Matthew felt as if he was slowly rising into the sky. As if several pairs of hands were pushing against his back to life him.
Matthew opened his eyes, not to the cathedral, but to the open sky. He saw the white blots of clouds wave passed his head as he ascended, but he felt no wind on his face. In fact, he hardly felt anything except the slight force on his back moving him upward.
For a moment, Matthew's body felt weightless until he finally noticed the pressure on his back had been released.
For a frightening second Matthew expected his body to suddenly fall back down through the air. Nonetheless, he still lay suspended in the air.
And that is when a light appeared before him with a strangely familiar ding.
Matthew squinted, his eyes adjusting to the sudden light. But finally, he looked, the bright light seeming to dim to reveal its true form.
Just as quickly as Matthew was awed, he was now somewhat confused.
Before he stood what he could only describe as a 'screen'. The screen was stylized with a mix of gold and pearl with solid light forming its frame. The background was like metallic gold with the words adorned upon it a pure white.
===================================
[You have been chosen as a Brilliant Fragment for your show of heroic courage]
[Do you Accept?]
[Yes/No]
===================================
Matthew scanned over the words once. Twice. A third time. Even still, he couldn't understand what any of it meant.
"Um.... y-yes?" Matthew muttered under his breath.
Suddenly, the screen disappeared, only to reappear with another ding.
===================================
[As a Brilliant Fragment do you swear to destroy the heralds of destruction who descend upon our world]
[Do you accept?]
[Yes/No]
===================================
Matthew's eyes widened. He didn't understand what a 'herald of destruction' was supposed to be. Nonetheless, he still spoke his answer. A hunter's job was to protect the world by closing the gates that opened throughout the world. While Matthew didn't know what or who the "heralds of destruction" were, he was sure it was no better than the gates.
"Yes," Matthew said aloud, now much more sure of himself.
===================================
[Welcome Brilliant Fragment, Matthew Adams]
===================================
Before Matthew could ask anything more, he felt his body suddenly lurch back downwards.
***
"Ahh-" He shouted, shooting up from his hospital bed. He was panting, his heart raced as adrenaline flowed through his body. But then his mind finally caught up to him.
He looked around, confused. He was sitting in a hospital bed. The covers of the bed had been tossed over him at one point, however, due to his sudden movement they had fallen in a heap over his legs.
An IV supplying water to his body was hooked to his arm, as well as many other patches and needles.
The hospital room was barren except for him, to his side was a large window in full view of the city of New York City.
Matthew looked down at his hands. They were still shaking, he couldn't believe what had happened. He was sure he'd been crushed by the statue of Jesus in the double dungeon he and Luke had wandered into. He should have died.
Matthew's eyes went wide. He should have died. Just then he heard another ding directly in front of him.
He looked ahead to see a much smaller screen, identical in design to the one he'd seen in the sky, hovering a few feet in front of him.
===================================
[Assessment of Matthew Adams is a success]
[Profile Available]
[You have 1 quest in your inbox]
===================================
. . .
"What?" That was all he managed to say.
Another light ding rang out as a slightly smaller screen appeared next to the previous one.
===================================
[Would you like to view the quest in your inbox?]
===================================
Matthew knit his brow. "Um.... sure." He said.
. . .
Matthew lightly waved a hand through the message, his hand simply phased through the screen as if it were air.
"Yes.... yes I would like to view the quest," Matthew said, slightly louder this time.
Both screens quickly faded in a brief flick of light. However, another appeared as quickly as the others had vanished.
===================================
[Quest: Rehabilitation]
[Rank: E-]
[Objective: Heal your body back to its proper physical condition]
[Progress: 71/100]
[Reward: random miscellaneous healing item]
===================================
"It's like a video game," Matthew muttered under his breath. He wasn't exceedingly familiar with video games, although he did play them from time to time. But he never imagined anything similar to what he sees on a screen to really exist.
