The next two weeks stretched on as I seemed to be finding more and more things to do, mostly because I was trying to keep myself busy to distract myself from the fact that school starts next month, now in six days…

With all my practicing, I managed to do quite a lot however so the work is clearly paying off. I somehow managed to unlock two more skills and get some levels, the skills I had managed to get are called ‘Dagger Skills’ and ‘Deflection’. The ‘Dagger Skills’ ability is a passive that seems to help in the same way that ‘Blacksmithing’ helps me blacksmith, by guiding me and improving my skill in wielding my daggers. Something surprising though is that it not only helps me fight in melee fighting with my daggers, but it improves my accuracy with throwing my daggers like throwing knives!

My second skill is a little more varied in its abilities though, ‘Deflection’ was unlocked when I started using the ring of creation to materialize wall shields to protect my body from ranged weapons. As to how I managed to get the ability in practice, well… To start my explanation, I found a pawn shop. I also sold a ton of gold to get some cash. Well, I sold the original gold bar I got from the system store, and about fifteen High Common grade gold rings that I forged and engraved. I could have probably sold more, but the man at the counter was getting suspicious as to where a twelve year old kid got a gold bar and gold rings, so I just decided to not sell more than ten rings and the gold bar. Not that I really needed much more than what I got, as two thousand dollars is enough for now.

So, like any kid my age would do with some money, I went on a shopping spree with my new found money. What I ended up getting was a treadmill, a set of weights, a few weight machines and what allowed me to get my second new ability, a hockey phaser that I messed with to up the shooting power. For those who don't know what that is, like me when I first saw it in the store, it basically shoots balls. And another good thing is that I actually had some cash to spare, specifically almost ten bucks, which I proceeded to convert to Ring Gold to add to my steadily growing balance, which I was saving up. For now.

When I started messing with it, using my limited tech knowledge from high school, I found out that it was surprisingly clear what I needed to do, almost instinctive for me to turn up the shooting speed. At first I thought I might have been given a skill for electronics by the system, but when I checked I saw nothing. So I have no idea why I seem to have instinctive knowledge on how technology works now…

So I used the hockey phaser to shoot plastic balls at me at insane speeds for me to try and shield myself against, with the ring of creation. At first I got hit a lot, but eventually my reaction times got steadily higher and I was able to see where I needed to create shield walls to stop the balls from hitting me and that is how I got the ability ‘Deflection’.

The skill ‘Deflection’ was a passive ability, naturally, and it has three effects. The first effect is that it gives me a sort of danger sense as to where I need to block to prevent things from hitting me even if I can't see it clearly, and the second ability is it lets me feel the best angle to have my shield walls at, to prevent damage to myself or the shield.

The third ability is also really good as well, to quote the system it ‘Strengthens any shields or objects used to deflect or block incoming attacks’ which I have seen in action. It is pretty apparent when I saw it in action when I started training it as instead of any balls that impacted a shield wall of thin wood, where it would have caused cracks or bumps from the impact, it was just pushed back a bit with no visible damage.

As for my abilities that I had leveled, I now am the proud owner of level three Speed Reading and level four Dagger Skills. I haven't leveled up any other skills though. Those new levels are really showing their worth though, as with my speed reading my reading speed went up by at least fifteen present from level one, and level four of dagger skills is starting to really improve my skill in holding at using my daggers, though I feel like that wasn't very hard to improve on as I had only really just picked up my first dagger a month ago and have had no training or advice from anyone.

But besides all that, my training is going smoothly and I am feeling way stronger than I have ever felt before, I am also starting to look it too, as I can definitely see some muscle definition on me.

But, the one thing that I still need is experience. I haven't fought anything, ever. So, now that I got some skills, I decided to head out into the streets, and leave Masatr at home.

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I looked up into the sky, searching for those damn chicken lady’s. I spotted a black silhouette against the bright blue sky and I knew what it was, a harpy. Almost the second I left the orphanage, I was attacked by the stupid bird. It nearly got me, but because of my Deflection ability, I created a steel wall with the Ring of Creation and it slammed straight into it before flying away again. So of course, I started running after it. Like I have been for the last half hour.

I am not sure where exactly I am anymore, but I am in some sort of park near downtown, which I can see over the tops of the trees and the park is actually pretty conveniently deserted right now. I watched the black dot as I ran closer, it seemed to be slowly going down in a wide spiral. I got excited as I saw it going down, I only really had my daggers with me so I couldn't attack it until I got in close, which was hard because it kept flying away whenever I got even remotely close.

