...The First Run

Vaeril jumped at the swirl of mana with Kumi close behind. The door appeared the moment they got close enough. Jumping into a frontflip kick, Vaeril broke the handle along with the door using his foot, tearing the entire door off of its hinges as he rode it like a skateboard for a second before the door touched the ground and he jumped into a forward roll.

Clanging on the floor, Kumi jumped over the fallen door as she looked at Vaeril jogging ahead of her.

"Showoff."

She muttered to herself as she picked up speed, trying to reach Vaeril's location as fast as she could.

As Vaeril was only lightly jogging, Kumi could easily catch up in a few short seconds. Jumping over Vaeril as if she was playing leapfrog, she giggled as she overtook him while asking.

"What was that? I didn't know we were supposed to be showing off, Parky~"

"I wasn't, Kumi. I got bored of just opening the door and have been kicking it down in various ways for a long time now."

He said with a light smile and sigh as he looked at Kumi.

"Don't try to show off too much in the later levels, remember to pay attention. Got it?"

"Uhuh. Just show off a Little. Got it."

Kumi responded with a smile as she dodged to the right, avoiding a pipe spear coming from the ground.

"Why not pick up the pace? I know you can go faster."

Kumi asked as she jumped over a pillar that smashed through the wall, coming from her left.

Vaeril jumped and used the wall to his right to bounce over the pillar before answering.

"Pay attention, Kumi. For now, we only need to get used to each other's presence and you specifically need to get used to going on runs."

"Really?"

Kumi ducked under a few pipes before she continued. The duo came upon a fork in the road.

"Right," Vaeril said as Kumi followed the instruction without hesitation before he spoke again.

"Really."

"Wouldn't it be better to just rush past Level 1 and start getting used to things at Level 2? Less work more progress."

"No, we can't do that. Besides, I remember you telling me that you're here for training. No matter how easy it may seem, you shouldn't skip this level since it is technically part of your training."

"Tch. You're just like the maids."

The duo came upon a wall with a window-shaped hole in it and two paths going both right and left of the wall.

"Through the window," Vaeril told her as Kumi jumped straight through the window-shaped hole, closely followed by Vaeril. The two immediately separated as pipe spikes shot from the ground a moment after they landed. Vaeril then continued.

"Don't click your tongue at me young lady, and I am far from a maid."

He spoke as he caught a pipe coming from his side and slammed it into the wall next to him with a spin.

"Heartfelt apologies, Parky."

Junko spoke before manoeuvering through a few delayed pipe spikes that came from all around along with a single pillar that came from above.

"Much better."

Vaeril spoke with satisfaction as he too dodged a dense wave of pipe spikes and pipe spears.

The two continued their run as the jokes and banter slowly faded. They kept a certain distance between each other while they both started focusing more and more on the constant traps.

Kumi had a few beads of sweat running down her forehead and a few very light scratches on her arms and legs as her reaction time wasn't quite up to par yet. The red glow from her Skill helped greatly, but if almost everything was glowing she couldn't quite make out what was more dangerous to her out of everything else.

Vaeril was perfectly fine. Not a bead of sweat or a single scratch staining his body.

He was still holding back in regards of speed as he was more focused on watching Kumi. As a pleasant surprise, she was adapting well to the constant bombardment of traps.

As time went on, she seemed to learn at what angle the pipe spikes would emerge and exactly when the pillars would smash through the wall and create a momentary blindspot as she needed to blink when that happened, much like anyone else would need to blink if a wall exploded next to them.

To Vaeril this was all exceedingly impressive as he didn't quite have any idea how she was learning all of this.

To Kumi, in this scenario, some of the red glow from the outlines started to look more 'red' in colour than other red colours.

If she were to explain this along with her Skill to Vaeril, he would undoubtedly just facepalm and accept it as it is.

Kumi still suffered a few small scratches every now and then when some red didn't quite seem to her as red as it should be but she was definitely making progress.

Some minutes passed.

