Jonah flinched and jerked his head back as something flickered into existence right in front of his face and blocked most of his vision.
“W-what the shit?!”
Jonah shook his head and blew at the blue square like a bug trying to get at his face.
“Hey! Is this your doing?! Didn’t you say you didn’t have anything against me?!”
Jonah frantically tried to tilt his head to the side and look at Serina. But the blue, faintly translucent screen followed his eyes. No matter where he looked, it was right there.
“Huh. You’re either a superb actor or not lying. I’m almost inclined to believe it’s the latter.”
“What would I be lying about?! Just get this thing away from me!”
Jonah had vaguely started realizing that whatever had popped up and blocked his vision wasn’t getting any closer, and he calmed down a little. But it still felt like something was hanging right in front of his eyes, right about to poke them out.
“Well, there are tons of things you could be lying about. But for now, calm down, Jonah. It’s not going to hurt you. You’re probably just looking at the system window.”
“The system window…?”
Jonah didn’t like Serina telling him to calm down when he felt his panic was completely reasonable. But he also knew that he had to look at the situation with more calm and composure. So, while asking Serina to explain, he looked, really looked, at the square of blue light clinging to his vision.
“Yeah, it’s the main reason why Thyskria has so many invaders. They want access to the System.”
“...”
Jonah was too distracted by what he was reading to respond. And since Jonah wasn’t listening, she waited for him to read the dark blue letters on something she couldn’t see, despite looking where he was looking.
Jonah’s eyes widened as he looked at the screen and saw the text on it.
[Name: Jonah Wilchammer] [Class: Triangle Mage (lvl 1)
[Skills:
[Triangle Magic (lvl 3) (UNIQUE)
A Triangle Mage’s signature skill.]
[Mana Heart (lvl 5) (EPIC)
A mage’s specialized mana storage. Provides improved control and usage of magic, as well as an increase in mana quality.]
[Mana Control (lvl 5) (COMMON)
A mage’s basic skill. Necessary for manipulating mana. A higher mastery means greater efficiency and power while casting spells.]
[Decapitation (lvl 2) (RARE)
Bonus damage for decapitations]
[Invader (lvl 1) (HIDDEN)
You have entered another world through unlawful means. Natives will hunt you down and try to kill you.
Bonus damage to natives.
Bonus experience gained.]
“Wh-what is this?”
Jonah could read the words without a problem, and he understood what they meant on their own. But he was having trouble deciphering the overall meaning of it all. There were also several things he wanted to question and retort to, but now wasn’t the time, obviously.
“Your status window. Do you really not know anything about this?”
“No. How would I?”
Serina sucked on her teeth as she hesitated. She also furrowed her brows as she looked at Jonah, trying to figure out if he was speaking the truth.
“I’m not entirely convinced. But I will give you the benefit of the doubt. After all, the universe is big, so it’s possible you don’t know about the System. Though, I am curious about what kind of backwaters, countryside, and out-of-the-way world you come from.”
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Jonah glanced at Serina through the letters on the blue screen, which got even more translucent as he tried to look past it.
“Was all that necessary?”
Jonah couldn’t claim he was overly attached to Earth. But it was still his home planet. Listening to Serina talk smack about it certainly didn’t improve his impression of her.
“Nope.”
Jonah almost expected an apology. He didn’t feel like she owed him one, but previously during their conversation, so far, Serina had been a little more apologetic when she accidentally said things to upset him.
But he merely raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue.
“Ahem. I won’t go into detail since that would take us more time than we have. So, I’ll give you a short rundown of the System and what’s in front of your eyes, okay?”
“Wouldn’t you have saved more time if you just started instead of telling me what you’re about to say?”
“Shut it, Jonah. You shouldn’t be cheeky when you were crying about wanting to go home just now.”
Serina’s answer and sudden attitude flabbergasted Jonah. She had been a little annoying as she pestered him to eat her soup, but now, she was full-on rude. He couldn’t quite blame her, considering the situation and how suspicious he had been of her.
Well, he had a reason to be rude since he since had been kidnapped and strapped to a chair. But Serina probably had her own reasons to be rude to him.
However, he couldn’t understand why she suddenly went from being a gentle country-side girl who cared about what he thought of her clothes and didn’t seem to care about Jonah’s supposed threat as an invader to someone with a spine.
