“Haiji…. Wake up, man” I could hear someone say as I also felt someone’s palm tapping my shoulder.

  I wanted to ignore all that and continue this blissful resting when I suddenly remember where I was.

  “Easy…easy, you are alright” Daigo said calmly, as I quickly open my eyes and turn my head around to figure out what is happening.

  “Chill, you were asleep and I think the fight is over. It is safe to move out” Daigo said calmly to me.

  “How long was I asleep?” I asked with a very weak tone, as I tried to stand up but couldn’t.

  “You were out for a while, immediately I returned from the first scouting I met you asleep and that was hours ago” Daigo said.

  “Shit” I commented, because sleeping here is more than just dropping my guard, I would be killed without even know what is killing me.

  Just imagine getting beaten or stabbed to death or while you sleep; a truly whack way of dying.

  “At least, you can talk. Do you know what the goblins did to you?” He asked.

  “I don’t know but please can we get out of here, I hate being like this in a Gate” I pleaded to Daigo. We will definitely talk about this outside where it is less dangerous.

  Daigo carried me on his back like a baby and trekked through the jungle until we reached the exit of the Gate.

  When we reached there we saw some people wearing biohazard suits dissecting the Aggressors bodies and pulling out their arcane-core while the Tower’s private contractors carrying trunk, dead Zipper-Spines and Goblin body.

  The people in biohazard suits were even putting some dead Aggressors into large tube-containers filled with either blue or green liquid.

  “Hey, how did you get here?” A private contractor wearing a gas mask popped out of nowhere and asked us.

  “We never left or to be exact; we were left behind by Taiko and the others” Daigo said indifferently to the contractor.

  “What do you mean…” The contractor was cut short by another fucker that also popped out of nowhere.

  “What is this, who let them through…? I thought the raid was over since 1am this morning?!” A guy in a biohazard suit asked with bitterness.

  “Doc, head back. I will handle this” The contractor shifted his gaze to the guy in a biohazard suit and said.

  “Handle, does this look like you can handle anything?” The guy said pointing a finger at us.

  “Hey ass-whip, keep pointing that finger at me and you will find it broken in seconds” Daigo said with irritation to guy in the biohazard suit.

  “You” The contractor pointed to Daigo and continued “…Shut up and follow me”, then he looked back at the other guy and said “Doctor, go back to work and don’t tell me how to do my job”.

  The doctor left without arguing, while we followed contractor outside the Gate.

  The contractor to us to the man in the suit from earlier.

  “Sir, found this two in the Gate and they claim Taiko left them behind” The contractor said.

  “Of course he did. What happened to him?” The man asked, pointing at me.

  “Goblins did something to him?” Daigo responded.

  “Alright, take them to where they will get paid” The man said to the contractor, he also has no interest in what happened to me.

  The contractor to a young lady that at the back of a minivan hooked up with computers and files.

  “Boss said you should give them their fee. They went in with Taiko” The contractor explained to the woman. She opened a small safe beside her and her us our money.

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  Daigo took the money and put it in his pocket, then the contractor told us how to get back to the abandoned Taisho-shopping mall and we were told to leave immediately.

  Since we couldn’t afford pay for transport back to the mall, Daigo had to carry me on his back all the way there.

  By the time we got there, Daigo was soaked in sweat and panted hard, I told him to drop me down several times; saying I could manage but he refused.

  He took us to our usual spot and place me on the floor, I dragged my butt to rest on a broken desk that was turned to its side.

  “I checked your body but didn’t see any wound, do you think probably a Hobgoblin casted a spell on you?” He asked but didn’t allow me to respond and added another statement “Those fuckers did have some wicked magic; they are E-Grade yet they could regenerate…”

  I had time to think on the way back; I also thought maybe the sudden exhaustion I felt was goblin magic but it didn’t add up.

  I have faced goblins before the regular ones don’t use magic only some very few exception, while the Hobgoblins we faced today all used magic and they could even heal fast, but I killed the last Hobgoblin, it didn’t look it was casting any spell on me as it crawled away.

