Skills - Ikite Dorau

Name Mastery Running 6% Fist Fighting Style 33% Overcome Hardships 6% Blow Darts 7% Burnt Out 8% Whip: Weapon Style 4% Meditation 27% Short Sword Attack Style 24% Light Ray 100% Lightning Zap 21% Extract 28%

Perks - Ikite Dorau

Name Mastery Aligned Perception v.1 70% Aligned Perception v.2 83% Extension 0%

I lost.

I had really lost.

Why?

Why was I not strong enough to defeat her? Even with two new, overpowered skills and a bunch of level ups, I could still lose to someone lower level than me? How?

That was the question I pondered upon while sitting there, in the stands, Mei by my side, healing me and Erina by the other.

Time had passed slowly, every second that ticked away was a painful reminder of how I had lost to someone a lower level than me.

But, deep down, I knew the reason why she had beaten me.

Luck.

Simple, stupid, luck.

The luck to have a better perk than I did.

The luck to have-

“And now, for the grand final! Bea the Hell Bringer against Ragachi the Solid!”

Damn that announcer! Couldn’t he just let me finish my thoughts in peace-

Ragachi?

Thinking I had misheard, I looked up from the ground and focused on the arena. It couldn’t have been the Ragachi I knew, could it? Surely he had perished with the rest of the army?

But there he was, dressed in blue chainmail with silver plates of armour decorating the rest of his body. He held a red great shield(army standard) in one hand and a battle mace in the other. The heck was he doing here?

Profile

Name Ragachi Race Human-Golem Level 15 Class Tank/Labourer Status Bastard Child of Hell Family Name Nang Age 16 Strengths Reflexes, Persuasion, Durability Weaknesses Short-temper, Pride Perks Rage, Deception

“Ready? Set! Go!”

Unable to intervene, all I could do was watch the battle that awaited. Ragachi had a tank combat class, meaning he had extra HP and could take lots of damage. Bea, on the other hand, was a dragoon, which meant that she focused on dealing the damage, not defense.

From the matchup, I couldn’t tell who was going to win. My own personal opinion however, lay with Bea, regardless of whether or not she had just beaten me in the previous round. She was still my friend, after all.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then Bea disappeared, probably using her invisibility skill once again. Weirdly, Ragachi didn’t seem too surprised by this and simply stayed alert in a battle ready position.

Shing! There it was. Bea’s first attack.

She became visible just before her sword, aimed towards the back of the neck, impacted.

Clang!

Suddenly, Ragachi blurred and the next thing I knew, he had turned around and deflected Bea’s attack with a gauntlet he wore on his right arm. Bea seemed as stunned as I was at his speed, and retreated a few metres before sizing him up.

Ragachi, sensing the advantage, mouthed a word that - from what I could see - seemed like ‘Rage’.

Instantly, the veins and arteries under his skin lit up in a bright red, visible from where I sat. His whole body seemed to tense up, then relaxed as an angry red glow wisped from his skin. Shield first, he charged forward in Bea’s direction, body almost completely concealed by that humongous shield. Unluckily, he had underestimated Bea’s speed. She was fast. Very fast.

Fast enough to avoid the rampage, which if she hadn’t, I seriously doubted she’d still be alive.

Ragachi was dangerous.

Seeing how Ragachi was off balance from the charge, she used her swords once again, this time going for a double slash, one low and one high.

Contact! The blades danced through the air and sliced straight through his clothes and skin. Tottering back a few steps, a grin lit up her face at the critical hit, then disappeared as he appeared to not have taken much damage.

Just how strong was this guy?

Getting desperate, Bea activated her ultimate attack - Dissection - and the flurry of sword slashes began.

Yet, Ragachi’s shield must have had absurdly high durability because the majority of the strikes were stopped by it, and the ones that didn’t weren’t dealing him much damage at all!

Just how much health did he have?

Ragachi Nang

260/490 HP

490 HP? That was more than four times what I currently had! How many points did he have in constitution?

However, it was good that Bea had done damage to him, bringing him down to just over half HP.

He wasn’t invincible, that was clear.