Matthew simply watched the 'progress' number. Despite the medicine and several medical procedures he had more than likely gone through he found it odd it had only cleared 71 percent of the injuries to his body. While that was surely higher than if he'd been left within the gate, with all the medical marvels the world had manufactured since the opening of gates, few injuries couldn't be relatively quickly solved. Then again, that was assuming one could afford such a procedure. He also didn't know how long he'd been unconscious. For all he knew it could've been only a few hours.
Then he remembered something the screen had mentioned before.
"Can you show me my profile?" Matthew asked.
Suddenly, another screen appeared in front of him with much more text than he'd expected.
===================================
[Name: Matthew Adams}
[Level: 1]
[Job: None]
[HP: 50/50]
[MP: 25/25]
[Strength: 10]
[Agility: 10]
[Vigor: 10]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Sense: 10]
[Faith: 10]
===================================
Matthew crossed his arms as he scanned over his stats. He found it odd that everything was equal. Being what type of hunter he was, his higher stats should have been vigor and strength, or maybe even agility. But his intelligence had no reason to be equal to everything else.
While he wouldn't consider himself dumb by any means, he wasn't necessarily Einstein. Additionally, he expected Intelligence to fit more with mages than a fighter like himself. He didn't even know the first thing about mana. He knew he had it, that's how he was awakened, even if he was only an E-rank. The only skill he did have cost his fatigue rather than his mana, unlike most skills. Subjectively, that might've made it even worse.
As for faith, he couldn't understand what that could be used for. His first idea was for healers. But from what he knew, the healing magic they used was no different from any magic the mages could cast.
Suddenly, Matthew heard the door to the hospital room shake. A second later the door swung open to reveal a nurse holding a clipboard standing at the doorway.
"Oh, you're awake. We saw your heart rate spike so I came to check up on you." She said as she walked into the room, shutting the door behind her.
Her voice was light and quiet. The only reason Matthew could hear her was because there was very little sound in the room beyond the constant beep of the heart monitor next to him.
The nurse walked over to the heart monitor to look over its readings before scribbling something down on the clipboard. "Your readings seem normal for someone in your state. You've recovered very well. How are you feeling?" She asked, glancing at Matthew.
Matthew looked at the status screen that still rested in front of him. He assumed he was the only one who could see it, otherwise, the nurse surely would have mentioned it. After all, it wasn't every day a random screen appeared in front of someone's face.
Matthew turned back to the nurse. "I'm feeling fine. Do you know what happened to me?" He asked.
The nurse paused for a moment. "I wasn't given all the details, all I know is you were brought into the ER a few days ago. Yesterday you were transferred here, and I was assigned to watch after you." She explained.
"Was there anyone else with me?" Matthew asked.
The nurse nodded. "The other hunter? He's in a separate wing of the building. He is no longer in the ER, but due to his status, he has been put in the care of some of the more experienced doctors. When he gained consciousness he insisted you be moved into his wing of the hospital. But we cannot do that due to your insurance. We'll lack thereof." She mumbled the last sentence, although Matthew could still hear her.
"When did Luke wake up?" Matthew asked.
"Around three days ago I think. Technically he should be discharged later today." The nurse explained.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "May we come in?" A male voice asked, slightly muffled through the other side of the door.
The nurse looked confused for a moment as she walked to the door. Hesitating slightly as she opened the door.
She immediately took several steps back as two men in suits walked into the office.
One was a tall slender man with long blonde hair tied in the back. He wore shades so dark Matthew couldn't even see his eyes behind them.
The other man was slightly shorter but twice as wide. He was dark-skinned and bald. Matthew could see muscles peaking through the edges of his suit.
The two men walked up to Matthew. "I'm Victor Grey." The blonde man said. He then pointed a thumb back at the muscular man behind him. "That's Marco Haiden. We're advisors from the F.B.H."
Matthew's eyes widened slightly. The F.B.H., or Federal Bureau of Hunters, was a recent branch of the American government in charge of managing guilds, gates, and all the hunters who fall under the jurisdiction of the American government.
Victor continued. "You're Matthew Adams correct? E-rank hunter?" He asked, walking up to stand next to Matthew's bed.
