Chương 37: Solo Mission - Ben (5)

"Claim the item? Is that really all I have to do?" Was that really it? All he had to do to complete the last mission was to claim an item.

"How hard can that be?" Ben was going to get his answer very shortly. [Mission 3/3: claim the item] Description: claim the Snowman's Cloak in order to claim the planet. Time limit: none Reward: mana crystals, the item listed in the description. Failure: you will be unable to claim the planet.

"Snowman's cloak?" Ben's face contorted. Snowman's cloak? What kind of name was that?

"That's it," Ben muttered, panting.

"No more missions for me ever. Please."

"Kuack." That was when blood began to spill out of Ben's mouth like vomit. He had been holding most of it in during the fight with the Abominable Snowman, and now was the perfect time for his body to let it all out.

"Blood loss!" Ben shouted energetically, a clear juxtaposition to how he was feeling.

"Look at all this bright red snow." The planet was a sight to behold. There were decapitated corpses scattered everywhere with blood flowing out from their heads and necks. The smell of blood polluted the air; it wasn't just the blood from the deceased mana beasts, but also Ben's blood.

"Snowman's cloak, huh? Maybe the item can be found in the abominable snowman." Ben wanted to get up hurriedly to try and find the item listed, however, he completely forgot that he had to deal with a potentially fatal wound.

"Kuack!" The pain was insurmountable, even after using the healing skill on it several times. After all, Ben's skill was at the basic level whereas the wound had been inflicted by an advanced-level beast. He thought for a moment that this would no longer be a problem after he had levelled up, but he threw that thought out of the window when he realised that only his overall level had increased; his skills themselves hadn't levelled up.

That was probably why there was an option to 'upgrade skill' whenever a mana crystal was smashed. Because of this, although he was now at the advanced level, his healing skill was unfortunately still at the basic level. Improvising, Ben hobbled his way towards the mound of snow he had just created. He squatted and looked around. In the pile of snow, as if he had just found treasure, was a pile of pure, solid advanced-level mana crystals.

"I don't need mana crystals for the time being!" Ben shouted; his uncontrollable trembling was worsening and he felt like he might cough up more blood. It was unlike him to reject mana crystals so passionately. The normal Ben Oxley would happily receive mana crystals of any level with welcoming arms.

"I need this item! The cloak, whatever it's called. I need it before I die from severe hypothermia." After some more furious digging, Ben was holding something warm and soft. With all of his raw strength, he pulled it out of the snow.

"Is this it?" What Ben was looking at was a jacket made from what appeared to be animal fur, presumably that of a polar bear. It was as white as the snow on the ground, and it blended in very well with the snow.

"This has to be it." Shortly after his pink right hand grabbed onto the jacket, a system window popped up. [Snowman's Cloak] Level: advanced Description: a cloak which is worn by the ruler of the planet. One of a kind. Whoever wears the cloak becomes the absolute ruler of the planet.

"Absolute ruler of the planet, huh?" Ben was curious as he studied the item's description meticulously.

"I can become the king of this planet just by wearing this. I have to test it out." Without another word being uttered out of Ben's mouth, he wrapped the cloak around his body, enduring the sharp pain from the stab wound. He felt lighter. And warmer. Significantly warmer. In an instant, all the shivering Ben had been going through stopped, as if it had escaped from his body. His ice-cold exterior immediately warmed up, restoring his body back to the normal body temperature.

He was never going to shiver on Planet 503 ever again whilst wearing that cloak.

"Looks like I'm finally the king of something now," Ben sneered, looking around at the corpses, which were decaying due to the unavoidable forces of nature. He could finally breathe a sigh of relief. He had mustered up all of his courage to defeat the abominable snowman, and it had paid off spectacularly; he had earned truckloads of money, he had levelled up and he had also earned himself a planet. [You have completed all the missions on this planet!] [You have successfully claimed this planet!] [What will you name this planet? ____________________________________] Planet 503. [Congratulations!' Planet 503' has been claimed by skill user Ben Oxley!]"It's all over," Ben whispered to himself whilst clutching his abdomen. The stab wound hadn't fully healed yet, but now he could finally go back to Planet Earth and get it treated.

"Get me off this planet." Ben began to limp away from the bloody mess, still clutching his stab wound. He had already decided to endure the pain until he was off this planet. But then-"Which direction is the portal room?" Ben's poor sense of direction had caught up to him. He sighed, then absentmindedly began walking in a random direction.

"This is gonna take a long while." Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. The snow had completely submerged his legs, and it was a struggle to walk while clutching a stab wound, however, with the hard-earned snowman's cloak in his possession, Ben was never going to get frostbite on Planet 503. At least he could have one less worry in his brain. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. As Ben wandered aimlessly around Planet 503, he thought deeply about his friends and what they were going through.

