The Third Party

Third Person's POV (4yr.s and 8 months old)

'Have you been checking your system lately' asked White at Ken’s side.

"No, no I haven't." he replied.

'I think you better check it.' -White-

"Hmmm, I guess." Shrugging to himself, but as he quietly walked forward, the unnerving chill of this pitch blackness itched at his mind.

‘Should I dig a hole and return back to the surface, or press on and find out what this calling is for, this is because when I looked at the cave at the left, I felt a strange pull to go in, but now I regret that decision, because it's dark in here.’

'What's with you and all this dark here, dark there,.. stuff?' looking at white angrily he exclaimed.

"That's because the darkness is scary."

'Oh please, spare me of your pleasantries, you're just being baby.' -White-

'Don't judge me.' The little boy crossed his arms and pouted.

'If you're so scared of the dark, then why don't you just make a light?' the said boy puts his hand under his chin.

‘Hmmmmmmm. I could do that. Ugh! What am I thinking of course I can do that!’ he exclaims furiously at himself.

'I wouldn't slap my face if I were you.' -White-

"What? Why?" he replied.

'You look ridiculous.' *puffs*

"Fine." Holding out his right arm with the palm of his hand facing up, he chanted…

"Light Moon Magic: Illuminating orb." an orb of light formed at the top of his hand and illuminated his surroundings, showing the path he will be taking, he held his hand at his right to situate the orb just above his shoulder so that it will follow him while it lights the way, now to open the main menu.

(A.N.: Forgive me, 'Main Menu was the name of the windows I keep mentioning in the past, I know of the concept, but forgot the name, but for those who are familiar with a window screen that shows the skills, inventory, and design of your character in your game, this is what I'm referring to, just an image of Ken won't appear in his main menu.)

'Open Main Menu.' The window of his main menu popped in front of him, presenting to him options: Notification, Quest/ Mission, Map, Skills/Spells, Customization.

3 red dots coming from hi notification caught my attention.

[Quest reminder, Map Update, Skill Upgrade.]

‘Oh that's right the quest that I'm supposed to fulfill, if I remember, I'm supposed to kill 20 monsters, if I count the monsters we killed before, does it count? Let's check it.’

[ 0/20 monsters killed.

The Northern Forest is a peaceful place, home to its Magical beast, but some monsters tend to roam far from their own territory, and their destination, the Northern Forest, wrecking havoc within, and causing problems for the inhabitants, Kill those monsters to help the Forest, and in return you will be rewarded, if not you will be severely punished.]

Chills ran down his spine when he read that last part, it seems that the system is a bit harsh.

'Punishments are necessary for your growth Ken, you will have to face them sooner or later.' said his companion.

Looking at White, he can't help but feel warm inside, since he's giving him advice. Ken smiled and looked back again to the window and said to his companion.

"You're right. *Inhales, Exhales* Okay, now on to the next message." Opening the Map Update message, a new window popped in front, and showed him what seems to be a map of the cave he is in.

It showed him the exterior outline of the cave and the entrance he was currently at, which is indicated by a white dot with his name on top, some other parts of the map are shadowed, with a curious mind, tapped the shadowed part, and a notification popped in front of his pointer finger, it says...

[Unexplored lands, cannot go.]

"Oooh, *amazement shines in his eyes* this is like Warcraft, where you're not able to go to certain places without exploring them first, although if we click on the map the character would directly travel to the point/land where it was clicked at, why won't I move there?" Ken wonders to himself.

'Do you want your body to move on its own without your consent? You are not a character of a video game.' exclaimed White.

"Uhhh... How did you know that?" he asks, confused.

'I read and watched the memories of your past life, and some information we’re useful, so I used them.' explained White.

"Wow, the way how you designed this type of window/menu system is incredible, that it's so well put together, but I gotta say, that's a bit rude for not telling me that you have read my memories." Ken replied.

