Expectations

*2 minutes later*

I sat on the rock right next to her, stressed out about how I'll respond to that kiss and the skillset I've been given. Toughing it out sounded easy but to pass on a cute girl like her...mmmm don't know if I can.

I thought, "I'll try and be passive I mean it's the best I can do, and I barely met her.... ahhhh"

Once my mind came back from the stars I gave myself a pep talk for 5 minutes and eventually woke her up.

"wake up your dead asleep!" I chuckled

she picked her head up from the floor and gazed back at me. Her eyes turned from squinting to fish eyes, "how strange," I thought to myself. we didn't talk for a few seconds.

Nessa blushed, "nice weather we're having, huh?"

I said with a laugh, "yeah nice weather"

*couple of seconds later*

I got the courage to say, "that was my first, you know"

Nessa said low enough only I could hear, "same here"

The awkward tension died down and we began talking again about what kind of forest like world this was, apparently this forest is like an imagination, a beacon of fun, sadness and adventure. you can either gain or lose heavily here and some people only leave not with despair but with memories they've made throughout scavenging the deepest parts of this wonderland.

As she spoke of this my heart began to pound with excitement and my eyes lit up as I was thirsty for adventure. The value of losing or gaining gave me the thirst of wanting to adventure.

Nessa said with worry, "don't be too hasty, there was a story about a powerful king who travelled the deepest of the deep in this forest that noone could ever reach. He ruled this wonderland, but it all took a turn for the worst when one of the monsters he had kept as a contract pet destroyed him after the contract ended. After he died he was pulled back into the normal world and couldnt remember anything about anyone or his adventures. That was the biggest penalty, to trade your memories of adventure for your own life."

I asked, "how do you know about all this?"

I heard a similar story before from my mom, but my dad always said it was nonsense. I wonder if my parents were a part of this world.

Nessa replied with, "my dad was a companion of his, and believe it or not they were our age when he was pulled back to the original world. My dad tried to convince him to come back but it never worked, and they've never contacted eachother since."

Sounds scary and exciting to have to live in order to have this type of experience.

I asked, "are we allowed to come back to our world if we wanted?"

Nessa answered, "of course we can, this place can't be seen by ordinary people. Only people like us can enter and get out. there's a barrier from the real world to this forest and people that don't enter here can't remember events that are as abnormal as that light appearing"

I replied, "true it would be a hassle, but that light did attract the people at our school"

Nessa said, "well rumors and powers are gonna be frequent as well as those factions you hear at school so, I guess the people that enter is gonna increase"

factions huh? Being silent about all this is gonna be harder than it sounds

Nessa says, "speaking of powers, what skills did you obtain from that guy?"

I ask, "how do I, pull it up?"

Nessa replies, "think about the word 'status' and who you want to share it to"

I thought, "status and nessa"

she viewed my status and she as hell was shocked.

Nessa said, "your stats dont seem bad at all but your grimoire seems rare"

I said, "does everybody have a different type of grimoire?"

Nessa replies, "yeah, everybody does but did you notice how yours has a label on it?"

I said, "yea what about it?"

Nessa replies, "it's rare and unique for people to have another name without the basic color attributes"

I reply with, "what's your color?"

Nessa says, "grimoire of the white paradox, mine's is part of the white faction though I'm not with a faction"

That's interesting so I'm part of no faction. Makes things alot easier.

I ask, "so when does the test start?"

She takes out a stop watch and a hologram comes out

She replies, "in about 10 minutes the announcement will begin, and dont worry a week equals and hour outside that's why we have these stop watches for partying up and everyone syncs on the same time like a server"

I say, "oh cool, cool, so you'll just wait for me?"

She replies, "nope, I gotta go home, I'll give you my phone number and you'll tell me how it goes"

We traded numbers and her ears turned red as a tomato.

I say, "thank you, I'll-"

She interrupts,"I'll text you later, thanks for listening to me, and actually coming"

Her face starts to turn red as she look the other way.

I say, "yeah no worries"

Then a sudden blackout happens and a platform appears in front of me.

Voice: "Hello, Sawari, it seems as though you are enjoying this forest, yes?"

The voice loud and ominous like an echo felt as if a man were shouting in the dark.

Sawari: "yes, I am. may we start the test?"