Sovereign, there were a total of 12 sovereigns on earth. These sovereigns were Ascenders who had mastered their abilities and were immensely powerful. If what Thomas said was true and his brother was the Sovereign of Mirage, then Magnus needed to be careful from now on. According to what he had heard, the Sovereign of Mirage toyed with his prey, making them suffer before finally killing them.
As Magnus was deep in thought, he suddenly remembered that he was still at the door and decided to look at the clock.
"Ah, sh*t, it's almost been an hour. I need to get out of here," he said out loud.
While walking to the exit, Magnus rehearsed his lies under his breath.
"We met a space wolf, and Ryan got too confident and burned the whole place down, which injured Tyler. However, Tyler didn't give up, and with his final breath, he punched the wolf before it could reach Thomas, who was out of arrows.
The wolf dodged the attack, got behind Ryan, and ate him. With only Thomas left, he drew his hunting knife, which got damaged. He also got too confident and was slashed. Before he died, he gave the knife to me and told me to avenge him and his friends.
I was in tears, but I decided to listen to him. I charged at the wolf, and as it thought I would use my left hand to stab it, it dodged to the right. That's when I took the knife into my inventory and re-summoned it in my right hand to stab it right in its forehead. ...Okay, I can do this."
Then he thought of something: they would ask for the wolf's blood. Walking in a circle, Magnus started thinking of another lie to keep the blood for himself.
What if I say that I got injured so I had to drink it? ...Nah, that won't work; it won't be effective until 30 minutes pass... Wait, why can't I just drink it? I'm not injured, but if the rumors are true, then it could improve my body.
After a minute of brainstorming, Magnus decided to drink the blood. After finishing two whole bottles of space blood, Magnus walked out of the door.
"Ah, Magnus! Finally, we were starting to worry about you! Where are the other three?" Mike asked.
Magnus looked down with his hand clenched.
"Magnus..? What happened to the high-rank ascenders?"
Tears started to drop from Magnus's eyes. Of course, these were crocodile tears. Whenever he remembered the time he spent with his parents, he started to cry, and this happened a lot when he was alone, so he learned the skill to cry at any time.
"They... died," Magnus said in a sad tone. "The boss monster had a space attribute. They got greedy and overconfident. After Ryan and Tyler died *sobs* by the wolf's teeth, Thomas almost killed it, but he got distracted and was killed too. With his last breath, he woke me from my trauma and handed me his knife. He told me to avenge them *sobs* I was scared, but I listened to him. I charged at the wolf, on the verge of death, and stabbed it in its eyes, finally killing it."
"No... they were some of the high-rank ascenders that this chaos needed," Mike said in a sad tone.
"Thomas especially, he had so much potential... Talking about Thomas, his brother is going to be very sad when he hears about this," Mike said, fear clear in his eyes.
"May I ask who Thomas's brother is?" Magnus asked while wiping his tears.
"Thomas's brother... is Maximus Grant... the Sovereign of Mirage," Mike said in a timid voice, looking at the ground.
So Thomas was telling the truth..., Magnus thought to himself.
"But that is not what we should be worrying about right now. Look at your condition! So many bloodstains! We need to get you to the hospital!" Mike exclaimed.
"Ah, yes, but I'm okay. You don't have to worry about me. I used some healing potion, so I will be fine!" Magnus assured Mike, then thought to himself, It's not like it's my blood anyway.
After assuring the others, Magnus finally reached a woman in black who was reading a newspaper and sipping her coffee.
"Nice story you got there," she said, gesturing at the group of people who were dividing the crystals Magnus had picked up before getting out of the Door.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Simple, I didn't give them their weapons when they were fighting the space wolf. When Ryan shot a fireball at the wolf, I hit it with an arrow from Thomas's bow to stop it from hitting the wolf. Then he got ripped apart, and so did Tyler. Thomas managed to survive, so I had to kill him myself," Magnus explained.
"Hmm, okay, five thousand dollars will be transferred to your account by the afternoon. Spend it wisely. I hope we can work together again," the woman in black said as she stood up to walk away.
Magnus stared at her back as she walked to her car.
"Yo, Magnus! You guys fought the space wolf, right? Did you collect its blood? The blood is so precious it can be sold for so much!" A random person came to Magnus and asked, interrupting his thoughts.
"Oh... sorry, after killing the wolf, my mind was still on the trio, so I didn't think about the space wolf..." Magnus said with an apologetic tone.
"Oh... well, at least you're fine, I guess," the random person said, clearly disappointed.
After that, Mike distributed the crystals to each person and sent them home.
***
Magnus went home in a cab. When he got in front of his house, his stomach started to hurt, and he began to have difficulty breathing.
"Shit... is this the effect of the blood?" Magnus wondered out loud as he rushed inside his house.
"Hi bro, how was work-"
Magnus went straight to the bathroom, ignoring Ava's greetings. When he reached the toilet, he started to vomit. Then he collapsed on the floor.
"Why did you rush into the bathroom- Huh?" Ava said as she saw her brother lying on the bathroom floor.
She sighed as she dragged her brother to his bed. "I guess he had a hard day..."
***
Magnus's POV
"Where am I?" I wondered out loud as I looked around my surroundings. "Is this a dream?"
It was like I was in space. No... I was in space.
Suddenly, words started to appear.
[You have met the requirement to evolve your ability. Will you accept?]
"Evolve?" I asked.
[Evolving...]
"Wait, no, I was asking what you mean by evolve-"
My words was interrupted as I started to feel pain all around my body. I screamed in pain, but nothing came out of my mouth.
[Evolving successful. Your new skills will be shown below.]
A list of sentences started to appear below.
[ Awakened - Storing Projectile ]
[ Awakened - Portal Creation {maximum of 2} ]
[ Awakened - Lone Dream ]
"Huh... Portal Creation I can imagine, but what the heck is Lone Dream?" I wondered out loud.
"No, that is not the question I should be asking right now. WHY IS MY ABILITY EVOLVING?"
[Lone Dream is when you enter this state of mind like right now. While you are here, your body will heal twice as fast as normal, and you can talk to me. However, you won't be able to defend yourself while in the state of Lone Dream, unless you wake up.]
"Okay, but can you tell me how I got these abilities?"
[That is because your ability to store items is a space ability. By consuming space blood, you have reached the next stage of your ability, allowing it to evolve.]
"I see... wait... if I consume more space blood, does that mean I get to evolve my ability again?" I asked, an idea forming in my mind.
[That is for you to find out.]
"Is there anyone else with a space ability?"
[There was.]
"Who?"
[...This is not the time for you to know that.]
"Wait, who are you?" I asked as I suddenly realized that I was talking to a bunch of gold text.
[Who knows-]
Suddenly, everything disappeared, and I woke up.
Still trying to comprehend what happened, I looked around to see myself in my bed.
"What a strange dream," I said as I started to get out of bed.