“Um, yeah. I'm seeing a blue box in front of me. What the hell's a Spirit Realm?” Noel muttered.

“Well, if dimensional portals to hell can be real, I can believe in a Spirit Realm.” Ed replied, reading over the message once more.

“And if this is true, maybe we won’t be completely defenseless anymore. Drive the demons back to wherever they came from.”

Noel simply snorted. “Yeah right. You see those huge ass dinosaur demons that destroyed the Eiffel Tower back when we still had the news?”

Ed just shook his head. He had no idea what was going on, but he wasn’t going to balk at an opportunity to better defend himself against the literal hell around him.

It didn't seem that impossible that a Spirit Realm would exist. Even the description of the beings whose attention he’d gained sounded familiar.

He had grown up on stories about the legendary monkey king who had risen to challenge the Heavens, and had won. Sort of. There were many legends spread out across Eastern Asia. The Infinite Jester was probably Loki, the trickster god of fire from Norse mythology.

How the Monkey King’s blessing would work wasn’t as clear as how Loki’s dagger would. Based on what he learned from his yoga and meditation classes, Ed knew that Daos were something you could meditate upon. It also said ‘Seed’, and seeds, when planted and cared for, grew.

The Dao of True Sight also seemed like it would let him gather more information, and do so in a way implementing the ‘System’, or these blue boxes. That was good. It wasn’t like he was going to be beating demons in wrestling matches anytime soon. He’d have to be more cunning than them.

Besides, he’d already snagged a dagger from the goblin he’d killed earlier. Its red crystal blade and golden pommel was beautiful, and he’d never seen demons carry anything so nice before.

“What blessings did you get, if you don’t mind me asking?”, Ed asked absentmindedly, considering his options.

“Apparently a minor goddess named Enyo enjoyed watching me bash in the skull of an orc. Her brother named Phobos thinks I could become a warrior to scare even demons.” Noel said.

“…They’re probably right.”, Ed said, glancing at Noel.

Noel had a slim yet athletic build, not from years of training in a particular sport, but one of a natural warrior. Ed wondered whether Noel had received the attention of ‘Gods’ from Greek mythology because she was Greek, something that had come up as they'd made their way back to his hideout.

Maybe.

While Ed was Korean American and grew up on stories of the Monkey King, he had no relatives of Nordic descent, so it couldn’t be everything. Apparantly Loki appreciated his 'loose morals' and 'expert usage' of a dagger, so it was likely certain actions or characteristics could attract the attention of certain beings.

“What about you?” she asked.

“How much do you know about Chinese or Norse mythology?”

“Not much.” Noel admitted.

“Well, I’ve got one from… a monkey demon, and another from Loki.”

“Oh! I know Loki. From that one movie, right?”

“…Yeah.”

Noel grunted. That seemed to be the end of her inquiry.

“Ok, so what do we do now? Choose a blessing and hope it’s not some trick?”, Noel said.

“Well, I’m going to take it. It’s better than twiddling our thumbs waiting for someone else to show up and tell us, right?”

Noel shrugged and asked, “I’ll choose first. You watch over me?”

“Go for it.”

Noel frowned, reached out into the air where Ed assumed her own blue screen was.

An axe, long handle decorated with brown-red leather and giving off an ominous aura materialized out of thin air and into Noel's hands, who let grunted as she caught it.

“Holy shit.”

They both stared at the axe that had not existed a second ago.

“Ok, my turn.”, Ed said.

Ed reached out to tap the blue screen, bracing himself for... He didn’t know, something. To his surprise, it felt like a solid plane of glass, but before he could mention anything about it to Noel, a splitting head-ache hit him and he passed out.

-------

It was dark outside when Ed woke up.

Noel was sitting by the wall, the large axe leaning by her side.

Ed let out a groan as he sat up. The headache was quickly residing.

“Fucking finally. You all right?” she asked.

‘Shit. Thank god she didn’t just slit my throat and take my stuff.’

“My head’s killing me, but other than that, yeah.”

He’d had the strangest dream, he was sure, but all he could remember were flashes of a whiskered face and conspiratorial giggling.

He felt as if his mind had been pried open somehow. A constant anxiety had fogged his thoughts since the apocalypse began, but now he felt that his mind was clearer than ever.

Noel threw him a water bottle, which he caught and chugged down.

Wiping the corner of his mouth, he looked around for his dagger.

“How long have I been out?”

“About an hour.” She said.

“An hour? I-”

He trailed off as he touched the dagger and a blue screen popped up.

Dagger of Hekamuth (B grade Item)

Made from the blood essence of the god of ‘goblins’, who wished to raise their status from being the weakest denizen of Heloth.

When it has drunk enough blood, the dagger will produce a Blood Crystal.

A spark of elation jolted through Ed as he slowly realized that he’d struck gold. It was highly likely that this dagger had also been a ‘blessing’, except by one of the ‘Gods’ from the other side. The demon’s side.

Ed stared at the dagger, wondering what a Blood Crystal was.

Either way, the dagger was by far the best weaponry since the miasma spewing out from the rifts rendered most Earth metals unusable. He would have to keep using it and just find out what a Blood Crystal was when the time came.

“Your eyes are glowing!”

“Huh?”

Noel’s comment snapped him out of his trance, and the screen vanished as he suddenly felt a bit more tired. It was as if he'd just finished doing a pretty harsh set of push-ups or run for about ten minutes.

‘It must be the Dao of True Sight. Doesn't seem to be free to use either’, Ed realized.

He turned to Noel.

"My eyes are glowing?" He asked.

“I mean, they were glowing yellow just a second ago. Not now though.” She said, sheepishly.

“I think it’s a part of my blessing.”

“Huh. that’s cool, but you should be careful with it at night or when we're sneaking around.”

Ed nodded in confirmation.

“These ‘blessings’... We got them because we killed some demons. Killing more of them might actually give us additional benefits.”, he said.

“Well, I’ve killed a few goblin stragglers myself. It makes for good training." She said, nodding thoughtfully.

"I don't feel stronger, but that might be because this System wasn't in place then.” she said.

“Uh, yeah. And this System, seems like an awful lot like something from video games. With levels and items and what not. My guess is that there are ways to increase your level and stats.”

Another blue screen popped up as soon as he finished his sentence.

Ed Kim - (Blessed by Wukong) Class - (No Class) Body: F Spirit: D- Mind: F Daos - Dao of True Sight

“Shit!”, Ed jumped, startling Noel.

“No, no, it’s all right. Try saying ‘stats’.”

“Stats. Huh. It does look like something out of a game.” she said.

Ed snorted.

“If only this was a game." he said.

As he examined his 'stats', he felt a cold dread sinking in his stomache. He had been training in some form of athletics his whole life, and also considered himself pretty intelligent. He'd graduated from college with dual degrees in Biology and Psychology two years ago. And yet, the System considered his Body and Mind an F grade?

If it didn't get it's shit together soon, humanity would just drop further into the post-apocalyptic gutter and stay there forever. Ed needed to do something. Anything other than sit around and wait to die.

"Yeah, I'm going to need to get stronger. Way stronger. What do you say, time to go hunting?” Ed asked.

The grin that spread across Noel's face sent chills running down Ed's spine. It was all teeth and no warmth.

“I thought you’d never ask.”