Chapter 150 - The Immeasurable Shock
"...Unbelievable."
That was the first word that came out of Anthony\'s mouth when his sight went over the surrounding. It struck him much more than a normal person mostly because he is a man who believes in the power of science, after all. That was why when his body somehow felt strange, rather than thinking it as a supernatural effect, he thought it was an illness for people at his age, even though he wasn\'t that much older to the point to get sick easily. Even a friend of his, a doctor was unable to find any problem with his body; in fact, it seemed he was healthier than ever. That was especially the case after he was bedridden in the hospital for the earthquake incident.
One would usually wake up to the small pain or soreness after experiencing an incident yet; he awoke and feels perfectly healthy. There was no pain anywhere in his body; also, to his surprise, the scar he received due to the surgery in the past also disappeared. It was as if he didn\'t have any scar in the first place which was unbelievable and caused him a bit of confusion for a few days. But no matter how strange it is, the result was there for him to see so he couldn\'t do anything other than put it off from his mind.
But that was nothing compared to what he was witnessing at the moment. The first thing he did was to organize his thought before investigating his whole surrounding yet all of it seemed to tell him that it was real. Everything he had just experienced was nothing but real, there were no hologram or science at work here. It was the thing he didn\'t want to believe nor admit, it was the force from the supernatural. While he was dumbfounded by the sight, Sheila could be seen explaining everything there is about Trial Tower to Sara at the corner of his view. Because he was distracted by his surroundings, the scene about the two didn\'t enter his mind.
"So this is the \'Tower\'. It does make one feel like they are in another world, perhaps because of the difference in the atmosphere."
Sara muttered while observing her surroundings and the sky. She didn\'t know how but she could feel a different air in the atmosphere, maybe it was just like what Sheila said, it was the mana that she senses. The manas within the Trial Tower is much thicker than the real world, after all. Once she was done observing her surroundings, Sheila gives her now dubbed as \'Identification Card\'. Seeing as Mia didn\'t experience any sort of problem using it, she assumed the experiment was a huge success. Of course, this didn\'t escape from Anthony\'s view as although he was still dumbfounded while blankly staring at the air, a part of him was still watching the surrounding, especially on the two at the corner of his view. It was only now that he realized about it as he turned around, facing the two before walking toward them.
"What is that?"
"Identification Card. Whoever holds onto it could reenter this place anytime and anywhere, no matter if they are at the opposite of the world or on the moon, it\'s possible. Of course, that\'s not the only one function it has, here\'s one for you, father."
Sheila said before giving one to his father as the latter immediately examine it carefully as if it was an unknown treasure, or so he wanted to do but the interface that suddenly appeared out of the card like a hologram surprised him further. Though Sara was also surprised at how the interface looks almost game-like, she wasn\'t as surprised as him since she had already known about it from Sheila.
『 Sara LV.1 』
『 HP:25/25 MP:35/35
Class: Mage
STR: 3
INT: 7
AGI: 5
VIT: 5
LUCK: 5
AP: 0 』
『 Anthony LV.1 』
『 HP:30/30 MP:15/15
Class: Warrior
STR: 7
INT: 3
AGI: 4
VIT: 6
LUCK: 3
AP: 0 』
"Oh? Father is a warrior, huh? That\'s neat."
Sheila commented when she saw her father\'s status, especially his class. When she tried imagining Anthony wearing light armor coupled with a sword in his hand, it does give the feeling that the image fits him very well. Though he had played a few games once in a while when he was at home with his daughter, there was still some part that he didn\'t understand. At the very least, he understood that if one class is that of a warrior, it means that they are a front-liner who mostly used a sword as a weapon. When he was growing to adulthood, he never thought that his abnormal strength (compared to average) was because of his class. Heck, he thought that was because of the gene inherited from his family, but apparently, his guess was wrong.
Sheila also didn\'t expect to find another mage so close to her; it was even more surprising because it was actually her mother. She had thought Sara would have a class about management since her capabilities on that particular job was definitely beyond average. Perhaps, there was no such a class or maybe, she didn\'t fit the requirement like those in RPG. Whatever it was, Sheila was happy that her parents actually have a class, even though it was a normal one. Both of her parents would definitely become even stronger if they teamed up together as one, Sara assisting at the back and Anthony attacking the enemies on the front while also protecting her. Such imagination runs through her mind.
"Am I in a game? No, that shouldn\'t be possible with our current technology. Virtual Reality hasn\'t reached the point where our consciousness could enter the virtual world just yet. What is this then?"
