Synica crossed her arms.
“Ezra. I can’t say I’m surprised by this.”
Ezra shrugged, sweat already building up on the back of his neck.
“Well, you know, I heard all about that bonus skill and I just had to have it for myself.”
Pete and Yuki glanced at each other, and then at Ezra.
“Uh, Ezra? Do we have a plan?” Pete said.
Yuki gripped her hand tighter around her staff. “[Dimensional Rift] is full. I can’t—“
Synica sighed and held up her hand.
“Oh, would you quit?” She looked at Ezra and narrowed her eyes at him. “Honestly, you’re ridiculous, Ezra. Did you not explain things to them?”
“Explain what?”
Synica looked up toward the sky, then back at Ezra. After a moment, she shook her head. “You’re a fool, Ezra.”
Pete furrowed his eyebrows together.
“Wait, does this mean you won’t be taking us in?”
Synica pursed her lips. “You know what? How about we focus on the important things—“
Yuki shook her head back and forth. “Wait, why won’t you take us in?”
Synica was quiet for a moment. Around them, a bird chirped. Its tone was light, airy.
“Your growth would be limited if you remained with us,” she said. “And I believe you have a real chance of doing some damage to the Demon Lord’s army. Worst comes to worst, I just kill you myself.”
She said it with no difference in expression or tone. It was as if she was talking about the weather or how the kids were.
Pete gulped. Yuki’s skin color turned a shade whiter.
Ezra didn’t deign to comment on any of this.
“So, Synica, why come here?” he said.
“It wasn’t intentional,” Synica said. “I was trailing Charles when I saw your pathetic attempt at stealth and elected to say hello.”
Ezra looked around.
The forest was quiet. Idia was nowhere to be seen.
“Huh,” he said. “If that’s the case, then do you mind if I ask some questions?”
Synica sighed. “Always so curious, Ezra.”
Pete glanced at Ezra from the corner of his eyes. “Is this a good idea?”
Yuki nodded up and down.
“Yeah, we should just get going, Ezra.”
“I want to get some questions,” Ezra said. “Period. I want answers.”
Synica turned and put her hands behind her back.
“No, Ezra. For once, I’m afraid you won’t get any answers. Instead, I’m here to give you aid.”
“Aid?” Yuki said.
Synica held out her hand. It glowed a soft blue.
In front of Ezra’s eyes, a blue box appeared.
[Learn the skill “Spiritual Seal”?]
Ezra looked at the box, then back at Synica.
“Boss monsters,” Synica said. “After they’re defeated, leave something of their essence around. This essence is dangerous. It will reform into a monster given enough time. If you want to prevent that, you must seal its power away.”
Ezra furrowed his eyebrows. “Really? That seems rather odd.”
“Otherworlders tend to say that,” Synica said. “But trust me, this is a normal thing. You’ll regret not doing it. You might end up with a dagger to the back from a swiftly reformed boss monster if you don’t utilize the ritual.”
It was odd, but she had a point. He knew very little about this world. He knew almost nothing if he was honest. Synica herself had been honest with him, more or less, and their goals broadly aligned.
He reached out and clicked the Yes button.
A skill box appeared in front of him.
[Spirtual Seal] - Lv. MAX
[A spell custom-designed by the Kingdom of Cortia. It erases the $&*@^#*& of #(*477864]
Ezra blinked.
“What the hell are these special characters?”
“They still haven’t worked that out, huh?” She shook her head. “[Spiritual Seal] is in an unusual situation. It was created manually by some of our greatest magicians, it wasn’t born out of the system itself. As such, the System doesn’t play well with it.”
Was this some kind of trap—?
“This isn’t a trap.” She shifted her feet, her plate mail glimmering in the sun. “If I wanted you dead, I would’ve killed you long ago.”
Ezra clenched his jaw.
“Fine then, we use this skill and hit the boss monster with it… right after it dies?”
“Once that’s done, the essence will float in midair,” she said.” As your weapons will be the only available receptacle, it’ll be sucked into your needle.”
Ezra raised an eyebrow. “Do we get some kind of weird power as a result? Is that how you get the bonus skill?”
“No, that’s a separate thing. The bonus power is the System is rewarding you for defeating a major threat to humanity.”
“So what’s the essence for?” Yuki said, a curious look in her eyes.
“Simple,” Synica said. “You don’t use it. It’s simply stored there. Given enough time, it could lead to corruption for your weapon, so I would highly recommend dropping it off at a magical smith who’ll be able to dispose of it.”
“Corruption?”
Synica looked up at the sky.
“Imagine your weapon suddenly refusing to respond properly,” she said. “Abilities broken in the middle of a fight. It’s not pretty.”
