- Oliver -
"Ah! I 't stand hearing that anymore. I don't have the damn system with me; I lost the damn gau. What the hell is this notification?!"
The boy spoke aloud, almost shouting.
RUAHK
It was enough for him to receive some kind of reprimand from the torturer. However, the Ork was already too far; he had already returo the dungeo.
As soon as the torturer left, their s were released from the wall, allowing them at least to move within their cell. However, for Katherine and Isabe, who were sleeping, being released caused them both to fall straight to the floor.
In the past, Oliver had the strength to move ahem. Now that he barely had the strength to stand on his own, it was a matter of watg the same se over and over.
Isabe ran her hand over her face, trying to soothe the pain from having hit the floor face-first.
"How are you?" she asked.
"As always," Oliver replied. He turned sideways, showing his back full of whip marks and dripping blood.
"e here." The girl poio a er of the cell where there was a small leak—the only source of water they had access to.
She didn't o ask twice. He sat with his back to Isabe, where she gradually poured the drops of water over his back. Obviously, each spsh ainful, but Oliver had learo ehis pain in exge for his back healing, at least until the day.
However, at the moment, he had another problem on his mind besides his back.
Again, he could see his Status Page floating in front of him.
--
Status Page
User: Oliver [Nameless]
Level: 3 [Pawn]
Experience: [430/300] [Click to Evolve]
Credits: 11,360 [Update Pending …]
Stats
Strength: 7 [Pawn]
Agility: 14 [Knight]
stitution: 6 [Pawn]
Energy: 14 [Knight]
Boons
Insight [Pawn][Growth]
[Use 200 Experience Points to Upgrade]
Observation [Pawn][Growth]
[Use 200 Experience Points to Upgrade]
Left Eye of Learning [Knight]
Right Eye of ■■■■■ [Knight]
[Evolve to Unlock]
Skills
Ranger on Handling [Knight]
Ranger on
Energy Pistol
--
He had already analyzed every aspect of his status, tried clig hundreds of times, and even pnned what he would do with the experience if he survived.
‘I could improve my Insight and finally uand how to use it. Maybe even not feel so insecure about using it. Or perhaps improve the Observation; I'm increasingly fag higher-level oppos,’ he pnned for a while. However, his curiosity made him want to cli evolve. He wao know what the effect of his other eye would be.
However, he saw the same notificatioime he tried to cli [Click to Evolve].
| Z-Crystal Missing
‘I know! I know it's missing! So stop showihis, you fug shit system,’ he thought angrily.
| Hey! I'm just doing my job. ヽ( `д′*)ノ
‘Damn, I'm going crazy. I'm talking to my notifications and seeing halluations,’ the boy thought.
| You've always been crazy. But at least you had never insulted me (°?°╬)
The message blinked for a moment. Oliver didn't know what to think.
‘W-who are you?’ Oliver thought, trying to unicate with whatever was on the s.
| …
The three dots kept blinking, but no response came for a few seds.
| You may call me Athena.
‘But what are you? Are you some kind of AI that was impnted in me?’ Oliver tirying to uand what was happening. Although part of him still thought it was some kind of halluation.
| It's more plicated than that. But if you want to think so, that works, too.
‘What the heck?! But how do you work if I don't have any Z-Crystal?’ he asked, still surprised.
| I don't hat. The Z-Crystal provides some extra powers and allows your evolution, but not my e with you.
"Hmm." Oliver still didn't quite uand who Athena was, but he preferred to steer the versation another way. ‘Why did you choose to talk to me now and not before?’
| Hey! I tried to talk before. You always ignored me.
Oliver gave a light sp on his forehead. Indeed, she had sent some notifications and even talked to him, but he always thought it art of the system and that there was o try to unicate.
| Sedly, well, it's pretty b here. Months of watg you all waste away bees tiresome, especially when there's a brat insulting me for doing my job.
‘Ah!’ Oliver was startled as she poked at him. ‘Sorry.’
He didn't know what else to ask.
‘So, how do I get out of here? Any ideas?’ he thought.
| None.
‘Damn it.’ The boy gave up and accepted it while tinuing to receive the drops of water on his back.
Katherine looked worriedly at the boy; he was once again staring into spad sometimes talking to himself.
‘I hope he doesn't go crazy before the rescue arrives,’ the girl thought.
As she got up to crawl closer to the others, they could hear the food hatch opening. From the ceiling of the cell, a tray with some pieces of bread and two eggs of some strange animal was sent down.
It was the standard food they received twice a day. If there was just one person in this cell, it would be enough to endure for some time. However, with the three of them there, it became pretty hard. They often alternated who would stay awake so that they always had someone ready to hunt one of the rats that passed along the sides of the cell.
"Don't worry. They are already preparing a mission to save us," Katherine said as she sat beside Oliver. She pced one hand on the boy's shoulder, trying to fort him and prevent his spirit from breaking before their rescue.
Oliver could only nod. He khat, in part, this was true. However, he had no doubt that the mission would be to save Katherine and not the three of them.
‘If I or Isabe have to stay behind so they rescue her, we'll be discarded like trash,’ he thought. Oliver didn't resent Katherine because of this, but he was realistic, especially after past events.
While Oliver was thinking, Isabe asked, "How do you have such faith in this? I know you're a princess. However, it's been months. They might simply think we're dead."
Katheriared fixedly at the er of the cell as she thought.
"I've seen my brh this. I know that six months wouldn't be enough for him to give up." She paused for a moment before tinuing. "John never wao be the heir because he never was. He wasn't even trained for it."
"Arthur is my older brother. The firstborn of the Yorks," she spoke with unfocused eyes as if remembering her brother.
"John was always the powerful one. However, Arthur had a natural talent for leadership. Because of that, I always sidered myself disected from the family." Katherine gave a hoarse ugh, thinking about the past. She might even have cried remembering him at aime, but after living through the hell of the past few weeks, she no longer had tears to spare.
"He was graduating to bee a Red Ranger. However, he disappeared during aion at the end of the ninth wave," the girl expined. "To this day, we don't know what happened or eration he was uaking."
Katherine rexed her body, leaning her shoulders against Oliver's. "Poof! Simply disappeared."
Her voice faltered a bit; she stopped for a few seds to recover. "John opped looking for him. He became the best Ranger anyone could ask for just to have access to some secret dots. He kept moving from dead-end to dead-end, searg for where Arthur is."
Isabe was so engrossed in Katherine's story that she stopped p water onto Oliver's back.
"If he kept searg even after almost ten years, I think he wouldn't give up on us so soon," Katherine expined.
The three of them stood up ao the ter of the cell; they divided the little bread and eggs they had received and had their first meal of the day.
Since arriving in that cell, the three had developed a new level of friendship. They literally depended on each other to survive in the smallest details—from their food to the drops of water each would take.
Because of that, sharing about their lives had bee routine. Eveive subjects were gradually being opened up to each other.
However, Isabe still wao know something they hadn't discussed until now: Oliver's past. He had no problem talking about his life oreets of New San Francisco or even about his time at the Academy or in Selene.
But the boy hardly ever talked about his life wheill had his parents.
"Oliver, what was your family like?"
GCLopes
