Chapter 52 - Faulty

"Solitude!" I shouted after realizing what I just said in my head.

That's right! This is the place where Fily lost all of her memories! The anti-super place!

But how did I get here?

The last time I was able to come here was when the butcher man was trying to kill me!

But I was just sleeping a while ago. And unless someone was trying to kill me while I sleep then I see no other reason as to why and how I was able to come here!

[Please wait while I process the beginner's manual for your training] Lady announced.

I decided to call my Stat-hut Lady since Mr. Gemini has a name, I figured it would be hard for them to talk to each other without names.

That aside, I am still curious as to how I was able to come here during a normal day. And oh my gosh! Halma is visiting later! I need to deal with this real quick!

[Downloading Beginner's training manual..]

What was the thing I was trying to get from this place again? I can't remember clearly… was it the keys? But Mr. Gemini already told me how to get the keys and it was irrelevant from this place.

[Download finished. Activating the training sequence.]

Wait, what is happening? What is this training sequence?

Ding!

[Notification: A new skill has been added to your secret skill set, Solitude]

A new skill? Solitude?

But I thought Solitude was a place?

Wait, I've got to see this in my status.

'Status please!' I shouted in my head, but instead of the usual blue transparent screen that would pop in front of me, a concrete black screen rose from the empty white floor with active cyan circuits on the border which gave it a very contrasting look from this very pure white space.

"What...?" I mumbled while watching it display the status that I was looking for.

[Name: Gemma [Title: None

[Race: Superhuman [Blood: Unknown

[Class: Student [Rank: None

[Party: Leviathan

[Role: Support

[Level: None

[Super's Attributes:]

[Sense: 15/30 [Hearing: 7 [Vision: 5 [Smell: 3

[Agility: 10/20 [Strength: 4 [Speed: 5 [Resistance: 1

[Secret Skillset: Heal Lvl.1, Liquity Lvl.0, Solitude Lvl.0]

[Fighter Skillset: None]

"Solitude Lvl.0"

Is this the skill she was talking about!? Another Lvl.0 skill?!

"What is this? Are you joking with me?" I said.

My eyes roamed around the room once again, looking for the system that I was talking to but it felt like they were inside and outside my mind at the same time in this place.

I shook my head when none of them talked and proceeded to look at the definition of the new skill. But as I was commanding it to proceed to the definition page, the new Stat-hut system was not working!

"Mr. Gemini!! Why is this not working?" I cried.

[Forgive me master but-]

"Okay, okay, you don't know." I cut his words that were resonating inside the whole room. I already knew what he was going to say but still gave it a try anyway. But like always, Mr. Gemini can't help me again so I've got to make this work by myself!

Since it was being projected from the ground instead of just popping out in my mind, maybe I can't control it with just my mind? And since Mr. Gemini and the Stat-hut lady's voice was resonating around the whole space, maybe I'm inside the Gemstone or something similar to a dream where I could not control everything through my mind?

That could be a plausible answer to this mystery… but first, how could I make this work?

I walked closer to the black and green projected 'screen' and thought of touching it.

I know, it's a projection and I was just going to try, but I did not actually think I would be able to touch it!

"Whoa!"

I almost fell down the floor when I lost my balance after being creeped out about the fact that I can actually touch the board!

"Ouch," I muttered while getting back to my feet.

Now that my status is being displayed on a solid screen, I guess I can't use my mind to control everything in it like with the old status screen… right?

I took my time tracing the black border with embedded green circuit lines before clicking the [Solitude Lvl.0] Skill that immediately changed the contents of the board into the definition of this particular skill.

[Solitude - Ability to enter the phase of Solitude.]

"Wait… if Solitude is a level zero skill and I was able to use it in my sleep, does that mean I can actually use the level zero skills!? In my sleep...?"

I shook my head upon that weird revelation, how useful could these level zero skills be during a fight if I could only use them in my sleep!?

"Not cool. I shall learn how to upgrade these level zero skills in no time!"

[Astral Training Lesson 1: Activation]

I got goosebumps all around my body after hearing what Lady just said.

Training lessons… I'm actually here to train?

[Congratulations! You have been chosen to be Astra's [$%#^@#]-]

I covered my ears when a loud screech suddenly ran across the room making it hard for me to hear the rest of what Mr. Gemini was saying.

"What was that!?"

I was literally caught by surprise. My heart almost fell from my chest!

[Forgive the interruption master, it seems like the file is faulty.]

Mr. Gemini responded immediately.

But what did he say? Faulty??

[We may get interrupted from time to time because of the damage, but would you still like to continue the lesson, master?]

"Of course! What other choice do I have… I need to learn how to use these powers immediately…"

[Very well, master.]

Sigh, just when I thought I'd be able to learn everything thanks to that manual, then there's another problem, great.

There's really no easy way out of this huh?