“Ezra Hawthorne has betrayed the kingdom of Cortia.”
Charles blinked.
Pardon?
When Charles woke up, he immediately noticed Ezra’s absence. The fight was still fresh on his mind, after all. Nonetheless, he continued as if nothing had happened, Ezra would show up again and continue being a thorn in Charles’s side like he always was. Then Synica had gathered them all in the dining hall and dropped that minor bombshell.
“Last night,” she said. “Ezra attempted to leave the castle whilst in possession of Knight property. Vice Commander Idia subdued Ezra, and I arrested him. When I left, he escaped, knocked out the jailer, and fled.”
Pete’s jaw dropped.
“What!? That makes no sense! Ezra wouldn’t do that!” Pete said.
Synica pointed her cold blue eyes in Pete’s direction.
“Well, he did. Nothing can change the past.”
Yuki raised a slow hand. Synica pointed at her.
“Commanding General,” Yuki said, her voice slow and halting. “What will be done to him?”
“The kingdom has elected not to send out serious amounts of manpower after him,” she said. “Nonetheless, if we come across him, he is to be captured or killed.”
Killed? Did Ezra deserve to die? He was a prick, and Charles would beat the shit out of him if he had the chance, but still… death? Ezra was callous and uncaring. Not evil. Off to the side, Charles could’ve sworn that Yuki had a grin at the mention of capturing Ezra.
“Will we come across him?” Yuki said.
Synica shut her eyes and breathed, then opened her eyes again.
“If he’s smart,” she said. “He’s well on his way south to live a quiet life where he won’t be found.”
“Do you think that’s what he did?” Yuki said.
Synica shook her head.
“I think that he’s going to go after the monsters here in the north,” she said. “I don’t think that he’s the type to leave power on the table. In other words, I feel it is very likely that we’ll come across him sooner rather than later. With that in mind, it is of the utmost essentiality that we begin heading toward your first boss monster.”
Synica marched past row after row of tables. She stopped in front of Charles’s table and looked down at him.
Charles gulped.
“Charles,” she said. “It’s time that we begin taking your training more seriously. I want you to be responsible for organizing these lackluster heroes. I want you to put them together into teams of 4. And I want you to put together a training plan. Understood?”
Charles leaned back into his seat, then gulped.
“Understood, Commanding General,” he said.
“Good response… lieutenant.”
Charles felt that he could faint right then and there.
The rest of the students at his table looked at each other in confusion and fear. Charles looked at them and grinned.
“Who’s ready to train?” he said.
One student muttered something about going to the bathroom.
Charles’s face turned stony cold.
This would be an interesting project.
----------------------------------------
Ezra watched his prey carefully. He was hidden behind a bush to ensure that his odds of victory were at their highest.
Mutant Sparrow - Lv. 10
On the stone path, shadowed by the trees, was a giant, humanoid sparrow. It had massive arms strapped with muscle and was covered in feathers while a large, oversized beak poked out.
Ezra wondered to himself who the hell was designing these things.
The Mutant Sparrow reached forward and grabbed a deer, and then swallowed it whole in one go. For a moment, Ezra hesitated. A creature that would ruthlessly murder deer was good in his book. Despite the thought, he decided to take it out, EXP was king, after all.
“[Restrain]!”
Yellow threads burst out of the ground and wrapped around the bird. It let out a startled squeak before it was slammed into the ground and brought to its knees.
Ezra dashed forward and stabbed it in the head.
Critical Hit!
103/340
The Mutant Sparrow let out a pained cry. It strained its muscles, breaking the threads. After it was free, it lashed out with its beak toward Ezra’s chest. Ezra jumped back, but he was too slow. The bird landed a hit, yet the new armor prevented the blow from going through. Instead, Ezra was sent flying backward. He converted the blow into a roll, hopping back up to a standing position.
“[Entangle]!
Seven thick threads wrapped around the Mutant Sparrow, dropping it to the ground.
Ezra marched forward, then embedded the needle into its brain one more time.
The animal let out one last crying groan before it turned to ash.
You have leveled up!
Perfect. He was making headway.
Luckily, he had managed to obtain directions from a helpful local on his way out to find the first boss’s location. It was pretty well-known because everyone was watching the progress of the latest batch of Otherworlders, the person he’d been talking to explained that he was excited to see how they’d fare against the first boss.
