Chapter 009:

"Honestly, I don't think this is a good idea," Kiara said with a nervous look on her face. From her body language, you could tell that she would be pacing around if it weren't for the fact that she was being forcibly seated on a bench.

At her side, also sitting on the bench, her brother Rafiel shook his head dismissively as he stuffed another gel pastry into his mouth. Unlike his sister, he appeared nonchalant. "I'm sure it will be fine, boss knows what he's doing,"

"Yeah," Replied the afore-mentioned boss, Alexander, as he too wolfed another treat down beside them.

'Whatever this is, it's great,' Alexander thought to himself as the soft pastry broke apart in his mouth, exposing the slightly cold yet satisfyingly sweet fruit gel within; Apple.

Once again, he was surprised over how much more advanced the culinary arts were in this world when compared to his own, that being said, it did make sense for a world completely focused on wars to not give a shit about food. Back then, so long as it was filling and nutritious, taste didn’t matter much.

In fact, the snack was so good that he almost forgot about the task at hand if it weren’t for the reminder from the girl.

"They're out of the bakery," Kiara reported and Alexander studied the two men leaving the building a distance away from them.

The two looked like your stereotypical pair of hoodlums; big, burly figures sporting menacing expressions on their faces. One of them held a bag that looked deliciously full while the other was munching on what looked like a cake.

Though he was tempted by the cake, Alexander knew that the real prize was what was inside the bag; profits from the 'protection' services offered by their gang.

"Ok, looks like the bag is full enough. As we've discussed, we're going to tail them and when the time's right, Kiara will lure them into a conveniently dark alley where you and I will jump them,"

"Got it!" Rafiel said with a salute; crumbs stuck to the corner of his mouth fell with the action.

Kiara, upon re-hearing the plan, grew visibly more nervous. "H-how am I supposed to lure them away exactly?"

Alexander shrugged at the question. "Figure it out," He said, rather irresponsibly.

………………………………………………..

Kiara’s point of view:

Currently sweating bullets, she repeated her flimsy plan over and over again in her head while slowly approaching the two men. 'Ok, let's get this over with,' She thought to herself; as she straightened out her hair, tears welled up in her eyes.

"Please, help!" She cried desperately upon reaching the pair of thugs. "M-my mother! She fainted while we were crossing the alley that way," She pointed toward where she had come from.

The two thugs, upon seeing the tears streaming down her red eyes, chuckled before moving on, not paying her any mind.

Kiara bit her lip at this before suddenly thinking of something.

"Please! I'm sorry to bother you, but our attending is not with us so I have no choice but to ask you,"

At the word attending, the two men turned toward her with strange gleams in their eyes.

Kiara smiled but kept her face lowered so as to not show it. 'Interested now aren’t you?' Truthfully, Kiara did not know if the noble shtick would work as her clothes weren’t very impressive but thankfully the two gang members weren't exactly the sharpest of knives.

One of the thugs faked a cough before saying "It's ok young miss, us uncles will help ya. Jus' point the way," He ended by flashing a kind smile and placing a hand on her shoulder.

A minute later, they were at the entrance of the alley and Kiara was feeling a modicum of relief. 'Mission accomplished,' She thought to herself with some pride.

Unfortunately just as they were about to enter the alley, the thug holding the bag stopped.

"Why're ya stopping bro?" Asked the other thug.

"Here, take the bag and head back toward bossman, ‘cause he won't like it if we're late. Besides, no use in us both going to help the kid's mother. I can do it just fine by myself,"

At first, the second thug was confused but then his expression grew angry at the realization. "Aight fine then, but I don't see why it's got to be me. Yer already holding the bag so way I see it, you're the one who should be fuckin off,"

As the two thugs descended into a bout of bitter bickering, Kiara grew more annoyed by the second.

Her eyes, which were tracking the bag full of loot, betrayed a look of exasperation before growing resolute. Without warning, she snatched the bag and bolted into the dark alley, her petite frame disappearing into the shadows.

The two thugs stood, mouths agape at the sight before exploding into anger. They instinctively ran after her.

“Stop! Bitch!”

“Get her!” They said simultaneously.

In the alley, Kiara could barely see but the lack of sight seemed to elevate her other senses as behind her she could hear the erratic footsteps of her pursuers drawing close.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Raf!!”

“Kiara!!” The two young voices resounded loudly within the relative quietness of the alley.

“What?!”

“Duck!” As soon as she heard the words ‘Duck’ the space ahead of her erupted into flames before condensing into an arrow.

‘Shit!’ She thought as she threw her body into the ground. Just above her, she could feel an intense wave of heat pass.

This was the second time today her brother almost shot her.

………………………………………………..

Alexander listened to the screaming man as he was blasted away before being engulfed in flames. ‘Fuck, it wasn’t enough to knock him out. I have to end this soon,’ Quickly knocking out the other thug who was preoccupied with his friend’s screams with a sneak attack, Alexander then rushed toward the burning man before he could alert any more attention.

Once upon him, Alexander’s hand dashed toward the thug’s throat paying no heed to the flames, which in turn parted ways as if wanting to avoid making contact with Alexander.

