"Oh wow! This was the only thing left." I bolted after the thief, feet barely catching up with my brain. My coins jingled in my bag like a party streamer in the thief's grip.
I chase down the thief with the lowest interest rate possible at this time-man I need a break! I am not going to pay for bad luck bank's interest rate even if it has a discount since it gave me the bad luck loan for free.
...wait-there's three of them!?
"I am pretty sure I did not step on any cat's tail today then why this." I groaned. My lungs were already protesting.
One thief climbed a building like it was a casual stroll. I skipped to a stop, watching him go vertical like Spider-Man.
"You bastards, Give me my money back!!" I howled, my voice cracking so hard I sounded like a dying rooster.
In front of me, my money bag was being tossed around like a game of hot potato.
Toss.
Catch.
Toss.
Catch.
"Oh sure, have a pass the ball play with my savings. I wonder who will face my rage once the play music of you feet stops." I muttered through gritted teeth.
I clenched my fists and charged toward the building. My bag landed in the hands of the rooftop thief again. I ducked low, kicked off the ground, and hurled myself at the roof's ledge like some budget action hero.
SLAM! I hit the limestone pavement of the roof somehow still intact-and bolted after the thief.
He turned just in time to see me charging like a wild bull-head, arms out, fully committed to crashing into him like I was born for demolition duty.
I was this close to grabbing him when-CLANK!
A loud thwack echoed in the air, sharp like someone slapping a wooden bat on a skull.
I skidded to a stop, nearly tripping over my own feet. My brain tried to process what just happened. The thief was sprawled on the ground like a broken doll.
"Did he just uninstall himself?" I mumbled.
Standing there looming like a shadow was a figure clad in black-same attire as the thieves-except this one was way taller, broader and holding a wooden Japanese-style sword in his left hand which had a white cloth wrapped around it's handle.
My lips parted forming an, 'o' trying to say wow which barely left my throat. I was dazed at the sight of such skillful warrior, I was still unknowingly staring at the passed out corpse of the thief.
"Here's your bag." Said the figure; the voice was sharp and cold... yet oddly, very slightly feminine?
"Wait is that person a woman...? No way! Women are smaller and not muscular at all and not this skillful...mostly-I guess."
I asked my ears, my eyes all wide. Then suddenly the systems screen appears infront of my savior.
Hmmm...yup definitely a man: I confirmed to myself after ogling the hero from head to toe.
Ding!
The traitor system finally showed up again-
[IDENTITY DATA]
Name: not known by the user(yet)
Age: 16
Height: 5'9 feet
Profession: student for now
Weapon proficiency: swords (of all kinds) [skill = 10+], knifes[skill = 9.9+], nun-chunks[skill = 10+], axe[skill = 9+], halberd[skill = 9.6+], bow and arrows(all types) [skill = 9+], war hammer[skill = 8.9+] and shuriken[skill = 8+]
Soul level rank: ErR0r
Mana level: 10/11
IQ: ERROR
***
What the heck?! That man is hell buffed. What kind of cheat code he has. Plus, he's a student.
"A-a thank-thank you." I stated thanking him, somehow managing my voice, which somehow came out like a little squirrel.
A low dark chuckle escapes my savior's mouth through that black mask around his mouth. Small wrinkles formed around his eye by his inflated cheeks. I noticed a small black mole around his eye it looked familiar... a lot of characters have mole near their eye in this anime so who is this man?
A light blush crept above my cheeks-wait! I can explain guys, I am not gay for sure!!
I kept drowning in my mind's mess and the warrior left without a word.
Wo... was that my fated knight in a black dull armor instead of a shiny one?
I open my money bag; thankfully not even a single coin was lost except for one thing...
"They took my mana storing blue rock." I gritted my teeth in anger.
Before you all think what the heck is with a blue rock? Then let me tell you that this blue rock is considered the supreme treasure of Behemoth Empire.
Get ready for a little story time my little spookies-
Manhattan-yes that cruel man who made a traumatizing history for homo-mazis; he was the first who found the blue rock; named after his blind daughter Blue due to having similar color like her blue eyes, blue rock was a power house of resources. It emitted soft blue light at night, somehow also acted as a fuel which lasted longer than coal, petrol and other fossil fuels; modern science used it as an antidote for diseases spread by red rock about which we will learn later.
Manhattan used to be a royal knight, so like as a loyal servant to his nation he presented the rock to the emperor of Behemoth empire of that time, telling him all the benefits of this tiny little rock.
The emperor asked for the rock for himself, but Manhattan refused to sell it to the emperor because his daughter had asthma which surprisingly was getting healed bit by bit by being fed blue rock's molten liquid state.
So... the emperor used the most common and beloved methods of the emperors-'chop the head off!'
Manhattan's head was chopped off by six swordsmen in front of the whole royal assembly and the same day his daughter died due to red rock disease.
