Chapter 10: I'm not a santa but OK

"Here goes nothing then…"

To say that I was hesitant to follow through with this last necessary step would be a great understatement… but I did it anyway. With my makeshift barriers being capable of holding the orange sand for just so long, any moment that I would waste without learning more about those items would unbearable.

With the bracelet in my fingers, I quickly moved my hand into it, pushing it past my wrist joint right on top of my elbow.

Sting.

As soon as the circular frame of the bracelet reached the point where it touched my skin all over, a small needle seemed to cut into my body directly below the holo-projector element of the bracelet.

In the next moment, the hologram changed once again, repeating a list of actions that it was taking before suddenly vanishing all-together.

"Installation and calibration finished. Enjoy your new holobra!"

With yet another appearance of that pale, female face, the tip of the bracelet shone with a strange light for a moment before it finally displayed something I was at least a bit familiar with. A menu.

After a few moments of trying my chances, I finally learned that just by sweeping my hand or even a single finger over what was showing on the hologram, I could turn the display to another screen with an entire new set of applications and predefined usages.

"Skill diagram."

This option was what instantly caught my interest. If I could find a way to precisely track the progress of my growth, I could easily learn where I should put more efforts in, instead of wasting my time and strength at trying to overcome the walls that were never supposed to be broken.

Overexcited at the prospects of what that option could mean for me, I quickly tapped my finger against the intangible light that the entire hologram was made for…

And I nearly lost my consciousness.

Not because of some kind of shock that travelled through my body so that this bracelet could classify and rate my skills. Nothing of that sort happened. It was just the image that was displayed alone that made all the alarms go off in my mind.

Because the kind of shape that the hologram displayed was simply impossible. Just like where there are those star diagrams with the distance of a specific angle away from the centre denominating the value of certain aspect, what appeared in front of my eyes was pretty similar to it. That is, if someone brought that diagram, turned it from two dimensions to four, and then added several modifications to make it even harder to look at.

Thankfully, after a few moments, my brain stopped revolting at the idea of looking at those impossible shapes. It seemed that after the initial shock, it grew immune to this sighting as if marking it as just a conceptual graphic one could find on the internet.

But what was important right now, was that I had now a full outlook at what my stats looked like!

"Primitive cultivation - level 1-3"

"Athletism - level 5"

"Perception - level 7"

Those three were the ones that instantly caught my attention. While I could explain the athleticism part with all those years worth of efforts that I gave in my pursuit of a sports-related career, while that 'primitive cultivation' part was pretty obvious once I rated the currently known stages with numbers… but where the hell did that insane spike at perception part came from?

Crack.

The sound of some kind of material breaking forced me out of my current daze. Taking a quick look at the part of the wall made with some kind of see-through material, I could see a small, orange storm violently rushing against the sturdy building material. Regretfully, while the walls and what seemed to be a window could easily ward off against this kind of pressure, the same couldn't be said about the loosely protected gaps in the doors.

"I need to bring it back to earth… quickly…"

With the system announcing that I somehow passed the first phase of the mission, I was now free to move between the worlds at any time I would require. But right as the feeling to instantly call the system and return to the basement with those newly acquired items of mine appeared in my mind…

I realised that doing something like this would be a sign of utmost stupidity and carelessness that in a bad scenario, could end the entirety of life on earth.

Because what if there was this tiniest possible piece of the orange sand stuck to the equipment I brought in a way that made it impossible to affect it, but given enough time and shaking, it could fall off?

WIth what I have seen this orange sand to be capable of doing, I had no courage to risk the wellbeing of the entire earth just to play around with that new toy of mine.

"Hey… dear system, I was a good boy. I washed my hands after meals, I didn't swear all that much and I helped the old ladies across the streets… With that, could you maybe give me some way to safely move this stuff away from this world?"

Putting my hands together as if I was praising to something or someone, I stood still for a moment, before the dire straits that I was in forced me back to reality.

"I guess I won't have any further use for you…"

In the end, no matter how great this item was and how much more I could learn from it, I wasn't willing to bring doom to the entire planet just to have another toy to fiddle with!

[Hidden quest fulfilled]

["Protector of the homeland" title granted]

[Quest "I'm not a Santa but OK" completed]

[Rewarding - cleansing gate]

[Cleansing gate - an attribute of the world's portal that removes any harmful elements and weapons from the host presence during the transfers between the worlds.]

For a moment, I just stood frozen in place. For the system to come up with this kind of solution… and not even demand anything in return? While this sounded quite fishy, the rate at which the number of cracks that I could hear continued to grow, I had no time to waste over this.

"I want to return."

Saying those words in a completely normal rate, I took a quick look at the items behind me. Even if this room would soon turn into another mayhem of orange sand, nothing was stopping me from returning here with more, special items prepared to secure the room properly. Once I would test the waters with just this bracelet alone, I would be free to return here and claim any item that I could bother to find in this world!

Crack.

But for now, I had to move.

Taking a few steps forward, I placed my hand on the door's handle. By doing so, the diagram with my abilities once again came to my view.

"So that's where that perception spike was from…"

Seeing yet another sharp element of this multi-dimensional diagram, I wasn't naive enough to be unable to connect the dots. First, the system awards me with a title and then, suddenly my endurance skyrockets from measly four points to eleven?

Crack.

Unwilling to risk it any further, I pressed the doors open, instantly stepping over the threshold and returning back to the safety of my basement. Now, what else could I learn from this strange bracelet?