[Altar Of Choices] (2)

[[?&@₹%@₹?&] is curious to see what the [Heaven-Defying Star]'s choice would be]

Keith pondered over the said words.

He then began to recollect on his experiences since his return; he had yet to feel any kind of pain from the thing in front of him, his proficiency over wielding that wild power had somehow been good enough for a beginner, the way he could channel [Aura] within himself also seemed to have a bit stronger effect than what he had experienced in his past life on the same power level, the [Aura]'s density was also thicker than what a newbie could condense…..

And,

To wield his [Job exclusive skills], such as: [Rewind], or others he'll get in the future, [Magic Power] seemed to be indispensable.

And maybe thanks to that thing, but Keith didn't feel the [Magic Power] within him to be foreign.

With such being the case,

"Hah!" Keith scoffed as if asking the thing in front of him to bring it on.

"My choice is obvious." He muttered and stretched out his hand at the thing floating in front of him.

[[?&@₹%@₹?&] is disappointed with the user's choice]

DING-!

With another soft bell, Keith's consciousness returned to the [Altar Of Choices], unharmed as if nothing had even happened.

Due to the abrupt return, Keith stumbled and stopped himself from falling face first on the altar by supporting himself with his palms on it.

'Disappointed?' He cursed inwardly and felt an abrupt chill run down in spine, but he shrugged it off since he didn't know why.

Unbeknownst to him, pairs of chartreuse green, grey, and crimson eyes lingered on since the moment the bell sounded and his consciousness dazed, as if they could hear the bell's sound while the others in the sane room couldn't.

It was seconds before the gazes turned away.

In front of the figures were floating and nearly towering bookshelves, filled with books of all kinds.

Ivan gazed at the books filled with different [Magic Power]s and circuits curiously as his eyes glimmered in a greedy glint a few times as his gaze brushed past books with stronger [Magic Power] lingering in them.

He was in a section named [Miscellaneous], together with Zilla, Nu, and a few unknown people. Though Zilla and Nu didn't really care which spell book they chose, Ivan gave it a deep thought as he tried find a different, once of a kind spell, which could potentially open up another path of magic he could play with.

After a few finds that didn't seem to be much different from what he already knew, Ivan was about to move towards a different section when his gaze halted on a book that was placed on top of the bookshelf.

It was slimmer than the rest he had seen, even the book's [Magic Power] seemed weak, but its circuits were different. The spell in the book was a kind he had experimented with before but had failed to create the kind of spell he had in mind, it was a path he tried to walk for fun, but since the spell's [Magic Circuit] was too intricate, it had ceased to become "fun," hence he had stopped diving deep on that path.

But,

Funnily enough, he had somehow come across the same path again, but this time, the [Magic Circuit] of the spell somehow seemed to have been complete.

Since the book was slim, he could easily spot the thick layer of dust layered over it.

'I wonder who walked this path…..'

He reached out to grab the spell book, though the bookshelf was towering, he was a 7 foot tall monster, it wasn't that hard for him to reach the book.

With his hand placed on the book, Ivan tried to pull it back slightly, felt something sticky by the time his hand was pulled back. He rubbed his fingers against each other to understand what it was and understood that it was book's cover, that was almost rotten from nobody touching it like forever.

He delicately manipulated his [Magic Power], trying to get the spell book afloat. In the spur of the moment and his curiosity, what he didn't notice was the ripples and swirls in the space around his palm, covered in greenish black [Magic Power], that had reached out at the spell book.

A strong ripple of [Magic Power] brushed past him, but thanks to the people [Assimilating] the spell books, the fluctuations in the atmosphere was common, hence the fluctuations went unnoticed.

The spell book slightly levitated above the shelf, taking upon the opportunity, Ivan grabbed the book gently and brought it close to his face.

[Game Of Cards] [No Rul-----

[-------

Was what was written on the spell book, but since his hand had brushed against it, the words in it had faded slightly.

'Game Of Cards, huh….'

POP!

With a subtle pop, the spell book turned into particles of [Magic Power] and [Assimilate]d with his [Magic Power] as the information of the spell got engraved onto his consciousness.

DING-!