The emperor took the blue rock to himself and the next day his own head was found hung on the gate of the castle. It was Manhattan who killed him; somehow Manhattan was still alive-probably got a free rebirth.
By this time his daughter has already died and got consumed by the earth due to red rock disease.
Manhattan was rumored to have gained immortality; he ruled the empire for a decade in the most peaceful way by him until...
Big mines of blue rocks were found out of the blue throughout the empire and some other nations which surrounded Behemoth Empire, a lot of people consumed the molten blue rock but they died. Which made people suspicious but somehow the other feature of the blue rock like, glowing at night, its fuel properties, and other things were same as it was told by Manhattan.
When Manhattan ascended the throne he spent two centuries in capturing every territory that had blue rock in its land and few homo-mazis dynasties. For two centuries Behemoth Empire painted itself in crimson veil of thousand, millions of innocent's blood.
Later after the war ended and a lot of mines were founded of blue rock Manhattan did something weird. He renamed the blue rock as frankesite after her wife Franka who cheated on him with a rich duke.
I wonder why the capital is named after her tho?
He also established Blue Rock University after the war since, his daughter Blue loved studying.
BRU is about four hundred years old university. The university was never considered a part of Franka lawfully, it was a whole different place just for education. And was build on the one of the largest blue rock mines which means homo-mazis magic there does not work at certain areas.
Manhattan ruled for six centuries, that is, six hundred years. And then he suddenly disappeared into the thin air after making a monacracy government sytem, a system mix up of monarchy and democracy in which people elected the emperors and the emperor elected other people like army general, ministers and so on.
Blue rock is used in several magic spells and it somehow suppresses magic-how ironic. It can be used as a mana storage thing too. And that's why most people carry a small blue rock having healing mana stored in it which is shaped like a circle since it's the most balanced shape.
This little blue rock usually was given by the doctors which of course are mostly homo-mazis or homo-stealzis but few homo-stealths are in that field. The doctors basically store healing mana in it for emergency for the patient.
And my blue rock had a lot of healing mana stored in it by Naina, that was for an emergency use since getting myself healed directly allows Naina to hear my thoughts at the time being-and I don't want her to hear my current thoughts for sure.
But why would they steal my blue rock sphere unless... they somehow know that the healing mana in it is divine...
My eyes widened at the realization. I knew for sure that something or someone was trying to make my plans fail like always or either someone was trying to make Naina fall, eventually ruining my plans to ascend to godhood just like always-but...who is that person who has swore an eternal rivalry with me.
I glanced back at the street's dimly lit alley in which those bastard thieves disappeared. That was the first time he saw a street where street lamps were fused or broke-coincidence? No.
The street seemed to emit a whole different vibe of life in the throbbing shimmering heart of the capital Franka; the only place having a whole different shade of grey enveloping it. It was 6 pm of morning which meant it will soon be dark after an half of an hour.
I kept staring; staring in that darkness of that alley, pondering-will it have the secrets which will be the answer of my question?
My mind wanted to step closer but something from my heart lub-dubbed, telling me that I should not go, that I am too weak to know the truth for now. But my mind reluctantly protested against the weak lub-dub philosophy of my heart.
The mind won.
One by one, step by step my feet moved into that dark alley, my senses getting more alert and alert with each step.
Pause...
I stilled myself, seeing the line between shadow of the dark thin alley and the warm sunset's sunlight, questioning, doubting, pondering, wondering, struggling to tell myself-shall I go or not?
The extent after this warm line was dark and had my necessity, the extent before this shadow had nothing except a regret to return with.
A similar cowardly feeling creeps inside me, asking what if I faced something way too powerful and get a restart of that frustrating loop again...? But at the same time I knew that this was probably a close call to my wish, my wish to be able go back to my original world again.
I stepped forward, my breath calculated.
Small broken bulbs produced just enough light to show me the track till five feet in front of me. The houses inside were broken and no sunlight reached the ground due to the bushy trees which were on the both side of the street.
Almost my each step got entangled with a big mansion of a spider. A lot of insects like roaches, house flies, lizard and many other disgusting beings made the street darkness their permanent
I walked, trotted and kept walking for about thirty minutes until I reached an unexpected end...
The path ended with a very tough looking bark of tree. I looked above me...
The trees were way too leafy to be able to climb up to the other side. I did not notice any branches which might were chopped to make the way to the other side.
"Were they ghost? No, they probably did not just walk through this bark of the tree." I muttered to myself.
I reached my hand out to inspect the tree's wall like trunk.
It was hard like a rock. But then as I slide my right hand along its lengthy thickness my hands felt softness-a weird type of semi-hairy softness. It was as if I could go through it.
Like reflex, I shoved myself inside taking in heavy air-who knows if I might suffocate?
I kept walking inside for like about thirty seconds until I crashed into something hard...