Chapter 6 - Returned

In the remaining time, Alden was wasting his time by doing various things from throwing rocks to punching the cave's wall to test his brute strength. After doing these things, he felt sleepy all of a sudden. He fell to the ground, trying to keep his eyes open, but despite his efforts, he eventually fell asleep.

The next time he opened his eyes, he saw something familiar. it was just like the first time he got transported to this place. For a moment, all he could see was the color blue, but it slowly transitioned to pitch black. Alden was pretty scared for a moment, he thought that it could've been all a dream, or even worse, he was already dead.

These thoughts were erased from his mind when he saw the system's message appearing again, congratulating him for passing the fifth stage. Alden quickly sighed out of relief "Haa.. good heavens.", after a few seconds, his eyes widened to see that he could actually speak in this scenario. The message quickly appeared again after he realized it, telling him that if he has any questions, then he can ask them. "Can I really? ... Well, first off, what is that place?", it responded abnormally fast "The place that you were in is named the Bloodspire tower, it is made to train certain individuals for the upcoming event." Alden's voice trembled when he heard the word 'event', not knowing if it's good or bad "W-What type of event!?", he said, obviously scared. "An event that no one could foresee, not even I. It may be bad or good, I guess we'll see in the future.", as the system said that, it spoke again, "Goodbye.", Alden's eyes began to close again, faster this time, he screamed "Wait!", but he was no longer in that pitch black room with only the system that he could talk to. 

He was in the spot where he was left to, back in at his father's grave, wind whistling through his ears. He was still holding the book with his hands, quickly moving his eyes to see the book, but it somehow changed by that time. The book's cover and title was now black.

As he was panicking he turned the pages to see if there is any writing left, but there was none. There wasn't even a title for the book, it was just full blank. He was disappointed in himself for not even remembering what the title was.

He let go of the book and put it next to the grave, when suddenly the system was back, but now telling him to say or think in his mind about the words, 'Status window'

Alden was confused, because he didn't think that the familiar object would never appear in front of him ever again, but even so he trusted it, for now.

"Status Window.", Alden said with a low tone, as he was embarrassed that anyone would hear him, but he was shocked to see that a similar panel appeared in front of him, it was like the system messaged him, but now he could see information about himself.

Name: Alden (Lowborn)

Level: 11

Exp: 0/1100

Titles: N/A

Strength: 9

Endurance: 7

Agility: 11

Intelligence: 8

Unused Points: 10

Skills: Amateur Swordsmanship (D) [Lv.6]

On the right side of his eye, the system explained that until now, his unused points were added into his stats to match the stage's power.

Alden quickly questioned what the "Amateur Swordsmanship" skill was. The system didn't respond by using words, but instead it opened a panel for him to see what the effects of the skill are.

Amateur Swordsmanship (D) [Lv.6]

Increases basic understanding of the sword.

Improves handling

(Passive, Can be upgraded after level 10)

"Right, so.. How do I level my skill up?", Alden asked. 

"You can level it up by defeating living beings, it will be significantly harder to upgrade it after every level." the system replied. Alden was smiling, happy that at least he had a skill and that this wasn't a dream. After their conversation about the system, Alden learned that the status window basically tells you important information about his body and that the stats are also based on that. The strength stat shows you how strong you are, and so on. The intelligence stat is a bit different, since it doesn't have anything to do with his muscles. If one has high intelligence, he can learn techniques faster than anyone else with a lower intelligence and it also helps his mentality. 

Some time after he looked around at the status window and relaxing himself, the system told him to use his unused points on a stat so they can begin. "Begin with what?" Alden said, confused. The system didn't reply to him, basically ignoring him. Alden was a bit annoyed but he was used to it.