Perception

"Fuck. My perception of time is messed up," I sighed, massaging my head and easing myself.

When I first came into this world, my sense of time was disoriented.

To put it simply, my body wasn't able to accept when the days occurred or the nights shifted.

"I remember, the first day of the Academy was on January 10th, a Saturday, and then, weapons and... huh. It's been a few weeks?"

For some reason, it seemed that my 'inner-chronological-clock' was not working.

Aside from that, what exactly happened yesterday?

"Jedh Islands..." I muttered, taking a seat in front of the laptop.

Classes were over for the day, and I was back in my room.

A quick search on the Google bar was enough to figure out that Jedh Islands is a highly dangerous place.

More specifically, it was a group of islands located at the heart of human domain.

Demon incursion gates were frequent there—incursion gates were portals that connected the demon world and Earth. Although such portals didn't appear anywhere else in the world, Jedh Islands remained an exception, and the reasons were unknown.

From what I researched and learned yesterday, many people fall victim to mana contamination on the Jedh Islands.

"Mr. Oliver isn't a fool; he must know I don't have a mana core. And yet he intentionally left out that detail?" I chuckled to myself.

Whatever politics were happening behind the scenes, I just hoped I wouldn't get tangled up in the mess.

"Now, let's see... the setup is complete. I just need to install one of the earliest JavaScript programs into the system," I muttered nonchalantly while typing code into the computer.

Jedh Islands could wait.

My current focus was on setting up an income source. I was going to create an app like I had planned earlier.

I settled on chess since the game of chess didn't exist in this world.

And.

After some more time, it was finally the hour to address the gift I got that day.

"Status!"

Crackle!

──────────────────────

┌─────────────────┐

│ 𝐒 𝐭 𝐚 𝐭 𝐮 𝐬 𝐖 𝐢 𝐧 𝐝 𝐨 𝐰 ➙

└─────────────────┘

𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞: Noah Grey ⇔ 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐤: (G-)

𝐀𝐠𝐞: 16 +(23?)= 39?

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬: Homosapien

𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬: None

■𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒 →

⌜ ⌝

Health: (G) 150/ 150 (+0?)

Mana: (G-) 100/ 100

Strength: (G+) 180/ 180 (+0?)

Dexterity: (F+)

Intelligence: ???

Mana Capacity: 0

⌞ ⌟

■𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒→

⌜ ⌝

Armor: (G-) 1

Resistance: (G-) 1.2

Stamina: (G-)

Charm: (E-)

Durability: (G-) 1

Flexibility: B

⌞ ⌟

𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒:

None

𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐒: None

𝐀𝐑𝐓:

None

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲: None

𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬:

[Mystery of telepor...]

𝐀𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬:

[Legendary Achievment! Acquired the mystery of Teleportation!]

──────────────────────

What's up with these plus zeroes in my stats?

I could guess that the system was counting the age of both my lives combined.

But what are these zeroes? Is it because of Nano?

Even my intelligence only has three question marks. Does the system think I'm stupid?

"Whatever..."

I retrieved a small box from my pocket—the gift from Riley I got in the dungeon incident.

I placed my hand on the loot box with intent, and it vanished with a pop sound.

Crackle!

──────────────────────

Notification:

You have acquired a new skill!

Skill Rank: G

Name: Perception

???: ??? ?[]

Description: Allows the user to perceive the emotions of others.

──────────────────────

"Perceive emotions... that could be useful in business, I guess."

I was about to dismiss the notification but another one popped up.

Crackle!

──────────────────────

Notification: Congratulations! You have acquired the very first reward box from the necrotombs!

A legendary achievement!

──────────────────────

My eyes widened as I stared at the notification that flashed across the screen.

"Necrotomb..." The words barely escaped me, and I wasn't fully sure what it even meant.

Riley's story of the dungeon's morphing resurfaced in my mind.

I was the author of this story, or perhaps the supposed creator of this world?

But with each passing day, one thing became increasingly clear.

This world had secrets that even I am not aware of.

And.

"I only hope for it to also have the secret on how..."

***

Professor Riya stood in the middle of the artificial dungeon, surrounded by the clang of metals and the voices of engineers setting up machines for the upcoming trials.

Adjusting her hair, she turned to the vice principal, Konstantine Smirnoff.

They had been observing the work for a while now without talking.

But it was enough.

"Konstantine, do you not think the dungeon trials are being held a bit too early this time?" She finally asked.

Konstantine raised an eyebrow, his salt-and-pepper beard bristling.

"Whatever do you mean?" he asked, his thick Russian accent rolling off his tongue. "The trials are standard procedure and have always been at this time of year."

"While that is true, but given the recent advancements in hero programs, I fear we may not have given the students enough time to prepare for what is to come," Riya countered, her expression thoughtful, her eyes darting around the place as if searching for something.

Konstantine chuckled, "Ah, always the cautious one? Worry not, every precaution to ensure the safety of students have already been taken."

He continued," They have had plenty of training before joining the Academy, I'm sure they will be more than capable. And besides...arcanum has been gifted with the smart bracelets by our

friends from Elysium institute."

Riya sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Yes, yes...I know. Its just... I just can't shake this feeling that something isn't quite right."

The vice-principal placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "You're worrying unnecessarily."

"I worry about the traps," Riya said with her brow furrowed. "Previous years, we've had a few close calls. We can't afford any mishaps this time around."

Konstantine scratched his temple while thinking for a bit. "What do you suggest? Remove the traps?"

***