Etheric Desires Paths

The two young men walked lightly through the vast forest, ignoring the beauty around them, as they noticed the sun beginning to set in the sky. They hurried along their path, trying to return to the village before nightfall.

After a while, the young men were able to reach the village, which was surrounded from afar by a long wooden fence, with several wooden huts built within it. 

"We've arrived, finally..." 

"This is my village."

The young men approached the small village gate and noticed an old sign hanging from a wooden beam positioned above the gate in the center, surrounded by a long wooden fence that extended far around the small village. 

Derek glanced at it for a moment as they entered through the large wooden gate of the small village, reading the inscription above them. 

The words were written in a language he did not recognize, but strangely, he was able to read it, which said: 

"Village of the Little Flower."

Due to the distance between the large forest behind the village and the village itself, by the time the young men arrived, night had already fallen. Therefore, when they reached the village gate, they found no one guarding it, so they easily entered the village. 

"Am I going to live with my grandmother there...?"

Miss Mary pointed to one of the many wooden huts, and then he began to walk towards it. He continued walking until he reached Miss Mary hut, which was a slightly larger wooden cabin with a barn for some animals behind it. 

When they arrived, the two young men paused for a moment in front of the wooden door of the hut. Miss Mary took a deep breath, then gently placed her hand on the door and pushed the wooden door open in front of her. 

-Creak- 

With the creaking sound of the wood, the door opened slowly, and the two young men entered the house. When the door opened, they were greeted by an elderly woman, who was holding a stick in her hand. She appeared to be around seventy years old, with brown hair turning gray, of medium length, and light brown eyes. As the two young men entered, she approached them with the stick she was using to walk and looked at them with an expression of anger as she got closer, then spoke to her granddaughter reproachfully. 

"Mary, where have you been all this time? I was very worried about you." 

"Grandma, I'm sorry. I went to the forest to gather some medicinal herbs for you," replied the girl, who lowered her head, feeling sorry for being scolded by her grandmother, and regretted being late. 

The grandmother spoke again, her angry expression softening a little, and her voice began to show genuine concern. 

"My dear little Mary, didn't I tell you not to go to the big forest alone again to gather herbs?" 

"I'm sorry, Grandma." 

The girl apologized once again to her grandmother for that.

After finishing scolding the girl, who had promised her grandmothers that she would not go to the forest again, the grandmother looked with her large, bright brown eyes at the young man who was wearing strange clothes. Moreover, he was holding something large in his hands that she did not recognize, and she asked her granddaughter about it. 

"Mary, who is this boy with you?" 

"Oh, Grandma, I found him under the sacred tree in the giant forest..." 

"And he helped me gather the natural herbs..." 

"It seems he had nowhere to stay, so I asked him to come with me to the village because the giant forest is dangerous at night." 

"Oh." 

When the grandmother heard that the boy was under the sacred tree, which was responsible for protecting their village, she listened carefully to the rest of the story from her granddaughter, nodding her head. Then she asked the young man about the boy. 

"What is your name, young man...?" 

"Derek, ma'am...?" 

The young man replied in a low and respectful voice to the lady whose name he did not yet know, and as Miss Mary had told him earlier, Derek did not mention his last name because he had not gotten to know it from her either. He understood and appreciated the respect the young man showed in his words when he called her "ma'am" and smiled a little at him, then she said, 

"My name is Marielle." 

"Derek, where are you from...?" 

Derek paused for a moment as he listened to the grandmother question, thinking deeply and gathering his thoughts about a time when he was at university, returning with a friend under the rain. By coincidence, he encountered a small cat and tried to save it, but then he was hit by a truck and fell into the water, bleeding and struggling for breath until he heard the voice of a mysterious and enchanting woman. After that, everything faded away, and when he woke up, he found himself under the huge tree where he had met Miss Mary. He himself did not know how or what had happened to him, so after a brief silence, he replied to Mrs. Marielle, 

"I don't remember well...?" 

"Could it be that you just mentioned it...?" 

Derek nodded his head; he was not lying, but he also did not tell the whole truth. He himself did not know where he was or how he ended up under that huge tree. The grandmother, who was as kind as her daughter, noticed the young man demeanor and his embarrassment after finishing scolding her granddaughter. Knowing the young man had asked to stay there for the night, she agreed to his request, as she had an old room near her house that her husband had used long ago, so she accepted.

After a moment of conversation between them, Mary went to prepare dinner. Once she finished, they gathered in the group there. Afterward, Grandma Mary led him to the back of the house to the old house nearby, which was dusty. After Mary finished cleaning and preparing it, she went to her bed, which was a beautiful, quiet wooden bed with a soft mattress. Then Grandma and the granddaughter left him to sleep peacefully, as it was late at that time.

"Good night, Derek."

"Good night, Miss Mary and Grandma Mariel."

