straight through it. I expected blood to be on my hand but I saw something a mixture of black and red surrounding my hand, almost but not quite touching it. It almost looked like a force field you would see in a movie, but glove shaped. It moved perfectly with my hand, moving whenever my fingers moved. I would be lying if I said, I didn’t want to try that when I had control of my body.

That’s when my body looked up and I could see what happened to that man. He was lying on the ground, rubble all around him, his body lifeless. My mind froze seeing that, that’s not what I wanted. We were supposed to be escaping, not killing. Just then another spell came flying towards us.

“KILL HIM!”

“HE’S A MONSTER!”

Moving so fast, it looked like we teleported, we were in front of another officer, this time a woman. Just as my body was about to hit her too, I yelled as loud as I could in my own head.

STOOOOPP!!!

“What?” My body spoke out loud.

Don’t kill her.

“Just a little while ago, you were ready to kill this whole kingdom.” As my body said that my mind went blank. I did feel that didn’t I? Why? That’s not me.

Why did I think that?

“Because it’s who you are inside.” Just then my hand sliced through the air, and a second later the woman's head fell off her shoulders. Her body fell, blood spurting everyone, but somehow disappearing once it was about to hit us.

Who I am inside?

“That is how you truly feel without the bounds of society.”

“RUUNNN!” I heard an officer yell, others were still firing off spells to no avail. As soon as they would connect the spell would disappear, my whole body surrounded by a weird transparent black and red forcefield.

You can’t. Don’t.

“Why not?”

Please. Collecting my thoughts, I kept going. You shouldn’t.

“They are nothing but pathetic humans. I should be feeling their severed heads in the palms of my hands right now.”

You can’t do that. It isn’t right.

“The strong devour the weak. It’s how the world operates, always has always will.”

Where I’m from it’s not the physically strong that devour the weak.

“This isn’t your world now is it, little one.”

That may be true, but I will always hold my values close to my heart.

“That may be true for now, but we shall see how much this world will twist your ideals.”

I have already been through so much, what else could it possibly take from me?

“More than you can possibly imagine. You just arrived in this world a short while ago. You have yet to see what this cruel world can truly do.”

I have nothing, and no one. The whole kingdom is against me, and yet you say I still have worse to come. I fail to comprehend your reasoning.

“You do not have power like I. I can see things that others cannot.”

So you’re telling me you can see into the future?

“Of sorts.”

Wow. That helps sooo much.

“Even in the face of true despair and evil you don’t cower, you don’t even feel scared.”

I guess you’re not as omnipotent as you think. I’m scared shitless right now man, but how would that help me right now if I let that overtake me.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I think this will work out just fine, oh little one.”

Can you stop calling me little one, it’s freaking me out. Just call me by name. Call me Phobius.

“Alright Phobius. You win. I will let these pathetic humans live, but you will soon learn that that choice was a mistake. The more you ignore your true feelings and keep holding onto these values that don’t exist in this world, the more you will suffer. I know you want to kill these people, but your sense of justice is stopping you. You’re nothing but a walking contradiction. I can’t wait for your true emotions to come back.”

We will see.

Majority of the officers were gone at this point, the few who stayed were too scared to move, just kept their spells pointed at us not doing anything. Whatever was controlling my body, took one last look at the officers. For some reason I could feel anger and annoyance, but it wasn’t mine. Whatever this is we must be linked in some way, being able to connect on this level. We jumped high into the sky, leaving a crater in the ground below. At least 100 feet in the air, I wondered what would happen next. To my surprise we started flying through the sky. Not flying per say, more like jumping through the air, pushing off of nothing as we flew through the sky.

I could see the onlookers below in awe, more and more people coming out of buildings to see what was in the sky. We reached the edge of the kingdom in no time.

This is truly amazing power.

“This is nothing compared to how I was in the past.”

That past? Once again silence, as we just flew right over the giant wall surrounding the kingdom. Officers shot spells at us from below but an inch before it hit us, it disappeared into thin air.

“Now where are we going?”

How the hell should I know?

