“This has been eating at me for a while, so can I ask you a question?” Evva spoke up as we made our way to a nearby river. The Map pinpointed Max to be along its banks, so I decided to move in that direction.
“What is it?”
“Why do you keep staring off at space?” She asked casually.
I froze up, like a criminal caught red-handed. Since I was usually alone or with Deus, I completely forgot how weird it would look to normal people when I checked out my Map.
But I quickly pulled myself together, before Evva could notice something.
“I was just trying to sense the monsters surrounding us.” I lied to her with a straight face.
“Oh! You don’t need to be so on guard. Marksmen have very high Perception Stats, and I can assure you there is not a single monster within a kilometre radius of us. They must have run away due to the smell of blood from the Boss monster.” she remarked.
“We still need to be careful. The Beastman who ran away might be near.” I warned her off. I was telling her the truth since the Map showed that Max wasn’t too far away from us. He seems to be cleaning himself off at a nearby river.
“Hey, Evva, since your Perception must be sharper than mine, can you check if there is a river or something similar nearby?” I innocently directed her to Max's location.
“Ah, a river! That makes sense. After having such a brutal fight, a clean source of water should be the first thing he would try to find.” she closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. “I can hear the sound of water flowing in that direction.” She pointed roughly in that direction.
“Let’s go and check if he is there.” I could hear a hint of caution in her voice now. Now that we were going to a clear destination, instead of wandering aimlessly, she had her senses on high alert.
The two of us increased our pace as we headed toward the river. After about fifteen minutes of running, we finally reached the banks. The river was quite wide, spanning several kilometres, lined with dangerously steep boulders.
“Now where do we go? Upstream or downstream?” Eva asked.
I pointed a finger up at the sky. “Of course, we head downstream.”
“How does the sky indicate that the Beastman is downstream?”
“Look at the birds. Don’t they look like they are flying away from something?” I pointed out to a flock of birds that were heading away from the river. “The animals here are quite sensitive to Auras, of humans and monsters alike. They would definitely try to avoid encounters with Awakened Beings, so that’s why you just need to find the direction where it seems like birds are flying away from.”
“Wow! Where did you learn that from?” she asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Documentaries.” I answered as I began to head down.
When I had just entered this world, I had read about many monster behaviours as well as watched documentaries on how animals behave around Awakened Beings. Even if I didn't already know his location, I would have still headed downstream. It was quite surprising, how much you can understand about an area by monitoring the behaviour of nearby animal life.
As we were beginning to head down, suddenly goose bumps erupted on my neck. Sensing the intense bloodlust, Evva quickly grabbed my shoulders, and we both plunged into the river beside us.
The two of us were violently dragged away by the freezing currents, but not before I saw black rose petals floating in the air, at the spot where Evva and I had been standing moments earlier.
“Is it just me or is this place really quiet?” Luca’s voice rang out in the eerily tranquil forest. There was no buzzing of insects, no chirping of birds, nor the silent prowling of predators.
Even Kazuya was alert. No matter how wary the ordinary animals were of Awakened Beings, this was way too abnormal for a Dungeon.
“Stay sharp! I think the Elves are up to something.” Kazuya warned his mentee, as he took his hand fan out of his sleeve. Luca too raised his skateboard like a shield, taking a defensive stance.
Green mana coated the tip of Kazuya’s fan, enveloping their surroundings and scanning for any irregularities. Immediately after that, Kazuya swiped his fan to their right, generating a strong burst of wind.
‘Whoosh!’
Luca expected the surrounding trees to get uprooted, but unexpectedly, the scenery in front of them began to distort, like a mirage in the desert. The towering trees, that had previously surrounded them, vanished into thin air, leaving the two of them standing in the centre of a large clearing.
Two Elves, one male and one female, wearing dark assassin outfits were standing in front of them, with their daggers pointed towards them. Their skin was dark as the night, but their eyes and hair glowed an incandescent white like a full moon exuding its beautiful shine. A crescent moon symbol on their forehead flaunting their celestial of worship.
Moonlit Elves!
“Wow! I didn’t even realise that we were trapped inside an illusion!” Luca exclaimed in surprise, as he realised what had just happened.
