We stared into each other eyes and I saw pity, pain, anger and confusion in his eyes, it seems he thinks my previous statement of me losing my mind and my recent statement of me being Enhanced has got him think I am having a genuine mental breakdown.

  Since I have my some of my stamina back, I stood up which surprised him a bit.

  Then I walked to huge wall debris beside us, and lifted a size chunk of it to my waist level and tossed it about 2 feet away from where I stood.

  I turned back and to see Daigo eyes wide open in disbelief, he just stared at the debris I just threw.

  “Wait-wait… How? When? Which Aggressor…” He sprung up and asked in total confusion and curiosity.

  I had to cut him short and told him to sit down, then I reminded him about how the wall I flew through lead to a cave and added that I fought a certain pitch-black skin dwarf, and when I stabbed it I shattered its arcane-core in its body. Then how I have felt a slow but steady increase in strength since then.

  Of course, it was a lie mixed with some truth; I couldn’t tell him about the ‘System’ – Which made me stronger with the more Aggressors I killed.

  I love and trust him but the System needed to be a secret for now, he tends to talk a bit too much when he’s chatting or drinking with people that’s he is very friendly to or might ask them questions or even talk about the knowing someone who can get stronger with no visible limit. Someone that knows him well will know he doesn’t sell cheap stories and might actually believe him, then start hunting for me.

  Daigo isn’t a snitch but the fact that he tends to be a bit loose-lipped when he is drunk and socializes with people, is a serious deal breaker.

  Still, we hang out a lot, so he will definitely notice changes at some point. It’s better for me give him a fake story, then when I’m, strong enough to defend myself even if he mistakenly runs his mouth.

  Evolves do get Enhanced when they break the arcane-core of some exceptional Aggressors, granting them some or all of the powers of the Aggressors.

  Aggressor that has this feature are normally high-level Arcane-beings and are called Donors and once an Evolve takes that power, the Evolve also becomes a Donor; meaning the power can be passed down to others if their arcane-core is crushed too.

  I also heard that both Aggressors and Evolves can get Enhanced.

  “A black dwarf?” Daigo questioned in a bit of disbelief.

  “I have never heard of an Aggressor that looks like what you are describing” He stated.

  “That’s one of the reason I felt I was losing my mind, new breeds of Aggressors don’t just appear in some Gate, they mostly appear in Forts, so I thought I imagined the fight between us and the event after I got lost in that Gate” I said, trying to keep my story as straight as I could.

  “Maybe it might actually be common in other countries” He suggested.

  “You might be right, since it was only one I fought” I agreed with him.

  “…And you are sure that the dwarf was a Donor?” He asked.

  “That was the only stranger being I fought before I noticed an increase in my strength and the other Aggressors I fought are too common to be Donors” I responded.

  “So how does Enhanced strength makes you so tired that you can’t talk?” He asked another good question again.

  “I think the amount of arcane I have is the main problem” I replied with the actually truth this time.

  “What does that even mean?” He asked.

  I gave a lengthy explanation on how I think arcane is also the energy or stamina, using the general prowess of each Grade of Arcane-beings. Then he asked some more question and I answer with the best of my knowledge; he disagreed with some but since getting Enhanced is just something we hear from people and on TV, we just had to agree on a lot of things we knew little to nothing on.

  After the talk, we slept a bit with our bags and weapons so close to our chest, it would take a miracle for anyone to steal anything without us noticing.

  Daigo woke up first and shake me continuously to wake up too but I told Daigo that I would like to rest a bit more and he should go out there and try to get a gig for himself without me.

  He didn’t want to at first because he seems to think I might have not recovered from yesterday but I assured him I will be alright.

  I calmly check my Profile after he left; Arcane Energy is current 7, I was getting my strength back but it seems it will take precious time that I could use to get a gig. Going into another Gate without finding a way to boost my Stamina and Energy will surely lead to death this time, but Daigo didn’t have to waste his time with me.

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  After he left, I decided to use this time change some things in the system, so I summoned the Interface screen and selected View.

  View

  Highlight every object: Off

  Highlight only arcane beings: Off

  Highlight anything that contains arcane: Off

  Highlight nothing: On

  Reflex Evolution Pod: On

  The Voice: Off [A virtual assistant for reporting warning, errors, restriction and explaining basic inquiress, it also aid in shorten steps to sub-screens using direct voice commands. It will cost 2% Elixir more for each Level up]

  I turned on ‘Highlight every object’ and I began to see holographic labels on everything around me.

