— a.h.a. headquaters of the oregon state, portland, oregon, september 2022

  Since he had already understood the fact that there was barely anything he understood, he had to resort to the smartest way of finding out under the given circumstances.

  "Do you know what all of this means?" he asked Hayden Chase, who was still busy looking at him in his uncertain manner.

  As Hayden remained silent, Rue answered without actually being prompted, just annoyed by them being all secretive in her presence. "What means what?"

  During the last three minutes, Hayden's mind had taken twists and turns in a way it rarely did. He was known to foster quite the temper, but this was different. He hadn't felt in the wrong at all about getting angry. Yet, there was something so inherently strange about the brat he saw in front of him and there were so many other things he felt at the moment, that he didn't want to pursue the matter.

  "That thing in front of me, I mean," the brown-haired told her.

  He wasn't slow however, which was why he came to the conclusion that he must be talking about something related to Solomon's System. To him, what really mattered was the confirmation about Isaac being an Awakened.

  At the same time, he seemed fairly new at this, not even knowing that System Windows were private to the Awakened, so did it really happen a few minutes prior after all? Then again, was he wrong about the birds?

  'But it was timed so well,' he thought with suspicion, "I can't see what you see, you know?"

  "I didn't know."

  "Is that so?" Hayden replied, "Tell me what you see that you don't understand without the small stuff."

  "Can't I just show you somehow?" Isaac questioned.

  "It's possible, sure, but you don't show something like that to others on a whim, bro. You just don't. Don't even think about it."

  "But what's the point? I don't really care about those numbers."

  "It's strategic. Also, you wouldn't tell everyone how light you are, right?"

  "Wouldn't you say 'how heavy'?"

  "Not in your case," he said, "Anyway, just tell me what it looks like. Is it small or big?"

  "I can't tell what counts as big or small, but I can see my name. There's numbers marked with abbreviation of sorts. It says stuff like 'MP', 'AUT', 'STR', and so on."

  "That's no Status Window then," the aspiring Hunter clarified.

  "What else could it be?"

  "It's 'Status', basically a tiny Status Window. It doesn't have Skills or anything on it. Happens when you open it with 'Status' instead of 'Status Window'."

  "Uselessly specific." Isaac rolled his eyes at the function, yet he thought "Status Window" anyway.

  The initial Window closed right off the bat, being replaced by a much larger one.

  "Huh," Isaac remarked with an incredulous expression on his face, "this thing even knows about my second name."

  "Of course it does. This thing is made by literal Gods." Hayden, on the other hand, acted as if he had heard something unreasonable.

  "'Gods'?" That did get him to focus a bit on the other, after all.

  "There's no way you don't know about what Authorities really are, right? I mean, sure, Authority's what they call themselves, but it's clear they are Gods or some similar shit."

  It was true that he had known about what this System was, in a way, but he hadn't caught up to what mankind had gathered about it as much.

  "Since when have humans decided they were Gods?"

  Taken aback, Hayden cocked an eyebrow at his junior. "Humans? What's with that, dude?" He then shook his head, making the locks – which he had gathered together in a messy ponytail – jump around behind him.

  Rue Seo jumped onto their conversation, as she gathered the gist of it by listening in from the side. "It's not like they would say that out loud on the news, but seriously, there's Temples for some of them already. It's an open secret, son. Do you live on the dark side of the moon?" she joked around.

  Her ability to just blend in and barely making herself known, even when she felt left out, struck him as somewhat amazing. She usually had shorter temper than this.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  In any case, they did both seem quite enthusiastic about the whole idea, even as they pretended to be offended at Isaac's missing knowledge.

  He thought humoring them might be the best choice. "You seem to be sure about it."

  "You bet," Hayden stated, while Rue's eyes lit up as she watched him talk about the powers that supposedly made it possible for Hunters to even exist, "and 'Solomon's System'? Isn't it obvious who they are? We know of 71 different Authorities by now, doesn't that ring a bell? Until a while ago, we only had 70, so it's not like we know all of them."

  With "them" he was referring to the Ars Geotia, or "The Lesser Key of Solomon" – so they had realized it. There were evidently numerous humans who had seen the connection.

  'It is dangerous, knowing the true names of Gods, so no wonder Uncle has made up these weird nicknames in the first place.'

  Nobody could tell which of Solomon's 72 Authorities could be described as what. All of humanity's stories about them were falsified or muddled throughout history. At least to anyone who didn't naturally know them by heart.

  "When was the last one added?"

  Hayden didn't even need to think long about it. "About two years ago, someone came out with 'The Bringer of all Things Foul'. It doesn't give a lot of strong Skills, but it's not weak either, I believe."

  'So it was her.' He remembered a stench that would make his eyes water in real time and instantly tried to change the subject. "You do know a lot about this, don't you?"

  Isaac had this feeling the moment he made remarks about what it looked like when one awakened.

  "I know what I know."

