Vertigo slammed into him, he sank into the webs, and the threads stretched out to accommodate his speed and slow him down. Right as the web was about to spring back up, Ezra dismissed the skill, dropping him onto the ground with a thump. He slowly pushed himself back up and sucked in a gulp of air.
He looked up at Thřuba, it stared at him—was it replenishing its mana, or waiting?
Ezra coughed and his back folded into a slouch. Determination flooded his veins and he pushed his spine straight to stare at the creature in the eye.
Filamenta, he thought. If you can hear me, help me. Give me everything that you’ve got.
He wasn’t quite sure if his needle had glowed at that. Nonetheless, he focused his attention back on the enemy.
It had gathered more ammunition. Behind it, there was a massive grouping of various materials ready to shoot and fire at Ezra. They circled around Thřuba in a long, floating line.
Ezra clenched his fists around his weapon.
He broke off into another sprint.
A branch flew at him, several pebbles whizzed by him, and one scored a glancing blow. He jumped forward and dodged an incoming boulder with a jump. There was another attack coming in from ahead.
Ezra used [Air Attack] and fell back into the ground with a roll. His body shifted, he got back to his feet and ran forward. The monster gritted its teeth and ripped out a handful of logs from their roots. Four or five different logs flew at Ezra in some grand attack, leaving him no way out.
“[Restrain]!”
Threads wrapped around three logs and dropped them to the ground with a loud crash.
Ezra jumped through the gap, sliding his needle through the log.
“[Bind].”
Air, wood, transparency.
Instantly, all of the creature’s various logs and stones clattered to the ground. Thřuba itself started to fall out of the air.
Ezra jumped into the air.
The creature flailed its hands about—
“[Air Attack]!”
Ezra’s needle shot into its brain.
1023/2000
Before Thřuba could do anything or before Ezra’s [Bind] ran out, Ezra pulled out his needle and repeatedly stabbed into the monster. This time, there was no telekinesis to prevent the creature’s blood from spilling out over the ground.
598/2000
The monster shoved Ezra off. A second later, Ezra heard a loud crack and his head went light. His vision watered and his body began to shut down.
53/300
Focus. Ezra needed to focus. He couldn’t fall here. Blackness crawled at the edge of his vision, and for the first time in a while, Ezra was really starting to regret leaving his home.
Ezra considered giving up.
It would be easy, wouldn’t it?
But if he did…
How would he turn Idia into a pile of displaced organs?
Hot rage flooded his veins and he forced himself up. Thřuba was still holding its head. High constitution or not, the thing had two holes in its brain. That would do a number on damn near anyone.
It squealed and tossed its hand forward. A boulder shot toward Ezra’s head. He ducked down and the stone sailed overhead. Ezra ran forward and slammed his needle into its heart.
0/2000
It was over.
It slumped over, dead.
Before Ezra could say anything, a red sphere of light appeared from the corpse of the creature. Ezra’s eyes widened. This must’ve been the leftover essence that Synica was talking about. For a moment, Ezra considered just leaving it well enough alone. After all, could he trust Synica?
He sighed. He’d already made his decision.
He raised his hand out.
“[Spiritual Seal].”
A golden light burst from his hands and then wrapped around the essence. There was a horrifying screech and the light turned blinding. A moment later, the light disappeared, leaving a pale white orb floating in the air. It shot out, then rushed into Ezra’s needle.
There was a loud shattering noise. Ezra looked up and saw the sky flash with a brilliant red color before it returned to its normal state.
Ezra took a few, deep heaving breaths. A moment later, the familiar sound of the level-ups rang in Ezra’s ears. He looked at the notifications.
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
You have gained a title!
You have obtained the skill “Telekinesis”!
Wait, Telekinesis—? A moment later, another pop-up appeared.
During battle, you obtained over 50 stat points in Wisdom. For this accomplishment, you can select a special skill!
Ezra ignored all the pop-ups and looked around. His eyes focused on Pete and Yuki. They were both still hovering around half-health. He breathed a sigh of relief. After that, he cast his eyes back around the battlefield.
“Dorian!” he shouted. “Dorian, where are you?”
The ground was covered in wicked scars that parted the ground and made it look like giants had been fighting. The surrounding trees were gone, reduced to broken scraps that lied on the ground.
Ezra walked around, his eyes scanning the surrounding area—
Until he saw a health bar.
He dashed toward it. It was full health, but who was the owner—?
Dorian. She was asleep and untouched.
Ezra had been lucky. He fell to the ground and into a seated position. He glanced back at his pop-ups. An animation of a small box appeared. Next to it was a pop-up with various letters inscribed on it ranging from F to S.
Oh, it was a loot box, but for skills?
The loot box jumped about from the left to right, leaving the ground for a split second before dropping back down. After a few more seconds, it opened up, revealing an icon flying out with an A written on it. Then another A. Then an S. Then… an SSS.