“Ok…” I said out of breath from running for so long, “I need to change my strategy. Running right at it clearly doesn't work. I wonder if I could sneak up on it…” I whisper as I start to walk closer to where it seems the harpy is going to land.

From what I can tell, it seems to be aiming for a spot in the center of one of the green areas of the park, the area that is hidden behind some trees a few dozen feet in front of me. I start to walk quietly but as fast as I can towards the trees, still watching the harpy. As it was about halfway to the ground, I reached the trees and quickly walked quietly through the trees until I saw a clearing just beyond the first row of trees and what I saw beyond the trees made me freeze. In the center of the clearing was a large outcropping of rock and sitting around and on the rock, was a humongous gathering of harpies. When I say humongous, I mean humongous, there was at least sixty of the ancient demon ladies, probably more.

There was no chance I could take on a whole flock of the things.

Luckily, they didn't notice me because they all seemed fixated on a fight between three of the biggest ones at the top of the rock, over what seemed to be a sack of meat. These three were fighting tooth and nail to claim their prize and I mean that quite literally, as their attacks were usually either swipes with their talons or bites with their long inhuman dagger-like teeth. I started slowly backing off, back to the line of trees, hoping to remain unnoticed, but then the original harpy landed in the center of the flock and I froze again, was it going to alert the flock?

After a second of nothing happening besides the continued screeches from the crowd of spectators to the fight, and one of the large harpies getting tossed down from the rock, bleeding out from a wound on its neck and the remaining two growing even more viscous in there attacks, I started to continue sneaking away.

Just as I was about to make a clean break and get away, I heard a sudden silence and I turned around slowly. I met eye contact with the large harpy on the rock, the other contestant in the fight lying on the ground like the first. “Halfblood!” The harpy let out a screech, signaling the other bird ladies, who all turned and looked at me too.

“Shit…” I mutter as I stand stock-still and started channeling my Spirit Energy through the ring of creation and out through the steel attachment, drawing my two daggers from their sheathes under my jacket into my hands, getting ready for a fight and pushing all other thoughts and worries out of my mind besides survival.

The Harpies all took flight, flying directly towards me as a swarm, just a few feet away from where I am standing, drawing closer. I felt deflection start to kick in, letting me feel my surroundings and then just as I could feel and see the sharp talons and hungry rabid human-like faces about to hit, I called out “Materialize!” causing a wall of steel with two supporting legs at either end to appear less than a foot in front of me.

I could hear the surprised squawks from the harpies and several thuds as dents appeared in the three inch thick steel wall-like shield in front of me as the shield bucked, close to falling over. I watched as most of the harpies from the flock split before the curved metal wall in their attack path, circling around behind the shield and several more impacting with the trees with a thud, one that had clipped its side on the shield wall even exploded into a golden yellow dust that covered the tree it hit.

“Dissolve!” I shouted, causing the metal shield wall to disappear and fill my Spirit Energy reserves back to the top capacity and causing some yellow dust to fall down through the now empty air, turning around and watching my surroundings carefully to track the positions of the demon bird ladies in my mental map, with some nudges from deflection. The harpies seemed to be in disarray as they probably thought they could take me out in one singular charge, which failed miserably, and were now scattered around in the trees in two distinct groups on the ground at the right and left side behind me and a lot more that sat on the branches of the trees.

‘I can take them while they are in the trees… they have way less maneuverability, their ability to fly will be impeded.’ I thought to myself and immediately acted on the thought, charging at the group of roughly fifteen harpies with my daggers in my hands that were gathering on the ground at my left. As I charged towards the harpies, I felt the positions of all the harpies from the nudges of Deflection. It wasn't perfect however as I noticed during practice as I was reminded when I got a sudden mental alarm ring out as I could sense the sudden appearance of a flying harpy directly behind me.

My eyes widened in a fraction of a second and I immediately threw myself to the ground to dodge the attack, which was almost successful. I felt the talon of the harpy cutting into my shoulder right before hitting the ground and cursed as the harpy flew over my head, only for me to see it impact a tree a few feet in front of me, leaving it dazed but surprisingly not that injured. Seeing an opportunity to attack, I scrambled to my feet, lunged and stabbed at the harpy with my daggers, impacting the left wing with one dagger and the right side of the body with the second.

