Chapter 006:

Alexander raised his brows after hearing Dirk’s calm yet imposing declaration.

‘Interesting,’ He thought to himself as his heartbeat quickened in anticipation. Despite his best efforts, a sadistic smile soon spread across his face; luckily it was hidden under his hood.

Soon, however, the smile was forcibly wiped away as he had to quickly twist his body to the side. A sword, sharp as the wind and just as quick, just barely whooshed past where his chest had been, lightly cutting his robes.

“Nice reflexes,” Dirk said mildly with a hint of surprise on his face.

Alexander couldn’t reply as he was too busy retreating.

{New skill unlocked!} The Allbright system exclaimed as a victory chime sounded. {Assessing current skill level…}

{Assessment complete!}

{- Innate skills: None.

- System skills: Communication (Common-Below average), Charismatic Leadership (Uncommon-Below Average)

- Skill List: Evasion (Common-Intermediate)}

‘Directly to intermediate huh...well, I guess it makes sense; he is a knight after all, so dodging one of his attacks would surely be a sign of skill…’ Alexander thought to himself idly as he snapped his head back sharply.

The swinging sword passed half a centimeter away from his face. Had he facial hair, he would have had to pay Dirk for the clean shave.

Speaking of Dirk: his eyes were now widened in genuine surprise.

‘Dodging once might have been a fluke, but twice? I’ll bet you’re mighty confused,’

Alexander gave him no time to dwell on his surprise however, as soon Dirk felt something attack the back of his leg and after inadvertently dropping to a knee, his eyesight met Alexander’s who was also close to the ground with one hand and leg supporting him, his other leg was busy embedding itself into the back of Dirk’s knee.

The attack was by no means powerful, rather it was pitifully weak. The only reason it was so effective was a mix of Dirk’s overall disregard for his opponent and Alexander’s skill.

{New skill unlocked!} The system celebrated as Alexander rolled to evade another one of Dirk’s attacks.

{- Innate skills: None.

- System skills: Communication (Common-Below average), Charismatic Leader (Uncommon-Below Average)

- Skill List: Evasion (Common-Intermediate), Hand to Hand Combat (Common-Novice)}

Alexander was a bit hurt by the novice rating but overall, he was pleased. ‘Good, so it really is just like my last system,’

It was early on in his previous life as a hero that he began looking into the intricacies of the miraculous powers that were skills. But in truth, it would take him a lifetime of usage and heavy contact with other system users to truly understand.

Systems and skills were two subjects that were closely intertwined but not at all exclusive to one another. Any non-system user had the capability to be very skillful as evidenced by Dirk himself or any of Iron-wall’s knights. While conversely, system users could be considered unskilled despite their inherent advantage which was the system itself.

To make short a matter far too long to explain in one sitting, systems helped define, categorize, rate, and sometimes enhance a skill. But skills were generally both acquired and enhanced through one’s efforts alone.

Take Alexander’s Evasion skill for instance. The skill was given to Timothy’s body thanks to Alexander’s own effort but it was the system that rated Timothy’s efficiency when using it and thus the power it could output.

Alexander evaded another attack before jumping backward.

On the other hand, on rare occasions, a system was able to bestow upon its users a skill directly without the user having anything to do with it. This was why Alexander, despite being from another world, was able to communicate with the people of Iron-wall. Through the skill {Communication}, the system was able to smooth out Alexander’s integration into a new world by allowing him to communicate with its inhabitants. Additionally, and with prior experience from his previous life, Alexander knew that if he were to enhance this skill through the system, many surprises would await him.

“How?” Dirk couldn’t help but ask with an incredulous look on his face, by now it was clear that the hooded noble wasn’t surviving on mere luck.

It wasn’t just Dirk, but rather everyone else was just as shocked. It had to be said that a knight was the standard fighting force of a kingdom; they were the foundation, and their strength represented that.

How ridiculous was it then that some random noble was able to keep pace with one?

“Slim…” Big Ed said grimly.

“Yeah, I know…” Grim replied with an equally solemn expression.

‘It’s a good thing we didn’t rob him,’ Both thought at once.

“Dirk!” One of the scar-faced knight’s comrades spoke urgently.

“Do not interfere,” Dirk replied, waving his comrades off before returning his attention to Alexander.

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“I admit, you are skilled,” Dirk spoke honestly as he recalled the fight. It wasn’t as if the hooded noble was stronger or faster than him, but rather it felt as if he ‘knew’. He knew what Dirk would do next, what attack he would use, and how he would use it. Though Dirk was so clearly physically superior, the hooded noble seemed more skilled somehow.

And this made no sense to the knight ‘How can someone so skilled be so weak? Unless…he’s holding back! He is toying with me!’

Realisation dawned on him before immediately turning into anger. “You bastard!” Dirk screamed before attacking with everything he had. No longer was the knight holding back, this was his full strength.

‘Fuck!’ Alexander screamed to himself as he felt true danger for the first time since coming to this world.

But simultaneously, his vicious grin widened.

‘Getting a little too cocky, aren’t we? {Status}!’

{User Status-Main Attributes:-Vitality: 6; -Strength: 5; -Durability: 3; -Agility: 6; -Stamina: 3;

Bonus Stat Points: 10}

Highlighting strength and predicting Dirk’s movements, Alexander crouched slightly and tilted his body just enough to evade the next attack while also allowing him space to counter.

{Bonus Stat Point usage registered: User Status-Main Attribute: -Strength: 5 + 5 = 10}

Alexander did not deem it necessary to use all his bonus points at once, ten points of strength was enough to deal with this situation.

