Chapter 030:
{Skill advancement detected!}
His system announced shortly after parting with Ed and Rus.
{The System Skill: Charismatic Leadership (Uncommon-Below Average) has been promoted to Charismatic Leadership (Uncommon-Average) }
{20 Bonus Points will be awarded!}
{Quest (Party Leader) unlocked!}
‘20 Bonus Points, pretty generous,’ Alexander thought to himself, reviewing his stats.
{- Innate Skills: None.
- System skills: Communication (Common-Below average), Charismatic Leadership (Uncommon-Below Average)
- Skill List: Evasion (Common-Advanced), Hand to Hand Combat (Common-Intermediate), Eyes of Discernment (Uncommon-Advanced), Spear-Play (Common-Master), Swordsmanship (Common-Novice), Knife-Arts (Common-Intermediate)}
{User Status-Main Attributes:-Vitality: 15; -Strength: 23; -Durability: 12; -Agility: 28; -Stamina: 15;
Bonus Stat Points: 0}
{User Status-Sub Attributes: -Fire resistance: Unquantifiable, -Fire affinity: Unquantifiable }
{Synchronisation Rate: 5%}
‘I don’t need to invest anything now,’
A distance away from him, he could see the plain-looking kid from Graveclaws casting another spell.
‘That’s idiotic’ Alexander remarked lazily, watching the spell pierce the body of a student nearby.
‘Did he think I would rush over to help? Nah fucker, I’m after you,’
The Magician, noticing Alexander’s disregard, finally started moving. He continued casting spells while creating distance with Alexander.
‘As expected of a magician, he is painfully slow,’ Despite his opponent's best attempts, it was clear that he was still closing the distance.
{Equipped title’s effect has been activated!}
{User Status-Sub Attributes: -Fire resistance: Unquantifiable, -Fire affinity: Unquantifiable}
{Conversion under process!}
{Conversion complete!}
{User Status-Sub Attributes: -Earth resistance: Unquantifiable, -Earth affinity: Unquantifiable}
{Skill “Eyes of Discernment” has been activated!}
{Skill level inadequate! Null}
“Go figure,” Alexander sighed as he jumped lithely to the side, avoiding an earthen spike. ‘Ok, so I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t have a Wisker cause otherwise, eyes of discernment would have picked up on that,’
Finally, within striking range, Alexander made a fist and arched his hand back.
The panicked look on the plain-looking man’s face disappeared and in its place came a smirk. With a flip of his hand, a magic circle instantaneously appeared and the magic gathering beneath their feet solidified.
‘So this is what you’ve been keeping up your sleeve?’ Alexander thought.
A fissure in the ground expanded and the earth within it exploded upward seeking desperately to skewer him.
The plain-looking magician cockily dove back, letting down his guard; he was confident in the fact that it was too late for Alexander to dodge and he was right.
Unfortunately for the magician, Alexander did not need to dodge.
His fist still wound back, he let loose the blow, striking true.
BAM!!!
The sound of earth shattering and rock splattering resounded as dozens of mini rock shrapnel spread out, the young magician panicked slightly after a couple made hard contact with his body, forcing him to dodge the rest.
At the epicenter of the blast, Alexander retrieved his outstretched fist. He might have broken Timothy’s hand for the second time since reincarnating with that stunt, but whatever.
………………………………………………..
Sid of Evergauard’s Point of View:
“That’s a stupid thing to do there, bud” A voice shocked him into looking upward, whereupon he was met with a lazy gaze which was both naive and youthful yet unfathomably profound.
The disturbing dichotomy between the two perplexed Sid greatly but still, he tried not to let that show on his face.
It was then that he caught sight of the boy’s hand; the bloody mess was still clenched into a fist, and from the way it still moved, it seemed his spell did not seem to damage it much.
“H-how,” He asked despite himself but was left unanswered as a hand sneaked around his throat. He panicked and attempted to cast but his voice was already taken.
Whistling nonchalantly, his assailant struck the back of his knee causing him to fall. Now on the ground with a hand around his throat and a knee on his abdomen, Sid felt his heart drop.
“Tell you what plain Jane, you are one lucky fucker,”
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The comment made him thrash about wildly but no matter what he did, he could not overcome his foe’s strength.
‘This kid is as strong as a knight. I underestimated him!’ Sid thought in a panic.
“You see, I’m a bit of a pacifist” The boy whispered into his ear as he strengthened his grip around his throat “So legally I can’t beat the living shit out of you,”
‘What is this bastard even saying?’ He thought angrily.
“Oh Jane, don’t give me that look,” He tightened his grip further; Sid’s face was beet red now, “Say, what’s your name by the way? I can’t keep calling you Jane, right?”
“Ghrrhh”
“Oh yeah, I forgot!” The vile thing mocked in realization as he finally loosened his grip. “Can’t very well talk with a hand wrapped around your throat, huh?”
Not letting this opportunity go to waste, Sid hastily began casting another spell, but just as he was about to finish it, the hand around his throat re-tightened.
“You are even more stupid than you look, Jane,” The intolerable brat said with disdain dripping from his face.
Sid paid him no heed and continued to struggle, ‘It does not look like that bastard will come to help,’ He thought of Crooked Nose. He still did not understand why high priest Elmur deemed it necessary to collude with such vulgar folk; their presence, which was inferior both in quality and quantity to the family, only served to taint the holy mission.
But still, Sid had to put up with them as they did serve a purpose, no matter how trivial.
Coming to terms with the fact that he would not be receiving aid, Sid turned his gaze back toward the boy. ‘Just who is this child?’ He pondered, staring into the youth’s disturbing eyes.
Never in his life did Sid witness such bizarre eyes; gazing into them, he felt as if he was gazing at both a king and a little boy all at once.