“And I bet that the only magical smith in town who can do that—“
“—is Steele, yes,” Synica said. “You’d better reform your relationship with the kingdom, figure out how to sneak into the forge, or find an alternative quickly.”
Ezra narrowed his eyes.
“How long do we have?” he said.
“You have time,” she said. “I’d estimate three months after you kill the monster.”
Ezra clicked the ‘x’ button on the box and returned his attention to Synica.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Yeah, well,” he said. “Thanks for the tip, I guess.”
“How grateful of you,” she said. “I’d best get going,” she said.
Before Ezra could say anything, she’d already vanished, a gust of wind appearing out of nowhere. Pete and Yuki blinked.
Pete looked off to the right, searching for where Synica had gone. In the meantime, Yuki muttered a skill name under her breath.
There was a breeze next to Ezra’s ear.
“By the way,” Synica’s voice muttered. “The telekinesis—it’s all one skill. It’s all connected when in use. You should be able to use this connection.”
And then there was another breeze and the voice was gone.
Ezra looked down at his needle.
“All connected, huh?” he said. “I think I get it.”
----------------------------------------
From then on, they raced onward toward the last known location of Dorian. All they had was the information they’d extraxted from the crystal before it was stolen by Charles. But Ezra wasn’t so dumb that he’d forget the general direction of where to go. Not to mention, he’d seen where Charles was going. That had to be enough.
The only problem was that he was much, much faster than Yuki.
Pete was able to keep up just fine. He seemed faster. Had he been putting all his stats into Dexterity? That… actually made lots of sense. Nonetheless, Yuki was too slow. Every couple of seconds, they had to stop for Yuki and slow down.
Ezra stopped after a few minutes of this and turned toward Yuki.
“Figure out a way to keep up or I’m going to carry you.”
A wildfire blazed to life across her cheeks.
“W-what!? Don’t you dare!” she said.
“Just do it,” he said. “Figure something out. We need all the speed we can get if we’re gonna stay ahead of Charles.”
Yuki’s nose scrunched up. The expression of discontent slowly disappeared, replaced with a look of determination. She held her staff up to the sky. A green glow spread from her hand to her whole body.
She blazed past Ezra and Pete, kicking up a light wind in her wake.
Ezra upturned his lips and glared at her back.
“She really needs to share what her actual abilities are,” she said.
Pete looked at her with his jaw dropped, then broke off in a sprint toward Yuki.
“Wait! Hold on, Yuki!” he shouted.
Ezra dug his feet into the ground and ran after them.
After ten minutes of this, Yuki’s ability ran out and heaved up ahead. Pete wasn’t much better, still sweating buckets and seemingly on the verge of throwing up.
Ezra glanced at them.
“I’m pretty sure we’re coming up on the location, so how about you guys catch your breath?” he said.
Pete looked at Ezra, even as sweat dribbled from his neck and onto the ground.
“How do you know we’re almost there?” he said.
Ezra pointed ahead.
There was a wide stone path leading to another stone circle similar to the one where Charles had fought the boss.
Pete nodded. “Oh, yeah, that makes sense.”
They approached the center of the circle.
“Be careful, guys,” Ezra said. “We don’t want to get caught off guard like what happened to Charles—“
Of course, that was right when a stone slammed into Ezra’s head, knocking him out cold.
----------------------------------------
Ezra slowly came to. A shimmering green barrier surrounded him and the others from side to side. Pete glanced from side to side, his teeth chattering. Yuki stood over Ezra, her eyes wide and her lips quivering.
“Please, for the love of all that’s holy,” she said. “Put points into your constitution.”
Ezra waved her off and slowly pushed himself up.
In the back of his head, he could feel the remnants of a headache.
“I was taken off guard. It won’t happen again,” Ezra said.
A moment later, his instincts screamed at him. He looked down, and he stiffened.
“[Restrain]!”
Threads wrapped around the stone underneath him. A split second afterward, Ezra was nearly knocked off his feet by the sudden shifting of the stone as it attempted to hurl upward and attack their group.
Yuki shrieked and jumped into the air. Around them, the barrier dispersed.
Ezra’s heart slammed in his chest. This little bastard was a tougher opponent than he’d expected. He hadn’t even had a chance to reason out what he should be doing, it was attacking so fast.
Alright, what was Synica’s hint again? It was all connected, right? But how was that helpful?
There was a sound of a thump. Ezra turned around to see that Yuki had knocked a stone coming for Pete’s head out of the air.
She grinded her teeth. “I’m gonna kill this monster and string it up using its goddamn bowels!”
