The room at the Occult Club was bathed in the orange light of late afternoon, creating soft shadows on the dark wooden walls.
Antares was slumped on the sofa, his arms crossed behind his head, staring at the ceiling without the slightest interest.
Rias, standing in front of him, sighed before speaking: "Ise."
His tone was firm, but carried an almost imperceptible weight.
He lazily looked away from the ceiling to face her. "We have a contract. You're going to do it, right?"
Antares sighed. He knew he had no choice."Whatever. Where is it?"
Rias hesitated for a second before answering.
"A bit far..." She crossed her arms, looking at him carefully, as if gauging his reaction. "You'll have to walk. We're not going to risk using a teleport on you again."
Antares' eyes narrowed subtly. 'She's still worried about that...'
The teleport incident hadn't been forgotten. Even if he hadn't been physically hurt, Rias clearly didn't want to repeat the experience.
There was something curious about that... He wasn't sure what to make of her concern. 'As far as I know... no, I don't know anything.
This woman was an enigma.
He stood up with a sigh, picking up the information about the contract. A simple task. Nothing that required much effort.
Just as he was about to leave, Rias's voice called out to him again. "And Ise..."
He stopped at the door, but didn't turn around immediately.
Rias seemed to be pondering something.
"You and Akeno..." she hesitated, "no, never mind." She smiled, but it was no ordinary smile.
There was something behind it. "You can go."
For a moment, he almost wondered what she meant. But... He just shrugged and left.
[On the way...]
The sky had already darkened and the lights of the city shone in the distance as Antares walked through the almost deserted streets. The cold wind blew against his face, but he hardly noticed. His focus was completely on something else.
The System.
He opened the missions tab, and the long-awaited notification appeared before his eyes.
[Daily Mission: Get Stronger] - Complete
[Push-ups: 100/100 ]
[Abs: 100/100 ]
[Squats: 100/100 ]
[Run: 10km/10km ]
[Rewards:
[+3 Attribute Points]
[Random Box (Low Quality) x1]
[Punishment Mission CANCELLED]
"+3 attribute points?" Antares smiled.
The effort was not entirely in vain. He immediately opened the status tab.
[STATUS]
[Name]: Hyoudou Issei (Antares)
[Class]: Summoner
[Title]: He who freed himself from the universe
[HP]: 290 / 290
[MP]: 280 / 280
[Level]: 10
[STRENGTH]: 33
[AG]: 28
[SENSE]: 38
[VIT]: 29
[INT]: 28
[Points available]: 14
[Skills] Touch of the Demon, Shadow Extraction
[Gears] Boosted Gear, Chaos Gear
'I've got quite a few Status points accumulated... he thought.... 7 strength, 2 agility, 2 Sense, 1 vitality, 2 intelligence... yeah, that should balance it out.'
[FOR]: 33 (+7)
[AG]: 28 (+2)
[SENSE]: 38 (+2)
[VIT]: 29 (+1)
[INT]: 28 (+2)
Immediately, he felt a slight tingle run through his muscles. An increase of fourteen points was nothing absurd, but still...
If he repeated this every day, weeks later, his body would already be on another level. But what really caught his attention was the other reward.
[Random Box (Low Quality)]
"Let's see what this shit gets me." He tapped on the option.
The virtual box glowed a golden hue and then a new notification appeared.
[You have received: [Minor Recovery Potion] x1]
[Healing potion has been stored in the inventory, and will be made available any time the user requests it].
Antares frowned as the new message flashed before his eyes. "Inventory?"
He continued walking through the silent streets, but his mind was too busy to pay attention to the road.
If he had an inventory, that meant he could store things in it... "System, open inventory."
Instantly, a translucent window appeared before his eyes.
[Inventory]
[Minor Recovery Potion x1]
[(Available Spaces: 9/10)]
"So I can only store ten items?" It was a limited space, but still... being able to carry things without any weight was a huge advantage.
Antares tested the system mentally. "Store my wallet."
The small wallet in his pocket simply disappeared. He opened his inventory again and there it was: [Leather Wallet x1]
"That... is very useful." A faint smile appeared on his lips.
If he could expand the number of slots, he could store weapons, equipment, even food and money. If the System had that function... then what else was it hiding?
"Take out the wallet." The wallet magically appeared in his hand in the next second.
"That'll be fun." Antares laughed.
He put the wallet back in his inventory and picked up the pace. The contract site wasn't far away, and he didn't want to waste any more time.
In the blink of an eye, he was about to ring the doorbell.
Meanwhile, the front door is open.
'... Really, leaving the door open in the middle of the night is a stupid thing to do...' Antares spoke before sensing something strange coming from the house... an... aura.
'This restlessness... I have a bad feeling...' He thought before entering the house, looking down the hallway.
There was no light in the room, just a corridor, with a staircase leading up to the second floor, and there was no light there either...
'There are no humans here...' He analyzed.
"Hey, asshole who called me. I'm a Demon from House Gremory... Introduce yourself soon." Antares demanded, but no one answered.
So he just kept walking into the room, until he smelt a distinctive smell that he knew all too well... "Blood."
He followed the smell into a living room, where there was a television, a sofa, a table and so on. It looked like an ordinary living room... Then he turned without a face towards the smell, and on the wall...
A crucified body, nailed to the wall. A naked man, full of cut marks and dripping blood... He had been dead for some time, due to the dried blood on his body.
"Jeez... what a shoddy job." Antares said, looking at the large, thick screws driven into both palms, the foot and the torso of the corpse.
"I'd certainly do better..." He muttered looking closer, "Amateurish..." he said before turning his face to find something written in blood.
"What an idiot" He laughed reading it, but then, a presence...
"It says 'I punish those who did it, but deeds! I only borrowed the prayer of an important person. Suddenly a young man's voice came from behind me."
Antares turned around, a man with white hair. He seems to be a foreigner and about the age of a teenager. He is dressed like a priest.
"Hmmm! Well, well, if it isn't the little devil!" he said happily. He said happily.
'Don't get involved with church people. Especially the Exorcists. They're our biggest enemies. They can easily eliminate us because their power is backed by God's beliefs. Antares remembered what Rias had said...
"I am a priest ♪ I am the cure ♪ I cut off people who look like demons, and I laugh about it ♪ I cut off the heads of those who look like demons, and I get food in return ♪." The priest began to sing.
"My name is Freed Sellzen. I belong to a certain organization of Exorcists. Just because I've introduced myself doesn't mean I've accepted your presence. I don't even want to remember your name in my memory, so please do. All right, because you're going to die here. Assure me of that.
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