"Yes, and no." The man said, moving towards me. "You passed out after your battle with the Lizard folk and his leader, Tarhuk. Beautiful, what you did there."
I smiled, embarrassed.
But as he got closer, I felt something.
Something was off, but I couldn't for the life of me, put a finger on it.
I sharped my senses, and the closer the man got, the more threatened I felt, somehow.
That man, I had to back away from him, no matter what.
And I did.
I moved backwards with an impulse, my instincts screaming in my head 'DANGER, DANGER!'.
Right when he threw a punch at me, that grazed my nose by a hairsbreadth.
"WHAT THE HELL?" I stepped backwards once more, as the man lowered his hood.
Octavius Blake, my father, was looking at me with a raised brow.
I felt heat under my nose, and saw blood, when I cleaned it with the back of my hand.
"You grew a little stronger, boy." He said, but his voice didn't quite sound like my father.
He sounded, I don't know...
Kinda robotic?
I stepped back one more time, summoning [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] behind my back.
"You know," He spoke again "when I first saw you, I didn't have hopes in you, at all. But as you grew up, and I noticed that you just wouldn't awaken, and that made me really angry..."
He kept on babbling about how he wouldn't accept a son if he was a regular, but I already knew all that bullshit, and even more...
Something clicked in my mind, and I realized that the thing in front of me wasn't truly Octavius, but some distorted image of him.
So I didn't hesitate, and sprinted towards him, ready to attack.
But he blocked my attacks.
With the same pair of daggers that I held.
"How...?"
It was impossible, but it didn't shock me as much as I thought it would.
"[MIDNIGHT SET] is bound to the soul of the one who equips them. Curious, isn't it?"
"Yeah, very curious." I said, still clashing with the thing in front of me.
The gears in my brain furiously turning, searching for any hint of what I was experiencing.
But everything about the whole situation felt different from everything I had imagined.
My blades clashed against the thing's, but that was all.
He only blocked and parried, but every time he was about to connect, I felt it and evaded, blocked, or counterattacked.
He wasn't stronger than me.
So searched for the tiniest opening I could get, and kicked him hard in the chest, sending him a few good steps back.
"You're not Octavius. Who are you? What are you?"
The thing gasped and coughed a mouthful of blood.
"I'm you..."
"Bullshit!"
The thing's eyes widened in surprise.
"You're not me, because if you were, you would've foreseen the kick you just received. It would be a never ending fight, and we would die of exhaustion, nothing more."
It rolled its eyes, and sighed in boredom.
"You're a bit better than I expected, but don't expect me to go any easier on you next time. I'll keep watching you..."
And then it started to vanish, the place around me lighting up in a blinding explosion.
"Wait! WHO ARE..."
***
"... YOU?"
I woke up in Tarhuk's chamber again, heart pounding, confused about what just happened.
But before I could even try to understand it, there was the system's beep, followed by a message.
[THE PLAYER HAS BEEN GRANTED A REWARD FOR COMPLETING THE FIRST TRIAL]
[RETURNING STONE ACQUIRED]
[RETURNING STONE]
[DESCRIPTION: Item – Can be used once; Allows the player to leave the Hidden Nest; Upon exiting, the Hidden Nest will be closed off forever.]
[YOU HAVE 01 MESSAGE]
I laughed.
"First trial, huh?"
Things were slowly starting to get in place in my head.
I wasn't facing me, neither Octavius, in the dream I just had.
I was facing the system itself.
But why wasn't it stronger than me?
I thought that, if the system was able to bring me back right after I died, it would have some godly powers or whatever.
But it didn't seem to be able to fend against me.
Fuck, I was even able to hit it cleanly!
I sighed, sitting up.
The more I lived through this, the more questions I had.
And I didn't have an answer to any of them.
At least for now.
"Well... At least you seem to be showing some intentions here..." I murmured, looking at the description of the item I just acquired.
The [RETURNING STONE] wasn't an item I intended to use, unless my solo raid got really out of control.
I wouldn't waste this chance of leveling up, no matter what.
But the appearing of the item felt out of place.
Why would the system give me an item that would secure my life, but wouldn't let me get a second chance to go at it?
It felt fishy, but I let that suspicion set aside, opening the system window to check my stats, and the message.
NAME: KURT BLAKE
LVL: 10
AGE: 16
CLASS: Rogue
STAMINA: 245/245
HP: 210/210
MP: 165/165
BASIC STATS
Undistributed stat points: 5
Strength: 23 (+10)
Dexterity: 34 (+20)
Agility: 34 (+20)
Perception: 27
Intelligence: 21
Vigor: 37
INVENTORY
***
CONSUMABLES
Full recovery x1
EQUIPMENT
Midnight Ballad
Midnight's embrace
***
SKILLS
Steal LVL 1
Invisible hand LVL 1
Prying eyes LVL 1
Shadow walk LVL 2
[THE DAILY QUEST HAS ARRIVED]
I gasped at the message.
What time was it, for a new daily quest to arrive?
I checked my holowatch, and cursed to myself.
10:14AM
"FOR HOW FUCKING LONG WAS I ASLEEP?!"
The shout echoed through the stone chamber, and after the sound dissipated, a rift-like door appeared in front of me.
"For fuck's sake!"
Before entering the second floor of the Nest, I had to do some work, so I got down again, and started doing the sit-ups, then turned on my chest, and started the push-ups.
It was way easier than before, so, remembering the first time I completed the quest, when the sparring counter surpassed the ten minutes limit, I decided to go to one hundred of each, in two series.
After I was done with these, all that was left was sparring and running with weights.
But there was a difference from the previous daily quest to the current one.
[REWARD: ???]
[PENALTY: LEVEL DECREASING]
The system must be trying to fuck with me, somehow...
And no way I would let it happen.
I had to think of something, before the day ended.
So I activated [SHADOW WALK], and walked towards the entrance to the next floor.