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I grunted as I felt my daggers experiencing a lot more resistance than I expected and pulled them out fast, leaving a inch deep stab wound in its body and a bloody hole through its left wing behind as I retreated from the range of its mouth and talons. The harpy let out a pained screech and tried to fly away, but it didn't manage to get off the ground because I had managed to get one of its wings with my daggers. While it was trying to get away from me however, I was not standing around doing nothing. As soon as I judged that the harpy was taken out of the fight, I ran towards my original goal, the grounded flock of fifteen in front of me.

My shoulder stinging, I charged at the flock furiously yet silently as I could, to not attract the attention of even more of the demon birds from the trees or the other flock a few dozen feet to my right, and while I was charging I was mentally pushing my Spirit Energy reserves into the ring of creation and out through the steel attachment once again. With my silent charge I managed to get within five feet of the flock before one of the harpies saw me and screeched in alarm to alert the others who all hopped on their feet to turn and face me.

I whipped my daggers in a arc and sliced both sides of the neck of the harpy who was closest and ran at the next one, this time having to stop before attacking as one harpy decided to take into the air and fly at me with talons outstretched, and I once again had a mental alarm blare at me that it was coming at me from the side and harnessed my Spirit Energy from the ring of creation.

I quickly formed it into the shape I wanted and then I yelled out “Materialize!” causing a warped and roughly made bubble of steel with a four feet radius and a small hole at the top for light to appear with me in the center along with three trees that happened to be in the range of my creation, trapping me with five of the demon birds and causing a scraping sound accompanied by six large dented stripes to appear to my left.

I knew that the bubble wouldn't last long if the harpies kept attacking it however. Because the size of the bubble was so large, my energy reserve couldn't keep up and so it had to be roughly an inch thick in most areas. Not very reassuring for protection against the monsters outside. Not that it was my biggest concern right now, that spot belonged to the five harpies in the dark domed interior with me and the injured, possibly dead one behind me to my right.

The small group that I had trapped myself with, instantly started screeching at being trapped, the echoes causing my ears to start hurting, and while two of the demon bird ladies started scratching the wall with their talons, the other three turned to me and flew towards me talons in front and teeth bared to attack.

I stood straight with my daggers in front of me as if to try and deflect their attacks, all the while rapidly backing up to the steel wall at my back. As soon as they were getting really close to me, I dove to the left and landed safely on the grass and watched as the three harpies tried to stop themselves from impacting the wall, but they were too close to stop now and as I watched they immediately slammed into the steel and flopped on the ground. I leaped to my feat at once and lunged forward to the pile of dazed harpies, spinning my daggers between my fingers into a reverse grip and stabbing downwards with my lunge.

Before they knew what had happened my daggers pierced through the head of one and the chest of another, immediately disintegrating both, leaving only one harpy that is now caked in yellow dust.

I slashed at the remaining harpy, but it managed to throw itself away from me with a flap of its wings, causing a cloud of the golden yellow dust to billow up into my eyes, mouth and nose. I started coughing and rubbing my eyes to try and get the monster dust out of my eyes, while the harpy recovered from its surprise and its collision with the wall. My eyes started tearing up, wiping the dust from them just in time to see the harpy come flying towards me again and I threw myself on my back while it passed over my body, my dagger’s coming up at the last second to impact with the harpy’s belly causing a long scratch.

The screech of the harpy was loud, but I endured the loud chaotic echoes it caused to roll to my feet again and look to the harpy, seeing that this time it had managed to land before impacting the wall and was lunging at me head first to try and bite me. I raised my daggers up in a cross to my chest and the harpy ran right into them, pushing be back from the force of the impact and from the harpy’s continued bites and scratching, I felt pain in my hand and looked as it bit at my left hand, causing me to drop my dagger in pain as I shouted in rage, pushing the damned bird away and swinging my other fist, still clutching my dagger, and stabbed the side of its head, causing it to disintegrate.

