by Pegaz
He ran towards the boss but jerked to the left, heading for the railing. The boss noted the change in direction and ran towards it, too. He wanted to keep John from escaping.
As John jumped over the railing head-first, the boss made a reach for him. Twisting out of his grip, John somehow managed to slip through his fingers. John grit his teeth and held on, his body tumbling through the air for but a moment. Grabbing onto the outermost railing, John prayed and swung himself back onto the walkway, landing on the opposite side of the boss. He did a small roll as he landed, then broke out into an all-out sprint toward the low-level lackey that had escaped him earlier.
The boss turned around and ran after John, his speed matching John’s without regard to the difference in size. A bead of sweat trickled down John’s neck, and he let his sense of urgency drive him even faster. As he approached his target, John stretched his arm out.
Unexpectedly, a third man joined the row. The man who first shouted at John to pay respects jumped in front of him, and attacked John. John's hand was deflected. Adjusting to the new situation, he jumped a little and threw a roundhouse kick right at the loud-mouth's head. Catching the boss in the corner of his eye, John continued to spin around with his kick.
The boss’s reflexes were lightning fast, and he matched John’s kick with a blow of his own.
‘Ding!’
Bang.
BOOM!
John was launched forward by the boss's kick and was sent flying with such force that his body was buried inside the metal wall. The vibration of the impact caused the whole of A Block to tremble. Dust was everywhere, it was so thick you couldn't see anything past three feet in front of you.
Congratulations for completing your first Original Skill. To celebrate we have given you a onetime gift of 5 skill points and 15 hours in the Time Pool to place anywhere you choose.
Welcome to the Idle System 1.9
Name: John
Age: 17
Idlers: 66/66
Time Pool: 15h
Skill Points: 5
HP: 50/310
Attack: B (750 Points)
Defence: S (2,650 points)
Stamina: SS (2 Hours)
Completed List:
Blood Capacity - Cell Speed, Transportation and White Cells.
Blood's Capacity:
Cell Speed: Increases the speed of all cells through the blood without harming the circulatory system.
Transportation: All cells can carry more.
White Cells: Boosts all white cells attacking ability, at max level, it can get rid of everything harmful to the body, and you will be immune to all diseases and poisons that enter the circulatory system.
Bonus for maxing all skill levels: The body will have ten times more Defence points.
He finally unlocked the maxed bonus! The sweet taste of accomplishment was mixed with the taste of his own blood. While he wanted to celebrate, the pain from being buried into a metal was great, not including all the bruises he’d developed from the countless weapons. The only reason he was alive right now was because, as soon as he’d managed to kill the lackey, he’d emptied the Time Pool into his Blood Capacity skill, raising his Defence points only a split-second before confronting the boss.
He slowly crawled out of the wall and checked his jumpsuit. It was in tatters, but still held up enough to cover him adequately.
John started waving his hands to get rid of the dust while holding his breath, and he could hear a few people coughing. Footsteps. It sounded like the guards were running here, and quite a few of them too. John needs to finish this now.
“That fucking hurt you know,” John whined to the boss while stretching. In a burst of movement, he then rushed forward. He had no need to be scared of the attacks now.
John kicked forward dead centre on the boss's right knee with his left foot. The knee snapped the other way, causing the man to scream in pain. John put his left foot down and went for his neck, using Crush Grip to end it.
By the time the guards arrived, the dust had cleared. They saw John standing there with his arms down, his right-hand still clutching onto the boss's neck. The boss's body was slumped down to his side, obviously dead.
John turned around smiled at the guards. He lifted his right hand, still holding onto the corpse and like a child, tried to blame somebody else.
“He started it.”
Title: The First Original Completion.
Chapter 40
8th Senses Skill
John dropped the body and put his hands up. There were hundreds of guards packing the whole walkway on both sides. They wore dark armour and were armed with swords, knives, whips, hammers, maces and a few weapons that John couldn’t put names to.
Stumbling upon what seemed like a massacre, every guard was wary of John. They carefully focused on John's movements with laser-focus.
“This guy here is the boss of the floor, I guess,” John spoke evenly, “he got all these people to attack me because I wouldn't kneel down. That guy over there is the only survivor of this little gang and can testify that they were the ones who started the fight. I only acted in self-defence.”
John pointed to the trembling escapee. The man was terrified. He started nodding straight away as soon as he heard John.
"Yes, yes, yes, he's right, absolutely right, the boss started it, and if we didn't follow orders we'd end up dead, so we all attacked him."
While the man was talking, John put all skill points into Senses this time. He turned Continue off and looked at the information before deciding where to put the Idlers.
Mind's Strength:
First Sense: Time. You can keep track of time in any shape and form.
Second Sense: Sight. Able to see further when concentrating, and see through all illusions.
Third Sense: Hearing. Able to hear higher and lower pitched noises, and listen further.
Fourth Sense: Touch. Able to feel even the slightest differences in the air.
Fifth Sense: Smell. Able to judge the direction a smell is coming from instantly.