  Then I suspected the System, it was the only new strange thing that is now part of my life now, I have fought in Gate for hours and days yet I never felt as exhausted as I did today and it was like a 30 minutes’ battle.

  I quickly summoned ‘Profile’ and immediate noticed Arcane Energy is 1 and the number was in red, which was previously 6 and green in colour.

  Red does not usually mean something go and if Arcane Energy dropped from 6 to 1, then my sudden exhaustion had to have caused by it.

  I did not really understand what Arcane Energy meant before but I remember Hoshi once saying that the term ‘arcane-weapons’ was once called ‘arcane-weapons’ or ‘magic-weapons’ a very long time ago and the all meant the same thing.

  Also, the fact that every Arcane-being runs on arcane; it is our main power source and total exhaustion of it cause exhaustion as it is somewhat related to stamina.

  There have been times where when I was so exhausted from a fight after coming out of a Gate and when I tried to get another gig, some hirers would test me and tell me that my arcane is a bit low for me to get the job done.

  I always thought they were referring to me being E-Grade but that might not be the case.

  “I don’t it was Hobgoblin magic” I told Daigo.

  ‘What... then what would have made you weaken all of a sudden?” He asked like there couldn’t be any other explanation.

  Before I answer his question, I remembered seeing a Message Box on levelling up and rewards as I fought the goblins but I cancelled it. It is still weird seeing the holographic screens but they do not seem to be blocking me vision entirely; it is like I have two set of eyes – one pair can see the holograms while the other pair focuses on everything else without any overlapping.

  I summoned Power Status

  Power Status

  Strength: 8 Heart: 1

  Speed: 5 Vitality: 1

  Stamina: 4 Energy: 2

  Construct: 10 Cognition: 2

  Available Status Points: 5

  I looked at Stamina and Energy, both seem to have the same meaning to me but I am sure they are two different things but I didn’t what truly makes them different.

  I came here to test them out, I placed 3 points in Stamina and 2 points in Energy, then scrolled up to see if there was a difference in Arcane Energy.

  *Profile

  Name: None

  Nature: Evolve Human

  Level: 4

  Title: Ratty

  Hit point: 100

  Damage per hit: 40

  Arcane Energy: 6/11

  Arcane Skills (None)

  Arcane Physiology (None)

  Power Status

  Trophy

  Arcane Energy was previously 1, now it’s 6 but was still in red. It seems Stamina and Energy both make up all or most of Arcane Energy.

  I think I became extremely exhausted when Arcane Energy hit 0 and this realization made me look back at everything in Power Status.

  When I saw the Power Status, I considered Strength and Speed as the most the important and the ones that I should distributed points to more often but with what just happened in that Gate, Stamina and Energy are very important maybe even more than strength.

  If 6 points of Arcane Energy sustained me for roughly 30 minutes, so it means 11 points of Arcane Energy will roughly last me for 55 minutes which isn’t that long. Then increasing Stamina and Energy takes priority over the others, at least for now until it can last me for hours.

  I decided to give Daigo an explanation, since I found out what caused that exhaustion.

  “Daigo, I think I got Enhanced” I said to Daigo with a straight face, and he just look at me dumbfounded like I was speaking crazy.

  “Enhanced?” He asked with a confused look.

  “When you mean Enhanced, you mean you got a fuckin' superpower from breaking the arcane-core from an Aggressor?” He asked to confirm.

  “Yes, from an Aggressor I fought a couple of days ago” I confirmed his guess.

  “Look, I have noticed that you have been acting strange for a while. I know with every fuckin' thing that’s happen you can’t see a way to fix things, I see Haiji and even your family does too…except your shit-face of a father…. but” Daigo said with empathy, then used his hand to clean his nose, then continued “First, you think you might be losing your marble and now you think you are an E-Grade Evolve that has somehow been enhanced with superpowers?”

  “Look, it is ok to panic and feel hopeless but don’t do that thing where you begin to go fuckin' insane just because we are dog-shit in this life” He said this part with a bit of annoyance.