In the few seconds it took to alter his stats, Dirk’s blade was already piercing toward him. The attack was a simple, yet well-executed thrust. The sword was aimed expertly toward Timmy’s head, but with his excellent footwork, it wouldn’t be hard for Dirk to alter the path of his blade so as to target his chest, making it difficult for Alexander to dodge completely.

Unfortunately for the knight, however, this was within Alexander’s expectations.

‘All knights are the same,’ Alexander thought to himself as he twisted his already tilted torso further.

{Skill advancement detected!}

{The skill: Evasion (Common-Intermediate), has been promoted to Evasion (Common-Advanced)}

This movement surprised Dirk, who fully expected the noble to retreat instead. The blade barely scraped by the side of Timmy’s head, slashing his hood.

‘I would know. I was one of you too,’ The former hero finished his thought, unwillingly recalling his past.

Knights were warriors who had undergone rigorous training and while this did make them stronger, it also made them predictable. For someone like Alexander, it was child’s play to predict Dirk’s attacks.

Said knight compensated for the missed attack by retreating a step back instead and swinging his sword in a downward motion aiming for the young noble’s chest. Alexander, in turn, compensated for the newfound distance by lunging forward.

Dirk never would have expected such an aggressive maneuver from someone who had been so passive and thus he was caught off guard once more.

‘Good. You are finally taking me seriously!’ Dirk smiled as he abandoned his attack in favor of raising his other hand to defend his head.

‘Fuck!’ Alexander wasn’t expecting this. With the knight’s guard up, it would be difficult to land a clean blow. ‘Why the fuck are you guarding against a kid?’ Alexander asked Dirk mentally; unaware of the mental gymnastics Dirk had been doing throughout the entire fight.

The knight, having mistaken his opponent for another expert on equal footing to him, was delighted by the hooded noble’s new aggressive approach.

‘Good let’s have a proper brawl, fucker!’ Dirk thought with a vicious smile.

Alexander abandoned landing a clean blow to the man’s jaw and chose to strike his flank instead. Timothy’s twisted body sprang back into shape with all ten points of his newfound strength; using this momentum, Alexander smashed his fist into the knight’s armored side.

“Ghh!” Dirk was surprised by the new strength which was almost double the hooded noble’s previous strikes, but he wasn’t overly shocked, rather this only reinforced his theory of the hooded noble actually being an expert combatant.

But still, this level of strength was nothing to Dirk and he was still dissatisfied with his opponent holding back.

However, that changed as soon as he felt Timothy’s arm snake under his own.

After successfully striking the man’s side and disrupting his stance, Alexander persevered through the pain radiating from his hand as he slipped his arm under the pit of the knight’s non-sword-bearing arm. After inserting one of his legs between the knight’s own pair, he bent the other leg and heaved as he twisted his body, dragging the knight over his shoulder.

The entirety of the audience witnessing the battle let out a collective gasp as the skinny Timothy threw the heavy knight from over his shoulder and into one of the nearby tables.

A loud crash sounded out as splinters of wood, glass, and a fine mist of alcohol radiated from the freshly broken table.

“Whoah,” Slim Grim couldn’t help but remark with some admiration.

Big Ed nodded in response as he studied Alexander’s figure closely, but soon his attention was brought to their rear where Michelle reappeared followed by a couple of familiar goons.

“Looks like we got company,” He told Slim.

“Ah, hairless and his friends, I see…” Grim paused to think before coming to a decision and ordering “Grab him!”

“Got it!” The large youth replied enthusiastically.

Meanwhile, Alexander was too busy panting to register the arrival of the bald bouncer and co.

‘I may be stronger but my stamina is still shit,’ He thought to himself as he kept his guard up. He knew that there was virtually no chance of Dirk being injured with that move. This kingdom’s Knights did not seem so fragile.

He did not want to continue fighting because that would likely result in him using more bonus stat points which he would rather save, besides, this wasn’t some life-or-death battle.

‘So there’s probably no shame in running…’ He thought.

A sudden shifting from Dirk broke his train of thought. As expected, the knight rose from the remnants of the table with relative ease. Aside from a couple of tears in his robe, he looked no worse for wear, a fact that disheartened Alexander somewhat.

Getting ready to squander the last of his remaining stat points, Alexander was taken by surprise when Dirk turned to leave.

‘Where are you going?’ he wanted to ask out loud but was interrupted from doing so by Dirk.

“A good blow and a fine way to end this match,” The knight said without turning back. Using his hands, he motioned for his men to follow him. “However, if you insist on fighting me in such a half-hearted manner, then I shall have to disappoint you. You win this round, but we will surely meet again.”

“Che” Alexander spat as he watched the group of knights leave, “Trying to act cool and all when really you’re just running away,” His words were combative but his heart was relieved.

At the same time, he was a bit perplexed. ‘Why did Dirt’s last words sound like some shit a rival would say…’

He was awoken from his flippant thoughts by the rapidly approaching Ed.

“Big guy?” Alexander asked.

“Sorry!” Ed replied as he roughly picked the young noble up before securing him under his arm.

Alexander made no attempt to resist as he was too exhausted. Still, it would be weird to leave things be so he demanded an explanation from Grim with his eyes.

Slim, secured under Ed’s other arm, looked back stoically as if he wasn’t being treated like a used rug. Not saying a word, the slim youth pointed to a location behind Ed.

Looking toward where Slim had indicated, Alexander finally discovered the presence of the bald bouncer and his friends who were rushing toward them.

“I see, take it away big Ed,” Alexander said.

“Mhm,” Ed replied as he began dashing forward.