Playing Games

Adam got in front and they followed him.

After walking for a bit, they found themselves in total darkness.

Adam's eyes had adjusted to the darkness, plus his high Sense Stat helped.

Layla couldn't see anything. Her hands were trembling but she kept going.

Salma grabbed her sister's trembling hand and said " Don't worry! It's safe here."

"How do you know that? I can't see anything." Layla said as she held her sister's hand tightly.

"Well...Am not sure. But I know it's safe."

A bit later, they arrived at the tunnel.

Adam took the torch and handed it to Layla.

She took it in her hands.

"So? What now?" Salma asked.

"We just have to burn it and go in, right?" Layla asked with an unsure voice.

"Yep, probably." Adam answered

"PROBABLY?"

"Well yes, I don't know everything so there is a certain risk. Anyways I'll be right next to you so don't worry."

"No, I will worry. You keep talking like you're super strong. In truth, you have no idea what you're doing and you're probably not even that reliable." Layla shouted.

'She's right, I mean she is putting her life on the line.' Adam thought.

"Ummm. It is true that I don't really know much...." Adam looked around for something.

Not finding anything, he punched the wall opposite to the tunnel with all his strength.

The part of the wall that he hit was full of crack. After hitting it some more, a big rock fell down to the ground.

"Alright, you can stop. You're pretty strong let's just..."Layla said but she was interrupted.

"No, that's not what this is about." Adam brought the big front in front of her and Salma. It was as big as two car tires put one next to the other. "Don't be scared okay?" Adam said before putting his palm on the rock. One second later, it was turned to dust.

The two girls stepped back. "What the hell was that?" Layla asked.

"So cooool..." Salma said.

"It's a Skill. Any way, I can pretty much do the same to monsters. So as long as I am next to you, one touch is all I need to protect you from them." Adam said triumphantly.

"Woow! A hero! Hero! Hero!" Salma was jumping around with her arms raised.

"Alright, I get it. Just...just make sure you protect Salma." Layla said before lowering the torch towards the spider webs that closed the small tunnel.

"Sure! That's why I am here hahaha." Adam answered with a big smile.

Once the fire touched the spider webs, it spread towards the inside of the tunnel.

As the tunnel was dark, they could see the flame travel towards the inside of it.

It kept going for about 15steps.

"What the hell. This wasn't just a wall, the whole tunnel was filled with webs." Layla said with a surprised look. She continued while waving her hand in front of her face."Should we just come back later once the burnt smell is gone?"

"Sure. Let's do that. If the fire alarmed some monsters, it would be hard to fight in there." Adam stepped back towards the entrance of the cave, where they had arrived after entering the Dungeon.

They went back to the entrance of the cave and sat down.

"Am getting a bit hungry." Salma said.

"Should we continue training like before?" Layla asked.

"Umm am not sure. I guess the way you gain Stat Points is different for each individual. Even though we kind of did the same training, the result was completely different. The weirdest thing is for Salma's Sense Stat to go up by that much from training with a sword, although it probably has to do with her looking into the darkness and trying to figure out what was there. And then there's the fact that you only gained 2 Strength Stats by holding the weapon when you gained 5 in Agility. Maybe we should train what we're naturally good at." Adam said as he looked at the sky, through the holes in the ceiling.

"What are you naturally good at?" Salma asked.

"Nothing. Or maybe am kind of good at everything? My strength is at 43 but I trained it for a while. My agility is at 27 and Sense is at 45 now. I never really trained Agility. For the Sense Stat well, I used up my points on it. Maybe am an all-rounder?" Adam answered.

"And what's that?" Salma had curious eyes.

"It means that while some people are very very good at specific things, I am a bit good at everything. It's like how you have a scientist who's an expert in a specific field, and other scientists who know about a lot of different things. Ummm..." Adam scratched his head as he didn't find a better example.

"It's like how I am better at quizzes, but you're way better at naming animals. I always lose when the question is about animals." Layla explained to her sister.

"Ohh that makes sense. You should have explained it like that Adam." Salma continued "So I should train my Sense Stat while Layla should train her Agility."

"Yup, that's it." Layla answered.

"Hey Kayla, how do I train my Sense Stat?" Salma asked.

"Kayla?" Adam was confused.

"That's how she calls the System." Layla explained to him.

"What? It says I should meditate and focus on my senses or something. That's so boring. No way, am not doing that." Salma said pouting.

Adam thought for a bit.

"Is that so? Then let's train together. I'll train my Stealth Stat and you train your Sense Stat. We're playing peek-a-boo in the dark." Adam said jokingly.

"Yeeey! Let's do it."

"What about me?" Layla asked.

"I think you should sprint from one end of the cave to the other. If you go towards the spiderweb wall, you'll find obstacles on the way where you have to bend down, jump, go to the right and all that. You should keep running from here to the wall and back. Here take the torch. Ask the System if you have a question about anything." Adam handed her the torch and went deeper towards the spiderweb the wall with Salma.

"For real?" Layla muttered.

She was left alone.

'Good thing I wore baggy pants and a tank top today. I guess .' Layla thought.

