Chapter 211 - 211)Incubation Period

"I did…..I can't seem to remember everything, it's as if the memory barely exists anymore. But I know for a fact that whatever happened so far, is real…..I just know it," Luke said with an embarrassed smile.

What bothered him the most, was the fact that he had heard the voice somewhere before, either that, or it was the being's power to make other's think that. Considering the recent events, the latter option can barely be considered absurd.

"I see…I think the most important thing right now, is to keep this to ourselves, not to mention we need to explore more. What portion of abilities can we use, are we now players in reality? Is it like the novels we read? If so, how do we trigger it?" Nate began questioning, at this point, he was just freely expressing his thoughts without any restrictions, after all, Luke was the one with the knowledge, saying something that could trigger those fading memories was important.

While Nate focused on the dynamics of the situation when it was tied to reality, Luke's mind wandered to the game and the information they had.

"Information…only we had….." Luke muttered before his eyes widened, "Nate! Information, how many people in the game know of the existence of the Divine and Forbidden Grade?"

"Including us….I'd say at the moment, there are probably less than 10 people, and that's at best. Even then, there are only two people who have been closely associated with such beings, and that's us," Nate replied. He wasn't aware of Sephiroth's connection to Ares, but even then, his estimate was more or less accurate. As he spoke his eyes realized the connection that Luke was talking about, "I get it! It might be a stretch but what if this has to do with Divine and Forbidden beings? Which is why it's just us who have awakened their powers? It's been multiple months since we started the game and since you've been cursed, as for my blessing, it's been a few months...the time difference…..is it because of the grade difference? Perhaps there's some kind of an incubation period?"

"Then you should be ready for another change in your body," Luke smiled as he realized what had happened before the tournament, "in another 2 months or so, you're going to awaken Gaia's power,"

As they were brainstorming, they realized that there was still one topic that they hadn't fully gone over, and it was regarding Nate's possible ability. "Are you sure you can control shadows and shit? I don't know what it is you do, but you know what I mean.." Nate asked with an anxious look. 

"I'm sure," Luke replied as he tilted his head. "The only thing I could do was see through the dark,"

"I see….then can you still do so? Or was that like a one-time thing?"

"I don't know, we can give it a try later this day. For now, stop avoiding this topic and let's figure what you have going on," Luke gave Nate a sadistic smile as if saying there was no way out of this place until they looked into this matter.

"Okay okay okay….fkn hell," Nate cursed under his breath before sighing out loud, "there isn't a huge variety, but it only makes sense for it to be mana manipulation. The other skills are familiar magic and a skill tree, both of these are rather unlikely….."

"I see….what if there's something that triggers the skill? I mean, the reason both of our abilities triggered more or less at the same time, is because of the grade difference. It's been nearly 6 months since we started, so in short, it takes a curse 6 months to surface, and a blessing 4 months. But what really triggered my ability was when I was coming to get you out of there. The corridors were all dark and I could barely move….it was then that I heard the voice, and the next thing I knew, everything was bright…."

"So there's some sort of a trigger? Does it have something to do with how we feel?" Nate inquired. "I-….can't answer that…I have no idea…" Luke replied. Before they could talk about this any further, they heard a knock on the door, and a second later, Aurora along with Jace and K walked in. It had been a week since they visited Basile and Solomon, and the reason for their sudden visit was not only to check up on Luke but to also give them the good news.

"Hey, you guys! Luke! You're awake," Aurora skipped next to him, K and Jace gracefully walked and stood in front of him. "Damn you geezers don't have anything better to do?" Luke asked as he looked at them. The second he finished a pillow slammed into his face. 

"Motherfcker," Aurora cursed, the veins on her forehead popped, she rolled up her sleeves and was ready to kill Luke. "Ow, you realize I woke up only now?" Luke said in a joking tone.

"By the looks of it, you're completely fine," Jace raised his eyebrow. Even though he only said that to lighten the mood, he was pretty curious as to how he managed to recover that quickly.

"Of course he's fine, he was taught under my tutelage after all," K said with his chest fully puffed. Not a second later he heard two similar reactions. It was Jace and Nate, both of them trying their best to hold in their laughter. "Screw you guys," he grumbled.

"It's good to see you guys," Luke chuckled, "I'll be good to go in another day I think,"

"By good to go do you mean, good enough to take on an entire horde of trained martial artists?" Jace asked with a smirk.

"I take it Valerian filled you in on what happened," 

"Mhmh, Nate as well, however, there's still a lot missing, probably because he was unconscious for most of it, and Valerian barely had anything to add," Aurora replied. It was then that something Solomon had said struck her. "Luke...I know this might be out of nowhere….but I can't help but ask this…"

Both Jace and K knew exactly what she was going to ask, as absurd as it seemed, their curiosity got the better of them, all they could do now was narrow their gaze onto Luke and hope he refutes any of the bold claims that Solomon made.

"Go on then….." Luke gulped, he was afraid what it was that made them act this unusual. Meanwhile, Nate looked at everyone's expression and thought to himself.

'Anything but that anything but that anything but that,' he repeated to himself mentally. It had barely been a few minutes since they agreed to keep their prowess to themselves.

"Can you see through the dark?" Aurora asked in a solemn tone.

'For fcks sake!' Nate cursed internally.

"..." Luke blinked at her for a few seconds before letting out a heavy sigh. He turned around and looked at Nate, "I trust them," he smiled before turning around, "Yes but at the same time no,"

"…..Huh????" all three of them were shocked, while Nate simply massaged his eyebrows. He knew this would happen which was why he thought that a little more time and he could have fully convinced Luke to keep it a secret. 

"W-what dddo you mean?????" Jace asked as he took a step forward.

"So it's true…???!?!" K added.

"...What do you mean yes and no…" Aurora said, she tried her best to stay calm but the situation didn't allow her to do.

Luke looked at the three and smirked. He could understand the mixed reactions, and he had no regrets telling them. He trusted K the most, and as much as the latter didn't feel like he was Luke's sensei, Luke truly felt that K was one of the reasons he made it as far as he did.

"When I charged in to save him, the corridors were completely dark, and that, unfortunately, is something that overwhelms me, but I'm not sure what happened, the next I knew, everything was bright and I could see clearly. It was only after I fought his brother and that other girl did I realize I could see through the dark," Luke said in a monotonous tone.

"However, I cannot say that I can still do so, which is why I said it in such a way. The odds on me still being able to see through the dark are pretty high, but I don't want to keep my expectations up so,"

Once he was done, Luke casually picked up the glass of water and began sipping it. Nate , on the other hand, felt like hitting Luke with a brick. After Luke turned around and said he trusts them, it made it seem like Nate didn't. He couldn't help but wince at the upcoming awkward conversation with everyone.

(A/N: Happy new years everyone! Hopefully, everyone's alright (^_^) )