As I lay sleepless in my bed, I found myself trying to decide what to do, but it was difficult when my information was limited. All I knew was that I was in some kind of magical world, summoned to fight against some kind of great danger.
Or at least, that was the impression they tried to give me.
My only advantage: my ability to lie…
"I have handled worse odds," I muttered as I buried my face in the pillow. I didn't try to sleep. I didn't want to waste the precious time I could use to think…
And, more importantly, I wasn't exhausted. With my increased Vitality, I was feeling more energetic than I had felt in years, I Felt like I could go without sleep for days…
I lay in my bed, wondering whether it was day or night, the lack of windows making me wonder about that detail. Or this new world have a concept of day and night in the first place, showing just how little I knew about the new world I had found myself in…
It was useless to cycle over the same insufficient information again and again. Maybe even dangerous, if I managed to drift into to a dangerous set of assumptions by working too hard on the same set of information.
First, this mysterious System that seemed to be determined to grant me supernatural powers.
I tried to focus on the direction, concentrating on the concept of level, power, and other texts, trying to reach and find some kind of screen where I could access my information. I didn't know if such a screen existed, but I still tried anyway.
Not that I had anything urgent to do.
Then, after five minutes of struggling, I managed to trigger what I was looking for.
[Class: Hero
Level: 3
Experience (0/1400)]
[Health (49/100)]
[ Experience: 436]
[STATS
Resilience: 20
Vitality: 10
LOCKED…]
[Stat Points: 0]
[SKILLS: — ]
[ABILITIES: — ]
"Fascinating," I murmured, a little louder than necessary to see if anyone would react to my words. A crude way of seeing if anyone was actually observing my presence.
Without any reaction, I turned my attention to the writing that appeared in front of me. The Level was easy to decipher. The Experience was some kind of fuel or material, and at least one of those methods of getting it; killing monsters, and after collecting enough, it could be used to get some kind of general improvement.
Improvements that gave me the miracle that was known as stat points, just a handful of them allocated to Vitality enough to make me more alive than I had felt in the last twenty years. And that was not even touching the role it showed in my mind-blowing healing performance.
Then there was Resilience, which was even more important than Vitality. I could handle the frailty of my old age much better than a lack of resistance to mental pressure. Spilling every little secret I had for the convenience of others just by a simple mental pressure, was the worst thing imaginable.
I would rather die.
"No dark thoughts," I muttered as I stood up, and started to walk around the room, hoping to come across something useful… Only to come up empty. There was a huge wardrobe, filled with various clothes, robes, shirts, pants, and many, many cloaks. Unfortunately, every single one of them was made of bright, explosive colors: reds, greens, yellows, and blues, cross-cut with many different metal filings.
None of them were particularly … subtle.
I decided to changing into them, at least for the moment. At least the robe was loose enough that I could actually smuggle something beneath it if I came across to anything.
The walk around the room gave nothing else. There were no weapons, no books, and no other drawings than the 'inspirational' paintings that covered every single wall of the large room.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
"One last thing before leaving," I decided. I wanted to test my body before I left. I lay down, curious about just how many push-ups I could achieve before my new body called quits.
The answer, turned out to be, a lot, as I repeated the same attempt again and again. Pushing my body wasn't particularly easy than what I was used to, showing that my strength was, more or less, the same.
The disappointment didn't last long, as I realized something was different when I passed ten, the point that I would normally start to get exhausted. I blew past twenty easily, then fifty, then a hundred…
Without my breathing even speeding up.
Then, something popped into my view.
[Stat Potential Awakened: Strength
Accept / Reject]
"A fascinating improvement," I murmured as I accepted it. But even as I continued, there was no difference in my capabilities, suggesting that I needed at least one point assigned to see the difference.
Then, I stopped. First, I started to listen, curious whether they would rush in to the room, as if the time I leveled up, but there were no movement.
Still, I didn't continue. Push-ups wouldn't be an accurate measure of understanding my limits. Still, it was clear that Vitality granted me an amazing improvement in endurance.
Not so much for power, which relied on its own Stat — or possibly Stats.
Curious whether the same applied to Agility and whether I could actually awaken it, I looked around, looking for something I could use to do some tricks: a knife, a coin, anything.