Matthew nodded. "Yes, that's me."
"Earlier this week we were informed that you entered a gate alongside Luke Sirius, an A-rank hunter. Is that true?" The advisor asked.
Matthew nodded. "He's a friend of mine, he brought me along. The gate wasn't supposed to be too dangerous for us." Matthew looked away from the advisor. "It wasn't supposed to be."
The advisor took off his glasses. Finally, Matthew saw his eyes. His left eye was normal. However, his right eye's sclera was pitch black in contrast to his golden irises. "What happened in that gate? I heard Luke- and by proxy, you- were sent to retrieve some injured hunters within the gate. But several hours later, the gate closed. And in its place were you," he pointed to Matthew with his piercing golden eyes. "And Luke."
Victor crossed his arms again. "Did you ever kill the boss?"
Matthew nodded. "There was a bit more than that." Inwardly he sighed, reimagining the events. "We traveled around the dungeon for a while and never had any sign of the other squad. Soon though, we got to the boss. The squad was-" he paused. "The corpses of the squad were there. Long story short, we killed the boss, but couldn't leave." Matthew opened his mouth to speak again but faltered.
Victor knit his brow. "Why's that?"
Mathew could feel the heavy gaze of Victor on his face as if he were staring into his mind. "There was a double dungeon."
Victor scoffed lightly. "So? That doesn't stop you from leaving."
"This one did," Matthew responded.
Victor and Marco exchanged glances before looking back to Matthew.
"The exit door to the boss chamber was the double dungeon gate. It was the only exit to the room. Our choices were to go through it, or stay there and let the gate to the real world close." Matthew glanced at Victor. "Wasn't much a of a choice."
Victor rolled his hand towards Matthew. "Go on."
"Can I ask you a question?" Matthew asked.
Victor nodded.
"Either of you ever been in a gate?" Matthew asked.
Victor and Marco exchanged looks again. Victor pointed between the two of them. "We were both hunters before we became advisors, we've both seen our share of gates and dungeons."
"Have you ever seen one that mimicked a real place? A specific place. Like a city, or a specific landmark or building."
Victor knit his brow further. "I never have," he glanced back to Marco who shook his head. "What's your point?"
"Inside that double dungeon was Saint Patrick's Cathedral. A replica of it at least. But there was no one there; just me, Luke, and the statue." Matthew explained. Seeing the advisors' confused glances, he continued. "There was a large statue of Jesus that animated itself and began attacking us. I don't know what rank it was, but Luke never even made a dent in it till he nearly blew half the room to ashes. And then we died." Matthew glanced at his hands, they were still shaking slightly from the retelling of the story. He looked back at Victor. "But we didn't."
A slow moment of silence crawled through the room, only to be broken when Marco reached into his suit, producing a small metal ball about the size of a tennis ball.
"Can you hold this for a moment?" Victor asked, taking it from Marco's hands and offering it to Matthew.
Matthew simply grabbed the orb to hold it in his hands.
Victor then pulled out a small rectangular device and held it up to the orb. A few seconds passed before a ping emitted from the device.
Victor tilted his head slightly at the readings on the device, tilting it slightly so Marco could see as well.
"Eight, same as the other guy," Victor muttered to Marco. "Alright Mr. Adams, you're coming with us for the time being."
The nurse immediately spoke up. "Um, sir, I'm sorry for the inconvenience but the patient isn't recovered enough to be" She was cut off when Marco stepped forward and put a hand on Matthew's head.
A faint green glow flowed from the advisor's hand onto Matthew, encasing his body for a moment.
In a light burst, the light dissipated.
Suddenly, Matthew heard a ding in front of him as another screen appeared.
===================================
[Quest Rehabilitation has been completed]
[You may accept your reward at any time]
===================================
"He should be fine now," Victor noted as Marco stepped back. He gestured to the nurse. "Have him discharged within the hour. And you," he pointed to Matthew. "Meet us in the parking lot once you're out. Don't make us come looking for you."