Chapter 9 Cold Tile

With a cold floor underneath me, I was lying down on the ground. I had just lost consciousness. That Dwelling Procedure sure wasn't handy if I had to lose consciousness for a few minutes each time. Maybe I fell unconscious simply because I wasn't high-skilled enough, however.

My face was resting on the floor. My arms were extended in front of my face, half-crossed. I opened my eyes wearily. I was as sluggish and heavy as could be. For the second time now, light landed on my pupils as they painfully shrank.

The setting was the same. Unchanged. Numbness and heaviness ran all over my freshly-obtained body. Or should I rather say Receptacle? Not like it matters. As I tried to muster the strength to get up, my limbs trembled. Yes, limbs. I had hands, now. Hands that were on top of arms. Arms themselves linked to shoulders. If I wasn't careful and you erased all my memories of the past experience I just lived, I could confuse myself for a human again.

My head half-lifted up, I was analyzing myself. Yup. A swordsman. So does that mean I slayed my own self a minute earlier?

Suddenly, "Achoo!" A noisy cry rang out. An enemy? A cry of war? My eyes widened to their fullest. Quickly inhaling a good lungful of air, I darted up, forgetting all about the numbness. My feet jumped up, I immediately ran.

In a gale of wind, ❮ The new Active Skill <Quick Pace> has been acquired. ❯

❮ The Player has reached level 36! ❯

Running away from that cry of war—who knows where it came from—I got to use the same Quick Pace technique my slayer had used on me. All of which came naturally to me. Without thinking about it, my body moved on its own, and there I obtained yet a new skill.

I didn't stop to ponder on that fact, but what is about my power, then? Do I copy skills and abilities? And it's all thanks to the bunch of Unique Skills I obtained during the storytelling… right? Wait though, how did it all even get started? Thanks to the Faith Points or something? Or a certain storyteller's story? Or maybe the children who 100% believed the story? As I said, I didn't dwell on that much for now.

Someone just yelled 'Achoo!' at me, and so I was getting ready to fight. After I got away from it, I scanned my surroundings. "Where did that come from…?" That cry of war… where is my enemy?

Unwilling to get caught off-guard, I improvised a battle stance. A sharp, skilled battle stance. When you saw a bear, you made yourself look bigger and more dangerous, then you would be safe. When you heard a war cry, you did just the same, but with a sword. Unsheathing it, I swung my sword quite a few times, super-quickly, in order to let it be known clearly: I can fight.

❮ The new Passive Skill [Reinred School — Sword Style +7] has been acquired. ❯

I frowned my head, showing off a thick, bluish-black aura. My mana, aura leaked off of me. Was it what happens when you're being hostile? Most likely. My aura was so thick it could be cut through with a knife.

❮ The new Active Skill <Intimidation> has been acquired. ❯

❮ The Player has reached level 37! ❯

I inwardly sighed at all those notifications coming up. I mustn't let myself be disturbed. Where was my enemy? Come. Whatever you might be, come. Wherever you are, come. I'm waiting for you.

Being well-prepared for it to come was the way. Suddenly though, on its own, my head began to move. It leaned backward. And I puffed my nostrils, wrinkling my nose. I felt a tinge of tickling in my nose… and then—

"Achoo!"

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I felt stupid for a second. "Ah. All right. That was just me." I sneezed again. "Sorry, buddy. Still not used to you yet."

I'd been alerted for no reason. That hadn't been a threat at all. Just me sneezing, actually. With nothing to worry about anymore, I undid my stance, let my arms go down, and dropped my sword. Leaning backward, I let my back rest on a column behind. Stretching at my hands for me to see, my hands were opened and closed, twice over, before I was entirely satisfied. "And thus I won, human."

It somehow felt like I was taking my unusual condition and the fact that I survived after I was slain way too lightly. As I was a serious person, I then decided to take a tiny little pause in order to think things through.

"I'm what you'd call brand new." Letting my eyes wander over to the table and chairs that Inera girl had pointed to me, I chuckled a little. Recollecting every detail of the… story the dead young storyteller told the little ones, I had my own story: There were people. All were eating and chatting happily in the restaurant. Dun, dun, dun… a monster appears; eats 'em all; end of the story.

That's an awfully awesome story if you ask me. That was it. Moving on it is. So then, I got back up on my feet… what to do now?

My eyes kept wandering off in the wide space that was offered to me. Scanning it over and over again, my eyes darted on the boy's dead body and refused to move elsewhere.

"Humph," I harrumphed, wiping off the dust from my clothes. I walked up to it. And kicked it in the stomach. "Hey. You." I kicked it again. The boy turned over and was now on his back. "There's still a question I wanted to ask you guys. Will you please hear me? I mean, I know you can't talk to me and all, but I still want to ask. Why did you guys want to kill me? Uh, I know I'm a monster. A unique one, at that, so that's kinda dangerous… but still, can you just kill people like that? 'Cause I definitely was a person, you know. Don't get me wrong though… you motherless bastard." I repeated the insult I was told and kicked the boy again. This time, stronger, and in the flank. "That's what the swordsman told me, but wait, isn't it rude to say that? Aaah, so he was insulting me… Anyway! Err, so, what is it we're chatting about again? Hmm… I know. Can you just kill anyone outside? …Yeah, I guess not. Why me then? Oh, true. I got to attack you first, didn't I? Still though, wasn't I taught a lesson? You die if you're weak. You get to live if you're strong. Yeah, whatever. So? Who's weak now? What, you can't tell? It's you. You motherless… bastard. That's right. I insult you." With yet another kick in the stomach, I parted with the boy. "Thanks for the story, by the way."

After a time, I gripped my own throat and remembered I was cut there. It wasn't deep at all. And it reminded me of the Inera girl from earlier. As the Mortde boy sent her to fetch her father before he died, her father sent her to her uncle before he died. Will she come back to hunt me down, then? With her uncle and a team of punks? No way. I was the punk here.

I couldn't stay idling here. I had to leave before they'd come to me. Having observed that, I nonchalantly went and grabbed my sword.

"I'll kill and destroy everything and everyone." Happily chuckling to myself, I delightfully grinned, gave myself a thumbs-up, and childishly jumped my way to the main entrance, whistling one happy music. "Yes. Everything that dares stand in my way! Ha ha ha~!" Seeing a grown and tough man excitedly dancing and moving around, all the while giggling, as he proclaimed he would lay waste to every enemy he would encounter was a rare sight to witness.

I exited the restaurant and was off to see the world.