In the end, I found a small, thick piece of metal that looked like a coin. I grabbed it, and let it dance between my fingers with little flicks until it disappeared in my palm. "Not too much of a difference as well," I murmured. It flowed smoother than I had expected, but only marginally.
Nothing like the great improvement I had just experienced with Strength. Maybe it was the lack of challenge.
I grabbed several small objects and began to juggle them, adding one after the other. Unlike the coin tricks, which I was used to doing whenever I got bored, it had been a long time since I had juggled — since I was a teenager.
Yet, it still gave me what I was looking for.
[Stat Potential Awakened: Agility
Accept / Reject]
I accepted it again, fascinated by the ease with which they were being awakened. Maybe it was just something easy to do for everyone, or maybe it was something about my Class.
Either way, my quick tests were complete, and I didn't even bother to change my robe as I walked to the door, checking to see if it was locked.
It was not, but whether it was not supposed to be locked, or they had forgotten while they left, too distracted by their bickering, was another question.
Still, I waited for another hour before leaving the room, going through the place in great detail to see if I could find anything useful in the room.
A waste of time, I decided as I took a step into the corridor after pushing the door open gently, waiting for the two minders to burst, questioning me about why I ignored their order. My excuse was ready. I would say that I was looking for a bathroom.
I had already discovered the small one in the corner of the room, separated by a small door, but I was ready to play the ignorant savage and pretended that I had failed that.
I walked down the corridor, the walls covered with weapons and paintings in equal measure. I ignored the temptation of trying to get one from the wall, not wanting to deal with the possibly magical measures of security there to prevent sticky fingers.
Anything was technically possible.
As I walked, it didn't take long for me to discover the reason for the lack of response. Toross and Falael were around a table, surrounded with half-empty bottles and their heads pressed against the table.
No wonder they didn't react.
Still, I tried not to make too much noise as I walked, not daring to get closer. I had no idea how their magical abilities worked, and I wasn't ready to test them properly. Instead of waiting, I kept walking.
The next door I came across was a library, a modest one, but still far more than I could hope. The first promise of knowledge.
I still walked forward. Even if there was an alarm, I would try to swipe one. I was getting more and more excited as I kept walking, ready to grab a book and stuff under to my robe if I heard their furious footsteps.
The longer their reaction lasted, the more relaxed I felt, and soon, I stood in front of the first shelf, and pulled the first book, flipping it open excitedly…
Only for my hope to die as I looked at the page, filled with nothing but complicated symbols.
"Maybe it's just for this book," I muttered as I placed it back and checked the next one, only to experience the same thing. I checked more than a dozen books, each filled with the same type of runic letters that I couldn't understand…
Either I stumbled across an esoteric library filled with unknown languages, or whatever magical feature that allowed me to speak the foreign language didn't extend to the written word.
Inconvenient, I thought as I left the library. As much as the information hidden there was tempting, I didn't want to lose the window of opportunity I was dealing with.
I walked forward, checking the other doors. I passed a huge set of gates, one that I remembered leaving, one that led into the huge room I had been summoned to, firmly closed, just like most of the other doors along the way.
I didn't try to open the locked doors, seeing it seemed a pointless risk. Worst, I could try to do so while returning to my room, if I couldn't find anything on my way. I continued to walk, checking every room with an open door, but most looked like residences, not too dissimilar to hotel rooms, small yet functional.
However, of every room I had seen, mine was by far the best, which made me glad. The softer they treated me, the more it meant that they needed something that I could give them.
All I needed was not to give them any ideas. Things wouldn't be fun if they decided to get rid of me to summon another hero.
"Still, I wonder why they don't fear me escaping if I'm that much valuable for them," I muttered as I finally reached the end of the corridor, and found two things. A huge spiral staircase that went both up and down, and a large balcony at the end of the corridor.
At a glance, I could see that it was night at the outside, with only a very soft glimpse of light entering inside. Still, since it was open, I first walked to the balcony, curious about the new world I found myself in.
Only to gasp in shock as I took my step to the balcony.
"No wonder they are not afraid of me running away," I murmured in fascination.
Escaping from a castle, one that flew in the sky with a speed that might be a rival to a plane, might not be an easy task…