Other planets were a complete mystery to Ben, and there was no way for him to know what everybody else was doing. Had the others completed their missions and returned home safely yet? Or was he going to be the first to return home with a large wound on his abdomen? Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. No sign of life. No more mana beasts. Just a vast desert of nothingness lay in front of Ben. And no sign of a hole leading down to a portal room.

"Please," Ben wheezed.

"Please let me return home safely." Clomp.

"I just want to go home." It felt like hours, and he was sure he was lost. At least he didn't have the issue of the unbearable cold anymore. He was wearing the Snowman's Cloak, which allowed him to walk around the planet without having to worry about hypothermia or frostbite. However, all of a sudden-"Whoa!" Ben nearly fell, and the reason was something that almost made his heart skip a beat. He looked down and felt like fainting. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road.

Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"I did it," he said, putting his free hand in the air.

"I can finally go home." He had finally reached the hole. Snow began to fall as Ben descended the ladder and ran towards the portal, where what awaited him back at home would be a nice bed to lie down on and a way to treat that stab wound that he so wanted to get rid of.

"Finally."

"There are a few basic things you need to know," Gavin said as Daniel listened intently.

"First is the Bali system. And no, I'm not talking about the holiday destination." Daniel was puzzled. Bali system? Something that wasn't related to the holiday haven? He definitely needed a good holiday to ease his mind at that moment, since his brain was being tainted with the weirdest information he had ever heard in his life. He didn't understand. He was being forced to live a life he didn't want to live, and none of the information he had been told about skill users was freely being processed by his brain.

It was like being oblivious to the problem was his way of taking revenge against Gavin forcing him to become a skill user. He had so many unanswered questions about skill users but he didn't know when the right time to ask them was.

"Bali is actually an acronym," Gavin continued in his usual sombre tone.

"The letters stand for the different levels of the system. For example, the B stands for 'basic'. People at that level are at the lowest level of the skill user world." Basic, huh? So Daniel, who had just been forced to become a skill user, was at the lowest level of skill users. That made sense. After all, it didn't make sense for newbies to start at the highest level of the system. Daniel didn't want to imagine what would happen if that was the case. The world might be screwed.

"After the basic level, there is the advanced level, which is the A, then the legendary level, which is the L, and the infinite level, which is the I." Seemed straightforward enough. But Daniel didn't know if his brain was going to happily accept all of this foreign information.

"Since the levels are classified by words and not numbers, there is also a stage system, which classifies people using numerical stages. It basically quantifies a person's strength level. You should be on stage 1 since you have just started your journey as a skill user. Check your stage." Daniel did as Gavin instructed. He opened his profile and checked his stage. [Level: Basic (stage 1, 0/100 XP)] Sure enough, he was on stage 1. The lowest possible stage a skill user could be on.

"People on stages 1 to 4 are at the basic level, people on stages 5 to 8 are at the advanced level, people on stages 9 to 12 are at the legendary level and people on stages 13 to 20 are at the infinite level. Are you with me?" Daniel nodded apprehensively. His head, however, was spinning and he felt like he was going to get a headache from the overload of questions.

"Good. Now I'm going to tell you how to recognise and use skills." Daniel wanted to fall asleep so badly. Hearing this stoic person giving him a lecture was the equivalent of sitting in a dungeon all day doing nothing. Gavin, on the other hand, continued in his serious, monotonous tone.

"Skills come in skill orbs. Skill orbs are the physical form of skills. Once you get a skill orb, the way to use the skill is to swallow the orb. This is because after the orb is swallowed, it goes straight into your mana core, which recognises that you have learned a new skill. The new skill then gets recognised by your system." Daniel flinched; he was taken aback.

Basically what Gavin was saying was that Daniel had to force unknown objects into his digestive system and hope that it doesn't give him any stomach pains. Gavin reached into his pocket and pulled out several small orbs that glistened in his scarred hands. They were a rainbow of different colours, and at first glance, it looked like Daniel was going to be swallowing crystals.

"Take them," Gavin said.

"I promise they won't do you any harm since you're a skill user. If a non-skill user were to take this, they would probably suffer from stomachaches for a few days. To them, it would be like swallowing chewing gum."

"Are you sure?" Gavin nodded adamantly.

"You won't ever regret it," he said, although his tone of voice didn't match his words at all, making Daniel slightly flustered. Daniel's heart was thumping like a large drum. Cold waterfalls of sweat trickled down his back and he got goosebumps. He stared at the gleaming balls in his hands. It was similar to taking medication. It'll be alright, Daniel thought to himself. I'm a skill user now. I won't get sick. Daniel closed his eyes tightly and threw the skill orbs into his mouth. Gulp.

