*Knock* Knock* Knock*
“Mary?!” banged the bathroom door behind!
*BAM* *BAM* BAM*
“MARY?!” said a voice yelling in terror.
“Huh, what?” I said in a dazed tone.
“Mary are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“What are you doing?”
“I-I.” I can’t tell him what I did last night. “I was just… taking a bath…”
“I see,” he said in a relieved tone. “Well, are you done yet?”
“Yeah, almost.”
“Alright, I will be outside cleaning the house, just find me outside when you are finished.”
“Okay!” I said in a happy tone.
When I started hearing Gordon leaving the door, I then looked at the bucket full of water right next to me. The water was bloody and had a terrible smell. I then looked at the makeshift bathtub right next to me, it was still clear and untouched.
I then quickly took off my clothes and jumped into the tub. I hurriedly cleaned myself. I looked at my arm where I cut myself last night. It looked as if nothing had happened to it. I sighed to myself. At least I managed to do it, the ability to gain skill points through harming yourself should not be allowed, yet for some reason, it was still possible, whoever made this system must be a fucking idiot.
After a few minutes of sulking to myself, I snapped back into reality. So how do I dispose of this bucket of blood?
I then decided to just dump it all on the ground and used the power of evaporation. In a world without modern technology, perhaps science is the biggest exploit that I could use?
When I dumped all the bloody water into the ground, the scene looked like it came out of a horror movie, except the blood was only on the floor.
“[Wrath!]” I whispered.
The flames then surrounded me, and the warmth encompassed my body. I looked at the floor where my clothes were, they were beginning to burn up, despite that, I still continued until the scent of blood had completely.
When the scent of blood had completely disappeared, I looked at the pile of clothes that were laying on the floor. They were slightly burnt up, but it was not burnt enough. I put it back on, the warmth of the clothes reminded me of a familiar feeling. A feeling from my past life, of putting on clothes after it came out of the dryer.
I sighed. I placed my hand on the doorknob as I looked back at the bathroom floor. It was completely dried. The water in the makeshift bathtub had lost some water and the walls had some scorch marks.
“Let’s hope he doesn’t notice that,” I said to myself.
As I opened the door, I investigated the normal studio apartment looking room. It emitted a calm aura, a contrast to my actions last night. I noticed my breathing slowing down and my heart rate slowing down. Today is going to be a different day… speaking of which, why isn’t Gordon cooking right now?
I headed outside to see that Gordon was sweeping the ground around his house. His sweeping form reminded me of an old hag that has done nothing but sweeps for hours. Looking at him, it was kind of sad, someone should teach him how to sweep at some point… also why is he sweeping?
I then hurriedly walked to Gordon and tugged on his shirt. He glanced at me then patted my head.
“Looks like you had a fun long bath.”
“Mmhm.” I nodded.
“So, what’s the plan today?”
“I want you to attack me today?”
“Sure th- wait for what?”
“Did I stutter?”
“B-but?”
“Don’t worry I have a plan,” I said with a devious smile.
Gordon sighed. “His daughter reminds me too much of himself.”
“Heh?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Yessir.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about it.” I winked back at him.
“W-well anyone, today the Prime Minister is coming to inspect the camp so we can only train until the afternoon today.”
“Oh, is that why you’re sweeping the floor today?”
“Y-yes,” he said with a sigh.
“Let me guess, you can’t sweep properly.”
“Y-yes.”
“Here give it to me,” I said as I grabbed onto the broom. My eyes sparkled, and my face gleamed in pride.
“Something’s different about her today,” Gordon mumbled.
I then breathed in and out heavily in excitement. Let’s get this started. I started sweeping rapidly and quickly made a separate pile of dust, dirt, leaves, and other garbage that you could find on the floor.
Gordon was staring at me with amazement. His eyes were wide and his mouth dropped entirely. His pose was frozen in a cartoonish form.
When I had finished sweeping the floor, the piles were huge, meanwhile, the floor around the house was completely cleaned. I smirked and glanced at Gordon, who was on the floor looking depressed. Oh…
I walked over to Gordon and patted his head.
“There, there,” I said as sincere as possible.
“M-my pride has never felt this much pain before.”
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“Shh… shh… there, there, Gordon. It’s okay.”
