Volume 3 Cloverfield chapter 85 – Rob's emergence 

Hud: "Uh, sorry about that everyone."  

Sitting down on the ground in his newly acquired clothing, Hud apologised to the group gathered around him. Looking up at both his friends, as well as Solomon's group, he wanted to die in embarrassment. Having just danced around in his birthday suit before everyone, he felt very awkward. Unsure of what to say, he just apologised for his "display".  

Solomon: "It's alright, I can understand your reaction. It's not every day you get turned into a bear and back again."  

Speaking on behalf of everyone, Solomon accepted Hud's apology. Though some of the females gathered around still wanted to give him a verbal, and quite possibly literal, lashing, they held back. Even if they personally held it against him, they understood his situation enough to drop the matter for now.  

Gareth: "So, do you guys understand what's happened to you"  

Bringing Everyone's mind back to the most pressing topic, Gareth questioned the characters. Hearing his question, it didn't take them very long to respond.  

Lily: "Yeah, vaguely."  

Jason: "I remember a voice spoke to us and told us what powers it was giving us."  

Thinking back to their time in the dark pillars, each of the characters pieced together the information they'd been given. Confirming it with each other, they seemed to have been given a basic explanation of the current situation.  

Marlena: "I remember that too. That voice also said something about us being involved in a guild war and that we were supposed to help you guys." 

Realising that guild bot's explanation hadn't been the best, Solomon went ahead and explained the situation in more detail to them. Now that they had received powers from the system, it would be much easier to convince them about Domain. Though it would still be hard for them to accept their position as characters with a predetermined fate.  

Hud: "So, we're really just NPC's in this world. We don't actually have free will or anything. That fucking sucks."  

Luckily the characters believed Solomon's words. They all revealed distressed expressions, clearly showing there feeling about this sudden revelation. But it was only natural for them to react that way. After being told that you're a pawn in some cosmological game, how else would you react?   

Solomon: "It does, but Right now I don't think you should dwell on it too much. We're still in a very dangerous situation, so we should focus on surviving. Even if you're only pawns in some game, you still have a will to live, right?"   

Concerned that the characters may lose their will to fight, Solomon tried his best to rally their spirits. Though it wasn't like anything he could say would have much affected at this point. After a moment of contemplation, they all nodded their heads to Solomon. Putting the thoughts of their own existence into the back of their minds, they decided to focus on their survival. If they wanted to make it through the challenges they were soon going to face, they would have to leave such stuff for the future.  

Jason: "You're right. Even if we are just drones, I still don't want to die."  

Marlena: "I agree, I'm not giving up on my life over something like this."  

Happy that the Characters hadn't lost themselves in an existential crisis, Solomon gave them a bright smile.  

Solomon: "Good then, because we've still got a long way ahead of us. Anyway, it looks like Rob's just about finished now."  

At the mention of their last remaining friend, the characters instinctively looked towards the grotesque pale creature floating a dozen meters from them. Though they'd long since speculated that the horrid thing was Rob, it was only after Solomon's confirmation that they'd really taken it to heart. Thinking that their friend and makeshift leader had become a monster quickly made them feel dispirited.  

Hud: "So it really is him."  

Looking at the malformed figure of his best friend, Hud welled up with several complex emotions. Having spent years with the man in question, Hud was extremely hurt by his change. Out of everyone there, no-one understood the horror of turning into something "inhuman" more than himself. So he completely empathised with his Rob. 

Jason: "What has he turned into?"  

Taking a few uneasy steps towards the pillar, Jason tried to make out what his brother had become. But even after several long seconds of consideration, a monster was the only thought that popped up in his head. He truly couldn't find a more apt word with which he could describe Rob's current appearance. 

Solomon: "There's only one way to find out."  

