4 Minutes

- "Delta is at host's service."

Without wasting any more time, I asked Delta as soon as he answered my call, "Ok. Quickly tell me what just happened here, what is this cave, what was that world, how did I even manage to enter it, why didn't you answer when I called for you earlier? I mean, give me as much information as you could within the limited time frame."

Without wasting even a single second, he started to speak.

- "Through a portal which was preset in the room that the host entered, host was send into the 'Nourishing Realm'. This realm was created by the Gods to nurture their true devotees who have successfully gained their blessings. This realm is in a different dimension, where time doesn't exist.

- "This realm blocks away all divinities to prevent other Gods or Goddesses from interfering in the matters of their students. Delta doesn't know who, why or how they send the host into this realm because due to the influence of the realm, Delta, a helper created by a Goddess, was also blocked."

'So in simple terms, someone blocked the internet so no one could disturb the children taking an exam. That's why I was still able to access the status window despite of Delta not being able to respond to me. I think I get it now.'

As my processing of the data ended, Delta continued.

- "Since the monsters were not real and were just made up of 'Numen Particles', host didn't receive any Fate Points. However, the 'nourishing realm' constantly tempers with one's body with the divine energy, thus increasing the growth speed by a huge margin.

- "When the host was taken out of the 'nourishing realm', his mind was thrown into an illusion and his body was mysteriously healed. The illusion helped the host to partially awaken his Mind by gaining a control over his emotions. Delta is still looking into this mystery.

- "After returning back to Vaikun, host entered a room with some kind of a soul barrier. The mysterious herbs in the room filled the host's soul with energy. This, in turn, doubled the soul plasma of the host. The host can now converse with Delta for 4 minutes per day."

"So can you arrange for me to go back into that world again so I can further strengthen my body?" Halting my footsteps, I asked him while looking back into the room.

- "Delta is sorry but the portal had apparently closed. Also, the 'nourishing realm' can only be entered once in a lifetime."

'That's a lot of information giving me a lot more questions! If I had entered it later when I was stronger or with more preparations, I would have lasted longer and grown a lot stronger. Sigh!

'I feel like I have already used up most of those 4 minutes. I will ask more about them later, first I need to know the date!'

Without wasting any more time thinking, I asked into the darkness of the meandering tunnel, "Tell me what date it is today and how much more I can now talk for."

- "Today is the last day of the week 33. Only a few hours have passed since the host has entered the cave. Host has around ten seconds left to converse."

'This guy is really expensive!' I complained in my head as I told him, "Alright, I will save it for later."

- "Ok."

'So it's only the last day of week 33 huh! Not much time has actually passed. It's very early in the morning and I don't feel drowsy at all eventhough I didn't sleep last night! I will just go to that lake from earlier and fill up my water.'

Sniff! Sniff!

"And maybe take a proper bath." I said to myself as I smelled my own clothes.

***

After walking in that tunnel for about an hour, finally a fresh and cool breeze of the forest whistled through my face as I got out of the cave.

Putting the glowing rock back into the inventory, I looked back at the entrance of the crypt. The strange symbols still looked as mysterious as earlier.

Voom! Voom!

Suddenly, as I was looking at the symbols, some of them started to glow. As soon as the symbols enlightened, cracks started to appear on the top of the decorated entrance of the crypt. The cracks started to grow bigger and spread all the way to the base.

Rumble! Rumble!

As the structure started to fall, it slowly turned into dark clayey soil.

Stepping away from the falling building, I looked at the ground. The ground had turned into a strange magical swamp which looked wet but wasn't actually wet.

The swamp was very slowly twisting clockwise as it dissolved all of the soil which the structure had now become. Since the entrance lead to an underground tunnel, it only took a few minutes for the whole cave to get absorbed by the swamp, or atleast the portion which was on the surface.

'This world is full of mysteries! If I'm not careful, I wouldn't even understand how I died! Only the strong can survive in this strange world and I'm very, very weak!'

I exclaimed in my head as I looked at the empty land infront of me which was filled with grasses. There was no sign of the magical swamp or the mysterious crypt. It was as if they never even existed here!

Howl!

An approaching howling was heard from my right as within an instant, a pack of Lupii arrived in the area. They all stopped as soon as they saw me.

'Eight of them, a big guy, probably the leader of the pack, three medium sized and four small sized. They probably came here due to the sound of the collapsing structure. Considering this mysterious world, there can also be some other unknown reasons! I need to be careful.'

My thoughts ran faster than ever as I calculated the situation. Even I was surprised by my own mental agility! However, I didn't waste any time as I took out the dulled out black dagger and threw it with all my strength towards the leader of the pack.

Swoosh!

Puchi!

Thud!

The dagger landed a headshot killing it instantly, making him fall on the ground lifelessly. However, I didn't wait there to watch the spectacle. Right after throwing the dagger, I activated Agility and moved at the back of the pack.

With the other curved dagger, the four small Lupii were instantly beheaded, right after the leader fell. Just then, the medium sized Lupii turned in my direction and jumped together.

Pooch!

Passing from under the Lupus at the middle of the 3 of them, I gutted its belly as I moved closer to the corpse of the leader.

Puchi!

Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

Taking out the black dagger from the corpse of the leader Lupus, I threw them both at the remaining two Lupii. Both of them died from headshots.

Phew!

I exhaled an exaggerated sigh of tiredness while wiping my forehead, despite there not being any sweat or blood on my body! Not even a minute had passed since the beginning of the battle.

'I have grown so much proficient in killing these monsters that it all now feels instinctual! Thinking back on the battle, if my daggers were sharper, it would have been a lot easier.'

As I looked back on the easy fight, many particles started to appear from the wounds of the corpses. They then coalesced and formed oil droplets of various sizes with dark red particles inside them. Even the smallest of the drops was the size of the nail of a thumb!

'It's now time to gather some rewards!' I thought as I smiled and moved to collect the Fate Points.

***

As I was moving towards the lake from earlier, I looked at my status window. From the small massacre, I had managed to gather 860 FPs and successfully leveled up to level 3. This also gave me 5 stat points but I had stored them for later as I wanted to first get used to my new stats.

Since the space in my inventory was not big enough, I only stored one of the middle sized Lupii which got headshot by my dagger throw. Just like before, I didn't get any comprehensible memories from the monsters but I surprisingly received a few stat points and a new skill. According to its description, it was named 'Keratin Control' and put into the 'Active Skills' section.

[…

[Keratin Control] Level 1:

You have successfully killed a Lupus and absorbed its fate. This skill is one of the skills that the Lupus was proficient in. Due to absorbing its fate, this skill now belongs to you.

With the help of this skill, you can slightly manipulate your nails, hairs or anything made up of keratin in your body. Those elements will also be strengthened depending on the level.

This skill can be used continuously for 30 minutes after a cooldown of 2 hours. After evolving, it can be used indefinitely.

…]

'Although I can't think of much use of this skill during an active battle for now, it could prove great as its level increases. I wonder what else is made up of keratin in my body.'

As I was processing the details, I finally arrived at the lake. Closing the status window, I brought forth a blue vortex and with the help of my eyes, I guided it to hover over the water surface as it twisted clockwise and sucked in all the water it could store.

Right after closing the inventory, I moved closer to the surface of the water and started washing my face.

Whish!

Suddenly something moved inside the water! It was a light gray silhouette and moved so swiftly that if it wasn't for my high Sense stat, I wouldn't have even seen a glimpse of it!