Chương 30: Gravity Persona.

A sudden push came behind me, I went beyond the other side of the wall. As I turned my head back, Aeris had pushed both me and Eli. There were only two seconds remaining and Aeris was just a few inches apart from entering to the other side.

"Nooo!" I shouted, louder. I extended my hands towards her, my fingers were inches away from grabbing her hand and pulling her in. I wished I had just a couple of seconds, and we all would have made it in time. It felt like it was inevitable to save her just in that one second. But my body refused to give up on her. The wall had closed instantly as the time came to an end. THE EXIT TIME LIMIT: 00: 00 My fingers grabbed her hand just when a second was left on the timer. I instantly pulled her into this side.

The sound of walls closing followed, it was louder. If I were to be late even for a second it would have crushed Aeris, and she would've been dead.

"What the hell, Aeris. Why did you do that?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"Did you think only you have a right to save other people?"

"You could have died, Aeris." I shouted at her.

"But I am not dead, am I?"

"Hey guys." Eli said,"Yeah, because I managed to pull you in, if I hadn't done that you'd be dead." I said.

"Yeah, I know that's why I counted on you, to save me."

"What! You counted on me, that's all you gotta say in your defence. How can you be this reckless, I told you we would all stay together didn't I? Even if we didn't make it to the other side we'll still be together."

"Yeah so we are all here at this side, then what's the problem? We all made it."

"HEY GUYS!" Eli shouted.

"What!" Me and Aeris both shouted at him, same time.

"Look." He pointed in the direction.

"We are out, there is no room here." Ahead of us was a long passage, the gravity room was no more. We all had somehow managed to escape that deadly zero gravity room. A sight of relief set inside my heart, we were one step closer to finding that curse. That moment I forgot about everything, that I was arguing with Aeris, my head was spinning, everything was getting blurry. The gravity pressure had affected my body more than I could have handled. My legs gave up on me and I fell down on my hips.

"Nova!" Aeris grabbed me before I fell down.

"I don't think we should go ahead, she clearly is in no condition. We should just rest here until she is healed." Aeris said.

"Yes, I think that's a right choice." Eli said.

"I'm sorry, you two."

"Hey don't worry, you deserve some rest, after what we went through. You are cleary more affected by those rooms than us, if it weren't for you we'd all be dead. So take some time to recover and rest up." She said. A flicker. The display appeared. MYSTERY LOG: QUEST: PROVE YOUR MIGHT STATUS: COMPLETED REWARD: GRAVITY PERSONA. LEVEL UP: +2 CURRENT LEVEL: 22 EXPERIENCE POINTS: +10 (TOTAL EXPERIENCE POINT: 15)"Oh no, the warning showed up again. Something bad is going to happen."

Eli said Aeris took a defensive stance right in front of me, her eyes looking around. She stood close to me.

"Calm down you two, it's okay. This is not a warning."

"Then what is it?" Aeris asked.

"It says, we are safe for now, and that I unlocked a new magic."

"New magic." She sat down beside me and stared at the display even though she wasn't able to read anything. It was clear that she was curious about the Log. A smile came to my face.

"What are you staring at, do you even understand this?" I chuckled, and her face started to turn red. I get that she is curious and she wanted to understand what she was I seeing, if there was a way that I could…. Wait there is a way… I haven't tried it, since I learned the Elgard language, it also means that the log had access to that language. Maybe it could change its writing in Elgard. But is that even possible? Let's check.

"Log change the language to Elgard." A flicker, The display changed. Words were now written in Elgard, Aeris was stunned looking at that, Eli came rushing in too.

"Wait, that's… it's in Elgard. I can understand it now." Aeris said.

"Do you see this too Eli?" He nodded. I hadn't imagined it to work, it was just a shot in the dark. If only I had changed the language back then, It would've been more beneficial for us to solve the room together. It's good that I can understand what's written here as well. That language learning skill was helpful after all.

