Xale slept the whole way through the whole day and it was now evening...
His mother and sister were currently sitting at a table eating supper.
His mother was curious as to what made him so tired, "I couldn't even wake him for dinner..."
Xale was a bit of a foodie, he loved almost every type of food, so she was concerned what made him sleep past dinner.
"Do you think he ran to the pharmacy and back? But that doesn't make any sense, Zander isn't in an urgent condition or anything and he definitely isn't the type to exercise." Quinn added.
"Maybe he decided to because he wants to start training properly? He is going to the academy in a few days." Nova said, she was truly trying her best to find out why he was so tired.
"Really? I mean, look at him. He hadn't trained at all for the past 4 years from the looks of it!" Quinn stated, as Xale really did look like he had never trained.
The truth was that he trained all the time at home, constantly using his ability to further his comprehension of it.
But it seemed his talent before receiving the system was abysmal since he hadn't even reached level 2 when he received the system. It was that or, having not received his power from a higher being made it a lot harder to progress.
Nova sighed, "You really think he doesn't train? I know for fact that he does and yet his body is still weak and has almost 0 definition. I suppose we will ask him once he awakens..."
***
Xale opened his eyes and looked around his room, 'Seems I made it to my bed, I was going off instinct...' he didn't remember getting to, bed.
All he could remember was being so overly exhausted that he was about to pass out and getting close to his house.
He sat up. This was when he noticed that he felt... refreshed. Like he had been relaxing the whole of the previous day, he didn't even feel groggy.
But something was bothering him. He felt... cold. 'Seems my high of being happy ended as I went to sleep.' he sighed, he was now remembering that this was his normal feeling, not odd.
'Whatever. Let's check rewards before starting another exercise session after chatting with mum over breakfa- why don't I fell hungry?' his attention was pulled from his rewards to his stomach.
'I only ate breakfast yesterday. What the hell, I should be starving right now...' he thought of possible reasons for a while, 'Maybe it's something to do with my status. Stop getting distracted Xale, I need to get a move on.' he slapped himself.
He then examined the information on the floating screens carefully,
[ Daily Quest Complete!
- 100 push-ups: Complete!
- 100 sit-ups: Complete!
- 30 minutes of plank: Complete!
- 10km of running: Complete!
[ Well done Xale. :) ]
Gained 2 attribute point! ]
'A random message from Abyss, seems odd. 2 attribute points, great, I can now be less pathetic. Probably going to invest into agility... or maybe perception? They're both abysmal... fuck it I'll do both, one in each.' he was then greeted with a [ Stats Allocated ] from the system.
He instantly felt the difference. His body felt slightly lighter and his vision sharpened. It was like focusing on a camera.
'Nice... this feels kinda nice. Rather invigorating.'
He then analysed the second message,
[ Hidden Quest Complete!
- Complete First Daily Quest
- Difficulty: Hard
Rewards:
- Ablyssful Slumber Passive Skill! [ A side-reward for such determination. :) ]
- Abyssal Steps Active Skill! ]
His eyes widened slightly after seeing that he was rewarded skills, 'Interesting... I can already tell that Ablyssful Slumber is the reason I feel refreshed and regenerated after sleep, it's an incredible skill albeit a bad pun.'
He pondered upon the second ability, '[ Abyssal Steps ] however... I feel it's a movement skill from the word 'steps' but I imagine it's more than that with the word 'Abyssal'. One way to find out I suppose.'
'Status'
[ User: Xale Donovan ]
Class: --
Level: 01 0/100 exp
Health: 10/10 Mana: 100/100
Strength: 12
Stamina : 11
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 10
Perception: 8
[ Skills ]
Passives:
- Abyssal Guide Rank (Unranked), level MAX
- Ablyssful Slumber Rank A, level 01 10/100 exp [ An ability that boosts regeneration while asleep, side effects of sleep like grogginess are removed, your body will also adapt to the exercise you do much better than before. ]
- ??? Rank (???), level ???
Active:
- Colourful Iris Rank (E-), level 01 27/100 exp
- Abyssal Steps Rank C, level 01 0/100 exp [ An ability that increases the user's agility by 100%. This ability has the additional affect of the Abyss meaning movements are blurred, your body is harder to notice and steps are silent. (This effect does not increase each level.) ]
[ Please don't expect to receive same benefits, I was just impressed by your resolve to continue even though it was close to a Hard task. - Abyss ]
Xale currently had a light smile on his face, 'I... have an ability, a good damn ability.'
It was a wonderful yet bittersweet moment in his life. He suffered through a year of humiliation and pain. If only he had the system earlier, he wouldn't feel so cold every morning.
He sighed, but for once. It was relief, not frustration or self pity. 'Looks like I won't be a laughing stock when I enter the school. I promise to show my old high school "friends" how wrong they were about abandoning me.' a cold shimmering glint shined in his dark grey eyes.
His friends abandoned him in his eyes. The truth was that they were being bullied because of being around a weak loser like him and he knew that, they really thought he was incredibly strong-willed to bare the embarrassment, in the end it was them or him. They chose them.
