IM1: Chapter #32 (Patreon)

Crimson flashed across the alley as Akira pounced, her claws carving through the axe wielding adventurer’s chest with ease. A hoarse scream burst from his lips as he tried to throw her off, but she simply spun in the air, her tail slamming into him and sending him flying into the wall with a sickening crunch. Burning flames leaked from her eyes as she turned to glare at Gorver who was still staggering, clutching his head. Across the alleyway, Pattia, whose legs were still bleeding from the damage caused by Thorn’s stone spikes tried to retreat but before she could back up more than a single step, Akira had crossed the distance, her claws flashing again, leaving a crimson streak in the air as they cut the adventurer in half.

[Master! Hold on!]

A holy light bloomed around Akira, even as she shook the blood from her claws, shooting toward Thorn and covering his badly wounded body. Energy flooded into him as his skin began to knit back together and his damaged muscles began to reconnect. Sensing that he was out of danger, Akira turned her attention back to Gorver who had barely pulled himself together. Eyes narrowed, she stalked forward, growing larger with each step until she towered over him.

[You. Should. NOT. HAVE. TOUCHED. HIM!]

With every word she spoke, her aura intensified, pounding in Gorver’s head. Unable to bear the mental force of her anger, Gorver let out a strangled cry and collapsed, blood leaking from his ears and nose. Still furious, Akira lifted her paw and brought it down, crushing the adventurer into a pulp. Turning, her eyes swept the wall where the axe wielding adventurer was coughing up blood. Flames flickered in her gaze and the adventurer felt his skin start to burn. Just when he was sure that he was going to die a fiery death, a heavy voice spoke up.

“Akira, enough.”

[Master, he tried to kill you!]

“Sure, but we need at least one of them alive, and he is the only candidate.”

Barely able to restrain the fury that burned in her, Akira turned her gaze away, as if afraid she would not be able to restrain herself if she looked at him. Shrinking down, she ran over to Thorn who was slowly getting to his feet. Jumping up onto his shoulder, she grabbed his neck and rubbed her face against his.

[I was worried about you!]

“Thanks. And thanks for the healing. I was pretty worried too. But you got here just in time.”

Slowly walking over to where the adventurer was leaned up against the wall, Thorn surveyed him dispassionately. The adventurer was dying, each of his shaking breaths bringing with it blood. Fear clouded his eyes as he stared at Thorn and Akira, unable to process what had just happened.

“Akira, can you heal him?”

[Master? But he tried to kill you!]

“Still, he is no good to us dead.”

Only able to hear Thorn’s half of the conversation, the adventurer felt his fear growing. There was something about the dispassionate way Thorn was looking at him that caused his heart to grow cold. He should have been happy to hear that Thorn was interested in healing his wounds, but for some reason, he suddenly thought that it might be better to die.

[I don’t want to!]

“Please heal him. At least to the point that he won’t just drop dead on us.”

Huffing under her breath and glaring furiously at the adventurer, one of Akira’s tails waved and a warm glow fell on the wounded adventurer, sending healing mana into his body. Little by little the internal damage he had suffered cleared up, healed by Akira’s magic. Finding it a bit easier to breathe, the adventurer felt no better than he had a moment ago. If anything, the more he was healed, the worse he felt as he fully comprehended what sort of position he was in.

“Thank you, Akira.”

[Hmph. From now on, you can’t leave me at home, master. You could have died! No more wandering around by yourself!]

Grinning mirthlessly, Thorn looked around at the ruined alleyway. Akira was right, it had been a close call, and if his initial attack had not worked, his life would have come to an end. For the first time since he had arrived in this world, the gravity of his situation was clear to him. One wrong step, and he could be snuffed out. If he had been facing a bright gold ranked adventurer or someone in the seventh tier or higher, he would not have even had the opportunity to attack.

Even facing Gorver and his companions, Thorn’s survival had only been possible because they had underestimated him so much. If Gorver had gone all out from the beginning, Thorn would not have been able to last more than a few moments. Thankfully, the thin adventurer had been extra cautious, allowing Thorn the breathing room he needed to stay alive. The entire fight had just reinforced how weak Thorn was and he could feel an intense desire to improve starting to burn in his chest.

