Two days after and it was Sora's birthday.
Friday 13th.
Every one of their 'generation' attended, even Viktor who was on the screen of Jin's tablet. Next to him was his brother. A white-silver hair tall and slender man with a serious smile.
Sora looked at everyone (Rasha, Luka, Manuel, Viktor, Charly, Dolores, Kaneki, Heller, Finn, Jin and Rose). He could feel the abscense of Lilian and it hurted him a little.
He looked at Kaneki and saw that his eyes already have some of the sharpness of a hunter.
Dolores and Charly had more muscle than a year ago. One could say that the training to become a competent dungeon hunter was a hard one.
Then, he looked at his youngers, Rasha, Luka, and Manuel, and a soft smile appeared in his lips.
The three of them blushed, but Rasha red-face was the most one.
"Don't smile like that!" Rasha covered her face and yelled at him.
Sora got caught of surprise. He didn't know what wrong he did to her.
The four older people laughed merryly. Dolores and Kaneki blushed a bit. Kaneki had a complicated face and Dolores' face was like wanting to punch him after seeing his confused look.
Viktor and Charly were also laughing.
"What did I do?" Sora was completely lost with the sudden events happening during his birthday celebration.
Rose couldn't take it more, watching how lost her little brother was and told him "Sora, your smile was the reason. You may no see it yourself nor those brats still laughing, but you are quite handsome, and that soft smile was a tender one."
Sora was speechless with Rose's explanation. He was still a stone-head about attraction and love-affairs that Rose just nodded her head and sighed with a smile in her lips.
She knew why Kaneki wasn't laughing like the other five brats, but she will not explain it.
"HAHAHA! We need to calm ourselves," Jin was still laughing even after saying those words. Rose was already calm and compose and just looked at him with an incredoulous face.
The usual serious Jin was actually showing how he can be also an unrestrained idiot like Heller was usually.
Sora was beginning to feel embarrassed and his cheeks showed a little pinkness. No need to mention, but again the ones who were laughing and were now calming, start laughing at his slight blush.
Rose began to feel tired and noticed that an unseen smile was appearing on Ivankov's lips. He was the most serious one of all of them. Mainly because he was like ten years older than Finn, he was 29.
Soon, in less than a second, everyone noticed his smile and were too shocked to speak. Even his little brother was agape.
Ivankov stop smiling and returned to his serious demeanor like if he never had smiled in his life. But there was a little tinge of red in his ears that contrasted with his white-silver hair and white skin.
Everyone was going to laugh, but his sharp eyes were keeping them at bay.
Jin cleared his throat and said "Ahem... Well, happy birthday Sora. You've now entered the difficult world of having the System and its messages bothering you around." His words were actually a kind of trap to see something in his little brother's stance.
Sora wanted to laugh at those words. He HAVE BEEN bothered by the System during three long years, in which the last one was telling him everyday that the event was close to end. But Sora knew he couldn't react like that nor say that.
Suddenly a familiar tone was heard inside his head.
Ping!
🐾🐾🐾
The event is coming to an end in 2 months and 30 days 16 hours 45 minutes 37 seconds!
^^^^^^
You've been detected by a powerful hunter, be careful Dungeon Master!
🐾🐾🐾
"I know, it just popped a message in front of my eyes," Sora voice showed a surprise tone and his face was full of enjoyment.
But Jin, Rose, Finn, Heller, and even Kaneki noticed that his eyes had no emotion, almost cold.
That made Kaneki feel something was amiss, while the other four were unease and Finn wrote a message discretely to Ivankov.
On the screen, one could see that Ivankov got a message. However, no one was looking at him and was instead enjoying the party and the cake that Rose quickly got out of the fridge to gain the attention of everyone.
Sora went with the flow unaware of the silent conversation that Finn, Jin, and Ivankov were having.
Viktor was a bit sad because of not being there with the other part of his family, but Rose sent him a piece of the cake like an hour ago and was just arriving at his new house. He quickly went to open the door, grab the box from the sender, close the door and return to the party. Completely oblivious of his brother's actions.
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Finn: Did you see it?
Ivankov: Yes, those were unsurprised and even cold eyes.
Jin: What do you think then?
Ivankov: I have seen a case of possession, but this one is a bit different. His unsurprised look actually was more like a one completely used to have messages filling his vision.
Jin: So you're saying that he got a message right at that moment.
Finn: You say cold, what does that mean?
Ivankov: Two messages. He received two. The first one gave him an unsurprised reaction, but the second one was responsible for the cold look. Also, almost at the same time, I received a message about discovering a "clue". I thought it was just a rumor that was dying, but it is true.
Jin: So that's the reason I felt that the reaction was familiar.
Finn: What do you mean Jin?
Ivankov: Anything you want to say to me?
Jin: Yes. It was the same look after I discover that I got a "clue". Sora seemed a bit uneasy.
Ivankov: I'll try to go there as quickly as I can. This is serious, more if he is involved with the mess of that dungeon.
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Ivankov looked at the screen showing all his little no-blood related siblings having a good party, he also looked at his younger brother with a happy face chatting with his best friend: Sora. Ivankov looked at him in silence and noticed that Sora was looking at him and not at Viktor.
That helped Ivankov to know that the second message that Sora received was completely related to the one he received.
Then, Ivankov remembered something that happened during one of his missions two days before inside that dungeon. He heard two shadows and a vampire talking about a master coming in soon, maybe weeks or days. At that moment he received his first message about a "clue", but he didn't share it with anyone.
The rumor of the "clues" was actually surrounding a vampire that somehow tricked the security of the Earth and the 'boy' she met with.
Now, Ivankov was sure that that boy was Sora because the vampire the two shadows were talking with had the same description that was "shared".
At that moment three messages were sent by the System.
The first one was sent to every hunter and adventurer in all the five worlds and to the ones that were inside the dungeon.
🐾🐾🐾
The Master has been recognized!
No more clues' points are going to be given!
🐾🐾🐾
The second and third messages were specially delivered to two people.
One was delivered to Ivankov.
🐾🐾🐾
You've found the Master!
5000 points gained! (Shadow Hunter Event)
100000 EXP points gained!
Rank: 1
He is the responsible of part of what happened inside the Underground Base of the Shadows.
^^^^^^
New Mission!
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Mission Name: Shadows and Master
Grade: S
Level Recommended: +50
Number of people available: 1
Completion:
- Catch the Master and interrogate him.
Description: Right now the Master is not strong enough to be a problem for humanity, but once he is let to grow, everything in the world will change. Also, his servants are far from him.
The Master is a cold monster with great intelligence, you need to be careful.
Clues:
- The Master has an authority type of skill.
- He is the same person that your brother nows, no monster replace him.
- Be extra careful, he will find a way that let him enter the dungeon.
- Recommend to catch him inside the dungeon before he meets with the Vampire King.
Good Luck!
🐾🐾🐾
The other one was delivered to Sora.
🐾🐾🐾
You have been discovered by a hunter!
Told you to be careful...
^^^^^^
Get into contact with the Vampire King as soon as you can!
🐾🐾🐾
Sora's eyelids twitch a little after reading the messages. This action was unnoticed by everyone because their attention was focused in Charly who tried to push Sora's face to the cake but was quickly avoided and instead, Sora push the cake to Charly's face. However, Ivankov clearly noticed his reaction and a grim face took upon his serious one.