He swallowed the orbs before his brain could make him regret his decision. [You have gained the skill: Teleportation (basic).] [You have gained the skill: Strength (basic).] [You have gained the skill: Recovery (basic).] [You have gained the skill: Healing (basic).]"Done?" Daniel nodded lightly at Gavin's question.

"OK. Now that all of the skill user stuff is out of the way, let's change the subject. I haven't told you anything about what this place is. At first glance, it looks like you have been kidnapped, but this is not what it looks like. I plan to tell you everything once I've gone through the basics of the skill user world." Please tell me, Daniel said. I've been dying to know since I got here.

Daniel had been socialised to believe that people who say 'this is not what it looks like' are the most dubious people in the world. According to him, they always tend to say that line after they've committed the crime to make them seem less suspicious, but that trick never works. This made Daniel think twice about trusting Gavin and his mundane lectures. He was still in his school uniform.

He had been sweating into the clothes that he had been wearing for more than twenty-four hours and he was still searching for a way out. His body was beginning to reek of sweat.

"You are in a research institution," Gavin said in his usual sombre voice.

"You are here against your will and you were selected to take part in this research by my boss. You are in a place called The Leak, which is a research organisation that conducts thorough research into skill users, and you just happen to be one of the research subjects that my boss chose." Daniel wanted to blow a fuse so bad after hearing Gavin's words. He wanted to get up and start punching Gavin until he bled from his nose and his mouth. He wanted to see Gavin dead in front of him.

He had always been extremely leery of Gavin, but this feeling had finally peaked.

"Regardless, I'm still trying to get you out no matter what," Gavin continued as if he had successfully read Daniel's mind.

"Don't worry, you're lucky to have me as a supervisor." Lucky? What do you mean by lucky? Regardless of what Gavin was saying, Daniel had still been captured and held hostage by members of 'The Leak'. There was nothing lucky about that. And in Daniel's opinion, the best word to describe Gavin was 'nuisance'.

"I have one more thing to give you," Gavin said which unfortunately brought Daniel back to reality. He pulled out another small orb from his pocket; this one was ruby-red and glowing, as if it was a small jar filled to the very top with blood. Daniel studied the orb in Gavin's hand.

"Am I supposed to take this?" Daniel asked anxiously.

"Yes," was Gavin's blunt reply. Gavin placed the orb in Daniel's trembling hands. Daniel had learnt in the past that you should never accept unknown items from strangers, and by accepting what was in Gavin's hands, he was openly breaking that rule. He closed his eyes again and shoved the orb into his mouth. Gulp. He swallowed it. Soon, a faint blue glow encompassed Daniel, causing Gavin to flinch slightly.

Daniel, having just become a budding skill user, had no idea what was going on, and he thought he was in a nonsensical dream. [You have gained 3200 XP from eating an 'XP Orb (advanced)'.] [Total XP: 3200/100] [You have progressed to stage 2!] [You have unlocked 'Skill Creation'!] [You have unlocked 5 new inventory spaces!] [Total XP: 3100/250] [You have advanced to stage 3! You are now eligible to become a Hopper.] [You can only make this decision once.] [WIll you become a Hopper? Yes/No] [Total XP: 2850/800] [You have progressed to stage 4!] [You have unlocked 5 new inventory spaces!] [Total XP: 2050/2000] [You have progressed to stage 5!] [You have unlocked 5 new inventory spaces!] [Level up!] [Congratulations, skill user! You have reached the advanced level!] A flurry of system messages came flooding in, which made Daniel think his system was going to crash. He couldn't believe that Gavin had something so powerful in his possession.

There were many terms in those system messages that were unknown to Daniel, like 'Hopper', 'skill creation' and 'inventory spaces'. Daniel had only been a skill user for a few hours yet he was already at the advanced level. Since Gavin had only been brief in his explanations, there was bound to be something in those messages that Daniel didn't know about.

"Do you trust me now?" Gavin asked Daniel.

"I was doing you a favour there. If another supervisor had been placed to look after you, they would almost certainly not give you this. This shows that I really am trying to help you." As if Gavin's words contained a mysterious mind control drug, all of the wariness that had accumulated in Daniel's brain had disappeared in a flash. Maybe trusting Gavin was the right thing to do. Maybe Gavin really was trying to help Daniel.

Maybe he really was trying to ensure that Daniel's time at The Leak was an enjoyable experience for him where he could learn about the skill user world. Gavin, you really are a mixed bag. I don't think I'll ever understand you and your intentions. And finally, after he had levelled up, Gavin, who had been the root cause of a rollercoaster of emotions inside Daniel's brain, opened his mouth and began to utter the words that Daniel wanted to hear so badly.

"Now that I've sorted all of that out for you, I can tell you how to escape from here."