*Puchi!*

Some distance underground, inside the caves of the crystal crabs, the sounds of gushing blood could be heard bouncing off the walls.

Looking closer into the dark caves, one could see the figure of a man and a young boy standing there. The man was gathering some fallen shards, while the boy was wiping off the blue blood that got stuck on his knife.

This was the duo, Zed and Jake!

After their first expedition to this cave, two whole days had passed by. This was their third time going into this cave.

With the mother crab gone, crushed under the fingers of Zed, the crabs living here had become increasingly hostile and careful, but their numbers had severely decreased since that day.

Was he supposed to be happy about this? He wasn’t too sure.

“Well, I guess that’s enough for now!”

“Hmm? Are you sure, Young Jake?”

“Yeah! I have something I want to do too after this, so I can’t spend too much time!”

Zed became slightly happy after hearing him. He wasn’t sure what he was thinking of doing, but that surely meant that he’s taking a more careful approach to this plan. He was very glad, because he would surely have perished instantly if he went out now.

That thought shook his mind slightly.

“I see. Let us leave then.”

After bowing splendidly, Zed turned around and retraced his steps, followed closely by Jake who was simply staring into empty space with thoughtful eyes. He seemed to be quite deep in thought.

As they reached the end of the cave, they began ascending back to the surface. Climbing these steps were never easy, and Jake did slip a couple times when climbing, but he got better with time.

Soon, the sunlight blasted their eyes, and they were back on the surface!

The green plains were back into view!

Walking across these grassy plains, they made it back to the kingdom of [Tordge]. But, as they were beginning to approach the walls, Zed sensed a group of shrooms hiding underground.

“Young Jake. Be careful.”

Jake stopped instantly and took out his knife. He knew, that if he warned him to be careful above the ground, then that means that some shrooms are going to burst out of the ground sooner or later!

And just like expected, a group of 5 shrooms sprouted out of the ground!

“[Shadow Step]!”

He activated his [Shadow step] and blurred his figure. He sped across the grass and stabbed one of the shrooms on the head. A burst of poisonous liquid came bursting out.

He quickly stepped back and avoided the rain of blight. He cautiously waited for the poison to stop coming out as he dodged the many charges of the other enraged shrooms.

Zed only stayed back and watched the fight with a bottle of water in hand.

“Pu…puu…”

And then, the shroom finally died and poison stopped spurting out of its head.

First shroom down for the count!

He swiftly blurred his figure and took out his knife. He waited for another shroom and stabbed the knife into its head. Second shroom has begun losing HP!

“PUU!!”

The three other shrooms began trying to corner him closer to the dying shroom. It seems like these guys have some intelligence, but they weren’t fast enough to cover him. His figure blurred into the air as he appeared behind one of the remaining shrooms.

“Ha!”

He sent a kick to the shroom and sent tit flying to the dying shroom. The poison began dripping onto the shroom’s head, and it wailed loudly in pain.

As the second shroom died off, the third shroom was already severely injured. He shanked out his knife and stabbed it into the head of the injured shroom.

Two left!

The two shrooms jumped and tried to hit his head. Rolling over, he made sure to avoid both the shrooms and the spurting poison.

Taking out something from his back pocket, he threw out a shooting star! It spun gracefully and plunged straight into one of the shroom’s eyes.

“Pupupu!!”

With that, there was only one shroom left. The other shroom was losing its life, while the one with his knife already lost. They battled with their gazes, piercing into each other.

The last shroom came running!

Blurring out, he took back his knife and sent it at the shroom. But, this time, it rolled back and barely avoided his attack. But such a flimsy dodge was fatal!

*Puchi!*

“Puuu!”

The last shroom struggled in vain as the knife sunk deep into its head. Poisonous blood came flowing out like a fountain.

In seconds, its body lost all life and limped onto the ground.

All shrooms, dead!

“Magnificent!”

Zed clapped happily as he drank some water. He was proud to see that he had even begun to explore into the territories of throwing attacks!

“Is it really that impressive?”

“It is! Adventurers of your level would have quite a hard time fighting them off alone!”

Jake smiled in doubt. He wasn’t sure if what he was telling was a fact, or if he was just trying to put him on a pedestal to make him feel proud.

Either ways, this wasn’t enough!

I need more training!

The world outside is still much stronger!

Even if what he told was the genuine truth, it still wasn’t enough! He needed to get stronger, stronger to try and finally venture out!

“Well, let us continue!”

Following Zed, Jake was led back to the kingdom walls, and they went their separate paths. For now, Zed’s session was over, but Jake wasn’t done yet.

He quickly sold off the crystals he got from the cave and walked along the roads.