My body’s tongue clicked, and just as it did I could feel myself return to my body. I felt relieved, just for a second, as whenever I returned I started to fall from the sky.

“AHHHH!” I yelled. “HELPP!”

Hah!

Before I even had time to react, my body got taken over again right before we hit the ground and we landed on our feet. A crater much larger than before surrounded our feet, and just as quickly as my body got taken over, it got returned. I just stood there for a few seconds, trying to figure out what just happened.

“What. The. FUCK?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, something I never did. “WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!”

Let’s just call that a lesson.

“A lesson? A FUCKING LESSON?”

Just to show you who’s stronger.

“So you can just take over my body whenever the hell you want huh?!”

Of course.

I was starting to fume. Still standing I started to violently move my hands.

“Then why did you ask for my permission before, you asshole?!” I slammed my hand into the tree next to me, and the tree started to groan. A few seconds later it toppled over, birds flying everywhere.

I would like to stay alive and you are a necessity for it. I need us to keep a stable relationship.

“So nearly kill me to teach me a lesson?!”

I don’t want to die. So you wouldn’t have died.

“So your just fucking petty!”

Even I am not perfect.

“Yeah. No shit! Now explain in thorough detail, what the fuck is going on?”

I will explain, but there are some things I must keep secret.

“As long as you explain enough. You can talk as we walk.”

Where are we walking?

“I thought you could read my mind.” I scoffed, starting to walk in the opposite direction of the kingdom. Ahead of us was nothing but trees.

I can. I just thought you would feel more comfortable this way.

“Shit, man. You try to kill me, then try to make me feel comfortable.”

You were in no danger of ever getting hurt.

“Whatever, just get talking.”

Alright, what's your first question?

We walked, and walked, and walked, talking the whole time. For some reason, I wasn’t getting tired even though it must’ve been already an hour of pushing through this massive forest. I got explanations for a lot of things, but some major plot points were still lacking. Back at the beginning of the walk as I asked about how I was so much stronger now, the voice in my head which will now be referred to as IT, told me to look at my stat plate. Looking at it just made me have even more questions.

Name: Phobius Barnes Race: Human Age: 17

Level: 3 Class: Detective Skill Points Available: 10

Strength: 10 Agility: 25

Defense: 10 Stamina: 15

Magic: 7 #$*(&^@: 1

Skills: Language Barrier (Lvl.Max), Analytics (Lvl.Max) Dash (Lvl.1), Hindsight (Lvl.2), Foresight (Lvl.3), Machiavellianism (Lvl.1) Empathic Accuracy (Lvl.1)

“Alright what is this?” I asked as we continued to walk.

Intriguing. So that’s how that works.

“You don’t even know?!” The best explanation that IT gave me was that that new stat was the link between the two of us. “So if I level it up, what happens?”

No clue.

“WHAT?! I thought you could see into the future.”

Of sorts.

“Trying to talk to you is going to be a lot harder than it seems, huh?”

I was able to get a decent explanation from Phillip back when I was with them, but now IT seems to have some good knowledge so I drilled IT with questions about the stat plate.

“From what Phillip told me the average stat for an adult is 10 in each, with like 5 in magic I believe he said.”

10? It used to be 10 times that.

“Used to?” IT went silent again, doing that whenever there was a question it didn’t want to answer. It was always up to me to keep the conversation going after that. Multiple times that happened, usually after me questioning about what IT is, or anything about IT.

However when IT talked about the stat plate it was pretty thorough. The main way to level up was by killing any living being that had a form of a sentience. That means monsters, humans, any of the races, but excluded the living things such as normal plants.

“So did you killing those two people level me up 3 times?” I asked.

You truly do not remember. Maybe it will come back to you as we form a greater connection.

“Remember WHAT?!” I yelled. Silence followed. “You bitch.” I spit out. “So if I level up this stat here, what will happen?” The #$*(&^@ stat was really throwing me off, and my curiosity was unable to contain itself.

Try Analyzing it.

