The First Enemy [I]

「 Sky's View has been cancelled due to stress. 」

My sight was pulled back into my body and I saw the previous nebula until my eyes opened, revealing the dental clinic and the distant sparkle of stars in the night sky. How long did I sleep?

「 ■■■■■ has calmed your stress. 」

I still have to figure out what ■■■■■ could be.

Turning my head to the side, I looked at Khai. There was no more excessive sweat on his skin and his sleeping face appeared calmer, then my mind remembered what I just witnessed. If Sky's View was an actual sight rather than a dream, someone was trailing me and Khai. For what though? Not like we have anything special.

"Khai you have to wake up."

I shook him lightly but it did nothing. The only reaction I got was him turning onto the other side of his body and mumbling something. Although I felt bad about waking him up considering his condition, with this ability I would not be able to fight someone nevertheless two people who seem way more adapted compared to me.

Khai still had a chance of getting a better power than me so I had to wake him.

"I'm sorry for this."

Raising my right hand into the air, I forced it back down to slam into the back of Khai's head. Expectedly, the pain jolted him awake.

"WHAT THE ^$"$%?"

The rest of his curses were mumbled as he rubbed the back of his irritated head. The redness spread down to his nape. Even if I felt bad, my strength wasn't enough to cause any pain that he could hold against me.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you slap me?"

"To wake you up."

"... There's so many better ways to do that."

"As if you got hurt."

"Obviously I did."

"Increase your durability then."

"Stop acting like yours is high."

He was right, mine was still at 0.

"That doesn't matter, unlock your aspect."

"I already did."

"When?"

"When I was prancing around the streets... when I was asleep you idiotic idiot."

My oblivious face caused the pause in between his words to be short, but I did chuckle at the insult he threw at me.

"Idiotic idiot?"

"Yes. An idiot who is more idiotic than a normal idiot."

"Very rude Khai, what's your aspect?"

"Check it for yourself."

"Huh?"

"Your sleep talking was all about your aspect, I know you can see everything and see everyone's aspect."

I sleep talk? Since when?

"Great.."

「 Stellar Form, Aspect Insight, has activated. 」

「 Aspect Insight is analysing target's Stellar Aspect. 」

It took a few seconds for it to finish.

「 Aspect Insight has fully analysed target's Stellar Aspect. 」

「 Aspect Insight's analysis has been stored. 」

﹁

Divine Warrior of Heavens and Deities (COMPREHENSIVE)

The right hand of the almighty entities whose sole duty was to serve the light and fend off the dark.

----

Stellar Form 1 || Heaven's Seer

This stellar form comes with two uses: revealing false statements and lies or viewing a comprehensive evaluation of a target. To utilise this, you must make direct eye contact with the target or engage in physical contact. The revealing use of this ability is weakened on targets classified as 'Human Good' and barely works on targets classified as 'Divine Good.' In turn, this also means that any targets classified as 'Demonic Bad' are the most susceptible to this ability. Apart from these modifiers, this ability works as intended on other targets.

Stellar Form 2 || A Flow of Ichor (Ichor Infusion)

Release ichor from your palms which coats any weapon you wield. The coating increases the sharpness and manoeuvrability of the chosen weapon. In the case that the weapon is classified as 'Ranged' or 'Mid-Ranged' then the aiming accuracy will be increased as well and the ammunition used will have its piercing increased instead of sharpness. However, this ichor must be constantly supplied and doing so means converting a portion of your blood into ichor.

Stellar Form 3 || Locked

Stellar Form 4 || Locked

[MORE]

﹂

I waved the hologram with information away.

"So we both have an evaluating ability? Except mine's better~"

"Yeah, guess so."

...

"We have people following us."

Saying that out of nowhere broke the silence but also caused confusion and puzzlement to sprout in Khai.

"How many?"

"Fifty."

「 Khai ■■■■■ used the Stellar Form 'Heaven's Seer' on you. 」

「 ■■■■■ has offset the functionality of 'Heaven's Seer.' 」

「 'Heaven's Seer' has confirmed your statement to be true. 」

"You weren't kidding-"

"What? I was."

"You're probably divinely good then."

"Ok that doesn't matter. I only know of 2 people following us. One is a woman with short blonde hair and the other a man with even shorter black hair and some stubble."

"Did they look dangerous?"

"The woman looked young and her arms weren't that muscled and the man was frightening. Their stats couldn't be too high as we all just started."

We continued to discuss the matter at hand until we came up with a plan that most likely wouldn't work too well.

Khai proposed the idea of me sleeping and closely monitoring the pair, after finding them, to see if they have any other allies or to gather other intel that could help us. If we were to leave now, they'd surely follow us. While using Sky's View, Khai would guard my body. For that to work, we'd have to find him a weapon but that was unlikely to succeed due to the eyes on us.

Since we also didn't know what our enemies had, Khai suggested trying to use Aspect Insight while in Sky's View. I wasn't sure if it'd work but the information listed didn't tell me anything about any conditions required to use it.

Other problems would arise if the stalkers had any powerful aspects or if they had any powerful companions but we doubted the potential of that as they would have attacked us if they had any significantly powerful skills. The only thing currently stopping them was doubt as to what we could do.