Of course, Ezra would make sure that none of his former allies would even get within a mile’s range of that monster.
“So, this is where you’re off to,” a familiar voice said.
Ezra snapped his head and needle in the direction of the voice.
He groaned and gave her a look out of the corner of his eye. “How the hell did you find me?”
Dorian twirled her blade around. It was glowing green but rapidly diminishing in luminescence. She was wearing finely crafted armor. The leather of her chest plate and pauldrons gleamed dully in the sunlight, intricate engravings swirling across the surface. Her lithe form was perfectly fitted with articulated joints, each piece melding with her body like a second skin. A lightweight, dark cape flowed behind her.
“Take a guess,” she said.
“An ability.”
“Wow, brilliant deduction,” Dorian said. She looked around him. “Say, where are we, anyway? We must be pretty far, these trees don’t look right.”
Ezra crossed his arms.
“Can we just cut to the chase, what do you want? What are you doing?”
She tilted her head downward and looked up at him with a slight pout.
“What,” she said. “A girl can’t check in on someone and say hi?”
Ezra stared at her. After several seconds, he sucked in a breath and looked up at the sky. Could a bolt of lightning just strike down the woman in front of him? That would be ideal. He looked back down at her.
“Whatever. Look, I’m grinding, either join in or get out of the way.”
“Nothing would please me more, Ezra. Let’s fight.”
[You have received an invitation to Party “Ezra, you dumbass.” Accept?]
[Y/N]
Ezra turned around, faced away from her, and screamed internally. She’d figured out how to teleport. Not only that, but she was using it to harass him. Why him in particular!? Agh! Could he lose her? But what if she teleported again? And was she planning to feed back his location to Synica and the others?
No. Dorian didn’t have anything to get out of that. There was no reason to do so. Right?
He reached forward and clicked the ‘Y’ button.
[You have joined Party “Ezra, you dumbass.”!]
Ezra started walking. There was nothing to do but continue his current plans. Behind him, Dorian followed. Her footsteps crushed the grass as she moved.
A noise caught their attention.
Mutant Sparrow - Lv. 10
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Mutant Sparrow - Lv. 10
Mutant Sparrow - Lv. 10
Three. Ezra clicked his tongue. That might be difficult. Dorian pulled out her glimmering rapier.
“Well then,” she said. “What’s the plan, oh mighty needle-master?”
“You’re the smart one. You tell me.”
Dorian put her finger on her chin and paced the floor.
“Well,” she said. “Based on your fight with the other Mutant Sparrow—“
“How long were you watching me, exactly?“
Dorian coughed into her hand.
“As I was saying,” she said. “Based on your fight with the Mutant Sparrow, it seems to rely heavily on strength. I propose a simple hit-and-run tactic. Sort of like melee kiting them using our superior mobility.”
“Kite? Holy shit, I knew you were playing MMOs in class.”
Dorian stopped pacing and marched up to Ezra.
“I haven’t the faintest clue of what you speak,” she said. “I did no such thing, I don’t even play MMOs.”
Ezra reached for his chin and nodded.
“Uh-huh, uh-huh,” he said. “So are you more of a WoW player or something else like… Genshin?”
“I don’t know what those are.” She turned her attention back to the enemies, then paused and turned back. “Also, Genshin isn’t even an MMO.”
She quickly turned back around and pointed her weapon out toward the enemy.
“[Short Range Teleport]!”
She disappeared with a woosh of air following her wake. A moment later, she reappeared in mid-air, her rapier pointed at the neck of one of the Mutant Sparrows. Her sword dropped down and sliced through the enemy’s flesh like butter and the health of the enemy decreased.
53/440
While the Mutant Sparrows were still disoriented, Ezra dashed forward and jumped up into the air, his needle aimed at the heart while his jacket fluttered behind him. The attack struck true, and the Mutant Sparrow dropped to the ground, dead. It turned to ash right then and there.
Ezra’s eyes shot up. Already, one of them was bringing a weapon down on him.
“[Restrain]!”
Yellow threads wrapped around the Mutant Sparrow’s arm. It glanced at the threads, then reared back its other arm for an attack. Using his Dexterity, Ezra jumped clear, avoiding the strike.