“Analyzing it?” Looking back I could see that my stat plate had a maxed out skill called, Analytics. “How do I do that?”

Just try focusing on something on your stat plate and you will get a description of it.

I stared at the #$*(&^@ stat and after a second something popped up.

#$*(&^@: IONT$#&AIJDAS #@$FGVO @#GOJA

“Oh yeah. That helps.”

Strange. Even I could not have foreseen this.

Foreseen, huh? I stared at the skill that said Foresight (Lvl.3).

Foresight: Gives the user the ability to see a possible future. The higher the level the more specific and accurate visions will appear.

“Is that why you knew when we were getting shot at by those officers, even though our back was turned?”

Something like that. I believe when I had control of your body, the skill increased in level giving it even more power. I could typically do that even without any skills, but your body is weak.

“Weak? I actually felt a little hurt by those words. Then again I never exercised back in my own world, which is why I was so surprised by the fact I wasn’t getting tired walking. Entranced by this Analytics skill however, I forgot about the skill points and got reading.

Language Barrier: Gives the user the ability to translate any spoken language into their own native language. While speaking their own native language, others will hear your voice in their language. The higher the level the more the user and others understand each other.

Analytics: Gives the user the ability to read a description of any skill. The higher the level, the higher rarity skills are able to be read.

Dash: Gives the user the ability to dash a short distance. The higher the level the faster and farther the user will be able to dash.

Hindsight: Gives the user the ability to figure out what happened at a scene after something happened. The higher the level the more accurate and farther back the user can see.

Machiavellianism: Gives the user the ability to have others see the users actions and words in the way the user wants them to. The higher the level, the more convincing the words and actions are.

Empathic Accuracy: Gives the user the ability to understand another's emotions and feelings on a deeper level then all. The higher the level, the more accurate and specific it becomes.

“With these skills I guess the class of Detective makes sense, but why these skills? If we follow typical tropes my best guess would be because I was typically pretty good at reading people in my other world. Guess that translates to this world as well.”

I’m surprised you figured that out.

“It’s pretty common in stories back in my world.”

I saw that, yes.

“Wait, you can see my past life?”

Of course, I can. Well bits and pieces.

“Total invasion of privacy, but moving on. Should I distribute my skill points then?”

Do as you wish.

“I kind of want to put it into this weird stat, but at the same time I’m worried about what it will do to me.”

I would suggest putting all the points into that.

“That's suspicious as shit dude. I’m just going to put a few in because I’m interested as well. So how do I do it?”

Just think that you want to put in points, and tap on that stat.

“Alright. Here goes.” I said, my hand inching closer to the stat screen. Liking clean numbers, I put in four points into the #$*(&^@ stat. Immediately after pulling my hand back from the screen, my whole body started to ache so bad I fell to the ground.

“What the fuck… is… happening?” I gasped out.

I believe our connection is growing stronger.

It was only getting progressively worse by the second, my whole body felt like it was getting stabbed now. I couldn’t hold in my screams anymore.

“ARGH! AHHHHHH!” After about a minute of feeling like my body was going to get ripped apart from the inside, the pain started to subside. Gasping for air, I was unable to move from the ground, just laying there for a few minutes.

That was quite interesting to watch.

“I’m happy my pain causes you such joy.” My sarcasm in full effect. “Wait, not joy? Curiosity? What am I feeling?”

Well then, now that is even more interesting.

I could feel an emotion that wasn’t mine. It felt like I had two separate minds inside of me now, one was mine, and another was full of curiosity.

That would be my emotions.

“Your emotions?” I echoed.

I did say it would most likely increase our connection, didn’t I?

“I guess you did.” Once I stood up and the pain went away, I felt better than before. “In fact, I feel lighter.” I bounced a bit up and down to make sure my body was feeling good.

Check your stat plate again.