Taking a few bold steps forwards, Solomon approached Rob. Looking at the quickly disappearing dark pillar, he estimated Rob would be free within 30 seconds or so. Still considering Rob's mental state, he decided it would be best to face the man head on. In the case that Rob's race had fried his brain, turning him into a mindless beast, Solomon would quickly deal with him. But he hoped the cunning man would be stable enough to help them with the mission. Not only because of the relationship he'd built with him, but also for his combat potential. The power of a G rank with two enhancements and six skills wasn't something that Solomon could just pass up. Even in the case that one of his enhancements was like Solomon's Qi and needed nurturing to grow, Rob's power would easily be above that of Alice and Gareth's. Just looking at his behemoth of a body could tell you that.  

Alice: "What are we going to do if he's gone crazy?"  

Walking over beside Solomon, Alice decided to voice out her fears. Looking at the pale, monstrous figure of Rob, she worried that he'd lost his mind. If that was the case she wasn't sure how they'd deal with him. It wasn't as easy as kill him and off we go. Putting aside the actual difficulty of killing him, the characters would most definitely not sit by the side-lines and watch him die. 

Jason: "Huh, that can't be the case.   

Caught off guard by Alice's words, Jason didn't know what to say. He hadn't even considered that possibility up to this point. But now looking at his brother's horrid body through the darkness, he couldn't help but fear that was the case. The more he considered Rob's possible insanity, the more plausible it sounded to him.   

Gareth: "Hey, let's not jump to conclusions. First let's wait to see how he reacts."  

Seeing that people were already assuming the worst before anything was certain, Gareth spoke out. After reminding everyone to withhold their judgement, he looked up at Rob. In his heart, something told Gareth that the man hadn't lost his mind. The intelligence in his gem like yellow eyes was enough to convince Gareth of that. But it wasn't so easy for other people to feel the same as him. 

Tony: "Right, we don't know how he is yet. let's not make assumptions without evidence."  

Nicholas: "Exactly, it's completely possible that he just looks creepy and is perfectly fine. We don't know at this point."  

Knowing how seemingly insane some of the people in Domain were, both Nicholas and Tony agreed with Gareth. In their time, the both of them had met several people who looked absolutely demonic but were kind people. In their opinion, it was really too much to judge someone by their appearance in a place like Domain. They didn't think the Enhancements that people choose, or in this case were given, was the best way to judge their sanity. 

Pluvia: "Well, it looks like now is the moment of truth.  

Watching as Rob's figure escaped from the darkness, Pluvia tensed up. After bringing everyone's attention back to him, she prepared for whatever situation might follow. Turning to face the newly emerged Rob, everyone was extremely nervous. A nerve-wracking silence settled over everyone as he looked around confusedly. 

Rob: "Hah, haaah. AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!!" 

But that silence didn't last for long. Hearing Rob's desolate cry, everyone's heart filled with fear. Settling quickly into a battle stance, both Solomon and Pluvia prepared for what would follow. 

Rob: "WHYYYYYYYYY?!!!!!" 

But going against their expectations, the monster of a man didn't move to attack them. Instead, he fell down onto his knees. Realising a mournful cry as he looked up at the cave roof. 

Solomon: "Rob, are you?" 

Surprised by the sudden turn of events, Solomon didn't know what to make of it. Though he could tell that Rob had retained some of his humanity through his speech, he still worried how Rob's mind and personality may have changed. 

Rob: "Haah." 

Looking down from the sky, Rob's eyes met with Solomon's. Looking into those yellow slits, Solomon saw the swath of emotions whirling around inside of Rob's heart. In the single moment that they stared at each other, a thousand words had been spoken between them. Then without any warning, Rob fell face first into the floor. 

Solomon: "Ah." 

Surprised by Rob's sudden collapse, Solomon rushed over to him.  

Pluvia: "Solomon, Wait!" 

Worried that Rob was faking it, Pluvia tried to stop Solomon's approach. But Having already understood Rob's emotions through his eyes, Solomon didn't have any worries about being tricked. In their moment of clarity, Solomon had seen into his mind. What he saw wasn't the conniving trickery of a backstabber. Instead, it was the fear and panic of a man turned monster. For Solomon, that was enough proof to lower his guard. 

Solomon: "Hmm." 

