Chapter 19: Moving Forward (5)

"How about any spells that can cure tiny cuts?" Kyle asked as he was looking at the cut on the tip of his index finger.

"Something a bit more serious?" The person asked back with a tired expression, as they shook their head in disappointment.

"Fine, fine, I'll stop messing around. For starters, how did you know that I earned the ability to use dark magic recently?" Kyle asked with a serious expression, as he looked at the person, straight in his eyes.

"I'll answer you if you answer me this question. How long did it take you to finish your first trial?" The person with a much more serious expression, this time.

"I was given two hours to finish the trial, of which I made full use of those two hours." Kyle answered calmly, without giving it much thought.

"Then let me ask you this then. Do you remember anything from before entering your trial?"

The moment that question came out, that is when Kyle realized something extremely important. He didn't have a past in this world, or rather, he had no past in this world, since he technically didn't exist in this world, up until now. Not only that, but he also realized another important matter, that being the identity of the body he was inhabiting. He didn't have many clues on hand about the identity of his body, aside from the fancy clothes he was wearing and the badge he was holding in his pockets. Knowing all of this now, Kyle tried to think of something quickly and it didn't take long for him to come up with something.

"So...? Do you remember anything?" The person asked after a full minute of silence between the two of them.

"Nothing." Kyle answered silently, as he kept a thoughtful expression.

"Nothing? What do you mean by that?" The person asked with a slightly confused expression, as it slowly turned serious.

"I mean that I don't remember anything. At least from before entering the tower." Kyle answered with a more serious expression.

"Wait, are you being serious right now? Are you being actually serious? You are not pulling my leg or something, are you?" The person asked with a serious and confused expression.

"I'm as serious as I can be." Kyle answered honestly, since he truly had no memories of this world from before entering the tower. Of course, he wouldn't say that he still remembered his previous life, or mention anything similar. After he answered, the person quickly started to slowly take breathes and calm themselves down a bit, before they asked:

"Are you sure that you are telling the truth, aren't you?"

"Yes. As far as I know, I have no recollection of anything, from before entering the tower." Kyle answered seriously, as he was hoping to finish this topic quickly, before the person tried to dig more information on him.

"Tell me, do you have anything on hand that could give you a clue about your identity?" They asked with a calmer expression.

"Anything on hand... Oh, I actually do have something." At that moment, Kyle took out the badge that he had in his pocket and showed it to the person and then asked:

"Do you know anything about this?"

After he asked that, the person decided to carefully examine the badge from every side and for a couple of seconds, Kyle thought that the person's eyes had started glowing for a bit.

"Hmmm... No illusion spells, nor any special enchantments. Does this badge have any hidden mechanisms or anything of the sorts?" The person asked, as they fiddled with the badge for a bit.

"Nothing, as far as I know of. I only know that I only woke with that badge in my pocket and then was forced into the trial, without many explanations." Kyle answered without mentioning how he nearly went delirious from the fact that he reincarnated into another world.

"Then I won't be able to help you much. As far as I know, there are no noble families that use such a badge, nor any companies that use this either. So for all intents and purposes, I can safely say that you belong to no family or any family that I know of." The person answered with certainty, as they had a relieved expression on his face.

"Why does this sound as if it's something good? What if I have a family or if I'm some important member? Wouldn't they be worried about me?" Kyle answer with a slightly worried and nervous expression.

"Well, it would mean there would be no issues about your informal registration." The person answered with a more relaxed expression.

"But... How would there be no issues? Maybe it could be a family or company you wouldn't be aware of a-and maybe they are looking for me. Not only that, but... But..." As Kyle was starting to become more confused and was finding it harder to ask properly, the person quickly grabbed Kyle's attention and continued:

"Anyways, we have gone completely off-track with this conversation and you want to know why I asked about if you have any recollections, right?"

"Yes, I want to know how you knew I learnt dark magic recently and then you suddenly asked about my memories." Kyle answered as he recalled the question quickly.

"There are two reasons for that. Firstly, I did actually see you speaking with some people just before you entered the tower, some hooded people to be exact, but they had no insignias or anything that could be used as identification and-" The person explained slowly, before they were suddenly interrupted by Kyle's question:

"Wait, what? You actually saw me before entering the tower? And talking with people? Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

"One, I didn't say so since you didn't ask and two, don't interrupt me until I finish my explanation." The person answered with an angry expression before they continued:

"Secondly and most importantly, the amount of time you spent in the tower is four hours, not the usual two one would normally take for their first awakening."

"Huh? Four, not two? What do you mean?" Kyle asked with a confused expression as he crossed his arms as well.

"There is two things you should know about this tower. One, for each awakening you do, you can only spend a certain amount of time, before you get ejected out of the tower and it's proportionate the amount of awakenings you have performed. The first awakening is 2 hours, the second one is six hours, the third one is twelve hours and it each increase adds two hours per increase, making the theoretical tenth and last awakening last 110 hours or four and a half days. Two, there will be a few aftereffects, upon gaining certain elements, mostly being emotional changes and the aftereffects are proportionate to the amount of awakenings performed. And by the fact that you barely showed any aftereffects from gaining dark magic, just confirms it." The person explained with a calmer expression before he added:

"So the golden question is this: Why did it take you four hours, when you claim that it took two?"