Name: Phobius Barnes Race: Human Age: 17

Level: 3 Class: Detective Skill Points Available: 6

Strength: 18 Agility: 33

Defense: 18 Stamina: 23

Magic: 15 #$*(&^@: 5

Skills: Language Barrier (Lvl.Max), Analytics (Lvl.Max) Dash (Lvl.1), Hindsight (Lvl.2), Foresight (Lvl.3), Machiavellianism (Lvl.1) Empathic Accuracy (Lvl.1)

“Woah! Putting 4 points into that weird stat, seemed to increase each of my other stats by 8. So if it stays consistent, 1 point in the weird stat equals 2 points into every other stat. That’s strong if that’s true.” I paused for a moment, remembering the pain I was just in. “But, is it worth it if that pain comes every time?”

It seems not only do the stats go up, but our connection does indeed get stronger. I can now see even more of your memories.

“Why do you get to see my memories but I don’t get to see yo-” Like something was listening to me, a memory that wasn’t mine popped into my head. It was an overhead view of a giant castle, one that put even the one in the kingdom to shame. Surrounding it were tons of houses and buildings.

“What is this?” I asked, but IT didn’t respond to me at all. If IT can see my memories, it’s safe to assume this is IT’s memory. So if I put more points in it, I can see more about ITs past, and understand IT’s emotions more. Interesting.

Looking around me, you wouldn’t be surprised if we were still just outside of the kingdom. This forest looked the same no matter how far you went in.

Don’t you want to make them pay?

“What?”

I can tell you're hesitating to put more points in that stat.

“Of course I am, that pain was nothing I have experienced before.”

With that power though, we could bring that kingdom to the ground. Set it on fire. Make them pay. Don’t you want that.

My emotions were a mess. Just a while ago I was telling IT not to kill those officers but now I was hesitating to “Of course I want to make those assholes pay. I will never forgive that place for what it did to my family.”

We can make that happen, Phobius. All we need to do is get stronger and we can go back there and kill everyone there.

Suddenly like a switch, I was realising what I was saying. “No, killing them all is wrong. The entire kingdom didn’t kill my family.”

Your little speech back there didn’t convince me at all. You want revenge. You want to see them all suffer.

“Suffer.” My mind was flooded with darkness and the images of Phillip, Kathy, and V dying came rushing back. Before I could think straight, my finger was hovering over the #$*(&^@ stat, and then I put all the rest of the 6 points into it.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, still standing. My arms were straight out as if I was basking in the pain. The same pain I felt before came back, but this time it didn’t stop when it did last time. It kept going. “SHIIIIIIIIT!” I yelled before falling over, and assuming a fetal position. It was only a little bit longer than previously, but the pain was immensely worse.

Once the pain subsided, I once again just laid there. I collected my thoughts and as I did, I wanted to say I made the wrong choice so many times. That I didn’t want to hurt the people of that kingdom, like I told IT before, but I couldn’t. It felt like something inside of me changed. That part of me that wanted peace was fading away more and more. My brain felt like it was in a constant fight against itself. Two sides wanting immensely different outcomes, fighting for dominance of my feelings, and violence was winning.

Whether this was because of the stat or my actual feelings, I wasn’t sure. Maybe both. One thing was for sure though, I wanted to make them pay, I couldn’t make that go away. In order to do that, I needed to get stronger and the way to do that was to put myself through that pain. I couldn’t shake the anxiety however, that the more I did that, the more I would lose myself.

Shall we get moving?

“Where?”

To where the monsters roam of course.

Standing up, I looked around and saw nothing of interest.

“Time to test my skills.” I crouched down as low as I could, and jumped up with all my might. My jump height had improved significantly but it wasn’t enough to jump over these trees. “How can we tell where monsters are?”

For such a good vessel, you are pretty dense sometimes.

“Excuse me?”

Just use hindsight.

“Hindsight? Oh yeah, my skill!” An audible sigh played in my head. “How do I use the skill though?”

I have no idea what that skill is, and that is saying something. Skills mainly just require focus and a conscious mind.

“So just think hard about it?”

That’s an unintelligent way to put it, but yes.

“Unintelligent my ass. If it works, it works.” Scoffing, I walked around looking to see if there was anything that hindsight would work on. After a minute of looking, I saw something faint on the ground. “Looks like animal tracks.”

