"Asuraj!"

"WOAH!!"

I almost lost my balance there. Both my hands flapped as if I was going to fly, I was trying my best to prevent myself from stumbling back or forward. I didn't fall, managing to rebalance myself, I turned to see who had called out to me so suddenly. My gaze met a humanoid silhouette, it was male and slender. When my eyes glanced at the man's face, it turned out to be Kizan. Why did Kizan come to find me all of a sudden? Sure we are friends and roommates but we wouldn't go all out to search for each other, maybe something was up.

"Kizan, you stick. I almost broke my head."

"But you didn't fall. Besides, you wouldn't have landed head first."

"Ya, ya! What do you want from me?"

"Nothing, you looked suspicious coming all the way here. Just came to see what you were up to," replied Kizan while he shrugged his shoulders.

Well, I didn't have anything to hide in regards to my activity. I pointed out my discoveries, "Look there by the thorn bush. There's some stranger's footprint, there's also a tiny piece of flesh caught on a thorn. Someone tried to force themselves over the wall and scraped themselves here, there's blood dried on top."

Kizan quickly asked, "Are you trying to look for the missing kid? It's like it wasn't a coincidence that the chubby kid came fo find you."

If that's what he wants to believe, I wasn't going to deny it. I nodded, "There's more footprints on this side of the wall. Want to help me find Terrance?

"Sure. Terrance the missing kid?"

"Ya. Help me down."

Climbing the wall was easy enough but going down was another matter. It wasn't like I was jumping off a table, the stone fences height was still enough to deter me from jumping down. I crouched and placed both my palms flat on the stone surface, I lowered on leg then the other. Resting my stomach on top of the fence, I mentally boosted my confidence, dropping myself while I held the top of the stone wall with my hands. Keeping myself against the wall, a platform could be felt beneath my feet. It was Kizan, he placed his hands under my shoes to act as a solid surface. With his assistance, my body lowered until I didn't need his help anymore. I managed to get on the ground safely.

With Kizan at my side, we headed straight out of the church property. It was fine for us who were proper adults, anyone younger would need permission first. Those that were fifteen amd under could only go out under supervision. Kizan and I walked around the building of the church, we were greeted by our neighbors and we greeted back. The streets were lively with people moving about and cleaners cleaning the streets. Soon we came to the back of the church, not behind it but to its left if you had to be in front of the church.

NAME KIZAN SAMUEL RAI AGE 18 RACE DIMLINIAN TITLE ORPHAN

While we moved, I did a quick check on Kizan's profile. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I remembered that I didn't have an Orphan title. Was it because I'm human? I couldn't wrap an answer around my head and it wasn't the time to think about it. Finding Terrance was a main priority at the moment. Kizan and I reached the place where the footprints reside. Kizan began to check the footprints but he couldn't make any heads or tails on the matter.

I used Inspect and a few cogwheels manifested before my eyes. Textbox after textbox expanded from the cogs and I did a quick review on my findings. A single set of prints and the smallest belonged to the missing kid and the next couple of sets belonged to a man named Terrance as well. The Planer System identified the footprints to be the same as the one on the other side of this wall. In addition, a third set of footprints was present as well. The textbox over it had the name Olivia attached to it. Olivia was a girls name, wasn't it?

I showed Kizan my discovery, "See this here, Kizan, this footprint belongs to a child. These footprints are the same as the one next to the thorn bush. And see this one, it's slighly smaller, looks like another person was involved as well."

Kizan walked around me and crouched in front of the footprints, he seemed to want to take a better look. He gleefully said, "I see, this one is definitely a child's footprint and these, under closer inspection, really are different. I had my doubts but now, I have new found faith in you."

"Don't talk rubbish," I retorted.

I started to look for more footprints but my eyes weren't enough to make out the differences on the ground but the Planer System on the other hand was able to do the impossible. The footprints of the missing kid could no longer be accounted for but faint impressions of Terrance's and Olivia's footprints were picked up by system. I more or less got the general direction I had to search and dragged Kizan along with me.

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The faint impressions of footprints disappeared just as we started moving. I had no idea what to do next, Kizan and I went further into the residential area. More and more people filled the roads making near impossible to find any more clues on the orphan's whereabouts. Even if there were any footprints, it would've been trampled on by the people walking around. 

"ASU-raj!"

"Huh!"

I heard a familiar voice in the distance. Only then did I realize that Kizan was no longer at my side. He was across street, two houses away from me. I saw him there standing next to an old man, Kizan waved his hand, calling me over. I went with a slight jog. As I got closer, I saw Kizan lower his head in a bow to the old man then he turned around and ran in a direction that the old timer pointed out. I started to pickup speed in order to catch up with Kizan.

