Midnight hunting

Sitting back down, Ethan stared at the screen, his heart still pounding. 'Twin short blades. Returning magic.'

"Holy shit."

He could already picture it—swinging the blades mid-combat, throwing one to take out an enemy, watching it zip back to his hand catching another enemy off guard.

He let out a breathless laugh. "Okay. Lady Luck, I take it back. We cool."

Navigating to his inventory, he retrieved the blades.

Slowly unsheathing them, he ran his hands across the smooth surface of the blade, their silver edges glinting sharply under the moonlight.

The runes along the hilts, glowed faintly, shifting as his hands moved.

Standing up, Ethan spun one of the blades. Pausing he turned to face a corner of the room then hurled the blade at the wall. With a sharp thud, it embedded itself into the wall.

Watching the blade vibrate, a slow grin spread across his face. Stretching his hand, the blade rattled, dislodging from the wall, it flew back into his hands. "Now that... that's something."

Sheathing the blades, he turned his attention to the red marker on the HUD.

"Time to hunt a rat."

Exhaling sharply to ease the excitement bubbling within him at the prospect of using the twin blades, he snuck out of the house.

Outside, two moons shone down brightly giving the surrounding a calm serene outlook.

Looking up, Ethan noticed the smaller of the moons had a subtle golden hue around its edges.

Shaking off the sense of unease and being watched that he felt, he followed the red dot on the HUD, soon he arrived at his destination: A small cave opposite a stream.

Grabbing the blades, he walked into the cave cautiously. Walking for a few minutes, he noticed the faint glow of a campfire.

Hiding behind a wall, he slowly peeked.

Beside the campfire Gareth crouched down on the floor, his teeth hungrily sinking into the skin of a roasted rabbit, muttering unintelligibly, "Damn you Ethan Cross, damn you, damn you, damn you."

Looking up, he laughed maniacally. "In a few more weeks, I'll get word to Lord Bolton let's see who's laughing last then."

Ethan whispered in the dark. "It's really sad seeing a elderly man go insane."

Gareth eyes darted around the cave startled. "Is that you Ethan?"

After a brief moment of silence and no response, he stood up cautiously clutching the stick in his hand. "Who's there?"

Another oppressive silence followed.

"Am I going insane? Or—"

Ethan's voice drifted in from another corner of the cave. "Indeed you are."

Turning to the direction of the sound, Gareth's eyes darted around frantically. After a mintue, he began laughing wildly, his breathing ragged. "Is this the gods punishing me?"

Ethan's voice drifted in from another part of the cave. "Yes, It definitely is."

Twirling sharply, Gareth screamed, "Show yourself!"

The cave walls seemed to close in on him. As another bout of silence permeated the air, the fire crackling softly beside him.

Glancing across the seemingly empty cave, Gareth murmured, "This is it, I've lost it, I have truly lost it."

While laughing wildly, he heard the sharp swishing of a blade cutting through the air.

Before he could react, he felt a blade lodge into his neck.

The blade trembled violently before dislodging from his throat. Gurgling, Gareth's hands reached for his neck, clutching desperately at the blood pooling between his fingers.

His legs gave way and his body sagged to the floor, eyes glassy with shock. Coughing up blood he stared at the figure approaching him, with his vision growing dark, he called out weakly. "E—Ethan?"

Crouching down, Ethan stared at Gareth with a blank expression, wiping the blade against Gareth's tattered cloak, he replied, "No, retribution."

The cave fell silent, save for the soft crackling of the fire. Exhaling, Ethan stared at Gareth's corpse.

Surprised that despite this being the first time he killed someone, he felt no regret nor guilt over it.

After all it was either Gareth or him.

As he shook off the thought, the screen flickered back to life:

[Mission Complete...]

[Unlocking Mana circuits.]

Staring at the last message on the screen, Ethan felt a deep-seated feeling of dread crawl up his spine.

"Wait! Not n– "

The words seized in his throat, twisting abruptly into a sharp guttural roar.

"Arghhh."

A wave of pain cascaded through Ethan's body, like a thousand ants stinging him concurrently.