[Exclusive Skill: Game Of Cards has been acquired]

[Game Of Cards: [Image of a joker tearing through the card with an ominous grin on his face while he held out an ace of hearts while his body had leaned out] Hey! Wanna play a game!?] [Proficiency: 0%] [Level – 0] [Rank – ???] [♤♡◇♧]

"Hmm?"

'An exclusive skill? Don't I already have one?' Ivan wondered.

Before he checked his skills, he felt a strong [Magic Power] fluctuation in the atmosphere and turned to face in the direction of the fluctuation and saw Keith at the centre of it.

"How dare you!!!?" Keith suddenly yelled on top of his lungs as killing intent began to dye his abilities, but the bot which had brought him here suddenly zoomed behind him and knocked him out by landing a strong chop on his nape.

Suddenly, Ivan's expression turned funnily strange.

'Is this normal? I thought it was one of both?'

Ivan could see the bright light on the altar in the middle of the room, he thought it was either a spell book or a chance to get a skill, job, or a spell granted by the room itself.

He had already chosen a spell, so why was he seeing the light?

Was that normal?

"S-23." Ivan called out at the bot, who rushed towards him.

[Yes?]

"What happens after we get a spell book? Can we still see the light on the altar? Or will it go off?" Ivan asked. Because in [Hell], he had experimented a similar theory when he tried to travel between worlds twice, and he was unable to ascend the second time through the altar; it was one time use. Though descending was easy, if one didn't have the method to ascend again, none of the [Demonic Creatures] or the [Demons] dared to descend after ascending once.

[Can you see the light on the altar?] S-23 asked back instead of answering, Ivan simply nodded in response as he remembered his thoughts to change his sovereignty demeanour and attitude.

[If one has used up his or hers chance to pick a spell of their choice, they won't be able to see the light. Since you can see the light, it means you have yet to pick a spell, so you still retain your chance to choose.] She explained.

"….. Thank you." Ivan thanked her as he nodded his head in understanding.

"Watch my back." He said to Zilla as he walked towards the altar. He felt Nu's emotional fluctuations, but he ignored her for the time being; because he had seen and knew both of them, he naturally knew who was stronger in comparison.

Hearing his words, Zilla felt a strange emotion well up within her as she had never, not even once, been entrusted with his back even when he was facing an army back in [Hell].

She immediately ignored whatever she was doing and focused her entire being on him; not even a dust particle could reach him without being noticed by her.

DING-!

Hearing the [Catholic-RC]'s chime as soon as he stepped into the range of the altar, he took it out and checked the notifications received from the [Cloud].

[[Egg]'s hatching process has been accelerated by 100%]

[[Egg] is hatching]

"Wha…." He took out the [Egg] from the [Inventory] in a hurry.

CRA-CRACK-!

The [Egg]'s cracked white shells turned into particles of greenish black [Magic Power] and got sucked into the pitch-black fur ball in his hand.

"Fur ball?" Ivan muttered questioningly.

[[Fur ball] has been named]

'No, don't! He or she will curse at me after growing up!!' Ivan exclaimed in his mind, but noticing no changes taking place, he gazed at the fur ball laying in his left palm, awkwardly.

A cute nya sounded, silencing the whole room.

"Wha-what was that cute yelp?"

"Who was it!?"

"Kyaaa!!"

Screams and exclaims on how cute fur-ball's yelp sounded could be learned by the crowd's reaction to the yelp.

Evan Ivan was affected by its cry.

[[Fur ball] likes its fluffy name]

"What are you?" Ivan muttered and,

DING-!

A bell chime he heard when Keith went into a daze sounded again, and Ivan felt his consciousness being pulled somewhere he wanted to resist for a split second, but the fluctuations within him felt familiar, so he allowed his consciousness to travel.

Arriving in a comfortable yet blinding white space, Ivan's demeanour changed to sovereignty and he sat straight, like a [Sovereign], he was, sitting on his throne, mid-space.

"While I shall consider our meeting a pleasure, it is rather unpleasant and brusque to be summoned without consent, Suzerain [System]." Ivan stated.

[[Sovereign] Ivan Lane.]