A Descent

With his Team established, Magnus was finally able to ask the question he'd wanted to ask since the start of the Prolog. He turned to his parents. "Mom, dad. You didn't look surprised at all when I started doing and saying all those strange things. Were you perhaps…aware?" At most, his parents had been showing a mixture of concern and sadness, as if they had missed plenty of years without being there for him.

It was Fiona who answered his question. She gave him a motherly smile and said, "I've noticed, honey. What kind of mother doesn't notice the changes in her own son? It was around this time last year, wasn't it? You suddenly became…different. Call it mother's intuition, but it was as if I could sense that, while you were still my son, at the same time you were also not the same anymore. After a while, your dad also noticed your changes. It felt jarring for us at first, and of course we were worried. But we know that you're still our Magnus, so we were willing to respect your decision to keep your secrets."

'Oh, darn. Why do I get emotional so easily?' thought Magnus as tears welled up in his eyes after hearing his mother's answer.

After everybody was filled in on most of the basic but necessary information, Magnus accessed his Inventory and pulled out two things. Well, three, but one was a pair. The others had seen him producing an axe out of thin air, so none of them was surprised this time. In his left hand was a transparent orb, and in his right was a pair of fingerless black leather gloves. He turned to TJ and handed the gloves to him.

"Wear these. They enhance your Strength and affinity," said Magnus.

TJ walked up to him and took the gloves from his friend's extended hand. He observed the gloves for a moment before putting them on. Immediately, he noticed a six-point increase in his Strength.

"Oh, by the way, you guys can also do what I just did. You can store practically anything in this dimensional storage called Inventory." Magnus then proceeded to explain how to pull up the hidden system feature.

While the others gave it a try, TJ took off his gloves and tried to store them in his Inventory. "Wait a sec, how do I—"

"Just will it to enter the box, like how you willed to dismiss the system screen," answered Magnus instantly.

Everybody watched as the gloves in TJ's hand vanished into his Inventory—which was invisible for them. TJ then inspected the gloves that were now kept in the first box of his Inventory and noticed the name and effect of the item.

[Darkness User's Starter Pack: Gloves]

[+6 Strength, enhances affinity to darkness element]

Seeing the slightly confused expression on TJ's face, Magnus said, "Yeah, you must be thinking, 'What's with this name?' One of the gods came up with it, and apparently he had a weird sense of humor."

Now that everybody was done experimenting putting objects in and out of their Inventory, Magnus snapped his fingers to call for their attention while raising the orb in his other hand. "You might recall that one of the earlier system messages said [Chapter 1]. Now you must know what that means, right? There will be [Chapter 2]. It will come about twelve hours from now. Before that, I need you guys to get a good foundation to start building your skillset. This item in my hand is called an Element Orb. It measures your element affinity. Once you find out about your affinity, I can start guiding you to learn the appropriate skills."

Garrett's father then asked, "Are you saying we should hole up in this house?"

"That's right, sir. For now, at least. There's a reason I chose TJ's house as our temporary basecamp. The backyard is big enough for all of you to do some training. Also, TJ and I have bought enough supplies that will last a few days."

"Is that what's in the basement?" asked Matt, still hung on up TJ's earlier statement about what was in the basement.

"Yup."

"Wait a minute," Nikolai held up his hand. "You said the gods were probably targeting you. What makes you think we're going to be safe by hiding in this house?"

"You don't need to worry, Mr. Alexandrov," Magnus said with a smug grin on his lips. "While they don't know precisely how strong I am, they are aware that I'm more powerful than anybody else that exists on Earth right now. Nobody, at the current state, can afford to try to strike me first. I will serve as the perfect deterrence while you guys train and get stronger. None of them is gonna make a move on us anytime soon."

As soon as he said that, a muffled thump was heard from outside their front door. At the same time, they could see through the window that the blue barrier was disturbed as it produced a ripple that spread from one point near the ground.

Magnus frowned, putting the orb back in his Inventory. "Or not. Maybe some gods are just idiots," he said as he walked up to the front door without hesitation. He looked calm, yet everybody else was on their toes. He opened the door to find a burly man standing outside the barrier, raising his hand as he was about to 'knock' on it once more.

Flashing a friendly smile, Magnus greeted the man. "Hi! How can I help you?"

The man looked at Magnus with a slight puzzlement. "I don't know, honestly. After I got this message that said I've been chosen as a Protagonist, I got an Objective. It said I had to meet with the 'Big Anomaly'. The Objective also provided me with a mini map that led me here. Seriously, man. This has been such a weird day that I don't know anymore if I'm dreaming or—"

Suddenly, the man jerked his head back and started having a mild seizure. Sensing what was happening, Magnus was alarmed. 'Shit! Are you fucking kidding me?'

He immediately equipped his blue-and-black leather armor, [Mystic Deep], over his grey hoodie and jeans. He turned his head and yelled to the people inside the house. "Sorry, guys! I need to head out for a bit to deal with an emergency! TJ, you're on guard duty!" Without waiting for an answer, he cancelled [Unbreakable] and ran ahead before grabbing the burly man's collar.

[Gale]!

Magnus used a wind element-based skill to propel himself forward into the air, bringing the convulsing man along. They flew further from the house, carried by the strong gale blowing from Magnus' back.

He wasn't worried about the others being in grave danger. He was sure no other god was as much a daredevil as the one who'd sent this man he was currently carrying. So in the worst case scenario, the gods would just send a couple of boosted Protagonists. However, Magnus also had a boosted Protagonist of his own, and the gods probably didn't know how powerful he'd become over the past year. Magnus was confident nobody could pose any threat to TJ at the current moment.

Still, he decided to keep TJ's minimized Protagonist screen in the corner of his eyes, just in case.

Meanwhile, the man currently being airlifted by Magnus was suddenly emitting a red glow around his body. And with the red glow, came heat. His skin began to show orange cracks that ran along his face, neck, and arms. They looked like lava cracks on a volcano. His eyes, though, turned completely red, showing no pupil, iris, nor sclera. They were now totally red, glowing as bright as the aura around his body. After a few more seconds, his convulsion began to die down.

Seeing that, Magnus quickly chose the flat roof of an apartment building to land on. He dropped the man right before he himself crashed onto the gravel surface of the roof and rolled on it a few times; the skill [Gale] may have allowed him to fly in an almost straight line, but it was certainly hard to control the power and speed.

Getting up, Magnus witnessed the man slowly getting his senses back. As it was happening, Magnus could finally feel the heavy pressure descending from the sky, enveloping the roof. The man's eyes, despite the lack of pupils, then began to show signs of excitement. There was a crazy grin spreading on his lips.

The burly man was no more. Well, he was still alive, somewhat. But his consciousness was now trapped. The one currently in control of the body was someone completely different. Specifically, it was a god.

It was obvious this god didn't want to wait until his Protagonists grew strong enough to contend with Magnus. He wanted Magnus gone right then and there. Therefore, he was more than willing to select a random human as an disposable Protagonist. Yes, the second the man got his Protagonist notification, his fate had been sealed; his death was imminent.

That was because the god who had chosen him had Descended.

Descending meant that the god had plucked a tiny part of his soul to be put into the man's body. However, his mortal body obviously couldn't handle that much godly power. The god was basically sacrificing an innocent mortal just to erase Magnus' existence off the face of the Earth.

And based on the aura he gave off, what with the heat, red color, and everything, Magnus was able to deduce the identity of this god. Plus, his mad and reckless decision to gamble a tiny part of his soul, not even entertaining the scenario where Magnus could overpower him. There was only one name that came up in Magnus' mind. A name that suited this stupid and hot-tempered bastard with spicy personality: Scoville.