The thug’s screams stopped as he squeezed his hand. As it turned out, ten points of strength were barely enough to strangle someone unconscious.

With that, Alexander turned away from the still-burning man sporting a victorious smile. But much to his chagrin, his accomplices did not seem to share his cheery disposition. Kiara lay motionless on the floor, contemplating her existence, while Rafiel was hunched over, breathing roughly in exhaustion.

Alexander clapped his hands loudly, drawing the two’s attention before proudly saying “It’s time to distribute the loot!”

………………………………………………..

Sometime later, Kiara and her brother were sitting on a bench with a half-full bag between them.

“Fifty percent, that bastard’s a thief,” She said through gritted teeth.

“Well technically…” Rafiel tried to reply in between bites of chocolate cake.

“Shut up!” She huffed, cutting him off; after that, a moment of silence descended with the sound of Raf’s chewing as ambient noise.

“Give me a piece of the cake,”

“No,”

“Tch,”

Raf stopped chewing for a moment as he continuously slapped his sister’s hand away, “Hey sis,”

“What?”

“Can we not…go back?”

At the question, Kiara paused before looking at her brother as if he was an idiot.

“What are you talking about? Of course, we’re not returning to that flaming shithole, we have enough money to book an inn. In fact, if we keep making as much as we’ve made today, we might even be able to afford rent in some less shit hole,”

Raf grunted casually, but his teary eyes betrayed how relieved he felt.

Kiara, sporting wet eyes herself, however, was noticeably less relieved. She was many things, but stupid she wasn’t. She knew that although stealing from criminals was more profitable, it was also markedly more dangerous and had farther-reaching consequences.

‘But we have no choice,’ Kiara thought. ‘Besides, it’s only for now, until we find actually stable jobs,’ Then she thought of her boss Alexander and she couldn’t help but grow annoyed. “Why can’t I just be a maid…” She accidentally asked out loud before sighing.

Rafiel gave his sister a confused look but shrugged it off.

………………………………………………..

As Alexander casually walked down the street, he stowed away the communications crystal he had just been using. “That sly fox sure moves fast,” He said under his breath.

It seemed Count Schuyler had already found him a smithy that suited his tastes. However, as he made his way over to meet the Count, Alexander could not help but think of the messages the All-bright system had sent him during the scuffle with the siblings.

He pulled out the system’s messages from his sea of consciousness

{Innate resistance and affinity detected!}

{User Status-Sub Attributes: -Fire resistance: Unquantifiable, -Fire affinity: Unquantifiable }

{Bonus stat points aquired}

{Total bonus stat points: 50}

{User eligible for title!}

Make no mistake, 50 bonus stat points were no meager sum, in emergencies, it could go a long way indeed, but to Alexander, the most alluring message was the final one.

‘Oho, I got one earlier than expected,’ He thought to himself as he recalled the specifics related to titles.

Titles were similar to skills in that they majorly affected a User’s strength; but unlike most skills, titles did so by directly augmenting a User’s stat points. Another similarity between both skills and titles: they can both be acquired either naturally or by being directly bestowed via the system.

Another thing to consider is the fact that titles, unlike skills, cannot be upgraded; yes, a title with similar but superior effects might appear, but overall, titles do not change in strength directly.

Furthermore, not all titles were equal and while there was no proper evaluation system, titles were generally split into three categories: point titles, percent titles, and others.

A point title was one which directly added a certain stat point; an example being the title {Berserker} which added 5 points to strength when equipped.

On the other hand {Demonic Berserker} was a percent title that increased a User’s strength by five percent.

Out of the two titles, the first would be stronger early as a User with 5 points of inherent strength will immediately have 10 after equipping it; a 100 percent boost. Unfortunately, this boost will naturally decrease over time and by the point a User has reached the three-digit threshold, {Berserker} becomes obsolete. It is at this stage that percent titles show their full potential.

Keeping all this in mind, Alexander focused his mind on the final system message, ‘Please, please be cool…’

{User has acquired the title: Elemental Upstart}

Alexander was slightly disappointed already as the name sounded far too…weak. Was the system mocking him? He could already be considered to be an elemental god, what the fuck was an upstart?

With a sigh, he expanded on the title.

{Elemental Upstart: User is able to swap elemental affinity values}

The description was brief, but Alexander stood reading it over and over again in shock.

‘This…this is a fucking cheat!’ His eyes widened as he considered all the possibilities now opened with this title.

“Hahahahaha,” He suddenly laughed loudly and the people around him threw him concerned looks. ‘Nammu, if only you could see me now…’ He thought to himself before suddenly being overcome by grief. This time, Timothy had nothing to do with it.

‘Suppress it, suppress the pain dammit,’ He consoled himself while he smacked his chest right above his heart. He buried the painful memories back into their graves and Alexander regained his calm demeanour.

{Would User like to equip the title: Elemental Upstart?}

Alexander considered the sudden prompt before declining. ‘I’ll think about it later,’

Finally reaching his destination, Alexander put the matter aside as he met a familiar face.

Count Brian Schuyler stood elegantly with his hand behind his back, behind his figure was a modest-looking smithy.

But what grabbed Alexander’s attention first was the slimy smile plastered across the old fox’s face.

………………………………………………..