'My apologies. I should tell you too, that I didn't have any say in what I would do with your memories since it wasn't my decision to look into your memories, I was just able to read them when you arrived into the 'White Plain'.' exclaimed White.

"Hmm, fair enough, since we both had no say in the matter, Okay since we're done with this, let's check the last message

'Oh and by the way, you are now able to touch the windows system with your bare hands, just so it won't inconvenience you, since you like doing things with your hands.’ -White-

*Gasps exaggeratedly*

"You did?! Oh thank you, thank you, thank you." The boy exclaimed jumping up and down in excitement and quickly tapped the last notification, another window popped in front , and it showed him that his skills have leveled up, huh? It read…

[Your Skill/ Spell ‘Forest Domain’ has leveled up.] He raised an eyebrow in question, how were they able to level up when he hasn't been using them for a while?

'It's from you're battle with the monsters from before.' -White-

......

*Realizes*

“Oh! Okay! Wait, why are all my skills different from before, they look, arranged in some way.”

'That's because they are, I categorized those skills with the same type into a single skill, where you are able to open and examine all the skills that you used or newly created, this won't affect your casting since this new system are just for organizing,

I have separated your active ones to the passive ones, since it would be a hassle to check every single one and not being able to know where it is and forgetting about where it is located once you've used customized it.' explained White.

"Mmm, okay, thank you."

Scrolling through and checking every passive and active skills that he has, he deduced that they've gone 1 level up, but they're just level 1, for now, except for the mastery of elements since it's already maxed out.

"Now to get on with the mission…” Takes a few steps forward, but abruptly stops. “Wait, wait, let me do something to these windows first. Concept: Concept of System, Merge Windows."

After chanting the spell all three windows including the windows he didn't open, merged into one, creating 5 tabs on one window, the first one being the 'Customization', second the 'Skills/Spells', Third the 'Missions/Quests, ‘fourth the Map’, and fifth the 'Notifications'. Great!

'Good job merging those windows Ken, now go and finish the mission.' -White-

"Okay! But before that, I'm going to turn on the notifications tab, to alert us of any updates on the system by opening a window at the side of my peripheral vision, but let's turn off the notifications on skills for now, I fear they may pop out one after the other if they level up."

Ken then proceeds to turn off the notification bells on his skills manually.

" .... And Done! Let's go!"

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Walking deep into the cave, Ken noticed a subtle change, little holes are appearing the further he walked into the cave, light poured out on them, so he dispersed his orb of light as the surroundings became brighter.

He’d encountered monsters lurking around on this cave, so far, it has been the same monster that he fought, a big snake the size of the one him and his friends fought back outside the entrance of the forest, and he noticed that they have glowing red eyes, even though their scales are colored white.

He killed ten of the snakes, which made all the levels of his skills rise by… no level at all. Other types of changes that he’d noticed is that plants are starting to appear, most particularly, moss, he do not know why, but he suspect there's a body of water nearby.

*Hisssssss*

‘Are you kidding me right now? Another snake?’ Turning around to where the sound came from , a snake crawled forth from a fairly big hole from the side of the cave, and with the light from the holes, Ken could see its color, which is green.

This snake is quite long, and bigger than the one's he’d fought before but since the cave is humongous -a bit of an exaggeration-, it was still able to move freely inside the cave,

It only took a long time for its very, very long body to come out of the hole it came through, which made it a painstaking moments of wait for Ken, the guy’s prepared here now, with his scythe and garments intact, and all the spells he has ready to be casted.

‘Oh no wait, why am I waiting for my enemy to get done preparing when I can literally attack them and be done with it -Apparently it's etiquette to let your enemy finish preparing in order to face its adversary, to be fair and polite kind of way-,’

Noticing that the snake was almost done preparing, it turned its head towards Ken, and correct him if he is wrong, but, did it just flash its eyes at him?

‘I CANNOT STAND IDLY BY!!!! It's time to strike!!!!’ he tightened his grip on his scythe.

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