It was the so called air specialist who was trying to catch me up close. On the contrary, the fireball one kept his distance intentionally.
I could only assume that the air specialist had the ability to fight up close. Still, I was running out of energy, so I needed to do something.
And I got an idea.
I turned a corner, just as I always did.
But then I stopped. I turned and looked back to where I knew the air specialist would come. In fact, I even charged back around, my knife in hand and my desperation ready to kill someone.
As if before it was only playing around, my adrenaline surged more than it ever has. It was like a drug, making my senses unbearably acute, and forcing my muscles to use every ounce of power they had.
But it seemed like the air specialist was cautious. Instead of turning the corner hastily, he came at an angle, arriving with distance between us.
Still, I charged. Turning and running away because things didn’t go exactly as predicted would only give him the opening he wanted. And my desperation wasn’t going to go unsatisfied.
My large strides carried my arm to where it needed to go. I threw myself at that robed man with wild abandon. Everything seemed to be in slow motion.
And he raised his palm in retaliation. He pushed it toward my chest, but disregarding whatever he was going to do, I pushed forward.
And my knife met its target. I stabbed forward, but instead of the knife slicing through the robe, it was actually stopped.
However, my surging force behind it couldn’t be so easily negated. Although the blade didn’t slice through, I could distinctly feel the knife push its fabric enveloped edge into the man's body. I could feel flesh split, and I could hear the man yell in pain.
Fabric might block a slash, but its flexibility still allowed deformation. I was basically stabbing him with a dulled blade, and it had its effects.
However, his palm that was slammed against my torso didn’t seem to be for nothing. Right after I stabbed, I could feel an odd force surge from his hand with a momentary flash.
I could feel the gust of air brush against my body, making my clothes flutter. But that was light. Instead, the force was invisible as it surged through my body.
An invisible energy. It felt both weirdly invasive and incredibly painful as it disrupted my insides.
It was like a punch to the liver. It made me weak, my stomach contracting and forcing me to vomit. My legs buckled for but a moment as I was thrown to the floor.
But as I pulled away, I could see a vague phantom appear beside the air specialist.
And then, a knife appeared in his neck. Blood sprayed into the air as his body collapsed, his hands clutching his neck.
That phantom moved toward me, grabbing my arm and forcing me up despite every cell in my body protesting.
“Don’t stop! Not unless you want to burn alive!”
Plex’s voice shook my head before he shoved me into another alleyway. After that, I could hear more explosions along with the enraged shouts of the leader.
Riding the high of my adrenaline, I ignored the pain and ran even without breathing.
But now, I really was at my limit. I didn’t even have 10 seconds to recover, and minutes of that had pushed my body to its short term limits.
So I found the nearest doorway and threw my body against it.
Thankfully, luck was on my side as it was thrown open. I stumbled into a dark room decorated with sparse furniture covered in dust.
Abandoned, probably, or just really in need of a cleaning. Either way, nobody seemed to be home, so I ran into the back, entering another door to enter a similarly dark and smaller room.
It seemed to be a bedroom, fit with a closet and everything. It was the closet I disappeared into.
After that, I could hear hurried footsteps scamper across the wooden floor of the living room. It was the fireball warlock, and his breath was hurried as he slowly walked through.
He was quiet, as was I. I tried as best I could, but I needed to breathe, so my breath wasn’t exactly quiet. But I was still inside the closet, all the sounds I was making muffled.
And I knew that guy wasn’t one to get close. He had kept his distance the entire time. He probably didn’t have a nasty trick like the air specialist.
So I was given some time. Time to revel in the agony of my bodily pain.
My stomach hurt the most, like all my guts were bruised. And they probably were. That invisible energy wave was a nasty attack. I could taste the iron of blood on my tongue.
However, I had noticed something else inside me.
More specifically, I noticed a change inside my mind. It was like I had gained a new awareness of something.
Something… supernatural.
Within a dark space inside my head, I could see one bright star and 12 faded stars.