Use hindsight then.

Staring at the tracks, I crouched down, focusing as hard as I could. I thought of looking into the past as best I could, thinking of an animal walking. After a while I started to see a shadow move out of the corner of my eye. I stood up and took a step back, and that same shadow was walking past me. It was very dark and blurry, but it had the outline of what looked like a pig, or maybe a boar. It kept walking until it matched up with the tracks on the ground and disappeared into the wind. After it ended, I got a bit light headed and had to lean against a tree to stay standing.

“That wasn’t very helpful.”

The tracks are faint. Maybe the creature walked by here too long ago for you to get a clear picture.

“That would make sense. So, how do I level up my skills and why do I feel so lightheaded?”

The more you use a specific skill, the more it levels up, and you must feel that way because the skill uses too much mana. Looking into the future or past uses a lot of mana.

“That would make sense. You are literally messing with time. So, since that was a bust, what do we do? It’s getting dark out.”

Let me take control, and I can use my skills in order to find out where the nearest dungeon is.

“Dungeon?”

Yes. Dungeon. Dungeons are naturally formed caves that monsters would use for shelter. Unlike on the surface, the monsters in the dungeons tend to respect each other's perspective floors, as they can sense the danger of each other. However some small creatures have gone into the cave and managed to survive there by some miracle over the past 10,000 years.

“10,000 years?”

Yes, this world and it’s sentient beings have been around for a long time. Take demons, they have very long lifespans. Same with fairies and angels.

“Fairies and angels? We are getting so off track here.” I pointed out. “I accept your request to take over my body, but just until we reach the entrance of the dungeon. I do want to hear more about races like fairies and angels on the way though.”

Works with me.

The strange feeling of seeing through my eyes, but not moving my body was back. This time it didn’t feel as strange though, as I was starting to get used to it. In this state I’m not even able to feel my own body, let alone use it. There was something different this time though, I was able to feel someone else's emotions, quite strongly.

Are these your emotions I am feeling?

“That is correct. Putting the points in that stat must be strengthening the connection even more. The reason you feel the emotions more than before however, is that when I’m in the state you are currently in, I don’t have much emotions. But, when I am able to move freely, lots of emotions run through me, or should I say us now?”

I’m still a little worried about putting more points in that stat, but I must say, that feeling of power is incredible.

“I told you it was. Now then, shall we get going?”

Did you find a dungeon already?

“Yes, it is quite far however.”

How far?

“In your world it would roughly translate to, a hundred miles or so.”

A hundred miles?! How long is that going to take?

“About an hour or so.”

How is that possible? As if to answer my question, IT started to run at a speed I could barely keep up with. Bobbing and weaving in between the trees with perfect precision. Couldn’t we just fly like you did before?

“Fly?” IT asked. I was amazed I could hear IT at this speed. “And I have a thin layer of mana around me so wind factor isn’t a problem.”

Damn mind reader. Literally. And you were soaring through the sky before.

“Oh that? I was merely jumping horizontally.”

You make it sound so simple. Now back to my question before. Angels and elves?

“Yes. There are many races that roam this earth and too many creatures to count. In the past the races consisted of Demon, Angel, Human, Fairies, Beastmen, Werebeasts, Vampires, Bogeymen, and Gnomes.”

Alright, those last two were definitely jokes, right?

“Why would I joke?” IT scoffed. “Those were races in the past. I am unsure whether or not they still exist however.”

That’s amazing. I gawked. If those races exist I really want to meet them, elves especially. For no particular reason.

“I can hear your thoughts, you know. Who would ever see elves in a sexual way?”

Plenty of people, I would have you know. So I’m definitely interested in the bogeymen though. What are they?

“They are creatures who live in the night, the shadows, and the fear of others. Very few existed and no one knew how long they lived for, but they were a race to be reckoned with. Even the demons and the angels, the two strongest races, feared their capabilities. Thankfully, they were a pretty docile race, only coming out and killing once in a blue moon.”

That is actually terrifying.