  "Commendable." Credit where credit was due, that was how Elijah felt, even if an 'Isaac' probably wouldn't have had that notion in this case. "In that case, if I have a big Status Window, what was even the point of the tinier one?"

  "Are you serious?" Hayden Chase spoke without thinking, "Nah, never mind. The point of the Status is that you can see your Stats after reduction. When you fight, it's easier to see when you have to make a run for it."

  "But I don't need a visible health bar in order to discern that I am hurt, do I?" He wasn't a toddler.

  "That's not the point. You can watch your status move when getting hit an' try to figure out how much you can take."

  "Which is also something I would know without needing a numerical hint?"

  Hayden had to roll his eyes at the obliviousness that was oozing out of his peer, and even Rue had to chuckle.

  "You wouldn't be able to take that much damage to gain enough experience. Knowing how much you are affected written down in numbers can give you a better understanding of your situation."

  "Thank you, finally someone with sense, man," he complained yet again, after the girl's sound explanation.

  Scratching his chin, the scrawny boy had to admit that it would make sense for someone inherently mortal to think twice before taking all types of damage to gauge their own limits. There was a difference between a soldier knowing he would die from being shot in the heart and a being far stronger than that being able to outlive such an injury without a problem.

  Because in the latter case, hubris would play a big role in their inevitable demise, if they never really understood how close they were to being dead. Or even if they were strong, how many times they might survive the same attack. Otherwise, they would have to take that damage and survive just barely in order to gain that experience manually.

  "And Mana is something you don't realize you lose until it's too late. What ya' gonna do if you suddenly go down outta nowhere? You're gonna die, plain and simple." He looked so smug at his conclusion; it was almost cute to the ones listening.

  With an acknowledging nod, Isaac yawned as he looked at his Status Window one more time. He simply couldn't tell if what he saw was good or not. It didn't matter to him, because in the end, he wouldn't use it.

  There was just one thing left that he was curious about. "So, does that mean what I'm seeing is all the Stats I have? How is something deducted being shown?"

  With another look of disbelief accompanied by a raised brow, Hayden felt like talking to an alien. "It's literally like a game design. Have you never played a video game?"

  "He's right. I've read it's shown as numbers. The first one is your original Stat, the other is altered – positive or negative doesn't matter. If there's no second number, there's no change."

  So it didn't show his health being in any way deducted – "Constitution" made the most sense to him as a health bar, but then again, none of his Stats seemed to have been altered, so it didn't matter. In other words, his symptoms truly related to the flow of Mana through his human shell; he hadn't taken any damage from it, which was indeed useful information.

  But this body shouldn't be allowed to freely circulate Mana, so how was it possible to do so? He felt there must have been a reason for it – some sort of bigger plan involved. From the Gates, to the Awakened or the fact that he was not allowed to enter into a Dungeon as Elijah – it all added to the mystery of what those Gates truly were and if he should have cared about them more.

  Should he come together with the others, after all? They hadn't talked to each other in many decades, but he had been sure that his brothers and sisters would feel just the way he did until now.

  'In the end, nobody made a move,' he thought to himself. He had talked to Anastasia just about nine years ago, and she seemed to have had the same notion.

  Of course he had to wonder, now that he had seen it himself. Normally, things like this weren't their fight to get involved in, but since Solomon was involved, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was different this time. Then again, he hadn't been able to enter a Gate at all, despite "his" will emanating from it, so what should he have done?

  He couldn't properly place the feeling, same as he couldn't with this ominous Status Window he received. Reaching for it with his fingertips, it felt cool to the touch, almost as if it was made of glass.

  It was truly there. Yet merely because he had it, it didn't mean anything had changed.

  Meanwhile, Hayden Chase had looked at this feeble looking kid in front of him as it dawned on him why they were even here.

  'I wouldn't have given him extra hard conditions, if he hadn't tried to play white knight for the other geeks.' But now that he had, he had to suffer from it too, so he didn't feel sorry for him either.

  Still, he felt something was weird. Before he could say it though, there was a surge of energy that suddenly swept over them like a wave. It was as if their heart had beaten an irregular beat and their breath hitched for a moment. It was over as fast as it had happened, yet they were still frozen for a few more seconds.

  Isaac knew. "The Boss was killed, I reckon."

  "How do you know?" It was realistic to be sceptic about information coming from a guy who didn't even know that Status Windows aren't visible to others.

  Not that Hayden was afraid, but it never hurt to be careful about such things. "Just trust me on this. Let's wait for a bit." They had to go through so much for this to happen, after all.

  Hayden scoffed at him, but didn't talk back. Instead, he released the thought he had before the Mana had steamrolled them a minute ago, as he realized what might be the reality of it, while Rue simply looked toward the door in anticipation.

  "You're too old," he said, coming out of nowhere.

  "Come again?" Isaac, slightly perplexed, looked up at him, pondering what the hell he might've been going for with this random comment.