CHAPTER 37. Dante’s Fate [(Part-1) out of 4]

All my life, I have been through many accidents and misfortunate incidents. For that, I was discriminated against by everyone around me.

Everyone was afraid to be pulled into the misfortune that I bring around with me. I blamed myself for bringing bad luck and calamities to everyone around me.

The only thing I was good at in my life was cooking. Even though I was not at a Master Chef level, I am a pretty decent chef myself.

With my culinary skills, I could get handsome pay, but I would be fired within weeks of my joining with my notoriety to bring bad luck.

After getting fired from God knows how many and when I was about to give up on my passion for cooking, I received a job opportunity as a chef in a nearby small restaurant even after knowing that I brought bad luck.

It's been 4 years since I worked in that restaurant. Many co-workers and other staff complain to the restaurant owner and ask to fire me for bringing bad luck and misfortune.

But never once did the restaurant owner blame me for my misfortune. He was the first person to ever show me kindness in my entire life.

He treated me as his son since I reminded him of his only son that died in the army service. I slowly grew up to see him as a father figure.

But my bad luck strikes once again, and the restaurant owner nearly died from a car accident.

Everyone blamed me for that. I began to accept my misfortune and left my job in the restaurant and lived away from everyone.

A week passed since then, and I got a call from the restaurant owner on the day he regained consciousness after the accident.

He wanted me to visit him, and with how stubborn the old man was, he even blackmailed me that if I don't visit him, it is the same as his death.

I gave in and was on my way to the hospital that he was admitted to.

I was on my way to the hospital. When I was in a cab, I received notifications saying that I was chosen for the Alpha Program and prepared myself to be teleported. A 1 minute time appeared.

I didn't believe any of that and neglected it, but once the 1-minute timer ended, I was teleported and found myself in a cave with the urge to vomit.

I tried to suppress it but failed to do so. Only after looking around myself did I take the contents in the notifications seriously.

After that, I found a blinking 'S' in the top right of my vision. A similar blue screen window opened by concentrating on it, and it had statistics of my Attributes.

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[STATUS] Name Dante Age 28 Race Lesser Human (Male) Level N/A Life Energy 0/100 Tier N/A Strength 8 Agility 9 Vitality 8 Endurance 8 Spirit 10 Health 80/80 Stamina 40/40 Spirit Energy 50/50 Luck ???? Undistributed Stats 0 Innate Talent [FATE INTERVENTION] (Grade Unknown) (Locked)

By concentrating on the terms like Spirit, Life Energy and other things, I was given descriptions of them in the form of notifications.

I didn't know why my luck was not measured like other Attributes. Thinking about how unlucky I was, I assumed that my Luck would be in negative points for it to be like that.

As for Innate Talent, I couldn't find any details even when I tried to concentrate on it. But I learned that it was a Unique category Innate Talent which was supposedly rare.

It took me a while for me to accept the new reality.

After that, I steeled myself and cautiously explored the cave in search of a way out.

Even though it was not clear, I could still look around myself with the dim light illuminating from the ceiling.

But the problem was that I couldn't tell where the light source was for the light to illuminate.

After walking for some time, I realised that it's more of a maze than a cave. Time continued to flow as I tried to find the exit.

According to the time shown on the top left of my vision, 8 hours passed since I was teleported.

Without any food and water, I was tired, but I pushed myself to find the maze exit or any viable food source.

In the next turn of the maze, I came across 3 rats feasting on another dead rat. What freaked me out was those rat's size. They were even a bit larger than a typical cat.

They sensed my presence and turned their heads towards me in unison. Then those three oversized Rats rushed towards me with blood dripping from their two sharp front teeth.

Fear took over my body as I ran without looking back. But after a few meters, I tripped over a rock and fell to the ground.

Both of the oversized rats neared, and I got hold of a brick-sized rock near me and swung it at my full force at the closest rat that lunged at me.

The rock's edge directly pierced the rat's head from the side, and its blood sprayed over my face.

Just then, a few notifications popped up.

Lv.1 Cannibal Rat killed 25 Life Energy Obtained [FATE INTERVENTION] is unlocked [FATE INTERVENTION] converted all Luck Stats into Fate Stats. 1 Fate Stat = 100 Luck Stats [Fate: 83.55] [FATE INTERVENTION] (Unique Category) (Grade Unknown): - Able to absorb the Luck stats of the Beings that the host kills and convert them into Fate Stats, - Randomly uses Fate Stats to get a suitable reward for killing monsters of different races. Congratulations! You have awakened your 1st Innate Exclusive Skill, [Fate Sequence Perception]. [Fate Sequence Perception] Able to perceive Fate Halos and Fate Sequences of any existence within a limited duration and range around the Host. (Fate Sequence duration and Fate Sequence Range depends on the host's Tier.) Cost: 0.01 Fate Stat per minute. (Constant) Perception Range of Fate Sequences & Fate Halos (Host's Tier-N/A): 100 meters. Duration of Fate Sequences & Fate Halos (Host's Tier-N/A): 1 second. Automatically activates [Fate Sequence Perception] when Host is in danger.

Once my Innate Talent unlocked, all the information of its description got transmitted into my mind.

The second oversized Rat let out a sharp squeal and rushed at me with a speed that rivalled a dog.

Then, I perceived a virtual trajectory of that Rat's shape like some kind of sixth sense. I could sense the imaginary path trajectory of that oversized Rat.

It originated from the second Cannibal Rat, and the end of the Rat shaped virtual trajectory was my stomach.

When I was in the way of the virtual trajectory, I had a bad premonition.

So, I rolled sideways from the trajectory while I was on the ground and in the next instant, the Cannibal Rat's every movement exactly passed through the virtual trajectory.

If I was late by even half a second, I would have been bitten in my stomach by the Cannibal Rats attack. I quickly got myself up, and then the third Cannibal Rat bolted towards me.

Once again, a virtual trajectory in the shape of the third Cannibal Rat pointed to my right foot. This time, I lifted my foot without moving from my position, and the rat passed from below my right foot.

I realised that the Fate Sequence is a virtual trajectory that indicated the target's path in the next second.

I was amazed by my new ability. When I saw the second Cannibal Rat heading towards me, I readied myself.

Then I sensed its Fate Sequence. Instead of moving aside, I waited for half a second and swung the rock in my hand at the end of the path trajectory.

My heavy blunt attack with rock directly hit it on its stomach. Even though it didn't die, it took a fatal blow.

Instead of going for the kill, I waited for another Cannibal Rat to attack me and repeated the same process of using its Fate Sequence to strike the spot it would reach in half a second.

Unlike the second Cannibal Rat, the third one died with a single hit.

Lv.1 Cannibal Rat killed. 25 Life Energy Obtained. Absorbed 5 Luck Stats were converted into 0.05 Fate Stats.

Fate Stat was the only Stat that was shown in decimals.

After that, It didn't take long to kill the injured second Cannibal Rat.

Lv.2 Cannibal Rat Killed. 50 Life Energy Obtained. Absorbed 7 Luck Stats were converted into 0.07 Fate Stats. Congratulations! You have reached Lv.1. 5 Undistributed Stats available. Congratulations! You have reached Tier-1.