Ezra raised an eyebrow, a look of surprise on his face. He wasn’t aware that Yuki had a violent streak.
Then again, he remembered her using that dimensional rift to chop that creature in half. That was interesting—
And also very irrelevant to what was currently happening.
Ezra’s eyes sharpened and he searched around. His mind continued to ponder. It was about connections, right?
A moment later, another rock sped toward his head. He dodged neatly. From the corner of his eyes, he spotted the next one coming and jumped forward. The ground began to shudder and shake and Ezra pulled his body forward.
An instant later, the ground erupted outward.
His mind worked overtime in some attempt to figure out what to do. His heart slammed in his chest while his eyes flickered from attack to attack.
Ezra was scared. He wasn’t able to think fast enough, and he wasn’t able to discern the connection that Synica was thinking of.
Wait.
Connections?
Ezra popped open 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: 245/245
Level: 26
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 40
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 40
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 14
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 3
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 30
[Stealth] - Lv. 15
[Ranged Needle Mastery] - Lv. 2
[Precision Prick] - Lv. 1
[Air Attack] - Lv. MAX
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 5
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 10
[Web Trap] - Lv. 7
[Entangle] - Lv. 9
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 8
[Lockpicking] - Lv. 1
[Poisonous Prick] - Lv. 1
Skill points: 31
Stat points: 16
Ability points: 10
He pounded his Wisdom, bringing it up as high as he could go. As soon as he hit 50, something odd happened.
A box appeared, then quickly disappeared.
[Bonus Skill Selection has been disabled due to dangerous conditions. Please make your selection afterward or change your settings.]
Ezra dismissed the pop-up. There was time to figure that out later. For now, Ezra needed to keep pumping wisdom up to 56.
He looked back at the attacks circling him.
Come on, Ezra, he thought. Think.
The sounds of battle disappeared, replaced with a cool, quiet recollection. His mind raced with thought…
It hit him.
[Bind] worked the same way. When a part got separated from the whole, the effects wore off. Thus, it figured that any change he made to the part… would affect the whole. The same might’ve applied to the telekinesis.
“[Bind].”
His needle glowed with that familiar yellow light. He dodged an incoming attack, then stabbed out with his needle, sliding a thread through the stone. The needle passed through the air, next.
Ezra focused on the translucent nature of air and of how it didn’t affect the physical realm—at least, not in a direct fashion.
A rock sped toward his head…
Then disappeared.
The stone all around Ezra had vanished.
Pete blinked from his position on the ground. He pushed himself up.
“Huh?” he said.
Yuki slowly untensed her shoulders. “Is it over?”
Ezra’s eyes shout around. “It’s not over. Find this guy. My effect won’t last for long. Even if it does, he can just—“
At that moment, the surrounding trees started to float, unrooting themselves from the ground with a terrible groan.
A different type of material—looks like it was a clever way of bypassing his [Bind] trick. Ezra deactivated the skill.
Rocks fell to the ground with a thump. The trees shot forward like massive clubs wielded by invisible giants.
Ezra dashed forward, jumped over one, and then used [Air Attack] to dodge the next. He landed back onto the ground with a smooth roll. He stood straight, then looked from side to side.
“Where are you, you dirty bastard?” he muttered. “You can’t be that far away. I’ll find you.”
There was a flicker in the distance. Eyes, watching him. Thank you, Wisdom.
Ezra glanced back just in time to see one coming for his head. He jumped forward, barely dodging the strike.
He looked to his side. Another tree trunk was coming for him.
“[Bind]!”
The tree trunk swung down with a thunderous crash, smashing through the stone floor with a loud boom. Rocks and pebbles flew everywhere and dust kicked up into the air. A moment later, a breeze kicked in, revealing Ezra’s bloodied and battered form.
Ezra coughed. He quickly focused on the characteristics of air. A moment later, all of the tree trunks disappeared, gone—turned into air.
To the right, in the depths of the forest!
Ezra dashed away. In moments, he saw it—the long, spindly creature with stretched-out fingers and limbs far too long for its body. It gave a little screech and pointed at him. A moment later, the very ground started to jump up to attack him similarly to the subboss.
Ezra dramatically dodged to the left, only for another attack to reach out and strike his legs. A nearby tree branch.
The creature wrapped its arms around him, clenching him tightly and suffocating him.
Ezra gurgled. He desperately tried to activate [Restrain], but he couldn’t speak the ability name. He tried to struggle, but the grip was too tight. Quickly, he stabbed his needle into the thing’s leg.
It cried out but did little else. It seemed as if this was the end.
Ezra felt his consciousness start to drip away.
Well, he thought. Damn.
Game Over.