Reaching Rob, Solomon turned him over onto his back. Placing his finger on the man's wrist, he felt for a heartbeat. Luckily after half a second, he felt it. Happy that Rob's life wasn't in danger, he left him laid on the ground. Though he wasn't sure, Solomon speculated that the shock of his transformation had burnt out Rob's mind, leading to his mental breakdown. 

Jason: "Is, is he alright?" 

looking away from Rob, Solomon noticed that everyone had made their way over. At the forefront was Jason, looking concernedly at his brother. But even he was still keeping a moderate distance from the monsterfied man. 

Solomon: "He's just passed out." 

Hearing the prognosis, Jason was both relieved and worried. Though he was happy that his brother was alive, he worried about what he'd become. Having just been scared shitless by that very same brother, his feelings were starting to lean more in the fearful direction. 

Sasha: I don't think it'll take him long to wake up. 

Emerging from the group of people standing a few meters from Solomon and Rob, Sasha walked over to them. Looking down at the passed-out man's figure, she threw in her opinion. For some reason when he heard those words, Solomon felt that they were very believable. 

Solomon: "Hopefully that's the case. We need him if we're going to pass this mission successfully." 

Surprised that the little girl wasn't afraid of Rob, Solomon looked over at her disbelievingly. But before he could ponder her lack of fear any longer, his attention was stolen by more pressing matters. 

Guild bot: "At current, all benefits have been bestowed. Time will now continue to flow. In exactly one hour at 1 AM, the attacking guild will arrive. Good luck surviving" 

Volume 3 Cloverfield chapter 86 - Setting off again 

Solomon: "Ah, so I was right."  

After hearing Guild bot's message, Solomon confirmed a suspicion he had. Looking down at his wrist, he saw that his watch was now ticking normally again. Compared to earlier when it was stuck on midnight, now it was working normally again. Checking the same thing on his phone confirmed it. Time had previously been stopped.   

Gareth: "About what?"  

Hearing Solomon's out of the blue sentence, Gareth was confused. Having kept his earlier thoughts to himself, Solomon didn't tell his teammates about them. 

Solomon: "It's nothing, right now we've got to move quickly"  

Not wanting to waste their already precious time on such a trivial thing, Solomon decided not to tell Gareth about it. Right now, they only had one hour until their enemies appeared before them. In that time, Solomon hoped they could make some decent progress with the mission. So every single second was important. If it wasn't something that absolutely needed to be said, Solomon wouldn't say it. 

Sasha: "Oh, he's up already"  

Hearing Sasha's words, Solomon looked over at her. Seeing that she was staring behind him, he turned around.  

Alice: "Watch out!"  

Reacting slowly, Alice called out to him. A few seconds ago, Rob had regained consciousness. Bouncing up to his feet, the four-armed giant stood over Solomon. Surprised by how quickly he'd recovered, it took her a few seconds to comprehend what was happening. With less than a foot between them, Rob's hulking body loomed over the oblivious Solomon. Having risen to his feet in an instant, he caught even the experienced Pluvia out. Watching his Demonic yellow eyes stare holes in the back of Solomon's head gave Everyone a foreboding feeling.  

Solomon: "Wow, that was quick"  

Turning to see the Deformed man's face only a small distance from his own, Solomon didn't panic. Instead, he gave him a friendly smile. Seeing that everyone standing nearby was completely gobsmacked. How could he react like that when faced with Rob's demonic figure? Thinking that he'd gone crazy, Alice and Pluvia wanted to run towards him. But before they could, Rob reached with his gigantic hands towards Solomon. In a flash, they had settled on his shoulders. Under the grip of four trunk sized arms, even Solomon looked like a midget. Seeing this turn of events, everyone thought a gruesome scene was about to occur. Seeing the grip Rob had taken, they expected him to rip their leader clean in half. But fate didn't always go the way people expected.  

Rob: "Thank you."  