“Uh, what’s with the sudden personality change? SPD?”
Serina tilted her head for a second.
“Shit. I got distracted and forgot I was supposed to keep up an act. Well, I guess it’s too late for that now.”
She narrowed her eyes after thinking aloud and giving Jonah an explanation.
“But it feels like you thought and said something rude just now?”
“I have no idea what you mean. What happened with that explanation you promised me, miss Lockstar?”
“Tell me what SPD is first.”
Jonah was pretty sure being asked if you have split-personality disorder isn’t something you would appreciate. But he hoped telling Serina would be like ripping a band-aid off.
“Split-personality disorder. Now, explanation, please?”
“Split-personality disorder?”
Serina narrowed her eyes even further as she leaned in closer and gave Jonah a proper stare-down. Fortunately, he could just focus on the words on his system window, and the screen blocked his view. It was a shame he had to look away from such a beautiful face, but, on the other hand, it was just as well since he didn’t have to stain his memory of it with the irritation Serina displayed.
“Yeah.”
With most of his vision obscured by the system window and the information on it, Jonah felt secure enough to answer.
“Split-personality disorder. I’m not sure about the details, but basically, one person has several personalities–”
“I know what it is.”
“Oh.”
Jonah shrugged and decided to just roll with it. Even if Serina was offended by his suggestion, there wasn’t much he could do about it now. If anything, she was the one to blame since she had put up an act from the very beginning.
“Hey, I’m not judging. It was just a guess, but it if was your other personality that kidnapped me, how about you, the current one in charge, set me free?”
Serina leaned back in her chair with a snort and crossed her arms. She could tell that Jonah was just whatever surfaced in his mind.
“Fine. There are a bunch of theories about the System, how, when, and who made it, and so on. But regardless of the answers to those questions, it’s an all-encompassing something that covers this entire planet and anyone within it who is aware of its existence, which is why that thing popped up when I told you about it.”
Serina pointed at Jonah’s eyes as she spoke.
“No one knows how the System works, just what it does. Well, some of what it does. It watches and sees the efforts of everyone and everything in the world, and it rewards those efforts. You should see a level next to your class, right?”
“Yeah…?”
“When you kill things, that number rises.”
“That… sounds pretty horrible, actually. Killing things to only get a bigger number on a blue screen?”
Serina tilted her head as she considered what Jonah said.
“I guess that’s how it would look to someone who hasn’t heard of it before. But that’s not all it does. The System takes your enemy’s strength and gives it to you upon their death. That number is just a quantifier and identification of your current strength. …Yeah, that should do for that part. You’ll learn the rest as you level up.”
“Alright…? Is that it?”
Serina shook her head.
“No. Next is your class and your skills.”
Jonah thought about the [Decapitation (lvl 2) RARE] and got a little worried about what Serina was going to say next.
“What about them?”
“These are sort of the System organizing your information. It has sorted what you are capable of into a class, which is a general descriptor of what you do with your life. And the skills are more precise, well, skills. For example, if you’re good at craftsmanship, you will probably have a skill related to it. And if you work as a craftsman, your class will probably be one.”
“Okay….”
‘But I haven’t decapitated anyone. I haven’t even killed anyone. Why do I have that skill?’
Jonah didn’t dare voice his question. His claim that he was harmless and shouldn’t be killed despite being an invader would probably lose a lot of credibility if he revealed he had that kind of skill.
“And so, Jonah Wilchammer, mind explaining something to me?”
Serina leaned forward again and smiled gently. But the eyes visible through the slit of her almost closed eyes revealed that she wasn’t smiling because she was happy. It was a cold smile that removed Jonah’s hopes of ever getting free.
Chills ran down his spine as Serina forced him to meet her eyes with a subtle move of mana gripping his chin and holding it in place.
‘That’s not fair.’
He belatedly realized he hadn’t told her his last name, and she hadn’t even needed to ask for it. That was probably why she didn’t believe his story about the Fae. How easy would it be to steal a name if they could find it out using whatever method Serina had used to find out his name?
And the way Serina looked at him also told Jonah that she didn’t only know his full name. She also knew about his skills, more specifically, the skill that he had worried about.
It was no wonder she tied him up and refused to even let him eat soup on his own when he had a skill like [Decapitation].