At the start of the third year, students of Star Academy were given a brief introduction to the other races that humans share their planet with. One of the topics that were discussed was the ‘Illusionary Powers of Moonlit Elves’.
At that time, Luca had disregarded their skills as minor parlour tricks, but boy was he wrong.
Enveloping an entire landscape with illusion magic, required not only fine control of one’s own mana but also skills in controlling the natural mana of the surroundings. Among humans, only a few Heroes could control natural mana, and all of them were at least A+ Rank.
Yet the Elves who were standing in front seemed no stronger than C+ Ranks.
“It took longer than we thought for an A+ Rank like you to notice our illusion. We must have overestimated the humans.” the female sneered, clearly looking down on them.
“I think you are a bit mistaken. I was merely observing the pursuers on our tail.” Kazuya calmly responded to their taunt. “And if you were trying to hide your presence, you really shouldn’t have cleared away all the monsters in this area. You were simply begging me to find you guys.”
“Hoo. Guess you aren’t as big a quack as we thought.” the male elf smiled at Kazuya's response.
“On a side note, may I ask you folks where the rest of your party is? I was informed about it earlier, and I believe you are short of one Elf and a Beastman.” Kazuya asked leisurely.
“Informed?” Suddenly, the female Elf’s voice became wary. “Are you with that guy?”
“That guy?”
“That blue-haired human!” Her voice was getting louder.
“Ah, you mean Sir Ray? Yes, we are acquaintances with him.” Kazuya politely responded. Noting her sudden change in tone, it seems that Ray had done something to incur the wrath of these woodland dwellers.
“So you are!” The female elf, her eyes now radiating blatant hostility. If before she was looking down on them like insects, now she seemed to at least acknowledge them. “Your friend had given us quite a lot of trouble with those repulsive tricks of his.”
Kazuya looked at her strangely. ‘Ray made trouble for them? Wasn't he just shadowing them?’
It was hard for him to believe, considering how much weaker Ray was than the opposing party, not to mention, outnumbered. But the bloodlust emanating from the Elves, when he had mentioned Ray’s name, was not to scoff at.
‘This is problematic. I better go find Ray and Evva before something irreversible happens.’
If something indeed happens, the diplomatic issues concerning this problem would escalate drastically from just trespassing to murder. The worst-case scenario would be that the two races would go to war against each other.
“Luca, I think we need to head back.”
Luca, understanding how grave the current situation was, nodded in agreement. As he was about to take a step back, out of nowhere, a dagger embedded itself into the earth, inches away from where he stood.
“Don’t even dare.” The female warned them, one of her hands now weapon less.
Kazuya let out a heavy sigh. “I wasn’t planning on letting this escalate to a bigger problem, but it seems we don’t share the same thoughts.”
“This wouldn’t have happened if your associate didn’t provoke us so recklessly.”
“Well, I can’t speak for him, considering we are no better than strangers. Though I will be more than happy to send my mentee here to rebuke him for you.” Kazuya turned towards his mentee, signalling him to leave.
Luca quickly got on his skateboard, fleeing the scene.
Luca's life had always been full of ups and downs. In his first year at the Academy, many had called him ‘rebellious’ and ‘juvenile’ for using something as vulgar as a skateboard in the prestigious Star Academy, where about 80% of the student population came from wealthy backgrounds, some of them being the heirs of highly influential Guilds. They were spoiled brats who expected the world to revolve around them and wanted everything around them to be up to their standards. Consequently, these were also the guys who believed that riding a skateboard was something that only plebeians did.
That's why on his first day, Luca took that same skateboard they looked down upon and beat them back and blue, regardless of their connections. Ever since that event, an entire faction was born under Luca, which gained even more power within the Academy, when Luca became one of the top students in his grade.
And when Luca received his Skateboard Manoeuvre Art, his passion for skateboarding only grew stronger, and soon after, he was considered one of the fastest students Star Academy has ever had since its founding.
As Luca rolled his skateboard, a thin line of green mana sparkled on his wheels, reinforcing his momentum. But despite his great swiftness, an arrow accelerated forward, jamming itself into the tree, Luca had just passed.
Luca scurried between the trees, to evade his pursuer. The hunter wasn't the two Elves, since he knew Kazuya wouldn't let them go after him, so it must be one of the Elves' missing comrades.
