Chapter 7
POV : Mihiro
“We’re late,” said Ueki’s sister while observing the corpse of the unknown abyssal, her posture disappointed.
Ueki snorted behind me, “what a shrewd observation, I totally didn’t get that,” he continued sarcastically.
“Shut up, fuckface!” his sister answered heatedly.
“Get a fucking mirror,” he answered lazily, as if he couldn’t care less about what his sister was talking about him. He probably didn’t, they did this almost every time they were in proximity to each other after all, Ueki’s constant bad mood, and his sister.. ‘bright’ personality resulted in this being a custom at this point.
“I’ll kill you, you piece of shit!” she shouted.
“You might as well do it if you can’t stop talking, right about now!” he answered,
“You started it, you little..” she growled in response
They bantered back and forth in the background, Ueki's constant mockery never failed to be followed by her sister's colorful language, while I focused on the corpse. There was a stab wound on the lower left side of the neck, no other injury other than that, no big destruction happening around, and only little traces of disturbed mana left around the most likely site of battle. It didn’t tell much about his ability, only that he had the capability to kill a common abyssal mob, but that was understandable considering his newly minted latent power, which usually the slower it manifest, the stronger it’ll be.
“As expected of late bloomers,” I muttered, still slightly impressed despite it, many normal people would hesitate to kill even in self-defense..
This was enough dawdling around, he could be in danger still, but I doubted it, considering the skies have changed from the sick purple to normal blue, which meant the barrier type has changed, and the owner too most likely.
The duo too had stopped bickering after my word, “Let’s see our new friend Jonathan, shall we,” I said to them.
“Finally,” Ueki sighed but he started walking, guiding us to him, because he was the one that placed a magical tracker on John, which he still didn’t notice yet. That, once again proved how poorly he could sense mana, he didn’t even notice when I pinged him. Or he was just a really good actor.
Ueki’s sister grumbled but waited for me to move, I followed Ueki, and his sister bring our rear, I shrugged, never hurt to always be careful.
~
POV Change: Jonathan
I was so tired, physically, and mentally. I was also feeling kind of dizzy because I used up all my mana on that last two teleports to reach that burned guy, which I assumed was caused by that beam of light, how he managed to still be alive after that was beyond me, and he was limping toward a half-naked, and severely injured young woman on the ground when I saw him. But I still didn’t want to judge the situation just by what I saw. So I Observed the two of them quickly, the guy was from the Bloodhound guild, the same as the one that tried to kill me, the girl Observe result seemed like just any mundane person at first, but she had a depleted mana point, and her mood was frightened, and disgusted.
That two reasons were all the confirmation I needed at the time.
And now here I was. Having just killed another person to save a stranger. That thought brought me some comfort, at least I saved another’s life today, not just took it away.
The girl on my arm moved slightly, trying to find a comfortable position leaning on my side. I looked at her face, covered in tears, dirt, and dried blood. But still she looked beautiful, she had a small smile gracing her naturally pink and full lips while she closed her eyes, her sharp chin contrasted with her slightly round cheek, and she had cyan, prominent eyes that I catch when we stared at each other when I arrived earlier. Her long brown hair spread out behind her, and.. I was starring. I really needed to stop. She just had an unpleasant day, thought looking at the condition of her clothes, not to mention her body, maybe unpleasant couldn’t capture the full scope of it.
I decided to Observe her again on a whim, partly because I didn’t catch her name before.
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Name : Yafumi Takanashi
Age : 18
Guild : None
Level : 7
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Relationship : 89
Hp : 41/105
Mp : 1/180
Mood : relief, sad, happy
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I would never admited it but, my heart fluttered after I saw that relationship score. But I didn’t have a feeling for her or anything, that would be absurd. We just met each other, in a dangerous situation too. More importantly..
Wasn’t that score too high, though? I didn’t know, maybe they go up more than 100, I didn’t want to think too much about it right now.
The little transparent screens still blinked softly in the corner of my vision, before I opened it, I decided to brought my own status up first.
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STATUS
NAME : Jonathan Frederick Monroe
TITLE : The Gamer
AGE : 18
VOCATION : Mage
LEVEL : 9(1632xp/1800xp)
HP : 105/156 (6/h)
MP : 7/435 (120/h)
+23 Available free stats points
STR : 20
AGL : 19
END : 26
MGP : 29
MNT : 16
CHR : 17
LBD : 17
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Three levels, for killing just two people, but I guess one was just one shy away ten level above me, while the other was even worse at level 18.
