10 I Seem to Have Forgotten Something Important...
In another part of the forest, the burly man William met earlier was standing in a clearing next to a stream. He was holding a piece of jade, and his two companions were resting nearby.
"...So you failed." A voice came out of the jade.
"Yes, sir. The brats were stronger than expected."
"What happened?"
"The one we thought was weak was a wolf in sheep's skin. He revealed himself and brought the other two away. We were unable to follow them. He seems to have the ability to control swords."
"Control swords!?...I thought his lineage had long died out. It seems he has still left behind his inheritance."
"...I will send a tracking mouse and one of my escorts with you. Your team will meet with them and follow their commands unconditionally, understand?"
"Yes sir!"
…
The next day...
"Yawn!"
William rubbed his eyes, sitting up and stretching his arms.
"That is so uncomfortable."
"Should sleeping on the floor be comfortable?" asked Ryan, who seemed to have woken up a bit earlier than him.
"Still, I wish we could've brought something more comfortable to sleep in."
Ryan agreed.
"Yeah, but that wasn't high on our priority list."
William noticed Fletcher at the back of the cave again, but this time, he was cultivating. Not wanting to bother him, he sat a distance away from him and opened the system.
'I made the system collect and sell gold coins overnight. I wonder how much SP I have now?'
"1197."
'I gained almost 300 SP overnight. Not bad.'
William opened the shop.
'Okay, show me some combat techniques. Useful ones.'
"Affirmative."
______________________________
…
[Pyrokinesis] [300 SP]
[Advanced Sword Control Scripture] [320 SP]
[Fleeting Cloud Movement Technique] [340 SP]
[Spear of Zeus] [350 SP]
[Spirit Regeneration] [370 SP]
…
______________________________
'Hm... I already have the sword control scripture. This new one can't be much different. What I need to do is make up for my weaknesses. …system, show me the movement technique and spirit regeneration."
______________________________
[Fleeting Cloud Movement Technique]
[Price: 340 SP]
[Spirit Peak Tier Combat Technique]
[Allows to you to move quickly and agilely. You can use anything as a platform, even if it's a leaf, and propel yourself off of it. This technique allows you to walk on clouds when you understand it well enough]
______________________________
______________________________
[Spirit Regeneration]
[Price: 370 SP]
[Spirit Peak Tier Combat Technique]
[This technique allows you to heal yourself by converting some of your spiritual energy into another form and cycling that energy around an injury]
______________________________
'These seem pretty useful. System, purchase both of them.'
"Would you like to purchase [Fleeting cloud movement technique] and [Spirit Regeneration] for 710 SP?"
"Yes."
Suddenly, two books appeared above William. They both fell, one after another, slamming into William's head.
"Ow!"
William rubbed his head.
"Something wrong?" asked Fletcher. He had been interrupted from cultivating when he heard William's voice.
"It's nothing!"
"...okay," said Fletcher, closing his eyes and continuing to cultivate.
William picked up the two books on the ground. Putting spirit regeneration on the side for now, he took a look at the fleeting cloud movement technique.
'...I can't understand a thing.'
William sighed.
'System, show me where those comprehension boosts are.'
"Affirmative."
______________________________
...
[Minor Comprehension Boost] [6 SP/Minute]
[Comprehension Boost] [1 SP/Second]
[Ultra Comprehension Boost] [10 SP/Second]
...
______________________________
'Give me the ultra comprehension boost. As much as possible.'
"Purchase 48 seconds of [Ultra Comprehension Boost] for 480 SP?"
'Yes.'
A stone tablet appeared above William, threatening to fall on his head. Expecting it this time, William caught it and quickly used it.
Immediately, he opened the book on the fleeting cloud movement technique and read through it.
Exactly 48 seconds later, William closed the book.
'System, show me my status panel.'
______________________________________
[William Reynolds]
[SP: 7]
[Cultivation Technique: Nine Revolution Absorption]
[Cultivation Level: Spirit Foundation Realm- Stage 3] [+]
[Spiritual Force: 30/30]
[Strength: 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Speed: 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Agility: 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Spirit 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Will: 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Techniques Learned:]
[Farming (Novice)] [Cooking (Novice)] [Beast Taming (Initiation)] [Illusory Sword (Initiation)] [Sword Control Scripture (Novice)] [Fleeting Cloud Movement Technique (Experienced)]
______________________________________
Fleeting cloud movement technique, experienced!
William smiled. He status panel was finally becoming less empty. He glanced at his SP. It seemed he was also becoming poorer...
Anyway, money could be earned back. Staying alive was more important.
William glanced at the quest description.
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[Ambush]
[Desc: A group of people are hidden in the shadows, waiting to strike. Escape from their attacks and go into hiding until they leave]
[Bonus Condition: Help Fletcher and Ryan escape with you]
[Reward: Comprehension Boost (24 Hrs)]
[Bonus Reward: Escape Crystal (3)]
[Time limit: 3 Days]
[Penalty for Failure: Death]
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William had a feeling it wouldn't be as simple as escaping and hiding for a few days. Most likely, they were still being chased, and their enemies would find them at some point within the time limit. Then, there would be some battle where they either killed all the enemies, forced them to retreat, or escaped.