'Let's go talk to mother about this.'
He started getting up from his bed when he heard a knock on his door, "Who is it?"
"It's Quinn, I came up to wake you for breakfast but it seems that the sleeping beauty awoke!" Obviously, she was being sarcastic.
"Alright Ms. Sarky, I'll be down in a minute, let me get changed. Unless of course, you want me to walk around with just boxers on?" He said with his own sarcastic comment.
"Ugh, just hurry up." She stormed off.
"Hehe." Xale chuckled, she knew she was embarrassed at the moment, 'When it comes to sarcasm, you can't beat me, don't try it.' He thought.
He got dressed into some casual clothes and headed downstairs, he was greeted by the sight of all 3 of his family sitting at the table eating breakfast, "Glad you could join us." Quinn said, still annoyed at being beaten in the sarcasm match.
"Can't miss seeing your salty face, my food wouldn't taste good otherwise." He joked.
Nova raised an eyebrow at this, "So my cooking isn't good enough without salt? I see... you can make breakfast from now on then." She commented, hiding her smirk.
"W-wait that's not wha-" Xale backtracked before being cut off,
"I know silly. I was jesting, I jest." Nova said while laughing at Xale's flustered expression. Quinn and Zander of course were not ones to shy away from laughing at Xale as they started as well.
"Damn, you got me." Xale scratched the back of his head, admitting defeat. "Anyway... I have good news."
"What is it dear?" Nova was surprised, Cayde almost always had bad news. Quinn and Zander turned their attention to him as well.
"I unlocked a new ability!" He puffed out his chest as it was impressive to be so young yet unlock a new ability.
His sister was the first to react, "Wow! So you weren't slacking off the whole time!" She had a genuine, bright smile on her face.
Zander was next in line as he cheered "Go Xale!" enthusiastically.
His mother however, knew the most about Xale's troubles and pain, she started crying tears of joy and gave him the biggest hug ever, "Such exceptional talent. As expected as a Donovan." She also knew how difficult and long it took to unlock new abilities, she herself only had 3 ice abilities and she had finished her academy training as one of the best.
To have 2 abilities before the academy was only heard of for A rank hunters and above, never mind a Rank E.
"I assume from your face that it's not like the other?" Nova said, avoiding the word useless.
"No, no. Actually it's quite exceptional." Xale smiled after seeing his family's reactions.
"Well, go on! Show us!" Zander suggested.
Without further ado Xale activated [ Abyssal Steps ] as his body started to blend in with his surroundings to the point that if you weren't focusing on him, it would be hell to find him.
"Oh my, stealth..." Nova was astonished she knows just how rare stealth abilities are. She was not affected like the others. One of her abilities sharpened her eyesight, however, what happened next stunned her.
Xale asked Nova to stand at the other side of the hallway and to not take her eyes off of him, to which she scoffed, 'Does this bot not know my second ability, tsk.'
Xale ran toward her at a fast speed, especially for Xale. His movements were blurry and hard to track even with her heightened eyesight and lastly, his footsteps were deathly silent, it was like no one was even moving in the room.
Xale swung around to her back and put his hand on her shoulder, which scared the hell out of her as she lost him in his blurred and unclear movements.
"Incredible... Such terrifying usage. The amount of people that would kill to have this ability... is immense." She was amazed, in disbelief, joyful. There were many things that could describe her feelings right now that it would take an incredibly long time to list them. "Honey. You've got to understand. Even with my trained [ Ice-born Eyes ] ability, I could not follow your movements... to think this is it's strength at the first level..."
Quinn and Zander were shocked at this, their mother was actually famous for her eyes. She even refereed football finals since her eyesight was so precise that she couldn't miss any underhanded tactics.
Their big brother Xale was also famous, but instead of for being brilliant, it was for being unbelievably pathetic. So it was quite the surprise to see their brother out do her mother in a battle of perception and speed.
"Big brother is so cool." They both said with fascination in their eyes.
"Hahahaha, that's new." Xale really laughed after that, it was usually pity he received each time he used his ability.
"I'm sure there's more of that on it's way with that ability, hehe." Nova said.
The thought of the academy was in her mind as she said that, 'He's going to right all the wrongs that's been done to him when he goes there.'
"I'm genuinely excited for once. That was my first time using it." His smile was strong and unfaltering, unlike the morning, through the praise of the ones closest to him he now had a genuine smile.
Nova gave him another hug and teared up again, "I can't believe it, I just can't."
Quinn and Zander were confused, from what they saw, he was always upbeat, even if Quinn new more about the truth than Zander, Xale was never sad around her. "What is he talking about 'for once'?" Zander asked Quinn.
"I'm not sure..." Quinn said feeling that there's something she's missing
***
After that, they finished their breakfast with smiles on their faces, Xale's news was truly a blessing for them, they knew that if Xale was strong, he would do his best and provide for them. It was only a matter of time until he left for the academy after all.
Xale then remember something that almost ruined his mood, 'Ahh fuck, the daily task... is it the same as yesterday?'