Chapter 15: Who are you?

On the way back I barely worked up the courage to hold her hand. You would think killing monsters and fighting people who are insanely strong would give me courage to be able to do the things people usually do when they are dating, but no. 

     "Your face is really red Vicente." Chloe told me.

     "Your face is like a tomato Chloe so don't even try to make me feel more embarrassed than I already am." I retorted. 

     "Ok sorry I just couldn't help myself." She said laughing. As we went back George gave me a smile, then looked at Sophia and Hailey.

     "Looks like Vicente is now off the market ladies." George joked. Hailey and Sophia glared at George and I.

     "Well I can't say that he's wrong. I..well anyways Sophia can you teach me how to do that thing you told me about earlier?" I could feel some tension in our group aside from George and I.

     "Well only if Chloe is ok with me teaching you something." I didn't know why Chloe wouldn't be ok with it, but I guess there have things I didn't understand before.

     "Yeah I trust Vicente besides he wouldn't do anything bad. If he ever did I would slice off each of his limbs." This kind of scared me and talk about a change to what she usually is like.

     "You seem to have changed a bit now that we're together what's with that?" I asked Chloe. 

     "I have to be tough if I want to ward off the possible love rivals." She explained.

     "I don't think you need to change yourself. You are perfect just by being yourself." I wasn't completely sure what was coming out of my mouth, but I think Chloe liked it because she started blushing and smiling.

     "Ok fine go get stronger and come back as soon as possible." She said. I went with Sophia to a quiet place. 

     "Ok meditate if you can't try to fall asleep while thinking about the process." She explained. I tried a few times, but couldn't.

     "I don't think I'll be able to do the meditation route and the sleeping route  especially on a hard floor like this seems like it will not be easy." I said. 

     "Ok just lay on me and try your best." She said. I did as she said and laid on her. The last thing I thought was the complicated process. I was seeing endless darkness, but within that darkness there was something. It was me, but at the same time it wasn't. 

     "Who are you?" I asked him. The person turned and it was my face and everything.

     "I'm the one who should be asking you that. I am the one who passes judgement but just call me, Judge. You see the reason this process is as complicated as it is due to the way you have to evaluate yourself and your actions. You have to tell me whether you are good or evil, light or dark, the sun or the moon, day or night, and all that funny stuff now you have time. I will tell you whether or not you are right. Oh and time goes slower so right about now it's been an hour." Judge said to me.

     "How can I figure out something that most people only know about? Those people who did succeed have trained themselves. I don't know what to tell you." I barely finished when he looked at me and chuckled. 

     "You do have a time limit and that limit will soon be reached. Your time will be up in 5…..4…..3…...2…..1. Tell me what you are or be stuck here in eternal darkness." Judge said to me.

     "You gave me two choices, but I don't think I'm either of them. My actions up until now could be called evil, but wouldn't trying to better myself be good? I'm not good or evil and something tells me that no one is. The time limit is short for a reason. The answer is obvious as long as you think. I'm grey, not evil or good and so is everyone else because we're only humans and humans aren't good or evil. My final answer is that I'm grey." I told him. Judge gave me a smile and clapped.

     "I congratulate you on truly achieving the answer. I will do the conversion, but you will keep the skills from before. I do have one thing to say though. The corruption skills you learned corrupt you and the opponent so be wary. Your soul becomes corrupt with the use of the skill little by little you will see the changes. Although they are powerful, be careful with them." Judge told me. I jumped up hitting Sophia's head.

     "I see you did it. Also oww that kinda hurt. Your body seems reinforced and powerful more than before. I guess you leveled up through this process." She told me.

     "Yeah it does seem like that and with this dungeon we'll all be even stronger. Also, why were you so close to my face?" I asked her.

     "Don't worry about that so let's get going, the others are waiting for us." She said. On the way back we saw George, Hailey, and Chloe fighting monsters so we hurried over. Once we arrived they were finishing up already.

     "You two were gone for a good hour and a half. Was the process as hard as you thought it was? I do notice you got stronger, you might even be as strong as me now. We'll have to see later." George said.

     "Oh yeah Judge did say something like that. It was pretty complicated and I think I just barely did it. My brain hurts from all the thinking I had to do back there." I said. I looked around to find that all monsters had been cleared and that the next floor was ready to be started.

     "Who's Judge?" George, Hailey, and Chloe said in unison.

     "He was the person who asked me the question which would confuse a lot of people. He told me to evaluate m-" I couldn't finish my sentence. It felt like I couldn't speak or think for a second.

     "You can't talk about what happened too much during the process. You can only be vague or else the process would be easier. A person has to go in without much knowledge on what will happen." Sophia explained to us.

     "Oh that makes sense on why you didn't give me any information on what would happen. Well it couldn't be helped let's get going. We have to level up as much as possible. We can't let anyone think that we're weak. We've already saved the guild, but this is for our pride as adventurers." I said to everyone.