Faced with the prodigious thunder summoned by Fay, the monster waved his arms impatiently and approached them one step after another. Tabitha tried to tie herself tightly to the tree to make sure that she would not get hurt by any chance. It was hard for a person like her to believe that something such as this was happening right in front her. Suddenly, she felt useless, completely incapable of helping.
The lightning made that monster more and more irascible. Fay was forced to keep retreating as though there was no way for her to fight it.
"Get out of the way!"
Suddenly, a male's voice sounded right beside Tabitha. It lit up Fay's expression. She ran over and barely escaped the monster's attack. She gasped and hid behind the young man. The young man with a strong build started shooting at the gainly creature with a shotgun.
"Carol, the silmarillion is right there! Under its feet!" With the monster approaching, the young man gave orders to another woman behind him while aiming at the monster's head. Tabitha squatted under the tree and felt like she was watching a fantastic 5D movie. The things that were happening here felt like complete insanity to her.
An ax abruptly appeared beside her. The woman held the long handle of the ax in her hand and after she raised her hand, Tabitha caught sight of the spot where the ax had fallen. A weird vine was slipping backward quickly. A chill grappled Tabitha's heart. She looked up and tried to thank the woman, but the woman had already jumped towards the monster.
Tabitha rubbed her head and vaguely felt that she has been despised...
The woman with the ax was extremely fast. Just with a few flips, she was already near where the monster was. At a glance, she saw a golden diamond stuck in a crevice. She reached out and as her fingertips approached the silmarillion; a huge shadow shrouded her head. She looked up to realize that another monster had just shown up from nowhere. It tried to use its palm that was as large as a gate to strike her. Carol felt like time had slowed down at that moment. She believed that she could even see the patterns on the monster's palm distinctly. Those scary eyes had red lights corruscating, just like a terrible death omen.
"Carol! I've controlled it! 20 seconds! You have to get the silmarillion in 20 seconds!"
"Eyes! Shoot the eyes!"
Tabitha and a lanky man shouted at the same time. The guy looked at Tabitha in surprise. Meanwhile, Carol had no time to tend to the others. She jumped forward with her all her might and finally grabbed the sparkling diamond with her hands.
As soon as she got the stone, the surrounding forest began to distort. Tabitha released the rope that she used to tie herself to the tree quickly. Once she got down from the tree, she ran toward the group. However, Tabitha felt everything around her turn topsy-turvy at the instant the world distorted. She felt like she had become a hamster that was locked in a huge hamster ball.
When she stood firm again, she discovered that she was not in the forest anymore. Instead, she was in a shabby cottage room.
It was about 40 square meters large and there was a wooden counter in the center. Tabitha looked around, but there was no one else here except her team.
The man who held the shotgun walked with long strides toward the counter and signed something on the counter book.
"Are you okay?" The girl, who she had just met in the woods, leaned over and reached out to probe Tabitha's forehead. "I felt really uncomfortable when came here after finishing the first task! You felt it, right? The dizziness! I even threw up the first time. It was so embarrassing..." Fay said and sighed.
"What now? A new mission area?"
After having the experience of her entire body twisted, Tabitha's throat felt hoarse. She sniffed and interrupted Fay's monologue.
"Well, it can be regarded as the center of the Rubik world. We usually call it the mission room."
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Finally arrived at a safe environment, Tabitha getting a little bit relaxed now.
"You told me that we had to rely on the completion of the task to get the supplies before. How can I leave this world? Complete ten missions? Or twenty?" Tabitha asked and pursed her lips. Although she was afraid of the world she was in, she still had a glimmer of hope of returning to her original world.
"Hum..."Fay said before swallowing her next word. It appeared as though she had held back some information of the world previously. "As far as we know... The people who enter the Rubik world are unable to get out at all..." She took a lollipop and dipped the plastic pole with her fingers. She looked down to avoid making any eye contact with Tabitha.
Tabitha just looked at Fay, unable to say a word. She did not have a chance of escape. The job that she worked so hard to get had become a useless piece of history. And her cat. She thought about how her little pussycat could still be waiting for her to return home and feed him. Suddenly, tears welled in her eyes.
"This stupid world is going way too far! As though it's not enough to get our team feeling depressed, it has even gotten us a drunkard. It must have a kick out of this. Ha!" Carol, who had previously used an ax, slammed and interrupted Tabitha's thoughts. She sat on the ground with her legs wide open. Her ax, which was about six feet long, leaned against the wall.
Tabitha felt restless. She could tell that Carol was annoyed with her. A tall, middle-aged man stood beside Carol. He gently patted her back to comfort her. When he noticed Tabitha look back at him, he gave her a grin. Carol gave Tabitha a contemptuous look but didn't say anything again.
Luckily, not everyone on this team hates me that much... Wallowing in her sad emotions, she sighed inwardly.
"That was Uncle Hale and Carol. Don't worry about it, Carol always acts like that, but Uncle Hale is a super nice guy! Let me tell you a secret, he was a mercenary! You can't tell by how he looks, right~" Fay noticed Tabitha's discomfort. She came up to her and started to introduce the two people to Tabitha.
"Since you have been assigned to our team, I hope we can be responsible for each other. We will try our best to protect you, but I hope you can also do your best to help us complete the tasks." The man who carried the shotgun before squatted down and held out a hand against Tabitha. " Let me introduce myself, I'm Aaron, nice to meet you. I'm the team captain."
Tabitha finally had a chance to take a good look at her savior. Aaron had a standard handsome face. His muscles bulged, making a loose T-shirt fit him easily.
"Tabitha." The girl shook his hand and asked, "Why did that monster stop back then?" She knew that people who entered the world gained abilities. She had already seen Fay's magic, but she was really curious about the ability that could stop the monster.