After a few minutes of trying to comfort him, Gordon then got up.
“Then let’s make this competition.”
“Heh?”
“Milady, I challenge you to a cleaning challenge!”
“Ho ho ho, you’re challenging me,” I said with a smug look.
I then took a step forward with the intent to win in the look of my eye.
“Oh? You’re approaching me? Instead of running away, you’re coming right at me?” said Gordon with strengthened resolve.
“I can’t beat the shit out of you without getting closer,” I said with a lighting aura.
“Oh ho, then come as you like,” said Gordon as he magically grabbed a towel from his satchel.
We then spent the next hour scrubbing and cleaning every corner of his house. The dusty windows looked brand new. The rusty metal parts of the door were somehow removed. The inside of the house sparkled as if it was the showroom floor. The bed was neatly made and the scorch marks that were once in the bathroom were removed.
After, what felt like a few long hours of cleaning, (it was actually 2 hours), I glanced at Gordon who was breathing heavily and sweating. I then felt a smile coming at me as I patted him on the back. Looks like today… is going to be a different day.
When Gordon recovered from a resting period, he then pulled out a piece of bread from his satchel. The bread looked like it was newly baked and had the scent that reminded me of a small family bakery. He gave it to me and as I held it in my hand it was warm, and the crust of the bread felt nice.
I quickly tore the bread into pieces in my mouth. The warmth of the bread filled in my insides with a nice feeling. The taste was sweet enough and the flavor exploded in my mouth. I then breathed out. My standards for food really have dropped…
Meanwhile, Gordon was just tearing his bread into pieces and slowly eating it. Oh… he’s that kind of guy.
I stared at him for several minutes as he chewed on his pieces of bread. He’s kind of cute when he’s like this.
Gordon then glanced at me and gave me a confused look, “What?”
“N-nothing,” I said blushing.
He laughed and then patted me on the head. “Never change milady,” he said with a wide smile.
“Well, it seems like the Prime Minister still hasn’t arrived yet.” I said with a smirk, “Shall we begin this training session now?”
Gordon then stood and smiled at me as he gave me a thumbs up.
I then stood up with a smirk, “Let’s begin.”
“Now what do you want me to attack you with?” said Gordon with the utmost confidence.
“For now, let's try a basic [Flame] spell,” I said with a weak resolve. “I don’t know how strong you actually are, so a melee attack from you might actually one-shot me.”
“One… shot?”
“You know when an attack does more damage than someone has HP?”
"Is that what it's called? I thought it was called being STRONK!” Gordon laughed.
This is one of those times I wonder how I ended up with this idiot.
“W-well let’s begin.”
“Understood,” said Gordon as his right hand started glowing orange.
Meanwhile, I cast [Oakflesh] with my right hand as I prepared [Lesser Heal] with my left hand. Gordon then looked at me with amazement. [Oakflesh] is a weak alteration spell, but I wanted to test its strength in this compared to the game. I braced myself as I saw Gordon coming at me at full speed with his right arm extended.
“
| HP: 100/100 | MP: 150/200 | SP: 140/140 | IS: 100/120 |
Afflictions:
| Oakflesh |
The orange glowing orb from Gordon then became flame. The flames came out with a burning passion as he targeted it at me. The flames themselves were a beautiful orange color that felt… warm?
It did not seem to be bothering me, nor did it seem effective. I looked at my Status
HUD, my HP was still ticking down. But it was ticking down at a rate of 1 HP every 3 seconds. [Oakflesh] seemed to be working like in the game, but it was subtle.
I might as well change it now. I then rolled to the side, whilst Gordon was moving the flames with my movement. I then cast [Ironflesh]. While the spell was being cast, I saw that on my status HUD that my health was ticked down of 1 HP every 2 seconds. Everything seems to be in line with the game system so far.
When [Ironflesh] completed casting I noticed that there was a slight silver outline following the line of my skin. It was like a futuristic shield that a certain alien race in a sci-fi strategy game had.
The “shield” wrapped my body and it seemed to only appear when I was taking damage. I looked back at my Status HUD and after 20 seconds it seemed like I was taking 1 HP every 5 seconds, a significant decrease compared to [Oakflesh].