A single star of the 13 stars was now present, and as if it were the gateway, I could make out other objects within.
The Patriarch of the Tavera family said I was a summoner. Well, the powers of a summoner were obvious.
They summoned things to do battle for them.
And my summons…
*Tap*
I could hear the footsteps of the fireball man make their way into the room I was in.
As my breathing was hurried, he probably knew where I was.
Sure enough, his steps stopped, and everything was silent.
But then, through the gap underneath the door I was behind, I could see a flash.
I raised my arms.
*Boom!*
A burst of fire crashed into the door, shattering the wood and blowing it down.
There was dust and smoke that rose up as the fireball man approached the doorway.
He looked inside, his face sure of himself.
But then…
*Click*
I stood, facing him directly.
And my arm was raised, my hand that held the flintlock pistol pointed straight for his face.
I smiled through the agony of my body, even as blood spilled from my lips and tongues of fire burned my clothes.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited as I looked across the barrel of this primitive weapon.
“Tally ho, bitch!”
*BANG*
………
……
…
The Patriarch of the Tavera family looked down at me with a punchable smile.
Thankfully they had a healer. It was an older gentleman who was a warlock and trained in the ways of healing, whatever that meant. All I knew was that I felt a lot better after he drugged me with some tasty red pills that melted in my mouth. They were kind of like candies.
Plex, on the other hand, was perfectly fine. Figures, since his ability was apparently turning invisible. No wonder he was so good in this line of business. If he were by himself, he could just escape any confrontation.
“You did good, kid! To think you’d awaken your power right as you were cornered. You know, I think you’re just right for this line of business. Isn’t that right, Patriarch?”
“Mm, indeed. The ability to grow in the face of adversity is the greatest trait one can have.”
“Hehe, your wisdom is spot on! What do you think, John? The payout for this job is big, and there will be more in the future. How about you come officially work with me?”
“...”
I was silent as I weakly raised my middle finger.
It didn’t seem like this insult translated to this world though, as Plex tilted his head.
“What’s that?”
“...Something you can shove up your ass.”
“Bahahaha!”
The Patriarch suddenly roared in laughter, smacking Plex’s back.
“Plex, you’ve got a good one here! Take him to the Polaris Family after he recovers. He’s made it through this trial by fire, so I plan to make true on my promise.”
“...Sure thing, Patriarch.”
Plex nodded as the Patriarch walked out. The two of us were left alone, me in the medical bed of the Tavera mansion.
Plex narrowed his eyes at me.
“You get 20% of the pay.”
“Deal.”
“10%, since you easily agreed.”
“What?!”
I jumped, and we argued until I was too tired to negotiate anything better than 17%.
After that, I was finally allowed to rest, succumbing to incredible mental exhaustion.
……
…
I was pretty sure the encounter only lasted an hour or so. After a night’s rest at the Tavera mansion, I left the black market and headed back to my small hotel room.
Of course, that wasn’t without my cut of the pay from the heavyweight job.
Just under 20% of the pay gave me about 3400 coin. It was an enormous amount considering the other small jobs only gave a few hundred coin at most.
Of course, this pay was earned at the risk of my life, but if I were Plex with his experience and abilities, I too would be having a heyday with these jobs. Earning huge amounts of money would be child’s play.
However, after my discovery in the face of death, I was thinking that I really might be able to carve out a spot for myself in this business.
While on my bed, still recovering from my internal wounds, I lifted my hand and gazed at my crest.
Then, I closed my eyes.
In the dark space of my mind, I could see one star lighting the space. Around it were 12 other stars, all of them faded, obviously not yet unlocked.
I concentrated on the first lit one, and my vision zoomed into the star.
It was like the star was a portal to another dimension, one that contained an assortment of weapons and gear. One of them was the flintlock I had used last night.
A primitive weapon, but still devastating against fleshy targets with its large lead bullet. It was only capable of one shot before it had to be reloaded, and thankfully, I only needed one shot to kill that fireball warlock. Otherwise I may as well have kissed my life goodbye.