We kept talking as we ran to the nearest dungeon and we were about to reach it when we hit, or should I say IT, hit a bump in the road.

Why are you stopping?

“We should go to a different dungeon.”

Why?

“If we go to this one, it might strain our connection and it will take longer to level up.”

Ok, how far away is the nearest one besides this one then?

“About a few thousand miles or so.”

What?! How few of these dungeons are there for it to be so far away?

“You can count them on a single hand.”

We are going to this one then. I refuse to run that far away from that place.

“I refuse to be in control then.” Just as IT said that I suddenly got forced back into my body again. The thin layer of mana IT had around my body disappeared, but I felt multiple times stronger than I normally was.

“You’re acting like a little kid, and why do I feel so strong?” I asked out of my own mouth once again.

There are lingering effects when I give your body back to you. It takes a little bit for my strength to subside.

“So you're saying I can run as fast as you?”

Definitely not, but you can run faster than you could before. Only for a short time however.

“I am SO testing this out.” I took a starting stance and bolted as fast as I could. I was gone in a flash, putting all olympic runners to shame. The wind against my face felt so good, but also a little painful. My guess was that the air pushing against me was too much for me to handle. Remembering what I saw IT do, I focused and put a thin layer of mana around myself. The air I was feeling disappeared, and I was able to pick up the pace a bit.

Impressive that you could put up a mana layer around yourself. Even if it is significantly weaker than mine.

“Must everything be a competition to you? So how much farther?”

Sigh. Just keep heading in this direction for a few more minutes.

“Can I keep running this fast for a few minutes?” I could feel the strength in my body weaken by the second.

You can probably only keep this up for 2 minutes. You will have to go at your speed the rest of the way.

“That’s not too bad.” After those two minutes went by I slowed to my running speed, but because of the stat increase it was immensely faster then what it was before. A few more minutes after that, IT spoke up once again.

We have arrived.

I slowed to a halt and looked at the ‘dungeon’ next to me.

“It’s just a normal cave entrance.” I said that but it was pretty big for a cave entrance, and I could tell how spacious it was inside even though it was completely dark out.

This is it, I assure you.

“So is there any treasure inside?” My hopes high.

There is the equipment that the ones who died inside left. The monsters eat all the flesh, but leave the equipment there.

“I guess that counts.” I sighed. Looking around, it was still just a normal forest. I was surprised how big this forest was to not change scenery for so long.

This is the Royal Forest, named after the fact that, somewhere inside of this forest is where the elves lived in the past.

“So you’re saying we might run into some elves here?”

You don’t find them, they find you.

“Ah, one of those things. So.” I stared into the depths of the cave. “Do we go in or?”

I suggest rest then we can go in.

“If you say so.” Being able to feel IT’s emotions, I could tell that there was a feeling of frustration, and some anger.

Letting out a big yawn, I sat with my back against a tree. As I sat there in silence trying to rest, what I have been trying to push out of my mind kept creeping back in. Remembering the sight of my family getting killed, the feeling of getting tortured, and that sense of lonliness, that I was still feeling. Being able to talk to IT was probably the only reason I wasn’t going insane. Having something to distract yourself from pain and grief is really helpful, but once you are alone with your thoughts those feelings will always come back. The physical pain of leveling up my stat was less painful then the mental damage I was going through. Eventually my tiredness came back to me and soon enough I did fall asleep.

“No.” I whimpered. “Don’t.”

“Hey.”

“Leave me alone.” I cried.

“You ok?”

“NOOO!” Screaming I bolted awake.

“Eek!” I heard some girl yelp.

I looked down at my hands and arms, which were still both there and healthy thankfully. Covered in sweat and out of breath, I took in my surroundings. I was in the exact same place I went to sleep but this time, a couple of feet away from me, a strange looking girl was staring at me, clearly surprised. Suddenly I felt an absurd amount of frustration and anger, or rather it seemed to be IT’s emotions. The sudden change in my heart made me stand up and back up a few feet.