Kizan entered a pathway in between a couple of houses, I followed after. My speed couldn't out match his, maybe it was because he was already ahead of me but I did manage to get closer to him.

Kizan said after noticing my presense, "Asuraj! That old man... says he had seen... a couple carrying a child that was... throwing a tantrum. They had left in a hurry through here... a while ago"

"Okay  I got it"

I ran after Kizan, we both past a few houses without obstacle and when we reached the end of the path, we found ourselves on the main road in town. It was much busier than where we came from. Venders were spread about and the crowd was thicker as well. If Terrance and his kidnappers came here, it would be difficult to locate them now. Kizan's face shared my dejection. With the crowd moving non stop, finding our target was near impossible. 

We didn't  give up. Kizan still went out to people to make inquiries and I still ran the Inspect skill. Several minutes past with no luck, I went across the street and crossed back, forming a zigzag formation. Just as I thought it was hopeless, I finally found something of use. I took large strides, approaching the cog that had Terrance's name on it. A small shoe was found.

NAME WORN OUT FOOTWEAR MATERIAL LEATHER AGE 7 OWNER TERRANCE 

Bending down to pick it up, I found the shoe to be really worn out. It wasn't surprising for us orphans to use second hand or fourth hand valuables but I couldn't be sure if this belonged to the missing kid. This shoe could be owned by another Terrance instead. There was no other lead and I could only hope that this shoe will lead us to the missing child. 

Since the shoe was found here, I could only go in this direction. Turning back, I found Kizan heading my way. When he noticed me staring at him, he shrugged. Clearly no leads came from the direction he went in. I turned away from him, set out on the path that the shoe indicated.

I walked for a little while, my inspection going non stop. Kizan was getting closer, I could hear him making inquiries. It gave me a guilty feeling. From the start I hadn't asked anyone if they had seen a child being taken away by suspicious people. It looked like only Kizan had been doing an actual investigation while I'm acting on gut feeling. From an ouside perspective, it showed who was working and who was just nonchalant.

"It seems like a lost cause, the kid must be long gone by now. Maybe they're inside one of these houses, you never know," said Kizan who caught up to me.

Suddenly, a strong gust hit us head on. I would've bumped into Kizan had he not been pushed by the wind as well. We both staggered. Kizan started swinging his arms in circular motion, some how he managed not to fall on his back. I, on the contrary, went down on one knee. If I tried to fight it, the probability of falling face first was high.

It wasn't just us who was affected. Other people around also got pushed by the sudden wind. Some people managed to maintain their balance, other's who were caught of guard fell right out. What was that, I wondered? Regardless, of what I thought, the gust of wind disappeared just as fast as it came. Suspicious, that's how I thought about what just happened. Without warning, my eye caught something going on in the distance ahead of me.

"That was weird," said Kizan. 

"Hm... look there!"

Across the street from me, I could see a quiet alleyway that looked similar to the one used by Kizan and I when we came to the main street. That location wasn't as important as what went on in that alley. There was no obstruction in my view and I clearly saw a young child trying to run out of the alley. Behind the the kid a shady man swiftly followed, his hand caught the child's top and the child was yanked back. The child flew back,  literally,  then dropped of the floor like a rag.

I ran to the alley with Kizan following behind. Although it seemed far but when the child fell, I managed to catch a glimpse of the kid's feet. One was bare! I tried to use Inspect firstly but it didn't work. The system then mentioned that my target was too far. When I got closer, I used Inspect again. This time I was able to get information. Both the man and the child shared the same name, Terrance.

"KIZAN ... IT'S THEM!"

I shouted to Kizan, prompting him fo run faster, I also picked up speed. We rushed into the alley,  the man named Terrance was walking further into the path. Carrying the child in his arms, he swore. He must've hit the kid capturing him, after that that child started crying out loudly, young Terrance had no more resistance in him.

While rushing, the Planer System quickly spoke.

SYSTEM: Entering possible combat zone, does user Asruraj Dragoneye wish to allocate planer points to stats? Twenty-four planer points remaining.

I was caught of guard by the system's robotic voice, what it said about increasing stats and distributing planer points caught my attention. I slowed my pace because of this distraction. I said, "Let's do it!"

Immediately, two cogwheels manifested itself. One stemmed from my Inventory while the other showed my Stats. I didn't hesitate to distribute my points. It was easy, I could just think it and the system will allocate the planer points for me.

I skimmed the interface of my stats update.

STATS     HP 100 % MP 0 %         RANK STAGE VITALITY D (0/10) LOW STRENGTH E (2/10) LOW INTELLIGENCE  D (6/10) MID AGILITY  E (0/10) LOW DEXTERITY  E (5/10) MID ENDURANCE  D (0/10) LOW PERCEPTION  E (0/10) LOW LUCK F