5. Encounter

The moment Rakna came out, a salve of arrows was shot his way. He immediately rolled away while intercepting a few of the projectiles with Sonata. His eyes calmly scanned the surroundings.

The Kobold Rider was located a few tens of meters away from him with the archers in line behind him. The Rider was barking orders like a maniac, probably telling his subordinates to shoot.

From the creature's perspective, when Rakna came out covered in blood, it had been struck by a sudden feeling of doom realizing all its troops had died. It was concretized when two of the archers were suddenly killed by throwing knives.

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Lv.5 Archer Kobold killed.

Lv.5 Archer Kobold killed.

Requirement for level up updated.

Current progress: 18/50

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Rakna dismissed the prompt and inhaled before kicking the ground. The four remaining archers shot their arrows at the same time. He deflected the first two, dodged the third one, and literally caught the last one barehanded.

Before the second salve could be shot, Rakna had entered the Kobold Rider’s range. The first to attack was the wolf. The beast snarled and charged with an impressive speed. It reached with its opened maw and Rakna barely dodged it. At the same time, the kobold thrust its spear at him.

‘One to str, two to dex, two to speed,’ he ordered internally and felt the change happen instantly. His vision and mind became clearer. He easily saw the path of the spear and grabbed it. The kobold tried to pull it back but it was firmly held in place.

Rakna squinted and pulled it himself. The Rider almost fell off and that was an opening long enough for him to swing Sonata. The azure blade released heat and a cloud of smoke as it cut through the neck of the creature.

Rakna then jumped back as a volley of arrows descended. The wolf looked at its master falling on the ground next to it and howled. It rushed toward the human in front of it with bloodshot eyes.

The wolf leaped and swung its paw while falling down. Rakna followed it with his eyes and sidestepped to dodge it. The beast then opened its mouth to bite his neck.

Rakna whirled Sonata before it could do that and struck the wolf’s belly with the shaft’s end. He then grabbed its throat and slammed the entire beast on the ground. The wolf whimpered and before it could retaliate, a fuming azure blade had beheaded it.

Rakna sighed and swung his spear to get rid of the blood before putting it back around his neck as a scarf. He turned toward where the remaining kobold archers were supposed to be to see them dead on the ground with Pronos standing triumphantly on top of one.

Ding!

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Initiation Mission Completed

Assessment: No enemies were left alive. Host received no injury. Mission Time: 19:26:30.

Host was the first of his group to finish.

Rewards: 1000 Talys, Utility Item Select.

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[Congratulations, Rakna. You earned the right to pick a Utility Item.]

Rakna hummed as he picked up Pronos and put him on his shoulder. The little snake promptly snuggled inside the scarf. “Start by explaining what a Utility Item is. And what are Talys?”

[Utility Items are also referred to as Providence Items. They are usually meant to be used out of combat to help the Hosts in their daily life. For instance, a water gourd that replenishes itself indefinitely is one example. The reward you have been granted by the System is to pick a Utility Item. You can choose anything. A drink that never ends, food that regenerates, effective but long application heals, and so on. As for the Talys, you can consider them as the System’s currency.]

“I see,” Rakna mused. “I assume there will be an occasion for me to spend these later. As for the Utility Item…” He pulled out his cigarette case from his pocket. “Can you scan this case and turn it into one?”

[It is possible. The resulting Item will be of a higher grade than if it was made out of nothing as well.]

“Then do it.”

[Acknowledged. Please give the Item a name before the process.]

“Obsidian’s Smoke,” he answered without hesitation. To the point, even Alexa was perplexed about the significance of this name. Right after, the case in Rakna’s hands started glowing. After half a minute or so, the conversion was over. The silver had turned slightly more metallic looking and the Item’s name had been engraved on it.

Rakna immediately looked at its properties.

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Designation: Utility Item/Cigarette Case

Rarity: Blue

Name: Obsidian’s Smoke

Capacity: 20/20 (Recharges once every five hours)

Description:

A perfect combination of drugs and medicinal herbs. The formula for these cigarettes was made exclusively for Rakna Xiorra.

The case itself has an integrated lighter powered by Eion stones. It is used as the Azure Sonata’s trigger input.

Effects:

- Heightened Awareness: Increases Senses and Swiftness by 1% (Lasts an hour)

- Decelerated Alertness: Numbs emotions and cancels mental debuffs.

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“Not bad. I didn’t expect it to have an effect like this,” Rakna remarked.

[Utility Items with a rarity above Green are generally hard to find and have additional perks that can support a Host during combat. You are lucky, Rakna.]

“I see. Can you tell me more about the rarity?”

[Items have seven rarity classifications. Gray, Green, Blue, Orange, Purple, Red, and Gold. In terms that most modern humans can understand, each rarity can be described respectively by ‘common’, ‘uncommon’, ‘rare’, ‘special’, ‘masterwork’, ‘epic’, and ‘legendary’.]

“Hm, that doesn’t explain much in my opinion but I guess I can more or less imagine how valuable each rarity is now,” Rakna remarked and lit up a cigarette before putting the case back in his pocket. At the same time, he noticed something from the corner of his eyes.

One of the bows on the ground, dropped by the kobolds, was glowing. He raised an eyebrow and approached it before grabbing it. He briefly went over the statistics. There was nothing special about it and the rarity was gray. But a certain System window appeared in front of him.

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Conditions have been met. Do you wish to upgrade Azure Sonata by using ‘Wooden Bow’ as a material?

Y / N

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Rakna opened his eyes wide at the question. He only hesitated a few seconds before pressing yes. The bow in his hands then turned into particles of light that merged with his scarf. The process was fast and simple and the scarf itself had no obvious changes.

But when he checked Sonata’s attributes, Rakna was pleasantly surprised.