Whether or not he won the match was going to be dictated by how good his attack was, because at this rate, he was going to lose.

“Deception” Ragachi mouthed.

His figure blurred, taking a while before it returned to its normal form.

Nothing appeared to have changed, so it was a bit strange for his body to blur. Was it just a trick of the light?

Suddenly, Bea dashed forward and performed another double slash… straight into Ragachi’s shield? What was she doing?

She just stood there, attacking his shield like a rabid animal. What was going on? Had she lost her mind?

Ragachi didn’t waste the chance and swung his spiked mace - straight into her side. The impact was so hard that she went flying, crashing into the arena walls. How could she have just let herself get hit by that?

Then, out of nowhere, a single black dagger flew from the dust and embedded itself straight into Ragachi’s chest. I watched his health bar drain down to 80 - and dropping, just from a single hit! It must have hit a vital point. Then I remembered my own experience with that black dagger and pitied him.

It must have had some sort of stun to it, because just like I did, he stopped and dropped to his knees. Unlike me, he didn’t pull it out, which gave Bea enough time to drag herself onto her feet - you could see she was bleeding heavily from the side, and use dissection once more.

Ragachi, still unable to move, had no chance.

“Congratulations Bea the Hell Bringer! You have won the Pride competition!”

Cheers erupted from the stands and Bea, barely able to walk, lifted her arms up in victory as Mei and Erina rushed down to heal Ragachi.

* * *

(Three hours later)

It was now late evening and the hype from the tournament had died down, leaving everyone to make their ways home. Now it was just Bea, Ragachi, and I left there. Some helpful spectators had assisted in the packing up of the stands and arena, leaving an empty, cold town square.

Bea - being Bea if I say so myself - decided to take her time deciding what items to take with her, and had visited a variety of accessory, weapon, armour, potion and skill shops. I had accompanied her around, and was slightly jealous of her winnings - many items caught my eye.

Then, after all that window shopping, she rounded the rest of us up, telling us that she had something important to say.

“My friend and my new rival.” At this, she stared toward Ragachi, who was in awe of her for beating him. “I’ll just be direct with you. I want to let you each choose one item for yourselves, that you’ll take with you as a memento of my generousness.”

I swear I saw Ragachi drool a little.

“As I’m splitting my… winnings with you, you’ll owe me a favour, of course. Ragachi. Ikite and I are going off to fight a battle tomorrow and we don’t have any defense. Since you’re a tank class, your favour will be to accompany us tomorrow.”

I- What??? I started to argue, but Bea shut me up with a dirty look.

“Anywhere with you, missy. But won’t this little runt over here just be dead weight? We should just ditch him.”

Ragachi gestured towards me, then sneered at me. Like, actually sneered at me! Who did this guy think he was?

“Uh uh. The reason why we’re going there in the first place is because of him, so there’s no point if he doesn’t come along, right? Play nice, Ragachi.”

At this, Ragachi stared back at her again, the dazed look coming over his face.

“And Ikite. I’m doing this for you because you gave me that elk hide. Luckily, it came with an invisibility ability which allowed me to defeat you. Also, I don’t know what happened between you two in the past, but I right now, if we want to get to your mother, we need all the help we can get, starting with this guy.”

Gritting my teeth, I imagined burning this jerk alive, which calmed me down a little.

“Fine.”

“Great!”

Bea’s face lit up in a delighted smile.

“Now what items will you guys be getting? I’ve already chosen one.”

“What is it?”

“A secret.”

* * *

The next day’s morning was dark, with a forecast of a small hellstorm. Last night, I ended up choosing a skill named Hold, which allows me to put ten unique items into… somewhere, and call them out at any time. It even came with a fancy menu, making it somewhat like an inventory system. The skill itself didn’t cost any stamina to use, and any weight from the items inside it simply disappeared.

The reason why I had gotten up so early this morning was to sell the loot from the open dungeon and upgrade my gear a little. The skill that I had chosen would have originally cost a thousand coins if I had bought it.

“Ikite!”

Bea waved me over from a little market store - the one with the little old goblin.