“Um.” She waved meekly. “Are you ok?” The girl looked to be the same as me roughly, looking a little too similar to me for comfort. She was wearing a plain shirt like me, black jacket, and she had black hair like me as well. I was wearing jeans though and she was wearing a skirt, but with what looked like some type of leggings. There was one key difference however, she had two red horns on her head. Even I had to admit though she was pretty cute, not that it mattered to me either way.

“The hell is going on here?” I whispered out loud hoping IT would catch on, but no response. “Hey!” I screamed inside of my head but still nothing. However that weird feeling of frustration was still there, the anger seemed to subside. I knew IT was still there but wasn’t responding for some reason.

“You were shaking pretty bad.” The girl continued, keeping her distance. A confused look on her face, slightly visible the whole time.

“What should I do?” I kept thinking to myself. “IT is gone and this girl who clearly isn’t human is here.”

“Was I?” I chuckled, scratching the back of my head. “Should I run? Wait, my skills! What would be helpful here? Foresight and hindsight wouldn’t do jack. Machiavellianism and empathic accuracy here may work. Here goes nothing. Empathic Accuracy!”

“Do you need some help?” Her face showed concern but what about her emotions? Not expecting much out of a level one skill I focused on activating it. Suddenly it felt like I could feel her emotions, not much though just very slightly. It was hard to distinguish but it was almost like I was feeling caution and concern. “She seems to be actually concerned, but still cautious of me. It’s hard to tell if that’s all she is feeling since it all felt so vague. Well, time to try out machiavellianism.”

“I’m good. Just out adventuring.” I did my best to put the skill attached to the words but there was no way to tell if that was actually working or not.

“With no supplies?” She put her hand to her chin and looked around me.

“I’m a…minimalist?” “Sigh, that’s really the best I can do?”

“What’s a minimalist?”

The look of curiosity and interest was growing which made me anxious. I needed to make my leave as quickly as possible. We could always come back to this cave tomorrow, and just hide out till this girl is far enough away.

“Well. I’ve gotta get going.” Trying to get away, I turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.

“You sure? Do you need some food or water?”

“What do you mean? You don’t have any eithe-'' Turning around, this girl had her hand in some black void, almost like the world just stopped existing where her hand was. A second later she pulled out a loaf of bread and a water bottle.

“No..No thanks.” I shakily told her as my appetite was catching up to me. As I started to walk away my stomach growled loud enough I thought the kingdom would’ve heard it. I stared at the ground, too embarrassed to move.

“You sure?” Peeking. I saw she was holding them out with a smile on her face.

“Damn it.” I whispered, turning around and walking back towards her. “This is going to bite me later.”

Sitting down on the grassy ground near her, she split the loaf of bread in half and handed one to me, along with the bottle of water. She took a seat across from me and started eating delicately as if she ate it too fast it would disappear on her. Still not completely convinced I stared down at the loaf of bread and bottle of water.

“Geez, think it's poisoned or something?” She scoffed, just before hastily grabbing the bread from my hand and taking a bite. “Happy now?”

“Guess so.” Rubbing the back of my neck I bit down on the bread. It tasted a little bit old, but still fresh enough to where it was edible. Definitely not something I would throw away in the trash. Once determined it was most likely safe I scarfed it down, my hunger taking over.

If the bread is fine, I guess the water is too.

I took a small sip to determine the level of safety, before quickly pouring it down my throat. The feeling of water running down one's dry throat was always a relief. I wasn’t aware of how much I needed food and water until she came along. As I ate and drank, the girl was just staring at me the whole time in bewilderment.

“You could eat slower you know?” She exclaimed in between her own bites.

“I’m sort of in a rush.” Leaving as quickly as possible would be my best bet in this situation, before any questions got asked.

“Where you going?” Cursing under my breath, I considered my options. Running sounded good but not knowing how far this girl was willing to get answers was an x factor. The safer option would be to try and fib my way out of the situation.

“Actually. I’m going in there.” I pointed to the massive entrance to the cave we had been sitting in front of the whole time.

“But you were just heading that way.” Pointing the way where I tried to make my first escape, she continued to nibble at her food.