After that... he wasn't sure. This quest would be over, but he might get another quest later related to the same thing, if their enemy was persistent enough.
Anyway, he wouldn't have to worry about that today. Tomorrow would be the last day of the quest, and that was always when things like that happened. Today, he could slowly gather some strength and prepare for what was to come.
William stood up. The next thing to do was to familiarize himself with his combat techniques into battle. While he knew what to do in his head, he needed to actually execute the techniques to use them better in combat.
"Uh... Fletcher? Do you mind training with me?"
Fletcher didn't even open his eyes, only saying, "There's no point. Even Ryan and I combined wouldn't be able to fight with you. You want to practice that sword technique, right? Just use it on the wall."
"But there's also a movement technique I want to practice..."
"Where do you keep getting these fro-... nevermind. You'll have to leave the movement technique for later. There's no space to practice it, and you can't go out now."
William sighed. He knew it was likely the enemy would only arrive tomorrow, but he couldn't exactly explain his system and the quests to them.
'That's 480 SP I'll never get back. Sigh... at least it wasn't completely wasted. But still, it's a bit of a waste not to practice the movement technique now, before our opponents get here.'
William went to one of the walls of the cave and brought out all his swords. Some of them looked a bit bent from the fight, but they were otherwise fine. William thought it wouldn't be a huge problem, so he quickly waved his hands, using the sword control technique.
All ten swords flew into the air. Right now, what William wanted to do was enhance his control over the swords, so that he could have his sword collaborate with one another, having some block his opponent while the others would attack.
In the last battle, he noticed that attacks were mostly one dimensional, and all of his swords were doing one action at the same time.
However, making his swords all do different actions all at the same time would be like playing ten different games at one time, incredibly difficult. Therefore, his goal today was just to control the swords in two groups, so that he could have some more options when he fought.
His first attempt went horribly, as expected. He could try to make the swords so two different things, but he was already having trouble making them move and point in the right direction. Without being able to do either of these well, he might as well keep them all in one group.
What made this worse was the fact that his spiritual energy kept running out midway, and it took forever to replenish, which forced him to stop practicing.
However, after an hour or so of this, he could feel that he was getting better. While it still wasn't easy to control the swords in two groups, he could do it now, it just meant that he would need to pay a lot of attention and wouldn't be able to focus on other things.
After reaching this point, William noticed his spiritual energy was almost gone, and he stopped for a break.
He sat on the ground, deep in thought. Recently, he had a feeling he was forgetting something important. But he didn't know what. Anyway, there was no point in thinking about that now.
"I should start practicing that illusory sword technique after this."
"Rustle rustle!"
William turned towards the entrance.
"Who's there?!"
There was no response, but William heard another rustle and a tiny rooster came through the entrance.
"Lucky?"
"Cock a doodle doo..."
Lucky's body swayed, and it collapsed on the floor.
"Lucky!"
William went over to the rooster's body and inspected it.
"Well... it seems fine. It probably starved though. I completely forgot about it when I got off the carriage."
William sighed and left the rooster near the inside of the cave. He knew he only had himself to blame for this. The quest description only talked about Fletcher and Ryan, so he completely forgot about the rooster that was sleeping nearby.
"But how did it get all the way here and find us?"
With no answer, William could only attribute it to luck.
William sat down next to Lucky to watch it, waiting for it to wake up. As he waited, he slowly patted its head.
"I must be the worst pet owner ever. I actually forgot about you in my rush to escape. But you still somehow made your way here. You're really lucky, you know that?"
William sat there for a few more minutes, before he noticed the rooster had already opened its eyes.
"Oh! That was fast."
William opened a bottle of water and tilted it to let Lucky drink out of it. After a moment, it stopped drinking.
"You're probably really hungry too, right?"
William picked up Lucky and walked to the food pile.
"Want some of this?" he asked, showing lucky a piece of bread. Lucky eyed it with a look of disdain, as if asking if people really ate that.
(ತ_ತ)
"Come on! It's not that bad. And there's nothing else for you to eat," William tried to convince it to eat.
Lucky bit the piece of bread and put on a look of disgust.
"Don't look at me with that face. It's your fault you didn't bring your food when you left the carriage," William said, immediately pushing the blame away from himself.
Lucky immediately felt wronged and it waved its wings in the air angrily
'Dumb owner, how am I supposed to bring that grain sack along?! This is clearly all your fault! Don't push the blame on me!''
Of course, it couldn't voice its complaints, so it could only let its anger out on the piece of bread, ripping it apart and eating it within moments. Lucky suddenly discovered that it had run out of bread, and it ran to get another piece.
'On second thought, this bread isn't that bad.'