Up until this point, he had largely been going along with the flow, but now, it had become a matter of survival. Thorn knew, without a doubt, that whoever had hired the Verka Fang adventuring group to come and kill him would not be stopped just because he had managed to survive. Instead, they would likely double down, sending even stronger people to remove him. Considering he had just barely kept his head this time, Thorn knew he had to get stronger. Letting out his breath, Thorn pushed the worries out of his mind and focused on the adventurer sitting in front of him.

“What’s your name?”

“Helwef,” the adventurer responded, watching Akira carefully.

“Well, Helwef, I’m sure you know what I wish to know, so why don’t you just save us all a lot of trouble and start talking?”

Hesitating for a moment, Helwef finally nodded and opened his mouth to speak.

“We were hired to make you disappear. It was supposed to be a simple job since you are just a black iron ranked adventurer. Hah, what a joke. I have no idea who hired us, Gorver handled that and he is, well...”

Seeing Helwef gesture to the crushed body of his former boss, Thorn nodded.

“Who do you think could have hired you? Do you have any ideas?”

Hesitating for a moment, Helwef shook his head.

“No, I don’t. I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine,” Thorn said, thinking for a moment. “Alright, lead us back to your base.”

Taken aback, Helwef’s forehead furrowed.

“Our base?”

“Yeah. Where were you staying?”

“Um, in the adventurer’s guild?”

“In one of the rooms? Is there a way to get to your room without a lot of people seeing you?”

Seeing Helwef nod, Thorn smiled and stood up.

“Perfect. We’ll go and check it out. But first, let’s see what we got?”

While Akira kept a close watch on the adventurer, Thorn searched the three other bodies, taking everything that looked like it had any value. He managed to get nearly fifty gold from the three of them, though most of it came from Gorver’s body. He also found a single gem and a few other odds and ends. After making up a sack from a piece of a robe, he piled everything inside and then asked Akira to burn the bodies up. With a flick of her tails, three fireballs flew out, landing on the corpses and quickly consuming them until nothing remained but ash.

Thanks to Akira’s healing spell, Thorn was feeling full of energy, so he closed his eyes and stretched his hands out, commanding the earth to reform. Broken stone smoothed out and the craters in the ground were quickly filled in until the only sign that there had ever been a fight was a faint scent of blood. Figuring that would blow away quickly, Thorn looked around one more time and nodded.

“I think we are done here.”

Clenching his fist, he took down the ward that was separating the alley from the world and a moment later, he, Akira, and Helwef walked out into the main street as if nothing had happened. As the terrified adventurer led the way, Thorn sent his attention into his body, double checking himself. Once he was satisfied that Akira’s spell had indeed healed him completely, he let out a mental sigh.

“Eve, can you give me a rundown of everything I did wrong during that fight?”

[Certainly, though the list is extensive. Are you sure you want to see it?]

“I need to get better, which means I need to understand where I’m weak. Also, what was that stutter in the air when I got hit by the axe? That isn’t the first time that has happened.”

Instead of answering, Eve brought up the window that Thorn had been too focused to read.

“Is this how I use Destiny Points without spending them?” Thorn asked, rubbing his ribs.

[That is correct. Rather than spending them, you are exhausting them. This allows you to borrow some of their power while still retaining them. Though it is not as powerful as spending the points, it allows you advantages in situations where you would not otherwise have had them. They will recharge over time. Think about them as a lesser version of spending your Destiny Points directly. However, there is a limit. Within a certain amount of time after you exhaust a Destiny Point in this way, the next time you do it, you will lose any exhausted Destiny Points.]

“So use it sparingly, got it.”

Weaving through the streets, it did not take long before they arrived behind the adventurer’s guild. There were a dozen large buildings where adventurers who were in between missions could stay, and Helwef led them to the room that the Verka Fang adventuring group had used. Unlocking the door, Helwef went in and sat on a chair, resigned to his fate. Based on the meticulous way that Thorn had searched the corpses, he was pretty sure he knew what Thorn wanted, and given Akira’s presence, he had no means of arguing.

