Chapter 12 - I Should've Known!

Third Person's POV (4 yrs. old)

"Great work son! You did it!" praised Alfred, sharing the same excitement as his son, for casting over ten times, Ken finally got the fundamentals down of healing magic, mistaking it for growth magic, yet a helpful experience.

Alfred encased his son in a hug and ruffled his hair playfully, Lyn watching at the sidelines, softly smiling.

"Awwww papa! you're messing up my hair!" giggled Ken.

"Alright, stop it now you two, we still have to check up on the other two to know what they are doing, and judging from the time, I'm pretty sure that the girl should be awake." Ken nodded to his mother’s statement.

"Yes Mama, Papa, let's go!" he exclaims. The three of them walked inside the house and into Ken’s room. The girl is now awake and conversing with Wilbert, both sitting on Ken’s bed.

"Good, you're now awake.” Lyn suddenly states, making Ken, Wilbert, and the girl, jerk to attention, it seems they are deep in conversing with each other.

"Oh... u-uh... Celine a-allow me to introduce to you to the people that helped out in nursing you back to health, the lady there is named Lyn, next to her is her husband named Alfred, and their son, my childhood friend, Ken." Wilbert exclaimed, stuttering here and there making him sound cute.

‘OOOOhhhhh CELINE! A beautiful name befitting that of a beautiful girl.’ thought Ken, a shimmer in his eyes.

"P-Pleased to meet you Mister Alfred, Miss Lyn, and sir Ken, I'm sorry for having caused so much trouble." She says and then bowing her head.

‘Awwww, she's respectful too, I like her now already, I think we could be very good friends.’ cooed Ken silently by the side, acting all giddy, slightly.

"Oh don't worry dear, it was no problem at all, and please, call me Aunt Lyn from now on." said Lyn, walking up to Celine and kneeling beside the bed.

"And call me Uncle Alfred." said Alfred as he too approached the child.

"And call me Ken, too." Ken chimed in, showing off a bright smiles.

"T-thank you very much!" She exclaims again, getting teary eyed all of a sudden, Wilbert became hysterical and flung his hands into the air, getting all flustered looking at the sudden sad expression of the girl.

"U-uh... C-Celine... W-What's wrong?" He asks in a worried tone. Ken gasps like a fangirl -on the inside.

‘Someone’s flustered.’ He can’t help but tease, he didn’t mind the weirdness it sounded because he had already accustomed to himself his own habits, he reassures himself.

White could only sigh softly at the side.

"It's just that... I never thought you would help someone such as me, whom you don't even know." Celine wiped away the stray tear that sled down her eyes.

The four entering conversation with one another, Ken started to zone out their voices, and focused on something bothering him, well who wouldn't? When there's something red blinking at the corner of his field of vision? He tried swatting it away but it just wouldn't.

'That's because you can't physically swat it away, you have to open it.' Ken stopped his actions or he might look suspicious and walked to the window, knowing that by doing so he wouldn’t be disturbed.

'What are you talking about?' he asks.

'Oh you still haven't known? Who am I kidding, I still haven't explained it to you, you are now able to access the window panel back at the plain of reality, here.' -White-

'What? YES!!! I thought I lost it or something.' -Ken-

'So what are you waiting for? Open it.' He looked at the red notification intently.

'Uhh, why isn't it opening?' he asks, after a few seconds.

'Maybe because you're not willing it to open?' -White-

'Oh, right, sorry' -Ken-

He looks back at the notification, and willed it to open, a window popping out in front of him, opening an icon similar that of settings, only this showed ‘Skill’, ‘Craft’ -both magic and weapons-, ‘Stats’, ‘Inventory’, and a ‘shop’ icon as well.

‘What will I be buying here anyway?’ -Ken-

‘That would be for you to find out, as for now, you are unable to access it.’ -White-

‘What about inventory?’ -Ken-

‘It’s similar to a dimensional space, can only be accessed once you are level 100.’ -White-

‘Oh *pouts*, that’s sad, and considering the experiences I need to get to that level…’ -Ken-

‘No worries, other than these things, you can use other things to your heart’s content, but remember our deal.’ Ken regained back his spirits and enthusiastically read the other options.

‘Oh, wait, what about craft?’ -Ken-

‘In simple terms, that icon and its system allows you to craft any magical spells or weapons.’ -White-

‘Oooooh, that’s helpful, but then again, what would I need weapons for.’ -Ken-

‘You don’t need to think about that as of now, I think it’ll come naturally.’ Ken nods at White’s explanation, but…

‘Right, huh? Why does it feel like he’s implying something… meh, must be my imagination, moving on.’

Red notifications Kept blinking at the stats and skills icon/tab, urging Ken to check it out. First opening the stats icon, he saw that it has the information of his current stats, starting with the basics, ‘Name:’,’ Title:’, ‘Job:’, ‘Health:’, ‘Mana:’, and the unto other ones are, ‘Strength:’, ‘Intelligence:’, ‘Agility:’, and ‘Armor:’.

‘These features are useful, but I don't see any indicator as to how I can improve my stats,’ he thought, hand tapping his cheek.

'That's because your stats will only improve, if you continue to train a specific stat/s a day, that is the time that it will improve, and they will gradually strengthen you in the future, it may be slow, but a steady process.' explained White.

'Oh, thanks White. Now, unto the next blinking icon/tab, the Skills Icon.’ He noticed his ‘Create’ icon was still there, feeling lazy to do anything he tried to pay it no mind, on the contrary, now that he noticed it.

'White? Care to explain why this window or system or anything for that matter, is like a game?' he asks.

'That is because the system you are currently using is the same to that of a game.' said White.

'Is that even possible?' he asks, confused, at the same time, curious.

'Yes, it's possible, now you don't need to ask further questions about this since this will be useful for you in the future, but for me, I attached these kind of feature, as a guide for you to look at always.' explained White.

‘Is this an overpowered feature?’ Ken asks.

'No, no it is not.' Ken nodded, as his assumption was brought down.

Looking back at the tab, he noticed another skill at the bottom, since the red notification is blinking near the bottom edge of the screen, he noticed a scroll bar, which is still long, so he willed it down and found two skill. The first one is...

'Elemental Master. What does this one say? hmmmm, uhhhhhh, the description is long, I cannot read it all at once here, hmmmmm...... I better leave it for another time. The next one is...’

'Arcane Mastery. Hmmm... now this one has a short description, it says here that, [You are able to utilize arcane magic to the fullest, thus empowering your arcane spells by 100%] That seems fair enough,

I mean I still have to learn new spells, so I don't see how I can endanger anybody -preferably my loved ones- for that matter, hahahahaha,*inhales, then exhales* I think in advance.’ He praised himself.

‘Wait, what is that at the corner of my eyes, 'Close Window', since I don't find any cross button, so I figured this might work.’ just as he thought about it, the window did close.

He turned around and looked back at his family and saw… gasps loudly for everyone to hear.

"I should've known!" he exclaim, not minding that he had just used his voice, thought that he ws only thinking about in his head. The others giving him a weird look.

‘Hm?’

"What is it that you should've known Son?" Alfred asks.

"H-Huh?.. W-what?... N-nothing, don't mind me, I'm just absent mindedly speaking anything that comes into my head, hehe." he scratched the back of his neck, smiling awkwardly.

‘GOSH!!!! That was so humiliating, speaking as if I'm the only one talking to myself, uuuugghhhhhh..... *shakes head* but this doesn't compare to what I had just witnessed.’ grins internally, but shows off a small smile at the surface.

‘I think my childhood friend is....’ giddiness filled Ken’s being once again, this fanboy.

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