— First, we need to know what our tools are. The creature from the rooftop had some sort of red crystal on its chest area, but I wasn’t able to damage it so we’ll have to find a way.

— You couldn’t damage it? How did you defeat it then? — Asked Nina.

— I didn’t. It threw itself out of the building.

Kyle and Nina looked at Dale’s face waiting for him to laugh and pass it as a joke, but it never did.

— All I did was run around and dodge its attacks. After I failed to defeat it, my last bet was to dodge it one last time. It worked — Said Dale, scratching his head while wearing a weak smile.

— You dodging the monster is impressive enough. I got knocked out even though I saw it coming.

— I agree. If Hazel hadn’t pushed me out of the way, I would be the one trapped right now.

— Well, it’s one of my skills. It seems that my mind works faster and everything around me starts to slow down.

— It seems? Nina asked looking confused — You don’t know what your ability does?

— Not really. It just triggered by itself and I sort of figured out what it does.

Kyle chimed in — Didn’t you read your abilities description?

Dale blinked — Description?

— Yeah, the little girl told us to check our status windows when we arrived.

Dale blushed. He did check his status window, but he never actually tried to check if there was extra information. Considering Tesyrion’s game-like system, it’d be expected that the status window would show more than the names of the abilities.

Ashamed, Dale pulled up his Status Window.

STATUS WINDOW

NAME: DALE HALL CLASS: JOBLESS TITLE:

MR. YOU’RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME

THE ONE WHO RUNS

PATRON: NONE EXCLUSIVE SKILLS:

TRACE OF INSANITY [LV. 1]

??? [ LV. ?] SPECIAL SKILLS:

ADAPTABILITY [LV. 3]

OVER-THINKING [LV. 3]

COOKING [LV. 5]

CLEANING [LV. 5]

OVERALL STATS:

VITALITY [LV. 4]

AGILITY [LV. 2]

STRENGTH [LV. 2]

MAGIC [LV. 1]

VOID ENERGY [LV. 1]

Focusing on his [OVER-THINKING] ability, a new window appeared in his vision.

[OVER-THINKING]

Your proficiency with overloading your mind with an excessive amount of concurrent thoughts has developed your ability to process large quantities of information at a fast speed. Might cause the user to experience the passage of time differently. Has a chance of triggering automatically.

Now it made more sense. He then focused on [TRACE OF INSANITY]

[TRACE OF INSANITY]

Your twisted view of the world coupled with your strong desire for change permanently altered the way you view the world and how you interact with it. Sudden breaks in reality or instances of clear irrationality lower than the skill level will not affect you. Has a chance of triggering automatically. Has multiple effects.

Effect 1 - Innate Irrationality: Your mind’s irrationality overpowers the world’s. You’re protected from disconnects in reality with a level lower than your skill's.

Effect 2 - ?

Effect 3 - ?

Effect 4 - ?

More question marks, Dale thought. But knowing it was better than the alternative. [ADAPTABILITY] was a passive skill that allowed him to quickly adapt to a different environment based on how hostile the environment was and his skill level. The other skills were pretty but self-explanatory.

— Sorry for making you wait. I think that for us to succeed, we need to know what each of us can do. If you don’t want to reveal too much it’s fine if it’s just a general idea. In my case, I can heighten my senses to perceive time slower and I’m resistant to this world’s irrationality to an extent, that was how I was able to beat the creature and navigate the corridors.

Nina looked at the other two and sighed.

— Well, It makes sense. I can enhance a weapon to make it stronger and more resistant. I can also enhance myself, but for a shorter period.

— That’s good, you might be able to break through the creature’s core.

They looked a Kyle.

— I can create a barrier around myself and my recovery is somewhat boosted. Sorry, I might not be of much use.

— Does the barrier only works on you? — Asked Nina.

Kyle made a thoughtful expression — Reading the description again, it doesn’t specify that I’m the only target. I can try to use it on you.

— Go ahead — Said Dale.

Kyle lifted his arm and touched Dale’s shoulder. Out of thin air, a shimmering film wrapped around Dale’s body. It looked extremely thin and moved along with him, but when Nina tried to touch his arm she wasn’t able to break through.

— This will help us a lot. Can you make multiple of these? — Asked Dale.

— Unfortunately just one, and it doesn’t last long either.

After a few seconds passes, the shimmering film started to disintegrate.

— Now that we know what we can do, we can start to plan the rescue mission. I’ll tell you everything I know about the creature I fought. Since its vines looked the same as the ones in the room, I’m hoping they’re all similar enough for us to exploit this.

Dale proceeded to tell them about the creature’s attack patterns, its habit of trying to corner him before attacking, and how its core got exposed as it attacked. Using the information they shared, they began formulating a plan.

***

After finishing their preparations, the three of them decided it was time to go after the others. Before they left, Kyle pointed at the chairs and said.

— Do you guys think we should try and break these chairs and use their legs as weapons? They’re made of metal, so they’re probably better than these wooden swords.

Dale walked up to one of the chairs and picked it up. It looked like a normal chair he’d find in his classroom. He turned it upside down and grabbed it by the legs. When he started to put force, the leg easily snapped.

— Seeing the surprised look on his companions, Dale exclaimed.

— Well, with this I can guess two things. The swords Amy gave us aren’t normal wooden swords and considering that these are normal chairs and I’ve easily snapped one of them, We’re not normal either. Lasting that long against that thing, quickly recovering from the exhaustion, Kyle recovering from his injury. This place is changing us somehow.

— We’ll have time to think about that later — Said Nina — Let’s go save the others.

Dale and Kyle agreed.

Leaving the room, Nina and Kyle were met with the same endless corridor from before.

— So, how are we going about this? — Asked Nina, looking at Dale with a thin smile — Do you want us to hold your hands all the way there?

Dale smiled back — Actually, there’s something I’d like to try.

He put his hands on their shoulders and focused on a particular skill.

[EXCLUSIVE SKILL, TRACE OF INSANITY ACTIVATED]

The a new prompt appeared in his vision.

[EXCLUSIVE SKILL, TRACE OF INSANITY HAS BEEN UPDATED] [SHARED DELUSIONS HAS BEEN ACTIVATED]