To his surprise, however, Thorn simply looked through everything, paying special attention to the papers that he found in Gorver’s chest. It had been magically locked, but it only took Eve a few seconds to crack the code and watching Thorn punch in the right combination after looking at it for a second, Helwef’s fear deepened. Inside the chest were dozens of gems and a sack of gold, along with a note requesting Thorn’s elimination. Though he did not recognize the handwriting, Thorn kept the note and continued to look through the chest, pulling out two books.

The first one was a thin manual that showed the simple sword style that Gorver used. Focused on direct thrusts, it contained a specialized way to gather and release energy that allowed for the explosive movement that Gorver had displayed. Skimming through it, Thorn put it aside and looked at the other book. Bound in green leather, it appeared to contain information on the fauna of the third and fourth strata along with a few nature oriented spells. Always happy to learn more magic, Thorn skimmed through it as well. Seeing Thorn put it down and turn away from the chest, Helwef gathered his courage and spoke up.

“What are you going to do with me?”

“Nothing. Well, that’s not true,” Thorn said, gesturing to the table at the side of the room. “Write a confession that I can give to Guild Master Fitzburn and then you can leave.”

“A confession? If I do they’ll hunt me down and kill me!”

Shrugging, Thorn smiled mirthlessly.

“If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I’ll just hand you directly to the guild.”

Blanching at the threat, Helwef stood up and walked to the table. Grabbing a paper, he looked at Thorn.

“What do you want the confession to say?”

Amused by how quickly the adventurer had changed his tune, Thorn spoke calmly, narrating what he wanted Helwef to write. Without hesitating, Helwef wrote it out and then signed it, using his adventurer’s guild badge to add a stamp. Waving the paper to dry it off, he handed it to Thorn.

“How is that?”

“You’re a lot more compliant than I expected,” Thorn said, taking the paper.

“That mon… your companion killed a sixth tier warrior with a look,” Helwef said, his voice grim. “What choice do I have?”

On Thorn’s shoulder, Akira preened, fluffing her tails happily as Thorn chuckled.

“I guess that’s true. Alright, you can take what you need and go. I won’t hand this in until tomorrow. Here, you’ll probably need these.”

Staring at the three gems that Thorn placed on the table, Helwef’s expression turned strange. He had just tried to kill Thorn, but not only was he being let go, the Titan was giving him traveling expenses. Unable to wrap his head around what Thorn was thinking, he hesitated for a minute before picking up the gems and putting them away. With one last look at Thorn and Akira, he slipped out of the room and began to walk swiftly down the street. Watching him go, Thorn finally relaxed. The last hour had been incredibly dangerous, and even now his heart was jumping. He had never come so close to death before, and it was freaking him out.

Feeling Akira on his shoulder, he smiled happily and left the room, heading back to the forge. As he walked, he reviewed the mental notes that Eve sent over, examining each second of the fight in detail. Thanks to his mental sense, Eve had access to everything within one hundred feet of him, and was able to replay everything that had happened from any angle she wanted, effectively providing a video for him.

Watching the spots where he could have made better choices, or where his movements were not as efficient as he could have been, Thorn found himself growing slightly depressed. He had long been convinced that he was a powerful warrior, but seeing how many mistakes Eve had spotted, he quickly realized that he had a long way to go. Continuing to watch, Thorn felt his burning desire to get stronger growing. He hated the idea of being helpless and each mistake that he made acted as fuel, inspiring him to get stronger.

The forge was burning brightly when he arrived and Aciakko was putting the finishing touch on a spear tip. Looking up when he walked in, she examined him for a moment, taking in his ripped clothing.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Bit of a scrap, but Akira helped me deal with it,” he said, waving his hand. “How are the spears coming?”

“Great! I already have one done and I’m almost done with the second. This forge is unbelievable. Where did you find it?”

“Isn’t it awesome? If you have a spear done, I’ll start working on the enchantment. We might even be able to get them all done within a week. Oh, and I’ve got someone who is willing to handle the mines. I brought the crontact for you to review.”