Ezra ran over to the Mercenary’s Guild to get the seal on the letter verified. For all he knew, this could’ve been some kind of highly elaborate scam…
Although the odds of that seemed highly unlikely.
Sen put the seal under a magnifying glass, then nodded.
“Yup,” he said. “It’s the real deal, alright. Gotta say, though, that this is the first time I’ve ever seen a direct letter from headquarters. Mind telling me what the letter says?”
“None of your business.”
Sen held up his hands. “Fair enough. Was just curious.” He glanced backward. “Hold on, I’ve gotta take care of something in the back. I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Once Sen shut the door, Ezra folded his head in his hands. How had things gone so wrong?!
Ezra reached down and pressed into the edge of the table. He didn’t want to rejoin Charles and the rest of his old classmates. Putting aside the fact that he’d be on tiptoes the whole time because they’d be the most likely to see through his incredible disguise, he just didn’t want to be around them.
They held nothing but bad memories for him. Memories of being weak and useless and small. It wasn’t a feeling he needed to remember, especially given how far he’d come.
But the guild had put him into an impossible situation. He needed the guild. He needed their money, he needed the safe haven it provided when he traveled, and it seemed like his rank was a highly useful tool in these small towns.
Objectively speaking, it was the right move to join in on their little hunt. He’d steal the kill and walk away, easy peasy, right?
Ezra sighed.
“Stop dancing around the decision,” A voice echoed in his head. “You know what to do.”
Ezra grimaced and glared at the spider on his shoulder.
“Even if I join in, I won’t be able to keep up without you. I’d have to get some kind of weapon, like a sword or—“
“Absolutely not!” Filamenta said. “I’m your only weapon. I make allowances for ropes and environmental tools, but if you so much as look in the direction of a sword, I swear that I’ll—“
Posessive much?
“Shut up shut up shut up!”
Ezra rolled his eyes. Sen opened the door and stepped forward, a package in hand.
“This came in for you today, I almost forgot,” Sen said.
Ezra took the brown package and raised an eyebrow. “How…?”
“Oh, you don’t know?” Sen said. “Well, all the guilds have at least some rudimentary communication magic. We’re required to send in information on what everyone’s doing so that requests and packages can be shipped appropriately. Some friends of yours from down south paid for a Phoenix delivery, hence why this arrived so fast.”
Ezra unwrapped the package. It had two journals and a note on top. Ezra picked up the note and read through it.
Dear One-Eye,
You left rather quickly. Me and Nobinar had been planning to teach you a thing or two, remember? Luckily, we’d anticipated something like this happening and employed a scribe while you were comatose. The first book contains everything that I know about herbalism. It isn’t much, but it should be of help to you and get you started on the path if that’s what you seek.
The second book contains information on the unarmed fighting style of Cortia’s knights. According to Nobinar, the style involves both strikes and grapples and should suffice as a basis for your further growth as a fighter.
I hope these will be of some use to you.
With my dearest affection,
Prise
Ezra picked up the journals and flipped through them. As described in the letter, the first book contained page after page of information on the brewing of herbs along with their effects. Ezra stopped on a page.
White Mint Tea (also known as Widowmaker Poison)
The writing for the recipe was sloppier and harder to read, while water seemed to have dripped onto the page. The final words had a half-written apology before the ink bled off the side of the paper.
Ezra bit the bottom of his lip. He didn’t quite know how to feel about Prise’s attempts at apologizing. There was a small—a very, very small—part of him that kind of felt bad for her. She was devastated by what she’d almost done. Even weeks after, the mere mention of the poison had been enough to… well, Ezra was looking at the results.
Ezra shut the book and moved to the next one. It was a manual filled with information on practice routines along with sketches and diagrams.
Well, this would do if he wasn’t allowed to use other weapons.
He put the two books in a pouch on the inside of his chimera head cloak. Ezra walked back out into the snow and toward Idia.
He and Charles glanced at Ezra.
“So,” Ezra said. “When do we start?”