"I still don't understand what all this means?" Aeris said. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"Same here." Eli said. It was natural for them to not understand each and everything, after all they were not familiar with the modern game concepts. And that the log follows that principle somehow, which was weird when I think about it. I quickly explained to them how the log operates, I told them about other Logs, stats, levels, experience points, as best as I could. They were listening carefully to what I was saying, and nodding when they understood.

"I see so that's how it works. But what is this Gravity Persona? Is this the new magic that you said, you have unlocked?"

"Yes. It is, I think." Not even me, I had no clue what this new skill was or what it did.

"Log please explain Gravity Persona."

"Look, it's changing again." Eli said. The display changed. UNIQUE SKILL: GRAVITY PERSONA. THE USER HAVE AN ACCESS TO CONTROL GRAVITY AT ITS WILL, THEY CAN MANIPULATE THE ENVIRONMENT OR THEMSELVES BY USING GRAVITY TO THEIR ADVANTAGE. THE GRAVITY PERSONA WILL ONLY LAST TILL TWO MINUTES, THEN IT GOES IN FOUR HOUR COOLDOWN PERIOD.

"I see, so I can now manipulate gravity. And looks like it has the same cooldown period as the Apex persona."

"Okay so what does this mean? What the hell is this gravity?" Aeris said.

"Gravity is the thing that we experienced in that room."

"You mean the flying in the air thing?" Eli said.

"Not exactly, but kind of. What it means is that I have the power to use it."

"Wait, hold on… You mean that flying thing in that room?" Aeris said.

"Yes."

"And you can use it now?"

"Yes."

"Let me get this straight, so what you are saying me is that you now have the magic of doing the flying thing!"

"Yes, Aeris."

"Thats crazy! Look at the condition that you are in, you can't do that to yourself, Nova. It's dangerous." I know that this power is dangerous even for me, I am not sure that I could handle it, I don't even know what will it do to me.

"Log, are there any side effects to this skill?" The display changed. UNIQUE SKILL: GRAVITY PERSONA. THE GRAVITATIONAL PRESSURE CAN SHATTER THE BONES AND MUSCLES TO THE POINT OF NO RECOVERY. ONLY IF THE PRESSURE IS TOO MUCH FOR USER TO HANDLE. DIFFERENT THINGS IN ENVIRONMENT REACTS TO DIFFERENT GRAVITATIONAL SITUATION, INTERACTING WITH ENVIRONMENT CAN BE HELPFUL AND DANGEROUS BOTH AT SAME TIME. TO AVOID THIS STATE USER NEED TO UPGRADE: AGILITY, DEXTERITY AND VITALITY SKILL.

"Look, it is also saying that it can be dangerous, Nova." Aeris said.

"Yes, but it also says that it can be helpful." Eli said. Aeris turned her head towards her and gave him a cold stare.

"Yes, but it is very dangerous and I think you should not use that magic." He said quickly. Aeris nodded at me.

"Promise me you won't use that magic, Nova."

"Look you guys, I know you are worried about me and what it will do to me, but I can't promise not using this ever, what happens if it was the only thing that could save us all."

"Yes, but…"

"I know, Aeris." I grabbed her hands.

"I know… It will be okay, don't worry." Her eyes went down like she was sad and disappointed by that decision. Her face showed she was clearly worried about me.

"But, what I can promise is this, I'll be very careful with this magic power and only use it when it's necessary. Okay." I smiled at her. She looked up, and hugged me.

"Thank you." She said,"What, I think I am the one who should thank you two, for caring about me." And just like that we had completely forgotten about the fight that we had. But there was one thing that was still in my mind. STATUS: COMPLETED (ONE OUT OF THREE) That it was not over and that there were two other deadly quests that the Log was about to give us. We were about to face it without knowing what was waiting for us, until we encountered it. There is one thing that I agree with Aeris, that we should rest up.

We all have to be at our best condition if we want to keep moving ahead. This mystery log quest and challenges are not any ordinary, it's rather more dangerous than I anticipated. I am not strong enough to protect myself and them. And there is still no clue about this curse, or this lab origin. There are still a lot of things that I am unaware of. But before I dig more into this, I have to get stronger, not just for myself, but for them as well, I have to protect them at all cost.

