I expected them to rush toward me immediately, as the two hangers-on seemed confident in their newly empowered friend. The sense of invincibility they were supposed to feel made that a quick bet.

Which was why it was interesting to see them hesitantly, and looked at their leader. They were tense, which was only interesting because they weren't looking at me in fear, but toward the camp. I didn't interrupt as they walked toward their leader, and one of them whispered, thinking it was hidden from me.

"Are you sure, they said we should wait—" he started, only to be interrupted by their leader.

Much louder.

"Yes, but they also said that they will have a reward for his head. Do you want another skill, or not?" he asked.

"But what if they get angry and —" the other said, attempting to stop his friend, but that was useless. My earlier push of anger did its job, and their leader charged toward me.

Pity, I would have loved listening to their argument for a while, to see if they would reveal more. But I didn't bother much. The mention of another skill suggested that they had been subverted by a competent group, and I doubted they revealed their identity to them.

Instead, I dodged as the leader stabbed at me. Once again, it was a skill, smooth complete, and easy to dodge. I prepared myself to retaliate with a kick. Raised my leg …

Only to jump back hurriedly to avoid a dangerous cut on the artery. Even then, it left a deep cut with a stinging sensation. My attacker didn't let go, his blow immediately turning into a low swing, forcing me to jump back.

This time, I managed to avoid the blow completely. "You see, old man. You're nothing against my new skill," he bragged as he paused for a moment.

I used the moment to cure my wound, frowning as I did so. It wasn't a deep wound. I had received much worse wounds while trying to put on a show.

[-2 Health]

I was frustrated by my own arrogance. I had been in this world for several days, and yet I was confident I could handle everything easily. I had assumed that skills were easy to handle, just because I was able to beat down a bunch of non-combat classes.

My young opponent had better skills. One that allowed him to deliver combined attack patterns that reacted to my position, rather than one or two repetitive perfect moves.

No wonder I could goad him into attacking that easily. He was confident of his new strength.

"Why don't you show me just how good your skill then, traitor," I shouted loudly, trying to sound serious and distressed. More as a show to others than a genuine feeling, of course. He was good enough to deliver a surprise blow … and nothing more.

The gulf between our stats left no other result.

I could have taken him down fast, but instead, I chose to dodge his attack, sticking to a very conservative strategy. As I dodged and weaved between his attacks, I carefully observed him … deciphering his skill.

The way his sword danced flawlessly was impressive at first, but the more I realized what was going on, the less impressive it started to feel. There were each basic movements to his action, a combination of stabs, sweeps, and slashes.

The biggest difference between his skill and the simpler ones people had been using was the ability to change his attacks halfway. Not freely, I realized, as I felt like every attack connected to two others, as if they were aligned on a circle, and he could only move a step in either direction. Attack two could shift back to attack one or three, and three could go back to two or shift to four. Only by returning to his starting position, he was able to shift bigger steps.

Altogether, it was still an impressive show.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I couldn't help but feel fascinated by the capabilities of the System once more. Just one measly rock, and my opponent turned into a fighter with a skill that would have required years to perfect back in my old world.

The show reminded me why they were obsessed with skills. For all their drawbacks, their advantages were simply too important.

Though, I received another interesting benefit from a Stat I wasn't expecting it to be useful much. Memory. It allowed me to commit the details of his attacks to my mind far more accurately than I could otherwise achieve. Pity analyzing them still took a lot of time. Maybe I should find a way to awaken Intelligence as well.

"Stand still and fight, you coward," my opponent shouted between his relentless attacks, annoyed at my constant dodging, reminding me that the ability didn't matter much without a mind behind it.

Even with the unnatural rush of anger he was dealing with, his arrogance was inexcusable. He had already attacked me more than a hundred times, and other than the first surprise attack, none of them connected, always missing slightly.

If he had been trained properly, he would have realized just how hard was to sustain and realize the immensity of his mistake. Yet, he just continued to rush.

It was time for the second part of my experiment. Parrying. "As you wish," I said mockingly, and stood in my place. He rushed, ready to skewer me in the chest, but at the last second, I parried with my new dagger.

Leaving a crack in his sword. Magical weapons, even one cat of the lowest quality, were no joke.

Surprisingly, he managed to recover from that faster than I expected, and progressed from one attack into another, trying to slash me … and I parried again. After several more attempts, I started to have a better sense of how his skill was affected by parrying.

Amusingly, the earlier I parried, the more disoriented he became, similar to what Karak experienced while trying to stop his skill from working. And, if I interrupted him early enough, he was forced to go back to starting position.

"What are you doing, waiting, come here and help me!" shouted as I parried his attack again. The two hangers burst into action, their expression resigned … but also not afraid. Despite watching me play with their leader, they expected to win.

Arrogance, or something else.

It turned out to be a combination. They rushed toward me together, their swords dancing with a familiar pattern. They were using the exact same skill as their leader, one attacking from the right, the other from the left.

Not a horrible plan, especially since one of them swung his weapon with a speed that surprised me. He was already promoted.

I moved to the right, and hit his ankle with the blunt side of my halberd, tripping him. He toppled even easier than I expected, showing another problem in their skill. It was weak to handle counter-attacks that weren't targeting their upper body.

"Enough playing," I declared as I swung my halberd again, this time the sharp side, leaving a deep cut on their weakest member. Not enough to kill instantly, but enough to waste a lot of Health. While he recovered that, I attacked the second one, then their leader … slowly dismantling their attack by draining their health.

However, as I worked on destroying their unfair assault, I made sure to balance what I revealed. I still acted like I was using a skill, but a more competent one. Ironically, their attack allowed me to fake a skill with much more confidence than before.

I doubt that they would appreciate it. I continued to attack them until they were drained of Health, and actually started to bleed. "We — we surrender," their leader gasped, finally realizing the depth of his mistake.

"Tie them up, and we will bring them to Zolast," I said to two of them. I didn't want to spend half a day dealing with them. From what I had seen they were just cannon fodder, and wouldn't know many useful things. Still, they were participants in a conspiracy, and killing them would look suspicious.

Luckily, as the Quartermaster, it was not my responsibility. Not officially.

I looked around, and at a distance, I saw Terma rushing toward me, with Jertann and Silas quite a bit behind him. They would have been here if they noticed what had been going on when it started, meaning it took a while for them to notice … another sign that the defensive line needed some work. They should have been alerted about what had been going faster.

I would have written it off as incompetence, but as my little altercation showed, malice was equally likely, as the enemies were already putting their pieces into the mix.

It seemed that I underestimated the altercation I was in. I had been planning to wait until the dungeon was established before I started digging for mana stones, hoping that it would be enough. But it seemed that I needed to act faster.

Speaking of faster.

"Euon, is everything okay?" Terma said as he looked at the three downed men, the first to arrive with his enhanced speed.

"Nothing much," I said, even as I realized the opportunity. I needed to check other breaches if I wanted to explore other opportunities … and to do that, I needed to be faster. "I just caught some traitors, and will bring them to Zolast. Why don't you accompany me?"

"Do you think it's necessary?" Terma asked. "You seem to have things well in hand."

"Just in case I need someone I could trust in a fight, we don't know if they have accomplices," I said, and he smiled proudly. They had accomplices, of course. That was a given. However, I was sure they wouldn't bother trying to save them.

It was easier to cut them off.

"Now, why don't you go and tell your brother there's nothing to worry about, and then join me."

"Of course," he said, dashing away.