Today, the streets weren’t as crowded as normal, as today was working day, so there were hardly any people walking around casually. Doesn’t mean that there are no people though.

As he followed the one large street, he found himself standing before the large castle standing in the middle of the kingdom. He was back at home, or the home given to him anyways.

Waving at the guards, once they recognised that he was one of the heroes, they immediately did a salute and opened the gates. Imitating their salute, he went into the castle.

He didn’t enter the main castle yet, and sat at a nearby bench in the park. He wanted to have some time to check his stats.

“Let’s see…”

Status: Jake Darryl Lv 14

Health: 195/225

Mana: 177/200

Strength: 44

Intelligence: 40

Resistance: 40

Agility: 129 (x2)(+3)

Skills:

{Jester} Rank 1 (Max)

[Assassin] Rank 1 (22%)

[Shadow Step] Rank 1 (35%)

[Agility] Rank 1 (31%)

[Shinobi] Rank 1 (11%)

Titles:

(Summoned One)|(Shadow)|(Noiseless)|(Masked Ninja)|

Besides some skills that sound like they belong in an anime, he really did gain some experience. But the same question arose, was this enough?

{Jester}

Rank 1

“Reverberating Music sounded in our ears. Be glad, for this will be your last memory.”

The user is able to play musical instruments to cause several different effects.

Skill with the knife is bolstered.

Any skills related with this skill will gain a boost.

Increases the amount of experience gained for everything.

[Assassin]

Rank 1

“Fast as sound. Hidden in the shadows…”

The presence of the user has been thinned.

Skill with any knives are bolstered.

22% to Rank 2

[Shadow Step]

Rank 1

“The shadows are running deep. There is no escape.”

When used, the presence of the user is dulled.

The speed of the user is tripled on use.

35% to Rank 2

[Shinobi]

Rank 1

“The ways of the shinobi are that of deceptions. The nights stretch ever longer.”

Weapons thrown are slightly more accurate.

Speed is doubled.

11% to Rank 2

(Summoned One)

A title given to a foreign man brought into this beautiful world.

|Perk|: Stat increase every level ups are bolstered until a certain level.

(Shadow)

“The shadows cutting deeper. No sound was heard.”

|Perk|: Sounds created by the holder of this title has been dulled slightly.

(Noiseless)

“As fleeting as the wind, my presence fades…”

|Perk|: Sounds created by the holder of this title has been dulled slightly.

(Masked Ninja)

“One who rebels against the laws, a feat carried by the most cunning.”

|Perk|: The presence of the holder becomes slightly harder to sense.

All the titles are nice and all, and the perks these skills he had gave him quite the advantage, although…

Don’t all these titles belong to a certain show about an orange jumpsuit wearing ninja?

Also, why are these titles unnecessarily edgy?

“Hmm…”

After thinking about what to do for the rest of the day, he got up from the bench and did a quick stretch. Looking into empty space, he sighed softly and shook his head.

Being lazy will get him nowhere.

He walked past the castle entrance and walked into the training grounds. By then, it was already lunch time, so all the students and teachers previously training here had gone off to get some food.

He didn’t have that much luxury.

Drawing out his knife, he began practicing. He drew beautiful arcs in the air with his knife, and leaned and rolled to dodge the imaginary attacks he saw.

He is an assassin type class, so dodging and rolling was natural for him. He continued to slash his knife into the air as he continued to jump around. But, something felt off. As if something was missing from his attacks.

What was it?

………………

An hour passed by in an instant, and the group of students and teachers are back at the training grounds to start practicing. However, just as they got there, they immediately noticed a drastic change that had occured to the training grounds they always went to.

Scattered around the field was a tremendous hole, as if a meteor just decided to quit living and plunged straight into this training field, forming this 2 diameter radius crater in the middle of this whole area. There at the centre of it all, was what seemed to be a black miasma, scorching out from within the earth.

Inside the castle,

“Hmm? A person capable of bypassing our magic?”

The king asked with doubt. After all, even the most notorious criminals were caught by this technique, and this ‘Shadow’ just bypassed it without any problems? Impossible!

“Yes, my king. We have searched this once again, but we found nothing…”

The man looked distressed about it, but the king instead laughed it off. The man was wide open with shock, but the king kept on laughing gleefully.

“Tell me. What kind of criminal would come in and attack the training grounds without anyone in it?”

As he heard the words of the king, the man started to think about it, and he too found it odd. What kind of thing would attack the training grounds when there is literally no one there?

If it was a monster, it would have left immediately. If it was a criminal trying to kill the students, then why did he randomly start slashing apart the ground? The more he thought about it, the more it seemed odd to him.

“Then, who do you think did this, my king?”

