'I'm here to help you get used to your new abilities', Tess said, as her semi transparent figure floated in front of Martin.
"What?!", was the first word that came out of Martin's mouth as stared at the figure in front of him. It was a girl, her face covered with a mask, only her purple eyes visible. She was tall, almost as tall as him. He would have thought she was an average school girl, if not for the sword strapped behind her, and the fact that she was semi transparent.
"Yup", Tess replied as she nodded solemnly.
"Wait, let me get this right....so, I died, and some gods took pity on me and sent you to be my Virtual Assistant to help me.....acclimatise myself to my new abilities??...what abilities??".
"I've been doing some research when you were out cold. Seems like you have a...what do you guys call it here...a System of sorts. So, by completing quests, you get stronger and unlock more levels to your abilities", Tess replied again, this time moving closer to Martin and poking him on the chest.
Contrary to Martin's expectations, Tess's hand did not phase through him, in fact; he felt a solid touch from Tess's poke. He was expecting her hand to phase through him considering the fact that she was semi transparent.
"A system??....why can't the gods just give me the abilities straight up??, why do I have to grind and complete quests to level up??", of course Martin was a gamer, he definitely was familiar with the concept of a system.....and the struggles that came with grinding hard just to level up, especially at the higher levels. There was a time a legendary ranked sword was released in his favorite game.....he had to grind for three days straight to reach the required level to be able to wield the sword.
"The gods are not dumb, giving you direct access to all the abilities immediately will not only kill you, it might even destroy this realm along with you.....so there would surely be safeguard measures put in place for you to learn how to properly control your abilities", Tess explained.
"This realm??, are the gods not from Earth, and where did you come from??", Martin asked, remembering when Tess mentioned something about the system being something people called it in "this realm".
"Hehe, that's for you to figure out later, right now, you need to learn how to control your abilities", Tess said with a smug smile.
"Wait a minute.....these abilities given to me by the gods, what am I supposed to use them for??...fight terrorists??", Martin asked. According to his knowledge from playing Video games, having abilities meant he would have to face monsters or some really high rank humans, but, there were no monsters in the real world, neither were high rank humans.
"There is evil in every realm, and the evil in this realm is starting to awake. You'll soon realise why you were chosen, Martin Dean", Tess said, this time, an expression of absolute solemness on her face.
Nodding, Martin closed his eyes as he tried to let it all sink in.
With a click, a whirring sound could be heard as something was clicked on.
**Initializing....
Compatibility with Host.....99.9%
Merging with Host...
Merge complete...
Dark Vigilantee System online...
Host's Stats...
Name : Martin Dean
Health : 75/100
Level : 1
Mana : 50/50
Strength : 17
Agility : 12
Perception : 20
Stealth : 9
============
Abilities : Shadow Merge
* Shadow Merge : The ability to merge into the shadows and be as invisible as a needle in a hay stack.
Cost : 30 Mana and 5 stealth.
=============
Quests :
Daily Quests : 100 Pushups(Uncompleted)
100 Weight lifts(Uncompleted)
10 Kilometers ( Uncompleted)
Rewards for completing Daily Quests : +10 stat points.
Penalties for failing Daily Quests : 1 hour in the Nether Realm.
==
Active Quests : Null**
==========
Seeing the semi transparent screen and all the words on it in front of him, Martin carefully went through all the information he was being provided with, only coming to a pause when he saw the Daily Quests.
"What?!, 100 pushups??, 100 weight lifts, 10 Kilometer run??, all in a single day??..... Have the gods gone mad??".
"Tsk, come on, the stronger you get, the more you'll get used to it. The 15 stat points reward is a good deal, trust me", Tess said.
"Whose side are you on, anyway??", Martin said, as it was obvious Tess was defending the gods.
A faint smile on her lips, Tess only shrugged as she stayed quiet.
"What is the Nether Realm??, sounds ominous"
"Trust me, the Nether Realm is not a place you'd want to be in", Tess replied, her mysterious reply doing nothing to calm Martin's nerves.
' I definitely do not want to find out what the Nether realm is', Martin thought as he asked; "Do I have to start the Daily Quests now??"
"Yeah, but you should probably wait till you get home, the doctor is headed this way. By the way, your uncle did not show up once, but a girl named Christine Barnes showed up always", Tess said as she disappeared, seemingly melting into the surroundings.
Martin was not shocked by the fact that his uncle didn't come, that old fart would have definitely preffered his death, but, Christine??
Christine was his old school friend; they had attended High School together, where they formed a very close bond. But, when they entered College two years ago, an incident occurred that drove them apart. They had not spoken since then.
But now, it seemed like Christine was the only one interested in looking out for him.
'Huh, interesting', Martin thought as he lay back down on the bed, the door to his ward opening shortly, a middle aged man draped in white stepping in.
"Oh!, Mr Martin, you're finally awake", the doctor said, a spark in his eyes.
"Yeah, I just woke up" Martin replied suspiciously, wondering why the doctor was so happy to see him awake.