Starring the relatively little man before him in the eyes, Rob thanked him. His actions hadn't been those of hostility, but of thankfulness. He was thankful that Solomon wasn't making his horrific transformation into a huge issue and instead had tried to completely ignore it. In his currently unstable frame of mind, Rob took Solomon's actions to heart more than he normally would. 

Alice: "HUUH?!"  

Bewildered by this outcome, Alice didn't know how to react.  

Pluvia: "Wait, so you're not crazy?!"  

Also having been caught out by Rob's actions, Pluvia blurted out an insanely blunt question. Hearing it addressed in such an inconsiderate way, everyone visibly winced. Even the usually uncaring Pluvia picked up on the harshness in her question. 

Rob: "Uh, yeah, I'm not crazy. I just freaked out a little bit earlier. Haha, sorry about that"  

Though Rob disliked the way Pluvia had put her question, he didn't react angrily. Even now after changing so drastically, he hadn't lost his intelligent mind. He knew if he reacted badly to Pluvia's questioning, it would unsettle everyone.    

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Hud: "Ah, so you're still normal. That's good, but what happened to you?"  

Obviously referring to Rob's new form, Hud followed up on Pluvia's question. Though without the unnecessary bluntness. Curious as to the answer, everyone eagerly listened in on Rob's explanation.   

Rob: "Well, it's hard to explain. When I was in the pillar, I heard a voice explain that it was giving me powers. Though I fell unconscious not long after that. Sounds pretty crazy huh?"  

Rob, having no idea that every one of his fellow characters had experienced the same thing, thought his words would sound crazy. It surprised everyone that he hadn't realised he wasn't the only one affected. But when considering his mental state, it wasn't all that surprising. He was probably too busy freaking out about his changed body to even give anything else a thought. Realising that, his friends went ahead and explained the situation to him. Adding in all the details that Solomon had given them earlier. Though it probably wasn't the best time to explain such heavy stuff, especially when considering Rob's unstable mental state, Solomon felt it was necessary. So as they brought Rob up to speed, he silently watched on from the side. 

Rob: "I see, so basically I've been given these powers in order to help you guys."  

Surprisingly, Rob didn't even mention his role as an NPC character. Instead, he skipped straight over that and spoke about our current situation. Though knowing his thinking, he probably considered their immediate survival to be far more important than anything else. 

Rob: "I can't say I'm not surprised, but I guess I should really thank you."  

Hearing him say so, Gareth didn't understand his meaning.  

Gareth: "Thank us?"  

Nodding his head, Rob explained himself.  

Rob: "Yeah, you see. With this power I've been given, I can go and save Beth."  

Hearing this, everyone was shocked. Even when he'd been turned into a grotesque monster with a horribly malformed body, his first thoughts weren’t about himself. Just that alone elevated everyone's opinion of him a great deal.  

Solomon: "Well at current, our plan is still the same as earlier. We'll head through the tunnels until we find the army. Then you, me and Gareth will go off in search of Beth."  

To make sure that Rob didn't get ahead of himself, Solomon reminded him of their earlier agreed upon plan. But hearing Solomon bring that up made Rob surprised.  

Rob: "Wait, why are you guy's even going after Beth. Isn't your mission to escort us out of here.?"  

After thinking through Solomon's motives, taking into account the new clarity he had of their situation, Rob couldn't see any reason for him to want to rescue Beth.   

Lily: "That's right. I didn't really think about unit till now, but what is your reason for helping Beth?"    

Having their thoughts prompted by Rob's questioning, each of the characters started thinking about it themselves. For us who were already facing an extremely tough situation, wasn't it ludicrous to want to go after Beth? Realising that they wouldn't accept a short answer, Solomon and everyone explained their circumstances a little more. Though they still tried to keep things concise as to not waste any of their precious time. 

Marlena: "I see, so you guys need to do this hidden mission thing because of a deal you made. Then if you succeed you'll be able to get those Capitalist mages wiped out."  

Everyone's explanation was very quickly accepted by the characters. At this point, having already accepted everything else, why would they get caught up on something small like this.  

Rob: "It makes no difference to me. So long as you can help me save Beth, I'll be eternally grateful to you."   