The four icons exploded, revealing the four skills.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
[Clarity of the Heavens]
[Harmonious Being]
[Transcendent Perception]
[Soul Reading]
Ezra nodded slowly. There was a pop-up button next to each of the skills. Ezra clicked on them, opening all of them up for review.
A-ranked skill:
[Clarity of the Heavens] - Lv. MAX
Grants the ability to see through illusions and deceptions effortlessly. This includes both magical illusions and social deceptions, making it easier to discern the truth in any situation.
A-ranked skill:
[Harmonious Being] - Lv. MAX
Changes your body’s inner connections, allowing everything to work more smoothly. Increases all stats by 15%
S-ranked skill:
[Soul Reading] - Lv. MAX
Allows the user to pick up on the state of the inner being of others. Note that this is different from mere telepathy. Instead, the user of this skill gets an idea of who the person is at their core.
SSS-ranked skill:
[Mana Perception] - Lv. 1
Allows the user to see mana.
Ezra bit his bottom lip. All of them sounded incredibly useful to some degree. He also noted that almost all of them had to do with perception. Well, that was what Wisdom covered, right? [Clarity of the Heavens] seemed very useful—if that were just hanging out in his ability tree, he’d grab it. But it wasn’t. It was either that or one of the other abilities and so it seemed less appealing in comparison.
So then what about [Harmonious Being]? Similar thing to [Clarity of the Heavens]. In time, that skill would surely be incredibly useful. A flat 15% increase would mean more and more as he leveled up. Again, [Transcendent Perception] just seemed too useful as well. It was ranked SS, apparently, whatever the hell that meant.
[Soul Reading] was undeniably powerful. Being able to discern the character of a person at a glance seemed absolutely broken.
But there was something disturbing about looking into another person’s heart like that. Ezra wasn’t sure if he even wanted to see that, period. No, leave that to the spies and the narcissists. Say what you will about Ezra, but he left the internal world of people alone. That was outside his wheelhouse.
So then that left [Mana Perception]. It was vague, granted—but Ezra couldn’t imagine that being able to see the thing that he’d been using would ever hurt him. Beyond that, [Bind] had seemed vague and useless at first, but it had turned out to be extremely useful. Yes, Ezra wasn’t willing to simply dismiss it on the basis of it being vague.
Besides that, it was ranked SSS. Surely that meant something, right?
Ezra clicked it.
Nothing magic happened. The pop-up disappeared.
Ezra glanced around, then at his needle. It all looked the same. But if it was anything like [Air Attack]…
“[Mana Perception].”
His needle exploded with light, to the point where he hissed and shut his eyes, averting his head.
He turned the skill off, then opened up his eyes and looked back down at the needle.
“Got it,” he muttered. “Don’t try to look at Spirit Weapons using that, otherwise I’ll probably fry my eyes.”
Ezra looked around, activating the skill but pointedly looking away from his weapon.
From the corner of his eye, he could still see his weapon shining like the sun. But aside from that, the air was full of blue specks floating in the air. It was blurry, hard to see, almost like there was a film over his eyes. Nonetheless, he was still able to make out the rough shapes.
He looked down and saw a thin, vein-like blue that weaved through all the grass. He pulled his hand up and stared at it, noting that like the grass, it too had blue moving inside it. The mana veins in his hand were much bigger, and the blue was clearly pumping, moving the substance in and out.
Ah, so this was mana? Ezra was mesmerized. It was almost enchanting to look at. No, it was enchanting. Beautiful. Ezra could see someone spending their whole life studying what was happening inside his veins.
He glanced over at Yuki and Pete. They had much the same bright light coming from their weapons. It was more bearable due to being distant.
But behind that, there was a third light. Farther than any of the others.
Ezra shut off his perception and looked with his normal vision. There was something there in the ruins of the trees, it almost looked like a person.
Ezra started walking.
The figure squirmed. As Ezra got closer and closer he was more able to make out who it was.
The figure stood up, flicking open a metal object and pointing it at him.
“Charles!” Ezra spread his arms open. “A pleasure to see you!”
“Ezra.” Charles clenched his jaw. “So, you beat me to the boss.”
“What can I say?” Ezra said. “Guess I’m just better than you.”
Charles visibly suppressed the urge to jump forward.
“Yes, well,” he said. “Would you like to prove that?”
Ezra gripped his needle tighter. “Is that a challenge, Charles?”
Charles was quiet for a moment. “It’s whatever you want it to be.”
Ezra glanced back at Pete and Yuki. He glanced back toward Charles.
A fight would be too much trouble. Ezra would win. At least, he thought so. But Charles’s classmates wouldn’t be far behind him. And what about Idia? Ezra’s heart burned at the mere thought of meeting that shitbag again, the pain of being stabbed still fresh in his mind.
No, Ezra needed to be at a higher level. The time would come when they’d have their clash and set everything right. But for now, Ezra needed to bail.
Finally, he sighed.
“They need medical attention,” Ezra said. “And I’m sure Dorian will be waking up soon.”
“Are you showing concern for them? Don’t make me laugh—“
Ezra snorted.