“Here, this kind lady has offered to give you a good offer for your entire haul!”

Someone that would buy everything? Amazing!

The transaction went pretty smooth after that. Bea would take a couple of items out of the ring at once, which the goblin would then put into a small little pouch - probably a storage item like the ring. Finally, after about ten minutes or so, Bea had sold the entirety of the items - while I stood there, staring like a little child.

“So in total, she gave you 4,500 coins for your entire haul.”

I couldn’t help myself. I squealed like a little girl who had just been handed an ice cream.

Bea gave me a weird look, but I couldn’t help myself. I was just too happy.

Finally, after all the troubles I ran into, I was rich!

And free of my debt.

Activating hold, I grabbed the large bundle of coins - courtesy of the goblin - and placed it into, yes, into, the menu. As my hand phased through the screen, a cold sensation washed over it and I dropped the bag of coins. The menu changed from empty to:

Hold

Bag of coins (4560) Empty Empty Empty Empty Empty Empty Empty Empty Empty

After some thought, it was obvious why skills cost so much more than normal items. Kimi had told me the night before that enchanted items - like Bea’s ring - were on par with some skills and had powerful abilities.

However, a thorough search of this town’s markets had informed me that they were rare. So rare that not a single enchanted item could be found in this town, which led me to the question. Where had Bea got hers? I was sure she hadn’t been wearing it before…

Lost in thought, I almost passed Mei’s shop, if not for her at the front door.

“Oi Ikite! Don’t you owe me money and some golden sparrow claws?”

Oh, right. I still had that quest. I guessed I was about to find out what exactly the ‘Failure to complete quest’ was all about.

“Sorry Mei, I haven’t got all the sparrow claws yet. I’ve got money to pay you back, though?”

“You. Haven’t. Got. What?”

Oh boy.

“How could you not have gotten it? It was practically the easiest quest in the world! I could have done it with my eyes closed!”

By this time, she was practically throwing a tantrum and acting like a little child. Oh wait. Technically, she was one.

* * *

After a promise to get the final golden sparrow claw as soon as possible and a payment of 300 coins, (apparently, she charged interest) I had wrapped up all the loose ends in town except for one.

Trudging back to my lodgings, I ran over what I was going to say to Erina. What would she think? Would she care?

As I arrived on the doorstep, I took a deep breath before opening the door slowly and stepping inside.

“Don’t go Ikite!”

She pounced on me before I had even made it properly in, wrapping her arms around my middle. Her face was red and it was clear she was about to cry.

“Don’t… Go…”

We stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, me patting her head softly, trying to calm her.

“Uh, Erina? Are you okay?”

Pouting, she pulled me inside and sat me down at the dining table where we would eat dinner together, every night.

“Why can’t you just stay? Ask one of the messengers to send you the news themselves?”

“They don’t talk, Erina.”

“Ask someone else to go! It’s too dangerous for you.”

“I can’t ask someone else to go do something personal.”

“Why are you going in the first place?”

“You know why.”

“Just… stay a while longer?”

That was it. She had run out other options. Her eyes stared deep into mine, like she could see my soul. Her face was hopeful, yet as pretty as when I had first met her. Smiling gently, I held her soft hand and looked back into her eyes.

“I’ll have to go eventually, Erina.”

“So just stay for a while more! I won’t charge you rent anymore! I’ll let you stay here free! I’ll even-”

“Stop, Erina. You know I can’t stay any longer. I have to go, because she’s as important to me as you are.”

“But- But- You’re one of my only friends!”

Did I just get friendzoned by a semi NPC?

“Most of the villagers stay away from me because my parents are shells, thinking that I’m being controlled by God too. They think I’m weird and strange and they don’t talk to me.”

So she was really just a sad and lonely girl deep inside. She reminded me of a girl I used to like in my previous life.

“Hey, Erina.”

Wiping her eyes, she looked back up at me and tried a smile.

“Yeah?”

“I’ll come back, I promise. I won’t even be long!”

Gripping her hand tighter, I gave her my happiest smile.

“It won’t be long…”