Rob didn't care about their reasons. What mattered to him is that they were willing to help. Originally, he'd worried that because of their mission they'd try and stop him from going after Beth. But now that they were still offering him help, Rob was overjoyed. The aid of someone like Solomon, who he considered to be both exceptionally strong and intelligent, was something that would make a huge difference. So he was naturally very thankful.  

Pluvia: "It's good that we've got all this worked out, but we're burning time here. We're already on a tight schedule so I think we should get moving soon."  

Deciding that they'd spent enough time here, Pluvia prompted everyone. Thinking about their limited time, she wanted to get moving. After all, they could still talk while travelling. There was no reason why they had to stay here to discuss things. Looking at how about ten minutes had already passed, so one 6th of the time till their enemy's arrival had elapsed. If they didn't make use of their grace period now, wouldn't they just be slapping themselves in the face?  

Solomon: "Shit, you're right. Has anyone got anything else pressing to say? If not, we'll get on our way."  

After a brief moment of silence from his own teammates, Solomon looked over towards the characters.  

Rob: "We're ready whenever you are."  

Speaking on behalf of his group, Rob confirmed that they were ready. It seemed that everyone's fear of him from earlier had faded at this point. So without much difficulty, he'd slipped back into the leadership position among his friends. Considering how he was now the most powerful among them, it did make sense for him to fill such a role. It also didn't hurt that he was intelligent and charismatic, even if he looked like he did.  

Solomon: "Alright then, let's go!" 

Taking the lead, Solomon ran towards one of the distant tunnel entrances. As had already been decided earlier, everyone would follow the eastern tunnel until they reached the subways main line. Then they would follow it north until they found the Military. Setting out at the front, Solomon started the long trek across the cavern. As the gigantic cave was several kilometres long, it would take a little while to even reach the tunnel they were after.  

Solomon: "Everyone, do your best to keep up." 

Looking at the Characters trailing behind everyone else, Solomon felt a little dejected. Even though they'd received powers, most of them were still very physically weak. Looking at them pant like wet dog's after only a few minutes of running, Solomon knew they couldn't keep up with this speed for much longer. But they didn't have much of a choice. They didn't have the luxury to waste time anymore. 

Gareth: "I have an idea regarding this." 

Speaking up, Gareth seemed to have come up with something. Desperate to fix their current predicament, Solomon let him explain his plan. 

Solomon: "Go ahead." 

Nodding, Gareth went about laying out his thought. 

Gareth: "Got it. As we already know, you guys are still only as strong as a normal human." 

looking back, Gareth addressed the people trailing in the back. Specifically, Marlena, Jason and Lily. Hud had luckily received a big boost in strength from his bloodline, So he wasn't slowing them down. In fact, he was quite surprisingly almost on par with Gareth at this point. Needless to say, Rob wasn't having issues either. He was actually a little stronger than Pluvia. Though that was only when she wasn't using any special techniques of course. So, in essence, it was only three of the characters slowing everyone down. Even the little girl Sasha had put enough points into her body to outpace them several times over. 

Gareth: "So why don't we have the stronger people carry them?"  

Finishing proposing his idea, Gareth looked over at Solomon for confirmation.  

Solomon: "That's a good idea. We'll do that for now." 

Seeing no issues with such a solution, Solomon went ahead and had the characters get onto peoples back. Jason and Lily onto Rob's and Marlena onto Hud's. Though Solomon and Pluvia offered to help carry people, the character's refused. They kept insisting that because we were protecting them, they shouldn't be burdening us with such things. So with all the issues resolved, Everyone Sprinted off again. 

volume 3 Cloverfield chapter 87 – Learning about powers (part 1) 

Parasite: GREEEEE! CRSSSHHK!  

Lifting his sword out of the Bloody husk of a dead parasite, Tony glanced behind himself. Seeing several flickering lights in the distance, he knew that the others were approaching. As had been decided earlier, Tony would Scout ahead of the main group. If he came across any Parasites, he would deal with them. In essence, he was Both patrolling the tunnel ahead of everyone as well as being an early warning system. In the case he encountered too many enemies or something he couldn't defeat, he would only need to wait for everyone to catch up and give him support. So, with that in mind, Tony had rushed headfirst into the dangerous unknown.  

