The Third Party

Ken’s POV (12 yrs. and 3 weeks old)

“I still can’t believe that two weeks after my birthday, three weeks after Wilbert’s birthday, and one week after Celine’s birthday, we’d be able to witness such a spectacular display of magic, with mine and princess Lang’s battle, I realized it just now.” I said to my two companions which are Wilbert and Celine, while we’re walking back to our village,

It’s almost sunset, if I’m going to guess the time, it would be around 5:45 in the afternoon.

“Was it really necessary to include me in your realization?” Celine asked jokingly, smiling cheerfully. Did I mention that we’re weeks apart in age?

“Don’t forget about me too, and now that you’ve mentioned it, we haven’t really pondered about what happened about that particular day, six days has passed since then.” Wilbert said, in a pondering gesture.

“Were we given the task after the celebration? Yes, and right on the next day. Were we immersed in training afterwards? Yes, since the task given was to make our guests adjust and familiarize themselves on our training regime,

Thus not giving us time to ponder what happened, and we were having so much fun playing with the others during the celebration that we forgot what transpired before the celebration.” I chuckled after saying my thought, to which they agreed by nodding.

“I’m just glad it’s rest day for tomorrow,” Wilbert said while stretching his sore body.

“Me too.” replied Celine.

“Watch your step.” I said just as Celine was about to--

“Huh? AH!---“ trip on a rock.

“Careful.” said Wilbert, awwwww.

“Celine, clumsy as ever.” I said making her blush under Wilbert’s arms, before she straightened herself beside him and uttered an inaudible thank you to Wilbert, EEEEEEEEHHHHH!!!!!!

These guys are so cute! No matter which story I read or watch, I’m always a fan of cute fluffy couples!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not being able to contain all the crazy feeling, I launched myself towards their direction making us all tumble on the ground with me on top while the both of them are my pillows, softening my descent, and check this,

I get to see another extremely fluffy scene, the both of them are looking at each other’s eyes and blushing!!!! While Wilbert’s holding Celine in his arms! AGAIN! This is so cruel!!!! Torture! This should be considered illegal!

“You guys are casting me out huh? Take this! FURIOUS MAGIC: TICKLE TRAIN!!!!” I said before tickling them on and summoning clones of arms to tickle their sensitive parts, making a series of laughter ring down the road, MWUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

My cramps hurt, coupled with the weapons we are carrying, yeah let’s just say, that was a bad move.

_______________________________

“Dinner was yummy.” After stuffing myself full with the mouthwatering food mother prepared, I immediately hugged both my parents and kissed their cheeks before launching myself unto my bed.

Which ended up with me getting scolded, good thing father used telekinesis, stopping me mid-air, I got scolded when I was still floating on mid-air, hehe (cheeky smile), after thirty minutes or so, father dispersed the spell, letting me down on my bed, since mother went back to eating. How many times had I done it, let’s see, um….

‘Four hundred and fifty times now.’ -White-

“Is that it? Huh? I thought it was about five hundred now.” I said while slowly sprouting a smile on my face, feeling extra mischievous again.

“*sigh* This is the reason why you’re doing all this kinds of stuff?” White said feeling helpless.

“Well, I can’t help it, this world is just so intriguing, magic is so intriguing, and I would always jump towards my bed, since I’ve turned it extremely comfortable despite my pillow made out of straws, the bed made out of wood, and the cover and blanket made out of the lowest quality fabric.” I said.

“Yeah, like how you enchanted all those things with your magic just to make them quote and quote, comfortable.” White replied, is that a hint of smugness? I’m pretty sure I--

“Anyway, speaking of enchantments, I’ve also made some enhancements and adjustments when it comes to your ability, open your status and menu window now.” -White-

“Oh, okay ‘Open status, and menu window’.” I said, with the barrier in place, I’m sure mother and father won’t be able to eavesdrop on our conversation.

‘I’ve made a new window aside from the skill and customization windows, you now have the notification, mission/ quest, and talent tree window, aside from that, new features have also been added on your skills and customization and status window.