Luca extended his senses to gauge the power of his opponent, but weirdly he couldn’t sense the presence of anyone behind him. Whoever it was, must be someone very skilled to be able to hide his presence so well, even when someone was actively searching for them.
Deciding against shaking him off, instead, Luca took to the trees. He activated his Art. Instantly, his mana spread out from his body and coated his skateboard. His Art was unique in the fact that as long his skateboard was used as a medium, he could impart different properties to his mana, as long as he knew how the property worked.
The property he activated at this moment was Adhesion. He had to comb through several scientific books to understand how this property worked as well had spent countless hours using the knowledge to further his understanding of his Art. The fruits of his training were invaluable, giving him the ability to scale any obstacle like a gecko.
He started to cruise his skateboard on the large trunk of a nearby tree, quickly reaching the top of the forest cover, where the enemy was.
Finding his foe in front of him, the Elf came to a stop. This was the first time Luca was seeing his pursuer properly. It was a male Moon Elf, dressed quite similarly to the ones from before. But there was a clear distinction between the two. Even with the Elf standing from him, it was hard for Luca to feel any kind of presence from him. The lack of unnecessary movements and the serenity of his presence was on another level. As a fellow Assassin, Luca held great admiration for such finely-refined stealth skills.
But right now this Assassin was out for him, and he had to prevent that at all costs.
As the two assessed each other, silence descended around them.
‘Woosh!’ An arrowhead jammed itself into the Skateboard, plummeting it to the ground. Luca was left standing on the branch, unarmed.
The elf nocked another arrow on his bow, now aiming it straight between Luca’s eyes. Luca locked eyes with him, refusing to lose sight of his attacker. But oblivious to the other party, wheels were turning behind the scene.
An arrow appeared out of nowhere, grazing the Elf's cheek. He sent his arrow flying in surprise, but instead of landing on its target, the arrow bounced off the skateboard that had mysteriously returned to its owner.
“How?” The Elf looked at the pink-haired boy in surprise, but instead of a response, all he was greeted with was his arrow, travelling at speeds that were enough to slice down trees. The Elf jumped away to get out of the arrow’s trajectory, but the arrow simply corrected its path, following its owner like a dog returning home.
After a short while, the Elf was seriously ticked off and lost his cool. He summoned his mana and blasted the arrow to smithereens.
“Aww. The show was just getting started.” Luca lightly laughed at his opponent.
“Enough!” The Elf roared in fury. “You humans do love those parlour tricks of yours, don’t you?”
This remark got on Luca’s nerves. He had spent countless hours polishing his mastery over his internal mana, to pull that stunt off.
The Elf leaped toward him, a dagger in his hand. Right before the blade could pierce his heart, Luca pushed against the Elf’s body and leaped backward to another tree. The Elf continued forward, ready to finish what he was out to do, but the pieces were already in place.
Luca sneered at him, as the Elf froze mid-jump, like a marionette without a master.
Puppeteer.
That was the one and only Skill Luca had received when he had Awakened on his seventeenth birthday. Finding out that it was a B Rank Skill, he had been quite disappointed. But only for a short while. Pretty soon, he found that the Skill was much better than he had previously thought, giving him the power to control anything, even humans, like a puppet master using strings to control every single action of his marionettes.
Of course, the skill had its own weaknesses, such as the condition to attach the Puppeteer’s strings was to make physical contact with the target. Not to mention, the strings were very weak and would take little mana to be cut off. Still, the skill was virtually unbeatable if you didn't understand the principle behind the attack.
That's why except for himself, nobody knew that his true Skill was Puppeteer. Everyone thought it was a form of Telekinesis, making them lower their guard and after that, it was all too easy for him to stick his mana strings on his opponents.
Luca slowly approached the now-defenceless Elf, still oblivious to what had happened to him.
He flashed him a playful smile, “Now be a good little boy and wait for daddy to come home.”
The Elf’s eyes narrowed on him. “You better hope you don’t encounter me when the moon is out, human. I won’t show you any mercy.”
“Wow, you are quite forward. Sure, let’s set up a date night.” Saying that Luca hopped onto his skateboard and then drove away, to find Evva and Ray.