“Hmm…”

The king held his chin and thought for a moment. The man patiently waited, and the king soon opened his mouth.

“It might be one of the heroes!”

“One of the heroes?”

The man parroted the king in surprise. After all, one of the heroes? Didn’t all the heroes go and have lunch within the walls of the castle?

“But my king, weren’t all those heroes inside the castle?”

“That may be the case…But, that doesn’t mean that there are one or two heroes still outside. Don’t you think so too?”

The man’s eyes widened in realisation. He hadn’t thought about that possibility! Even if 99% of the heroes were in the castle, that still leaves the 1% somewhere else!

“Find out who this is!”

“Yes, my king!”

The man gave his salutes and went out of the room. He walked over to one of his soldiers and gave the king’s orders.

“The shadow may be one of the heroes…Find out who he is.”

“Yes sir!!”

The soldiers quickly ran and left the man behind. Now that they were gone, the halls were left dead silent. The sounds of footsteps from the soldiers withered away as they got farther. Soon enough, the sounds of the wind overtook the air.

“Hah…I wonder if it’ll be alright…”

The man’s voice turned pessimistic. Looking with darkened eyes, he stared longingly into the hidden stars.

“The heroes may be here…But are they enough?”

…………

Somewhere in the shopping district,

“Hmm…I swear it was here yesterday…”

Jake muttered silently as he passed through the small crowd of people standing in the middle of the street. It seems like something strange was happening in the middle of the streets. Jake simply wasn’t interested in it.

Walking past the ruckus, his eyes searched around for the store he saw yesterday.

There was something he wanted to buy yesterday, but since the store was practically jammed with people, so he had to withdrew to today.

“I hope it hasn…Ah! There it is!”

As his eyes stopped on a certain building in the middle of the street, he quickly turned around and diverged from the path. In excitement, his legs brought him to a certain store he had been searching for.

“Here it is!”

‘Dorky’s Yard’ That was what the sign read. It wasn’t the most beautiful name in the history of names, but the stuff it sells, from what he saw anyways, was quite amazing!

Walking in, he pushed open the door and let the dust out. *Cough* He fanned away the dust and walked in. As his eyes moved onto the inside, a wide smile appeared as he saw the one item he wanted to buy.

“You new?”

Just as Jake was celebrating over the item not being sold, a rough old man’s voice called to him.

“Huh?”

From behind the counter, he saw an old man standing there with a pipe in his mouth, smoke rising out of the outer pipe. Taking it out, he blew off some smoke into the room and coughed.

“Hmm…Definitely new.”

“Huh?”

The man chuckled softly as he put the pipe back into his mouth.

Seems like this man is quite the smoker.

“So, what ar’ you looking for?”

Realising that the man was asking him, he snapped his mind back to reality and walked across the room, to the thing he had been eyeing since yesterday. As the man realised what he was trying to buy, the man’s eyes widened in shock.

“That?”

“You guessed it!”

“…Look kid. I don’t even ‘now what that is…Phew…” The man said as he blew some smoke.

Jake was quite surprised. After all, who wouldn’t know what this thing is? The main body of the item looked similar to a hairdryer, except without the hole the air comes out from. The handle is…just like any handle you would see from a hairdryer, short and curved. There were about 12 or 13 holes dotted around it. Who wouldn’t know such a classic?

It was the ocarina!

“Phew…Then, ya’ know what it is?”

“Yep!”

The man raised his eyebrows as Jake happily took the ocarina from the shelf. He brought the ocarina over to the man’s desk and put it down.

“This is the ocarina! It’s a musical instrument.”

“Music, huh…”

The man picked it up and inspected it for a moment. No matter how much he looks at it, all he could see was an oddly shaped item with 12 holes around the body of the ocarina and a one hole on the handle. How can this odd thing be a musical instrument?

“Well, I can’t really cost this nything’. ‘fter all, I don’t know what this is…”

“……What?”

“Well, if you want it that much, ya’ can take it kid.”

The man’s eyes looked over to Jake, as if trying to say ‘Just take it.’. It didn’t seem like he wanted to keep this ocarina anyways.

But getting this free?! Really?!

“Really? You’re not gonna charge me anything?”

“Hm? Nah, I don’t know what it’s for anyways.”

Jake looked down at the ocarina for a moment, before picking it up and putting it into his pockets.

Jake just received something for free! It’s just like that moment in the Legend of Zelda when Link receives the sword! This is amazing! Just, with an ocarina this time. Hey, that’s fitting!

“Thank you, sir!”

“No problem, kid…Name’s Kelvin.”

And so, began the relationship between Jake and this shopkeeper named Kelvin!