For a few long moments the two boys kept staring at each other; one with a hint of relaxation on his face while the other with a mixture of disbelief and doubt. As much as the prospect was tempting for the dear Alex, for some mysterious reason, he found it hard to believe that his new friend could have such a generous heart.

So, a tiny bit ungrateful but at peace with himself, he immediately asked, "And... where's the catch?" Attempting to disguise as much as possible of the various conflicting thoughts and opinions that pushed him sometimes forward and sometimes backward; a bit like a child might have behaved before consciously making some kind of trouble.

"The catch?" Roberto repeated, finally finding something interesting to hold onto to wash away the bad mood. "Well... Don't you feel like you're starting out too biased? You' re hurting me now..." He continued soon after, hiding his lips behind the palm of his hand, laying the [Shifting Blade] knife beside him first. His tone changed shortly after, from relatively amused to annoyed; in a manner worthy of a perfect mother-in-law.

However, compared to what he said in the meantime, that change in speech was of little consequence. Shifting his attention from Alex to Camilla, finding himself for a microsecond having to recompose himself for how much those two seemed to be engaged in a comic sketch considering the difference in stature, he resumed his clever speech saying: " Well... If you insist... Can I take a ride on your girlfriend? Don't worry, I won't bite, I'll bring her back without any marks, like I would with a car. I'm a gentleman."

The wonderful part of this technical suicide, at least from my very personal point of view, is the complete uselessness of the entire interaction. In fact, even assuming that his ancestral goal was to get laid, which is something that should be widely debated considering how abnormal Roberto was when he was sober, putting it on these terms would hardly have helped him to get on one-nil. In addition blackmail is almost never a good card to play, despite being seen as a crime when implemented by the mafia and as a necessary measure when approved by the government; but this is a whole other set of discussions as useful as trying to persuade the slaves inside the cave.

Nevertheless, and despite having both common sense and legality against him, Roberto's face managed to maintain a stoic consistency worthy of a marble statue. A task of rare difficulty.

"Ah?"

On the other side instead, a land blatantly incapable of understanding the heights of Lovecraftian comedy, Camilla suddenly changed her complexion. It wasn't even Alex who got pissed off like a beast despite the provocation, only because his 8-bit brain was still processing the information received; rather, it was the girl who brought down a Divine Tribulation on that abandoned shopping center.

As opposed to the mixed agitation and anger she had shown before, in which she too knew she was making a scene, she would now genuinely kill him. And, indeed, after having freed herself from the feeble grip of the presumed husband, she grabbed a brick bending down and then approached Roberto with more than a glimmer of homicidal instinct in her gaze.

Almost needless to say, the situation immediately became tense. The fact that Camilla also raised her arm upwards ready to strike did not improve the overall picture. During those brief seconds she didn't add another word, making her inexorable advance even more agonizing to watch for poor Sabrina, unable to move a muscle even though she didn't want to see a conflict arise.

By now, however, the boy had crossed the Rubicon, he had chosen his destiny; he had, for lack of other more correct expressions, voluntarily put his own safety at risk to make a mess. A hero that no one could have saved from himself; neither some God, nor the world itself and not even the ever-present Old Lady sitting peacefully in the corner waiting for her moment to shine... Unless another idiot built like the illegitimate son of a man and a closet burst out laughing and ruined everything.

From the rear of the battlefield his laughter was in fact so wide, and his pounding on the walls with his palms so loud, that it caused Camilla to turn on her heels and start the dreaded brick from his hand. "Oh! Easy! Easy! We don't have a hospital here!" He yelled at her in protest, dodging the possible concussion at the last.

Anyway, she didn't seem to care much and, with the same friendly look, she asked him from a standing position, "Is there something to laugh about? Or do you want to piss me off too?", not leaving much room for maneuver to the former rugby player. Perhaps, however, because of a blow he received on the field, the big man did not retreat with his tail between his legs and instead replied, "You better turn around and take a look at the imbecile behind you. Don't ask me what's on his mind, but I doubt a man would have a thirty-two-tooth grin like that if he hadn't just gotten what he wanted," pointing further with his finger in the direction described and displaying an amused grin of his own in doing so.

"What he wanted?" The girl wondered as she rotated her body, facing the target of her own wrath in no time. And, indeed, the handicapped man, thoughts of the girl I don't want lawsuits, had lowered the hand that covered his face to show on his own initiative an expression worthy of a madman in the hills.

From then on, between the two main actors of this idiotic farce, there was almost a moment of intimacy. Oh God, intimacy is perhaps too big a word. Perhaps it would be better to say that part of the anger that flowed in Camilla's veins slowly faded away and was replaced by a complex feeling very similar to the most genuine hatred. She understood, even if only partially, that the asshole was taking the piss out of both her and Alex; even if she didn't know to what degree.

Nevertheless, she avoided picking up a second brick and, on the other hand, Roberto too seemed to be looking for common ground to mitigate the conflict, throwing the big old-looking book in Alex's direction. Oh right, the evil genius had only just recovered at that moment and, although his first instinct had been to scream in anger, he had to swallow what words he had in his throat in order to grab the volume on the fly.

[Does the Player wish to learn the Active Skill Supergravity?]

Now, please understand me, obviously the umpteenth mockery had poisoned him, especially since Camilla had been put in the middle. However... Well... What do you want some vulgar words to be compared to an unspecified or scientifically provable magical power capable of feats beyond human comprehension? Now, it wasn't a matter of virility or self-respect or, again, care for one's beloved; but only to avoid making even more tedious a process that, without a shadow of a doubt, would have made him stronger and, therefore, more capable of protecting the girl he felt affection for.

