New Ability

[Objective completed 200 xp rewarded]

'200!?'

[You have leveled up, you unlocked: Rip, soul thirst]

'Rip and soul thirst? What kind of edgy ability names are these?' Jacob thought. But the glitch would appear as soon as he finished thinking.

[Well done friend! Now you finally levelled up!] The glitch appeared, excited with the level up.

"So what are these two things?" Jacob asked, pointing at parts of the screen behind the text.

[Consider it as the first unique ability you can have, you can use it in our next combat mission. As for soul thirst, let us just say it works like hunger] It explained.

Ella took notice of the system, seeing the level up and the new ability.

"Oo you levelled up! You're not a low level 10th level!" She congratulated, her loud voice made Rin and Zeph take notice, now seeing the new level of Jacob.

Zeph stood up, taking notice as well of the goal. Soon the entire team walked up to Jacob, looking at his achievement and asking about it.

—--

After a few minutes, Clara entered the room. Just like the rest, she was also curious and quickly took notice of the ability, and just like earlier, Jacob spent a while explaining everything he told to the others.

"Interesting, yet another add-on to the mystery of these glitches," she commented while noting her data down on a tablet.

[Is she having the hots for me too?] The text asked, Ella and Jacob both snickered before the text disappeared.

A question suddenly appeared in Jacob's head.

"Didn't you have that weird jumble of text before? Why is it gone now?" He asked. It took a moment before the thing responded back.

[Oh that, well since you are leveled up, i got more attached to you. And from that things got fixed and i can talk clearly now.] Clara hastily wrote down what it just said.

"Attached?"

[Ever seen that movie about that black slime thing who does turns its host into a weird spider creature? Think of that but this time much better!] It responded. With an answer, he decided to ask another question.

"Do I have another task now or not?"

[Wow, an eager one, I struck big when I chose you!] It paused for a second before continuing.

[Well, not right now. Besides, you're going to do much more work now that you became rank 9] After it spoke, another text appeared above it.

[Rank 9 progress: 150/1000]

"1000 Already!?" Jacob exclaimed in shock and horror.

[Relax, you will enjoy it,] It reassured him.

'It better be like those quests of just killing stuff.' He thought.

With nothing more to say, the text disappeared. Clara continued typing away on her tablet. Stopping after a minute.

"And more data to add, thank you Jacob. We are currently searching for the bomber and how he entered, he may be yoir next mission if he's still alive," Once dome talking, Clara walled away, carrying a tablet now filled with notes and data from Jacob.

Everyone else returned to reading, now simply waiting for their mext mission while Jacob continues to quietly sit down.

—--

After a while, boredom grew on Jacob, perhaps a book can help him pass the time, it worked for Ella as well after all.

He stood up and approached the mearby shelf, eager to kill time and not cause another issue with Clara.

After a while, he managed to grab one that piqued his interest.

"Ultimate list of dps team builds!" He read its title and laughed a bit before sitting down on the table with the rest.

Even without a phone, he took relaxation and comfort in filling his mind with knowledge of gacha and builds for teams, if he was not dealing with studying and homework.

He sat next to Ella, peeking at her phome. She was playing some rpg game that Jacob seemed to remember, but he focused on reading for now.

—-

An hour or so had passed and Jacob finished reading from the tablet. He didn't realize that Ella had left the table while he was reading, having gone outside.

'She better not be exploring right now.' He thought.

As of now, only he, Zeph, and Rin were left. They continued to silently read their books with no sign of boredom or stopping.

Jacob snapped his fingers, hoping to chat with that thing again to pass time in another way or ask it another question, but it was silent.

He looked at his new ability, staring at it for an awfully long while.

'Rip and soul thirst' He was unsure what it meant, even when the name sounds obvious, he still didn't know how it would even function.

After a minute or so, Jacob got up to find Ella, wishing to speak with her and find another way to pass the time before their next task.

—-

The hallway outside was darker compared to the halls in City H, with more equipment to hold data and security cameras.

'This place is much more secure' He thought. To his surprise, Ella was standing right next to the door, leaning on a nearby wall and playing her game.

"Got bored in there too?" She asked.

"Yeah, i was thinking you were out stealing something from a lab," She laughed at Jacob's reply.

"Don't worry, I learned my lesson, and plus they seem much more secure here so why bother,"

"Anyways, you mention games alot before, what types do you even play?" She asked. It did not take long before their brief interaction turned to a conversation.

After a few minutes of talking on games, Clara returned, this time with good news.

"We discovered the target, he is not far from here. Prepare your team, this will be our first combat mission," She ordered. While Ella returned to deliver the great news, Jacob was left standing there.

He felt excitement and nervousness, but curiosity filled his mind as well when he remembered those two new abilities he had.

'Rip and soul thirst.'