“I changed my mind.” Hastily retreating, I started walking into the pitch black cave. “Seems dangerous in here so thanks for the food. Goodbye.” I waved my hand, not turning around to face her at all.

“Hold on.” I could hear her shuffling behind me, but I was determined to ditch her until. “With stats like that you won’t last long.”

I stopped in my tracks staring into the depths of the cave. A bead of sweat rolled down my head as I thought about the implications of her words. If she was bluffing, and if she wasn’t how she even knew what my stats were. I had no idea about the amount of skills in this world, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities that she could somehow see what my stats were without the stat plate. That made her a problem as I wanted to get stronger without anyone's knowledge, and if she somehow saw my weird stat, that would only arise even more problems.

“...It’s none of your business.” I snapped. Quickly continuing my escape, the darkness of the cave engulfed me more. The feeling of danger surrounded me, confirming what the girl said. Worst scenario, I would have IT jump in to save me. I just knew I would be fine by myself, at least that’s what I told myself.

“Want any help?” She yelled, her voice almost inaudible. Choosing to ignore her, I continued walking to the point where I couldn’t even see my own hands. Anxiety crept in, but constantly reminding myself of my trump card was giving me the confidence to move forward. Even if IT had been absent for the past few minutes, IT needed me to stay alive.

“That’s rude, you know.”

“SHIT!” I jumped as suddenly the girl’s voice was right in my ear. A small flame lit the dark cave emanating from her hand, revealing the fact she was right next to me.

“I really think you should take me up on my offer.” She insisted.

“How the hell?” Looking back and forth between her and where she just was a second ago, I was stunned. “How did you?”

“Irrelevant.” Cutting me off she continued. “I’ll ask politely this time. Please let me come with you?”

“I think that’s very relevant!” I yelled. Expecting an answer I stared at her but she only stared back, her eyes full of enthusiasm. “Why do you even want to come with me? I could be a molester or something.”

“I’m not worried about that.” Swiftly dismissing my statement, she went back to pretty much begging with her eyes. The puppy dog look may have worked on others, but it only annoyed me.

“Those eyes are pissing me off.” I complained, getting fed up with this chick. “You still haven’t answered my question, you know.”

“Apologies, Phobius. I am simply trying to satisfy my own curiosity.” Her sudden change in tone of voice staggered me a bit.

“How the hell do you know my name?”

“The same way I know you won’t survive in here.” That answered my question if she could read my stats without needing a stat plate. The answer if she saw that weird stat was still up in the air, but considering she wants to satisfy her curiosity means there was a high chance that was it.

“If I reject you now, would you leave me alone?” Curious if she was gonna follow me anyway, I got straight to the point.

“If you really wish for me to not be of any help to you, I will go back to my original mission. However, I am much more interested in doing this than what I was doing before.” The questions just kept coming whenever she said a single word.

“And what was your original mission?” I inquired. Figuring out if she was really telling me the truth was my objective at the moment, but something was telling me she was. Must have been my skill again.

“Secret.” She bubbled. Her enthusiasm was already wearing me out and I just woke up. If I let her come with me, I would most likely stay safe and maybe I could even convince her to help me strengthen up a bit. I did NOT want her to come in the slightest, but in that moment I felt like I needed her.

“If I let you come, you won’t randomly kill me or anything?”

“That would ruin the reason I want to come with you in the first place.”

“And that is?” I persisted, but she once again kept her mouth shut and just stared at me with a face no other guy could say no to.

“So?” After a few seconds she was the one to break the silence. “Can I come?”

“ARRGHHH!” Letting out a loud groan, I cradled my head. “If you stop with those damn puppy dog eyes, FINE!”

“Yes!” Doing a little pumpfist, she smiled. Deciding I had enough of her little celebration, I started to walk deeper into the cave.

“So I guess I should know your name.” I coldly said.

“Just call me Danny.” She gleamed.

“Danny.” I echoed. “Nice to meet you, I guess.”

“Likewise, Phobius.”