From now on we are Strangers

'I don't want to do anything today.'

Alice thought as she looked at the ceiling. She had been lying in bed for the past five minutes after waking up.

Last night she had been serenaded to sleep by Noah.

Now another day had come and she didn't have the motivation to try anymore. With the door locked and no disturbances, she just wanted to stay asleep.

"Status page," Alice said while still lying on the bed.

_____

Lv.0

Name: Alice Rhinehart

Age: 17

Race: Human

Attributes-

[Strength 9(3+6)] [Agility 11(3+8)] [Physique 5(1+4)] [Intelligence 9] [Willpower 7] [Sense 7] [Mana 1]

(Bonus Attribute Points: 0)

Awakened Talents-

Guarded by Love (C++ Class)

Future Sight (F Class {Sealed})

Negative energy (B+ Class)

Traits-

[Special Eyes] [Silent] [Thorny]

Skills-

[Lv.1 Dark light (F Class)]

(Skill Points: 0)

_____

She had already familiarised herself with all that she could have with the system. The system itself was made to be quite intuitive. It was even more so for someone like her who had spent a lot of time playing games in VR for the last four years.

At some point, she had been spending up to 16 hours daily in VR. So she had tried all sorts of games. Naturally, she had played games with status pages as well.

Her attributes were much higher than when she came. Her main strength attribute had risen by 2 points using the strength stone. With the blunt wolf dagger, that added a 3, she was able to get a strength of 9. The dagger also added attributes to her agility and physique.

But she did find it a little surprising to see that the boost in attributes was still active even when she wasn't holding the dagger, rather had it on the table.

'My strength attribute has increased a lot in a single day. With my high agility, I should be able to fight well in close combat.'

Alice then paused, as she remembered the fight she had with the wolf.

When she had found out that she would need to kill monsters to survive, she didn't think it would be difficult. In VR she had killed monsters, some games even had realistic graphics, with all the blood and gore spilling out as she fought monsters. Some games prided themselves on being 99% realistic.

From how she saw it the eternal battlefield was just one big game- kill monsters, level up, learn skills and farm equipment. She had done this hundred of times,

But when the realisation that this was reality came, it hit different, incredibly so.

The fight with the wolf had terrified her: its presence had shaken her to her core. The scent of the wilderness from its fur, the intimidation in its eyes and her awkward movements had stunned the unexpecting her. At that moment when the realisation slapped her, the first thought that came was that she's already dead. If Noah hadn't helped then she would have definitely been eaten.

During the fight, even if she overcame the intimidation, the fact she was killing another living breathing being had set in as well. She had gotten blood all over as she stabbed. The wolf howled in pain because of its injury. Its distress made her feel guilty as well. The wolf hadn't done anything to her, yet she killed it to get a few copper.

The feeling of being so close and upfront to the reality of the situation was too much for her.

'Should I change my weapon mastery?'

Before the fight with the wolf, she had decided to use short swords and daggers. The decision hadn't required much thinking as it was the only weapon she could carry.

In actuality, she had thought of several reasons why the dagger worked well for her before the wolf fight. Her father was an heir to an ancient martial art house, he was one of the strongest people on the planet having trained to the highest level in multiple types of styles of fighting. As his daughter, she had his talent.

She had trained in gymnastics when she was younger. Although she had stopped around 5 years ago, skills had gotten rusty, she still had a base to work with.

Now after the battle, she wasn't sure anymore.

'My intelligence is high but magic and skills seem complicated.'

Closing her eyes Alice reached her hand out, "Dark light."

Nothing happened. She failed in activating the skill. She had tried using her skill dark light before as well, but couldn't have it work. The amount of brainpower it took was immense, it was like instantly connecting imaginary dots that randomly moved about. She couldn't really use skills that well. A moment of pause would cause it to fail.

From the system, she learned that magic was even more complicated than skills. It had to be used without any assistance and required an incredible amount of memorization and imagination.