She then got ready by putting her dark hair into a ponytail and stretched her legs a bit.

'This feels like sports class. I guess it's exactly the same really.'

She started running as fast as she could while holding the torch in her hand.

Meanwhile, Salma was sitting on the ground in the darkness. Her eyes were closed and she looked very focused. She loved playing games and especially loved winning.

Adam was about 7 meters away from her. He was barefoot. He had put his Old Assassin's Boots in his Storage in order to make the challenge fair, but also because he wanted to raise his Stealth Stat so items were not going to help him do that. He also didn't have his Dark Cloak on.

He slowly and stealthily made his way towards Salma.

His goal was to touch the top of her head.

Salma was focusing on every tiny information her senses could give her.

Her goal was to point towards Adam as soon as she was sure he was in a certain direction.

[ The Majority of Evil Spirits want to see blood.]

[ The Gods and Angels are pleased to see young cubs playing together.]

[ A Certain Evil is bored of the situation.]

[ The Fox Who Blesses Men is cheering on the incarnation Salma. ]

[ The Everlasting Winter is closely following the progress of the incarnation Layla.]

'Looks like those are interested in Salma and Layla. Hopefully, they can get a challenge like the one I had received. Some good Skills would help.' Adam thought for a second.

That instant of lost focus was more than enough for Salma to point at her right and scream "You're there!"

"I only lost focus for a second!" He too started taking the game seriously.

"Your fault! I won 3 times and lost 6 times for now."

'Is that why she won at Red Hands so much?'

They kept training for a while.

Many times, Layla passed them while she was sprinting. She only stopped a couple of times when she was really exhausted.

Adam noticed that her endurance regenerated itself much faster than his did. He remembered that when he was training for the challenge he had received, he slept a lot between training sessions.

They only stopped after 5 hours of training and resting, they got together at the entrance of the cave where it was full of light.

They never went all out like Adam did during the challenge, which was why they could train more instead of collapsing to the ground like he did.

Layla had been alternating between lots of running and a bit of strength training by moving the Iron Mace around.

Adam and Salma though, only played peek-a-boo.

Therefore, they never got tired.

Just as Adam and Salma asked Layla about her progress,

Layla said out loud "Stats. Compare them to initial stats. Give access to Salma and Adam."

A screen appeared in front of each one of them.

[ Stats: Strength: 9(+5)

Agility: 26(+17)

Sense: 6(+1)

Vigor & Endurance: 25(+15)

Unused stat points: 26(+26)

]

She had a proud expression. One full of nobility, not arrogance. She was proud of her hard work that showed its fruits.

"That...that's amazing." Adam was stunned at the growth she showed.

In only a couple of hours, her Agility increased enough to rival his.

He had realized that she had been running faster and faster every time she went past them but who would have thought it had increased that much.

Still, her Strength and Sense Stats were very low compared to Adam's.

"Hahaa! Of course! Layla is awesome." Salma said, jumping up and down and raising her sister's arm.

"Hahahahaa, sure. How about you two? Salma you start." Layla answered.

"Alriiight. Kayla, show them how much my stats improved since I've been here." Salma was puffing her chest out and held her head high.

[ Stats: Strength: 4(+3)

Agility: 5(+2)

Sense: 49(+39)

Vigor & Endurance: 3(+1)

MagicAffinity: 15(+5)

Mana: 10(+0)

Unused stat points: 26(+26)

]

"What....?" Layla muttered with her mouth wide open with surprise.

"Did you...did we...what is...how did you...?" Adam couldn't even formulate a complete sentence.

"Peek-a-boo was so fun especially when I got better and better. Did you know Layla? At one point I began winning way more than Adam was!!" She was very excited.

"Magic? What the hell? Salma..." Layla was still shocked.

"Mana? I don't even have that... So that's what talent looks like?" Adam muttered.

"Hahaaa I know right?! Praise me more!" Salma couldn't be happier at their surprised faces.

'Individuality huh? She didn't develop the Stealth Stat. Plus Magic Affinity started directly at 10. Not only that but she got a Mana Stat? It's too unbalanced, but that shows she has great potential. She should focus on Agility apart from where she's naturally gifted.' Adam was deep in thought and couldn't hear the other two calling out his name.

Finally, Layla shook his arm. Only then did he wake up.

"Haha. I surprised him so much he got confused." Salma was giggling.

"It's your turn." Layla said.

"Yeah, System show them my stats since I got here."

[ Stats: Strength: 43(+0)

Agility: 27(+0)

Sense: 45(+2)

Vigor & Endurance: 28(+0)

Magic Affinity: 12(+2)

Stealth: 35(+24)

Unused stat points: 4(-5)

]

"Only Stealth increased but that's what you wanted right?" Layla asked.

"Yes, although now Salma's Sense stat is higher than mine..." Adam answered.

"Hahaa I'll become the peek-a-boo world champion!!" Salma shouted.

"This isn't a competition. We all got stronger, and we need to be strong if we want to survive. Stop acting like children."Layla scolded them.

Adam was reminded that Layla was older than him.

"All right, let's go into that tunnel now." She walked away as she said that.

Layla completely took the role of the leader.