063. Establishment - 10

063. Establishment - 10

While Terma dashed away to talk with his brother, I walked next to three that were carrying our captives, looking around to make sure there was no assassination attempt. I didn't expect a rescue attempt likely, as I doubted they knew enough to risk more assets.

Still, better safe than sorry.

As I walked, I was thinking about my problem particularly, my need to awaken a particular new Stat.

Speed.

It wasn't the first time I had tried to awaken it. During the last few days, I had made that attempt several times, running around, dashing, and even taking several more swims, hoping that reaching faster speeds would help.

I would have even attempted to jump down from a great height and see if reaching terminal velocity would have helped ... but I had already done that, which didn't awaken Speed.

Clearly, I was missing something, and running around more wouldn't solve it. If repetition was the solution, I would have already awakened it.

As well as the others.

My mind went to my stats, and how I awakened them. Resilience was awakened while I was trying to resist death, and it happened almost instantly. Similarly, Strength awakened just as quickly, after a few mere pushups. Agility was harder, forcing me to repeat a lot of street tricks to bring it forward, but still worked.

In comparison, Memory required a lot of assistance from the priest, and Intelligence didn't work despite all his effort. Charisma also awakened quickly, but under rather interesting conditions, so it was hard to pin down.

The difference in the process was significant, and the more I thought about it, the less sense it made unless, it was somehow mental, it clicked.

I had always defined myself as my Resilience, and my Strength was the only thing that carried me through my troubled childhood, one weapon that never betrayed me. In the same vein, Agility was something I used a lot, but never treated the same as Strength

My command ability and my general mental capabilities only started to come useful as I climbed up and I always found myself as a capable commander rather than an organizer.

Maybe that was it. My potential; somewhere between mental and physical concepts.

While I was thinking that, Terma came to my side. "Why do you think they betrayed us?" Terma said as he looked at the prisoners.

"Probably greed and arrogance," I said. "It's the usual reasons. The breach represents an opportunity, and they are stupid enough to think that they might be the winner of the opportunity."

Terma stopped. "And what does it say about us?" he suddenly asked, surprising me. "Aren't we being too arrogant?" I chuckled. "What?" he asked, ashamed. "That's a valid question."

"Yes, and that's why I'm surprised. I'm not used to you asking sensible questions."

"Don't be mean," Terma protested, pulling a face. "I can act sensible."

"You can, yes, but that doesn't mean you do it very much," I teased, and he continued to blush. One perk of dealing with teenagers, they were too easy to tease.

But maybe, in this new world, I found myself in, Speed was a part of it. Here, speed didn't just mean that I could run slightly faster than the others to get rid of my pursuers, or bounce around like a rat. No, with my other abilities, Speed would allow me to move around like an armored tank, delivering devastation.

Or even better, like a fighter jet, raining precise death and destruction, and disappearing before a response could be mounted, the sheer presence forcing the armies to stay away its threat getting more overwhelming by sheer speed.

No, Speed didn't mean freedom.

Speed was just another facet of power.

[Stat Potential Awakened: Speed

Accept / Reject]

I started laughing as the text appeared in my view, giving me what I had been searching for.

What a fascinating moment, I thought even as I gave a mental order.

[-10 Stat Points]

[+10 Speed]

The sudden sense of blurring under my feet was impossible to describe. Suddenly, I burst forward as the human limits of speed turned meaningless. I rushed forward with a speed that could surpass an old car.

I realized that, if I tried what I did without my Perception and Agility, I would have ended up in a very painful roll, but luckily that was not what I had been dealing with. But I had that, so I instead turned my attention to my new limits.

I came to a sudden stop, rushed forward, made a sharp turn, dodged, and rolled, each working surprisingly smoother as I danced freely.

Finally, I understood why people were obsessed with the exhilaration they get from speeding down the highway in their expensive bikes, though, what I had was much better. There was no device between me and the world, allowing me to enjoy the wind without putting my life on the line pointlessly

"Truly fascinating," I murmured even as I assigned more to Speed. Draining my Stat storage was risky, but the benefits of Speed were too important at the moment to stay safe.

[-10 Stat Points]

[+10 Speed]

As I gained a new burst of speed, running as fast as a cheetah, I closed my eyes, deciding to enjoy the wind for another minute. The only disadvantage, it didn't double my speed, but increased around fifty percent, showing that the gains of it weren't as linear as the stats like Strength and Vitality.

Though, I felt the drain of Health getting weaker as well, so it wasn't like a complete waste.

I would have loved to run around for the whole night, enjoying the sensation of unlimited speed for the first time in my life but unfortunately, I still had work to do.