After saying goodbye to both Miss Mary and her grandmother, Derek sat in his bed, thinking silently about everything that had happened to him since he left the university until the moment he collided with the truck. He heard the voice of that beautiful woman, and then he fainted for a while. When he opened his eyes, he saw a beautiful girl standing in front of him. Suddenly, he remembered her and then returned to his village. Now he sat on the bed here, thinking about the voice of the incredibly beautiful woman that echoed in his head, as well as that strange status window he had seen earlier.

At the moment he thought about the status window:

-Flash-

[Status Window]

Name: Derek

Level: 0

[HP: 100/100]

[MP: 50/50]

Class: Assassin

Race: Human

Titles: None

[Statistics]

[Strength: 10] ** [Vitality: 10]

[Stamina: 10] ** [Mana: 10]

[Dexterity: 30] ** [Perception: 20]

[All Skills]

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Mysterious Language: Level 1]

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Quest Log: Locked]

[Inventory: Locked]

[Equipped Magical Items: None]

The status window appeared before him, floating above his bed where he lay. He was a bit surprised this time by the appearance of the window before him, but he did not show shock as he remained calm, lying in his bed, silently staring at the window in front of him, which was also floating gently above his bed.

-Long silence filled the room-

A long silence filled the room. After a while of silence, he began to read everything in it, from his name to the level, category, and title. He understood most of this information because it was familiar to him from video games. However, he was puzzled by three things: first, the window did not display his name correctly, as it showed "Derek Green"; second, he was classified in the category of "assassin," which seemed frightening to him, especially since he was just a college student; and third, why was his level 0? He remembered that he had played one of the video games where the starting level was 1, but now this window indicated that he was at level 0, which felt strange to him. After a while of thinking about it, he said to himself.

"If this window is designed like those video games..."

"Then that means I can level up too...?"

But the question was how to do that. He looked at the window for a while, trying to find an answer, but to no avail. Drake sighed and moved on to the rest of the statistics in the window.

There were six main statistics: strength, vitality, endurance, mana, agility, and perception. He read the statistics carefully and could understand strength, vitality, and endurance. 

Strength: refers to physical power. 

Vitality: refers to life energy. 

Endurance: refers to physical toughness. 

However, he couldn't understand mana, perception, and agility, which the window in front of him referred to.

Then he focused on the points list, which was empty, and scrolled down to the list below it, which was for skills. This also contained six skills like his statistics, with three categories for the skills: unique, active, and passive. He remembered well from one of the games he played that unique skills referred to a special ability belonging to only one person, which could not be found again. Active skills were those that he could activate whenever he wanted, while passive skills were those that activated on their own.

Then he recalled that, so he looked at the six he had. 

[Unknown: Level???]

When he raised his hands and pressed on the list of all skills, he then clicked on the first skill in the unique category. 

[Unknown Skill]

[Description - ??????]

[Mana Cost to Activate: ???????]

[Effect: ??????]

[Additional Effect: ????]

As expected from a skill named "Unknown," it displayed no information, which made the young man sigh before moving on to the next skill in the active skills list. 

[Locked]

When he did that and pressed on the skill to learn about it, he heard the beautiful woman voice echoing in his head as another window appeared for him at the same time. 

[Notification!]

"Hah," Drake was suddenly reminded of the beautiful woman voice echoing in his head once again, prompting him to press the remaining two skills in the active skill list.

After confirming that he could not obtain any information about this skill, Drake asked himself, "What does the level criteria or required condition mean...?"

However, he could not understand or gain any information from the beautiful woman voice, which had stopped echoing in his head for a moment.

[Mysterious Language: Level 1]

He then moved to the third skill in the list and pressed on the skill.

[Skill - Mysterious Language: Level 1]

[Description - Speaking and understanding the ancient language that is difficult to interpret or comprehend without even learning its letters, with the ability to read other languages and memorize and speak them at a certain level]

[Activation Cost: None]

[Effect: Speaking and understanding the mysterious or ancient language with the ability to learn, read, and memorize other languages]

"Oh..."

"This explains what happened earlier."

After reading the information about this skill, he finally understood the reason he couldn't comprehend Mary words at first until he activated this skill.

After that, he moved his hands to the next skill in the list, which contained a quest box. After seeing the same word closed inside, he decided to press it, even knowing he would likely receive the same response from the beautiful woman voice.

[Quest Box: Closed]

[Notification!]

[Inventory: Closed] 

If he was asked why he did that, the answer was very simple for him: he loved the voice of that beautiful woman. 

After regaining his composure from the voice of the beautiful woman, he moved on to the next item on the list. 

[Equipped magical tools: None] 

Then he looked at her, where it was written "None," and left it. After finishing examining the window, he thought about the words of concealment, which then made the window disappear from in front of him. He stared at the wooden ceiling in front of him and breathed in the air, the room illuminated around him for a while, then he said to himself, 

"I am still alive." 

If it weren't for the time when he didn't know the meaning of happiness in his life, he felt comfort and a beautiful feeling after gathering and eating with both Grandma and Miss Mary—a feeling he hadn't experienced for a long time since the passing of both his grandmother and mother. 

After that, he stared for a while at the wooden ceiling, then closed his eyes, his exhausted body yearning for sleep.