The notification window, as it implies, notifies you through a small window popping out in front of you about important stuff such as having level up a skill or finishing a quest or mission, you are also able to use the notification window to customize which other windows do you want to notify you through the notification window and vice versa.” -White-

“Mm, okay, that’s very helpful, I shall check them now. Skill window (skill window opened). Tell me the new feature on this.” -Ken-

‘I have added the feature ‘mastery’, wherein you are able to level up the skill or ability you have acquired or made through mastery points, mastery points are either achieved through training or completing quests -which are one of the reasons why I added a mission/ quest bar-,

Main missions however give a different reward, which is related to the customization window, the main missions you are able to complete give you primary points, seeing as your created ability ‘concept’ in my opinion and observation, is overpowered, thus I have restricted your ‘create’ option to be only accessible by gaining enough primary points.’ -White-

“Ehh???? Really? (checks customization window) You’re right, but why would you do so?” -Ken-

‘I believe the talent tree can answer that for you, check it out, and you’ll find your talents and the first one you’ve ever manifested in this world.’ -White-

“Okay, (opens talent tree bar) Singing, dancing, socializing, critical thinking… what’s this? ‘Manipulation Intellect’.” I looked at White asking for an explanation.

‘You have this innate trait to use whatever information you’ve gathered from a single thing, object, or knowledge, to your advantage in terms of pros and cons, and you have been using this trait since the first time you have entered this world, an example of that is you creating the ability ‘concept’, thus it turned into a talent.’ -White-

“I feel like I’m the only one who understands that and I feel like I should add something in regards with my ‘concept’ ability, I’ve been using concepts of things be it abstract or real, such as the fire magic I used in my last fight, by the concept of ‘suction’, like that of a black hole I was able to gather the flames the princess threw at me,

By the concept of ‘swirls’ and ‘spherical containment’ I was able to give it shape since the fire magic didn’t disappear but contained in an area or volume, thus allowing me to use the power against her.” I say.

‘The word concept is pretty abstract on its own, since it could be interpreted as something thought or imagined by a person, a broad principle affecting perception, an understanding or grasp of thing be it physical or not, and/or way of perceiving something by a person,

In your case, it’s more like you perceive the information of an object or phenomenon and use the vital information as a weapon on a particular situation.’ -White-

“Something like that… … Well no worries, I’m sure they’ll understand it when the time comes what it really means, or maybe they already understand it now.” I reply.

‘Agreed.’ -White-

As for the other talents, I’m sure I haven’t mentioned them before such as singing and dancing, but believe me when I say this, I sing and dance whenever I’m alone, and there’s something I’m going to do with it in the future, I’m only grateful that I haven’t forgotten about it.

Aside from that, the window showed a small sprout, with its leaves as the point where my talents are, right now I have 5 talents, equaling to five leaves, the other talent is flash reflex, the description in it says that,

I am ‘Able to respond to stimulus in a flash thus allowing oneself to assess any given situation in a blink of an eye, be it physical or mental activity, this is closely relatable to Manipulation Intellect’, hmm, an overpowered talent right of the bat, but I wonder if I’ll overpower hundred individuals with this, meh… probably not.

The other one is Cultivation, the description says that it’s like one of those marshal novels wherein I draw in the energy of the world or in this case the mana of the world to turn as my own mana, hmmm… does this cultivation also strengthens my body?

Oh what’s this one? It’s titled as ‘Adaptation’, wonder what this does… There’s no description, why doesn’t it have a description White?

‘You’ll know when the time comes.’ he said, what’s with the mysterious effect, ooh and the last one is, uhhhhh, is this supposed to be an insult? Or not? My last talent is called ‘Boundary’? And it doesn’t even have a description too, White, explain.

‘Like What I said awhile ago, only time will tell, Okay?’ Okay, I guess I’m good at waiting anyway.

‘Moving on, please check your skills window.’ -White-

“Okay, (opens skill window) Woah, you’ve lined up my skills according to their categories?” I ask.

‘Yes, I did, I’m sure you’re fairly familiar with active and passive skills, right?’ -White-

“Of course, active skills are the ones needed to be called upon by a user -which is me- in order to use the ability, as for the passive skills, there is no need for me to activate it by will since it’s always active at all times.” I explained.

‘Then what’s the difference between passive skills and talents?’ asked White.

“Huh... now that you’ve mentioned it, uh… I think my passive skills are only able to affect my other skills -but most of it are spells-, and my talents are what I’m able to do naturally, I can choose to let it affect my skills/spells or not.” I said, while pondering of the many other stuff that could explain the difference between passive skills and talents.

I’m sorry to disappoint but these are the only things I could come up with.