Sixth Sense: Taste. Option, when eating anything but food, can turn taste off now.
Seventh Sense: Balance. Never lose your balance no matter what the footings like.
Eighth Sense: Temperature. Unlocks skill Temperature Keeper.
Temperature Keeper - Idlers 0/99, Hot - 0/1, Cold - 0/1
Temperature Keeper:
Hot: The body's system will automatically warm up once it is at a specific temperature.
Cold: The body will automatically cool down once you reach a specific temperature. (Will absorb more water in the air from Absorption Skill.)
Bonus for maxing all skill levels: The body will automatically remove sweat and will never shiver again.
John put one Idler inside Temperature Keeper, set to work on the Hot skill. The timer popped up as one month, which meant that the original time must have been 2 months for first skill. With this in mind, he put all of his sixty-six Idlers into it, bringing the total time to 1h 1m.
John used the Time Pool to finish it off. He then put all of his Idlers back in, this time aiming to complete the Cold skill. He repeated his actions, finishing the skill off with the Time Pool and proceeding on to the Palm Toughness skill. His attack was now the lowest in points, and Crush Grip was his main killing move right now. He used all the remaining time in this skill.
‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’
The ringing kept going, and he could feel his palms heating up very fast. This time, he was prepared for the pain, so he just silently gritted his teeth and then closed the system, leaving it to work while he concentrated on the guards.
The guards chained him up, but even that did not wipe the smile on his face. A hush ran through the crowd as someone made their way to the front. John assumed, by his proud posture, that this approaching man was a high ranking guard. He stood before John, eyes glaring dow
n.
"I don't know you. Identify yourself."
"John. I’m an adventurer, arrested today. I’m serving a two-day sentence."
"All these men died because you're serving a two-day sentence?"
"No, all these men died because they attacked me." John had to keep going for the self-defence excuse.
"There are no witnesses besides a man who's completely terrified of you. We'll have to view the surveillance to make sure. Until then, cell confinement."
John put his hands down. The nearby guards removed his chains, and he was led to his cell. He decided to spend the next two days sleeping.
While John slept, the boss of the guards reviewed the surveillance. There was no sound, and it was in black and white video footage. It was all powered by monster cores.
When they had finished watching the footage, all the guards that saw it were sweating. The only conclusion that everyone, including their superior had, was that John was telling the truth.
Two days later.
Date: Day: xx Month: xx Year: 90,14
Prisoner's Location: A block, area 43, cell 49582.
Prisoner's Name: John
Incident Report: While serving just a two-day sentence for starting a bar fight, prisoner was attacked by 87 Rank A criminals at xx Hours. The conclusion of the fight saw 86 dead and 1 mentally scarred for life, now submitted to the mental institution ward of the prison. Prisoner John is perfectly fine. Footage shows he acted out of self-defence. He was confined to his cell while awaiting the results of the investigation. No trouble since.
Recommended Action: Don’t piss him off.
That was the honest and official report that the boss of the area sent to his superiors. In return, the higher staff then forwarded it to the royal family, to the Guild Hall, and to anyone who’d been authorised to know about the Siders. This report caused a shock wave throughout the North Kingdom's higher-ups.
This Sider has only been here for less than three years and can kill A Ranks like nothing.
With this realisation, everyone understood that there was something about this Sider that was special. All they could do was pray that he didn’t become a third Demon.
People in the royal family even started to speculate that John had already started to become a Demon, killing that many people. However, it was just speculation and John was lucky that they didn't have his assassination career on file.
Deep in the capital, the chubby guy's father had the statement in his hands. It had only been six weeks since his son encountered this Sider. He removed any evidence that the report was about a Sider, and sent the information to his son's guard by teleportation rune. The message was sent to the nearest town.
When the party in question arrived in town, he booked an inn of the highest quality. Within moments of arriving, a member of the inn’s staff came and told him and his guard that the mailing staff had a message waiting for him.
The guard fetched the mail, reading the report in advance. As he did, he became as white-faced as a ghost. He went back to the hotel and handed the note to the young master. The boy read over it, and fear overcame him.
Eventually, their whole party was pale from fear.
"This is impossible! How is an A Rank adventurer like him unable to skin a monster for money? He was in our class, right?! It's only been two years since he was in Newbie Town!"
"He must have already been an A Ranker to begin with, and maybe he was protecting someone else in the class. A lot of us had guardians there."
"No, he's too young for that. He's about the same age as us."
"Age doesn't matter when you have strength. If he was already an A Ranker, he was more than likely protecting someone in that group. We need to find out whom, so we can avoid him or her at all costs."
The man who had the whole North Kingdom's higher-ups in a panicked stir strolled out of the prison gates, donning his signature Mythical class clothes.
Chapter 41
Only A Rank
For two days, John slept inside his cell while the Palm Toughness skill increased to Level 69. He turned Continue off so when it reached Level 70, he could upgrade knuckle damage next.
There are only five Attack skills. They level up quickly, but depend on the defence points of Flesh Strength and Bone Density for more points. It's the Defence and the Misc list that are going to take up most of the three years of time to complete.
