Sadi wasn’t at any of the nearby dungeons the next day. Or at least he certainly hadn’t waited for Peter before entering any of them and Peter hadn’t seen him exit one. He didn’t know whether this was the man trying to unilaterally stack up more debt onto Peter’s shoulders, or him preparing some element of his elusive scheme, but whatever he was doing – it gave Peter a lot of free time to do as he pleased.
He thought about going back and sitting in his room, but he almost immediately dismissed the idea. He remembered that the adventurer party were returning from a dungeon dive of their own today, and honestly, he didn’t want to be around them after they’d spent the last few days in a fighting off hideous monsters in a dungeon – an impulse that he presumed was a part of his survival instinct.
Yet, other than sitting there bored in his squatting spot, Peter was quite unclear on what else there was for him to do.
“Slave!” A familiar female voice called out behind him, making him turn his head on impulse.
He baulked for a moment as he recognised the girl from almost a month ago standing before him. He had assumed the girl was dead! Yet, here she was, standing in front of him in admittedly far superior clothes to the ones she had been wearing the last time they’d met.
Then, the word she had used clicked in his mind, and his surprise that the girl was alive turned into anger at being condescended to.
“I’m not a slave, didn’t I tell you that the last time we spoke?!” Peter called back to her as he neared her.
The girl harrumphed in response and her following words hit home within Peter’s very soul, “What kind of non-slave stands listlessly outside a dungeon in such a wretched state – as if awaiting a master or mistress to arrive?”
If Peter weren’t so affected by the words, he would have quipped back with some lie about how he was just waiting for a friend to arrive or something, but the truth was, the words had inflicted their intended effect, and it was as though his brain was semi-paralysed because of it. So much so, that his next words came out as a garbled muttering mess.
“I’ve just had a bit of bad luck recently,” Peter said – though not to her in particular. Though, somehow, she managed to hear his words and her face visibly paled for a split second before recovering its full vigour and lustre.
“Bad luck? Other than when dealing with system-related phenomena, and the particular system stat ‘luck’, the very concept of good or bad luck is illogical and maintained only out of some misguided fealty to archaic superstition.” The girl said, though her voice was markedly less superior in tone than it had been previously.
Peter did his best to absorb what the girl had said, but honestly speaking, he was pretty lost as to what some of the words she had said actually meant. However, using his brain he could just about form the gist of what she was saying, and whilst he couldn’t be sure he was right, he was sure that he didn’t like her tone, nonetheless.
“Are you calling me dumb?!” Peter asserted more than asked.
The girl chuckled and nodded her head at the same time, as if the question he had asked had the most obvious answer in the world.
“Of course. You stand around this here dungeon listlessly, it is clear to me that you are unable either to read and or write, and furthermore, it is evident that you’ve never properly analysed the concepts and ideas that you throw around so casually, and to top it all off, our last interaction informed me you are fatally unaware of the social reality. So what other term but dumb could be applied to you?”
Peter grumbled out, defeatedly, “Ignorant.”
The girl’s chuckle turned into full hysterical laughter upon somehow hearing this.
“You confess your own ignorance?!”
“How funny!”
Peter’s fist clenched and then released. As although he was growing angrier and angrier with every second longer that this interaction lasted, he couldn’t lose sight of the fact that it was obvious that the girl was here to clear the dungeon completely by herself. That meant that she would be strong enough to beat him mercilessly, and he’d already had enough of being beaten up by those stronger than him for one lifetime.
So, upon concluding that continuing this interaction would only lead to further bad situations being forced upon him, Peter began to simply walk away from the girl. However, his attempt at fleeing was ceased when the girl called out something unexpected.
“I can help you address that ignorance of yours you know?”
Peter’s rational part knew that he should just keep on moving, forget about the girl’s existence, and go for a light jog or something to waste the time between now and his bot completing its task. But, the allure of knowledge, and thus the potential for greater power, as it had done after they’d first met, made Peter halt in his tracks, and consider turning back around and begging the girl to help him.
His ambition and rationality fought it out in his head, until, after a long and gruelling battle, his ambition won out. Thus, he turned around to face the girl and said rather sheepishly, “I won’t sign myself up to give you anything in return, understood?”
The girl’s smile turned into a smirk, and she said, “What could you give me anyway?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Peter swallowed down his pride and just nodded his head, it was the least he could do if the girl was serious about giving him knowledge.
Seeing this act of submission, the girl seemed pleased, and she began stroking at her chin with her fingers before she asked rhetorically, “Where, oh where, should I begin your training, oh young Padawan?”
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Time passed at a quickening rate for Peter now that he’d effectively made himself a servant of two masters. Once Sadi had tired him out in a dungeon, the even more ruthless taskmaster Katie would suddenly appear out of nowhere to drag him away to be taught the basics of how to read and write and how society truly worked. These two task masters’ works combined consumed his entire day and he always returned to his squatting spot exhausted both physically and mentally.
The evening of the day he’d accepted the girl’s request saw him lying on his bed more tired than he’d been in weeks, but at the same time happier than he’d ever been as reading and writing – language in general really - just came quite naturally to him. He had been so naïve in the beginning, assuming that the girl would be less demanding than Sadi, but that evening had also informed him – via a system prompt – what levelling up his class meant for him in particular.