  The debris of concrete wall I threw…

  [Item: Concrete wall (Debris)]

  Grade: E

  Category: Construction product (Damaged)

  Arcane: 0

  Endurance: 20

  A rusted nail beside me…

  [Item: Rusted nail]

  Grade: -F

  Category: Tool (Damaged)

  Arcane: 0

  Endurance: 2

  The axes in the holster I placed on the ground near me…

  [Item: Viking throwing axe]

  Grade: E

  Category: Weapon

  Arcane: 130/150

  Endurance: 170

  A Mercenary Guard that stood far away, talking to someone I couldn’t see because pillar obstructed the person’s face.

  Profile

  Name: [Unknown]

  Nature: Evolve (Human)

  Profile

  Name: [None]

  Nature: Spider

  Absolutely everything was tag and label, seeing the holograms doesn’t obstruct my vision but this was too much for me to handle. So I immediately turned it off.

  I now understood what ‘Highlight every object’ meant; it meant a brief profile is tagged on anything that is considered an object and the second option ‘Highlight only Arcane-beings’ should mean profile tags would be given to any Arcane being.

  The last one ‘Highlight anything that contains arcane’ should give a holographic profile for both things and beings that contains arcane.

  I turned on that the third option and it was like I guessed; things like arcane like my axes and the Guards that hanged around were the only things that had holographic profile tag.

  I kind of like it, it gave me a sense of how powerful Arcane beings and weapons are, so I didn’t turn it off.

  Then I scrolled to the last option ‘Automated Virtual Assistance’ and read its function, it didn’t seem that useful and the cost was not too much but it wasn’t too small either.

  “An additional 2% Elixir for every Level up” I said to myself.

  ‘2% will be small for now but after sometime, it will be a lot and for what? To give warnings…warning?’ I pondered.

  When it hit me, I wasn’t alerted when Arcane Energy was even 1 and I couldn’t check it when fighting. Maybe the Automated Virtual Assistant might not be somewhat useless.

  So I activated it and cancelled the View screen, then I tried to access the ‘?About’ option in Interface but it didn’t respond like last time.

  So, I cancelled Interface and brought up Codex, to check if I could buy items now but my level was still too low.

  I went through everything to see if I forgot to do anything, but there was nothing, Elixirs is currently 496; so, I shouldn’t be expecting to Level up and though Coins increased to 21, I couldn’t buy anything with for now.

  So, I just relax and waited for my Arcane Energy to be fully restored, I did not dare to sleep if I do not want my weapons to be stolen. After several hours of resting, I heard a familiar voice that said.

  “[Arcane Energy is fully restored]” …and the voice sounded like my mother’s.

  Which caught me off guard and started to question the nature of the System.

  The voice was definitely my mother’s but it sounded indifferent and lacked emotion in her tone.

  ‘Why the fuck does it sound like mama?!’ I seriously pondered.

  “Everything from a Gate is said to come from another world, it doesn’t make sense why it has my mother’s voice. I was so caught up it was it can do for me, that I didn’t bother to ask myself… Where the System come from and who or what made it” I said aloud to myself.

  ‘The System has similarities to video games, which meant it had a maker’ I thought about it for a while, until I reached a conclusion.

  ‘It doesn’t really matter who made it, I have it now whether by luck or intentionally. What really matter is what the System can do for – Grant me power, wealth and respect. That’s all that matters to me’ I concluded.

  I could not just get all the answers I seek just by thinking; what do I know?

  Can I really figure out the true nature of such a powerful System, I shouldn’t deceive myself in thinking a low-life like me can understand the mind of its maker.

  I have the power now, so instead of asking pointless question, I should use the System to give me what I have always wanted... Power.

  I stood up and walked outside; joining the crowd of Mercenary-Guards that were struggling to be selected for a gig.

  Since it was around 3am in the morning, recruiters were as scarce as clean water, but I managed to get a gig similar to the last one I got.

  A very low Grade Gate and extremely shitty pay. The pay this time is 3,500 yen but I had to reasons to accept gigs like this now; firstly, I couldn’t be picky because I need to make money fast and the other reason is to Level up.

  I just have to make sure I don’t exhaust myself like last time. I was hired by private military organization this time around.

  When we were on our way to the Gate via a cargo truck, we were told the mission was to clear Aggressors from a Swarm Gate that occupied connected subway stations and tunnels.

  The Aggressors were said to be two tribes of goblins that are at war with each other in the Swarm Gate, they extended the area fight to the subway stations with some people still trapped in the stations.

  Mercenary-Guards were employed to aid their private contractors steadily clear out the subways stations and tunnels, while they send another squad to rescue the civilians that may have trapped in the stations.

  Goblins are said to very petty creature that can hold serious grudges and we were told that the two tribes are more focused on killing each other than joining force and facing them.

  Our job will easy to complete since the goblins will be too busy killing themselves, the pay of this quest will naturally be low.