'A Church?' as soon as Alex pieced it together he felt his body start to spin. The strange landscape of smoke slowly returned to color and light. After a few minutes he was back to normal. He knelt down thinking of ways to get to a church. From what he could tell John and Sarah were not Religious people, he hadn't seen them go to a church or pray once so trying to get them to take him was out of the window. After a few minutes all he could come to was to try and walk. After some sweet talking he managed to slip out and start walking around the city looking for a matching church or at least find someone who could take him there.
After a 20 minutes he started to feel hopeless. New-York was large and he was trying to find a specific place in the bunch without any direction. After asking a few people on the side of the street he managed to get a few places to go. At least he had a direction. The city was large and he had been through it many times but he usually didn't go towards highly populated areas like the church's because of the chance of getting caught by the police.
After another hour of long and hard searching he found a cathedral that looked similar to the one in the smoke. After slowly entering he found not many people inside. Though he really didn't want to get caught peeking around so he decided to try out his manipulation of the shadows to help him stay hidden. After walking around the shadowy cathedral he managed to slowly search the building. He had a few close calls were he had to create shadow to help him hide but after an hour he finally found it. It was a small bead. A black bead that looked like it had been lost in a small crack in the floor. After picking it up it glimmered slightly as Alex's Moon Pendant seemed to react to it's presence slowly levitating and approaching the bead.
Alex watched in stunned silence as a small black and white worm hole sucked the bead into nowhere. After a few minutes of watching the necklace lay silently on his chest he cursed loudly "WHAT THE HELL!?"
He quickly looked around after hearing a sound but reacted to the sweet sound of the system notification.
"Artifact Found.... Apex Artifact has been found compatible and has consumed common Artifact "Black Light Bead".... Adding point to leaderboard.... Congratulations on your new power point. Please spend it wisely."
Alex almost laughed in joy but stopped after hearing a sound behind him. He quickly snapped around to see a very old man walking down the hall he was in. He quickly activated his power to the max as he stood against the wall, hoping that he would go unnoticed. The man looked around all over the place. Alex felt his heart race as the old man scanned the floor looking for something. 'Is he looking for the bead?!' Alex thought quickly. The old man sighed before slowly continuing onward. Alex let a sigh out in relief before slowly feeling liquid drip from his face. He started to get dizzy as he felt his head pound. Before he knew it he was no longer facing towards the wall but instead towards the high beam ceilings.
He heard fuzzy shouts come from the distance as his mind slowly started to shut down. He quickly passed out with the last words coming out of his mouth being "I'm so fucking stupid".
....
He finally awoke after what felt like an eternity of darkness and found himself inside a strangely white and clean atmosphere. All around him were beeping machines and strange equipment. After a few minutes of thought he finally managed to come to and quickly saw that a sleeping john was laying in a nearby chair. He was in a hospital and a good one at that. He slowly started to speak trying to rouse John before he heard a loud beeping sound. It was his watch. He looked down and saw a small golden medal with the number '1' on it. He heard a familiar voice in his ear as he finally understood what was happening.
Congratulations Artifact Wielder #1 you have officially became the winner of this months challenge. As a reward we have rewarded you the promised rewards as well as an additional power point. I hope you enjoy the next challenge as much as we will because it is coming out in one week. I hope you recover soon.
'Common Skill Gained: Learner LV:1.'
'Uncommon Skill Gained: Mental Fortitude LV:1'
'You have gained One power Point'
'....' Alex couldn't think because of the vast amount of joy he felt at that moment. He quickly accessed his character panel to check out what his new skills did.
-Stats-
Strength:11 (Average adult Male)
Speed:16 (Well above average Male)
Endurance:11 (Average adult Male)
Intelligence:13 (Above average Male)
Cunning:20 (Nearing the Peak of Humanity)
Charm:13 (Above average Male)
Moon Aspect:1
Skills:
Common Skill: Selective Vision LV:2-
Common Skill: Learner LV:1
This ability allows the user to learn things faster than other people and will input learning methods into users brain. Higher levels will give more tips and quicker learning speed.
Uncommon Skill: Mental Fortitude LV:1
This ability makes it to where the users natural mental capacity is increased. This skill can also be used actively to decrease mental debuffs as well as allow you to think clearly.
Alex Laughed quite loudly after looking over the skills. Learner didn't seem to useful but perhaps it could be useful in the future, while mental fortitude seemed to be everything he could ever want and more. It solved his current passing out issue or at least helped him mitigate it. Though as he laughed John quickly woke up.
"ALEX ARE YOU OK?" He asked in a hurry as he jolted up. He quickly started running out of the room before Alex Quickly said "No John I am fine. I promise. I just thought it was funny that I was here. In a hospital." John looked at him weirdly before slowly walking forwards and embracing Alex in a hug. "You scared me Alex. You scared me and Sarah. We thought you were in danger." he said in great love. Alex looked at him for a few moments before returning the hug in two fold. After awhile John let go and sat down once more before saying "You need to rest Alex. The doctors said they were not sure what was wrong with you but all of them determined that something truly was wrong. They said they want to keep you here for awhile and make sure you recover well."
Alex looked at John and said in surprise "I am fine. It was just a little tumble" John shook his head and said "They want to keep you here for another week and I agree. You will be staying here while I figure out some legal issues. Apparently kids don't usually pop out of no where. Most kids are took in by the government but you managed to evade them so me and Sarah have to figure quite a bit out before we can adopt you." Alex looked at John before laughing and saying gently "I will try to rest as much as I can. But no promises." John laughed once and said "Well get better kiddo. I will try to stop by in a day but I don't know. I got a lot on my plate." he then left slowly, saying goodbye once more.
Alex looked at the receding figure of John before looking at his power screen. He was thrilled to purchase some new abilities and just couldn't stop thinking about them.
-Powers-
Light Manipulation: Level 0
Darkness Manipulation: Level 1
Gravity Manipulation: Level 0
Temperature Manipulation: Level 0
Current Power Points: 2
Alex looked through the list of powers and thought about what he could do. It seemed like he could either purchase new abilities or upgrade existing ones with the power points. So did he want to upgrade his Darkness manipulation or gain a few new tricks? He pondered for a few minutes before settling on purchasing one and then another. He bought Gravity Manipulation because it just seemed... Awesome. And then upgraded Darkness Manipulation.
'Darkness Manipulation Power is now Level 2 and you can now create physical objects out of shadows.'
'Gravity Manipulation Power is now Level 1 and you can now control gravity on a very minor level. It is more like telekinesis at this level.'
"Gravity is a bit different then I thought it would be and Darkness seems a lot more.... cooler. I suppose I can make physical things now like balls and even other peoples shadows and make them physical. I wonder how that would work?"