The clock struck 12 am, and the ding filled the dark space of his bedroom. It was the interface showing the new daily quests; however, not so shockingly to Damien, they were identical to the ones he had just done that morning.

  *Daily Quest!

  -Shower

  -Brush your teeth

  -Eat breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  -Change clothes

  -Sleep before 1am

  The last one was the newest, he now had a babysitter forcing him to sleep at a certain time. It was a little unsettling but it was worth it. Cause with the day ending and a new one beginning he was rewarded another 10 bucks for completing the quest the prior day. It was like a cash machine. Damien was beginning to get a little gloaty, if this kept up he wouldn’t even have to care about school.

  Laying in bed at the dim light of the interface he smiled and slowly swung his feet around, he had an hour before he needed to sleep so he might as well do some research. Approaching the computer he plopped, leaned back and began hammering away as the system boomed to life. It wasn’t an expensive rig, it barely was able to run some of the most basic games. However, it was his rig that he built and because of that he loved it.

  Typing through the forums he kept digging to try and uncover as much as he could, however, it was nothing but LIT-RPG’s and roleplay forums that came up. Damien's eyes began glossing over reading some of the stuff that was being pulled up, but just before he gave up he saw a small forum with no views.

  “Alien Tech that allows me to level up.”

  Damien read it softly, and quietly like he was trying to keep a secret between friends. He clicked it, it was over 50 forum pages, and it was last updated 10 months ago.

  Damien knew immediately he couldn’t read it all in one sitting, it was almost three years worth of information. Opening the first folder he began reading.

  “Hi there, I'm BookLover55, I was writing to see if anyone else had experienced this before. Ill start from the beginning.” Damien took a long drawn breath, and continued.

  ‘About four years ago, my father came home and handed my this little stone orb. It at first seemed to be basic, it was just some stupid rock that I thought was pointless. However, me being me, I stuck it in my pocket and continued with my day. That night it implanted itself into my head. Like, legit, shoved the entire then through my skull. You wouldn’t BELIVE how psychedelic this was. Yet, I discovered that I could enhance my body. I know its weird, strange, and its totally not believable, but I promise you it happened!”

  Damien rubbed his face, he didn’t know how old this person was but it felt like something an older person would have written trying to be relevant still. Looking at the clock, he still had 10 minutes, hopefully long enough for him to finish this backstory.

  ‘I started having quests, and leveling up systems. It kind of reminded me of that Final Fantasy game series, where you had stats and level progression. Which was totally cool, but it was filled with problems still. Something felt off. What I did notice was it was under ‘alpha’ like it was working out bugs. It tried to produce money from winning, but it would fail and say it has not been implemented yet.’

  Damien paused and pulled the cash from his pocket and examined it. It was real currency, he could feel it, but he wasn’t gonna lick it for assurance he wasn't that insane. His eyes slowly glanced back up at the screen. He began mumbling to himself, “So, it wasn’t fully developed? How is this system more developed now if it wasn’t for this person? Is it the same system, or did I get a different version?” Damien contemplated, he had his bag with him the entire time that day. No one could have stuck anything in it, except. Damien's eyes narrowed.

  ‘Mr. Cliff? How had I not thought about him prior?’ Then he remembered, ‘I had higher intelligence and wisdom.’ This wasn’t the last thought to skip across his head either.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  ‘The watch.’ Damien pushed himself out of the chair so fast his chair clattered into the ground sideways as he began rummaging through the desk for it. He tossed papers around opened up shelves, he thought he was gonna go insane trying to find it. The only downside to cleaning the room the way he did, he has no idea where the system logically put stuff.

  “DARNIT!” He shouted and rubbed his face, ‘where would it go? Where would I put a random watch that I found in my backpack?’ Damien stopped for a second and grabbed the backpack, ‘I would stick it back in here cause I would take it back to school to see whose it belonged to!’ He internally said, pulling out the watch with a heart on the face. It had big eyes like an anime character, a bright large smile, and thick bushy eyebrows.

  “Found you!” He said, the system dinged to life.

  *Acquired Godly Artifact

  *Shield of Faith

  *Equip? Yes or No

  Damien blinked a few times, his hand trembled. “What in plot armor is this?” Damien said seeing the legendary symbol across the watch as he took a hard deep gulp and clicked yes.

  The watch wrapped around his wrist like a parasite as it began squeezing and locking into place. Damien lifted his hand gripping his forearm like it was under control before stopping and shaking it some. “I was honestly expecting a venom to take over honestly.”

  “Venom take over? That's the dumbest thing I've heard, kid.” A voice rang out in his head, it was a warm rougher voice that had some confidence behind it, but also a half tease tone. Damien blinked hearing it and quickly swung around the room.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello?” The voice suddenly mocked, “Aye, yo kid!” It whistled bringing his attention to his arm. It was the heart on the face of the watch. “Aye yo, finally! Do you know how dark it was in that backpack, to think you found the EYE OF GOD with a random WATCH, and forgot all about me?” The watch scolded in a teasing way, “My goodness, I hope you raised your intelligence stat because it's lacking.”

  Damien scowled, “Imma smash you against my desk if at this rate.” He said in return. It was quiet for a moment before the watch let out a hearty laugh, “Oh hoho, I like you kid, you got some spunk! Alright, I'm Heart, and no its not very original but that's not my fault.”

  “You have a name? You are just a watch?”

  “Oi, you're a walking tutorial, we all have curses you brat.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that, I've never seen a talking watch-”

  “Yeah, well I've never seen the ocean doesn't mean it don't exist!”

  Damien rubbed his temples, “What are you?” Damien finally asked, “A watch.” The response almost made him smash it into the desk, Damien's teeth gritted. “Woah woah, calm down Kid. look, I'm an artifact, your predecessor passed me down to you to help.”

  “Mr. Cliff?”

  “Who?”

  “Mr.Cliff….my math teacher?”

  “I don't know a Cliff, I've told a few people to hike off one before.” Damien's hand smacked his own forehead and let out a groan. “Okay, fine, why are you with me now?”

  “Oh, I'm supposed to teach you the basics, but you leapt off without me, so it appears I'm just here as your personal shield now. Sprinkled in with some basic advice here and there.” It continued, “Real quick, activate me. To activate me all you gotta do-” Damien was quick to cut him off by doing it before he could finish explaining.

  The shield began moving like it did with the sword, slime-like organism bending and folding and shaping, with a handle forming in his hand as a large shield that covered the main portion of his body. The shield was in the shape of a heart, he could feel the straps around his wrist and forearm with the bar in his hands to properly hold it. Taking it off he flipped it around to see the massive face of the heart staring at him.

  “AYE YO Kid! Looks like we already got experience with this stuff. How did you know how to do this already? What kind of weapon do you have, a common sword? Uncommon daggers?” Damien slowly let his face turn into a smirk.

  “Nah, something better.” Slowly in his free hand the sword formed, the glistening blade, the sharp teeth of the weapon, “Shark tooth!? You got the shark tooth sword?” The heart shouted, a mix of excitement but anxiety.

  “Yep! I did a mystery spin, and got this.”

  “What a dumb idea that paid off!”

  “It's not dumb if it pays off, it's only dumb if it fails.”

  “Oh ho, touché bucko, Looks like you got a deadly combo.”

  “Yeah, but why would they give me you if you're a godly weapon?”

  “They can't use me without the eye of god.”

  “So, they gave up the powers to give them to me?”

  “Exactly!” Damien paused at this, who cared enough about him to do this? If it wasn’t Mr. Cliff, then who?