Chapter 11

  Eve was surprised that Ben didn’t head straight towards the exit. Instead, Ben walked over to the defeated corpse of the dire bear. He dropped to his knees, made a sign of the cross, closed his eyes, and clasped his hands together in a praying position.

  Ben stayed there for several, reverent seconds, whispering quietly to himself. Ben noticed Eve approaching. He heard her kneel next to him, but she didn’t interrupt his prayer, so he continued.

  When he finished, he looked over to Eve. She opened her eyes and looked at him curiously. He could read her expression even while she wore a mask.

  Despite not talking, Eve was surprisingly easy to read, at least for Ben. He chalked that up to his prior life experience where he acted as a leader, given his strength, so he learned to read people well.

  Clearly not well enough to foresee a betrayal, but better than most.

  Ben tore his gaze away from Eve and looked at the bear.

  “Defeating this boss was no coincidence. I don’t know if you realize how improbable this was. By all accounts, I should be dead. You should be dead. Maybe for you that isn’t a big deal. You can just come back in an hour, but defeating this boss meant more to me than you know. This is a miracle. One that deserved to be acknowledged.”

  Ben caught the skeptical gaze from Eve. She began to type.

  “A miracle? Really?” She typed.

  Ben chuckled.

  “I know. It’s just a videogame, but like I mentioned, this has significance to me that…you wouldn’t understand. Anyway, I don’t want to keep us here for longer than we need. We can go now.”

  As soon as the two stood up, Ben was interrupted by yet another notification. Ben tried to dismiss it on instinct. He was eager to get back to the grind.

  The game of Eternity was full of notifications. Ben didn’t have the patience or attention span to pay attention to all of them.

  This one was different. It didn’t go away when he swiped his hand over it. He double checked the notification.

  [Your faith has been acknowledged. Generating reward]

  Ben looked at the notification in shock?

  “My faith has been acknowledged?” he thought.

  These notifications were completely different from his past experience playing the game.

  He got a lot of notifications this time around. So many that he probably hadn’t even read half.

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  “What does that notification mean? Is that normal?” Eve typed.

  Ben was momentarily snapped out of his stupor by Eve’s text. He looked at her with wide-eyes.

  “You can see my notifications?” He asked.

  That was not right. No one should be able to see another person’s notifications. Eve averted her gaze nervously, as if she had revealed a secret that she wasn’t supposed to. Before Ben could question her further, both Eve and Ben covered their eyes from a blinding white light that suddenly manifested above the corpse of the dire bear.

  Ben and Eve bore witness to a fantastic site. From the light, a humanoid figure appeared.

  The power that the figure emanated was immense. Ben was speechless.

  It was an angel. It was completely different from the one he saw during his character creation. This seemed more…real. He could feel its presence as clearly as he could feel anything.

  Was it the increased Pain-Setting that was simulating this experience? It was overwhelming.

  The angel had thick golden hair that was braided and flowed down his back. The angel was adorned in, what seemed like, the armor of an ancient Roman soldier. To Ben, the most notable feature was the presence of a long sword that it held. The sword was bathed in flame.

  “Michael?” Ben questioned.

  Ben was a religious church goer since he was a child. He easily recognized the angel in front of him. He had seen many icons depicting its image.

  The archangel Michael.

  Eve was stricken by the sight of the angel. She fell to her knees. Not in reverence, but in sheer overwhelmed awe of it. Her legs couldn’t hold her up. She made the sign of the cross with trembling hands. She clearly recognized who the angel was as well.

  The angel didn’t speak. He raised his sword, as if to strike. Ben couldn’t move. His mind was in a flux.

  “This can’t be the real archangel right? It’s just part of the game. But, what if? No, why would he be here? And this overwhelming presence, I don’t remember anything like this from before,” Ben thought.

  Ben was snapped out of his thoughts by the sight of the flaming sword sailing towards him. Neither Eve or Ben had any time to react.

  However, the sword wasn’t aimed at them. Instead, it embedded itself deep in the ground, inches in front of Ben’s feet.

  Another blinding flash of light emanated from the sword. Ben and Eve shielded their eyes again. The light continued for what seemed like eternity, but in reality, it was only a few seconds.

  When the light dissipated, Michael was gone, the sword was gone. The only proof that the angel had been there was the sight of the Dire Bear’s burning corpse.

  The corpse was engulfed by white fire. It quickly withered away and disappeared into dust.

  Another notification popped up for Ben. He made sure not to ignore it this time.

  [You have gained a hidden talent]

  [Hidden Talent: Wrath of Heaven]

  [Rarity: God-Tier]

  [Effect: With each attack, you and your summons have a 0.1% chance to summon the sword of the Archangel Michael to deliver divine judgement to your enemies. All enemies within 100 meters of you take holy damage, modified by 10 times your faith score, and any other relevant modifiers to your faith-based damage.

  Special Note: This ability may evolve based on your actions. Tread with grace]

  Ben was amazed by the talent. Even a 0.1% chance wasn’t that daunting, given that his summons could trigger the effect as well.

  That meant that, roughly, every 1000 attacks would trigger Wrath of Heaven.

  Ben pondered his talents. There was that sentence again.

  Tread with grace.

  The meaning behind those words was a mystery. As a Christian, Ben was familiar with the concept of grace, but he wasn’t sure how exactly that would apply to a videogame. Even one as mysterious as Eternity, which would eventually merge with reality.

  Ben’s mind was flooded with questions.

  Why was the game saturated with these kinds of biblical experiences for him? He never encountered those experiences in his last life. Things were much different than before.

  “I think I made a good choice to follow you.”

  Ben was once again snapped out of his stupor by a text from Eve. She was staring at him in awe. He nodded with a dumbfounded expression.

  “Yea.”