From this one run alone, Kumi had already gained one level each in {Caution}, {Unnoticeable Concentration} and {Training}. Caution reached Level 3, Concentration reached Level 2 and Training had reached Level 5.

The benefits from the Skill Level Ups were minute and their effects in the training simulation even more so but even considerably small benefits were worthwhile for Kumi both now and in the future.

Besides that, the duo had reached Level 2 with only minor difficulties.

The Level of Hellspawn Cameras and Pounding Walls.

The hallways changed to large open office rooms with desks, chairs and other miscellaneous items cluttered around the place.

Kicking open a double door, Vaeril jumped into a roll and landed beneath a desk.

Kumi, who had fallen slightly behind also entered the room and threw herself beneath the desk right next to Vaeril.

"Level 2 now?"

"Level 2. As discussed, wait for the right time and make a dash for the nearest desk. Through those double doors on the other side of the room, there will be a small hallway that leads to another one of these rooms. 3 to 5 in total regularly. If you get caught by a camera, fucking sprint for it."

"Got it chief."

"Chief?"

"Don't question my comments during life or pseudo-death scenarios, Parkour."

"Okay?"

Vaeril answered in slight confusion before suddenly feeling a good route appear.

Giving Kumi a glance, he dashed out of his hiding spot and backflipped over the desk he was hiding under, landing on a chair, he rolled to another nearby desk which he jumped under before kicking the rolling chair away from his location so no camera would come to check the movement.

Kumi was glancing over the desk she was hiding under at what Vaeril was doing.

"Showoff."

She muttered as a moment passed and she no longer sensed any danger nor saw any red glow emanating from anywhere.

Leaving her hiding spot completely, she sprinted past Vaeril's hiding spot and vaulted over an office chair and landed next to a different desk which she quickly crawled under.

"Check that out, Parkoury boy. Got past ya."

She spoke to herself as she glanced at Vaeril's direction.

She couldn't see him or his reaction but she felt a little proud of her tiny accomplishment anyway.

Though just because she made it to the hiding spot didn't mean she did great at the task.

The chair she vaulted over was swaying. A camera that scanned over the area picked up on this.

Floating to a different angle, it saw Kumi hiding under the desk, and Kumi in turn saw the camera now staring straight at her.

"Ahh. Crap."

A dangerous and bright red glow lit up above her and the light was growing brighter by the moment.

Making a last-ditch effort to avoid the falling ceiling and planning to attempt a sprint, she glanced above her only to see the ceiling less than 2 metres away from crushing her to a paste.

She reacted too slowly.

The ceiling grew closer, the red glow brighter.

A moment before her death and the failure of the run, she blinked only to find herself back in front of her blaring computer.

"Huh?"

She pushed herself out of her cubicle and looked towards the place where Vaeril's desk was.

He was sitting in his chair, leaning back. He held his neck tightly while frowning at the ceiling with closed eyes.

"Umm... Vaeril?"

Kumi asked, the reaction something she hadn't seen from the man before.

Vaeril opened one of his eyes as he glanced at her, not saying a word.

"... Sorry. I wasn't careful enough."

She apologised while looking at the ground next to her. Kumi knew what had happened now.

To keep her, a child, from experiencing death, Vaeril had committed suicide the moment he saw that Kumi wouldn't be able to escape from the falling ceiling.

Kumi felt terrible at that fact. She made Vaeril do something no human should do just to save her the trauma.

Vaeril sighed as he saw Kumi's distraught, sad and regretful face.

"It's fine. You're a kid, Kumi. I was expecting at least a few mistakes on your part."

Varril stood and cracked his neck.

"How about we be more careful next time and hold back a little on the showing off?"

"...says you... Okay."

Kumi muttered before giving her answer.

"Ignoring that first part. No need to worry though, we made it quite far, for your first run you did great. You just need to get used to it more and don't worry, I'll be there if you mess up."

Vaeril said with a light smile while pointing his thumb at himself.

"Thanks."

"Now, how about a coffee break?"