That reminds me, I have leveled up by two points after that gravity quest was finished, I need to boost my stats up before I move any further.

"Open Stats Log." I said out loud. A flicker. The display appeared. NOVA STATS LOG STRENGTH: 12 AGILITY: 11 INTELLIGENCE: 11 DEXTERITY: 10 VITALITY: 10 PERCEPTION: 12 HEALTH POINTS: 228/2200 (AVAILABLE POINTS TO REDEEM: 2 POINTS)"Now what is this? Is this a warning?" Eli asked. Well of course they aren't aware of leveling up, this is something unknown to them.

"Hey would you stop being a wuss, come on did you already forget. She just explained all of it to us. That she's able to boost her magic by stats. Look over there, it's clearly showing her stats log. She is clearly increasing her magic usage. Aren't you Nova?" Aeris said.

"Yes, well you are kinda right." I smiled awkwardly.

"See, I told you, didn't I. So you should pay more attention, Eli."

"Hey don't be proud of that, after what we went through. It's only natural for me to worry." Well I wouldn't blame him for thinking that, anyone would have been frightened if they had to go through what they went through. It's my fault that they are in this mess. So it falls on me to protect them. Looking at these stats, I feel like if I had more vitality back then I wouldn't be in this condition.

I certainly need to build my endurance, back then during the fight with Drago I couldn't endure any of his hits, if it weren't for Apex persona I'd be dead. Then there is dexterity, I do remember it saying that I could increase Mana control if I chose to increase that, so far I thought it was only useful when it comes to crafting skill and I hadn't seen dexterity as a requirement in any other skills I have, until… TO AVOID THIS STATE USER NEED TO UPGRADE: AGILITY, DEXTERITY AND VITALITY SKILL.

I was under the assumption that I didn't have mana at all, But I haven't seen any stats that shows that I have mana, maybe and the Gravity persona generally needs some better overall control that's why it showed dexterity. If I think about it, unlike other skills it all affects my physical attributes, but with this Gravity persona skill, I am able to interact with the environment, maybe that's where the dexterity will come in handy. If that's the case I can't ignore dexterity anymore.

I don't know what kind of danger is waiting for us all, but if increasing these stats can help us even a little bit I am going to upgrade it.

"One to Vitality and one to Dexterity." DEXTERITY +1 VITALITY + 1 I think these two stats upgrades will help me ahead, I just have that feeling. Based on the pattern and the blueprint of this research lab, the gravity was activated when we were in the physicist room, so there is a possibility that gravity was part of physics as its core. There are two more of these challenges. If I am right about this the next quest would have to do with chemistry.

If chemistry is its core that means the challenge could be delicate work and might be challenging to our endurance. So upgrading these two is the right choice I think. It has to be…

"Hey Nova, what are you thinking?" Aeris asked.

"Nothing really, just thinking about the curse and what's ahead." Her face got blank, for a moment she didn't speak.

"Oh you don't have to worry that much, I am sure we will find a cure no matter what. I believe in us." She forced a smile. Just looking at her, I could tell that she was hurting from inside. Why wouldn't she be, her mother was the one who was cursed. I couldn't imagine what's going through her head right now. First it was Oren and now Freya, and yet despite all that she puts on a brave face and she doesn't give up.

We sat there resting for a few hours, my body was slowly and steadily recovering, I could feel new muscles building inside bones repairing itself. I told them about what we could be facing up ahead, so we could discuss some strategy before heading in.

"Alright, it looks like I am completely healed up, before we go ahead you guys know what we have to do right?"

"Yes." Both said"Okay then let's move." They nodded their heads and started walking alongside me. Even though any one of us could end up dying here, none of us backed down from the danger which we were about to face. The hell that we were about to go through, it was to save the person you love, the person you admire, the person you care about. And nothing was going to change that. The hidden wall opens. Nothing. MYSTERY LOG: QUEST: PROVE YOUR MIGHT.