I then looked back at Gordon who was beginning to sweat. The lack of MP seemed to be taking a toll on his body. Now, this was different from the game. Whoever made this system in this world must’ve done this purpose. I smirked.
I closed my eyes and imagined myself training myself training with my mom. I breathed in the flames and breathed out a large gasp of air. I opened my eyes and looked at Gordon’s with a fearsome resolve. I then dashed to the side and moved in a motion to avoid the flames that were trailing me.
When I arrived next to Gordon, I used my elbow and struck him in the gut using all my strength. Gordon stopped casting his flame spell as he placed his left on his gut.
“That was quite a hard blow, you got me with,” said Gordon with a smile as he looked at me.
I smirked, “Thanks my mother taught me almost everything I know about combat.”
“Your mother, huh? I didn’t expect her to be so eager to train you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You see before your parents became nobles there was an incident that forced them to retire entirely,” said Gordon with a worried look.
“Incident?”
“At first I thought it had to do something with the fact that something in the damn dungeon, but then I learned that your mother was 3 months pregnant with you.”
“Ehh…”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Gordon as his expression and put me in a chokehold. “The important thing is that you’re alive right now and your parents became nobles.”
What’s the point of telling me something, if you’re not going to give me the entire story?
I then got a hold on Gordon’s arm and bit him as hard as I could. The taste of blood entered my throat as I bit him harder the longer he held on the chokehold. Gordon then released and I looked at the arm where I bit him. He was bleeding profusely as he used his free hand to hold onto the wound.
“Are you going to heal that?” I said with a smug look.
“And I thought we were going to play fair,” Gordon responded with a smug face like my own.
“You do know who you are sparring with, right?”
“Yes, I am fighting with the daughter of Charles Tudor and Catherine Tudor.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” I taunted. “It’s your turn to attack now.”
“If you insist milady…” said Gordon as he cast [Lesser Heal] on the bite wound.
I braced myself as I saw that Gordon launched himself at me without a weapon, nor casting a spell. So is this how he wants to play this game. Then I shall play with him. I smirked.
----------------------------------------
It was quite obvious that milady was well versed in hand-to-hand combat. Her form was elegant, yet furious. Her eyes showed anger and resolve, yet she was thinking logically rather than emotionally. Her breathing reflected the amount of energy she needed to use, yet she was not holding anything back.
Her hair hindered her movement quite a bit, but she did not make it obvious. Despite her small stature and flimsy-looking body, she was quite agile. Each time she struck I felt the amount of force she used was precise. She wasn’t trying to hurt me as much as possible, she was trying to lower my HP.
“Now how would a little girl her age and status understand the system this much,” I mumbled.
Mary then jumped and kicked me in the lower back. My body then slightly launched itself as my legs fell. Damn this girl, who she’s too well versed in combat. Everything about her seemed out of this world.
“Had enough old man?” Mary taunted.
"Oh, I’m far from ending this training spar right now milady,” I smirked.
I breathed heavily before I launched myself at Mary.
Mary then moved out of the way and I saw her stick out her leg in front of me. I felt her leg in between my leg and foot as I tripped onto the ground.
“HAHAHAHAHA!!” Mary exclaimed. “I can’t believe that worked.”
I then looked at her in amazement. Perhaps I misjudged milady. I picked myself up from the ground and stood in front of her showing no intent to do anything.
“Well, it looks like I can’t train you as much as I thought I could have had,” I said as I extended my arm towards her. But I can show her not to be so trusting of people.
I then glanced at her arm as her expression changed. Her eyes seemed to glow a little as she grabbed a hold of my arm and managed to somehow use my own body weight against me and forced her knee into my gut.
“GAHHH!” I exclaimed as I spat out some blood.
“Nice try,” said Mary with a serious look. “But my mother would use that trick on me when she trained me.”
“Good, grief,” said Gordon as he lifted himself back up. “What kind of mother did you have?”
“A loving one,” said Mary as her expression changed suddenly to a proud one.
“Well…” I said as I tried to restore my breathing back to normal. “Training is over, I give up for today. For now, let's go prepare for the Prime Minister's arrival.”
“Understood,” said Mary as she approached me and used [Lesser Heal] on the spot where she struck me.
Looks like I don’t have to worry about this little one at all…