Tony: "Damn this is boring!"  

But despite his expectations, he hadn't come across even the slightest bit of difficulty. The first Parasite he found panicked upon seeing him, turning and trying to run away. In such a scenario, it didn't take him long to dispose of it. Even when he'd come across a group of 5 Parasites, they also ran away without the slightest hint of hesitation. Compared to their previous cold and calculating actions that would leave one feeling stressed, this was the exact opposite. So as he travelled through the several meter wide tunnel, he easily eradicated the Parasites he came across. Though Tony wasn't entirely sure, he guessed their change in attitude was due to their Queen being killed.  

Tony: "Ah."  

While Tony was Lost in his own thoughts, he had unknowingly come to an impasse in the tunnel. Looking around, he realised that the claustrophobic walls opened up into an open area. Walking out into that area, he carefully studied the surroundings. Thinking that he might have come across another massive cavern, he carefully crept forwards. But as he got a better picture of the area, he knew that wasn't the case. To his front, only a couple dozen meters from himself, was another tunnel. Looking at the tracks on the floor, he saw that they lead from the tunnel he'd come out of across, the open space, to the other tunnel. Spaced periodically between the two tunnels were several thick concrete pillars. As an idea of where he was popped into his head, Tony looked to the sides. On both his left and right side, he could see the pillars extending out into the open area. But due to the lack of lighting, he couldn't see all the way into that space. Even his Powerful flashlight couldn't push back the void-like darkness. Nevertheless, he'd seen enough to realise where he was.  

Lily: "Oh, it's the main line!"  

Hearing a voice behind himself, Tony spun around to see everyone else emerging from the tunnel. 

Gareth: "Is everything alright?"  

Noticing That Tony was stood a couple meters in front of everyone, Gareth Became vigilant. Thinking that something had happened, the hardened soldier scanned his surroundings. But even with his affinity for the darkness, he couldn't pick up on anything. 

Tony: "Yeah, it's fine. I just got a little distracted. Anyway, where do we go now?"  

After Answering Gareth, Tony looked over at Solomon. As he wasn't familiar with the tunnel system, he needed Solomon's guidance. 

Solomon: "Hmm, well we're going to follow this line north. So all we've got to do is head that way."  

Looking to his left, Solomon pointed towards the north. According to his memory, this tunnel was a straight shot all the way through Manhattan. So, if they followed it, they were bound to run into the military at some point.     

Tony: "Alright, I'll head back out then."  

Preparing to get back to scouting, Tony started off down the tunnel. But before he could dash out of sight, Solomon stopped him.  

Solomon: "Wait! You don't need to scout ahead anymore."  

Tony: "Huh, why not?"  

Having already scouted ahead for quite a while, Tony was rather used to it. But even more than that, he was easily earning points doing so. Hearing Solomon say it wasn't needed anymore Dampened his mood a little. Seeing that, Solomon explained his reasoning to Tony. Though he tried to keep it as brief as possible. Having glanced at his watch a few seconds ago, he saw there were only 20 minutes left before the Capitalist mages arrived.  

Solomon: "There's a few reasons, but to put it simply. I'm worried there might be larger groups of Parasites in this tunnel. If you were to run into something you can't handle, it would cause problems. Other than that, I don't think the military would react well to a giant man with a sword rushing them from the darkness.   

Tony: "Ah, you're right."  

Picturing himself getting gunned down after running into a military patrol, or worse ripped apart by a horde of parasites, Tony quickly agreed with Solomon's thinking.  

Solomon: "Let's not waste any more time then."  

Feeling the pressure of their fast approaching deadline, Solomon took the lead. Following closely behind, everyone fell into silence.   

Pluvia: "So back to what we were talking about before, what did you guys get from the system?"  

