I sat in my room tumbling an empty vial in between my fingers

I turned it between my main two fingers and slipped it between the next to in an elegant and coordinated manor before proceeding in the same motion again and again all in the matter of seconds

I was playing with the vial that once held the healing elixir

I was twisting the vial between my fingers as I stared at the ceiling thinking about what had been happening recently

My life had been more chaotic in the past few days than my entire life so far

While my brushes with death were about the same it was much more eventful

'Wait a minute...'

I paused as I suddenly realized something that put a wide smile on my face

'That persistent fucking rat is finally gone!'

The rat wouldn't be constantly following me every. does that mean I'm free?

Looks like my life's gonna be a little easier from now on, since they'll now be after that kind old boar

'I wonder what that mutant boars up to? he's probably fighting off those rats by now

haha'

It had done me a massive favor by taking that rats life so I put down the vial and clasped my hands together in a praying manor to thank the boar for its great gift to me

After giving my thanks I put my vial into my satchel and stood up

Just as I was about to leave my room to scavenge I remembered what I had promised Charlotte

'Idiot, how did I forget that promise so fast?'

I unhooked my pouch and threw it down onto my bed leaving all my gear behind as I walked out of my room and went down the corridor looking to relieve my boredom

'What should I do?'

I roamed around throughout the base, although there wasn't much to do as everything was made to serve a purpose, this meant the entire base was made for needs and had no wants

'If only there was a playground'

I lamented at the lack of fun things to do around the base

I went to the center of the base and used the main stairs to go to the second floor, there were many people walking up and down the stairs waving to each other as pretty much everyone knew each other

Some waved to me on their way passed so I waved back greeting them

I continued strolling through the different hallways looking for something to keep myself occupied

As I was making my way through the second floor I heard an almost subtle yelling sound

'That's new, I don't think I've ever heard that around the base before'

Interested by the noise I made my way towards it

After a few minutes I stumbled upon a door unlike all the other ones i had seen so far

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It was made of thin wood and paper making it almost completely see through allowing me to see silhouettes quickly passing by

'What's this door for?'

I hadn't seen a door like this before

I reached out and pushed the door with a little force

It didn't open up like it should've, it only bent slightly as if the wood was straining in the wrong direction

'It's not a push?'

I gripped the edge of the wood and tried to pull it towards me but got the same result

"..."

'What am I supposed to try now?'

I felt like an idiot as I tried to figure out exactly how I was supposed to open the fragile door in front of me

After a few seconds I decided to pull the door towards the side and surprisingly, unlike the other two times it moved with ease

The sight behind the door was something I hadn't seen before

It was a large room room with wooden walls but had a soft padded floor, lanterns dangled from the room illuminating everything

And there right in the middle of it all was two large men

One man had a few grey strands mixed in his hair as well as having many wrinkles although he seemed aged his entire body was exploding with powerful muscles, he seemed to be the oldest man I had ever met in the entire base

'Have I ever seen this man before?'

Opposite from him was a middle aged man with a stubbled beard, his brown hair was short and his skin was as tanned as leather

Whilst the younger man seemed to have extraordinary strength and bulging muscles he was no match for the old man who effortlessly slapped his jabs to the side and weaved between his strikes

It was almost like an intricate dance between two dancers

As the rhythm seemed poetic and unending the old man suddenly turned his head to the side dodging a jab before stepping into his open body and kneeing him in the gut causing him to reactively clench up allowing him to get his legs swept from underneath him

And that was how the poetic battle ended

I wasn't sure how long I had been watching the fight as I had been utterly mesmerized by the flowing moves and the fast paced action

'H-how can they fight like that?'

The middle aged man finally recovered from his pain and got up

"Asshole. that was really below the belt you know?"

"Haha. I don't know what you're talking about"

"You literally swept my feet after kneeing me in the gut, that's so excessive!"

"Hmmm, nope. doesn't sound like me, u sure you're not mistaken?"

"Tch. shameless as ever you senile old man"

'Could I fight like that? if I could would I become useful?'

Turning towards me the grandpa seemed surprised seeing there was a spectator this whole time

"Hello there lad, I don't think I've ever seen you, are you a new member of the attack force?"

"A-attack force! I'm sorry, I just found this place by accident, I apologies"

I quickly bowed my head to show respect to the man in front of me, he seemed to be a very important figure connected to the attack force

"It's quite alright, things like this happen more often then you'd think. this idiot behind me ended up here the same way"

Seeing the old man point at him he grumbled

"If it's anything like that time, you're about to beat the shit out of a child without remorse, right?"

The old man seemed to freeze up

"Is that how the ended? my memory must be getting foggy haha"

Throwing the old man a death glare he gently cast his gaze towards me

"Never trust this old man, he usually acts like this when he's done something pretty evil. Like bullying children!"

"Yeah, you wouldn't know anything. you never hangout with me unless it's training after all"

"Oh. I wonder why"

I stood there as they started bickering with each other, it was like watching two young siblings annoy each other

I wasn't sure what to do so I simply stood there waiting for them to turn their attention back towards me

"BAM!"

The old man slammed his hand against the back of the other mans head causing him to collapse in an instance

His body was sprawled out on the ground

"Oh no. why do you always faint when you get riled up? such a bad habit to have"

'H-he knocked him out!'

Laughing to himself the old man ignored the sprawled out body and turned to me and began carefully inspecting my body appraising it like an expert

"What do you usually end up doing during the day?"

It felt depressing but I wasn't anything unique, there was probably thirty other people just like me in the base, barely any of them were normal people like me though

"I-I'm a scavenger"

"Oh! a scavenger? I haven't run into one of those in quite awhile, judging from your body, are you perhaps an invoker?"

'Invoker? he actually thinks I'm a mutant. I wish I was, even an invoker would be more than enough for me'

"I-I'm nothing. I'm not a mutant, of any kind"

He paused for a few minutes but I wasn't looking at him, I was keeping my head down and avoiding his gaze

"I see. so that's why your only a scavenger, do you know how to fight properly?"

"What? why're you asking me that?"

"To teach you of course, if you can't create fire or rip apart mutants you should at least learn a proper fighting style to defend yourself, right?"

'H-he wants to teach ME?'