“Absolutely not. I’m using them as blackmail,” he said.
Charles blinked. “What?”
“You let me go, or I guarantee that they get hurt.”
Charles’s jaw flapped uselessly for a few moments before he clenched his fists and yelled, “You bastard! They supported you, and you just tossed them out!? What kind of a man are you!?”
“The kind who really doesn’t care what you think,” Ezra said. “Now then, Charlie, you going to put your classmates in danger?”
Charles’s hand adjusted on his razor as he gripped it tighter. His breath came in quicker and quicker.
Then it stopped and he loosened his grip.
He looked away from Ezra.
“Go away,” he said.
Ezra stared at Charles’s figure for a few moments. He turned around and began to walk, his feet crunching along the scarred, ripped-up ground.
The sound of rapid footsteps filled the air.
Ezra turned around.
Charles already had his razor in the air, swinging down toward his chest.
Ezra’s heart slammed in his chest and the world slowed to a crawl. He didn’t have a lot of options—Charles was already moving. Ezra might just have to tank the hit—
Then the needle glowed yellow and threads wrapped around Charles’s arm from the ground.
Charles’s knife stopped right at Ezra’s neck.
Ezra froze and looked down at his needle. It was innocuous as always, so how had that happened?
Filamenta, perhaps?
Ezra looked back at Charles.
He strained forward and his knife shivered to reach out and deliver some kind of blow.
Ezra slapped the razor out of his hand, sending it flying to the ground.
“Don’t try that again,” Ezra said.
He then walked off. The threads unraveled with a whoosh.
Ezra stayed tense, ready to jump and fight, but there was no sound.
----------------------------------------
With that, there were 9 left. 9 more boss monsters, each of them possessing equally ridiculous abilities, each of them with their own unique strengths and weaknesses, and unlike before, he wouldn’t have any allies going into the battle. Ezra didn’t even have any food or a bedroll. He lay down on the hard ground and stared up into the sky. He was in the grasslands, outside a major city. He had to gather information about the next boss monster. Most likely, he’d spend some time grinding, working on his abilities, and getting even stronger. He’d need to get some money, too.
He held up his needle in front of him.
It was such a small thing. Such a tiny weapon.
But it was powerful. Unassuming, yet dangerous. Like him, in some ways.
Perhaps that’s why they were bonded together.
“You saved me,” he said. “Thank you.”
The needle didn’t respond. Ezra wasn’t surprised, he lowered his arm and shut his eyes. There would be time enough for troubles in the morning.
A skittering sensation like that of a fly touched the tunic of his arm. He brushed his hand across his arm and grumbled. He turned on his side and his face reset to a neutral expression.
“Rude. I was just trying to say ‘you’re welcome’.”
Ezra opened his eyes.
In front of him was a long, sharp-looking spider about the size of his fist. And it was directly in front of his face.
It raised an arm.
“Hello.” it said.
Ezra screamed at the top of his lungs.
----------------------------------------
Synica chuckled. Her enhanced senses were so strong that even from miles away, she could hear and recognize that scream. She wasn’t sure why Ezra was screaming at the top of his lungs, but whatever was happening was probably really funny.
Around her, the current batch of Otherworlders were trying to puzzle out what had happened. It looked like two giants fought where they were. The ground had been ripped to shreds, whilst all the trees had been decimated.
“Of course, Ezra was involved!” someone shouted. “It’s always him! How the hell did he do this?!“
A boy with a wand checked over Yuki and Pete who were staring into the distance.
“He just abandoned us,” Yuki muttered under her breath. “Again.”
Pete clenched his fists around his bow.
“He had a good reason, I’m sure,” he said.
The boy who was looking over them nodded. “[Diagnosis] says you’ll be fine.”
Pete nodded at the boy.
Charles was nowhere to be found.
Synica walked forward, focusing on the aftermath of the battle.
The boss monster was stronger than expected. Much stronger. The fact that Ezra had killed it was surprising, to say the least. And that ability he’d been using—the one that simply vanished all of the enemy’s projectiles—how had he done that? It couldn’t have been [Cancel], or some kind of spatial distortion spell like what Synica had thought he had.
But then what could it be?
Synica looked up at the castle in the distance, the one that reminded her of the impending coming of the Demon Lord.
Ezra wasn’t likely to be the one, Synica didn’t buy it. She didn’t believe that the Otherworlders were what would help them win, but he might buy them time, and that was something they were in desperate need of.
…
A girl with a wicked-looking dagger watched the sky flash. She smirked.
“The next batch came in, eh? I wonder if they’ll fall into the kingdom’s clutches.”
…
A young man with eyes too old for his face and a languid posture looked up at the clouds. His long white cloak wrapped around him like the embrace of a woman while his beautiful two-handed sword gleamed in the moonlight.
“Another lamb to the slaughter,” he muttered.
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Red eyes on red skin watched a red sky alight. He smirked.
“So,” he said. “Yet another foolish mortal who seeks to defy divinity? No matter. He shall burn like all the rest.”