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Designation: Cloth/Scarf (Current)

Name: Azure Sonata

Rarity: Blue

Durability: 100/100

Perks:

- Intertwined Miniature Eion Systems: The item possesses memory of form and is able to switch from one form to another with an Eion energy influx as the trigger.

Currently available: Scarf, Guandao, Bow.

❮ ◈ ❯

Putting aside the fact that the attributes displayed changed according to the form it was in, there was something new. A third form had been added; Bow. Rakna pressed on the glowing word and it showed him the description of the bow even without transforming his scarf.

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Designation: Range/Bow

Name: Azure Sonata

Rarity: Blue

Durability: 100/100

Perks:

- Intertwined Miniature Eion Systems: The weapon possesses memory of form and is able to switch from one form to another with an Eion energy influx as the trigger.

Currently available: Scarf, Guandao, Bow.

- Eion Arrows: The weapon has the ability to generate arrows composed of raw Eion energy on its own with a limited rate of five per minute. Current attack value of the arrows: 30 at the Host’s full strength.

❮ ◈ ❯

“This could definitely be useful in the future. A ranged weapon is always welcome,” Rakna muttered and another sound resounded in his head to notify a new prompt. There were now three System windows open in his vision. He frowned and looked at the one which had just popped up.

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You have finished the initiation. You will automatically be ejected in 05:48:20.

Do you wish to exit now?

Y / N

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Rakna stared at the choice given to him for a moment before ultimately pressing no. He closed the other virtual screens and turned toward the forest surrounding the school.

“If they give me a choice, there might be something worth searching for in this place,” he said and looked at Pronos. “What do you think, little guy?”

The little snake squinted as he observed the dense forest. He hissed softly and Rakna nodded as if he had understood him.

“Yeah, I know. I have this feeling too. It might be dangerous,” he said but still walked toward the forest without any change in his expression. “But no one can ever progress if they never try.”

* * *

Before he knew it, Rakna had been wandering in the forest for hours. There were still two hours left on the clock. The time he had spent until now was in the end not wasted. He crossed a dozen or so wild kobolds and Pronos had reached level five. He himself was close to level six as well.

During that time, Pronos had allocated most of his attribute points. He had concentrated on his speed and endurance, which meant that his defense had reached a whopping 38.

As for Rakna, he had four points left and he waited on them. He preferred keeping them so that he could use them in combat in a way that would suit the situation.

Another thing he did was dissect a kobold. He wanted to verify a few things and the gore really didn’t bother him in the slightest. In the end, he found nothing out of the ordinary. Their anatomy was just like a dog’s. The only interesting point was that their legs had developed to be able to let them stand although it was an incomplete evolution and they were easy to disable.

Then, after the dissection, the System delivered a prompt that pleased Rakna.

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Congratulations. Through meeting the specified conditions, Appraisal’s level has increased. It can now show a relative amount of information surpassing the user’s wisdom.

❮ ◈ ❯

From that, he came to the conclusion that Appraisal was an ability that would advance based on his own actions. When he got the skill, it was after analyzing the Kobolds from appearance and when he decided to take a look at their anatomy, it leveled up.

This meant that skills could probably be created if given the right conditions and it would also mean that certain skills couldn’t be leveled up by just using them.

As he was thinking that, Rakna suddenly stopped moving. He had suddenly picked up a presence nearby. Though, it would be more accurate to say ‘something’ was warning him.

Rakna’s senses had been quantified as 40 and although he might not know it himself, it was a very high number for someone of his level. The sense stat didn’t only stand for earing, smell, touch, taste, or sight. To be exact, each of these is actually a part of something else; instinct or, in other words, the thing that people call the sixth sense. On top of that, his Eye of the Mind gave him an unnatural sense for danger.

Currently, Rakna was rooted on the ground because of that very reason. Something was preying on him and he was very aware of it.

Pronos didn’t seem to notice until his contractor triggered Sonata to transform. The little snake abruptly felt the unknown presence because its hostility had probably jumped at the sight of a weapon.

Rakna looked around him warily. The silence was weighing on his mind and despite his mental fortitude, his body was tense. The situation didn’t change for a few minutes and it was broken by a shadow that leaped from the trees’ shadows.

Rakna reacted as fast as he possibly could but he only managed to tilt his body to the side while trying to jump away. When he realized that the silhouette was too close for him to dodge, he raised his left arm to shield himself.

In the next instant, he heard a very disturbing crunching sound and a terrible pain hit him. Then, something struck his abdomen and sent him flying. The momentum was such that he broke a tree before touching the ground.

He coughed blood and staggered as he tried to stand while using Sonata as support. He looked up to see what had attacked him and his eyes widened in shock.

It was a wolf. A very large wolf with dark blue fur and silver eyes. The beast was taller than any human and wider than any bear. But what truly stunned Rakna was the wagging tails behind the creature; nine of them to exact. Then, his eyes were attracted to the wolf’s mouth which held something he hoped he hadn’t seen.

Rakna slowly looked at his left shoulder and winced. Half of his arm had been ripped off and he could even see his humerus sticking out. The bleeding was serious and if he didn’t take care of it quick, he would probably die.

His mind was jolted when he heard a cracking sound. He refocused on the wolf and saw it munch on the arm. He watched grimly as his arm disappeared in the beast’s stomach.

“All right…” Rakna stood up and sneakily glanced at Pronos who had taken the chance to hide in the bushes earlier. The wolf appeared to be unmoving for now. The only thing he was doing was staring.

Rakna slowly grabbed and tore the blue ribbon wrapped around his weapon. He quickly put it around his left arm and tied it tightly by pulling it with his teeth to stop the bleeding. Sonata’s ribbon had already started being reconstructed when he finished.

Rakna then silently cast Appraisal on the wolf and his confidence wavered for the first time.

“…shit.”