“Damn chicken ladies!” I yelled looking at my body checking my wounds. My shoulder had a scratch and my hand had five distinct puncture marks each about a centimeter deep, completely unusable to fight with, along with some blood coming from a scratch on my chest that I hadn't noticed. All in all, not a good condition for a fight. I looked towards the harpies that were still desperately scratching at the steel bubble and noticed to my surprise that they were accompanied by a third harpy now. “Where did that come from!?” I said surprised, there were only five harpies that I had trapped in the bubble, along with…

I looked closer to the trio and noticed that one of the harpies was covered in blood, that could be clearly seen through the brown feathers and down the left and right side of its neck. “How…” I muttered, realizing that the third harpy was in fact the one that I had taken out first. “Do they have some sort of healing factor!?” I yelled, outstanded and frustrated at the unfairness of the situation.

I had no time to waste to brood on the unfairness of the situation however as I could see that the spot that the harpies were clawing at was getting worryingly thin, so I sprinted towards the group, a single dagger in my uninjured hand, ready to finish the remaining harpies.

The first kill was swift and clean, just a upwards stab the the back of the neck to the closest harpy that just happened to be the one that I had injured previously, instantly disintegrating it. Then the fight grew harder as one harpy started biting at me while the other was picking up the pace of its scratching and slowly I could see a small hole in which light was coming through that was growing with every slash of its talons.

I was at a slight advantage to the harpy that was attacking me as my daggers were long enough to hold it at bay and keep me out of the range of its mouth, but it was still hard to avoid its frantic attacks. I had to dodge and weave around its swift lunges that left no time for retaliation, until I saw an opening as it over extended when I dodged to the side and I stabbed with all my strength into its neck, causing my dagger to lodge three inches into its neck. The stab didn't kill it instantly however so I was forced into a grapple with the monster to try and keep the monster facing away from me while I tried to dislodge my dagger.

After a few seconds of me staining not to get bit by its mouth or get clawed by its talons, I managed to yank the dagger out and stab it once again, disintegrating it. I wearily turned back to the spot where the lone harpy was previously tearing open a hole, but I saw nothing. Well, nothing but a harpy sized hole.

“It got away.” I said annoyed. “Dissolve.” I said, causing the steel bubble to vanish and my Spirit Energy to fill back to the top once more. I looked around cautiously, but I was surprised that there was not a single harpy in the trees, it was completely abandoned and quiet. I didn't let my guard down though. For all I knew they could be waiting to ambush me as soon as I left the ring of trees. I didn't let that stop me from silently making my way to my dagger that I had left in the dirt where I had dropped it and wiping off the monster blood before sheathing it however.

I kept my other dagger in my hand just in case though, after wiping the blood off of course. I was about to open the gate to the Soul Forge to try and clean up before heading back to the orphanage when I heard a beep sound and the familiar blue rectangle of the system appeared before me with a long string of notifications that I began to read.

Passive ability: ‘Dagger skills’ has leveled up to Lv7

Passive ability: ‘Builder’ has leveled up to Lv2

Passive ability: ‘Deflection’ has leveled up to Lv2

Passive ability: ‘Evasion Lv1’ unlocked.

“Wow…” I muttered amazed, this was incredible gains compared to what I was used to. I had gained three levels in dagger skills, a level in builder and deflection and I had even unlocked a new passive ability!

Also I realized that there was probably a reason that I had gotten all these notifications, after I was not fighting anymore. “Does the system not give me notifications during combat on purpose?” I said confused, I mean at least the system is considerate in not distracting me during a fight…

“Status!” I said to the blue screen, which transitioned to the status page.

Statistics

Passive Abilities

Skills

Active Quests

Name: Ardika Ekia

Physical age: 12 years old

Birthdate: August 12

Gender: Male

Race: Human/God hybrid

Adaptation

Adaptive system

Perfect Recollection

Ring Maker Lv5

Speed reading Lv3

Builder Lv2

Architect Lv1

Blacksmithing Lv1

Dagger skills Lv7

Deflection Lv2

Evasion Lv1: Increases mental and physical abilities to evade incoming attacks and allows mental tracking of incoming attacks along with increased accuracy of predicting where attacks are aimed.

Appraisal

Soul Forge Lv1

(No active quests)

Well, that sounds like it is a lot like Deflection… Hopefully they work together well. Maybe they will add to each other's abilities, like Evasion’s ability to track incoming attacks and Deflections ability to detect incoming attacks, or Deflections ability to let me feel where I need to place a shield to deflect attacks and Evasion's ability to predict where attacks are aimed.

Well, I can try it out tomorrow… I need to clean up and get back to the orphanage…