Skill-Less Swordsman

‘Holy shit, I actually did it?!’ I think to myself while looking back to young maid I so vastly underestimated.

Her face seems baffled, but I can’t blame her! After all I’m just as baffled, and I’m the one who did it! After a few seconds of staring intensely at each other, the only sound being our labored breaths, she pulls out yet another knife from the inside of her bra.

‘Another one?! How many damn knives does this lady have?!’

Looking down, I remember the knife in the gut situation that I forgot about due to the amount of adrenaline in my system. On top of that, no way I’ll be able to pull something like again. It’s hard to describe, but it’s almost like I’m feeling tired or exhausted but not physically. I’m assuming this feeling means I don’t have any spiritual energy left in the tank.

‘When the hell is that recovery team gonna get here?!’

Just as she crouches down, ready to begin another engagement, multiple loud explosions ring throughout the mansion. She stops and looks up, seemingly in contemplation, before quickly turning and sprinting away holding her injured arm.

“Well that went about as well as I could’ve hoped.” I say somewhat sarcastically.

“What did? Hello? Kid? You there? HELLOOOOO.” I hear in my ear.

“Yes Uncle Moren, I’m here.” I sigh out.

“Jeez finally, I’ve been trying to talk to you for the past three minutes! Are you alright? What happened with the maid?” Moren asks quickly.

“She’s gone, whenever those explosions rang out, she just up and left.”

“How the hell did she manage to contend with a sword freak like you? Didn’t you say she was unawakened?”

“Yeah…” I say glancing towards where she left.

‘Her knives mastery must be at least 12 if not higher, on top of that, I’m almost sure she had a prodigy feat for some other mastery. Maybe unarmed combat or something similar. What a monster.’ I think to myself as I take my mask off briefly to breath easier.

“Anyway, where the hell is this recovery team?” I say, flinching at the quickly reappearing pain in my side.

“Currently spread throughout the place looking for you. Ope wait, apparently one of them can see you.”

I turn around and see what I can only approximate as some sort of old-world ninja running towards me. Before stopping about five meters away from me.

“Target found sending out location now.” The ‘ninja’ says as he pulls out some sort of antennae attached to a box and clicks a few buttons.

“Yo, you my savior? Let’s make this quick, I’m not exactly in the best condition here.” I say somewhat jokingly.

He proceeds to completely ignore me in favor of scanning our surroundings for threats.

“Uh ok, rude.” I say quietly

He hands me a small red vial before saying, “Here, drink. Take the knife out first. Also this is coming out of your cut of the loot, these things ain’t cheap.”

I nod, before placing a hand on the base of the knife and pulling quick. Immediately my thoughts are overcome by a sharp pain pervading throughout my torso, causing me to fall backwards and writhe on the floor.

“Fuck that fucking hurts!” I exclaim sharply while my teeth are grit shut.

I then quickly down the vial in one swig, immediately relieving the pain in my side, but causing it to instead become several times itchier.

“Make sure not to touch the wound, will only make it heal slower.” I hear the man say.

I nod, just happy that the pain is gone. As I begin to get up I hear several footsteps coming from both sides of the hallway. Immediately, seven or eight people with the same old world ninja style outfit turn the corner.

Next to me, I hear the original man say, “Alright kid, you won’t be able to keep up with us, so uh, I’m just gonna knock you out and carry you if that’s cool.”

And before I can even process what he says everything goes black.

I wake up in my usual bed, that being Uncle Moren’s extra bed in the attic. I look at the clock on the right, seeing it’s 11:10.

“OH SHIT!” I exclaim loudly before getting out of bed and running downstairs in an attempt to find Uncle Moren.

I find him sitting at the kitchen table with looking through a stack of documents. He seems slightly annoyed, but honestly, not as annoyed as he should be considering how the job went.

“Hey, uh, Uncle Moren, how’s it going?” I ask hesitantly.

Immediately he looks up, stands, and walks towards me.

“Uh Uncle Moren?”

He immediately sports a big toothy grin and says while slapping my back, “Rowan my boy, good to see you awake!”

I immediately turn my head in confusion before saying. “Uhhhh Uncle Moren? You ok? Why are you so happy?”

“Well why shouldn’t I be happy? I just made out like a bandit!”

“Huh?” I say with a dumb look on my face, “But we failed, didn’t we?”

“Well true, plan A failed, but plan B worked like a charm!”

“Plan B?” I ask continuing to sport a dumfounded look.

“Yes, plan B! To have the rest of the guys play it loud and just steal what’s in the safe themselves!”

“Really? Then what was the point of plan A if we could just do that?”

“Well now Rowan my boy, see now there’s pretty much an inquisition happening all throughout justice city to find the mastermind of this little heist we pulled off. Not only that, but when they find who did this and who was involved, notice how I said when because they WILL find out eventually who did this, bounties will be put up all throughout earth and the whole of the Laglian Empire.”

“The entire Laglian Empire?! That serious?!”

The Laglian Empire is the technical ‘owners’ of earth, though you won’t see any of their people anywhere close to here. It’s more of a ‘We pay taxes and you protect us from any major invasion, dungeon breaches, or similar threats to Earth’ type deal.

“Yup the whole Empire. You’ve got to understand Rowan, anyone past tier 10 in the empire is seen as an important strategic asset. After all, at tier 11, power changes immensely. The power gap from tier 10 to 11 is great, greater than all the tiers. They don’t call it the second realm for nothing after all. Plus, he’s a progenitor tier 11 on top of that? We’ll be laying low for at least the next 20 years.”

“Ok so how long do we have before we should skip town? Or maybe skip the empire as a whole?”

“We should be good for at least a few weeks. We’ll talk about the details tomorrow but for now, just focus on your awakening.”

Looking at the clock, it was already 11:25.

“Shit your right!” I say before quickly running upstairs.

Sitting on my bed I quickly recollect myself before remembering notifications I still have to deal with on my status.

‘Hmm already I can see how this would be useful in not only sneak attacks, but catching my opponents off guard. This could especially pair well with my core’s ability.’

‘Yeah no, just no. I’m not a psychopath. Though I can see this trait being very useful for infantrymen on the front lines of war... or serial killers.’

‘Does the system think I’m some sort of sicko?! What the hell are these options?’

‘Interesting for sure, though I’m not exactly keen on the idea of taking damage in the first place, but who is? This trait definitely would’ve been useful today…’

‘This one’s ominous for sure, though it does give slight instead of very slight progression unlike the rest of the options. I think I’d rather play it safe with this one instead of, ya know, risking my sanity.’

I look at the clock again, seeing that it reads 11:34.

‘5 minutes before its time, better make a decision before then.’ I think to myself before quickly making up my mind and choosing.