Seeing the silent atmosphere descend over everyone, Pluvia decided to give them a topic of discussion. After thinking for a moment, she reminded everyone of the conversation they were having a few minutes prior. In the time they'd spent traveling, they'd mainly discussed strategies for dealing with the Capitalist mages. It was just as they were about to go on and talk about the characters powers that they'd come across the main line.  

Rob: "Oh yeah, I'll continue then"  

Picking up from where he left off earlier, Rob dived straight back into the conversation.  

Rob: "The race I got's called 47th rank awakened being. I don't remember the whole description, but it was something along the lines of this."  

Taking a short moment to scour his memories, Rob then gave a concise description of his race.  

Rob: "I become a malformed monster, as well as gain a big boost to my strength. But because of this race's violent nature, A limit has been placed on my mind to keep me sane. As well as keeping me sane, that limit weakens my powers a lot. However, I can remove that restriction if I take the time and learn to control my emotions. Then I'll grow stronger."  

Telling everyone what he remembered, Rob anxiously awaited their reaction. He was worried that they'd take the part about his violent nature badly. But to his surprise, No one even brought it up.  

Nicholas: "That's good. Even if you're limited now, you can still grow stronger."  

Hearing that Rob could still grow much stronger, Nicholas Felt a little overwhelmed. Looking at his already bulky form and bulging muscles, he couldn't imagine what he'd become after getting even stronger.  

Lily: "To think that this isn't even your strongest form."  

From atop one of Rob's shoulders, Lily poked his arm. Feeling the rock-hard muscles, she almost couldn't believe that this was his weakest form.  

Jason: "Congrats bro, looks like you got a strong power."  

Seeing the supportive and amazed reactions of his comrades, the anxiety in Rob's heart vanished. A giant smile grew across the behemoth's face as he realised that his concerns were misplaced.  

Gareth: "So, what was your other enhancement then?"  

Knowing that Rob had received another power, Gareth became curious. Though he knew more about the details of Rob's race now, he was still clueless about his other power. Afterall, he could already see the effects of Rob's race from looking at his body. But he had no way of Knowing what the energy enhancement Rob had been given was.  

Rob: "Ah, that."  

As a slight reddish hue grew on Rob's deathly pale face, the gigantic man seemed to become a little embarrassed. 

Rob: "I kind of forgot about that."  

Awkwardly scratching the back of his head with one of his hands, Rob told Gareth the truth. As his mind had been too preoccupied with his physical transformation, Rob had completely forgotten about his other power. Thinking back to his time in the dark pillar, he recalled what the other power he'd received was.  

Rob: "From what it remember, it was called the level up system." 

Nicholas: "Level up system!" 

Shouting out in astonishment, Nicholas seemed to have recognised the enhancement. 

Rob: "You've heard of it?" 

Surprised by Nicholas's reaction, Rob started to question him. 

Nicholas: "Yeah, it's one of the most popular enhancements you can get." 

Listening on from the side-lines, Solomon had a confused expression. Once again showing his inexperience, Solomon spoke out. 

Solomon: "So can someone explain what this enhancement is to me?" 

Hearing Solomon's question, Nicholas nearly died from shock. 

Nicholas: "You've never heard of it?!" 

Even though Nicholas knew that Solomon was ignorant of a lot of things, he never thought it was to this level. Since his very first day in Domain, Nicholas had heard of this enhancement. It was a very common topic among unranked who hadn't got an enhancement yet. 

Solomon: "Uh, no. Should I have?" 

Feeling that Nicholas's reaction was a little extreme, Solomon became confused. Was it really that weird for him to not know about this? 

Nicholas: "Definitely! It's the number one enhancement in Domain! You can find people with it in almost every single guild that exists!" 

Though Nicholas exaggerated a tiny bit, he wasn't wrong. In a poll conducted by the three great guilds, it was found that a shocking 5% of Domain had chosen this single enhancement! Though that doesn't sound like much, it was an astounding figure. Of the several tens of trillions of people in Domain, 1.75 trillion had this power. 

Alice: "That's great and all, but what actually is it?" 