Especially the Maximum Idlers skill. I haven't even hit Level 70 yet, and I've still got over two thousand levels for it! I'd need to be an immortal to get to even Level 1,000.
John’s mind raced as he headed to the local Guild Hall to ask about a carriage to the next town. When he got into the Hall, he took a quick look at the Ranked A quests on the board. Since his Palm Toughness had increased, his attack power was now at 945 Points, Rank A in the system.
He could now hunt S Rank monsters.
Currently, his stats read:
HP: 310
Attack: A (945 Points)
Defence: S (2,650 points)
Stamina: SS (2 Hours)
Since John had maxed out Temperature Keeper skill, he no longer needed baths or a shower—that is, unless it was to clean himself of his enemies’ blood. For some strange reason when he thought of this, he pictured the cliché novel scene of seeing a naked girl take a bath in a lake. A small amount of regret bubbled within him. He would never get to experience this kind of encounter.
All quests on the board revolved around the prison, which was a bit out of the question, considering the impression he’d left on the workers there. Sighing, John asked about the next carriage out, finding it roughly three hours of a wait away. He headed to the carriage's meeting place and lied down under a tree, waiting for the time of departure.
‘Ding!’
While waiting, he got the Palm Toughness to level 70, and he put all idlers into Knuckle Damage next.
‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’
Gritting his teeth in pain was becoming a regular thing now.
A few hours later the carriage set off, and John was one of only four people inside.
The town they were headed to was almost directly south of Visitors Town. It was the half-way point between Newbie Town and the Capital. It was the quickest path to the capital. The name of their destination was Carnegie Town.
A Sider had named the town after Andrew Carnegie, specifically for his quote about the survival of the fittest (which John knew as Darwin's Law). Since then, the leadership of this area had been left in the hands of a noble family called Carnegie. This is the town where you survive and move forward, die, or run home. A Rank monsters surrounded it. Anything further was S rank and above. It was truly fitting for the quote in question.
This town was the dividing point of the North Kingdom. South was for the strong, north was for the weak.
The address Agent had given him just so happened to be in this town. Hopefully, there were a lot of targets. This town was one of the stricter areas because of how dangerous the people and monsters were. Those who weren't strong enough usually ended up dead.
It would take five weeks to get to town, so John claimed a corner of the carriage and went to sleep.
During the travel, nothing happened. John stretched his legs a bit by killing a few close A Rank monsters now and then, but slept most of the time. Five weeks gradually passed and they arrived at Carnegie Town.
Welcome to the Idle System 1.9
Name: John
Age: 17
Idlers: 0/66
Time Pool: 0
Skill Points: 0
HP: 310
Attack: S (1,725 Points)
Defence: S (2,650 points)
Stamina: SS (2 Hours)
Attack List:
Feet Damage - Idlers 66/99, Power Level - 65/100, Speed - 18/100, Ignore Defence - 1/100
Misc List:
Maximum Idlers - Idlers 0/
99, +1 Max Idlers - 65/2159
Maximum Workers - Idlers 0/99, +1 Idler Workers - 0/2061
??? - Idlers 0/99, ??? - 0/1, ??? - 0/1 (unlocks after thinking speed 50)
The extra Time Pool earnings from killing the A Rank monsters went into Knee Damage to get it to Level 70 as soon as possible. When Feet Damage reaches Level 70, John planned on getting Flesh Strength and Bone Density to Level 30 each. He wanted to test his theory. Should be a couple of days to get the five levels in Feet Damage if no time got added in the Time Pool.
The first thing John did was go to the address that Agent had given him. After proving who he was by showing the mask, he went inside a house and was led by a guide downstairs. Beneath the building, an underground market was buzzing.
The market had everything illegal being sold or traded. Poisons, drugs, stolen antiques, assassin contracts, spy information, and more. As long as you could afford it, someone could get it for you.
In the middle of the market was the only house. John walked towards the house, discovering that inside was the assassin's guild. It had contracts, guides, and information to help assassins complete any task.
John went up to the counter and asked for the latest jobs.
"Sorry, as of yesterday all assassin contracts have been put on hold."
The old man at the desk dropped a bombshell on John.
"W-what? Why?"
"The North Kingdom got some important information two days ago. The West Kingdom is preparing to declare war."
"What about the Sider treaty?" John remembered the agreement from the first Sider’s puppet king.
"They found a loophole. Something about technically not abusing their power, or some bullshit like that."
John was stunned. That's what he said when he first read about it! Did someone read his mind back then and sent the information to the West Kingdom?
"So, what does that have to do with stopping assassin contracts?"
"They want all the workforce they can get for the war, and all nobles, no matter their rank, status, age, criminal activity, or anything else. Adventurers have the choice to join, as do the common folk, but the King has issued a statement. If there are less than 750,000 people in the army, they will begin to forcefully draft people. The king has also claimed that if anyone contributes a certain amount to the war, they can get a noble title or even ask the King for a favour."