----------------------------------------
Ezra was informed that everyone was feeling tired after the long journey and that they’d need a day to settle in and find somewhere to sleep. Once they were done with that, they’d start putting together the details of the hunt.
Ezra nodded and took the opportunity to slip back into the woods. Once he’d found a sufficiently quiet spot, he pulled out the herbalism book and started flipping through it. Most of the information he couldn’t do because he didn’t have any cooking implements, but he decided to absorb the information anyway. Prise was a shockingly good teacher. Her instructions and explanations were crystal clear and Ezra found himself latching onto the basic rules extremely fast.
The biggest thing was that it was essentially cooking, not chemistry. It relied on reactions that Prise tried to explain, but she admitted that the high-level stuff was beyond her. Instead, she focused on the practice. She explained some of the guidelines and how to avoid blowing up his pot. She also noted that he could easily shift recipes around if he wanted to enhance the effects.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
A half-baked plan to brew weak poison to up his [Poison Resistance] whirled in the back of his mind. He decided to find some of the herbs and plants that Prise recommended he collect. He’d be able to steal some pots and pans or break into Miss Marnie’s kitchen later.
By the end of an hour, he had several herbs wrapped up in little string bundles. He stuffed them into the inside of his cloak, then pulled out his other booklet. Ezra followed the guide as closely as possible, starting with the bare basics of the forms. His [Basic Grappling] went up, and he even ended up getting a new skill.
[Basic Striking] - Lv. 1
The foundation of all physical combat, [Basic Striking] enables the user to deliver controlled, efficient blows using their fists.
Increases accuracy of basic attacks by 5%.
Slightly improves the user’s ability to follow through on their strikes, dealing 3% more physical damage.
Reduces stamina consumption for basic attacks by 2%.
It wasn’t a particularly interesting skill, but it was only meant to be an in-between for the skill that Ezra was aiming for. He got back into position and continued throwing controlled, tight punches at the air. After an hour of work, he got the skill.
[Cortian Ironflow] - Lv. 1
A devastating martial art developed for the knights of Cortia when stripped of their weapons, [Cortian Ironflow] combines raw strength with calculated precision. Trained to turn their entire body into a weapon, Cortian knights can adapt to any combat situation with powerful strikes, fluid grappling, and seamless movement. This unarmed style emphasizes rapid counterattacks and the use of an opponent’s momentum against them.
Increases damage of unarmed strikes by 10%.
Grants a 5% chance to counterattack immediately after evading an opponent’s attack.
Improves control during grappling, reducing the chance of being thrown or immobilized by 3%.
Ezra instantly felt the difference when he unlocked the skill. He stepped into the stance that he’d tried before and punched out at the air. His movements were smoother and sharper.
The oddest effect was his mind, though. He somehow knew what the right move would be if an opponent had tried to strike back with a sword. His body would’ve been ready to dodge and hit with a powerful kick. Before, he’d been explicitly thinking through his movements, but this skill seemed to have tucked that information into his subconscious.
Ezra went through Nobinar’s practice routine, leveling up all four of his unarmed skills.
[Basic Grappling] - Lv. 22
[Basic Striking] - Lv. 10
[Titan’s Fists] - Lv. 5
[Cortian Ironflow] - Lv. 8
Ezra felt fairly confident that he would be able to put up a fight against any attackers, even if he wasn’t at max strength due to being unable to use Filamenta.
He checked in on his stats.
Level: 60
Strength: 50
Dexterity: 50
Constitution: 50
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 56
Skill points: 76
Stat points: 36
Ability points: 36
36 stat points—that was a hell of a lot, and that was ignoring his many, many Skill points as well. Most of the things he got from his ability tree were just that—abilities based on his needle, not skills. As such, his Skill Points had just been allowed to grow bigger and bigger.
He wasn’t sure what to do with them. For now, he decided to hold onto them and wait until he was having trouble leveling up his skills manually.
With his stats, he already knew what he wanted to do. He put 33 points into his Intelligence.
