Chapter 112 - Turn Off Passive Skills

"He… aha… bahaha!" Ro laughs, pointing at me.

I glare at him from under the folds of several blankets wrapped around me. "Eat shit," I reply, unable to move anything other than my left arm properly.

Eniyala does her best to hide a smirk. "You do look pretty ridiculous."

I groan loudly, trying to ignore them. I use my arm to throw a blanket over my face. "You guys suck," I mutter.

"Oh? Who disappeared for three months again?" Eniyala says, tugging at the blanket. "Hey, that wasn't my fault," I growl back, right before she snatches the cover away. "Hey! I need that!"

She gives it back — by throwing it at my face. I sigh, rolling my eyes. 'I know they missed me, but this treatment suggests otherwise…'

A knock on the door finally cuts their teasing and laughing short. "Come in! Please," I call out. The door swings open to reveal a shorter woman, who steps into the somewhat dim room. "So uh, the governor's here. Again. With the innkeeper, obviously."

Eniyala lets out a low whistle. "Get this. Termi here is—"

"Shut. Up," Termi cuts her off, sounding incredibly dangerous. Ro giggles. "You're pretty cool, you know?"

She turns her gaze to him slowly, and I swear I can almost hear creepy squeaking sounds coming from her neck. "You. Aren't you supposed to be depressed about your sister?"

"Oh. Aw, man," he says, suddenly remembering. He trudges off, already reaching for one of his many storage cubes. 'I wonder how much is in each of those.'

A few seconds after he leaves, two silhouettes replace him, one of them knocking on the door. As they step in, they go from a figure shorter than Termi and one tall and lanky, to a woman with similar hair and eyes to Termi's, and a Hybrid that was half snake. He had legs and arms, but his head was that of a rattlesnake's, proven with his "belt" — it was his tail, poking up from under his shirt to wrap through the loops of his jeans. Where the belt buckle would have been, his rattle sits, occasionally twitching up or down.

The Dwarf speaks up first. "Thank you, my dear niece. I am the governor of Mt. Turra, Fostia Foartiff."

I perk up. "Niece? You're related to the governor, and didn't think to tell us??"

The governor stomps her foot lightly as Termi rolls her eyes. "I know, right?! She could have at least visited when you guys got here. However, that's not the point of my visit, unfortunately."

When I give her a confused look, she raises her brow. "Ah, right. You… weren't around my first visit, huh?"

The Hybrid man, clearly growing impatient evident via his foot tapping and the rattle shaking more fiercely, steps forward. "It'sss about payment. Again."

Without a word, Eni points to my bedridden ass. The snake turns his attention to me. 'You gotta be joking…'

Fostia holds her hands up, palms facing me, as if it'll ease the new pains in my heart. "We know you are the beginnings of the Saint's party. And Sword Saint, I would personally like to thank you for driving out the Assassin Demon from my city." She bows her head in appreciation, and I awkwardly rub the top of my head, messing with my hair. "Right, right… It's nothing."

"That is why I only ask for a quarter of the pay for repairs to the city. And Rascillion here is only asking for half for his inn."

Rascillion doesn't seem pleased with that, but doesn't dare argue with her.

Looking curiously at her, I ask, "And if I can't afford it…?"

Her eyes darken and narrow so subtly, I might be the only one to notice it. "Let's be honest here. If you can't afford it, the lightest I could get you off with is banishment from the city, effective immediately."

Eniyala leans over to whisper in my ear. "She knows about how much you have left. We paid with your cube last time."

The snake man flickers his tongue out with an arrogant smirk. I sigh, pointing to a cube on my left. The reptile jumps over, trying to lift the cube… and cannot. After trying to get it to budge even a tiny bit for a minute, he finally gives it up, panting heavily. "You musssst have filled this up with rocks or something."

With a sigh, I reach over, pulling on the cube with my fingers. It scoots closer, and I wrap my hand around it, picking it up. 'What a sad sight. I can pick up my wealth now.'

Placing it on my stomach, I awkwardly open the contents of the cube, still stuck using only my left hand.

{Registered: Klum

Permissions:

Eniyala Ignios

Lynsel}

Reluctantly, I added Fostia's name to the cube, tossing it over to her once I've done so. She catches it — nearly drops it, more like — and struggles to hold it in her arms as she inspects it. She nods with a warm smile. "We'll take only what's required. I promise."

I wave her off sullenly, closing my eyes and throwing a blanket over my head. "Mhm. If you'll excuse me, I need rest."

I can hear the irritation in his voice as Rascillion pipes up. "Tonight isss the lasssst night you may sssstay here. Then, never come back again!"

The door slams. After a couple minutes, I feel Eniyala stand up from the bed. "Sleep well, Klum. I'm glad you came back. I… We need you around."

She pauses for a second; then, clearly becoming embarrassed, adds, "sometimes. We need you sometimes."

I hear hurried footsteps, and the door opening. "Thank you," she finishes, closing the door gently.

I rip the blanket back down to stare at the dark ceiling. "Is any of what I'm doing the right thing?" I ask myself. It's not the first time; it probably won't be the last.

<There is no predetermined course to take be the Sword Saint. If user unworthy, when attends a Class Upgrade, they will denied. still considered worthy Saint, receive proper Upgrade.>

"That's totally not terrifying… But also, is very helpful. Thanks."

<The tutorial is always helpful! Praise it. Now.>

Ignoring it, I swipe it away. As much as I didn't care about the title of Sword Saint, it certainly had its perks. If I suddenly lost everything that came with being it…

Who could say whether I would be able to protect everyone?

Curiosity and dread wins over my heart, and with pained groans I force my body to move. Slowly, carefully, I pull my legs out from their pile of blankets, shrugging more off as I sluggishly sit up.

'Inventory. Beholder's Eye.'

[No item found.]

"The hell?" I ask, my hand retracting slightly. I had grown so used to the Inventory, this was second nature, but this was new.

"Open Inventory."

A screen opens, showing off a list of images from top to bottom in rarity. At the very top, the handle sits, surrounded with a gold border. The colored borders represented the rarity of the item, and correlated with the colors for Ranks and other rarity measurements in this world.

"Did you upgrade by almost breaking or something? That's creepy," I ponder as I grab it out of its box, flipping it around in my hands. Weakly, I stand up, wobbling before I steady myself. I hold out the handle, and another cloud of smoke puffs from the end of the handle. "The fuck? Come on," I mutter, smacking it once before holding it out again. This time, the blade does form, but very slowly. It pours out like dirty sludge as it roughly takes shape.

'Maybe it needs a rest too. Just give me this one practice, please.'

As if it can hear my thoughts, the shape sharpens to its usual consistency, and I sigh in relief. "Tutorial? Can I turn off all passive Skills?"

<Yes. Does the user wish to turn them off?>

"…Uh, duh."

<The user asked if they CAN, not to—< p>

"I swear to the Gods."

<Turning off all Passive Skills.>

Immediately, I feel the effects. The sword no longer feels like an extension of my body. The way I turn and attack with the blade feels crude and unskillful. I hadn't realized how much I had relied on my Skills for my swordsmanship.

Luke was never good at practicing.

But Klum felt pure exhilaration as he refined his swordsmanship to even greater heights by coming to understand it on an even deeper level.

* * *

In another room…

The door opened every thirty minutes for a while, before it hit too late, and Eniyala went to sleep. A small, yellow and orange creature lies curled up on a plush blanket. The healing had thankfully taken effect; all he needed now was a good, long rest.

The critter slept happily, proud of what he had done for his friend.