–System Message–
New Skill Acquired!
————
Darkness (Rank 1)
Generates a large sphere of darkness around the user. Within this veil of shadow, the user's stealth abilities are enhanced. The user obtains 360-degree vision while enveloped in this dark domain, enabling clear sight through the darkness. Additionally, the user's speed is doubled within the confines of the Darkness sphere, enhancing agility and movement.
"This is unbelievable!! Man oh man oh man, I have to try this out right now!" Alex couldn't contain his excitement; this was the greatest thing he had ever seen.
In his cramped living room, Alex stood in the middle, focused his mind, and activated the skill.
'Darkness'
As Alex activated the skill, the room was immediately engulfed in an all-encompassing darkness. It was as if the light had been sucked out, leaving behind a sphere of impenetrable night that extended beyond the walls of his apartment, casting a shadow over half the apartment complex!
Alex had no idea how far the radius of his skill extended since he couldn't see beyond the walls. The transformation was startling, almost as though night had fallen instantaneously within his immediate vicinity.
Suddenly, the residents above and below Alex's apartment lost all light. They assumed it was just a simple power outage, which they were accustomed to due to the apartment's frequent power issues, so they did not cause any fuss.
Within this domain of darkness, Alex became a ghostly figure, nearly invisible to the naked eye.
He tried moving, and as he did, he banged into one of the walls. His movements were too quick and silent, like a blur within the blackness.
"Ouch!! I'm glad I only tried to move and not run! I would have torn right through the wall," Alex exclaimed, his voice a mixture of shock and excitement. "I need to get used to this."
But the most remarkable change was his vision.
In this shroud of darkness, Alex found he possessed almost 360-degree night vision, allowing him to see everything within the darkened area with astonishing clarity.
The room, though hidden from the world in pitch black, was visible to him in hues of gray and subtle nuances of movement. He could discern every detail, every object in his apartment, as if special sight had been granted to him.
As he continued to experiment, moving around his darkened apartment, he reveled in the agility and remarkable perception that Darkness afforded him. He was a shadow within a shadow, moving with a speed and grace that felt exhilarating.
After a few seconds, the darkness started to recede, and light gradually filled the room, returning the apartment to its ordinary state.
He slumped down, breathing heavily, taking in the normalcy of his surroundings, unaware of just how impressive the power he had just wielded was.
The ability to create and thrive in darkness had opened up a new realm of possibilities for him.
"So, it lasts about 20 seconds," Alex noted, now exhausted.
The skill used up all of his energy. It was a powerful ability, but it came at a great energy expenditure.
"If I increase my level and, specifically, my stamina, that should allow me to hold use it for longer," Alex correctly deduced.
Continuing to think about the skill, "I'll need to be careful when I use this. I should try using it in very small bursts, basically activate, eliminate the enemy, and deactivate it, all within a few seconds. If I don't accomplish my goal by the time my energy runs out, I'm basically a sitting duck."
"Enough experimenting for today. I need to sleep for a bit, and in the morning, I want to check on my character in I.Zombie. Once I'm done leveling him up, I want to head back to the forest and do some more tests."
Alex slowly crawled towards his bed, placed the box of his remaining family possessions between his arms, and fell asleep within seconds.
As he dreamt of wonderful things, the ring on his right thumb glowed brightly as if it, too, could not wait for what was to come.
As dawn broke, Alex awoke, feeling refreshed and energized. The first thing on his mind was to check his I.Zombie console, eager to continue his journey in the game.
He turned on the console and loaded the game. His inner child was at the peak level of excitement. He was finally going to level up to 5!! This was when his character went from weak to overpowered! Once the game loaded, he immediately noticed there was something different.. There was a strange lock icon on his level 4 character. As he tried to select his character, he was greeted not by the familiar character interface, but by a cryptic message that read:
"You've reached the end of the tutorial… See you .. Lexie," and like magic, the screen turned off.
Alex let go of the controller; that message creeped the shit out of him.
Completely baffled, his first intuition is to restart the console. As soon as he went to restart it, the console caught on fire, and just like that, he lost one of his most prized possessions.
"What the F**K!! What just happened.. My game, my character!!" Alex was tearing up. He spent hundreds if not thousands of hours playing games on his console. He couldn't believe it.
After calming down a bit, he thought about the final message the game left him.
"Seek to find something, what does it want me to seek? …it called me Lexie, this is getting eerie." Alex felt his whole body shaking; this time, it was not one of excitement but of fear.
"Can't do anything about this for now, but it's clear that it wants me to do the next parts on my own. I guess I can no longer go into the game and plan my path in advance anymore. No more games, Alex; shit's too serious now anyways. No time dwell on something I can't control," Alex said to himself
Next, Alex checked for any new quests in the system.
This time, there were two new quests.