Your assigned bot has completed its task!
Class: [Mage]’s level is now 1!
You have levelled up!
Reward:
* +10 HP
* +10 MP
* Your HP and MP have been restored!
* General Skill Awarded: [Inferior] (Passive) Mana Manipulation (Lvl:1)!
* General Skill Awarded: [Inferior] (Passive) Mana Sense (Lvl:1)!
Peter had felt a strange kind of arcane knowledge fill his mind as the system granted him skills that by all accounts, he had no right possessing considering that he had not actually gone through the whole process of learning magic from another mage. Regardless of whether he felt he deserved it or not, he could now feel the mana all around him and that night he had tried for the first time to manipulate it – though it obviously didn’t go very well.
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However, come the first signs of the coming of autumn a few weeks later, Peter’s control over magic had drastically improved – not only because he had assigned his bot again and again to increase the level of both his magic-related skills, but also because his naturally high mental stats made for a very easy comprehension process. This was to the point where Peter was now able to accurately predict what each new level in each mana-related skill would afford him in terms of his ability to control and sense mana, and he had a high per cent hit rate so far.
Of course, he had told neither Katie nor Sadi about his new magical insight – wanting to keep this new strength a secret. Though he suspected that the girl somehow knew, as she had been very surprised to see him the day after he had acquired his skills. Though her knowledge or lack of knowledge of his secret had yet to be confirmed and he certainly didn’t want to risk outing himself by asking the slavedriver if she knew about his most closely kept secret. Knowing her, she’d use the secret against him – threatening to tell everyone in the universe if he didn’t finish her assigned reading on time.
The reading and writing skills were truly unique skills among his skills, Peter discovered, as even without assigning a bot to level them, they naturally levelled in line with his actual progress which was unfortunately quite slow.
He didn’t quite know why the two skills were exempt from his usual restrictions, but he was happy that they were as that freed up time that he might have otherwise had to have spent on levelling them for other upgrades that he wanted to pursue.
In the 4 weeks since he’d accepted the girl’s offer, Peter had raised both his [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Sense] skills to level 3, his [Detect Objects] skill to level 6, and his Learning stat to [F+].
He had wondered whether he should increase his level once again, but fear that the girl could somehow read his status put him off doing something like that – at least, not so soon after he got his first level. He didn’t want his growth to be too suspicious after all – especially whilst he was as weak as he was. However, he had eventually caved in and was now awaiting his second level thanks to the bot's efforts.
A knock on his room’s door startled Peter out of his thoughts, and he quickly gathered himself together, before shouting, “Come in!”
He had gotten quite used to the adventurers’ presence by now, though he hadn’t spoken much to them even so – they were quite often off exploring some far-off dungeon, so it actually came as a surprise to Peter whenever he did encounter them. And them knocking on his door was especially rare, so Peter braced himself for some big news.
Leonard’s form walked into the room, then took a step back upon seemingly noticing Peter for the first time.
“You’re a mage?!” The lion-esque party leader asked astonished, the question stunning Peter into silence.
“H…H…How did you…” Peter eventually garbled out, much to the confusion of the knight standing in front of him.
“Your magical aura, kid. You know that thing that all semi-trained mana-users like you and I exude passively?”
Peter felt chills run down his spine as he rested his head in the palms of his hands as he realised the implications of the man’s words. If it was true that he had been exuding some kind of magical aura this whole time, then it would explain Katie’s reaction that first time – which meant that she also knew that she was a magic user. If that wasn’t bad enough, it was also possible that Sadi also knew and just had hidden his reaction so as to lull Peter into a false sense of security.
Leonard shook his head and then said, “Regardless, that wasn’t why I sought you out. The reason is, there are some not-so-nice-looking lads waiting for you outside.”
Peter was momentarily brought out of his thoughts of Katie and Sadi, and back into the room by this latest bit of news.
“The leader is a man named Fred. Apparently, you know each other, and he’s been looking for you for a while now.”
Instantly, Peter wanted to slap himself.
‘How the hell…’ He thought to himself before the realisation that he’d been sloppy over the last few weeks hit him hard and fast.
“I can tell by that face that this guy is not a friend of yours,” Leonard said, unhelpfully.
“Of course not!” Peter exclaimed, before jumping to his feet and attempting to bolt towards the door – but he was stopped in his tracks by a hand that held him back with unwavering strength.
“Why don’t you exp..” Leonard began, but a hand swipe from Peter made him release his grip – definitely more out of concern of accidentally inflicting the boy with neurotoxins again than fear of being harmed by Peter’s pathetic strength. However, that brief moment of being released was enough, and Peter set off at his fastest pace towards an open window on the ground floor and kept on running in the opposite direction of his squatting spot as fast as he could.
However, judging by the clear sound of shouting from behind him, Fred must have suspected he’d try and make a run for it and there were thus people ready to give him chase. Yet, unlike them, Peter’s future depended on him being able to outrun them, and he’d do whatever it took to keep himself from being captured.
Anything.