His knees went weak, followed by his body buckling beneath his weight as he fell to the ground.

As his body writhed on the floor, he spoke through gritted teeth. "You.. son.. of.. a.."

For a moment, he thought he saw five faces in the void, watching him with hollow eyes that shimmered with bright intensity.

Blinking, his hazy vision cleared up, chugging the vision up as hallucination from pain.

He curled up into a ball, gritting his teeth as the wave of pain continued thrashing over his body.

After five more minutes of intense pain and cursing, his body spasmed lightly as the pain slowly subsided.

Ethan stared at the notification before him, in a daze.

[Congratulations on gaining shadow elemental affinity.]

[Bonus Perk: Attribute Screen Unlocked.]

His eyes stared at the screen with a dull expression, as it changed again.

[Host: Ethan Cross.]

[Realm: Mana Novice.]

[Elemental Affinity: Shadow | Locked | Locked | Tap to expand...]

[Settlement: Cross | Village.]

[Attributes.]

Agility: 10

Stamina: 10

Strength: 10

Soul: 13

After a few minutes, Ethan gradually sat up his breath heaving. "What was that for! You could've let me prepare at least."

The system's prompt stared back at him displaying the same message with a monotonous gaze.

Glaring at the prompt, Ethan's breathing became unsteady. After a while, he took deep shaky breaths, trying as much as he could to steady himself.

While he lay on the ground, his limbs felt lighter and heavier at the same time.

His skin buzzed, every breath felt fuller, deeper, as if he had been unknowingly holding back his entire life.

Ethan felt a slight warm current flowing through his body, like submerging into a warm tub after a long day at work.

His body shivered, breath trembling as he stood up.

Leaning against the wall, his iris glowed golden briefly before returning to its usual black.

Closing his eyes, he felt the shadows around the cave, a thought flashed through his mind lighting up his face with a smirk.

Despite his instinct screaming not to attempt what he was thinking off, he ignored his instincts and went for it.

The shadows around him pulsed to life and enveloped him, spitting him out a second later.

Crashing into the cave wall, his body trembled violently, drawing deep breaths in-between gasps, he slowly sat up.

Rubbing the sore spot on his body, he murmured, "That was painful."

Staring at the system's screen, he swore it looked at him in disdain, almost as if it was questioning his intelligence or what pushed him to the attempt he just made.

Groaning, Ethan flipped the screen off–just incase it was staring at him in disdain.

Standing back up, he felt a light trickle on his lips reaching up he dabbed it.

Gazing at the blood on his fingers, he murmured, "Note to self: novels, games and whatnot, don't describe how magic work well enough."

Sitting down on the ground, he crossed his legs, going into a meditative state.

After an hour, his eyes snapped open.

Cracking his neck, he walked out of the cave jogging slowly at first, gradually trees blurred past him as broke into a run.

Half an hour later, the village came into view.

Tormund, the new self-appointed village night watch sat by a fire near the edge of the village.

Smoke thickets wafted through the air accompanied by the scent of roasted potatoes.

Ethan slowed down merging into the shadows, careful not to alert him or disturb the villagers sleeping, he snuck into this house.

As he lay on the bed, slowly recounting the events of the day, dying of a heart attack, waking up in the world of a game, becoming a village chief and killing someone for the first time ever, exhaustion washed over him and he drifted off to sleep.

Minutes later the door groaned and Anna snuck into the room.

"Hehe."

She walked to his bed quietly climbing onto it cuddling Ethan, her finger running through his hair with an almost crazed expression on her eyes murmuring unintelligibly as she slowly closed her eyes.

*******

Five figures wearing white priestly robes with a five pointed star emblazoned on it stood outside of a cliffside temple illuminated by the twin moons light.

Above them, the smaller of the twin moons shimmered faintly—its golden hue increasing lightly.

Noticing the increase, one of them whispered, "And so It begins..."

"The first tick... of the hands of fate," said another.

The central figure raised his hand toward the glowing moon as he knelt down, gazing at it with a reverent gaze. "And so the Fates turn their gaze once more on us."

Kneeling down, the others echoed back his words. "And so the Fates turn their gaze once more on us."