Tyler examined the system panel, its text displaying his new skills and their descriptions. "*Two skills…*" he muttered, his eyes scanning the words.
"*Combine…* allows to combine my items, possibly upgrading them, or creating sothing new entirely. Nice," he said, a smile spreading across his face as he considered the possibilities. He then focused on the other skill. "*Equipnt's Tale…* By touching a weapon, armor, or equipnt, you can glimpse into its recent history, uncovering the stories it has witnessed in the last 42 hours. Every scratch, every battle, every secret laid bare through the echoes of its recent past.*" Tyler’s smile widened, his teeth visible. "*This second ability…* It can help find out exactly what happened to Rebecca," he murmured, a surge of renewed determination coursing through him.
He quickly walked past the now-lifeless White Walker. The creature's pristine white fur shimred montarily with a faint blue light before vanishing into his inventory, without him needing to utter a command. He began to run, his body a blur of motion within the dense green forest. Within seconds, he reached the spot where he had dropped the wooden bow before the White Walker's appearance.
He picked it up, turning it over in his hands. "*How exactly do I use this skill?*" Tyler thought, as he examined the simple wooden bow.
The system panel materialized before him, displaying his current stats:
SPECIES: Human
NA: Tyler Evans
RANK: B
LVL: 81
CLASS: Craftsman
HP: 403/403 MP: 361/361
STR: 366 AGI: 484
DEF: 897 STM: 336
STATUS: Healthy
Skills: Armour Craft Lv2, Weapon Craft Lv2, Weapon Mastery, Alchemy, Accessory Craft, Acid Blood, Room Level 2 -CD: 8hrs, Combine- CD: 10hrs, Equipnt's Tale-CD: 3hrs
Equipped Skills: Charge- MC:50
"*Combine has a cooldown of 10 hours… and Equipnt's Tale has a cooldown of 3 hours.*" Tyler thought, processing the information. "*That ans every ti I use Equipnt's Tale, I’m not going to be able to use it for three hours straight… To think that I’d get a skill like this when I really need it.* Is this just coincidence? Nah, this is just too big of a coincidence. Is it because of this damn necklace? This luck is just… weird. It seems like it’s the one causing all of this, but at the sa ti… it doesn't show anything. The system doesn't even say what it does. It just says 'Luck Necklace' and there's zero description."
Tyler shook his head, trying to refocus. He needed to figure out how to use the skill. He thought, "*Most of the ti, when I use the rush skill or the skills that I get by equipping my armor, I use it by controlling my mana and causing it to flow into the armor. And then… I just know how to use the skill. It feels like second nature, almost like a reflex. It becos as easy as blinking. Well, that is, of course, if I have enough mana.* The other skills I use by giving a command."
He flipped the bow over in his hands, his fingers tracing the worn wood. "*Should I just pour in a bit of mana into this? I really want to know what happened…*"
As soon as Tyler finished his sentence, sothing bizarre happened. His eyes began to glow a faint blue, and he suddenly saw sothing. His vision shifted, warped, and then he was no longer in the forest.
Tyler's vision locked onto the bow. It lay on the forest floor, broken cleanly in half. "*Oh… what's going on? What the hell is happening?*" he thought, his voice echoing strangely within his mind. It felt like a dream, an experience divorced from his body. He could only perceive the bow and its imdiate surroundings. He couldn't see himself, couldn't feel anything. He could only hear his own thoughts, and every attempt to shift his gaze t with an invisible barrier, forcing him to remain focused on the splintered wood.
His initial panic slowly began to subside as he realized this must be part of the skill. "*So, this is what it feels like to use this skill… It feels weird. My voice doesn’t sound right, it doesn’t even feel like I’m talking. It doesn’t even feel like I'm there… It just feels like… I solely exist to watch…* And then… this is where we left it… that ti… after I broke it…"
He found himself drifting, as if floating a few feet above the fragnted bow. He thought. "*Why did I even break it? That was so stupid… could have just left it there.*"
Hours seed to pass, each mont stretching into an eternity. A growing sense of unease began to fester. "*This is so wrong. What kind of skill is this? Am I actually going to experience everything since the last 42 hours? I thought I was going to get a brief summary of what happened. Am I going to relive every single hour? But that’s going to take… forever. I’m wasting so much ti… Too many hours must have passed.*"
Panic began to rise within Tyler. He wondered what his real body was doing, if he was still standing there, frozen, holding the bow, vulnerable.