Intelligence: 50
Mana Points: 1120/1120
He felt a rush of power go up his veins. He flipped on [Mana Perception] and glanced at his hands. They were exceptionally bright, the mana in them shining like a flashlight into his eyes. He flipped off [Mana Perception] and let out a sigh.
The lootbox appeared in front of him. Four A-rank skills. Ezra smirked.
[Mana Overdrive] - Lv. MAX
Increases total mana pool by 50% for a limited time (5 minutes), but at the cost of reducing mana regeneration to near-zero afterward for an extended period (10 minutes). During Overdrive, spells cast are 25% more powerful.
Not bad. Not bad at all. This skill would probably be useful for emergency situations. Ezra rubbed his chin.
[Mind Partition] - Lv. MAX
Allows the user to split their focus, effectively casting two spells simultaneously at no extra mana cost. This includes maintaining concentration on two sustained spells at once. If the spell links between targets, then all targets are shared between the two spells.
Ezra’s eyes widened at the last line. If he was understanding the description right, then that meant that something like [Bind] would be capable of hitting 4 targets at once, and he would be able to share properties between them at will. That would open up an enormous number of possibilities.
[Arcane Reservoir] - Lv. MAX
Creates a secondary mana pool equal to 30% of the user’s maximum mana. This reservoir is immune to mana-draining effects and refills gradually over time, independent of normal mana regeneration.
So like the first one, but from a different perspective? Not bad, but Ezra had already made up his mind.
[Mana Echo] - Lv. MAX
After casting a spell, a delayed “echo” of the same spell is automatically cast 3 seconds later at half its original power, costing no additional mana.
Again, it just felt like a less powerful version of [Mind Partition].
He’d made up his mind. He clicked [Mind Partition]. Instantly, a massive headache slammed into his brain. He forced himself not to fall over. All at once, he was thinking two parallel streams of thought. One side of him was muttering about the potential power of herbalism while the other was planning ways to sneak into Idia’s bedroom and kill him. Ezra reached into his soul and flipped the skill off. The two parts of his brain snapped back together and he instantly felt a sense of relief.
So, it would take practice to get used to that skill? That was fine. Ezra had time.
The sun was setting. It was about time that he returned to his room and slept. He entered Old Joe’s shop, coming face to face with the same little girl who’d stared at him when he was training earlier.
The girl looked up at him, her eyes narrowed.
“You’re a mercenary,” the girl said.
“I am.”
“Papa said that mercenaries are pieces of shit who wander from town to town, preying on little girls,” she said. “He said that I should stay away from them at all times.”
Ezra frowned. “Your father sounds like an asshole. Also, he shouldn’t be swearing in front of his 5-year-old daughter.”
“I’m 10!” she said.
“Cool, don’t care,” Ezra said.
She stomped her foot into the ground.
“I’m warning you, if you and your friends are here to cause trouble, then my daddy will beat you up!”
Ezra reached out and poked the girl in the nose. Her face scrunched up and she swatted away his finger.
“W-what was that!?” she said.
“Don’t call me a friend of those people,” Ezra said. “I don’t know them, and I hate their guts.”
“Oh yeah, you did break that guy’s arm.” She paused. “Can you teach me how to do that?”
Ezra blinked. Teach a small child how to break someone’s arm? That sounded… like a really, really great idea. Old Joe would be so pissed.
“Sure,” he said.
Ezra, unfortunately, was not able to teach her how to break an arm. She didn’t possess the necessary Strength—but he was able to teach her how to bring someone’s pinkie finger. Ezra found himself with a dangling, dislocated pinkie finger. He stared at it for a bit before setting it back in place with a loud pop.
She grinned. “Did I do a good job?”
Ezra nodded.
“Yes.”
“Daddy’s going to be so proud of me!” she said.
Ezra then walked upstairs and went to sleep. He went to bed joyful, knowing that he’d inflicted pain on his host.
[Please select your class immediately! If you don’t select it within the next 44 days, the system will be forced to disconnect to prevent your death!]