“This has been eating at me for a while, so can I ask you a question?” Evva spoke up as we made our way to a nearby river. The Map pinpointed Max to be along its banks, so I decided to move in that direction.
“What is it?”
“Why do you keep staring off at space?” She asked casually.
I froze up, like a criminal caught red-handed. Since I was usually alone or with Deus, I completely forgot how weird it would look to normal people when I checked out my Map.
But I quickly pulled myself together, before Evva could notice something.
“I was just trying to sense the monsters surrounding us.” I lied to her with a straight face.
“Oh! You don’t need to be so on guard. Marksmen have very high Perception Stats, and I can assure you there is not a single monster within a kilometre radius of us. They must have run away due to the smell of blood from the Boss monster.” she remarked.
“We still need to be careful. The Beastman who ran away might be near.” I warned her off. I was telling her the truth since the Map showed that Max wasn’t too far away from us. He seems to be cleaning himself off at a nearby river.
“Hey, Evva, since your Perception must be sharper than mine, can you check if there is a river or something similar nearby?” I innocently directed her to Max's location.
“Ah, a river! That makes sense. After having such a brutal fight, a clean source of water should be the first thing he would try to find.” she closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. “I can hear the sound of water flowing in that direction.” She pointed roughly in that direction.
“Let’s go and check if he is there.” I could hear a hint of caution in her voice now. Now that we were going to a clear destination, instead of wandering aimlessly, she had her senses on high alert.
The two of us increased our pace as we headed toward the river. After about fifteen minutes of running, we finally reached the banks. The river was quite wide, spanning several kilometres, lined with dangerously steep boulders.
“Now where do we go? Upstream or downstream?” Eva asked.
I pointed a finger up at the sky. “Of course, we head downstream.”
“How does the sky indicate that the Beastman is downstream?”
“Look at the birds. Don’t they look like they are flying away from something?” I pointed out to a flock of birds that were heading away from the river. “The animals here are quite sensitive to Auras, of humans and monsters alike. They would definitely try to avoid encounters with Awakened Beings, so that’s why you just need to find the direction where it seems like birds are flying away from.”
“Wow! Where did you learn that from?” she asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Documentaries.” I answered as I began to head down.
When I had just entered this world, I had read about many monster behaviours as well as watched documentaries on how animals behave around Awakened Beings. Even if I didn't already know his location, I would have still headed downstream. It was quite surprising, how much you can understand about an area by monitoring the behaviour of nearby animal life.
As we were beginning to head down, suddenly goose bumps erupted on my neck. Sensing the intense bloodlust, Evva quickly grabbed my shoulders, and we both plunged into the river beside us.
The two of us were violently dragged away by the freezing currents, but not before I saw black rose petals floating in the air, at the spot where Evva and I had been standing moments earlier.
“Is it just me or is this place really quiet?” Luca’s voice rang out in the eerily tranquil forest. There was no buzzing of insects, no chirping of birds, nor the silent prowling of predators.
Even Kazuya was alert. No matter how wary the ordinary animals were of Awakened Beings, this was way too abnormal for a Dungeon.
“Stay sharp! I think the Elves are up to something.” Kazuya warned his mentee, as he took his hand fan out of his sleeve. Luca too raised his skateboard like a shield, taking a defensive stance.
Green mana coated the tip of Kazuya’s fan, enveloping their surroundings and scanning for any irregularities. Immediately after that, Kazuya swiped his fan to their right, generating a strong burst of wind.
‘Whoosh!’
Luca expected the surrounding trees to get uprooted, but unexpectedly, the scenery in front of them began to distort, like a mirage in the desert. The towering trees, that had previously surrounded them, vanished into thin air, leaving the two of them standing in the centre of a large clearing.
Two Elves, one male and one female, wearing dark assassin outfits were standing in front of them, with their daggers pointed towards them. Their skin was dark as the night, but their eyes and hair glowed an incandescent white like a full moon exuding its beautiful shine. A crescent moon symbol on their forehead flaunting their celestial of worship.
Moonlit Elves!
“Wow! I didn’t even realise that we were trapped inside an illusion!” Luca exclaimed in surprise, as he realised what had just happened.