Jumping into the conversation, Alice cut Nicholas's diatribe short. Alongside Solomon, Alice Gareth and the characters also didn't know what this power was. 

Nicholas: "Oh, yeah. It's hard to explain in a short amount of time, But I'll do my best." 

Flashing everyone a bright smile, Nicholas went about explaining the enhancement to everyone. Even Rob who had the enhancement listened intently to Nicholas. Probably because, even though he had the enhancement, Nicholas had a better grasp of it. 

Nicholas: "And so, that's it." 

After nearly ten minutes of ceaseless talking, Nicholas was done. As everyone took a few seconds to let it all sink in, the sheer magnitude of this level up system shocked them. 

Initially, Nicholas had explained the basic principle of the enhancement to them. So at first, it allowed you access to the class, level up, inventory, and skill systems.  

The class system let you pick a class every time you levelled up. That class would start at level zero and would level as you used it more. You could also choose to evolve a class instead of getting a new one but you'd have to fit the criteria to have the class evolve. 

Then there was the level up system. It allowed you to assign stat points you gained through levelling to improve your strength. Every level would give you 10 of these points to be assigned however you like. But the thing was, it wasn't limited to Domain's stats. you could upgrade any stat from any fiction. From generic stuff like charisma or strength to extremely specialised stats like plant magic resistance or left foot's agility. 

The Inventory system was what it said on the tin, it allowed the user to store a certain number of items in a pocket dimension. At first, it was a tiny space of 1 CM squared. But for every level up, that space would double. 

Lastly was the skill system. Of all the systems, it was by far the most complex. Containing every single skill in existence, it allowed the user to learn any skill provided that they fit the requirement. That wasn't to say that it gave out skills for free though. It worked on a "you perform the skill, you learn it" system. So if you were to throw a rock, you would get several skills like "throwing skill" "rock throwing skill" "small item throwing skill". Each of those skills would start off at skill level one. As they were used more the level would rise. Accordingly, the ability of the person with that skill would also increase with the skill level. That was the true beauty and power of this system. If you were to focus on throwing knives, all the skill to do with that would rise. Because of all those skills stacking with each other, you would get a massive boost to that action. So when you applied that sort of bonus to something like a Kamehameha, you would get an insane result. 

But even with all of these amazing abilities, it wasn't like this system was the best enhancement you could get. It had several flaws to it. The most obvious being that people could very easily get caught up in their hundreds of skills and become inundated. But beyond that, there was one major risk to this system. Time. Unlike most other energy enhancements, this system didn't provide any boost to the longevity of the person using it. So if the user also didn't get an increase in longevity from their race, they would only be able to live for 80 years or so. What good was it being able to level up if you couldn't even get enough EXP to level up once in a lifetime? When you reached higher levels, and the EXP per level cost was insane, how could you have enough time to grind out EXP.  

After explaining all of that, Nicholas went on to explain more of the specific details about the enhancement. Like what stats were supposedly good, or what skills were best to work on. But by the time he'd moved onto that everyone was already letting the sheer amazingness of the enhancements sink in. Realising that his words weren't sinking in, Nicholas quieted down. 

Nicholas: "Hello, can't you hear me?" 

After his earlier question went by unanswered, Nicholas had left it a few seconds. Then calling out again, he drew in everyone's attention.  

Solomon: "Ah, sorry about that Nicholas." 

Realising that everyone had been ignoring Nicholas, Solomon apologised to him. Following after him, several others did the same. 

Alice: "Sorry." 

Rob: "My bad." 

Content with their apologies, Nicholas told them not to worry about it. 

Nicholas: "It's alright." 

Wrenching his mind away from the level up system, Solomon realised they hadn't even mentioned any of the other characters powers yet. After glancing at his watch and realising only ten minutes were left, he decided to move everyone's focus on. He was determined to get through everyone's before they arrived. That way they would be able to work with each other more easily. 

Solomon: "Well, I think we all understand what Rob's powers are now. But what about you guys? What powers do you have?"