‘True, but there may be other explanations regarding the difference between passive skills and talents, so we’ll leave this topic open for discussion in the future.’ said White, which got me confused.

“I feel like you already know the answer to that, why won’t you tell me?” I said, looking a white floating by my side.

‘Where’s the importance of being challenged by trials or questions if I deliberately give you all the answers to your questions, or in this case, my question, you need to seek the answer yourself.’ -White-

“Oh, okay, I see now.” I reply.

“What’s this triangle shape at the top of all these skill categories? They have circles on every edge.” I asked, noticing the outline.

‘That’s where your passive skills will be situated, the empty circles represent that they will be able to be filled with passive skills you deem useful for you, whether it be created by you, or given to you, you can also choose to discard certain passive skills that you think are not useful for you -if you acquire passive skills that you don’t need by accident-, and replace them,

For each categorized spells, there are three slots for passive skills and ten slots for active skills, and they have similar functions, able to be replaced and or leveled up. The categories for your spells are fire, water, earth, air, ice, lightning, and nature, of the elements, healing, arcane, and moon,

Enchant magic also became a category, since you have spells from these sections of magic, you can also add other sections, with the same slots, but if the slots given to other categories of magic that you’ve learned are not occupied, the slots will instantly disappear, leaving those that were occupied,

Every categories, has ten skills - as I’ve said awhile ago-, eight of them, are those spells that you are able to use with a relatively low amount of mana, which I’d like to call, as ‘normal spells/skills’ the other two are spells that you are able to use with a relatively large mana,

I call them ‘Ultimate spells/skills’, but this is different with the moon category, there will still be three passive skills, but has only six active skills, four normal spells, and two ultimate spells, since the power and magic of the moon is much more stronger than the others.’ White said.

Another lot of information to take in, I feel like he’s purposefully giving me brain dump.

‘Nope, I am not giving you a brain dump.’ -White-

“If you say so.” I mumble.

‘As for your Concept ability/skill, it has only one slot on its category, with the skill name ‘Concept’, I’m sure you know the definition of this skill since you’re the one who made it, therefore there will be no need for me to explain it.’ White said. That’s fine with me, I’ll just show this ability for everyone to truly understand it for themselves.

“White since I’ve already made spells for each of the elemental categories, have you sorted out which spells are normal or ultimate spells?” I asked.

‘Yes, I have, you may adjust them to your liking.’ -White-

“Thank you, what else shall we discuss?” -Ken-

‘Your skills have levels, normal spells/skills can only be leveled up to level ten, while ultimate spells or skills can only be leveled up to level five, all your skills are currently on level one.

Your mission and/or quest window, displays the missions and/or quests you have currently accepted, with an added feature that notifies you if there is a certain objective to be done, which will classify itself if it’s a mission or a quest.

You may choose to either accept or deny the mission or quest, the needed requirements for the quest to pop out for you is when the certain objective is related or specifically asked, requested, or demanded for/ from you.

The status window has now been updated to display your information such as, Name, Race, Job, Level, Strength, Agility, Intelligence and the new added ones which are Defense, Luck, Mana Points, Health Points, AP -which stands for attack or magic power-, and Primary Points,

The mastery points are not displayed here since they automatically go to their respective abilities, even if the mastery point is a reward, but no worries, the mastery points reward, is classified to whatever ability it corresponds to.

I believe those are the things that I have recently done, more updates shall be done in the future.’ White said. That’s the last of them?

“Okay, cool.” I said. Obviously my name is already Ken Rogers, the race is Humans, Job, apprentice/disciple, I am on level twenty, strength fifty, agility sixty, intelligence one hundred and thirteen, defense five, luck thirty, mp two thousand five hundred fifty three, hp two thousand, ap four thousand, and primary points zero.

“Huh? Why is my ap so high?” I asked looking at White.

‘I believe it’s because you always train your magic.’ -White-

“Don’t I always do that everyday?” -Ken-

‘Let me rephrase that, you have implemented the training of energy called what’s that word again? I believe the word is ‘cultivation’, you have touched the foundation of the concept thus giving you a significant result,

As for what I know, cultivation is strengthening one's energy, in your case, you are constantly strengthening your magic making your attack power stronger, yes it may seem different from the standard cultivation, but you have made one nonetheless.’ White explained.

“Oh, I understand.” I said while looking at White and thought of something.

“Is there arrow magic?” I asked.