He wondered if many hours had already passed in the real world, and the thought gnawed at him. "*I’ve been staring at this… for almost four hours now, or at least it feels like it… It’s definitely been more than two hours… and yet it feels like ti is just frozen in one place.*"
A sudden realization struck him. "*Wait a minute… This thing is supposed to show everything from the last 42 hours… and this is just yesterday… 42 hours is supposed to be two days. Or at least it was in my other world. I’ve noticed that in this world… the days may be longer, but probably by just a few hours. But… I don't think that this mont was exactly from 42 hours ago… When I used this skill, I thought of the ti when she was using the silver bow. The ti when she was fighting against the pixels. Maybe this is that ti. Maybe I’m just supposed to think about certain monts in ti… and I would see what was happening around that item in that certain mont in ti.*" He paused. "*What am I even saying? Let’s just give it a shot.*"
Tyler focused, concentrating on trying to recall what had been happening at the ti when he was unconscious. That ti was particularly difficult. He struggled to rember what was happening. He had a feeling of a blockage. It felt like sothing was preventing him from accessing those mories. But, all of a sudden, he saw that it was getting dark. The surroundings around the bow were darkening. Night was approaching. It was almost as if… he was fast-forwarding through ti.
"It’s working."
Suddenly, as the forest was now bathed in the hues of sunset, with the light beginning to fade, the scene, which had been rapidly progressing, abruptly stopped. Rebecca erged from the undergrowth, running with purpose, and leaped over a bush, *holding* Tyler's unconscious body.
"*That’s her…*" Tyler thought, surprised. "*Wait… so she was carrying ? She ca out of nowhere.*"
He heard Rebecca’s voice, yelling, "*You just had to break it, didn't you?*"
He, seeing the events unfold through the bow's perspective, thought, *Yeah… I shouldn’t have broken it. It's so freaking embarrassing.* He noticed that she looked worried, as if her life depended on Tyler's awakening. She looked to be in a hurry, and very, very concerned.
He watched as Rebecca scread again, telling him to wake up, shaking his limp body. She was frantic, desperate for his help. Then, she stood and kicked Tyler in the side of his stomach, causing him to roll over. Tyler thought, as he witnessed the action, *Damn, why did she have to kick like that? But still… after all that… I didn't even wake up. How tired was I?*
He watched, helpless, as Rebecca quickly began to fix the arrow. He observed everything transpire, unable to interfere. He then saw Rebecca, after a mont of searching, hide his body in the thickest part of the bushes. Then, finally, Rebecca took the bow and ran. As she ran, the perspective shifted. It was almost as if Tyler was running with her. He moved with her, her frantic pace reflected in the blurring of his vision. He couldn't see his own body, but he *felt* her desperation. It was like seeing a character in a movie, every breath she took, the fear in her every glance. It felt strange, unreal, like a vivid dream. He saw everything.
Tyler, his vision now fixed on Rebecca, witnessed every desperate fight, every struggle. He saw her pitted against each opponent, absorbing blow after blow, pushing her exhausted body beyond its limits. He saw her fight against the Black Cloud Guild mbers. He saw everything unfold, until the final, heart-stopping confrontation. He even saw the dazzling display of her ultimate skill. He saw her face Jason, the mage hunter, and he watched, helpless, as she collapsed, drained of her mana. He saw Jason take her. He saw everything.
Then, suddenly, he blinked. The vision shattered, the connection severed. He was no longer imrsed in Rebecca's struggle. He was back, holding the bow, staring at the broken wood. The abrupt shift from the imrsive vision to the present was disorienting. It was like waking from a vivid dream, only it was instantaneous. He felt a jolt, a physical sensation akin to being ripped from one world and deposited into another.
Tyler muttered, the words a desperate whisper, "*So… that’s what happened… They took her… they took her away…*"
He gripped the wooden bow instinctively, his fingers tightening with so much force that it snapped in two again.
*I need to go… I need to go quick… I need to ask Serena where the Black Cloud Guild mbers live… I have no idea what they’re doing to her right now… They could be interrogating her… who knows… maybe she’s already dead… Damn it… Damn it… Why did I have to be unconscious for such a long ti? I was so fucking useless… I couldn't freaking help her when she needed it the most…*
He exploded out of the forest, a blur of motion, a missile of fury. With absurd speed, he tore through the trees. Each branch he rely grazed, was shattered and splintered as he passed.
*I need to go get her… I hope it's not too late.*
anwhile, within the confines of a cellar, the silence was shattered. Nothing could be heard, but the anguished screams. Screams of pain, of agony, of utter suffering and tornt. The source of those cries was Rebecca.
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