Although she had high intelligence in attributes, she didn't do well in school. She didn't like studying, and memorising information was her nemesis.

Taking all of that into account she decided her combat style wasn't going to be mage-like.

Next was range combat. She had the attributes, sadly she wasn't gifted in shooting and had terrible aim which was why she hadn't kept it as an option before the fight with the wolf. But after the fight when walking to the training ground yesterday, she had made up her mind to choose [Firearm Mastery].

Wands and staves required the use of magic which she could not perform. Finally was bow and firearm, from the two, the choice had been simple it was: firearm mastery.

She understood that this mastery choosing would be like her foundation for her life here in the eternal battlefield. The bow wasn't something she could work with. The patience and elegance needed to use it- she didn't have that.

However, when Noah had chosen [Firearm mastery] she decided to go with [dagger mastery].

Simply, it was to avoid Noah. She didn't want to be close to him all day and be compared to him as well.

It was obvious to her that he would do amazingly well during the training. Then there was her who had never held a real gun in her life. She knew that Noah would completely outshine her. She would only make herself feel inferior if she chose it. So she chose [Dagger Mastery]. Considering Noah's personality he might even hide his skill and perform worst just to make sure something like that didn't happen. That would be even more damaging to her self esteem.

She had thought Noah would have picked [Sword mastery]. But when he chose firearm mastery she understood that he had chosen it to be with her. With his intelligence guessing what she would have chosen was simple. He wanted to train with her.

When they were younger, Noah would be busy the whole day having trainers coming from after school to 8 pm almost every day. He had been trained in all types of martial arts. This meant weapons as well. He had started fencing when he was 8. She also knew that at the age of 10 Noah had already started to learn how to use a gun.

She knew that Noah had continued his fencing practice and was extremely skilled in it as well. He had shown mind-blowing skill at the 2048 Olympics in fencing winning gold in all three individual fencing events. It hadn't even been a year since then so Noah was amazing with a sword. Yet he still chose [Firearm Mastery].

Now a day later she had cooled off a bit and was having second thoughts.

'Should I have made such a rash decision? Training with Noah wasn't that big of a deal.' If she hadn't been avoiding him, it would have been the ideal situation, having Noah help and teach her as well.

Alice got off her bed and started getting ready to go to training.

She gave her status page one last look.

"Details of my traits."

[Special Eyes: Born with a unique pair of eyes]

[Silent: you are a quiet person]

[Thorny: you don't like people getting too close]

"These are such trash descriptions, can't you give me more information?"

[The system is only allowed to give out limited information on traits.]

"So that's a no."

This was the answer she had gotten before and she had gotten again. If her instructor hadn't pointed it out she wouldn't have even noticed what the traits [silent] and [thorny] did.

Yesterday when she had been sparing with her instructor, at one point she had been able to almost sneak an attack at her instructor. It was also when her instructor had stabbed at her reflexively in defence breaking away from the strength she limited herself to for the spar.

Her instructor told her that she couldn't hear her movements, and hadn't sensed the strike at first, which was why she had such a big reaction to it. So when Alice attacked from blind spots it would get incredibly hard to detect until the weapon was incredibly close.

Other than [silent] was [thorny], during the spar her instructor had complimented her counter attacks. Whenever she blocked a hit or took one, her body's first reaction was to counter back. She understood it was the effect of the thorny trait. To attack back in close range.

These two traits worked well with [Dagger Mastery].

She wanted to go and confirm her assumptions about the traits at today's training. If she was right, she would continue training in [Dagger Mastery].

....

Alice unlocked her door and walked down the stairs to see Noah with breakfast ready waiting for her. Noah looked at her and wanted to say something.

But Alice avoided his gaze and walked straight to the door. She walked out of the house and walked to the training ground again. Today was going to be her second day of training.

Noah followed her like a tail. He ended up not saying anything after sensing her mood but didn't leave her side.

