Chapter 3

In his room, Ruben sat on his bed with his leg crossed while studying the chest in his hands. He first shook the chest which felt like it was empty inside.

Focusing on the envelope next, he opened the sealed envelope. He found a letter and key inside.

Putting down the key, he started reading the letter.

'To whomever is reading this letter,

If you are reading this, it means that I am no longer in this world. I don't know who it might be but if I have decided to have you read this, it means that you are part of the hidden part of the world that most probably caused my death.

I doubt this is in the hands of my brother, Charlie, as I don't want him involved and dangered. Since you have my will and is part of the world watched by the consellations, I will give you all my possessions which are in the Royal bank safe in the capital.

There, you will find the wealth I have collected and stuff you might or will need.

You will be able to access my vault with the key I should have left with my will.

You will have ownership of the vault as long as you have the key, vault number and password which I have written behind this letter.

I hope this falls into the right hands.

Sincerely,

Theodore Hilston."

After reading the letter, Ruben got more questions than answers.

'Forget it, I'll get the answers later. It might be in the chest.'

He then picked up the chest.

The wooden chest was dark brown with strange carvings all over it.

Although it was locked, there was no way of opening it. It had no key hole or contraptions from what he could see.

It was like the lid had been glued close with no way of opening it.

Thinking it might really have been glued shut, he took a dagger and tried prying it open.

After struggling to open the lid with the dagger, Ruben discovered that there was no scratch on the box even after the violent display from a sharp dagger.

Finding it odd, he then tried to scratch the box with the dagger in his hand which didn't leave a mark. Although it felt and looked like wood, it's seemed almost indestructible after a few hits.

On the verge of giving up, he remembered some rituals from the fiction stories back on Earth.

'No harm trying. This better works or I am going to have a hard time cleaning it up.'

Giving his palm a cut, he let his blood drip on to the wooden box.

Much to his surprise, the carvings in the box seem to have absorb his blood.

From the place where his blood dripped, the strange carving lines started to glow red from his blood and spread all over the chest.

As soon as the carvings on the while chest was glowing red, a click could be heard and the chest flipped open by itself.

Before Ruben could react or check what was inside, something flew out of the chest and hit him in between his eyebrows, falling unconscious immediately.

When Ruben opened his eyes, he could see strange characters floating in front of him.

He tried touching them with his hands but it was like touching air. His hands went pass the floating words.

Focusing his dizzy head, he looked at the characters in front of him.

They seemed to be of a language he had never seen before, but as soon as he started reading them, he was shocked to find that he had the ability to read and understand them.

[You have receive a gift from the consellation The Forgotten Ruler $# %$# ?&%@$%. Open gift, Y/N]

Looking at the at choice, he decided take his time and give more thoughts to his choice.

Ignoring the floating words, he realised that the 'wooden' chest has dissapeared.

'It looks like I may only be able to find the answers from what was left behind by Theodore Hilston in the bank.'

As Ruben was planning his trip to the Royal Bank in the capital, he noticed the letters floating in front of him changed.

[Gift from the consellation The Forgotten Ruler $# %$# ?&%@$%, has been accepted automatically after 5 minutes.]

'Wait, what?'

[System has been gifted]

{Installing system..}

Ruben suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head which dissapeared right after.

{System will be introducing Host to the consellation}

{Consellations have the ability to watch and sponsor mortals who have absorbed a Consellation Gems that could be found in some monsters}

{Mortals that have taken the Gems would gain connection to the consellation stream. Consellation would then sponsor stream coins, skills, weapons, strength, etc to the mortal of their choice}

{Some mortals may attract the attention of consellation and is given the choice of being an apostle. An apostle will gain the ability of their consellation, often making them more powerful than the rest}

{The stream coins can be used on the stream store. Where they are able to buy stats, weapons, etc with enough stream coins.}

{As Host has yet to absorb a consellation gem, you are not connected to the consellation stream and stream store.}

{Mortals can gain the attention of consellations by hunting monsters in hidden dungeon, fighting other mortals, anything that could entertain the consellation}

{Different consellations would have different hobbies and interested in different activities done by the mortals}

{There are almost infinite consellations in the many uncountable universe}

{System will now introduce itself to Host.}

{System helps host to learn skills, access Host's status, level up and grow stronger}

{Order 'status' to look at Host's status window and gain understanding of the system}

Ruben was getting a headache from reading all the information provided by the system.

'I have always felt something odd about this world but didn't care much of it. Looks like I'm now involved in what ever it is.'

'I'll just go with the flow and enjoy the journey like those virtual reality games back on Earth'

Ruben though that since he was already given the opportunity, he could take this chance to reach a new height.

"Status"

A new panel suddenly appeared in front of him.

Name: Ruben Hilston

Level: 0 (0/200 exp)

Title: -

Race: Human

Health: 700/700

Stream coins: -

Exp stored: 0

Stats:-

Strength: 26

Agility: 29

Stamina: 28

Perception: 30

Mind: 27

Stat points: 0

Skills:

Active skills

-

Passive skills

• Observing eyes lvl 1

- Able to see the stats of other mortals and identify objects along with its description.

• ??? (Unlocked at level 10)

- ?

While he was studying the status window, the system continued its explanation.

{Host is able to convert stored exp to stream coins. Conversion rate is 10:1, exp : stream coins}

{Host is able to gain exp by hunting monsters, killing hostile mortals or completing quest provided}

{Stat Points are provided every level up}

{Host can also gain stats, skills, items sponsored by consellations}

'What are dungeons and how do I find them?'

{Dungeons are gates that connect this world to other worlds often with no intellectual beings, filled with deadly creatures}

{Dungeons are often one way trip, only mortals that have absorbed the gem are able to travel freely between the gates that lead to the Dungeons}

{Dungeons are usually hidden. System is able to sense dungeon within 50km radius of Host}

{There are temporary and permanent dungeon. Temporary dungeon are often open for a limited time.}

{System is able to inform Host of the time until the dungeon gate collapse for temporary dungeon.}

{Some temporary dungeon remains open until a certain goal is achieved}

{Consellation Gems can be found in some monsters. However, the chances are low}

{You can also find some monsters that have escaped the Dungeons hidden in this world.}

Ruben took his time to process all the details provided by the system.

It was already getting late so he fell went to sleep after reading system's introduction and closing all the system panels.