I didn’t know how to feel about it, I was happy yes, but it was accompanied by something else, that made my stomach churn.. I shook my head and decided to just shove it forcefully to the back of my mind. I needed to get stronger anyway, so this wouldn’t happen again. And the next time the first thing I needed to remember was to brought a good damn weapon in my inventory, even a kitchen knife would do, or a baseball bat, or something.
I sighed and turned to my status again, 3 levels, and 23 stats point, so how many per level did I get? I remembered I got 3 points before I leveled up.
I just moved on first because there was a lot more to unpack, like how did my status increase so much? Was it the danger? Could be. Or maybe some of those little blinking screens could shade some light to the mystery. So I opened it one by one.
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Achievement!
!Fierce Little Fish!
Defeat a foe that has more than 5 level advantage over you
2 END
5 free stats
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That was where the stats came from, so I got 3 from before, 5 from this achievement, and 5 each from the level ups. Good to know.
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Achievement!
!Clever thinking!
Clever use of utility type spell
2 MNT
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Hidden Quest Completed!
-survive your first supernatural fight -completed
-win your first supernatural fight(optional) -completed
-have hp above 75% after the fight ends(optional) -failed
Rewards:
2 small hp & mp potion each
1 level up(optional)
1 END(optional) -failed
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So that existed too, huh. I guessed the quest reward also helped me leveled up. But I was not in the best state of mind right now with how physically and mentally tired I was, so I decided to file the stat points distribution for later.
But I decided to grab one of the mana potion for my inventory, I was feeling dizzy, and my whole body felt sluggish somehow, which I assumed was because the lack of mana. So I drank the potion.. sweet, cherry flavoured I thought absentmindedly. And I instantly felt better, headache lowered, and my body too, was better. Weird that empty mana did that to you, but oh well.
For now, I continued to open more statuses screen and checked it briefly like before, knowing I could open and check it again later.
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MILESTONE
For reaching 25 in MGP, your total mana point calculation has increased to MGP x 6
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MILESTONE
For reaching 25 in END, your total health point calculation has increased to END x 6
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Were these my late birthday's present? I couldn’t help it, there was so much improvement. I couldn’t even stop the smile that was creeping up on my face, whatever, better than feeling down.
There were still some screens blinking at the edge of my vision, these groups seemed to be the last one as well.
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As you are the new owner of the Barrier, you can exit it anytime you want.
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Skill Gained!
Create/Escape Instant Dungeon I
Let the user create and collapse an illusion barrier.
The user can also create a special type barrier filled with monsters.
Mp cost: 10
Note : Mp cost increased if trying to take over other’s barrier.
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Whoa!! Barrier filled with monsters.. If I could gain exp from killing the monsters inside this barrier.. this was big. I just found a reliable way to level up if it worked.
I stopped thinking about the skill as I saw three people approaching from the front, I tensed before I realized I recognized not one, but two of them.
One was Ueki, the guy I just met earlier near my apartment, and the other person was Mihiro, though she looked slightly different than when I met her the first time. For one, she was taller, her face was still beautiful, but it was.. more mature somehow, and her ears were pointed, long, and sharp, like an Elf.. an ELF! I thought, surprised. The other one was unfamiliar, but I assumed she was related with Ueki somehow because their face kinda look alike, and her expression was also one of anger.
I became wary once more, so I decided to Observe them.
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Name : Mihiro Hiraoka
Species : Elf
Age : 74
Guild : Yuki
Level : 62
Relationship : 25
Hp : 525
Mp : 1700
Mood : calm, interest, surprise
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Hah, you didn’t expect me to miss that species addition would you, system? Wait, that’s irrelevant right now. More importantly..
She’s.. old! No, not that either.. she was so strong! I wouldn’t be able to do anything if she decided to do something, but her mood calmed me slightly, though I wouldn’t really categorize some of them as ‘mood’.
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Name : Harumi Shinya
Species : Human
Age : 47
Guild : Yuki
Level : 30
Relationship : 15
Hp : 625
Mp : 250
Mood : angry, irritated, excited
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I didn’t really thought much of it at the time I Observed Ueki, all of them were old, but they looked young still, Ueki at a glance looked like he was in his late 20s, so did who I assumed was her sister. And Mihiro, the one that said she attended the same school as me, was a fricking granny, but still had the appearance of a young 20 something woman.
“Wow you kids did this?” the woman beside Mihiro exclaimed.
And then Ueki slap his hand into his temple.