Dante was being called by someone. Someone was shaking his body really intensely. He grumbled a few words and opened his eyes. He slowly sat up, rubbing his stressed eyes.
"What?" He asked Julius who was making a funny face.
"What do you mean 'what'? You are out cold for a few minutes."
" What?I don't remember falling asleep." Dante said. "So what happened? Is this heaven?"
Julius shook his head. "I don't know. We are in a forest. And I don't think we will be in heaven even if we die."
Dante rolled his eyes and stood up with the help from Julius. He patted his pants, removing the dried leaves he slept on.
"What is the situation?" Dante asked calmly.
Julius pointed at the blue sky. "While we were chilling in the street, waiting to die, we suddenly got teleported to this place. After that, the message came."
"A message?" Dante asked. Similar to the one I see?
"It said, we are in a dome-like world, structured to make us adapt to the system. After that, the message vanished." Julius said.
"Hmm. It is kind of like a story I read on the internet." Dante said, completely casually.
"I don't understand."
"You see. The protagonist teleports to the otherworld and has a system to aid him. It is usually a power fantasy junk food novel."
"So we are in that kind of situation." Julius asked, not sure whether he wanted to believe his friend's words.
Dante nodded.
"It could be. Where is Thomas?" Dante asked, remembering him.
"He went to check the surroundings. I tried to stop him but you know how his brain works when he sets his mind on it."
Dante nodded. "For now, let's wait for him. I want to try a few things."
"Okay."
Dante observed his situation. He was surrounded by large trees. Looking at the fallen leaves, he guessed that the time was near the fall season. It was the worst scenario.
'We need shelter, food and water.' Dante's mind worked immediately. He has a bit of knowledge regarding camping in the forest. He won't say he can survive no matter the situation but at least he was better than his two friends.
As he sat still under the tree, he thought deeply.
'System. Status. Display. Stats. Open.' He called out a few words in his head but nothing came.
He was still a bit embarrassed about saying these things out loud. He hid the fact that he used to be a massive nerd during high school from Julius.
It was not that he was afraid that Julius would laugh at him. He knew Julius would never do such distasteful things.
But speaking about his past meant digging his past. And he didn't want that. He wanted it to remain hidden.
He let out a long sigh and quietly waited for Thomas. They both decided to wait for 15 minutes. That was the limit before they assumed something dangerous fell upon their friend.
"Hey, do you feel something in the air?" Julius asked.
Dante nodded. From the moment he woke up, there was a hint of heaviness in the air. It was not oppressive. In fact, it was the opposite. It soothed him.
"With many strange things I encountered today, I won't be surprised by this." Dante said with a smile.
"You and your mind. Are you not scared?" Julius asked in a low voice.
Dante gave a thought to that answer. "No. Strangely, I am not scared. In fact, I feel somewhat excited and thirsty."
"Do you not worry about your family?" Julius slowly said.
Dante didn't immediately answer. He knew Julius's past. Julius was an orphan, losing his parents to an accident at a young age.
Dante won't try to understand the feeling of losing someone dear to you. He didn't want to understand yet. And because of that accident, Julius developed his current personality. An outgoing extrovert.
That is what he told Dante.
"I am trying not to think. Though, I am not worried about my dad. I am a bit worrry for my mom and my little sister." Dante answered with a bit of lie.
Julius smiled. "That is acceptable. I will punch you if you say some edgy answer."
"I am not a monster." Dante chuckled. At least, he thought he wasn't a monster.
The sound of rustling leaves rustled came from the side. They both stood up to confront the unknown.
They dropped their guards when they saw the man with a mustache. The man waved at them with a smile.
"Looks like a sleeping princess has finally woken up. Did the prince kiss you?" Thomas joked.
"Shut up, old man." Julius said with a defeated laugh.
"Ouch, I am not that old. I am only 25. And much younger in my heart." Thomas clenched his chest.
"You are 3 years older than us so in our eyes you are an old man." Dante said.
"Anyway, did you find something?" Julius asked.
"I managed to find a small stream. I didn't manage to find other people but I found a few animals for us to eat. Although I don't know how we will catch those."
"I see. What do you think, Dante? You are familiar with the forest" Julius said.
"It is a good start. We have water and food sources. Right now, we need to find or build shelter. We can rest here but I don't think it is suitable for the upcoming weather." Dante explained his reason.
"And I have something I wanna test." He paused and waited.
"Status." He then said calmly.
A blue window popped out from the air, revealing strange characteristics.
Soon, it reverted back to his language.
[Establishing connection.]
[Registered.]
Name- Dante
Tier- unawakened.
Bloodline- locked.
Skill- None.
[The system recommends finding mana stone or killing another beings to awaken.]
Dante looked through his status and nodded. The only thing strange was his name. The system didn't show his full name for some reason.
He then looked at his friends and said, "Say what I said. You will know."
They both nodded and said simultaneously.
"Status."
Dante waited for the two to check their system.
After a while, Julius shook his head in defeat. "I can't believe it is like a game."
"Yeah." Thomas agreed.
"What does it say?"Dante asked.
"Name.tier and."
"Blessing."
"Unique skill."
Julius and Thomas looked at each other in confusion.
"And skill." They both finished the word.
Dante scratched his chin and nodded for himself.
"It looks like each person has a different gift. I have a bloodline. I don't know what that is because it is locked."
"Same."
"Yeah."
"I see." Dante thought. "We need to kill animals. I was planning to hunt after finding a shelter but things changed."
Thomas nodded. "I found a few rabbits hanging near the stream. We can set a trap to catch them."
Julius interjected his thoughts, while looking at the sky. "We also need to gather wood. The sun is going to be set in a few hours."
"Who has a weapon?" Dante asked.
Thomas searched his pocket and took out a small knife. "Here."
Dante checked the blade and nodded to himself. "Great, I will set up a trap. Julius will gather wood. Thomas shows me the way. I also want to check the stream you talked about."