Dorian glanced at him. “Good follow-up. Now, we just need to take care of those two. Here, just follow along.”
“Follow along with what—“
Dorian pointed her rapier toward one of the enemies. “[Swap]!”
One second, Ezra was staring at Dorian. The next, he was staring at the back of the enemy he’d just used [Restrain] on. Up ahead, he could see that the other Mutant Sparrow had just appeared in front of Dorian.
Ezra’s heart burst into action. He lined up his needle and stabbed it into the back of the Mutant Sparrow.
It let out a shrill cry and tried to move the same arm that he’d hit with Restrain not too long ago
Ezra pulled out his needle from the wound and then stabbed it down again.
The Mutant Sparrow let out one last pitiful cry.
You have leveled up!
Ezra flicked his needle, blood, and viscera splattering against the dirt.
“All that for one level up?” Ezra said. “What a pain.”
Dorian strode over to him, sheathing her sword. “Well, beggars can’t be choosers.”
“I suppose you’ve got a point.”
Dorian looked out across the forest, then up at the sun.
“We’ve still got time. Do you want to keep hunting?”
Ezra glanced at his stats, then back at Dorian.
“We won’t be able to level up, but I’m sure we’ll be able to make some decent progress.”
The two of them set off in a random direction. Ezra wasn’t being too intentional with his footsteps too much, but he was keeping ready in case of attack.
“So, why’d you leave?” Dorian said.
“I was wondering when you’d ask that.”
Dorian picked a twig out of her hair and then dropped it to the dirt.
“What can I say?” she said. “I wanted to break the ice first. Figured that you might be a little looser with someone you fought with.”
Ezra was quiet for a moment. He wasn’t sure how much he wanted to talk about but he supposed it couldn’t hurt to mention a few things, right?
“Firstly,” he said. “All of you are assholes.”
Dorian folded her arms behind her back. “Rude much?”
“But true,” he said. “I think I would’ve lost my mind if I’d been forced to stay any longer with you idiots.”
“Blah, blah, blah. Boring, don’t care, say something interesting.”
“Well, screw you too.”
Dorian skipped ahead of Ezra and leaned over to look up at him.
“Come on, Ezra,” she said. “No matter how much you may dislike me, you know that I’m no idiot. What’s the truth?”
Ezra looked down at the ground and kicked his leg out idly. What was the core reason why he ran? What made it intolerable to stay there any longer? When had he made his decision?
“Was it the fight with Charles?” she said. “Idia was a scumbag, granted.”
“No, that’s not it. That was the final straw, yes, but I’d made my decision a while before that.”
He paused and looked up at the sky.
Dorian followed suit, then looked back at him. There was a curious look in her eyes. The wind rustled through the leaves, and the world went silent.
“It all felt too fake for me, Dorian,” he said. “All of the people in that castle were lying to us, and I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Dorian blinked. For a moment, her face seemed to soften.
“I see.”
The moment passed. Cicadas chirped in the background.
“Oh, and Idia stabbed me a bunch so that pretty much cemented my decision.”
“Sorry, what?”
“Right then,” Ezra said. “Let’s pause. I need to look through my stats and start handing them out.”
“Wait, hold on, can we talk about the stabbing thing?”
Ezra looked down through his stats.
Name: Ezra Hawthorne
Age: 16
Race: Human
C̴l̷a̸s̵s̵: S̸t̵u̸d̵e̸n̵t̸
Sub-class: N/A
Bonded Spirit: Filamenta, Spirit of Binding
Health Points: 300/300
Mana Points: 210/245
Stamina: 120/120
Level: 17
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 22
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 15
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 14
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 3
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 17
[Stealth] - Lv. 15
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 7
[Web Trap] - Lv. 5
[Entangle] - Lv. 7
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 5
[Lockpicking] - Lv. 10
Skill points: 19
Stat points: 23
Ability points: 28
Titles:
[Otherworlder] - Special
[Perfect Resonance]
[Monster Slayer I] - Equipped
[Spirit Weapon Wielder]
Class: Student. Oh, System, when would it fix whatever was going on with that? Ezra’s curiosity had only grown more and more. Why had it errored out? Who was in his System? Was it Filamenta? Was it the Demon Lord?
He shook his head.