Anthony muttered softly to himself and continues his analysis over the card and the \'status\' interface. The only result he found was that if he thought \'quest\' in his mind, another new interface appeared, overlapping the previous one. But even if the quest interface shows up, there was no quest available since Sheila hadn\'t put one for them just yet. Sheila didn\'t want them to accidentally accept the quest, after all. No matter how strong one class could be, if they didn\'t prepare for battle, it would be easy to get taken by a sneak attack which results in their death. Especially when knowing the slime as their opponent as in most stories or games, they were known or brand as a weak monster. It wouldn\'t be a surprise if one looked down on them due to the common sense they learned from those cases.
After all, she did experience it the hard way. Thankfully, it didn\'t result in her death. Once she feels that the two have enough observed/analyzing the card and its content, Sheila stepped forward to explain deeper into details about its many useful functions.
"I\'m still unable to believe everything here is real…"
Anthony muttered after Sheila finished explaining everything to them. Sheila didn\'t say anything and only glance at her mother for a few seconds in silence as the latter understood her gaze and nod in response. Suddenly, a mouthful ball of flame appeared, floating in the air in front of the three. Of course, it was the doing of Sheila since she wanted to show proof to her father that everything here was nothing but real.
"Whoa! Where did this fire come from?!"
Anthony shouted in amazement at the appearance of the fireball.
"It\'s one of my skills, fire magic."
Sheila said before sending the fireball to the ground a distance away from their location before exploding once it hit the ground. It was quite the sight, truly. If a certain crazy-head girl were to see the explosion, she would have called it as a beautiful masterpiece of artwork. It was both beautiful yet destructive as one could see how much damage it caused at that particular location, leaving a small burned crater on the ground. Because of her high stats in intelligence, the firepower was much stronger than a normal fireball. If that fireball had hit a human instead, they would be burned to death, no doubt about it. Of course, hearing his daughter\'s word brought a surprise to him yet understandable, although he was still complex about everything, there are still part of him that believes what he experienced is real.
Sheila didn\'t wait for her father as she immediately opened up the interface which can only be seen by her and went through the system shop, searching a good weapon for her parents to use. Because she didn\'t know what class they would have, she didn\'t prepare the weapon for them just yet. While Sheila was staring blankly in the air, Sara went up to her husband before speaking to him about her family\'s only secret. The response she received was within expectation as she chuckled.
"…the world is a lie."
Anthony could only mutter such words after receiving shocking information one after another without any break in within, it almost caused his brain to malfunction from overheating. Even the headaches he had for his business that was rooted in his thought for the past few days have long disappeared into oblivion. Never did he thought his family was far from ordinary. Even the world that he believes to rule with science and logic actually holds a much deeper secret than he expected, it was enough to break his common sense apart.
It took him half an hour to calm his heavy breathing, and meanwhile, Sheila and her mother were enjoying a small tea break, seated on a chair next to Anthony. Although Sara couldn\'t wait and would like to see how the slime looks like, she also didn\'t want to add more pressure to him while the latter was processing as much information as he possibly could. But with Sheila by her side, she wasn\'t bored or anything since her daughter would show off a bit of her strength to her in a way that it won\'t get into Anthony\'s view. Even if he could hear a few noises from them, he didn\'t turn around as his mind was preoccupied with something else.
"So, in short, I am now an awaken person? From what the interface showed, I\'m also a warrior class. Does that mean I have the skill for the specific class?"
Sheila nodded in response before saying.
"You can check your skill like how you had done with the quest. If you had done this before, it won\'t work since I turned it off. Of course, now it works properly, so check it out."
When the skill interface appeared like a hologram out of the card, Sheila leaned closer toward her father. As expected, he got a few skills for his specific class such as Fierce Stab for offense, Anchor Howl for attracting aggro, etc. If Sheila hadn\'t seen his class, she would have thought he was a tank based on his skills. But then again, who said a warrior couldn\'t be a tank? This is not a game, after all. Perhaps it\'s possible for him to become a tank even though he was a warrior in class. Either way, once the two finished checking up on their skills and do a couple of test-firing to get used to it, it was finally the time to put them to use in real combat.
"Are you two ready?"
Sara and Anthony nodded their head in response. Although they were still visibly nervous, it was not so bad that it will become a problem in battle. Looking at her parents fully equipped with a weapon in hands, Sheila smiled before snapping her finger that caused the air to tremble as the slimes appeared a distance away from their location. Sheila secretly smiles in glee when looking at the two surprised and amazed look on their face. Sheila didn\'t actually need to do finger snapping as with only a single thought, she could change the zone to a combat one. It was a useless action yet she couldn\'t help but ended up doing it anyway. It was definitely not because she thought it would be cool that she does it. Absolutely.