Keido sat in a corner of the Medieval Arts exhibit, watching his Worm of Doubt move around his hand. Its small legs felt ticklish on his skin, and he found himself giggling at it. So far, simply having it out in its spiritual form didn't consume any of the already abysmal mana reserves he had, which was quite fortunate. He looked at his system again and looked at the list of Emotional Beasts he could summon. So far, he only had access to one, but if he ascended through the ranks, he'd unlock more.
Name: Keido Song
Rank: (Unranked)
Tier: Low
Skill: [Feelings Of All] (Z-Ranked)
Drawback: {That which you trust most will be your downfall}
Perks: (None)
In all honesty, he thought his stats weren't too bad at such a time. If it were later in the years, it'd be embarrassing, and even more so that he possesses a Z-rank skill.
'I wonder… Could I?' He sent his Worm of Doubt to a random person. It landed on a child playing on her mother's phone, and the child began to doubt herself, her situation, and if she'd survive with her mother, now that her father and older brother were both dead, killed by the wolves the other day. She began to cry, as a child would in such a situation, and her mother came quickly to console her.
'Oh, better not do that again!' He winced internally. It was effective against a child, and while it was a bit heartless of him, he did want to increase his skill with the Worm of Doubt.
Such a way was usually how one rose through Tiers, after all. He next sent it to a man who looked to be in his mid to late thirties. The man's mind was plagued with doubt, the same as the girl. He looked down at the ground, and his hands began to shake as he questioned if they were truly safe in the museum, or if whatever was happening outside would come for them next.
Keido disconnected the Worm of Doubt from him, and it returned to its master.
Then, he heard a pleasant female voice behind him speak to him.
"You know, it's not very nice of you to use your skill like that. You should know that Doubt is a very powerful emotion."
Keido turned to the source of the voice and saw a woman behind him, with several pairs of wings. She had brown eyes, fair skin, wore a white hijab with black hair poking out of it, and a matching white abaya covering her. Keido's eyes widened, and he quickly looked around. The woman smiled and patted his head as if he were a pet.
"No one else can see me, if you're wondering. Father has allowed me to come and deliver a message from Him to you, Song Keido."
Keido hadn't heard her, still looking her over in a bit of awe. This was Gabriel, one of the Four Archangels of Abrahamic Mythology. Technically, she was a part of both Christian and Islamic myth, but it was still her. Similar to Achilles, the fanart from his world wasn't close to what she actually looked like, now that he saw her. He shook off his shock and spoke to her in a hushed voice, trying to act normal.
"What message does He want to deliver?"
She smiled, reaching into her pocket, and from her pocket was a simple white letter. He accepted the letter and opened it. The writer was God, naturally, addressing Keido, his sister, and their circumstances. He apologized for their unfortunate involvement and explained they would have to survive all ten disasters before being allowed to return to their world.
Keido felt nervous. He'd have to survive for a decade to be given the chance to leave. That meant having to kill possibly hundreds of thousands of monsters to survive. It was bad enough that the survival rate in this world was that a little over ten percent of humanity survived only half of those ten disasters. However, to expect him to live all ten, he felt-
What? Why can he do it? He knows so much of what there is to know about the novel, so who's to say he cannot survive, if not thrive? He reread the letter and returned it to Gabriel, who placed it back in a hidden pocket with a soft smile.
"In case you need anything, dear child, I will keep in contact. But, I doubt you'll need me much, with Lilith to guide you." She gave him another head pat before vanishing.
In another area, a man looked out of a window, drinking a ginger ale soda, surveying a certain bridge from a tall tower. He stopped drinking and let out a sigh. Thankfully, one of the few pathways connecting Manhattan to the other boroughs. A pained whimper was heard below, and he opened the window, looking down at the ground below. Many monsters, some as big as a wolf, others larger than an elephant, all lay dead on the stone ground, having been impaled by his constructs, except for this one.
It was a hybrid between a skunk and a turtle, and was somehow still alive even when he made sure to aim for where he assumed would be the monster's heart. Clearly, the biology of the creature was different from that of normal animals, and the man thought for a second that he should perhaps find out later. He created a simple, long three-sided pyramid, the length of an average broom, and moved it towards the struggling creature before letting gravity do the work.
Sure enough, it pierced the creature's head straight through, and he received a mana crystal from the kill.
[You've slain an F-rank Armored Skunk, you've gained 1 EXP]
He sighed, looking down at the dungeon, the ominous light blue portal near the water. After he had found it, all the monsters from before came out and killed most of the people hiding in the pool next to the tower. Then, they came for him, believing him an easy meal like those before, and promptly all became a Was in the span of ten minutes.
The man wondered if he should go into the ominous portal or not. He'd found a few others like it before he had reached the tower, but he never actually went in. An amused voice then spoke next to the man.
"Well, are you going to enter the dungeon? You'll find better items in there if you do." The voice urged him.
The man got annoyed at the voice. It had first begun speaking to him the previous night, and the man had to admit, he didn't trust it, but whatever was speaking had a point. Perhaps he should go in; he'd been meaning to, after all.