Twenty-three stat points, eh? He’d keep ten in reserve and distribute the rest. The question was how to distribute them. He decided to look down through his abilities first. After all, it might cause him to change his mind about what he’d use.
He moved to the robin constellation. There were only three more abilities to unlock. Huh.
What would happen when he completed an entire constellation? Did he have enough ability points to do so? He clicked on one of the glowing icons.
[Ranged Needle Mastery]
[Covers the general usage of the needle as a ranged weapon.
Increases ranged damage by 1%]
[Requires Dexterity 40]
[Use ten ability points and learn?]
[Yes] [No]
Woah. That was way more expensive. What the hell?
Not only that, but it required a ton of dexterity. He glanced at his stats.
Level: 17
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 22
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 15
Stat points: 23
It would probably be smarter to save the points for something else. Yes, he should keep on saving them and wait until he has a more solid understanding of—
He mashed the plus button.
Dexterity: 40
Stat points: 5
Ezra was an idiot.
He took an experimental step to the left, then to the right. He frowned.
It seemed like it had diminishing returns. He was smoother. But it wasn’t the massive difference it was before when he could suddenly jump into the air and stab things in the head with confidence. Well, before, it was something like a 4x increase, right? Now, it was only a 2x increase. And 2x wasn’t doubling his dexterity perfectly… Like, whatever muscles were involved in dexterity weren’t doubling in cell mass or whatever. At least, Ezra thought so.
Ezra shook his head. He didn’t want to think about it. The point was that he was smoother in his movements, and that was awesome. He went back over to the abilities menu and popped open the Ranged Needle Mastery Skill. He clicked the ‘Y’ button.
[Ranged Needle Mastery] - Lv. 1
[Covers the general usage of the needle as a ranged weapon.
Increases ranged damage by 1%]
He whispered under his breath, holding his needle up to his eyes.
“[Polymorphism].” Instead of the pseudo-daggers that he’d gotten used to, he instead made it a little bigger than his middle finger. He drew his wrist inward like he was about to throw a card.
After taking a deep breath, Ezra threw the needle. It sailed through the air and missed completely.
Ah.
Looks like he’d be grinding that skill for a while.
“Recall.”
The needle reappeared in his hand.
He popped open the ability menu once more. He clicked the next one in the robin constellation.
[Poisonous Prick]
[Poisons the enemy, barring a high constitution.]
[Use 10 ability points and learn?]
[Yes] [No]
He shrugged and clicked Yes.
Dorian sighed.
“Well, damn,” she muttered.
“What?” Ezra said.
“I’m afraid that our time is almost up, Ezra. I lost track of my effect timer.”
What was he supposed to say? See you later? He was hoping that he wouldn’t run into her again, so that felt kind of dishonest.
“Right. Okay,” he said.
“Goodness, don’t fall over yourself,” she muttered. She raised her voice. “Well, I have a little gift for you. This new ability I got will help you out, I’m sure.”
Ezra felt a droplet of sweat run down his back.
“Oh, I’m sure that isn’t necessary,” he said.
A sharkish grin appeared on Dorian’s face. “You’ll get it a few moments after I disappear. You’ll love it.”
Ezra took a step back.
“When does your timer run out?” he said.
“Oh… now.”
There was a flash of light, a burst of wind, and the displaced air swished against Ezra’s pants and exposed clothes. Ezra shielded his eyes with his arms quickly, protecting himself from the worst of it.
A moment later, it all disappeared.
Ezra waited for a moment. He slowly pulled his arms away from his eyes, a wary expression on his face. Dorian might not have been malicious… but she certainly didn’t have his best interests in mind (Well, who did?).
Would she screw him over? Should he just start walking away?
Ezra took a slow step backward. Yeah, better not to take the risk.
The moment he decided that there was a flash of light and two startled yelps.
“What the hell, she just threw us in! Didn’t even give us a count down…”
“W-where are we? I don’t recognize this place at all.“
Ezra stared, slack-jawed, at the two people on the ground.
“Oh wait! Ezra!” Yuki said. “Um, surprise?”
Pete let out a quick gasp. “Ezra?” He turned toward the direction Yuki was looking. Once he saw Ezra, he grinned. “Ezra! Hey! It’s good to see you!”
Ezra’s mouth opened and closed a few times. His eyes were wide. Every few seconds, he’d blink.
“What.“