Yes, a bit of an asshole from my point of view, but who am I to judge others?

[Skill: Supergravity (+0). The Skill has only one effect: Once the Skill is activated, the user gains the ability to modify the gravitational pull pressing on a surface no more than five meters away. The affected area can be selected by the user at his discretion. The larger the surface, the more slight the modification may be. This Skill belongs to the Active Skills type. Cost in Mana: 6. Cost in Energy: None].

Once he opened the book and learned the Skill, the boy's body lit up intermittently for a few moments, quickly fading out a short time later. "Oh... have I changed? Has anything changed?" He then asked Mario and Sabrina who had meanwhile moved closer, worrying given the strange glow that had surrounded him.

Mario wanted to lie to him ardently, just to see the man panic. In any case, since they were out of any form of common sense, even if he had told him that he had totally lost his face, Alex would probably have believed him. But given that the demon was still pissed off a few steps away, the big man simply said, "No, I don't think so," shaking his hand as he spoke.

"Good." Roberto spoke up, satisfied with the fact that the learning of the Skill had been successful; and that his guinea pig had suffered no visible side effects. The experiment had clearly succeeded, but it was not yet time to celebrate before making sure of another couple of important details; so he went back to saying: "Well, well, well," getting up from his seat and passing, by the way, beside the pissed off demon.

He had already read the annoying five-meter Skill limit, and that was one of the crucial points to put under the microscope. After in fact choosing the pile of rubble at the most appropriate distance, he approached it and arranged the bricks and pieces of concrete into a small wobbly structure. "So," he then said as he moved closer to the rest of the group, pointing first at Alex with his finger and then at his magnificent piece of civil engineering.

Then, crossing his arms, he began to explain: "Let's pretend to have a meter and let's say that for better or worse it's five meters," but he was interrupted by an idiot named Mario who, from the height of his wisdom, raised his voice saying: "Boss, I usually think in centimeters. Causing a slight giggle, of all people, only to little Sabrina who, embarrassed at having understood the joke, shut up again.

"I can imagine. It's too bad that we can't do anything with five centimeters," Roberto answered, giving him little importance and raising his middle finger in a very elegant way. "Back to the point and stop talking about sausages," he sighed a few moments later, catching his breath and shaking his head. He wanted to be serious about life for once, and Mario was ruining the professional atmosphere that had clearly been there until a moment before. Therefore, putting the big man behind him, he turned fully towards Alex so that he grabbed his shoulders firmly.

"Now, take a good look at the target. Perceive the target. Become the target. The target is you and you are the target. The target wants you, desires you. Remember to become one with the target so that the target can be one with you. In short, do whatever the fuck you want but knock down that tower of shit and bricks, I'm curious about the effect of a skill found in a chest. We came to the ground floor on purpose, so don't worry about messing up. At worst you will blow a hole in the ground floor."

The closeness between their faces made those words, obviously full of meaning and not at all bullshit, even more important and valuable. Alex sensed it. He sensed, don't ask me how given how it had gone so far, a feeling of power, of strength, worthy of the best batch of heroin on the market; not that he had had the chance to try it but it was to give the idea. Clenching his fist tightly, he felt within himself the burning of a power, a magic perhaps, that should only exist in comic books or animated series.

He had already seen his wife set off some sort of energy projectile from the tip of her finger, so he had no doubts about the authenticity of that sensation either. Now, avoiding serious thought about the why or the wherefore, he had truly crossed that insurmountable line that separated reality from fantasy.

"Now I'll show you!" He then said to his snack companion nodding a single time with great force, staring him in the eyes as if he had never even asked him to bang the girl he'd had feelings for for who knows how many years by now. That ability of his to gloss over the matter would have deserved more in-depth studies, but there was no time at the moment.

"Very well, my boy," Roberto urged him one last time with a mock melodramatic tear, loosening his grip and accompanying him with a nudge in the direction of the pile of bricks. Alex couldn't think properly anymore, too focused on putting into practice the little information he had obtained from Camilla the night before about the methodology to activate a Skill.

In the back meanwhile, the sweet Mario moved slightly to the side and took a seat on the remains of a concrete pillar, hardly able to hold back his laughter in front of that little theater of idiots. And who could blame him in the end?

But there was no more time to waste on nonsense. Finally Alex's moment of glory had come.

The boy couldn't stand the thought of making one of his childhood dreams come true, unintentionally leading him to put one arm outstretched forward while keeping his palm nicely exposed and his fingers clasped downwards in a sort of claw.

Unfortunately, he couldn't reconnect his involuntary gesture with the scene that had stuck in his retinas as a child. Obviously, his name didn't mean rice or meal, and none of his already-deceased family members appeared next to him; however, if he had understood why his body had decided to assume that very strange pose in view of the activation of a magical Ability, then perhaps things would have been different.

Instead, he clenched his butt cheeks and tensed his muscles, but he couldn't activate anything. No glow, no memorable special effect, and no tangible effect. The pile of bricks was still in the same position as before; in a precarious balance certainly but not at all affected by his efforts. In a panic, Alex even tried to shout, "Supergravity!" as if that could or should have changed anything.

Sadly, however, the only sound he and the others heard immediately afterwards was not that of shattered tiles or demolished walls, but the shameful hiss that spontaneously escaped as soon as he relaxed his body from the effort.

Poor beast.