At the start of the third year, students of Star Academy were given a brief introduction to the other races that humans share their planet with. One of the topics that were discussed was the ‘Illusionary Powers of Moonlit Elves’.
At that time, Luca had disregarded their skills as minor parlour tricks, but boy was he wrong.
Enveloping an entire landscape with illusion magic, required not only fine control of one’s own mana but also skills in controlling the natural mana of the surroundings. Among humans, only a few Heroes could control natural mana, and all of them were at least A+ Rank.
Yet the Elves who were standing in front seemed no stronger than C+ Ranks.
“It took longer than we thought for an A+ Rank like you to notice our illusion. We must have overestimated the humans.” the female sneered, clearly looking down on them.
“I think you are a bit mistaken. I was merely observing the pursuers on our tail.” Kazuya calmly responded to their taunt. “And if you were trying to hide your presence, you really shouldn’t have cleared away all the monsters in this area. You were simply begging me to find you guys.”
“Hoo. Guess you aren’t as big a quack as we thought.” the male elf smiled at Kazuya's response.
“On a side note, may I ask you folks where the rest of your party is? I was informed about it earlier, and I believe you are short of one Elf and a Beastman.” Kazuya asked leisurely.
“Informed?” Suddenly, the female Elf’s voice became wary. “Are you with that guy?”
“That guy?”
“That blue-haired human!” Her voice was getting louder.
“Ah, you mean Sir Ray? Yes, we are acquaintances with him.” Kazuya politely responded. Noting her sudden change in tone, it seems that Ray had done something to incur the wrath of these woodland dwellers.
“So you are!” The female elf, her eyes now radiating blatant hostility. If before she was looking down on them like insects, now she seemed to at least acknowledge them. “Your friend had given us quite a lot of trouble with those repulsive tricks of his.”
Kazuya looked at her strangely. ‘Ray made trouble for them? Wasn't he just shadowing them?’
It was hard for him to believe, considering how much weaker Ray was than the opposing party, not to mention, outnumbered. But the bloodlust emanating from the Elves, when he had mentioned Ray’s name, was not to scoff at.
‘This is problematic. I better go find Ray and Evva before something irreversible happens.’
If something indeed happens, the diplomatic issues concerning this problem would escalate drastically from just trespassing to murder. The worst-case scenario would be that the two races would go to war against each other.
“Luca, I think we need to head back.”
Luca, understanding how grave the current situation was, nodded in agreement. As he was about to take a step back, out of nowhere, a dagger embedded itself into the earth, inches away from where he stood.
“Don’t even dare.” The female warned them, one of her hands now weapon less.
Kazuya let out a heavy sigh. “I wasn’t planning on letting this escalate to a bigger problem, but it seems we don’t share the same thoughts.”
“This wouldn’t have happened if your associate didn’t provoke us so recklessly.”
“Well, I can’t speak for him, considering we are no better than strangers. Though I will be more than happy to send my mentee here to rebuke him for you.” Kazuya turned towards his mentee, signalling him to leave.
Luca quickly got on his skateboard, fleeing the scene.
Luca's life had always been full of ups and downs. In his first year at the Academy, many had called him ‘rebellious’ and ‘juvenile’ for using something as vulgar as a skateboard in the prestigious Star Academy, where about 80% of the student population came from wealthy backgrounds, some of them being the heirs of highly influential Guilds. They were spoiled brats who expected the world to revolve around them and wanted everything around them to be up to their standards. Consequently, these were also the guys who believed that riding a skateboard was something that only plebeians did.
That's why on his first day, Luca took that same skateboard they looked down upon and beat them back and blue, regardless of their connections. Ever since that event, an entire faction was born under Luca, which gained even more power within the Academy, when Luca became one of the top students in his grade.
And when Luca received his Skateboard Manoeuvre Art, his passion for skateboarding only grew stronger, and soon after, he was considered one of the fastest students Star Academy has ever had since its founding.
As Luca rolled his skateboard, a thin line of green mana sparkled on his wheels, reinforcing his momentum. But despite his great swiftness, an arrow accelerated forward, jamming itself into the tree, Luca had just passed.
Luca scurried between the trees, to evade his pursuer. The hunter wasn't the two Elves, since he knew Kazuya wouldn't let them go after him, so it must be one of the Elves' missing comrades.