At the training ground, Alice found her instructor and separated from Noah.

They both then spent another day. It consisted of the same schedule they had yesterday.

"Alice let's change it up a little, rather than just practising strikes. This time I'll be wearing this protective suit, and you'll attack me." The lady instructor, Tania said.

Tania wore the large white protective suit. And stood in front of Alice. She was used to Alice not talking and didn't mind.

"Use the training dagger to attack me, try to aim for my neck, face, arms, groin and thigh." Her hands moving to show the location of each region on her body.

"These places will help you the most when killing another human or humanoid monster." Tania then clapped her hands ready to take Alices hits.

Alice started with a weak hit and was easily blocked.

"Come on! Use your entire body, get as much speed and strength you can muster! I know you can do better."

Alice attacked again this time faster and fiercer. She then continued her streams of attacks moving between slashes and stabs.

In the end, she was pushed back by Tania making her fall back on the ground.

Tania walked forward, "Well done! Let's keep at it!" Tania helped Alice up and continued the training.

...

Soon the morning 6 hours of training passed quickly. Alice made her way to the lunch area. Noah was like a bee, started hovering around her.

She didn't want to start a conversation so she didn't say anything and moved on. She ate a lot, stuffing herself with multiple servings. She had skipped breakfast, so the only reason she had been able to keep up with training was the strength stone.

She also ate more since she wasn't going to eat the food that Noah made for her anymore.

During those 6 hours of training, she had confirmed her thoughts about her traits, deciding that she would stick to [Dagger Mastery].

The theory classes and sparing session went by and soon the two had to go back home.

....

Noah and Alice reached Home at sunset.

Alice locked the door to her room again.

Noah sat outside her room again.

Noah spoke to her for the first time since she had gotten mad.

"Alice, I thought I'd be satisfied with just being near you but I'm much greedier than I imagined can't I at least hug you?"

Alice opened the door and looked at Noah.

Noah who was sitting with his back against the door turned and got up.

"Noah, I've changed I'm not the same person you used to know, you've changed as well we aren't the same. The engagement between us has already been cancelled, we're just strangers now," Alice said while looking Noah in the eye. She had decided that she had to clearly tell Noah to forget about her. Her hands shaking, she was finally saying what she wanted to say for so long.

Noah held her shaking hand and brought it to his face, having her hand caress his face. His talent Truth seeker allowed to know that other than the engagement ending everything else had some lie in it.

He could tell she was hurting on the inside telling him to stay away.

"I'm sorry, I have no excuse for what has happened but can you give me a chance? I want to be by your side. I don't mind learning everything about you again."

Alice pulled her hand away.

"You lost your chance when you didn't come back once during the last four years."

"Alice, I tried..."

"Stop. I don't want to hear excuses. It won't change anything. Four years ago, when you sent the letter about breaking our engagement at my parents funeral, everything between us had ended. When I was at my lowest and worst point in life you only kicked me down further."

Noah was surprised by what Alice said and wanted to intervene but Alice wasn't going to let Noah speak.

"You know what stings, even more, is that I couldn't forget you. You were the only person I could believe in that was still with me. Even after the letter, I wanted you to come back and say it was all a lie. I would cry myself to sleep thinking of you. Now when I finally gave up, you show up?"

Noah listened in silence.

Alice calmed down a bit and took a deep breath, "Thank you, thank you for saving my life. Because of you, I was able to survive for four years. It allowed me to see you again and finally tell you: I love you." Alice smiled as she said this.

"I fell in love with you since the moment I saw you, and I've only loved you. Now I want to forget you. The emotions we had have been washed with time. The person I am today, the person you fell in love with, one of them is already dead. I'm sure you can tell who as I'm still breathing."

Noah fell to the floor powerlessly, his mind filled with everything she'd said.

Alice closed her door and sat on her bed. Everything was over now. She laid in her bed staring into space.