The point was though that I had just found out the use of my crest.
I was indeed a summoner, but instead of summoning monsters or creatures to fight for me…
I summoned guns.
I couldn’t think of a more American power than this. Conjuring the power of beautiful steel firearms to deliver hell upon my enemies.
Or just to keep myself from getting robbed in the black market.
Either way…
In the first star, I could see primitive weapons like the flintlock, tomahawk, some knives, etc.
And there were 12 more stars ahead, all of them faded, my mind unable to look into their dimensions. But I could guess what would lie ahead.
Better weapons, better gear. With each star I would no doubt unlock better weaponry, though I didn’t know just how good it would get.
As for summoning those weapons, it wasn’t as simple as pulling the weapon out of the dimension. In some way, the weapons were still mystical since the flintlock I pulled out was no longer with me. It had disappeared at some point not long after I used it.
And now when I looked into the star with a bit of a clearer head than before, I could tell that there was a price on these weapons. A price that was paid with the invisible energy inside me.
I was certain that the invisible wave of energy I was hit with last night had triggered something within me since now, I was also aware of a mystical energy inside my body.
It was a simple ball of energy, located at the center of the 13 stars. It was small, lacking density like a faint fog. It was also red in color.
This red ball of energy was faintly connected to the star. I knew that I could stream its energy into it, and with it, summon one of the weapons.
Unfortunately, my energy wasn’t great and the prices for these weapons seemed significant. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I had summoned the flintlock pistol. But I knew that there were many things that I didn’t know about this magical system, to I decided to wait until I could learn more.
Until then…
*Knock Knock*
Suddenly, I could hear taps on my door. They were gentle, but given the recent events, I still cautiously opened the door with my hand on the knife sheath.
And the person I saw was familiar.
“Chief!”
“Haha, it’s good to see you John.”
The chief smiled. I was very fond of this man from a rural village. Out of the kindness of his heart, he brought me to this city and set me up. Without him, I don’t know what I would’ve done when I first came here.
However, I had thought he left, which was why I was surprised he was here. Also, he shouldn’t know where I was living as I had rented a room in a hotel Plex recommended.
The chief was all smiles as we clasped hands, but then he checked out my body. Along my face and my exposed arms were several large cuts and bruises that were healing.
“Goodness John, what happened?! Who hurt you?”
“Nobody important, chief. The situation was handled rather well if I do say so myself.”
“...If you say so.”
The chief looked worried, but with my confidence, he didn’t press the matter.
I tilted my head at him.
“Didn’t you leave? It’s been a few days. You should be heading back to the village.”
“Mm, I was going to, but I wanted to check on you before I left, make sure you were settling nicely. And since I didn’t find you at my hotel, I searched around and found your name here. Sorry if I was intrusive.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m actually glad I got to see you one more time. Here, come in and let me give you something.”
I waved him in and walked over to a nearby table, pulling out my large sack of coin.
As I sifted through, I asked a question.
“Hey chief, how much coin does the normal man make in a month?”
“A month? Well, the men at the town make around 1000 a month with farming, but for those in the city… Maybe 5000? I couldn’t be sure.”
“Oh…”
I was surprised. To think I got around a month's pay from a single night of work, and that was just a fraction of the entire payout.
Being a delivery man paid shockingly well.
Not long after, I pulled out a small stack of coin
“Here, some money as a thank you for taking care of me.”
I pushed 1000 coin toward the chief, and he seemed flustered by the money.
“1000 coin? John, where did you get so much in a few short days?”
“It was an advance for my new job. Take it, for your help. I won’t take no for an answer.”
I slid the coin to him with seriousness that didn’t let him deny.
It only ended when he reluctantly took the money, giving me a heavy sigh.
“John, you’re a good kid. Just know you can come by my village at any time. Yumir Village. You’ll always have a home there.”
“Thanks, chief. Just make sure you get back safely.”