Luca extended his senses to gauge the power of his opponent, but weirdly he couldn’t sense the presence of anyone behind him. Whoever it was, must be someone very skilled to be able to hide his presence so well, even when someone was actively searching for them.
Deciding against shaking him off, instead, Luca took to the trees. He activated his Art. Instantly, his mana spread out from his body and coated his skateboard. His Art was unique in the fact that as long his skateboard was used as a medium, he could impart different properties to his mana, as long as he knew how the property worked.
The property he activated at this moment was Adhesion. He had to comb through several scientific books to understand how this property worked as well had spent countless hours using the knowledge to further his understanding of his Art. The fruits of his training were invaluable, giving him the ability to scale any obstacle like a gecko.
He started to cruise his skateboard on the large trunk of a nearby tree, quickly reaching the top of the forest cover, where the enemy was.
Finding his foe in front of him, the Elf came to a stop. This was the first time Luca was seeing his pursuer properly. It was a male Moon Elf, dressed quite similarly to the ones from before. But there was a clear distinction between the two. Even with the Elf standing from him, it was hard for Luca to feel any kind of presence from him. The lack of unnecessary movements and the serenity of his presence was on another level. As a fellow Assassin, Luca held great admiration for such finely-refined stealth skills.
But right now this Assassin was out for him, and he had to prevent that at all costs.
As the two assessed each other, silence descended around them.
‘Woosh!’ An arrowhead jammed itself into the Skateboard, plummeting it to the ground. Luca was left standing on the branch, unarmed.
The elf nocked another arrow on his bow, now aiming it straight between Luca’s eyes. Luca locked eyes with him, refusing to lose sight of his attacker. But oblivious to the other party, wheels were turning behind the scene.
An arrow appeared out of nowhere, grazing the Elf's cheek. He sent his arrow flying in surprise, but instead of landing on its target, the arrow bounced off the skateboard that had mysteriously returned to its owner.
“How?” The Elf looked at the pink-haired boy in surprise, but instead of a response, all he was greeted with was his arrow, travelling at speeds that were enough to slice down trees. The Elf jumped away to get out of the arrow’s trajectory, but the arrow simply corrected its path, following its owner like a dog returning home.
After a short while, the Elf was seriously ticked off and lost his cool. He summoned his mana and blasted the arrow to smithereens.
“Aww. The show was just getting started.” Luca lightly laughed at his opponent.
“Enough!” The Elf roared in fury. “You humans do love those parlour tricks of yours, don’t you?”
This remark got on Luca’s nerves. He had spent countless hours polishing his mastery over his internal mana, to pull that stunt off.
The Elf leaped toward him, a dagger in his hand. Right before the blade could pierce his heart, Luca pushed against the Elf’s body and leaped backward to another tree. The Elf continued forward, ready to finish what he was out to do, but the pieces were already in place.
Luca sneered at him, as the Elf froze mid-jump, like a marionette without a master.
Puppeteer.
That was the one and only Skill Luca had received when he had Awakened on his seventeenth birthday. Finding out that it was a B Rank Skill, he had been quite disappointed. But only for a short while. Pretty soon, he found that the Skill was much better than he had previously thought, giving him the power to control anything, even humans, like a puppet master using strings to control every single action of his marionettes.
Of course, the skill had its own weaknesses, such as the condition to attach the Puppeteer’s strings was to make physical contact with the target. Not to mention, the strings were very weak and would take little mana to be cut off. Still, the skill was virtually unbeatable if you didn't understand the principle behind the attack.
That's why except for himself, nobody knew that his true Skill was Puppeteer. Everyone thought it was a form of Telekinesis, making them lower their guard and after that, it was all too easy for him to stick his mana strings on his opponents.
Luca slowly approached the now-defenceless Elf, still oblivious to what had happened to him.
He flashed him a playful smile, “Now be a good little boy and wait for daddy to come home.”
The Elf’s eyes narrowed on him. “You better hope you don’t encounter me when the moon is out, human. I won’t show you any mercy.”
“Wow, you are quite forward. Sure, let’s set up a date night.” Saying that Luca hopped onto his skateboard and then drove away, to find Evva and Ray.