Furthermore, once we had all the information we needed we would plan a strategy to either escape, fight, or hide.

"How to get you a weapon?"

"I feel like anything will work and the infusion will make it powerful enough to fend them off."

"Still, I'd rather you protect me with a sword than a dagger."

"Fair."

「 Registering Wyatt Sightseer into the Stellar Shopping Array. 」

"Huh?"

﹁

Stellar Shopping Array

Welcome, Wyatt. How can the Stellar Shopping Array help you today?

Gold Balance || 800

[Official Marketplace]

[Public Marketplace]

[Official Auctions]

[Public Auctions]

﹂

"What is this?"

A weird, thick, liquid pulled itself out of the floor ahead of us. It rose into the air to form a humanoid shape causing both of us to feel fear for what was to appear. The details of the entity became finer and once a horn appeared, we assumed who it was.

"Congratulations on signing into the Stellar Shopping Array, Wyatt. How did you know about it? The Stellar Games haven't published its information to your world yet."

Tertiary Game Moderator Ervant spoke in a questioning and terrorizing voice. I felt like if I responded with anything but the truth I'd die on the spot.

"It happened randomly, I swear."

Placing my hands into the air as a sign of surrender, I caused Ervant to sigh at my useless response to his question.

"Whatever. As you're one of a handful to sign into it, don't bother with the public sections as there are no listings at the moment. Would you like for me to explain the rest of the array?"

"Yeah."

"Throughout the games, you gather gold. In the beginning, gold is scarcely given out so prepare for inflation in the later stages. Also, I see that gold is an already existing name for a metal in your world so I feel the need to inform you that they are not interchangeable. Earth gold does not equal Stellar gold, got it?"

"Mhm."

"Since your current balance is... 800, you can get some good items for the current stage. I recommend saving gold after your starting purchases as the prices will rise quicker than the amount of gold throughout all participants. You don't have to worry about inflation until the second primary game. Don't bother asking for any details as I'm not permitted to disclose that."

"I won't."

"I'm also not at liberty to disclose how to sign in into the array until that information is made public by higher authorities, sorry Khai."

The sorry was plainly meaningless, spoken in the coldest and least sympathetic way imaginable.

"Any questions?"

"How do I get the stuff I buy?"

"Remember how you got the medallion? Same way as that. Though, some items will take longer depending on size or grade."

"Grade?"

"Obviously every item will have a different quality grade. The highest is SSS+ or 'Blessed Star' and the lowest is FFF-. The public sections are filled with scammers who will try and make FFF- grade things look valuable, in some cases they won't be wrong but a majority of the time they will be."

A spark came from Ervant's horn and he winced in pain.

"Damn, too much information, I get it. Also, expect the publishing of the current primary game's details soon. I got to go now, bye you two, don't die yet."

As if the reverse of his entrance, Ervant's body melted into the liquid and seeped into the floor. Khai quickly got to looking for a way to unlock the array for himself while I searched through the official sections, starting with the marketplace.

﹁

Stellar Shopping Array || Official Marketplace

Gold Balance || 800

Listings

Sorting Setting || Random [Configure]

Name / Grade / Description / Price / [BUY]

Hell-Bone Sword | D | A fairly potent sword crafted from the bones of a hell-forged behemoth | 790 | [BUY]

Defensive Sigil | A | A sigil that increases the 'Durability' stat of the bearer | 900 | [BUY]

Mystic Stick | E | A stick pulled from the branch of a magical tree, slightly increases the 'Stellar Affinity' stat of the wielder | 150 | [BUY]

[MORE]

﹂

Staring at the marketplace, I got traumatic flashbacks of having to fill out spreadsheets at work. Even seeing the column grid made me want to enter fight or flight but there wasn't any time for that. The first three items didn't seem useful in this scenario, except for the Hell-Bone Sword but it was too costly, so I tapped the 'MORE' button.

﹁

Listings

Sorting Setting || Random [Configure]

Name / Grade / Description / Price / [BUY]

Divine Blade | S | A sword forged from the clouds of heaven | 1,500 | [BUY]

The Tearing Judgement | SSS+ | A sabre made from a string of stardust. It favours those classified as 'Demonic Bad' or 'Divine Good' | 50,000 | [BUY]

Warrior's Shield | A | A metallic shield that was once used by an unknown warrior in a great battle | 500 | [BUY]

Tome of Knowledge | S | A book that entails insight into the functions of a human mind, finishing each chapter increases your 'Mental Prowess' stat by 10% | 2,000 | [BUY]

Stamina Sigil | A | A sigil that increases the 'Stamina' stat of the bearer | 900 | [BUY]

[MORE]

﹂

I couldn't be asked to continue pressing more since I didn't know if searching was possible so I ended up buying the Hell-Bone Sword and using up almost all of my gold. The sword was black with orange-red cracks emitting a faint light. I picked it up from the air and handed it to Khai who quickly grabbed it.

"How much do I owe you?"

"790."

「 750 gold has been transferred. 」

「 Due to registering into the Stellar Shopping Array, your balance will be shown each time you withdraw or receive gold. 」

「 Gold Balance || 760 」

"Can't afford to give you any more."

"I didn't expect you to pay me back anyway."

Since I regained some money, I decided to go back into the array and look for something for myself.