“Are you responsible for that?” the boy asked, pointing his chin toward the exalted guardian, the Great Protector.
Sid shifted his gaze over toward Moore who was clashing against two other youths.
Did this child know? Did he know that the being he so rudely pointed to was the same exalted god who had been protecting his family for eons?
He couldn’t have, otherwise, this shit stain would have bowed right then and there.
‘Marvellous,’ He could not help but think as he took in the guardian’s animalistic rage.
“So I guess you are,” the hateful boy replied as he reapplied pressure on the hand cupping Sid’s neck. ‘Why’d you do it?”
Sid was once again feeling exasperated, ‘How am I supposed to even reply with your hand choking out my voice?’ He came to the conclusion that either this boy was an idiot or he was sadistic.
“Tsk Tsk. You sure are unfriendly, Jane. You should learn to get along with people some more,”
Sid had lessened his resistance by this point and made sure to put on a pained expression.
“Tell you what though. You sure are lucky I’ve adopted a pacifist lifestyle,” The boy said with a laugh as he loosened his grip.
‘Why does he keep saying that?’ Sid asked himself with exasperated curiosity. Determining that the boy’s guard was sufficiently lowered, his body tensed as he prepared to spring into action; unfortunately, before he could, he felt it.
An intense, overbearing, overwhelming bloodlust.
‘’Wh-wha-what…’’ he stuttered as his eyes met that of the youth’s.
Only it was not eyes he saw but rather endlessly deep chasms somehow filled to the brim with blood.
Sid’s tongue slid across his teeth as he tried to remember which tooth he was looking for. By this point, he had given up on any notion of fighting back. ‘I need to end it quick,’ he thought in a panic. He understood, on an almost instinctual level, that this boy who stood before him was someone he should never hope to cross. He found the tooth which was slightly more porous than the others and with everything he had left, he pushed at it with his tongue and dislodged it from place, quickly swallowing it.
“Long live the guardian,’’ He croaked as the tooth slid down his throat; he rested his dying gaze on the roof where he saw something that made him smile.
‘Elder…’
………………………………………………..
‘’I knew it. A fucking cultist,’’ Alexander cursed beneath his breath as he tried his best to fish out the pill from Jane’s mouth. Unfortunately, his efforts bore no fruit as seconds later, foam started seeping from his mouth and soon Alexander felt no pulse.
‘Pretty potent,’ He admired as he started fishing through Jane’s mouth; he pulled at every tooth trying to find an odd one loose.
‘A poison like that would come in handy for a lot of things,’ He thought before finally finding a loose tooth. With uncomfortable familiarity, he yanked the tooth out but was disappointed to see that it was just a rotting thing.
He found a few other knick knacks after searching his body, shoes, and socks. Finally, after determining that his shoes were too small to take, he left the corpse to rot.
He scanned around a bit and sighed in relief after confirming that they had ventured off far enough from the others such that there were no witnesses nearby. The mist also helped.
‘Ok, so let’s review what we know…’ Alexander thought as he fiddled with a flute he found tucked beneath Jane’s robes.
‘Jane’s a cult freak, his partner isn’t, they are most likely in a temporary alliance. The cult seems fixated on Moore, or rather the Guardian within him. They induced an awakening,’ Alexander paused his thoughts as he recalled Ed telling him that Moore’s ears had hurt before transforming.
‘This flute. They’ve probably got reinforcements outside the barrier distracting the professors so it will be some time before they can help. I still don’t know each fucker’s motivation and am still not ready to guess,’ His rapid thoughts cooled down as he began deciding his next steps.
“First thing’s first,” He muttered as he blew hard into the flute. Oddly enough, the flute seemed soundless, and Alexander would have guessed it to be so if not for Moore suddenly stopping in his place before turning to look at him with demented fury in his eyes.
“Awoooooooohhhh” His roar caused the air to tremble and the ground followed suit with each step he took. Soon, he had cleared the gap and swung with eerie grace toward Alexander.
‘Shit,’ Alexander complained as a long gash streaked across his cheek. He had barely managed to dodge but, worryingly, the transformed Moore’s speed was reaching a point where, despite his ability to predict its every move, the difference in speed was enough to trump that.
What good was predicting the future if you were too slow to change it?
Having no other choice, he blew hard once more into the flute, causing the beast to cringe back slightly while cupping its ears. Alexander immediately darted back, gaining some distance. That victory was short lived however as the beast had already appeared above him the next moment with claws outstretched.
Kachink!
Instead of the expected sound of claws mangling flesh, the sound of opposing steel rang out instead.
“Strong boy!” Alexander remarked with great strain as his dagger clashed against Moore’s claws. His feet dug deep grooves into the maze’s ground and Alexander’s muscles strained underneath the immense pressure. His shoddy dagger wasn’t doing so hot either as cracks spread across its blade.
“Awoooooo” Moore screeched, opening his impossibly wide mouth, and lunged toward Alexander’s face.
‘That’s it!’ Alexander thought angrily as he balled his hand into a fist, intending to smack the brat straight across the face.
Fortunately for the beast, luck had saved its ass with a sudden elbow swung hard by a figure spewing obscenities.
“Finally rocked ya one ey, Zack, ya cunt?” The figure spouted as both it and the beast rolled across the floor.
“Mark!” A female voice shrieked as she waddled over toward the boy and beast.
Alexander watched with interest as the petite girl arrived by the obscene boy’s side. His interest turned to amusement after the girl balled her fist and smacked the boy upside his head.
“Fuck was that for, you bitch?”
“Why are you always rushing in head-first, you idiot!”
“Timmy!”
“Timothy!”
Two sets of voices brought Alexander’s attention back and he turned to see Ed and Rus make their way toward him.