‘I believe there are, but I haven’t quite familiarized myself with them.’ White replied.

“Oh, okay, can you research some for me in advance?” -Ken-

‘Of course.’ -White-

“Thank you.” -Ken-

‘You’re welcome.’ -White-

I pondered other questions again and asked…

“Why does it feel like Wilbert and Celine are not the only protagonists in this world.” -Ken-

‘How can you say so.’ -White-

“Because they’re not the only ones who emitted white glows now or to be more specific, white golden glows, Princess Lang, Riyah, and Icarus emitted them too. I mean yeah, others emit other colors from their glow but why are there more of them? Why are there more protagonists?” I looked at him just as I had finished sorting out the menu and status window and closed them.

‘I believe it has something to do with the development of the main story line and their own stories, I think that with your appearance in this world had caused their fates to stumble upon each other, making their path the same in one go.

Princess Lang is a royal of a powerful dragon kingdom, Riyah and Icarus are from the guardian Avians, and Wilbert and Celine are closely related to one another which will greatly affect the course of fate for the kingdom of Ithel, each of them have important roles to play, which is why they emit white golden glows,’ White said. Okay, I understand.

“Is it a bad thing or a good thing?” I asked.

‘We will find out soon.’ -White-

“Okay, last question for the night so that we can both rest and have a relaxing day tomorrow.” I said, while getting myself comfortable under the cover.

‘Go ahead, ask away.’ White said, and bouncing once as if nodding towards me.

“Why am I the blessed child of the moon?” and just like that, the atmospheres awkward.

‘Oh… that… uh…’ -White-

“Don’t be reluctant White, please answer the question?” I said, determined to know why I was blessed with these powers but cursed with the threat of death looming right around the corner, ready to take away my life.

‘Honestly, I don’t know, since you and I are different entities from this planet, I am only able to access information regarding the normal stuff, but I am unable to gather information regarding the actions or intents of the gods here in this world,

I’m not powerful enough, but hey, it’s the limit of my capabilities, other than that, other information are easily accessible.’ Well that’s reassuring, but nonetheless, it’s enough for me for now.

‘And if you must know, regarding the blessed child incidents in the past, I think you’re the most capable candidate to bear this burden, you’ve already did the preparations needed for this prophecy to unfold without you even knowing.’ -White-

“Yeah, I totally agree with you.” I replied while positioning at my side, then looked sleepily at White.

‘Are you okay?’ asked White.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me, just slowly accepting the fact about my destiny.” I replied, with a reassuring tone, who would help me accept my fate if not myself, I mean, I wished for this didn’t I, why not take responsibility.

‘Okay, have a good rest.’ White said before, minimizing himself and entering my chest, that’s where he usually resides whenever we sleep, and when not, he’s beside me floating.

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The next morning…

“….”

“…en…” *groans* Come on I’m sleepy.

“KEN!” *SCREAMS* Wha? What? Who’s there?! Making me wake up so early in the morning.

“Wilbert? Celine? What are you guys doing in here.” How were you guys able to trespass my barrier.

‘They’re your friends, duhh, of course they can come in and out of your barrier, and you didn’t lock the door.’ Gee thanks for the explanation.

‘You’re welcome.’ -White-

“We’re going outside to play and have fun with the others, and get to know more about our guests, don’t you remember?” asked Celine, who was wearing normal clothes given by my mother, she looks just like a normal village girl, Wilbert too, he looks like a normal village boy.

“I remember it now, *GROANS* I wanna sleep some more. Why are you guys so early anyway?” I said and flopped myself back on the bed.

“Uh, I think you overslept, the sun’s already up.” Wilbert said. To which I drowsily nodded with my eyelids fluttering close, attempting myself to wake up but can’t.

“WAAAH! What are you doing! Put me down!” I said positioned like a bag of potatoes.

“Stealing you so we can bathe you.” Wilbert said calmly.

“What! That’s… ridiculous! I can bathe myself!” I said while trying to push myself off of Wilbert’s shoulder, but to no avail. I slumped back on his shoulder and started kicking and punching like a kid whining at his parents.

“Celine…” She’s just smiling at me, oh wait, that’s the scheming smile, they schemed against me and who said the sun’s up, the sun’s barely rising, meaning they both woke up early just for this?!

“You guys! AHHH!!!!!!!!” and there’s my cries of agony.

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