"That's Alfred's ability. He just stopped the monster's thoughts of attacking," answered Aaron as he picked up some food and stuffed it into his mouth.
"To stop its thoughts? Is it similar to mind control?" Tabitha looked at the tall man thoughtfully. "So can I get my ability now?"
Aaron smiled, "It looks like Fay has informed you of the basics. Yes, you can get the rewards for this mission and choose your basic ability now."
Tabitha nodded and reached up to the counter. She could see that the book Aaron had previously signed was gray and shabby. The list clearly stated the names of several people. The only blank space left was for her to sign on. She picked up the pen and signed her name randomly. After she signed, the blank page beside revealed a few lines:
Ability Options:
Treatment
Transfer
Mental Control
Defense
Material Distribution: Pilot biscuit*5
Bottled water*3
"Seems like you will get an assistive ability." Tabitha blushed a little when she heard Aaron's voice approach. She scooted over a little silently. She hadn't had any dates or boyfriends before. It was the first time a man stood so close to her.
"Alfred's ability should be similar to this mental control, right? As I can see, most of you guys have strengthened your bodies... Does anyone here have a healing power on our team?" Tabitha murmured but asked the last question slightly louder.
"No~ I chose white magic. Both Carol and captain selected the physical augmentation, and Uncle Hale chose a fighting skill. So if you choose Treatment, we will finally have a doctor!" Fay came to the counter and answered her excited.
Tabitha listened quietly; from the corner of her eyes, she noticed that the man named Alfred seemed really interested in her. She grinned at him and put a tick under the Treatment.
Right after that, the page with the words melted into a ball and disappeared into Tabitha's body through her fingers. She looked at her hands but could not feel anything different. There was no discomfort or anything that she thought might have happened.
She looked at the book again and now, there were some words appearing on the blank page again.
Tabitha
Physical fitness: 11
Reaction force: 24
Spiritual power: 12
Therapeutic power: 5
Skills: Recovered Light -e
She touched the ink words and was obviously curious about her stats. When her finger touched the words of the "Recovered Light," the ink on the book changed again.
"Recovered Light -e, basic healing ability. Can be used to heal all CREATURES. The healing effect restores 1/30 per 10 seconds. There is no time limit after the skill is turned on and every 50 seconds will consume 1 healing power."
Tabitha could not help but secretly sigh when she finished reading the passage. She thought that it was a relatively good life-saving ability; however, by reading this passage, she realized that the ability was nearly useless. It took 10 seconds to recover only 1/30. If that was the case, her healing powers would not even be as fast as the damage her teammates received in battle. She frowned, but Fay had already come to congratulate her.
Tabitha tersely acknowledged him and felt very annoyed at her skill. She thought about it and suddenly realized that the materials she had that were listed in the book did not appear. She asked again, "What about the things listed in that book? Why they didn't they appear?"
She also touched the counter and wanted to see if there was anything like a black box inside the counter. "Tabitha, don't touch it, they are in your pocket right now!"
Tabitha reached into her pocket doubtfully. Obviously, she only had a small pocket on her denim jacket, but it felt like it had a fairly large space now. She dug into the pocket and found a few plastic textured bottles and some biscuits that were wrapped in foil.
"Oh, so my coat was transformed by this world?"
"Hum... I think it is. Since we don't get any clothes by completing missions, the newcomer's clothes will automatically have such a small space as long as they have pockets. The Rubik world will also provide us a small pocket if our original clothes do not have any pockets. Just like this~" Fay slapped the small pocket which was tied to her dress.
"It won't get dirty?" Tabitha was a little uncomfortable, thinking that she might wear such a suit her entire life. She wanted to cry again...
"Our clothes will be dissolved and be replaced with new ones at the end of each mission. Oh, look at your clothes and you'll know!"
Tabitha looked at her jacket and realized that the scratches on her clothes had all disappeared, and all the mud stains were gone. Thinking about how she could no longer change clothes, she suddenly felt fortunate that she had not worn a mini-skirt to attend her class reunion. Otherwise, it would really
be troublesome.
"Alright, about our next mission, I just looked at the options. Most of them are ordinary E-grade missions. The only D-grade mission is to find out the truth of an abandoned hospital. The materials rewarded by this mission can feed us for at least one month, and there is a chance of finding treasures in this mission." Aaron's voice sounded again.
"Treasures?" Carol's voice sounded a bit surprised.
"Yes, everyone knows that any type of secret treasure will represent a higher fighting power and survival rate. Now we've got six people in the team, I think it's time to challenge the D-grade mission. What do you guys say?"
Everyone on the team agreed with the suggestion except Tabitha who had just come to the Rubik world. Aaron did not act ambiguously at all and turned to the counter again. Tabitha's mind was still recounting the secret treasures that Aaron mentioned. There was also the D-grade, E-grade... She realized that this world was much more complicated than she thought.
At that moment, a man came over; it was Alfred who had almost never spoken. Alfred was tall and thin, with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his nose. A pair of jade green eyes exuded amiability. His fair-skinned skin was not exactly as exaggerated as Aaron's but he was extremely well proportioned. Tabitha secretly looked at him and could not help but sigh inwardly. If a man liked this appeared in her original world, she believed that he would make a bunch of young girls fall in love with him.
"Welcome to our team. It was smart of you to notice the problems with the monster's eyes." Alfred smiled at the girl. "My name is Alfred. We will be the members of the same group. I wish we can be good partners later." Tabitha took his outstretched hand and was suddenly dazzled. When she opened her eyes, she was still in the cottage room. But the scene outside the room was completely different.
Tabitha released her hand and hesitated to look outside. The dark clouds were low; the entire world seemed to be overcast. And about 30 meters away, she could see an old spire building.