Chapter 6: 05 Exe.// Aoide_System Aoide Guardian

With his resolve strengthened, He looked up towards the facades of his past who had stretched and wide smiles across their fake faces as the walls of the orphanage distorted every so often.

He figured the so-called test was about his will power rather than just torturing him with the trauma of his past.

He clenched his fist, looking up straight into the smiling, mocking, eyes of his past, with shadows rotating around him making him feel small and trapped but he had to do this. He had to face his past.

"You aren't real."

Slowly the image stopped smiling, it's expression screwed up and turned ugly, as its eyes gazed down on him. What was once a human shadow portraying a facade had its limb stretched out, skin expanding as their arms and legs grew out.

"I am not real."

It suddenly leaped towards him, mouth wide open showing elongated fangs as saliva foamed at the mouth as it tried to take a chomp at him, holes opened up in its skin as the black mist came out from them and its eyes that used to be beady black eyes had lit up as white as snow.

Seeing it leap towards him, He was instinctively going to take a step back but remembering from the passage he read about the Guardian that he had to remain unwavering.

Instead, he rushed forward, readying himself for the inevitable push from whatever this thing was. He raised his arms, the man put his weight forward and felt the air around him tightening the closer he came.

He had only hope that this creature wouldn't hurt him too badly or kill him ...

His body suddenly jerked back onto the ground, feeling the soft caress of grass beneath him. He figured he was back to whatever reality he was in before, gazing upwards his stare met with the purple embers of a familiar creature.

The long and floppy ears twitched when the creature noticed the human that was laying on the ground had awoken rather quickly from its sleep. It puffed its cheeks out, before turning its head away in a stubborn manner and refusing to look at the human slowly sitting up.

"Did I pass?" He asked softly, waiting for the creature to turn around to look at him.

It still had refused to gaze at him, his hopes were sinking as time passed and the silence became deafening to him.

Hearing a familiar pinging noise, he looked up at the corner of his vision.

===1 new notification===

He harshly gulped and went to open it, focusing on what could be behind those damn words.

[Congratulations, Host. You have successfully bonded with the Aoide Guardian. Please continue to work hard. New Features have been unlocked by Aoide Guardian. Basic Chest has been stored in the inventory.]

He felt the breathe he was holding escape him in great relief of not failing, turning to the stubborn creature that refused to look at him.

"Do you have a name? I don't think I can keep on calling you Aoide Guardian?" The nose of the creature crinkled slightly, as it turned its head towards its Host.

"No name? Then can I name you?" The man couldn't help that his thoughts were going back to his old pet that he used to have when he was in the orphanage.

The creature tilted its head to the side, before fully turning its purple flamed body and approaching closer towards its new Host.

"Then ... I'll name you, Reece." It immediately began to hiss at the name making the man feel startled.

"OK! You don't like the name ... Got it. Then, what about Pinot?" Once more an even angrier hiss came from the creature, beginning to feel the heat of its fur.

"OK! OK! I am sorry. Otis! I'll name you Otis!" The creature immediately mellowed down and returned to normal as if it did not throw a tantrum over its own name.

"God ... That's rough ..." The man muttered to himself, he still felt it was a little unbelievable of what was happening to him.

"Now what? Do I get to start my second life yet? Do I have to do something even more bizarre?"

===1 new notification===

[MISSION — The Basics 4]

Open Basic Chest …

Difficulty: Tutorial-Based

[Reward - Rift Credits]

"Opening the chest?" He knew it was in his inventory, but he had no clue where it was …

He couldn't recall ever seeing the button for it, but didn't the system say that new features were unlocked?

Didn't that mean that the inventory would be a new feature?

He thought about the main interface within his thoughts, successfully bringing up the familiar screen in front of his eyes.

Otis sat close by, watching its host carefully.

[Host Stats] [Second Life] [Rift] [Shop] [Notifications] [Missions]

[Inventory] [Memories] [Lottery] [Worlds Menu] [Learning Space]

His eyes widened when he saw the amount of new features that popped up below the first ones. He could already figure out what Inventory and Lottery would be, but he had no clue what the others would do.

He decided to look into it later, he didn't want to mess with things he didn't understand. The Host then focused on the inventory option, watching as the screen zoomed in and opened up a grid. One of the boxes of the grid has the basic chest within it and he couldn't help but marvel at the realistic details of the basic chest.

The chest was bronze in colour, with copper accents on the sides of it with an auburn burnt colour of wood. The lock on the chest was also bronze, shaking slightly as if to entice him to open it.